JON SNOW'S TRAINING VIDEO

Not quite ready to let go of 'Game of Thrones' for this year.  Can't believe the ten weeks of the third season went by that quickly!

So here's an '80s exercise video to get your blood pumping this Saturday morning!

BLAIR WHO PROJECT

Here's your 'Doctor Who' related content for the day.

In Skitlandia, even members of the League of Themselves can be Gallifreyans.....

BLIPVERTS: OF MOO COWS AND MAD MEN

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

I'm glad the commercial had that coda - otherwise people might think that Milky Way chocolate kills.  (It probably does in our obese country, but not by pushing somebody off the top of a building!)

Speculative Television Mythography is my game and as such, I have a theory to expand the world of this blipvert.....

The company that made that billboard advertisement was Sterling Cooper.  And the artist who designed it was named Jonathan.

And Jonathan can tie this Mars commercial for Milky Way to Steven Spielberg's series 'Amazing Stories'.

During "The Mission", a World War II bombing run, Jonathan was a gunner in the belly of the plane.  During this particular mission, Jonathan was trapped in his "nest" and would most certainly die once the plane made a belly flop landing back at their home base airstrip in England.

But Jonathan had an ace up his sleeve.  Or rather, he had a hidden advantage due to his genetic heritage.  It appears that he was descended from the demi-god Evander, a boy with the power to create things out of his imagination.  And this power was passed down through the generations to others in his family once he procreated with humans.

Among his other descendants were Anthony Fremont ('The Twilight Zone' - "It's A Good Life" and "It's Still A Good Life"), Gregory West ('The Twilight Zone' - "A World Of His Own"), and Walter Kellogg ('The People Next Door').

Jonathan used his power to bring his artwork to life by drawing huge cartoonish wheels that buffered the landing of the aircraft and saved his life.

It's my contention that during his war service, Jonathan met Roger Sterling - who invited him to come work in the art department of the ad agency founded by Roger's father and Bert Cooper.

But he may not have lasted long because of complications caused by his powers.  And the near death of this poor schmuck who put up that billboard may have been the tipping point.

I'm also going to claim that Jonathan's last name was "Korman", and that he was the father of Jim Korman.  Jim grew up to become a comic book artist who inherited the powers handed down through the ages from Evander.  

(But that was another "Korman's Kalamity", as seen in 'Tales From The Crypt'.)

Well, that's my story and I'm sticking with it.....

BCnU!

LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES HAT SQUAD - JAMES GANDOLFINI

(CNN) -- James Gandolfini, best known for his role as an anxiety-ridden mob boss on HBO's "The Sopranos," died Wednesday while on vacation in Italy. He was 51.

The exact cause of death is not known, but his managers said it was possibly a heart attack.

His body is in a hospital morgue in Rome. Once the U.S. Embassy issues a death certificate, Gandolfini's remains can be returned to the United States.

JAMES GANDOLFINI

From Wikipedia:

James Joseph Gandolfini, Jr. (September 18, 1961 – June 19, 2013) was an American actor best known for his role in 'The Sopranos' as Tony Soprano, a troubled crime boss struggling to balance his family life and career in the Mafia. Gandolfini garnered enormous praise for this role, winning both the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series and Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series three times.

Gandolfini's other roles include the woman-beating mob henchman Virgil in "True Romance", enforcer/stuntman Bear in "Get Shorty", and the impulsive Wild Thing Carol in "Where the Wild Things Are".

Gandolfini produced the 2007 documentary "Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq", in which he interviewed 10 injured Iraq War veterans. His second documentary was released in 2010; "Wartorn: 1861-2010" analyzes post-traumatic stress disorder and its impact on soldiers and families through several wars in American history, from 1861 to 2010. TV Guide ranked him 28 on its "50 Sexiest Stars of All Time" list in 2005.

AS SEEN IN:

'Sesame Street'

Episode 33.52 (2002)

SYNOPSIS:

When Zoe was scared by the sound of something crashing, she was lucky to have Gandolfini nearby to help calm her down.  He did so by telling her the three things that scared him:

1] The Dark

2] Getting A Haircut

3] Large Talking Vegetables

Hey!  Who isn't?

Good night and may God bless.....

SPECIAL GUEST APPEARANCE - ANDREW BROOK

There's no way I could know everything about the crossover potentials in the TV Universe.  Luckily for me, I know several other enthusiasts of the form who find many of the things I would otherwise never know about.

The Toobworld Dynamic would be a poorer place without them.  

Here's an example from one of my compatriots....

ANDREW BROOK:

Crossovers we could have had... Poirot's sidekick Captain Hastings would have been at Eton at the same time as Lord Peter Wimsey. Fletcher (from the sitcom "Porridge") and, at least in one version, Harold Steptoe (from ["Steptoe And Son", the sitcom that became "Sanford and Son" on translation to America) both fought in the Malaya Emergency. And as regards the one crossover we did have - James Bond and John Steed were at Eton together,

In case you weren't aware, that last one does work, as James Bond is a character in Toobworld, thanks to the "Casino Royale" episode of 'Suspense'.  It gets more complicated after that, but that splainin will suffice for now....

As for the first two examples cited by Our Mister Brook, Toobworld Central has no problem in fudging the facts, by citing the Khan-Chekov Encounter:  Just because we didn't see it happen on our TV screens, that doesn't mean it never took place.

"Cathy Gale, isn't it?

I went to University with your partner, John Steed."

Of course, this pictorial representation would only work in the Borderlands, because for Toobworld, Sean Connery was only James Bond in the movies.......

BCnU!

LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES: SUMMER GLAU

It's the first day of Summer!

SUMMER GLAU

From Wikipedia:
Summer Lyn Glau (born July 24, 1981) is an American actress. She is best known for playing River Tam in 'Firefly' and "Serenity", as well as Cameron in the 'Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles' series.

AS SEEN IN:
'The Big Bang Theory'
"The Terminator Decoupling"

TV DIMENSIONS:
Earth Prime-Time & the Promoverse
(The picture above could have been seen only in the commercial for the episode.)

SYNOPSIS:
"The Terminator Decoupling" is an episode of the United States television series 'The Big Bang Theory' that first aired on CBS on March 9, 2009. It is the seventeenth episode of the second season of the series and the thirty-fourth episode overall. The episode features guest appearances by actress Summer Glau and cosmologist George Smoot.

On board the train, they learn that Summer Glau (played by herself) is riding the same train. Raj and Howard debate on who should approach her first. With Raj unable to talk to women except when under the influence of alcohol, he departs to find alcohol on the train. As Howard is trying to figure out the best opening line, Raj swoops in and starts talking with Summer (even using the same line Howard planned to use: "It's hot in here, it must be Summer").

Their conversation is going very well until Howard points out that Raj is drinking non-alcoholic beer. Realizing he was under a sort of placebo effect, Raj quickly departs the scene, unable to talk anymore.

Howard tries to strike a conversation but is unable to create an impression; instead he just comes off as annoying. Finally he asks to have his picture with her to which she agrees until he gets annoying again and she breaks his phone.

With the failure of both Raj and Howard, Leonard musters the courage to approach Summer, but she gets off the train as he is introducing himself.

BCnU!

THE HAT SQUAD - JAMES GANDOLFINI



Back in May, I ran a Super Six List about "Present Day" TV characters (but not currently on the air) who could probably be dead by now.

One of those on the list was Jersey gangster Tony Soprano.  And now we can say that the mob boss is definitely dead - for when actor James Gandolfini suddenly suffered a fatal heart attack in Italy yesterday, Tony Soprano died with him.  There could never be a recastaway for that role.

I always figured that the only thing that would stop the talk about a 'Sopranos' reunion movie would be the death of James Gandolfini or the death of David Chase.  Practically the rest of the cast and storylines were wiped out/wrapped up, but it didn't stop the persistent questions from the press and others.  That should end now - who wants to see "Meadow and AJ - The Next Generation"?

I liked the show a lot.  I LOVED the first season, and that's not just because I was crazy for the girl who loaned me the tapes.  If they ended the series with Tony actually killing his mother in the nursing home, I would have declared it the greatest mini-series in the history of the medium.  But it continued, with what I considered to be diminishing returns, and with Chase even cannibalizing one of his plot lines from 'The Rockford Files' to use in the show.

And even so, there was no denying the power of Gandolfini's performance, which galvanized the entire production as the center of its universe.

Gandolfini appeared on Broadway and in the movies, but what he really needed was another role that would have been on a par with "T".  As it is, he will be forever defined by Tony Soprano.

In the end, that's not such a bad thing, considering.  Look at the company he's in.....

Good night and may God bless........

THEORY OF RELATEEVEETY - THE O'BRIENS

'Major Crimes'
Daniel O'Brien
– "Final Cut" (2013) … Daniel O'Brien

It was a very small part for Ryan Caldwell, just an appearance at his front door while his wife was being questioned by the police.  But it provided a very satisfying theory of relateeveety.

I'm going to make the claim that his grandfather was New York lawyer Daniel J. O'Brien, the main character in 'The Trials Of O'Brien', played by one of my all-time favorite actors:

O'Brien was divorced in the series, but there's always the possibility that there were children... just never mentioned within the show.  

BCnU!

LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES - SCOTT WOLF

SCOTT WOLF

From Wikipedia:

Scott Richard Wolf (born June 4, 1968) is an American actor, known for his roles on the television series 'Party of Five', as Bailey Salinger, 'Everwood', as Dr. Jake Hartman, and in the Sci-Fi series 'V' as the morally ambiguous journalist Chad Decker.

AS SEEN IN:

'Action'

"Twelfth Step To Hell"

SYNOPSIS:

Peter turns down Scott Wolf for the lead in "Beverly Hills Gun Club" and Leonardo DiCaptrio proves uninterested. So, he pulls Holden van Dorn out of rehab and leaves him in Adam Rafkin's care. (from the IMDb)

BCnU!

MISSING LINK THEORY - "KING & MAXWELL" AND "HOUSE, M.D."

In the "Pilot" episode of 'King & Maxwell', we were introduced to the private eye team of Sean King and Michelle Maxwell, both of whom were once Secret Service agents (but not at the same time.)  While investigating the death of his friend and mentor, Sean King opened up about his past:

His Secret Service career ended when the presidential candidate he was assigned to protect was assassinated.  Sean hit rock bottom after that, falling into a never-ending bender.  But his friend pulled him out of his drunken funk, got him through law school, and then helped set him up as a private investigator.

My Toobworld-honed mind immediately asked: "Who was the presidential candidate?"

'King & Maxwell' is based on a series of novels by David Baldacci, but a TV series is quite the different beastie.  That candidate may have been named in the books, but not in the show.  (At least, not yet.....)  So the tele-version is fair game for speculation.

The timeline is going to be tight, but I do have a candidate for the candidate:

Senator Gary H. Wright

(Joe Morton)

'House, M.D.'

"Role Model"

The episode took place in April of 2005, when the Senator faced serious health issues that were first diagnosed as AIDS, then as hairy-cell leukemia, and eventually treated correctly as Epstein-Barre Virus.  Senator Wright would be okay, but he'd have to be on medication for the rest of his life.

The Senator told Dr. House that he still intended to campaign for President.  He knew he didn't have a chance to win, but hopefully he would open the door for somebody else.

And as we all know, Senator Barack Obama became the 44th President of the United States in 2008, both in the real world, Earth Prime, and Earth Prime-Time.

Like I said, the timeline is tight, but it looks like somebody couldn't risk Senator Wright losing that race.

I'm going to claim that Senator Gary H. Wright was assassinated later in the year - Summer of 2005 would be my guess.  An outdoor campaign event would be the perfect venue for an assassin.

Sean King quit the Secret Service in disgrace for failing to protect his charge, and then slid into an alcohol-fueled depression for several months.  (Any longer and he could have ended up dead.)  Eventually his friend pulled him out of it and guided him into law school.  

Law school usually takes three years, so by 2010, Sean King had his degree and passed the bar.  But instead of becoming a lawyer, he set up shop to be a private eye, just like his mentor.

A couple years into his gig and Michelle Maxwell quit the Secret Service as well.  She gets her private eye licence and he takes her on as a partner.

When we met them in that first episode, it was still early days in their partnership.  Sean was still learning things about her - like how she's a slob.  And their agency had serious financial concerns, as any new business might have.

So all in all, the timeline could work to bring us up to date in 2013.

I'm sorry I had to sacrifice Joe Morton's character, but it was a one-shot and he has several others to still represent the actor in Toobworld.  One of them, a doctor at 'Mercy Point', hasn't even been born yet!

And it's not likely this claim will be contradicted on 'House', as that show is cancelled.  But it's pozz'ble, just pozz'ble, that we may one day learn the name of the assassinated candidate in a future episode of 'King & Maxwell'.

If so, fine.  The great thing about the Toobworld Dynamic is its fluidity.

BCnU!

LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES - STEPHEN J. GOULD

The invasion of the cicadas will soon be over, and those that survived this trip to the surface will head back underground for another seventeen years, until 2030.

Far be it from me not to find some way to mark this occasion for Inner Toob......

STEPHEN J. GOULD

From Wikipedia:
Stephen Jay Gould (September 10, 1941 – May 20, 2002) was an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and historian of science. He was also one of the most influential and widely read writers of popular science of his generation. Gould spent most of his career teaching at Harvard University and working at theAmerican Museum of Natural History in New York. In the later years of his life, Gould also taught biology and evolution at New York University.

Gould's most significant contribution to evolutionary biology was the theory of punctuated equilibrium, which he developed with Niles Eldredge in 1972. The theory proposes that most evolution is marked by long periods of evolutionary stability, which is punctuated by rare instances of branching evolution. The theory was contrasted against phyletic gradualism, the popular idea that evolutionary change is marked by a pattern of smooth and continuous change in the fossil record.

Most of Gould's empirical research was based on the land snail genera Poecilozonites and Cerion. He also contributed to evolutionary developmental biology, and has received wide praise for his book Ontogeny and Phylogeny. In evolutionary theory he opposed strict selectionism, sociobiology as applied to humans, andevolutionary psychology. He campaigned against creationism and proposed that science and religion should be considered two distinct fields (or "magisteria") whose authorities do not overlap.

Gould was known by the general public mainly from his 300 popular essays in the magazine Natural History,and his books written for a non-specialist audience. In April 2000, the US Library of Congress named him a "Living Legend".

AS SEEN IN:

'The Simpsons'

"Lisa The Skeptic"

TV DIMENSION:

The Tooniverse

And why did I choose him in connection to the cicadas?

From Stephen J. Gould:
Many potential predators have 2-5-year life cycles. Such cycles are not set by the availability of cicadas (for they peak too often in years of nonemergence), but cicadas might be eagerly harvested when the cycles coincide. Consider a predator with a life-cycle of five years: if cicadas emerged every 15 years, each bloom would be hit by the predator. By cycling at a large prime number, cicadas minimize the number of coincidences (every 5 x 17, or 85 years, in this case). Thirteen- and 17-year cycles cannot be tracked by any smaller number.

BCnU!

MISSING LINKS - "DOCTOR WHO" & "WAREHOUSE 13"

The artifact in the "Runaway" episode of 'Warehouse 13' was an amphora once owned by a Pompeii merchant who was able to escape death in the explosion of Mt. Vesuvius.  That traumatic experience imbued the amphora with the ability to send out a lava flow.

According to the episode, the merchant was never named.  So why couldn't he be a marble trader by the name of Caecillius?

From the TARDIS Core Wiki:

Lucius Caecilius Iucundus was a man who lived in Pompeii before Vesuvius erupted in 79. Husband of Metella and father to Evelina and Quintus, Caecilius was a marble trader with political ambitions; it was to impress Lucius Petrus Dextrus, high priest of the Cult of Vulcan, that he bought the Tenth Doctor's TARDIS at the market, intending to display it as "modern art".

Along with his family, Caecilius was spared from the devastation of Pompeii by the timely intervention of the Doctor. By early 80, Caecilius and his family had resettled in Rome, and adopted the Tenth Doctor and Donna as their household gods. (TV: "The Fires of Pompeii")

Now....

From the 'Warehouse 13' Wiki:

This jar was originally owned by a merchant that survived the Eruption of Mount Vesuvius on August 25th 79 A.D.

After surviving the destruction of Pompeii, the amphora was possessed with the destructive force of a volcanic eruption.

Collected by Steve, Myka and Pete after the side of a prison wall suddenly started to spew lava. It was later discovered that 2 prisoners has escaped in the confusion. One of the escapees had a pen pal whose grandmother recently passed away; the grandmother left her antique collection to her granddaughter which had just arrived from Italy. [O]ne of the escapees used the amphora to murder his partner and then proceeded to do the same to local gang members in an attempt to stop his son from becoming a gang banger like him.

When the lid on the amphora is opened lava begins pouring out of it like water out of a hose. This artifact can be used to bury someone in lava, create a river of lava, or be used like  a welding torch to burn through solid objects. Also, when this artifact is activated volcanic ash begins falling from the sky. When this artifact is deactivated any lava that has been created cools and turns to stone almost immediately.

In the year of 79 AD, Mount Vesuvius erupted in one of the most catastrophic and famous eruptions in European history. Historians have learned about the eruption from the eyewitness account of Pliny the Younger, a Roman administrator and poet.  ("Runaway")

So I think we just may have an unofficial link between 'Warehouse 13' and 'Doctor Who'.  In fact, I would not be surprised to learn that the writer of the episode deliberately left the name of the Pompeii survivor a mystery so that Crossoverologists such as myself could make that connection!

BCnU!

LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES - GEORGE PLIMPTON

GEORGE PLIMPTON

AS SEEN IN:

'Just Shoot Me'

"A&E Biography: Nina Van Horn"

&

'The Simpsons'

"I'm Spelling As Fast As I Can"

From Wikipedia:

George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 – September 25, 2003) was an American journalist, writer, editor, actor, and gamesman. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review.

Television appearances:

• Plimpton! The Man on the Flying Trapeze, (documentary), himself, ABC, February 1971
• Mouseterpiece Theater, host, himself, Disney Channel, 1983–1984
• The Civil War, reading the diary of New Yorker, George Templeton Strong, 1990
• Wings, "The Shrink," Dr. Grayson 1994
• Voice, Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns, PBS 1994
• Married... with Children, 200 Episode Special Host "Best O' Bundy" 1995
• ER, playing "John Truman Carter, Sr.," 1998 and 2001
• Saturday Night Live, as himself, uncredited, 1999 and 2002. In the March 13 episode of Saturday Night Live Season 1, he is one of the audience cutaway shots (usually featured in the early seasons with comedic and fictitious non-sequitur captions as to whom the audience member was, or what they did). He is labelled as having "Roomed with Wendy Yoshimura".
• A Nero Wolfe Mystery, playing various roles in 10 episodes, 2001–2002
• The Simpsons, playing himself in the episode "I'm Spelling as Fast as I Can", originally aired February 16, 2003
• Just Shoot Me, playing himself in the show's A&E Biography of fictional character 'Nina Van Horn', 2003
• Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser, pitchman, himself, released by Oldsmobile in late 1968 for the 1969 model year
• Intellivision, pitchman, himself, released by Mattel in 1979
• "Pop-Secret", pitchman, himself.

Two for Tuesday!

BCnU!

LIFE DURING PRIME TIME: ALBULENA PRELVUKAJ

We've got another edition of "Life During Prime Time" today.  This is the third installment of a new feature in which we take a look at how living La Vida TiVo could be different from the mundane life people live in the real world.  And for the time being, my subjects are friends of mine.

We're taking a more fanciful approach with today's model.  Which is not surprising since she captures the fancy.....

ALBULENA PRELVUKAJ

This isn't a great picture for seeing Albulena, who's a loverly young lady (and whose nickname is my grandmother's name, so bonus points there!) But I've chosen it because it's more due to her association with the squirrel.

No, really!

As you can see, it's a red squirrel, which had an episode of a 1960s sitcom focused on one of its species:

'MY FAVORITE MARTIAN'

"MY NUT CUP RUNNETH OVER"

Martin's malfunctioning molecular reassembler is what Tim uses to accidentally turn a squirrel into a human being. Martin has to fix the reassembler within 8 hours or else "Red" as they've coined him will be permanently changed to that of a human. In the meantime, Red's family moves in with the O'Hara's until he can be changed back to his proper squirrel state. Problems arise when Det. Brennan and Mrs. Brown come for a visit and notice a squirrel entering the apartment. The detective talks about calling in an exterminator to which Red takes offense and runs off. Tim finds him in an obvious location, a nut shop. To explain Red's conviction to the store clerk and the police called in that he's a squirrel, Martin states that they are a singing group called the Squirrels performing at that evening's Police Follies. They do perform at the Follies, much in the same vein as the Chipmunks, before they take Red home to transform him back to his proper state. Written by Huggo for IMDb

I took this plot-line and ran with it, claiming that Red's enhanced intelligence was retained once he was returned to his natural form. And that meant that the red squirrel population which grew exponentially from Red onwards, was now one of the most sentient species on Earth Prime-Time.

Since red squirrels can, on occasion, mate with the more populous gray squirrels, that IQ capability was transferred to the grays as well... but with disasterous results. It led to a spike in gray squirrel crime!

But here we see Albulena with one of the reds in the real world. Had this been Toobworld, however, there could be an entire backstory to this. For instance, perhaps she's friends with the squirrel; maybe even partners in some venture. (They fight crime!)  As with Wilbur Post and 'Mr. Ed', maybe Albulena's televersion can actually converse with the squirrel, something that isn't known to the general public. That could lead to awkward situations; hilarity ensues.

And it should have a typically bad sitcom title - like "Nutty Buddies"!

But it certainly beats how the majority of people end up playing themselves on TV - either getting dragged out of their homes with no shirt on (a la 'Cops'), or getting hit in the groin with a rake like happens all the time on 'America's Funniest Home Videos'.

Speaking of nuts.....

BCnU!

LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES - REBECCA WHEATLEY

REBECCA WHEATLEY

AS SEEN IN:
'Pie In The Sky'
"In The Smoke"

From Wikipedia:Rebecca Wheatley (born 1965) is a British actress and musician.

She is best known as Amy Howard, the receptionist in the BBC's 'Casualty' drama, a role which she played for four years from September 1997 until March 2001. She was a regular panelist on 'Loose Women' in 2002.

Although Wheatley originally trained as a classical singer, she has become well known for various types of popular music. She has sung in many of the cabaret venues in the West End of London, including The Café Royal, The Ritz and The Savoy. She has also sung at the Grand Opera House in Belfast in televised performances for BBC Northern Ireland, and at the Royal Albert Hall for The TV Times "Christmas Carols with the Stars" event.

While in Casualty, she recorded two Top 10 singles; "Everlasting Love" with the 'Casualty' cast, and "Stay With Me (Baby)" solo, as well as a solo album,"Time Stands Still".

On 4 December 2007, she was a guest on 'The Paul O'Grady Show' where she talked about her 12.5 stone (175 lb) weight loss after following the Slimming World plan, to coincide with the release of her weight-loss DVD.

O'BSERVATION:

Ms. Wheatley was only listed as "Singer" in the credits, but as she is a professional singer and was performing at a very trendy little nightclub, I think it's safe to assume that she was playing herself.

BCnU!

HAVE WE LEARNED NOTHING FROM "HEIDI"?

The CBS affiliate in Atlanta decided to cut away from the Tony Awards Sunday night with about seven minutes to go in order to start their local news show was not met with much approval.  And their attempt to make up for it later in the broadcast didn't go over well either.....



In the comments someone claimed that the station did show the lost portion later on all of their platforms, but it never should have happened in the first place.

TOOBMUSIC - "CALL ME MAYBE" (with THE DOCTOR'S COMPANIONS)

LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES - GEORGE KENNEDY

GEORGE KENNEDY

 

AS SEEN IN:

 

'Wings'

"What About Larry?"

 

SYNOPSIS:

While on Nantucket for a nice quiet vacation, the Oscar winning actor is constantly pestered by Brian Hackett......

 

This is going out to my brother Andrew.  It's his birthday today.

 

When he was a little boy, his imaginary friend's name was George Kennedy.

O'BSERVATIONS:
Kennedy's membership in the League of Themselves links this show to a two-part story on 'Benson'.  It could also be argued that his hosting duties on 'Saturday Night Live' could also be considered part of Earth Prime-Time.  (Any sketches he appeared in would be part of Skitlandia.)
 

BCnU!