TOOBMUSIC - RAINING BLOOD

'SINGLE PARENTS'
"RAINING BLOOD"

From the IMDb:
To celebrate Angie's 30th birthday, Will throws a big party re-creating Ozzfest; Douglas takes Graham shopping to help him find the perfect gift for Angie.  

At the end of this episode, with her 30th birthday falling apart, Angie at least got to get up on stage and sing this Slayer number.

From Wikipedia:
"Raining Blood" is a song by the American thrash metal band Slayer. Written by Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King for the 1986 studio albumReign in Blood, the song's religious concept is about overthrowing Heaven.

The song is four minutes and fourteen seconds in duration. It ends with a minute of rain sound effects. Described as a "classic" by Allmusic, it is noted by fans as one of Slayer's most popular songs. As an almost permanent addition to their live sets, both Hanneman and King acknowledged it as their favorite song to play live. Many of Slayer's live performances of the song have been captured on the band's live albums and also multi-band compilation albums including MTV2 Headbangers Ball.

There have been many appearances of the song in the media and elsewhere, including the South Park episode "Die Hippie, Die", and the video games Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, where it is considered difficult to play.

Raining Blood

Trapped in purgatory
A lifeless object, alive
Awaiting reprisal
Death will be their acquiescence
The sky is turning red
Return to power draws near
Fall into me, the sky's crimson tears
Abolish the rules made of stone
Pierced from below, souls of my treacherous past
Betrayed by many, now ornaments dripping above
Awaiting the hour of reprisal
Your time slips away
Raining blood
From a lacerated sky
Bleeding its horror
Creating my structure now I shall reign in blood

Songwriters: Jeffery John Hanneman / Kerry King

Raining Blood lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

FRIDAY HALL OF FAMERS - LARRY DAVID

Our monthly showcase of the April Fool, following the year's anniversary theme, began last week with the Joker.  This week we kick off the Friday Hall of Famers with a member of the League of Themselves who follows the pattern - that cathode curmudgeon, Larry David.

For Wikipedia:
Lawrence Gene David (born July 2, 1947) is an American comedian, writer, actor, director, and television producer. He and Jerry Seinfeld created the television series ‘Seinfeld’, of which David was the head writer and executive producer from 1989 to 1997. David has subsequently gained further recognition for the HBO series ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’, which he also created, in which he stars as a semi-fictionalized version of himself.

David's work won him a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series in 1993. Formerly a stand-up comedian, David went into television comedy, writing and starring in ABC's Fridays, as well as writing briefly for ‘Saturday Night Live’. He has won two Primetime Emmy Awards, and was voted by fellow comedians and comedy insiders as the 23rd greatest comedy star ever in a 2004 British poll to select "The Comedian's Comedian".

Here are Larry David’s qualifications for membership in the
Hall for playing themselves.

Curb Your Enthusiasm
93 episodes

From the IMDb:
The life and times of Larry David and the predicaments he gets himself into with his friends and complete strangers.  

Love & War
- Let's Not Call It Love (1993)

From the IMDb:
Jack and Dana go out as friends, and everywhere they go, they are mistaken for a romantic couple making it harder for them to keep things platonic.  

After Candice Bergen and the set of Murphy Brown (1988) made a guest appearance in the Seinfeld (1989) episode Seinfeld: The Keys (1992) - where Kramer (Michael Richards) is hired as an actor to play Murphy's secretary - Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David returned the favor by appearing as themselves on this other sitcom by Murphy Brown creator Diane English, where they receive a Seinfeld script written by a Blue Shamrock customer, in which Kramer sleeps with Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). This also echoes Elaine's writing a Murphy Brown script in the above mentioned Seinfeld episode. 

Entourage
- New York (2004)

From the IMDb:
Now Vince is about to return to New York for months to shoot, Turtle decides to make some money for a change- by charging entry for Vince's go away-party. Drama finds Adam Davies is a great agent, as he gets him a well-paid audition for a promising pilot, CSI Minneapolis to be shot in Vancouver starring Don Johnson whom Johnny already knows, interesting despite clashing with the timing for Queens Bouelevard and his temper flares up again. Meanwhile E insists he wants his work as Vince's manager recognized, with a formal contract, and plays it hard despite skepticism from Ari and, worst of all, Vince himself.  

Hannah Montana
- My Best Friend's Boyfriend (2007)

From the IMDb:
Lily has a new boyfriend, Luke. Miley catches Lucas making out with another girl. Miley proves to Lily that Luke is cheating on her. Someone steals a pair of sunglasses and Rico installs a new security system to prevent any other thefts. 

The Paul Reiser Show- The Father's Occupation (2011)

From the IMDb:
Paul is asked to host a new game show produced by Mark Burnett, but his friend Larry David is given the same offer. Meanwhile, Brad is upset that Fernando may have tricked him to get a better school project for their children's class.  

Larry David is also mutl-dimensional, meaning that he has appeared in more than one Toobworld.  All of those above are from the main Toobworld, Earth Prime-Time.

For this appearance, he was in the Tooniverse.

TripTank
- Roy & Ben's Day Off (2014)

From the IMDb:
In this animated sketch series, Larry David has lunch with Larry Flynt, an "Animal Hitman" takes out various pets, and Gary's day out playing mini-golf with his son is interrupted by pranks on "Suck It, Gary."  

I usually regret that these people from the League of Themselves never find out that they’ve been inducted into the Television Crossover Hall of Fame.  But in this case, I’m kind of glad that Mr. David doesn’t know about it and I’m even hoping he never does.  I’m afraid of how he might take it.  More than likely, he’d find it stupid and it might piss him off.

Yeesh. Who knows what he’d make of it!

BCnU!

THURSDAY THEORY OF RELATEEVEETY - INSPECTOR TEAL 4X ON 4/4

Today’s Theory of Relateeveety doesn’t serve to connect two or more shows together.  Rather, it’s meant to eradicate a Recastaway Zonk.

We got some splainin to do!

From Wikipedia:
Claud Eustace Teal is a fictional character who made many appearances in a series of novels, novellas and short stories by Leslie Charteris featuring The Saint, starting in 1929. A common spelling variation of his first name in reference works and websites is Claude, however in his works Charteris uses the spelling without the 'e'.  

Claud Eustace Teal has appeared in numerous film and TV adaptations of The Saint. Generally (though not always) dramatic depictions of Teal have presented him as a rather less competent policeman than in the novels, with his ponderous approach exaggerated at the expense of his detection abilities. In his most significant adaptation (the 1960s British television series) he is presented as almost incompetent, with his success in solving cases always down to the efforts of Simon Templar. 

O’Bservation – Poor Claud Eustace.  As was the case oftentimes for Dr. Watson, he’s been ill-served in the adaptations.

On television, Ivor Dean played Teal as a recurring character in the 1962–69 British series, ‘The Saint’. Teal appeared in several early episodes played by other actors (Campbell Singer, Norman Pitt and Wensley Pithey respectively). Dean appeared in another role in Teal's second appearance (an episode entitled “Starring the Saint”) before being cast on a permanent basis. In the TV series Templar always greets Teal with mock respect: "Claud Eustace Teal, pride of Scotland Yard". Whilst Teal always gruffly refers to Templar by his surname only, Templar addresses Teal with the much more chummy "my dear Claud".

Here are the four actors who played the Inspector Teals who interacted with Templar in Toobworld:


Campbell Singer
- The Man Who Was Lucky (1962)
Born in 1909


Wensley Pithey
- Starring the Saint (1963)
Born in 1914


Norman Pitt
- The Elusive Ellshaw (1963)
Born in 1911


Ivor Dean
24 episodes between
1963-1969
Born in 1917

I'm not about to split the series into four parts just to relegate those recastaways into alternate Toobworlds!

Here is the Toobworld splainin for these four Recastaways… four brothers from the same family.

Each of the Teal brothers joined the Metropolitan Police in London and each of them rose to the rank of Inspector.

As for all of their names being “Claud Eustace Teal” – they weren’t.  Only the youngest of the brothers was named Claud  Eustace.  It delighted Simon to call the other three by the name of their baby brother.

The older three Teal brothers may have decided that working with Simon Templar was a case of “once is too much,” and as far as the Trueniverse audience knew, they only worked with him on one case each.  (There may have been more instances for one or all of them, but those happened off-screen.)

Claud Eustace Teal on the other hand begrudgingly engaged with Templar on just over two dozen investigations.  And even though “the Saint” did most of the heavy lifting in each instance, it was Claud who always got the credit.  And that served him in good stead back at headquarters - In May of 1967, Claud Eustace was promoted and was thereafter addressed as Chief Inspector Teal. 

But it could be that the “ordeal” of being continuously shown up by Templar proved to be detrimental to his health.  Claud Eustace was the first of the Teal brothers to die, at only fifty years of age.  His oldest brother died two years later at age 67.  The second oldest brother died at the age of 75, and by 1993, there were no more Teals of Scotland Yard….

And that should clear up the recastaway problem of Inspector Teal… times four.

BCnU!

 

SPLAININ TO DO - T-ZONE EASTER EGGS

On April Fool’s Day, the streaming premium platform CBS All Access debuted the new version of ‘The Twilight Zone’, with Jordan Peele overseeing the production and serving as the narrator.

I suppose it’s a marketing ploy to lure new subscribers to the service, but the first episode, “The Comedian”, is also playing on YouTube for free.  I don’t know how long that will last online and I doubt they’ll be sharing anymore, but it gave me a good idea of the new series and I think it’s in good hands.

What I wanted to cover were some of the in-jokes to be found in that first episode and what effect they might have on Toobworld at large.  Most of them can be dismissed as not being very much of a threat to the main TV Universe, threats which I call Zonks.  But there is one that might need some splainin to do.

Let’s start with the game of the names.

As Samir Wassan made his “enemies list” of those he was going to deal with in his stand-up act, a lot of those names had previous connections to the original series.  The boorish comic Joe Donner got his last name from director Richard Donner, and allegedly the surname “Matheson” is suppoed to appear in every episode.  Richard Matheson was one of the top writers for the show.  I didn’t catch the name during the episode, however.

Here are three of the names which are connected to the original series, but they weren’t derived from people behind the scenes.  Instead, they were the names of characters.

From “Casey At The Bat”:

From “The Night Of The Meek”:

And finally there’s this name, from “Mirror Image”:

Apparently there are a lot more as he move through his enemies list, but most of them are probably blink and you’ll miss them, like on this actual list:

There’s another name to deal with – this lager enjoyed by fellow comic Didi  The brand name is “Kanamit”.  As any T-Zone fan knows, the Kanamits were aliens who had come to Earth to harvest humans as potential late-night snacks, as seen in the classic episode “To Serve Man”.

This is an easy one.  It’s a micro-brew offering; and they always have strange names.  It was a sick joke for this particular brewmeister to give his lager the name of an alien race that had once attempted to nosh on the entire human race.  (I bet in the small print on the label there a remark that it goes great with Soylent Green.)

(Regarding ‘To Serve Man’ – that episode can remain in the main Toobworld despite an alien invasion that absconded with a lot of humans.  Off-screen after the episode played out, it was a one-time only expedition.  I feel comfortable in claiming that the Time Lord known as the Doctor took care of the Kanamits.)

So there’s one last Easter Egg in-joke and this one is more than just a name game.  In the backstage dressing room for the comics, you can see the original ventriloquist dummy from one of Cliff Robertson’s episodes, “The Dummy”.

I’m sure everyone in Team Toobworld knows what happened in the end of this episode, the great T-Zone twist which featured George Murdock.  But if you don’t know, go watch it and then come back.

By the end of that episode, which took place in the early sixties, Willy the Dummy now looked like his “handler”, Jerry Etherson while the ventriloquist looked like the dummy.  Fifty plus years later, and we see the original dummy in this episode.

I suppose Willy could have reverted to his original look in those intervening years, perhaps after and maybe even because Jerry Etherson died.  And now he was “owned” by somebody else.  But I think in this case I’ll cite Occam’s Razor with a simple splainin – Willy might have been one in a series of ventriloquist dummies - the type anybody could buy in a store, a stand-in dummy until a novice ventriloquist might use until he could commission a special one unique for his act. 

In this case, it could be that Jerry Etherson became attached to his original, mass-produced dummy and didn't want to part ways with him.  But Willy just happened to be the only one in the line who was somehow imbued with magical abilities and a form of life.  (I think Willy is now bronzed and kept imprisoned in the Dark Vault of Warehouse 13.)

For more about the in-joke names from the first two episodes of the new ‘Twilight Zone’, click here.

BCnU!

TVXOHOF, APRIL 2019 - THE CLOWN PRINCE OF CRIME

"A joke a day keeps the gloom away!"
The Joker

I try to post the monthly showcase on the first of each month.  But with April, I usually post something… different.  (Only one year that I can think of when I could post the April 1st edition as an induction into the Television Crossover Hall of Fame – Buddy Sorrell, April 2017.)

And so we had to put off this year’s April Fool inductee for a day as usual, but we’re still continuing with this year’s monthly theme of Superheroes and Super-Villains to celebrate the Hall’s 20th anniversary.  And who would be more perfect for an April Fool inductee than….

THE JOKER

From Wikipedia:
The Joker is a super villain created by Bill Finger, Bob Kane, and Jerry Robinson who first appeared in the debut issue of the comic book Batman (April 25, 1940), published by DC Comics. Credit for the Joker's creation is disputed; Kane and Robinson claimed responsibility for the Joker's design, while acknowledging Finger's writing contribution. Although the Joker was planned to be killed off during his initial appearance, he was spared by editorial intervention, allowing the character to endure as the archenemy of the superhero Batman.

\

In his comic book appearances, the Joker is portrayed as a criminal mastermind. Introduced as a psychopath with a warped, sadistic sense of humor, the character became a goofy prankster in the late 1950s in response to regulation by the Comics Code Authority, before returning to his darker roots during the early 1970s. As Batman's nemesis, the Joker has been part of the superhero's defining stories, including the murder of Jason Todd—the second Robin and Batman's ward—and the paralysis of one of Batman's allies, Barbara Gordon. The Joker has had various possible origin stories during his decades of appearances. The most common story involves him falling into a tank of chemical waste which bleaches his skin white and turns his hair green and lips bright red; the resulting disfigurement drives him insane. The antithesis of Batman in personality and appearance, the Joker is considered by critics to be his perfect adversary.

The Joker possesses no superhuman abilities, instead using his expertise in chemical engineering to develop poisonous or lethal concoctions, and thematic weaponry, including razor-tipped playing cards, deadly joy buzzers, and acid-spraying lapel flowers. The Joker sometimes works with other Gotham City super villains such as the Penguin and Two-Face, and groups like the Injustice Gang and Injustice League, but these relationships often collapse due to the Joker's desire for unbridled chaos. The 1990s introduced a romantic interest for the Joker in his former psychiatrist, Harley Quinn, who becomes his villainous sidekick. Although his primary obsession is Batman, the Joker has also fought other heroes including Superman and Wonder Woman.

One of the most iconic characters in popular culture, the Joker has been listed among the greatest comic book villains and fictional characters ever created. The character's popularity has seen him appear on a variety of merchandise, such as clothing and collectible items, inspire real-world structures (such as theme park attractions), and be referenced in a number of media. The Joker has been adapted to serve as Batman's adversary in live-action, animated, and video game incarnations, including the 1960s Batman television series (played by Cesar Romero.)

The character's earliest on-screen adaptation was in the 1966 television series Batman and its film adaptation Batman, in which he was played as a cackling prankster by Cesar Romero (reflecting his contemporary comic counterpart.)

For more, click here.  

The Wikipedia entry about the Joker was geared to the comic book version’s origin, but the Batman wiki showcased all of the various incarnations of the Clown Prince of Crime, including the one from Toobworld….

From the Batman wiki

The Joker is an arch-criminal obsessed with absurdity and joke based crimes. Clown-like in appearance and personality, his behavior is very often akin to buffoonery. His abilities as a master conjurer allow him to effortlessly escape from prison many times, making him even more of a threat. Luckily, his crime waves often follow some pattern or theme that usually allows Batman and Robin to predict his next move.

Joker is a member of the United Underworld, a group of the four greatest criminals from Gotham City.

Nothing much is known of Joker's past except that he is well known for his skill with electronics and was a hypnotist when he was younger. He is now known by many as the Clown Prince of Crime with his fiendish cackle and cunning mind. One of his first goals was to unmask Batman, which ultimately failed. Some of his crimes were for little more than goofy amusement, while others were a little more destructive.

Some time later, Joker teamed up with Penguin, Riddler and Catwoman to form the United Underworld, to disband the United Nations. His role in the Combination Trap (devised by the Riddler) was the Jack in the Box to send Batman flying toward the Penguin's exploding octopus.  However one of the unnamed thugs fell onto the jack in the box and was killed by the exploding octopus. The four super criminals managed to dehydrate the nine members of the United World Security Council and take them to the submarine.  However Batman and Robin draw it to the surface, where the Dynamic Duo fight the United Underworld. After taking several beatings from Batman, the Joker is finished off by Robin, who punches him over the edge, into the water. He is captured along with the other criminals when Batman and Robin chain them to the side of the submarine and Batman calls the coast guard where the police can take them to prison.

His many schemes after this included committing crimes based on the signs of Zodiac, stealing the famous Renaissance art collection for ransom and trying to take over Gotham City with a flying saucer. He can also easily persuade women to help him in his crimes with his charm and wits.

He was also one of six arch-criminals freed from prison by Dr. Cassandra Spellcraft to form her new invisible gang, but this brief cameo appearance was by a stand-in.  (O'Bservation: This is one recastaway which Toobworld Central ignores.  And that goes for the others freed by Spellcraft.)

Even though Batman defeated him many times, the felonious funnyman never rested until the last laugh was his.

The Joker was one of the more obsessed villians with unmasking Batman. Despite his frenzied efforts to expose the Caped Crusader, Joker was not one of the show's two villains who discovered Batman is actually Bruce Wayne, although he did come close a couple of times.

Unlike in DC Comics, there is no mention of how his physical deformity at Ace Chemical Processing Plant permanently changed his appearance or about his origin as the Red Hood. Batman seems not to regard him as any more dangerous or cunning than Penguin, Riddler, or Catwoman. He is also not shown to be as homicidal as his comic counterpart, and he does not use his signature weapon, his "Joker Venom," that makes people laugh themselves literally to death and leaves their corpses with rictus grins on their faces. However in the two-part episode, The Joker Trumps An Ace/Batman Sets The Pace, he did use deadly gas.

In an interview about his role, Cesar said, "Why Dozier wanted me I'll never know because I asked his wife, Ann Rutherford, 'Why did Bill think of me for this part?' She said, 'I don't know. He said he saw you in something, and he said, "He's the one I want to play the Joker."' I haven't the slightest idea what it was that he saw me in, because I had never done anything like it before."

Because Cesar Romero refused to shave his mustache, the make-up artists working with Ben Nye Sr., who designed the Joker makeup format for color television, had to cover it with as much white make-up as they could. It did show up in a lot of close-ups.

For more, click here.

Because the 1966 TV series never addressed the origins for the Joker, then I don’t believe Earth Prime-Time has to be tied to the origins set up in the comic books or the later movies.  And so, as the Curator of the Toobworld archives, I cobbled together an origin story which served to connect several other shows into the mix.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
- The Never-Never Affair (1965)
... Victor Gervais

From the IMDb:
An UNCLE translator, Mandy Stevenson, seeks excitement. Solo, feeling sorry for her, "recruits" Mandy to be a courier. In reality, she is only supposed to get Waverly more pipe tobacco. Things go askew when Mandy is given actual valuable information (a list of Thrush agents in France). UNCLE and Thrush comb New York to find Mandy.  

O'Bservation: Mandy Stevenson eventually got a job as a spy with CONTROL as Agent 99.

Get Smart
- The Reluctant Redhead (1968)
... Kinsey Krispen

From the IMDb:
CONTROL tries to get some KAOS files with the help of a non-professional spy.  

Batman
The Joker
22 episodes

Batman: The Movie
The Joker

From the IMDb:
The Dynamic Duo faces four supervillains who plan to hold the world for ransom with the help of a secret invention that instantly dehydrates people.

So here was the argument I made for the claim that Victor Gervais and Kinsey Krispen were the same man and later became the Joker.

The Clown Prince Of Crime was visually active (and what a visual!) in Gotham City during the 1960's. Before that, he had been a schizophrenic operative named Victor Gervais working for THRUSH in New York City. But then, after the post-traumatic stress of being shot, he was a double agent in Washington, D.C. using the alias of Kinsey Krispen.

After he nearly drowned in a vat of the pasty white liquid which was used in making his statuary, his mind finally snapped and he became the arch-criminal The Joker.

And I also addressed the matter of the Joker’s white mustache in the show.  (It also splains his green hair and the rest of his body hair....)

THE JOKER’S MUSTACHE – HAIR TODAY, GROAN TOMORROW

And there you are!

Welcome to the Hall, Joker.  You'll find fellow Bat-fiends already ensconced here - The Penguin, Mr. Freeze, and the third Catwoman.  And this June, the Gemini month since you had that O'Bsession with the Zodiac, two more foes of the Dynamic Duo will be joining you....