SARAH JANE & JO: TOGETHER AGAIN FOR THE FIRST TIME!

Here's a BBC press release that should bring a smile to fans of TV Crossovers and more specifically, of 'Doctor Who':

Sarah Jane Smith is reunited with another of The Doctor's former companions, Jo Grant (Katy Manning), in a new series of 'The Sarah Jane Adventures', set to air on CBBC this autumn. They'll be joined by The Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith), in a special edition of the show penned by executive producer Russell T Davies.

The two episodes will see The Doctor and his two former time-travelling partners caught up in an alien-busting adventure that will entertain Doctor Who fans of all ages.

Elisabeth Sladen, who plays Sarah Jane comments: "It's a fantastic script and I can't wait to work with another Doctor and hope Matt has fun with us. I've known Katy for ages and I am delighted to be working with her. I last met her in LA but this time we will be in Cardiff. LA was good but Cardiff is better."

Katy Manning, who recently returned to live in the UK again, adds: "Playing Jo Grant again is something I never really considered. I was gob-smacked when they told me and I am over the moon. What an incredible little treat. I come home and this is one of the first things that happens."

Executive producer Nikki Wilson says: "We are absolutely thrilled to be introducing Sarah Jane and the gang to both The Eleventh Doctor and Jo Grant, and to have a script penned by Russell T Davies is the icing on the cake!

"Viewers are in for a real treat, with an action-packed story full of Russell's usual wit and warmth, which takes the gang inside a secret base beneath Snowdon and introduces brand-new vulture aliens, the mysterious Shansheeth. All this, plus a trip to an alien planet – a first for 'The Sarah Jane Adventures'."

Featuring the usual mixture of thrills, laughs and scares, the fourth series promises fun with enemies old and new, including the terrors of the Nightmare Man and a dangerous journey back into history.

A galaxy of guest stars are lined up to appear in the series and include Laila Rouass (Primeval, Footballers Wives) and Cheryl Campbell (Pennies From Heaven), whilst David Bradley (Argus Filch in Harry Potter) will provide the voice of the Shansheeth.

'The Sarah Jane Adventures' is executive produced by Nikki Wilson and Russell T Davies and produced by Brian Minchin.

Writers on the fourth series include Phil Ford (also co-producer), Joseph Lidster, Rupert Laight, Gareth Roberts and Clayton Hickman. The Sarah Jane Adventures is a BBC Cymru Wales/Children's BBC production.

Who knows? (No pun intended.) This may turn out to be the 2010 Toobits Award winner for Crossover of the Year!

BCnU!

DEEP SIX: MY INNER TV CHARACTERS

Sometimes I describe myself as being the Skipper of 'Gilligan's Island' on the outside, but inside I'm Captain Jack of 'Torchwood'. (That's a paraphrase from an old Wally Cox underwear commercial.) But if I had to choose the TV characters with whom I relate the most?

1] BUDDY SORRELL, 'The Dick Van Dyke Show'
I've always wanted to a) get paid to be funny, b) get to sleep on the job, and c) have a bald guy I could make fun of. Well, two out of three ain't bad - sorry about that Bob Cohen....

2] KING TUT, 'Batman'
My true name is Thomas, which means "twin", and I was born under the sign of the twins, Gemini. King Tut, aka Professor William Omaha McElroy, embodies my dual nature. One is a soft-spoken expert from Connecticut in his chosen field. The other is a flamboyant criminal mastermind.

3] UNCLE FESTER, 'The Addams Family'
I would have to shoot somebody I know in the back; I just couldn't face them. I also like weird things and probably could make a light bulb glow in my mouth.....

4] THE SECOND DOCTOR, 'Doctor Who'
Patrick Troughton's incarnation has always been my favorite. The baggy pants clown, the cosmic hobo, who's not afraid to show his fear, playful and desperate.

5] ANTHONY FREMONT, 'The Twilight Zone'
When people get me angry, I wish them into the cornfield. The only thing is, it doesn't turn out that way as often as I'd like. Still, it feels good to make the effort. I have a great wet purple gaze.

6] MURRAY SLAUGHTER, 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show'
I'm a writer who has far too many Mary Richardses in his life, to love, pure and chaste, from afar.....

And just to show that I can get in touch with my feminine side.....

MELISSA STEADMAN, 'thirtySOMETHING'
"Isn't it amazing how loneliness can wake you up?" And even though someone else might be grieving, I'd want the attention. I'm selfish that way.

BCnU!

"Seven.... It would be a mythic number...."
Melissa Steadman
'thirtySOMETHING'

FLASHBACK CLUSTER

In the last two weeks, one of the best-known of TV tropes, the Flashback, was used in a number of TV shows:

'Bones'

'Brothers & Sisters'

'In Plain Sight'

'Chuck'

'Fringe'

'Human Target'

And that's not even mentioning 'Cold Case', where the flashback is standard with every episode. (And the producers take care in the casting of the actors so that if they play the same role separated by decades, they at least look like each other.)

'In Plain Sight' usually begins with a flashback to show how the witnesses ended up in protection. However, with the episode that dealt with how Mary first met Marshall and then joined WITSEC, the flashback sequences ran throughout.

Most shows deal with flashbacks eventually; it just seemed strange to have a cluster of them being aired so closely together.

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: BLAKE EDWARDS

BLAKE EDWARDS

AS SEEN IN:
"Not Only, But Always"

AS PLAYED BY:
Alistair Browning

From Wikipedia:
Blake Edwards (born William Blake Crump on July 26, 1922) is an American film director, screenwriter and producer. In 2004, he received an Honorary Academy Award in recognition of his writing, directing and producing an extraordinary body of work for the screen.Edwards's distinguished career began in the 1940s as an actor but soon turned to writing radio scripts at Columbia Pictures. He used his writing skills to begin producing and directing, with some of his best films including: "Experiment in Terror", "The Great Race", and the hugely successful "Pink Panther" film series with the British comedian Peter Sellers. Often thought of as primarily a director of comedies, he is also renowned for his dramatic work, "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and "Days of Wine and Roses".

BLAKE EDWARDS

AS SEEN IN:
"The Life And Death Of Peter Sellers"

AS PLAYED BY:
John Lithgow

BCnU!

Two for Tuesday!

THE HAT SQUAD: ALLEN SWIFT

Cartoon voice actor Allen Swift has passed away at the age of 86. With just the first paragraph of their tribute to him, Cartoon Brew amassed an amazing body of work credited to Mr. Swift:

Gene Deitch just informed us of the passing of his long-time personal friend Allen Swift. Swift (born Ira Stadlen) was best known for voicing numerous cartoon characters including Simon Bar Sinister (in 'Underdog'), Odie on 'King Leonardo' and most of the voices for the 1960’s underwater puppet show 'Diver Dan'. Swift was also well-known for hosting the 'Popeye' cartoon show (September 10, 1956 to September 23, 1960) on WPIX in New York City. Swift did the majority of the voices in Rankin/Bass’s 'Mad Monster Party', and supplied character voices for the NBC 'Howdy Doody Show'. He was Tooter Turtle and Clint Clobber. He did voices in Richard Williams’ 'Raggedy Ann and Andy' and John Dilworth’s 'Courage The Cowardly Dog', as well as in Gene Deitch’s 1960-61 group of 'Tom and Jerry' cartoons (especially memorable in "Dickie Moe").

Odie Colognie was always a favorite of mine with that Ronald Colman accent.....

Allen Swift was also the voice of Simon Bar Sinister on 'Underdog'.

You can read more of the Cartoon Brew tribute and check out some video here.

Good night and may God bless.

BCnU.....

LASSIE THE WONDER DOG

LASSIE THE CAT

THE HEWITT DUO

Here are two roles played by Matthew Marsh, better known here at Toobworld Central as CIA agent Bob Hogan in 'Spooks' ('MI-5'). (His American accent was so good to my ear that when I looked him up in the IMDb, I was surprised to find that he was British.)

"The Street" .... Bob Hewitt
- Episode #2.2 (2007)

"The Thick of It" .... Simon Hewitt

- Episode #1.2 (2005)

I'm not sure how Bob Hewitt figured in a story about a taxi driver named Eddie who found himself in financial straits; but Simon Hewitt was a journalist who cited a member of the government for being out of touch with the real world.

But this much is clear: it's easy enough to make the claim that the two men were twin brothers. Exact same looks, same last name, and best of all, both of them were one-shot roles in their respective series.

So as an uncomfirmed theory of relateeveety, Toobworld Central considers both shows to be linked.

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: QUEEN MARY OF TECK

QUEEN MARY OF TECK

AS SEEN IN:
'Edward & Mrs. Simpson'

AS PLAYED BY:
Dame Peggy Ashcroft

From Wikipedia:
Mary of Teck (Victoria Mary Augusta Louise Olga Pauline Claudine Agnes; 26 May 1867 – 24 March 1953) was Queen consort of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Empress of India as the consort of King-Emperor George V. By birth, she was a princess of Teck, in the Kingdom of Württemberg, with the style Serene Highness. To her family, she was informally known as May, after her birth month.

Her father, who was of German extraction, married into the British Royal Family, and "May" was born and brought up in the United Kingdom. At the age of 24 she was betrothed to Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale, the heir to the British throne, but six weeks after the announcement of the engagement he unexpectedly died of pneumonia. The following year she became engaged to the new heir, Albert Victor's brother, George. Before her husband's accession, she was successively Duchess of York, Duchess of Cornwall and Princess of Wales. As his queen consort from 1910, she supported her husband through World War I, his ill health, and major political changes arising from the aftermath of the war and the rise of socialism and nationalism.

After George's death in 1936, her eldest son Edward became King-Emperor, but to her dismay he abdicated the same year in order to marry twice-divorced American socialite Mrs. Wallis Simpson. She supported her second son, Albert, who succeeded to the throne as George VI, until his death in 1952. She died the following year, at the beginning of the reign of her granddaughter, Elizabeth II. Briefly, there were three queens in the country: Mary; her daughter-in-law, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother; and Elizabeth II.

BCnU!

THE RULES OF ATRAXI*

And now we turn our attention to the Atraxi, another alien race introduced in the season premiere of 'Doctor Who', "The Eleventh Hour". Unlike the Judoon, the Atraxi were not an inter-galactic police force, but instead inter-galactic prison guards.
These warders must have formed a symbiotic relationship with their spaceships, which could be related to the Crystalline Entity seen in 'Star Trek: The Next Generation'.
The Atraxi may not have actually been giant eyeballs. It could have been that they assumed that shape to impress upon their prisoners that the were always under a watchful eye.

The Atraxi were more than just an eyeball - they could speak, project astral images, and they could reason, which implies a brain and mind.

There's no way of knowing what the Atraxi are like as children, at least not from this 'Doctor Who' episode. But it could be that before they bonded with their own crystalline entities, each Atraxi had legs to get them about. And like other creatures, the Atraxi evolved - losing those limbs once they reached maturity and were bonded with their spaceships. Thanks to Bernard Cribbins' portrayal of Bilbo Baggins in an episode of 'Jackanory', we can claim now that "The Lord Of The Rings" is part of Earth Prime-Time. So it's pozz'ble, just pozz'ble as Mushrat would say, that the Great Eye of Sauron was a rogue Atraxi who turned to the Dark Side in its quest to conquer Middle Earth Prime-Time. BCnU!

*It's just a play on words. This is merely a Toobworld theory and is not meant to be taken as being anything near what Steven Moffat intended. I doubt that the Grand Moff and I would see eye to eye on this.

Sorry about that, Chief......