NEWS BOOS

This soars to the top of the local news blooper reel!

My thanks to TVSquad.com for alerting us to this clip being shown by CNN of a local news team being terrorized by Halloween pranksters in the studio. I won't say anymore than that because I don't want to ruin the fun!

Click for the KXTV Halloween prank.

BCnU!

Toby OB

ALL HALLOWS

Happy Halloween!

There are two couples who are dear friends of mine, Mr. & Mrs. Asparaguy, and I.V. and the ADA. For the past month, we've been juggling our schedules, hoping to find a night when we all could get together for dinner. And Halloween finally worked out to be best for us all.

But I did have possible plans for Mischief Night - I would have gone out with the Likely Lads, Mark & Michael, in full costume.

And the costume I cobbled together?

My TV Land cap

My NBC Baseball jacket

My white sweatshirt with the red "As Seen On TV" logo

If I got lucky, the following clothing items would have been revealed:

Black t-shirt with the caption "I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV"

My 'Twilight zone' underwear for the episode "To Serve Man" (I suppose if my fortunes had gone in either direction....)

And the final touch would have been those Times Square New Year's Eve sunglasses shaped like "2006"

And when asked what I was supposed to be?

"I am a TV Rerun."

BCnU!
Toby OB

ADDENDUM:
I learned later that the parade's theme was to be "Wings of Desire". So I amended my costume a bit.....

When asked, I would say that I was "a TV Rerun of 'Wings'".....

TDOY TA-DA!

It's been said that those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it. That wouldn't be such a bad thing in Television, probably more of an asset.

One of my go-to blogging buddies is Ivan G, who specializes not only in the Television of the past, but also in classic movies - especially the serials - and old time radio, which sparked his creation of the "Thrilling Days of Yesteryear" blog.

So this is just a notice that TDOY has moved to a new location online. In fact, Ivan's joined the Blogger community where Brent's "I Am A Child Of Television" and my own "Inner Toob" reside.

Check out "Thrilling Days" when you get a chance; it's always a blast from the past. You'll find the link to the left. And if you've previously ear-marked his site as a fave place, make sure you update your bookmark.

BCnU!
Toby OB

OH, TIBER! FATHER TIBER....

"I, Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus... this, that and the other..."
Emperor Claudius
[opening lines]
'I, Claudius'

Once he was named assistant manager of the Buy More, we learned Harry's full name was Harold Tiberius Tang on this week's episode of 'Chuck' ("Chuck vs. the Sandworm"). That makes four Toobworld characters - that I know of! - who have Tiberius as their middle name.

The other three are:

Woodrow "Woody" Tiberius Boyd - 'Cheers'
Captain James "Jim" Tiberius Kirk - 'Star Trek'
Lieutenant William "Bill" Tiberius Rice - 'The Lieutenant'

One of the two main characters in my Toobworld novel is Tiberius Cooper, but everybody knows him as Toob Cooper. (The other is his twin brother, Thompson.)

BCnU!
Toby OB

WEATHER, CHANNELED

Toobworld is different from the real world in so many ways - towns that don't exist in our world, like Fernwood, Ohio, Twin Peaks, Hooterville, and Cicely and Elmo, Alaska; fictional countries like Svardia, Caronia, and the Isle of Mypos; and an underground realm known as Eternia. It's a world where the squirrels are intelligent petty thieves and the horses can talk.

Even the weather is different from our own.
This season, while the cops of 'K-Ville' grappled with the after-effects of Hurricane Katrina from several years ago, Larry David took in a family displaced by Hurricane Edna. Here in the real world, the "E"-named tropical storm Erin formed in early August but never developed into a full-blown hurricane. (Still it killed a number of people when it made landfall.)

Back in 2003, Hurricane Anthony struck Miami in an episode of 'CSI: Miami', but it was Hurricane Ana for us in the real world.

Another interesting weather development this season took place nearly fifty years ago in Toobworld. In the 'Jericho' mystery "The Hollow Men", London was beset by a killer smog that gripped the city for days. Although the same thing didn't happen in 1958, the year in which 'Jericho' takes place, it was reminiscent of "The Big Smoke" of 1952, which caused thousands of deaths in London between December 5th and December 9th of that year.

Extreme weather conditions have been great for crossovers on Toobworld. NBC used a hurricane to link together all of their Miami-based shows back in the 1990s, while ABC featured a giant snowstorm in some of their shows in order to bring attention to their Stephen King mini-series, "The Storm Of The Century".

It's definitely too soon, but I wouldn't put it past one of the networks to use the California wildfires to link together their shows which are set in the Los Angeles area......

BCnU!
Toby OB

STILLER WATCHING RUNS DEEP

During "The N Word", the latest episode of 'Curb Your Enthusiasm', Ben Stiller met with Jeff Greene to see if they would make a good fit as manager and client. But Jeff's newly shorn head became an object of fixation to Stiller; he was probably too disturbed by the sight to work with Jeff.

Ben Stiller had been on the show before - he was supposed to be Larry David's co-star in the Broadway production of "The Producers". But Larry drove him crazy (and nearly blinded him!) and so he dropped out, to be replaced by David Schwimmer.

Stiller has put together quite a portfolio for the League of Themselves, even without including his stints on 'Saturday Night Live' and his own variety show. He directed a movie in England about genocide, which featured Andy Millman and Maggie Jacobs as 'Extras', for example.

Backstage at 'Primetime Glick!', host Jiminy Glick was shocked - shocked! - to find out that the hairbrush used by Stiller to control his back hair had been stolen by the kids on the show. (Stiller had appeared on Jiminy's talk show twice before and probably left it behind on one of those occasions.)

Back in 1997, the star of 'The Larry Sanders Show' was so obsessed with making the top ten list of sexiest men in People magazine that he even schemed against Ben Stiller to get him bumped from the list. And Stiller was supposed to be his guest on the show that week!

Ben Stiller is an actor with strong enough roots in sketch comedy so that he can be quite comfortable portraying himself. And there are several other TV shows in which he could plump up his League of Themselves resume:

'Samantha Who'
'30 Rock'
'Two And A Half Men'
'Dirty Sexy Money'
'How I Met Your Mother'
'Las Vegas'
'Entourage'

As a matter of fact, I'm rather surprised he has yet to appear in an episode of 'Entourage'. I would have thought that to be a natural......

At any rate, he's definitely a candidate for the TV Crossover Hall Of Fame, in the League of Themselves Wing.

BCnU!
Toby OB

TW IS FOR TOOBWORLD

Author Sue Grafton, known for her "alphabet" series of mystery novels ("O Is For Outlaw", "B Is For Burglar", etc.), now has a definite televersion of herself in Toobworld. She was at a book-signing in Scranton, Pa., about which Phyllis Vance told her boss Michael Scott. He sent her from 'The Office' to cajole Ms. Grafton into appearing in their "Local Ad" for the Dunder-Mifflin paper company.

Ms. Grafton didn't actually appear in the episode (and she refused to appear in their commercial). But even though Phyllis' interactions with her happened off-camera, she still exists in Toobworld.

Some other real world authors who have established televersions:

Anne Rice - 'Ellen'
'Stephen King' - 'The Simpsons'
Thomas Pynchon - 'The Simpsons', 'The John Larroquette Show'
Kurt Vonnegut - commercials for TIAA-CREF, Nissan Murano, Discover credit card
William Gibson - 'Wild Palms' (and looking very well preserved in the near future)
Alex Haley - 'Roots: The Next Generation' (although he was portrayed by James Earl Jones)

BCnU!
Toby OB

PORN IDENTITY*

Ted Mosby, architect, and his wingman Barney Stinson went to an adult film expo convention in New York. They were hoping to track down the porn star who also was named "Ted Mosby". All around them were posters from the trade, including from "Beef Party 7".

Of course, the cameras stayed focused on sticking with Ted and Barney while they talked to "Ted", but the convention wasn't cramped into one small section of that hall. I'm sure if we got inside our TV screens and wandered around that convention site, I think we would have found the presence of Ursula Buffay, star of "Buffay The Vampire Layer". (Pictured is one of the vampires she lays in the video.)

SHOWS CITED:
'How I Met Your Mother' - "I'm Not That Guy"
'Friends' - "The One Where Chandler Can't Cry"

The interesting plot point they have in common is that both shows had main characters who had porn stars taking their names to make x-rated movies. "Ted Mosby" used Ted's name in tribute to the 7th grader who saved him from bullies when he was in 4th grade back in Shaker Heights, Ohio. Meanwhile, Ursula Buffay was using her twin sister's name as her screen name without regard for what it might do to Phoebe.

Phoebe was upset at first - until the residual checks started coming to her instead......

BCnU!
Toby OB

*That's the name of a porn movie made by Julie Cooper in 'The O.C.'......

GRETSCH GRANDPA

While under the influence of "Blink", a drug created from a 4400 power, NTAC agent Tom Baldwin thought he was visited by the spirit of his dead father. (The man he knew as his Dad bore an uncanny resemblance to actor Brian Dennehy, by the way.)

But what if Mitch Baldwin was not his biological father?
During his time travel trips to 1975, San Francisco Register reporter Dan Vasser got to meet with his own father, who bore an amazing resemblance to Tom Baldwin. (And both Tom Baldwin and Frank Vasser look exactly like an actor named Joel Grestch. Howzabout that?)

Frank Vasser was a journalist who covered the Viet Nam war and who was gone from his family for very long stretches of time. Suppose not all of those trips away from his family in San Francisco had to do with his career? What if he was carrying on an affair farther north in Seattle with Tom Baldwin's mother, who would be cheating on Mitch Baldwin?

That would make Dan and Jack Vasser (his cop brother) half-brothers with Tom Baldwin. And it would mean Tom Baldwin had the stronger share of Frank Vasser's genetic make-up, if not his surname.

SHOWS CITED:

'The 4400'

'Journeyman'

BCnU!
Toby OB

RETURN OF THE BIG GIANT HEAD

William Shatner isn't too pleased with the idea that the next 'Star Trek' movie - to be about the early days of the original crew at the Starfleet Academy - may be filmed without his participation.

Leonard Nimoy, who played Mr. Spock, will be in the movie, however. Apparently he'll "bookend" the movie, with the main story being his flashback memories.

According to the Associated Press, Shatner said in an interview, "I can't believe it, I'm not in the movie at all. Leonard, God bless his heart, is in, but not me. I thought, 'what a decision to make', since it obviously is a decision not to make use of the popularity I have to ensure the movie has good box office. It didn't seem to be a wise business decision."

Sounds a little egotistical to me.

Maybe his memory is failing him, but if the movie "real time" is during Mr. Spock's later years, then Shatner should realize his character is already dead by that point!

Unless they can work miracles with make-up, Spock should look the fifteen years older than he was when he met with Captain Picard on Romulus in a two-part episode of 'Star Trek: The Next Generation'. It was after that encounter that Picard met Captain Kirk and together they battled the mad scientist Soren which resulted in the death of Kirk.

As the movie is supposed to be focused on Spock's memories of their youthful days, there's definitely no place for Shatner in there either.

Big Baby....

BCnU!

Toby OB

"It was fun.... Oh, my -#"
James Tiberius Kirk
[final words]
"Star Trek: Generations"