OUR WEEKLY "ENDEAVOUR" - "ICARUS"

I'd never even heard of 'Daktari'.
Unknown Character
'Mr. & Mrs. Murder'

And here we are, the final episode of the fifth season of 'Endeavour'.  Surprisingly, "Icarus" really had only one reference which has an impact on Toobworld.

STANLOW: 

He used to call me "Dak", sir.

I think it's short for "Daktari".

It's a programme on the television 

about a vet in Africa.

There's a lion in it called Clarence.

That's my name too.

From Wikipedia:

"Daktari" (Swahili for "doctor") is an American family drama series that aired on CBS between 1966 and 1969. The series is an Ivan Tors Films Production in association with MGM Television starring Marshall Thompson as Dr. Marsh Tracy, a veterinarian at the fictional Wameru Study Centre for Animal Behaviour in East Africa.

The show follows the work of Dr. Tracy, his daughter Paula (Cheryl Miller), and his staff, who frequently protect animals from poachers and local officials. Tracy's pets, a cross-eyed lion named Clarence and a chimpanzee named Judy, were also popular characters.

As this was first broadcast earlier in the year by the BBC, there isn't a deliberate connection to an historical footnote on the Toobworld timeline, and it's doubtful that PBS' 'Masterpiece Mystery' showcase was aware of it either - 49 years ago this month, Clarence the Cross-eyed Lion passed away.  That fact is forever burned into my memories and I'll be going into more detail on the reason why next year as a two-part 50th anniversary celebration.

At any rate, the fact that this episode was broadcast in America with such a connection to the aforementioned 'Daktari' must have been purely coincidental.

Normally, without splainins, any TV shows mentioned in another series would be seen as a "Zonk", a discrepancy.  The cited show should be sharing the same TV dimension (in this case, Earth Prime-Time) as the series in which it was named.

Luckily in this case, we can claim that 'Endeavour' and 'Daktari' share the same dimension even though Clarence Stanlow mentioned the TV show.

Fifty years on from the events of "Icarus", we see realistic nature shows similar to the premise of 'Daktari' on a regular basis - on Animal Planet, the NatGeo channel, and all of those mesmerizing 'Planet Earth' episodes from the BBC.

And documentary-style TV series about people have been around since just about the time of 'Endeavour', thanks to 'An American Family' which chronicled the daily lives of the Loud Family.

(O'Bservation: Patriarch Bill Loud just passed away in his nineties.)

The basic facts mentioned by young Master Stanlow would be common to both the TV show we know in the Trueniverse and its televersion in Toobworld - a veterinarian in Africa, a lion named Clarence, and key to the comparison, 'Daktari' was a TV program in both worlds.

(O'Bservation: It would have been less of a headache for Ye Old Curator of Televisiology if we could have claimed that it was a reference to the 1965 movie upon which the series was based, "Clarence The Cross-eyed Lion".  But ya can't have everything....)

So the Toobworld version of 'Daktari' would have been reality programming, with the real Dr. Tracy and it would have been currently on the air during the 'Endeavour' timeline.

Accepting 'Daktari' as a reality program with Marsh Tracy as an actual person would then create a somewhat tenuous link to the following series:

Lukas:
Schatten der Vergangenheit (1998)
Coco mentions the series.
&
Mensch, möbel dich auf! (1999)
Lukas mentions the series.

(It seems like 'Daktari' was a pretty popular series in the Lukas family, if not all of Germany.  At least West Germany got the program in January of 1969; I can't speak for the other side of the Wall.)

Mr & Mrs Murder:
Zootopia (2013)
Charlie reminisces about his favorite show

CHARLIE BUCHANAN:

Big fan of 'Daktari', 

which, as you know, 

is Swahili for 'doctor'. 

NICOLE BUCHANAN:

I remember 'Daktari'. 
There was Clarence the cross-eyed lion. 

CHARLIE BUCHANAN:

Yeah!  With the glasses to correct his vision.

American Pickers:
The Kings Ransom (2014)
Timothy, a seller in upstate New York, mentions this television show by name.

(Many members of Team Toobworld know that I detest reality programming.  However, we know there is a fictional version of the show thanks to an episode of 'NCIS'.  So this would be verification in Toobworld.)

I wish there could have been more such Easter Eggs in the episode to either splain away or dispute.  With this one, we get a half-n-half decision - it is technically a Zonk reference, but it is my conjecture that it was a documentary series starring the actual Dr. Marshall Tracy.  

But I haven't given much attention to these details found in the entire 'Endeavour' series.  So I may just go back and revisit them all to bring this little sub-topic up-to-date.

One benefit from writing up this post - I've come up with a very special post for next July!

CHARLIE BUCHANAN:

You know, you're pretty attractive for a woman.

NICOLE BUCHANAN:

Fantastic.

CHARLIE BUCHANAN:

Do you wanna go to the shed 

and re-enact some scenes from it? 

NICOLE BUCHANAN:

I have no idea what that means, but sure.

CHARLIE BUCHANAN:

You be Judy and I'll be Clarence.

Kuwa na kukuona!