Wednesday, December 19, 2012

TVXOHOF, 12/2012: TOY STORIES



Sometimes December has two inductees into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame - the standard entry, hopefully of a holiday nature, and an Honors List inductee on Christmas Day which is supposed to be from the Multiverse.

We've got one of those for December 25th, so today we're honoring the traditional inductee. And we're taking on an entire geographical location!

No, not the North Pole.... It's been done.

THE ISLAND OF MISFIT TOYS!

From Wikipedia:
The "Island of Misfit Toys", another addition to the original story, is an island sanctuary where defective and unwanted toys are sent. It is during the initial scene on the Island that Johnny Marks standard, "The Most Wonderful Day of the Year" is performed by the inhabitants. Toy versions of nearly every character from this show were produced in the 1990s. Among its inhabitants are:
  • King Moonracer is voiced by Stan Francis.
  • Charlie-In-The-Box is voiced by Alfie Scopp and is a misnamed, but otherwise seemingly normal jack-in-the-box who acts as the island's sentry.
  • Spotted Elephant is a polka dotted elephant and also is the the King's footman.
  • Dolly is voiced by Corinne Conley and is a seemingly normal girl rag doll with red hair and a red gingham dress. Her misfit problem is never explained on the special, but was possibly revealed on NPR's Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me! news quiz show (broadcast December 8, 2007). The show revealed that Rudolph's producer, Arthur Rankin Jr., says Dolly's problem was psychological, caused from being abandoned by her mistress and suffering depression from feeling unloved.
Other toys (all voiced by Carl Banas) include a toy bird who swims instead of flies, a cowboy who rides an ostrich, a train with square wheels on its caboose, a toy boat that sinks rather than floats, a squirt gun that shoots grape jelly, an airplane that cannot fly, and a scooter with an unknown flaw.




 


And for good measure......


Although we only see Charlie in the Box during the AFLAC commercial, we can take it for granted that the other island castoffs (rather than castaways) exist just outside the frame.

I think there are plenty of bad toys to be found in Skitlandia, especially thanks to those fake 'Saturday Night Live' blipverts (Think "Big Red" and "Happy Fun Ball") that would eventually find a home on the island. 

 But in the meantime, these instances (save for the Romney "ad" of course) are all that was required to give these misfit toys a proper home.....

BCnU!

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