LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES - KERMIT THE FROG

KERMIT THE FROG

Kermit is the most famous of the Muppets, a member of the TV Crossover Hall of Fame (Founding member, July 1999) due to his cast member status on 'Sam & Friends', 'Sesame Street', 'The Muppet Show', 'Muppets Tonight!' and many guest appearances in variety specials and talk shows, as well as in the movies.

From Wikipedia:

On an episode of 'Extreme Makeover: Home Edition', Kermit commented to Ty Pennington, "You know, as a tadpole in the swamp, I had 3,265 brothers and sisters!" According to the 2002 film Kermit's Swamp Years, at the age of 12, he was the first of his siblings to leave the swamp, and one of the first frogs to talk to humans. He is portrayed as encountering a 12-year-old Jim Henson (played by Christian Kriebel) for the first time.

According to "The Muppet Movie" Kermit returned to the swamp, where a passing agent (Dom DeLuise) noted he had talent and, thus inspired, he headed to Hollywood, encountering the rest of the Muppets along the way. Together, they were given a standard "rich and famous" contract by Lew Lord (Orson Welles) of Wide World Studios and began their showbiz careers. In Before You Leap, Kermit again references encountering Jim Henson sometime after the events depicted in the course of "The Muppet Movie" and details their friendship and their partnership in the entertainment industry, and credits Henson as being the individual to whom he owes his fame.

 At some point after the events of "The Muppet Movie", Kermit and the other Muppets begin 'The Muppet Show', and the characters remain together as a group, before starring in the other Muppet films and 'Muppets Tonight', with Kermit usually at the core of the stories as the lead protagonist. "The Muppet Movie" says that the events of the movie "approximate how it happened" (referring to how the Muppets got started) when asked about the film by his nephew Robin.

AS SEEN IN:

'30 Rock'

"My Whole Life Is Thunder"

SYNOPSIS:

Kermit gave a eulogy for Colleen Donaghy in a New York church during which he explained the after-life.

BCnU!

TOOBMUSIC - "SQUEEZEBOX" BY THE WHO

I realize this isn't very much in keeping with the spirit of Easter.  On the other hand, I'm sure there are plenty of guys out there who will watch this and realize that they have arisen......

HOW STRAX GOT HIS GROOVE BACK

'Doctor Who' returned last night, and we've seen the preview clips and the prequel for that first episode of the season's second half, "The Bells Of St. John". (Go back and check out those previews - originally there were three, but I've since added a fourth one.)

So today, let's look back for our weekend 'Who' entry, back to the Christmas special. (Did I mention I encountered the Great Intelligence/Magneto/Gandalf? Bow down before me!)

One of the big questions had been: How did Strax end up in Victorian England with Lady Vastra and Jenny, when he supposedly died at the Battle of Demon's Run?

So here's your answer:

Personally, I would rather that we learned he was a clone, as the Sontarans are all from clone batches (which for me ties into several episodes of 'Star Trek: Voyager'.) But this worked well, especially as it's basically adhering to Occam's Razor.

What do you think?

BCnU!

LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES - HAL MARCH

We're ending the month of March with a March.....

HAL MARCH

From Wikipedia:

Hal March (April 22, 1920 - January 19, 1970) was a Jewish-American comedian and actor.

Earlier in his television career, he appeared on such shows as 'Burns and Allen', 'The Imogene Coca Show' and 'I Love Lucy'. However, he was best known for being the host of 'The $64,000 Question', which he helmed from 1955 to 1958. In addition to his hosting duties, March also sang a version of the show's theme music in 1956, entitled "Love is the Sixty-Four Thousand Dollar Question."

As a result of the quiz show scandals, the show was canceled and, with the exception of a few film roles such as "Hear Me Good" and "Send Me No Flowers", March was out of work for nearly a decade.

To keep busy, he appeared on several sitcoms in 1966 that are still widely rerun today. He played the father of Gidget's boyfriend Jeff in the 'Gidget' episode "In and Out with the In-Laws" and the head of corrupt dance studio Renaldo's Dance Au Go Go in 'The Monkees' episode "Dance Monkee, Dance". He also made appearances on the sitcoms 'Hey, Landlord' and 'The Lucy Show' and in the movie "A Guide for the Married Man".

March also starred in a 1961 unsold television pilot for a comedy called 'I Married a Dog', in which his life was constantly upset by his wife's pooch. He was awarded two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for his radio work at 1560 Vine Street and another for his work in television at 6536 Hollywood Boulevard.

AS SEEN IN:

'The $64,000 Question'

&

'The Jack Benny Show'

"The Hal March Show"

SYNOPSIS:

A few months before, Jack Benny appeared as a contestant on 'The $64,000 Question'. He answered the first question correctly and was rewarded with 64 dollars. He then quit and walked away with his winnings.

So when Hal March later appeared on Jack's show, Hal was given the chance to win back his money. But the trials he had to go through with that old skinflint!

O'BSERVATION:

This counts as one of the very first crossovers in Toobworld.

BCnU!

EUELL GIBBONS - THE MUSICAL

EUELL GIBBONS - SUCH IS FAME....

LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES - MARKING MY BROTHER'S BIRTHDAY

Today is the birthday for the oldest of my siblings (but still younger than me.)

Bill has hiked the Appalachian Trail twice and is very involved in the activities of ALDHA, the Appalachian Long Distance Hikers Association. So in order to salute him on his natal anniversary, I wanted to showcase somebody from the League of Themselves who was always identified with the Great Outdoors.

I think I found the perfect candidate........

EUELL GIBBONS

From Wikipedia:

Euell Theophilus Gibbons (September 14, 1911 – December 29, 1975) was an outdoorsman and proponent of natural diets during the 1960s.

He was born in Clarksville, Texas, on September 14, 1911, and spent much of his youth in the hilly terrain of New Mexico during the dust bowl era. His mother taught him about foods available in the wild. As an adult he spent time in several states working a variety of jobs.

Throughout his travels his interest in wild foods continued and he experimented with new recipes and consulted experts.

Capitalizing on the growing return-to-nature movement in 1962, his first book, "Stalking the Wild Asparagus", became an instant success.

Gibbons then produced the cookbooks "Stalking the Blue-Eyed Scallop" in 1964 and "Stalking the Healthful Herbs" in 1966. He was widely published in various magazines, including two pieces which appeared in National Geographic Magazine. The first article, in the July 1972 issue, described a two-week stay on an uninhabited island off the coast of Maine where Gibbons along with his wife Freda and a few family friends relied solely on the island's resources for sustenance. The second article, which appeared in the August 1973 issue, features Gibbons, along with granddaughter Colleen and grandson Mike, stalking wild foods in four western states.

Often mistaken for a survivalist, Gibbons was simply an advocate of nutritious but neglected plants. He typically prepared these not in the wild, but in the kitchen with abundant use of spices, butter and garnishes.

Gibbons's publishing success brought him fame. He made guest appearances on 'The Tonight Show' and 'The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour'. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from Susquehanna University.

A 1974 television commercial for Post Grape-Nuts cereal featured Gibbons asking viewers "Ever eat a pine tree? Many parts are edible." While he recommended eating Grape Nuts over eating pine trees (Grape Nuts' taste "reminds me of wild hickory nuts"), the quote caught the public's imagination and fueled his celebrity status.

Johnny Carson joked about sending Gibbons a "lumber-gram", and Gibbons himself joined in the humor; when presented with a wooden award plaque by Sonny and Cher, he good-naturedly took a bite out of it. (The "plaque" was actually an edible prop.)

AS SEEN ON:

'Tonight'

'The Sonny And Cher Comedy Hour'

"Dean Martin Roasts Michael Landon"

And of course:

Sadly, somebody out there doesn't want to allow embedding of the other videos, so you'll have to click on the links for the following:

IN OZARK COUNTRY

AT THE FIREHOUSE

AMONG THE ZUNI INDIANS

OVER IN THE TV DIMENSION OF EEEEEVIL

Bill also happens to like Grape Nuts. Me, I find it's like eating Quarry cereal.......

My brother is also a member of the League of Themselves.  Like me and our brother Tim (plus seven of our cousins), he appeared on an episode of 'The Ranger Andy Show' back in the 1960's.  It was an afternoon kids' show broadcast locally in Connecticut.  And he read one of the epistles during a telecast of the Mass, also broadcast locally in Connecticut.

(This picture is from a documentary about the Appalachian Trail and its hikers.)

Happy birthday, Brothermine, and that's no bleep!

BCnU!

WELL, BLOW ME DOWN!

Every Sunday in the middle of the night, Me-TV shows an archaic episode of 'Mr. Lucky' which starred John Vivyan as the eponymous gambler and the great Ross Martin as his sidekick Andamo. (On a recurring basis, Pippa Scott plays Lucky's girlfriend Maggie.)

This week, the episode was "Maggie The Witness", in which Maggie was the sole witness to a gangland slaying in a tea room.

I have the episode embedded here for you to watch. The reason I think you should see it? If you're visiting this site, then you're familiar with the concept of TV crossovers. And this episode has a doozy - the visiting character isn't from another TV show... technically. But he has been seen in his own show in the Tooniverse, in the world of comic strips, in the Cineverse, and thanks to Terry Austin's obsession with him, in plenty of comic books.

This character may have shown up in Skitlandia, but I can't speak to that. However, I think this may be his first and only appearance in Earth Prime-Time.......

Hopefully you saw the credits at the end which gives credence to the idea that Jamie Forster was playing a flesh-and-blood Popeye decades before Robin Williams.

When he first meets with Mr. Lucky, Lucky addresses him as "Pops". That seems like a legitimate nickname which he would have acquired as he reached a ripe old age. In the comic strip world and in the Tooniverse, Popeye would be ageless. However, Time marches on in Earth Prime-Time and Popeye would have aged just like the rest of us. So the name of "Popeye" was reduced to "Pops".

For me, this has been an exciting find in the exciting world of Applied Crossoverology!

BCnU!

LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES - REEVA STEENKAMP

REEVA STEENKAMP

From Wikipedia:

Reeva Rebecca Steenkamp (19 August 1983 – 14 February 2013) was a South African model. On 14 February 2013, she was shot dead by Olympic and Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius, whom she had been dating since November 2012.

Steenkamp once worked as the live roaming presenter for FashionTV in South Africa.

She starred in television advertisements for a range of products, including Toyota Land Cruiser, Clover "The One", Redds and Aldor Pin Pop.

She featured as a celebrity contestant on the BBC Lifestyle show 'Baking Made Easy' in 2012.

At the time of her death, Steenkamp was signed up to appear on season five of the reality TV programme 'Tropika Island of Treasure' and had filmed the series episodes on location in Jamaica. The screening of the series began airing as scheduled on 16 February 2013, two days after her death. The first episode of the series was dedicated to Steenkamp and was preceded by a video tribute to her.

Steenkamp had been dating Oscar Pistorius, a South African Olympic and Paralympic runner, since November 2012. On 14 February 2013, Steenkamp was shot and killed at the home of her boyfriend Oscar Pistorius. Pistorius was arrested and charged with her murder.

AS SEEN IN:

'Tropika Island Of Treasure V'

O'BSERVATIONS:

Although reality competition shows like this are considered part of Toobworld, we usually ignore them unless the participants or the show itself is worked into the plotline of a scripted series.  Best example - 'Big Brother' in an episode of 'Yes, Dear'.

But because of the notoriety of this case, it is sure to be referenced for years to come, mostly in crime dramas I would assume.  (But then again, all these years later, TV characters do use OJ Simpson as the punchline in their dialogue in sitcoms.)  I would not be surprised if Ms. Steenkamp's murder is at least referenced, if not ripped off from the headlines and twisted for some South African version of 'Law & Order'.

I would not be surprised if this tragic story eventually becomes fodder for a TV movie.  The televersion of Reeva could always find a home in some alternate TV dimension, but I think her League of Themselves membership entitles her to remain as herself in the main Toobworld.

Good night and may God bless......

TWIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES - O.J. ON TRIAL

FOX has announced plans to recreate the "Case Of The Century" in a docu-drama TV movie. (For those of you with really horrible memories, the title refers to the courtroom drama that played out on our TV screens when OJ Simpson was tried for the murders of his ex-wife and her friend.)

In a dramatized form, the story was already told in 'American Tragedy' and was dramatized in several "reality" crime shows. And the story of OJ Simpson was told in a dashed-off movie just after the murders which ended with the football legend's arrest.

But none of those belong in the main Toobworld. Since the trial played out across the country on our TV screens, and OJ Simpson had played himself in so many TV presentations - including as host of 'Saturday Night Live' and in an episode of 'Here's Lucy' - then it's the actual Juice who can be found in the main Toobworld.

Not that we really want him there.....

BCnU!