"WHAT IF?" WEDNESDAY - PINOCCHIO DOES SPEED

HUGE thanks to my brother Bill for pointing this out to me – that diner patron sitting behind “Pete Nocchio”?  He was played by Carlos Carrasco, who played Ortiz in the movie “Speed”.

Now of course, “Speed” is in the Cineverse, but every so often Toobworld absconds with a film and absorbs it into Earth Prime-Time.  (I don’t think I can fit any more “abs” words into that sentence.  Has ‘Jeopardy!’ ever had a “Nice ABS” category?)

Where was I?  Oh yeah.  “Speed”, TV.

I’m not saying it wouldn’t be in the Cineverse anymore.  Just that TV has always had their own versions of hit movies for the small screen.  Sometimes with some of the cast members from the movie, like Gary Burghoff of ‘M*A*S*H’ fame, and Yul Brynner in ‘The King And I’.

Back in the 1950s, I think it was 20th Century Fox who had an anthology series dedicated to remaking their big movies in a condensed form, again with some of the original cast members.  (A&E ran the syndicated episodes about ten or fifteen years ago.)

Well, why not accept that even though we may not see it play out, movies as they were meant to be – scene by scene the same, with no recastaways – exist in Toobworld as well.

It’s not a blanket absorption of theatrical movies; Toobworld Central would consider them on a case by case basis.  Any movie that was remade for television (“Double Indemnity”, “Miracle On Thirty-Fourth Street” - twice over!) or adapted as a TV series would have to remain in the Cineverse.

A lot of my crossoverist comrades accept a mixture of movies and TV shows already, and I love what I’ve read of their works. (Some even accept the printed word; I have to remain guarded on that.  Too many discrepancies.)

But in this case, I see nothing wrong with accepting “Speed” into Earth Prime-Time. Nothing in the movie contradicts what is established in the main Toobworld – no alternate POTUS, no destruction of the world, etc.

As such, I then have no problem with considering this diner patron to be Ortiz.

I believe we have a candidate for the 2020 Toobits Awards in the Best Theoretical Crossover Between Movie and Commercial…..

Again, thanks to Bill O'Brien for bringing this to my attention.  I never would have remembered him from the movie.

BCnU!