"MY BOYS", THEIR ZONKS

It's been my tradition every year to tape the Super Bowl while I'm sleeping/getting ready for work so that I can watch the commercials the next morning. However, I just didn't feel it this year, knowing that I would then have to write something up about them and how they could be integrated into Toobworld.

So instead, I taped the 13 episode marathon of the first season of 'My Boys' on TBS. I had seen the first two episodes and then the last one during its original run; missing the others only because Tuesdays have always been a bad night for me in taping TV shows. Either I already had too many shows lined up from 8 pm until well past 11, or because the next day began my poor excuse of a weekend and I'd be anywhere but in front of a TV.

But I did enjoy the series and wanted to see them all.

Now, having seen the entire run of the series, I can say that I LOVE the show! These were guys I'd like to hang out with. (And I would greatly trade in the friends I have already to make it so. Sorry, guys.) The writing was smart and the dialogue between them didn't feel like set-ups for punchlines. (But boy, did they deliver without forcing it.)

And best of all, no laugh track. I certainly didn't need it to prompt me to laugh out loud on many occasions.

As I watched the show, I kept a list of any possible Zonks, thinking that it had the feel of a show that might make a lot of them. Luckily, most of the pop culture references were to the world of sports instead of to other TV shows. But there were enough attempts in the span of thirteen episodes for me to disable. And save for three of them, I think I was successful in making sure they were reconciled with the rest of Toobworld....

1]
At a nightclub, Mike was so close to Gary Sinise that he could have spit on him.

Luckily there was no mention of the TV show he stars in, 'CSI: NY'. The mention of Sinise was in keeping with the actor's connection to Chicago where he's a major player with the Steppenwolf Theatre group. It may turn out someday that when TV shows want to do shows set in Chicago, they'll seal the illusion by having Gary Sinise appear as himself in much the same way Don Ho is used whenever TV shows visit Hawaii, or Wayne Newton when they go to Las Vegas.

2]
Kenny: Mike always orders from Lindsay-o's.
Mike: Yeah because it's good, because we like it, and because it never lets us down.
Kenny: You just described Lassie.

The world's most famous dog began life in a book from 1938 and also appeared in a series of movies before her long-running career on TV. But there is no Zonk in this - the Lassie on TV was a similar collie who was named by Jeff Miller, her original owner, after the dog from the movies.

3]
The guys were watching 'Meerkat Manor' while hanging out at PJ's.

I've noticed several characters in other shows have mentioned this reality series from the Animal Planet network. As a reality show, it's in the same category as game shows, news programs, variety/talk shows, etc. that can exist in both the real world and Toobworld.

4]
Some of them watch 'The O.C.'

'The O.C.' seen by the guys is not the same series we can see on FOX. The real world version exists within Toobworld as part of its "reality". The show within the show could easily be a reality show about the people who live in the area.

5]
"You must think I'm a Clampett." - PJ

Because they were backwoods illiterates who inadvertantly made a fortune in oil and moved to Beverly Hills, the Clampetts had forty years in which the public would become aware of their notoreity. And with human interest stories being so popular in magazines, references to the Clampetts would be widely understood without need for splainin.

6]
In freshman year, PJ had a crush on 'Matlock'.

No problem here. Ben Matlock was a nationally known attorney like F. Lee Bailey, Gerry Spence, Robert Shapiro, or Johnny Cochran. It's hard to believe that PJ would have a crush on him, but at least it's not a Zonk.

Okay, here's where I was pretty much stymied.....

7]
"This has been my favorite episode of 'Gilmore Girls'." - Andy

My only hope for this one would have been to claim that 'Gilmore Girls' is not the same as it is for viewers in the real world. However, other shows have mentioned the speedy mother-daughter chatfest in the past; some of them so specific as to mention Lorelei and Rory by name!

Zonked.

8]
When attempting to get a response from the guys, P.J. did the "Bueller...? Bueller...?"

This is a reference to the 1986 movie, so there's no Zonk. Four years later there was a TV series based on the movie and that could cause some problems. But I figure that in Toobworld, the movie was based on the TV version's life. As to it being made four years before the TV Ferris could have had such experiences (a lifetime for a high schooler), maybe the movie didn't share the same release date as it had in the real world.

Otherwise, I got nothing.

Zonked.

9]
Danni mentioned that she and Mike saw David Schwimmer at a fancy nightclub. Mike added, as if it was even needed, that Schwimmer was in 'Friends'.

If this been real life, the response to that would have been, "No shit, Sherlock."

Had this been a reference to a real person like the one with Gary Sinise, it would have been free and clear of a Zonk. (Schwimmer also has the Chicago theatre connection. For him, it's the Looking Glass company.)

Not that David Schwimmer has had that extensive a movie career, but maybe his televersion has a more exciting movie resume than just 'Six Days, Seven Nights', 'Duane Hapgood', 'The Pallbearer', and a voice role in 'Madagascar'. Then they could have just left it with the mention of his name. But of course, the joke was that he's so famous for 'Friends', there was no need for Mike to mention it.

Zonked.

All in all, it averages out to two out of three Zonks disabled. And two out of three ain't bad, right? I'd have to ask PJ how that stacks up in baseball stats......

Well, 'My Boys' has proven so popular that the first season has been extended to 22 episodes. The remaining nine are being written/filmed now and the show will come back sometime during the summer.

And I'm sure there'll be a new batch of Zonks from 'My Boys' to dither over.

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

"LOST" IN THOUGHT: RESQUIAT EN PACE?

'Lost' ended with a jaw-dropping kick in the head with the revelation that Desmond has foreseen Charlie's death. And no matter how often Desmond tries to prevent it, the Universe will find some way around his efforts and Charlie's going to die, bruthah.

I've seen a lot of comments in various 'Lost' forums about how Charlie survived getting hanged by Ethan in the first season. But I think the attempts to kill him off go back even further.

First there's the doomed flight of Oceanic 815. Remember, Charlie was not sitting in his assigned seat, having just gone to the bathroom to do a "bump". It might have been interesting to see what his original seat looked like after the crash.

And then there's that classic bit from the pilot episode where he's just standing there on the beach and a large chunk of burning metal crashes right behind him.

The Universe has lousy aim.

And the Universe probably had it in mind to kill him when he crawled into that cavern to rescue Jack. But for some reason, the Universe needs Jack to survive, so it had to let Charlie go then as well.

So I've got to wonder - if Sawyer hadn't killed that polar bear, do you think its first munchable would have been Charlie?

If Hurley finds out, he won't let Charlie come anywhere near him, considering the streak of bad luck visited upon the people around him.

It's no wonder Charlie had the letters of "FATE" written on his bandaged fingers.....

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

Z-QUEL

Coming home from work just now, I spotted a subway poster for a new version of 'Zorro', to be presented as a telenovela on Telemundo.

Even though it'll be in the proper language for a TV series about Spanish-dominated California in the 1820s, it still must be relegated to an alternate dimension. Earth Prime-Time, the main Toobworld, already has its masked swordsman, as personified by Guy Williams in the Disney production from the late 1950s.

And nothing could sway me to ever bend the rules on that, all because of one episode on the series (which actually aired on the 'Disneyland' show in April of 1961). "Auld Acquaintance" featured a scalawag named Ramon Castillo, and it is my contention that not only was he a Gallifreyan Time Lord who would later go by the name of "Roarke", but that he was the father of Miguelito Loveless. (Miguelito was already carrying alien DNA on his mother's side which could be traced back to a visitation to ancient Greece by the Sahndarans.)

I am going to check out this new version, just to see the production values and to see the characters in action... not that I'm going to understand a word of what's being said!

Shows cited:
the new 'Zorro'
'Zorro'/'Disneyland'
'Fantasy Island'
'The Wild, Wild West'
'Star Trek'

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

SORBO KNOWS

Actor Kevin Sorbo has a gripe against Sam Raimi, with whom he worked on 'Hercules: The Legendary Journeys'. And he got a lot off his mind in an interview with Film Stew:

According to Sorbo, "I think I’m a good enough actor that he can put me in a secondary part in one of his feature films. It would be nice if he did that. I think he’s holding a grudge over me."

If this was taking place in Toobworld, Sam Raimi might have a valid reason to keep his distance from Kevin Sorbo - proximity to the gods tends to make some people nervous.

You see, in Earth Prime-Time, the televersion of Kevin Sorbo is not only an actor in a TV series about the legendary demi-god, but he actually IS Hercules. (This was established in an episode of 'Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.)

Sam Raimi would probably be aware of the legends surrounding Herc - how he was driven to murder his wife and kids, as well as his mentor, the centaur Chiron.

If Raimi found out that Sorbo was in fact the real Hercules, he probably figured that giving direction to such a hot-head might lead to good publicity since they worked together before, but it wasn't worth his possible death and dismemberment.

Hrmmmm..... maybe Sorbo should work with Uwe Boll or Vincent Gallo.....

Just sayin', is all....

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

SKED ALERT! SKED ALERT!

'Slings & Arrows', one of my favorite series from the last few years, is returning for a third season to the Sundance Channel this Sunday at 8 pm EST. (Check your local listings.)

This season the featured presentation at the New Burbage Shakespeare Festival is "King Lear", and I have no doubt it will be just as funny and moving as the previous two seasons which centered around "Hamlet" and The Scottish Play. (I'm no fool. Well, not much of one.....)

The series is a fantastic blend of backstage humor and drama and sentiment, and 'Studio 60' could have benefitted so much if only Aaron Sorkin had followed its example. He had Mark McKinney, one of the writers and performers of 'Slings & Arrows' in his employ; he should have taken better advantage of that.

However, it looks as though it's too late now, baby. NBC is yanking 'Studio 60' from the schedule a week earlier than planned to premiere their new drama, 'The Black Donnellys' from Paul Haggis.

At any rate, if you want to see a truly great show about the backstage world, check out 'Slings & Arrows', returning to the Sundance Channel this Sunday at 8 PM EST. (7 PM Central)

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

ADDENDUM: FROM 'DOCTOR WHO' TO 'LOST'

Sometimes I get so caught up in my excitement over a particular splainin or theory about Toobworld, that I manage to miss even the most blatant bits of information... information... information.....

And that's what happened when I trumpeted my belief that Ms. Hawking the Shopkeeper in 'Lost' - "Flashes Before Your Eyes' was in fact the White Guardian from 'Doctor Who'.

The White Guardian was a recurring character in a season-long story arc in which the cosmic entity sent the Doctor off on a mission to recover and reassemble the various segments of the Key of Time in order to save the Universe. The quest for each segment made up the storylines for each of the multi-episode stories for that season, but the over-riding title for the year was "The Key of Time".

And here we had a story about what happened to Desmond after he turned the fail-safe key in the hatch and saved the Universe - he found himself thrust back in Time to live through his own flashback with the knowledge of what was to come. And the Shopkeeper/White Guardian was there to guide him to make the fateful choice to do it all over again.

I totally didn't see the whole Time/Key significance connecting both stories.

Oh well, what the hell. Better late than never.

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

SOAPNET SNARES A SPIN-OFF

There will be a third spin-off from the soap opera 'General Hospital' which airs on ABC. Only this time, the show will air on SoapNet. (Both are owned by Disney.)

'General Hospital: Night Shift' will be the first original scripted drama to be aired by the soap-focused cabler, and it will focus on the lives of those who work the night shift at the hospital.

As I mentioned, this will be the third spin-off from 'General Hospital'. Most people will probably know about 'Port Charles' which ran from 1997 until 2003.

But there was also a show called 'The Young Marrieds', which debuted in 1964 and ran for two years. It was a soap about the marital problems of several young couples who lived in Port Charles. (Among the cast were Charles Grodin, Lee Meriweather, and Ted Knight.)

'General Hospital: Night Shift' will launch with a special episode shown on 'General Hospital'. (I haven't heard yet as to when this may happen.)

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

ZONKS: UGLY/30

When Liz Lemon was trying to sneak out of Jack Donaghy's office on her knees in last week's episode of '30 Rock', she was seen anyway by Jack's ex-wife. As a half-hearted combination of an apology and explaination, Liz pointed out that the maneuver would have worked for 'Ugly Betty'.

I put the quotation marks around the name because I'm sure she was making reference to the ABC TV series. But of course, in Toobworld, '30 Rock' and 'Ugly Betty' co-exist in the same dimension.

So to keep the reference Zonk-free, we have to figure out a different meaning for "Ugly Betty".

I don't think Liz could have meant Betty Suarez herself. She more than likely was familiar with Mode magazine, and she might have known who Daniel Meade and Wilhelmina are. (This would be mostly due to her friendship with Jenna Maroney, who probably either knew them or was familiar with the behind the scenes machinations at Mode). But as for Betty herself, I don't think their paths would ever have crossed.

It's a stretch, but if pecking orders and the laws of the jungle were the same in all corporations, it could be that there are people working at NBC who have been tagged with cruel nicknames just as there were at Mode. And even though you would think the odds were against it, perhaps there was an "Ugly Betty" where Liz worked as well.

Like I said, it's a long shot, but it's better than surrendering to the Zonk.

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

RECASTAWAY: FROM "DOCTOR WHO" TO "LOST"

I'll warn you straight off that there will be spoilers in this post as I discuss a pivotal character introduced in last night's episode of 'Lost' ("Flashes Before Your Eyes").

So run away now while you have the chance, if you have not yet seen the episode, you DVRnachists!

Okay, you've been warned.......

Over in "The Fuselage", the official bulletin board for 'Lost', Yu Kai-lin aka Garf posted a nice recap of the episode. With thanks to Yu Kai-lin and to the folks running "The Fuselage", I'm going to re-post part of it here.

Here's the set-up: Desmond Hume goes into this small curio/antique shop to look at diamond rings because he's planning on asking Penny Widmore to marry him.

Fionnuala Flanagan guest-starred as the Shopkeeper, Ms. Hawking. Here's where Yu Kai-lin picks up the tale:

"Shopkeeper asks him his price range, then says she's got something perfect for him. A sweet little ring, he says he'll take it, and she suddenly says 'I don't think so' and then tells him he has second thoughts, walks out, doesn't ask Penny to marry him, and then runs down all the things he does in the future, claiming that if he doesn't do all the things we know he does, EVERYONE DIES!

I'm totally going to have to re-watch this episode to hear all the things the shop woman rattles off to Desmond as his future events, just to see if all the things have already happened, or if there is something new in there. I did get the whole 'Everyone would be dead' if he hadn't turned the failsafe key, so that's rather cosmic.

Des wants to know [who] the shop woman is and how she knows all this stuff. She invites him to eat roasted chestnuts. And notices a man wearing red shoes.

The red shoed man dies when scaffolding falls on him. The shop woman knew he it was going to happen, and says she couldn't warn him because he'd die anyhow the next day or the day after by a different method because it was meant to happen.

She then tells him that going to the island and pushing the button and turning the failsafe key are his destiny, and any choices he thinks he'll make won't matter, it's what he's meant to do. No matter how much he fights it."
[with thanks to Yu Kai-lin and "The Fuselage]

Maybe it was the bright whiteness of her hair and the white theme to her clothing, but based on what she had to say a certain character from 'Doctor Who' came to mind. So much so that I think they could be one and the same.

I'm thinking of the White Guardian, who appeared in the "Key of Time" story arc that spanned an entire season of 'Doctor Who'.

From Wikipedia, here is the relevant information about the White Guardian:

The White Guardian is an anthropomorphic personification of order and the counterpart of the Black Guardian who represents evil, chaos and entropy. The two Guardians balance out the forces in the universe, although the Black Guardian seems to desire to upset the balance in favour of chaos and evil while the White Guardian prefers to maintain the status quo.

The White Guardian had concerns that the universe was descending into chaos.

Although extremely powerful, the Guardians apparently cannot be seen to act directly, which is why they can only affect things through agents like the Doctor.

Being such an omniscient power of the Universe, it seems obvious that the White Guardian could assume any form it wanted. And for the purposes of dealing with Desmond, it probably assumed the form of Ms. Hawking.

Ms. Hawking certainly seems to have the same goal as the White Guardian - to protect the stability of the Universe. But to do so, the White Guardian had to work through an agent, the Gallifreyan Time Lord. And Ms. Hawking needed Desmond to understand that his fate was already sealed and that he had to follow through on its course no matter the personal cost to him.

I've been knocking around another connection between 'Lost' and 'Doctor Who', but there is a collection of answers I need to get from the 'Lost' producers first. And knowing how long that may take, I'm in no rush to spill the beans just yet.

Let me know what you think of this Toobworld theory though. Did we see a 'Doctor Who' guest character on 'Lost' last night?

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

PROPPED UP: "HEROES" MAKES A "LOST" CONNECTION

In this past Monday's episode of "Heroes", Jessica (having commandeered Nikki's body) received an envelope containing information on a contract hit ordered by Linderman. With those details there was a brochure for Gannon Car Rental.

Gannon Car Rental has shown up several times on 'Lost', and Dark UFO has the pictures to prove the connection.

My thanks to that site and their commenter Andy for pointing this out.......

BCnU!
Tele-Toby