FOR WOLD NEWTON DAY - TARZAN YET AGAIN?

HAPPY WOLD NEWTON DAY!

From Wikipedia:
In real life a meteorite, called the Wold Cottage meteorite, fell near Wold Newton, Yorkshire, England, on December 13, 1795.

[Philip Jose] Farmer suggested in two fictional biographies, Tarzan Alive: A Definitive Biography of Lord Greystoke (1972) and Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life (1973) that this meteorite caused genetic mutations in the occupants of two passing coaches due to ionization. Many of their descendants were thus endowed with extremely high intelligence and strength, as well as an exceptional capacity and drive to perform good or, as the case may be, evil deeds. The progeny of these travellers are purported to have been the real-life originals of fictionalised characters, both heroic and villainous, over the last few hundred years.

I don't know why I'm so fixated on Tarzan when it comes to the representations of the Wold Newton Family as depicted in Toobworld.  I suppose the same is true for Sherlock Holmes; but at least I honor him on his alleged birthday each year and not use him for the Wold Newton Day showcase as often as I do with the Lord of the Apes.

For those who have never seen any of my earlier theories about the most famous character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, here is a simple recap:

Lord John Greystoke, AKA Tarzan, as seen in the series is the same character from the books despite the modern (1960s) setting. 

My theory is that decades before, Tarzan had found the immortality elixir as described in one of the later stories.  Drinking it, he was now an eternal, frozen in Time at the age he was when he ingested the elixir.

But let me make one thing clear - in no way am I advocating that this is THE Tarzan of the Wold Newton Universe.  This is Tarzan of Toobworld, and although they have some similarities, there is more which keeps them irreconcilable.  (So many great "wolders," chief among them Win Scott Eckert and Sean Lee Levin, do incredible research in order to expand the WNU, that they don't need a boob-toober like me underfoot!)

At any rate, here is the review of the 'Tarzan' TV series as was presented in the TV Guide, written by acerbic critic Cleveland Amory:

ENJOY YOUR WOLD NEWTON DAY!

TVXOHOF TRIBUTE 2021 - PHYLLIS LINDSTROM

 

From CNN:

Cloris Leachman, the acclaimed actress whose one-of-a-kind comedic flair made her a legendary figure in film and television for seven decades, has died, according to a statement from her longtime manager and representatives. She was 94.

"It's been my privilege to work with Cloris Leachman, one of the most fearless actresses of our time. There was no one like Cloris," said a statement from her manager, Juliet Green. "With a single look she had the ability to break your heart or make you laugh 'til the tears ran down your face. You never knew what Cloris was going to say or do and that unpredictable quality was part of her unparalleled magic."

Leachman died Wednesday of natural causes in Encinitas, California, according to the statement.

During her extensive career, Leachman, who was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 2011, earned 22 Emmy nominations and eight Primetime Emmy awards and one Daytime Emmy Award.

Two of her statues were won for playing what was arguably her most iconic role -- cunning landlady Phyllis Lindstrom. The character originated on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and later received a spin-off series.

When Georgia Engel died, I mourned the fact that I didn’t induct Georgette Franklin Baxter into the Television Crossover Hall of Fame while she was still alive (not that she would ever have seen it.)  But I thought she had so many more years ahead of her.

In this case, I kept delaying the induction of Phyllis Lindstrom because I thought Cloris Leachman would never die.  She was indomitable, giving us strong performances right up until the end; she was on ‘Dancing With The Stars’, for Judith Christ’s sake!

And so here we are with the inevitable -  a Memorial TVXOHOF Tribute….

PHYLLIS LINDSTROM

From Wikipedia:
Phyllis Lindstrom, nee Sutherland, portrayed by Cloris Leachman, is a fictional character on the television sitcom “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and subsequent spin-off, “Phyllis”.

Phyllis Lindstrom (born in 1931 in San Francisco) is Mary Richards' snobbish, self-absorbed and interfering friend and downstairs neighbor in “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”. She married dermatologist Dr. Lars Lindstrom in 1955; Phyllis frequently mentions and quotes Lars, but he is never seen by the audience. (Lars was also the name of Cloris Leachman's husband-to-be on the 1962 Laramie episode titled "Trial by Fire".)

It is later revealed to Mary and another friend and neighbor Rhoda Morgenstern, that the Lindstroms manage the large Minneapolis boarding house in which they all live. Mary also develops a close relationship with Phyllis's daughter Bess.

Rhoda and Phyllis maintain an adversarial but talkative relationship. Phyllis had actively prevented Rhoda from switching apartments to the newly vacated apartment she had earmarked for Mary that Mary ultimately took.

Phyllis was a recurring character in “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”, appearing in a total of 35 episodes. She was in 12 of 24 episodes for season 1, 12 of 24 episodes for season 2, 4 of 24 episodes for season 3, 3 of 24 episodes for season 4, 3 of 24 episodes for season 5, and one episode in season 7.

In season 4 opener "The Lars Affair", Phyllis clashes with Sue Ann Nivens who hosts ‘The Happy Homemaker’ on WJM-TV, after Sue Ann and Lars have an affair. The second meeting of Phyllis and Sue Ann was in episode "Phyllis Whips Inflation", Phyllis's final appearance in “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” before moving to her spin-off series. Colleagues attempt to prevent their accidentally meeting at the studio; when they do it is played off as a joke and the self-centered Phyllis plaintively asks Sue Ann if there are any jobs available on her show.

"I'll kill you...."

Phyllis appeared in the first two episodes of fellow “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” spinoff “Rhoda”.  (O'Bservation - Phyllis forgot to pick up Rhoda and bring her to the wedding.)

Phyllis (and Rhoda) return for one scene in the final episode of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”. This was Phyllis's only return to “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” after the spinoff.

In 1975 Leachman left “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” to star in spin-off series “Phyllis”. In the spin-off Phyllis and Bess relocate to Phyllis's hometown San Francisco after the death of Lars.

Phyllis and Bess live with Lars' mother Audrey, as well as Audrey's new husband, Judge Jonathan Dexter. Phyllis's major nemesis is Jonathan's mother, Sally (Judith Lowry), a sharp-tongued, irritable, impatient woman known as Mother Dexter. Mother Dexter gets along well with Bess.

Mary Tyler Moore appears in two episodes as Mary Richards: one in season 1 and one in season 2.

After Barbara Colby was murdered,
the role of Julie Erskine was recast with Liz Torres.
Toobworld splainin?
Plastic surgery  

In the first season, Phyllis works at Erskine Photography Studio. In the second and last season the series was retooled with Phyllis switching to work as administrative assistant for a city supervisor.

Here are the TV shows which qualify Phyllis to join her friends from WJM in the Television Crossover Hall of Fame….

The Mary Tyler Moore Show
35 episodes (1970-1977)

Rhoda

- Rhoda's Wedding Parts I & II (1974)

Phyllis

48 episodes (1975-1977)

I like to think that in her life after cancellation, Phyllis Lindstrom eventually remarried; I’m not sure if it was to her boss, Dan Valenti, although they did have a flirty rapport at times… when she wasn’t driving him crazy.  

(Thinking in sitcommish terms, maybe they could have established that the character played by Carmine Caridi in one episode of the first season – Vince – was Dan’s twin brother.  Maybe she could have married him, giving Caridi a larger role(s) and giving a whole new level to Phyllis’ life during prime-time.)

In the years since her sitcom went off the air, I imagine Phyllis became a doting, if overbearing, grandmother to any children whom her daughter Bess might have had.  (By this point in the Toobworld timeline, she could even be a great-grandmother by now!)

It's a shame Ms. Leachman didn’t appear in any other TV sitcoms as Phyllis, even if those shows weren’t produced by the MTM company.  And the crossover wouldn’t have to be with another sitcom; it’s happened before – ‘Alice’ & ‘The Dukes Of Hazzard’, ‘The Associates’ & ‘The Paper Chase’, and the biggest of all, ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show’ & ‘Lou Grant’.

If she  stayed in the San Francisco area, it would have been fun to see Phyllis Lindstrom show up in an episode of 'Dharma & Greg', 'Hooperman', 'Suddenly Susan', and 'Full House', with a return guest appearance in 'Fuller House''!

There’s only one person left from WJM-TV (Channel 12) who needs to be inducted into the TVXOHOF.  My plan is to take care of that next January as our Classic TV Crossover showcase….

In the meantime, welcome to the Hall, Mrs. Lindstrom.  I'm sure we'll find a way to con people - I mean, convince them - to come to the induction ceremony....

  And good night and may God bless, Cloris Leachman....

FOR WOLD NEWTON DAY - VRIL

As this is Wold Newton Day (see the previous post for today), Toobworld Central likes to look at someone or something in the TV Universe which has a correlation in the Wold Newton Universe.

This year, it’s a What….

HUNTERS
(Ruth: 1:16)

Lonnie Flash found copies of a book at the homes of two fugitive Nazis and took them to a friend for her to decipher….

ANNIKA:
It seems this is a republication of a late 19th century sci-fi tale called Vril. "A master race living underground with plans to launch a fight, a revolution. Their plan: to take over the entire world. " The Nazis used Vril as a spiritual inspiration.

But this version has been updated.

Here we go. Not just inspiration, but instructions. Thus, the title, “Book of the Coming Race”. No, sorry. “Manual for the Coming Race”.

Plans of a war they swear they will fight to the death….

From Wikipedia:
“The Coming Race” is a novel by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, published anonymously in 1871. It has also been published as “Vril, the Power of the Coming Race”.

Some readers have believed the account of a superior subterranean master race and the energy-form called "Vril", at least in part; some theosophists, notably Helena Blavatsky, William Scott-Elliot, and Rudolf Steiner, accepted the book as based on occult truth, in part.

One 1960 book, “The Morning of the Magicians”, suggested that a secret Vril Society existed in Weimar Berlin. However, there is no evidence for the existence of such a society.

Vril Energy has been incorporated into the Wold Newton Universe with the addition of Derrick Ferguson’s adventurer Dillon and perhaps in other works.  Sean Lee Levin pointed out the Dillon connection:

Here are the crossovers in the more recent "Dillon and the Prophecy of Fire," which previously appeared on Derrick's Patreon.

Dillon brings his friends to his home in Grand, Pennsylvania. A group of villains seek the Vril energy from Dillon. The mastermind behind the Vril plot is revealed as Li Shoon, the leader of the Ui Kwoon Ah-How.
[Edited]

The Vril is from Edward Bulwer-Lytton's THE COMING RACE.

Now, the reference in “Hunters” keeps it within the covers of Bulwer-Lytton’s book, and that might make it limited to Jasper Fforde’s BookWorld universe in the Thursday Next series of books.  But there could be a way to still make it work for Toobworld.

It could be that Bulwer-Lytton took the Truth about the Vril-ya and the Vril energy and fictionalized it in his book.  As such, he could have been working as an agent of the early version of the shadow ops organization of UNReel, which took inspiration from the writings of Sherlock Holmes – UNReel helps the heroes of Toobworld to hide in plain sight by convincing the general public that those heroes are fictional.

It's easy to see why UNReel needed to “fictionalize” the underground empire of the Vril-ya, a superior race who could finally decide to take over the surface world.  While diplomats from all over that surface world negotiate with the Vril-ya to maintain the status quo, UNReel does its job to keep interlopers from trying to explore that world and disrupt the balance.

So while Annika might think Bulwer-Lytton’s work is fiction, that just proves UNReel’s plan is still working.  (Or at least it still was in 1977.)

So ‘Hunters’ introduced the concept of Vril energy into Toobworld, but left hanging the possibility that it actually exists in the TV Universe.  Perhaps energy creatures from ‘The Outer Limits’ might theoretically be connected to Vril, but that doesn’t make it definite.

Who knows?  Someday it might happen.  But for now, the Wold Newton Universe has Vril, while Toobworld will just have to wait.

And so it goes…..

Happy Wold Newton Day to all who O’Bserve!

HAPPY WOLD NEWTON DAY!

We’ve got an annual rerun today…..

Today is Wold Newton Day!

From the Introduction to Philip Jose Farmer's Wold Newton Family by Win Scott Eckert:

The Wold Newton Family is a group of heroic and villainous literary figures that science fiction author Philip Jose Farmer postulated belonged to the same genetic family. Some of these characters are adventurers, some are detectives, some explorers and scientists, some espionage agents, and some are evil geniuses.
According to Mr. Farmer, the Wold Newton family originated when a radioactive meteor landed in Wold Newton, England, in the year 1795. The radiation caused a genetic mutation in those present, which endowed many of their descendants with extremely high intelligence and strength, as well as an exceptional capacity and drive to perform good, or, as the case may be, evil deeds.

 Popular characters that Philip Jose Farmer concluded were members of the Wold Newton mutant family include: Solomon Kane; Captain Blood; The Scarlet Pimpernel; Harry Flashman; Sherlock Holmes and his nemesis Professor Moriarty (aka Captain Nemo); Phileas Fogg; The Time Traveler; Allan Quatermain; Tarzan and his son Korak; A.J. Raffles; Professor Challenger; Richard Hannay; Bulldog Drummond; the evil Fu Manchu and his adversary, Sir Denis Nayland Smith; G-8; The Shadow; Sam Spade; Doc Savage, his cousin Pat Savage, and one of his five assistants, Monk Mayfair; The Spider; Nero Wolfe; Mr. Moto; The Avenger; Philip Marlowe; James Bond; Lew Archer; and Travis McGee.

As the Curator for the Toobworld Dynamic, I am a great admirer of the work done by Mr. Farmer and Mr. Eckert and Sean Lee Levin and others in detailing the lineage of these great pulp characters.  The Wold Newton Universe was an early influence on the Toobworld Dynamic.

But although there are similarities between the two shared universes, the TwD is NOT the WNU.  The main reason being that the Wold Newton meteorite is not a fixed point in the history of Earth Prime-Time.  At least, not yet.  (I have hopes one day it will be dramatized for TV.)

In the meantime, Toobworld does share many members from the original core of the Wold Newton Family listed above.  They would include:

• Sherlock Holmes
• Lord Greystoke aka Tarzan
• Nero Wolfe
• Fu Manchu
• Sir Denis Nayland Smith
• Bulldog Drummond
• Allan Quatermain
• Phileas Fogg
• Professor James Moriarty*
• Professor George Challenger
• Richard Hannay
• Philip Marlowe
• James Bond
• Travis McGee
• Lew Archer
• Harry Flashman
• Captain Nemo*

And there are others, some perhaps within the extended family, others from the Wold Newton Universe in general, who also have counterparts in the TV Universe:

• Arsene Lupin
• Lord Peter Wimsey
• Monsieur Lecoq
• Hercule Poirot
• Charlie Chan
• Dracula
• The Frankenstein Family
• Ivanhoe
• Robin Hood
• Zorro
• The Lone Ranger
• The Saint
• Father Brown
• Carnacki
• Dr. Thorndyke
• Dr. Jeckyll
• Horatio Hornblower
• Miss Marple

And plenty more who sprang from the "Glass Furnace" first.

So I'd just like to take this moment to salute my comrades across the dimensional vortex with their continuing adventures on this anniversary.

Here's to that chunk of space debris that made it all possible!

BCnU!

* O’Bservation:
Mr. Farmer’s assertion that for the WNU, Captain Nemo and Professor Moriarty are one and the same is the best indicator that Toobworld is not the Wold Newton Universe.  For Toobworld, Nemo and the Napoleon of Crime are two different men.

TOOBWOLD DAY

From Wikipedia:

On 13 December 1795 a meteorite crashed on the outskirts of the village, landing within metres of ploughman John Shipley.  As a monument to this event there is a brick column bearing the inscription.  [See below.]

The meteorite is now housed in the Natural History Museum and the occurrence inspired the development of the body of science fiction literature known as the Wold Newton family by American author Philip José Farmer.

Today is Wold Newton Day, the day when the meteorite crashed near Wold Newton and its radioactive aura imbued over a dozen travelers who stopped by to examine the site.

From those people, whose DNA was affected by the radiation, came some of the greatest heroes and villains the world just outside the window has ever known. This was all chronicled initially by Philip Jose Farmer and later carried on by ardent archivists of connected material.

Earth Prime-Time is NOT Wold Newton, but several members of the WNU Family and other affiliated characters are part of Toobworld.  However, Toobworld only deals with their “televersions”, not their characterizations from the original sources or other adaptations… with some exceptions.

In “The Night Of The Dancing Death” from the first season of ‘The Wild Wild West’, Secret Service agent Artemus Gordon needed to create a diversion so that fellow agent James West could leave the ballroom in the Albanian embassy without notice.  In disguise as the Grand Elector of Saxony, Artemus instigated a fight with an elderly representative for Pomerania.

“Grand Elector”:
If I were the American Secretary, I should censure you for violating the Carpathian border.  After all, you had your gunboats fire on their coastlines, their ports.
Landgrave:
You presume to condemn?  For people in- in need of money, in need of friends?  Still much greater than Carpathia!
“Grand Elector”:
My father always said over and over and over again, you can never trust a land-hungry Pomeranian.

While there are the Carpathian Mountains and a small historic region in Central Europe known as Carpathian Ruthenia, this reference is to a fictional kingdom which served as the homeland for King Nicholas VIII.  The King, who inherited the crown on his mother's side, visited London in 1911 for the coronation of George V on June 22.  He was accompanied by his father Charles, the Prince Regent (as Nicholas is only sixteen years old), and by his maternal grandmother, the Dowager Queen of Carpathia.

Carpathia is the fictional Balkan kingdom in the 1957 film “The Prince and the Showgirl”, based on a play by Terence Rattigan.

As I mentioned earlier, Earth Prime-Time is not part of the Wold Newton Universe.  We do share the characters of Artemus Gordon and James West, but there are differences.

In the CU of Wold Newton, the archivists can draw upon other sources to enhance the biographies of the agents.  Toobworld only uses the TV series episodes and the two TV movies.  From that we also extrapolate “theories of relateeveety” to make the claims that both men are related to TV characters from other shows at different points in the Toobworld Timeline.

But we do stipulate certain details from the WNU to be in effect for Toobworld as well – their dates of birth for instance.

As for the theatrical film with Will Smith and Kevin Kline?  That’s right out!  That belongs in the meta-fictional universe of the movies, for which Craig Shaw Gardner coined the term “the Cineverse”.

But speaking of movies, there are times we absorb a film wholly into the TV Universe, knowing that it won’t affect the integrity of Toobworld.  Of course all of those movies spun off from TV shows and using the original casts – ‘Maverick’, ‘Batman 1966’, ‘Downton Abbey’, the first several ‘McHale’s Navy’ flicks and the ‘Star Trek’ franchise from “The Motion Picture” to the first fifteen minutes of the ‘Star Trek’ reboot from 2009 – only up until Spock entered the black hole.  For Toobworld, that marked the death of Spock.  (Everything after becomes a movie of 2009, fantasizing the rest of that future.)

So with “The Prince And The Showgirl”, having read through a synopsis of the plotline, I see no reason why it would upset the dynamics of Toobworld to bring it into the TV Universe.  And so it’s a crossover which at least works for the Toobworld Dynamic.

Happy Wold Newton Day, Toobworld-style!

BOOK 'EM RECASTAWAYS - DORIAN GRAY

When the 'Warehouse 13' agents searched a fashion show in a case that revolved around the fast-acting premature aging of models, Pete Latimer said: "Nobody's got the picture of Dorian Gray hanging up for decoration."  To which Artie replied that the original portrait was hanging in the Warehouse.

From the IMDb:
'WAREHOUSE 13'
The Picture of Dorian Gray in Warehouse
Pete: Nobody's got the picture of Dorian Gray hanging up for decoration.

Referencing Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. (1890). The title character, a young hedonist who makes a wish that a portrait of himself will grow old while he remains young and untouched. His wish is granted and he lives a life of debauchery and vice while the portrait grows ever more aged and disfigured. In the end, Gray stabs his portrait, causing his own death and transferring the disfigurements back to himself. 

Oscar Wilde wrote a non-fictional account about Dorian Gray's picture back in 1890, so we know the "true" events in Toobworld occurred before then.  And in 1961 we saw those events played out in a TV movie.  So it is part of the TV Universe.  (And it can be found in the Wold Newton Universe as well although Dorian Gray is not a member of the Wold Newton Family itself, just part of the overall Wold Newton Universe.)

So 'Warehouse 13' has another link, this time to the TV movie.  By the way, there were two adaptations in 1961, and although I'm partial to John Fraser, I'll stick with my standard rule - First broadcast belongs in Earth Prime-Time.  That means Jeremy Brett is the face of Dorian Gray for the main Toobworld.  What I like about that is a theory of relateeveety could be made in which Dorian Gray might be related to the Sherlock Holmes of Toobworld, also portrayed by Jeremy Brett.

The Dorian Gray of 'Penny Dreadful', in fact the entire series, had to be moved to another TV dimension.  There were just too many Zonks to reconcile.

Here are the TV adaptations of Wilde's story over the years.

Armchair Theatre: The Picture of Dorian Gray (1961)

Starring Jeremy Brett as Dorian Gray
[As mentioned earlier, this is the official televersion of the story for Earth Prime-Time.]

Golden Showcase: The Picture of Dorian Gray (1961)

John Fraser as Dorian Gray

El Retrato de Dorian Gray (1969): 

Starring Enrique Álvarez Félix as Dorian Gray
[This took place in Spanish Toobworld.]

The Picture of Dorian Gray (1973)

Starring Shane Briant as Dorian Gray

The Picture of Dorian Gray (1976) 

Starring Peter Firth as Dorian Gray

The Sins of Dorian Gray (1983)

Starring Belinda Bauer as a female Dorian Gray
[This took place in a TV dimension established in 'Sliders'.  In this case it was the world in which women held sway - they had Pope Jane Pauley, for example.]

Penny Dreadful (2014-2016)

Starring Reeve Carney as Dorian Gray
[The TV dimension for this series could be the same as that for the series 'Dickensian'.]

Each of them have been relegated to other TV dimensions.

BCnU!

My thanks to Win Scott Eckert for his help in this post.

HAPPY WOLD NEWTON DAY! WE'RE CELEBRATING WITH TARZAN, YET AGAIN....

'MISS FISHER'S MURDER MYSTERIES'

"MURDER IN MONTPARNASSE"

Bert Johnson was the target of the man who had murdered a famous painter in France.  Bert and several of his fellow soldiers had witnessed it and the killer had tracked them down to eliminate them one by one.

Exasperated by what he considered the inefficiency of the police, Bert vowed to take care of the matter on his own in order to avenge his friends.  But when he tried to storm out, Constable Hugh Collins was blocking his way, seemingly with no intention on moving to one side so that he might pass.

"Out of my road, Tarzan," growled Bert, but Hugh didn't step aside until Detective Jack Robinson nodded his okay.

Team Toobworld, you know the rules of the Toobworld Dynamic: Bert's pejorative, calling Hugh "Tarzan" (meaning that he was a big ape-man standing in the way as I interpreted it) had no attribution back to the source material - the Tarzan stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Had there been mention of the books, which began in 1912, then it might have been Bert was familiar with them.  (Two of them were both completed and published in 1928 - "Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle"was serialized from December of 1927 through May of 1928 and then published in hardcover in September of 1928.  This particular episode of the Australian "History Mystery" took place in October of 1928.  It's pozz'ble, just pozz'ble, that Bert had recently read it.  If not, there had been the ten previous novels.

Then again, Bert doesn't really come off as the reader type.  No worries. An argument could be made that he probably saw one of five feature length films that came out before this investigation (with a sixth "currently" running as a serial.)

But as there was no attribution to either the books or the movies, I'm going with the idea that Bert was making a comparison between Constable Collins and the actual Jungle Lord, Tarzan.

You don't know how long I've been waiting for this in my televisiological studies!  To actually have "proof" that Tarzan existed in the main TV dimension around the same time his timeline was chronicled by Philip Jose Farmer in "Tarzan Alive" (and mapped out with more details by Wold Newton scholar Win Scott Eckert.)

(A word of caution: I am not equating Toobworld with the Wold Newton Universe.  They are two wholly distinctive meta-fictional universes, but they do share a few characters and locations, with Tarzan being one of them.)

However [and alas for Toobworld!], the legend of Tarzan (NOT "The Legend Of Tarzan"!) always seemed to be locked into the mid-1960s - ERB's far future - because of the televisual dominance of the Ron Ely TV series.  But with last year's celebration of Wold Newton Day, we accepted the immortality of Tarzan as established in the meta-fictional universe of BookWorld as having happened in Toobworld as well.  So the Tarzan that Bert Johnson knew of in 1920s Australia was the same Lord of the Jungle known to Private Kelly in WWII France and that Ape--Man was still active in the 1960s, thanks to the immortality elixir.

BCnU!

TOOBWORLD CELEBRATES WOLD NEWTON DAY

"Come on, eat something!  Here, have some soup. 

It's good; here, have some. 

Now, how are you going to be strong? Come on, huh? 

Strong like me! 

Look, strong like Tarzan! 

Do you know who Tarzan is?" 

Private Kelly

'Combat!'

It's customary for Toobworld Central to accept references to other fictional characters as being an acknowledgement that they actually exist.  This is no different, but Kelly's verb tense makes it seem that Kelly considers Tarzan as still being alive.

For the purposes of the Toobworld Dynamic, I am currently inclined to consider Ron Ely's portrayal of the Ape-Man in the 1960s TV series as being THE Tarzan.  It doesn't have much of a connection to the world and the time period in which Edgar Rice Burroughs set as the backdrop for the two dozen or so novels he wrote about one of the most famous characters in literature.

And it's to one of those novels that I have turned in order to make my argument that the Tarzan played by Ely is the official one for Earth Prime-Time.  

If - as we usually do with contemporary TV characters - we consider Tarzan to be the same age as the actor who played him, then John Clayton was born around the late 1930s.  However, the main thrust of the action in the novels takes place around the same time as the first publication in All-Story Magazine in 1912, with Tarzan being born a little over two decades before.  Luckily, the 1935/36 publication of "Tarzan's Quest" in Blue Book Magazine provided a way to resolve this timeline discrepancy.

Here's a summary of "Tarzan's Quest" from Wikipedia:

Tarzan's wife Jane (her first appearance since Tarzan and the Ant Men and also her last as a major character in the series), becomes involved in a search for a bloodthirsty lost tribe reputed to possess an immortality drug. Also drawn in are Tarzan and his monkey companion, little Nkima, and Chief Muviro and his faithful Waziri warriors, who are searching for Muviro's lost daughter Buira. Nkima's vital contribution to the adventure is recognized when he is made a recipient of the immortality treatment along with the human protagonists at the end of the novel.

Toobworld Central doesn't always accept details to be found in the original sources outside of television; what matters more is what was depicted on the small screen.  As an example, even though the details of Batman's back-story - in which he saw his parents gunned down in an alley by a low-life criminal - were not explicitly spelled out in the 1966 'Batman' (the official portrayal of the Caped Crusader in the main Toobworld), we accept that as being the true story.  However, when it comes to the true identity of who the Riddler is, that never came up in the TV series and therefore we have no compunction about refusing to accept "Edward Nigma" as his real identity.  (To better serve the cohesiveness of the TV mosaic, the Riddler was actually two men, as it's a job title, not a name - Lew Rydell from the "Second Verdict" episode of 'The Alfred Hitchcock Hour', and Gomez Addams of 'The Addams Family'.)

And so it is with Tarzan.  Even though the stories from the TV series have no connection to the Burroughs' novels, he is still the real Tarzan for the main Toobworld.  But at the same time we accept the events depicted in "Tarzan's Quest" as having happened.  Therefore, Ron Ely's Tarzan was born in the 19th Century. (According to Win Scott Eckert's excellent chronology for all of Burroughs' major characters, John Clayton was born November 22, 1888.) He later received that immortality drug although we never saw any of that depicted on TV.  (Just so there is no confusion, Toobworld is NOT part of the Wold Newton Universe, which I admire very much.  Philip Jose Farmer was one of several influences on the Toobworld Dynamic and Win Scott Eckert has done an excellent job in carrying on his work.)

The Toobworld Dynamic is a fluid concept, always changing and adapting due to new stories written for television.  The day may come when a Tarzan truly faithful to the Burroughs mythos comes along on TV and we'll have to rethink our position on Ron Ely's character.  Accepting the events from the novel "Tarzan's Quest" shows that we already have revised our position on the Lord of the Apes.  If that day comes, we do have a splainin in mind: that Ely's Tarzan is only using the name of his father; that in fact he is Jack Clayton AKA Korak.

We shall see what we shall view.

Getting back to the 'Combat!' quote that launched this post......

So Private Kelly was referring to Ron Ely as Tarzan, even though his televised exploits would not be happening for another twenty years at least.  Although unseen by the audience viewing at home in the Trueniverse, Tarzan was very much active during the war years and his exploits must have been chronicled by some intrepid reporter in dispatches from Africa.  (I'm sure with a little research we could find such a fictional reporter in yet another TV show.)  

Kelly must have read about those adventures of Tarzan and that's why he spoke of the Ape-Man as being alive.

So anyhoo... that's my annual contribution to Wold Newton Day as it applies to the Television Universe.

BCnU!

MEMORIAL DAY 2016 IN TOOBWORLD: REMEMBERING PRIVATE KELLY

Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the United States for remembering the people who died while serving in the country's armed forces. The holiday, which is observed every year on the last Monday of May, originated as Decoration Day after the American Civil War in 1868, when the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of Union veterans founded in Decatur, Illinois, established it as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the Union war dead with flowers. By the 20th century, competing Union and Confederate holiday traditions, celebrated on different days, had merged, and Memorial Day eventually extended to honor all Americans who died while in the military service. It typically marks the start of the summer vacation season, while Labor Day marks its end.

Many people visit cemeteries and memorials, particularly to honor those who have died in military service. Many volunteers place an American flag on each grave in national cemeteries.

[From Wikipedia]

With that in mind....

PRIVATE KELLY

This year for Memorial Day, Toobworld Central is paying tribute to the memory of Private Kelly.  After Braddock disappeared from King Company second squad*, Private Kelly filled the vacuum of the resident wiseguy among the men.  Unfortunately, it was literally a short-lived tour of duty, as Kelly only lasted three episodes.  He met his end from a German's bullet, for want of a shoe.

So we don't now much about Private Kelly.  The actor who played the role was Joby Baker, but I don't think we can count on his personal background for clues about Kelly.  I get the feeling Kelly was a New York City boy, born and bred; but Baker grew up in Montreal, Quebec.  But we don't learn his first name, not even his first initial... as was the case with R. Quincy, M.E.  (Don't try to make the comparison with Lieutenant Columbo.  It was established in the show that his first name was Frank.)

I'd like to think it was a first name which caused him embarrassment, like 'Endeavour' did for 'Inspector Morse'.  But then I'm a baaaad boy....

Here's a quick rundown of the episodes in which Kelly appeared:

"LOST SHEEP, LOST SHEPHERD"

This was Kelly's first appearance, in which a former priest, now a violent tank sergeant, caused problems for King Two in a small French village.  Kelly quickly established his smart-mouthed persona in this one.

[He also has provided me with material to work with in my annual salute to the crossover universe created by Philip Jose Farmer, "The Wold Newton Universe".  I had always been torn about how to reconcile the legend of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs with his portrayal in the 1960s TV series starring Ron Ely.  The scene with Kelly depicted above has made the decision for me.....]

"THE CELEBRITY"

Private Kelly with Private Billy Nelson

The title character was a former baseball player named Del Packer.  The player should have been relegated to a desk job, not just to protect the service from any bad publicity should anything happen to him, which was a crippling fear for Packer, but because he proved to be a danger to the other platoon members, especially hero-worshipping Billy Nelson.  (Somehow Billy rose from the dead after this episode and became pretty much a regular of the squad.)  

"SURVIVAL"

This is one of the most heralded episodes in the show's run, directed by legendary film director Robert Altman.  It would also prove to be his last for the series (He did at least ten episodes.), for he was fired over how controversial and experimental it looked.  

With this episode, in which the focus was mostly on Sgt. Saunders' pain-fueled journey through the countryside, we said goodbye to Private Kelly.  While King Company was being held prisoner by the Germans, one of the Nazis decided he would take Kelly's boots for himself.  When a fire broke out in the barn in which they were being held, Kelly had no choice but to make a run for it in his stocking feet.  

Later, they discovered a German supply tent in which they stocked up on munitions and rations.  Kelly discovered a box full of boots - but instead of grabbing a pair and putting them on later, he dallied in the tent to try them on there.  And unfortunately, that's when a German soldier burst in and caught him, shooting him dead on the spot.  It all seemed so meaningless.

It was a stunning moment for a kid watching 'Combat!' back in the show's syndication days of the late 60s.  American soldiers were supposed to die heroically in combat!  But also, as far I knew at the time, you didn't kill somebody who was a regular on a TV show.  Well, okay, I knew about Margaret Williams on 'Make Room For Daddy' by that point, but this was the first time I actually saw it played out on my TV screen.

It's pozz'ble, just pozz'ble, that before he shipped off to war, Private Kelly left some young lovely back in New York - perhaps even more than one! - with a little something to remember him by.  And by that I mean he could have been the father to at least one illegitimate child who would later grow up to look just like his late, lamented old man.  Fred Staggs, perhaps, as seen in 'The Dick Van Dyke Show'.  (Fred Staggs was a one-shot character, and so not much of his backstory appeared in that episode.  Not so with his role as Dave Lewis, a radio DJ in the sitcom 'Good Morning, World'.  His whole family history could have come out during the course of that series' short run.....)

Fred Staggs

Dave and Linda Lewis

Joby Baker was born in 1934, and I always like to think that characters are the same age as the actors who played them, unless specified otherwise in the script.  In this case, Kelly would have been 29 when he was killed, born in 1915.  So he could have fathered at least one child when he was 19 years old in 1934, and then any number of characters he played who were his contemporaries on the Toobworld timeline would be the same age as he was.

And with that, we can have several theories of relateeveety to provide a legacy for Private Kelly.

In closing, I'd just like to tip my Toobcap to the memories of all those who gave their all in defense of our country.  Good night and may God bless.....

BCnU!

* Braddock was probably captured yet again by the Germans, but this time for the duration of the war - or what was left of it, since the series took place after D-Day.

My thanks to Jo Davidsmeyer, who has an excellent site dedicated to 'Combat!'.  Without the information I found there, scant though it had to be on such a limited character, this blog post would have been the poorer.