SKED ALERT! FAREWELL TO THE PONDS

Today is a day which most 'Doctor Who' fans have been dreading.....

AND NOW, FOR A BIT O' FUN....

THE REAL ROBINSON CRUSOE

"THE ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE" - THE SLIDESHOW

"THE ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE" - EPISODE THREE

"THE ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE" - EPISODE TWO

"ORINOCO FLOW"

Robinson Crusoe believed his "Island of Despair" was somewhere out to sea but not far from the mouth of the Orinoco River.  So.....

"THE ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE" - EPISODE ONE

AS SEEN ON TV: ROBINSON CRUSOE

ROBINSON CRUSOE

AS SEEN IN:

'The Adventures Of Robinson Crusoe'

CREATED BY:

Daniel Defoe

PORTRAYED BY:

Robert Hoffman

Lee Payant (Voice)

TV STATUS:

Recastaway Castaway (Original)

TV DIMENSION:

Earth Prime-Time

From Wikipedia:

"Robinson Crusoe" is a novel by Daniel Defoe that was first published in 1719. Epistolary, confessional, and didactic in form, the book is a fictional autobiography of the title character (whose birth name is Robinson Kreutznaer)—a castaway who spends 28 years on a remote tropical island near Trinidad, encountering cannibals, captives, and mutineers before being rescued.

Although commonly referred to as simply "Robinson Crusoe", the book’s complete, original title as it appears on the title page of the first edition is "The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himself. With An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver'd by Pirates."

Crusoe (the family name corrupted from the German name "Kreutznaer") sets sail from the Queen's Dock in Hull on a sea voyage in August 1651, against his parents' wishes, who want him to pursue a career, possibly in law. After a tumultuous journey where his ship is wrecked in a storm, his lust for the sea remains so strong that he sets out to sea again. This journey, too, ends in disaster as the ship is taken over by Salé pirates (the Salé Rovers) and Crusoe is enslaved by a Moor. Two years later, he escapes in a boat with a boy named Xury; a Captain of a Portuguese ship off the west coast of Africa rescues him. The ship is en route to Brazil. With the captain's help, Crusoe procures a plantation.

Years later, Crusoe joins an expedition to bring slaves from Africa but he is shipwrecked in a storm about forty miles out to sea on an island (which he calls the Island of Despair) near the mouth of the Orinoco river on September 30, 1659. Only he and three animals, the captain's dog and two cats, survive the shipwreck. Overcoming his despair, he fetches arms, tools, and other supplies from the ship before it breaks apart and sinks. He builds a fenced-in habitat near a cave which he excavates. By making marks in a wooden cross, he creates a calendar. By using tools salvaged from the ship, and ones he makes himself, he hunts, grows barley and rice, dries grapes to make raisins, learns to make pottery, and raises goats. He also adopts a small parrot. He reads the Bible and becomes religious, thanking God for his fate in which nothing is missing but human society.

More years pass and Crusoe discovers native cannibals, who occasionally visit the island to kill and eat prisoners. At first he plans to kill them for committing an abomination but later realizes he has no right to do so, as the cannibals do not knowingly commit a crime. He dreams of obtaining one or two servants by freeing some prisoners; when a prisoner escapes, Crusoe helps him, naming his new companion "Friday" after the day of the week he appeared. Crusoe then teaches him English and converts him to Christianity.

An English ship appears; mutineers have commandeered the vessel and intend to maroon their captain on the island. Crusoe and the ship's captain strike a deal in which Crusoe helps the captain and the loyal sailors retake the ship and leave the worst mutineers on the island. Before embarking for England, Crusoe shows the mutineers how he survived on the island and states that there will be more men coming. Crusoe leaves the island 19 December 1686 and arrives in England on 11 June 1687. He learns that his family believed him dead; as a result, he was left nothing in his father's will. Crusoe departs for Lisbon to reclaim the profits of his estate in Brazil, which has granted him much wealth. In conclusion, he transports his wealth overland to England to avoid travelling by sea. Friday accompanies him and, en route, they endure one last adventure together as they fight off famished wolves while crossing the Pyrenees.

One difference between the series and the original book is that the series takes place in the year 1697, forty years later than the book. The fact that the series is dubbed doesn't detract from it being the official version of Earth Prime-Time.

BCnU!

NUMBERS RUNNING: "REPLACEMENT REFS"

'Saturday Night Live: Weekend News Update - Thursday' featured one of "The Numbers" from 'Lost' in Skitlandia.

We got to see an episode of "Replacement Refs", taking place in a court-house:

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: THANK GOD IT'S FRIDAY... AGAIN

Today's "As Seen On TV" showcases the character of Friday from the relatively recent NBC series 'Robinson Crusoe'. However, he was from an alternate TV dimension (perhaps from the Black Toobworld.)

It seems as though most productions of Dafoe's book, whether TV or movies, cast black actors in the role of Friday. But Friday should be a South American Indian.

At least the main Toobworld got it right in "The Adventures Of Robinson Crusoe":

FRIDAY

PLAYED BY:

Fabian Cevallos

BCnU!

THE BRADY ZONK, THE BRADY ZONK

Will McAvoy, the anchorman for 'NewsNight' on ACN, called an RNC official "Greg Brady" instead of his real name of "Greg Tate".

We know he was referring to a sitcom character, but in Will's world Greg Brady did have national prominence. Based on his success as singer "Johnny Bravo" and due to the musical hit he had with his siblings ("Sunshine Day"), the family got a variety show deal.

However... the show we saw - 'The Brady Bunch Variety Hour' - was not a behind the scenes look at the Bradys of the main Toobworld making a variety show.  It was one of those cases where we in the Trueniverse were watching the same show within a show which the Toobworlders were watching.

SHOWS CITED:

• 'The Newsroom'
• 'The Brady Bunch'
• 'The Brady Bunch Variety Hour'

BCnU!

STANFORD U., YET AGAIN

Another Toobworld notch for Stanford University, thanks to a mention on 'The Newsroom':

RNC official Adam Roth's son David got into the prestigious school thanks to Will McAvoy's recommendation.

Other shows in which fictional characters attended Stanford include:

• 'Reaper'
• 'Chuck'
• 'Knight Rider' (the pilot movie)
• 'Boston Legal'
• 'The Big Bang Theory'
• 'Journeyman'
• 'Moonlight'
• 'One Tree Hill'
• 'Grey's Anatomy'
• 'One Man's Family'
• 'Party Of Five'
• 'Supernatural'

BCnU!

THEORIES OF RELATEEVEETY: WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE

TV characters have occasionally been related to the televersions of people from the Trueniverse - Megan Russert of 'Homicide: Life On The Street' is a cousin of the late NBC newsman Tim Russert. Art Carney is a cousin to Vera on 'Alice'.

This story popped up in my AOL news feed yesterday:

So now I'm wondering if one of his descendants will one day be the captain of the 'Babylon 5' space station.....

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: FRIDAY

As Pep Streebek once said, "Thank God, it's Friday!"*

FRIDAY

AS SEEN IN:
'Robinson Crusoe'

CREATED BY:
Daniel Dafoe

PORTRAYED BY:
Tongayi Chirisa

TV STATUS:
Recastaway

TV DIMENSION:
Land of the Remakes

From Wikipedia:

Friday is one of the main characters of Daniel Defoe's novel "Robinson Crusoe". Robinson Crusoe names the man, with whom he cannot at first communicate, Friday because they first meet on that day. The character is the source of the expression "Man Friday", used to describe a male personal assistant or servant, especially one who is particularly competent or loyal.

Robinson Crusoe spends twenty-eight years on an island off the coast of Venezuela with his talking parrot Poll, his pet dog, and a tame goat as his only companions. In his twenty-fourth year, he discovers that Carib cannibals occasionally use a desolate beach on the island to kill and eat their captives.

Crusoe observes one of the Caribs, kept captive and about to be eaten, escape his captors. Crusoe ambushes two pursuers, and the others leave in their canoes without the knowledge of their counterparts' outcome. The rescued captive bows in gratitude to Crusoe, who decides to employ him as a servant. He names him Friday after the weekday upon which the rescue takes place.

Crusoe describes Friday as being a Native American, though very unlike the Indians of Brazil and Virginia. His religion involves the worship of a mountain god named Benamuckee, officiated over by high priests called Oowokakee. Friday tolerates cannibalism, and even suggests eating the men Crusoe has killed.

Crusoe teaches Friday the English language and converts him to Christianity. He tells him that cannibalism is wrong. Friday accompanies him in an ambush in which they save Friday's father.

Crusoe returns to England twenty-eight years after being shipwrecked on the island, and four years after rescuing Friday. Friday's father goes with a Spanish castaway to the mainland to retrieve fourteen other Spanish castaways, but Crusoe and Friday depart the island before they return.

Friday accompanies Crusoe home to England, and is his companion in the sequel "The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe", in which Friday is killed in a sea battle.

There were many versions of this classic tale made for television; and many of them, being only one-shot TV movies or episodes of anthology TV series, would be shipwrecked themselves in alternate TV dimensions since they leave so much of the story left untold.

But despite the high production values in this newer version, the Earth Prime-Time port of call belongs instead to the 1964 series which was a French/West German co-production. And that's even though it was then dubbed into English for the UK market.

Still, for the sake of that "joke" at the beginning, this was the first portrayal of Friday whose picture I could easily find......

BCnU!

* I can't believe it took this long into the year before I finally used this character just to do that joke.

THE HAT SQUAD: ANDY WILLIAMS

From the Los Angeles Times:

Andy Williams, whose soothing baritone and relaxed performing style made him one of America's top pop vocalists and a popular TV variety-show host in the 1960s when he recorded hits such as "Moon River" and "Days of Wine and Roses," has died. He was 84.

The singer hosted "The Andy Williams Show" on NBC from 1962 to 1967. After doing three specials a year for two years, he returned to the weekly series from 1969 to 1971.
"The Andy Williams Show" won three Emmy Awards, and its casual, sweater-wearing host received two Emmy nominations.

"In some cases, people who go on television, their record sales drop off; mine seemed to go up," Williams told the Orlando Sentinel in 1991.

I'm so glad that Toobworld Central was able to celebrate the contributions of Andy Williams to the world of Television while he was still alive.....

ANDY WILLIAMS & THE TV CROSSOVER HALL OF FAME

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: MOTHER ABAGAIL

MOTHER ABAGAIL FREEMANTLE

AS SEEN IN:

'The Stand'

CREATED BY:

Stephen King

PORTRAYED BY:

Ruby Dee

TV DIMENSION:

Earth Prime-Time/Stand

From Wikipedia:

Abagail Freemantle, also known as "Mother Abagail", leads the "good" survivors of the Captain Trips plague, and is also a prophet of God. She is 108 years old and lives in a farmhouse in Hemingford Home, Nebraska. She is one of the 0.6% of the population that is immune to the Captain Trips virus, and initially appears to some of the plague survivors in dreams, drawing them to her just as Randall Flagg draws the evil survivors to him. She and her followers make their way to Boulder, Colorado where they establish the "Boulder Free Zone" government.

She receives visions from God, though when she sins through pride, she loses her foresight and goes into exile in the wilderness. She regains her ability, and returns to the Zone just in time to inadvertently save most of the Free Zone Committee from Harold Lauder's assassination attempt. On her deathbed, she shares one final vision: four men from the committee are to travel to the west to make a stand against Randall Flagg. She makes no prediction as to what will occur, only that one will fall before arriving in Las Vegas, and that the remainder will be brought before Flagg. Mother Abagail dies shortly after revealing this prophecy.

BCnU!

MIRROR TOOBWORLD

Earth Prime-Time is the main TV Universe, created by the gestalt of many TV shows combined (but not all of them.)   I don't mean to insult Team Toobworld by re-stating the O'Bvious, but Toobworld Central gets new visitors every day.....

So if Toobworld is an alternate reality created by the spark of Mankind's creative output in the medium from the Trueniverse, does the same apply to the TV shows from Toobworld itself? 

There have always been fictional TV shows within TV shows; it's not something that began once the kids who grew up watching TV starting creating TV shows of their own. 

 Here's a Super Six List of such shows:

1. 'Jed Clayton, U.S. Marshall' ('The Hero')
2. 'Zombo' ('The Munsters')
3. 'Inspector Spacetime' ('Community')
4. 'Exposé' ('Lost')
5. 'F.Y.I.' ('Murphy Brown')
6. 'The Alan Brady Show' ('The Dick Van Dyke Show') and 'Those Who Care' ('The New Dick Van Dyke Show')

[Toobworld Note: I know that adds up to seven.  I always cheat on the Super Six List.....]

To avoid the massive Zonks (discrepancies for our newbies) caused when TV shows mention other real TV shows which should be sharing the same TV dimension, our umbrella splainin is that TV shows are made about those characters. Paraphrasing Andy Warhol: in the future, everybody will have their own TV show. (And YouTube and other outlets may be bringing that about here on Earth Prime!)

Here's another Super Six List - TV characters - and one "location"! - who have had TV shows made about them:

1. 'The Twilight Zone' (mentioned on 'Night Court' among many other shows)
2. 'Star Trek' ('The Wonder Years', 'The Big Bang Theory', 'Nurses', many others)
3. 'Gilligan's Island' ('Cheers', many others - 'Alf' even dreamed about it!)
4. 'Doctor Who' ('Freaks & Geeks', 'Supernova')
5. 'Batman' ('Leverage', 'General Hospital', 'Alcatraz', 'Law & Order: Criminal Intent')
6. 'Murphy Brown' & 'Jerry' ('Seinfeld' for both; 'New Girl' and 'Dharma & Greg' individually, respectively)

Sidenote: Some of those pop culture references to other shows are not always from TV shows made about those characters. 'Alf' and 'Gilligan's Island' could also stem from trending news stories; 'Starsky & Hutch' references could be due to the movie based on the real-life cops.

So if the alternate TV dimension of Toobworld has its own alternate TV dimension, then all of those fictional characters and so many more have doppelgangers on this "Mirror Toobworld".

And this isn't just speculation - our main source of information about Mirror Toobworld comes from a sitcom called 'Hi Honey, I'm Home'. 

The premise established that the characters seen on the TV screens in Toobworld were alive in their own dimension. And unlike Toobworldlings with Earth Prime-Time, those characters from Mirror Toobworld could cross through the dimensional vortex and be "real" in Toobworld.

'Hi Honey, I'm Home' focused on the Nielsen Family who were living in a Jersey suburb as part of the Sitcom Relocation Program. (The SRP gave cancelled TV characters a place to live until their shows could return to the airwaves... which was rare.)

Their sitcom was an original fiction unique to Toobworld, but they were often visited by TV characters based on TV characters created in Earth Prime-Time. (The Nielsen neighbors were "First Generational Fictional", like the TV characters we watch. Mirror Toobworldlings are "second generation fictional".)

Among those Mirror Toobworld characters visiting the original Toobworld were June Cleaver, Mr. Mooney, Gomer Pyle, Grampa of the Munster Family, the always loverly Georgette Franklin Baxter, Alice Kramden and Trixie Norton, and the Bradys' maid Alice Nielsen. (If I remember correctly, she was related to the family.)

That series came out in 1992. But five years earlier, an episode of 'Amazing Stories' also featured visitors from Mirror Toobworld. A hen-pecked, down-trodden schlub named Walter Poindexter somehow got hold of the devices needed to cause these video transfers to arrive on Earth Prime-Time, most of them replacing members of his own family. Among these doppelgangers were Arnold Jackson Drummond, Templeton "Face" Peck, the Incredible Hulk, and June Cleaver again.

There were also a lot of appearances by the televersions of real-life celebrities who were now seen as second-generation fictional characters - among them, Jim Lange, Richard Simmons, and Ed McMahon. We could use these mirror televersions to splain away some League of Themselves member whose appearance in a main Toobworld storyline just doesn't feel right, as if he or she was an evil twin. (A good case in point? Bo Derek as herself on 'Chuck'.)

[Sarah saves Chuck and Morgan by knocking out Bo Derek when she turns out to be an evil agent.]
Sarah: Sorry I had to do that to your girlfriend.
Chuck: Oh, you didn't hit her in the face, did ya? I'm kidding! I'm kidding. But it is Bo Derek.

And even that intrusion into the main Toobworld by Mirror Toobworlders wasn't the first time it happened!

Intrepid crossoverist Matt Hickman, of the Crossovers Forum on Facebook, brought the following examples to my attention (as well as to the rest of our group):

These happened back in 1980 and are probably equivalent to Three Mile Island as a threat to the safety of Toobworld. It's apparent that there was no government oversight on these crossovers from Mirror Toobworld to Earth Prime-Time. These were not long-cancelled characters needing a place to go into hiding until their shows were brought back from the "dead".  These were characters currently appearing on the networks' airwaves and were based on "real-life" citizens of Earth Prime-Time.  

And they made themselves visible to the "real" humans and interacted with them.  Who knows what may have happened had the characters who had crossed over had been psychopathic killers or rampaging monsters!  What if the Телевизионные русские - the Tele-Ruskies - figured out how to control this version of "sliding" and used it to target specific high security locations in the United States, by creating a fictional super-spy or assassin?  (Remember the Cold War was entering its final, darkest phase in the real world and this would be reflected in Toobworld as well.)

I don't know if TV characters from the main Toobworld could make the return trip into a TV Land of their own making.  But I have seen Toobworlders get transported into a badly dubbed martial arts movie in the Cineverse, simply by a bartender banging a bottle of light beer on top of the bar's TV set.  (I think this is what happened when we saw the Eleventh Incarnation of the Doctor with Laurel and Hardy.  He wasn't in the actual movie; he was just appearing - through Rory's tablet - in the Mirror Cineverse.  Whether he got into there via a bottle of light beer, I have no clue......)

So that's my splainin for those CBS promos - at least as far as the Toobworld Dynamic is concerned. I would not be surprised if some other televisiologist comes up with a theory that better serves their own alternate universe.....

BCnU!

THE BIRTHDAY GIRL OF BEVERLY HILLS



Today is Donna Douglas' birthday. You'll know her best for her role as Ellie Mae Clampett on 'Beverly Hillbillies', and properly for her role as the patient in 'The Twilight Zone' episode "Eye Of The Beholder". The last movie that she made (out of only five or six) was a biggie - playing the title character of Frankie in "Frankie And Johnny"... opposite Elvis Presley.

Some sources list this as her 80th birthday; others claim she's a year younger. Whichever, it's nice to pay tribute to the people who enriched my tele-viewing experience while they're still alive. So I'd like to offer up a Super Six List of Donna Douglas' best TV roles. (My brother did the same thing with his "Morning Five" at the newspaper where he's an editor. And although he took some of my suggestions, he explored her forays into other fictional universes......)

1] The aforementioned "Twilight Zone"
The interesting thing about "The Eye Of The Beholder" was that it was a different actress under the bandages, or at least doing the voice-over. (She was deemed a better actress, but not as beautiful as Donna Douglas for the big reveal.)

2] 'Checkmate'
Ms. Douglas had a recurring role as Barbara Simmons in four episodes of this detective series.

3] 'McMillan & Wife'
Donna Douglas previously worked with Rock Hudson in "Lover, Come Back" (where she played Tony Randall's secretary). In this episode, "The Man Without A Face", she played the alluring Rita, who teased Mac into a reunion with his former associates in the CIA.

4] 'Mr. Ed'
She played three different roles in three different episodes of 'Mr. Ed' but it's the first one that merits attention. Although the show was about a man who talked to a horse, the episode was about a man who would talk to a chair near the end of his career. The name of the episode? "Clint Eastwood Meets Mister Ed".

5] 'Tightrope'
Donna Douglas made her TV debut in the episode "The Casino" as Nancy.

And finally.....

6] 'The Super Mario Brothers Super Show!'
This was her penultimate TV role. (Her last role was in a video short.) What makes this special is that she reprised her role as Ellie Mae Clampett! With her appearance as Ellie Mae in a TV special and in a reunion TV movie, she is eligible for membership in the TV Crossover Hall Of Fame. And wouldn't she make a lovely candidate as the May Queen next year (when I think she really will turn 80?)

Happy birthday, Donna Douglas! And if she shares the day with her Toobworld sister, happy birthday to Ellie Mae too!

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: JACK PUMPKINHEAD

Since Fall has arrived.....

JACK PUMPKINHEAD

AS SEEN IN:

'Shirley Temple's Storybook'

"The Land Of Oz"

CREATED BY:

L. Frank Baum

PORTRAYED BY:

Sterling Holloway

TV DIMENSION:

The Land Of Oz

From Wikipedia:

Jack Pumpkinhead is a fictional character from the Oz book series by L. Frank Baum.

Jack first appeared in "The Marvelous Land of Oz". Jack's tall figure is made from tree limbs and jointed with wooden pegs. He has a jack o'lantern for a head which is where he gets his name, however unlike most jack o'lanterns, the seeds and other pumpkin guts were not removed.

Jack was made by a little boy named Tip to scare his guardian, an old witch named Mombi. From Mombi's chest he took some old clothes for Jack; purple trousers, a red shirt, a pink vest with white polka dots, and stockings, to which he added a pair of his shoes. However, instead of being frightened, when Mombi saw Jack she almost smashed him to pieces, but then she decided to test her new Powder of Life on him. The powder worked and Jack came to life.

Jack is not known for his intelligence which seems to depend on the quality and number of the seeds in his pumpkin-head at that time. However he manages to come up with random bits of wisdom and common sense often.

Jack spends much of his time growing pumpkins to replace his old heads, which eventually spoil and need to be replaced. Apparently, Princess Ozma carves new heads for Jack when necessary. The old heads are buried in a graveyard on his property.

BCnU!

SUPER COW!

WFSB, the CBS affiliate from Hartford, Ct., posted this on Facebook this morning:

Did anyone else see Olessa Stepanova's special guest this morning during her traffic report? Super Cow from Guida's [Dairy] stopped by to tell everyone to mooooove over on the highway this morning for the "Convoy of Caring" which will be making the 21 mile trek from Rocky Hill to Foodshare's Bloomfield Distribution center to help fight hunger and raise awareness of the challenges faced by 128,000 of our hungry neighbors every single day.

This makes Super Cow an actual denizen of Toobworld, if she hasn't already appeared on TV in the past (commercials and the like). Super Cow has as much validity in Toobworld as would Big Bird, Dancing Bear, Barney the Dinosaur and any other large-sized puppet people who interact with Humans.

BCnU!

O'BSERVATIONS: THE EMMY AWARDS' "IN MEMORIAM"

What I posted to Facebook a few hours after the Emmy Awards telecast....

For once, I was actually pleasantly surprised by some of those names in television who were mentioned in the In Memoriam tribute segment of tonight's Emmys Awards. Robert Easton, for example. A few better known for other fields of entertainment probably should have been skipped in favor of those they missed. And there was one name on the list I didn't even know about, so that was nice. (Letterman's make-up lady - I bet he put in a call.) 

Also, I know it was ABC's year to host so that's probably why Dick Clark got the sign-off spot, but wasn't Harry Morgan's quote perfect to have wrapped it all up?

But you know me.... I think there should have been a few names added:

• Peter Breck
• Phil Bruns
• Jonathan Frid
• George Lindsey
• Frank Cady
• Don Grady
• RG Armstrong
• Joel Goldsmith
• Ray Bradbury
• Nolan Miller
• Jerry Nelson

And that list is a lot shorter than I might have proposed!

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: TOM JONES, YOUNG AND OLDER

Two for Tuesday!

TOM JONES

AS SEEN IN:

'The History Of Tom Jones, A Foundling'

CREATED BY:

Henry Fielding

PORTRAYED BY:

Stuart Neal - Young Tom

Max Beesley - Tom as an adult

TV STATUS:

Recastaways

(Due to the aging process)

TV DIMENSION:

Earth Prime-Time

From Wikipedia:

"The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling", often known simply as "Tom Jones", is a comic novel by the English playwright and novelist Henry Fielding. The novel is both a Bildungsroman and Picaresque novel. First published on 28 February 1749, "Tom Jones" is among the earliest English prose works describable as a novel. The novel, totaling 346,747 words, is divided into 18 smaller books, each preceded by a discursive chapter, often on topics totally unrelated to the book itself. It is dedicated to George Lyttleton.

Tom Jones is a bastard, the ward of Squire Allworthy, eventually revealed to be his nephew and the son of a long-deceased parson’s son, Mr Summers.

Tom Jones is a foundling discovered on the property of a very kind, wealthy landowner, Squire Allworthy, in Somerset in England's West Country. Tom grows into a vigorous and lusty, yet honest and kind-hearted, youth. He develops affection for his neighbour's daughter, Sophia Western. On one hand, their love reflects the romantic comedy genre that was popular in 18th-century Britain. However, Tom's status as a bastard causes Sophia's father and Allworthy to oppose their love; this criticism of class friction in society acted as a biting social commentary. 

The inclusion of prostitution and sexual promiscuity in the plot was also original for its time, and the foundation for criticism of the book's "lowness."

BCnU!

"JUSTICE" - "THE LEAGUE"

I've stated this in the past - I can't stand it when TV writers feel the need to splain a pop culture reference in their dialogue. If it needed to be splained away, then it wasn't worth using.

But there's another reason I detest such splainins - if left on their own, we could make the assumption that the subject of that pop culture reference shares the same world as the show which cited it.

Here's a good recent example, from 'Alphas':

When Skylar saw how upset and preoccupied Nina was, she asked: "Trouble in the Justice League?"

The remark was a comment on Nina's team-mates having super-powers by comparing them to the DC comic book super-hero team (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Aquaman, etc.)

There was no mention of comic books or cartoons, so we can make the assumption that the Justice League exists in Earth Prime-Time. (We know it exists in 'The West Wing' TV dimension, thanks to 'Smallville'.)

However......

• Superman is dead in Earth Prime-Time.
• Batman is probably retired and it's beginning to look more and more that someone else, perhaps even Bruce Wayne's son, has donned the cowl and assumed the identity of the Dark Knight.
• Being nearly immortal, Wonder Woman appears to have withdrawn from the outside world and retired to the "Paradise Island" of Themyscira.
• The Flash could still be active, or it could be that he is dead, perhaps killed by the very chemical combination that first gave him his powers.
• As for Aquaman, his pilot may not have been picked up, but it was one of the lucky ones to be broadcast. (Even though it was on Canadian TV, it still counts - putting the world in Toobworld.)

The new Green Arrow (NOT from the world of 'Smallville'!) is just a baby in comparison to the older crew.

The actual appearance of the Justice League in Earth Prime-Time, as opposed to its incarnation in the 'West Wing'/'Smallville' TV dimension, would cause some massive Zonks because of the fates and ages of those original portrayals. First off, more than likely all of the roles would be recast so some heavy splainin would be needed.

• New Superman? An escapee from the Bottled City of Kandor or the Phantom Zone determined to carry on the tradition? Mon-El?
• New Batman? Again, perhaps Bruce Wayne's son.....
• New Wonder Woman? Daughter of Diana Prince?
• New Aquaman? A citizen of Atlantis who decided to co-opt the character's name from Vincent Chase's movie (as seen in 'Entourage'?

It would take a lot of logistical limbo moves, but it could be pozz'ble, just pozz'ble, that the Justice League could exist in the main Toobworld.

If I had my druthers, I'd cast the Justice League with all new members never seen in Earth Prime-Time:

• Power Girl
• Green Lantern
• Elongated Man
• Zatarra
• Black Canary
• Atom

Any other suggestions?

At any rate, even if they never show up, thanks to Skylar's comment we can claim that they still exist in Toobworld.......

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: SOPHIA WESTERN

As mentioned in passing yesterday, Samantha Morton was never in the running to be the official portrayal of Jane Eyre in Earth Prime-Time. Her televersion was from a TV movie and so a lot of details in the plot had to be scrapped to fit the running time.

I doubt Ms. Morton has ever heard of the Toobworld Dynamic, and even if she had she probably wouldn't care, but at least it can be said that she totally "pwns" the role of Sophia Western when it comes to the TV adaptations of literary characters......

SOPHIA WESTERN

Adorned with all the charms in which Nature can array her, bedecked with beauty, youth, sprightliness, innocence, modesty and tenderness, breathing sweetness from her rosy lips and darting brightness from her sparkling eyes, the lovely Sophia comes!

[Caption to a painting of Sophia Western]

AS SEEN IN:

'The History Of Tom Jones, A Foundling'

CREATED BY:

Henry Fielding

PORTRAYED BY:

Samantha Western

TV STATUS:

Recastaway (Original)

TV DIMENSION:

Earth Prime-Time

From Wikipedia:

Sophia Western [is] the Squire's only daughter, the model of virtue, beauty and all good qualities.

An incident occurs in which Master Blifil lets go the small bird of Sophia's, given to her by Tom as a young boy. Tom tries to retrieve it but, in doing so, falls into a canal. This incident turns Sophia against Blifil but puts Tom in her favour.

Sophia is falling for Tom but his heart is given over to Molly, the second of Black George's daughters and a local beauty. She throws herself at Tom, and he gets her pregnant and then feels obliged to offer her his protection.

In the meantime, Sophia has taken pity on Molly and requests her father to ask her to be her maid, but the family council decides to put everything on hold until Tom's intentions become clearer. Squire Western, the local parson, Tom and Sophia are having dinner when the parson informs Western of Molly's condition, at which Tom leaves the dining table. Squire Western immediately jumps to the conclusion that Tom is the father of the bastard, much to Sophia's consternation.

Tom returns to his home to find Molly in the arms of a constable and being taken to prison. He bids him free her, and they go to speak to Mr Allworthy where Tom reveals he is the father, saying the guilt is his.

An incident now occurs in which Tom comes to the aid of Sophia. She goes out hunting with her father and, on her way home, is thrown by her horse. Tom, who is riding close behind, is able to catch her but breaks his left arm in the process. The accident brings them closer and there is the first stirring of love.

BCnU!

JANE EYRE, GOVERNESS OF SKITLANDIA

Sean Cleary pointed out yet another Jane Eyre, one who can only be found in one TV dimension - Skitlandia!

 Parody - SNL - Jane Eyre from Thisbe on Vimeo.

Thanks, Little Buddy!

CRAZY GUGGENHEIM (MUSEUM PIECE)

It's time to pay the bills.....

This morning at work, I greeted an arriving co-worked named Joseph with my impersonation of Frankie Fontaine as Crazy Guggenheim. Crazy was a patron of Joe the Bartender's establishment in a series of sketches on Jackie Gleason's variety show back in the day.

"Uh - hiya, Joe!"

I should have known Joseph wouldn't get it - he came to this country in 1979. But I was amazed that even among the older co-workers, they just had no clue who he was.

When I was in second grade, Tommy Kilroy, Larry McLaughlin, and I "toured" the classes of St. Joseph's School with our presentation of a Joe The Bartender sketch. I was Joe, Tommy was Crazy, and Larry was the previously unseen Mr. Donahy. (In the TV sketches, he was the P.O.V. of the camera.)

I did a quick check of YouTube but this was all I could find for Crazy Guggenheim.....

INTER-DIMENSIONAL COMPARITIVE STUDIES: "JANE EYRE"