MISSING LINKS - 'MURDER, SHE WROTE' & 'ALIEN NATION'

 "ALIEN NATION" - THE MOVIE

'ALIEN NATION' - THE TV SERIES

"Alien Nation" as a movie debuted in 1988.  'Alien Nation' as a TV series premiered the next year.  But the events within the reality of the TV Universe did not begin until 1991, when the space ship filled with rebellious Tenctonese slaves crashed in the desert outside of Los Angeles.  The series jumps ahead to about 1995 when the Newcomers (disparagingly called "Slags" and "Spongeheads" by haters) were somewhat integrated into society at large in L.A.

Despite the huge impact that the series would have had on Toobworld in general (but specifically on TV shows set in Los Angeles - like the ABC 'Columbo' after 1989, for example), I believe 'Alien Nation' can be part of Earth Prime-Time.  As to why we don't see them in the main Toobworld anymore?  I splained that away at some point in the blog with most of the Tenctonese relocated to an uninhabited planet, thanks to the Doctor and his bigger on the inside TARDIS.

Unfortunately, there are Zonks, in which other TV shows mention 'Alien Nation' as a TV show when they should be sharing the same world.  Luckily there are only two that I've found that need to be disabled.  (I did find two other Zonks, but they were references from 'Smallville' which takes place in the 'West Wing' dimension.)

Here are the Zonks:

'Saved by the Bell': "Date Auction" (1991)
Lisa tells Brian Watkins that "Alien Nation" was her favourite television series.

'Nip/Tuck': "Willow Banks" (2010)
Willow is called this after she shaves her head.

That second one is considered by the IMDb to be a reference to the movie.  Not that it matters for the Toobworld Dynamic.  The 1988 movie exists as reality in the Cineverse, but for Earth Prime-Time it was a movie made about the "real life" events.  As for the 'Saved By The Bell' reference to a TV show... again, that could have been made within the TV Universe to depict what happened when the Tenctonese arrived and how they adapted to life among the humans.

And now we have proof that such a TV show about the Tenctonese was made in Toobworld.  And that it looks like it accepts that the Newcomers lived in that world.....

'Murder, She Wrote'

"Film Flam"

In 1995, years after the Tenctonese arrival, Jessica Fletcher was visiting Monolith Studios in Hollywood to oversee negotiations for the option on one of her books.  At one point she was in the studio commissary food line and followed an actor in full make-up for his role:

As an alien, the actor was not an exact match for a Tenctonese.  There could have been a very good reason for that - although as a news story in the public domain the Tenctonese could have been given a fictional treatment as they were, the producers of this TV show might have altered their appearance, perhaps even changed their alien race's name, so that they could focus on a particular Tenctonese individual's story.

And that Newcomer was probably LAPD homicide detective George Francisco.

As we can see, the actor playing the alien is in full makeup.  He would never have been allowed to get that far had he not already been in costume.  So that black suit must be the costume.  Doesn't he look as though he was an alien police detective?

So in Toobworld, the 'Alien Nation' TV show was based on the actual Tenctonese, and apparently ran longer than the series did in the real world, which was off the air by May of 1990.  But that's supposition based on the 'Saved By The Bell' quote happening in 1991.

If anybody knows the name of the extra who played that alien on 'Murder, She Wrote', let me know.  I'd like to find out some other productions in which he was one of the "atmosphere people".  Who knows?  We might be able to give his actor character a name and then link him to other shows....

BCnU!