THE 2024 TOOBITS AWARDS (BETTER LATE THAN NEVER?)

My memory is slipping....
 

2024­­ TOOBITS AWARDS

It's that time of year again, when we all make lists and think back over the past year, in whatever field of interest concerns us, and chronicle the high points and the lows.  For the past few years I've been presenting this compilation as an awards show, the Toobits, which of course celebrates my two bits about Toobworld.

As it is with any such list you'll find in TV columns across the country these last few weeks, these are my opinions.  You're welcome to your own and I hope you'll share them, but I'm sticking to my weapons of choice.  (It could be you won't find something that was a favorite of yours because I just never got around to seeing it.  There's only so much time in the world - even for a do-nothing-else-anyway sort like me! - and I've only got the two eyes, even if they do operate independently of each other at times.)

Unlike the Emmy Awards which will just keep handing out trophies to some shows forever, only shows, characters and what-not that debuted in 2024 can be considered.  (And by "debuted", I mean that which I first came in contact with in 2024. It could be a few years old, but if it's my first time seeing it, it's new.)  

This year’s list of older shows which were new to me:

• ‘Ted Lasso’
• ‘Bergerac’
• ‘Slow Horses’
• ‘Schmigadoon’
• ‘The Madame Blanc Mysteries’
• ‘Queens of Mystery’
• ‘The Brokenwood Mysteries’
• ‘Holding’
• ‘Ghosts’ (UK)
• ‘Ten Percent’

This one-time-only rule includes characters who have been recast; those are still the same characters who already exist in Toobworld.  (But there were a few notable appearances that deserved honorable mention, and they get it.  Maybe; I can't remember.)

So without further ado, let's have at it:

BEST NEW TV SHOW
IMPORT
‘The Brokenwood Mysteries’

DOMESTIC
‘Ted Lasso’

I’m late to the party.  Did all three seasons early in 2024, thanks to a three month freebie deal when I got a new phone.  This show earned my highest accolade – I want to live inside it.

WORST NEW TV SHOW
‘Monsieur Spade’

I only saw the first episode but based on comments from others, especially professionals whom I trust, I saved five hours of my life which was put to better use with naps.

BEST TV MOVIE
“Unfrosted”

BEST ADAPTATION FROM ANOTHER UNIVERSE (aka MEDIUM)
MOVIE TO TV
‘Ted’, the prequel to the two movies.

I never got around to seeing the movies, so I decided to watch the whole franchise in chronological order.

BEST COMMERCIAL
“Polar Insurance” for NJM

WORST COMMERCIAL
72Sold

I thought this commercial for a realtor business was local to Connecticut; it looked that cheap.  But apparently it’s an international corporation.  The problem with the blipvert – for me, at least – is that it makes my skin crawl to watch the company’s founder address the camera.  As he talks, his hands bounce along from one side to the other, punctuating every word he says as though he’s some kind of orchestral conductor.  And as he continues, his voice synchs up with his hands to become sing-song in rhythm.

BEST “SLICE OF LIFE” COMMERCIAL
Instacart – “We’re Here”

A sister comes to her brother’s rescue when he’s spiraling downwards because his girlfriend broke up with him.

WORST COMMERCIAL SERIES
CMO NOW

I think these are being produced by CNBC so it’s probably why I see them only on MSNBC.  Deadly dull interviews with people in business which don’t even pretend to be interesting.

BEST PILOT EPISODE
‘Elsbeth’ – “Pilot” (What else do they call pilot episodes nowadays?)

BEST EPISODE, ANY GENRE
‘Doctor Who’ – “73 Yards”

BEST RECURRING STORYLINE
‘Elsbeth’ 

Looks like we’ll have to wait until 2025 for the storyline to continue as she tangles with a murderous judge.  It looks like he could be her Moriarty and it makes sense this would be dragged out – the judge is being played by Carrie Preston’s husband, Michael Emerson.

BEST HOLIDAY EPISODE
‘Beyond Paradise’ – “Christmas Special”

BEST HOLIDAY TV MOVIE
“Dear Santa”

Jack Black knocked it out of the nine circles of Hell when a kid writes a letter to Santa but addresses it to Satan by mistake.  I was surprised to find a Farrelly movie could choke me up at the end.

BEST HOLIDAY SPECIAL
“An Almost Christmas Special”

The only downside for me was that upon hearing Natasha Lyonne’s voice as a pigeon, all I could think was: “When is ‘Poker Face’ coming back?” But otherwise, the animation was distinctive and charming and the guest voices were just right.

WORST EPISODE
‘Doctor Who’ – Space Babies’

I enjoy Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor and I trust RTD.  He certainly proved he got his sea legs with the three specials with David Tennant and Catherine Tate returning.  But I think he’s focusing on certain goals over storylines.  The second episode, “The Devil’s Chord,” was good, but the script needed more clarity.  Overloading with interesting special effects couldn’t disguise that.  But that first episode was just dumb.

WORST SERIES/SEASON CONCLUSION
‘So Help Me Todd’ – ‘The Tooth Is Out There’

I enjoyed this series, even if there were episodes which were too frenetic, illogical, silly and Todd was too stupid at times.  I liked the bourgeoning relationship Todd was developing with the girl from the gift shop.  (I was beginning to fear that she was going to be revealed as the Big Bad.)  But no matter how much I might enjoy a show, it will lose a fan if the show gets cancelled with a cliffhanger!  I don’t mind season ending cliffhangers, but don’t use one if you know your series is on the bubble.  It should never be a bargaining chip.  I didn’t mark this as the Worst Series Finale… yet.  There is talk of shopping the show to another network.  But if that falls through, I will adjust the category and find another candidate for this category.

BEST EPISODE TITLE
“Ejectile Dysfunction” – ‘Ted’

What can I say?  I’m 15 years old forever.

BEST HISTORICAL RECREATION
The 1966 Black & White Ball, ‘Feud’ – “Truman Capote vs. The Swans”

BEST HISTORICAL REVISION
“Unfrosted”

BEST SENSE OF ONE'S OWN HISTORY
‘The Brokenwood Mysteries’

Characters who seemed to be one-shots would often return, sometimes several seasons later.  The town of Brokenwood has a deep roster of residents to draw from.  And sometimes they later get killed… or kill.

Runner-Up
‘Death In Paradise’ – “S.13 E.01”

I can’t let it slip past without noting that Camille Bourday returned for a transatlantic video call… right when she went into labor!  And we got to see flashbacks to the very first episode featuring DI Richard Poole, DI Charlie Hulme, Duane and DS Thompson.

BEST BLEND OF TOOBWORLD AND REAL WORLD HISTORY
‘Bud Light Genie’

After the commercial was over – in which the genie took his friends to the Super Bowl – they were all seen actually at the Super Bowl!

BEST BLEND OF TOOBWORLD AND REAL WORLD CELEBRITY
‘Ten Percent’

• Kelly MacDonald
• Helena Bonham Carter
• Dominic West
• Ellie Corrin
• Himesh Patel

BEST CLASSIC TV EXPERIENCE

Lots of them, thanks to my streaming platforms!

• ‘Hetty Wainthrop Investigates’
• ‘Bergerac’
• ‘The Brokenwood Mysteries’
• ‘The Invisible Man’

BEST CROSSOVER
‘What We Do In The Shadows’ with ‘True Blood’

Alexander Skarsgard showed up in one of the last episodes as Eric Northman (or so it is assumed.)  This puts WWDITS into Nosferatoob, the Toobworld where ‘True Blood’ took place.  It also means WWDITS took place before ‘True Blood’, if only due to the mousiness of Skarsgard in his cameo.

BEST TRIVIAL CROSSOVER
Richmond Green – ‘Ted Lasso’ & ‘Ten Percent’

Real locations really don’t matter in the long run and shouldn’t count as a peg to hang a crossover on.  Otherwise, every TV series situated in New York City is automatically connected and where’s the sport in that?  But having finished ‘Ted Lasso’ a few weeks into the new year and then watching the pilot episode for ‘Ten Percent’, it was exciting to see that Ted’s overseas home address of Richmond Green – a London neighborhood which I never heard of before – should be identified as the home address for the main character of ‘Ten Percent’.  (I've never seen the UK in person, probably never will, so it might as well be fictional.)

BEST INTER-DIMENSIONAL CROSSOVER
‘Family Guy’ & ‘Ted’

The fact that Seth MacFarlane created both shows made a crossover like this possible.  In the episode about Ted and John renting a porno, one of the movies they got was “Genital Hospital”.  This was the name of the porno Chris Griffin was watching in the Tooniverse.

BEST THEORETICAL CROSSOVER OF THE YEAR
‘Doctor Who’ & ‘The Wild, Wild West’

I have a theory that Morris Gibbon, UNIT’s child genius, is lying about how he got that way.  Unless we learn more, confirmable, information about his past, I’m leaving the door open that he is actually Dr. Miguelito Quixote Loveless.

SKITLANDIA
TIE
Target & ‘Saturday Night Live’
Target Lady
&
Capital One & ‘Saturday Night Live’
The NPR Ladies & Samuel L Jackson

BEST CROSSOVER WITH A DIFFERENT MEDIUM
‘Doctor Who’ - “Joy To The World” + ‘Dr. No’
Sylvia Trench was the first Bond Girl.  And we saw the character on the Orient Express in the 2024 Christmas special.

BEST EXPANSION OF THE TV UNIVERSE
TIE
The birth of Camille Bourdey’s baby – ‘Death In Paradise’
&
Introduction of Teddy Tascione – ‘Elspeth’

BEST IN-JOKE
‘Ghosts’ (UK), “The Grey Lady”

An “Okudagram”-style reference to some of the show’s creatives behind the scenes.

From the IMDb:
Suggested Profiles shown on the photographer's computer are for Matthew Mulot (Juggler/Mime Artist) and Amelia Tyler (Creator of Things). This is a shout-out to series producer Matthew Mulot and assistant art director Amy Tyler.

BEST RECASTAWAY
OVERALL
The Greek gods, ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’

I used this same reasoning when ‘Hercules: The Legendary Journeys’ was on the air nearly thirty years ago – With the great powers at their disposal, those demi-gods could transform their appearances to acclimate themselves to the world around them.  In the first season of this series, that included Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Hephaestus, Ares, Dionysus, Chiron, Medusa, Nereid, and my favorite, Hermes.

FEMALE
Mathilda Stone, ‘The Queens of Mystery’
From Olivia Vinall to Florence Hall

If I hadn’t seen it mentioned in the IMDb, I never would have known that the central character of this “cozy” mystery series was replaced at the beginning of Season Two.

MALE
John Bennett, ‘Ted’
From Mark Wahlberg to Max Burkholder

Aging is an acceptable splainin for recasting and that holds true when recasting to do a story from the character’s youth.  The TV show ‘Ted’ is a prequel to John Bennett’s high school years and they needed somebody younger because make-up can only do so much.  (Sorry, Marky Mark.)

WORST RECASTAWAY
Kris Kringle, Target commercials

I will give this a break with a splainin to do – Kris is next generation from the previous Santa.  So it’s more a theory of “relateeveety” than it is a recastaway.  What the heck, it was Christmas when I wrote this.

BEST NEW MALE CHARACTER
DOMESTIC
Dr. Alec Mercer, ‘The Irrational’

IMPORT 
Detective Max Arnold, ‘The Chelsea Detective’

BEST NEW FEMALE CHARACTER
‘Harry Wild’

BEST PERMANENT CROSSOVER (The John Munch Award)
Elsbeth Tascioni, ‘The Good Wife’ to ‘The Good Fight’ to ‘Elsbeth’

Runner-Up:
Sam Hanna, from ‘NCIS: LA’ to ‘NCIS: Hawai’i’
(I'm not sure 12 episodes can count as a permanent placement)

BEST NEW SUPPORTING FEMALE CHARACTER
Drama
Stella Hart, ‘Ten Percent’

Comedy
Susan Bennett, ‘Ted’

If I have no memory of seeing Alanna Ubach in any other project before she started playing the mother in this prequel to the “Ted” movies, that’s no slight against her talent.  Apparently, she’s quite the chameleon, disappearing into her characters.  Susan Bennett is something of a mousy housewife, but everybody thought that of Edith Bunker as well.  It’s the tremulous quaver in her voice that makes her so distinctive.  She’s brilliant!

BEST NEW RECURRING FEMALE CHARACTER
Mrs. Jane Marlowe, ‘The Brokenwood Mysteries’

I KNOW the show has been around for years!  I’m only just catching up to it.  Give it a rest.

BEST NEW CHARACTER ADAPTED FROM ANOTHER MEDIUM
Percy Jackson, ‘Percy Jackson and The Olympians’

BEST NEW CAST ENSEMBLE
Drama
‘The Brokenwood Mysteries’

Comedy
‘Ted Lasso’

I only began watching these series earlier in the year.  And both of them share the same reason why I chose them for their ensemble casts.  Both shows have deep rosters to draw upon.  No character is just a fleeting bit part in ‘Ted Lasso’ – the team bus driver, the pub regulars, the old “Wanker” guy in the street – all of them keep coming back and even provide some insight into their backgrounds.  As for ‘Brokenwood Mysteries’, the show brings back characters even after many seasons have passed.  And it doesn’t offer “the illusion of change”; those characters grow – some become the murderers, others die.  It’s near as TV real life can get.

BEST INTRODUCTION OF A CHARACTER
FEMALE
Judy Maxon, ‘So Help Me, Todd’

She was a bright spot in the last five episodes (even if she might have been the Big Bad.)  It didn’t hurt that she was a new face… to me.  (I didn’t watch ‘Glee’.)

MALE
Teddy Tascione, ‘Elspeth’

BEST ADDITION TO AN EXISTING CAST
MALE
Trent Krimm, ‘Ted Lasso’

BEST HISTORICAL CHARACTER
Truman Capote ‘Feud’ – “Truman Capote vs. The Swans”

BEST CHARACTER ADAPTATION
Dionysus, ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’

I was tempted to go with Lin-Manuel Miranda as Hermes, because Hermes is my favorite character from the Greek myths.  And… because it’s Lin-Manuel Miranda.  But Jason Mantzoukis had a lot of fun as Dionysus and that demi-god had found a groove which must have suited him for the last 50 years.

BEST NEW CHILD CHARACTER
Morris Gibbon, ‘Doctor Who’

Introduced as one of UNIT’s science advisors, he is only 13.  As he explained, a passing asteroid somehow accelerated his genius.  (But until proven otherwise, I’m going to think he’s Dr. Loveless in disguise.)

BEST NEW COMMERCIAL CHARACTER
The Polar Insurance Snowman in the winter NJM commercial.

BEST NEW NARRATOR
Ian McKellan, ‘Ted’

This is a new category, based on getting Sir Ian to say the Best Monologue Toobits.  (Scroll.  You’ll find it.)

CHARACTER MOST DESERVING TO BECOME A REGULAR
Kahu Taylor, ‘The Brokenwood Mysteries’

The Maori actor was brought in when the character of Jared Morehu was missing for awhile.  Unfortunately, the showrunners don’t seem to know what to do with him.  The reasons he had connections to a case never felt convincing, and their attempts to develop a relationship between him and Detective Kristin Sims were awkwardly written.  But he was an engaging personality.

BEST LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES APPEARANCE
COMEDY
Bradley Cooper, ‘Abbott Elemenatry’

The episode was shown right after the Oscars, so it was a nice tie-in for Cooper who had been nominated for “Maestro”.  And at least his presence made some sense; he does have ties to the area.

BEST LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES MUSICAL APPEARANCE

This is a new category.  I’m not interested in appearances on talk shows, variety programs, concert specials, or music videos (unless the performer is appearing as their fictional televersion(s) in a fictional storyline.)  This category is for a member of the League of Themselves who appears as their fictional televersion performing in a fictional setting.

Tami Neilsen, ‘The Brokenwood Mysteries’

The episode – “Good As Gold” – featured Tami Neilsen’s music prominently throughout the episode, which was capped off by her appearance at the local bar with her band to perform for a line dancing celebration.

BEST LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES APPEARANCE IN A COMMERCIAL
Larry Bird, “Bird In The Attic” (All-State Insurance)
LL Cool J, “Chance Encounter” (Progressive Insurance)

BEST LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES APPEARANCE IN SKITLANDIA
Former South Carolina Governor/UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, ‘Saturday Night Live’ S.49, E.11

‘SNL’ has a history of bringing in the real candidates during the presidential campaigns.  But if I’m not mistaken, they usually wait for the final runs to the White House.  But when faced with the prospect of “Drumpf” getting to run again, the Powers That Be at ‘SNL’ probably figured they had to strike while they had a chance, even a slim one.  And they gave Haley a lot of ammo to work with in attacking him.  (But their version of Drumpf did more damage to himself than she could.)

WORST LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES APPEARANCE (ANY PLATFORM)
Jay-Z, The Grammy Awards

In accepting the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award, Jay-Z said:
"[Beyoncé] has more Grammys than anyone and never won album of the year. Some of you will feel like you were robbed. Some of you will get robbed. Some of you don't belong in the category! Sorry ... when I get nervous, I tell the truth!"

To me, it sounded like ungracious sour grapes to me.  Boo hoo hoo.  At least when it came to attacking Taylor Swift, at least it was a veiled slam, unlike when Kanye West tried to steal the spotlight from her.  I’m not a fan of Swift’s, but I can’t see why these guys take it out on her; she didn’t manipulate the vote.  She just put out a record the Academy liked better.  You guys just end up looking like bullies.  I’m surprised Jay-Z didn’t cap it off by punching host Trevor Noah in the mouth.

I won’t be surprised if Jay-Z is never given a chance to appear on the Grammy stage again….

BEST CHARACTER RETURN SPECIAL AWARDS
Tony DiNozzo, ‘NCIS’

Throughout the poignant tribute to the passings of both David McCallum and his character of Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard, we saw flashbacks to his relationships with the characters still on the series.  But we also saw the return of Michael Weatherly for a quick cameo at the end as he showed up in D.C. to attend the memorial service.  (I’m just sorry Mark Harmon couldn’t do the same.)

‘Death In Paradise’
During the thirteenth season, we saw several former actors return as their characters for quick visits over several episodes:

Camille Bourday
Not only did we get to see her return in an online cameo within the episode, but Camille brought a new character into the world.

J.P. Hooper
As a favor to the Commissioner, the former Detective Sergeant (now the supervisor of the police training academy for the islands) joined him in Jamaica to persuade the police chief there to hire Marlon Pryce.

Duane
Sadly, it was short-lived.  After the next Christmas episode, he was gone.

BEST CHARACTER RETURN
Drama:
Tania Stokes, ‘The Brokenwood Mysteries’

The character appeared in episodes 1 and 4 in Season 1, and returned one last time in the sixth episode of Season 7.  It made for a touching coda for her character.

Sitcom:
The Dutch Pilot, ‘Ted Lasso’

I don’t know why people think ‘Ted Lasso’ would be returning for a fourth season.  The series was wrapped up beautifully at the end of the third season, with the Dutch Pilot providing closure for Rebecca’s storyline.

WORST CHARACTER RETURN
Sutekh, ‘Doctor Who’

The difference in look isn’t much as a Zonk.  It’s problematic in that apparently Osirans were still humanoid in basic form, no matter how powerful they became.  But locked away in a time tunnel, he must have fully realized the godhood he always believed he had.  Why he picked a big doggy to become though….

But then there are all the logic flaws of having Sutekh wrapped around the TARDIS for all those decades (centuries?).  He didn’t have a problem falling into the liquid energy core of Davros’ mothership?  He was okay watching the Doctor making love to River Song for 24 years?  It was a gobsmack on first viewing but upon further reflection, it just didn’t make sense.

BEST LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES RETURN:
No question.  Jon Stewart on ‘The Daily Show’.  Unfortunately, it’s only on Monday nights.  But better than nothing.

BEST NEW ALIEN(S)
Apartments.com 4 Super Bowl

They may have looked alike, but if aliens follow Terran humor stereotypes, it was easy to figure out who was the male in that couple.

BEST NEW ALIEN VILLAIN
The Maestro, ‘Doctor Who’ – “The Devil’s Chord’

BEST EXIT FOR A CHARACTER
TOOBWORLD
Mrs. Jane Marlowe, ‘The Brokenwood Mysteries’

Brokenwood’s busybody & gossip, but still a pleasurable character, Mrs. Marlowe showed up at the end of the Season 7 episode “Here’s To You, Mrs. Robinson”.  She was on just long enough to say goodbye in the pub rather than listen to Gina spout her Russian poetry.  Knowing the circumstances of it being her last episode, it was a sweet little goodbye speech.  As of this writing (February), she is still with us, so if ‘The Brokenwood Mysteries’ ever does come back for a tenth season, I’m sure they will continue to treat Mrs. Marlowe as being alive, just not on our TV screens.

BEST EXIT FOR A LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES MEMBER
Carl Weathers, FanDuel Super Bowl Commercial

Very Moving.  I’m sure they had to scramble to edit that blipvert so that it remained tasteful and yet keep him involved.  And what if Gronk had made the field goal? How would that have played out?

BEST DEATH SCENE
Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard, ‘NCIS’

SADDEST DEATH
George Cooper, Sr., ‘Young Sheldon’ 

BEST NEW CHARACTER NAME
Hat, ‘Ghosts’ (UK)

Hat was a caveman whom Robin knew when he was alive thousands of years ago, and it appeared he may have been responsible for Hat’s death.  The other ghosts thought Robin was making up the story of his friendship with Hat,KI mostly based on that being such a ridiculous name.  But as Robin pointed out, this was long before there was such a thing as hats….

BEST NEW ALIAS
Robin, ‘Ghosts’ (UK)

When he was alive as a caveman, his name was “Ro”.  Over time as a ghost, it evolved into Rogh, probably thanks to Sir Humphrey Bone.  I’m not sure why it finally became “Robin”

WORST ALIAS
“The Chemist” – ‘The Equalizer’ (3/17/24)
Other uses
The Blacklist
American Horror Story

BEST SPEECH/MONOLOGUE
“John kept his promise. For the next two years. Then, within five minutes of discovering the internet, he pulled on his penis so hard, it damn near came off. That didn't deter him from masturbating four more times before going to a local urgent care, where he waited eight hours in line behind dozens of other men who had also nearly pulled their penises off after discovering the internet. And now, today, anyone you talk to has jerked off within the last 20 minutes. This is Ian McKellen, reminding you: don't shake anyone's hand. Good night.”
The Narrator, ‘Ted’

The best reason this won out?  The narrator was Sir Ian Frickin' McKellan!

BEST NEW TOOBWORLD LOCATION
World
Ste. Vincente, France, ‘Madame Blanc Mysteries’

The third season started in February, but I only discovered it this year.

BEST NEW FICTIONAL BOOK
“The Richmond Way” (from 'Ted Lasso')

BEST NEW FICTIONAL PODCAST
“Psycho Bitch Sluts Who Kill” – ‘Elsbeth’

BEST SERIES MARATHON
‘The Brokenwood Mysteries’

WORST TV EXPERIENCE
2024 Election Returns

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT IN A NETWORK
In January 2024, Peacock stopped the live streaming of ‘Morning Joe’, perhaps due to pressure from major cable companies.  They said they would repeat it the next day, but who wants day-old news?  And even then, it only ran 45 minutes.

BEST CRITIQUE BY AN ONLINE COMMENTER
PROFESSIONAL
From Lee Goldberg, author and television producer
Re: ‘Monsieur Spade’

“The finale of MONSIEUR SPADE, with the ridiculous deus ex machina appearance of Alfre Woodard, was hugely disappointing...and didn't make any sense. The series was 6 wasted hours of my life.”

BEST ANALYSIS BY AN ONLINE COMMENTER
AMATEUR
From the Movie and Entertainment Sphere:

Does Star Trek offer an explanation for why people can't just go back in time and stop bad things from happening before they happen?

“City on the Edge of Forever” gave a very clear picture of how dangerous it was to alter the timeline in any way, even with a good cause.

Two episodes in season one of The Original Series deal with time travel. In “Tomorrow is Yesterday,” a freak accident causes the Enterprise to pick up a guy from the 1960s, and fear of contaminating the timeline is strong enough that initially Kirk is prepared to essentially hold the man prisoner for the rest of his life, despite him having a family. They change their minds when Spock realizes their prisoner’s son is critical to human history—he mans the first Earth-Saturn flight—but hasn’t yet been born, so to preserve the timeline, they have to return their prisoner to Earth and scrub all the evidence of the Enterprise ever having been there. So yes, it addresses the timeline as being important, but not in a way that carries a great impact.

“My story is interesting, but imagine if instead of a military pilot, I were a beautiful woman caring for the poor and promoting peace. Think it might have more punch?”
“Hmmmm, tell me more about you being a beautiful woman.”

“City,” however, puts it in a much starker light. McCoy jumps through a time portal. Okay. But the landing party then tries to make contact with the Enterprise, and it is not there. No time has passed for the rest of the landing party, but as soon as McCoy jumped through, he unmade the timeline that allowed the Federation, the Enterprise, and all of them to exist. They’re okay because they’re chatting with a sentient time machine and are in some sort of temporal bubble, but are trapped forever, completely alone, because of a change in the timeline. It’s bleak, it’s sudden, it’s perfect.

"Captain, I've lost contact with the ship. I was talking to them. Suddenly, it went dead. No static; just nothing."

"Kirk to Enterprise. Scotty."

"Nothing wrong with the communicator, sir."

"Your vessel, your beginning. All that you knew is gone."

And the rest of the episode builds on it. They know the importance of restoring the timeline. They also learn that the only way for it to be restored is to allow the brutal death of an innocent, strong, intelligent woman with whom they agree. Edith Keeler is right about everything. She’s so right that if she exists, she’ll bring about peace and harmony and good things for everyone (until her actions lead to doom). Set in an era when censorship and propaganda were the languages of the day, Kirk and Spock see a person speaking truth with enough conviction and erudition that she can unite people and prevent horrors, but they have to ensure her voice is silenced. They have to un-prevent the killing of a woman whose life would have led a peace movement that launched negotiations between the US and the Axis powers instead of war. She was a good person. But the peace she would bring would allow the Nazis to get the bomb first and conquer the world. McCoy, the doctor, had saved the life of an innocent woman. Noble! Good! The right thing for the right reasons! And they had to stop it from happening.

So yes, 'Star Trek' makes a very poignant argument for not going through time to prevent bad things. From season one of TOS, we see that even doing the right things for the right reasons is wrong when it comes to temporal meddling. Other times, Kirk’s crew will decide the good of the one can outweigh the good of the many, but when it comes to time travel, the good of one has to be sacrificed, and it’s miserable.

And so ends this look back - only two months late - at my picks for the 2024 highlights in the Universe of Toob.

A 2025 TOOBITS AWARD WINNER (AND POSSIBLE FANFICCER'S FRIEND)

One of the Toobits Awards categories which I pass out every year is for Best New Child Character.  And this year, it goes to Lenny Rush, who played UNIT science advisor Morris Gibbons in several episodes of ‘Doctor Who’ in the first season of the 15th Incarnation’s tenure.  (Apparently, a passing asteroid somehow bathed him in cosmic rays which significantly amplified his intelligence.)

I expect we’ll see him again when the show returns later in 2025.

But....

Maybe he won't be coming back.  Or perhaps the show will not be delving too deeply into his background.  All we have is his word for that asteroid being the "splainin to do" as to why he is now hyper-intelligent.  Of course, he gave that splainin in front of several UNIT witnesses; they could have spoken up and called horse hockey-pucks on that story if he was lying.

But were they eye-witnesses to the transformation?  Was anybody there?

Keeping this Toobworld-centric, what if there is no such person as Morris Gibbons?  What if this small-fry scientist is someone who is descended from a combination of human genetics with those of humanoids from Sahndara and the Time Lords of Gallifrey.

I'm talking about Dr. Miguelito Loveless from 'The Wild, Wild West'.

In his double hands-full of episodes, Loveless always looked like he died at the end (if he didn't escape somehow.)  But because he had Time Lord DNA, he apparently regenerated.  However since he always came back looking the same, that was due to his blend of human and Sahndaran DNA.  (The main contribution of his Sahndaran genetics is that he looked like a refugee from that doomed planet named Alexander.)

As I said, this all depends on what more we learn about Morris.  But I like the idea that he was able to alter his appearance, perhaps with something mundane like plastic surgery.  Or maybe some magical elixir or glamour spell from some other TV series.

As for working on the side of "goodness and niceness", maybe he's just biding his time.  Maybe... he's playing a... Long Game.

THE 2023 TOOBITS AWARDS

 2023­­ TOOBITS AWARDS

 
It's that time of year again, when we all make lists and think back over the past year, in whatever field of interest concerns us, and chronicle the high points and the lows.  For the past few years I've been presenting this compilation as an awards show, the Toobits, which of course celebrates my two bits about Toobworld.
 
As it is with any such list you'll find in TV columns across the country these last few weeks, these are my opinions.  You're welcome to your own and I hope you'll share them, but I'm sticking to my weapons of choice.  (It could be you won't see something that was a favorite of yours because I just never got around to seeing it.  There's only so much time in the world - even for a do-nothing-else-anyway sort like me! - and I've only got the two eyes, even if they do operate independently of each other at times.)
 
Unlike the Emmy Awards which will just keep handing out trophies to some shows forever, only shows, characters and what-not that debuted in 2023 can be considered.  (And by "debuted", I mean that which I first came in contact with in 2023. It could be a few years old, but if it's my first time seeing it, it's new.)  

This year’s list of older shows which were new to me:
‘Slow Horses’
‘Schmigadoon’
‘Year of the Rabbit’
‘Ted Lasso’
‘The Returned’
‘Hjerson’
‘Picard’ (I took a sabbatical after the first season which did not impress me.)
 
This one-time-only rule includes characters who have been recast; those are still the same characters who already exist in Toobworld.  (But there were a few notable appearances that deserved honorable mention, and they get it.)
 
So without further ado, let's have at it:
 
BEST NEW TV SHOW
IMPORT (TIE)
‘Slow Horses’
My favorite sub-genre in espionage stories are those set in the drab and dreary, soul-crushing bureaucracy in which John Le Carré excelled as a writer.  Not for me those spy stories full of high-tech gadgetry, unless it was a spoof, like ‘Get Smart’.  Invariably, there would be adventure, but nothing ever really changed for the better.  ‘Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy’, ‘The Game’, ‘Danger Man’, and now ‘Slow Horses’.  More on this later with a look at the main character….
‘The Returned’ (France)
This is over ten years old now, but first time for me.  I binged the two seasons in two days back in January as part of my free trial of Topic.  I vaguely remember the American remake, but was not impressed even though I usually like the work of Carlton Cuse.
(Runner-Up)
‘Agatha Christie’s Hjerson’
Wrap your head around this concept – Hjerson is a fictional detective created by a fictional character (Ariadne Oliver in the Hercule Poirot stories) who now has his own TV series.  So he could be existing in Toobworld’s Toobworld!
DOMESTIC (TIE)
‘Poker Face’
People are comparing this to COLUMBO and I see that, but I feel a Roy Huggins vibe in the show having its “hero” traveling all over the country.

‘Ted Lasso’
I can pay no higher compliment to any show than to say “I want to live in that series.”  This is one of the rare few.
 
WORST NEW TV SHOW
‘1899’
I’m surprised there are so many advocates for this series, but I’m not surprised that Netflix cancelled it.  Turgid, depressing, way too dark in tone and lighting.
 
BEST TV MOVIE
“The Pale Blue Eye”
Like all good mysteries should do, this plays fair with the audience.  All the clues are laid out so that the audience can reach the solution before the character.
 
BEST TV MOVIE REVISION
“An Adventure In Space and Time” has a new closing scene in which “William Hartnell” has a vision of a new actor playing the Doctor in the Future.  When the movie first debuted, Matt Smith was seen in the role.  Now we see Ncuti Gatwa.
 
BEST MINI-SERIES
‘Holding’
Based on a mystery novel by talk show host Graham Norton, this fed into one of my favorite genres – quirky small communities.  Conleth Hill delivered another great performance.  The whole cast was quite good and fleshed out their characters to be nuanced, true people.
 
BEST ONLINE TV
‘Poker Face’ for Drama
‘Bupkis’ for Comedy
 
BEST COMMERCIAL
IMPORT
“Un-Australia” for Australia Day.
It serves as a great example of Earth Prime-Time being markedly different from Earth Prime.

DOMESTIC
“Don’t Clown’ from Ocean Spray Diet Cranberry Juice
  
BEST EPISODE, ANY GENRE
‘Ted Lasso’ – There were three!
1] “Carole of the Bells”
2] “Sunflowers”
3] “So Long, Farewell”
One of the best-written series ever.  It’s hard to believe that it grew out of a series of NBC Sports commercials.

RUNNERS-UP

‘So Help Me Todd’ – “Gloom and Boom”
WOW!  This was like “Die Hard” but with a doofus Bruce Willis.  For once, it was a better showcase for Marcia Gay Harden than it was for Skylar Astin.

‘The Equalizer’ – “No Way Out”
Gripping and intense, a good character study, excellent lead-in to a new storyline with an intro of a new supporting character, and sadly… far too real.
  
BEST SERIES RETURN*
‘Frasier’

* For those wondering, ‘Doctor Who’ was not eligible.  A show needs to be cancelled in order to return.  ‘Doctor Who’ just took a VERY long extended break between seasons.
 
BEST SEASON FINALE
‘Grantchester’ - S8E6
If that proved to be the series finale as well, I would be okay with that.  This really could be seen as the perfect wrap-up for the series.  (Although I would have liked for Reverend Sidney Chambers to make a return visit to see his old friend Geordie.)
 
BEST SERIES FINALE
‘A Million Little Things’ – “One Big Thing”
I’m not crying.  You’re crying.

BEST FINAL SEASON
‘Endeavour’ – “Prelude”, “Uniform”, “Exeunt”
First off, I didn’t want to choose between ‘A Million Little Things’ and ‘Endeavour’.  And the last three episodes of ‘Endeavour’ did need to be taken as a whole.  So I played with the wording.  As a Crossoverist, this series has been a boon!  I was quite verklempt with that last episode.

O’Bservation – I can’t be certain that ‘Ted Lasso’ has ended.
 
WORST EPISODE
‘Ted Lasso’ – “Beard After Hours”
Didn’t think anything would tarnish my love for the show, didja?  Basically this was a spotlight episode for Coach Beard that feels off in a series which runs so smoothly as an ensemble piece.  It reminded me of that Scorsese movie “After Hours” starring Griffin Dunne.  And I found that unsettling as well.

WORST CLIFF-HANGER
‘Doctor Who’ – “The Star Beast’
While it had elements which need to be addressed before the Fourteenth Incarnation shuffled off his regenerative coil, that whole bit about the coffee was telegraphed from several light years away and felt like cheap humor… even in a show allegedly for kids.
 
WORST SEASON FINALE
‘Poker Face’
I hated to type that, since it’s such a fantastic show otherwise.  But all they did was swap out one antagonist for another and thus keep her on the run.  But the reason to hunt her down isn’t as strong as it was for Sterling Frost Sr.  It doesn’t even make sense.  I understand why they want to keep her on the run – new locations every week to accommodate the situations she finds herself in.  But if they worked at it, they could have found something different.  I hope they do for Season Three.
  
BEST PILOT
‘Poker Face’ – “Dead Man’s Hand”

BEST SENSE OF ONE'S OWN HISTORY
Liberty Mutual insurance
It looks like the Powers That Be are threatening to replace the actor playing Doug, and who do they pick?  That actor from a much earlier commercial who can’t remember his lines or say them correctly. 

BEST BLEND OF TOOBWORLD AND REAL WORLD HISTORY
“The Pale Blue Eye”
Attention to detail from the author of the original novel even provides the inspiration for the title of a book which Edgar Allan Poe would later write, although never stated. (“Landor’s Cottage”) 

BEST BLEND OF TOOBWORLD AND REAL WORLD CELEBRITY
‘Ted Lasso’
What was interesting was that the celebrities who were showcased were athletes and sports commentators, and most of them from the UK at that.  It made for a refreshing change of pace.
 
BEST EXAMPLE OF LIFE DURING PRIME-TIME
CURRENT
BinaxNow commercial
“Do we need the home pregnancy tests?”

CLASSIC
By Art Freen

In the first season when Barney had a home life I liked his way of separating his ammo from his gun into different cabinets as soon as he was inside, I've never seen a tv cop do that since.

 Did we ever see the detectives carry anything other than the little 38 special revolvers and the occasional shotgun from the locker during the bank/jewelry robberies?

 It’s remarkable that ‘Miami Vice’ premieres only a few years after BM ends and they are carrying autos, magnums, even rocket launchers.

 It’s such a difference between the portrayal of police as someone you might know, to being comic book characters who might as well be wearing capes.

  
BEST REVIVED SERIES
‘Picard’
I took a year’s sabbatical after the first season, I disliked it so much.  But as I was reading praises for the third season, I figured I would pick it up again.  I’m glad I did.  I don’t know if there was a change-over in the writing team, or an influx of new viewpoints, but kudos to making it feel fresh… even when old plot lines are resurrected.                                                                                                                                      

BEST CLASSIC TV EXPERIENCE
‘Ghosts’ (UK) for an import and ‘Car 54, Where Are You?’ as the domestic entry. 
 
__________________________________________________________________________
BEST CROSSOVER 
1) ‘NCIS’
“Too Many Cooks”
2) ‘NCIS: HAWAI’I’
“Deep Fake”
3) ‘NCIS: LA’
‘A Long Time Coming’

Always love a three-way!


BEST HOLIDAY CROSSOVER
Capital One commercial & ‘How The Grinch Stole Christmas’
 
BEST TRIVIAL CROSSOVER
‘Slow Horses’ – ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’ & ‘Smiley’s People’
Near the end of Season One, David Cartwright (who was the former First Chair of MI5) mentioned that Smiley was always coming back from redundancy.  While that was never seen in the original Le Carre novels nor in the TV mini-series, that doesn’t mean it couldn’t have happened.
  
FIRST CROSSOVER OF THE YEAR
See the Best Crossover
   
FIRST THEORETICAL CROSSOVER OF THE YEAR
Progressive Insurance’s “TV Dad” & ‘Hi Honey, I’m Home’
This is what I figured - if the "real" father & son are from Earth Prime-Time (Toobworld), then TV Dad could be from the TV dimension from which the Nielsen Family came in "Hi Honey, I'm Home!"....
  
BEST CROSSOVER WITH A DIFFERENT TV DIMENSION
‘Saturday Night Live’ – “State Farm” & “Liberty Mutual”

SKITLANDIA
‘Saturday Night Live’ & ‘Parks & Recreation’
When Aubrey Plaza was hosting, she appeared at the news desk during “Weekend News Update”.  But to make that even better, former SNL cast member Amy Poehler joined her as Leslie Knope, the main character on ‘Parks & Rec’!
 
BEST CROSSOVER WITH A DIFFERENT MEDIUM 
“Expose The Chao” (Kayak Commercial) with “Sonic the Hedgehog” video games and comic books.  (Personally, I don’t see the resemblance, but maybe they change physically upon adulthood?)

BEST NON-CROSSOVER CROSSOVER
‘Ghosts’ with ‘Ghosts’ (UK)
One of the actors from ‘Ghosts’ (UK), who was also the show’s creator, appeared in an episode as an actor in a TV show called ‘Dumb Deaths’.  He was playing Pete, the American version of the scoutmaster who had been shot through the neck with an arrow back in the 1990s.  He did not play the same role in the Britcom, however.

BEST CROSSOVER IN A DIFFERENT FORMAT
‘Burke’s Law’ & ‘Doctor Who’ in TV21 comic story
 ____________________________________________________________
BEST RECASTAWAY 
FEMALE
From Mother Nature, Chiffon Margarine commercials
To Mother Nature, Nuvo H2O commercial

Hey, she’s a demi-goddess!  She’s got the power to do an extreme makeover.
 
MALE
‘Doctor Who’
The Fourteenth Incarnation into the Fifteenth Incarnation.

Well…. It was certainly different.
 
WORST RECASTAWAY
‘Doctor Who’
The Thirteenth Incarnation into the Fourteenth
It’s not because I disapproved of the casting.  I love it… as long as Fourteen only looks like Ten.  But the clothes regenerated as well.  Maybe that happened once from the First to the Second, but nobody remembers that.
 
BEST NEW MALE CHARACTER
DOMESTIC
Alan Cornwall in the ‘Frasier’ reboot
 
IMPORT
Jackson Lamb, ‘Slow Horses’
Making Columbo look like Beau Brummel, Lamb was slovenly, disgusting, smelled, but he could run circles around those in charge at MI5.  And as played by Gary Oldman, it was a character which once again proved what a chameleon Oldman is.
 
BEST NEW FEMALE CHARACTER
No contest!  Charlie Cale of ‘Poker Face’.
 
Comedy
Joe “Poppy” Larossa, ‘Bupkis’
 
BEST NEW SUPPORTING FEMALE CHARACTER
Drama
Brid Riordan, ‘Holding’
Played by Siobhán McSweeney with fragility, pathos, and strength, it’s hard to believe that she’s also flint-hearted Sister Michael in ‘Derry Girls’.
 
Comedy
Amy Davidson, ‘Bupkis’
 
BEST NEW RECURRING MALE CHARACTER
DRAMA
Cliff LeGrand, ‘Poker Face’
COMEDY
“Uncle” Roy, ‘Bupkis’
 
BEST CROSSOVER CHARACTER FROM ANOTHER MEDIUM
Art the Clown, From the “Terrifier” franchise to ‘Bupkis’
  
BEST INTRODUCTION OF A CHARACTER
FEMALE:
Car Ghost, ‘Ghosts’
  
BEST HISTORICAL CHARACTER
Edgar Allan Poe, “The Pale Blue Eye”
Harry Melling WAS Poe.  His portrayal should be the standard by which all others should be measured.
  
BEST HISTORICAL CHARACTER REVISION 
Joseph Merrick the Elephant Man, ‘Year of the Rabbit’
“Merrick don’t freak for free.”

BEST NEW ALIEN CHARACTER
Beep The Meep, ‘Doctor Who’
(Voiced by the wonderful Miryam Margulies.  That’s all I have to say about the character.)
 
BEST NEW CHILD CHARACTER
MALE
Young Pete Davidson, ‘Bupkis’
Played by Preston Brodrick
FEMALE
Phoebe, ‘Ted Lasso’
  
CHARACTER MOST DESERVING TO BECOME A REGULAR
Rose Noble-Temple, ‘Doctor Who’ – “The Star Beast”
I hope she does make a come-back, still with a dash of her non-binary Doctoe/Donna inherited genetics.  But I fear she will probably be a one-trick pony.  Still, Ruby Sunday just may be over-shadowed at first by Rose.
 
BEST NEW COMMERCIAL CHARACTER
TVDAD in the Progressive Insurance blipverts.

BEST NEW ANIMATED CHARACTER
Spot 73 ‘Picard’
Certainly didn’t hurt to have the interactive computer program for it be voiced by Patton Oswalt.
 
BEST LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES APPEARANCE(S)
OVERALL
‘Bupkis’
As it’s a “heightened, but fictionalized” version of Pete Davidson’s life, a lot of his celebrity friends show up.  Some real, some imaginary.  And then there’s Ray Romano.

REAL – Colson Baker, JJ Abrams, Sebastian Stan, Jon Stewart, Former Veep Al Gore, Paul Walter Hauser, John Mulaney
IMAGINARY – Eli Manning, Cam’ron, Jadakiss,
BOTH – Ray Romano

COMEDY
Tara Reid, ‘Ghosts’ (“Trevor’s Body”)
 
BEST LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES APPEARANCE(S) IN A COMMERCIAL
Snoop Dogg, Martha Stewart, Willie Nelson for BIC Lighters
 
BEST LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES APPEARANCE IN THE TOONIVERSE
Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter (with Peppa Pig), ‘Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon’
 
BEST LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES CROSSOVER
John Mulaney, “Baby J” & ‘Bupkis’
 
BEST CHARACTER RETURN
Drama:
The Toymaker, ‘Doctor Who’

Sitcom:
As a Regular - Dan Fielding, ‘Night Court’
As a Guest Star - Dr. Lilith Sternin, ‘Frasier’

BEST CHARACTER RETURN IN A COMMERCIAL
Liberty Mutual
The actor who couldn’t speak properly from a previous Liberty Mutual commercial.  It looked like they were going to replace Doug in the long-running series of commercials featuring Limu the Emu (which the actor referred to as a “beebu”.)

WORST CHARACTER RETURNS ONLINE
Walter White and Jesse Pinkman of ‘Breaking Bad’ in an air-popped crisps commercial.
  
BEST NEW ALIENS
The Chao, “Expose The Chao” (Kayak commercial)
From AuralCrave: What is a Chao? It’s a fictional creature belonging to the Sonic the Hedgehog series. It looks different from the classic appearance they have in the video game (you can refer to their page on Wikipedia), but it’s also true that there are different species of Chao. And after all, wouldn’t this be the first time that they appear in the real world?

So not only are they a cool visual, but they serve as a crossover as well.
 
BEST NEW FEMALE VILLAIN
TIE – Irene Smothers & Joyce Harris, ‘Poker Face’ (‘Time Of The Monkey’)
No way to rate them separately since they worked as a team.  They were chilling in their ruthlessness.
 
BEST EXIT FOR A CHARACTER
TOOBWORLD
Javier “Gary” Mendez Jr., ‘A Million Little Things’ (“One Big Thing”)
This transcended just his death; it was about the impact we all have on the lives of others, and despite how it leaves a hole yet everybody knows that they will all be okay.
 
BEST DEATH SCENE
NEW:
Sterling Frost, Jr., ‘Poker Face’
Usually this means most deserving to die and Adrian Brody’s casino boss deserved to go splat!
OLDER:
Lucian Connelly, ‘Longmire’
In this case, it was sad, moving, exciting and capped off the next episode with an elegiac musical bed.

 
SADDEST DEATH SCENE[S]
TIE - Augustus & Mathilde Landor, “The Pale Blue Eye”
Father and daughter died at different points in the movie and Landor’s death is only assumed.  But the pain and grief which brought them both to that point must have been overbearing.
 
WORST (GRISLIEST) DEATH
Cadet Randolph Ballinger, “The Pale Blue Eye”
Hung, with his heart cut out and his balls cut off?  Yeah, I guess that qualifies as “grisly.”

MOST SURPRISING DEATH SCENE
Maria Hill, ‘Secret Invasion’
As Nick Fury’s right-hand ma-# woma-# bleep it.  Nick Fury’s partner, Hill had been a strong, dependable team player in the MCU for over a decade, she appeared in at least seven of the movies as well as TV shows (some in the Tooniverse) and a video game. But I can’t say “And now she’s gone” because there is the Multiverse in which any number of Maria Hills could return.  In the meantime, her death in the episode of ‘Secret Invasion’ showed that the stakes are high in the battle for the Earth.
 
FIRST TV CHARACTER TO DIE
Professor Dale Harding, ‘NCIS’ – “Too Many Cooks”
Robert Picardo was brought in as the impetus to gather many of the characters from the three shows together.  He didn’t even make it past the opening credits before he committed suicide to save himself from being tortured.  Picardo was a good choice for the role, able to play someone who would not be suspected of having a rogue past, but also because he had a recognizable presence for the audience, giving his character an instant heft.  (There may have been a few from earlier in the year, but I can’t see everything.)

BEST NEW CHARACTER NAME
Augustus Landor, “The Pale Blue Eye”
I’m choosing this one early because it was a great nod to two stories Poe would write in his future.  Without beating us over the head with it, the events of this movie was probably the inspiration for it.  (Another name may come along later which I like better, but this will still find a place in these awards, somewhere.)

______________________________
BEST LINE
“If You Don’t Care About Trans Kids, Then You Don’t Care About Kids’ Lives.” – Molly Kearney, ‘Saturday Night Live’ (4/15/23)

BEST USE OF AN HISTORICAL QUOTE
Rilke:
"Our deepest fears are like dragons guarding our deepest treasures". (‘Ted Lasso’)
 
BEST EXCHANGE OF DIALOGUE
Maggie: You won.
Gary: WE won.
(‘A Million Little Things’ finale, “One Big Thing”)
 
BEST SPEECH/MONOLOGUE
“It's funny, cos I wonder where the TARDIS goes at random. Maybe it lands on some outcrop by the sea. And there's a tribe and they worship it for 100 years. Then they grow up and try to burn it. Then they get wise. They preserve it. Then they build a city all around it... till the TARDIS is just a tiny little dot, surrounded by skyscrapers and monorails. Time passes and the city falls. It all gets swept away. And there's the TARDIS... still on its outcrop... by the sea. She's the only thing I've got left.” – the Doctor
(‘Doctor Who’ – “Wild Blue Yonder”

BEST ZONK EXPLANATION
“The Fletchers” from ‘Poker Face’ (“Time Of The Monkey”)
“The Fletchers” were three old ladies in the Mossy Oaks retirement community who monopolized the center’s TV to watch murder investigation shows.  It was a nickname reference to Jessica Fletcher, the main character of ‘Murder, She Wrote’.  It’s not a Zonk, because they never mention her as a TV character nor do they mention the TV series.  And because she was a best-selling author, she would be well-known enough to have a weird little fan club like these ladies named after her.

BEST ZONK
The ‘Benson’ theme song as heard in ‘Poker Face’ (“Death By Metal”)
We even got to see the title of the show from the opening credits.  That would have been enough, but the theme song played a key role in the plot.  What makes a Zonk the best is that an explanation can be found to neutralize it.  In this case, we fall back on the old alibi that eventually, everybody in Toobworld will have a TV show about them.  Benson Dubois would be a good candidate for a series – a butler who rose to be Chief of Staff for a governor and eventually ran against him for the position.
  
BEST NEW COINED WORD
“Ughstipation” – from a MiraLax commercial

HONORARY MENTION
“Fenslaw
Coliss
Brafe
Gilvane
Stond
Ratico
Vandeen
Blinss
Sensill
[One] – Translated by the TARDIS
Tacsladia”
From ‘Doctor Who’ – “The Wild Blue Yonder”
A countdown from Ten to Zero in an unknown alien language
 
BEST THEME SONG
TV SERIES:
‘Ted Lasso’

 WORST SERIES SOUNDTRACK
‘1899’
Discordant, jarring, and does not endear me to continue watching the series.
  
BEST MUSICAL MOMENT
‘Longmire’ – “No Greater Character Endorsement”
Warren Zevon’s “Back In The High Life Again”
It made for a great send-off for a great character….
 
BEST DREAM SEQUENCE
‘Bupkis’ – “Show Me The Way To Go Home”

BEST IN-JOKE
The number “1013” showed up several times in the one season wonder ‘1899’, one of which was the ocean liner cabin designation used by Daniel Solace.  It refers to Chris Carter’s production company for ‘The X-Files’.
 
BEST NEW TOOBWORLD LOCATION
World
Duneen, Ireland from ‘Holding’
Signed up for Acorn TV back in November.  This came out in 2022, so I’m not too late with this choice.  It feeds my love of a very specialized genre – quirky small towns.

BEST FIGHT SCENE
Charlie Cale vs. Irene Smothers & Joyce Harris in ‘Poker Face’ – “Time Of The Monkey”
This was brutal and funny and edge of the seat excitement.
 
BEST NEW FICTIONAL BOOK
“The Equinox” series by Greg Alban, ‘Shakespeare & Hathaway’ (“Die We Must”)
 
BEST NEW FICTIONAL TV SHOW
‘Jolly For Short’ as seen in ‘Endeavour’ – “Uniform”
We got to see a lot of scenes of this “ATV” series nearing its own finale in the early 1970s.  Many of them served up meta-commentary about ‘Endeavour’ itself, but also was reminiscent of ‘Dixon of Dock Green’ and a little of ‘Maigret’ as well.  It certainly helped to have Kevin R. McNally playing the lead character DCI Jolyon Jolliphant.

‘Spooky & The Cop’ mentioned in ‘Poker Face’ – ‘Exit Stage Death’

BEST NEW FICTIONAL PLAY
“The Ghosts Of Pensacola” – ‘Poker Face’ – ‘Exit Stage Death’
But this episode had others, like the hip-hop version of Ben Franklin’s life, “Frankly Franklin”

BEST ADAPTATION FROM ANOTHER UNIVERSE (aka MEDIUM)
MOVIE to TV
‘True Lies’
 
BOOK to TV
“The Pale Blue Eye” by Louis Bayard and adapted by Scott Cooper
  
------------------------------------------------------------------- 
BEST SERIES MARATHON
‘Car 54, Where Are You?’
  
BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT IN A SHOW
The 3-Way NCIS Crossover
I realize there are only three NCIS shows on CBS currently.  But it would have been nice to see somebody come back to D.C. for the retirement party from ‘NCIS: New Orleans’ and ‘NCIS: Cyber’ and maybe even from ‘JAG’ as well.
 
BEST CRITIQUE BY A SHOW’S CAST
‘1899’
The cast gathered in costume to offer their united opinion on the Netflix decision to cancel the series.
 
WORST ANALYSIS BY AN ONLINE COMMENTER
By Jack Seale, The Guardian
“Before the action starts there is the unusual sight of Tennant and Tate taking turns to address the camera in character with a plot refresher for the benefit of young, forgetful or US viewers.”

Bleep you, Seale.  But you know what?  I figure you must have had a bad day at the dentist before writing that review.  That’s probably why you don’t smile in your pictures.  All of you over there have nothing but bad days at the dentist.  (See?  I can malign a nation’s people with a generalization too.)

BEST “WISH-CRAFT”
With all this bringing back old shows, they should bring back “Happy Days”. All the gang have left, but Fonzie is still there. He's 80 and still walking around in his leather jacket with his thumbs up, saying "Heeeeey " to girls 60 years younger. He still hangs about the toilets at Arnold's, but it's a McDonald's now. Potsie will guest once in a while ,but the running joke will be that everyone thinks he is Will Riker from ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ (except Fonzie, who has never watched it).
- Richard Jenkinson
  
BEST TELEVISIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS
From John:

It’s a question that has taxed fans for decades: did Lieutenant Columbo have only one eye like his alter ego Peter Falk? Let’s weigh up the evidence…

Here are some random thoughts related to his one eye. 

He seemed to be given a great deal of leeway within the LAPD (possible dispensation based on his skills?) and this, besides his apparent absent mind, maybe one of the reasons some but not all of his colleagues (mostly other detectives and senior officers) did not seem to think much of him. This may also explain why he never was promoted beyond Lieutenant. 

Missing an eye, his many apparent Phobias and fears, for the most part not carrying a fire arm, driving a personal vehicle on the job, not following dress or grooming codes, etc., these all seem to be reasons for removal from or maybe placed on desk duty on the LAPD unless he was given special consideration.

  
HONORARY MENTIONS
 
Brad Fillipone:
I have often wondered about the detectives who get assigned to the 12th, but then only stay for a few episodes without ever getting mentioned again.

The best-known of these is Wentworth played by Linda Lavin. In reality, of course, Linda left to star in her own series which explains her departure in real life, but not on the show.

There was Maria Battista who lasted two episodes. Roslyn Licori who lasted three episodes.

And then there was Dorsey, who after his initial false assumptions against the rest of the squad, actually seemed to fit in over the next two episodes. And then suddenly he was gone as well.

On my current watching of the series, I was curious to see if their names appeared lower on the blackboard, indicating they were on another shift, but they were nowhere to be seen. I suppose the answer is that they were transferred again, but it would have been nice to have at least one mention of them.

Lee Spilberg
The real-world explanation was generally that Danny Arnold was deciding whether a new character might fit. As the years went on, the squad got smaller, and they tried filling it up a little more. He was slow about offering Ms. Lavin a regular contract, and then as you said, she was offered her own series. According to Otto Bruno’s very fine history of the show, everyone liked June Gable as Batista, but Danny Arnold had hired her thinking she was actually Latina. When he found out she wasn’t, he was uncomfortable having that juxtaposition on an ongoing basis, so she left. I guess the others just didn’t fit Arnold’s idea of the squad room dynamic. (Both Mari Gorman and Paul Lieber, like Steve Landesberg and Ron Carey had appeared as guests before their detective tryouts.) In terms of the in-universe explanation, I think the chalkboard actually does show some of their names after they left. Wentworth certainly appears on the board in episodes where she isn’t present. As for mentions, I agree it would be nice, but if Chano didn’t get one after two years, I don’t think there was much hope for the shorter-lived regulars…

Sorry it took so long to post these....

 

THE 2020 TOOBITS AWARDS

 2020 TOOBITS AWARDS

It's that time of year again, when we all make lists and think back over the past year, in whatever field of interest concerns us, and chronicle the high points and the lows.  For the past few years I've been presenting this compilation as an awards show, the Toobits, which of course celebrates my two bits about Toobworld.
 
As it is with any such list you'll find in TV columns across the country these last few weeks, these are my opinions.  You're welcome to your own and I hope you'll share them, but I'm sticking to my weapons of choice.  (It could be you won't see something that was a favorite of yours, probably because I just never got around to seeing it.  There's only so much time in the world - even for a do-nothing-else-anyway sort like me! - and I've only got the two eyes, even if they do operate independently of each other at times.  And then again, maybe I thought your favorites sucked.)

Unlike the Emmy Awards, which will just keep handing out trophies to some shows forever, only shows, characters and what-not that debuted in 2020 can be considered.  (And by "debuted", I mean that which I first came in contact with in 2020. It could be a few years old, but if it's my first time seeing it, it's new.)  

This one-time-only rule includes characters who have been recast; those are still the same characters who already exist in Toobworld.  (But if there were a few notable appearances that deserved honorable mention, they’ll get it.)

For 2020, the list is short; this year sucked in every way!

So without further ado, let's have at it:

BEST NEW TV SHOW
IMPORT
‘Professor T’
This Belgian series is nearly five years old now, but it only just crossed my path in January.  My only problem is that I have to sit close to the screen to read the subtitles.  And while it may feel like a European twist on ‘Monk’, at least the Professor is easier to take than Adrian.

DOMESTIC
‘Upload’
It's not often I can equate science fiction with the magic of fantasy, but this show’s got the goods.  It’s a digitized fairy tale.

BEST MINI-SERIES
‘Hunters’
I don’t usually binge series; I have trouble paying attention for too long.  Yes, even me.  But I watched the first two episodes of ‘Hunters’ on the evening it dropped, and then spent all day that Saturday to finish it.
The thing is, it was full of clichés; most of the characters were stereotypes or if I was being kind, at best archetypes; I was delivering the responses before the characters did; too many suspensions of disbelief; and the Tarantinoesque flourishes sometimes were too much.

But wow, did they carry it off!  When are the action figures coming out?

BEST ONLINE TV
Based on the choices made above, I think I’ll have to get rid of this category now.  It’s all become one.

BEST COMMERCIAL
A Match Made in Hell by Match.com
When you think about it, it is pretty grim.  Still, it is funny.  And a case could be made for a multiversal theory of relateeveety – Satan wth Darknesscfrom the movie “Legend”.

BEST PUBLIC SERVICE COMMERCIAL
Vote by ‘The Daily Show’ cast

BEST EPISODE, ANY GENRE
‘Doctor Who’ – “Fugitive Of The Judoon”
The publicity department had everybody fixated on the return of the Judoon for this episode.  But then Pow!  Captain Jack Harkness returned!  Followed by a Double POW!  There’s an earlier Doctor which the 13th Incarnation has no memory of!  I remarked to friends that it was hard to believe that the season is half over that week; it had passed so quickly!  But now?  This week is dragging!  Can’t wait to see the secrets revealed.
 
BEST TWO-PART EPISODE
‘Doctor Who’
“Spyfall: Parts One & Two”
Kicking off Jodie Whittaker’s second season as the Doctor, I think it provided assurance that they finally found their footing with how the series should play out.  It had the feel of a rollicking adventure from the RTD era.  (By the final episode, I may have been too optimistic.)

BEST CLIFF-HANGER
‘Doctor Who’
“Spyfall: Parts One & Two”
The Master returned!  The aliens kidnapped the Doctor!  And her three companions were left behind in a damaged plane with no pilot – no cockpit! – which was now hurtling to Earth!  The episode aired New Year’s Day and thankfully it was resolved on the Fifth, less than a week later.

BEST SEQUEL
‘Picard’
Of course, this is only until the Klingons show up.  I just can’t accept the ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ (a real STD) version of the Klingons.  They turned them into dung beetles.

BEST REMAKE
‘Supermarket Sweep’
You can’t really go wrong with a game show revival, and in my opinion (which is what this post is all about!), it certainly helps to get Leslie Jones as the host.

BEST PILOT
‘Upload’

BEST HISTORICAL RECREATION
‘The Good Lord Bird’
There are sections where it seems unlikely that events occurred as depicted.  But if we remember we’re seeing it from the perspective of a young escaped slave, than the exaggerations make sense.

BEST BLEND OF TOOBWORLD AND REAL WORLD HISTORY
‘Hunters’
I have a Facebook friend who will say it was a horrible recreation of the 1970s, but they did a good job of taking that template and reworking it to fit a graphic novel’s sensibility.

BEST BLEND OF TOOBWORLD AND REAL WORLD CELEBRITY
David Beckham & Posh Spice
‘Modern Family’ – “The Prescott”
 Another notch for membership in the Television Crossover Hall of Fame – at least for Beckham.

BEST EXAMPLE OF LIFE DURING PRIME-TIME
‘All Rise’ – “Dancing In Los Angeles”
This judicial series is like Derek Smalls of Spinal Tap - tepid.  But the series was the first to regroup after the pandemic changed our lives and present an episode which addressed our current situation.  (I’m writing this a few days after it aired back in May.)

BEST CLASSIC TV EXPERIENCE
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic quarantine lockdown, there were so many: ‘The Wild, Wild West’, ‘The Last Of The Mohicans’, ‘The Saint’ were at the top.

BEST TRIVIAL CROSSOVER
‘Arrow’ & ‘Powerless’
In the series finale for ‘Arrow’, we saw one last integration of another Earth in the multiverse due to the events of the ‘Crisis On Infinite Earths’ – we saw that Van Wayne Company from NBC’s ‘Powerless’ still existed in the new Earth.  And all it took was to see the corporation’s sign.

BEST THEORETICAL CROSSOVER OF THE YEAR
‘Doctor Who’
“Spyfall: Parts One & Two”
January 1st, 2020
with
‘Supernatural’
Graham O’Brien:
What is all this stuff?
Agent “O”:
The full MI6 record of the unexplained. As compiled by me. Human disappearances, sightings of unidentified objects, mysterious beings, possible alien incursions going back centuries. And a complete set of Fortean Times in mint condition.

Since he owned a complete set of the Fortean Times, he owns this edition which Ronald Reznick displayed in one of the two ‘Supernatural’ episodes in which he appeared.

BEST COMMERCIAL CROSSOVER
Walmart – “Famous Visitors”
The mega-box company did it again with a commercial full of space travelers from STAR WARS, ARRIVAL, LEGO MOVIE, MEN IN BLACK II, MARS ATTACKS, FLASH GORDON, STAR TREK, TOY STORY, BATMAN(?), BILL & TED’S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE, LOONEY TOONS, and GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY.  If there are others, I’m not aware of them.  And I’m not sure if that was a version of the Batmobile.

BEST COMMERCIAL CROSSOVER WITH A DIFFERENT MEDIUM
Jeep Gladiator & “Groundhog Day”
Phil Conner, Ned Ryerson, and the Mayor of Punxsatawney returned for another go-round with the strange time loop that was Groundhog Day.  I consider it a legit crossover.

BEST THEORETICAL COMMERCIAL CROSSOVER WITH A DIFFERENT MEDIUM
Bud Light Seltzer & “Everything You Wanted To Know About Sex, But Were Afraid To Ask”
Woody Allen’s movie was a sketch comedy and in one of those sketches, we saw the various personifications of the parts of the male body – brain cells, sperm, the digestive system, etc. – as the male prepares to ejaculate during sex.

In the Bud Light blipvert, we saw that Post Malone was outfitted the same way,

BEST RECASTAWAY
OVERALL
Dylan, ‘Upload’
Rhys Lack (original avatar)
Brea St. James (upgraded avatar)
This is a recastaway that was necessary, part of the plot.  Thankfully, because Rhys Lack is so good in the role, it was temporary.

FEMALE
Ruth Heidelbaum,  ‘Hunters’
Jeannie Berlin (Older Ruth)
Annie Hägg (Younger Ruth)

BEST HISTORICAL RECASTAWAY
Nicola Tesla, ‘Doctor Who’ – “Nicola Tesla’s Night Of Terror”
With this episode, Nicola Tesla became eligible for my Television Crossover Hall of Fame as a multidimensional.  (The Tesla of ‘Sanctuary’ is from another Toobworld.)  All of his different looks from Earth Prime-Time are based on the points of view from other characters.

HONORARY RECASTAWAY
The Master!
[‘Doctor Who’]
For years I’ve wanted Sacha Dhawan to be the Doctor on ‘Doctor Who’.  So I was a little downhearted to see him guest starring as “Agent O” in the 12th season opener for the show.  But I warmed up to him and then hoped this would be a recurring role as a non-sexual variation on River Song – a friend of the Doctor’s who would always be there to give her a hand whenever she needed it.  Like the Brigadier.  And then… just seconds from the Big Reveal, it struck me as to why there had been no mention of him in the pre-publicity or any pictures of Dhawan leading up to the episode.  “Call me the Master!”  O!  I hope he has a long run in the role because he stuck the landing right out of the gate, if I may mix metaphors.

BEST NEW MALE CHARACTER
DOMESTIC
Meyer Offerman, ‘Hunters’
Most of the credit for the impact made by Meyer must be given to the script; but Al Pacino gave us an incredible journey with this earthy, vengeful Trickster figure.

BEST NEW FEMALE CHARACTER
Nora Antony, ‘Upload’
It really was for more than just the fact that she is a loverly.  But then again, deep down I’m shallow.

BEST NEW MALE SUPPORTING CHARACTER
Detective Lewis Michener, ‘Penny Dreadful: City of Angels’
Some might think he should be a lead character, but I see this as being a series with quite a few lead characters.  To me, Michener stands above the others and much of that could be due to Nathan Lane showing his range to those who only knew him for his comedic roles.

BEST NEW SUPPORTING FEMALE CHARACTER
Drama
Rosa Alvarez, ’68 Whiskey’
Right from the beginning, I cared about her in that environment and was angry on her behalf due to the way she was being treated by this administration.

BEST NEW RECURRING MALE CHARACTER
Frederick Douglass, ‘The Good Lord Bird’
Daveed Diggs fleshed out the role so that the historical abolitionist, freedom fighter and man of letters was more than just a living statue on a pedestal.

BEST NEW CHARACTER ADAPTED FROM ANOTHER MEDIUM
Onion, ‘The Good Lord Bird’
It's hard to believe Joshua Caleb Johnson was fourteen when he acted in this.

BEST CROSSOVER CHARACTER FROM ANOTHER MEDIUM
Wonder Woman of “Wonder Woman 84” in the Tide Super Bowl spot
Earth Prime-Time already has its Wonder Woman – and she looks like Lynda Carter. But with the ‘Crisis On Infinite Earths’ mini-series recently concluded with the Multiverse restored, her cameo served as a nice reminder of those events but  also as a promo for the movie.  (She was still in her world, but the fifteen second spots throughout the Super Bowl established that Charlie Day travels through both Time and Space.)

BEST NEW CAST ENSEMBLE
Drama
 ’68 Whiskey’

BEST INTRODUCTION OF A CHARACTER
“Doctor Ruth”, ‘Doctor Who’ – “Fugitive Of The Judoon”
I’m not the only one who was thrown for a loop when it was revealed that Jo Martin’s character of Ruth was actually another incarnation of the Doctor and from the Past of the 13th Incarnation who doesn’t remember that incarnation.  (This may tie in to the mental battle the Fourth Incarnation had with Morbius.)

BEST NEW GUEST APPEARANCE
Chase, ‘The Good Lord Bird’
Steve Zahn belied his amiable goofball image with this redneck slaver who was humorous, sympathetic, disgusting, evil, and violent  - and sometimes all at once.

BEST HISTORICAL CHARACTER
John Brown, ‘The Good Lord Bird’
I say give Ethan Hawke the Emmy now.  (But full disclosure – I could be prejudiced, as I am very VERY distantly related to Brown.)

BEST MINOR HISTORICAL CHARACTER
Juanita Kreps, ‘Hunters’
What helped enormously here is that – at least in my opinion – Juanita Kreps from the Carter cabinet is relatively unknown by the general public.  In Toobworld, she was profane and full of vinegar at least.

WORST HISTORICAL CHARACTER
President Jimmy Carter, ‘Hunters’
If you’re not going to give us a full frontal look at an historical character, you should at least make sure the vocals are a first rate impression.  Lost me on both counts.

BEST HISTORICAL CHARACTER REVISION
Werner von Braun – ‘Hunters’
The fact that “Rocket Man” died on June 16, 1977 didn’t stop this script from keeping him alive with his death faked… at least until July 1977.

BEST NEW CHILD CHARACTER
Dylan, ‘Upload’
Dylan broke the glass floor of the Grand Canyon and dabbed on the way down.  He went through a temporary casting change which also garnered a Toobits Award.

BEST NEW ANIMAL CHARACTER
Boz, the cursed goat, ’68 Whiskey’

BEST NEW PUPPET CHARACTER
The Sock Puppets for National Floors Direct
From iSPOT-TV:
Two sock puppets admiring one puppet's brand new carpet from National Floors Direct and appreciating the supplier's low prices come up with the genius idea to be spokespeople for National Floors Direct -- after all, who knows floors better than socks?

BEST LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES APPEARANCE IN A COMMERCIAL
Charlie Day for Tide
Charlie ended up in pseudo-spots throughout the Super Bowl: a promo for “Wonder Woman”, in the middle of the Centaur’s performance on ‘The Masked Singer’, and in a Bud Light commercial.

BEST CHARACTER RETURN SPECIAL AWARD
Captain Jack Harkness, ‘Doctor Who’
In “Fugitive of the Judoon” the audience was already shocked by the revelation of Jo Martin’s character; and that made the sudden appearance of John Barrowman feel almost like an afterthought.  Exciting and frustrating – he didn’t even get to meet the Thirteenth Incarnation!

BEST CHARACTER RETURN
Drama:
The Master, ‘Doctor Who’
I never saw that coming!  Kudos to the publicity department and the security for the show’s production company that the beans were not spilled.

BEST LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES RETURN
Ken Jennings, ‘Jeopardy! – The Greatest Of All Time’
And Jennings was crowned the GOAT.  Deservedly so.

BEST CHARACTER RETURN IN A COMMERCIAL
Pinocchio, GEICO
After failing at being a motivational speaker, he tried his luck with online dating and then tried to talk his way out of a parking ticket.  His nose kept giving him away.

BEST NEW ALIENS
The Kasaavan Light Beings from ‘Doctor Who’ – “Spyfall Parts 1 & 2”

BEST ALIEN RETURN
The Judoon, ‘Doctor Who’ – “Fugitive Of The Judoon”

BEST HISTORICAL VILLAIN
Frau Colonel (“Eva”), ‘Hunters’
Frau Colonel was the most shadowy of villains, hidden in the background, working behind the scenes.  In the final scenes we got the confirmation that she was actually Eva Braun.

BEST MALE VILLAIN
Randall Flagg, ‘The Stand’
You’ll notice I didn’t say best new male villain.  We’ve seen the Walking Dude before in a previous adaptation of the book.  So as with all of the other characters in this mini-series, this is a recastaway.  As such, being in an alternate TV dimension, it can still qualify for a tip of the hat.

BEST NEW FEMALE VILLAIN
Magda/Alex Malone/Eva Branson/Rio
‘Penny Dreadful - City of Angels’

BEST EXIT FOR A CHARACTER
Frank Dunphy, ‘Modern Family’
I don’t know if Fred Willard’s health was already declining when he filmed his final episode as Phil’s father.  But it was a nice coda to his contribution to one of the best TV families, as well as being very understated.  At least we know there won’t be some future decision to recast the character for a TV movie reunion.

BEST DEATH SCENE
Nathan Brown – ‘Upload’
You can’t beat seeing a guy’s head blow up after he’s been uploaded into the computer system.

SADDEST DEATH SCENE
Murray – ‘Hunters’
If only our loved ones, previously departed, could really be there to welcome us to the next phase….

WORST (GRISLIEST) DEATH SCENE
Dre burned to death
‘Power’ – “Still Dre”

MOST SURPRISING DEATH SCENE
Oliver Queen, ‘Arrow’
I suppose it had to be the death of Green Arrow.  Not that he actually died, but that the show ended in January.  With the penultimate episode serving as a pilot for ‘Green Arrow and the Canaries’ (which as of this writing still has a nebulous future), I expected it to find a way to survive until the May Sweeps.

FIRST MAJOR TV CHARACTER TO DIE
“C” – The Head of MI6
‘Doctor Who’ – “Skyfall” (Part One)

True, he was a one-shot character on-screen for no more than ten minutes at best; certainly not a usual candidate for “Major TV Character”.  But he was played by Stephen Fry with all the makings for one to expect him to be featured in a recurring role – sort of like a bureaucratic version of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart.

Usually ‘Coronation Street’ nabs this category, and maybe they did this year as well over there.  But C’s assassination was the first to come to my notice.

BEST NEW CHARACTER NAME
Pol-Kon-Don, ‘Doctor Who’ – “Fugitive Of The Judoon”
The leader of the Judoon Platoon (who apparently was a female) was given that name to honor the memory of Paul Condon, a BBC online producer who died in 2019. It’s a really nice tribute that makes him immortal in Who-lore.

WORST NEW CHARACTER NAME
David Choak, ‘Upload’
Well, it couldn’t all be “Five Stars” for ‘Upload’.  My problem with the choice of name for William B. Davis’ character was that it was already evident that he was a parody of one half of the evilest, greediest, most corrupt pair of brothers in History (allegedly). The last names don’t look similar but when sounded out, they rhyme.  Don’t make the comparisons so obvious, guys.

BEST NEW ALIAS
O – ‘Doctor Who’
That was the MI6 designation for the agent replaced by the Master.

BEST NEW SERIES TITLE
‘Upload’
Simplicity.  It always works.  And this summed up the basic essence of the series.

WORST NEW SERIES TITLE
‘Penny Dreadful: City of Angels’
Did the show runners think that the series couldn’t stand on its own without calling back to the earlier series ‘Penny Dreadful’… even though it has no discernible connection to the first series?  But then again, ‘City of Angels’ has served as the title for at least two other TV series.  (The best being with Wayne Rogers as Jake Axminster, a 1930s private eye.)

BEST EPISODE TITLE
“Grodd Friended Me” – ‘The Flash’
The CW superhero show had a little fun at the expense of the CBS series ‘God Friended Me’.  The reference is to one of the best villains in the Flash’s Rogues Gallery, the hyper-intelligent and brutal primate, Gorilla Grodd.

BEST LINE
“Shut up, Spleen!” from the Bud Light Setzer Super Bowl advert featuring Post Malone’s personified body parts.  I plan to use that often as a response in online comment threads.

BEST NEW COINED WORD [TIE]
“Shovelfuss”
‘The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon’
This was created on the spot when Queen Latifah asked Fallon to come up with a new curse word.  I doubt it will have legs – I haven’t heard it used since anywhere.  But I think it’s a cool word.
“Dernaissance”
I first heard this on ‘CBS Sunday Morning’ in January.  It’s a description for the resurgence of Laura Dern’s acting career. I think it’s a word which will be used again in overviews of her career.

BEST DREAM SEQUENCE
‘Outlander’ – “Never My Love”
And by best, I don’t mean it was enjoyable.  But it was well-done.  While being gang-raped, Claire escaped into a strange dinner party preparation.

BEST NEW ALIEN LOCATION
Lakeview, ‘Upload’
It’s alien because it’s virtual reality.

BEST NEW ALTERNATE TOOBWORLD
Earth after Captain Trips ‘The Stand’
This is the second adaptation of Stephen King’s classic novel.  We were three episodes in when the year ended and I have good feelings about it.
 
BEST NEW FICTIONAL BOOK
The Beverly Goldberg Cookbook – ‘The Goldbergs’

BEST NEW PRODUCT PLACEMENT
Purell, ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’
The use of Purell ran throughout the season and culminated with its apocalyptic cause of the finale’s big scene.  In a way, it’s like Uber in the next category in that it ultimately works against them.  (Purell was inducted into the Television Crossover Hall of Fame.)

WORST NEW PRODUCT PLACEMENT
Uber, ‘Doctor Who’
Dragooned by MI6 agents, Graham O’Brien leaned out of the car window and shouted to the Doctor, “Worst.  Uber.  Ever!”  It wasn’t good for Uber, but hilarious for us watching at home.

BEST FICTIONAL MAGAZINE CROSSOVER
CATCO, ‘Batwoman’
I’m sure the magazine has been seen before in their dimension over on ‘Supergirl’.  But it’s use here – Batwoman being interviewed by Kara Danvers – not only is it a great visual for such a crossover, but it served a higher purpose, letting troubled LGBTQ teens know that it gets better.

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER
I got the CBS All Access platform and will keep it at least through the showing of ‘The Stand’.  So I was able to catch up on the new version of ‘The Twilight Zone’, ‘Picard’, and three seasons of ‘The Good Fight’.

BOOK to TV
“Sanditon” by Jane Austen
The main reason is that in the body of Austen’s work adapted for TV, this is fresh.  And that’s because the book was never completed.

BEST NEW SERIES STREAMING BINGE
‘Hunters’
‘Upload’
{Tie}

BEST TELEVISIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS
“The 7 Biggest Contradictions in ‘Doctor Who’ Canon”
by Thomas Ling for Radio Times (01/30/2020)
Here’s how it opened:
“’Doctor Who’ is the most successful British sci-fi show ever, a beloved adventure across time and space that’s brought incalculable joy to millions. And it makes no sense.”

Well, there you have it.  Pretty good stuff in there, considering what a number 2020 did on the television landscape.

Let’s hope 21’s a good year….