PILOT PROGRAM - "MR. ED"

I'm thinking I'll feature pilot episodes on Saturday.  At least until I'm bored again anyway. 

Here is the pilot for "Mr. Ed".  Not the one you're probably familiar with, though.  This came out in 2004 and perhaps - only perhaps - it could be argued that it belongs in the main Toobworld.

So how could it be in the same universe as the early sixties show?  Although the circumstances were very familiar: the horse was a different color; and the family name was different (Post -> Pope, which I believe was the original name in the first series pilot.)

As for Sherman Helmsley providing the voice....  It's been my contention that the original Mr. Ed was descended from the Houyhnhnms from "Gulliver's Travels", which had a TV adaptation.  I'm toying with the idea that this Mr. Ed was the reincarnation of George Jefferson; he hadn't been seen in Toobworld (outside of a dream) since 1996.  And as often happens, a sitcom was made of his life within Toobworld, which Curtis Payne watched in an episode of 'House of Payne'.

So he could have died before this pilot movie and then was "born to rerun" as this horse. 

After you've seen the video, let me know what you think.....

BCnU!

SPLAININ TO DO - THAT PIXELATIN' RHYTHM

Recognize that show pictured above?  

I have this O'Bsession in finding splainins for everything I see on TV - casting changes (recastaways), disappearing characters, talking food, the Wilhelm Scream, whatever. 

I've been thinking about another one lately.

I don't have the greatest cable service here along Still River.  Every so often, the picture gets all blooey (like my technical terms?) and freezes up, becoming pixelated.  As I'm seeing it on my TV during a show, then - following the basic rule of Toobworld, that if it's on TV then it's part of the TV Universe - it's part of the action in which it was seen.

My splainin?  Time travel.

It's my theory that the pixelation is part of the temporal backwash caused by someone or something traveling through Time.  It only momentarily affects the persons in the area and they don't even realize that it's happening.  It doesn't send them back (or forward) in Time, but it can freeze them in stasis for a few moments. 

So in thinking that way, I'm less annoyed by the disruption caused by the pixelations.

I'm not saying this is caused just by that most famous of Time travelers, the Doctor.  If I did, I'd save this post for my annual 'Doctor Who' blogathon on January 1st, "Who's On First".  As most of the examples which I've collected so far are set in the United States, I can lay the blame on characters from other shows like 'Time Tunnel' 'Quantum Leap', 'The Twilight Zone', 'Timeless', 'Legends of Tomorrow', etc.  (I think 'Primeval' can be laid at the Doctor's feet.)

As you can see, some of those examples are from alternate TV dimensions.  At least one of them began in Earth Prime-Time ('Timeless'), but then - due to alterations to the timeline - created many other worlds.  

Here are the examples I've collected so far:

First off, the one that got me thinking about this phenom in that alternate universe - 'Matlock'.

Ahhh....  Back to normal!

As for some of the others....

'YOUNG SHELDON'

'INSTINCT'

'THE LATE SHOW with STEPHEN COLBERT'

And as for some other shows in which we might find examples of temporal distortion caused by the Doctor:

'VERA'

'MARLEY'S GHOSTS'

I may return to this topic during the "Who's On First" blogathon with more examples.  I'm sure I'll be collecting plenty more of them before the end of the year!

BCnU!

EXTREME TEMPORAL BACKWASH

THURSDAY'S THEORIES OF RELATEEVEETY - TWO BY TWO IN FRISCO'S CHINATOWN

A post like this might be expected on a Tuesday, as we're going for a "Twofer" theme.  But it's all about two theories of relateeveety - separated twin brothers in San Francisco and Los Angeles - so we're publishing it on Thursday, as usual for such theories.

SAM FUJIYAMA
'QUINCY, M.E.'
(148 episodes)

SGT. JIM IKISKI
'IRONSIDE'
"LICENSE TO KILL"

Dr. Sam Fujiyama was a deputy medical examiner who spent most of his career in the lab at the County Coroners' department who assisted Dr. R. Quincy.  

At the beginning of the Great Depression, Sam's father began traveling up and down the Pacific Coast in search of work.  He finally found it driving a truck route from San Francisco back down to Los Angeles  It was while he was in the City by the Bay when Sam's father met a woman of Asian descent and fell in love, even though he was already married.

As ALWAYS happens in my theories of relateeveety, his paramour became pregnant around 1931 and passed off the resulting child as that of her own husband, Mr. Ikiski.  That child grew up as James Ikiski.  He joined the San Francisco Police Department and worked at least once with consultant Chief Robert T. Ironside on a case.  

As often is the case with such examples of "Identical Cousins", Sam and Jim looked exactly alike.

Unless Quincy and Sam had a case which took them to San Francisco, it is unlikely either Sam or Jim learned of the existence of each other.

HENRY
'BURKE'S LAW'
64 episodes

S.F. CHINATOWN GREEN-GROCER
'IRONSIDE'
"JOSS STICKS AND WEDDING BELLS"

Two years after the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco, which killed such Old West luminaries as Bart Maverick and Artemus Gordon, and master English spy Sir Colin Raleigh, great-grandfather of Sir John Raleigh (code-named "Steed"), the former manservant to the crusader known in Frisco as "Paladin" (real name: Hector Ramsey) fathered twins.  We know the name of one of them, but not for the other.

Woof!  That was quite a run-on sentence in there!

The first-born, oldest by only a few minutes, was named Henry.  Once he grew older, he moved to Los Angeles where he found employment as a chauffeur for the multi-millionaire Amos Burke, who was a captain in the LAPD homicide department.  At some point Henry married and started a family, having at least one son who was named after him.  But it's likely he divorced soon after and became detached from his family.  He then moved in with Captain Burke to become his manservant as well

Meanwhile, his twin brother remained in San Francisco where he became a green-grocer in Chinatown.  We in the Trueniverse audience only saw him once, when Chief Ironside's ward Chong Lee went shopping for vegetables to make dinner for her "father".  Maybe it was a bad day for him; maybe Chong Lee rubbed him the wrong way (without a happy ending.) 

Or it could be that he had always been surly, soured on life, perhaps brought on by his tiring line of work and dealing with people.  At any rate, he angrily haggled with Chong Lee over the price of the vegetables she wanted to buy: one dime!

It won't be the last time we will find "identical cousins" in San Francisco....

BCnU!

O'Bservation:
The April, 1906 San Francisco earthquake almost killed Dr. Miguelito Quixote Loveless as well.  

MISSING LINKS - "THE PRISONER" & "MURDOCH MYSTERIES"

'THE PRISONER'
"THE GIRL WHO WAS DEATH"

In yet another attempt to break Number Six by getting him to reveal why he resigned from the intelligence community, Number Two had him assigned to nursery duty - taking care of the children in the Village. 

At least one of the books for the children had no text, merely pictures.  The thinking was that if Number Six read this book to the kids before bedtime, he would call on his own life experiences to weave a story.  And perhaps he would let it slip as to why he resigned.

Number Six did use this book one night and he began to spin a tale about his attempts to track down a beautiful assassin.  One of her targets was the legendary batsman Colonel Hawke.  During a cricket match, just as he was about to hit his centenary, she substituted a ball which was packed with explosive material.  As soon as Colonel Hawke smacked it with his bat, it exploded, killing him.

But Number Six didn't dredge this even up from his own personal experiences.  Instead, he was recalling an historical event from Toronto, circa 1905.....

'THE MURDOCH MYSTERIES'
"BIFFERS AND BLOCKERS"

From the IMDb:When a player dies violently on the cricket pitch , Murdoch and Brackenreid encounter some unsportsmanlike behavior.

In that case, the bomb was planted inside the cricket bat, not the ball.  However, it was the personal property of another player, so the victim wasn't the intended target.

Despite the murder taking place in another country more than twenty years before he was born, Number Six (in his past identity of John Drake) must have read about it, perhaps as a boy, and it stuck in his memory.  So when he saw the two-page photo illustration in the children's book, he remembered the story and incorporated it into his adventure about the girl who was Death....

Without revealing why he resigned.

BCnU!

O'Bservation:

That cricket scene from 'The Prisoner' was mixed in with a home movie in this YouTube video....

SUPER SIX LIST - REAL MOVIES TURNED INTO FAKE FLICKS

Every so often, a movie from the Real World becomes a stand-in for a fictional movie.  Here are some examples.

THE SUPER SIX LIST:

SIX MOVIES FICTIONALIZED IN TOOBWORLD

1]
'COLUMBO'

"A MATTER OF HONOR"

In the beginning of the episode, Ricardo Montalban who plays Louis Montoya is watching what is supposed to be an old clip of himself as a young matador. The clip he is watching is actually from the movie Santa (1943) in which Montalban plays a bullfighter.

2]
'DOCTOR WHO'

"THE IMPOSSIBLE ASTRONAUT"

The Laurel and Hardy film "The Flying Deuces" (1939), in which the Doctor intruded, was done by Matt Smith dancing in front of green screen. 

3]
'COLUMBO'
"FORGOTTEN LADY"

Janet Leigh's character Grace Wheeler refers to her role in "Walking My Baby Back Home" (1953) as Rosie. In reality, Leigh's character was named Chris Hall in that film but she did play a character named Rosie DeLeon in "Bye Bye Birdie" (1963).

"Walking My Baby Back Home" (1953)
Clips are used to represent a previous film starring Janet Leigh's character Grace Wheeler.

4]

'ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS'
"METHOD ACTOR"

"The Execution of Private Slovik" (1974) (TV Movie)
Clip from the end of the movie is played at the beginning of the episode during the festival celebrating Paul Dano's work. 

And now for something completely different....

5] 
'THE ROCKFORD FILES'
"IRVING THE EXPLAINER"

The poster for "Wings of Deceit" (starring Richard Arlen and Andy Devine), seen behind Buddy Richards, is a reworked poster for Arlen & Devine's "Legion of Lost Flyers".
And on a more personal note.....

6]
'DIAGNOSIS MURDER'
"MURDER BY REMOTE"

In this episode Dr. Mark Sloan has home movies of Steve as a baby. The home movies are actually Barry Van Dyke as a baby. Dick Van Dyke shot these home movies.

The italicized summaries are from the IMDb.  I wrote up the one for the poster.

BCnU!

MONDAY MINUTIAE - ADDING TO THE NY CHRONICLE'S TVXOHOF TALLY

'MURDER, SHE WROTE'

"DEADPAN"

From the IMDb:
When one of Jessica's former students brings a play based on her novel to Broadway, she finds herself in the middle of a war between two rival critics.

Danny O'Mara
NY Chronicle Drama Critic

The murder victim, Danny O'Mara, was the drama critic for the New York Chronicle.  His editor was Ed Cullen.

Ed Cullen
NY Chronicle Features Editor

Cullen was probably the features editor for the paper.  Team Toobworld should probably already know that Martin Lane, father of Patty and uncle of Cathy, was the managing editor for the paper.

The Chronicle is one of the biggest papers in TV-NYC and it's part of a countrywide franchise with editions from the Big Apple to Los Angeles and up to Portland. 
Here are just a few examples of the New York edition of the Chronicle:

'THE TWILIGHT ZONE'

'THE THIN MAN'

'McCLOUD'

'THE TWILIGHT ZONE'

I HAVE NO CLUE!
[help please?]

'THE PATTY DUKE SHOW'

'THE TWILIGHT ZONE'

'THE TWILIGHT ZONE'

'McCLOUD'

The only edition of the Chronicle which doesn't fall under the aegis of the family who owns the publishing empire - the World Chronicle is an underground paper which is part of the UNReel shadow ops faction.

My thanks to my brother Bill, the features and business editor for the Waterbury Republican American paper, who gave me help on the hierarchy at a newspaper.....

BCnU!