BLACKADDER OF WORLDSTAGE

Late last year, Rowan Atkinson and Tony Robinson brought back their classic TV characters of Edmund Blackadder and Sodov Baldrick (respectively) - but they did so in a sketch during the "We Are Not Amused" benefit at the Royal Albert Hall. (The benefit was to fill the coffers of the Prince's Trust.)

This time out, Blackadder was an immoral banker who picked up his title of Lord at the Parliamentary gift shop. He was the head of the Melchett, Melchett and Darling Bank which ws in debt to the tune of £20billion. Because of that, Lord Blackadder was called to testify before a committee of MPs investigating the financial crisis.

Lord Blackadder blamed his gardener Baldrick and millions of others like him for the problem by running up debts for ‘luxury items such as fuel and food’.

Baldrick had a cunning plan to get the country out of debt but Blackadder sneered that it would have to be ‘so brilliant that it would win a place at Oxford University – even if it had a Northern accent’. But as usual in such schemes by the pair, it didn't pan out.

So the characters of Blackadder and Baldrick, reborn souls who were inducted into the TV Crossover Hall Of Fame for Christmas of 2002, crossed over into a different fictional universe, that of the Theater, WorldStage.

Here are a couple of scenes from that sketch:

BCnU!

LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES - LUCY LAWLESS

Let's visit the Tooniverse for today's member of the League of Themselves.....

LUCY LAWLESS

AS SEEN IN:
'The Simpsons'
["Treehouse Of Horror X"]



From 'The Simpsons' Wiki:
Lucy Lawless played Xena in the hit show 'Xena: Warrior Princess'. She appeared in the ('Simpsons') Halloween Special "Treehouse of Horror X" playing herself, although in the persona of Xena.

Anything goes in the Tooniverse!

Ms. Lawless may show up again later this year - IF I can find the right picture!


BCnU!

SUPER SIX LIST - 2013 TV HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES

Here's a Super Six List for you:

1] RON HOWARD

2]  LES MOONVES

3]  BOB SCHIEFFER

4]  AL MICHAELS

5]  DICK WOLF

6]  PHILO T. FARNSWORTH

From the Los Angeles Times:

By Patrick Kevin Day
Director-producer (and "Happy Days" and "Andy Griffith Show" star) Ron Howard, sportscaster Al Michaels, CBS Chief Executive Les Moonves, CBS newsman Bob Schieffer and "Law & Order" mogul Dick Wolf will be inducted this year into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame.

They will be joined in the Hall of Fame's 22nd class of inductees by someone who's indirectly responsible for all of their careers: Philo T. Farnsworth, an inventor responsible for the first all-electronic TV transmission in 1927. Without him, Ron Howard may have been stuck doing Opie on stage. Farnsworth's induction will be posthumous, naturally. He died in 1971.  

O'BSERVATIONS:
Opie Taylor is in the TV Crossover Hall of Fame, inducted in 2002 with his father, Sheriff Andy Taylor.  Dick Wolf is a member in the Wing Behind The Scenes.  If I'm not mistaken, Les Moonves needs only one more credit in order to qualify.  And I think Mr. Farnsworth really deserves entry - as Mr. Day points out, I wouldn't be spouting this craziness if it weren't for him........  

BCnU!

LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES - PAUL McCARTNEY

Chris Farley: Um, hi. Welcome to The Chris Farley Show. I'm.. Chris Farley.. and, my guest tonight is.. one of the.. greatest musicians.. uh, rock musicians. I guess, songwriter, ever. [ Smacks himself ] GOD! That sounds stupid! God, I'm an idiot! I never know how to start these things!

PAUL McCARTNEY
with
CHRIS FARLEY

AS SEEN ON:
'Saturday Night Live'
["The Chris Farley Show"]

TV DIMENSION:
Skitlandia



If you'd like to read the full transcript of the visit, click HERE.

BCnU!

THEORY OF RELATEEVEETY - A COCHRANE BULL STORY

Earlier in his career in the C of E before the turn of the 20th Century, Reverend Travis offered comfort and spiritual counseling to Lady Madge Cranleigh in Oxfordshire which quickly turned to passion. Around 1890, Lady Cranleigh gave birth to their son Charles, but she passed the child off as the second son of her husband Lord Cranleigh.

After the death of George Cranleigh, Charles Cranleigh married Ann Talbot and became the new Lord of Cranleigh Hall. But about twenty years into his marriage, he also strayed and dallied with a young woman from the nearby village. Her family,  the Cranaghs, had long been intertwined with the Cranleighs and in fact they could trace their family name back to the same root as the Cranleighs.

The Cranagh woman had a child by Lord Charles Cranleigh during the war years and named him Daniel. He grew up to be a detective with the Metropolitan Police in London before retiring to take a position as head of security for a bank.

This is all supposition based on characters played by Michael Cochrane.

SHOWS CITED:

• 'Downton Abbey' - Reverend Travis (recurring)
• 'Doctor Who' - Lord Charles Cranleigh ["The Black Orchid"]
• 'New Tricks' - Daniel Cranagh ["Lost In Translation"]

BCnU!

LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES - BOB HOPE

BOB HOPE

AS SEEN IN:
'Julia'
["Cool Hand Bruce"]

O'BSERVATIONS:
First off, I apologize for the quality of these pictures.  I took them right off the TV screen, using my Blackberry Tablet.  The few examples I found online were festooned with watermarks and if it is available on DVD via Netflix, I didn't want to wait for its arrival in the mail - especially since I have no clue where my other three disks from them are at the moment in all that boxed up clutter in my living room!  (As for its streaming service, without my computer Miguelito II at Toobworld Central - disabled for a few days - I can't edit any frame grabs via Paintshop Pro.)

Anyhoo......

The comedian knew Dr. Morton Chegley since World War II.  The doctor "saved" Hope's life - Chegley treated one of his gag writers when he got sick while they were on Okinawa. 

Hope showed up at the Astrospace facility, hoping to get Doctor Chegley to influence the vote on a grant so that it would go to one of his pet projects - Bob Hope was a top fund-raiser for the Eisenhower Medical Center in Palm Springs.  Chegley agreed - so long as Hope served as the Master of Ceremonies for the charity ball that following Friday.

Hope observed that Julia Baker was a much prettier nurse than Dr. Chegley's nurse on Okinawa - a Marine from Oklahoma.

In the episode "Hello, McHale?  Colonna!", Jerry Colonna told Commander McHale and his men that Bob Hope was over on Okinawa.  So, on the Toobworld timeline, this 'Julia' backstory with Hope and Dr. Chegley could have been taking place during the same time as that 'McHale's Navy' episode.

If you ever get the chance to see this episode of 'Julia' (I caught it yesterday on the Aspire network.), keep an eye on Hope's eyes.  You can see he's not only reading his lines, but also those of Lloyd Nolan and Dianne Carroll!

Bob Hope is a member of the TV Crossover Hall of Fame for playing himself in several TV series and for his series of Christmas specials.  Because of that, I'm sure Old Ski-Nose will show up again throughout the year, but this may be his most O'Bscure entry in the League of Themselves.....

BCnU!

LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES: SPANKY McFARLAND

SPANKY McFARLAND

AS SEEN IN:

'Cheers'

["Woody Gets An Election"]

From Wikipedia:

George "Spanky" McFarland (October 2, 1928 – June 30, 1993) was an American actor most famous for his appearances as a child in the Our Gang series of short-subject comedies of the 1930s and 1940s. The Our Gang shorts were later syndicated to television as The Little Rascals.

His final television performance was in 1993, playing himself in the cold open of the Cheers episode "Woody Gets An Election".

 

BCnU!


DOUBLE VISION - THE RODRIGUEZ TWINS

'Mr. Lucky'
"The Magnificent Bribe" (1959) … El Presidente

'Gilligan's Island'
"The Little Dictator" (1965) … Rodriguez

In the first episode of 'Mr. Lucky', the dictator of a Latin American country had weekly card games with Mr. Lucky at his casino. By an amazing coincidence, El Presidente always won those games - this was how Mr. Lucky passed the bribes to the dictator which kept him in operation in the capital city.

But one night, a lovely but lethal assassin killed El Presidente in the palace. Mr. Lucky and his associate Adamo saw this as a pretty good sign it was time to leave the country and they just barely made it out alive.

The name of the country and of El Presidente were never revealed. But thanks to a later appearance by Nehemiah Persoff on a sitcom, Toobworld Central is ready to claim that his last name was Rodriguez and that the country was Equarico.

Persoff played that role in an episode of 'Gilligan's Island'.

O'Bviously that character can't be the same character from six years earlier. No zombie could stay so fresh looking. And El Presidente was not only merely dead, he was really most sincerely dead.

So Rodriguez was most likely the twin brother of El Presidente. And after his brother's death, Rodriguez assumed power until he was deposed. After that, he found himself stranded on 'Gilligan's Island'.

BCnU!

LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES: NANCY WALKER & DICK SARGENT

NANCY WALKER & DICK SARGENT

AS SEEN IN:

'Columbo'

("Uneasy Lies The Crown")

TV DIMENSION:

Earth Prime-Time

From TV Rage:

Dr Wesley Corman is a mediocre dentist with a gambling addiction that has led to large debts. His senior partner in the dentists' office is his father-in-law Dr Horace Sherwin, who has been bailing him out of his debts for years. Sherwin tells Corman that he has had enough, but offers to forget the debts provided he moves out and also divorces Sherwin's daughter Lydia.

Corman discovers that Lydia is having an affair with famous action movie star Adam Evans. Evans conveniently happens to be one of Corman's dental patients, so Corman devises a plan in which he murders Evans and frames Lydia for it. However, he does this in such a way that he appears to be covering up evidence in a bid to protect Lydia, who is mentally unstable and has a weak heart from having lost her first husband 7 years earlier. By doing so, he hopes to remove Lydia from the scene and gain the gratitude of Sherwin for attempting to help Lydia.

When Evans comes to Corman for some dental work, Corman uses some of his wife's digitalis (heart medicine) and mixes it with some dental paste, then inserts this under a crown he installs on one of Evans's teeth. That evening, while Corman is at a poker session elsewhere, Evans and Lydia have one of their lovers' trysts. While Evans and Lydia are having sex, the digitalis leaks out of Evans's tooth and causes heart failure. Lydia, in a panic, attempts to call 911, but Corman has reprogrammed her phone so she calls his poker session instead. Corman and Lydia's brother David rush over to Lydia's house and discover Evans dead. To "protect" Lydia, Corman devises an intentionally clumsy coverup in which they put Evans in his car and make it look like he drove off a cliff.

Two of the players at the poker game were Ms. Walker and Mr. Sargent.  It was slightly Zonkish, at least as far as Dick Sargent was concerned......

Two for Tuesday!

BCnU!

BY ANY OTHER NAME - SUSIE & EDNA

Here's the opening narration from the TV series 'In Plain Sight':

"Since 1970, the Federal Witness Protection Program has relocated thousands of witnesses, some criminal, some not, to neighborhoods all across the country. Every one of those individuals shares a unique attribute, distinguishing them from the rest of the general population. And that is, somebody wants them dead."

My blogging buddy Ivan G. Shreve, Jr. has a regular feature in his "Thrilling Days Of Yesteryear" (link to the left, Team Toobworld) called "Mayberry Mondays" Each week he focuses on a particular episode of 'Mayberry RFD' (in broadcast order) and not only gives us the play by play of "wha' hoppint"*, but he comes up with some great dialogue wish-craft that would have made for a far more interesting show!

A few weeks back he wrote about an episode entitled "Howard The Dream-Spinner" in which he pointed the spotlight on guest star Maggie Peterson:

Sam introduces her as “Edna Pritchard” (no explanation as to how they met—something I’m sure his girlfriend would be interested in) and “nice to meetcha’s” are exchanged. But Edna must think we’ve been asleep for eight years…because we know she’s no stranger to Mayberry—she’s Charlene Darling-Wash, object of affection to demented hillbilly Ernest T. Bass (Howard Morris)!

[Maggie Peterson's] most frequent boob tube gig was doing what she does in this episode—in the second season of The Bill Dana Show; Peterson joined the cast as coffee shop waitress Susie.

Ivan suggested I could probably do something with this idea, and I immediately got back to him with my new premise:

Hrmmmmm..... I'm thinking - NYC... falls in with a bad crowd, or at the very least witnessed something bad going down, enters witness protection (started in 1970 according to In Plain Sight, so she'd be one of the first). Looking like the Darling girl might have been an unfortunate coincidence for Susie aka "Edna Pritchard" and for Mrs. Darling-Wash as well......

And that's how I'm going to combine these two characters played by Maggie Peterson Mancuso despite the fact that they had different names. (Susie was listed only as "Susie the Waitress" on 'The Bill Dana Show' so we don't know what her last name was.)

Susie witnessed a crime committed by some TV gangster located in New York City (probably one of the many played by Sheldon Leonard, like Big Max Calvada from 'The Dick Van Dyke Show'.) She was put into the Witness Relocation Program in exchange for her testimony and that's how Susie ended up in Mayberry as "Edna Pritchard".

As the program was in its infancy, there were still kinks to be worked out. In Susie's - that is, in Edna's - case, the town of Mayberry wasn't thoroughly vetted to make sure it was a safe environment in which she could live unnoticed. As such, the U.S. Marshals never noticed that there was already a woman living on the outskirts of town who looked exactly like Susie - Charlene Darling-Wash.

Once that identity crisis came to light (probably with comedic results involving the whole Darling brood), the marshals had no choice but to relocate Susie once again under a new name in another small town.

Perhaps Fernwood, Ohio?

By October of 1977, it looks like she had either gone on a trip to Blackpool in England, or had permanently moved there to avoid the gangsters still looking for her. In the first episode of 'Odd Man Out', she was seen in Neville Sutcliffe's chip shop. And we don't learn what name she was using there. 

Unless of course there's an English actress named Maggie Peterson and once again the IMDb is confused.

If so, then go home, IMDb. You're drunk......

At any rate, the WITSEC program serves as an excellent splainin as to why two characters who look alike (because they're played by the same actor) have different names.

BCnU!

And since he was responsible for this identity check, I'm dedicating this post to Ivan G. Shreve!

THE LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES: ANNIE ROSS

ANNIE ROSS

AS SEEN IN:

'The Saint'

["The Happy Suicide"]

From Wikipedia:

Annie Ross (born 25 July 1930) is a Scottish jazz singer, chanteuse and actress, best known as a member of the trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross.

In 1952, Ross met Prestige Records owner Bob Weinstock, who asked her to write lyrics to a jazz solo, in a similar way to King Pleasure, a practice which would later be known as vocalese. The next day, she presented him with "Twisted", a treatment of saxophonist Wardell Gray's 1949 composition of the same name, a classic example of the genre. The song, first released on the 1952 album King Pleasure Sings/Annie Ross Sings, was an underground hit, and resulted in her winning Down Beat's New Star award. Her first solo album, Singin' and Swingin' (1952), was recorded in New York with members of the Modern Jazz Quartet.

In February 1956, the British music magazine NME reported that Ross's song "I Want You to be My Baby" was banned by the BBC, due to the lyric "Come upstairs and have some loving".

She recorded seven albums with Lambert, Hendricks & Ross between 1957 and 1962. Their first, Sing a Song of Basie (1957), was to have been performed by a group of singers hired by Jon Hendricks and Dave Lambert with Ross brought in only as vocal consultant.

The resulting album was a success, and the trio became an international hit. Over the next five years, Lambert, Hendricks & Ross toured all over the world.

Ross left the group in 1962[8] and, in 1964, opened her own nightclub in London. Annie's Room featured performances by Joe Williams, Stuff Smith, Blossom Dearie, Anita O'Day, Jon Hendricks, Erroll Garner, and Ross herself. A compilation album of Ross's 1965 performances from Annie's Room was released on CD in 2006.
 
O'BSERVATIONS: In this episode of 'The Saint', Ms. Ross was performing at the Caribbean Club in New York City.  Two of the murder suspects used her performance there as their alibi for the time of the murder, but were undone by the fact that she had to call off the show due to illness.  And as she bluntly put it, "if Annie Ross doesn't go on, there is no show."
 
BCnU!

LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES - MARILYN MONROE

MARILYN MONROE

AS SEEN IN:

'The Jack Benny Program'

["Honolulu Trip"]

TV STATUS:

Dream Figure

TV DIMENSION:

Earth Prime-Time

From the CTVA:

While Jack is returning from a trip to Honolulu, relaxing in a deck chair he falls asleep and dreams of romancing Marilyn Monroe.

BCnU!