THEORIES OF RELATEEVEETY - CLAN CANABY

The Mavericks were related to the Canaby family on their mother's side.  (This is not to say her maiden name was Canaby, just that she was related to them.)  The Canabys were an old Southern family who owned slaves before the Civil War.  Many of the descendents of those slaves carried the Canaby name after their emancipation and some of them were of the same bloodline as their owners.  

As some of their children migrated north after gaining their freedom, the family name was corrupted to becoming "Canby".  (This would make Archie Bunker's housekeeper Ellen Canby a distant relative to the tall dark strangers known as the Mavericks.)

One of Bart Maverick's older cousins on that side of the family was Fenton Canaby, who gained notoriety near the end of the Civil War for leading a disasterous wagon train in which everybody else died.  (Tired of his Captain Bligh-like rules, the families on that train knocked him out and left him behind.  Then they struck out in the direction he told them would lead to catastrophe.)  Although about a decade older than Bart, he could still be considered Bart's "identical cousin".  Had they been the same age, one would be hard-pressed to tell them apart.

Rescued from life as a near-savage desert rat by a wagon train led by Chris Hale in the early 1870s, Fenton fell in love with a passenger making the trip West, Lucy Garrison.  (Lucy's great-nephew, Patrick Garrison, would work as a reporter for the New York Daily Record during the "Roaring" 1920's.)

The family tree begun by Fenton and Lucy would lead to the birth of Cinnamon Carter in 1932.  And she would have a daughter given up for adoption named Helena.  (Helena would die in 1999 during an atomic fuel dump explosion at one of the secret lunar colonies.)

So through Fenton and Lucy Canaby, I'm declaring this a theory of relateeveety that links one episode of 'Wagon Train' to 'Maverick', 'Mission: Impossible', 'Space: 1999', 'The Roaring 20's', and 'Archie Bunker's Place'.

SHOWS CITED:

• 'Wagon Train' - "The Fenton Canaby Story"
• 'Maverick'
• 'Mission: Impossible'
• 'Space: 1999'
• 'The Roaring 20's'
• 'Archie Bunker's Place'

BCnU!

LA TRIVIATA: A TOOBWORLD PAPER OF RECORD

'WAGON TRAIN'

"THE FENTON CANABY STORY"

Fenton Canaby was an infamous wagon train master whose last party proved to be a disaster on a par with the Donner Party.  Thanks to a journal kept by the doomed Byron Lowe, Canaby's story was told in newspapers all across the country.

One of those newspapers was the New York Record, which was also featured in 'The Roaring Twenties' as the paper for which Scott Norris and Pat Garrison worked back in the 1920's.  By that time, the name of the paper was changed to The Daily Record.  

(Sorry about that imprint on the screencap, Chief!)

BCnU!

TUESDAY NEWS DAY - WESTERN EDITION

From Deadline.com:

Turn co-star Angus Macfadyen is set for one of the lead roles in The Pinkertons, Canadian companies Rosetta Media and Buffalo Gal Pictures’ upcoming 22-episode action-adventure detective series that is set to premiere in first-run syndication in the U.S. this fall. It has been cleared in more than 85% of the country by Rohrs Media Group on station groups including Tribune, Weigel, Hearst, LIN, Meredith, Cox and the CW PLUS.

Drawing on the real cases of Pinkerton Detective Agency, The Pinkertons follows founder Allan Pinkerton (Macfadyen), his son, William, and America’s first female detective, Kate Warne, as they solve crimes throughout the “Wild West” of the 1860s (Pinkerton is known for revolutionizing detective work by developing use of surveillance, undercover work and the mug shot). In part because of his commitment to AMC drama Turn, on which he is a regular, Macfadyen is will be a recurring guest star on The Pinkertons, not appearing in all episodes. Turn was renewed in June for a 10-episode second season to air in the spring.

BCnU!

SUPER SIX LIST - WORLD WAR ONE

August 4, 1914 - Great Britain declares war on Germany. The declaration is binding on all Dominions within the British Empire including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and South Africa.

August 4, 1914 - The United States declares its neutrality.

August 4-16, 1914 - The Siege of Liege occurs as Germans attack the Belgian fortress city but meet resistance from Belgian troops inside the Liege Forts. The twelve forts surrounding the city are then bombarded into submission by German and Austrian howitzers using high explosive shells. Remaining Belgian troops then retreat northward toward Antwerp as the German westward advance continues.

WORLD WAR ONE

IN THE TV UNIVERSE

1)  'Blackadder Goes Forth'
The fourth series in this sitcom about the Blackadders of History ended in a freeze-frame as Captain Blackadder led his men in a suicide charge into No Man's Land.

2)  'Downton Abbey'
Downton heir Matthew Crawley and two of the servants - Thomas Barrows and William Mason - serve in the trenches.  All three were wounded, but only William eventually succumbed to his.

3)  'M*A*S*H'
"Old Soldiers"
The last of Colonel Potter's friends from his WWI unit in France has died. They created a tontine--a pledge--involving a bottle of French wine, to be drunk by the last surviving member.

4)  'Tales From The Crypt'
"Yellow"
A General must deal with his own son who fled during battle and now faces execution.

5)  'Warehouse 13'
"Secret Santa"
An artifact created from a shell casing present at the Christmas Truce of 1914 is imbued with the harmony of good will from that moment in time.

6)  "Pipes Of Peace"
Paul McCartney's music video about the Christmas truce of 1914.

http://touch.dailymotion.com/video/x22w1v_paul-mccartney-pipes-of-peace_music

Toobworld theory: Sweet the Demon was present during the truce.

SKITLANDIA BONUS

'Monty Python's Flying Circus'
 "Ypres 1914"

http://youtu.be/2_SddMc3Vik

http://www.montypython.net/scripts/ypres.php

I could also have cited 'Beacon Hill', 'Upstairs, Downstairs', 'James Garner As Nichols', and several others......

BCnU!

TVXOHOF ADDENDUM: BRET MAVERICK, CLASS OF 2007

Bret Maverick became a member of the Television Crossover Hall of Fame in July of 2007 as the TV Western inductee for that year.  The funny thing was, even though he was the first Maverick we met in Toobworld, it was his brother Bart who beat him to the punch - Bart was inducted into the TVXOHOF in August of 2001!

Bart's "induction ceremony" took place on the old "Tubeworld Dynamic" web site which was forced into retirement by AOL getting rid of the easy-to-use service.  So that's lost to the aether.  

However, you can still read about Bret's induction here.

His qualifications as of seven years ago were:

'Maverick'

'Young Maverick'

'Bret Maverick'

and

"The Maverick Movie"

But since that time, I've learned that Bret Maverick also showed up in an episode of 'Sugarfoot'.  So that should be added to his tally.

Bret also appeared in the TV dimension of Skitlandia in a Bob Hope special as seen below.

And he is a true multiversal besides his appearance in the Cineverse - there were also the comic books!

And let's not forget the Little Golden Book......

But most tempting all to include in the TVXOHOF exhibit?

Maybe I should hang that over the entrance to the Western Wing.....

BCnU!

LITTLE BIG SCREEN - "A MAN CALLED HORSE" (AND THE "TRUE" STORY)

Toobnote: Since the overall theme this year is "Toobworld Goes To The Movies", I decided to leave this previously scheduled blog post as is instead of moving it to next year.  The "Maverick" salute will continue on Monday......

The August showcase is a movie starring Richard Harris entitled "A Man Called Horse".

From Scott Lane at the IMDb:

"In 1825 an English aristocrat is captured by Indians. He lives with them and begins to understand/accept their lifestyles. Eventually he is accepted as part of the tribe and becomes their leader."

As was the case with "Casablanca" at the beginning of the year, here's how it plays out in Earth Prime-Time:

The movie does exist in the main Toobworld, but we had to go to Cologne, Germany, and the sitcom 'Lukas' for validation:

'Lukas'

"Hasch mich" 

Klaus-Dieter, better known as "Keile" mentioned the movie in this episode.

But the movie took liberties with the "historical event" which was seen in a 1957 episode of 'Wagon Train' by the same name.

First off, the story told by Horse took place in the three years before he met Major Adams, Flint McCullough, and Charlie Wooster.  This would make it the late 1860s, culminating with his arrival at the wagon train in the early 1870s.  This means Horse missed the Civil War by working as a clerk in the law offices of Lorimer & Forbes.  (Mr. Lorimer was the man he hoped would give consent to his marriage to Lorimer's daughter Lucinda.)

In Toobworld history, Horse was an American, found abandoned on the doorstep of a Boston orphanage when he was an infant.  In order to have an identity, he was given the name of the street on which the orphanage was located.

His name in those Boston years was never mentioned in the 'Wagon Train' episode, but in the movie Richard Harris played Lord John Morgan.  (Making him British was another liberty taken with the "facts".  But several American actors, many associated with Westerns, had turned down the role.  Once the English actor was offered the role, adjustments had to be made with the script.)

But perhaps the name itself wasn't altered.  Maybe he was "John Morgan" back in Boston.  If so, then the orphanage had to be located in the Boston suburb of Somers; that's where we'll find a Morgan Street in the Beantown area.

The Chief of the Crow who had captured him and who presented him as a gift to his mother was named Yellow Robe, but the movie changed it to Yellow Hand.  Yellow Hand's sister was Running Deer, but in Toobworld "reality" she was known as Bright Star.

The other major Native American character from Toobworld was the future mother-in-law of Horse, who "owned" him.  She was only known as "Old Mother" to the wagon train crew because Horse never offered up her name.  So I'm thinking the movie used her actual name based on research into the life story of Horse: Buffalo Cow Head.  

The fate of Horse in Toobworld is unknown.  By morning, once Old Mother had rested, Horse departed the wagon train with his mother-in-law to find a new life.

Old Mother was not long for the world, but Horse would have stayed with her until she died.  After that?  Maybe he made a second attempt to enter the "white man's world".  Perhaps he took on another name and started again in the wild, wild west.  (Although there doesn't seem to be any previously established TV Western characters from other shows who could have been Horse.  Either their back-stories and family relations would clash with those of Horse, or they're just too mean and ornery to have been the good-hearted "squaw-man".

 

SHOWS & MOVIES CITED:

• 'Wagon Train' - "A Man Called Horse"
• "A Man Called Horse"
• 'Lukas'

LITTLE BIG SCREEN - "MAVERICK" (THIS MONTH'S FEATURE SHOWCASE)

As you should all know by now, one of the giants of the Toobworld pantheon passed away last month.  On July 19th, James Garner died at the age of 86.  For Earth Prime-Time he was best known as Bret Maverick and Jim Rockford.

Since I've been posting intermittent essays about the relationship between Toobworld and the Cineverse* all year, and because Mr. Garner was one of my TV idols, it seemed only right that for the central theme of our TV Western showcase month of August we should have as many posts about the 1994 movie version of 'Maverick' as I can come up with.

Might as well start with the movie's relationship to the TV show.....

Oh, and by the way - the movie is twenty years old this year.  This will be your only warning that I will speak freely about it and that there will be SPOILERS!  (And if you haven't seen it yet, good Lord, dear reader!  What's taking you so long????)

There must be those out there who think Mel Gibson is THE Bret Maverick in this movie and that Garner was playing Beauregard Maverick.  So in a way, they're looking at it as though it's a remake and not a continuation.  If so, I wish them all the best over there in the Cineverse and no regrets.

But for me, this is one movie that deserves to be absorbed into the TV Universe as it is.  From my perspective, Gibson is Bret Maverick JUNIOR while Garner is reprising his role as the original Bret Maverick.

And your old Toobmeister is also going to claim that many another TV Western character showed up at that marathon poker game that serves as the major climax of the movie.  (There are a few after-shocks before it's over.)  There was even the ancestor of one of the current citizens of Toobworld attending the game.  And who knows?  I might find one or two others.

So you saw "Maverick", like I did, at the movie theatre.  It doesn't matter.  This is a movie whose true home is on your TV screen.  And it will be the focus for many more posts over the coming month.....

BCnU!

* Look for posts with "Little Big Screen" in the heading......

TVXOHOF, 08/2014 - SAM BUCKHART

August is the month in which we traditionally induct a TV character from one of the Westerns.  And I wouldn't want to break with Tradition.

The 2014 TV Western character who's being inducted into the Hall is U.S. Marshal Sam Buckhart, in memory of Michael Ansara who died last Summer.  

Sam Buckhart was the main character of 'Law Of The Plainsman'.  But he was introduced in two episodes of 'The Rifleman'.

His appearance in 'The Rifleman' took place at some time in the 1880s, since the McCains didn't come to North Fork and buy their ranch until 1881.

As seen in 'The Rifleman'

The TV series began in 1878 at least, determined by the proclamation of "amnesty" declared by New Mexco governor Lew Wallace for gunfighters involved in the Lincoln County War.  (Historically, this happened in the Autumn of 1878 and it was news to Marshal Buckhart.)

So here we have a TV character whose life didn't begin with his introduction into the inner history of Toobworld.

But that still leaves us one shy of the required three appearances in three different TV venues.  And with my nominee for the third attribute of eligibility, I had to engage in conjecture based on the Game of the Name.

I'm going to claim that U.S. Marshal Sam Buckhart died while using the alias of "Reynolds" when he later became a special agent for the Overland Express.

As "Reynolds", Buckhart was in charge of an Overland Express shipment of $200,000.  He and his deputies were ambushed and he was the only one to survive - at least long enough to reach Opportunity, Arizona, and deposit the money in safe to be found in that one-dog town's only bank.

("Reynolds" had taken the Southern route and then headed north through the desert.  That probably means he began his journey in his native New Mexico and came through the Chihuahuan Desert.  The Chihuahuan Desert is the easternmost and southernmost of the four North American deserts.  So if we're looking for Opportunity, Arizona, on a Toobworld map, we'd probably find it at the northernmost tip of the Chihuahuan Desert.)

Before he had the chance to get horse doctor Henry Gill to cut the bullet out of him, "Reynolds" keeled over and died outside the saloon.  He was buried just outside of Opportunity, with no one in town knowing that his real name was Sam Buckhart.

The splainin is simple enough - At least a decade after being a U.S. Marshal in New Mexico, Sam Buckhart finally decided to take a new job that paid better: workng for the Overland Express.  But with this one last job (not that he knew it), Buckhart decided that his reputation might precede him and there could be outlaws ready to steal the money if they knew Sam Buckhart was hired to escort the shipment.  

So he chose the name of "Reynolds".  I'm not sure what led him to that choice.  Perhaps it was the name of someone he knew when he was a U.S. Marshal.  (However, I checked the cast lists for the episodes of 'Law Of The Plainsman' and no Reynolds showed up.)

There was a Jack and Clara Reynolds who took the 'Wagon Train' west.  A riverboat passenger named Harvey Reynolds whom 'Cheyenne' Bodie encountered.  And a Sarah Reynolds who was accused of being a witch in an episode of 'Bonanza'.

Also in an episode of 'Bonanza', there was another Reynolds who was a major at a fort in Arizona and who bore an uncanny resemblance to Deputy Sheriff Clem (a recurring character on 'Bonanza'.)  Major Reynolds disobeyed a direct order and tried to wipe out Cochise, so I don't think he was the inspiration for the name.  Especially since Sam Buckhart must have known how much he himself resembled Cochise.

But wherever he got the name, Sam Buckhart took it with him to his grave, never revealing his true identity to the people of Opportunity, Arizona.

At least that's my story and I'm sticking with it.

So here's to you, Sam Buckhart.  Apache.  U.S. Marshal.  Harvard-educated.  Special Agent for the Overland Express.

And now, a member of the TV Crossover Hall of Fame!

SHOWS CITED:

• 'Law Of The Plainsman'
• 'The Rifleman' - "The Indian"
• 'The Rifleman' - "The Raid"
• "Shootout In A One-Dog Town" (TV movie)

BCnU!