NOW IS THE WINTERS DISCONTINUED

"radiomd", one of the commenters at Alan Sepinwall's blog "What's Alan Watching" (link to the left, my bots!), made this observation about the end of 'Life On Mars' (and by extension, the episode before last of 'The Sarah Connor Chronicles'):

it was a tough week for characters played by Dean Winters. You see Dean Winters go near a dock, as Ken Harrelson would say, he gone.

That could become some kind of TV trope subset - "Dean Winters character on a dock will die".....

BCnU!
Toby O'B

TVXOHOF, 04-2009-B: HOOVER DAMNED

During the 10th anniversary for the TV Crossover Hall of Fame, we're inducting somebody each week, with a theme for each of the four weeks in the month.

The League of Themselves

As Seen On TV

The Tooniverse

On Location

So, this being the second week of April, I thought it apt to choose a historical figure who was depicted as being quite foolish by the end of his career: J. Edgar Hoover, Grand Poobah of the FBI from its inception until his death.

Here's a list of actors who've portrayed Hoover on television:

Ned Beatty

. . . "Robert Kennedy & His Times" (1985)

Ernest Borgnine

. . . Blood Feud (1983)

Jordan Charney

. . . Revenge of Al Capone, The (1989)

Broderick Crawford

. . . 'Saturday Night Live' (1977)
[Crawford also played the role in a movie that had been released by the time he hosted SNL The transcript for that sketch can be found here.]

Richard Dysart

. . . Marilyn & Bobby: Her Final Affair (1993)
Vincent Gardenia

. . . "Kennedy" (1983)

Pat Hingle

. . . Citizen Cohn (1992)

Ken James

. . . "Man Called Intrepid, A" (1979)
Tom McBeath

. . . Sins of the Father (2002)

Logan Ramsey

. . . "Blind Ambition" (1979)

Raymond Serra

. . . Concealed Enemies (1984)

Dolph Sweet

. . . "King" (1978) {(#1.1)}

. . . "King" (1978) {(#1.2)}
. . . "King" (1978) {(#1.3)}

Aron Tager

. . . Mr. Rock 'n' Roll: The Alan Freed Story (1999)

Wayne Tippit

. . . "Dark Skies" (1996) {The Warren Omission (#1.12)}
. . . "Dark Skies" (1996) {We Shall Overcome (#1.9)}

Jack Warden

. . . Hoover vs. the Kennedys: The Second Civil War (1987)

Treat Williams

. . . J. Edgar Hoover (1987)

Harris Yulin

. . . F.B.I. Story: The FBI Versus Alvin Karpis, Public Enemy Number One, The (1974)

But for a really foolish portrait of J. Edgar Hoover as seen on TV, you have to travel into the Tooniverse, for some newsreel footage culled from 'The Critic':
BCnU!
Toby O'B

J. Edgar Hoover:
"Blackmailing me is like trying to bribe Howard Hughes!"
'Saturday Night Live'

AS SEEN ON TV SPECIAL: WADE BOGGS

Due to a rain delay, today will be Opening Day for the Boston Red Sox. Woohoo!

And so to tip my rally cap to them, we have a special "As Seen On TV" post to mark the occasion.

Here's the actor who played Wade Boggs, third baseman for the Sox (and later for the Yankees), in the TV movie "Joe Torre: Curveballs Along The Way":

(The actor's name is Aiden Devine.)

BCnU!
Toby O'B

AS SEEN ON TV: CAIAPHAS

"As Seen On TV" is observing Holy Week with daily showcases for historical figures portrayed in the 1977 mini-series 'Jesus Of Nazareth'.

Today the spotlight is on Caiaphas: From Wikipedia:

Yosef Bar Kayafa (which translates as Joseph, son of Caiaphas), also known simply asCaiaphas in the New Testament, was the Roman-appointed Jewish high priest between AD 18 and 37.

According to some parts of the New Testament, Caiaphas is involved in the trial of Jesus after his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane.The Gospels of Matthew and John (though not those of Mark and Luke) mention Caiaphas in connection with the trial of Jesus. Because he was the high priest, Caiaphas was also chairman of the high court.

According to the Gospels, Jesus was arrested by the Temple guard and a hearing was organized by Caiaphas and others in which Jesus was accused of blasphemy. Finding him guilty, the Sanhedrin took him to the Roman governor Pontius Pilate, where they further accused him of sedition against Rome.

Even though I went to Catholic school through eighth grade, my first exposure to any mention of Caiaphas came when I saw "Jesus Christ Superstar" during a school trip to NYC back in the early 1970's.

BCnU!
Toby O'B

THE HAT SQUAD: LOU PERRYMAN

Actor Lou Perryman was murdered in his home down in Texas the other day. He's best known for appearances in movies like "Boys Don't Cry", "Poltergeist", and "Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2", but he did appear in some TV productions.

Apparently, a 26 year old Austin man, who had stopped taking his medications for bipolar disorder with psychotic symptoms, beat his mother's roommate with a garden tool last Wednesday. Then he walked three miles to the home of Lou Perryman, whom he didn't know, and killed him before taking Perryman's car. The next day he drove to the courthouse in Travis County and turned himself in.

Here are the TV credits for Lou Perryman which were listed at the IMDb.com:

Two Mothers for Zachary (1996) (TV) .... Assistant Manager

The Unspoken Truth (1995) (TV) (as Lou Perry) .... Heatherington

The Substitute Wife (1994) (TV) .... Saloon Keeper

"Walker, Texas Ranger" .... Bartender
- Thunderhawk (2000)

Putting a Toobworld spin on a couple of those entries, the soul of the Nebraska frontier saloon keeper ("The Substitute Wife") may have been born to rerun as the Texas bartender in that episode of 'Walker, Texas Ranger'.

It all just goes to show you how random Life - and death - can be......

As Red Skelton would say, Good night and may God bless......

BCnU....
Toby O'B

CHINA SEE II

After reading my post about Chinese TV, Richard wrote back with some more info:

The cable system in our room where we were staying in the Peking University (locally referred to as "BeiDa") ShaoYuan ("SpoonGarden" - go figure...) Guest House, had ~90 channels.

About 1/3 of the channels were "CCTV" Channels (CCTV is "Central China Television" - "China's BBC") and were "national". Others appeared to be local to Beijing. Most of the channels looked remarkably like what you'd see on any cable system in the US, though the programming was all produced in China. Several news, business, public affairs, documentary, history, nature & sport channels. Also several shopping channels (as you already know...)

Lots of channels w/drama, comedy & music programming. The drama stuff included all the usual suspects - crime, medical, family situation, etc. Didn't see any sci-fi, though. The comedy stuff all had awful laff tracks - strange, given that all the other production values of the Chinese programming seemed quite high. In fact, from a production standpoint, it all was virtually indidtingushable from US TV - for example all the news broadcasts, including all the local news broadcasts, looked and sounded EXACTLY like news broadcasts in the states, right down to the teasers before the commercial breaks, the on-screen graphics, the music/electronic sound bites & beds, etc.- except, of course, for the fact that that everything is in Chinese.

Things that they have which we don't are several channels of serious "traditional" Chinese programming... Peking Opera, traditional/historical Chinese drama (we'd probably call 'em "costumers"), etc. Also there were lots of "musical variety" programs, consisting of mixes of current "Chinese pop", big musical "production number" programs (think Busby Berkley/Olympic opening Ceremony type production numbers - many filmed live in stadium/arena concert settings) and traditional Chinese music & dance mixed with classical orchestra.

Two channels seemed to have mostly "classic US TV" dramas & comedies, one channel mostly dubbed in Chinese, the other channel mostly in the original English w/Chinese subtitles.

And of course, there was "CCTV9" - CCTV's 24 hour English lanuage news, weather, public affairs, business and documentary channel. It's available as part of the standard digital cable package on Comcast cable here in Seattle and I suspect on most other major US cable systems as well.

BCnU!
Toby O'B

[Image is of the CCTV building in Beijing.]

AS SEEN ON TV: JOHN THE BAPTIST

Continuing the Holy Week theme of "Jesus Of Nazareth" for our "As Seen On TV" feature, today we have the prophet John the Baptist.....

BCnU!
Toby O'B

CHINA SEE

Richard Gordon is one of my Iddiot friends. That is, he's also a member of the Idiot's Delight Digest (the IDD), a Yahoo! group dedicated to Vin Scelsa and his radio programs. (Hence, members of the IDD are "Iddiots".)

He's just back from a trip to Beijing, and he sent me some great souvenirs - images from Chinese television!

Now it makes me wonder.... What passes for dramatic TV over there? Are there cop shows, medical dramas, steamy soap operas, sitcoms?

Will they ever do a remake of 'The Office'? '辦公室'?

Thanks, Richard!

BCnU!
Toby O'B

ANOTHER "OFFICE" BRANCH

Yesterday I talked about how both versions of 'Life On Mars' can remain on Earth Prime-Time; that the American remake didn't have to be shipped off to the dimension of remakes where you'd find 'The New Addams Family', the remake of '87th Precinct', and probably the new 'Cupid'. (I haven't had time yet to investigate that one.) As for 'Battlestar Galactica', which recently wrapped up, I figured the dimension of 'The West Wing' would better suit that series.

But remakes sharing the same dimension with the original shows is not uncommon, especially when they hail from different countries. This is especially true with the sitcom interchange between Great Britain and the United States:

'Til Death Us Do Part' - 'All In The Family'
'Steptoe And Son' - 'Sanford And Son'
'Man About The House' - 'Three's Company'
'Fawlty Towers' - 'Amanda's' (There were at least two other attempts to remake that as well.)

Of course, significant changes were made in each case for the American audience.

Currently there are two series that are spreading across the globe with new versions. Central and South America had several versions of 'Ugly Betty' before the US version finally aired. There's even a cartoon about Betty as a little girl!

And then there's 'The Office' created by Ricky Gervais. The original was referenced in 'Lost', and has doppelgangers in Russian, Chile, Canada, France, and Germany, I believe. And of course, there's the American version as well.

Now Israel is getting into the act with their own version!

I wonder if the Jell-O mold with the stapler in it would still be considered kosher.....?

BCnU!
Toby O'B

[Regarding the image: gonna miss ya, Len Berman! Your "Spanning The World" sports segments were my favorite kind of "reali-TV".]

AS SEEN ON TV: THE VIRGIN MARY

Today is Palm Sunday and I'll be celebrating this Holy Week each day with an "As Seen On TV" showcase for various characters from the mini-series 'Jesus Of Nazareth', directed by Franco Zeffirelli.

To launch this theme, I can't think of anyone better to begin with than Holy Mary, Mother of God, as she is named in the prayer: BCnU!
Toby O'B