SATURDAY - "IN THE NEWS"

I loved listening to his voice......

AS SEEN ON TV: TARA TELEVISION

Kicking off the Video Weekend early.....

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: TARA THORNTON

There were big changes for the character this season  (SPOILERS!!!).....

TARA MAE THORNTON

CREATED BY:

Charlaine Harris

PORTRAYED BY:

Rutina Wesley

AS SEEN IN:

'True Blood'

TV DIMENSION:

Earth Prime-Time

(Original timeline)

From Wikipedia:

Tara Mae Thornton is a fictional character in Charlaine Harris's "The Southern Vampire Mysteries" and their television adaptation, HBO's 'True Blood'.

Tara Thornton is a twenty-something Louisiana native and life-long friend of the main protagonist, Sookie Stackhouse. Compiling a description of her character is a complex task because quite a few facts about her changed when her character was brought from page to screen.

The fact that Tara had a neglected childhood is one fact that remains the same, but in the books, we read that both of her parents were abusive alcoholics; on True Blood, the only parent we see and hear about is her mother. The television show also expands Tara's family to include the spared Lafayette Reynolds and his mother, Ruby Jean Reynolds.

Here are the main differences between the Tara of BookWorld and the one seen in Toobworld....

TARA OF BOOKWORLD
Tara has two siblings, a brother and a sister. They both left Bon Temps and Tara behind as soon as they were able. In Living Dead in Dallas, Tara is engaged to "Eggs" Benedict Talley, but this relationship ends when a secret sex party they attend ends badly. She then opens up a clothing store called Tara's Togs, and then briefly dates the vampire Franklin Mott. He soon dumps her and gives her to the vampire Mickey who turns out to be a sadist. The situation with Mickey gets so bad, Sookie and the vampire Eric Northman must take steps to rescue her.

After owning and operating her own business for a few years, Tara becomes ready to settle down. During the events of All Together Dead, she and JB du Rone elope. Tara is currently pregnant with JB's twins. She confides this to Sookie, telling her that she did not plan on having a baby, but felt she should try her best and be the great mother that she herself never had. It is Claude who reveals that Tara is having twins, a boy and a girl.

TARA OF TOOBWORLD
Sam Merlotte, Tara's boss, and Tara explore the possibilities of a romantic relationship, but it never establishes, and before they can give it another try, Tara meets "Eggs" Benedict Talley. "Eggs" also lives with Maryann and it is at the "social worker's" house that the two meet. Sensing that something is not quite right with the mysterious lady, Tara resists the temptation to live with them permanently and moves in with Sookie. However, Sookie goes to Dallas, Texas and leaves Tara alone. A vulnerable Tara succumbs to the draw of Maryann and Eggs, but instead of moving in with them, Tara invites the pair to move into Sookie's. Tara and Eggs use this opportunity to get to know each other, and Tara even falls in love with him despite his questionable past. The relationship ends when Eggs is killed by Jason Stackhouse.

Tara then crosses paths with the sociopathic vampire Franklin Mott. Franklin glamours and bites her, kidnaps her and holds her bound in a bathroom and takes her to the Mississippi mansion of Russell Edgington. Franklin mixes romantic talk and the prospect of turning her into a vampire with coercive actions, while Tara attempts to soothe him with compliant words, while plotting her own escape. She escapes him on her second attempt, and makes it back to Bon Temps, where she seeks help in a rape survivors' group. Franklin confronts her once more in the parking lot of Merlotte's a few nights later. Franklin is also killed by Jason Stackhouse.

Jason, the object of Tara's affection since she was a little girl, takes her back to his house to recover. They kiss, but then Jason confesses to being the one who shot Eggs. Tara leaves his place and goes back to Merlotte's where she finds a very angry-at-the-world Sam. The two end up spending another night together, and in the morning Tara feels a little less frayed around the edges. The feeling does not last, however, as Sam decides to reveal his shape-shifting secret to her. She leaves his house and goes back to her mother's house where she finds Lettie Mae in an intimate situation with the Reverend Daniels. It is all too much for Tara, and she leaves Bon Temps for destinations unknown.

In season 4, Tara has changed her name to Toni, and moved to New Orleans, working as a cage fighter. Tara is seen dating another female fighter, Naomi. In the final minutes of the season finale, she is seen pushing Sookie Stackhouse out of the way of a shotgun blast but the buckshot hits her in the side and back of the head and neck.

In season 5, she's turned into a vampire by Pam at the behest of Lafayette and Sookie after her murder by Debbie and attacks Sookie when she awakens. It is uncertain if Tara will be good or evil.

BCnU!

"CHIEFLY O'HARAS" - HELEN MEETS KAL-EL

"CHIEFLY O'HARAS"

[EPISODE NINE]

"DECOY"

There's no sense in telling you about the investigation that brought Helen J. O'Hara together with Superman, not when it's easier to just show you instead.....

You might think that this marked the end of the story between Superman and Helen O'Hara. But you would be wrong, Snagriff Breath!

Coming up next: "Up All Night"

BCnU!

A TRIBUTE TO RICHARD LYNCH

Good night and may God bless.....

THE HAT SQUAD: RICHARD LYNCH

From the AP:
An actor who employed his scarred face to play villainous characters has died. Richard Lynch was 76.

His representative, Mike Baronas, says Lynch was found dead Tuesday at his home in Palm Springs, Calif. No other details were provided.

The actor appeared in several horror and sci-fi films in a career spanning four decades. He appeared in such TV series as 'Battlestar Galactica', 'The A-Team' 'The Phoenix' and 'Six Feet Under'.

It could be said that actors in the movies and TV shows achieve a kind of immortality. and that could be said about Richard Lynch, wo passed away at the age of 79. But it certainly couldn't be said for many of the characters he played. Most of them never made it to the end credits, let alone beyond the final fade-out.

But Richard Lynch played at least two characters who haven't even been born yet....

MORGAN VELOSI

'BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25th CENTURY'

("VEGAS IN SPACE")

From TV.com:

Buck is sent to the gambling city Sinaloa with Directorate special agent Marla Landers to rescue a young woman who has been kidnapped by the city's ruler, Velosi. Velosi plans to extract some information from the woman's mind in order to destroy one of his competitors. The information involves plans for the Draconian Hatchet fighters, which have been plaguing Earth's defense forces.

More from Wikipedia

ARCTUS BARAN

'STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION'

("GAMBIT" PARTS I & II)

From Memory Alpha:

Arctus Baran was a marauder who commanded a mercenary ship during the late 2360s into 2370. He was noted for his ruthless tactics and lethal punishments. He was fond of using neural servos, which he implanted in all of the people who served in his crew.

From Memory Alpha

My favorite characters of his from Toobworld were Dr. Xavier in the opening trilogy of 'Galactica 1980', and Michael O'Connor in "To The Last I Will Grapple With Thee", an episode of 'Murder, She Wrote'.

All of the late Mr. Lynch's characters will live on every time we watch them... at least until they get killed off......

Good night and may God bless, sir.

AS SEEN ON TV: THE PROBLEM OF THOR BRIDGE

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS!

We know that Dr. John Watson is the author of the stories about Sherlock Holmes - at least in Toobworld. We have seen Holmes and Watson discuss them often enough in the Jeremy Brett series.

When we met Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the first of his appearances in 'The Murdoch Mysteries", he talked about the changes he would make to "The Hound Of The Baskervilles". This doesn't mean that he wrote the stories, however. Rather, it means he was Dr. Watson's editor. As such, he'd always be on the lookout for ways to give the stories the kind of jolt that would bring in more readers. Changing the setting of the Baskervilles climax from a cliff to the bogs on the moor would be more harrowing. (Never mind that he stole the idea from Inspector Brackenreid....)

And we know that TV characters read those stories. Proof of that comes up in a case once investigated by Jessica Fletcher, as seen in an episode of 'Murder, She Wrote'. Mrs. Fletcher later wrote up the story as "To The Last Will I Grapple With Thee".

When Michael O'Connor's body was found with a bullet to the head, but no gun to be found, the solution would eventually have been evident to anyone who remembered the details in Dr. Watson's recounting of "The Problem Of Thor Bridge". Mrs. Fletcher just happened to reach the solution first.

 

 

I guess these pictures give it away, but you really should read Dr. Watson's story as well.......

Oh, all right. If you must, you can watch the video of it instead....

Presented in memory of Richard Lynch, who played Michael O'Connor. This was one of my favorite of his Toobworld roles......

BCnU!

"CHIEFLY O'HARAS" - HELEN ON THE FORCE

"CHIEFLY O'HARAS"

[EPISODE EIGHT]

"POLICE WOMAN"

At some point during her four years at UMetro, Helen J. O'Hara's mother passed away. Her two younger brothers, Jim and Frank, had moved away themselves to go to college (although Frank dropped out to begin his life as a confidence trickster). And with her father eventually moving to Gotham City to accept the position of police chief, Helen had no reason to move back to Nebraska upon graduation.

(On the other hand, her second cousin Kate McShane was a native New Yorker. Once she graduated, Kate moved back to the Big Apple to go to law school there.)

Over those four years, Helen came to love Metropolis and she decided to peg her career in law enforcement there. With a glowing recommendation from Professor Hyatt, Helen was accepted into the police academy. Helen's favorite courses there brought in guest lecturers like Lt. Frank Ballinger, a private investigator named Martin Kane, and her favorite, Officer Casey Jones of the NYPD. Jones was an undercover police woman who would become Helen's role model.

LT. FRANK BALLINGER
Running late for his lecture

MARTIN KANE
Addressing the class 

CASEY JONES
Role model for Helen O'Hara

The academy also had a visitor from Scotland Yard.  Colonel March happened to be in Metropolis to work on a case with Superman which had supernatural overtones.  After they solved the mystery, the Colonel was more than happy to do the favor for Superman's friends on the force.   

COLONEL MARCH
From the Department Of Queer Complaints

(Acting as his aide was a young constable named Dirk who became absolutely smitten with Helen during the visit. It was all she could do to politely fend off his advances.)

DIRK OF THE YARD

Helen graduated from the police academy with high honors and she then joined the Metropolis police department. She quickly rose through the ranks to become a plain-clothes detective by 1958.

Inspector Henderson served as her mentor on the force and he couldn't speak highly enough of her capabilities on the job. Henderson would often recommend her for the dangerous undercover assignments, knowing that she could handle it and get the job done.

INSPECTOR HENDERSON
Helen's boss and mentor

After all, the Metropolis police department couldn't depend on Superman all the time.

HELEN O'HARA
Working undercover

But there finally came a time when Superman and this superb police woman teamed up on a case. And that union proved to be a major complication in her life.....

SHOWS CITED:

• 'Adventures Of Superman'
• 'Batman'
• 'Checkmate'
• 'Colonel March Of Scotland Yard'
• 'Columbo'
• 'Decoy'
• 'Kate McShane'
• 'M Squad'
• 'Martin Kane, Private Investigator'
• 'O'Hara, U.S. Treasury'
• 'Psych'

Coming up next: "Decoy"

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: HENLEIGH MALLINGER GRANDCOURT

HENLEIGH MALLINGER GRANDCOURT

CREATED BY:

George Eliot

PORTRAYED BY:

Hugh Bonneville

AS SEEN IN:

"Daniel Deronda"

TV STATUS:

Recastaway

TV DIMENSION:

Alternate Toobworld

From Wikipedia:

Henleigh Mallinger Grandcourt — Sir Hugo's nephew and heir-presumptive, a wealthy, manipulative, sadistic man. Grandcourt marries Gwendolen Harleth and then embarks upon a campaign of emotional abuse. He has a mistress, Lydia Glasher, with whom he has several children. He had promised to marry Lydia when her husband died but reneged on the promise in order to marry Gwendolyn instead.

From Shmoop.com:

It's OK if you hate Grandcourt. We don't like him at all, either – that just goes to show how well George Eliot created this villain. Everything about him is mean, and he just oozes with sleaze. Grandcourt seems fine enough when we first meet him, but pretty soon it becomes clear that he is a selfish jerk who doesn't care about anyone but himself and his own gain.

For more of this character analysis, click here.

Robert Hardy played the original version of the character in the main Toobworld back in 1970.

BCnU

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MARTIN LANDAU!

Today is Martin Landau's 84th birthday. To celebrate, I'd like to point out two characters he played on TV  (SPOILERS AHEAD!):

IVAN KUCHENKO

'The Twilight Zone'

("The Jeopardy Room")

Trying to defect, former KGB Major Ivan Kuchenko is trapped inside a hotel room. Commissar Vassiloff, a hitman, and Boris, his assistant, are watching him from a room across the street. Vassiloff is a sadistic killer who has tricked Kuchenko into drinking a sleeping potion in the hotel room after pretending to surrender to Kuchenko. Kuchenko wakens to learn that Vassiloff has planted a bomb in the room: Ivan must find it within three hours, or he will be shot by Vassiloff and Boris, who have a gun trained on him at all times. Vassiloff has hidden the bomb in the room's telephone, where it will be triggered by picking up an incoming call. Ivan manages to escape and avoid being shot. Later, Vassiloff and Boris enter the room and try to figure out what went wrong. The phone rings, and Boris—without thinking—picks it up; Vassiloff, realizing what is happening, yells at Boris, but the telephone bomb quickly goes off, killing both Vassiloff and Boris. On the other end of the phone line is Ivan Kuchenko, escaping to freedom. When the operator notifies him of the bad connection, he reassures her that the message was indeed delivered. The scene cuts to Vassiloff and Boris's charred corpses. (Wikipedia)

ROLLIN HAND

'Mission Impossible'

Rollin Hand’s role as an IMF agent was that of an actor and disguise expert. In a theatrical brochure that headed his dossier, he was described as a quick-change artist and billed as "The Man Of A Million Faces." As such, he had formidable skills in mimicry and voice imitation (introduced in the second season) as well as a mastery of make-up that rivaled that of Lon Chaney, Sr. He was also an expert at sleight of hand and pickpocketing, which came into play in several missions where he would pick pockets or hide things on someone else's person without their knowledge. His language and cultural skills were formidable. He regularly passed himself off as a citizen of various Latin American and Eastern European countries and no one ever questioned his authenticity. He also successfully impersonated well-known public figures, such as the dictator of a fictitious Latin American country, rumored Nazi fugitive Martin Bormann, and indeed even Adolf Hitler himself. On at least two missions he even successfully impersonated a left-handed person, doing all gestures and reflexive actions left-handed when Rollin himself was right-handed. He successfully falsified a wide variety of maladies in the course of missions to dupe targets, including seizures and drug addiction.  (Wikipedia)

What if I told you that Kuchenko and Hand were the same person.... Is that something you might be interested in? (Channeling another Landau TV character, producer Bob Evans of 'Entourage'.)

After he defected from Russia, Kuchenko changed his name and joined the IMF agency, bringing all the skills he had at his disposal to be used in the cause for Truth, Justice, and the American Way. Everything mentioned in that Wikipedia entry for Rollin Hand is what Major Kuchenko used to do for the KGB.

Also, for those who didn't already know, there's a splainin why the events of 'Space: 1999' (another Landau series) never happened in the main Toobworld.

Up to a point, they did. There was a Moonbase Alpha, kept secret from the general public. In fact, there are still several moon bases still in operation on the Moon. Commander John Koenig was in charge of the facility when the nuclear waste dumps on the dark side of the Moon exploded. But that did not trigger the cataclysm of the Moon leaving the Earth's orbit.

Everything we saw from that point on in the series all took place in the coma dream of Koenig, who had been seriously injured in the blast. That way we can keep the series' basics in the main TV Universe.

At any rate, happy birthday to Martin Landau - thanks for all you've contributed to the world of the Toob!

BCnU!

"CHIEFLY O'HARAS" - NUDGE NUDGE WINK WINK!

"CHIEFLY O'HARAS"

[EPISODE SEVEN]

"THE GIRL WITH SOMETHING EXTRA"

Just a side note of interest - here are the original pictures from Helen O'Hara's portfolio of pictures by Henry Strand, which was put together by Helen's cousin. Kate McShane sent the pictures to the manager of the local Winfred-Louder outlet and it garnered a contract for Helen to be the model for the department store over the next four years, while she went to school at the University of Metropolis.

Money being tight - the reason why Helen was doing this in the first place - all they could afford for outfits was a polka-dot bikini.....

Here are a few of the pictures that were commissioned by Winfred-Louder, preferring that Helen was used to sell lingerie in their newspaper ads in the Daily Planet.  (These pictures were taken by a photographer they flew in from New York, a young fellow named Unger.....)

SHOWS CITED:

• 'Adventures Of Superman'
• 'The Drew Carey Show'
• 'Kate McShane'
• 'The Odd Couple'
• 'The X-Files'

Coming up next: "Police Woman".....

BCnU!

THE "MISSING" LINEAGE FOR "DOWNTON ABBEY"

After posting that crossover between 'Missing' and 'Castle', I got an email the other day from Brad Mengel, a long-time member of Team Toobworld:

I just caught the final two episodes of 'Missing' (In Australia they showed all the episodes as 2 hours episodes)

When they introduce the new Interpol liaison they mention that she is Lady Susan Grantham, Making a connection between 'Missing' and 'Downton Abbey'.

From the ABC website:

[Dax] surprised to learn that Giancarlo assigned an Interpol agent named Susan Grantham to him before he got shot. She's to give him anything he needs. .

I dropped out of 'Missing' before that point, but there's no guarantee I would have noticed that anyway, so a BIG thanks to Brad for the catch!

Laura Haddock played the role, and within the bounds of Earth Prime-Time, she's somehow related to the Crawleys of 'Downton Abbey'.

Thanks again, Brad!

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: TEENYA

TEENYA

CREATED BY:

Paul W. Fairman

PORTRAYED BY:

Susan Oliver

AS SEEN IN:

'The Twilight Zone'

("People Are Alike All Over")

ADAPTED FROM:

"Brothers Beyond The Void"

TV DIMENSION:

Earth Prime-Time's

From TV.com:

Two males and a female step forward and gently relieve [astronaut Sam Conrad] of his gun, then speak to him in English. When Sam admits he's surprised to hear them speak English, one of the males explains that they've telepathically taught him their language. They confirm that Marcusson is dead and offer to let Sam get some rest. Sam is surprised to see that they are indeed just like humans. As they take out Marcusson's body and assure Sam they will bury it appropriately, the scientist admits to his dead friend that he was right and people are alike all over.

As the Martians take Sam back to his ship, he asks them questions about their civilization. They tell him that they'll answer his question in the morning when he's had some rest, and they'll prepare a place for him. As they go, Sam asks the female Martian what her name is. She introduces herself as Teenya and he thanks her for his help. When he expresses worries, she insistently tells him that no one on Mars will hurt him.

The next day, Teenya and the others arrive and tell Sam they have a surprise for him. He goes with the, noticing that Teenya seems reluctant to participate in the surprise. They take Sam to their city and lead him to a building. Inside is an exact replica of a suburban Earth home. The Martians inform him that they took all of the structures and decorations from his mind telepathically, and they want to make sure he's comfortable. They're very insistent on finding out that he finds everything to his taste. The Martians asks him to stay thee while they make arrangements to take him on a tour of the city. As they leave, Teenya hangs behind and Sam asks if he'll see her later. One of the males cuts her off and assures him that he will.

Sam explores his new home office and initially enjoys the creature comforts. However, he soon makes three discoveries: the gas stove doesn't work, there are no windows, and all the external doors are locked. Banging on the doors, he gets no response. Sam runs to the front drapes and pulls them down, and discovers a shuttered viewing port. It opens revealing bars… and a crowd of Martians viewing him on the other side. Sam realizes that he's in a zoo: an Earth creature in its native habitat. He looks out into the crowd and sees Teenya sorrowfully looking back at him. As she turns and runs away, Sam admits that Marcusson was right: people are alike all over.

We don't get to see it happen, but if she needed to, Teenya could extend her antennae.  And her last name is probably a numerical designation, like Exigius 12½ ('My Favorite Martian') or Phobos One ('The Outer Limits').

 

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: FATHER STONE/SAM CONRAD

This is the penultimate tribute to Ray Bradbury in the "As Seen On TV" showcase, with one more running this coming Sunday.

FATHER STONE

CREATED BY:

Ray Bradbury

PORTRAYED BY:

Roddy McDowall

AS SEEN IN:

'The Martian Chronicles'

TV STATUS:

Possibly unique to this production

For Toobworld Central, a dimensional recastaway

TV DIMENSION:

Alternate Toobworld

By Ralph Dumain:

The two priests debate theological issues as they hike back to home base. By dusk they are lost. Three blue spheres appear. Stone is afraid, convinced it’s the devil’s work. Peregrine is unafraid; he tries to communicate, showing his cross. The spheres depart.

But Peregrine’s shouting appears to provoke an avalanche. As rocks rain down from the mountainside, the priests prostrate themselves on the ground, fearing the worst. But a blue sphere descends from the sky, picks them up, and moves them to a safe spot. Peregrine is elated: this proves that the spheres have souls and free will. Stone as usual wants to limit his attention to Earth souls that need saving; he is averse to non-human creatures. Peregrine asks: “Can’t you recognize the human in the inhuman?” Stone replies: “I would rather recognize the inhuman in the human.”

I saw 'The Martian Chronicles' when it first aired on NBC decades ago and I was excited for it to be shown, not only because it was Bradbury, but because two of my favorite actors were in the production - Roddy McDowall and Darrin McGavin.

McGavin was McGavin - blustery and over the top and his two storylines served him well. But I was disappointed by Roddy's role at first. He was good as Father Stone, don't get me wrong. But his sidekick role left him a bit of a wet blanket with his fears of the Red Planet in comparison to Fritz Weaver's showier performance as Father Peregrine.

And when he showed up later as yet another sidekick - this time to Colonel Wilder on a visit to the Hathaway family - it was more like "We've got this big star, and we haven't done that much with him, let's stick him in another story."

Even his name, "Father Stone", was dull.

But now that I've been acting as an unofficial caretaker for the TV Universe for a while now, I've come to appreciate his performance and realize that Father Stone - on a televisiological level - could be the most important character to come out of this production of 'The Martian Chronicles'.

That's because he's the only character to actually appear in the dimension of Earth Prime-Time......

SAM CONRAD

CREATED BY:

Paul W. Fairman

PORTRAYED BY:

Roddy McDowall

AS SEEN IN:

'The Twilight Zone'

("People Are Alike All Over")

ADAPTED FROM:

"Brothers Beyond The Void"

TV STATUS:

Dimensional Recastaway

TV DIMENSION:

Earth Prime-Time

From Wikipedia:

A rocket piloted by two astronauts heads out on a mission to Mars. One of them, Marcusson, is a positive thinker who believes that people are alike all over, even on the Red Planet. The other astronaut, Conrad, has a more cynical view of human interplanetary nature. The impact of landing on Mars is so severe that Marcusson dies. Now alone, Conrad is consumed by fear when he hears a rhythmic sound reverberating upon the ship's hull. Expecting some unnameable evil, he finds his apprehension turning to joy when, upon opening the hatch, he sees Martians that indeed appear human, have mind-reading abilities and give the impression of being most amicable, especially the beautiful Teenya, who welcomes and reassures him. The hospitable locals lead their honored guest to his residence—an interior living space furnished in the same manner as one on Earth would have been. Conrad briefly relaxes, but soon discovers that his room is windowless and the doors cannot be opened. Momentarily, a wall slides upward, leading to Conrad's realization that he has become a caged exhibit in a Martian zoo. Conrad picks up a sign that says "Earth Creature in his native habitat" and throws it on the floor. In the episode's closing lines, Conrad yells to the heavens, "Marcusson! Marcusson, you were right! People are alike.... people are alike everywhere!"

One of the reasons I had to banish 'The Martian Chronicles' to an alternate TV dimension is because its timeline clashed with that established for Toobworld. They had a colony on Mars by at least the new millennium, whereas the first mult-staffed flight to Mars won't be happening in the main TV dimension until 2035. ('Life On Mars' - US) (Whatever happens in the real world by that point won't matter to me. I'll be dead.)

But there could be secret two-man flights going on already; the general populace just doesn't know about it.

After all, Mankind had been going to the Moon long before the first official moon landing in 1969. The spy agency CONTROL has a base there; the remains of Moonbase Alpha are still there - they'd be smoldering if there was an atmosphere. (I won't go into it here, but the events of 'Space: 1999' didn't play out in Toobworld as they were depicted on TV.)

So why not manned flights to Mars in the main TV Universe? I would think the greatest minds of the Galacticans living among the Earthlings (plus a rogue Vulcan) probably would be helping to make it so. It would be to their advantage as well to established a manned outpost on Mars to be the first line of defense against any more alien incursions into the Sol system.

Sam Conrad and Father Stone share the same timeline in their respective TV dimensions. (That 'Twilight Zone' episode may have aired twenty years earlier, but it was projecting an event in Toobworld's future.) They look exactly alike. So if they are the same character separated by a dimensional vortex, why do they have different names?

Either one of them was adopted and the other was raised by his birth parents, or they were both adopted. I'm leaning toward the idea that they shared the same life until they were both adopted - but to different parents. After that, their journeys through Life took different routes, but there was always that one over-riding destiny - to go to Mars.

Both of them show trepidation at the idea of being on a strange planet and encountering Martians. But then they each have different circumstances occur when they do.

So - for Toobworld purposes only, of course - Father Stone is the only character from Ray Bradbury's "The Martian Chronicles" to have appeared in the main TV dimension. At least for the time being. (He may have appeared, albeit with a different name, in one of the other Martian episodes of 'The Ray Bradbury Theater', but I've yet to see all of those.)

BCnU!

"CHIEFLY O'HARAS" - HELEN II

"CHIEFLY O'HARAS"
[EPISODE SIX]
"A MODEL LIFE"

Helen agreed with Kate's idea to make some money by modeling, and left the details in arranging it to her cousin (thinking that Kate's scant knowledge of the law would make her a good choice to be her agent.) With a little research, Kate found a photographer to take Helen's pictures for submission to the local branch of the Winfred-Louder department store chain.

Henry Strand - "Portraits A Specialty" - gave them a very good deal on the session. But then, that's because he had something else in mind.....

Kate put together a sampling of the pictures and, wanting to make sure that Helen was seriously considered out of all the applicants, sent the pictures straight to the store's manager. 

As it happened, the assistant manager had just come back from a visit with her twin sister Laura Ford and Laura's incredibly child-like husband, toy designer Horace Ford, when the envelope of pictures arrived. The assistant manager (At this point in the timeline, we only know her first name as "Dorothy", but she preferred to be called "Dottie".) intercepted the package and recognized immediately that Helen would be the perfect choice to be the model for their store's advertising in the Daily Planet. Without getting approval from her boss, Dottie put the ad campaign into motion.

Luckily for Dottie, her hunch was right. The ads in the Daily Planet proved to be so popular that circulation for the paper began to rise.

A young advertising copywriter from New York City was on a business trip to Metropolis soon after the ads started running. He happened to see Helen's picture in the paper and saw the chance to parlay her talents as a model into an opportunity to become a junior partner at his ad agency.

So Darrin Stephens mailed the clippings of every Winfred-Louder ad he could find which featured Helen to Eric Forrester, who had only recently begun his own fashion house in Los Angeles. In the accompanying note, he suggested that Miss O'Hara would make the perfect model to represent Forrester Fashions. (If Forrester agreed, Durwood suggested that he should hire the McMann & Tate Agency to make it happen.)

Meanwhile, Dottie's unauthorized advertising campaign for the Metropolis store came to the attention of the powers that be at the Winfred-Louder headquarters. She was instructed to come to the main store in Cleveland, Ohio, where she fully expected to be fired. Instead, she was given a promotion to work at the Cleveland headquarters, with an eye towards signing Helen J. O'Hara to be the national face (and body) for Winfred-Louder. There she soon met the elderly founder of the firm and not long after that, she married him.

Others were starting to take interest in the... talents of Helen O'Hara. That photographer, Henry Strand, saw his chance to capitalize on those photos as well. He knew that it was about time for him to abandon his life as "Henry Strand" and begin somewhere else for a whole new lifespan, his fourth. 

(He began life in 1849 as L.H. Rice and then when he no longer could explain why he never aged, he began again as Louis Brady in Connecticut.) His plan was to go back to New York City, this time as "Alfred Fellig", and perhaps get a job as a crime photographer like Mike Kovac, a young man with a camera just making a name for himself in the Big Apple.

But in order to do that, Strand needed money. So he contacted Drew Patton, the founder and publisher of the racy gentleman's magazine "Emperor" and showed him some of the pictures of Helen, but without revealing her identity. Patton was so impressed that he paid more than Strand's asking price in a finder's fee and then he flew out to Metropolis. He was hoping to sign Helen to grace his magazine's centerfold as "Miss Metropolis".

Meanwhile, in the deserts outside of the Metropolis environs, up-and-coming movie producer Bob Evans was overseeing the production of a Western called "Standing Cow, Daughter Of Sitting Bull" (which starred Joyce Whitman and Rance McGrew) when he saw Helen's picture in the paper. He immediately called his partner Ben Flicker back in Hollywood.

Producer Bob Evans
making his entrance on 'The Stevie Parsons Show'

As Flicker remembered it in his autobiography (published by Whitestone Press), "Bob called me at our offices at Mammoth Studio and said 'What if I told you I had the next big blonde bombshell, a complete unknown who will cost us practically nothing to sign, but who could potentially bring in millions at the box office? Is that something you might be interested in?'"

According to Ben Flicker, Evans' plan was to drop negotiations with the too-demanding Nora Chandler to play the lead in "The Cowgirl And Pistol Pete" (opposite Sam Harris) and hire instead this young beauty. Maybe even cast her in "Duel in Dry Bones Gulch", the sequel to "Ambush At Dry Gulch".

Ben Flicker wrote that he was so fired up by Bob Evans' enthusiasm, that if she proved to be half as good as Bob said, they'd cut off negotiations with the too-expensive star Grace Wheeler and cast this new girl in their upcoming sci-fi film "Attack Of The 50 Foot Anteater".

"But apparently, the deal fell through," wrote Flicker, "I don't know what happened; maybe Bob vermasselt the hondling. He never told me. And I never did find out her name. Always wondered what became of her.  But I don't think she ever made it into the movies.  Or television, for that matter."

Ben Flicker
being interviewed by Corky Sherwood for 'FYI'

What happened was that Helen, despite the cajoling from Kate, turned down the offers made by Bob Evans, Drew Patton, Darrin Stephens and the future Mrs. Louder. This time she was following the advice of her criminology professor, Dr. Carl Hyatt.

Sensing that her heart was still set on a career in law enforcement, Dr. Hyatt reminded Helen that these offers to appear in movies, magazines, and fashion shows would gain her so much pubicity that she would never be able to work effectively as an undercover detective should the need arise.

So Helen contented herself with modeling on a local level, which still brought in enough money to cover her college tuition and living expenses. And when she graduated from UMetro after four years, she applied for admission into the Metropolis Police Academy.

SHOWS CITED:

• 'Adventures Of Superman'
• 'The Betty White Show'
• 'The Beverly Hillbillies'
• 'Bewitched'
• 'The Bold & The Beautiful'
• 'Checkmate'
• 'Columbo'
• 'Dream On'
• 'The Dick Van Dyke Show'
• 'The Drew Carey Show'
• 'Entourage'
• 'Gilligan's Island'
• 'The Hero'
• 'It Ain't Half Hot, Mum'
• 'Kate McShane'
• 'L.A. Law'
• 'Murphy Brown'
• 'Man With A Camera'
• 'The Odd Couple'
• 'The Twilight Zone'
• 'The X-Files'

Coming up next: "The Girl With Something Extra"

BCnU!