AS SEEN ON TV: GEORGE IV

GEORGE, PRINCE REGENT

AS SEEN IN:
'The Scarlet Pimpernel' (1955)

AS PLAYED BY:
Alexander Gauge From Wikipedia:
George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was the king of Hanover and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from the death of his father, George III, on 29 January 1820 until his own death ten years later. From 1811 until his accession, he served as Prince Regent during his father's relapse into insanity from an illness that is now suspected to have been porphyria.

George IV is remembered largely for his extravagant lifestyle that contributed to the fashions of the British Regency. By 1797 his weight had reached 17 stone 7 pounds (111 kg or 245 lb), and by 1824 his corset was made for a waist of 50 inches (127 cm). He was a patron of new forms of leisure, style and taste. He commissioned John Nash to build the Royal Pavilion in Brighton and remodel Buckingham Palace, and Sir Jeffry Wyatville to rebuild Windsor Castle. He was largely instrumental in the foundation of the National Gallery, London and King's College London.
AS SEEN IN:
'Blackadder The Third'

AS PLAYED BY:
Hugh Laurie

On television, George IV has also been played by:

Robert Stephens in the 'BBC Play of the Month' "Kean" (1978), based on the play by Jean-Paul Sartre about the actor Edmund Kean

Peter Egan in the BBC drama series 'Prince Regent' (1979), covering his life until his ascent to the throne

Julian Fellowes in the British dramas "The Scarlet Pimpernel" (1982) and "Sharpe's Regiment" (1996), the latter based on the novel by Bernard Cornwell

David King in the episode of the Yorkshire Television drama series 'Number 10' entitled "The Iron Duke" (1983)

Roy Dotrice in the miniseries 'Shaka Zulu' (1986), based on the novel by Joshua Sinclair

Peter Schofield in the BBC series 'Vanity Fair' (1987)

James Saxon in the Yorkshire Television sitcom 'Haggard' (1990) and the British drama 'Poldark' (1996), based on the novels by Winston Graham

Richard E. Grant in the 1996 BBC docudrama "A Royal Scandal"

Roger Ashton-Griffiths in the drama series 'Vanity Fair' (1998)

Jonathan Coy in the British drama series 'The Scarlet Pimpernel' (1999)

Hugh Bonneville in the British drama "Beau Brummell: This Charming Man" (2006), based on the biography by Ian Kelly

If either Julian Fellowes or James Saxon could get one more portrayal on their resume, one of them could be the official face of George IV for Toobworld...

(Gauge's George IV is seen with Sir Percy Blakeney - AKA The Scarlet Pimpernel. Laurie's Prince Regent is seen with Edmund Blackadder.)

Two for Tuesday!

BCnU!

WALTER CRONKITE AND THE 1969 MOON LANDING

Here's Walter Cronkite, reminiscing about his coverage of the 1969 lunar landing. I think his enthusiastic and nervous glee at that moment captured the mood of the country about that historic event....



BCnU!

JUST A LOT OF LUNAR-CY

Okay, since blogs are also supposed to be personal journals, I thought today would be a good day to air out a few misty water-colored memories of the way I was - forty years ago today, when Man first landed on the Moon. Share with you what I remember from watching those grainy images as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin bounced around on the lunar surface.

I didn't see it.

That's right, ye olde televisiologist, the man who viewed too much, never saw the original broadcast of the 1969 moon landing.

I was at Deer Lake Boy Scout Camp in Killingworth, Ct. that week. And there was absolutely no TV - not even radio! - available to us.

But I do have a TV-related anecdote from that night of July 20th, 1969.

We were at dinner in the big hall when one of the counsellors stood up and announced that he had some very bad news to report.

"Oh no!" I remember thinking. "Something's happened to the astronauts!"

"Today... Clarence the Cross-Eyed Lion has died."
And that's all I can tell you about that day in history from my own perspective.....

BCnU!

IT WAS FORTY YEARS AGO TODAY.....

To celebrate today's 40th anniversary of the first lunar landing by man, here's an NBC special on the Apollo 11 mission.



Doesn't feel right, though, that it isn't a CBS special.....

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: MICHAEL COLLINS

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the first Moon landing. A lot of the visual images you see today will of course focus on Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin as they bounced around on the lunar surface.

But I want to tip the ol' Toobworld cap to the unsung member of that team. He may not have been able to do the moonwalk, but without him, Armstrong and Aldrin might not have made it home.....

MICHAEL COLLINS

AS SEEN IN:
"Apollo 11"

AS PLAYED BY:
Jim Metzler

From Wikipedia:
Major General Michael Collins (born October 31, 1930 in Rome, Italy) is a former American astronaut and test pilot. Selected as part of the third group of fourteen astronauts in 1963, he flew in space twice. His first spaceflight was Gemini 10, when he and command pilot John W. Young performed two rendezvous with different spacecraft and Collins undertook two EVAs. His second spaceflight was Apollo 11 where he served as the command module pilot. While he orbited the Moon, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin performed the first manned landing on the lunar surface. He is one of only 24 people to have flown to the Moon. "Usually, you find yourself either too young or too old to do what you really want, but consider: Neil Armstrong was born in 1930, Buzz Aldrin 1930, and Mike Collins 1930. We came along at exactly the right time. We survived hazardous careers and we were successful in them. But in my own case at least, it was 10 percent shrewd planning and 90 percent blind luck. Put LUCKY on my tombstone."
- Michael Collins
(with thanks to NASAWatch, an online site run by an old high school friend, Keith Cowing)

BCnU!

THE HAT SQUAD: FRANK McCOURT

Frank McCourt has died. He was the Pulitzer-winning author of 'Angela's Ashes' and 'Tis'. He provided his own televersion, a member of the League of Themselves, in the "Thursday's Child" episode of 'Cosby'. (A foster child in Erica's class wanted to move in with the Lucas family.) And I'm probably wrong about this, since I can't find proof anywhere online, but I think he may also have appeared once in 'All My Children' with his brother Malachy.....

BCnU.....

SKED ALERT! "TORCHWOOD: CHILDREN OF EARTH"

I've kept mum about the third season/series of 'Torchwood', even though I saw it last week thanks to my bit torrent allies. Like fellow TV blogger Joe over at "I Am A TV Junkie" (link to the left, citizens!), I'm maintaining a spoiler-free zone here at Toobworld Central.

But I do need to say enough about it so that those of you reading this in America will know that you should tune in, starting tomorrow night on BBC-America.

This is powerful, gripping, devastatingly emotional stuff, folks!

Even if you've never seen the previous two seasons of 'Torchwood', jump in and begin with this mini-series. All you need to know is that 1] Torchwood is a team dedicated to protecting their corner of the world from alien threats; 2] the team is currently composed of Captain Jack Harkness, Gwen Cooper, and Ianto Jones; and 3] Captain Jack never stays dead... and he's been alive a very long time.....

That really should do it. The rest is brand-spanking new and you should find it to be one of the most exciting and powerful adventures on TV this year.

This time out, 'Torchwood' is being presented as a mini-series played out over the course of the week - beginning Monday night and finishing up on Friday, 9 - 10:15 pm ET. (The official title of the mini-series is 'Torchwood: Children of Earth'.) There's an introductory special before Monday's installment, "Torchwood: Inside The Hub", to bring you up to speed on anything else you may need to know beforehand.

Well, I don't know what else to say about this without over-selling it, and I may be guilty of that already. The stars are John Barrowman, Eve Myles, and Gareth David-Lloyd; guest stars include Peter Capaldi and Lucy Cohu.

I hope you'll take me up on the suggestion that you watch it. At the very least it should provide you with a five+ hour alternative to summer reruns and reality shows. (Besides, most of you have DVRs now, and each episode airs several times over. No reason you shouldn't give it a try!)

As the week goes on, I'll be posting the typical Toobworld stories about theoretical links to other shows, as well as my splainins for certain events that will transpire....

They are coming!

BCnU!

And don't worry, BBC-America, I plan to watch it all again via your network.....

"COUSIN" MILES WITH UNCLE WALTER

Here's a personal O'Bservation from "cousin" Miles, about his first encounter with Walter Cronkite back in 1998. It's a great story which adds to the man's legend.....

"HOW I ALMOST BLEW IT WITH WALTER CRONKITE"

BCnU!

THE HAT SQUAD: DALLAS McKENNON

Today, Sunday the 19th, would have been Dallas McKennon's 90th birthday; unfortunately, he passed away just a few days ago.

From this picture, you might recognize him most of all as Cincinnatus, the tavern owner in the sixties series 'Daniel Boone'. Kids growing up in Los Angeles back in the elder days probably knew him as kids' show host Captain Jet.

But even with the best backwoods look since Arthur Hunnicut, Dal McKennon still might be a puzzle to many of my readers.

Until you learn that he was a prolific voice actor... and that his was the voice you heard playing these two roles: He also played Buzz Buzzard in the Woody Woodpecker cartoons, and both 'Courageous Cat' and his sidekick Minute Mouse. He did a lot of work for both Walter Lantz (Inspector Willoughby) and for Walt Disney over the years. (At EPCOT, McKennon provided the voice of Ben Franklin and can be heard in the old mine ride. He was also the Fox in "Mary Poppins".) But he also contributed live-action characters to Earth Prime-Time on series ranging from 'The Andy Griffith Show', 'Bonanza', and 'Cannon' (ABC!), to 'My Favorite Martian', 'The Virginian', and 'Wagon Train'.

Looking over his credits, a Joni Mitchell line came to mind: "You don't know what you've got till it's gone"......

Good night, and may God bless.

TV SERIES
"Daniel Boone" .... Cincinnatus (1964-1969)

TV MOVIES
The Andersonville Trial (1970) .... First guard

Daniel Boone: Frontier Trail Rider (1966) .... Cincinnatus

GUEST APPEARANCES
"Cannon" .... Bucky Fosdick
- Fool's Gold (1971)

"Dundee and the Culhane"
- The Thy Brother's Keeper Brief (1971)

"The Andy Griffith Show".... Brian Jackson
- The Statue (1967)

"Bonanza" .... Jenkins
- The Oath (1966)

"The Big Valley" .... Abner Wirth
- Palms of Glory (1965)

"Wagon Train"
- The Zebedee Titus Story (1964)
.... The Horsetrader
- The Kitty Pryer Story (1963) .... Alex
- The Eli Bancroft Story (1963) .... Frank Collins
- The Lisa Raincloud Story (1962) .... Jethro
- The Caroline Casteel Story (1962) .... Mr. Benson

"My Favorite Martian" .... Mailman
- The Awful Truth (1963)

"The Greatest Show on Earth"
- The Circus Never Came to Town (1963)

"The Rifleman"
- Which Way'd They Go? (1963) .... Judge Moze
- The Bullet (1963) .... Judge Hopkins

"The Virginian"
- The Small Parade (1963) .... Art Meadows
- The Big Deal (1962) .... Lumberyard Owner

"Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" .... Jim Tolliver
- Think Mink (1963)

"Laramie"
- Gun Duel (1962)
- Justice in a Hurry (1962)

"Ben Casey" .... Waco Martin
- Between Summer and Winter, the Glorious Season (1962)

"Gunsmoke"
- The Ditch (1962) .... Farmer
- Call Me Dodie (1962) .... Jake
- Chesterland (1961) .... Homesteader

"87th Precinct"
- New Man in the Precinct (1962) .... Dr. Blaney
- Line of Duty (1961) .... Autopsy Surgeon

"The Untouchables" .... Mr. Phelps
- The Gang War (1962)

"The Tall Man" .... Bartender
- The Judas Palm (1961)

"U.S. Marshal" .... Farmer who knows Lou
- Kill or Be Killed (1960)

"The DuPont Show with June Allyson" .... Store Keeper
- No Place to Hide (1959)

"Lawman" .... Randy
- The Prodigal (1959)

"Dragnet"
- The Big Lover (1953)

THE TOONIVERSE

GUMBY:
"Gumby Adventures" (1988)

"The Gumby Show" (1957)

ARCHIE/SABRINA'S CAT SALEM:
"Archie's Bang-Shang Lalapalooza Show" (1978)

"Sabrina, Super Witch" (1977)

"The New Archie/Sabrina Hour" (1977)

"The US of Archie" (1974)

"Sabrina, the Teenage Witch" (1971)

"Archie's TV Funnies" (1971)

"Sabrina and the Groovie Goolies" (1970)

"Archie's Fun House" (1970)

"The Archie Comedy Hour" (1969)

Archie and His New Friends (1969)

"The Archie Show" (1968)

INSPECTOR WILLOUGHBY

"Space Academy" .... Johnny Sunseed

Aesop's Fables (1971)

"The Hardy Boys" (1969) .... Joe Hardy / Chubby Morton

"Sinbad Jr." (1965) .... Sinbad Jr./Salty

"The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo"
- Mr. Magoo's Robin Hood: Parts 1-4 (1964) "Q.T. Hush" (1960) .... Q.T. Hush

"Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse" (1960) .... Courageous Cat/Minute Mouse

"Bucky and Pepito" (1959) .... Bucky/Pepito

"The Woody Woodpecker Show" (1957) Buzz Buzzard

BCnU.....

AS SEEN ON TV: BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

We featured Ben Franklin back in January for the "As Seen On TV" daily showcase, played by Richard Easton.

And here were are again, with the Tooniverse depiction of the "ultimate American". Can anybody figure out why?

Class?

Because we're also saluting the late, lamented, most trusted man in America, that's why.....

AS SEEN IN:
'Liberty's Kids'

Here's part of an episode of 'Liberty's Kids' in which Dr. Franklin was in England. To see just his scene, go to the 4:50 mark.




I don't think my dirty little mind is imagining that ol' Ben is putting the moves on Lady Phillips during the scene......

BCnU!