TODAY'S TIDDLYWINKYDINK: SWEATER DAY, MARCH 20TH!

Before you go out on the morning of March 20, make sure you put on a sweater, no matter what the weather is like outside.

That's because March 20 would have been the 80th birthday of Fred Rogers. To honor the memory of the host and creator of 'Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood', March 20 is being touted as "Sweater Day" in his honor.

Family Communications Inc. of Pittsburgh, the company created by Mr. Rogers to produce his show, is already in the midst of a six-day celebration which will conclude with "Sweater Day".

I'm sure King Friday the XIII has issued a decree about it already.....

BCnU!

Toby OB

SHIPPING NEWS: ON MASON/STREET

It's always been suggested that there might have been a romance between Perry Mason and his secretary Della Street - at least in the TV series. When the two characters returned in the first of their many TV movies, there was a strong hint that they once had something together, but somehow drifted apart.

Well, thanks to Big Dave's Perry Mason TV site (Visit it!), we may have found some proof that they were an item... and even sleeping together!

In the episode "The Case Of The Cheating Chancellor", the judge adjourned the court until the next day at 10 am. When court resumed that following day, there's Della wearing the exact same outfit as she wore the day before.
Of course, this could also mean that Della was sleeping with just about anybody - Paul Drake, perhaps, or even the defendant. But as this classic show was one of the original unrequited "shipper" series, I'm staking it all on Della staying the night with the boss.....
BCnU!
Toby OB

TALE OF THE MUMY

'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' introduced us to several Toobworld children who all looked alike, because they were played by Billy Mumy. (Sorry, it just doesn't sound right to say "Bill Mumy" when talking about him at that age!)

But Mumy's most famous role on that series was Jackie Chester in "Bang, You're Dead" in which he wandered around town with a loaded gun, thinking it was a toy.

Mumy also played a young boy fixated on guns in several commercials for Mattel, in which he had Dick Tracy-styled handguns and rifles. The rifle could shoot water as well as caps.

It would have been nice to claim that both boys were Jackie Chester, but there are several discrepancies which can't be overcome. Mainly, he's called Tommy by the kid who lives next door in one of the blipverts. And in the other, the father is not played by Biff Elliott, who played Fred Chester in "Bang, You're Dead".

But of course, Toobworld Central has a splainin!

Fred Chester was a ramblin' man!

It's our contention that the Mattel advertisement and "Bang, You're Dead" both take place in the same town. Or perhaps even the next town over from each other. Fred Chester was carrying on an affair with another man's wife and got her pregnant. She gave birth to Tommy, while Fred's own wife bore him a son, whom they nicknamed Jackie.

(While we're at it, there's nothing in the episode of "Bang, You're Dead" to refute the suggestion that the town Jackie lived in was Mayfield, the town best known as the setting for 'Leave It To Beaver'.)

This doesn't take into account the other youngsters of the era, like Anthony Fremont and Billy Bayles of 'The Twilight Zone', Googie Miller of 'The Munsters' and Custer on 'I Dream Of Jeannie', but it could be that Fred Chester was a traveling salesman who just couldn't keep it in his pants.

(Characters like Will Robinson of 'Lost In Space', Pip from 'The Twilight Zone', and of course all of his characters from TV Westerns were born outside the time period in which Fred Chester was sowing his oats and fathering these look-alike boys of the same age.)

Just sayin', is all. But that's because I'm a bad man. I'm a very bad man.....

BCnU!
Toby OB

TODAY'S TWD: LOCK AND UNLOAD

In 1961, Bill Mumy played Jackie Chester in "Bang, You're Dead", an episode of 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents". Jackie got hold of his uncle's gun, loaded it with real bullets, and went about town playing cowboy and acting as though he was going to shoot people.

At the end, Alfred Hitchcock came out to give his usual closing comments, but he admitted that it was not appropriate to send the audience off with his usual pithy remarks. Instead, he used the time to present what could be described as a public service announcement, warning parents that they should keep guns and ammunition out of the reach of children.
But according to these statistics from Common Sense About Kids and Guns, it's more than forty years on, and there are still parents out there who didn't heed Mr. Hitchcock's warning:

34% of children in the United States (representing more than 22 million children in 11 million homes) live in homes with at least one firearm. In 69 percent of homes with firearms and children, more than one firearm is present.

28% of gun-owning households with children do not always keep guns locked in a secure place.

Center for Disease Control statistics for 2005 - Children under the age of 17 killed by guns were 1490.

Every nine hours a child or teen was killed in a firearm-related accident or suicide in 2005.

On average, 3 children died every day in non-homicide firearm incidents from 2000-2005.

In 2005, there were 16,298 kids injured by a firearm -- and an additional 14,052 kids were injured from BB or pellet guns.

The overall firearm-related death rate among U.S. children aged less than 15 years was nearly 12 times higher than among children in 25 other industrialized countries combined.

On average in each of the last 10 years, more than 1,000 kids committed suicide with a firearm; 105 were under 15-years-old.

There were plenty more statistics, but you should visit "Common Sense About Kids and Guns" to learn more.....

BCnU!
Toby OB

"HAPPY DAYS" DE-ZONKED

During that 'Criminal Minds' episode set in Milwaukee ("In Birth And Death"), Detective Wolynski lamented the fact that before Jeffrey Dahmer, most people associated Milwaukee with 'Happy Days'.

As 'Happy Days' shares the same TV Universe as 'Criminal Minds', as hard as that may be to visualize, we can't allow this to be a Zonk about the TV show 'Happy Days'.

Since Wolynski never said anything else about the show but its title, I'm going to just consider it a reference to some other popular fiction - perhaps a musical......

BCnU!
Toby OB

TODAY'S TWD: DAMNED AND DAHMER

In the 'Criminal Minds' episode entitled "In Birth And Death", the BAU team traveled to Milwaukee to help out on a serial murder case. There they met Detective Vic Wolynski, whom Spencer recognized as having been part of the team who investigated the Jeffrey Dahmer case. (Wolynski was surprised that anybody would remember him for that - especially as there were so many other elements of the case that would be more likely seared into the memory. But then, that was just Spencer being Spencer.)

The connection of Detective Wolynski to the Dahmer case made be the first televersion link in Toobworld. The 'Law & Order: Criminal Intent' episode "Want" was based on the Jeffrey Dahmer case, but this 'Criminal Minds' episode may be the first to actually absorb Dahmer into the TV Universe. (I'm fairly certain references have been made to it in other shows, however....)

Not wanting to give Dahmer too much of a spotlight here at Inner Toob, here are just some of the basics, edited from Wikipedia:
Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer (May 21, 1960 – November 28, 1994) was an American serial killer. Dahmer murdered 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991, with the majority of the murders occurring between 1989 and 1991. His murders were particularly gruesome, involving rape, necrophilia and cannibalism.

By the summer of 1991, Dahmer was murdering approximately one person each week.

On July 22, 1991, Dahmer's intended victim escaped and alerted a police car, with the handcuffs still hanging from one hand. The would-be victim led police back to Dahmer's apartment, where Dahmer at first acted friendly to the officers, only to turn on them when he realized that they suspected something was wrong.

As one officer subdued Dahmer, the other searched the house and uncovered multiple photographs of murdered victims and human remains, including three severed heads and penises. A further search of the apartment revealed more evidence, including photographs of victims and human remains in his refrigerator.

On November 28, 1994, Dahmer and another inmate were beaten to death by fellow inmate Christopher Scarver with a bar from a weight machine while on work detail in the prison gym. Dahmer died from severe head trauma in the ambulance en route to the hospital.

Ugh. Good riddance.

BCnU!
Toby OB

THE COMBATANTS OF NIMOY

Oooooh! Sounds positively skiffy, don't it?

"Hellooooo.... Newman."
Jerry Seinfeld
'Seinfeld'

In the past here I've mentioned that character names as spelled in the credits are not to be taken as fact in the TV Universe, since there could be changes within the actual show. In the last year I've seen this happen with episodes of 'Burke's Law' and 'Curb Your Enthusiasm'.

And now I'm dismissing the name of a character as it is seen in the credits, but not because of a discrepancy with the program. It was probably meant the way it was written. However, it doesn't serve the greater good of Toobworld that way. And in this case especially, it's somewhat fitting to say that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few... or the one.

Leonard Nimoy appeared twice on 'Combat!'; his episodes separated by two years. But basically the characters were the same - soldiers attached to Sgt. Saunders' squad who were most useful because they spoke German, and fluently at that.

However, in his first appearance he was known as "Neumann" ("The Wounded Don't Cry"), and in "The Raider" he was called "Baum".It's my contention that these two characters were one and the same man, and that his name always was Baum.

It's that name "Neumann" as seen in the credits with which I'm taking issue. We hear him addressed as Neumann, but we never hear him referred to as Private Neumann, just Neumann.

What I'm always striving for is to find the simplest splainin as to the discrepancies of Toobworld. So instead of saying that there were two men attached to Saunders' squad who looked remarkably similar and then finding the reason why (identical cousins?), I'd prefer to find a reason why they can't be one and the same man, despite the name difference.

So here's my Occam's Razor splainin: When he was being addressed as "Neumann", Nimoy's character's name was really Baum. But he was new to the unit and that led to him getting a nickname. What we're hearing is not "Neumann" but "New Man". Had it been taking place today, they'd be calling him "Newbie".

(I remember in the movie "The Big Red One", which was based on director Samuel Fuller's experiences during World War II, the more seasoned soldiers in the squad tried to keep their distance from the new guys. There was some kind of superstition that they would be quicker to get killed in the next battle. Perhaps by tagging these guys with nicknames, it was a way to keep them ostracized.)

Only after "New Man" nearly died by stopping a Gestapo officer from killing them all with a potato masher did they stop calling him New Man and begin using his given name of Baum.

Perhaps they sometimes tweaked it to sound like the more Germanic spelling of "Neumann", or even wrote it out that way if they mentioned him in letters back home, because he was the go-to guy when it came to speaking German to their prisoners. That way, we can still allow for the spelling found in the end credits.

Does it really matter? Of course not! Let's face it, none of this does! But it's fun, so stuff it.

With this splainin, we don't have to worry about two Leonard Nimoy characters running around Occupied Europe during the Big One. Because I know somebody would want to claim that one of them was really Mr. Spock, sent back by the Guardian of the Gate of Forever!

Oh... just one more thing....

It's also my contention that Private Baum has a teenaged son back home in the States whose heart is set on becoming a professional magician. One day he'll go by the name of "The Amazing Paris" - perhaps it's a stage name he adopts to honor the fact that his father took part in the liberation of Paris, France? ('Mission: Impossible')

BCnU!

Toby OB

"Perhaps there's more to Newman than meets the eye."
Elaine Benes
'Seinfeld'

SPITZ TAKE II

If they do make a TV movie about the Eliot Spitzer scandal, here's my casting suggestion:

Marc Vann.

He plays Conrad Ecklies on 'CSI' and can currently be seen in 'Lost' as the doctor on board the freighter.

But I'm sure the suits will probably go for a bigger name even if they don't look like Spitzer.

Just sayin', is all.

BCnU!
Toby OB

Oh. And Edie Falco as his wife, Silda....

NEWS VIEW : LLANVIEW SNOOP SCOOP

On 'One Life To Live' May 8th and 9th, rapper Snoop Dogg will be traveling to Llanview, Pennsylvania, to perform at the Ultra Violet nightclub. He'll be performing two songs from his new album "Ego Trippin'" (and the show's theme song will be his special remix as well.)

This isn't the first time Snoop Dogg has been seen in Toobworld as himself. He's definitely a candidate for the TV Crossover Hall of Fame, thanks to these appearances:

"Entourage"

- The Dream Team (2007)

"The Naked Brothers Band"

- VMAs (2007)

"Weeds"

- MILF Money (2006)

"Las Vegas"

- Two of a Kind (2004)

"Player$"

- Impin' with a Pippin! (2004)

"The Tracy Morgan Show"

- Miracle Street (2004)

"Just Shoot Me!"

- Finch in the Dogg House (2001)

"Martin"

- No Love Lost (1994)

And he's appeared as himself in the following blipverts, which are just as much a part of the TV Universe as TV shows are:

2002: TV commercial for XM Satellite Radio.

2003: TV commercial for AOL 9.0.

2004: TV commercial for T-Mobile.

2005: TV commercial for BelCompany (Dutch cellphone retailer).

2005: TV commercial for Chrysler Corp.TV commercial for WWE Raw Nation.

(And I know there was a commercial for Orbit gum as well......)

I'm also throwing in this appearance:

"Cops"

- Mardi Gras '02 (2002)

But that's only because 'Cops' has become part of the fictional TV Universe thanks to 'My Name Is Earl' and 'The X-Files'.

BCnU!
Toby OB OUT!

TODAY'S TWD: KING OF KING'S

John:
History. Fascinating.

Eva:
Right.
John:
I taught history. At Columbia, ages go.
It was still Kings College.
Eva:
Of course you did.
'New Amsterdam'

One thing I'm enjoying about 'New Amsterdam' is that John is sharing information about his past lives with his colleagues and others truthfully, but they just don't believe him.

Here's what I gleaned about King's College from Wikipedia"

Columbia College is one of the prominent undergraduate colleges at Columbia University, situated on the university's main campus of Morningside Heights in the Borough of Manhattan in the City of New York. It was founded in 1754 by the Church of England as King's College, receiving a Royal Charter from King George II of Great Britain. Columbia College is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York and the fifth oldest in the United States.

Due to the American Revolution, instruction was suspended from 1776 until 1784, but by the beginning of the war, the college had already educated some of the nation’s foremost political leaders. Even at this young age, ‘’King‘s College‘’ had already educated Alexander Hamilton, who served as military aide to General George Washington, then as the first Secretary of the United States Treasury and author of most of the Federalist Papers; John Jay, the first chief justice of the United States Supreme Court; Robert Livingston, one of the five men who with Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence; and Gouverneur Morris, who authored the actual text of the United States Constitution.

With the successful completion of the American Revolutionary War in 1783, the domestic situation was stable enough for the college to resume classes in 1784. With the new nation's independence from Great Britain, the name of the institution was changed from King’s College to Columbia College, the name by which the institution continues to be known today.

So it had to be at some point between the years 1754 and 1776 when John Amsterdam taught at King's College. And it probably had to be even later than 1754 because for a time Samuel Johnson was its only teacher. In the beginning, classes were all in Latin, so it's likely John Amsterdam is fluent in that dead language.

BCnU!
Toby OB