SATURDAY MORNING SUPERHEROES - DAREDEVIL O'BSERVATIONS, NEW AND IMPROVED!

I've only seen three episodes of 'Daredevil' so far, but I knew straight off that I would have loved to add it to Earth Prime-Time, the main Toobworld.  Its energetic fight scenes, strong characterizations, and writing that never feels cliched would have made it the leader of all new shows set in Toobworld.

So it figures I have to give it up.

The background of Matt Murdock's world is definitely linked to the theatrical movies of Marvel (most of which have been absorbed into the Toobworld Dynamic - but into Comic Book Toobworld.)  This is especially true with the first "Avengers" in which the climactic battle destroyed the West Side of New York City.  So 'Daredevil' is in the same world as 'Agents Of SHIELD' and 'Agent Carter'.  Unlikely as it may seem, Matt Murdock could show up in an episode of 'Agents Of SHIELD' one day.  (But it would be more likely for him to team up with the 'Arrow', despite the competing corporations involved.)

But there's another reason why 'Daredevil' couldn't be in the main Toobworld - he's already there.

In 1989, Matt Murdock aka Daredevil, became a fixture of Earth Prime-Time thanks to an appearance in a TV movie that continued the legend of Bruce Banner, "The Trial Of The Incredible Hulk."

Here are two tribute videos to the character as played by Rex Smith:

Sure, that Daredevil doesn't measure up to the new incarnation, but unless there are strong extenuating circumstances, Toobworld must remain loyal to previous versions of shows - not just 'Daredevil', but the 1966 adaptation of 'Batman' and the 1979 'Battlestar Galactica' over their later remakes.  (Especially since all three had ties, both actual and theoretical, to other TV shows.  In Daredevil's case, it was O'Bviously to 'The Incredible Hulk'.)

Them's the breaks....

BCnU!

MY FRIENDS IN TOOBWORLD - KEITH COWING

It's not often I run this feature with the friend actually having played himself in Toobworld.  (Although I did one last week with Danny Neff.)  But today I'm putting the spotlight on high school friend Keith Cowing, the editor of NASAWATCH.  Keith has a presence in Toobworld as one of the Talking Heads.

No, not the band. This kind of Talking Head:

 

 

 

 

 

So he is a member of the League of Themselves, but his televersion is trapped in a factual state and where's the fun in that?

But luckily, Keith can be accepted in Toobworld as a fictional character as well - we just didn't get the chance to see him.

'FOREVER'

"DEAD MEN TELL LONG TALES"

During their murder investigation, Detective Rodriguez and M.E. Henry Morgan visited the famous Explorers' Club's headquarters in New York City, where Isaac Monroe was giving a speech and a major donation.  Keith Cowing is a member in good standing of the Club and has scaled Everest and rebooted a decades old satellite to once again send back information... information... information - despite it having technology that was practically inaccessible because it was so antiquated.

Here's a look at the audience for Monroe's speech at the Explorers' Club:

 

I'll save you the eye strain - Keith can't be seen in the audience.  (In fact, he wasn't even aware of this episode when I alerted him to it.)  However, with this next picture we get an easy splainin as to how that's not a problem.

As you can see, there were other people in the building during the speech, but they weren't in the room.  So it's pozz'ble, just pozz'ble, that Keith was elsewhere in the Explorers' Club, perhaps in the bar......

So it will be my contention that the televersion of Keith Cowing was there for Isaac Monroe's speech, but we just didn't see him.  And it was in the world of Earth Prime-Time - so far there has been no reason to think that 'Forever' needs to be relocated to some alternate TV dimension.

BCnU!

TELE-FOLKS DIRECTORY - THE ALTERNATE HENRY VI

'THE ROYALS'

"SWEET NOT LASTING"

In 'The West Wing', the alternative POTUS timeline seems to begin after Richard Nixon.  The line of succession can be traced back to at least General Owen Lassiter, who may have been the President around the same time as would have overlapped with Reagan and Bush 1 in the Trueniverse and Toobworld.

With 'The Royals', the timeline for that alternate TV dimension with a different royal family in Great Britain can be traced back about six centuries.  It may not even be the House of Windsor in power now.

This was confirmed by a painting of King Henry VI as a five year old, newly crowned as the monarch:  

According to several friends with knowledge of costumes and fashion, that style of wardrobe would have been from the late 1700s, early 1800s.  Something straight outta Austen, perhaps.

But in Earth Prime, and thus in Earth Prime-Time, Henry VI became king when he was only one year old - in 1422.

And this is the standard view of Henry VI, who would give his name to the trilogy of history plays by William Shakespeare:

Just think of all the fictional Kings and Queens that sat on the throne of that sceptered TV isle.  And with them would come so many changes to the history of that Toobworld.  We know of one example, from the same episode which featured the painting above: there was a great fire in London in 1822, which briefly threatened the palace.  (The only great fire I can find mentioned for 1822 happened in China.)

At some point in this first season run for 'The Royals', I'm hoping we'll see that world's version of the President of the United States.  But who knows?  America hasn't been mentioned yet in the series, so it's pozz'ble, just pozz'ble, that the USA doesn't even exist in such a radically altered timeline.  It could still be a British colony!

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV - JOHN FOSTER DULLES

In the TV dimension that houses 'Madam Secretary', Ezra Lyle Helsinger worked for sixty years in the State Department.  Secretary of State McCord honored his service by presenting Helsinger with a framed photograph of him with John Foster Dulles, the 52nd Secretary of State who served under President Eisenhower from 1953 to 1959.  

Modern day politicians, like celebrities, have portrayed themselves in TV shows over the last few years.  For instance, during its run 'Parks And Recreation' has given showcases to politicians from both sides of the aisle - Senators Boxer, McCain, Snowe, Gillibrand, and Hatch, Mayor Booker, Secretary Albright, Speaker Gingrich, and Vice President Biden.

But when it comes to historical figures, like Lincoln and Kennedy who are no longer with us, we usually get a wide range of actors portraying them.  (The usual splainin for the difference in their appearances is that we're seeing the point of view of someone else in the show.  This way we don't have to keep tossing out shows into other TV dimensions.)

But here we get another option - an image of the actual historical figure photoshopped with a younger image of Philip Baker Hall, the actor who played Helsinger.

What is also interesting is that we know that the timeline for the dimension of 'Madam Secretary' mirrors that of the real world and Toobworld at least up until the Eisenhower administration.  There have been mentions of real world events like Bengazi and 9/11, but those events could have happened anyway in a world in which the President could have been some fictional character. 

Dulles was portrayed three times in the greater TV universe:

Suez 1956 (1979)

Played by Alexander Knox

Eleanor, First Lady of the World (1982) 

Played by E.G. Marshall 

"American Playhouse"
    - Concealed Enemies, Part I: Suspicion (1984) 

Played by Henderson Forsythe

Each of those portrayals were one-shots and so could each be situated in different TV dimensions.  But none of them have to be in the world of 'Madam Secretary'.  And since none of those other versions of Dulles interacted with established fictional characters, they don't have to have any impact on Earth Prime-Time should Dulles ever show up in another TV series.

Today marks the anniversary of Dulles' departure as the Secretary of State, due to colon cancer.  He would be dead within a month...... 

BCnU!

TUESDAY NEWS DAY - NEW WORLDS FOR "THE DARK TOWER"

Hoping to forge a new franchise on both the big and little screens, Sony Pictures and MRC have teamed up to bring Stephen King's novel series "The Dark Tower" out of the fictional universe of BookWorld and into both the universes of the Cineverse and Toobworld.

It will begin with a movie adaptation of "The Gunslinger" which revolves around Roland Deschain and his search for the Dark Tower.  This will kick off a series of movies based on the novels, with MRC developing a complementary TV series (probably dealing with some of the ancillary characters in this sprawling epic.) 

This sounds a lot like what ABC and Marvel has done with their TV series of 'Agents Of SHIELD' and 'Agent Carter' which both have sometimes tenuous ties to the big screen blockbusters about the Avengers, both individually and collectively.  It may turn out to be located in one of the Borderlands, but it's pozz'ble, just pozz'ble that it may at least launch from Earth Prime-Time into its own dimension.

No director has been chosen yet, which is what will happen before serious discussions of casting Roland and the other characters can begin.

BCnU!

(This is from an exclusive report at Deadline.)

MY FRIENDS IN TOOBWORLD - DANNY NEFF

'WATCH WHAT HAPPENS LIVE'

On Easter Monday, April 6, 2015, this show celebrated the return of 'Mad Men' for its last run of seven episodes.  Host Andy Cohen welcomed stars Elizabeth Moss and John Slattery as his guests to talk about 'Mad Men'.  But more importantly for me, it provided a showcase for my friend Danny Neff as the bartender for the episode.

 

 

 

I knew Danny from his time "working the stick" at the Rum House, which is located in the lobby of TVXOHOF member the Edison Hotel. But now he's one of the guys, along with his brother Michael, who's large and in charge at Holiday, a cocktail lounge in the East Village.

Of course, keeping to the Toobworld Dynamic's "rules" (excuse me while I laugh at myself), this wasn't the real Danny Neff on our TV screens.  Once televised, he became his own televersion.

But this wasn't the Danny Neff of Earth Prime-Time.  Maybe one day we'll see him in some TV show (probably played by an actor).  But since this show talked about another TV show - 'Mad Men' - as if it was a TV show, then it can't share the same TV dimension as 'Mad Men'.  (Even with all of its mentions - and depictions! - of other TV shows during the run of 'Mad Men', those can be splained away.)  

If anything, this episode could be from the TV dimension which houses all of those docudramas which show the behind the scenes sturm and drang for TV shows in our world which exist in the main Toobworld as reality.  Maybe....

At any rate, there is something fictional about Danny's appearance on this show.  Every time Cohen introduced Danny, it was as "Danny Laff" (maybe as "Leff", but "Laff is funnier.)  It took three attempts before Cohen called him "Danny Neff".

Well, that wasn't too confusing, was it?  Yeah, sometimes it's even worse when I leave this stuff in my head.

Plug time!

If you're ever in the East Village, check out the Holiday cocktail lounge and who knows?  Maybe you'll see the Danny Neff of the Trueniverse in action!

Holiday Cocktail Lounge

75 St. Mark's Place
New York, NY 10003
212-777-9637

BCnU!

VIDEO SUNDAY - THE "GAME OF THRONES" THEME (SMOOOOOTH)

To get you in the mood for the return of 'Game Of Thrones' tonight......

VIDEO SUNDAY - THE END OF THE EARTH (ONE OF THEM ANYWAY)

Over the years I've mentioned the various Toobworlds in the TV Dynamic multiverse on numerous occasions - there's Earth Prime-Time, of course, but there's also Skitlandia, the Tooniverse, Evil Toobworld, Black Toobworld, Zombie Toobworld, Prequel Toobworld, and the Land O' Remakes.

But there's one Toobworld I haven't mentioned; there wasn't much of a point since there's no reason to visit it anymore.......

I've dubbed this dimension Toobworld 86'd. This literally Earth-shattering event took place in January of 1986 and "86" is a restaurant term for something that has been cancelled.
 
When a TV show is first aired, its characters instantly become real in their Toobworld with all their backstory immediately filled in. But until then, they just don't exist throughout their timeline. So all of the TV shows that premiered from 1986 onwards in Toobworld 86'd would not have any history in that world. There were no Designing Women or Ben Matlock in Atlanta, no McKenzie-Brackman to practice law in L.A., no Gordon Shumway, known by the acronym for "Alien Life Force". In fact there was no planet of Melmac in the galaxy.
 
The televersions of certain movies from the Cineverse would never be born again in that TV dimensin - 'Starman', 'Fast Times', and '9 To 5'. And certain shows which had already played out in the past on our timeline but which were set in the future would have no future in Toobworld 86'd. 'Space Patrol', 'Captain Video', and of course 'Star Trek' would never come to fruition in this fictional world - well, maybe they still would, but certainly not with anyone originally from Earth. (Unless some aliens found Buck Rogers in the 25th Century!)

If that TV dimension's Time Lord known as the Doctor were to visit the coordinates for Toobworld 86'd's orbit around Sol now, he'd find an asteroid belt - all that remained of the big blue marble. But then again, the Doctor may have been on the planet at the time and was annihilated along with all of Humanity.

BCnU!