NOT QUITE "TALES ALONG THE RIVERBANK"

From the Reali-TV division of the Toobworld Dynamic.....

Back in college, this would be considered a hedge-toad......

BCnU!

"DOCTOR WHO?"

Friday marked the forty-ninth anniversary for 'Doctor Who'. Next year, I think the lead-up to the fiftieth anniversary will examine the answer to "the First Question", a question that must never be answered.

I think this is the question:

BCnU!

THE GHOSTS OF ERIC & ERNIE.....

Morecambe & Wise were the biggest comedy duo in Great Britain for decades. Although no way similar in style, they may have been the equivalent in popularity to Abbott & Costello over here in the States. I'm probably wrong in that estimation and comparison, but then they weren't known over here; I know very little about them.

For the annual "Children In Need" telethon, their act was resurrected onstage - in the form of a hologram, a la Tupac Shakur earlier this year.

How does this play out in the Toobworld Dynamic?

I think in Skitlandia this would mark their appearance as ghosts in front of a live audience.....

But what do I know?

BCnU!

FAGEN ON "LETTERMAN"

Donald Fagen, one half of my all-time favorite group (Steely Dan), performed a song from his new album, "Sunken Condos" on 'The Late Show with David Letterman':

AS SEEN ON TV: WILL STOCKDALE

Even though this was one of Andy Griffith's greatest roles, and he truly made it his own by going multiversal with it, this is the portrayal that's the official televersion for Earth Prime-Time......

WILL STOCKDALE

AS SEEN IN:

'No Time For Sergeants'

CREATED BY:

Mac Hyman

PORTRAYED BY:

Sammy Jackson

TV STATUS:

Recastaway

TV DIMENSION:

Earth Prime-Time

From Wikipedia:

When [Sammy] Jackson read that Warner Brothers was going to produce a 1964 ABC television sitcom, 'No Time for Sergeants', he wrote directly to Jack Warner saying that he was the best choice for the role and asked Warner to examine a certain 'Maverick' episode as proof. Ten days later Jackson was told to come to the studio to test for the role. Jackson won the role over several actors including the better known Will Hutchins, a Warner Brothers television contract star who had played 'Sugarfoot' and also had been in the "No Time for Sergeants" film.

The series was produced by George Burns's production company and shown in the UK on ITV from 1965 to 196. It also preceded Burns' own 'Wendy and Me' sitcom, with Connie Stevens, which aired on the Monday night ABC schedule.

PREVIOUSLY ON "AS SEEN ON TV"......

BCnU!

BORIS KARLOFF ON "ROUTE 66"

BORIS KARLOFF & CAROL BURNETT

Boris Karloff Carol Burnett sing by NilbogLAND

BORIS KARLOFF ON "SHINDIG!"

KARLOFF & LUGOSI

In honor of the Birthday Boy.....

BORIS KARLOFF, "THIS IS YOUR LIFE"

AS SEEN ON TV: KING ARTHUR

We're taking a break from the "TV Rerun Leftovers" on this Black Friday, in order to pay tribute to a legendary actor.....

On this date 125 years ago, William Henry Pratt was born in Camberwell, London, UK.

He's better known to the world as Boris Karloff......

KING ARTHUR

AS SEEN IN:

'Studio One' -

"A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court"

ADAPTED BY:

Mark Twain

PORTRAYED BY:

Boris Karloff

TV STATUS:

Recastaway

Dream Figure

TV DIMENSION:

Earth Prime-Time (but in a dream)

From Wikipedia:

King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and his historical existence is debated and disputed by modern historians. The sparse historical background of Arthur is gleaned from various sources, including the "Annales Cambriae", the "Historia Brittonum", and the writings of Gildas. Arthur's name also occurs in early poetic sources such as "Y Gododdin".

The legendary Arthur developed as a figure of international interest largely through the popularity of Geoffrey of Monmouth's fanciful and imaginative 12th-century "Historia Regum Britanniae" ("History of the Kings of Britain").

The revived Arthurian romance also proved influential in the United States, with such books as Sidney Lanier's "The Boy's King Arthur" (1880) reaching wide audiences and providing inspiration for Mark Twain's satiric "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" (1889).

BCnU!

RED SKELTON'S THANKSGIVING MESSAGE

It rings as true today as it did sixty years ago......

A VERY WKRP THANKSGIVING

I suppose this should be a Thanksgiving Day tradition - the greatest TV show episode ever about Thanksgiving.....

AS SEEN ON TV: HERCULE POIROT (x 3)

For the week of Thanksgiving, we're featuring reruns as our leftovers - literary characters as seen on TV who have been previously featured in this showcase.

And for Thanksgiving Day, we have over-stuffed the gallery with three versions of Dame Agatha Christie's Belgian sleuth, Hercule Poirot.

When he was featured early in the year, we used the Poirot from the Cineverse Borderlands. And we still have not given this "tribute" to the Hercule Poirot of Earth Prime-Time, as played by David Suchet.

HERCULE POIROT

CREATED BY:

Dame Agatha Christie

AS PORTRAYED BY:

Alfred Molina

AS SEEN IN:

"Murder On The Orient Express"

TV STATUS:

Recastaway

TV DIMENSION:

Evil Toobworld

Liberties with the original story can be expected in any TV production. For the official Earth Prime-Time adaptation of this, the best known of Poirot's cases, a major revision was given to the televersion of Dr. Constantine. But that not only worked, in my opinion it was an improvement over the original story. However, this TV movie eliminated too many characters and by doing so removed the important reason for such a large cast. And thus, it is EVIL!

AS PORTRAYED BY:

Martin Gabel

AS SEEN IN:

'G.E. True Theater'

"Hercule Poirot"

TV STATUS:

Recastaway (Original)

TV DIMENSION:

Prequel Toobworld

Gabel's performance as Poirot was the first appearance for the character and this episode of the anthology series served as a pilot for a proposed TV show. Normally the rule in Toobworld is the first portrayal of any character is the official televersion for Earth Prime-Time. But a one-shot version has to be put aside in favor of a recastaway who logs more screen time with an actual series, and such is the case here. By the end of next year, David Suchet will have been seen in adaptations of every single story by Christie about Poirot. He will forever stand as the benchmark for the role. Gabel's performance then has to be relegated to the world of prequels (no good name for that world yet) in which we also find Art Carney's version of Horace Ford and Stuart Margolin as Rabbi David Small.

(I'd also like to think his TV dimension might be that of "Over There" as seen in 'Fringe', if only for the fact that Martin Gabel's grandson Seth Gabel played FBI/Fringe Division Agent Lincoln Lee in that world.)

I need to get to the Paley Center one of these days and see if they have Gabel's performance in the archives......

PORTRAYED BY:

Sir Ian Holm

AS SEEN IN:

"Murder By The Book"

TV STATUS:

Dream Figure

TV DIMENSION:

Earth Prime-Time Dream

Toobworld Central makes allowances for recasting due to aging. So Dame Peggy Ashcroft is Dame Agatha Christie for Earth Prime-Time as a woman near the end of her life, while Fenella Woolgar is the younger Agatha Christie as seen in the 'Doctor Who' episode "The Unicorn And The Wasp". Holm's Poirot is merely the manifestation of Christie's sleuth in a dream she had while working out the details for the last book to be written about Poirot, "Curtain".

PREVIOUSLY ON "AS SEEN ON TV"

FOR MORE ON POIROT IN THE BORDERLANDS......

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. As one of our Poirots (at least!) would never say: "Gabel Gabel Gabel!"

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: QUASIMODO, PART THREE

For our "Rerun Leftovers" week, here's something appropriate for Hump Day......

QUASIMODO

CREATED BY:

Victor Hugo

PORTRAYED BY:

Mandy Patinkin

TV STATUS:

Recastaway

TV DIMENSION:

Alternate Toobworld

From Wikipedia:

Quasimodo is described as "hideous" and a "creation of the devil." He was born with a hunchback, and a giant wart that covers his right eye. He is found abandoned in Notre Dame (on the foundlings' bed, where orphans and unwanted children are left to public charity) on Quasimodo Sunday, the first Sunday after Easter, by Claude Frollo, the Archdeacon of Notre Dame, who adopts the baby, names him after the day the baby was found, and brings him up to be the bell-ringer of the Cathedral. Due to the loud ringing of the bells, Quasimodo also becomes deaf. Although he is hated for his deformity, it is revealed that he is fairly kind at heart.

Quasimodo's name can be considered a pun. Frollo finds him on the cathedral's doorsteps on Quasimodo Sunday and names him after the holiday. However, the Latin words "quasi" and "modo" also mean "almost" and "the standard measure" respectively. As such, Quasimodo is "almost the standard measure" of a human person.

PREVIOUSLY ON TOOBWORLD, PARTS ONE & TWO

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: THE WHITE KNIGHT (2 x)

THE WHITE KNIGHT

CREATED BY:

Lewis Carroll

PORTRAYED BY:

Bill Dana

AS SEEN IN:

"Alice In Wonderland:

Or What's A Nice Girl Like You Doing In A Place Like This?"

TV STATUS:

Recastaway

TV DIMENSION:

Wonderland Of The Tooniverse

PORTRAYED BY:

Matt Frewer

AS SEEN IN:

'Alice'

TV STATUS:

Recastaway/Descendent

TV DIMENSION:

Original Wonderland

(150 years later)

PREVIOUSLY ON "AS SEEN ON TV"

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: LT. TRAGG (RECASTAWAY)

LIEUTENANT ARTHUR TRAGG

AS SEEN IN:

'The New Perry Mason'

CREATED BY:

Earle Stanley Gardner

PORTRAYED BY:

Dane Clark

TV STATUS:

Recastaway

TV DIMENSION:

An updated Toobworld

Possibly an evil dimension*

PREVIOUSLY ON "AS SEEN ON TV"

From "The Perry Mason TV Show Book"
The most famous of the three policemen regularly featured on the Mason series was the wry, dry-witted Lieutenant Arthur Tragg. Although not as prominent, Tragg was in reality an even bigger loser than his boss, Hamilton Burger. After all, whereas Burger was guilty only of losing every case he brought to court against Perry Mason, Traggand his later counterpartswas guilty of making all those false arrests.

From Sleuth Noir:
Lt Arthur Tragg is a... detective lieutenant from the Los Angeles Police Department. He worked very closely for many years with Hamilton Burger, a Los Angeles district attorney who always lost his cases when he faced Perry Mason. Lt Tragg spent years observing the methodology of Mason and his associate Paul Drake, and was particularly impressed with Mason's ability to handle difficult witnesses with tough questioning, and Drake's ability to make deductions from crime scene evidence.

BCnU!

*Well, it would have to be an evil dimension, wouldn't it? To bring the show back with all new actors a year after the original series ended its lengthy run, showing no respect to the audience's love for those characters?

PROGRAMMING NOTE: THANKSGIVING LEFTOVERS

Since Thanksgiving is this week, we'll be serving up "reruns" in the "ASOTV" gallery - by that I mean different incarnations of characters whom we featured already in the past year.

It's our version of leftovers.

I hope you enjoy it and I hope you have a fantastic Thanksgiving!

BCnU!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, "JOE ISUZU"!

David Leisure, whose best known role has to be "Joe Isuzu", celebrated his 62nd birthday the other day.  And so who better to help us pay the bills for Toobworld Central this week?

TOOBMUSIC: LASSIE'S THEME... PLUS

One of the touchstones in the audience memories of 'Lassie' has to be the theme music.....

But other music played an important role in underscoring scenes from the show.  Here's a very moving piece.  (Make sure you read the description of the scene - it must have broken a lot of hearts back in the Trueniverse when it first played out.)

BCnU!

LASSIE - "A BRAND NEW FAMILY"

Eventually it was decided to replace the human cast of 'Lassie' (probably because Tommy Rettig was getting older?) Thankfully, the producers chose not to play the recastaway game and instead brought in a whole new family to live on the farm and care for Lassie.

Here's a great example of Life During Prime Time done right!

BCnU!

'LASSIE' - IN THE BEGINNING

Here's a classic - the first episode of 'Lassie', in which she came to live with Jeff......

BCnU!

LASSIE UBER ALLES!

There are alternate TV dimensions in which all of the TV characters speak one particular language because a certain country at some point conquered the world.

With German Toobworld, that happened with Germany winning World War II. (It was a world in which Edith Keeler survived her encounter with three Starfleet officers from the starship Enterpise.)

For the most part, life in German Toobworld (Earth Prime-Time/Deutsche?) played out the same as it did in Earth Prime-Time.

Here is an example:

BCnU!

LASSIE TO THE RESCUE!

We can consider this to be the Lassie from either the alternate TV dimension of Skitlandia or the Blipverse/Adverse.....

THE DAY LASSIE WENT TO THE MOON

So I'm thinking there should be a musical spot each Video Weekend as a regular feature. And what could be better than this further adventure of our "ASOTV" showcase?

OPTICAL ILLUSIONS

AS SEEN ON TV: LASSIE

One last TV character who began life as a character from BookWorld, and you probably didn't know it. Maybe you did.  Or maybe you thought "she" began life in the Cineverse?

LASSIE

AS SEEN IN:

'Lassie'

CREATED BY:

Eric Knight

PORTRAYED BY:

Pal

TV STATUS:

Multiversal

[BookWorld, the Cineverse, Toobworld]

TV DIMENSION:

Earth Prime-Time

From Wikipedia:

Lassie is a fictional collie dog character created by Eric Knight in a short story expanded to novel length called "Lassie Come-Home". Published in 1940, the novel was filmed by MGM in 1943 as "Lassie Come Home" with a dog named Pal playing Lassie. Pal then appeared with the stage name "Lassie" in six other MGM feature films through 1951. Pal's owner and trainer Rudd Weatherwax then acquired the Lassie name and trademark from MGM and appeared with Pal (as "Lassie") at rodeos, fairs, and similar events across America in the early 1950s.

In 1954, the long-running, Emmy winning television series Lassie debuted, and, over the next 19 years, a succession of Pal's descendants appeared on the series. The "Lassie" character has appeared in radio, television, film, toys, comic books, animated series, juvenile novels, and other media. Pal's descendants continue to play Lassie today.

O'BSERVATIONS:

Lassie has to be one of those examples of a human being who was reincarnated into a dog and who retained their previous human intelligence. The evidence comes in the 1959 episode "The Trap" in which Ruth got her leg caught in a trap which was set to capture a cougar. She tells Lassie to go fetch a C-Clamp, and the collie knows exactly what she wanted!!!!

Lassie was inducted into the TV Crossover Hall Of Fame in January of 2003......

Um... That's not a C-Clamp, Dawg.

BCnU!