VIDEO SATURDAY - JUKEBOX SPLAININ

I thought perhaps that this might be a case where Sweet the Demon had once again infiltrated the main TV dimension.  But although there are supernatural elements, I think this can be chalked up to a series of events in Ojai, California:

VISION WARRIORS' MEN CIRCLE
This New Age group is meeting in an Ojai high school classroom after school hours.

BECK REHEARSAL
Meanwhile...
Beck as himself is rehearsing with his band in that school's gymnasium after school hours.

THE SPIRIT OF MAYHEM
Mayhem has caused the high school football team to crash through the walls of that classroom meeting.  Sounds impozz'ble?  Not if the players are all hopped up on some experimental drug developed by an evil science teacher making designer drugs as a sideline.  Perhaps U4EA combined with NZT-48 and then irradiated with gamma rays.* (And if that school system doesn't have All-State, they could be picking up the charges themselves.)

TRANSFORMED WITCHES AND WARLOCKS
According to 'Bewitched', when a magicker reaches the point where their powers are no longer in their control due to age, then that witch or warlock should transform themselves into something that could still provide a use.  We saw this happen with a transformed chair and bedpan in different episodes.

So in this case, it turns out that appliances in the teachers' lounge - specifically the stove and the refrigerator - are transformed.

Also, as often seen in TV commercials, food can be alive.  And apparently randy....

THE WAR BETWEEN THE COSTUMED CHARACTERS AND THE MEN IN BLACK

I have this feeling that those aliens who leaped out of the globular spaceship may have interrupted an orgy in the making there in the woods.  They could have been a sub-group of fuzzy cosplayers looking to delve a little too deeply in their pastime.  Or those oddly garbed figures were gathered for a mascot auditon for the school's football team, ready to pitch their idea for what the team should be called.

But then again, it's weird enough for me to declare it belongs in the dimension code-named "Spinach."

As in: "I say it's Spinach and I say to hell with it!"

BCnU!

O'Bservations:
The gamma-irradiated combination of NZT-48 & U4EA would be links for Beck's video to 'Limitless', 'The Incredible Hulk', and '90210' (which it already has, thanks to Smeat!)

THE FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH TVXOHOF!

It was bound to happen sooner or later - we have a new member inductee on Friday the Thirteenth!

I didn't want to curse any new member with dire portents on what should be the happiest day of their Toobworld careers.  (Should be - but let's face it, it's just my little playground of the Television Crossover Hall of Fame.....)  

So I have chosen a new candidate who can probably withstand anything that comes its way.  After all, our new inductee is a multiversal which has faced zombies, alien invasions, vampires and two things that once upon a time actually scared people: the Y2K threat and the new millennium.  Oh.  And Ian Ziering.  

So if it could handle all that, then it can handle Friday the Thirteenth!

It's Smeat!  The canned processed meat that is supposed to suggest Spam but without getting into trouble with their finicky lawyers.  It's on a par with Morley Cigarettes or Heisler Beer for the go-to Toob substitues.

There's a great site out there with a collection of frame grabs from a good number of shows and I want to give them a shout-out.

SMEAT.net

http://www.smeat.net/

Without them, I'd have a deviled ham of a time trying to get enough pics for today's ceremony.  If you like what you see here, then go visit them.  They have even more examples from the Cineverse which don't apply to our multidimensional realm of the Toob.

But here are the examples I cribbed:

EARTH PRIME-TIME
'Millennium'

'Beverly Hills, 90210'

'Days Of Our Lives'

'Supernatural'

'Burn Notice'

'Threshold'

Beck music video: "Sexx Laws" 

There's a whole story behind the Toobworldian connections for that video, but we'll save that for tomorrow.  Today, we celebrate Smeat!

Finally (at least for Toobworld1.....)

Crystal Geyser Ad: "Cashier"  

TOOBWORLD2
Crystal Geyser Ad: "Cashier II"

 

Here is the basic premise of that same Crystal Geyser ad, but with a finale that places it into a different TV dimension.  (I could have claimed that it was still Earth Prime-Time but after everythng had been changed by Helen Cutter's alterations to the Toobworld timeline during the 'Primeval' period, but it seems even more trivial than Sgt. Wilson's name change on 'Columbo'.  So I'll stick with this happening in the Land O' Remakes, Toobworld2. 

ZOMBIE TOOBWORLD
'The Walking Dead'

That stuff will kill you, Carl.  Oh.  Never mind....

NOSFERATOOB
'Being Human' (USA)

Both versions of 'Being Human' - English and American - have been interred here.  Earth Prime-Time can have vampires, but not where they are that prevalent and so out in the open.  And as they are no longer in the main Toobworld, I'm not even worried about two remakes sharing the same dimension.  So there.

And there you have it.  Multiversal Smeat is now a member of the TV Crossover Hall of Fame.  It may be spread across several TV dimensions, but there are still more than enough examples from Earth Prime-Time for those who want it to qualify in one dimension only.

Welcome to the Hall, Smeat.  Now let's break out the Let's Potato Chips and the Heisler Beer and have ourselves a Friday the Thirteenth party!  

Smoke Morleys if you got 'em......

BCnU!

THURSDAY THEORY OF RELATEEVEETY - THE BROTHERS BLAKE

1950s matinee idol Tab Hunter died earlier this week at the age of 86.  Toobworld Central has already marked his passing with a Hat Squad tribute on Tuesday, but his contributions to Earth Prime-Time have more to offer.....

Such as a theory of relateeveety....

BARNEY BLAKE
'BURKE'S LAW'

"WHO KILLED ANDY ZYGMUNT?"

From the IMDb:
Pop artist Andy Zygmunt is fatally impaled on the spikes of one of his creations. The discovery that he blackmailed people into buying his works provides a motive and five suspects: his last four customers and the possessor of a missing fifth work.

ARNOLD BLAKE
'THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN'
"CROSS COUNTRY KIDNAP"

From the IMDb:
OSI computer programmer Liza Leitman who also competes in Olympic horse racing, is under threat of being kidnapped. Though she refuses to have any of Oscar's 'dwarfs' shadowing her, Oscar sends Steve Austin to tail her anyway.

Barney (nickname of Barnard, perhaps?) and Arnold Blake were twin brothers.  Barney was a jet-setter and thrill-seeker implicated in the murder of Andy Zygmunt, while his brother Arnold was a mercenary.  Both of them were the sons of Barbara Blake, the soap heiress.

Barney filled his days with adventure - scuba diving at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean one day, continuous sky-diving the next.  He was in love with a young artist and mechanic named Gwenny Trent.  But she was in love with Andy Zygmunt who only had eyes for Diedre DeMara.  She in turn was in love with Barney Blake.

It was a story that would seem to have come out of a Shakespearean musical.

As for his twin brother, according to the file compiled by Oscar Goldman, Arnold Blake had been an ex-Green Beret who had "gone sour".  He worked as a mercenary in Asia for several years as a hit man, enforcer....

He was hired by an OSI traitor to help in the kidnapping of Liza Leitner, a genius computer programmer who also wanted to compete in the Olympics as an equestrian.

But Arnold Blake didn't realize he had been set up as a show pony - a ruse to keep attention away from Ross Borden and his plot to steal the OSI computer codes with the help of Ms. Leitner (who thought the OSI had been under attack.)

And so in January of 1975, Arnold Blake engineered Ms. Leitner's kidnapping but then was gunned down in front of her by his former conspirators to make the plot look convincing.

I suppose Barney Blake went to the funeral for Arnold, if only to assure himself that his twin was dead.  (As he never mentioned Arnold when he met Detective Tillson, and Arnold's name never came up in connection to Barbara Blake, he probably was already on the outs with the family.  

Barney may have been married to Gwenny Trent by that time.  But if she had married him, more than likely she had already divorced him.  More than likely, Barbara Blake predeceased her son.

Barbara Blake's fortunes were inherited from her mother's side, the Ashby Family.  The family company was finally incorporated as Ashby Industries which counted Alarm! soap among their products.

Mrs. Blake's husband was a man of common means with whom she fell in love during college.  He had a younger brother named Henry, who would be the uncle to Barnard and Arnold.  Henry became a surgeon and died over the Sea of Japan during the Korean Conflict.  He had been near the front lines working in a mobile Army surgical hospital when he got his orders to head home.  But he never made it.

So that's my theory of relateeveety that connects 'Burke's Law' to 'The Six Million Dollar Man'.  Hey, the two guys looked exactly alike and had the same last names - personally I think that validates this as more than a theory!

SHOWS CITED:

• 'BURKE'S LAW'
• 'THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN'
• 'M*A*S*H'
• ENERGIZER COMMERCIAL

BCnU!

OUR WEEKLY "ENDEAVOUR" - "PASSENGER"

Now that the fifth season of 'Endeavour' has finally graced the American shores, it's time to look at the latest episode, the third of the season, "Passenger".

But first I'd like to tip my Toobworld cap to a web site that has brought added pleasure to watching this show - "Morse, Lewis, and Endeavour".  Chris Sullivan goes into incredible, exhausting detail about each episode, running down every word puzzle and hidden connection to other TV shows, books, and movies (which I'm most keen about) as well as cluing us in to the locations, actors, music, and yes, Colin Dexter sightings - even now, a year after he's passed!

I think it's safe to say that thanks to Russell Lewis and his work with 'Endeavour', this prequel to 'Morse' could be a rival to 'St. Elsewhere' as a major crossovers hub.

If "Morse, Lewis, and Endeavour" sounds like something that might be of interest to you, click on this link.

As it's a site that's full of information... information... information for televisiologists and TV crossoverists, I'll be adding it to the Inner Toob blogroll.

So.

'ENDEAVOUR'

"PASSENGER"

From the IMDb:
The railway takes center stage as Endeavour investigates the disappearance of a local woman - with initial fears linking it to the unsolved murder of a teenager, killed several years earlier.

Let's begin with the big crossover for the episode....

From the IMDb's trivia page:
In 2018, Endeavour: Passenger (2018) featured a certain "Crossroads Motel" in King's Oak, in a key scene. Set in the late 1960s, the series used a re-constructed version of the outdoor sign, reception and hotel room sets. This inclusion, of an ATV/Central TV programme that happens to be set in the same period and area, can plausibly imply that the original version of "Crossroads"/"King's Oak" and the later "Endeavour"/"Morse"/"Lewis" series exist within the same story universe.

From Wikipedia:
'Crossroads' is a British television soap opera that ran on ITV over two periods – the original 1964 to 1988 run, followed by a short revival from 2001 to 2003. Set in a fictional motel (hotel, in the revival) in the Midlands, 'Crossroads' became a byword for cheap production values, particularly in the 1970s and early 1980s. Despite this, the series regularly attracted huge audiences during this time, with ratings as high as 15 million viewers.

I'll admit, I never heard of 'Crossroads' before, but I find this connection exciting.  Someone more interested in following that trail might be able to find theories of "relateeveety" from those 'Crossroads' characters to other TV characters from other shows - not just the "Endeaverse" franchise, but to other TV shows in the UK and even over to the American TV output.  (And that's one reason why Russell Lewis is in the TV Crossover Hall of Fame.)

Speaking of characters from 'Crossover',,,,
 

Again from the IMDb:
Morse goes to a hotel just outside Birmingham in Kings Oak called The Crossroads Motel. This was a soap series with one of the main characters being a cleaner Amy Turtle. The receptionist who shows Morse the room, that hadn't been cleaned, said she would have to have a word with "Mrs T".

Mrs. Turtle, as seen here on the right, would then have two credits to her name (even if one is theoretical, but it's a strongly valid theory) and would just need one more mention somewhere to qualify for membership in the TVXOHOF as well.

Here's another possible crossover:

From the IMDb Connections page:
The Brothers (1972) (TV Series)
The haulage firms is named Hammonds.

And from 'Morse, Lewis, and Endeavour':
I’m assuming that Hammond and Sons Hauliers is a reference to a British TV show of the 1970s called 'The Brothers'. Primarily the show is about Robert Hammond’s three sons Edward, Brian, and David who inherit the family trucking company and try to run it after Robert dies.

If there is a difference in the company name between the two series, there is also a time span of four years.  That's plenty of time for the corporation to reorganize with a new name.

Let's play train spotters for a moment and take a look at the train stations mentioned in the episode:

From the IMDb:
The station which features in this episode is Norborough. This is the name of the station in the April 1967 'Avengers' episode "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Station" (1967).

Thanks to reader Lee Sylvester, 'Morse, Lewis, and Endeavour' provided more stations to be considered:

Chadwick Station
This is from a short story entitled "The Adventure Of The Lost Locomotive".  The details of that story live on in Jasper Fforde's BookWorld.  I can't speak for any of the characters - I'm not familiar with that 1951 story.  But both meta-fictional universes at least share that train station.

Pudham Station
Hamingwell Halt
Both of these are to be found in one of the St. Trinian's movies, "The Great St. Trinian's Train Robbery".  As with Chadwick Station, these two stations thus share two meta-fictional universes - my own playground of Toobworld and Craig Shaw Gardner's creation of the Cineverse.  (But that would be the only connection to the St. Trinian's franchise, I'm afraid. So far, there have been no TV adaptations that I've been able to locate.)

And saving the best for last....

Whimperley Station
We have another TV link!  And even better, this train station is a multiversal - to be found in BookWorld and Toobworld.  Whimperley Station is from Dame Agatha Christie's story "Dead Man's Mirror" which featured her Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot.  It was adapted for the 'Poriot' series starring David Suchet, the official televersion of Poirot for Earth Prime-Time.  (All other TV portrayals of Poirot would be relegated to other TV dimensions, even if - as was the case with Martin Gabel's performance - on TV first.)

I hope my friends who research the Wold Newton Universe from all angles know about this!

Then there are crossovers which bind 'Endeavour' to either its progenitor, 'Morse' or to its fellow spin-off, 'Inspector Lewis'.

From the IMDb:
The song that plays in the Boutique when Morse and Thursday visit, is a song of the band Midnight Addiction, which the 'Inspector Lewis' Episode "Counter Culture Blues" (2009) is centred around.

From the Rocklopedia Fakebandica:
A progressive blues-rock group in the series Lewis (Inspector Lewis in some countries) episode "Counter Culture Blues", 2009.

Supposedly an adolescent favourite of Lewis himself (Kevin Whately), who has some of their albums, their manager claims they were the third biggest-selling progressive rock act of all time. Their signature song (which we never get to hear) was "Counter Culture Blues", apparently "the anthem of a generation". Among the intrigue is that the bassist apparently wrote the song but was so out of his head on Mandrax that he didn't even remember doing it and gave the publishing away to the lead guitarist as a result, and the mysterious "return from the dead" of lead singer Esme Ford (played by Joanna Lumley with an Irish accent that she can't quite manage to keep up for an entire sentence), whom everyone believed had thrown herself into the sea many years earlier. 

Another such inner crossover would be via the character of DS Patrick Dawson from the robbery squad.  Here he was played by Thomas Coombes, but he was first seen, much older, in the 'Morse' episode "Second Time Around'.  There he was played by Kenneth Colley.  (I think because of Colley's participation, that episode is one that has really stuck with me.)

Team Toobworld probably knows that 'Doctor Who' finally usurped 'The Prisoner' as my Number One favorite show after forty years.  So I'm always on the lookout for anything that might link a show to the Time Lord.

And in this case, I found one in the IMDb's Goofs section:
In the house-warming party the Rolling Stones track, "Can You Hear Me Knocking", is playing as Morse goes through the house. The events of this episode take place in 1968 but this song was on the "Sticky Fingers" album, which came out in 1971.

This situation happened in 'Downton Abbey' once when they played a record on the gramophone that would not be pressed until the next year.  My splainin?  It's a record that was either left behind by the Doctor somehow or the Doctor was actually at that party at Joan's new flat and had taken over the deejay duties. 

The gramophone in the TARDIS

Why would the Doctor have left behind records in the 1920s and the1960s?  It has been often stated that he never carries money.  Perhaps he used these as barter for whatever he (or she) and the Companions needed in the TARDIS.

Over in his review for "Passengers", Chris of 'Morse, Lewis, and Endeavour' made this observation:

Finally, (thank heavens I hear you say) how can Joan afford that flat in the middle of Oxford on a part time wage? I know she is flat sharing but it would need to be ten people sharing to make it affordable on a part time wage.

Perhaps, using Gallifreyan technology, the flat was bigger on the inside like the TARDIS.  A Time Lord who called himself Professor Chronotis had a similar apartment at St. Cedd's College of Cambridge University.  Perhaps this was his as well, either using another alias for a life at Oxford or he was sub-letting it at a reasonable rate to Joan Thursday.  (He would have liked her surname... so timely!)  Using that splainin, the Rolling Stones album could then have been part of his own collection, without direct connection to the Doctor.

By the way, anybody who would complain that Chris was droning on just doesn't get the work of a televisiologist.  We're the "televersion" of train spotters! 

As for any other Zonks, there is mention by Win Thursday of "the minstrels".  I've never seen any footage from this, but I've read so much about it - she's referring to 'The Black and White Minstrel Show' which ran for two decades on British telly.  Yeah - from 1958 to 78.  White performers in blackface.  And over here, we thought 'Amos and Andy' was bad.

But the fact that she and Fred watch that show is not a Zonk.  It's a variety program and those don't affect Toobworld if they watch them over there as we would have.  I don't even see any reason to splain it away unless we're dealing with specifics - like introducing a guest star and mentioning them as the star of a show which should be sharing the same TV dimension as the characters watching the variety show.

Here's one final entry from the IMDb which I would like to address:
There are references to famous films by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger in this segment. Not only does the murder victim have a pair of red shoes, but the stolen whiskey featured in this story has the brand-name "Killoran" - the name of the fictitious Hebridean island where most of "I Know Where I'm Going" (1945) takes place.

These are in-jokes, along the lines of the character Don Mercer who is allegedly a counterpart to Don Draper of 'Mad Men'.  Both men work in advertising and mercers and drapers both deal in fabrics.  But as he's NOT Don Draper, there is no connection to that show.

In this case, both references are to movies made by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, but neither one is strong enough a reference to justify absorbing those movies out of the Cineverse and into the greater Toobworld Dynamic, especially that red shoes nod.  However, I see no reason not to consider Killoran as a Scottish island in the Toobworld atlas and the place where Killoran whiskey (established by this episode) is produced.

Not a bad collection of definite crossovers this week:

• 'Crossovers'
• 'The Brothers'
• 'Poirot'
• 'The Avengers'

Plus the inner crossovers to 'Morse' and 'Inspector Lewis'.

And there were several theoretical connections:

• 'Doctor Who'
• 'Downton Abbey'

And so there we have it, this week's look at an 'Endeavour' episode and the connections it forged with the greater TV Universe.  I hope you enjoyed it.

My thanks to Chris Sullivan, Lee Sylvester, and the IMDb contributors for all the work they had done in making the trivial epic.

BCnU!

THE HAT SQUAD - REMEMBERING TAB HUNTER

From The Hollywood Reporter:
Tab Hunter, the chiseled 1950s heartthrob who portrayed Joe Hardy in the "Damn Yankees!" movie, had a No. 1 record and starred in two outlandish films with the drag queen Divine, has died. He was 86.

Hunter died Sunday night in Santa Barbara from a blood clot that caused a heart attack, Allan Glaser, his romantic partner of more than three decades, told The Hollywood Reporter, describing his passing as "unexpected and sudden." A Facebook page linked to the star also announced his passing with a message that read: "SAD NEWS: Tab passed away tonight three days shy of his 87th birthday. Please honor his memory by saying a prayer on his behalf. He would have liked that."

After decades of silence, the leading man confirmed long-standing rumors about his homosexuality in his autobiography, "Tab Hunter Confidential: The Making of a Movie Star", published in 2005.

Hunter said he had been told by Glaser that someone was planning to write a book about him. "I thought, 'Look, get it from the horse's mouth and not from some horse's ass after I'm dead and gone,'" he told THR's Scott Feinberg in 2015. "I didn't want someone putting a spin on my life."

I'm not that familiar with Tab Hunter's career; even with his ventures into Toobworld, I only know him from a ‘Burke’s Law’ murder case and as George Shumway on 'Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman' (probably the most outrageous example of recasting by reason of plastic surgery ever!)  As for movies?  "Damn Yankees!" and "Polyester," that's it.

Still he contributed quite a lot to the world of the Toob and I'm sure there are several of his characters from his 1970s output that still walk the Earth Prime-Time.
All of the summaries, save for my own "O'Bservations", are from the IMDb unless otherwise specified. 

EARTH PRIME-TIME

The Tab Hunter Show
32 episodes
Paul Morgan

Paul Morgan makes his living through his cartoon strip "Bachelor at Large", which largely describes his amorous adventures in and around California's Malibu Beach. His boss John, best friend Peter, and housekeeper Thelma each take different views of his romantic romps.

There were always beautiful woman around to keep Tab on his toes. Some of the beauties Tab encountered were Gena Rowlands, Elizabeth Montgomery, Tuesday Weld, Suzanne Pleshette, Mary Tyler Moore, Joanna Barnes, Patricia Crowley, Diana Millay, Linda Cristal, Mary Murphy, Joan Staley, and Lori Nelson. 

Combat!
- The Celebrity (1962)
... Del Packer

A top professional baseball player joins the squad and becomes a liability when he freezes up during combat, and a member is shot.

Saints and Sinners
- Three Columns of Anger (1962)
... Sergeant Eddie Manzak

When a soldier gets attacked in the street, the story proves to be more complicated than it appears to be.

Burke's Law
- Who Killed Andy Zygmunt? (1964)
... Barney Blake

Pop artist Andy Zygmunt is fatally impaled on the spikes of one of his creations. The discovery that he blackmailed people into buying his works provides a motive and five suspects: his last four customers and the possessor of a missing fifth work.

O'Bservation
- Barney Blake's twin brother Arnold will be showing up later in this list.

The Virginian
- The Gift (1970)
... Cart Banner

Probably not from 'The Virginian'

But a horse is a horse.....

Jim Horn becomes involved with a roving saloon singer who had a similar involvement with Trampas three years earlier. A train payroll robber dying in her room complicates their lives when she is assumed to hold the missing money.

O'Bservation

- Carl Banner is probably the first Tab Hunter character on the Toobworld timeline.

San Francisco International Airport
- San Francisco International (1970)
... Stayczek

Pilot for the TV series, stars Pernell Roberts as Jim Conred, who runs an airport, much to the chagrin of his boss, "his way." In this, two plots run - a kid whose parents are splitting up decides to take off in a little red prop plane (and Conrad talks him down), and thieves played by the handsome Tab Hunter and his truly ugly sidekicks try to steal a money shipment. Roberts was replaced by Lloyd Bridges when the show went to series.
 
Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law
- Starting Over Again (1972)

From TV Guide:
Tab Hunter stars as a disc jockey who kills his wife and pins it on someone else; James Stacy plays the sportscaster caught in the frame. 

Cannon
- Treasure of San Ignacio (1972)
... Bob Neal

"Treasure of San Ignacio" is an episode of Cannon starring William Conrad, Tab Hunter, and Alejandro Rey. Cannon calls on a retired detective to help him recover religious relics stolen in an armed robbery of a church in Mexico.

Circle of Fear
- The Ghost of Potter's Field (1973)
... Bob Herrick

While at Potter's Field cemetery doing research for a story, reporter Bob Herrick sees a ghost that resembles him. He shakes the matter off, assuming that he's seeing things because he's over-tired. But when he encounters the same ghost in his office, and at his apartment, he begins to worry. While his friends John Walsh and Mark Riceman scoff, his girlfriend Nisa King realizes that this is a doppelganger who is trying to take over Bob's life by isolating him from his friends. As the doppelganger grows stronger, presenting great danger to Bob and his friends, Bob tries to find out whose spirit the doppelganger is in order to prevent it from taking over.

The Six Million Dollar Man
- The Cross-Country Kidnap (1975)
... Arnold Blake

OSI computer programmer Liza Leitman who also competes in Olympic horse racing, is under threat of being kidnapped. Though she refuses to have any of Oscar's 'dwarfs' shadowing her, Oscar sends Steve Austin to tail her anyway.

O'Bservation

- Arnold Blake is the twin brother of Barney Blake from that 'Burke's Law' murder case listed above.

Ellery Queen
- The Adventure of the Black Falcon (1976)
... John Randall

Letting a fine wine "breathe" proves deadly for the wine's owner Nick Kingston, who leaves it unattended for a killer to poison it. The vintner, who's hosting a party upstairs, comes back only to collapse. He tries to implicate the killer but breaks the wine cellar's only pencil, so he crawls to a wine rack and grabs a bottle, smashing it on the floor. The shattered bottle bears the label Black Falcon, indicating it was tied to World War One. But how?

Hartman, Mary Hartman
George Shumway #2 (1977-1978)
&
Forever Fernwood
George Schumway (post-plastic surgery)
O'Bservation
- For me, this was the most audacious recastaway ever in the history of Toobworld, especially as it was splained away with the most mundane of reasons for recasting - plastic surgery.  (I think it's mainly because the show toyed with the idea of incest in having Cathy Shumway now sexually attracted to her own father.)

McMillan & Wife
- Greed (1976)
... Roger Thornton

In an episode which introduces Mildred's sister Agatha to the cast (Nancy Walker had already committed to her own series for the following season, and Agatha was to become the new housekeeper), the McMillans, Mildred and Agatha go to visit a woman relative of Mildred and Agatha, a very wealthy woman who's dying -- but not quickly enough to suit one of her nephews, who's in debt to a loansharking company later described as "just this side of Murder, Incorporated."

Threatened with death if he doesn't come up with the money right away, the nephew smothers the old lady in her bed. But when the will is read, the nephew isn't the prime beneficiary -- a young great-niece is. Someone soon guns down the niece, and the nephew (who's next in line for the money) is the prime suspect. But when Agatha sneaks onto the nephew's pleasure boat to investigate him, someone plants a firebomb onto the boat. The nephew agrees to save Agatha and gives her a life jacket, but can't get off himself before the engine explodes. Next, the McMillans discover that the murdered "great-niece" was an impersonator -- so Sally poses as the great-niece herself and shows up on the doorstep of the old lady's countrified financial manager, hoping he has some clues.

The Love Boat
- Take My Granddaughter, Please (1977)
... Dave King

Ruth Gordon is the meddling grandmother to exasperated Patty Duke Astin and she is determined to marry off her granddaughter and quickly. 

Police Woman
- Blind Terror (1978)
... Martin Quinn

Sandra Dee is a blind mom in the desert whom Pepper is protecting. But, being the desert, Angie's also got big dark sunglasses, so when the mob shows up to grab Sandy while she's inside, they mistake one for the other, chasing Pepper into the yucca, baby in tow.

O'Bservation
- I would not be surprised if the name of Hunter's character was meant as an-joke centered around mega-producer Quinn Martin.

Hawaii Five-0
- Horoscope for Murder (1978)
... Mel Burgess

Four stabbings have taken place in Honolulu, but Five-O hasn't been able to come up with anything linking the victims, or any consistent pattern among the killings except the murder weapon used. Then McGarrett is unexpectedly visited by Agnes DuBois, a young Englishwoman whose profession is preparing horoscopes. She claims that all of the victims shared certain astrological characteristics. Though McGarrett and the other members of Five-O are initially skeptical, they become intrigued when she correctly predicts the time and place of a fifth murder.

$weepstake$
- Episode #1.7 (1979)
... Chip

In each episode of this series, three persons each buy a sweepstakes ticket and each of them has their own reason for wanting to win the jackpot which is one million dollars. And they all become finalists and when the winner is announced, we see how he/she does after winning the money. And we all also see what happens to the other two after losing the jackpot.

Charlie's Angels
- Nips and Tucks (1980)
... Bill Maddox

I think she's holding a picture of Mr. Maddox

When a renowned cosmetic surgeon is suspected of giving criminals a new face, Tiffany joins his staff as a nurse while Bosley poses as a rich patient whose wife, played by Kris, wants him to improve his looks.

Strike Force
- Night Nurse (1981)
... Voorhees

Klein tells Frank that he thinks that something is going on at four different hospitals when there appears to be a high mortality rate. Klein later suffers a heart attack and finds himself in one of the hospitals in question. When Frank goes to the administrator about high death rate, he refuses to let Frank investigate, so he calls several city officials who contacts the commissioner who tells Frank to back off. What they don't know is that the administrator is involved in black market organ scam and his next target is Klein.

Benson
- Death in a Funny Position: Parts 1 & 2 (1982)
... Roy Lucas

The Governor is invited by a businessman to join him on his yacht. So he brings the whole staff. They discover that he has invited some other people. When they're out to sea, the host is killed. So until they make it back, they're all wondering who could have done it. Until that is they learn that everyone on the man's guest list has a grudge against him.

After the owner of the yacht is killed on board, the Governor and all the guests start being suspicious of each other as the likely killer. Benson begins talking to people and finds out what really happened.

 The Fall Guy
- Bite of the Wasp (1984)
... Anthony Haley

Colt, Howie and Jody are working on a low-budget film when the producer suddenly finds themselves extorted for money. The extortionist is a crooked councilor who has recklessly run up some considerable gambling debts with the 'syndicate'. Colt decides to mount a 'sting' operation by pretending to be a contract killer called The Wasp and getting Jody to finagle her way into the councilor's affections by playing slutty and wearing a series of skimpy outfits. Stunts include: a couple of car crashes/explosions, land skiing, a helicopter grab and jumping and crashing Colt's truck.

Masquerade
- Spying Down to Rio (1984)
... Whitney

From a site dedicated to Rod Taylor:An embassy secretary (and NIA agent) is killed after she discovers a spy at the embassy in Rio de Janiero. Lavender and his Operation Masquerade team first chase down guest star Tab Hunter before they trap the ultimate villain, Jeremy Kemp. The climactic scene takes place during a masquerade ball, appropriately enough, with Rod costumed as Uncle Sam.

THE ANTHOLOGY SERIES
O'Bservation - There is nothing that says these stand-alone episodes can't be a part of Earth Prime-Time.  But as I've learned from 'The Twilight Zone', you can't take all of the series as a package.

The Ford Television Theatre
- While We're Young (1955)
... Gig Spevvy

O’Bservation
– This was Tab Hunter’s TV debut.  A shame he was saddled with the name “Gig Spevvy”.

Conflict
- The People Against McQuade (1956)
... Donald McQuade

A soldier is charged with murder and also on trial in this case is the right to use testimony gained from a person under the influence of sodium pentothal, "truth serum" as court evidence.

Climax!
- Fear Strikes Out (1955)
... Jimmy Piersall

A young major league baseball player, Jimmy Piersall (Tab Hunter), battles mental illness and a harsh upbringing to succeed as a Boston Red Sox outfielder. Based on the memoir of the same title by Piersall. Made into a movie in 1957 starring Anthony Perkins as Piersall. 

O'Bservation
- It's said that Perkins and Hunter were lovers at one time.  I wonder if the fact that Perkins nabbed the movie version after Hunter had already played it on TV was a problem between them.

- Mask for the Devil (1957)

O'Bservation

- There appears to be foreign remakes of this, but I can find no information on any of the productions.

Playhouse 90
- Forbidden Area (1956) ... Stanley Smith

Why are so many B-99 bombers from Hibiscus Air Base crashing or simply disappearing? Colonel Price comes up with a terrifying explanation, but will anyone believe him?

- Portrait of a Murderer (1958) ... Donald Bashor

O’Bservation
– Hunter played a serial killer in this live TV drama.

General Electric Theater
- Disaster (1959) ... Daniel

Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color
- Hacksaw: Parts 1 & 2 (1971)
... Tim Andrews

A girl captures a white stallion to compete in a contest.

MOTW TOOBWORLD
The same situation holds for the TV dimension of made-for-TV movies as with anthology shows.  As long as they don't cause Zonks for Earth Prime-Time, I see no reason why they can't be part of the main TV dimension.

Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates (1958) 
Hans Brinker

O’Bservation
– a musical version of the story by the team that created “Meet Me In St. Louis”.  There were several adaptations for television of the book; I reserve judgement as to which one ends up in Earth Prime-Time.

Meet Me in St. Louis (1959) 
John Truett

O’Bservation
– This is a carbon copy remake of the 1944 movie musical. (The suggestion is to stick with the original.)

Katie: Portrait of a Centerfold (1978) 
Elliot Bender

A naive Texas beauty queen, seeking Hollywood stardom, quickly learns the realities of the business after attending an unethical modeling school.

The Kid from Left Field (1979) 
Bill Lorant

O’Bservation
– This is a TV remake of the 1953 movie, made as a showcase for Gary Coleman.

I'm glad he finally was able to live freely in the open as himself; might have been one of the first.  A lot of the actors in the Golden Age of Hollywood weren't that lucky.

Good night and may God bless, Mr. Hunter....