THEORY OF RELATEEVEETY: THE BARONES

Just because 'Everybody Loves Raymond' has left the airwaves, that doesn't mean we've seen the last of Ray Barone's extended family. We just have to extend the search for them a bit further out.

At the turning of the year, Alka Seltzer celebrated its 75th anniversary with a commercial starring Frank and Marie Barone (as portrayed by Peter Boyle and Doris Roberts).

And now we've another branch of the Barone family, perhaps first cousins, in the fourth episode of 'The Sopranos' ("The Fleshy Part Of The Thigh").

Richard Barone, owner of a waste management company, already appeared in 'The Sopranos' in several episodes. Tony Soprano held a phantom job in the company so that he had a W2 for tax purposes as well as for the medical coverage.

But with this new season of 'The Sopranos', Richard "Dick" Barone was dead. Luckily for Toobworld purposes, his character passed away off screen. That way we're spared looking for a splainin as to why Frank Barone was seen at the funeral.

Dick's son Jason was forced to step in - after being kept on the outside all of his life, - to take care of his father's affairs for the sake of his mother. It's possible that if his father (who was played by actor Joe Lisi) was a cousin to Frank Barone, that would mean Ray and Robert Barone were second cousins once removed from Jason Barone.

Or maybe not. I don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to the terminology of genealogy. But I do like looking at the family tree graphs you see in the back of "The Lord Of The Rings".

And there are other possible cousins to be found in the TV Universe. Slightly older than Robert and Raymond Barone would be Paulie Barone, the simpleton of the family, who made a living by driving a hearse. (Paulie was played by David Elliott back in the late 1970s on 'Joe & Valerie'.)

They may have had some kinfolk who took their own advice about California being the place they ought to be - Jon Barone (Richard Garlund), as seen in "Sing Something Simple", an episode of '77 Sunset Strip', and William Vaughn's "Barone" in the 'S.W.A.T.' episode "Omega One". (But that might have been just an alias.)

A couple of years ago, the entire Barone family traveled to Italy to get in touch with their roots. And so it's entirely possible that they could be related to TV characters named Barone, like Marcelo (played by Fulvio Stefanini in 'Suave Veneno') and Nino (from 'Ness Uno Escluso' with Tony Palazzo in the role).

Whether or not they were ever intended to be all related, I have to figure that by now it's too late to deny it within the framework of 'The Sopranos'. (Of course by stating that, I've probably thrown down the gauntlet for them to find a way to poke a hole in my theories.)

One final note: if you studied that list of potential family members carefully enough, you may have noticed something in there......

I'm a sexist pig.

I didn't bother looking up any female characters named "Barone". I figured at best they'd be using the surname as their married name. But as for any unmarried Barone women, well.... they wouldn't be carrying the name into the next generation.

Unless they were very, very naughty.

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

THE LATEST ISSUE OF TV GUY....

A woman stopped by the desk tonight and wanted to know the details about going to the 'Today' show.

I told her what time it starts, what time to leave the hotel, what route to take to get there. The usual.

"You're a walking TV Guide!" she beamed.

Wiht the worst possible impression of Jeremy Irons, I said, "You have no idea...."

Although to be fair, at best I'm just the Cheers & Jeers section.

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

CROSSOVER OF THE WEEK - 4/03/06

In a way, the TV Crossover crossed over into the 21st Century with this week's top crossover.

In the old days, crossovers were limited to shows which took place in the same location: 'Petticoat Junction' and 'Green Acres', both set in Hooterville; 'Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman' and 'Fernwood 2Night', both set in Fernwood, Ohio; Susan Harris' little corner of Miami with 'The Golden Girls', 'Empty Nest', and 'Nurses'; and the Big Apple mix-n-matches between NBC's 'Friends', 'Mad About You', 'Madman Of The People', 'Caroline In The City', and 'The Single Guy', or over on CBS, 'Cosby', 'Becker', 'Everybody Loves Raymond', and 'The King Of Queens'.

Radiating out from a centralized map, special circumstances needed to be invoked. ABC did just that with the tie-ins to promote the mini-series "The Storm Of The Century". Although that was set about ten years earlier, another snow storm plagued the characters of 'The Drew Carey Show' (Cleveland, Ohio), 'Two Guys, A Girl, And A Pizza Place' (Boston, Massachusetts), and even in the Southern California suburbs of 'The Hughleys'.

'Paper Chase' took place at Harvard up in Boston, while 'The Associates' worked out of Manhattan, but Professor Kingsfield traveled to New York to try a case against one of his former students (and that was also a crossover that leapt networks).

Danny Williams brought his family to Westport, Connecticut, for the chance to enjoy a vacation away from New York at the home he rented from the Ricardos. ('I Love Lucy'/'The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour' & 'Make Room For Daddy'/'The Danny Thomas Show')

It gets even harder when you're trying to lure the televersion of a celebrity to some sitcom location which is off the beaten path: Sammy Davis, Jr. to Queens ('All In The Family'); George Burns and Art Carney to Phoenix ('Alice'); Gore Vidal to Fernwood, Ohio ('Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman'); Bob Denver to 'Evening Shade', Arkansas, and Walter Cronkite to Minneapolis ('The Mary Tyler Moore Show').

Getting Jay Leno to Baltimore for 'Homicide: Life On The Street' probably wasn't too hard - I wouldn't be surprised if he toadies off to wherever his Peacock bosses tell him to show up for a promotional appearance.

'Crossing Jordan', which is set in Boston, has had two crossovers so far with 'Las Vegas', with a smaller one coming up with Woody returning to Sin City. However, the second one was pushing it - the Boston autopsy case had to involve the exact same Vegas casino?

But now there's a new common denominator that makes it easier to splain away getting characters from one side of the country into a crossover with characters from the other side; even with the dramatis personae to be found in other countries:

The Internet.

'George Lopez'
&
'Freddie'

On Wednesday, March 22, these two shows - which previously had nothing more in common than that they followed each other on the ABC schedule just before 'Lost' - did a crossover that used the Internet to bring them into each other's world. 'George Lopez' and his family live in Los Angeles, while 'Freddie' resides in Chicago with his sisters and his grandmother.

But when George found out that his son had an online girlfriend named Zoey, he decided to impersonate Max in a chat room, in order to make sure this "Zoey" wasn't some kind of online predator. Meanwhile, (if I'm not mistaken - heavy events that day in my family prevented me from seeing more than just the tag to the 'Freddie' episode), I think Freddie did the same by pretending to be his younger sister.

George and Ernie accompanied Max to Chicago to finally meet Zoey, and somehow George found himself in the drunk tank with Freddie by the end of the episode. (And that experience added to my Zonk!ish nightmares by referring to a rather corpulent inebriate as "Otis". That might have been easy enough to splain away, but George had to make things worse by mentioning "Mayberry" as well.)

The use of the Internet modernizes the ability to cross over series through communication. 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show' once crossed over with its spin-off 'Rhoda' by a simple phone call; and it even used a more primitive form of exchange, that of a letter, for a crossover with its other spin-off, 'Phyllis'.

This particular use of the Internet puts me in mind of a crossover that might have happened due to a wrong number. I'm fairly certain there was such a link made once, but bleeped if I know who was involved now.....

Since 'George Lopez' will have reached the Holy Grail goal of 100 episodes this season, it's no wonder that 'Freddie' decided to grab onto his coattails.

Now if only we can get them blended into the TV Universe at large....

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE: "AS THE WORLD TURNS"

One last story to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary for 'As The World Turns'....

On November 22, 1963, the first televised report on the shooting of President John F. Kennedy happened at 1:40 pm EST during 'As The World Turns'. The voice of CBS News anchorman Walter Cronkite broke into the soap opera with an announcement that could be heard over a bulletin slide visual.

"In Dallas, Texas, three shots were fired at President Kennedy's motorcade in downtown Dallas. The first reports say that President Kennedy has been seriously wounded by this shooting."

Not long after, Cronkite appeared on screen from CBS's New York newsroom to anchor the coverage, which included live reports from Dallas and bulletins from Associated Press and CBS Radio.

BCnU....
Tele-Toby

A WAGNERIAN SALUTE

Today marks the fiftieth anniversary for 'As The World Turns', a soap opera on CBS which looks at life in Oakdale. (I'm not sure where Oakdale is supposed to be located - the Midwest, perhaps, - but I'm fairly certain it's not the one in Connecticut.)

Helen Wagner, who portrays Nancy Hughes on the show, is now in the Guinness Book of World Records for having played the role for more than fifty years. (But not continuously, as you'll see.)

In fact, she spoke the first words uttered on the show: "Good morning, dear." Perhaps they should tape some kind of scene so that, even if she should have passed away, her character of Nancy Hughes could also recite the closing lines on 'As The World Turns'. (And that may be far in the future, given CBS' hold on the ratings when it comes to soap operas. But Ms. Wagner is 87.....)

The following is the Wikipedia entry on Ms. Wagner, offered in salute to her long-running stint in the role:

Helen Wagner (born September 3, 1918) is an American actress. She was born in Lubbock, Texas.
She has played matriarch Nancy Hughes McClosky on the soap opera As The World Turns, with only a few interruptions, since the show's debut in 1956. This has earned her a place in the Guinness Book of World Records. [1]

She has taken some breaks, both voluntary and involuntary. After six months in the role of Nancy, show creator Irna Phillips fired her because she did not favor the way Wagner poured coffee. After an overwhelming consensus was reached to hire her back, Irna did so begrudgingly.

Wagner left the show again in the early 1980s. Then-producer Mary-Ellis Bunim wished to take the show in a different direction; the show fell out of the top slot in the daytime Nielsen ratings, and Bunim wished to gear the show toward the younger generation by showcasing the Hughes family less. Wagner and co-star Don MacLaughlin walked away from the show after vocal dissent in the press. She returned to the role in 1985.

After many years of little to no part in story, she returned to the screen with a pivotal role in a 2004 storyline, revolving around her grandson's marriage to naïve teenager Alison Stewart (Jessica Dunphy).

Although she has played the role for almost fifty years, she has never won a Daytime Emmy Award for her work. She was finally awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award for her role on the show in May 2004.

Hopefully, we here at Toobworld Central will have no need to salute her with a "Hat Squad" tribute anytime soon!

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

THE HAT SQUAD: BILL BEUTEL

Bill Beutel, who helped bring about a sea change in the nature of local television news as the dapper and unruffled anchor of "Eyewitness News" at WABC-TV in New York for more than 30 years, died at his home in Pinehurst, N.C. He was 75.

The cause was complications from a progressive neurological disorder, his wife, Adair, said.

Though Mr. Beutel's tenure at "Eyewitness News" stretched from 1970 to 2001, his on-air personality was most strongly defined in the first 16 years, during which he was anchor opposite the wry and sometimes acerbic Roger Grimsby, who died in 1995.

Their innovative style of presenting the news, often called "happy talk" to Mr. Beutel's annoyance, led to imitations in local news broadcasts all over the country.

WABC-TV created the format in 1968 while Mr. Beutel was the London bureau chief for ABC News. Several anchors were tried opposite Mr. Grimsby, but all were consumed by his overpowering personality, said Albert T. Primo, who was then the director of news and public affairs for WABC-TV.

Mr. Beutel, who had been a local anchor before going to London, was brought to New York for a tryout. The two clicked immediately.

"I needed somebody who had confidence in himself and could keep his own style," Mr. Primo said yesterday in an interview. "Sure enough, his experience, his confidence, his presence and his humor came through."

"He was everyman and you could identify with him," Mr. Primo added.

Mr. Beutel's everyman quality was in line with the humanized, man-on-the-street approach of "Eyewitness News." The result was described in February 1972 by John J. O'Connor, the television critic for The New York Times, as "the freshest, brightest and liveliest example of local news coverage on commercial TV."

In keeping with the program's focus on covering stories from the perspective of everyday people, Mr. Beutel also traveled to Vietnam, Israel and Uganda, reporting the New York angle on international stories.

On January 6, 1975, Mr. Beutel joined Stephanie Edwards as host of a new morning show, "AM America," which was created by ABC to compete with the successful "Today" show on NBC and "The CBS Morning News."

The show struggled and on Nov. 3 of that year was replaced by "Good Morning America."

But Mr. Beutel never left "Eyewitness," staying on for another 15 years after Mr. Grimsby left in 1986.

In 1962, he joined ABC as a reporter for the national news broadcast and as an anchor on the local New York news program "The Big News." Up to then his name had been pronounced "BOY-tel," but at the beginning of his first live broadcast on WABC-TV, the narrator pronounced it, "Byoo-TEL." The new pronunciation stuck.

He became the London bureau chief for ABC News in 1968.

Mr. Beutel retired as anchor of "Eyewitness News" in 2001 but continued to work as a correspondent until 2003, including a stint reporting on the civil war in Sierra Leone.

For me, even though I was raised in a CBS family in Connecticut, the team of Roger Grimsby and Bill Beutel on the local ABC affiliate in New York made me feel like I was finally in that New York state of mind when it came to watching TV news. (Followed closely by Bill Jorgenson on the old WNEW and the CBS2 team of Dave Marash and Rolland Smith.)

BCnU.....
Tele-Toby

[Thanks to the New York Times for the obit.]

THE HAT SQUAD: DAN CURTIS

Dan Curtis, a prolific television producer and director who was best known for shepherding two of the most ambitious mini-series ever made, "The Winds of War," and "War and Remembrance," onto ABC in the 1980's, died in Los Angeles. He was 78.

The cause was brain cancer, his family said. His wife passed away from heart disease little more than a week before him.

Mr. Curtis worked in television for more than four decades on a variety of projects, including westerns, horror movies and golf coverage. He also produced or directed an unusual number of cult television classics, ranging from the memorable, like the original "Dark Shadows" soap opera in the 1960's and the film "The Night Stalker," to the forgettable, like one of the most infamous flops of all time, the 1979 NBC series "Supertrain."

Mr. Curtis's most recent work came just last year, when he produced and directed two movies: "Saving Milly," based on the columnist Morton Kondracke's memoir about his wife's battle with Parkinson's disease, and "Our Fathers," which examined the sexual abuse scandal among priests in the Boston Archdiocese.

He began his career in television in 1950 as a salesman for syndicated shows. A golf lover, he created "Challenge Golf" with Arnold Palmer and Gary Player in the early 1960's, and later "The CBS Match Play Golf Classic," which ran for a decade. He moved into the creative side of television in 1966, when he came up with the idea for "Dark Shadows," a daytime soap opera on ABC featuring vampires and other gothic characters.

The show became an enormous hit, and in the early 1970's Mr. Curtis directed two feature films based on the characters. He continued working in the horror genre by often teaming up with the "Twilight Zone" writer Richard Matheson. The two men collaborated on the original "Night Stalker" movie with Darren McGavin.

Mr. Curtis and Mr. Matheson also worked together on a project for ABC called "Trilogy of Terror," which was remembered by a generation of fans for the Zuni Fetish doll that left viewers limp with fright.

Barry Diller, then running the Paramount Studio, brought him in to direct and produce an 18-hour adaptation of the Herman Wouk bestseller "The Winds of War," starring Robert Mitchum and Ali McGraw. The film, which traced the origins of World War II, set ratings records for ABC. "He was full-throated, full-bodied, sure of himself, commanding — a great general," Mr. Diller said.

Mr. Curtis followed that success with an even bigger mini-series, an adaptation of Mr. Wouk's sequel, "War and Remembrance." Lasting 30 hours, it remains the longest mini-series ever made for network television. Mr. Curtis won an Emmy Award for the production.

[Thanks to the New York Times for that obit.]

Here is a list of Dan Curtis' work as a director and/or producer in TV:

Our Fathers (2005) (TV)
Saving Milly (2005) (TV)
The Love Letter (1998) (TV)
Trilogy of Terror II (1996) (TV)
Me and the Kid (1993)
Intruders (1992) (TV)
"Dark Shadows" (1991) TV Series
Dark Shadows (1990) (TV)
"War and Remembrance" (1988) (mini) TV Series
"The Winds of War" (1983) (mini) TV Series
The Long Days of Summer (1980) (TV)
The Last Ride of the Dalton Gang (1979) (TV)
Mrs. R's Daughter (1979) (TV)
"Supertrain" (1979) TV Series
Express to Terror (1979) (TV)
When Every Day Was the Fourth of July (1978) (TV)
Curse of the Black Widow (1977) (TV)
The Great Ice Rip-Off (1976) (TV)
The Kansas City Massacre (1975) (TV)
Trilogy of Terror (1975) (TV)
The Turn of the Screw (1974/I) (TV)
Melvin Purvis G-MAN (1974) (TV)
Scream of the Wolf (1974) (TV)
The Norliss Tapes (1973) (TV)
The Night Strangler (1973) (TV)
Dracula (1973/I) (TV)
The Invasion of Carol Enders (1973) (TV) (uncredited)
Dead of Night: A Darkness at Blaisedon (1969) (TV)
"Dark Shadows" (1966) TV Series

TV RELATED THEATRICAL FILMS
Night of Dark Shadows (1971)
House of Dark Shadows (1970)

[Thanks to the IMDb.com]

BCnU......
Tele-Toby

CABLE READY ACID TRIP?

It seems the readers of Maureen Ryan's column, "The Watcher", are a little too into the whole TV Universe concept.

And here I thought such a thing was impossible!

THE ESSAY QUESTION

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

FOOL'S VIEW

A day late, but what're ya gonna do?

TEEVEEPEDIA

[Thanks to TV Barn - see the link on the left - for pointing this out!]

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

"LOST" IN THOUGHT

Hands down, the best reason to finally get a TiVo, or to at least sign up for my cable company's DVR service:

THE BLAST DOOR MAP

BCnU!
Tele-Toby