TVXOHOF, AUGUST 2022 - GOLDIE

August is the month in which the Television Crossover Hall of Fame celebrates the TV Western.  For 2022, we’re featuring something a little different and without making a big deal out of the induction….

GOLDIE

From myfriendflicka.dom -
Some have suggested that this horse that was ridden by Jack Kelly in the ‘Maverick’ TV series which ran from 1957 to 1962 was our Goldie.  Kelly played Bart Maverick, starting with the eighth episode of the series.  In the storyline, Bart--in desperate need of transportation--purchased the horse (coincidently named Goldie) from a passer-by in the episode "Betrayal."  Just a few episodes later, he gave Goldie to a young admirer in the episode "The Lass With the Poisonous Air."

The shows which qualify this distinctive horse just make the bare minimum requirements for membership.  But I would not be surprised if Goldie was featured in other shows….                                                                                                         

‘Maverick’

- ‘Betrayal’
- ‘The Lass With The Poisonous Air’

- 'Hadley's Hunters'

- "Duel At Sundown"

O'Bservation - In this shot, we now have four members of the Television Crossover Hall of Fame.  In order of induction: Bart Maverick, Bret Maverick, John Wesley Hardin, and now Goldie!

O'Bservation: There are O'Bviously more team-ups between Bart and Goldie.

‘Sugarfoot’

‘F Troop’

In my interpretation of the Toobworld timeline, Goldie is the same horse throughout, changing ownership as the years passed.  Corporal Randolph Agarn, in the years immediately following the American Civil War, was perhaps Goldie's first saddlemate.

Welcome to the TVXOHOF, Goldie!

SAINT WHO 1 - ACTORS FROM "DOCTOR WHO" & "THE SAINT"

 
A great TV series for seeing actors who also appeared in the classic run of 'Doctor Who' was 'The Saint'.  I'll be sharing a few of those through this blog-a-thon.

First up: Anneke Willis, who played Polly, one of the Companions of the Doctor....

She is seen here in the episode "The Helpful Pirate" as Fran Roeding.

SPECIAL GUEST APPEARANCE - STEVE SKAYMAN LIGHTS A FUSE

 

We’ve got a special guest appearance.  I love it when others think inside the box and bring up issues that might not even have been in the minds of the scriptwriters.

Today’s guest is Steve Skayman, a fellow Columbo-phile….

“Short Fuse”

Could Roger have killed his parents?

He says he was at college but it could mean during the time he was at college (as in "I saw ‘Jaws’ when I was still in Junior school" doesn't mean you saw it at school, just during that time period.)

If so, it’s a good thing Lt. Columbo caught him.  Roger’s Aunt Doris Buckner might have been next on the list!  (It was bad enough that Doris’ identical cousin would be murdered two years later.)

TIME LORD OF THE RINGS PART TWO

 
If 'Doctor Who' ever did an adventure in connection with "The Lord of the Rings," the Doctor would team up with young John Ronald Ruehl Tolkien to foil some alien plot against the Earth, during which Tolkien gets inspiration for the Ents (allies from the Forest of Cheem?), Sauron (Omega?), the Istari (from Time Lords themselves?), and maybe even for the Hobbits (a return of the Emperor Porridge, perhaps.)

MONDAY MEMORIAL TVXOHOF TRIBUTE - JERRY HUBBARD

It has been some time since the Television Crossover Hall of Fame has conducted a Monday Memorial TVXOHOF Tribute.  To be honest, I’d rather not ever have one again.  But that’s not the way of the world.

And after such a hiatus, we have now two memorial tributes to cover.  (The other will be presented next week so that both TV characters get their proper due.)

This week we remember….

JERRY HUBBARD

From the Guardian:
The American comedy actor Fred Willard, who has died aged 86, never took top billing on screen, but he found his niche as a scene-stealer in the mockumentaries of Christopher Guest, among others, usually playing characters invested with authority who prove to be inept, clueless or simply unintentionally funny.

His breakthrough came with ‘Fernwood Tonight’ (1977), a satire on talk shows, when he played Jerry Hubbard, sidekick to Martin Mull’s smarmy host, Barth Gimble, giving a taste of what was to come.  

In 1968, Willard married Mary Lovell, a playwright, who died in 2018. He is survived by their daughter, Hope.

• Frederick Charles Willard, actor, born 18 September 1933; died 15 May 2020

From Wikipedia:
[Fred] Willard achieved wider fame in 1977 and '78 as Martin Mull's sidekick and announcer Jerry Hubbard on the ‘Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman’ spinoffs ‘Fernwood 2 Night’, ‘Forever Fernwood’, and ‘America 2-Night’, which parodied the nighttime talk shows of the day.  

‘Fernwood 2 Night’ (or ‘Fernwood Tonight’) is a comedic television program that was broadcast weeknights from July 1977 to September 1977. It was created by Norman Lear and produced by Alan Thicke as a spin-off/summer replacement from Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. It was a parody talk show, hosted by Barth Gimble (Martin Mull) and sidekick/announcer Jerry Hubbard (Fred Willard), complete with a stage band, "Happy Kyne and the Mirthmakers" (featuring Frank De Vol as the dour "Happy" Kyne, and Tommy Tedesco as one of the guitarists). Barth was purportedly the twin brother of Garth Gimble from ‘Mary Hartman’.

Like ‘Mary Hartman’, ‘Fernwood 2 Night’ was set in the fictional small town of Fernwood, Ohio. The show satirized real talk shows as well as the sort of fare one might expect from locally produced, small-town, midwestern American television programming. Well-known actors usually appeared playing characters or a contrivance had to be written for the celebrity to appear as themselves. (In one episode, Tom Waits's tour bus happened to break down in Fernwood.)

After one season of ‘Fernwood’, the producers revamped the show for 1978 as ‘America 2-Night’. In this second version, Barth and Jerry's show moved from Fernwood to Southern California (specifically, the fictional city of "Alta Coma, the unfinished furniture capital of the world!") and was broadcast nationally on the fictional UBS network (presumably a reference to the film Network), whose slogan was "We put U before the BS". The change to a Southern California setting made it more plausible for real-life celebrities to appear on the program as themselves.

In 2001, Mull and Willard reprised their roles in a stage appearance and retrospective at the US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado.

Reruns of ‘Fernwood/America 2-Night’ were broadcast on Nick at Nite from 1990 to 1993 and TV Land in 2002 as part of their "TV Land Kitschen" block, also hosted by Mull and Willard.
(O’Bservation: If I’m not mistaken, they appeared in character.)

Here are the TV series in which Jerry Hubbard provided some off-kilter whimsy to the World of the Toob:

JERRY HUBBARD
1977
Fernwood 2night
44 episodes

1977
Forever Fernwood

1978
America 2-Night
65 episodes

Welcome to the Hall, Jerry!  You’ll find other talk show sidekicks here to pal around with… like Regis Philbin and Ed McMahon


….

THE APOLLO 11 FOOTAGE FROM CBS

Let’s take a look at the Apollo 11 mission….
From Wikipedia:
Apollo 11 was the spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin formed the American crew that landed the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC. Armstrong became the first person to step onto the lunar surface six hours 39 minutes later on July 21 at 02:56 UTC; Aldrin joined him 19 minutes later. They spent about two and a quarter hours together outside the spacecraft, and collected 47.5 pounds (21.5 kg) of lunar material to bring back to Earth. Command module pilot Michael Collins flew the command module Columbia alone in l  unar orbit while they were on the Moon's surface. Armstrong and Aldrin spent 21 hours 31 minutes on the lunar surface at a site they named Tranquility Base before lifting off to rejoin Columbia in lunar orbit.
Apollo 11 was launched by a Saturn V rocket from Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida, on July 16 at 13:32 UTC, and was the fifth crewed mission of NASA's Apollo program. The Apollo spacecraft had three parts: a command module (CM) with a cabin for the three astronauts, and the only part that returned to Earth; a service module (SM), which supported the command module with propulsion, electrical power, oxygen, and water; and a lunar module (LM) that had two stages – a descent stage for landing on the Moon, and an ascent stage to place the astronauts back into lunar orbit.
After being sent to the Moon by the Saturn V's third stage, the astronauts separated the spacecraft from it and traveled for three days until they entered lunar orbit. Armstrong and Aldrin then moved into Eagle and landed in the Sea of Tranquility. The astronauts used Eagle's ascent stage to lift off from the lunar surface and rejoin Collins in the command module. They jettisoned Eagle before they performed the maneuvers that propelled the ship out of the last of its 30 lunar orbits on a trajectory back to Earth. They returned to Earth and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24 after more than eight days in space.
Armstrong's first step onto the lunar surface was broadcast on live TV to a worldwide audience. He described the event as "one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." Apollo 11 effectively ended the Space Race and fulfilled a national goal proposed in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy: "before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth."

SATURDAY SUPERHEROES

A few days ago, this was posted in the Batman '66 Facebook page......

Brian Sapp:
Ok so we all know Batman 66 was designed to be campy. That being said name (Just ONE person) from the time period that would have made a very memorable villain. I have a list but at the top of that list stands the one and only Jackie Gleason.

There were a lot of great answers and this is the one I came up with:

Why not an ABC crossover for Sweeps Week? Bring back Carolyn Jones as Marsha, Queen of Diamonds, and have her try to team up with Endora from 'Bewitched'. Of course, I'm sure that William Asher and the production team of 'Bewitched' would insist that Endora would eventually join Batman and Robin... albeit reluctantly. (For good measure, have Carolyn Jones appear in a cameo as Morticia.)

I've been thinking about the idea since then and I want to flesh it out some more.

I still think that - evil as she is - Endora would not be a villainess towards Batman and Robin, even though Agnes Moorehead would have nailed it.  But as I stated, ABC and the 'Bewitched' producers would never have allowed it.  So we'd have to take a different bat-path.

Marsha's Aunt Hilda looked just like Aunt Enchantra from 'Bewitched', but only in one episode - "Witches And Warlocks Are My Favorite Things."  (Diana Chesney would later play Enchantra in the episode "Adam - Warlock or Washout."  The splainin?  Enchantra used her magic to alter her appearance, just as Samantha Stephens used a similar spell to change her husband Darrin's visage.  Sam also used the spell on Louise Tate and Gladys Kravitz as a practice test to make sure that it worked.)

I think there was a specific reason why Endora and her friends were so spiteful toward Darrin Stephens being a mortal married to a witch.  It was because they already had personal experience in what a mistake that could be.  

 

It's my theory that Enchantra was the mother of Hilda, and that Hilda's father was a mortal.  Her powers were not as strong as those of her mother and she made a lot of mistakes.  She was the aunt of Marsha, Queen of Diamonds, and I think that the family connection doesn't have Enchantra involved.  Her mortal lover left her and married a human woman instead.  Their son would have been Hilda's mortal half-brother and was the father of Marsha.  

So that's the way the plot would evolve - trying yet again to bring down the Dynamic Duo, Marsha and Aunt Hilda drew the ire of the Witches' Council.  Hilda's bumbling attempts at witchcraft had become a problem, especially since she looked just like her mother.  It would have caused problems for Enchantra the next time she materialized at some public event.

Acting as the ambassdor for the Witches' Council, Endora would have acted to remove them both as a threat against the lives of the Caped Crusader and the Boy Wonder.  It would have been just a cameo, with Agnes Moorehead stepping in as the deus ex machina to wrap up the crime spree of Marsha and Hilda.

Well....  Maybe it doesn't seem like much in that form, but I imagine a clever fanficcer might be able to flesh it out.  Any batficcers out there who might want to give it a try?

BCnU!

"TWICE UPON A TIME" - O'BSERVATIONS

I'm not going into a lengthy analysis of the Christmas special.  Far better writers than me have already done that.  I'm just going to post some quick O'Bservations.

1)  There have been some great speeches over the course of the entire series, but no Doctor delivered better and more consistently than the Twelfth Incarnation.  This is a tribute to the skills of both Peter Capaldi and Steven Moffat, as well as the directors who helped get the full measure.  And this time, it was his final advice to the incarnation who would succeed him.  (And as I saw mentioned in another review, it was reminiscent of the advice from Polonius.)

2)  The final scene might as well have been entitled "The Doctor Falls Part Two".

3)  I had seen that frame grab of Mark Gatiss and Toby Whithouse facing off against each other in that crater.  I knew it was set during World War I based on the uniforms.  And O'Bviously this was the Christmas special.  Well, bravo to everybody involved in the production for keeping me distracted from realizing the significance of all those points.  Those final moments in the resolution of the main plot was a wonderful homage to the original mission of the series - to teach history lessons through science fiction.  

4)  Almost immediately after the first picture of Gatiss in uniform was released, I saw the rumors that he would be the father of the Brigadier.  Then after thinking it through, they adjusted their theory of "relateeveety" to Gatiss playing Grandfather Lethbridge-Stewart.  And then there was a rumor in which Gatiss was playing the man who invented the police box.  I found that one intriguing, but a script flaw ruined that.  In the end, the feels from having the Captain be Archibald Hamish Lethbridge-Stewart were more in keeping with all of the other salutory notes which graced the special.

5)  About that script flaw - Gatiss looked like the man who invented the police box, and it might have been fun to think he was "inspired" by the TARDIS in its design.  But then the Captain, of whom we didn't know by name yet, admired the TARDIS interior and thought it was an actual police box.  However, they weren't utilized until the early 1920s.  

6)  It made me sad to read a Facebook comment in which a viewer was glad to see Moffat go so that the stories would get back to being linear and not so complicated.  Should that happen, it will be like Trump trying to erase everything Obama did previously.  Moffat showed us what could be accomplished with a series about time travel - all that jumping back and forth in Time realized the potential.  'Doctor Who' ruined me for the staid and static world of 'Star Trek'. 

7)  This is not a spoiler; it's just a guess.  But when the TARDIS looked as if it was deliberately trying to upchuck the Doctor out the doors before blinking out of sight, it wasn’t a case of “Sexy” showing disdain for the Doctor’s new incarnation.  I think “she” was trying to save her.  It threw her out the door because of the explosions caused by the regeneration.  And when it vanished in mid-air, it was either going back in Time or forward into the Future.  Then it could take its sweet time to repair itself and come up with a new “screensaver” for its interior before it came back to scoop the Doctor up before she went splat.

8)  I’m glad the Doctor’s memories of Clara were restored.  Now if only Zoe and Jamie could remember the Doctor so that we might be able to have both Wendy and Frasier could come back for a reunion while we still have them.  (And since “Polly” showed up in the opening of the special, could we see Anneke Wills come back as well?)

9)  Thankfully, the return cameo by Matt Lucas as Nardole did not give away anything about his fate.  Sure, I hope he was able to survive his current situation, but I didn’t want it to be spelled out and thus locked in.  Let’s see what the Future holds.  It was the same with the Master.  Moffat left it open for Chibnall to bring her/him back if he wants to, and with the ability to come up with some novel way in which to do so.  (Just as both Rusty and the Grand Moff did with their visions of how the Master should be played.)  Personally, I hope Chibnall lets the Master lie fallow for a few years before bringing him/her back.  There’s always the Rani and the Monk, Rasillon and my personal favorite, Colin Baker as Commander Maxill.  Bring them back for something fresh instead of recycling the Daleks and the Cybermen, along with the Master, yet again.

10)  One last note - It was a pleasant, unspoiled surprise to see Rusty the Dalek one last time.  With the two-part season ender, Moffat got to say goodbye to his versions of the Master and the Cybermen, and now it was the Daleks' turn.  Having it be Rusty, with its unique take on the brainwashed programming of a Dalek....  Well, I didn't see that coming.  In fact, as it was at the blasted heath of the Villengard munitions factory, I expected to see Captain Jack.  (LOL - I freely admit that it was my nephew who opened my eyes about those being unshelled Daleks running all over the place, doing their "Alien" xenomorph impersonation.  I was hung up on them being the brains from Harmony Shoals - second cousins to the "Brain from Planet Arous"!)

I’m just going to leave it on that.  In the end, I enjoyed it very much and I’m excited for the adventures still to come.

All the best to Jodie Whitaker and Chris Chibnall, as well as to the actors joining as her new Companions and whoever will be the new composer.

BCnU!

DOCTOR BILL?

This will all be decided by the time you read this.  (And it was - Jodie Whittaker will be the new Doctor, and the first female one.)  Still it was fun to write it on the last day of February 2017.  Sort of my tip of the hat to Black History Month.

On Saturday, the 25th of February, 2017, Huw Fullerton wrote this in the Radio Times

Premonitions of her doom increasing, the Doctor might have his eyes opened to his own culpability in the chaos he causes – before witnessing a tragedy that could motivate both his regeneration and the backstory for a new Time Lord (in other words, the next Doctor might carry around the guilt of letting a friend die for a while).

I thought of a different interpretation.......

As I mentioned elsewhere in today's blogAthon, there has been a groundswell in the talk that the next Doctor should be a woman.  Or a black.  Recently former 'Doctor Who' guest star David Harewood, currently seen in 'Supergirl', expressed his own support of the idea (although he didn't deny his own candidacy for the role.)

And when candidates like Cush Jumbo, Lupita Nyong'o, Naomie Harris, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and Angel Coulby are considered, then such a seismic recasting would cover both options.

Many people have championed the idea.  (I used to dream of Felicity Kendall as a Troughtonesque female Doctor.  Now I push the candidacy of Honeysuckle Weeks, which is covered elsewhere in today's blogAthon.) There are people of standing in the Whovian community like current show-runner Steven Moffat, current Doctor Peter Capaldi, former Doctors Peter Davison, Matt Smith, and Colin Baker, and former Companions Carole Ann Ford, Louise Jameson, Freema Agyeman, and Karen Gillan who have all declared their support for a female Doctor.  

But even so, I keep reading comments from "fans" who claim that should a woman get the role of the Doctor, they will walk away from the series, never to return.  I don't understand that attitude - the series celebrates the diversity of the Universe.  To turn their backs on the ultimate display of that diversity only proves they were never true fans in the first place.

During Moffat's tenure as the show-runner, the stage has been set for an actress to replace Capaldi.  We learned that the Time Lord known as the Corsair spent several incarnations as a woman... and had a better time as one.  We saw the Doctor force the regeneration of the General and he became a black woman.  (So now we can say that the precedence for that combination has been established.)  And as for a major character Time Lord regenerating into a woman, Moffat even covered that with the devious Master becoming the Cuckoo Bananas Missy.

But he's a smart guy and I trust in Moffat.  I'm sure that even all of that would not be enough to sell these ardent "fans" who will remain steadfast against the idea.  So what if he decided the best bet would be to introduce the audience to "The Next Doctor" without them realizing it?  Give them the chance to accept her and like her before springing the surprise that she is in fact, the Doctor... and not just the Companion, Bill Potts?

Not only have we had the precedence set in the past for a Time Lord regenerating into a black woman, we've also seen the Doctor transform into the likeness of someone whom he had met in the past.  First it was the Fifth Incarnation becoming the twin to Commander Maxil of the Gallifreyan Guard.  And then the Eleventh Incarnation looked similar to Lobus Caecilius.  As for the Doctor tagging along with his former incarnation, there is a precedence for that as well - remember the Watcher who stalked the Fourth Incarnation of the Doctor during his last adventure in that form?

And that's another thing - there used to be something different in the regeneration of each succeeding Doctor, but with the show's return with RTD at the helm, they've basically been the same, even for the Master from Jacobi to Sim.  (However, there has been some variation afterward in bringing back Sim's Master.)

If it turned out that Bill was the Doctor, it would certainly put paid to the complaint that there were no variations in the regeneration sequences anymore!

For whatever reason, the Doctor knew that the previous incarnation would need help in the time leading up to the next regeneration.  A special set of skills which only the Doctor could provide.  And even though a Time Lord should be able to detect a fellow Time Lord despited the huber of regenerations since their last meeting (precedence: Drax meeting up with "Theta"), this "Bill Incarnation" would bet against the Doctor recognizing himself after such a radical transformation.

I can even picture it - Bill remaining mum about what is about to happen, because the first rule of Time is that it can't be rewritten, not one line.  And after the Doctor is mortally wounded, Bill lets slip a clue as to what will happen... just before activating the vortex manipulator on her wrist so that she disappears back to her own Future before re-emerging as the preordained regeneration of the Doctor.

That's how I would do it.

But of course, I could also see the Doctor losing Bill in a tragic death scene before sacrificing himself in retaliation.  And his subconscious mind would supply the new DNA structure as a way for him to always remember to honor her memory in much the same way it did for his Eleventh Incarnation becoming the likeness of sculptor Caecilius.

And just like the series has used puzzles in the past to "secretly" telegraph information (like "Mister Saxon" as an anagram of "Master No. Six", or "Yana" as an acronym for "You Are Not Alone"), I'm wondering if the choice of her name "Bill" is also  clue - a reference to William Hartnell.  He was the first Doctor; she might be the first black, female Doctor on the show.

Again, this is all speculation which won't be seen until long after we'll all know the outcome of the greatest Recastaway game in the world of TV.  But I hope you found it as fun to read as I did to write it.

BCnU!

MISSING LINKS - "DOCTOR WHO" MEETS JOHNNY RINGO

'DOCTOR WHO'

"THE GUNFIGHTERS"

Considering that 'Doctor Who' started out as a show somewhat geared towards teaching kids about History, they played fast and loose at times with historical facts.  

In this episode of the show from 1966, Johnny Ringo was seen to be at the 1881 OK Corral gunfight and killed during it.  But Ringo wasn't there and would later commit suicide in 1882.

I've often stated that "The Gunfighters" was not a depiction of the actual events leading up to the gunfight at the OK Corral.  Instead, the TARDIS had landed on the planet Melkot not long after the departure of the starship Enterprise.  Sensing the presences of Terrans with the Doctor inside the blue box, the Melkot restarted the ruse which they used on the Starfleet crew members.  

And the Doctor never realized he was being played, which goes against the image promoted by Russell T. Davies that the Doctor was an omnipotent god-like figure (which I'm glad has been abandoned.)

On this day celebrating 'Doctor Who', writing about Johnny Ringo, I thought posting it at "high Noon" was appropriate.

Geronimo!

TVXOHOF, 08/2017 - NIXON'S THE ONE! (NOT THAT NIXON....)

September, a rueful month.... Summer is ending, Winter is on the horizon.

It's also the month during which we honor the Powers Behind The Screen who expand the TV Universe - the writers, the directors, the producers, the art designers.

And so it is a memorial month then for our September inductee into the Television Crossover Hall of Fame.  I don't think I could have made a better choice than one of the grande dames of the afternoon stories - the venerable soap operas.

AGNES NIXON

From Wikipedia:

Agnes Nixon (née Eckhardt; December 10, 1922 – September 28, 2016) was an American television writer and producer. She is best known as the creator of the long-running soap operas 'One Life to Live', 'All My Children', and 'Loving.' 

(O'BSERVATION: 'Loving' would later morph into 'The City'.)

Nixon's work as producer and writer introduced a number of new story-lines to American daytime television – the first health-related storyline, the first storyline related to the Vietnam War, the first on-screen lesbian kiss and the first on-screen abortion.

She won five Writers' Guild of America Awards, five Daytime Emmy Awards, and in 2010 received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Nixon was often referred to as the "Queen" of the modern American soap opera.

Ms. Nixon came close to joining the TVXOHOF as one of her characters as well.  In both 'All My Children' and 'One Life to Live' she played the character Agnes Eckhardt.  But unfortunately she only has those two shows to Ms. Eckhardt's credit.  

But as the creator of those three soap operas, she expanded Toobworld with the locations of Llanview, Corinth. and Pine Valley, all located in Pennsylvania.  And since they were relatively close to each other within the televersion of Pennsylvania, naturally characters from one show could show up on one - or both - of the others.  

For example: 

• Angie Hubbard is a future member of the Hall of Fame because of how she moved from Pine Valley to Corinth before she moved to New York City in the sequel to 'Loving', 'The City'.
• A 'General Hospital' character left Port Charles, New York, and moved south to Manhattan in Nixon's 'The City' - the power-hungry Tracy Quartermaine.
• Another two GH refugees had a mother and child reunion in 'All My Children' as it was revealed that Alex was really Anna Devane suffering from amnesia. Her daughter Robin Scorpio journeyed from Port Charles to Pine Valley in order to meet her mother again.
• Starr Manning, Cole and Hope Thornhart moved to Port Charles from Llanview but the baby Hope and her father Cole seem to have died in a horrific car crash.  Starr had to move on in life without them.
• A scandalous baby switch roiled the people in Llanview and Pine Valley.
• One of the very first inductees into the Hall was Gretl Rae Cummings who showed up in all of the soaps on ABC.

And so, Agnes Nixon deserves to take her place in the Hall.  Welcome, Madam.....

BCnU!

LIFE DURING PRIME-TIME: PERRY MASON

This is a pretty good biography of Perry Mason by Arthur Bloch for the IMDb:

Perry Mason is a criminal attorney in private practice in Los Angeles, CA. (Unless stated otherwise, the details given here are based on the 1957-66 TV series.)

On at least one occasion, Perry has an associate working in his office, but this appears to be an exception to the usual one-man status of his law firm. For a period of perhaps a year, he allowed law student David Gideon, a former client, use of his law library, and Gideon occasionally helped out on Perry's cases. Keeping this office running are his confidential legal secretary Della Street and receptionist Gertie. Although primarily a criminal lawyer, specializing in murder cases, Perry also frequently handles civil cases. On occasion he even makes an exception to his general distaste for divorce cases. His offices are in Suite 904 of the Brent Building, phone: 213-625-1190.

Perry was in the US Navy during World War II. His favorite hobby, when he gets the time to pursue it, is fishing. He and Della often go out to dinner together, and on at least one occasion she tends to him while he's sick. However, other indications of a romantic relationship between them are lacking.

Perry's frequent approach to a murder case is to investigate it thoroughly and discover some person other than his client whom he can prove committed the crime. In this work, he is assisted by Paul Drake, who runs his own private detective agency. Very often, the greatest obstacle that Perry faces is the tendency of his own clients to lie to him. In one case, a client was convicted and sentenced to death, but still would not admit the truth until Perry discovered it by other means.

Perry is widely respected in the legal world, often called upon to give lectures to law students or other groups. Police and prosecutors have a mixed attitude toward him. His occasional skirting of the law, relying on his thorough knowledge of every possible technicality, makes him a constant source of aggravation to the authorities. However, as they are as devoted to the pursuit of justice as he is, they often make common cause with him to ensure that the truth is revealed and the proper person is punished. This is particularly true of Hamilton Burger, who, when one of his own friends is in trouble with the law, knows that Perry is the best choice for defense attorney.

By 1985 in the TV movies, Perry had been a judge, but resigns from the bench in order to defend Della on a murder charge. For the first three years of his return to private practice, he is assisted in his investigations by Paul Drake Jr., who has continued in his late father's footsteps. In 1989, Perry defends law student Ken Malansky, who assumes the role of legman for Perry and his substitutes into 1995. (In 1993-95, Perry was often away and let other talented, experienced attorneys take over his office and cases.) The primary setting of these cases varies between Southern California and Colorado. The relationship between Perry and Della is still close but not clearly defined.

In the 1930's Mason movies, Perry's relations with the police were considerably more adversarial, and hints of his relationship with Della were more suggestive. He apparently has considerable skill as an amateur cook. Paul Drake does not appear, but in some cases, his role as an investigator is taken by the slightly disreputable Spudsy Drake. In The Case of the Velvet Claws, Perry and Della get married, but this is ignored even in the immediately following films.

BCnU!

TWO FOR TUESDAY - A ROCKFISH IDENTITY CRISIS 2

'THE ROCKFORD FILES'
"BACKLASH OF THE HUNTER"

Recastaways.  They are always such a pain in the butt for your hard-working televisiologist such as myself, the self-styled Monitaur of Toobworld.  I've got plenty of splainins to choose from, but sometimes none of them really work.

Submitted for your approval, one Joseph "Rocky" Rockford of Los Angeles, California.  A simple man, a trucker by profession now semi-retired.  He had one son, his boy Jimmy, who had been locked away for five years for a crime he didn't commit and who was now a private eye.  (Two hundred dollars a day plus expenses.)

This is Rocky:

Doesn't look right, does it?

Rocky should look more like two of his great-grandfathers, Buffalo Baker, a frontier scout, and the man he was named after, Joey Rockford, a circus clown.

For the series, Rocky was played by Noah Beery, Jr.  But in the two-hour pilot, Robert Donley played the role.

The simpllest splainin of plastic surgery doesn't work - no matter how badly he may have needed it, as Stephen Carrington and George Shumway did, there was no way the Rockfords could have afforded it.  And the other splainins are too far out there to be realistic enough for this show.  (They include quantum leaping and alien impersonation - perhaps by Zygons.)

So there's only one path left open to us - as with many TV pilots before it, the "Backlash Of The Hunter" episode must be related to Prequel Toobworld.  It is because of a small quirk in the combinations of their DNA which caused the two iterations of Joseph Rockford to look different in the two TV dimensions.

But that wouldn't be the only difference between the two worlds as far as 'The Rockford Files' goes.  We did get to see Sarah Butler again during another investigation by Jim Rockford. ("Aura Lee, Farewell")  But that time, there was a man who looked just like her brother Nick, who had been working in a pharmacy and struggling to pay for medical school.  (The investigation into their father's death had screwed his chances to have his medical school bills paid for.)

Only now, this other man was a street artist named Trask who was of no relation to Sarah.

Here's my splainin for that: in both worlds, this young man had been adopted.  In Prequel Toobworld, he had been adopted by Harry Butler and his wife to be raised as the brother to their daughter Sarah.  (If the Butlers did adopt a baby boy in the main Toobworld, then they chose a different baby.  This same splainin was used as the reasoning for two different bank robbers named Hannibal Heyes in different TV dimensions.  Prequel Toobworld was not involved in that case; it was the main Toobworld {Pete Duel} and the Land o' Remakes {Roger Davis}.)

At any rate, we definitely have Jim Rockford looking like a movie star named James Garner in both of those TV dimensions.

OTHER SHOWS CITED:

• 'Circus Boy'
• 'Hondo'
• 'Alias Smith And Jones'
• 'Dynasty'
• 'Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman'
• 'Quantum Leap'
• 'Doctor Who'

BCnU!