FRIDAY HALL OF FAMER (LAST WESTERN ENTRY FOR 2018)

In 2009, the Television Crossover Hall of Fame celebrated its 10^th anniversary by inducting four new members each month rather than just the one.  Each week of the month would be a different category: “As Seen On TV” (real people played by actors), “The League Of Themselves” (real people playing their fictional televersions); “Toons” (cartoon characters from the Tooniverse); and “Locations” (places visited by TV characters from lots of different shows.)

So for that year, the Locations inductees were:

• St. Eligius Hospital
• Montecito Hotel & Casion
• Fernwood
• Hooterville
• The Playboy Mansion
• Mayberry
• Paradise, California
• The OK Corral
• Mammoth Studios
• 1313 Mockingbird Lane
• The White House
• The North Pole

The Locations category on the surface looks to be any easy one.  And it shouldn’t be.  Mostly they should be fictional, found only in Toobworld for the most part.  (The North Pole of course would be multi-versal.)  But as you can see, there are some from the real world – the OK Corral, the White House, the Playboy Mansion. 

All three of them are not that easy to get to for everybody.  TV characters would have to go out of their way to visit them.  And this is why New York City won’t ever be inducted.  That would mean the 8 million plus stories of that naked city automatically qualify it.  Think of all the shows which are set in Manhattan alone, never mind the four other boroughs!  And the same goes for Miami, Chicago, and especially Los Angeles.  The one exception was Las Vegas, which was inducted last year as my own small memorial to the victims in that mass shooting.  Yes, there are a lot of people who actually live there and at least three TV series which were situated there.  But it’s a destination for so many other TV characters in one-shot visits.  The gamblers’ version of Disneyworld.

So all that serves as the preamble for this last special Friday Hall of Famer for August, to cap off our celebration of the TV Western.  This is a location which doesn’t exactly exist in the real world in the same way as it does on TV.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you…..

THE VASQUEZ ROCKS!

From Wikipedia:
Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park is a 932-acre (377-hectare) park located in the Sierra Pelona Mountains in northern Los Angeles County, California. It is located in the town of Agua Dulce, between the suburbs of Santa Clarita and Palmdale. The area is also visible from the Antelope Valley Freeway (State Route 14).

The prominent rock formation has been nicknamed "Kirk's Rock" due to being featured in several 'Star Trek' episodes, each time representing a different planet.

The rock formation has served in the background for plenty of TV series of a variety of genres, and not all of those locations were to be found on Tooworld itself.  As in the Real World, it can be found where it was naturally formed in California, and where it also serves as a filming location for the fictional versions of ‘Star Trek’ (which is not exactly the same as in the Real World.)  We know this because the nerdlings of ‘The Big Bang Theory’ specifically went there to have their picture taken as the characters from ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’.  But it also can be found in Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, plus Libya, Afghanistan, and even on Fantasy Island! 

Tarok from the "Voyager" episode "Initiations"
&
The "Shore Leave" planet
&
Vulcan from "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home"

 And that’s just Earth Prime-Time.  It could also be found on plenty of other planets in the TV Universe, especially in the ‘Star Trek’ franchise.  By my count, there would be eight other planets with that same formation, and even then, not all of them are in the Alpha Quadrant.  The rocks can be found in other dimensions ("Land of the Lost") and even another TV universe ("Futurama".)

Here’s my splainin for it all:

The planet-building society of Magrathea built plenty of planets to the specifications of their clients.  Among these was Earth Prime-Time, the second “Earth” in the Sol system which was based on a design submitted by a super-computer known as “Deep Thought”.  (The first Earth, known by its inhabitants as Mondas, was created by God.  See?  I cover all bases!)

But the Magratheans also wanted to make a profit, and so cost-cutting measures were taken.  Among these alterations were the re-use of certain architectural designs like the Vasquez Rocks.  So when we see the Vasquez Rocks on other planets, then we can assume those planets were designed and built by the Magratheans.

Here’s a list of those eight planets from the ‘Star Trek’ franchise which must have been built by the Magratheans:

‘STAR TREK’
“Shore Leave”
Amusement Park Planet
(where Kirk gets beaten up by Finnegan)

“Arena”
Metron Asteroid
(that the Metrons have set up for Kirk to fight against the Gorn)

“The Alternative Factor”
Lazarus's Planet
(site of the rift between the universes)

“Friday’s Child”
Capella IV
(where Kirk, Spock, McCoy and the pregnant woman seek refuge)

THE MOVIES
“Star Trek IV”
Vulcan
(the peak to which Spock retreats to meditate)

‘STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION’
“Who Watches The Watchers”
Mintaka III
(site of the "duck blind")

‘STAR TREK: VOYAGER’
“Initiations”
Tarok
(Kazon training ground)

‘ENTERPRISE’
“The Unexpected”
Xyrillian homeworld
(holo-simulation)

That list was compiled by Jörg Hillebrand and Bernd Schneider, to whom Toobworld Central gives thanks.

They also included the 2009 “Star Trek” movie, which I do not.  Until Spock actually went into that black hole, the movie was depicting the events of the future (based on the files given to Gene Roddenberry by a certain Time traveler who wanted to make sure the world would be ready for such a future with a TV show based on the actual future events – which they would think were fictional.)  For Toobworld, which had absorbed all the movies which preceded it, only the first part is part of Toobworld lore.  We believe Spock died going into that black hole.  From that point on, it's speculation on the part of the film-makers.  So this scene from the movie is fiction:

Because the Vasquez Rocks actually do exist in Toobworld, and I want to salute all of their manifestations in Toobworld, I’m going to label their entry in the TVXOHOF as The Vasquez Rocks Replicas.  That should cover them all.

So here are some examples of the Vasquez Rocks as seen in Toobworld.

1950s

• “Tales Of The Bengal Lancers”
• "Cheyenne" 
• “Family Theatre” (“I Beheld His Glory”)
• "Gunsmoke"
• "The Lone Ranger”
• “Have Gun, Will Travel”
• “Zorro”
• “The Adventures Of Rin Tin Tin”
• “The Cisco Kid”
• “Johnny Ringo”
• “The Gene Autrey Show”
• "Maverick"
• "Wanted: Dead Or Alive"
• “The Adventures Of Champion”
• “Broken Arrow”
• “Buffalo Bill, Jr.”
• “The Range Rider”
• “Annie Oakley”
• “Stage 7”
• “Death Valley Days”
• “The Texan”
• “Zane Grey Theatre”
• “Tombstone Territory”

1960s

• “The Westerner”
• "Bonanza"
• “Tales Of Wells Fargo”
• "Big Valley"
• "High Chaparral"
• "Star Trek"
• "The Wild, Wild West" 
• “F Troop”
• “The Fugitive”
• “Branded”
• “The Tall Man”
• “Bat Masterson”
• “Hondo”
• “The Name Of The Game”
• “Laramie”
• “The Rat Patrol”
• “The Invaders”
• “The Outer Limits”
• “Cimarron Strip”
• “Mission Impossible”

1970s:

• “Alias Smith And Jones”
• "Six Million Dollar Man" 
• "The Bionic Woman" 
• "Battlestar Galactica"
• "Land Of The Lost"
• “Fantasy Island”
• “Daniel Boone”
• “The Incredible Hulk”
• “Logan’s Run” (far future, perhaps alternate TV dimension)

1980s: 

• “Guns Of Paradise”
• “Voyagers”
• “Simon and Simon”
• “The A-Team”
• "McGyver"
• "Hell Town" 
• Taco Bell commercial "Run for the Border"
• "Hunter"
• “Murder, She Wrote”
• "Airwolf"

1990s: 

• "Tales from the Crypt"
• "Jag"
• "The Agency"
• "Charmed"
• “Alien Nation”
• “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers”
• “Power Rangers Turbo”
• “Prey”
• “Forever Knight”
• “Sliders” 
• “The Pretender”
• “Space: Above And Beyond” (but set farther into the future)
• “Dinosaurs” (but set in the distant future)

2000s

• “Las Vegas”
• “Alias”
• “Bones”
• “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”
• "Malcolm in the Middle"
• "Without a Trace"
• "Last Comic Standing"
• "Saving Grace"
• "NCIS"
• "CSI"
• “Saul Of The Mole Men”
• “Westworld”
• “New Girl”
• “Teen Wolf”
• “The Middleman”
• “Vegas” (but set in the early 60s)

 "THE ADVENTURES OF RIN TIN TIN"

 "MURDER, SHE WROTE"

 "THE BIG BANG THEORY"

 "ALIAS"

 "THE BIG VALLEY"

 "BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25th CENTURY"

 "BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER"

 "CHEYENNE"

 "FRIENDS"

 "THE INVADERS"

 "LASSIE"

 "LASSIE"

 "LASSIE"

 "LOGAN'S RUN"

 "MY FAVORITE MARTIAN"

 "MONK"

 "MONK"

 "THE NAKED MONSTER"

 "SHAZAAM!"

 "SPACE: ABOVE AND BEYOND"

 "THE ZANE GREY THEATER"

"THE ZANE GREY THEATER"

"THE OUTER LIMITS"

"THE ZANTI MISFITS"

And from the Tooniverse....
"FUTURAMA"

In closing, I’d like to echo an opinion shared on the internet:

“If some day an inanimate object is granted a star 

on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, 

by all rights the honor should go to Vasquez Rocks.”

I hope a membership in the TV Crossover Hall of Fame will suffice in the meantime.  Here, inanimate objects are always welcome…..