VIDEO SATURDAY - AN IMPRESSION OF SAMMY DAVIS JR. (PLUS!)

Sammy Davis Jr. was inducted into the Television Crossover Hall of Fame in February of 2001.  He joined as a member of the League of Themselves and he was the first to kick off the tradition of a black personality or TV character being inducted during Black History Month.

Here's a look at who he was and variations on one particular aspect of his huge talent - the gift of mimicry.......

BCnU!

FOR BLACK HISTORY MONTH - LITTLE WAYNE COLEMAN

Unlike the real soap operas it spoofed, 'Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman' took long summer breaks.  To fill that void in the timeslot, Norman Lear's production company went in a different direction by creating a late night talk show locally broadcast from the TV station in Fernwood, Ohio, and hosted by Barth Gimble.  Barth was relatively new to Fernwood, having come after his twin brother Garth, a wife abuser, had been impaled on an artificial Christmas tree.  

But by the next summer, Barth Gimble felt the pull of Hollywood's allure and headed West to California.  There he got another late night talk show, 'America 2-Night' on the UBS network in Alto Coma, bringing along his Fernwood co-host Jerry Hubbard.

In May of 1978, Barth tried a new gimmick during one of his broadcasts.  He premiered a children's talk show which was entitled 'America After Lunch' and which was hosted by Little Freaking Wayne Coleman, a little boy whom Barth was hoping to adopt.  (There had to be a catch to the deal.)

Like Barth with Jerry, Little Wayne had a sidekick for 'America 2-Night' who played by Corey Feldman.  Feldman was seven years old, three years younger than Gary Coleman playing Little Wayne.  And he was just about as clueless as Jerry Hubbard was.  (One of the guests on that episode was Cindy Williams as herself.)

Just a few years later, Gary Coleman became a sensation in Toobworld with his portrayal of Arnold Jackson Drummond on 'Diff'rent Strokes'.  Eventually he would be inducted into the Television Crossover Hall of Fame for that role, having played it in more than three TV series.  (Sadly, his induction was spurred by his death.)

With his time in the spotlight, the public learned about how Coleman's kidney disease as a child stunted his growth and as Arnold and his older brother Willis (Todd Bridges) grew older on our screens, it became more apparent.

But the general public didn't know that when they first saw Little Wayne Coleman and there was no gauge by which they could eventually realize he was not going to get much taller because his two appearances on 'America 2-Night' were the only times he appeared.

This would be a similar situation as with Peter Falk playing Lt. Columbo.  I think we all knew he had a glass eye, but Columbo apparently did not - at least, not at first.  In the episode "Negative Reaction", Columbo told a driving inspector that he had 20/20 vision.  But in the later run of episodes on ABC, he told somebody else to take a look at what he was seeing in a microscrope.  "Three eyes are better than two," he said.  (This happened in the 25th anniversary episode "A Trace Of Murder".)  It's my theory that at some point during the hiatus from 1978 to 1989, Lt. Co

So even though Gary Coleman had kidney disease, that doesn’t mean Little Wayne Coleman did.  And since Life goes on even after the character is no longer seen on TV, I see no reason why we can’t envision Wayne Coleman eventually being not so little anymore.

Fully grown, he may have continued pursuing a career in television: becoming a news anchor; perhaps hosting a game show; and who knows?  Maybe he got back behind the desk on a late night talk show.

But I also think he’s probably out there in Toobworld, working behind the scenes at some fictional TV network as an executive or producer – at ZNN, CSC, ABX, AMNN, and where he first got started, UBS.  (“Where we put U before the BS.”)

Yes, I think Wayne Coleman is still alive in Toobworld.  On the other hand, I concede that Arnold Jackson has probably passed away as did Gary Coleman.  (Mainly because Gary Coleman was too defined a character to ever be played by some other actor.  Accepting that he’s dead might help keep some unscrupulous producer from trying to reboot the role.) 

One last thought, it could well be – based on their last names and the fact that they resembled each other – that Little Wayne Coleman was related to the televersion of Gary Coleman whose fictional persona could be seen in episodes of ‘The Parkers’, ‘The Parent ‘Hood’, ‘The Hughleys’, and ‘The Jackie Thomas Show’.

If you’re still out there, Little Wayne Coleman, all the best in your endeavors.  And here in the real world, there are those who still remember your first foray into the spotlight, as witnessed by this T-Shirt I’ve seen being sold online: 

BCnU!

FOR BLACK HISTORY MONTH - THURSDAY'S THEORY OF RELATEEVEETY FOR ISAK POOLE

Today's profile for Black History Month takes us back to the American Revolution.....

From the IMDb:
Jeremy Larkin, Isak Poole, Henry Abington, and Elizabeth Coates were members of "the Yankee Doodle Society", a rebel group based in Chester, Pennsylvania, in 1777. Reporting directly to General Lafayette, the team operated as spies behind British lines. Jeremy was the son of Chester's Tory Mayor, who hid his political ideas behind a façade of disinterested pacifism. Elizabeth was a liberated woman ahead of her time, and Isak was an ex-slave. The brains of the group was Henry, a big fan of Benjamin Franklin (whom he resembled), and always able to invent whatever device or scheme the group needed to finish their missions.
—Marg Baskin 

From Wikipedia;

'The Young Rebels' was the story of a group of youthful guerrillas fighting on the Patriot side in the American Revolutionary War. They were part of the fictional "Yankee Doodle Society", based in Chester, Pennsylvania, in 1777. Their goal was to harass the British forces however they could and serve as spies for the rebels. The four main characters were Jeremy (Richard Ely), son of the mayor of Chester, Isak (Louis Gossett, Jr.), a former slave, Henry (Alex Henteloff), a bright young, bespectacled man who looked a lot (by design) like a younger Benjamin Franklin, whom he greatly admired, and Elizabeth (Hilary Thompson), Jeremy's even-younger girlfriend. Any parallel between this "youth movement" and the one going on in the United States in real life at the same time that this show was aired was completely intentional. Aiding these young American rebels in their cause was a young French rebel, the Marquis de Lafayette (Philippe Forquet), who had come to their aid not just because he believed in their cause but also to learn how to export many of its principles to his native France.

In that same time period, I do have a theory of relateeveety - Isak Poole could have been the nephew of a slave named Fiddler who belonged to the Reynolds family in Virginia.  Isak's mother could have been Fiddler's sister and was sold off to the Pooles.  (A descendant of that family was Edwin Poole, one of the founders of the law firm Crane, Poole, and Schmidt as seen in 'Boston Legal'.)

We have no clue what happened to Isak Poole even before the war ended, but I'm sure he met more historical televersions besides General Lafayette and Nathan Hale.  After the war, I believe he started a large family and - based on telegenetics - was the common ancestor for several citizens of Toobworld mostly seen during the latter half of the 20th Century.  Three of his grandsons could have been in the wild, wild West: the ill-fated bounty hunter Joe Sims, racist outlaw Buck Walter, and railroad worker Henry Hill who was experienced in carting explosives.

'Little House on the Prairie'"The Long Road Home"
Henry Hill 

'Alias Smith and Jones' 
"The Bounty Hunter"
Joe Sims

'Bonanza'
"The Desperado"
Buck Walter 

Another possibility for an identical descendant was found in the 1920s near Atlantic City:

'Boardwalk Empire' 
Oscar Boneau 

But for the most part, many of Isak Poole's descendants were probably to be found in the late 20th Century and the first two decades of the 21st Century.

'Gideon Oliver' 
Professor Gideon Oliver (who solved crimes while not teaching anthropology at Columbia University)

'The Rockford Files'
Marcus Aurelius 'Gabby' Hayes (a fast-talking private eye and con man)

'The Lazarus Syndrome'  
Dr. MacArthur St. Clair (Chief cardiologist at Webster Memorial Hospital)

'Hap and Leonard' 
Bacon

'The Good Fight' 
Carl Reddick

'The Partridge Family'
Sam Simon

'Psych' 
Lloyd Marr

'ER'
Leo Malcolm

'Ellen'
Sgt. Timko

'Touched by an Angel' 
Anderson Walker

'The Six Million Dollar Man' 
Clark Templeton O'Flaherty

'The Jeffersons' 
Wendell Brown

'Petrocelli' 
District Attorney Kurt Olson 

'McCloud'
Dewey Justin

But there was one resident of Earth Prime-Time who could not be related to Isak Poole.  And that's because he was not a native resident of Toobworld.

'The Powers of Matthew Star'  
Walt Shepherd 

Walt Shepherd's real name was D'Hai, originally from the planet Quadris in the Tau Ceti system.  He was on Earth as the mentor and guardian of exiled prince E'Hawke who tried to hide in plain sight as high school student Matthew Star.  I'm not certain if it was a coincidence that D'Hai resembled Isak Poole, or if he used that specific telegenetic template to look more like a native Tele-Terran.  (As stated in 'Star Trek', the Preservers seeded the basic DNA for the humanoid form throughout the galaxy which mutated and evolved into humans, Klingons, Cardassians, Betazoids, etc.  So it's pozz'ble, just pozz'ble, that the people of Quadris were all of humanoid origins.)

So here's to Isak Poole, the mostly forgotten, unsung hero of the American Revolution and perhaps the founder of a widespread black family dynasty in the United States.

BCnU!

FOR BLACK HISTORY MONTH - ADMIRAL PERCY FITZWALLACE

Continuing the Inner Toob salute to Black History Month, today we're looking outside the main Toobworld to the "Tele-Terra" in which 'The West Wing' took place.

ADMIRAL PERCY FITZWALLACE

AS SEEN IN:
'The West Wing'

PORTRAYED BY:
John Amos

From the 'West Wing' Wiki:

Admiral Percy Fitzwallace, known casually as Fitz, was the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. When Bartlet became President, Fitz was one of the first few people to know about the President's condition, that he has MS.

Percy Fitzwallace was a navy admiral, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs for most of the Bartlet Administration. Before becoming Chairman, the last thing he captained displaced 7,000 tons.

Fitzwallace convinced the lame-duck president to send a military mission to the Philippines shortly after Jed Bartlet was elected. Bartlet, miffed that he might be saddled with new military obligations before taking office, quipped that he should "fire that guy" Fitzwallace. ("Memorial Day") Nevertheless, they grew to respect one another highly. Due to the President's lack of personal military experience, Fitz often felt the need to run things by Leo McGarry first.

To find out more about the Admiral and the role he played in the Bartlet administration, click here.

Not all of the characters to be found in that alternate TV dimension have counterparts in Earth Prime-Time.  Josiah Bartlet did, but he wasn't the President and his DNA structure was different.  (Apparently it was a different sperm from his father which impregnated Mrs. Bartlet.)

Percy Fitzwallace might exist in the main Toobworld; he might even look like John Amos.  But he probably didn't follow the same career path as he did in that world.  He might not even have the same name.  He could have been given up for adoption at birth (or the same could hold true for the Admiral) and so any John Amos character could be the Admiral's exact counterpart.

But I don't think we should consider James Evans of 'Good Times' to be the Admiral's doppelganger.  Both were men of character, and both died during the course of their respective shows, but Mr. Evans has a lot of baggage because he was in so many episodes to his credit.  I would have to watch all the episodes of 'Good Times' to make sure there were no Zonks.  I think there is a John Amos character out there who would be worth the comparison to Admiral Percy Fitzwallace.

Inner Toob salutes your memory, Sir.

BCnU!

TWO FOR TUESDAY - THE REMAKE OF "S.W.A.T."

CBS has unleashed a new version of the mid-70s TV series 'S.W.A.T.', this time starring Shemar Moore rather than Steve Forrest.  I would have preferred it had been a continuation, but it's a straight remake.  

From Wikipedia:

S.W.A.T. is an American action/crime drama television series about the adventures of a Special Weapons And Tactics (S.W.A.T.) team operating in an unidentified California city. A spin-off of The Rookies, the series aired on ABC from February 1975 to April 1976. Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg were executive producers. It was created by Robert Hamner and developed by Rick Husky.

Now as for the remake....

From Wikipedia:

S.W.A.T. is an American crime drama television series, based on the 1975 television series created by Robert Hamner and developed by Rick Husky. The new series was developed by Aaron Rahsaan Thomas and Shawn Ryan, and premiered on CBS on November 2, 2017.

Now, had it just been Shemar Moore's character, I might have still been able to keep both shows in the main Toobworld.  It would have meant that the Moore was playing Daniel Harrelson, Jr., son of an interracial marriage.  And he had assumed the nickname once borne by his father.

But almost all of the characters had the same names as the characters from the original series.  Check out this side-by-side comparison……

1975                                           2017

          Lieutenant Dan “Hondo” Harrelson

Steve Forrest                    Shemar Moore

                     Officer Jim Street

Robert Urich                       Alex Russell

               Sergeant David “Deacon” Kay

Rod Perry                       Jay Harrington

                   Officer Domenic Luca                 

Mark Shera                   Kenny Johnson

I could pull a few splainins out of my sard for the others:

1]  Jim Street could have been the original’s son and given his name.

2]  Domenic Luca could have been the son of the original, but it’s hard to picture Kenny Johnson as having the same genes as Mark Shera.  (I’m thinking his mother was of Nordic descent, perhaps even of Eric “Hoss” Cartwright’s bloodline!)

3]  The main problem would be David Kay.  He could have been adopted by the original and, like Hondo Harrelson, he could have also adopted his Dad’s nickname.   I say he could have been adopted, just so that it wasn’t a complete copy of Hondo’s situation of an interracial parentage.

But it just doesn’t seem plausible that all four of them would have followed their fathers into the same line of work and ended up having the same positions on the S.W.A.T. team.

So instead, I’m putting this new version into an alternate TV dimension.  But I’m eschewing Toobworld2, the Land O’ Remakes, and placing it instead into Black Toobworld, along with other shows - like the remakes of ‘Kojak’, ‘Ironside’, ‘Barefoot In The Park’ and the movie “The Honeymooners”.  This is because of the fact that in this version, Hondo Harrelson was black instead of the white character from the original.

There’s a racial change with the character of Deacon Kay as well, but I guess that’s just the Universe balancing things out…..

BCnU!

FOR BLACK HISTORY MONTH - SGT. KINCHLOE

Throughout February we'll be sharing the biographies of African-American TV characters as part of our salute to Black History Month.

Figured I'd start with a man who played an important role during an important part of America's history in the middle of the 20th Century......

SGT. KINCHLOE

As Seen In:

'Hogan's Heroes'

Portrayed by:
Ivan Dixon

From the 'Hogan's Heroes' wiki:

Staff Sergeant James "Kinch" Kinchloe is one of the main secondary fictional characters who appeared in the 1960s American sitcom, Hogan's Heroes. He was played by Ivan Dixon.

Staff Sergeant James Kinchloe was born in Detroit, Michigan on July 1, 1912 (speculation). Kinchloe goes to school in Detroit, eventually graduating from high school. While going to school, he works as a plumber's helper for one summer, as well as learning how to play the upright bass and throwing the football. Before the United Statesentered World War II, he worked for the telephone company. He has also participated in several Golden Gloves boxing tournaments as a boxer.

For more about his service and his imprisonment in a prisoner of war camp, click here.

I've written about Kinch in the past and you can find that blog post here.

BCnU!

HAT SQUAD BIRTHDAY SALUTE - IDA LUPINO @ 100

Actress/Director Ida Lupino was born 100 years ago today.  I'm afraid there are plenty of people today who may have forgotten her or worse, never even heard of her; some might not realize how strong her resume was, thinking she only did 'Batman' and 'The Twilight Zone'....

Ida was born in London to a show business family. In 1933, her mother brought Ida with her to an audition and Ida got the part her mother wanted. The picture was "Her First Affaire" (1932). Ida, a bleached blonde, came to Hollywood in 1934 and played small and insignificant parts. "Peter Ibbetson" (1935) was one of her few noteworthy movies and it was not until "The Light That Failed" (1939) that she got a chance to get better parts. 

In most of her movies, she was cast as the hard, but sympathetic woman from the wrong side of the tracks. In "The Sea Wolf" (1941) and "High Sierra" (1941), she played the part magnificently. It has been said that no one could do hard-luck dames the way Lupino could do them. She played tough, knowing characters who held their own against some of the biggest leading men of the day - Humphrey Bogart, Ronald Colman, John Garfield and Edward G. Robinson. 

She made a handful of films during the forties playing different characters ranging from "Pillow to Post" (1945), where she played a traveling saleswoman to the tough nightclub singer in "The Man I Love" (1947). But good roles for women were hard to get and there were many young actresses and established stars competing for those roles. She left Warner Brothers in 1947 and became a freelance actress. 

When better roles did not materialize, Ida stepped behind the camera as a director, writer and producer. Her first directing job came when director Elmer Clifton fell ill on a script that she co-wrote "Not Wanted" (1949). Ida had joked that as an actress, she was the poor man's Bette Davis. Now, she said that as a director, she became the poor man's Don Siegel. The films that she wrote, or directed, or appeared in during the fifties were mostly inexpensive melodramas. 

She later turned to Television where she directed episodes in shows such as 'The Untouchables' (1959) and 'The Fugitive' (1963). In the seventies, she did guest appearances on various television show and small parts in a few movies.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: Tony Fontana 

(O'Bservation: Not that I can use it for this Toobworld salute, but my favorite movie role of hers was in "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", being a bit of a Sherlockian myself.)

Usually when marking someone's centennial, I like to honor them with a reason to induct them into the Television Crossover Hall of Fame; give them my own form of "immortality".  Unfortunately, I had no way to achieve that with Ms. Lupino, either for her characters or for herself.  

So instead, I've put together one of my Super Six Lists to honor her instead, looking at "six" of her characters - some who added a bit of oomph to the mythos of Toobworld.  I've chosen only from those TV characters of hers whom I've actually seen, and I figured I'd go from least to most important women she played when it comes to the overall Television Universe.

SUPER SIX LIST
SIX IDA LUPINO CHARACTERS

1] IDA BRONSON
'ALIAS SMITH AND JONES'
"WHAT'S IN IT FOR MIA?"

Mia Bronson, a con artist, has used her ill-gotten money to take over an entire town. Among her victims is newspaper publisher Goerge Austin: she stole all of his advertisers and forced him to sell her the paper for $10,000, half its value. Two of her other victims are Heyes and Curry, whom she cheats with marked decks of cards and has beaten up for complaining. Austin and his daughter find them and nurse them back to health. While recuperating, Heyes and Curry talk to Austin and find out he has been experimenting with the developing chemicals used in photography. He has developed a chemical printing process that will exactly duplicate an image, except that like a photographic negative it is in reverse. The boys come up with a plan. After cleaning up so Mia won't recognize them, they go into town and pass themselves off as counterfeiters who have hired Austin to do their printing for them. They show off two $1000 bills, one real and the other a duplicate. Mia demands more proof, and Austin obliges by duplicating one of Mia's bills. Now if she will just give him twenty more ...
—Peter Harris

It was refreshing to see a con woman on this show who couldn't count on her looks to get what she wanted in a scam (although I'm sure it worked fine for her back in the 1830s.)  Mia Bronson was a tough old broad in the wild, wild West who gave as good as she got.

I'm not making any theories of "relateeveety" to connect Ms. Bronson to any other characters on this list who were played by Ida Lupino.  Mia Bronson is to be found in the alternate dimension of Toobworld2, the Land o' Remakes, where Hannibal Heyes, AKA Joshua Smith, looked totally different.  (The divergence occurs when Mr. & Mrs. Heyes chose a baby from the orphanage.  In Earth Prime-Time, the chosen boy grew up to look like actor Pete Duel; he looked like Roger Davis in Toobworld2.)  It is unknown whether the lives of either Hannibal mirrored exactly that of his doppelganger.  So I don't know if Mia Bronson ever crossed the paths of Smith and Jones in the main Toobworld.

2] DORIS BUCKNER & EDNA BASKETT BROWN
'COLUMBO'
"SHORT FUSE"

Pressured to give up his birthright, a chemical company heir enacts a clever plan to get rid of his blackmailing uncle and take over the family business. But Lt. Columbo suspects the man's death was not just a tragic accident. 

Doris Stamford Buckner was the wife of the murder victim and the aunt of the murderer.

"SWAN SONG" 

A gospel singer wants to be rid of his zealous wife. But a murder made to look like an airplane accident does not fool the wily Lt. Columbo.

Edna Brown was the murder victim, along with the girl whom she was using to keep her husband tied to her missionary crusade.

I wish I could have placed Mrs. Buckner and Mrs. Brown higher on my list of Ida Lupino characters.  'Columbo' is one of my top five favorite shows.  But there's not much to offer the greater good ("The greater good....") of Toobworld from them.  It's even hard to make a theory of relateeveety - Doris Buckner was born and raised in the Los Angeles area, while Edna Baskett was from Nashville before she met Tommy Brown.  At best they could be "identical cousins".

The only other Toobworld connection I can think of is that Edna Brown is buried in the same cemetery as Rayna Jaymes in 'Nashville'.

3]  STEPHANIE TALBOTT KENDRICK

'ELLERY QUEEN'
"THE ADVENTURE OF THE LOVER'S LEAP"

When an heiress is found dead from an apparent suicide, Ellery Queen suspects she was murdered, but the investigation is hindered by interference from radio detective Simon Brimmer.

Stephanie Kendrick, a wealthy fountain pen heiress, is found dead on the front lawn of her mansion. Prior to her death she was reading Ellery's book "The Adventure of the Lover's Leap" and it seems that she acted out a passage in the book which leads to her to jump from her bedroom balcony. Inspector Queen thinks her death is suicide, but Ellery seems to have other thoughts when a technical print man finds a small shard of glass on the balcony. Later, during the questioning of suspects, Simon Brimmer arrives at the Kendrick mansion and, in his typical pompous fashion, offers his help to Inspector Queen solve what he concludes to be a murder. Ultimately, Brimmer brings the cast together at the conclusion to disclose the guilty party, but Ellery finds the exact time to speak up and reveal the killer's identity. 
Written by H Pylypiw

I see no reason why a theory of "relateeveety" about Mrs. Kendrick being related to other characters on this list played by Ms. Lupino couldn't be valid.  As you'll see later on, I claimed one of the other characters was part of the most (in)famous dynasty in horror literature, movies, comics, theater, and of course, television.  So a suggestion that Mrs. Kittrick might have a werewolf included along that same family branch would be hard to resist.  I would suggest that her father, a Talbott, might be distantly related to Lawrence Talbot, if not "The Wolfman" himself.  (That lycanthropic curse was not transmitted to her however.)

4] DR. CASSANDRA SPELLCRAFT
'BATMAN'

"THE JOKER'S FLYING SAUCER" (uncredited)

Ida Lupino and Howard Duff cameo at the end of the episode to set up their appearance as Dr. Casandra and Cabala in the next episode. 

"THE ENTRANCING DR. CASSANDRA"

Dr. Cassandra has a grand scheme against Gotham City with her invisibility pills merely the beginning of her tricks.

In this penultimate Bat-adventure, Dr. Cassandra releases six Arch-Criminals from Gotham State prison: The Riddler, The Penguin, The Joker, Catwoman, King Tut and Egghead. However none of them are played by the usual guest actors. For one thing it would be too expensive to feature them all at the same time. Note that their faces are never clearly seen, they have no lines (other than the Riddler's giggle and Penguin's squawk reused from earlier appearances) and Catwoman resembles the Julie Newmar version instead of season three's Eartha Kitt.

From the "Batman" Wiki:

Dr. Cassandra was a villainess and enemy of Batman in the 'Batman' 1960s TV Series. She was portrayed by Ida Lupino. Cassandra Spellcraft came from a long line of failed female alchemists, right back to her great-grandmother. She was determined to do what her fore-mothers couldn't, and become a success in alchemy. But she ended up following in their footsteps quite neatly, outsmarted by Batman.

So the campy phenom was on life-support by this point, although this episode is not as bad as when my teenage crush Barbara Rush appeared as Nora Clavicle.  Still, it provided trivia which enhances Toobworld: her invisibility pills, the Alvino Ray Gun, the Mope Diamond, and one last look at the greatest villains from this show... even though they weren't played by the original actors.  And it was fun to see Ms. Lupino with her husband of 33 years, Howard Duff.

Based on the information from the 'Batman' wiki, I'm making this theory of relateeveety: Dr. Cassandra Spellcraft was the grand-daughter of our next entry.....

5] DR. FAUSTINA
'THE WILD WILD WEST'
"THE NIGHT OF THE BIG BLAST"

Dr. Faustina and her mute servant, Miklos, have transformed a corpse into a duplicate image of Jim West. When they bring the corpse back to life, Faustina's plot is to have West look-alike gain entry to a meeting of the President's cabinet to kill four of the members. 

I don't think Dr. Faustina was that grandmother mentioned in the 'Batman' wiki who met a grisly end.  I think she was Cassandra's paternal grandmother.  How Dr. Faustina was able to bring the dead back to life wasn't revealed in the episode.  In Toobworld, however, we have an answer - Dr. Faustina was of the Frankenstein bloodline and she was carrying on her family's tradition.  This is just conjecture, but I believe she brought a gigantic corpse back to life as a gift to a lover, Dr. Miguelito Loveless who named it "Voltaire" as a joke based on the role electricity played in its resuscitation. 

6] BARBARA JEAN TRENTON

'THE TWILIGHT ZONE'
"THE SIXTEEN-MILLIMETER SHRINE"

Barbara Jean Trenton is a faded film star who lives in the past by constantly re-watching her old movies instead of moving on with her life, so her associates try to lure her out of her self-imposed isolation. 

Barbara Jean Trenton is probably Ms. Lupino's greatest character contribution to Toobworld, and that's without taking into account what she offers to the world of the Toob.  It is certainly the role that will be seen the most, as long as there are 'Twilight Zone' marathons for New Year's Eve and the Fourth of July.

A faded actress lost in the memories of her glory days, Barbara Jean Trenton eventually - literally - gets lost in that world of the movies.  For Toobworld, she crossed the dimensional vortex into the "Cineverse".  Like Toobworld, it is one of many meta-fictional universes created from the gestalt of Mankind's imagination and made real.

"The Sixteen Millimeter Shrine" is one T-Zone episode which I think deserved a sequel.  In her new world, Barbara would be just one of many women who looked exactly like her.  She would look like all the living movie characters whom she portrayed in her "real" world (Toobworld to us.)  And it wouldn't be Jerry Hearnden whom she would find over there, but instead the characters he had played.  It might have proven far too much for the actress to handle.

All of those movie characters she played, just as it is for Toobworld characters for us, would have lives that extended beyond the display of "The End" after the credits rolled.  So many of Barbara's roles in period films might have died off already, or withered and aged even more than she had done.  And what of those roles where she played bad girls? One of them might not have appreciated an interloper who looked exactly like her.  Maybe she wanted to escape to the "real" world in Barbara's stead.

I think there's a story there.

Here's to the memory of Ida Lupino, and the many stories she directed, and characters she portrayed, all serving to expand Toobworld. 

I hope her memory shines brightly on the screen - and behind the camera - for 100 years more.....

BCnU.....