THE TVXOHOF 2025 BIRTHDAY HONORS LIST - AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT

Just like the monarch, I also have a Birthday Honors List for inductions into the Television Crossover Hall of Fame.  It’s always somebody or something who/which might not get in otherwise.  For instance, the first two were Susie McNamara of ‘Private Secretary’ and Dr. Miguelito Quixote Loveless of ‘The Wild, Wild West’.

Susie was a special induction as one of the first TV crossovers, appearing in an episode of ‘The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour’.  (At the time, I thought she was first but I’ve since learned the first was four years earlier – Superman on ‘I Love Lucy’.  Interesting enough, both were in connection to Lucy Ricardo.)

As for Dr. Loveless, he falls into the theoretical category – I made the case that he was descended from Alexander in a ‘Star Trek’ episode and that his father was Mr. Roarke of ‘Fantasy Island’ (but under a different name in an episode of ‘Zorro’.)  And then I claimed that several other characters played by Michael Dunn – Mr. Big (‘Get Smart’), The Clown (‘Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea’), Mr. Sin (‘Amos Burke, Secret Agent’) and Arthur Boyle (“Good Night, My Love”) – were all the immortal Time Lord/Platonian hybrid under aliases.

This year my birthday is something of a milestone, not as momentous as my 50th, I guess, when every monthly induction was a special case… including myself on the actual birthday!  But with this one, I’m only marking the occasion today on my actual birthday.  And for this special event, I thought I would celebrate something completely different, not a character, not a League of Themselves televersion, not an animal, not a location (real or fictional), all of which made the grade in the past.

The 2025 Birthday Honors member is more of a situation….

THE “STARING AT THE TELEPHONE” CLICHÉ

When it comes to classic clichés in movies and TV shows – like Italian bread in shopping bags or the Eiffel Tower outside of every French window – my favorite is when somebody pulls the phone receiver away from their ear to stare at it, incredulous about what was just said to them.

Here are a few of them to show that the requirement to get inducted is easily covered:

Mary Richards

THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW
JUST AROUND THE CORNER

Frances “Gidget” Lawrence
GIDGET

Bruce Banner (as the Hulk)

THE INCREDIBLE HULK

Daisy “Granny” Moses
THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES

Ethel Mertz
I LOVE LUCY

Ash
ASH VS. EVIL DEAD
CONFINEMENT

Mark Sanger
IRONSIDE

Michael Grady
THE TWILIGHT ZONE
LAST NIGHT OF A JOCKEY

Betty Ford
THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW
THE SEMINAR

Clarence Nash
WALT DISNEY'S WONDERFUL WORLD OF COLOR

Fran Ryan
THE OPTIMIST
HEALTHY BODY, UNHEALTHY MIND

Stanley Adams
(Source Unknown)

And from the Tooniverse….

Fred Flintstone
THE FLINTSTONES
THE ASTRA’ NUTS

Bullwinkle J. Moose
THE BULLWINKLE SHOW

For the "2025 Class Picture", I'll be using an example from a 1970s Benson&Hedges commercial.  I wouldn't want to give any previously established TV character or show an unfair advantage.  (That's who is featured as the header up top.)

So there you have it.  Something unique for the 2025 Birthday Honors List.

Oh!  And since it is my birthday, here’s a combination of the 2025 Birthday Honors inductee with the previous 2005 Birthday Honors member….

I'm sure there are plenty more out there.  If you come across any examples (from TV, remember!) not displayed here, send them along to me!

BCnU!

TVXOHOF FOR JUNE, 2025 (THE GEMINI INDUCTIONS) - OLIVER & LISA DOUGLAS

With the June entry for the Television Crossover Hall of Fame, we salute the Gemini concept – twins, loving couples, any kind of duos (dynamic or otherwise.) 

This year we’re celebrating a partnership in marriage in which both members appeared together in all the connecting qualifiers... for Earth Prime-Time.  There wasn’t a time when one appeared but not the other… at least in the main Toobworld.  

Theirs was an unconventional marriage but they were a true partnership in which they loved each other.

OLIVER WENDELL & LISA DOUGLAS

I couldn’t do better than the Wikipedia entry, so I’ll just use that:

‘Green Acres’ is about Oliver Wendell Douglas (Eddie Albert), a prominent and wealthy New York City attorney, fulfilling his dream to be a farmer, and Lisa Douglas (Eva Gabor), his glamorous Hungarian wife, uprooted unwillingly from an upscale Manhattan penthouse apartment to a dilapidated farm in Hooterville that Oliver purchases from the ever-hustling Mr. Haney, to the disbelief of the residents.

The debut episode is a mockumentary about their decision to move to a rural area, anchored by former ABC newscaster John Charles Daly. Daly was the host of the CBS game show ‘What's My Line’, and a few weeks after the show's debut Albert and Gabor returned the favor by appearing on ‘What's My Line’ as that episode's Mystery Guests, and publicly thanked Daly for helping to launch their series.

Oliver Wendell Douglas
(portrayed by Eddie Albert)

Named for Oliver Wendell Holmes, he is an attorney who makes the rash decision to leave his successful law practice and pursue his lifelong dream of being a farmer, despite having no real-world knowledge or experience, as evidenced by him doing farm chores while wearing a three-piece suit (in "The Hooterville Image," the denizens decide Oliver is ruining the town's image by doing his chores in a suit and demand that he wear overalls).

Much of the humor throughout the series derives from Oliver's striving toward success and happiness in an absurd situation, despite the rural citizenry, his high-maintenance wife, and his affluent mother (Eleanor Audley), who ridicules him for his agricultural pipedreams in the episode "The Wedding Anniversary."

Oliver is also subjected to ribbing by the Hootervillians when he launches into starry-eyed monologues about "the American farmer"—replete with a fife playing "Yankee Doodle" in the background (which every on-screen character except Oliver can hear). 

Oliver drives a Lincoln Continental convertible, a stark contrast to the often decrepit vintage vehicles generally shown. In later seasons, the Lincoln is replaced by a Mercury Marquis convertible.

Lisa Douglas
(portrayed by Eva Gabor)

Lisa and Oliver are both veterans of World War II. In "Wings Over Hooterville," she recalls how they met. According to Lisa, she was a sergeant in the Hungarian underground, and he was a United States Army Air Forces flier, forced to bail out of his plane.

However, she gives several other fanciful versions of how they met in subsequent episodes. In the episode, "A Royal Love Story," he is a tourist in Paris, and she is a waitress/tour guide, living with her father, the deposed King of Hungary.

Pampered by her wealthy family, her skewed world view and domestic ignorance provide fertile ground for recurring gags. Instead of washing dishes, Lisa sometimes tosses them out the kitchen window.

In the episode, "Alf and Ralph Break Up," Lisa admits she has no cooking abilities and that her only talent is Zsa Zsa Gabor impersonations (the real-life sisters were often mistaken for each other).

Oliver and Lisa are both depicted as fish out of water. While Oliver instigated the move from Manhattan to Hooterville over Lisa's objections, he is typically uncomprehending of and impatient with his new situation. Lisa, on the other hand, somehow understands the sometimes surreal world of their neighbors, and they in turn are accepting of her own bizarre notions.

Here are the appearances which qualified them for membership….

GREEN ACRES
170 Episodes (1965-1971)

PETTICOAT JUNCTION
12 Episodes (1965-1968)

THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES
1 Episode (1968)

RETURN TO GREEN ACRES (1990 TV Movie)

And now for the reason behind my elliptical hesitation earlier.

HI HONEY, I’M HOME
1 Episode (1992)

O'Bservation:
Lisa Douglas appeared in an episode of this sitcom in which the premise was that characters from TV shows knew they were fictional and were now living on Earth Prime-Time in some kind of witness protection program until their shows could be brought back.  As weird as it could get within the reality of ‘Green Acres’, the majority of the residents of Hooterville, like most of the Toobworld citizenry, were never fully tele-cognizant.  

So there were two Lisa Douglases, making her multidimensional.

And there you have it, the TVXOHOF team for June, 2025!

Welcome, "Oleevar" and that Hotscake herself, Lisa Douglas!

(This has not been a Filmways presentation, Dahlingks....)