THE SHAME OF TOOBWORLD - GAME OVER!

TELE-FOLKS DIRECTORY - WHO'S A FAN OF VICTOR WOOLF?

CEDRIC DERWENT & ROBIN HOOD

Actor Victor Woolf may have been the hardest working man in the TV series 'The Adventures of Robin Hood'.  He had two established characters (which I will be combining into one.) plus other roles - sometimes even playing several in the same episode.

In fact, in at least two episodes Woolf played four roles!  Here's an example:

"QUEEN ELEANOR"
1.  At the table with the Sheriff of Nottingham

2.  A forester when fighting the ambushers

3.  The baker, bringing his bread to Nottingham

4.  Innkeeper at the Blue Boar

Woolf's two main characters were members of Robin Hood's gang of "Merry Men" - Cedric and Derwent.  But I think we could say that they are one and the same man - that his full name was Cedric Derwent.  Perhaps he was named after his father, but we'll have more on that rogue later.

Not of all of Victor Woolf's other characters on the show had names.  They would only be listed in the credits by their description.  But here's a list of those others he played whose names were revealed:

• Hugh of the Wood
  (Hugh may be the villager in "The Ordeal" who accused Edgar of murder.)
  
  
  
  
• Alfred the Innkeeper
  (I'm assuming his inn was the Blue Boar....)
• The Abbott of Whitby
  (Could the monk he played in earlier episodes have been elevated to that post?)
  
  
  
  
• Peter the Cobbler
• Albert the Barber
• Andrew Limpus the Ironsmith
• Mat Maynard
• Sir Henry

As you can see, I tried to combine other characters with those so named who had similar lots in Life, just to keep things tidy.

And then there were a slew of other characters, background fodder as it were.  And although several of them are listed only once - for instance, the Soldier, the Monk, the Tramp - they appeared in several episodes each......

• A Forester
• A Squire
• A Monk
• A Tax Collector
• A Tramp
• A Soldier
• A Jailer
• A Prisoner
• A Court Clerk
• A Pilgrim
• A Master Armourer
• A Goldsmith

Imagine if the jailer had to keep watch over his own look-alike!

I've also determined that every character he played who was only listed as "Outlaw" was in actuality Cedric Derwent.

By the time the series reached its third season, Woolf's output on the series began to wane until he was only playing Derwent - if he appeared at all.  I have seen it suggested online that he may have asked for a raise for doing double and triple duty, and that led to a reduction in his workload.

But now comes the second bit of televisiology associated with Victor Woolf on this show.

None of those characters listed above ever knew it probably, but they were all half-brothers!  (Some of them may have been acknowledged as twins of the same mother.  I'd like to think the Soldier and the Monk, and perhaps the Goldsmith and the Master Armourer, came from the same families.)

It's the Toobworld contention that there is a character never seen on the series who played an important role - as the "father" of Cedric Derwent and all of those other characters.  And by "father" I just mean he was the sperm-donor, a regular Little Johnny Happyseed.  He wooed a lot of lonely housewives throughout the Nottingham countryside and then left them behind, impregnated with his future sons.  Those women would be left on their own to explain how they got pregnant to their husbands who may have been away on the Crusades.

In this situation, Cedric Derwent, Senior was a lot like Cass Caldicott many centuries later.  In fact, it's pozz'ble, just pozz'ble, that the elder Derwent was born to rerun as that mountain man.

It would appear that the DNA strain of Derwent the Elder was so strong that all of his offspring bore an incredible likeness to their biological father, in much the same way as happened with Cass Caldicott and with the family tree of Randolph Agarn.  So perhaps we could claim that other characters played by Victor Woolf in other TV series were descended from this one man.

Perhaps even another villager centuries later, but in "The Village" where they had given him a number, but taken away his name....

It's worth a shot....

SHOWS CITED:

• 'The Rifleman'
• 'F Troop'
• 'The Prisoner'

BCnU!

PS:

The picture of Victor Woolf to illustrate what Derwent the Elder looked like comes from the Cineverse - "Frankenstein And The Monster From Hell", Mr. Woolf's penultimate film........

IN REMEMBRANCE......

THE HAT SQUAD: TIGER, TYGER - REMEMBERING ARLENE MARTEL

There was a point there in August when Death was working overtime (and sadly given assistance by one of its collectibles.)  

• Robin Williams
• Lauren Bacall
• Ed Nelson
• Arlene Martel

Along with James Garner having passed away just a few weeks before near the end of July, the death of a legend like Bacall and the suicide of Williams overshadowed the passings of the other two.  As such, I'd like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to one of the many Toobworld characters played by Arlene Martel:

MARIE LOUISE MONET

But she is better known as "Tiger Lily", a legendary member of the French Resistance during World War II.

"Tiger Lily" was her code name, taken from the German Tiger tank.  It was the object of her first mission with the French Underground.

Marie Monet was born on November 9, 1921.  It is believed that she is college-educated, but otherwise not much is known of her pre-war background.  At least half a dozen times she came into contact with the "prisoners" of Stalag 13 while on her missions.  And she may have become romantically involved with Colonel Robert Hogan while hiding in the camp.  

The last time she was seen by Colonel Hogan (that we know of) was when she had been captured by the Gestapo and sentenced to execution.  Hogan and his men were able to get her away safely and sent her off to England.

The 'Hogan's Heroes' wiki has no speculation as to whether or not she survived the war, but I'd like to think that she did.  And in fact, she arrived in England with a little more than just the clothes on her back, something she had not bargained on.....

I think she was pregnant by Colonel Hogan.

Marie Monet knew she was not the maternal kind and that it would only be to the detriment of her unborn child if she even tried to raise it herself.  (For one thing, I believe the adrenaline allure of her chosen cause was too much to ignore.  Sooner or later she would return to the fight across the channel in her native land.  And should die for that cause, what traumatic effect would that leave on her daughter?)

While in England, she spoke to several anti-war groups and was debriefed by the OSS on what she knew from her past missions.  It was during this time, as she remained in the country for the birth of her baby, Marie became friends with an aristocratic couple, Mr. and Mrs. Rowan.  They took her in and gave her lodging at their estate, with the hopes that she would change her mind about going back to the front and re-joining the Resistance.  

But Marie was more determined than ever to get back in order to help bring down the Third Reich and the Rowans soon accepted that there would be no changing her mind.

She did, however, have one request of them: Marie hoped that the Rowans could find a good home for her baby so that she wouldn't be distracted by worries for the child as she carried out her missions.

The Rowans knew there was only one perfect solution - they would raise the baby themselves, never letting the child forget who her real mother was and what a hero she had been during the War.

And so, soon after giving birth to a baby girl, Marie Louise Monet, otherwise known as "Tiger Lily", slipped away in the night to return to France.  She left only one caveat for the Rowans - that the little girl was to be named Roberta, after her father Robert Hogan.

Perhaps the 'Hogan's Heroes' wiki was right.  Maybe her fate was never discovered; perhaps she did die during the war.  We never saw Colonel Hogan after the war ended either, unlike Colonel Klink.  It could be that he didn't survive the war either.  It's the sick and twisted romantic in me that would like to think they died together on one last mission......

At any rate, I don't think she ever got the chance to come back to Great Britain and see how her daughter had turned out.....

Roberta Rowan grew up to be a lovely young woman who was known by all her friends as Bobbi.  By 1962, Lady Bobbi Rowan had a daughter of her own, whom she named after the mother she only knew as this mythic figure - "Tyger" Hayes.

When she grew up, Tyger Hayes was determined to succeed in the business world in America.  After the death of her husband Chase Marshall in a racing car accident, Tyger attempted to join his family's firm of Kellico in order to carry on his legacy, but she was opposed by Chase's father, Hadden Marshall.  However, Chase's aunt, Hadden's sister Margaret, encouraged Tyger to make a go of a new line of perfumes despite the machinations of Hadden Marshall's other daughter-in-law, Ava.

As I said, I'd like to believe that Marie Monet survived World War II and one day, when she was much older, she had the chance to meet her granddaughter who was named in her honor.

BCnU!

TUESDAY NEWS DAY - A BRITISH "GOOD WIFE"?

It's believed that ITV is currently developing a British version of 'The Good Wife'.  Hopefully, they'll at least change the names of the characters.  (I hate when they're that lazy with a remake!)  But it would also be nice if they strike out on their own with the plot developments.

There's nothing wrong with the basic premise being used  again - a woman finds out her husband, who was powerful in local government, is brought low by a sex and corrupton scandal which will be sending him off to jail.  

Needing to bring in the income herself now for her family, the woman re-enters the workforce as a lawyer - for the first time since she got married.  

It's not unreasonable to believe that happens often in Toobworld.

But when it comes down to the details, I'd rather not see British counterparts to Eli Gold or Clarke Hayden or Louis Canning.  At least not slavish copycats.  I would especially hate to see this woman begin an affair with a co-worker, only to fight him in a power struggle over the law firm and then see him get gunned down.

If all that happened, I think there would be no choice but to ship this drama off to another TV dimension.

'All In The Family' may have been a remake of 'Til Death Do Us Part', but they established their own voice from the get-go despite have the same basic family dynamic.  The American version of 'The Office' may have followed the Ricky Gervais original for about a dozen episodes but then struck off into fertile new territory so that they were quite different beasties.  (Which is a good thing since David Brent eventually met his American doppelganger, Michael Scott.)

But the American version of 'Shameless' took the lazy route and used the same names for the family members as the original series did.  And the American 'Being Human' couldn't think of any other combination for the roommates than vampire, werewolf, and ghost.  Is that really so commonplace?

Not that it matters, I guess.  I shipped all the vampire shows off to their own TV dimension.  They are just too prevalent and in the spotlight (even if it burns.....)

So here's hoping the British version of 'The Good Wife' doesn't try to pass itself off as the same show.  She should stand on her own feet and make her mark on Toobworld.  That way they can co-exist.

BCnU!

THEORIES OF RELATEEVEETY - THE OSWALDS (ALPHA & OMEGA)

Arthur A'Bland was accused of a murder he did not commit and was forced to flee into Sherwood Forest where he sought sanctuary among the outlaws.  Having left his children, Oswald and Alys behind, they were forced into serfdom by the local lord.

Oswald knew that even though he was just a boy, he was a free man.  And so he rebelled against his servitude for which he was punished by being chained in the dungeon.  

Alys came up with a plan of escape and they fled into the forest to find their father.  Eventually Arthur's name was cleared and the family was able to return to their home.

When Oswald came of age, he married and had children of his own.  And his family eventually dropped the surname of A'Bland and took up the name of their founding father - Oswald.

The lineage continued unbroken into the 20th Century where a young woman would be born into the Oswald family by the name of Clara.  And in the new millennium she would be known as "The Impossible Girl" who was born to save the Time Lord known as the Doctor.

UPDATE: This may be the reason why Clara was so keen on meeting Robin Hood, to meet the legendary hero who helped save her ancestors.  However, because she and the 12th Doctor met a Robin Hood (in "Robot Of Sherwood") who looked nothing like the official Robin Hood of Toobworld, it would appear that the TARDIS brought them into an alternate dimension.  (The TARDIS doesn't always bring the Doctor where he wants to go, but always to where he needs to go.....)

BCnU!

CHARACTER SKETCH: SID FIELDS OF DREAMS

'Make Room For Daddy'

"The Reunion"

Twenty years after they went their separate ways, three of Danny Williams' childhood friends came to New York so that they could all hang out together again.  Unbeknownst to Danny, they all went on to highly successful careers:

• Harry worked for NASA as a rocket scientist.

• Dr. C. Marion Patman (aka Charlie, aka "Fingers") was a highly successful surgeon who had performed state-of-the-art operations on some famous people.

• Joe Ferbus was a diplomat who at the beck and call of the President.  (When called away to return to Washington D.C., it was at the request of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.)

Even though he was a highly successful performer in night clubs, Danny Williams felt like a loser in comparison to his friends.  And while he was taking a nap the next day, he dreamt that he had the skills to save his friends from difficult problems in their own fields.  However, each dream was interrupted by his high school teacher, Miss Pelham, who would not let Danny forget that he only finished one year of high school.

There was another man in those dreams of Danny's......  

He worked the console at NASA.

He assisted as another surgeon during a tricky operation.  

And he was present at treaty negotiations with France.  

The other people in Danny's dreams were all based on people he knew in the waking world.  So why not the supporting players in his dreamscape?  And if so, who could this man have been to Danny?

Since Danny Williams was living in Manhattan, and that mystery man in his dreams was played by Bill Erwin, I'm going to claim that Danny put Sid Fields into his dream as several characters.

When we met Sid Fields, he was an irascible old codger in New York City who didn't have a single kind thing to say to anybody.  Despite all the whining and complaining by Sid, we never really learned any more about him than he had a son named Tim Fields.

Sid and Danny were basically the same age*, so it may be that they knew each other back in the fifties.  Maybe he worked in that nightclub where Danny performed?

Whoever he was in Danny's life, Sid Fields certainly made enough of an impact to be featured in three of the comic's dreams.  It's likely he was just as mean in his forties as he was as an old man.  (Just think what he would have said about Danny Williams' nose!)

BCnU!

* Danny Thomas was born in 1912, Bill Erwin in 1914.