7/1/17 - SOUNDCHECK SATURDAY

7/1/17
HAPPY PALINDROME DAY!

Used to listen to the legendary Vin Scelsa on Saturday nights with his "Idiot's Delight" radio show in the New York City area.  I miss those days now that he's retired.  There will never be another.

This is in no way meant to be seen as a replacement.  I could never be that good. It's just some music video filler on the weekend so that I can get a bit of a break and still leave the loyal legions in Team Toobworld something to enjoy.

And I thought this year's Palindrome day would be the perfect opportunity to start......

WITH THIS FIRST ONE, SING ALONG!

Well, that's just a few selections.  I'm sure you've got plenty of other things to do on a Saturday than stay glued to the Toob.....

BCnU!

BOOK 'EM! "LULU AND LUCIA"

There has been a book, found only in Toobworld2 (The Land O' Remakes), which has been running through the 'Father Brown' series since the third season.  "Lulu and Lucia", written by Lucia Morell, is a novel of erotic lesbian fiction.  Fun stuff!

"LAIR OF THE LIBERTINES" (Third Season)

Father Brown finds the book among the various other works of fiction which the killer is going to take with her when she makes her escape.  Included in the pile are various editions of German erotica, "Business As Usual", "With Virtue", and the key to figuring out the killer's true identity, "African Safari".

"CRACKPOT OF THE EMPIRE" (Fourth Season)

While keeping an eye on Mrs. McCarthy after she was poisoned, Lady Felicia started reading the novel and was quite aroused by the experience. (See the picture at the top of the page.)

"THE HAND OF LUCIA" (Fifth Season)

This is the episode which brings the book front and center in the investigation as it is key to the solution of the murder.  I won't say more so as not to spoil it, but I really don't know much more than the identity of the victim.  I have yet to see it.

UPDATE: I have seen it now, and I don't think I've ever encountered a murder victim who had it coming more!  I think note will be taken at the Toobits Award at the end of the year.

Whether or not the book shows up in other episodes, I have yet to find out.  (I'm only up to the middle of the fourth season.  I had been watching the series via CPTV, but now I find the first five seasons are available on Netflix so I'm up for some binge-watching!)

But I think "Lulu and Lucia" is a strong candidate for the 2017 Toobits Award for Best Fictional book in Toobworld, even if it is to be found only in an alternate TV dimension.  But who knows?  Maybe one day another TV show might reveal that it can be found in some TV character's collection.....

BCnU!

SPLAININ TO DO: DE-ZONKING "MODERN FAMILY"

This DVR summary popped up for an episode for 'Modern Family' and I found it puzzling.

They've been to Australia, but when has the show ever gone to Spain?

I wouldn't be surprised if one day a Spanish version of the show did pop up on a Spanish TV network, either in the mother country or down South in Latin America.  The format of the sitcom lends itself to foreign remakes, no matter the language.  Already there is a Greek version:

'Moderna oikogeneia'

The Greek version of the award-winning series Modern family. Three modern families face the usual and sometimes strange problems and compose a complex scene full of madness and love.

And from Israel, I found this reference listed in the IMDb for connections to 'Modern Family':

Eretz Nehederet: 

Episode #9.3 (2012)
The name of the show spoofing "Sabri Maranan" is called "Not Modern Family"

So I looked up 'Sabri Maranen' and found this:

The series follows Shay and Shani who go to Friday dinner. Shani's family is a Mizrahi Family, and Shay's family is an Ashkenazi family. There are episodes that they go to Shay's family the Rosens, and there are episodes that they go to Shani's family the Hassons.

I can see that being basically the 'Modern Family' format, giving it just enough of a twist so that it's not an exact copy.

'Modern Family' at its most basic is just generic enough that there could be variations all over the world and none of them would have to be tossed out to another TV dimension.  Unless of course they never bothered to change the names of the characters - that's why I had to relegate the American version of 'Shameless' to the Land O' Remakes.

Best thing about 'Modern Family' is that it is virtually Zonk-proof on its own.  (They do a lot of Zonking themselves in referencing other TV shows.)  

Here are three examples in which 'Modern Family' was referenced in other shows:

Raising Hope: 

Baby Monitor (2011)
Virginia says, "I've seen this on 'Modern Family' and countless other sitcoms."

Entourage: 

Home Sweet Home (2011)
Lloyd tells Ari that 'Modern Family' creator Steven Levitan is looking for a new agent.

Entourage: 

Out with a Bang (2011)

Lloyd: I had my breakfast meeting with Steven Levitan this morning.
Ari: Congrats. You gonna be the new gay on 'Modern Family'?

These are not insurmountable.  The televersion of Levitan created Toobworld's 'Modern Family' as a reality show, like 'Chrisley Knows Best' and just as manipulated.  "Fake Reality".  The characters are always talking to the camera, making sideway glances at the camera, etc.

It would come off as so contrived that Ari might think that new "characters" could be added in.  And Virginia, not the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to the Chance family (although she is better than her son and husband!) could mistake the reality show about the extended Pritchett family as being a sitcom.  They always are in laughable situations, after all.

BCnu!

"WHAT HAVE YOU, GEORGE?" "LUCY MAUD MONTGOMERY!"

'THE MURDOCH MYSTERIES'

"UNLUCKY IN LOVE"

From the IMDb:

Murdoch investigates the death of an elderly groom; Crabtree meets Lucy Maud Montgomery at a writing class.

From Wikipedia:

Lucy Maud Montgomery OBE (November 30, 1874 – April 24, 1942) was a Canadian author best known for a series of novels beginning in 1908 with Anne of Green Gables. The book was an immediate success. The central character, Anne Shirley, an orphaned girl, made Montgomery famous in her lifetime and gave her an international following.

The first novel was followed by a series of sequels with Anne as the central character. Montgomery went on to publish 20 novels as well as 530 short stories, 500 poems, and 30 essays. Most of the novels were set in Prince Edward Island, and locations within Canada's smallest province became a literary landmark and popular tourist site—namely Green Gables farm, the genesis of Prince Edward Island National Park. She was made an officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1935.

Montgomery's work, diaries and letters have been read and studied by scholars and readers worldwide.

"Despite the story you have just seen there is no evidence to suggest Lucy Maud Montgomery met Constable George Crabtree or that her work was influenced by him. (He's not real)."

Looking at it from outside the perspective of Toobworld, that was Alison Louder playing Lucy Maud Montgomery, the author's televersion.  And she was" just as real as George Crabtree.

Even when celebrities play themselves in fictional settings, they are still televersions and not the real things.  And so Lucy Maud Montgomery has something in common with Ellen DeGeneres, Roseanne Barr, Mandy Moore, Jane Cobden*, and John F. Kennedy, Jr.: their fictional televersions have all had sex with fictional TV characters.

At the end of this episode about "The Artful Detective", Lucy Maud Montgomery sadly tells George that she must return to Prince Edward Island and that they must bring an end to their relationship, only just blossoming.  George ruefully accepts that, but then she adds that she won't be leaving until the morning....

It takes George a few seconds - he can be rather a dimbulb sometimes - but he realizes what she is suggesting and the scene closes on them kissing in his room.  

I think we can infer that she stayed the night.

BCnU!

* Don't know who Jane Cobden is?  Look her up.  I'm not your Googleboy!

TWO FOR TUESDAY - THE TWO MARGARET HENDERSONS, SPLAINED

Here's an interesting Zonk which can be easily splained away....

But first, be warned: there be spoilers ahead!

Recently there was a mid-season replacement show on NBC called 'Trial & Error', a sitcom about a man put on trial down South for allegedly murdering his wife.  

Here is a copy of the local newspaper reporting on the crime, featuring a photo of the deceased poet Margaret Henderson.

Larry Henderson was convicted, but evidence came out after the trial which spared his life.  Margaret's cell phone was found which contained a selfie video which showed the true "murderer" - an owl which flew into her house and smashed into her, causing Margaret to lurch forward through the plate glass window which delivered the fatal wound.

Sorry for the blurry quality, but it really happened so quickly!

As you can see, the poet in the newspaper was not the Margaret of the cell phone.  I don't see how they could have expected us not to notice, considering there were only about six episodes to the whole series!

Toby, you got some splainin to do!

I hate to throw my brother's noble profession (F you and your "fake news", Drumpf!) under the bus, but somebody at that newspaper bleeped up.  They ran the wrong file photo.  Perhaps that was another Margeret Henderson.  Maybe it was a Margaret Anderson (just not the one in Springfield.)  But it certainly wasn't Larry Henderson's wife.

Looks mean, don't she?  One might have understood if Larry had killed his wife if she looked like that at him all the time.....

By the way, Andie McDowell played the second Margaret.

And the owl didn't escape justice.  it can still be found in the taxidermy shop which shared space with the law firm......

BCnU!

SIGN OF THE CROSSOVER - THE "LAW & ORDER" OF "McCLOUD"

From Wikipedia:

'Law & Order' is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the 'Law & Order' franchise. It originally aired on NBC and, in syndication, on various cable networks. 'Law & Order' premiered on September 13, 1990, and completed its 20th and final season on May 24, 2010. At the time of its cancellation, 'Law & Order' was the longest-running crime drama on American prime-time television. Its record of 20 seasons is a tie with 'Gunsmoke' (1955–75) for the longest-running live-action scripted American prime-time series with ongoing characters. Although it has fewer episodes than 'Gunsmoke', 'Law & Order' ranks as the longest-running hour-long prime-time TV series. 'Gunsmoke', for its first six seasons, was originally a half-hour program.

'Law & Order' spawned several spin-offs:

'Law & Order: Criminal Intent'

'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'

'Law & Order: Trial By Jury'

'Law & Order: LA'

'Deadline'

"Exiled: A Law & Order Movie"

It also crossed over several times with 'Homicide: Life On The Street', with one of that shows characters joining the cast of the spin-off 'Law & Order: SVU' (Detective John Munch).  There have been several international adaptations, with 'Law & Order: UK' based on the original series and 'Law & Order: SVU' being interpreted by casts in Russia and France.  (None of these three shows can be directly linked to the American franchise, but Munch got a mention in an episode of 'Luther' - one of the many reasons Detective Munch is the King of the Crossovers.)

So according to Wikipedia, 'Law & Order' began in 1990.  And that's true - from the perspective of the Trueniverse.  But the magic of the Toobworld Dynamic is that as soon as a show is broadcast, then its characters, locations, and the things which it has contributed to that alternate reality automatically have histories which can stretch back along the Toobworld timeline, sometimes even to antiquity.

For the fanficcers among Team Toobworld, you wouldn't have to just consider adventures and crossover for after their shows ended; you could fill in the blanks of their lives from before they debuted on the Toob.  Prequels baby!

Think of the possibilities: Detective Lenny Briscoe may have gone to high school with Jean Davis ('Columbo' - "Requiem For A Falling Star"), Frank Barone ('Everybody Loves Raymond'), Elliot Carlin ('The Bob Newhart Show'), and the twin sisters Helen and Judy, better known by the married last names of Rosenthal and Geller ('St. Elsewhere' and 'Friends' respectively).

All of those options were chosen for the actors being born around the same time as Jerry Orbach.......

And as I mentioned, it wouldn't have to be just the characters.  Their invented locations could also be used to link shows together earlier than expected.  For 'Law & Order', that location would be the 27th Precinct.

So the series may have begun in September of 1990, but the Old 2-7 actually dates back farther than 1990.  We saw evidence of its existence 20 years earlier!

'McCLOUD'

"MURDER ARENA"

In order to rush to the rescue during this case, Marshal Sam McCloud commandeered a squad car to race across town.  And as you can see in this picture, it was assigned to the 27th Precinct.

A lot of possibilites in that: Detective Andy Sipowicz of the 15th (as seen in 'NYPD Blue') may have started out as a patrolman working out of the 27th.  After the series 'NYPD' concluded, maybe Lt. Mike Haines was transferred to the 27th to be its new supervising officer.  Paul La Guardia of the 14th Precinct could have been stationed there from even farther back, long before he worked with Detectives 'Cagney & Lacey'.  And speaking of those Lady Blues, maybe Officer Casey Jones did some of her 'Decoy' work while stationed there. It could have been because of some big case solved by Detective Frank McNeil of the 27th which got him the promotion to Captain, stationed at the 11th (with his best detective being Theo 'Kojak'.)

As a detective on the other coast would often say: "Just one more thing....."

O'BSERVATION: That episode title of "Murder Arena" was not in the original list from the series.  It's a two-hour combination of two other episodes ("The Concrete Corral" and "Walk In The Dark".)  I consider it as just another perspective of the events in McCloud's life rather than having to ship it off to another TV dimension.  There was no similarity in the cases, but it does show that just like in real life, TV characters have to juggle the events of their lives; not everything happens in an orderly fashion.

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TOOBWORLD-TOOBWORLD: "THE LATE SHIFT"