THE GAME OF THE NAME: RYDER/RIDER

'Pie In The Sky'

"Doggett's Coat And Badge"

The other day I mentioned a burglar turned informant named Joseph James Webb who was given a new identity and a new place to live as part of his witness relocation program.  To Henry Crabbe and his neighbors in Middleton of Westershire, he had been known as Charles Rider for many decades.....

I think he chose that name out of his admiration for the original book "Brideshead Revisited" which in Toobworld could have been written by the narrator, Charles Ryder.  If its Real World author Evelyn Waugh was ever mentioned in connection with the book, he could serve the same position as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the consideration of "Sherlockologists" (Holmesians?) - that of the editor for the publication.

The TV adaptation of Ryder's story exists in Toobworld - eventually everybody in Earth Prime-Time will get their lives featured on TV.  

Here are the examples listed by the IMDb:

'The Nanny': "Kissing Cousins" (1997)
Fran mentions the show by name.

'Mystery Science Theater 3000': "The Pumaman" (1998)
Mike: "We now revisit 'Brideshead Revisited.'"

'Frasier': "Star Mitzvah" (2002)
After Frasier tells Noel, that 'Star Trek' was just a TV show, Noel says "So was 'Brideshead Revisited'."

'Are You Being Served?': "Calling All Customers" (1983)
When the staff are discussing different plots for the radio commercial, Captain Pecock says "how about a sort of 'Brideshead Revisited'?"

'ALF': "Wanted: Dead or Alive" (1989)
ALF calls Lynn "Miss Brideshead Revisited."

(There were also references in 'The Simpsons' and 'The West Wing', but as they take place in alternate TV dimensions they aren't of concern for this article.)

I don't know what it was about Charles Ryder that would inspire Joe Webb to choose Ryder's name as his "nom de informateur", but when it came time to entering the name into the official records to establish the new identity, somebody in the program's bureaucracy mis-spelled the name as "Rider" instead of "Ryder"......

BCnU!