VIDEO SUNDAY - PEARSON REDUX

For Video Sunday, I thought I'd return to a recurring theme from two weeks ago: the twins Johnny Poke and Keevy Hazelton, as well as Keevy's counterpart in the Cineverse, Conrad Birdie.....  (And it would have to be Keevy/Conrad because it's my determination that it was Keevy who was the adopted one.)

Enjoy the shows!

'THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES'

"TEENAGE IDOL"

JOHNNY POKE

http://youtu.be/-r4vA8A87ew

'THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW'

"A SINGER IN TOWN"

KEEVY HAZELTON

http://youtu.be/kRYI7FqNUX4

"BYE, BYE BIRDIE"

CONRAD BIRDIE

http://youtu.be/XIJkGUBy77U

http://youtu.be/1eeqOcJqhgU  

BCnU!

SATURDAY COMICS - HONEY WEST

Honey West was more than just a beautiful private eye in Toobworld. She was a Multiversal.  Her "life" began in a series of books, after which she crossed through the Vortex to the fictional realm of Toobworld. From there, she next conquered the comic book universe.

From Wikipedia:

'Honey West' is an American crime drama television series that aired on ABC during the 1965–1966 television season. Based upon a series of novels that had launched in 1957, the series starred Anne Francis as female private detective Honey West and John Ericson as her partner, Sam Bolt.

Only 30 half-hour episodes were produced. The entire series is available on DVD.

O'Bservation: 

She first appeared on Earth Prime-Time in an episode of 'Burke's Law' and I believe she returned in an episode of that show's sequel - albeit with a slightly different name due to a past marriage. 

Here's a look at the history of Honey West in the comic book universe....

From Thrilling Detective:

HONEY WEST

(1966, Gold Key)

1 issue, TV tie-in, with photo cover

HONEY WEST

(2010-12, Moonstone Comics)

7 issues

Moonstone, who've reincarnated many a formerly licenced property, aren't afraid of reinventing a character to appeal to their fan base, in sometimes rather schlocky ways. 

And Honey West is no exception. 

Once they nailed the rights, they seem to have had no idea what to do with her, sending her off to Mars or, in later mini-series, teaming her up with other once beloved characters they also happen to own the rights to, such as Kolchak the Nightstalker and T.H.E. Cat.

"Killer on the Keys, Part 1: Bikini Death" (August 2010; #1)

"Killer on the Keys, Part 2: Requiem for a Dressmaker" (November 2010; #2)

"Murder on Mars, Part 1" (February 2011, #3)

"Murder on Mars, Part 2) (June 2011, #4)

"Murder on Mars, Part 3" (April 2012, #5)

"Murder, Forsooth, Part 1" (June 2012, #6)

"Murder, Forsooth, Part 2" (October 2012, #7)

HONEY WEST: PHASES OF THE MOON

(2011, Moonstone Comics)

HONEY WEST & T.H.E. CAT

(2013, Moonstone Comics)

HONEY WEST & KOLCHAK

(2013, Moonstone Comics)

So I grabbed a few random pages of her comics but mostly the covers.

Enjoy.....

It looks like "Uncle Simon" had some work done....

And here are those Toobworldly crossovers that may or may not have actually happened in Earth Prime-Time....

Have a great four-color day!

THE HAT SQUAD: JOHN O'CREAGH

For years now in my TV Universe blog "Inner Toob", I have been keeping track of those in the television industry, both in front of and behind the cameras, who passed away during that year.

There have been many during that time who saddened me because I enjoyed their work so much: Patrick McGoohan, Peter Falk, Don Knotts, Walter Cronkite, Charles Lane, Lis Sladen.....

Never expected I would have to write about someone I actually knew....

John O'Creagh was married to one of my dearest friends, Mary Brooks.  I was honored to attend their wedding (on a day when I went to two wedding ceremonies and receptions!) and I got to see John in a play in New York.

He did a few movies, but focused mostly on theatre, in national tours and regional showcases. But as I am an archivist for the Toobworld Dynamic, I want to salute John for his work on the small screen. For many of these roles, I was able to find at least one televisiological O'Bservation.

Here's how I described actor-poet-musician John O'Creagh after he did a very funny fake commercial on 'Late Show with David Letterman':

From Tobipedia:
John O'Creagh is an actor based in New York who has appeared in productions of "Anything Goes", "Pirates of Penzance", "The Fantasticks", "Equus", "King Lear", "Twelfth Night", "Peter Pan", and "Perfect Crime", in productions at the Paper Mill Playhouse, the Goodspeed Opera House, New York's Irish Rep, and at the Roundabout Theatre.  He toured around the world in "West Side Story" as Doc, and played Ben Franklin in countless productions of "1776".

Our focus however is the fantasy realm of Toobworld, that fictional dimension in which every TV series should be connected and everything we see happen on TV actually takes place. And "Earth Prime-Time" has several of John's characters as citizens of that world.

'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'
Sheriff Bailey
- Informed (2006)

O'Bservation:  It's pozz'ble, just pozz'ble (as Muskie Muskrat would say), that Sheriff Bailey was the identical cousin of Chief Ferguson. [See his entry below.]  Bailey was in Pawling, NY; Ferguson lived in Litchfield, Ct. - far from an insurmountable geographical distance for a family.

'Kidnapped'
Bartender
- Front Page (2007)

O'Bservation: Dealing with a nameless character is actually an advantage for a televisiologist.  John's bartender could be descended from an official at Tammany Hall at the turn of the 20th Century, for example.  Or he could be a security guard moonlighting at the bar to make some extra cash. (See the entries below.)

'John Adams'
Stephen Hopkins
- Independence (2008)

O'Bservation: For television, this is the only Real World televersion John played. (Unless his unnamed official from Tammany Hall was supposed to be based on an actual historical person.)  Hopkins is famously depicted as wearing his hat in the Trumbull painting. And although John did not play Hopkins as doing so, it's there in full view on his table.

Bonus for John - he is the official portrayer of Hopkins in Toobworld. But then, he's the only Stephen Hopkins as seen on TV so far. (Roy Poole played him in the movie "1776" and in an excerpt performed on 'The Ed Sullivan Show' which doesn't count.)

'Life on Mars'
Drunk Petey
- All the Young Dudes

O'Bservation: This is the only one of John's characters who does not actually exist in any of the Toobworlds in the Multiverse. Due to a computer glitch, he was created as part of a virtual reality program implanted in another character's mind.  (Drunk Petey is my second favorite TV role of John's.) I am unsure if this is John as Drunk Petey, but it's a good representation of what the character was like.

'Master of None'
Priest
- Finale (2015)

O'Bservation: I'll let John do the talking here...

'The Knick'
Tammany Hall Official

- You're No Rose (2015)

John's Politico was as corrupt as they come, but he thought Teddy Roosevelt had been more so. He came right out and told Cornelia that he would never allow a certain corpse to be exhumed because there were Powers That Be who paid him quite well to make certain of it. 

Cornelia:

Will you consider an exhumation? 

Official:

See that bulldog, Mrs. Showalter? A gift. $5,000. 10 times a cop's annual salary. Now who would pay that for this? I'll tell you. The people who are making sure Speight's body stays in the ground. 

Cornelia:

Who would ask you to do that? 

Official:

Unless you can buy me a better dog, I'm afraid our business here is done. 

- Wonderful Surprises (2015)

Herman Barrow sought out John's Politico at Tammany Hall to work out a kickback scheme involving the construction of the new Knickerbocker Hospital. For John's character, the amount involved was more of a trifle. 

Barrow:

Every man has his talents. Finding gold in the river, that's mine. 

Official:

And how much gold have you... strained into your pan? 

Barrow:

So far? In the range of $12,000. 

Official:

(laughs) That's a sardine in a fisherman's net. We here at Tammany, we prefer whales. But it's not a bad thing to hold on to a sardine now and then. So, from now on, 15% of your construction costs before your skim comes to us.

- Whiplash (2015)

As you can see, John was listed in this episode, but I couldn't find him. He was pretty far down the list of supporting players. (This was the third screen "page" of credits.). But even so, how come I didn't see him?  My theory?  His role for this episode was greatly reduced and all that survived was his blurry presence in the background at the restaurant. 

But I could be wrong. I often am. 

O'Bservation: John's character in 'The Knick' is not named, which in a way benefits my theories of "relateeveety".  If we don't know his name, we can make the claim that the Tammany Hall official was the forefather to any of John's modern Toobworldlings, but especially the other two characters known only by their positions: the Bartender and the Administrator.

'Orange Is the New Black'
Chief Ferguson
- The Animals (2016)

Since John was such a keen observer, as seen in the poems he wrote on Facebook, I'm sure he was aware that Chief Ferguson lived in the same area where his loverly wife Mary grew up.  (And in Toobworld, those kids he was "scaring straight" might have gone to school with the televersion of John & Mary's nephew, Mike.)

'Frank and Ernie'
Frank
- Pilot - Downtown (2015)

- Dinosaurs (2015)
- Rhubarb (2016)

- Frank and Ernie Get on TV (2016)

Web TV is considered part of Toobworld and so these four episodes are a valid part of Earth Prime-Time.  Here's the pilot:

http://youtu.be/tyr7C6BvGPo

'Red Oaks' 
Administrator
- Father's Day (2016)

O'Bservation: Unfortunately, this episode won't drop until next week on Amazon Prime. So all I can say about the Administrator at this time is that he could be descended from the corrupt official from Tammany Hall. After all, the Red Oaks country club seems to be located in the greater New York environs.

John also played a security guard in a commercial for a furniture/bedding company in New York. He didn't look much different than he did here in Switzerland playing Officer Krupke in "West Side Story".  

Characters in "Blipverts" have just as much validity in Toobworld.  So I would have no problem in suggesting this security guard, probably a retired cop, also would moonlight as a bartender in that 'Kidnapped' episode.

So there aren't that many Toobworld citizens, but then John's soul probably burned brightest for his work on stage.

Or maybe when he had a mandolin in hand.....

My condolences to my dear friend Mayr on her loss, and to all of John's family and friends. And based on what I've seen the last few days on Facebook, they are legion; hIs expansive spirit touched so many.  His appearances on screen will keep him in sharp focus for everyone, but that will never compare to the memories of those lucky enough to have known him.

As I usually do in my Hat Squad posts, I find that Red Skelton's classic sign-off helps me to say good-bye.....

"Good night and may God bless...."

JOHN O'CREAGH

Backstage at

'The Late Show with David Letterman'

Simplus Europe commercial

John as a farmer with 100 alien coccoons his barn. Mulder and Scully obviously were an influence even in Romania. 

SPLAININ TO DO: CERVIDAE SAPIENS

Ever since the "Lord Of The Rings", the World has discovered what a magical place New Zealand is.

Within Toobworld, however, it might be an even more magical place than here in the Real World....

Check out the latest blipvert from FedEx:

http://youtu.be/VlRkE9dkuyM

So at least in New Zealand, the deer are intelligent enough to place an online order, with access to some method in paying for their purchases, and to use their novelty "Groucho" glasses in order to hide from hunters (who have shown their own sub-par intelligence in not detecting the subterfuge by the deer.)

We have seen intelligent animals in Toobworld before. And usually we have a good splainin for why:

DOGS: They are reincarnated humans. ["Poochinsky"]

CATS: They are witches and warlocks, magically transformed. ['Sabrina The Teenage Witch']

HORSES: Thanks to Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" being absorbed into Toobworld with an adaptation, we know intelligent horses come from the Land of the Houyhnhnms.  ['Mr. Ed']

PIGS:  Intelligent swine are part human, descended from Demi-god Hercules who had been magically transformed into "Porkules" - during which time he got Catherine, a female pig, pregnant. ['Green Acres']

I think we can add deer to this collection with a TV-spawned splainin for them.

DEER: Similar to the story with Hercules, intelligent deer are descended from the Cervidae children of Herne the Hunter. ('Robin Of Sherwood')

I also think Herne could have sired  children with human females.  Some of his descendants could have been Golden Hinds. ('Hercules: The Legendary Journeys')

BCnU!

SPLAININ TO DO: BODY WORK

In the running for the 2016 Toobits Award for Best Contribution to Toobworld....

According to 'Lucifer', the vessel of a recently deceased person is needed for angels and demons to be on Earth. 

However, Lucifer, as well as Amenadiel and Uriel, are in their own physical forms according to the show runner Joe Henderson.  

I've written about the Devil's ability to "morph" his outward appearance, but I will accept Henderson's statement regarding Lucifer. 

That's because this Lucifer is not "The Devil".  He's Lucifer Jr., one of the many Hellspawn whelps of Satan.  

As for Uriel and Amenadiel, these physical forms may be their original bodies but they do have the ability to change their appearance as most demons do.  That's to splain away any pozz'ble Zonks, just in case either character has appeared in some other TV show. 

(And Uriel has indeed shown up in other TV shows, chief among them 'Supernatural'.)

But what really has me excited is the information about demons AND angels inhabiting the "vessels" of the recently deceased. 

So now we have another splainin as to why so many characters look alike within one series. (Besides the fact the actor keeps getting cast in new guest roles.)

Previous splainins have been:

Resurrection of the Dead by Jared Garrity

('The Twilight Zone')

Possession by the gaseous aliens known as the Gelth

('Doctor Who')

And now they also serve as homes for the Heavenly Host as well as The Infernal Fiends. 

It's the inclusion of angels that is intriguing. A guest actor who played a bad guy in one episode but a good guy (or at least someone who wasn't the villain of the piece) could have been the same body but now possessed by an angel. And the reverse would be true: good guy dies and becomes the bad guy in another episode, all due to demonic possession. 

Westerns are usually best for examples of these multiple recastings, and I usually use Morgan Woodward, Jack Elam, and John Milford as the standards. But action shows of the 1970s also kept reusing actors especially 'Columbo' as well as all of those Quinn Martin detective shows. 

Speaking of 'Columbo', here's a possibility to illustrate this scenario:

Val Avery is one of the 'Columbo' repertory of players who played more than one role in the series.  In fact, he played four:

"The Most Crucial Game"

Ralph Dobbs (private investigator)

"Dead Weight"

Harry Barnes (boat rental man)

"Identity Crisis"

Louie (bartender)

"A Friend in Deed"

Artie Jessup (cat burglar)

None of these were the murderer or the victim. But here's my possibility:

At some point after the General Hollister murder case, Harry Barnes took one of his rental boats out on the ocean. But he had an accident and was swept overboard where he drowned.  His body was never found....

That's because an angel, perhaps one bored with the celestial sterility of Heaven, decided to possess Barnes' corpse and sample the sensual pleasures of the mortal life.  Mundane though it might seem, he chose to experience Life as "Louie" the publican in a dive bar on the piers. 

There he lied to Lt. Columbo about his past (claiming to once being a cop), but he made sure he helped as much as he could so that Columbo could track down Lawrence Melville, who played a key role in the "AJ Henderson" murder investigation. 

As for Val Avery's other 'Columbo' roles of Artie Jessup and Ralph Dobbs, they are separate characters who at best are identical cousins to Harry Barnes. 

Here's another example:

"BLUEPRINT FOR MURDER"

Elliot Markham was a world-famous architect who would not let the dictates of his "patron" stop his dream of getting his greatest project realized.  Unfortunately, Lt. Columbo caught him red-handed trying to dispose of Beau Williamson's body. 

For a 'Columbo' website, Nathan Sikes put together his conjectures as to the fate of each murderer. And for Markham, Sikes believes he was found guilty and sentenced to death. 

As for me, I agree that Markham was found guilty.  He could even have been sentenced to death. Or to life in prison without parole. 

But in the end, I don't think it mattered.  I think before Justice could be meted, Markham decided to take his own life. 

And that's when his corpse was possessed by a demon. 

"MAKE ME A PERFECT MURDER"

I don't know who that demon was, but for his new life he adapted the name of a 1940s newspaper columnist whose soul he had recently collected upon death - inspired by Frank Flannigan (as seen in 'Ellery Queen'), the demon became Frank Flanagan. 

Using his satanic prowess, "Flanagan" quickly rose to the top in the television industry, becoming the president of the CNC network. 

Why?  Probably because he saw the medium's potential, that the fastest way to garner the most souls for Hell would be to draw them in through the temptations promised by television. 

Hey, it's just a theory. And it keeps me off the streets. 

BCnU!