TVXOHOF TRIBUTE - BRIAN WILSON

From the AP:

Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys’ visionary and fragile leader whose genius for melody, arrangements and wide-eyed self-expression inspired “Good Vibrations,” “California Girls” and other summertime anthems and made him one of the world’s most influential recording artists, has died at 82.

Wilson's family posted news of his death to his website and social media accounts Wednesday. Further details weren't immediately available. Since May 2024, Wilson had been under a court conservatorship to oversee his personal and medical affairs, with Wilson’s longtime representatives, publicist Jean Sievers and manager LeeAnn Hard, in charge.

The eldest and last surviving of three musical brothers — Brian played bass, Carl lead guitar and Dennis drums — he and his fellow Beach Boys rose in the 1960s from local California band to national hit-makers to international ambassadors of surf and sun. Wilson himself was celebrated for his gifts and pitied for his demons. He was one of rock’s great Romantics, a tormented man who in his peak years embarked on an ever-steeper path to aural perfection, the one true sound.

From Wikipedia:
Brian Douglas Wilson (June 20, 1942 – c. June 11, 2025) was an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer who co-founded the Beach Boys. Often called a genius for his novel approaches to pop composition and mastery of recording techniques, he is widely acknowledged as one of the most innovative and significant songwriters of the 20th century. His best-known work is distinguished for its high production values, complex harmonies and orchestrations, vocal layering, and introspective or ingenuous themes. Wilson was also known for his versatile vocal range and lifelong struggles with mental illness.

Wilson's formative influences included George Gershwin, the Four Freshmen, Phil Spector, and Burt Bacharach. In 1961, he began his professional career as a member of the Beach Boys, serving as the band's songwriter, producer, co-lead vocalist, bassist, keyboardist, and de facto leader. After signing with Capitol Records in 1962, he became the first pop musician credited for writing, arranging, producing, and performing his own material. He also produced acts such as the Honeys and American Spring. By the mid-1960s he had written or co-written more than two dozen U.S. Top 40 hits, including the number-ones "Surf City" (1963), "I Get Around" (1964), "Help Me, Rhonda" (1965), and "Good Vibrations" (1966). He is considered among the first music producer auteurs and the first rock producers to apply the studio as an instrument.

In 1964, Wilson had a nervous breakdown and resigned from regular concert touring to focus on songwriting and production. This led to works such as the Beach Boys' “Pet Sounds” and his first credited solo release, "Caroline, No" (both 1966), as well as the unfinished album “Smile”. By the late 1960s, his productivity and mental health had significantly declined, leading to periods marked by reclusion, overeating, and substance abuse. His first professional comeback yielded the almost solo effort “The Beach Boys Love You” (1977). In the 1980s, he formed a controversial creative and business partnership with his psychologist, Eugene Landy, and relaunched his solo career with the self-titled album “Brian Wilson” (1988). Wilson disassociated from Landy in 1991 and toured regularly as a solo artist from 1999 to 2022.

Heralding popular music's recognition as an art form, Wilson's accomplishments as a producer helped initiate an era of unprecedented creative autonomy for label-signed acts. He is regarded as an important figure to many music genres and movements, including the California sound, art pop, psychedelia, chamber pop, progressive music, punk, outsider, and sunshine pop. Since the 1980s, his influence has extended to styles such as post-punk, indie rock, emo, dream pop, Shibuya-kei, and chillwave. He received numerous industry awards including two Grammy Awards and Kennedy Center Honors as well as nominations for a Golden Globe Award and Primetime Emmy Award. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2000. His life and career were dramatized in the 2014 biopic “Love and Mercy”.

These are the credits which qualified Brian Wilson to be a member of the TV Crossover Hall of Fame:

THE RETURN OF BRUNO (1987 TV Movie)

A "documentary" about the major influence that a '60s rock singer named Bruno has had on rock music, as attested to by such rock legends as Ringo Starr, Brian Wilson and the Bee Gees, among others.

FULL HOUSE
BEACH BLANKET BINGO (1988)

The Beach Boys are in town and D.J. wins a radio contest where she and a guest can see the Beach Boys in concert. Problem is, Danny, Jesse and Joey want to go and D.J. has to decide who will go with her. When she makes her decision, Danny has hurt feelings because he isn't chosen. Now D.J. is upset because of that and she doesn't know what to do.

The Beach Boys sing Kokomo in the family living room. Even though Brian Wilson is singing Kokomo with the rest of the Beach Boys he was not on the original recording of the song.  However, the group later recorded a Spanish-language version of "Kokomo" with participation from Wilson.

BAYWATCH
SURF'S UP (1995)

After a number of unusual circumstances occur around the beaches, including Cody and Neely rescuing two surfer boys that come down with a fever, an environmentalist group comes to Baywatch to protest the dumping of chemicals from the storm drains, and Mitch enlists the Beach Boys for a benefit concert to help out raise money for repairing the storm drains.

THE TOONIVERSE

This appearance marked Wilson as a Multidimensional.

DUCK DODGERS
SURF THE STARS (2005)

When his Surf King status is wiped out by The Crusher, Dodgers must prevail in an impossible surfing contest.

“Believe In Yourself”
Written by Brian Wilson
Performed by Brian Wilson

O'Bservation:
All plot summaries are from the IMDb.

Along with the other Beach Boys, Wilson appeared on 'The Ed Sullivan Show', hosted by another League of Themselves member who is in the Hall.  And with his wife Melinda, he was a guest on 'The View'.  (The TV show itself is in the TV on TV wing of the TVXOHOF.)

Welcome to the Hall, Mr. Wilson.

As Red Skelton would say, “Good night and may God Bless.”

Love and Mercy on your cosmic journey, Sir....

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....)

HALL'S FALLEN - REMEMBERING... NORM!

THE HALL'S FALLEN

Earlier this year, I decided to start a new category for the Television Crossover Hall of Fame.  As much as I love, honor, and respect the writers for their contributions to the creation of the characters who are inducted into the Hall, it’s the actors who make them so memorable that their presence is sought to appear on other shows.  But unitl now, once they became TVXOHOF members, the characters were barely mentioned again, and the actors not at all.

It’s a conceit for this televisiologist that just because an actor passes away, that doesn’t necessarily mean the character dies as well.  Of course, that doesn’t apply to characters from the Past, like in Westerns or toga shows; even shows set in the fifties, it has to be assumed that all the adult characters and maybe even the kids are gone now in Toobworld.  And it wouldn’t be a factor for many of the shows set in the Future – most of those characters are probably not even born yet.

O’Bviously if the character’s death was written into the script, that rule of thumb doesn’t work.  Jean Stapleton lived long after Edith Bunker died.  Peter Horton still walks Earth Prime, but Gary Shepherd (‘THIRTYsomething’) and Jack Keyes (‘Gun’) have shuffled off the mortal coil.  (Ezekiel Stone of ‘Brimstone’ is a Limbo figure – died, but was brought back by Satan to fulfill his demands.  He may still be alive carrying out that mission.)

The only times I make an exception is when the character could not conceivably have been played by anybody else.  The first time I thought of that in a definitive sense was with the death of Carroll O’Connor.  Nobody else could play Archie Bunker.  (As for the police chief he played in “In The Heat Of The Night”, his character’s existence proved that it wasn’t unique.  Rod Steiger played the role first in the Cineverse.  So the chief exists in other fictional universes, and so might return one day in another TV dimension, in an alternate Toobworld.

The other time is when it’s implied that the character might not live for much longer beyond the cancellation of a show – President Jed Bartlet (‘The West Wing’), Tony Soprano (‘The Sopranos’), Dr. James Wilson (‘House M.D.).

Up to now, we had two reports for the “Hall’s Fallen” 2025 list -

1. With death of Leslie Charleson, it’s possible that Dr. Monica Quartermaine has died as well.  However, being a soap opera character, the writers might find a way to bring her back with a fresh face to at least visit General Hospital.  (It happened once already.)
   
   
2. And the one we can state with certainty is dead in the Toobworld timeline would be Tom Brewster, the legendary cowboy know as ‘Sugarfoot’.  

But now we have a new addition to the roster, one whom I know could never be a Recastaway

NORM PETERSON

"Who?  Me?"

Norm was inducted back in 2020 when I had started a weekly ceremony for “Friday Hall of Famers”.  It was June 11th, and being in the month for Gemini, he was inducted as part of a hardly dynamic duo along with Cliff Clavin, his stool-mate at the ’Cheers’ bar.

These are the reasons why Norm Peterson is in the TVXOHOF:

EARTH PRIME-TIME

CHEERS
269 episodes (1982-1993)

ST. ELSEWHERE
1 episode (1985)

THE TORTELLIS
1 episode (1987)

WINGS
1 episode (1990)

FRASIER
1 episode (2002)

THE TOONIVERSE

THE SIMPSONS
1 episode (1994)

FAMILY GUY
2 episodes (2007 & 2009)

BORDERLAND

MICKEY’S 60TH BIRTHDAY
special (1988)

DISNEYLAND’S 35TH ANNIVERSARY
special (1990)

THE EARTH DAY SPECIAL
special (1990)

One side benefit from this look back at his credits... I discovered that George Wendt is eligible for membership as a member of the League of Themselves.  Look for that face to show up again someday; the definite article you might say....

I hope you got your personal stool in Heaven, Norm….

Good night and may God bless, Mr. Wendt. 

TVHOHOF TRIBUTE - FRIDAY FAREWELL FOR JUSTICE SOUTER

From the AP:
WASHINGTON (AP) — Retired Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter, the ascetic bachelor and New Hampshire Republican who became a darling of liberals during his nearly 20 years on the bench, has died. He was 85.

Souter died Thursday at his home in New Hampshire, the court said in a statement Friday.

While he wasn't much of a presence in the TV Universe, his fictional televersion does have at least the three required appearances to qualify for membership in the Television Crossover Hall of Fame.

DAVID SOUTER

From Wikipedia:
David Hackett Souter (September 17, 1939 – May 8, 2025) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1990 until his retirement in 2009. Appointed by President George H. W. Bush to fill the seat that had been vacated by William J. Brennan Jr., Souter sat on both the Rehnquist and the Roberts courts.

While he was portrayed by three different actors, all three of these entries can remain in Earth Prime-Time.  The discrepancies in physical appearance can be attributed to our view into Toobworld is through the eyes of some unseen TV character (whom I have given the name of “Mr. Forthwall.”)

Here are the three productions in which his character appeared:

PICKET FENCES
MAY IT PLEASE THE COURT (1994)

BOSTON LEGAL
THE COURT SUPREME (2008)

RECOUNT (TV Movie 2008)

The late Justice will now join other members of one of the most exclusive clubs.  (I’m talking about the Supreme Court, not the Television Crossover Hall of Fame.  Frak!  The TVXOHOF will let just about any motherbleeper in!  There’s even one member who technically didn’t even exist!)

Those other Supreme Court members are Justice Antonin Scalia and Justice John Paul Stevens.  I really should get Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg inducted; I’m pretty sure she qualifies, if just for references alone.  Alito and Thomas can sit outside cooling their heels; I’m in no rush to induct them.  And I’ll be damned if Clarence Thomas gets in before Thurgood Marshall! 

Another Supreme Court Justice who is elegible for entry.... President William Howard Taft!

O'Bservation:
One day I hope to get pictures from the 'Picket Fences' episode and the TV movie "Recount."