Saturday, June 6, 2009

SNOWGLOBAL II

Earlier today I posted that quote by Guillermo del Toro about the existence of the magical brought about by Belief. And then I mentioned that I wrote about the same thing in my Toobworld novel.

I mention that novel every so often, but I'm not sure when/if I'll ever be ready to send it out.

Oh, it's finished, but I keep coming up with new nitpicks to add or amend to the body of the story. But I thought I'd at least share with you now that same section I mentioned - in which my characters discuss how Belief can bring fictional characters to life.

Hey, it's my birthday party, I'll quote if I want to.....

"I don't see where there is a major difference between literature and television," said Bat. "They're just different ways to tell stories. Mankind has been telling stories since he could first corner an audience. Gathered around their campfires, the tellers of tales would spin their myths about their gods and heroes, monsters and strange occurrences. All to explain the mysteries of the world around them."

Bat leaned forward and as one, The Group leaned into the circle to listen. Obviously, thought Thom, Bat had mastered the art of the storyteller over the years. With their attention focused on the editor, Thom was the only one to notice Keefe get up and leave the room, but he figured the puppeteer still had a few pints to empty.

"Because of the book I’m working on, right now ghost stories are my particular area of expertise," Bat continued. "I believe they may be one of the older forms of folklore. As the cavemen sat close to their fires, who knew what types of supernatural beings lurked in the shadows beyond the fire and in the shadows of their minds? The stories gave them a way to talk out their fears. They were told and retold, embellished and revised, over the ages. Until the audiences came to believe in the ghosts, the demons, and the elves. Mankind put so much of his belief, his faith, into the booguns of his subconscious that it gave them life."

"Get real!" scoffed Mary Ann. She wasn't giving anybody the benefit of the doubt.

But Bat was unfazed. "No? What about the sightings of the Devil during the years of the Salem Witch Trials? And of Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster? Au grand seriux, who here can truthfully say that they never were afraid of ghosts, even though they knew ghosts couldn't be real?"

"Not me," Griff admitted. "I still won't go down into our parents' basement if I'm the only one in the house."

"The only one.... LIVING, that is!" Rafe intoned with an evil laugh. Rachel smacked him with a throw pillow.

"En fin, television is a direct descendant of that oral tradition," Bat concluded. "Only the fire is now a flickering blue light with the stories built in."

"Funny you should put it that way," Toob remarked. "Ed Wynn once described television as the 'glass furnace'."

Rachel Wixted was still mulling over Bat's theory. "So you're saying that if enough people believed in Joe Friday and Roseanne Roseannadanna like Toob does, then it would bring them to life?"

Bat nodded. "A gestalt existence."

"The power of the Id," added Nash.

"Horseshit!" sneered Rafe.

Hope you liked that....

BCnU!

BIRTHDAY M*A*S*H-UPS

So.....

Let's have a little fun on my birthday!

You may have seen the "Han Solo, P.I." video mash-up on other sites - scenes from the various "Star Wars" movies synchronized to the music of 'Magnum, P.I.'.

But the guys who put it together have also cobbled together a video that compares "Han Solo, P.I." to the original opening credits for 'Magnum'.

Have a look-see:



I love this sort of stuff! There's another one out there of 'Star Trek: The Next Generation" as if it was the next incarnation of 'The Love Boat'!



And here's the original crew of the Enterprise working as 'The A-Team':



But my favorite combination is that of 'Doctor Who' and 'Quantum Leap'; they just are perfect together, like chocolate and peanut butter!

This is the first one I found at YouTube a few months back:



And here's a more recent one, that's a bit more detailed:



I like 'em both.

BCnU!

SNOWGLOBAL

The BBC interviewed Guillermo del Toro, who's filming the adapation of Tolkien's "The Hobbit". And even though he was talking about his novels and his movies, this quote jumped out at me as being the very heart of why Toobworld exists......

"I believe that creatures and places can exist if they exist in the collective imagination. Although we'll never find a vampire corpse or a real alternate species of human or sub-human, they do exist by virtue of the fact that we have all willed them into reality. The same as dragons and a few other creatures."

It's a point that comes up early in my Toobworld novel!
BCnU!

TVXOHOF, 6/6/09: THE BIRTHDAY HONORS LIST

Today is my birthday!

And as I have done for most of this decade, there is a Birthday Honors List induction into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame.

Last year, the special honoree was Archibald Beechcroft, who entered 'The Twilight Zone' and became every single TV character who was alive on a particular day in the early 1960's. I should have saved that entry for this year - when we're celebrating the tenth anniversary of the TV Crossover Hall of Fame.

But I do have something similar that hopefully should be just as good.....


This year, the Birthday Honors List pays tribute to:

THE INTERSECT

The Intersect is the super-computer repository of all the government's secret files, which is now housed in "ze little gray cells" of 'Chuck' Bartowski's brain.

And 'Chuck' doesn't have just the records of the cases he's worked during the course of the show; his brain has been uploaded with the combined data from agencies working under the aegis of Homeland Security - the NSA, the CIA, the FBI, SID, CONTROL, and probably even those from the World Security Bureau, Section One, UNIT, and U.N.C.L.E.

We know that Chuck, now known as "The Asset" to the NSA, has been able to access the info from those agencies as seen in other TV shows, even those of rival networks. We saw this happen in the second episode from the first season ("Chuck vs. The Helicopter") when he blurted out the cause of the crash of Oceanic Flight 815. This is a reference to 'Lost' (but we didn't get to see Chuck complete the answer).

If he could only access it, Chuck Bartowski could give us the intel on all of the alien invasions covered up by the government and about the Village..... which is where Chuck may wind up some day if he's not careful......

So inside the brain of 'Chuck', the Intersect has all the encrypted files from all of the spy and espionage shows.

My compadres at TV Acres have compiled a dossier on those shows which would probably have had their files uploaded into the Intersect; that is, a list of all of those shows that dealt with spies and intelligence agencies. Click here to see that list. With the possibility that all of those shows have Chuck's brain as their nexus, is it any wonder why it should be in the TV Crossover Hall of Fame.

But even so, this is a Birthday Honors List and one must always obey the mantra....

What I say, goes.

BCnU!

PS:

Hey, for alls I know, they have info from 'Highway Patrol' to boot!

AS SEEN ON TV: SELLERS MARKET, PART SEVEN

For our final entry in this week-long salute to Peter Sellers (as played by Geoffrey Rush in "The Life And Death Of Peter Sellers"), we saved Sellers' most famous character for last:
French Police Inspector Jacques Clouseau
from the many "Pink Panther" movies.

Clousseau is seen here "practicing" martial arts with his manservant Kato, who would always attack at the most inopportune time. Kato was played by Burt Kwouk, who in turn is portrayed in the HBO movie by Tom Wu.

Good luck at the Tony Awards, Mr. Rush!

BCnU!

Friday, June 5, 2009

TOOBWORLD: ON BROADWAY!

Despite my fondness for Megyn Price, I had never seen an episode of 'Rules Of Engagement' before. The original previews for the show just smacked of the type of sitcom I just don't have the tolerance for anymore (except for 'The Big Bang Theory' and 'Two And A Half Men'). The ones I do watch now? Besides those first two examples, there are 'My Boys', 'HIMYM', '30 Rock', 'Z Rock', and 'Better Off Ted'. I guess 'Krod Mandoon' too if it comes back.....

Anyhoo, this week I caught a repeat episode because I saw that it would concern going to the theater. And I thought - what the bleep; might as well see if there's anything in this for Toobworld.....

So first off, I have a question, since I don't watch this series..... Does it take place in the NYC area? Everything seemed to lead me to that conclusion - the mention of the theatre district, a yearly boat show, Megyn Price is a magazine editor.....

I just want to make sure.

Because there were three major discrepancies between Toobworld and the real world with this episode!

1] "Wicked" is playing at a Lyric Theatre. The official Lyric Theatre of Manhattan was on 42nd Street but was transformed into a cinema in the 1930's. There's one in Battery Park and one in Brooklyn as well. But in the real world, "Wicked" is playing at the gargantuan Gershwin theatre on W. 50th Street... and has a far more grandiose marquee than seen in this show!

On 'Ugly Betty', Daniel took an advertiser to see "Wicked" on Broadway and you KNEW that was the Gershwin! So for Toobworld purposes, "Wicked" finally moved to a smaller theater, which sometimes happens in the real world. And should a series ever show it again at the Gershwin, we can just say that in Toobworld it moved for restoration purposes....

2] Instead of the official magazine for the theatre-goer being "Playbill", Audrey and Russell and the other people in the audience can be seen reading and clutching their copies of "Castbill". Let's hope that little prop nugget gets used again in some other show! 3] When Jeff finds out that Audrey is seeing shows with Russell, they're at a showing of a new Stephen Sondheim musical called "Bound For Broadway". (Russell mentioned that a problem with these Sondheim shows is that he doesn't write any intermissions anymore - always good for a bathroom break!

BCnU!




ECCE PROMO: WESTEN HOSPITALITY

The USA Network has its own TV mini-dimension going with the promos they cook up featuring the characters from their shows meeting each other. And with their summer series kicking off tonight, they've got a new one out there to introduce Dr. Hank Lawson of 'Royal Pains' to the mix......



Sort of a Welcome Wagon, meet the neighbors, kind of get-together....

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: SELLERS MARKET, PART SIX

AS PLAYED BY:
Geoffrey Rush

AS SEEN IN:
"The Life And Death Of Peter Sellers"

Peter Sellers was nominated for the 1980 Academy Award as Best Actor for his role as "Chauncey Gardiner" (actually Chance The Gardener) in "Being There". It was a tough category that year - he was up against Roy Scheider, Al Pacino, and Jack Lemmon, and they all lost to Dustin Hoffman in "Kramer vs. Kramer". (I think Scheider should have won for "All That Jazz", but what do I know?)

"Being There" was Sellers' penultimate film role......

Thursday, June 4, 2009

THE HAT SQUAD: DAVID CARRADINE

It feels so much better when we can honor a unique contribution to Toobworld while the person involved is still alive, rather than after they're dead.

Not that David Carradine ever knew about it, but in July of last year, his character of
Kwai Chang Caine was inducted into the TV Crossover Hall Of Fame.

And we've lost another TV icon this year.......

Apparently the Darkness had been with him a long time; he talked of suicide during interviews in the past. I don't know what pushed him to finally go through with it this time, especially after seeing him in a recent TV interview to plug a Hallmark TV movie in which he starred with Bruce Dern and Rip Torn. I haven't read any of the articles; not sure I really want to know.....

Goodnight, and may God bless......

THE HAT SQUAD: KOKO TAYLOR

Legendary blues singer Koko Taylor, of "Wang Dang Doodle" fame, has passed away from post-surgery complications. She was 80 years old.

In Toobworld, she made fictionalized appearances as herself in two series - one set in the live-action Earth Prime-Time, and the other one in The Tooniverse.

In "The Enforcers", a 1996 episode of 'New York Undercover', she showed up while Detective Williams was investigating the murder of his son's tutor.

As usual, things were a little different over in The Tooniverse: for starters, Koko Taylor was now a humanoid animal in an episode of 'Arthur'. She stopped in to the ice cream shop and later helped "Big Horns George" find his voice in the Blues.....

Good night and may God bless.

Wang Dang Doodle.....