FRIDAY HALL OF FAMERS - THE NEW YORK SENTINEL

For today’s Friday Hall of Famer we’re adding another newspaper to the Media Room in the Television Crossover Hall of Fame.  We’ve already got the NY Chronicle and its sister publication, the L.A. Chronicle.  (Both published by one-shot character Arthur Kennicutt from ‘Columbo’.)  And the warhorse of the tabloids, the NY Ledger.

Joining them will be…

THE NEW YORK SENTINEL

Sadly that’s the only picture I have so far for the newspaper.  But according to Wikipedia, the NY Sentinel appeared in the following TV series:

• Law & Order
• The Adventures of Hiram Holliday
• Beauty and the Beast
• Murder, She Wrote

The Sentinel played a significant role in Jessica Fletcher’s life, beginning with the tenth season.  And if I’m not mistaken, Hiram Holliday worked for the Sentinel as a proofreader.

At any rate, the New York Sentinel has four TV series to its credit, one more than required for the TVXOHOF.  It may not be much, but hey – it’s the holidays.

What a great alibi!

Toobworld Central welcomes the New York Sentinel to the Television Crossover Hall of Fame.....

CRISIS VS. TOOBWORLD #6 - THE FLASH

CRISIS VS. TOOBWORLD #6
THE FLASH

Personal disclaimer:
When I was a kid, “The Flash” was my favorite superhero comic book… for two reasons.  The main one was that it was always visually stimulating – that bright red suit, the depiction of speed and vibrational resonance, plus the use of speed in time travel, and then there were the colorful villains in Flash’s Rogue’s Gallery.  (I think Captain Boomerang was my favorite of the bunch.)

As for the second reason?  Well, even if they cost about a dime, I wasn’t only assured I’d be able to afford the next month’s issue.  At that time, Marvel was geared to story arcs while DC focused on single issue storylines.

And now, here be spoilers….

I liked the 1990 version of ‘The Flash’ and John Wesley Shipp perfectly exemplified the square-jawed hero.  But I had no delusions regarding his fate in the “Crisis On Multiple Earths” mega-crossover.  When it comes to that, I suppose I’m not the only one who had come to expect it.  Shipp originally played Barry Allen’s father, Henry, in the CW adaptation of “The Flash”.

Eventually, Henry Allen died.

Then we saw him as the Flash from Earth-3, Jay Garrick, later in the series.

It is assumed that with everybody else of Earth-3, Jay Garrick eventually retired, but is presumed as having perished with the dissolution of his home dimension.

And then we got the Barry Allen of Earth-90.  That designation was an in-joke reference to ‘The Flash’ having been broadcast in 1990.

So for Greg Berlanti and the showrunners for this crossover, Earth-90 was the world shown in that series.

But in this playground of Toobworld, it actually was an alternate dimension.  For Toobworld Central, the 1990s version of ‘The Flash’ took place on Earth Prime-Time.  Therefore, as far as the tribunal is concerned, Shipp’s version of the Scarlet Speedster still exists.

But I understand why they felt it necessary to kill off his Flash during the crossover.  In the comic book mega-crossover, the death of Barry Allen, sacrificing himself by using his super-speed, played out in such a memorable scene which was heart-breaking to a big fan like me.  It was illogical to expect Grant Gustin’s Flash make that sacrifice while the show is still running.

So maybe the Flash of Earth Prime-Time may never be seen on our TV screens again either way, but that doesn’t mean we won’t be seeing John Wesley Shipp on ‘The Flash’ ever again.  That particular DNA sequence is very strong and has shown up three times already.  I won’t be surprised if they find a way to use him again in some capacity.

And I’ve got a suggestion for how that might happen….

Earth-38 was able to rescue a good number of its citizens in spaceships which were able to pass through the dimension veil and arrive on Earth-1 (their designation, not mine.)

There should be some character from that world, looking like the older Barry Allen, Henry Allen, and Jay Garrick, who made it into one of the spaceships and is now on Earth-1.  He might even be another member of the Allen family.

Whether he’s another speedster or not, that’s not up to me.  I’m just giving them a way to bring Shipp back.

BCnU!
 

CRISIS O'BSERVATIONS 4 - EARTH-89 TWO FOR TUESDAY

CRISIS VS. TOOBWORLD O’BSERVATIONS
TWO FOR TUESDAY – EARTH-89

Within the main Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover event, Earth-89 was the first of the alternate Earths in the Multiverse to be destroyed.  (Many episodes ago in ‘The Flash’, Earth-90 - home of the 1990 TV series of ‘The Flash’ [to them, at least; not me] - was the first to go, I think.)

Earth-89 was the homeworld for the 1989 “Batman” movie directed by Tim Burton with Michael Keaton as the Batman and Jack Nicholson as the Joker.  We didn’t see them in the quick scene of Earth-89, but it was established by the appearance of Robert Wuhl as his character of Alexander Knox, an investigative reporter along the lines of Mike McAlary or Pete Hamill.  Unlike the Huntress from her Earth, we didn’t see him evaporate with his world’s destruction, but it was a given.

It’s a shame we didn’t see the parallel Earths from the greater Cineverse dimensions for the Schumacher and Nolan “Batman” movies and even that 1940s serial.  But by the time the first three-fifths of the crossover were over, we were assured that they no longer existed. (From the CW’s perspective.)

As Earth-89 was from the movies, and an alternate Cineverse at that, since there was the 1966 “Batman” movie before it and the 1940s serial before that, it really has no effect on the concept of Toobworld.  (For the greater Toobworld Dynamic, the 1966 movie was absorbed into the dimension of Earth Prime-Time since it was really just an extension of the TV series.)

So there are two points from that quick clip I’d like to address; both of them come from the front page of that newspaper which Alexander Knox was reading.

1] THE GOTHAM GAZETTE

I’ve seen a lot of tsuris over the fact that Knox was seen reading the Gazette when he had been a reporter for the Gotham Globe.  But hey!  That was thirty years ago!  There are so many things which could have happened in that time.

• Knox could still be working for the Globe, but he’s checking up on the competition.
• Knox is retired and just wants to read all the coverage of the news in Gotham.
• Knox maybe got fired from the Globe and now reads the Gazette in public as a small form of revenge.
• And whether he got fired or quit, Knox could now be working for the Gazette.  Perhaps he was lured away by the lure of a pay raise.  (Saw it all the time with the tabloids in NYC.)
• So it’s no big deal about what newspaper he’s reading.

2] “BATMAN CAPTURES JOKER”

In the movie, the Joker most certainly died from that fall from that height.  But “the Joker” isn’t a name; it’s a job description.  In the ensuing years since the movie, somebody else must have picked up the mantle; perhaps there have been more than one Joker wannabe since 1989.

And the same holds true for the Batman.
Earth-89’s Batman was at his apex in fitness and ability, perhaps through the 1990s.  But it’s been thirty years and while Michael Keaton has pretty much stayed fit, he is showing his age.

So the cowl and cape may have been passed to a new torchbearer, and like the Joker, maybe to more than one.

As I said earlier, Earth-89 has no real effect on the Toobworld concept.  I just find it fascinating that its fate closes the door on any possibility of a sequel by Burton and Keaton if they wanted to examine the life of the Batman in his twilight years.

C’est la vie....

  

CRISIS O'BSERVATIONS 3 - WIL WHEATON

CRISIS VS. TOOBWORLD
O’BSERVATIONS ON WIL WHEATON

There are still two episodes to go in the CW/DC crossover event “Crisis On Infinite Earths” – ‘Arrow’ and ‘Legends of Tomorrow’.  When the story first arrived in the DC comic books, the goal was to streamline their massive empire down to one manageable Earth for all of their characters.  One result was that many superheroes and villains and other characters were wiped out or combined into one character.

I don’t follow comics anymore, so I can’t say if there is still only the one universe… for them.  But at the time, it was mostly unspoken, but if those multiverses contained comic book versions of all of us, then we’re all dead in those various dimensions as well.

But it was only the fictional characters we saw get erased from existence.  (The most graphic were the deaths of the Huntress from Earth-203 and the Clark Kent/Superman from Earth-96.)   While televersions of real-world people have showed up in TV series on a regular basis, so far in the Crisis Crossover, that hasn’t happened.

Or has it?

In the first chapter, taking over the ‘Supergirl’ slot, the introduction to Earth-38 for newcomers was a “Doomsday Protester” played by Wil Wheaton (in a nod to the Christopher Reeve movie “Superman II”.  Supergirl – whom the protester was denouncing – saves him from the fiery breath of Spike the dragon, last seen in Season 4 of ‘Supergirl’.  (I’m assuming the poor big lug perished with the planet.)

It was only a minor cameo for Wheaton, but he notched another role in the major genre shows of the last twenty years.  (Eventually we might see him in an episode of ‘Doctor Who’ perhaps.)  Not bad for the guy who played Wesley Crusher.

But who was the Doomsday Protester?

O’Bviously he should be the Earth-38 version of some other character played by Wheaton.  It will be the ruling of Toobworld Central that he can’t be the actual, original depiction of such characters because for the most part they belong on Earth Prime-Time.  Yeah, I’m greedy that way.

These characters would especially include:

• Isaac Parrish (‘Eureka’)
• Colin Mason (‘Leverage’)

And plenty of one-shot guest roles on the following TV series:

• ‘CSI’
• ‘Criminal Minds’
• ‘Numb3rs’
• ‘Diagnosis Murder’
• ‘Sirens’
• ‘Love Boat: The Next Wave’

But there are at least three characters played by Wheaton who have to be in a different dimension than Earth Prime-Time:

• Conrad Moody of ‘Powers’ as it’s a world where super-powers are natural to all.
• Bryan (no last name known) in an episode of the anthology series ‘Perversions of Science’ (a lot of freedom from the rules with anthology shows.)
• “Sharknado 2” – NO way could the “Sharknado” franchise could be happening in the main Toobworld.  I think the dimension of Disaster Toobworld would be a better fit.  But the main reason that Wheaton’s character has to be considered from some other Toobworld than Earth Prime-Time or Earth-38 can be summed up by his listing in the credits on the IMDb:

“Dead Passenger”.  (But he has to be the Wil Wheaton of Disaster Toobworld.)

Here’s who I’d like that protester to be – the Earth-38 televersion of Wil Wheaton himself, a member of the League of Themselves who will eventually be inducted into the Television Crossover Hall of Fame.

Wheaton has a firmly established televersion in Earth Prime-Time, thanks to 17 episodes of ‘The Big Bang Theory’. I think there will more in time.

Even if Earth-38 Wil Wheaton survived the destruction of the planet by boarding one of those ships, he’ll only be making it to Earth-1 (their designation, not mine.)  So there would be no Zonk in having them exist on separate Toobworlds.

That same argument could apply to any of his other characters, but I just like the idea that on Earth-38, Wil Wheaton became a doomsday conspiracy nutjob.

BCnU!

CRISIS O'BSERVATION TWO - DICK GRAYSON AKA ROBIN

CRISIS VS: TOOBWORLD 2
O’BSERVATIONS ON DICK GRAYSON

In the multiverse in which Toobworld can be found, the surge in TV series in which superheroes can be found has resulted in a sew of alternate Toobworlds to house them all.  (There have been elements in most of them which prevent them from sharing the same Earth, not the least of which is that there have been many reboots of certain characters so they couldn’t share the same space.  It may be a TV-based universe, but that doesn’t mean life there has to go through continuous reboots and reruns.)

But the main Toobworld, Earth Prime-Time, has been the home for a core group of TV superheroes, all predicated on a first-come first-served basis.  For the most part, they are the core group of the Justice League.

• SUPERMAN (‘THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN’)
• BATMAN (‘BATMAN’)
• WONDER WOMAN WONDER WOMAN’)
• THE FLASH (‘THE FLASH’)

Into this mix would be added Spiderman and the Hulk.

With those shows, they came about in a simpler time – yes, even 1990 falls into that estimation, but that year probably serves as the end to such a consideration. After that, the concept of the multiverse really took hold, thanks to ‘Sliders’.

The idea that there were multiple Earths had already been considered, especially with the primary example being the “Evil Mirror Universe’ established in the “Mirror, Mirror” episode of ‘Star Trek’, which got later confirmation thanks to ‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer’ and ‘Hercules: The Legendary Journeys’.

But new shows came along which wanted to stake their claim to being the official Earth for their premises.  That’s understandable, of course – for showrunners, the concept that their show had to conform with what was being promoted by other TV series would have been too restricting.  You never would have been able to get all of those zombie series if everybody thought that way.

Anyhoo…

For today’s O’Bservation on Crisis vs. Toobworld, we’re taking a look at one of the first victims of the Anti-Monitor’s disintegration of various TV dimensions.  And that would be Dick Grayson of Earth-66.

As everybody should have realized that designation was what David Bianculli would call an “Extra”, an in-joke.  As played by Burt Ward, this Dick Grayson is supposed to be from the 1966 TV version of ‘Batman’.

Well, it is and it isn’t.  With a lot of crossovers to parallel worlds we’ve seen over the years, generally the main character’s doppelganger looks exactly like him/her, with some differences – the cliché being the goatee as worn by Mr. Spock’s “evil twin”.  Willow Rosenberg (a black magic practitioner in the evil dimension) and Ares (god of War vs. god of Love) being the best examples after Spock.

For the Toobworld Dynamic, Dick Grayson still lives on Earth Prime-Time, which is not designated as Earth-66.   (Sadly, the Batman of Earth Prime-Time has died in the last few years.)

It’s an extrapolation of what his life was like after the series was cancelled, with the added flavoring of cherry-picked events in his life from the comic books, but I think the Dick Grayson of Earth Prime-Time eventually assumed the crime-fighting alias of Nightwing before assuming the cape and cowl of the Batman after Bruce Wayne retired.  And in the tradition of the Phantom and the Dread Pirate Roberts, he executed his role of the Caped Crusader as though he was Bruce Wayne.

But eventually, he too retired – it’s been fifty years plus since he was in high school after all!  And he physically changed as he aged, making gradual donations to his overall avoirdupois, let’s say.

I also think that he may have retired while still in his prime in order to marry and begin a family.  After all, for Toobworld Central (if not for other crossoverists), Dick Grayson is the founter of the family tree which will eventually lead to the birth of Amanda Grayson, the human mother of the previously mentioned Mr. Spock.

All we saw of the Dick Grayson from Earth-66 was that he was walking his dog as his world came to an end.  Except that he looked exactly like the man from the main Toobworld and employed an equally pithy/corny exclamation, we know nothing about this man on that world.

Did he even become the Boy Wonder and ward to Bruce Wayne in that life?  On Earth-66, he might have become a schoolteacher instead.  (If so, that would make Earth-66 the Toobworld of TV movies.  On second thought, I’m not going to relinquish that alternate Toobworld.)

We never even got confirmation that he was actually named Dick Grayson.  If he got adopted by somebody else in that world, he could have been given a different name; he could have been Dick Murphy for alls we know, not Dick Grayson!  (Go ahead, look him up.)

Here’s a possibility – what if Earth-66 was the legendary “Evil Mirror Universe”?  Frankly, I think just from the name, Earth-666, the getaway home for Lucifer Morningstar, would be better-suited for that particular life ethos.

It’s a primal concept for alternate Toobworlds which I’m sure will come back again in some TV show.  (I think we last saw it in ‘Deep Space Nine’, but I could be wrong… not an uncommon occurrence.)

Even so, if some other TV series did bring back the concept of an evil Toobworld, all that would mean is that I’ve got some splainin to do.  I’m sure I could find a way to make it work for the Toobworld Dynamic.

But think of the possibilities if we were witnessing the last minute of life for the evil Dick Grayson!  Perhaps he was a major crime boss now in Gotham City, and he wasn’t just taking his dog for a walk.  Maybe he was returning from siccing his dog on somebody who didn’t pay the “vig” fast enough to suit Grayson.

Like Muskie Muskrat would say, “It’s pozz’ble, just pozz’ble.”

Speaking of that dog, I’ve seen it suggested that he was supposed to be Ace the Bat-hound from the comic book universe.  If anything, the canine could have been named after the original Ace – if that world’s Batman and Robin actually had such a dog.  The original would have been long since dead since the 1960s!

One last possibility – we could have been seeing the Earth-66 televersion of Burt Ward.  He does have an established presence in Toobworld, thanks to appearances in episodes of ‘Living Single’ and ‘Clueless’.  (And – over in the Tooninverse, in an episode of ‘Futurama’.)

After fifty years living under the spectre of his most famous role, spouting such “Holy Whatever!” phrases could be second nature.  And it wouldn’t be the only time we saw a member of the League of Themselves during this mega-crossover whom we can assume eventually died.  (It could then be that Earth-66 is Toobworld-Toobworld, where those behind the scenes docudramas can be found.)

Whatever the overall concept of Earth-66 might be, as far as Toobworld Central is concerned, we did NOT see the actual demise of the Dick Grayson we knew and loved from the original ‘Batman’ TV series.

That was some other Dick.

Holy dead doppelganger!”

BCnU!

FRIDAY HALL OF FAMERS' MEMORIAL TRIBUTE, 12/13-2019 - CONSTABLE ODO

From the AP:
René Auberjonois, a prolific actor best known for the TV shows “Benson” and “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” has died. He was 79.

His son Remy Auberjonois told The Associated Press he died Sunday at his home in Los Angeles of metastatic lung cancer.

The actor won a Tony on Broadway in 1969’s “Coco” opposite Katharine Hepburn. His first major movie role was as Father Mulcahy in the 1970 film “M.A.S.H.”

In the 1980s, he played Clayton Runnymede Endicott III, a snooty staffer in a governor’s mansion on “Benson.” And in the 1990s, he played the shape-shifting alien Odo on “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.”

I’ve always liked Auberjonois.  He carved a unique place for himself in his roles without pigeon-holing himself into a stereotype.

Yet I didn’t think there would be a way to get one of his characters into the Television Crossover Hall of Fame.  Constable Odo of ‘Deep Space Nine’ seemed to be the best choice, but he never made it into the movies and there were no TV shows at the time in which he could have appeared.  (Or were there…?)

But I looked into his credits at the IMDb anyway and discovered Odo actually is eligible for membership as a multiversal, which makes him perfect for the December Friday Hall of Famers.

ODO

From Wikipedia:
Odo, played by René Auberjonois, is a fictional character in the science fiction television series 'Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'. He is a member of a shapeshifting species called Changelings and serves as the head of security for the space station Deep Space Nine on which the show is set. Intelligent, observant and taciturn, Odo uses his unique abilities throughout the show to maintain security on the DS9 station and, later, aids the Bajoran people and the Federation throughout the Dominion War against his own people, the Founders.  

The original Writer's Bible from 1992 for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine described Odo as follows:

Odo, an alien male, middle-aged curmudgeon, and a shape-shifter. In his natural state he is a gelatinous liquid. He was a Bajoran law enforcement officer on the space station under the Cardassians.

Starfleet decides to have him continue in that role, since he's extremely savvy about the Promenade and all who frequent it.

His backstory is:
50 years ago, with no memory of his past, he was found alone in a mysterious spacecraft that appeared in the Denarias asteroid belt. He was found by the Bajoran and lived amongst them. At first he was sort of an Elephant Man, a source of curiosity and humor as he turned himself into a chair or pencil. Finally he realized he would have to take the form of a humanoid to assimilate and function in their environment. He does it, but resents it. As a result, Odo performs a uniquely important role in the ensemble: he is a character who explores and comments on Human values.

Because he is forced to pass as one of us, his point of view usually comes with a cynical and critical edge. But he can't quite get it right, this humanoid shape, though he continues to try. So he looks a little unfinished in a way. He's been working on it a long time. Someone might ask him: Why don't you take the form of a younger man. His answer: I would if I could.

He has the adopted child syndrome, searching for his own personal identity. Although he doesn't know anything about his species, he is certain that justice is an integral part of their being, because the necessity for it runs through every fiber of his body – a racial memory. That's why he became a law man. He has a couple of Bajoran deputies; he doesn't allow weapons on the Promenade, and once every day he must return to his gelatinous form.

According to the backstory of the series, Odo was found adrift in his natural gelatinous state in the Denorios Belt in the Bajoran system. Doctor Mora Pol studied him for seven years, not initially recognising him as a sentient being. Doctor Mora was later forced to recognise Odo's sentience when he copied a beaker on a laboratory table.

Odo's name stemmed from the Cardassian language word "Odo'ital", meaning "nothing", which was the loose translation of the "unknown sample" label in Bajoran on his laboratory flask.

It's taken me years, but thanks to the advancement of the technology, video games are now considered part of the greater tele-mosaic as their own videoverse, akin to the Tooniverse.  As such, Odo has at least three incarnations in games, all voiced by Auberjonois, which serve as the foundation for his multiversal status.

Here are the items in Odo's tally:

1993-1999
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
173 episodes

1996
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Harbinger
(Video Game)

2000
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - The Fallen
(Video Game)

2005
Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story
(Video)
O'Bservation: This may be a fantasy of Stewie's.

2010
Star Trek Online
(Video Game)

I suggested earlier that Odo might have appeared in other shows set in the same time period.  We’re entering fanfic territory to suggest this.

But what if during the crossovers with ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ and ‘Voyager’, Odo visited their ships off-screen - for security checks - during their visits to DS9?

If you write Trekfic, you can carry that idea even further.  What if Odo was thrown into the past, like Spock was in the novel “Ishmael” and he interacted with the characters from the TV series ‘Here Come The Brides’?  It could be to Earth Prime-Time of the present day, giving so may options for his involvement without even the need of Mr. Auberjonois to participate.

And then there are the alternate dimensions he could visit, perhaps to that of ‘Babylon 5’ which takes place approximately in the same time period.  (Because B5 and Trek delved into their non-similar political structures of Earth, they can’t be in the same Toobworld.  So it goes.)

The trick to pull this off if – in a perfect world – some show wanted to acknowledge his presence on the set would be to have Odo be there in his transformed state, disguised as whatever prop stands out in a scene.

Come to think of it....

Perhaps Odo not only traveled to the distant Past, but to Earth's twin planet Mondas, where Toobworld Central has placed 'Game of Thrones'.

And where did he show up?

As that time-displaced coffee cup and then as the water bottle!

Just an idea....

Welcome to the Hall, Constable Odo.

I’m sorry it had to be under these circumstances....

Thanks to my "Sister Iddiot", Amy Chen, for spurring me to take a second look at a tribute for Mr. Auberjonois....