OLLIE BABBLE

This last video related to the concept of humans reincarnated as dogs wasn't a Super Bowl blipvert; in fact, it's not a commercial at all. It's of my friend Kelly's dog Ollie:

You see what he did there?

Now, I'm not saying that in a past life Ollie was Samantha Stephens. Definitely not the Ollie from the Trueniverse. But now that Ollie is uploaded onto YouTube, he's got himself a "televersion".

Even so, I still don't think that Ollie was Sam. I think the method used by Samantha to cast spells was not limited to just her, that there were plenty of other witches and warlocks who could summon the magical forces with a twitch of the nose.

So the Ollie of Toobworld could be a warlock in his previous life. And reincarnation doesn't have to be involved.

It was established in the series 'Bewitched' that witches and warlocks had to transform themselves into something useful when their powers began to fade at the end of their exceedingly long life spans. (They may call ordinary humans "mortals", but witches and warlocks were far from immortal. It's just that humans would never live long enough to see them go through their full life-span.)

This is why - within the reality of Toobworld - we don't see Maurice, Endora, Aunt Clara, Uncle Arthur, and sadly, not even Samantha any more. (Toobworld Central has a suggestion for what Samantha turned herself into which would allow a continuation of the show with "participation" by the late and lovely Liz Montgomery - a TV set. I originally thought a remote control, but there was just something unseemly about somebody handling it and pushing its buttons....)

On the sitcom, they were transformed into such items as bed-warmers, chairs, and Samantha even thought Aunt Clara transformed herself into a cow. So we know that the possibility of a warlock becoming a dog was feasible.

And what could be more useful than a dog for its unconditional love for its master?

Like I said, I don't think Ollie is the reincarnation of Samantha. But his televersion could have been a warlock from the TV series. And although there were no warlocks named Oliver during the run of the show (Yes, I checked.....), nothing says he'd have the same name. Once he transformed himself, he would have had to accept the name Kelly gave him.

And why would this canine conjuror be living with Kelly? Does she need his protection? Is she a witch?

If you think I'm going to claim that, you're crazy. She may be on the other side of the continent, but she can still turn me into a newt!

BCnU!

UN-SUPER BOWL BLIPVERTS 2012 - SUBARU

For the Saturday edition of the Inner Toob Video Weekend, we've got a slew of blipverts that aired on Super Bowl Sunday, but NOT during the Super Bowl.

Subaru forego the high-priced competition to get aired during the game to instead sponsor the Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet. And they urged their online fans to pledge to take their dogs for a walk during the game. (I would guess during the half-time show would have been best.)

But I'm including them in this week's run of Super Bowl blipverts (I'll have others next week!) because each of their ads add more to theory of reincarnation for humans into dogs.

Here are their commercials. I've put them together in sort of a year-long video diary, from Spring to Winter....

And this sort of thing isn't just happening in "Telemerica", but all over the world!

Witness:

(We've already suggested that the reincarnated humans showed up in the Great White North, as seen in the Suzuki commercial.)

These reincarnated humans are finding each other - whether they knew each other in their past lives or not, I have no idea. And they are becoming braver about being seen in public as intelligent creatures. Although it could also be that they are making these trips in the early morning hours to avoid notice. (And as seen in the blipvert about parallel parking, trying to get back before their "masters" wake up.....)

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: JIM HAWKINS

 JIM HAWKINS

AS SEEN IN:

'Wishbone'

AS PLAYED BY:

Wishbone

CREATED BY:

Robert Louis Stevenson

TV DIMENSION:

Not Applicable

STATUS:

Dream Figure

From Wikipedia:

James "Jim" Hawkins is a fictional character in Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Treasure Island. He is both the protagonist and narrator of the story.

Jim Hawkins is the young son of the owners of the Admiral Benbow Inn. An old drunken seaman named Billy Bones becomes a long-term lodger at the inn. Jim quickly realizes that Bones is in hiding, and that he particularly dreads meeting an unidentified seafaring man with one leg. Bones is visited by his crewmates twice during the following months, the second visit being by Pew, who gives Bones the Black Spot, a pirates' summons, with the warning that he has until ten o'clock, and he drops dead of apoplexy on the spot. Jim and his mother open Bones' sea chest to collect the amount due for Bones's room and board, but before they can count out the money due them, they hear pirates approaching the inn and are forced to flee and hide, Jim taking with him a mysterious oilskin packet from the chest. Jim comes to the house of local landlord Squire Trelawney and his mother's friend and patron Dr. Livesey. Together, they examine the oilskin packet, which contains a logbook detailing the treasure looted during Captain Flint's career, and a detailed map of an island, with the location of Flint's treasure caches marked on it. Squire Trelawney immediately plans to outfit a sailing vessel to hunt the treasure down, with the help of Dr. Livesey and Jim.

I'm sending out today's literary entry in the "As Seen On TV" showcase to my young friend Eli Cleary, who's celebrating his 12th birthday today.  Living over in Taiwan, Eli is a young adventurer like Jim Hawkins, and that he would acquit himself well in similar situations.

生日快乐, Eli!

BCnU!

MARCELL, MORESO

While looking through Wikipedia for fictional TV butlers, I stumbled across this crossover:

GEOFFREY BUTLER
from The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air. Geoffrey's portrayer, Joseph Marcell, plays the recurring role of Massimo Marone's butler on The Bold And The Beautiful, who used to work for a family in Beverly Hills (a reference to his role on The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air)

However, his name in 'The Bold And The Beautiful' was Hudson. But the following entry could give the splainin for that.....

Also from Wikipedia:
Geoffrey Barbara Butler (played by Joseph Marcell), born in Saint Lucia in August 1947, serves as the Banks family's cynical butler. Geoffrey is the first character that appears on screen in the pilot episode "The Fresh Prince Project". He is seen going to answer the door to Will, who mistakes him for Philip.

In addition to four years at the University of Oxford and a long career working for British aristocrats, Geoffrey was an Olympic runner several years before being hired by the Banks family (as revealed in the episode "It's Better to Have Loved and Lost It..." from the fourth season, when Geoffrey shows the Banks family a videotape of a documentary called "Shame of a Nation"), but fled his home country in shame after being exposed for cheating while participating in the men's marathon at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, winning a Gold Medal at the marathon only because he had taken a cab ride to the stadium parking lot; Shortly after receiving his medal, Queen Elizabeth II, who apparently presented the medals, got word of Geoffrey's cheating, [pushed] aside the bronze medalist to hit Geoffrey with her purse and rip the medal off his neck; Geoffrey then ran from the stadium in shame.

In the 1970s, he was a butler for the band Led Zeppelin. In the early 1980s, Geoffrey was sparring butler for Chuck Norris. In the episode "Nice Lady", he reveals having practiced Greco-Roman wrestling in his youth.

I would think that Geoffrey changed his name to Hudson in order to avoid having to account for his shady past in the Olympics, especially since he was going to work for a new employer.

(This may be Hudson with his back to the camera.  Google offered it up when I used "Joseph Marcell", "Bold & The Beautiful", and "Hudson" as search criteria.)

I was hoping to find another character played by Joseph Marcell who could be considered as Geoffrey, even with a name change. That way I'd have next year's inductee into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame for Black History Month 2013 (if we survive the Mayan Apocalypse, that is!) I'm still studying Marcell's resume for that, but in the meantime I found this frame grab of Geoffrey with the quote that goes with it:

Geoffrey may not know of assassin's bullets personally, but it's pozz'ble, just pozz'ble, that he had at least one relative to have come into close contact with an assassination.

Freddie Ruingo is a lawyer in the African nation of Naranga, working as a barrister in the capital city of Nova Lombara. He worked with Horace Rumpole on a murder case, defending the leader of the APU Party, David Mazenze. Rumpole was able to get him acquitted of that death penalty charge, but at the cost of Mazenze's standing within the political party.

After Rumpole returned to the United Kingdom, Mazenze was gunned down (probably by his former followers.)

I bring this up because it would appear - within the reality of Toobworld - that Freddie Ruingo was an identical cousin to Geoffrey "Hudson" Butler....

In other words - for those new to this blog - Joseph Marcell played Freddie as well as Geoffrey and Hudson.

BCnU!

SUPER BOWL BLIPVERTS 2012 - SUZUKI

When I first saw this commercial, the quick cutaway to the three dogs in the back seat led me to believe that they were wearing neckties, which was all the proof I needed that they had been human in a past life. (I refused to believe the guy put the ties on the dogs himself. To what purpose?)

Suit up!

However, now I see that they're wearing the braces from the old sled harness.

Still they're O'Bviously bopping to the beat laid down by Fifty Cent, so I'm thinking the four of them were once fans of the music. Perhaps they all knew each other in that past life ('The Wire', perhaps?) and waited until all of them had reached the Limbo dimension before moving on to this next stage.

They're a long way from the hood......

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: ANANSI THE SPIDER

ANANSI THE SPIDER

AS SEEN IN:

'Wishbone'

AS PLAYED BY:

Wishbone

ORIGINS:

African Folklore

ADAPTED BY:

Gerald McDermott

TV DIMENSION:

Not Applicable

STATUS:

Dream Figure

From Wikipedia:

Anansi the trickster is a spider, and is one of the most important characters of West African and Caribbean folklore.

He is also known as Ananse, Kwaku Ananse, and Anancy; and in the Southern United States he has evolved into Aunt Nancy. He is a spider, but often acts and appears as a man. The story of Anansi is akin to the tricksters Coyote, Raven or Iktomi found in many Native American cultures.

The Anansi tales are believed to have originated with the Ashanti people in Ghana. (The word Anansi is Akan and means, simply, spider.) They later spread to other Akan groups and then to the West Indies, Suriname, and the Netherlands Antilles. On Curaçao, Aruba, and Bonaire he is known as Nanzi, and his wife as Shi Maria.

Ananse tales are some of the best-known in West Africa The stories made up an exclusively oral tradition, and indeed Ananse himself was synonymous with skill and wisdom in speech. It was as remembered and told tales that they crossed to the Caribbean and other parts of the New World with captives via the Atlantic slave trade.

Stories of Ananse became such a prominent and familiar part of Ashanti oral culture that the word Anansesem — "spider tales" — came to embrace all kinds of fables. Peggy Appiah, who collected Ananse tales in Ghana and published many books of his stories, wrote: "So well known is he that he has given his name to the whole rich tradition of tales on which so many Ghanaian children are brought up — anansesem — or spider tales." Elsewhere they have other names, for instance Ananse-Tori in Suriname, Nansi in Guyana, and Kuent'i Nanzi in Curaçao.

"Anansi the Spider" is a short film and a 1972 book, both by Gerald McDermott. The book won the 1972 Caldecott Honor medal for illustration. In 1973 it won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award. It tells, with little text and bold, colourful illustrations, how Anansi was rescued by his sons, each contributing to the rescue. It also explains how the moon came to be in the sky.

BCnU!

SUPER BOWL BLIPVERTS 2012 - SKECHERS

I don't have much to say about this one, save that it's damn funny.

But Mr. Quiggly could be not only a human reincarnated as a dog, but a famous human at that.

Could it be that he's the reincarnation of Michael Jackson because of the moon-walk at the finish line?

Or could he be Jesse Owens, Olympic champion runner?

I'm sure there are plenty of other world-famous sprinters who have passed on, but he's the only one to come to mind.....

BCnU!

LEFTOVER CROSSOVER LASAGNE

 "What do we do?
Get Madam LaZonga to perform a seance?"
Detective Lennie Briscoe
'Law & Order'

Lulu Schultz was a childhood friend of Batman's foe The Penguin. She married a South American millionaire named Luigi Lasagne for his money, but he didn't have the decency to drop dead right away. After three weeks of wedded blerg, Senor Lasagne divorced her.

Needing money, she teamed up with The Penguin for a criminal scheme but they were foiled by the Dynamic Duo.

After Lola Lasagne served her time in the Gotham State Penitentiary, the former Lulu Schultz may have moved to New York City. There she may have changed her name to Madam LaZonga (after the song) in order to become a fortune-teller and spiritual medium as a means to earn a living. It may not have been strictly legal, but so long as she stayed away from any serious criminal activities, I guess the authorities turned a blind eye to her activities.

But even so, they were aware of her and detectives like Lennie Briscoe probably used her as a confidential informant on occasion (which would be how he knew her.)

It was 1994 when Detective Briscoe mentioned her in that snide remark to Lieutenant Van Buren, and Lola Lasagne would have been about 86 years old. That's not unreasonable to believe, even though Ethel Merman, who portrayed her, passed away ten years before. But she'd be dead by now, I'm sure. 104 years after her birth.....

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: D'ARTAGNAN

D'ARTAGNAN

AS SEEN IN:

'Wishbone'

AS PLAYED BY:

Wishbone

CREATED BY:

Alexandre Dumas

TV DIMENSION:

Not Applicable

STATUS:

Dream Figure

From Wikipedia:

Charles Ogier de Batz de Castelmore, Comte d'Artagnan (c. 1611 – 25 June 1673) served Louis XIV as captain of the Musketeers of the Guard and died at the Siege of Maastricht in the Franco-Dutch War. A fictionalized account of his life by Gatien de Courtilz de Sandras formed the basis for the d'Artagnan Romances of Alexandre Dumas, most famously including "The Three Musketeers". The heavily fictionalized version of d'Artagnan featured in Dumas' works and their subsequent screen adaptations is now far more widely known than the real historical figure.

The real d'Artagnan's life was used as the basis for Gatien de Courtilz de Sandras' novel "Les mémoires de M. d'Artagnan". Alexandre Dumas in turn used de Sandras' novel as the main source for his d'Artagnan Romances ("The Three Musketeers", "Twenty Years After", and "The Vicomte de Bragelonne"), which cover d'Artagnan's career from his humble life's beginnings in Gascony to his death at Maastricht. Although Dumas knew that de Sandras' version was heavily fictionalised, in the preface to "The Three Musketeers" he affected to believe that the memoirs were real, in order to make his novel more believable.

D'Artagnan is initially portrayed by Dumas as a hotheaded youth, and tries to engage the Comte de Rochefort and the three musketeers, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis in single combat. He quickly becomes friends with the musketeers, and has a series of adventures which put him at odds with Cardinal Richelieu, then First Minister of France. In the end, Richelieu is impressed by d'Artagnan, and makes him a Lieutenant of the Musketeers. This begins his long career of military service, as detailed in the sequels to Dumas' famous novel.

BCnU!

"WHO-TREK" - CROSSOVER NEWS!

If only it was going to be a TV production......


First Ever Star Trek®/Doctor Who Comic Book Crossover Coming in May

Star Trek: The Next Generation® crew and the Doctor face off against the Borg and the Cybermen

In conjunction with BBC Worldwide Consumer Products and CBS Consumer Products, IDW Publishing will make history when two of the greatest science-fiction properties of all time come together in a comic book for the first time. The world’s most popular time traveler teams up with the U.S.S. Enterprise crew in STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION/DOCTOR WHO: ASSIMILATION2, taking fans on an adventure where no man has gone before.

“By joining these two sci-fi powerhouses, fans will be taken on the ultimate adventure through time and space,” said Liz Kalodner, executive vice president and general manager of CBS Consumer Products.

Launching in May, STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION/DOCTOR WHO: ASSIMILATION2 will feature fan-favorite villains the Borg and the Cybermen as they create an unholy alliance resulting in potential disaster for all humanity. Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise find themselves joining forces with the Doctor and his companions, with the fate of the galaxy hanging in the balance.

“We are excited about this new adventure for the Doctor and the fact that he will be traveling with Captain Jean-Luc Picard and his iconic crew. This is a perfect partnership for not only Doctor Who’s incredible fans, but also for the brand. We have just celebrated our most successful year yet. Doctor Who’s latest season delivered record ratings for BBC AMERICA and it was most downloaded full TV seasons of 2011 in the U.S. on the iTunes Store,” says Soumya Sriraman, executive vice president Home Entertainment and Licensing.

This eight-issue series will be written by Scott and David Tipton, the authors of critically acclaimed Star Trek: Infestation, with a helping hand from longtime Doctor Who writer Tony Lee, and will feature fully painted artwork by J.K. Woodward (Fallen Angel).

Fans are encouraged to ask their retailers about the rare wraparound photo cover. Plus, artist Joe Corroney (Star Trek Ongoing) will provide a variant cover featuring the Doctor and friends aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise.

Doctor Who and Star Trek are two hugely successful franchises that began as television series, and have expanded into a number of other media, including comic books, which continue to captivate fans all over the world. Nearly five decades and 1,500 episodes in the making, this is the moment that both Trekkers and Whovians have waited for all their lives!

STAR TREK TNG/DOCTOR WHO: ASSIMILATION2 ($3.99, 32 pages, full color) will be available in stores in May 2012.

WHITE COLLAR WONDER WOMAN

"Lose the hands on the hips;

You look like Wonder Woman."

Mozzie

'White Collar'

No mention of the comic book, none of the TV show, so for the Toobworld Dynamic this was a reference to the actual Amazon princess/superhero. There was no mention of Diana Prince, so unless another TV show negates this theory, then we can assume her secret identity was still secure - unlike those of Superman, Batman, and the Flash. (And from what I've seen in the IMDb, the mentions have all been about Wonder Woman, not Diana Prince.)

Here's the full exchange of dialogue:

El: I’m gonna tell them I’m FBI.

Mozzie: That is the worst plan I’ve ever heard, literally ever. They won’t buy it.

El: Why not?

Mozzie: You don’t carry yourself like a fed.

El: Well, I’ve been married to Peter for over a decade. I can do this.

Mozzie: Okay, let me see your G-man impression.

El: Elizabeth Burke. FBI. I want to ask you some questions.

Mozzie: Okay, first of all, lose the hands on the hips. You look like Wonder Woman. Good.
Now I need to see more hatred in your eyes. You should exude pure evil, born of a blackened soul. That’s how they look to me!

BCnU!

Sending this out to my buddy Mark Thompson, who's a big fan of Wonder Woman......

SUPER BOWL BLIPVERTS 2012 - BUD LIGHT

While I admire Bud Light's advocacy of adopting rescue dogs, I think this blipvert sends the wrong message - that you should get a rescue dog so that it can slave away for you.

I wouldn't be surprised if the off-screen sequel (Life goes on even when you're not on screen, remember.) went horribly dark, and Weego killed his master.

But leaving aside that editorial opinion, I think this reincarnated human could have been a butler or manservant in his previous life.

And it would have to be one who has already joined the Choir Invisible, which would leave out TV characters like Benson DuBois from 'Soap' and Geoffrey Hudson from 'Fresh Prince Of Bel Air' and 'The Bold & The Beautiful'. (Yes, I believe both characters played by Joseph Marcell were the same man.)

But here are a few other candidates:

Max ('Hart To Hart')

Higgins ('Our Man Higgins')

Mr. French ('Family Affair')

Saunders ('Soap')

And keeping with the literary turn taken by the "As Seen On TV" showcase this year:

Jeeves ('Jeeves & Wooster')

Bunter ('Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries')

Passepartout ("Around The World In Eighty Days")

Mr. Belvedere ('Belvedere' was a novel before it became a series of films starring Clifton Webb.)

Plus from the comic book universe, adapted for TV:

Alfred Pennyworth ('Batman')

If Cantinflas had been the Passepartout of the TV Universe, I may have gone with that option. 

But I think because he looks like a scrapper, I'm going with Weego being the reincarnation of Max from 'Hart To Hart'.

Most of the others are far too British to be such a mutt. (Although Higgins might have come close.....)

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: "THE TIME MACHINE"

 THE TIME TRAVELER

AS SEEN IN:

'Wishbone'

AS PLAYED BY:

Wishbone

CREATED BY:

H.G. Wells

TV DIMENSION:

Not Applicable

STATUS:

Dream Figure

From Wikipedia:

"The Time Machine" is a science fiction novella by H. G. Wells, published in 1895 and later adapted into two feature films of the same name, as well as two television versions, and a large number of comic book adaptations. It indirectly inspired many more works of fiction in many media. This 32,000 word story is generally credited with the popularisation of the concept of time travel using a vehicle that allows an operator to travel purposefully and selectively. The term "time machine", coined by Wells, is now universally used to refer to such a vehicle. This work is an early example of the Dying Earth subgenre.

The book's protagonist is an English scientist and gentleman inventor living in Richmond, Surrey, identified by a narrator simply as the Time Traveller. The narrator recounts the Traveller's lecture to his weekly dinner guests that time is simply a fourth dimension, and his demonstration of a tabletop model machine for travelling through it. He reveals that he has built a machine capable of carrying a person, and returns at dinner the following week to recount a remarkable tale, becoming the new narrator.

In the new narrative, the Time Traveller tests his device with a journey that takes him to 802,701 A.D., where he meets the Eloi, a society of small, elegant, childlike adults. They live in small communities within large and futuristic yet slowly deteriorating buildings, doing no work and having a frugivorous diet. His efforts to communicate with them are hampered by their lack of curiosity or discipline, and he speculates that they are a peaceful communist society, the result of humanity conquering nature with technology, and subsequently evolving to adapt to an environment in which strength and intellect are no longer advantageous to survival.

Returning to the site where he arrived, the Time Traveller finds his time machine missing, and eventually works out that it has been dragged by some unknown party into a nearby structure with heavy doors, locked from the inside, which resembles a Sphinx. Later in the dark, he is approached menacingly by the Morlocks, ape-like troglodytes who live in darkness underground and surface only at night. Within their dwellings he discovers the machinery and industry that makes the above-ground paradise possible. He alters his theory, speculating that the human race has evolved into two species: the leisured classes have become the ineffectual Eloi, and the downtrodden working classes have become the brutish light-fearing Morlocks. 

Deducing that the Morlocks have taken his time machine, he explores the Morlock tunnels, learning that they feed on the Eloi. His revised analysis is that their relationship is not one of lords and servants but of livestock and ranchers, and with no real challenges facing either species. They have both lost the intelligence and character of Man at its peak.

BCnU!

SUPER BOWL BLIPVERTS 2012 - VOLKSWAGEN

SPOILERS AHEAD!

'Lost' may have ended nearly two years ago, but there will always be people who have yet to see the end of the series.......

Come to think 'pon it, you better avoid this post if you haven't seen 'Life On Mars' (the original version from the UK) and its sequel 'Ashes To Ashes'. Perhaps the finale of "Homicide: The Movie" as well.......

Okay. Are we ready to proceed with another Toobworld Central look at the dogs of the Super Bowl blipverts?

Then let's begin.....

Remember this scene from the end of 'Lost'?

The souls of many of the main characters from the show were gathered with those who had played an integral part in their lives because of the crash of Oceanic 815. They were in a facsimile of a church in the dimension of "Limbo" to finally move on to the next stage, whatever might come. This happened many years after the events of the series, once everybody had finally shuffled off the mortal coil back in the dimension of Earth Prime-Time. Until such time, each new arrival in Limbo lived out an alternate life with different memories of their past; and some of them even had fictional relationships to buttress the believability of that life (like Jack's "son" David.)

Finally, with Jack's father Dr. Christian Shephard acting as their guide, they knew it was time to go into the light.

Only to be reincarnated as dogs.

That's a major premise in Toobworld - when a human character dies, it most likely will come back to Earth Prime-Time in the guise of a dog (if it doesn't go straight to Heaven or Hell upon death). There are so many TV commercials that support this claim, and this year's Super Bowl offered up at least four of them.

'Lost' shared the same premise of Limbo as a gathering place with the original UK version of 'Life On Mars', its sequel 'Ashes To Ashes', the TV adaptation of the movie "Madigan", and the final moments of the sequel movie to 'Homicide: Life On The Street'. But we never got to see what happened once they left that ethereal waiting room to see what awaited them on the other side.

If they did come back as canines, would they still have shared such a destiny, remaining in close contact with each other?

The teaser to VW's Super Bowl commercial seems to suggest that they might....

No, I'm not saying these are the character from 'Lost'. Like I said earlier, many of them - like Claire Littleton and Desmond Hume - still have long lives ahead of them.

But I think these dogs are the reincarnation of a subset of nameless TV characters - sci-fi nerds. And in particular, "Star Wars" enthusiasts.

The "Star Wars" franchise has been around for thirty-five years and has been absorbed into the TV Universe. (And yes, that sadly includes the "Turdogy" of prequel movies.) In that time, there must have been many citizens of Toobworld who were O'Bsessed with the films and who have since gone on to meet their maker.

Who knows? Maybe Neal Schweiber of 'Freaks & Geeks' is dead. I certainly can see Neal's friend Bill Haverchuck as that AT-AT Whippet who arrives by the end of the ad.

Reincarnated humans as dogs retain their human skills and memories, so it's pozz'ble, just pozz'ble, that these "Star Wars" geeks found each other in their new life and reignited their passion for the magnum opus of LucasFilms in a new way.

Maybe.

The first part of the official Super Bowl blipvert for VW - "The Dog Strikes Back" - continues the theme of a human reincarnated as a dog. The way I see it, in his past life as a human he was a car enthusiast. But because he can remember that past life he's let himself go physically - depressed that he can remember that life and believes he can no longer drive because he's a dog. (Saturday's Video Weekend will prove him wrong.)

Still, the new VW inspires him to get back in shape and so he calls upon past memories of how to go about developing an exercise regimen.

As for the second part of the commercial, set in the Mos Eisley cantina?

First off, "Star Wars" has been absorbed (or abducted) into the TV Universe, thanks to all the blipverts over the years which featured its characters... plus the Ewoks TV movie and an episode of 'The Muppet Show'.

But those movies took place "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away". So all of the habitués in this bar should be long dead. We know definitely that these two must be:

So what we have here is a similar situation found in 'Lost', 'Ashes To Ashes', and "Homicide: The Movie" - deceased TV characters gathered in their own version of Limbo (in this case, the Mos Eisley cantina) as they await the time when they can move on as one to the next stage.

(I have no idea what form of reincarnation would apply to non-humans or to humans not born on Earth Prime-Time.)

Meanwhile, as they wait, they're able to view life on Earth.......

Two for Tuesday! (Although with that added scene in the cantina, you get a bonus splainin!)

BCnU!

ALIEN ALEC - TWO FOR TUESDAY!

When you see those Capital One credit card commercials with Alec Baldwin and his "twin", the first thing to remember is that not even the original is Alec Baldwin.

Instead, he is the alien creature we saw in the Hulu commercial who was impersonating Alec Baldwin. His species was using Hulu.com to liquefy human brains in order to gobble them up (using a melon baller.)

Whatever "Alec Baldwin" looked like in its true form, it was green with tentacles. It should have been a multi-cell creature, yet apparently it practiced mitosis in order to replicate.

And that's what we saw in this latest batch of Capital One blipverts - the alien Alec and its clone progeny.

Two for Tuesday!

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: "THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER"

PRINCE EDWARD VI & TOM CANTY

AS SEEN IN:

'Wishbone'

AS PLAYED BY:

Wishbone

CREATED BY:

Mark Twain

(Although Edward VI is an historical figure)

TV DIMENSION:

Not Applicable

STATUS:

Dream Figure

From Wikipedia:

Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was the King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death. He was crowned on 20 February at the age of nine. The son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, Edward was the third monarch of the Tudor dynasty and England's first monarch who was raised as a Protestant. During Edward's reign, the realm was governed by a Regency Council, because he never reached maturity. The Council was first led by his uncle Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, (1547–1549), and then by John Dudley, 1st Earl of Warwick, from 1551 Duke of Northumberland (1550–1553).

Edward VI is a central character in Mark Twain's novel The Prince and the Pauper, in which the young prince and a pauper boy named Tom Canty, who bears a strikingly uncanny resemblance to Edward, deliberately exchange places. This ultimately leads to the eventual alarm and discomfort of both. Ultimately, both are saved by a semi-impoverished nobleman named Sir Miles Hendon.

The novel begins with Tom Canty, an impoverished boy living with his abusive family in London. One day, Tom Canty and Prince Edward, the son of King Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, meet and as a jest, switch clothes. While dressed in the pauper's rags, the Prince leaves the palace to punish the guard who knocked Tom down. However, the boys look remarkably alike and because they switch clothes, the palace guards throw the prince out into the street. The Prince fares poorly in London because he insists on proclaiming his identity as the true Prince of Wales. Meanwhile despite Tom's repeated denial of his birthright, the court and the King insist that he is the true prince gone mad. Edward eventually runs into Tom's family and a gang of thieves and Twain illustrates England's unfair and barbaric justice system. After the death of Henry VIII, Edward interrupts Tom's coronation and the boys explain, switch places, and Edward is crowned King of England...

Two for Tuesday!

BCnU!

KING FINDER

'The Finder' already made a connection in Toobworld with its second episode due to a crossover appearance by Dr. Lance Sweets from 'Bones' (thus ensuring it of the "First Crossover Of The Year" Toobits Award for 2012.) In two weeks, Dr. Hodgins of 'Bones' will be making an appearance as well. And with Stephen Fry announced as a guest star, I'm assuming he'll be showing up as his recurring character of Dr. Gordon Gordon Wyatt.

But those would be official crossovers. With the episode "Swing And A Miss", 'The Finder' made an unofficial - and probably unrealized - connection to a 2002 TV series that I not only never saw, but which I didn't even know existed.

From TV.com:

The HBO show "Baseball Wives" features a female ensemble, each married to ballplayers on a fictitious Miami-area team. The project was the brainchild of actress Michelle Grace, a former baseball wife herself who is a producer and cast member.

It starred Brian Bloom and was directed by Steve Buscemi, both of whom have connections to the premium network.

I don't know why I missed that. I have HBO....

The baseball team in question was the Miami Kings. And Walter's client, Frank Heywood, was a pitcher on that same team.

There was a scene in the team locker room that identified the team as the Kings, thanks to the background poster. And even though the series takes place on Looking Glass Key, Walter and Leo often travel to Miami for cases. As it is the biggest city in the area, Miami had to be the home of the Kings for that episode and not just a farm team base.

As such, I think Walter Sherman will end up qualifying for entry in the TV Crossover Hall of Fame....

BCnU!

THE LATEST NUMBERS RUNNING

Well, I haven't done one of these posts in a while....

"The Numbers" was a numerical sequence that supposedly had great significance to the TV Universe as a whole - at least seen within the context of the TV series 'Lost'. Their true meaning was never satisfactorily splained away during the course of the show and even outside the box their mystery was never fully revealed.

But the Lostpedia website did their best.....

Since Toobworld looks at the TV Universe as a whole, what applies to one series should have as much import in the other shows as well. So I'm always looking for new instances of "The Numbers" on TV all the time.

Here are some of the latest ones I found:

4

"Supernatural"

"The Adventurer"

However, they're not the same soundstage.  In fact, the one from 'Supernatural' is from an alternate dimension.....

"Alfred Hitchcock Presents" 

"Mercury Men"

8

I didn't find any this time.....

15

"Rizzoli & Isles"

"Late Night with Jimmy Fallon"

16

"Alphas"

23

"The Finder"

My most recent find.....

"Fringe"

By this point, it feels strange if you go to long without a 'Lost' reference on the show.....

42

"Chuck"

One of the Greta agents passed by the 42 inch Vizio display in the Buy More.......

COMBINATIONS

8-15

"Once Upon A Time"

'Lost' references keep popping up in the fairy tale series, which is not surprising because the showrunners used to work for the earlier series.  The clock in Storybrooke, Maine, was stuck at 8:15 until the events of the pilot episode......

And just as a bit of serendipiteevee.......

8-23

I hope none of these were repeats, but I can't be certain.

BCnU!