TVXOHOF 04/2017 - DON'T WORRY, WE'LL THINK OF SOME BUDDY ENTITLED

Mel Cooley, Sally Rogers, Laura Petrie, Buddy Sorrell:

[SINGING]

Alan Brady... Alan Brady... Alan Brady...

Buddy Sorrell:

BUDDY SORRELL!!!!

("The Alan Brady Show Presents")

Not for me the TV heroes of my youth to emulate: Captain Kirk, Superman, Batman, Sgt, Saunders.  I didn't want to be them.

I wanted to be Buddy Sorrell from 'The Dick Van Dyke Show'.

I thought Buddy had the perfect job - he got to tell jokes for a living: he got to sleep on the job; and he got to make fun of a bald guy.  And he was an "impractical joker", something that came easily to me as I was growing up with Buddy as my spiritual guide.

Okay, so I never got paid for the jokes I tell, but two out of three ain't bad.  (Sorry, Uncle Aksel.....)

In the fun & games department of Toobworld, Buddy Sorrell is at the top.  Probably in my Super Six List of fave TV characters.

Wait a minute.  Let me just make sure,.....

• Dr. Miguelito Quixote Loveless
• Number Six
• The Doctor
• Lt. Columbo
• Mary Richards
• Buddy Sorrell

Yep.  There he is!

Here's the quick biography courtesy of Wikipedia:

[Morey Amsterdam's] best-known role was as comedy writer Buddy Sorrell on 'The Dick Van Dyke Show', a role suggested for him by his friend Rose Marie, who also appeared on the show. The show's creator, Carl Reiner, based the character on his old friend Mel Brooks, with whom he worked on the writing staff of 'Your Show of Shows'. Like Amsterdam himself, Buddy had a ready quip for any situation, and one of the show's most popular running gags was his insult-laden feud with producer Mel Cooley (Richard Deacon). Buddy was also one of the rare overtly Jewish characters on TV in that era, with one episode revolving around his belated decision to have a Bar Mitzvah.

With the sheltered Catholic life that I led back then, Buddy Sorrell really was the first Jew I ever knew about.  Jesus doesn't count.  ("Buddy Sorrell - Man And Boy")

Henry Walden:

All right, let's see... Buddy Sorrell. 

Before Alan Brady, you wrote for 'The Billy Barrow Show'. 

And before that, in early television, 

you were the very fine MC for an absolutely terrible program called 'Buddy's Band'.

("I'm No Henry Walden")

Maurice Sorrell had a brother, nicknamed Blackie.  (DVD: "Hustling The Hustler")  At one time Blackie was also a comic, working the small, out-of-the-way clubs all across the country back in the day under the moniker of "Jackie Silvers"*.  ('Happy Days' - "Goin' To Chicago") 

Buddy had a contract to write jokes for Danny Williams in nightclubs and one for Alan Brady on television.  But he did some freelance work as he did in writing zingers about Danny for his wife Kathy to use on a TV talk show. ('Make Room For Daddy' - "The Woman Behind The Jokes")

Buddy and Sally were working as the writers for 'The Alan Brady Show' before Rob Petrie came on board as their boss.  But they knew each other before that and worked together in night clubs as the musical comedy team of "Gilbert & Solomon". ("The Secret Life Of Buddy And Sally")

Buddy was a great practical joker ("The Impractical Joke") and that was another reason why he's the perfect candidate for the traditional "April Fool" slot in the year's induction list. 

Morey Amsterdam died in October of 1996, and because Buddy Sorrell is so closely identified with him (only one other person could be accepted as playing him in Toobworld and even then it was only in the fictional sense - morey on that to come), that I don't think Buddy outlived the fictional televersion of the comic actor by too long.  However, as we saw in one of his qualifying appearances for membership in the Hall, he will live long afterwards in the memories of those who loved his work.

One of those TV characters who idolized Buddy (as well as his former writing partner Sally Rogers) was Herman Brooks.  Among the other voices he had in his head, Herman called upon his memories of Buddy and Sally at times.  ('Herman's Head' -  "When Hairy Met Hermy")  Another who thought highly of him was Jerry Harper, head writer of 'The Jackie Thomas Show' ('The Jackie Thomas Show' - "Pilot")

Alan Brady bought the rights to Rob Petrie's autobiography with the intent of turning it into a sitcom for himself.  ("The Last Chapter")  He played the title role of Rob Petrie (and changed the name of his own counterpart to "Alan Sturdy".)  For the role of Buddy Sorrell, he hired the fictional televersion of Morty Gunty (who played himself in an episode of 'That Girl' - "She Never Had The Vegas Notion".)  

So that's what I mean when I say that I will accept only one other person ever playing Buddy Sorrell - as seen in that show within a show "Head Of The Family".  But only because he was acting as Buddy, not actually Buddy.

There's another crossover that Buddy was involved in, within an episode of 'The Dick Van Dyke Show': When he came by the Petrie house for a visit, he brought along a pack of candy cigarettes for Richie Petrie.  Those cigarettes bore the same name as a real cigarette brand only found in the fictional Multiverse - Morley's.  Morley's cigarettes are already a part of the TVXOHOF since they can connect at least twenty TV shows in Earth Prime-Time alone, let alone other TV dimensions and the Cineverse.

'Herman's Head' was certainly an out of left field choice for another TV show in which Buddy Sorrell could appear.  That appearance on 'Make Room For Daddy' was more in keeping with the milieu in which he lived and breathed - show business,  

Those appearances are the best known, but there were a few others which didn't get as much attention when they first aired,  Thankfully, the DVD and online video markets are slowly making them accessible again.  Here are some of them:

1] 'Bewitched'
"Son Of A Twitch"
As we saw with the episode "Hoho The Clown", McMann & Tate was involved in the TV business.  In this episode, one of Darrin and Larry's clients sponsored a comedy show similar to Alan Brady's and this guy was a real nasty piece of work.  (Played by Dan Tobin) Morey Amsterdam and Rose Marie appeared backstage in an uncredited cameo and we're to assume they were there as Buddy Sorrell and Sally Rogers.  (This took place a year after 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' went off the air, but it was still a competing network, so no names allowed.)

Tobin's character lay into them with a slew of insults about their writing on the show, which Endora found funny... until he turned on her and insulted her as well.  Only Samantha's magic could smooth things over - and transform Tobin's character back from the marionette which Endora turned him into.

2) 'The Joey Bishop Show'
"Read All Over And Blue As Well"
This sitcom had already crossed over with 'Make Room For Daddy' by having Rusty Williams lodging with the Barneses while he went to college.  So it made sense to have Buddy drop by as a guest on Joey Barnes' late night talk show.  Buddy called on his reputation as the Human Joke Machine to come up with jokes to fit the news stories he found in the paper.  His prowess with a punchline was so perfect, he perused the paper with no previous preparation.

But unfortunately, one news item which Buddy never saw coming really left him steamed, and he accidentally uttered a swear word on live TV.  Joey then had to deal with the fallout from the network brass.

3) 'The Larry Sanders Show'
"Don't Ring Down That Curtain!"
Morey Amsterdam was an old man by the time this series began, and so of course Buddy was as well.  But Amsterdam was still active, with a recurring role on 'Young And The Restless'.  

Unlike many other stars who appeared on this talk show within a sitcom, Morey Amsterdam and Rose Marie didn't appear as themselves.  They came back as Buddy and Sally, only they were referred to as "Maurice" (which was the first name shared by Buddy and Morey - although he was born "Moritz") and "Mrs. Glimpsheier".  (With that typo in the press release, everybody ended up pronouncing Sally's married name as "Glimpsheyer".  Thus any copyright difficulties were averted.)

The writer for this episode, Steve Levitan, was inspired by the casting of Morey Amsterdam at his advanced age to incorporate another late night legend into the script.  Just as it happened with 'The Dick Cavett Show', Buddy was originally slated to appear on the Sanders show with Sally and then drop dead during the commercial break.  But even though the original draft of the script had some killer dialogue and Emmy-worthy plot points, Garry Shandling vetoed it.  He didn't want to be known as the guy who killed off a TV legend like Buddy Sorrell.

Instead, Buddy and Sally - I mean, "Maury" and "Mrs. Glimpsheier" - came on the show to do a bit of their old "Gilbert & Solomon" song and jokes routine (although not going by that name, of course.)  Afterwards they joined Larry, with Sally sitting in the chair next to Larry and Buddy on the couch with Hank.

Seeing Hank's bald pate, Buddy's eyes lit up and he started in with the zingers as if he was talking to Mel Cooley.  For example: "How come you always say the applause signs says 'Applesauce'?  You got applesauce on the mind?  I think that chrome dome of yours is full of applesauce!" (In fact, the script snuck in a little in-joke: when Hank started to protest, Larry cut him off with "Shut up, Mel.")  Buddy got so worked up that he had a small cardiac episode and had to be taken to the hospital during the commercial break.  

Larry got a phone call later from "Mrs. Glimpsheier", telling him that "Maury" was doing much better and would be able to go home in a few days.  As this was one of the last appearances by Morey Amsterdam, we can assume that despite a good prognosis, Buddy Sorrell probably died within the year.)

The episode ends with Artie convinced that they kept a lid on any bad press, but nobody expected Hank to leak the story to the newsletter put out by his fan club.....

4) 'The Duck Factory'
"A Bug In The System" 
(Also known as "Buddy Goes Buggy")
Buddy Sorrell had been an old friend of Buddy Winkler, (Brooks Carmichael: "Didn't you know?  Buddy and Buddy were buddies.")  Back in the early days of TV, Sorrell provided the voice-over, as well as the script, for Winkler's animated commercial for a drain clearing liquid called Flushao.  

Before Buddy Winkler had died, he made Buddy promise that he would come to Buddy Winkler Studios and provide some voice work for 'The Dippy Duck Show'.  During the episode, Skip Tarkenton begins to question Buddy's sanity after he insists he has to wear a bug costume while recording his part as "Orson Buggy".  (Skip: "You do realize this is a cartoon?  You're not going to be seen.")  

As Buddy's behavior becomes increasingly bizarre, it's finally revealed that it was all a gag for a new hidden camera show.  And as a tip of the hat to the old 'Dick Van Dyke Show', the TV show is an updated remake of "Sneaky Camera".  ("The Ghost Of A. Chantz")

5) 'Blansky's Beauties' 
"A Fistful Of Cream Pies"
While out in Vegas, and being an old friend of Nancy Blansky, Buddy emceed one night in the style of the old-time vaudeville shows and early television.  (Morey Amsterdam recreated some of his old burlesque routines and claimed that they were originally from his show, 'Buddy's Band', which was another call-back to 'The Dick Van Dyke Show'.  Morey Amsterdam is seen here with Jaqueline Susann on his old Dumont variety show.)  The whole thing erupts into chaos and Blansky does her best to keep order.  But she gets a pie in the face for her troubles.  (Most of Amsterdam's laughs come from leering up at Rhonda Bates as Arkansas, a 6'-2" stunner.)

6) 'Barney Miller' - 
"The Check Grabber"
Buddy was in a restaurant in the Village with his wife Pickles and got into a scrape with Pickles' ex-husband, Floyd B. Bariscale.  Of course, none of those names were used in order to avoid accusations of plagiarism but more importantly to avoid paying any royalties to the writers who created the characters.  (But they did sneak in that episode title so that viewers in the know would understand that Morey Amsterdam and Joan Shawee were playing their characters from 'The Dick Van Dyke Show'.)

When Detectives Yemana and Fish come back from the call to investigate an altercation at a restaurant, they have with them Mr. & Mrs, Sorrell.  (But their name is used only the one time in an introduction to Barney, and even then it's pronounced "Soril" - like "floral".)  Whenever Buddy addresses Pickles, it's "Fiona", and she only calls him "Honey".

It was only one of three different story-lines for that episode.  The other sub-plots had old reliables from the 'Barney Miller' guest repertory: Don Calfa, Peggy Pope, Jack Somack as Mr. Cotterman, and Ralph Manza as blind Mr. Roth.  

For Amsterdam's sub-plot, basically Buddy and Pickles were having dinner at some restaurant downtown (I forget the name but there was a callback to it several seasons later in the episode "Contempt: Part One".) 

Apparently, just as the check was delivered to their table, Fiona's ex-husband approaches and grabs the check, making a big scene out of paying instead of Buddy.  Insulted by the insinuating remarks he's making about "Fiona", Buddy began throwing plates and water pitchers at the ex-husband as he makes a hasty retreat from the restaurant, laughing.

"Floyd B. Bariscale" is never seen in the episode, so there was no need to bring in Sheldon Leonard to even just provide his voice.  His character is not even named, only referred to as "the ex-husband" or, in Fiona's case, "my ex-husband".

There is one moment where we can easily guess that Amsterdam is playing Buddy Sorrell: as Fish puts him in "the cage", he looks up at the old flatfoot and says, "You look just like a TV producer I know.  Only melted."

It wasn't the greatest of episodes, but it was nice to see Morey Amsterdam and Joan Shawlee teamed up again.

7) 'The Beverly Hillbillies'
"Jethro Stands Up"

When Jethro Bodine decided that he wanted to try his hand at doing stand-up comedy, Mr. Drysdale hires Buddy and Sally to write the material for him at Mammoth Studios.  It was a rare example of the CBS network promoting several of their shows with a crossover in which the two sitcoms didn't even share the same production company.  (Unlike other crossovers 'The Beverly Hillbillies' had with 'Petticoat Junction' and 'Green Acres'.)

For the guest stars, the focus was more on Sally Rogers, which was nice.  There was a running gimmick in which Sally and Miss Jane Hathaway get catty with each other as they vie for the attention of Jethro.  (For Buddy, the best bit was when he cleverly avoided eating some of Granny's squirrel pot pie by insisting it had to be kosher.)

In the screencap seen above, Buddy and Sally try to fix the old Clampett truck for Granny.... 

There were two cameos Amsterdam was supposed to make and I really wish that he had because I loved both those shows.  In the 'Batman' episode "Shoot A Crooked Arrow" which opened the second season, he was supposed to do one of those window cameos as Buddy Sorrell, in much the same way that Ted Cassidy and Werner Klemperer did as their TV characters Lurch and Colonel Klink respectively.  Amsterdam was willing to do it, especially since the guest villain was the Archer as played by Art Carney.  (Carney was the co-star of 'The Morey Amsterdam Show' back in 1949.)  But having just wrapped 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' the previous May, Amsterdam capitalized on his fame with a slew of club dates all across the country that summer - so many that he collapsed from exhaustion and had to bow out of the 'Batman' cameo.

As for the other cameo....  'Get Smart' was well known for having famous people do small walk-ons in the spy caper - Bob Hope as a room service waiter, Buddy Hackett as a gunsel in a spoof of "The Maltese Falcon", Johnny Carson as a train conductor and as the Royal Chamberlain of Caronia.  Buddy was to appear in the episode "Die, Spy" as a Borscht-Belt comic uneasily playing in a small Arabian nightclub.  But it was considered too edgy, what with the Six Day War less than a year before.  So, sadly it was cut.  I could have easily splained away his appearance as being that of Buddy Sorrell, who should fire his manager as soon as he got back to the States.  

Oh, well.  At least Robert Culp got to do his cameo in that episode and I have decreed that he was playing Kelly Robinson of 'I Spy' (which this episode was spoofing with Max and guest star Stu  Gilliam mimicking the Culp and Bill Cosby roles.)

So here's to you, the real Buddy Sorrell.  Welcome to the Television Crossover Hall Of Fame.  And thank you for the inspiration to be a new impractical joker!

BCnU!

* "J. Jackie Silver" wouldn't be the only stage name which Blackie Sorrell would use as a stand-up comic.  And because of that, he will one day gain entry into the TVXOHOF as part of the Birthday Honors List.

MY SO-CALLED LIFE - ABBYSINIA, ST. JOE'S

Every so often I feel the need to step away from All Things Toobworld and blog about something personal here.  Luckily for you, this doesn't happen often.  But as i am a member of the Television Crossover Hall of Fame, and this very influential part of my life was featured in the local TV news this week, I think it is at least tangential to the blog.

From the Meriden Record-Journal:

MERIDEN — St. Joseph School officials say they are sad that the 101-year-old institution will close for good this summer.

“It comes at a time when parishes and schools are looking at finances and looking at numbers of people who are in the seats,” St. Joseph Principal Katherin Sniffin said Tuesday.

The Archdiocese of Hartford announced Monday that the school, at 159 W. Main St., will close at the end of the academic year. The decision was made after a financial review by the pastor and parish trustees determined the church would face serious financial shortfalls if the school continued to operate beyond the current school year.

Here was the statement issued by the pastor:

I went to school there, from kindergarten through eighth grade.  So did all my siblings and our mother and her two sisters.  Friday nights I'd be back there for the weekly Boy Scout troop meeting in the basement.  There is a plaque on one of the steps which was donated by our family.  The place still serves as a location in my dreams every so often.  

When I was a kid, St. Joseph's WAS the Catholic Church.  When I learned my Dad grew up going to St. Rose's Church, but only started going to St. Joe's once he married my Mom, I just figured that meant he converted.

Several other Catholic schools closed in Meriden the last several years and now this leaves only Our Lady Of Mount Carmel less than a quarter mile away from St. Joseph's.  But I always figured it would be St. Joe's which would hold fast as the center for a Catholic education.

I was contacted by the Hartford Courant the night of the announcement about how I felt regarding the news.....

(The word "going" is missing from that last sentence.)

Here are the screencaps from the WFSB news story Tuesday evening which "immortalizes" St. Joe's School in Toobworld:

  

|

It's been nearly fifty years since I went to school there; I'm still in touch with several of my classmates from that time.  (A few are no longer with us.)  

But as with all of my favorite TV shows, Time marches on and the St. Joseph's School program has come to an end as well.

BCnU, St. Joe's... if only in my dreams and memories.....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BILL O'BRIEN!!!!

Today is my brother Bill's birthday.  But I didn't want to make a big deal out of it, Toobworld-wise.....

Happy birthday, Brothermine.....

WISH-CRAFT - HOUSES OF THE WHOLLY THEORETICAL

'THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW'

"YOU CERTAINLY ARE A BIG BOY"

Architect and author Matt Bryan met Mary Richards when he came to do sketches of her apartment as part of a project he was working on.  Apparently the Lindstrom house had been designed and built by Frank Reich - NOT Frank Lloyd Wright! - who did not have the best of reputations in the business.  In fact, the Minneapolis house owned by Dr. Lars and Phyllis Lindstrom was probably the best example of his work.  

Although it was not stated, a good reason for it having a better reputation than some of his other homes was that it was at least original.  I think we can lay the blame for so many houses in different TV shows (and located in different Toobworld cities) looking exactly the same at the feet of Mr. Reich.  

This is the house I'm referring to:

There are several house designs which show up over and over again in Toobworld and I think we can blame Frank Reich for all of them.  He was a very lazy architect and would re-use his designs in different parts of "Telemerica" if he felt he could get away with it.  

Here are just a few examples:

'COLUMBO'

"FORGOTTEN LADY"

(LOS ANGELES)

This was the home of Dr. Henry Willis and his wife Grace Wheeler, the former movie actress.  Since Lt. Columbo was investigating the murder of Dr. Willis, we know that the house lies within the environs of Los Angeles.

'MURDER, SHE WROTE'

"IF THE FRAME FITS"

(CEDAR HEIGHTS, CT.)

The house can also be found on the East Coast in this shoreline bedroom community for the rich in Connecticut.  New York publisher Lloyd Marcus lived there around the time when his daughter was murdered.

'THE FATHER DOWLING MYSTERIES'
"THE MURDER WEEKEND MYSTERY"

(GREATER CHAMPAIGN/URBANA, IL., AREA)

Famed mystery novelist Jack Patton led a secluded life somewhere in this area, where he outfitted his Reich-designed home with secret passages, traps, and surveillance systems.  None of which did him any good, since he was murdered there anyway.

i'm not exactly sure where that Fourth Reich house (Sorry about that, Chief) seen at the top of this list came from but I think it might be a 'Remington Steele' episode.

I'm hoping I'll be finding more examples of this architecture but one day I'll compile the examples of other houses designed by Frank Reich.......

BCnU!

TWO FOR TUESDAY 2 - AURORA TEAGARDEN'S FAVORITE AUTHOR

There was a character named Robin Daniels in the second "Aurora Teagarden" movie, "Real Murders", based on the first book in the series.  Daniels was a mystery novelist who was just moving in to Laurenceton, and I think he was a Canadian ex-patriate, so he really wasn't moving too far from the home country if he was now in Washington state.

He didn't last long in the movie franchise as a love interest for Aurora - by the next TV movie she had moved on to a man named Martin (who may or may not be related to a Canadian police detective in turn of the century Toronto.)

Robin Daniels was the author of the following books:

In the earlier post today, I pointed out that his book "Temagami Death" could be a clue that the newcomer to Laurenceton was probably originally from Canada himself.

But I think these book titles also give us further clues into Robin Daniels' career as an author.

I  think he was chosen by either the estates or the authors themselves to continue their own murder mystery franchises.

"DEATH LEAVES ME COLD"

Dame Margot Woodhouse wrote a series of books using "Death" in her titles in such a way that either it was the personification of the state of being dead or it was the nickname for a sleuth perhaps, following in the tradition of the Saint, the Falcon, the Fat Man, or the Continental Op.  

Or it could be a bastardization of the last name of De'Ath.  If so, Dame Margot might have been inspired by Clan De'Ath of "Castle De'ath" (as seen in that episode of 'The Avengers'.)  And in turn I think that brings in the theory of relateeveety connection to Lord Peter Wimsey.

Dame Margot Woodhouse was an old woman by the early 1990s, but in the spring of her youth she may have met Lord Pete Death Bredon Wimsey.  it could be this this amateur sleuth inspired the admiring lass to create a fictional detective based on him and use Wimsey's middle name of "De'Ath" as the name for her protagonist.  

The last book in the series that we know of by Dame Margot Woodhouse was "Death Rinses Out A Few Things", a title by which it had become evident to her editor at Whitestone Press that she was losing her acumen in crafting murder mysteries.

After her death, I'm thinking it's pozz'ble, just pozz'ble that the Woodhouse estate was looking for a way to infuse new blood into the franchise, to keep her legacy on the best seller lists.  So to that end, several authors were hired to write books continuing the "Death" series, but in her style.  (Much the same situation happened in the real world with book series for Ian Fleming and Robert Ludlum among others.)

Eventually Robin Daniels was commissioned to write such a pastiche/homage and "Death Leaves Me Cold" was the end result.  This is conjecture of course, but even so we're not likely to ever see any more book titles from that franchise.

"THE CORPSE WENT MISSING"

Based on the success of that book, Robin Daniels may have caught the notice of another mystery writer, Jessica B. Fletcher from Cabot Cove, Maine.  She wrote at least four books in a series using "Corpse" in the title:

• "The Corpse Danced At Midnight"
• "The Corpse Swam By Moonlight"
• "The Corpse At Vespers"
• "The Corpse That Wasn't There"

i'm not sure if there was a specific theme in using "Corpse" in those titles.  Perhaps her publishers decided it was best to keep the common thread going so that people related it to Jessica Fletcher, similar to "The Thin Man" or "The Pink Panther" in the movies when those terms were specific to the first movies only.

I'd like to think "Corpse" could be a nickname for J.B. Fletcher's main character in those books, perhaps a corruption for the character's last name?  Looking through an online database of surnames, I like the simplicity of "Corpus", especially with a first name of "Chris".  But I also like "Korpics" which I think would be pronounced "Korpish".  Either one I could see being devolved into "Corpse" by the detective's friends.  It all would depend on what J.B. Fletcher might do, though.  What would a first-time author choose as a name for her protagonist, especially if she was following the mantra of "Write what you know"?

(I would not be surprised if she followed in the footsteps of Conan Doyle and Christie and creating a main character who was quite distinctive.  She may have modeled her detective either in loving memory of her late husband Frank Fletcher or patterned him after the only law enforcement officer she knew - Sheriff Amos Tupper.

I can see a nickname of "Corpse" being attached to a guy like the Sheriff, especially it was boiled down from "Corpulent".

Jessica Fletcher is still alive, but apparently no longer writing books.  (At least we haven't seen any evidence that she has any new titles seen or mentioned in other TV shows.)  I think she may have decided to have her line of "Corpse" books continue with a new writer.  Being a very fair person, Mrs. Fletcher would not have felt right engaging Robin Daniels to be the ghost writer using her name.  And so it's his name on the dust jacket for "The Corpse Went Missing".
As for the other books?  

"Temagami Death" - Most likely a true crime novel based on a murder case near where Robin Daniels grew up in the Ontario area.

"Cobalt Blue Murder" - Another true crime book, examining the death of a counter-culture 60s hippie who called herself Cobalt-Blue after she got involved in a spy case with Kelly Robinson and Alexander Scott.  ('I Spy' - "Tag, You're It!")

"Dark Angel At The Lake" - Who knows?  Maybe there's more to Robin Daniels than we could ever know.  Perhaps he got caught up in an adventure with the Time Lord known as The Doctor and had a close encounter with one of those lonely assassins known as the Weeping Angels.  This book could have been a fictionalized account of what really happened to him.....

Just a theory, all in all.......

BCnU!

TWO FOR TUESDAY 1 - THE LOCATION FOR "AURORA TEAGARDEN"

I wish I was paying more attention when I first started watching the "Aurora Teagarden" marathon last week on the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries channel.  According to Wikipedia, Charlaine Harris has set her series of novels in the town of Laurenceton, Georgia.  But it's become O'Bvious to me (hence that spelling!) that the TV movies are still in Laurenceton, but it's located in the Pacific Northwest, most likely Washington state with mentions of Seattle but within hailing distance of Portland, Oregon.  

This became most evident with "The Julius House" movie: a lot of talk about tracking a man in a white car in Portland and finding a few people of interest in Seattle.....

There was a character named Robin Daniels in the second movie, "Real Murders", based on the first book in the series.  Daniels was a mystery novelist who was just moving in to Laurenceton, and I think he was a Canadian ex-patriate, so he really wasn't moving too far from the home country if he was now in Washington state.

My reasoning for this is because one of his books was "Temagami Death" by Daniels.  Temagami is located in northern Ontario region.

At any rate, here's another reason why I don't absorb books into the Toobworld Dynamic; from Georgia to Washington/Oregon, that's a pretty big discrepancy in location!

BCnU!

MINUTIAE MONDAYS - CONVERSATION PIECES

"I drink.  And tell stories."

Athos 

'The Three Musketeers'

"That's what I do. 

I drink, and I know things."

Tyrion Lannister

'Game of Thrones'