A WILEY WEEKEND

Here's another example of a character from the Tooniverse who was able to cross over into Earth Prime-Time:

My thanks to the Crossovers Forum of Facebook for that......

ODDJOB - ODDS AND ENDINGSS

Here are two more videos about Harold Sakata and his character of Oddjob....

AS SEEN ON TV - DEATH LIVE!

I held off for a week in showing this. Every so often, the real world invades Toobworld in a very dramatic, and oftentimes a graphically disturbing way....

SPOILER!

Don't watch this if you are easily offended by violence......

ECCE PROMO! PARK AVENUE REVENGE

Remember that Promoverse in which interstitials for the USA Network shows had their characters crossing over with each other?

ABC has supplied counterparts to two of their shows to become part of the Promoverse.....

BCnU!

TELE-QUICKIES: MORE ON THE FIRST JAMES BOND

I wrote about the first James Bond of Toobworld two years ago in Inner Toob:

"BARRY'S BOND"

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: THE BOND THAT GOT RIGGED

Think about it.....

I'm glad this is an easy one for Video Weekend Saturday. I'm just back from the ophthalmologist and I've got Gollum eyes now. Too much light is painful!

JAMES BOND

AS SEEN IN:

"The Return Of The Man From U.N.C.L.E.: The Fifteen Years Later Affair"

CREATED BY:

Ian Fleming

PORTRAYED BY:

George Lazenby

TV STATUS:

Recastaway/Serlinguist

TV DIMENSION:

Earth Prime-Time

I've written about this incarnation of James Bond twice before in Inner Toob:

THE "COVERT AFFAIRS" OF JAMES BOND

U.N.C.L.E. WITH A DOUBLE OO

But if you just want to watch his appearance in Toobworld, have at it, mate:

BCnU!

This is Inner Toob Post #8100!

BOND BLIPVERTS - THE ALPHA MALE AND THE OMEGA WATCH

As mentioned in the earlier post, Daniel Craig does appear as James Bond in commercials for Omega watches, but these are scenes from the movies and so they belong in the Cineverse.  The temptation is there to make the claim that the scenes from the Cineverse were repeated exactly in Toobworld, but I'd like to make it a clean break between the two fictional universes rather than send these to the Borderlands.

AS SEEN ON TV: BOND, JAMES BOND (AND HER MAJESTY)

On this date in 1962, "Dr. No" opened in theaters, beginning fifty years of movies based on the character created by Ian Fleming - super-spy James Bond.

The latest movie will be opening soon, "Skyfall", and it stars Daniel Craig.

In such a position at the box office, it would take a lot to get this new Agent 007 to cross over from the Cineverse into Earth Prime-Time. He doesn't seem like the kind of Bond, James Bond, who would get involved with a lot of blipverts like Pierce Brosnan did.  (The Omega watch commercial doesn't count as it just featured scenes from the movie "Casino Royale".  However, there's a Heineken blipvert might just qualify but without Daniel Craig's on-screen participation.....)

No, it would have to be a really major undertaking with the fate of the British Empire at stake to get Craig to show up as Bond.

Would escorting Her Majesty The Queen to the London 2012 Olympics be a good enough reason?

BOND. JAMES BOND.

&

QUEEN ELIZABETH II

AS SEEN IN:

The London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony

CREATED BY:

Ian Fleming

PORTRAYED BY:

Daniel Craig

TV STATUS:

Recastaway

TV DIMENSION:

Earth Prime-Time

BCnU!

"THE DVD SHOW" @ 50 - THE WARHOL TRIVIA ANSWER

It's the day after we concluded the year-long salute to 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' and it's time to reveal the answer to the trivia question I asked at the beginning:

'The Dick Van Dyke Show' has two somewhat tenuous connections to Andy Warhol. One was "outside the box" - one of those six degrees of separation situations on the production side. The other was within the "reality" of the show - one of Andy Warhol's works of art actually appeared in an episode.

So, nobody even attempted to guess the two connections Andy Warhol had to 'The Dick Van Dyke Show'. And that means I get to keep the Richard Rosebud Petrie Prize - (a rock and a paper clip glued together!)

Anyhoo, here are the answers:

The first connection was a "Six Degrees Of Separation" - actress Sylvia Miles played Sally Rogers in the original pilot for the show, "Head Of The Family", in which Carl Reiner played Rob Petrie.

From Wikipedia:

Over the years, Miles has become a cult figure, both for her ties to the avant-garde (Andy Warhol, Paul Morrissey, etc.) and her increasingly bizarre appearance over the years and her willingness to attend any public function. Wayland Flowers and his puppet Madame first uttered the widely quoted line "Sylvia Miles and Andy Warhol would attend the opening of a sewer."

The second connection was a showcase for his artwork within the reality of the series. In 1951, Warhol was commissioned to create the artwork for a book cover:

Throughout his career Warhol created numerous artist books. However, he also designed book covers for other authors. This is the design for the cover of the book ‘Pistols for two’ by Aaron Marc Stein.

In October of 1965, Millie Helper was reading this book, as seen in the episode "Draw Me A Pear".

 

 

And that's how Andy Warhol fits into the world of 'The Dick Van Dyke Show', both behind the scenes and within Toobworld.

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: ODDJOB

We're sticking with commercial appearances today......

ODDJOB

AS SEEN IN:

VICKS 44 commercial

CREATED BY:

Ian Fleming

PORTRAYED BY:

Harold Sakata

TV DIMENSION:

Earth Prime-Time

From Wikipedia:

Oddjob (often written as "Odd Job") is a henchman to the villain Auric Goldfinger in the James Bond film and novel, "Goldfinger". In the film he was played by the Japanese American actor Harold Sakata.

Oddjob, who also appears in the James Bond animated series and in several video games, is one of the most popular characters in the Bond series. The character, from his unusual appearance, manners, strength and method of killing, forms the archetype for which many henchmen of the Bond film series were based on, which includes Jaws, Nick Nack, Chang and Gobinda.

Oddjob's real name is unknown. He is named by Goldfinger as that describes his duties to his employer. Korean-born (all Goldfinger's staff are Korean), he is extremely strong, proven in one sequence where he breaks the railing of a staircase with his hand and a mantel with his foot. Oddjob is described as being a squat man with arms like thighs and [with] black teeth. A black belt at karate, Oddjob is also an expert with a bow and arrow, and with his metal, razor-edged throwable bowler hat. He has a cleft palate that renders his speech unintelligible to everyone except Goldfinger.

In addition to killing people who might cause trouble for Goldfinger, Oddjob functions as his personal guard, chauffeur, and manservant (though not his golf caddy, as depicted in the film). He has a taste for cats as food, apparently acquired in Korea when food was in short supply (Bond frames Goldfinger's yellow cat for destruction of surveillance film, and as punishment, sees the cat given to Oddjob for dinner).

He is killed when Bond uses a knife to shatter the window next to his seat on an aircraft, which depressurises the plane and blows Oddjob out of the window, a fate transferred to Auric Goldfinger in the film version. (According to my friend Neil Shovlin, Oddjob was electrocuted by James Bond in the Cineverse.)

In 2009, Manolith ranked Odd Job as the fourth best James Bond henchman.

Oddjob's Toobworld presence can be found either before the events of the movie, or even during it - if Oddjob commuted to work with Mr. Goldfinger and actually lived in the suburbs with Mrs. Oddjob (or Mrs. Ramoo, as we'll see......)

[Harold Sakata] appeared as Oddjob in a series of TV commercials for Vicks Formula 44 cough syrup in the 1970s. The advertisement showed Oddjob with a nasty cough, which results in him demolishing the neighborhood and frightening a woman inside her house as his cough spasms grow worse and worse. The woman grabs a bottle of Vicks Formula 44 and races for the door, only to see Oddjob karate chop through it. She quickly opens the door and gives him a spoonful of the cough syrup, which cures his cough. The two bow to each other, and the woman looks past Oddjob to see the destruction he has caused.

The events of the movie "Goldfinger" could be only based on reality and not a reflection of the actual reality. (Except in the Cineverse.) "Goldfinger" could be what "UNreel" wants the world to think happened, when in fact, Oddjob may have escaped death from electrocution - at least as far as his televersion was concerned.

If so, it could be that he showed up in Toobworld three years after the movie came out, this time known by his real name of Ramoo. With Auric Goldfinger dead, and times being what they were, he took a job as the henchman to a crazed big-game hunter named Jonathan Kincaid. They traveled to a nearly deserted island where they found seven stranded castaways... and Kincaid decided that one of them would be his quarry.

Unfortunately for him and Ramoo, Kincaid chose Willie Gilligan, who had divine protection from the Universe......

BCnU!

"THE DVD SHOW" @ 50 - THE LAST WALTZ

I mentioned earlier that 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' was the "Camelot" of TV sitcoms. And if a lot of sitcoms which followed couldn't aspire to reach the same heights, they at least tried to invoke some of its magic by mentioning it by name.

Luckily, because Alan Brady went on to create a TV show based on the life of Rob Petrie, we don't have to consider these mentions of the show as Zonks. (By the way, in a case of Toob imitating Life, Alan Brady found out that the networks just didn't see him as a Rob Petrie kind of guy. So he finally had to re-adjust his concept and he hired an actor who looked just like Robert Simpson Petrie - Dick Van Dyke. And that's why 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' can be mentioned in other TV shows without causing a Zonk.

Here's my final entry in this year-long salute to the show.....

SIX SHOWS THAT INVOKED 'THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW'

1] 'thirtySOMETHING' - "THE MIKE VAN DYKE SHOW"

Mike Steadman engaged in a daydream in which his life was just like that seen in the sitcom.

2] 'THE NANNY' - "TAKE BACK YOUR MINK"

From the IMDb: The show is mentioned by name. There is an inside joke involving actress Ann Guilbert, who plays Yetta and who played Millie Helper on The Dick Van Dyke Show. Fran laments the fact that Millie never got a spin-off show of her own, to which Yetta replies that she heard the actress was difficult to work with.

3] 'PUSHING DAISIES' - "THE LEGEND OF MERLE McQUODDY"

When dealing with Charles Charles, Emerson Cod wanted Ned the Pie Man to "trip over an ottoman and Dick Van Dyke his ass."

4] 'THE JACKIE THOMAS SHOW' - "PILOT"

When Jerry Harper was hired to be the new head writer of 'The Jackie Thomas Show', he had dreams of being just like Rob Petrie in the classic sitcom. He even kept a framed picture of the show on his desk. When he met Jackie Thomas and learned how the buffoonish star saw the show's concept, he sadly turned the picture face down.....

5] 'HERMAN'S HEAD' - "WHEN HAIRY MET HERMY"

The various incarnations of Herman's psyche called in Buddy Sorrell and Sally Rogers to come up with jokes for Herman to say. (They could have been manifestations of the characters from the TV show, or Herman knew of them in real life.)

6] 'FAMILY GUY'

And then there's this from the Tooniverse......

BCnU!

"THE DVD SHOW @ 50" - CAMBRIDGE SPIES

This week, Inner Toob is also paying tribute to another 50th anniversary - the first James Bond movie, "Dr. No", opened in theaters 50 years ago this coming Friday. So I thought it might be nice to combine the two... and 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' gave me the perfect opportunity with an episode about a spy named Bond....

Here's a summary of the episode "The Man From My Uncle", written by "Huggo" for the IMDb:

It's the beginning of a three day weekend for Rob,and he's in a giddy mood because of it. His mood is heightened when Mr. Phillips, a federal agent, stops by wanting to use their house as a stake-out post to watch the goings-on of their neighbor, Mr. Gerard. It isn't Mr. Gerard they are after, but his criminal nephew. Laura doesn't really like the idea of their house being used for a stake-out, but Rob thrives on the idea of a little excitement. Believing it being for the public good, they agree. The agent they send is Harry Bond. While Laura generally feels nervous not only with Harry in the house but also with a criminal possibly in their neighbor, Rob can't help but get in Harry's way while he tries to act the spy. But when a little trouble may be brewing at Gerard's house, Rob may have to get involved in the surveillance, as Harry is suffering not only from over-exposure to Rob, but a massive toothache. 

When I was a kid, I loved this episode, and most of that was due to Godfrey Cambridge as the guest star. As an adult, I can see its flaws - it's one of the more far-fetched episodes from the fifth season, after Carl Reiner walked away from overseeing the entire production and everybody was feeling the strain of being the best for so long. Plus there was the allure of the big screen for two of them.....

James Bond was the overall inspiration for the episode - after all, the spy in question was named Bond... Harry Bond. But the episode title was also a play on NBC's espionage hit 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' And with Godfrey Cambridge in the guest role as Bond, the show may have been tipping its hat to the role played by Bill Cosby in 'I Spy', which was ground-breaking in its day. (Bond, Harry Bond, was a spy more in keeping with the likes of John Drake of NATO and MI6 rather than like Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin of U.N.C.L.E.)

Rob:

“Hey, Mr. Bond – I took a picture with this infrared camera.”

Mr. Bond:

“Of what?”

Rob:

“Well...of you sleeping.”

Mr. Bond:

“Mr. Petrie, why did you do that?”

The episode aired on April 20, 1966. If it took place in the Toobworld timeline around that same time, and because Rob Petrie was so enthusiastic about the whole spy business and all its trappings, then it's likely he had seen the following James Bond movies at the local theater in New Rochelle:

• "Dr. No" (1962)
• "From Russia With Love" (1963)
• "Goldfinger" (1964)
• "Thunderball" (1965)

And he was probably looking forward to seeing "You Only Live Twice" the following year.

James Bond exists in Toobworld, thanks to the 'Climax!' episode "Casino Royale" which was an adaptation of the first book by Ian Fleming. But the movies were fictions created as part of an elaborate cover story for 007 so that any mention of his exploits in the "real" world of Earth Prime-Time would be discounted as coming from people who confuse reality with what they see on the movie screen.

So, technically, it was pozz'ble, just pozz'ble, as Muskie Muskrat would say, that Rob Petrie might have crossed paths with James Bond at some point in Toobworld.  What James Bond would look like however?  After all, it was just a cover identity adopted by British Intelligence in tribute to the American "Jimmy Bond", an agent for Combined Intelligence.  (I have no evidence that the British James Bond ever looked like Sean Connery in Toobworld.  As it stands now, the best of all Bonds in the movies may have only been a role played by the televersion of Sean Connery.....)

But it was more likely that this weekend experience was going to be the closest Rob ever came to a spy named Bond.

Laura:

“Well, how can he spy with a bad tooth?”

Rob:

“Honey, those guys are trained to spy 

with bamboo shoots under their fingernails.”

BCnU!

"THE DVD SHOW @ 50" - THE END OF THE ROAD

Today marks the 51st anniversary of 'The Dick Van Dyke Show'. One year ago today, I took part in Ivan Shreve's brilliant blogathon celebrating the "Camelot" of sitcoms' 50th anniversary by posting about 29 blog posts during the course of that day. And even then I felt as though I really didn't squeeze as much out of this, my third favorite TV show of all time. (Okay, if you must know - 'The Prisoner' and 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show' rank above it. 'Columbo', 'Doctor Who', 'Lost' and 'Maverick' follow.)

So for this past year, I've been posting other articles about particular facets of the show:

• guest characters who may have appeared in other TV shows (Mrs. Glimpsher on 'I Love Lucy' and a Camp Crowder soldier on 'Columbo')
• theories of "relateeveety," including tie-ins to the TV Western salute and to Black History Month
• and salutes to actors connected to the show who passed away. (I failed John Rich, the show's best director, by not marking his passing with one of these posts. At least I'll get to mention Biff Elliot later today....)

Today will mark the end of that year-long effort. For this last hurrah, I have a couple of items to post. But I think I may do one last article for Halloween - and no, it won't be about the Twiloites.....

BCnU!

BACCARAT!

AS SEEN ON TV: LE CHIFFRE

Continuing our celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the first James Bond movie, we take a look at the portrayal of the first Bond villain... from eight years earlier than that in Toobworld (and a year before that in BookWorld.......)

LE CHIFFRE

AS SEEN IN:

'Climax!'

"Casino Royale"

CREATED BY:

Ian Fleming

PORTRAYED BY:

Peter Lorre

TV DIMENSION:

Earth Prime-Time

From Wikipedia:

Le Chiffre (The Cypher or The Number) is a fictional character and the main antagonist in Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel, "Casino Royale". On screen Le Chiffre has been portrayed by Peter Lorre in the 1954 television adaptation of the novel for CBS's 'Climax!' television series, by Orson Welles in the 1967 spoof of the novel and Bond film series, and by Mads Mikkelsen in the 2006 film version of Fleming's novel.

Fleming based the character on occultist Aleister Crowley.

Le Chiffre, alias "Die Nummer", "Mr. Number", "Herr Ziffer", "Ochiu Spart" (Romanian for "Smashed Eye") and other translations of "The Number" or "The Cipher" in various languages, is the paymaster of the "Syndicat des Ouvriers d'Alsace" (French for "Alsatian Workmen's Union"), a SMERSH-controlled trade union.

In the novel, he makes a major investment in a string of brothels with money belonging to SMERSH. The investment fails after a bill is signed into law banning prostitution. Le Chiffre then goes to the casino Royale-les-Eaux in an attempt to recover all of his lost funds. There, however, Bond bankrupts him in a series of games in Chemin de Fer. Le Chiffre kidnaps Bond's assistant, Vesper Lynd, to lure him into a trap and get his money back. The trap works, and Le Chiffre tortures Bond to get him to give up the money. He is interrupted by a SMERSH agent, however, who shoots him between the eyes with a silenced TT pistol as punishment for losing the money. The torture Bond suffers at the hands of Le Chiffre briefly upsets 007's confidence in his profession, and he toys with the idea of leaving the service until the novel's conclusion, when a new threat emerges.

Le Chiffre's death is seen by the Soviet government as an embarrassment, which in addition to the death and defeat of Mr. Big in "Live and Let Die", leads to the events of "From Russia With Love".

David Cornelius of Efilmcritic.com described Lorre as "the real main attraction here, the veteran villain working at full weasel mode; a grotesque weasel whose very presence makes you uncomfortable." Peter Debruge of Variety also praised Lorre, considering him the source of "whatever charm this slipshod antecedent to the Bond oeuvre has to offer."

From the source:

“So,” continued Bond, warming to his argument, “Le Chiffre was serving a wonderful purpose, a really vital purpose, perhaps the best and highest purpose of all.  By his evil existence, which I foolishly helped to destroy, he was creating a normal of badness by which, and by which alone, an oppostie norm of goodness could exist.  We were privileged, in our short knowledge of him, to see and estimate his wickedness and we emerge from the acquaintanceship better and more virtuous men.”

BCnU!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, OBIE 65!!!!

Today is my brother Tim's birthday!  (And NO!  The "65" is not his age - he's younger than me!)

Tim is a big Denver Broncos fan, so to celebrate his birthday, I'm offering up this Super Six list of appearances which former Broncos quarterback John Elway has made on television.  (Some of which make him eligible for the TV Crossover Hall Of Fame!). Tim's favorite player is Elway - see that framed picture over his left shoulder? That's a picture of the two of them together. Just by chance he ran into his football hero.)

SIX JOHN ELWAY TV APPEARANCES

1] 'LAS VEGAS'

Elway played himself in the second season finale "Centennial", along with Jon Bon Jovi and Dean Cain.

2] 'HOME IMPROVEMENT'

In "The Eve Of Construction", Elway kicked off his Toobworldly presence by working with Habitat For Humanity.

3] NBC SUPER BOWL COMMERCIAL

Since Tim is the third child in our family, I figured this slot would be the best birthday berth for the inevitable video.....

4] 'THE GREAT FOOD TRUCK RACE'

During the 'Rocky Mountain Highs And Lows' episode of last year, Elway showed up - I guess to prove the show really was in the Rocky Mountains area?

5] 'THE 1983 NFL DRAFT'

John Elway was the 1st overall draft pick that year.  But he was picked by the Baltimore Colts, and Elway wanted no part of that team.  He threatened to play pro baseball instead until Baltimore finally traded him to the Broncos.

6] 'WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE?'

September 10, 2001 - Elway appeared on the game show the day before the world changed forever......

(I didn't mean to end that list as Debbie Downer. But it is a good illustration of the timeline demarcation point for the modern world.)

Anyhoo, happy birthday to Timothy Ticklepepper, as my Grammy used to call him!

"THE LEAGUE" OF THEMSELVES - JERRY JONES

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has enough TV series credits to qualify him to enter the TV Crossover Hall of Fame:

• "Dallas: War Of The Ewings"
• 'Dallas'
• 'Coach'
• 'Entourage'
• Diet Pepsi MAX commercial
• Papa John's commercial

But now he'll also be in the 10/11 season premiere of 'The League'.

I'm not going to induct him right away. Maybe if the Cowboys go. all. the. way. But I don't want to overload the Hall with too many televersions in the League of Themselves.....

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: Q 4 TUESDAY

For the "Two for Tuesday" segment, we could have combined any of the James Bonds. However, there was a recastaway in the movies which translated to the television universe as well......

Q

(Major Boothroyd)

AS SEEN IN:

VISA Commercial

PORTRAYED BY:

Desmond Llewelyn

Q

(Formerly R. Real name unknown)

AS SEEN IN:

HEINEKEN Commercial

(Maybe a SCHWEPPES commercial as well)

PORTRAYED BY:

John Cleese

TV STATUS:

Recastaways

(The "Q" designation is a work-related title. No Zonk involved.)

TV DIMENSION:

Earth Prime-Time

From Wikipedia:

Q is a fictional character in the James Bond novels and films. Q (standing for Quartermaster), like M, is a job title rather than a name. He is the head of Q Branch (or later Q Division), the fictional research and development division of the British Secret Service. The character never appears in Fleming's novels though Fleming's first two novels do refer to him; in subsequent Fleming novels, we read only of "Q Branch". The character "Q" appears in the Bond film series and the novelizations of Christopher Wood, John Gardner and Raymond Benson.

In the novels, Q is first mentioned by a name in "Dr. No". He is referred as Major Boothroyd. Boothroyd was at the post of Q for all the novels by Ian Fleming.

DESMOND LLEWELYN AS Q
Beginning with "From Russia with Love", Desmond Llewelyn portrayed the character in every official film except "Live and Let Die" until his death in 1999. In the 1977 film "The Spy Who Loved Me", as Q was delivering the underwater Lotus, Major Anya Amasova/Agent XXX (Barbara Bach) greets Q as "Major Boothroyd".

The scenes in the films where Q briefs Bond on the gadgets that he is going to use on his mission would include dialogue of antagonism between the two, with Q often annoyed by Bond's wandering attention span, often telling him "Now pay attention, 007," and Bond's seemingly playful lack of respect for the equipment he and his branch develop and famously telling the agent, "I never joke about my work, 007" (a line referenced by his successor in "Die Another Day"). In "Thunderball", Bond can be heard muttering "Oh no" when Q joins him in the Bahamas.

However, on occasion, Q has shown a warm and fatherly concern for 007's welfare, such as at Bond's wedding in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", when he assures Bond that he is available if Bond ever requires his help despite Bond planning to leave MI6, and when, at the behest of Miss Moneypenny, he secretly sneaks gadgets out of MI6 to help Bond survive his vendetta against the drug tyrant Sanchez in "Licence to Kill". 

JOHN CLEESE AS R, THEN Q (R2Q?)

In "The World Is Not Enough" an assistant to Q was introduced, played by John Cleese. His real name has yet to be revealed, but he is initially credited as R in "The World Is Not Enough", stemming from a joke in which Bond asks the elder Q: "If you're Q, does that make him R?"

Q&R
Their only shot together in the movie.
(Sorry for the quality.....)

He was officially referred to as "Q" in "Die Another Day" (2002) following actor Llewelyn's death in 1999.

Initially portrayed as rather clumsy, R then became more self-assured and more in the style of his predecessor. They both shared the same attitude towards their professional work, requesting that Bond be more careful in the testing laboratories and return his equipment intact. 

In "Die Another Day", Bond at first refers to R as "Quartermaster" but, silently impressed by the gadgets he is given, calls him "Q" at the end of their meeting. (The "Die Another Day" DVD reveals that Bond initially saw R as an 'interloper', only awarding the proper title of 'Q' after R has proven himself.)

It's possible that Q-R was a serlinguist and he is the man we see in the following Schweppes commercial:

If so, his comments about the James Bond movies are an expression over his concerns about the work done by "UNreel".

Or it could just be John Cleese, schilling yet again.....

"If it hadn't been for Q Branch, you'd have been dead long ago."

Q

BCnU, Q!

JUDGE RUBINSTEIN

Earlier tonight on the season premiere of 'The Mentalist', the show - without realizing it, of course - gave me a trivial nugget to be stored away for future use in linking shows together.

I saw John Rubinstein's name in the opening credits, but tucked away nearly at the end of the run and lumped together with others, rather than being trumpeted in a solo credit for the star he once was. It turned out that his role was something of a glorified cameo in which he played a judge arbitrating an investigation dispute between the CBI and the FBI.

His judge was never named in the scene.

Rubinstein is no stranger to playing judges on television, although he's usually appearing as a doctor. Over the course of his career he's played at least four judges, but unfortunately we can't use any of them because they were presiding over courts in other states:

• Judge Randy of 'Harry's Law'(Cincinnatti, Ohio)
• Judge Crawford of 'CSI'(Las Vegas, Nevada)
• Judge Schuyler of 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'(New York, New York)
• Judge Joseph Papp of 'Boston Public' & 'The Practice'(Boston, Massachusetts)

What's needed is a judge in California in order for us to make the claim that Rubinstein was the same character in both shows. Your Toobmeister is a patient man, though. Eventually one will turn up.

In the meantime, if worst comes to worst, Toobworld Central does have a candidate - John Rubinstein played Professor Wendell Peterson in one episode of 'The Paper Chase'. 

Professor Peterson was being considered for a tenured position, along with three other candidates; only there was only two openings available. Peterson was a phenom in the classroom, inspiring his students, but he was not up to snuff when it came to "publish or perish".  It could be that he finally left Harvard to accept a judgeship back in California.

But if not, I can wait for a better option.....

BCnU!

PS:
You know what's great about the timing of this story?  It's the First Monday in October!

AS SEEN ON TV: JAMES BOND (THE FIRST)

To kick off our salute to James Bond this week, here is the very first portrayal of the secret agent - and not just in Toobworld!

BOND. JAMES BOND

AS SEEN IN:

'Climax!'

"Casino Royale"

CREATED BY:

Ian Fleming

PORTRAYED BY:

Barry Nelson

TV STATUS:

Recastaway (Original)

TV DIMENSION:

Earth Prime-Time

From Wikipedia:

"Casino Royale" is a 1954 television adaptation of the novel of the same name by Ian Fleming. The show is the first screen adaptation of a James Bond novel and stars Barry Nelson and Peter Lorre. Though this marks the first onscreen appearance of the character of James Bond, Nelson's character is played as an American agent with "Combined Intelligence" and is referred to as "Jimmy" by several characters.

The show was forgotten about after its initial showing until most of it was located in the 1980s by film historian Jim Schoenberger, with the ending (including credits) found afterwards. The rights to the programme were acquired by MGM at the same time as the rights for the 1967 film version of "Casino Royale", clearing the legal pathway and enabling them to make the 2006 film of the same name.

In 1954 CBS paid Ian Fleming $1,000 ($8,654 in 2012 dollars) to adapt his first novel, "Casino Royale", into a one-hour television adventure as part of their dramatic anthology series 'Climax Mystery Theater', which ran between October 1954 and June 1958. Due to the restriction of a one hour play, the adapted version lost many of the details found in the book, although it retained its violence, particularly in Act III.

The hour-long "Casino Royale" episode aired on 21 October 1954 as a live production and starred Barry Nelson as secret agent James Bond, with Peter Lorre in the role of Le Chiffre and was hosted by William Lundigan. The Bond character from "Casino Royale" was re-cast as an American agent, described as working for "Combined Intelligence", supported by the British agent, Clarence Leiter; "thus was the Anglo-American relationship depicted in the book reversed for American consumption".

David Cornelius of Efilmcritic.com described it as an "anthology of suspense and mystery yarns performed live in the tradition of television's golden age." He remarked that "the first act freely gives in to spy pulp cliché" and noted that he believed Nelson was miscast and "trips over his lines and lacks the elegance needed for the role."

Still and all, this was the first James Bond. To fill in the blanks, the Toobworld splainin would be that Clarence Leiter was so impressed by Jimmy Bond's work on this case and by the notoriety it gained, that he suggested to the Home Minister (or whoever was in charge of Intelligence back then) that they should adopt the name of "James Bond" as a cover for their very best operative. That way, should "James Bond" be killed in the line of duty, they could then pass the name on to the next best, and so make it look as though he was virtually immortal and invulnerable. 

 (Leiter may have come up with the idea after reading how the same thing was done in the Wild, Wild West of Wyoming with a Sheriff Lom Trevors, a nom de guerre used by Marshall Dan Troop, Pearly Gates, and the Virginian when they worked undercover for Judge Garth, Governor of Wyoming.)

SHOWS CITED:

• 'Climax!'
• 'Alias Smith And Jones'
• 'The Lawman'
• 'The Virginian'
• 'Maverick'

BCnU!

ALL THIS WEEK - BONDS, JAMES BONDS

On October 5, 1962, the first James Bond movie, "Dr. No", opened in theatres. To celebrate this fiftieth anniversary milestone, the As Seen On TV showcase will feature the televersions of characters from the series of books by Ian Fleming.

James Bond does exist in Earth Prime-Time, but he's only had a fleeting appearance on our TV screens in comparison to the vast output of TV characters over the last sixty plus years. Like his big screen counterpart in the Cineverse, there have been many James Bonds, with no need to splain away the Recastaways with alternate dimensions. "James Bond" is a code name used for the best spy in Her Majesty's Secret Service. Many different men have assumed the mantle of James Bond, giving up their original identities to keep the myth alive.

Because of this, the general public in Toobworld thinks of James Bond as a fictional character from books and movies. This is what a covert organization (which I have dubbed "UNreel") organized. By creating pervasive fictional accounts of this secret agent, "James Bond" is able to operate freely without worrying that his exploits will be revealed as the Truth. (Although fictional in Toobworld, James Bond's book and movie adventures have their own realities in BookWorld and the Cineverse.) "UNreel" has done this before - for the U.N.C.L.E. organization and a Gallifreyan Time Lord known as "the Doctor", among others.

But unlike his counterparts in BookWorld and the Cineverse, James Bond has not always been a British secret agent......

By the way, Ian Fleming also exists in Toobworld. So he joins the ranks of Mark Twain, Shakespeare, Dickens, Jules Verne, and Dame Agatha Christie as an author who shares the same world as the characters he created.....

BCnU!

MIRROR TOOBWORLD - "HEAD OF THE FAMILY"

I have one last example of a TV show within a TV show that would have an effect on life in the Mirror Toobworld.

Carl Reiner created a sitcom idea based on his own life - that of a comedy writer for a television variety show. We know it today as 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' which starred DVD as Rob Petrie.

From the IMDb:

Rob is asked to write an amusing bulletin for the PTA bazaar. Richie is having a difficult time explaining to his friends just what his father does at work and he's taking out his frustration on his father. Laura thinks it would be a good idea for Rob to take Richie with him to the office for a day so he can see first hand what his dad does. Rob is skeptical this will work but agrees to give her plan a try. [Written by tomtrekp ]

If you're a fan of 'The Dick Van Dyke Show', you should recognize that basically as the 22nd episode from the first season, "Father Of The Week".

However, Reiner saw the property as a vehicle for himself as Rob Petrie and he produced that script as a pilot for a show called "Head Of The Family". But the network didn't see Reiner as being right for the part, even though he WAS the part. So Dick Van Dyke, fresh off a success on Broadway in "Bye Bye Birdie", was hired and Reiner not only wrote most of the scripts and produced the show, but he also took the role of tyrannical star of 'The Alan Brady Show', Alan Brady his own self.

The true final episode of 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' is "The Last Chapter", bringing to a close a running sub-plot of Rob writing his memoirs:

From the IMDb:

Rob and Laura decide to put aside all else for one evening after Rob tells Laura that he has finished the manuscript for his book. Laura will read the manuscript while a nervous Rob watches her reading, he trying to gage her reaction. Their plans change when Laura refuses to let him watch. As Laura starts reading, she is excited to learn that the book is the story of their life, and she begins to reminisce about the situations written. Regardless of Laura's reaction, Rob is equally as anticipatory about the reaction of the publisher to who he sent the manuscript.

As it turned out, Alan Brady bought the rights to the book so that he could turn it into a TV sitcom for himself, (albeit many years later once his variety show went off the air - as if that would ever happen!)

So in Mirror Toobworld, there are two Rob Petries (as Rob played by DVD did appear on TV himself). The other one looked like Alan Brady, who looked like Carl Reiner.....

Here is the only known episode from Alan Brady's sitcom:

And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, marks the September entry in our year-long salute to 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' in celebration of its fifty years since the first episode aired. (And got it in just under the wire!)

Next week, we wrap up the theme on that anniversary day. One of the pieces I'll be posting the answer to this trivia question which I posted back at the beginning a year ago:

'The Dick Van Dyke Show' has two somewhat tenuous connections to Andy Warhol. One was "outside the box" - one of those six degrees of separation situations on the production side. The other was within the "reality" of the show - one of Andy Warhol's works of art actually appeared in an episode.

No one's even taken a crack at answering either part of it, so you still have a chance to gain the bragging rights. If you win, you could be awarded the Richard Rosebud Petrie Prize - combining presents from the episodes "Punch Thy Neighbor" and "Empress Carlotta's Necklace"!

BCnU!