Monday, June 11, 2012

PROGRAMMING NOTE - LIFE ON MARS



All this week Inner Toob will be featuring characters from 'The Martian Chronicles' by Ray Bradbury as a tribute to the man. The "As Seen On TV" showcase may even get in a few of those same characters, but from episodes of 'The Ray Bradbury Theater' ('Ray Bradbury Presents').

But none of them can be claimed to be from Earth Prime-Time. Both versions of Bradbury's stories must be relegated to alternate TV dimensions where the Earth would blow up by the year 2000 or so. For some reason, both versions of the stories remained committed to the timeline established in the original stories. And although we can splain away a hidden moonbase for the main Toobworld, the same can't be done for "The Martian Chronicles". It clashes with the previously established Martian timeline culled from a variety of TV series.

But this doesn't diminish how great these stories are. It's just that - if they did take place in the main Toobworld timeline, it won't be happening for many decades to come....

BCnU!

TVXOHOF, BIRTHDAY HONORS 2012 - THE DOCTOR & THE NURSE (PURELY SHIRLEY)


Because I took a three-day weekend to celebrate my birthday, I was remiss in posting the Birthday Honors induction into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame. Once I got back from the Lake, Time just got away from me. Hopefully I can catch up on a lot of postings today.....

The Birthday Honors tradition, patterned after those knighthoods awarded by Her Majesty over in Jolly Ole, began when I realized that officially I could never have included my all-time favorite TV character - Dr. Miguelito Quixote Loveless - in the Hall because of the regulations I had set down. The not-so-good doctor would have needed to make two more official appearances in other TV shows/commercials/movies in order to qualify.


However, I've always maintained that it was Dr. Loveless we were actually seeing when actor Michael Dunn appeared in other TV shows like 'Bonanza', 'Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea' and the pilot for 'Get Smart'.

o I decided to bend the rules on my birthday, when the motto is "What I say, goes."

I've used (some might say "abused") the honor in the past by inducting myself on my 50th birthday and also the place where I work.  But I say, what better reason could there be for the Birthday Honors list than for nepotism?

SHIRLEY JORDAN
And that's why today we're inducting two characters, both played by my dear friend and twin soul sister, Shirley Jordan.......

Even though it wasn't the first appearance, let's start with this quick scene from 'Desperate Housewives':

"THE NURSE"
[Mary Alice approaches the nurse’s station with a file folder. A younger Felicia Tilman is talking to a nurse who is looking at a calendar at the desk.]
Nurse: "What a lovely calendar. Was this taken around here?"
Felicia: "Oh, no. That's way out in Fairview. I have family there. Isn't it idyllic?"
('Desperate Housewives')

Shirley played the nurse at the rehab center in a flashback with Mary Alice Young. She admired the calendar provided by Mrs. Huber's sister, which gave Mary Alice the idea about moving to Fairview.

(Even though it wasn't Shirley Jordan's first appearance as a nurse in Toobworld, this would be the first occurrence on the Toobworld timeline.)

The Nurse didn't know that calendar scene wasn't in the Los Angeles area, because she had only recently moved out there. During the 1980s, she lived in Pine Valley, where she worked at the local hospital. During one of her shifts, she helped remove a bullet from Palmer Cortlandt.
('All My Children')

After getting her credentials and resume updated by working at that women's health clinic, she then went to work at Community General. She was working in the emergency room there in 1996 when a noted cardiologist committed a murder.
('Diagnosis Murder')

It could be that Community General was also the same hospital where a member of the Forrester Family was brought in, after he drove his car over a cliff. As a trauma nurse, she helped save the life of one of the leading figures in L.A.'s world of high fashion.
('The Bold & The Beautiful')

Although Shirley filmed a scene with Vivica Fox for 'City of Angels' back in 1999, in which she again played a nurse, it was edited out of the final version. So since it was never broadcast, it can't be included. And that's a shame, because her nurse character had a name in that one - Eloise Martin.

(But then again, we could always cite the "Khan-Chekov Principle" - just because it wasn't seen, doesn't mean it didn't happen.)

If we were able to use "Eloise Martin" as her name (with "Weezy" as her nickname?), it's pozz'ble, just pozz'ble, then that we'd know the last name of Phoebe Buffay's first OB-GYN back in New York City, when she was pregnant with her half-brother's triplets in 1998. Trust me, it's a long story, but one with free porno!
('Friends')


"THE DOCTOR"

It's my belief that both the Nurse and the Doctor were twins who lived near each other in New York state; one in Manhattan, the other in Pine Valley. I don't have any theories as to why the Nurse would have left for the West Coast near the end of the 1980s, but I don't think it was due to any enmity between the twin sisters.

That's because by the dawn of the new Millennium, both of the sisters were living in Chicago. 

There, the Nurse worked in a homeopathic clinic for cancer patients to support them both while the Doctor went back to school to change her area of study. The Nurse must have made an impression on Andy Richter during a visit, because she later appeared in one of his nightmares.
('Andy Richter Controls The Universe')

Meanwhile, the Doctor was obviously a quick learner, because by 2002, she had gone to work as an analyst for the IDC.
('ER')

But she also continued to practice medicine, as she was the attending physician who treated Mary-Kate and Ashley Burke after a brawl at a Chicago hockey game.
('Two Of A Kind')

Once her sister was re-established in her new profession, the Nurse moved to Los Angeles and worked for a short time as a nurse in a high school. 
('So Little Time') 

But she must have finally felt homesick and headed back East. There she got a job as an assisted-living nurse at a nursing home in the town of Harmony.
('Passions')

Missing her sister the Doctor/Analyst, the Nurse moved once again, this time back to Chicago. ('Friends With Benefits')

She was also involved when Dr. Jacob Hood began investigating an illegal cloning practice.
('The Eleventh Hour')  But since that took place in Seattle, it could also have been the Doctor, working undercover for the IDC by using her sister's identity as an alias.

And that's where we stand at the moment with those twin sisters in the medical profession.
Think what you will of cronyism, but I think I've made the case for why these two women played by Shirley Jordan deserve to be in the TV Crossover Hall of Fame. And should she ever play another nameless character from Boston, I'll link them to her characters in 'Boston Legal' and 'Ally McBeal'!

Besides... who better to celebrate on 06/06 under the sign of Gemini than a pair of twins?

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: COLONEL JOHN WILDER


COLONEL JOHN WILDER
Colonel Wilder was in charge of the Zeus project to explore Mars for ten years because he believed mankind might escape environmental pollution and war on Earth by colonizing Mars instead.

CREATED BY:
Ray Bradbury

PORTRAYED BY:
Rock Hudson

AS SEEN IN:
'The Martian Chronicles'

TV DIMENSION:
Alternate Toobworld


From Wikipedia:
"Zeus III" lands on Mars in June 2001. It is commanded by Col. Wilder himself with five other astronauts (Spender, Parkhill, Briggs, Cook, McClure) as subordinates. The crew discovers five ancient cities in the vicinity of the spacecraft, one of which apparently was inhabited only a few weeks ago. The scientists find that all of the Martians have died of chickenpox accidentally brought from Earth by the first two Zeus crews. 


Wilder returns to the Red Planet in February 2004 with an entire fleet of spaceships, having been appointed director of the American colonization of Mars. By this time, all the Martians have been killed off by a strain of chickenpox. In six months, a dozen communities are laid down. They are named after the Zeus mission astronauts ("York Plain", "Blackville", "Wilder Mountain", "Spender Hill", "Briggs Canal" and "Lustig Creek"). The colonies grow rapidly over the next two years but not always successfully as the colonists bring the vices of Earth (graft, corruption, bureaucracy) with them.


In the final scene, Wilder, now alone, meets a Martian ghost from thousands of years before (whether the Martians are ghosts or shadows of the past is not made clear). Each can see the Mars he is accustomed to, but the other person is transparent to him and has the appearance of a phantom. Wilder sees ruins where the Martian sees a thriving city. Neither knows if he precedes the other in time, the point being that any one civilization is ultimately fleeting.
 

Wilder then takes his family into the ruins of a Martian city, saying they will live there and learn the Martian way. He then points into a pool of water at the family's reflection and states, "Those are the Martians", indicating that the humans will be the new citizens of Mars. Finally, he pushes a button on his remote control to blow up the last remaining Earth return rocketship.

BCnU!

Sunday, June 10, 2012

WONDER TWINS!






So why all this Wonder Twins action here at Inner Toob today?

Today is the birthday of my wonder twin cousins Pete and Maggie.


Happy birthday, you two!

BCnU!

THEME OF THRONES II


A few weekends ago, I posted a whole slew of music videos which presented alternate versions of the 'Game Of Thrones' theme music. You'd think I had covered the entire topic with that one post.

You'd be wrong, Dire Wolf Breath!



POST #7700 - AND NOW A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR





"WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD", INDEED



"THE ELECTRIC GRANDMOTHER"







"I SING THE BODY ELECTRIC"




For some reason, that same uploader disabled the embed code for Part Two. The quality isn't very good overall (His mother can be heard talking over it at some point.), but just in case you wanted to complete the tale, click here.

There's also another video in which you can see an encapsulated version of the half-hour story in just two minutes.....


AS SEEN ON TV: GRANDMA ROBOT


"They make a fairly convincing pitch here. It doesn't seem possible, though, to find a woman who might be ten times better than mother in order to seem half as good - except, of course, in the Twilight Zone."
- The Master Serlinguist
'The Twilight Zone'

One of the first and most enduing of Ray Bradbury's stories to be translated to the small screen was "I Sing The Body Electric" as seen in 'The Twilight Zone'. We continue our doff of the cap to the late Ray Bradbury with this look at that classic....

GRANDMA ROBOT

CREATED BY:
Ray Bradbury

PORTRAYED BY:
Josephine Hutchinson

AS SEEN IN:
'The Twilight Zone'
("I Sing The Body Electric")

TV DIMENSION:
Earth Prime-Time

From Wikipedia:
"I Sing the Body Electric" is the 100th episode of the American television anthology series 'The Twilight Zone'. It was poorly received by viewers, and is frequently mentioned as the poorest 'Twilight Zone' episode broadcast. The script was written by Ray Bradbury, and became the basis for his short story of the same name, published in 1969, itself named after a Walt Whitman poem. Although Bradbury contributed several scripts to 'The Twilight Zone', this was the only one produced. Later, in 1982, the hour-long NBC television movie "The Electric Grandmother" was also based on the short story.

GRANDMA ROBOT II

CREATED BY:

Ray Bradbury

PORTRAYED BY:

Maureen Stapleton

AS SEEN IN:

"The Electric Grandmother"

"A fable? Most assuredly. But who's to say at some distant moment, there might be an assembly line producing a gentle product in the form of a grandmother whose stock in trade is love. Fable, sure - but who's to say?"
- The Master Serlinguist
'The Twilight Zone'

As they both came off of an assembly line, I don't see why both versions of the story can't take place in the same Toobworld, Earth Prime-Time.  The model is the same, but the particular make of robot is not, each designed to the specifications requested by the two families.  We never learn the family's last name in the second story; it's "Rogers" in the first.  There is a "Tom" in both families, but that's a fairly common name.  And besides, the other siblings have not only different names - Anne & Karen in the first, Agatha & Timothy in the second - but a different combination of genders as well.

So this is one of those rare cases when two different productions can remain in the same TV dimension.  And that seems fitting in this tribute to a man who made the Fantastic seem possible.......

Good night and may God bless, Ray Bradbury......

BCnU.....