For this week’s Video Weekend, we have an episode from the last season of ‘Barnaby Jones’. I could be wrong about this, but Buddy Ebsen does look tired in this adventure and that might have been one reason it was time to call it a day. (Not that he was done by a long shot; he just knew it was time to let somebody else shoulder the heavy work.) Ratings could have been another reason the show was ready to pack it in.
I haven’t yet consulted my handy-dandy guide to unsold TV pilots book by Lee Goldberg (I have both hardcover and paperback versions!), but I have this feeling that this episode of ‘Barnaby Jones’ was a backdoor pilot for a show that would have starred Harry Guardino as crusading reporter W.W. DiAngelo of the Los Angeles Chronicle. (That makes another notch in that newspaper’s TV credits, mostly from ‘Perry Mason’ and ‘Quincy, M.E.’.)
The set-up was in place – W.W. (which stood for Walt Whitman) was a thorn in the side of his “nephew in all but blood” who was an LAPD detective. We also got to meet the reporter’s assistant back at the paper, Lucy, who was played by one of my many TV crushes, Laurette Spang. And there was Philip Pine as the Chronicle’s editor and Charles Lampkin as Benny, a guy who ran a hot dog stand and would probably have been W.W.’s source for info on the street.
The story centered around this quintet of characters as the heroes with Barnaby taking a back seat to give them the spotlight. (Barnaby’s best moment was a short interaction with a secretary/records archivist who was kind of sweet on him. She was played by Barbara Perry, who was the first actress to play Pickles Sorrell on ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show’. After her two episodes, Joan Shawlee took over the role and knocked it out of the park.)
UPDATE:I watched that episode of 'Barnaby Jones' on the morning of February 27. I wrote up this post and added in the link to the video that same morning. Later in the day I went back to YouTube to grab a few stills from it for a future article about the Los Angeles Chronicle and I needed one of Linden Chiles as the murderer. However, just a few hours after seeing it the first time, it was now taken down by the user.
March is the month in which we usually induct members of the League of Themselves, mostly celebrities, into the Television Crossover Hall of Fame. (Of course, in 2009 for the tenth anniversary of the Hall, we inducted someone every month from the League. I think it was Hugh Hefner for March - Playboy bunnies -> March Hare. Heh heh.... ahem.)
But there could be a long line for those entries as celebrities appearing as their fictional televersions are a staple in sitcoms especially. Therefore, I'll get four in at least this month as the Friday Hall of Famers.
And so, for no particular reason, we begin with Ray Liotta, a multidimensional.....
From Wikipedia: Raymond Allen Liotta; born December 18, 1954) is an American actor, film producer, and voice actor.
Liotta is best known for his portrayal of Henry Hill in the crime drama "Goodfellas (1990); other notable roles include Ray Sinclair in Jonathan Demme's "Something Wild" (1986), for which he received a Golden Globe nomination, Shoeless Joe Jackson in "Field of Dreams" (1989), Officer Pete Davis in "Unlawful Entry" (1992), Officer Gary Figgis in "Cop Land" (1997), Paul Krendler in "Hannibal" (2001), Fred Jung in "Blow" (2001), Tommy Vercetti in the video game "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City" (2002), Chief Gus Monroe in "John Q" (2002), Samuel Rhodes in "Identity" (2003), Markie Trattman in "Killing Them Softly" (2012), and Peter Deluca in "The Place Beyond the Pines" (2012).
He also starred as Lieutenant Matt Wozniak in the television drama 'Shades of Blue' (2016–2018).
Here are the credits which qualify him for membership in the TVXOHOF:
Just Shoot Me! - Christmas? Christmas! (2001) From the IMDb: Maya meets a handsome celebrity who loves Christmas even more than her, to the point of obsession.
Ray Liotta: Everyone thinks I'm like my character in Goodfellas, but in real life, I'm more like my character in "Operation Dumbo Drop".
Ray Liotta: You don't get it, do you? You think I make movies because I like making movies? I just do it to pay for Christmas! I live for this holiday, and now it's over! What, now I'm supposed to go back to Hollywood, be an actor for twelve months? Not me! Not this Ray Liotta!
- Liotta? Liotta! (2002) From the IMDb: Ray Liotta is back and he's obsessed with Maya. He even vows to give up show business for her, but can't adjust to normal life.
Ray Liotta: I don't want to be a celebrity anymore. I just want to do boring, ordinary boyfriend stuff. Nina Van Horn: Then you, sir, have hit the soulmate lottery.
Ray Liotta: Remember in Hannibal when Hannibal made me eat my own brain? This is worse. Because it's not my brain this time, Maya. It's my real heart.
Nina Van Horn: You're a moron, Ray. Ray Liotta: This is great. Just a couple of regular people calling each other morons.
Modern Family - Playdates (2016)
From the IMDb: The Dunphy kids make a last-minute birthday surprise for Mitchell, and run into Ray Liotta.
MITCHELL PRITCHARD: Oh, my god. You're Ray Liotta. LUKE DUNPHY: Wow. He really is a big fan. He even knows the name of her gardener. MITCHELL: Ah. "Goodfellas"? "Something Wild"? - "Field of Dreams"? ALEX DUNPHY: "Field of Dreams." Never seen it. RAY LIOTTA: Okay, HALEY DUNPHY: We're really not that old. MITCHELL: Look, Ray Liotta is a very fine actor, and we have taken up enough of his time. LIOTTA: Stop saying my full name like you have to keep telling them who I am. HALEY: So, wait -- you live with Barbra Streisand? LIOTTA: Y-y-you got the map. HALEY: Yeah. (He takes the map from her) LIOTTA: She lived here for about-# You think the bastards would update these things to reflect the current movie-star owners. (Hands back the map) HALEY: Thank you. MITCHELL: Come on, kids. We're very sorry to have bothered you. LIOTTA: No, no, no. I don't want you to leave empty-handed. Come on in for a selfie.
MITCHELL: Oh. All right. LIOTTA: When you see my movies later, you're gonna realize that this is a special moment. Come on. And "cheeeeese"! Cheese! See? That's an old actor's trick for a perfect smile. Except you and I are smiling. You guys aren't smiling. W-what's the matter? HALEY: It's not you, Mr. Liotta. We just really feel like we let our uncle down. We were supposed to plan a special day for his birthday, and we totally flaked. ALEX: We're so sorry. We tried to figure out where to take you, and we know how much you love Barbra Streisand. You always give us the most awesome gifts. LUKE: We suck. MITCHELL: Don't say that. I kind of figured you didn't have anything by the second verse of the omelet dance. HALEY: Hey, I've had no training. MITCHELL: But then I saw how hard you were trying to make me happy, and I just love hanging out with you guys. Plus, I did get to meet Ray Lio-- Ray.
LIOTTA: You're also gonna meet Barbra. MITCHELL: What? No. LIOTTA: I've been meaning to go by her house anyway. I've got a bunch of her mail. MITCHELL: Oh, you don't have to do that. LIOTTA: No, no, no, no. You remind me of -- of someone that I loved when I was a kid. I had a funny uncle, too. MITCHELL: Oh.
Great News- Early Retirement (2018)
From the IMDb: Diana St. Tropaz returns to tell the staff of "The Breakdown" that Fenton Pelt will drop the lawsuit if Chuck delivers a humiliating on-air apology and resigns from news forever.
KATIE WENDELSON: Mom, you know everyone in New Jersey, don't you? CAROL WENDELSON: Not everyone! I did have brunch a couple of times with Ray Liotta, but it was a big group, and we never sat very close to each other.
But in order to track down Fenton Pelt, Carol and Katie visit Ray Liotta to find somebody else who could lead them to Pelt.
RAY LIOTTA: Anthony's been in hiding for years. I would never tell a stranger his whereabouts. But anything for Angie's cousin's nun's deli man's friend. This is his mother's address.
And that’s when Liotta remembered where he knew Carol from….
LIOTTA: Hey! You were sitting four people away from me at brunch. CAROL: Yes! LIOTTA: You didn't pay your bill. CAROL: Run!
And this just in, breaking news!
This post was published on March 8, 2019. Just a few hours before it went online, Liotta was referenced in another TV show which is added to his tally.
'The Big Bang Theory' "The Conference Valuation" (2019)
From the IMDb: Wolowitz is in charge of the kids while Bernadette and Penny are in San Diego for a pharmaceutical sales convention. While at the San Diego conferencePenny pointed out that the booth next to theirs had a lot of visitors. Bernadette noticed that it was because it was the Chantix booth and Ray Liotta was there signing autographs until two.
His membership in the Hall for his Main Toobworld qualifications does not depend on this appearance. But I would argue for its validity because he is presented in the Chantix commercial seen in fictional situations. And so this would also mean Liotta is a serlinguist, able to talk directly to the audience in the Trueniverse. However, I’m just adding it for flavor:
As someone who lost his father to smoking, I think Liotta is doing a great thing here in showing others that it is possible to quit smoking. But I have seen online parodies of this commercial. If anything, those belong in some alternate Toobworld – Skitlandia perhaps.
I’m also adding this particular talk show appearance just for the flavor it adds to his presence in the TV Universe of Earth Prime-Time:
So Ray Liotta’s televersion is confirmed in Earth Prime-Time enough times to qualify in the Crossover Hall. But as an added bonus, he’s even appeared as himself in the Tooniverse!
Phineas and Ferb - What a Croc!/Ferb TV (2012)
I can’t guarantee how long these YouTube offerings will last, so enjoy 'em while you can! But just in case, here's another screenshot:
So welcome to the Television Crossover Hall of Fame, Ray Liotta, as the first Friday Hall of Famer in March 2019! Enjoy your stay!
We’re going overseas for two different shows to connect in today’s Theory of Relateeveety, rather than another one with ‘Columbo’.
‘Midsomer Murders’ “The Sword Of Guillaume”
A thoroughly despicable resident of the Midsomer villages was murdered while on a trip to Brighton by the Midsomer town council and others. While there, DCI Tom Barnaby got help from his cousin John Barnaby who was a police detective down there along the shore.
A year later, John Barnaby moved to the Causton area to replace his cousin Tom as the chief investigator for Midsomer in the episode “Fit For Murder”.
Within the course of the series (and excluding Caroline Graham’s books) during John Nettles’ tenure as the lead actor, we met various members of Tom Barnaby’s family. Chief among these is his wife Joyce and their daughter Cully. Then there are Joyce’s parents, Douglas and Muriel, and eventually Tom becomes the father-in-law when Cully married Simon Dixon. (John is married as well, to a teacher named Sarah.) One other family member was his mother's sister, his Aunt Alice Bly.
I can’t speak for the novels, which are set in BookWorld and so are not to be considered in regard to the TV series save for the basic premise and characters and the plots for the first five episodes of the show. So it could be that Tom Barnaby had other family members whom we never met during the course of the nearly twenty years he appeared in ‘Midsomer Murders’.
So here we go…. I’m putting forward this theory of relateeveety – Tom had a sister. Her name was Kate. And she was a spy who once worked with Simon Templar.
‘The Saint’ “The Organisation Man”
From the IMDb: The Saint is contacted by Jonathan Roper, who is training a small international army, which he invites the Saint to join. In fact the Saint is working undercover for British military intelligence who are curious as to what Roper's plans are. Roper informs the Saint that he wants him to lead an assault on an army vehicle, stealing uniforms. It becomes apparent that Roper intends to disguise his men as British soldiers for criminal purposes. The Saint sets out to stop him.
Short for Kathleen or Katherine, I can’t say. It may have just been “Kate” as is the case for the middle name of one of my cousins. But here’s what I can tell you about her:
Kate Barnaby is one year older than her brother Tom.
She was an operative for MI-5.
She took the place of J.F. Spode as “The Organisation Man” for MI-5.
Kate was part of the operation to bring down Roper's private militia. She worked undercover at the nearby pub where Templar was able to contact her when he could get away from the compound. After her superior, Mr. Spode; went rogue (because he was nearing retirement and wanted a taste of the good life), the head of the service took up Templar's suggestion to have Kate take over the job once the operation ended.
I’d like to think that Kate Barnaby is still alive in Toobworld and that it could be due to her highly sensitive and secretive position in the government for Tom Barnaby not to have mentioned her at some point during the series.
But we saw her only that one time in 1968; the Cold War was at its height and there were enemy agents everywhere. It could be that Kate Barnaby died in the line of duty. She may even have had to deal not only with deep cover Soviet agents but organizations like THRUSH and KAOS as well as with villains like Wo Fat and Mr. Schubert; perhaps even the immortal Dr. Miguelito Loveless! And so it could be that she had passed away and long enough ago that the sad fact of her passing hardly ever crossed Tom Barnaby's mind anymore.
In a perfect Toobworld, we would have seen her turn up again in a show like 'Spooks'.
Even so, if Kate Barnaby is still alive, it was probably for the best that we only saw her that one time in ‘The Saint’ and that neither Caroline Graham nor the ‘Midsomer Murders’ producers provided more details about Tom Barnaby’s family relations. That means Ms. Barnaby could still be out there, ready for someone with a penchant for fan fiction about ‘The Saint’ and maybe combining it with 'Midsomer Murders'.
O’Bservation: Kate Barnaby was played by Caroline Mortimer. BCnU!
We’ve got a mix today of Wikipedia entries for our Wiki Tiki Wednesday offering. First up, an excerpt from the article about a very dark Scandi-noir that finally reached the American shores last year:
From Wikipedia: ‘100 Code’ (also known as ‘The Hundred Code’) is an internationally co-produced Swedish crime drama series, created by Ken Bruen and developed by Bobby Moresco, that first aired on German premium channel Sky Krimi on May 14, 2015. The series, which stars German-born British actor Dominic Monaghan and the late Swedish actor Michael Nyqvist, is based upon Bruen's novel “Merrick”, and follows Tommy Conley (Monaghan), an NYPD detective who travels to Stockholm to advise and investigate a particularly gruesome series of murders.
Young, blonde, blue-eyed women are found murdered at regular intervals near water bodies and flower fields. Conley has to work with the Swedish investigator Mikael Eklund. The two hate each other, both fight with their own demons. After initial problems, the [detectives] investigate a series of murders, which, as initially thought, is not limited to New York and Stockholm, but has much larger dimensions.
One aspect of the murder ritual intrigued me:
From the IMDb: New York, USA. Stockholm, Sweden. Over the past twelve months young, blonde, blue-eyed women have been found dead in a meadow where Asphodel flowers grow. Asphodel. I knew I heard that word before as part of all the Tolkien lore that was now burned deep into my mind. While they were in Ithilien, Frodo Baggins and Sam Gamgee found a field full of asphodel. But also it was used as a first name - Asphodel was the daughter of Gorbadoc Brandybuck and Mirabella Took. She married Rufus Burrows, and their child, Milo Burrows, was born in S.R. 1347. They all attended Bilbo's Party in S.R. 1401.
(I always thought it was a name Sam and Rosie might have one day given to a child of theirs. Having assumed a new surname – that of Gardner - they had thirteen children, mostly girls, and most of them had flowery names like Daisy, Primrose, and Elanor. An Asphodel Gardner would have made for a lovely addition to the family.)
Interesting that the other Tolkien connection is of course the star of '100 Code', Dominic Monaghan, who played Meriadoc "Merry" Brandybuck in the "Lord Of The Rings" trilogy of films.
But even with their mention throughout ‘100 Code’, I didn’t learn more than some sort of tenuous affiliation with death. So it was off to Wikipedia!
From Wikipedia: Asphodels are popular garden plants, which grow in well-drained soils with abundant natural light. Now placed in the family Asphodelaceae, the genus was formerly included in the lily family (Liliaceae).
The plants are hardy herbaceous perennials with narrow tufted radical leaves and an elongated stem bearing a handsome spike of white or yellow flowers. Asphodelus albus and A. fistulosus have white flowers and grow from 1½ to 2 ft. high; A. ramosus is a larger plant, the large white flowers of which have a reddish-brown line in the middle of each segment.
The leaves are used to wrap burrata, an Italian cheese. The leaves and the cheese last about the same time, three or four days, and thus fresh leaves are a sign of a fresh cheese, while dried out leaves indicate that the cheese is past its prime.
In Greek legend the asphodel is one of the most famous of the plants connected with the dead and the underworld. Homer describes it as covering the great meadow (ἀσφόδελος λειμών), the haunt of the dead. It was planted on graves, and is often connected with Persephone, who appears crowned with a garland of asphodels. Its general connection with death is due no doubt to the greyish colour of its leaves and its yellowish flowers, which suggest the gloom of the underworld and the pallor of death. The roots were eaten by the poorer Greeks; hence such food was thought good enough for the shades. The asphodel was also supposed to be a remedy for poisonous snake-bites and a specific against sorcery; it was fatal to mice, but preserved pigs from disease. The Libyan nomads made their huts of asphodel stalks.
And now here’s part two of our look behind the scenes for a particular TV train……
‘PETTICOAT JUNCTION’ “THE VERY OLD ANTIQUE”
From the IMDb: When Kate unexpectedly sees Homer Bedloe in Hooterville, she knows trouble is in store. Because of the continual problems he has faced trying to scrap the Cannonball, Bedloe states he has given up on that idea. Instead, he plans on selling the Cannonball - a seemingly one-of-a-kind antique locomotive - and he has a buyer on hand. He is millionaire retired train man and antique train aficionado, Phillip Waterhouse. Waterhouse, who comes with his personal secretary Cassidy, is an old, ornery and snobbish man who generally gets what he wants. Bedloe plans on giving Waterhouse a test run on the train. Instead, Kate manages to be Waterhouse's fellow passenger, leaving Bedloe behind in Hooterville. With Charley and Floyd's help, Kate hopes she can convince Waterhouse that the train is in such disrepair that it's not worth buying. But by the time they arrive at the Shady Rest, Kate learns Waterhouse's true motivation in wanting to buy the train, which was not as she expected. She hopes that with the family's help, she can get through to Waterhouse the necessity of the train to the valley, which may not be an easy task seeing that Waterhouse is not the type of man to listen to anyone's opinion except his own.
By the end of the episode, Mr. Waterhouse had been softened up and swayed by Kate Bradley. He changed his mind about buying the Hooterville Cannonball and told Homer Bedloe that he was instead in the market for a 1892 Porter train.
From Wikipedia: H.K. Porter, Inc. (Porter) manufactured light-duty railroad locomotives in the US, starting in 1866. The company became the largest producer of industrial locomotives, and built almost eight thousand of them. The last locomotive was built in 1950, but the company continues to produce industrial equipment to this day.
Porter was known for building locomotives that were much smaller than those normally used by the larger Class I railroads. The company's locomotives were small enough that they were often operated by only one person. Porter built mostly steam locomotives, but they also built some powered by gasoline and diesel engines, and some that ran on compressed air.
This H.K. Porter train is still in operation in Finland.
1890: Porter built their first compressed-air locomotive, for a coal mine in Pennsylvania. Air was stored in two tanks, and used to drive the pistons instead of steam. This allowed locomotive use inside mines without the fumes of burning coal, or the dangers of high-pressure steam. Porter went on to build over 400 compressed-air locomotives for use in mines, plants, and the street railways of New Orleans. Others built compressed-air locomotives, but by 1900 Porter had captured 90% of the market.
For more - LOTS more! - on the H.K. Porter company, click here.
In both this and the previous mention of the Rogers locomotive, the writers of the sitcom had certainly done their homework, for both were real companies. BCnU!
From the IMDb: When Kate unexpectedly sees Homer Bedloe in Hooterville, she knows trouble is in store. Because of the continual problems he has faced trying to scrap the Cannonball, Bedloe states he has given up on that idea. Instead, he plans on selling the Cannonball - a seemingly one-of-a-kind antique locomotive - and he has a buyer on hand. He is millionaire retired train man and antique train aficionado, Phillip Waterhouse. Waterhouse, who comes with his personal secretary Cassidy, is an old, ornery and snobbish man who generally gets what he wants. Bedloe plans on giving Waterhouse a test run on the train. Instead, Kate manages to be Waterhouse's fellow passenger, leaving Bedloe behind in Hooterville. With Charley and Floyd's help, Kate hopes she can convince Waterhouse that the train is in such disrepair that it's not worth buying. But by the time they arrive at the Shady Rest, Kate learns Waterhouse's true motivation in wanting to buy the train, which was not as she expected. She hopes that with the family's help, she can get through to Waterhouse the necessity of the train to the valley, which may not be an easy task seeing that Waterhouse is not the type of man to listen to anyone's opinion except his own.
Bedloe had pitched the Cannonball as being an 1891 Rogers train. Mr. Waterhouse was an expert on old trains so there would have been no fooling him if it hadn’t been an 1891 Rogers. So within the show’s reality, it was an 1891 Rogers, no matter what it really was here in the Trueniverse.
From Wikipedia: Rogers Locomotive and Machine Works was a 19th-century manufacturer of railroad steam locomotives based in Paterson, in Passaic County, New Jersey, in the United States. It built more than six thousand steam locomotives for railroads around the world. Most railroads in 19th-century United States rostered at least one Rogers-built locomotive. The company's most famous product was a locomotive named The General, built in December 1855, which was one of the principals of the Great Locomotive Chase of the American Civil War. (O’Bservation: This was dramatized in the classic Buster Keaton masterpiece, “The General”.)
The company was founded by Thomas Rogers in an 1832 partnership with Morris Ketchum and Jasper Grosvenor as Rogers, Ketchum and Grosvenor. Rogers remained president until his death in 1856 when his son, Jacob S. Rogers, took the position and reorganized the company as Rogers Locomotive and Machine Works. The younger Rogers led the company until he retired in 1893. Robert S. Hughes then became president and reorganized the company as Rogers Locomotive Company, which he led until his death in 1900.
Today, several Rogers-built locomotives exist in railroad museums around the world, and the plant's erecting shop is preserved as the Thomas Rogers Building; it is the current location of the Paterson Museum, whose mission is to preserve and display Paterson's industrial history.
Rogers built their first 2-6-0, which is sometimes referred to as the first 2-6-0 built in the United States, in 1863 for the New Jersey Railroad and Transportation Company. The company continued manufacturing both locomotives and textile machinery for nearly another 20 years.
For the exterior scenes of Petticoat Junction, including those in the iconic opening scene, Sierra Railroad #3 portrayed the Hooterville Cannonball. The shots were filmed in Jamestown California in 1963 and then again in the summer of 1965 when the show went to color.
It has also appeared in television series beyond ‘Petticoat Junction’, including ‘Little House on the Prairie’, ‘Death Valley Days’, ‘Lassie’, ‘The Lone Ranger’, ‘Gunsmoke’, ‘Bonanza’, ‘The Big Valley’, ‘Rawhide’, and ‘The A-Team’. In addition to its tenure as the Cannonball, the same train was used as the rolling headquarters and home of Jim West in the hit series ‘The Wild Wild West’.
Today, Sierra #3 is housed by Railtown 1897 State Historic Park in Jamestown, California. The Cannonball and the Water Tower are proudly on display today, in Jamestown for train enthusiasts and Petticoat Junction fans to visit. A side note, Jamestown actually has a residential street named Petticoat Junction Drive.
BCnU!
This is a “Two for Tuesday” post and part two will be coming up shortly…
From the Washington Post: Peter Tork, a blues and folk musician who became a
teeny-bopper sensation as a member of the Monkees, the wisecracking, made-for-TV pop group that imitated and briefly outsold the Beatles, died Feb. 21. He was 77.
The death was announced by his official Facebook page, which did not say where or how he died. Mr. Tork was diagnosed with adenoid cystic carcinoma, a rare cancer affecting his tongue, in 2009.
If the Monkees were a manufactured version of the Beatles, a “prefab four” who auditioned for a rock-and-roll sitcom and were selected more for their long-haired good looks than their musical abilities, Mr. Tork was the group’s Ringo, its lovably goofy supporting player.
On television, he performed as the self-described “dummy” of the group, drawing on a persona he developed while working as a folk musician in Greenwich Village, where he flashed a confused smile whenever his stage banter fell flat. Off-screen, he embraced the Summer of Love, donning moccasins and “love beads” and declaring that “nonverbal, extrasensory communication is at hand” and that “dogmatism is leaving the scene.” - Harrison Smith
When Davy Jones died seven years ago, Toobworld Central inducted him right away into the Television Crossover Hall of Fame. As the “cute one” of the Pre-Fab Four, he was more in demand for appearances in other TV shows than his three bandmates. I haven’t looked into the resumes of Mickey Dolenz and Mike Nesmith yet, but for now Peter Tork will be the second Monkee in the Hall.
Here are the shows which qualified Tork for the membership in the TVXOHOF:
The Monkees The misadventures of a struggling rock band. (1966-1968) 58 episodes
Head The Monkees are tossed about in a psychedelic, surrealist, plotless, circular bit of fun fluff. (1968)
33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee Four individuals are brainwashed into forming a musical group, featuring guest appearances from some of the superstars of 1950s rock'n'roll.
In the fanzine P.O. Box 9847, Peter Tork said this special ended with "the fictional Monkees being killed by the bomb". (1968)
The Steven Banks Show - Rock Auction (1994)
Wings - She's Gotta Have It When the insurance company gives Helen a big check for what she lost in the fire she goes on a shopping spree.
"She's Gotta Have It" was broadcast in Nov 1995, the 30-year anniversary of The Monkees' pilot, featuring a cameo from both former Monkey Peter Tork and the actual Monkeemobile. When Helen scores with a generous check from the insurance company, following the loss of her family belongings, she goes on a wild spending spree, culminating in a bidding war over the Monkeemobile with Peter Tork, whom she fails to recognize ("if that jerk would stop bidding against me, the car would be mine!"). The auctioneer refers to Helen as "that daydream believer," while Joe brags that he used to own a Monkees lunchbox (Peter: "Big deal, we got squat from those things!"). Peter comes off just as endearing as he was on the original series, and performs a priceless double take when he realizes Helen doesn't recognize him (Helen: "I just hope you're as big a fan as I am!"). (1995)
The King of Queens - Best Man Doug, Carrie, Arthur, Deacon and Kelly are going to the wedding of Todd, an old friend of Carrie and Kelly. Just before going to the wedding, Doug finds out Carrie once had sex with Todd.
At the wedding the bandleader is played by Peter Tork, who is better known as a member of the band The Monkees. (1999)
Hey, Hey, It's the Monkees (1997) This reunion special of all four original Monkees aired on ABC in the format of an hour-long episode of their 1960s TV series, the premise being that the show never ceased production (despite being off the air) and by now they have run out of ideas for story lines. The beach-side pad from the original series was recreated for this special. The show included music from their then-current album Justus as well as a medley of their most popular songs from the 1960s.
The special assumes the Monkees have been living in their beach house all the years since the series ended and have continued having adventures. This one is episode number 781.
The fictional Monkees were killed by a bomb at the end of their 1969 TV special, so the Monkees appear as themselves in this one.
Documentary focusing on The Monkees, the 1960s pop group originally created for a TV sitcom. Interviews with the band members, the show's creators, and musical collaborators and peers are featured.
O’BSERVATION: So, we’ll have to address this apparent Zonk….
‘The Monkees’ TV series as seen by us in Earth Prime was the chronicle of the lives of the actual Monkees. That was the real deal.
The TV series watched by people in Earth Prime-Time featured actors who looked amazingly like the Monkees, but they all died at the end of the TV special.
When TV characters are seen holding the Monkees’ record albums or with the posters on their walls, these are of the actual Monkees. Those TV characters who sing the theme song have watched the TV series starring those imposters.
I realize it’s probably still confusing, but what can I do?
Here are some possible crossovers for Pete and the guys:
At least we know Davy and Peter are back together. But Mike and Mickey? No rush, guys. Please....
