CONNECTIONS FOR "LI'L ABNER" & "DICK TRACY"

It's a standard rule for the Toobworld Dynamic that if a fictional character from a different medium is mentioned as though they were real, without attribution to the source, then that character must exist in Earth Prime-Time.

 

Here's the first example.....

 

'Route 66' - "You Can't Pick Cotton In Tahiti"

 

Todd Stiles: 

This isn't Dogpatch and you're not Li'l Abner!

Julian Roebuck: 

For your information, Dogpatch, Kentucky, and Lake Chisholm, Tennessee, 

both happen to belong - ethnically speaking - to the same Appalachian complex.

'Route 66' - "You Can't Pick Cotton In Tahiti"

Even though 'Li'l Abner' never made it to series, the pilot was broadcast September 5, 1967.  And so it became the official representation of Al Capp's comic strip in Toobworld.  (We posted the episode this past Sunday.)

 

Although Capp would leave the location of Dogpatch nebulous in earlier strips, it was mentioned that it was in the state of Kentucky back in the 1940s.  And so that's confirmed by this snatch of dialogue.

 

How did Todd Styles know about Dogpatch?  An easy one to splain away - at some point in his journeys across America, perhaps even on his way to Lake Chisholm, Tennessee, Todd saw a signpost up ahead....

 

And here's the second example......

 

'Thriller' - "The Fatal Impulse"

During a frantic search for a bomb that was left in a young woman's handbag, Lt. Brian Rome was tracking down every young lady who left the Heinz Building at 5 pm that day.  (One of his "suspects" was played by Mary Tyler Moore in one of her first roles!)

 

Jane Kimball was another of his leads, and very helpful in that she could sketch everybody who had been in the elevator car with her and the bomber.  But her boyfriend Bob Larrimore was jealous of the attention Lt. Rome paid to her, and of how she welcomed it.

 

Upon seeing Rome return to their table at the nightclub, Bob groused, "Here comes Dick Tracy....."

 

"Dick Tracy', like "Li'l Abner", was a comic strip that ran for decades and it was created by Chester Gould.  It also saw life in the fictional universe for movies (The Cineverse) and in the TV sub-dimension of The Tooniverse as well.  In the 1950s, it became a TV series starring the same actor who played the role in the 1940s serials, Ralph Byrd. 

 

The show proved to be quite popular and the only reason it came to a halt was the sudden and unexpected death of Byrd in his early forties.  But it lasted long enough to ensure Dick Tracy as a fixture in the Toobworld firmament.

 

Facing off against colorful criminals like Flat-Top, Pruneface, Mumbles, and Lips Manlis, the reputation of Dick Tracy as a crime-fighter gave him national prominence.  And that's why Bob Larrimore invoked his name, knowing that Jane would get the reference.

 

And that's our Two for Tuesday.....

Now, scram, ya rube!