ZONKS MAKE A "HOUSE CALL"

Nothing I hate more than Zonks - those TV discrepancies that end up needing a splainin.  (That's why I hate them - they make more work for your humble Curator!)

The usual kind are when a TV show is mentioned on another TV show when both of them should exist in the same universe.

Here's a classic one from 'Barney Miller':

(Two warring merchants who are neighbors - one of Arabic descent, the other Jewish - are quarreling in the 12th Precinct's "cage" about the "Zionist hoodlums who stole the Palestinian territories.)

Cotterman:

Zionist hoodlums?
Where did you pick that up? Lynn Redgrave?

Hadad:

That's Vanessa, stupid!
Lynn is the one that's in the hospital show.

Cotterman:

What hospital show?

Hadad:

You know, the one with the guy who used to be on 'M*A*S*H'.

Cotterman:

Oh yeah…
Why isn't he on 'Trapper John'?

Hadad:

How do I know?
Ask the guy from 'Bonanza'!

Cotterman:

You ask him!
What am I, your slave?

Hadad: 

You were once!

Until the mention of 'M*A*S*H', it was salvageable.  Within Toobworld, the televersion of Lynn Redgrave could have appeared in some fictional hospital show that was already part of some other TV show.  My candidate would have been 'Those Who Care', the soap opera which starred Dick Preston and Margot Brighton.

However, that reference to 'M*A*S*H' leads to the fact that Wayne Rogers played 'Trapper John' in that show but not in the spin-off.  No, that was Pernell Roberts and as this Zonk suggests, he starred in 'Bonanza'.  Arrrrrgh!

But at least both 'M*A*S*H' and 'Bonanza' are historical shows so there could be TV shows about each of them.  And then we can go back to the idea of Lynn Redgrave and Wayne Rogers acting in 'Those Who Care'.  Maybe Preston and Brighton quit the soap opera and were recast as so often happens in soap operas.

Otherwise, it's a funny Zonk; how could I hate it?

BCnU!