FANFICCER'S FRIEND - "ACE & THE CURATOR"

I consider publicity pictures and promotional photos to be valid sources of inspiration for fan fiction and can be used to illustrate the stories which they inspired.

Screencaps, on the other hand, wouldn’t be acceptable on Toobworld terms.  Those are moments which have already happened in the Toobworld timeline, frozen in Time.

This is the screencap which I always use as an example of why they should never be used to represent other characters.  Seen here are Peter Falk as Lt. Columbo and Gene Barry as Dr. Flemming in the first pilot movie for the TV series, “Prescription: Murder”.

That is all that it could be.  It can’t be re-used as an example of Daniel J. O’Brien (‘Trials of O’Brien’) with Captain Amos Burke (‘Burke’s Law’); we can’t even claim that it could be Lt. Columbo with his boss, Captain Burke, when they met to talk about a case at the LAPD’s Homicide Division.

So with that in mind, I present to you this publicity photo from 1990 which shows Tom Baker and Sophie Aldred on a museum exhibit celebrating ‘Doctor Who’.

Their characters – the Fourth Incarnation of the Doctor and Dorothy “Ace” McShane, respectively – never met in the course of the series.  In fact, she didn’t enter the Doctor’s life until several regenerations later.  (Ace was the last Companion to the Doctor – in his Seventh Incarnation – during the original run of the series.)  

The main O’Bstacle would be that the Fourth Incarnation should be time-locked to look as he did when he was on the show from 1974-1981.  As he appeared here from nine years later, Tom Baker looks more like the character he played in an episode of ‘Miss Marple’.

But!  This photo could be the inspiration for a fanfic adventure for the Curator teaming up with Ace, one year after we last saw her in Toobworld (“Survival”), and 23 years before we officially met the Curator at the end of the 50th anniversary special “The Day of the Doctor''.

What that adventure could be is not for my conjectures.  The point of the Fanficcer's Friend feature during the "Who's On First?" blogAthon is to provide my readers (hopefully, there are a few) with inspiration to create those adventures themselves.

I will point out as a suggestion that the Curator's TARDIS chose as "her" holographic decor the console as it was best remembered from the series original run.  Might be good for an O'Bservation by Ace?

I just ask that if you do come up with a story based on this photo, you might send me a copy to read.  (I always ask with each "Fanficcer's Friend", no matter the show, but so far I have yet to see any returns....)

It’s sort of comforting to see that some future incarnation of the Doctor took on the task of being the curator for the Under-Gallery at a younger age than we first met him, before he supposedly gave up gallivanting across the galaxies.  (At least, that’s according to sources outside the Toobworld canon, which is anything telecast in any of the TV dimensions.)

WHOBITUARIES 2024

 

EVE PEARCE - Estelle, ‘Torchwood’ - “Small Worlds”
TIM BARLOW - Tyssan, “Destiny of the Daleks” Parts 1-4
PAUL O’GRADY - Himself, “The Stolen Earth”
JIM McMANUS - Ophthalmologist, “The Invisible Enemy”
MURRAY MELVIN - Bilis Manger, ‘Torchwood’ - “Captain Jack Harkness”
TERENCE HARDIMAN - Hawthorne, “The Beast Below”
JOHN NETTLETON - Reverend Matthews, “Ghost Ship” Parts 1&2
PETER DAY (Special Effects) - ‘The Evil of the Daleks’, ‘Fury From the Deep’, ‘Tomb of the Cybermen’, ‘The Ambassadors of Death’, ‘The Daemons’, ‘The Sea Devils’, ‘The Monster of Peladon’, ‘Genesis of the Daleks’, ‘The Deadly Assassin’, ‘The Sun Makers’
MICHAEL GAMBON - “A Christmas Carol”
BRIGIT FORSYTH - Ruth Maxtible, “The Evil of the Daleks” Parts 1-4 O'Bservation - I'm fairly certain this is far from complete. I'll keep checking the sources....

TVXOHOF, APRIL 2020 - WOKKA WOKKA WOKKA!

With the April showcase for the Television Crossover Hall of Fame, we celebrate the Fool.  Now, this could be the wise fool on the level of Feste, or of Lear’s Fool.  Or it could be someone like Gilligan.

The TVXOHOF Committee always wants to get at least one puppet character into the Hall each year and while they are usually consigned to June, it was felt that April was the better choice for our candidate this year….

FOZZIE BEAR

From Wikipedia:
Fozzie Bear is a Muppet character known for his lack of innate and effective comedy skills. Fozzie is an orange bear who often wears a brown pork pie hat and a red and white polka dot necktie.

The character debuted on ‘The Muppet Show’, as the show's stand-up comic, a role where he constantly employed his catchphrase, "Wocka Wocka!" Shortly after telling the joke, he was usually the target of ridicule, particularly from balcony hecklers Statler and Waldorf. Fozzie was performed by Frank Oz until 2001; Eric Jacobson has since become the character's principal performer.  

Fozzie also appeared alongside his fellow Muppets in the Halloween 2011 episode of ‘WWE Raw’, where he and Gonzo encountered Jack Swagger, Dolph Ziggler, and Vickie Guerrero backstage.

I’m only counting on the TV appearances for his tally which fall into Earth Prime-Time.  (This will include any serlinguistic work done in commercials and interstitials.  Fozzie is a performer and would be expected to toil for the Empire.)

The movie roles were not technically of Fozzie but of characters he played, including the fictionalized versions of himself.  But I stipulate that it was Fozzie who played those roles in the movies.

(The difference for ‘Big City Greens’ is that we have behind-the-scenes footage of him working on the cartoon.  The same holds true for the Muppets' version of "The Wizard of Oz".)

Maybe one day the Tooniverse version of Fozzie will gain entry into the Hall.  But as to including the ‘Family Guy’ appearances into the official tally?

Here are the TV shows I am including in his qualifications for Hall membership.

• The Muppet Show (1976–1981)
• Muppets Tonight (1996-1998)
• It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie (2002)
• The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005)(Appearance as Himself and the Cowardly Lion)
• A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa (2008)
• Studio DC: Almost Live (2008)
• Lady Gaga and the Muppets Holiday Spectacular (2013)
• The Muppets (2015-2016)
• Big City Greens (2019)(Appearance as the voice of Dr. Enamel)

In one episode of ‘Sesame Street’, another Jim Henson production, Baby Bear says that "Fozzie" is a terrible name for a bear. (So they probably knew about Fozzie Bear.)

Fozzie was a contestant on the May 24, 2016, episode of "@midnight" and beat Kristen Schaal and John Hodgman.

Here is a list of appearances compiled by the fine folks at the Muppet Wiki:

TV Shows

• The Muppet Show (1976-1981)
• Little Muppet Monsters (1985)[But only as a puppet, not animated]
• The Jim Henson Hour (1989)
• Episode 103: Power
• Episode 108: Videotape
• Miss Piggy's Hollywood
• Muppets Tonight (1996-1997)
• Episode 103: Billy Crystal
• Episode 104: John Goodman
• Episode 108: Jason Alexander
• Episode 109: Whoopi Goldberg
• Episode 110: Martin Short
• Episode 204: Pierce Brosnan
• Episode 208: The Cameo Show
• Muppets TV
• The Muppets
• The Muppet Babies (2018)
• Carpool Karaoke: The Series (2018)

TV Specials

• Kagayake! Gorō Mapetto Geba Geba 90-pun! (1976)
• The Bob Hope All Star Christmas Comedy Special (1977)
• Julie Andrews: One Step Into Spring (1978)
• The Muppets Go Hollywood (1979)
• A Christmas Together (1979)
• The Muppets Go to the Movies (1981)
• I Love Liberty (1982)
• The Fantastic Miss Piggy Show (1982)
• Rocky Mountain Holiday (1983)
• The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years (1986)
• A Muppet Family Christmas (1987)
• The Muppets at Walt Disney World (1990)
• The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson (1990)
• Studio DC Hosted by Selena Gomez (2008)
• A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa (2008)
• Lady Gaga & the Muppets' Holiday Spectacular (2013)

TV Appearances

• Kagayake! Gorō Mapetto Geba Geba 90-pun! (1976)
• The Orson Welles Show (1979)
• Good Morning America (1992, 2004, 2005)
• Saturday Night Live (2004, 2011)
• Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (2005, 2010)
• Jimmy Kimmel Live (2005)
• America's Funniest Home Videos (2005)
• Chuck the Movie Guy (2008)
• The View (2008)
• Hollywood 411 (2008)
• D23 Expo (2009)
• Andrea Bocelli & David Foster: My Christmas (2009)
• The Early Show (2010)
• WWE (2011)
• Good Luck Charlie (2013)
• Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (2009, 2014)
• The Arsenio Hall Show (2014)

Commercials

• Polaroid (1981)
• National Wildlife Federation (1985-1990)
• MasterCard Commercials (2002-2003)
• Pizza Hut Commercials (2004-2005)
• Disney Channel Bumpers (2005)
• Will Rogers Institute (2006)
• The ESPYs (2008)
• Give a Day, Get a Disney Day (2009)
• Lipton (2014)
• Warburtons (2015)
• Facebook Portal (2019)

From Facebook:
Though his main job was to be the show's comedian, he has had a number of other roles on ‘The Muppet Show’. He sang and danced in many musical numbers, and frequently acted in sketches (most famously his recurring sketch “Bear On Patrol” where he plays an unlucky police officer). He also often helps backstage and even attempts to plan out the show in one episode, and write the script in another.

Welcome to the Hall, Fozzie!

My thanks to the Muppets Wiki for the list of shows.  And I'm sure in my search for pictures of Fozzie via Google Image Search, I probably grabbed quite a few of their pictures.

I hope they forgive me....

Wokka wokka!

FRIDAY HALL OF FAMERS 10/11/19 - TONY VINCENZO

Beginning with the TV movie “The Night Stalker” and its follow-up, “The Night Strangler,” leading into the TV series ‘Kolchak: The Night Stalker’, Carl Kolchak rightfully took his place in the TVXOHOF last year. 

But while Darren McGavin did all of the heavy lifting as Kolchak, he wasn’t alone in the endeavor - Tony Vincenzo as played by Simon Oakland was right there with him through both TV movies and the one season of the series. 

From Wikipedia:

Tony Vincenzo - Kolchak's bellicose editor, and one of the only people willing to tolerate Kolchak's antics, despite their frequent arguments. Vincenzo has a grudging respect for Kolchak's reporting skills, but often finds himself caught between Kolchak's zeal and his own management responsibilities. Vincenzo's hot temper often affects his blood pressure and digestion and he sometimes laments that he did not go into his family's Venetian blinds business.

And so with this week’s Friday Hall of Famer in the Halloween-capped month of October, we’re inducting Tony Vincenzo into the Television Hall Of Fame.

Welcome aboard, Mr. Vincenzo!

DID THE DOCTOR VISIT A "STAR WARS" PLANET?

From the TARDIS Data Core:
Aridius was a planet originally covered by oceans. Due to a stellar incident, its orbit around its suns turned the planet into a desert over a thousand years. The only remaining species were the amphibious Aridians and the octopus-like Mire Beasts. To control the Mire Beasts the Aridians blew up sections of the city that had been overrun.

From the Doctor Who Chronology:

2900
The planet Aridius begins to get closer to its two suns, which will cause their planet to become desert-like over the next millennium.

(One thousand years before "The Chase" [3900].)

From the Wookiepedia Wikia:
Tatoo system was a binary star system located at the crossroads of the Triellus Trade Route and the Old Corellian Run in the Arkanis sector of the Slice's Outer Rim segment. The system formed around the G-type stars Tatoo I and Tatoo II, and contained Tatooine, its moons Ghomrassen, Guermessa and Chenini, the gas giants Ohann and Adriana, and their seven moons.

Ohann had three moons while Adriana had four.  According to the sources I found online, the four Adriana moons were lifeless.  But I couldn't find any information... information... information... on the three moons of Ohann.

As everybody should know by now, most of the 'Star Wars' saga took place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.  The Doctor's visit to Aridius apparently took place in the year 3900, many centuries from now.  And thanks to a couple of Ewoks adventures, if not the dreaded Holiday Special, that universe is absorbed into the greater TV Universe.

So it's pozz'ble, just pozz'ble, that Aridius might be one of those moons in the twin sun system of Tatoo.  And that includes those four supposedly lifeless moons.  In the days of the Rebellion vs. the Empire, one of Adriana's moons could have been a water planet which no one bothered to explore.  Had they done so, perhaps they would have found that the moon wasn't so lifeless after all; that it sustained the Aridians and the Mire Creatures.

But by the time of the Doctor's sojourn on that now-desert planet, the twin suns of Tatoo and Tatoo II had been drawing their orbiting satellites in to be eventually destroyed.   So Tattooine was long gone by Earth Time 3900 AD, and Aridius was now... well, arid.

I think a story could be done someday, perhaps even fanfic, where the Doctor goes back to Aridius, to a point not long after his First Incarnation left, and she could rescue the surviving Aridians......

And - based on this meme - the Doctor might have met up with some established characters from 'Star Wars' in the past....

BCnU!