Today marks the 51st anniversary of 'The Dick Van Dyke Show'. One year
ago today, I took part in Ivan Shreve's brilliant blogathon celebrating the
"Camelot" of sitcoms' 50th anniversary by posting about 29 blog posts during the course of that
day. And even then I felt as though I really didn't squeeze as much out of
this, my third favorite TV show of all time. (Okay, if you must know - 'The
Prisoner' and 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show' rank above it. 'Columbo', 'Doctor
Who', 'Lost' and 'Maverick' follow.)
So for this past year, I've been posting other articles about particular
facets of the show:
guest characters who may have appeared in other TV shows (Mrs. Glimpsher
on 'I Love Lucy' and a Camp Crowder soldier on 'Columbo')
theories of "relateeveety," including tie-ins to the TV Western salute
and to Black History Month
and salutes to actors connected to the show who passed away. (I failed
John Rich, the show's best director, by not marking his passing with one of
these posts. At least I'll get to mention Biff Elliot later today....)
Today will mark the end of that year-long effort. For this last hurrah,
I have a couple of items to post. But I think I may do one last article for
Halloween - and no, it won't be about the Twiloites.....
Continuing our celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the first James
Bond movie, we take a look at the portrayal of the first Bond villain... from
eight years earlier than that in Toobworld (and a year before that in
BookWorld.......)
LE CHIFFRE
AS SEEN IN:
'Climax!'
"Casino Royale"
CREATED BY:
Ian Fleming
PORTRAYED BY:
Peter Lorre
TV DIMENSION:
Earth Prime-Time
From Wikipedia:
Le Chiffre (The Cypher or The Number) is a fictional character and the main
antagonist in Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel, "Casino Royale". On screen
Le Chiffre has been portrayed by Peter Lorre in the 1954 television adaptation
of the novel for CBS's 'Climax!' television series, by Orson Welles in the 1967
spoof of the novel and Bond film series, and by Mads Mikkelsen in the 2006 film
version of Fleming's novel.
Fleming based the character on occultist Aleister
Crowley.
Le Chiffre, alias "Die Nummer", "Mr. Number", "Herr Ziffer", "Ochiu
Spart" (Romanian for "Smashed Eye") and other translations of "The Number" or
"The Cipher" in various languages, is the paymaster of the "Syndicat des
Ouvriers d'Alsace" (French for "Alsatian Workmen's Union"), a SMERSH-controlled
trade union.
In the novel, he makes a major investment in a string of
brothels with money belonging to SMERSH. The investment fails after a bill is
signed into law banning prostitution. Le Chiffre then goes to the casino
Royale-les-Eaux in an attempt to recover all of his lost funds. There, however,
Bond bankrupts him in a series of games in Chemin de Fer. Le Chiffre kidnaps
Bond's assistant, Vesper Lynd, to lure him into a trap and get his money back.
The trap works, and Le Chiffre tortures Bond to get him to give up the money. He
is interrupted by a SMERSH agent, however, who shoots him between the eyes with
a silenced TT pistol as punishment for losing the money. The torture Bond
suffers at the hands of Le Chiffre briefly upsets 007's confidence in his
profession, and he toys with the idea of leaving the service until the novel's
conclusion, when a new threat emerges.
Le Chiffre's death is seen by the
Soviet government as an embarrassment, which in addition to the death and defeat
of Mr. Big in "Live and Let Die", leads to the events of "From Russia With
Love".
David Cornelius of Efilmcritic.com described Lorre as "the real main
attraction here, the veteran villain working at full weasel mode; a grotesque
weasel whose very presence makes you uncomfortable." Peter Debruge of Variety
also praised Lorre, considering him the source of "whatever charm this slipshod
antecedent to the Bond oeuvre has to offer."
From the source:
“So,” continued Bond, warming to his argument, “Le Chiffre was serving a
wonderful purpose, a really vital purpose, perhaps the best and highest purpose
of all. By his evil existence, which I foolishly helped to destroy, he was
creating a normal of badness by which, and by which alone, an oppostie norm of
goodness could exist. We were privileged, in our short knowledge of him, to see
and estimate his wickedness and we emerge from the acquaintanceship better and
more virtuous men.”
Today is my brother Tim's birthday! (And NO! The "65" is not his age - he's younger than me!)
Tim is a big Denver Broncos fan, so to celebrate his birthday, I'm offering up
this Super Six list of appearances which former Broncos quarterback John Elway
has made on television. (Some of which make him eligible for the TV Crossover
Hall Of Fame!). Tim's favorite player is Elway - see that framed picture over
his left shoulder? That's a picture of the two of them together. Just by
chance he ran into his football hero.)
SIX JOHN ELWAY TV APPEARANCES
1] 'LAS VEGAS'
Elway played himself in the second season finale "Centennial", along with
Jon Bon Jovi and Dean Cain.
2] 'HOME IMPROVEMENT'
In "The Eve Of Construction", Elway kicked off his Toobworldly presence by
working with Habitat For Humanity.
3] NBC SUPER BOWL COMMERCIAL
Since Tim is the third child in our family, I figured this slot would be
the best birthday berth for the inevitable video.....
4] 'THE GREAT FOOD TRUCK RACE'
During the 'Rocky Mountain Highs And Lows' episode of last year, Elway
showed up - I guess to prove the show really was in the Rocky Mountains
area?
5] 'THE 1983 NFL DRAFT'
John Elway was the 1st overall draft pick that year. But he was picked by the Baltimore Colts, and Elway wanted no part of that team. He threatened to play pro baseball instead until Baltimore finally traded him to the Broncos.
6] 'WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE?'
September 10, 2001 - Elway appeared on the game show the day before the
world changed forever......
(I didn't mean to end that list as Debbie Downer. But it is a good
illustration of the timeline demarcation point for the modern world.)
Anyhoo, happy birthday to Timothy Ticklepepper, as my Grammy used to call
him!
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has enough TV series credits to qualify
him to enter the TV Crossover Hall of Fame:
"Dallas: War Of The Ewings"
'Dallas'
'Coach'
'Entourage'
Diet Pepsi MAX commercial
Papa John's commercial
But now he'll also be in the 10/11 season premiere of 'The League'.
I'm not going to induct him right away. Maybe if the Cowboys go. all. the.
way. But I don't want to overload the Hall with too many televersions in the
League of Themselves.....
For the "Two for Tuesday" segment, we could have combined any of the James
Bonds. However, there was a recastaway in the movies which translated to the
television universe as well......
Q
(Major Boothroyd)
AS SEEN IN:
VISA Commercial
PORTRAYED BY:
Desmond Llewelyn
Q
(Formerly R. Real name unknown)
AS SEEN IN:
HEINEKEN Commercial
(Maybe a SCHWEPPES commercial as well)
PORTRAYED BY:
John Cleese
TV STATUS:
Recastaways
(The "Q" designation is a work-related title. No Zonk involved.)
TV DIMENSION:
Earth Prime-Time
From Wikipedia:
Q is a fictional character in the James Bond novels and films. Q (standing
for Quartermaster), like M, is a job title rather than a name. He is the head of
Q Branch (or later Q Division), the fictional research and development division
of the British Secret Service. The character never appears in Fleming's novels
though Fleming's first two novels do refer to him; in subsequent Fleming novels,
we read only of "Q Branch". The character "Q" appears in the Bond film series
and the novelizations of Christopher Wood, John Gardner and Raymond
Benson.
In the novels, Q is first mentioned by a name in "Dr. No". He is
referred as Major Boothroyd. Boothroyd was at the post of Q for all the novels
by Ian Fleming.
DESMOND LLEWELYN AS Q Beginning with "From Russia with
Love", Desmond Llewelyn portrayed the character in every official film except
"Live and Let Die" until his death in 1999. In the 1977 film "The Spy Who Loved
Me", as Q was delivering the underwater Lotus, Major Anya Amasova/Agent XXX
(Barbara Bach) greets Q as "Major Boothroyd".
The scenes in the films where Q
briefs Bond on the gadgets that he is going to use on his mission would include
dialogue of antagonism between the two, with Q often annoyed by Bond's wandering
attention span, often telling him "Now pay attention, 007," and Bond's seemingly
playful lack of respect for the equipment he and his branch develop and famously
telling the agent, "I never joke about my work, 007" (a line referenced by his
successor in "Die Another Day"). In "Thunderball", Bond can be heard muttering
"Oh no" when Q joins him in the Bahamas.
However, on occasion, Q has shown a
warm and fatherly concern for 007's welfare, such as at Bond's wedding in "On
Her Majesty's Secret Service", when he assures Bond that he is available if Bond
ever requires his help despite Bond planning to leave MI6, and when, at the
behest of Miss Moneypenny, he secretly sneaks gadgets out of MI6 to help Bond
survive his vendetta against the drug tyrant Sanchez in "Licence to Kill".
JOHN CLEESE AS R, THEN Q (R2Q?)
In "The World Is Not Enough" an assistant to Q was introduced, played by
John Cleese. His real name has yet to be revealed, but he is initially credited
as R in "The World Is Not Enough", stemming from a joke in which Bond asks the
elder Q: "If you're Q, does that make him R?"
Q&R Their only shot together in the movie. (Sorry for the quality.....)
He was officially referred to
as "Q" in "Die Another Day" (2002) following actor Llewelyn's death in
1999.
Initially portrayed as rather clumsy, R
then became more self-assured and more in the style of his predecessor. They
both shared the same attitude towards their professional work, requesting that
Bond be more careful in the testing laboratories and return his equipment
intact.
In "Die Another Day", Bond at first refers to R as "Quartermaster" but,
silently impressed by the gadgets he is given, calls him "Q" at the end of their
meeting. (The "Die Another Day" DVD reveals that Bond initially saw R as an
'interloper', only awarding the proper title of 'Q' after R has proven
himself.)
It's possible that Q-R was a serlinguist and he is the man we see
in the following Schweppes commercial:
If so, his comments about the James Bond movies are an expression over his
concerns about the work done by "UNreel".
Or it could just be John Cleese, schilling yet again.....
"If it hadn't been for Q Branch, you'd have been dead long ago."
Earlier tonight on the season premiere of 'The Mentalist', the show -
without realizing it, of course - gave me a trivial nugget to be stored away for
future use in linking shows together.
I saw John Rubinstein's name in the opening credits, but tucked away nearly
at the end of the run and lumped together with others, rather than being
trumpeted in a solo credit for the star he once was. It turned out that his
role was something of a glorified cameo in which he played a judge arbitrating
an investigation dispute between the CBI and the FBI.
His judge was never named in the scene.
Rubinstein is no stranger to playing judges on television, although he's
usually appearing as a doctor. Over the course of his career he's played at
least four judges, but unfortunately we can't use any of them because they were
presiding over courts in other states:
Judge Randy of 'Harry's Law'(Cincinnatti, Ohio)
Judge Crawford of 'CSI'(Las Vegas, Nevada)
Judge Schuyler of 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'(New York, New York)
Judge Joseph Papp of 'Boston Public' & 'The Practice'(Boston, Massachusetts)
What's needed is a judge in California in order for us to make the claim
that Rubinstein was the same character in both shows. Your Toobmeister is a
patient man, though. Eventually one will turn up.
In the meantime, if worst comes to worst, Toobworld Central does have a
candidate - John Rubinstein played Professor Wendell Peterson in one episode of
'The Paper Chase'.
Professor Peterson was being considered for a tenured
position, along with three other candidates; only there was only two openings
available. Peterson was a phenom in the classroom, inspiring his students, but
he was not up to snuff when it came to "publish or perish". It could be that he
finally left Harvard to accept a judgeship back in California.
But if not, I can wait for a better option.....
BCnU!
PS: You know what's great about the timing of this story? It's the First Monday in October!
To kick off our salute to James Bond this week, here is the very first
portrayal of the secret agent - and not just in Toobworld!
BOND. JAMES BOND
AS SEEN IN:
'Climax!'
"Casino Royale"
CREATED BY:
Ian Fleming
PORTRAYED BY:
Barry Nelson
TV STATUS:
Recastaway (Original)
TV DIMENSION:
Earth Prime-Time
From Wikipedia:
"Casino Royale" is a 1954 television adaptation
of the novel of the same name by Ian Fleming. The show is the first screen
adaptation of a James Bond novel and stars Barry Nelson and Peter Lorre. Though
this marks the first onscreen appearance of the character of James Bond,
Nelson's character is played as an American agent with "Combined Intelligence"
and is referred to as "Jimmy" by several characters.
The show was forgotten
about after its initial showing until most of it was located in the 1980s by
film historian Jim Schoenberger, with the ending (including credits) found
afterwards. The rights to the programme were acquired by MGM at the same time as
the rights for the 1967 film version of "Casino Royale", clearing the legal
pathway and enabling them to make the 2006 film of the same name.
In 1954 CBS
paid Ian Fleming $1,000 ($8,654 in 2012 dollars) to adapt his first novel,
"Casino Royale", into a one-hour television adventure as part of their dramatic
anthology series 'Climax Mystery Theater', which ran between October 1954 and
June 1958. Due to the restriction of a one hour play, the adapted version lost
many of the details found in the book, although it retained its violence,
particularly in Act III.
The hour-long "Casino Royale" episode aired on 21
October 1954 as a live production and starred Barry Nelson as secret agent James
Bond, with Peter Lorre in the role of Le Chiffre and was hosted by William
Lundigan. The Bond character from "Casino Royale" was re-cast as an American
agent, described as working for "Combined Intelligence", supported by the
British agent, Clarence Leiter; "thus was the Anglo-American relationship
depicted in the book reversed for American consumption".
Still and all, this was the first James Bond. To fill in the blanks, the
Toobworld splainin would be that Clarence Leiter was so impressed by Jimmy
Bond's work on this case and by the notoriety it gained, that he suggested to
the Home Minister (or whoever was in charge of Intelligence back then) that they
should adopt the name of "James Bond" as a cover for their very best operative.
That way, should "James Bond" be killed in the line of duty, they could then pass
the name on to the next best, and so make it look as though he was virtually
immortal and invulnerable.
(Leiter may have come up with the idea after reading
how the same thing was done in the Wild, Wild West of Wyoming with a Sheriff Lom
Trevors, a nom de guerre used by Marshall Dan Troop, Pearly Gates, and the
Virginian when they worked undercover for Judge Garth, Governor of
Wyoming.)
On October 5, 1962, the first James Bond movie, "Dr. No", opened in
theatres. To celebrate this fiftieth anniversary milestone, the As Seen On TV
showcase will feature the televersions of characters from the series of books by
Ian Fleming.
James Bond does exist in Earth Prime-Time, but he's only had a fleeting
appearance on our TV screens in comparison to the vast output of TV characters
over the last sixty plus years. Like his big screen counterpart in the
Cineverse, there have been many James Bonds, with no need to splain away the
Recastaways with alternate dimensions. "James Bond" is a code name used for the
best spy in Her Majesty's Secret Service. Many different men have assumed the
mantle of James Bond, giving up their original identities to keep the myth
alive.
Because of this, the general public in Toobworld thinks of James Bond as a
fictional character from books and movies. This is what a covert organization
(which I have dubbed "UNreel") organized. By creating pervasive fictional
accounts of this secret agent, "James Bond" is able to operate freely without
worrying that his exploits will be revealed as the Truth. (Although fictional
in Toobworld, James Bond's book and movie adventures have their own realities in
BookWorld and the Cineverse.) "UNreel" has done this before - for the
U.N.C.L.E. organization and a Gallifreyan Time Lord known as "the Doctor", among
others.
But unlike his counterparts in BookWorld and the Cineverse, James Bond has
not always been a British secret agent......
By the way, Ian Fleming also exists in Toobworld. So he joins the ranks of
Mark Twain, Shakespeare, Dickens, Jules Verne, and Dame Agatha Christie as an
author who shares the same world as the characters he created.....
I have one last example of a TV show within a TV show that would have an
effect on life in the Mirror Toobworld.
Carl Reiner created a sitcom idea based on his own life - that of a comedy
writer for a television variety show. We know it today as 'The Dick Van Dyke
Show' which starred DVD as Rob Petrie.
From the IMDb:
Rob is asked to write an amusing bulletin for the PTA bazaar. Richie is
having a difficult time explaining to his friends just what his father does at
work and he's taking out his frustration on his father. Laura thinks it would be
a good idea for Rob to take Richie with him to the office for a day so he can
see first hand what his dad does. Rob is skeptical this will work but agrees to
give her plan a try. [Written by tomtrekp
]
If you're a fan of 'The Dick Van Dyke Show', you should recognize that
basically as the 22nd episode from the first season, "Father Of The Week".
However, Reiner saw the property as a vehicle for himself as Rob Petrie and
he produced that script as a pilot for a show called "Head Of The Family". But
the network didn't see Reiner as being right for the part, even though he WAS
the part. So Dick Van Dyke, fresh off a success on Broadway in "Bye Bye
Birdie", was hired and Reiner not only wrote most of the scripts and produced
the show, but he also took the role of tyrannical star of 'The Alan Brady Show',
Alan Brady his own self.
The true final episode of 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' is "The Last Chapter",
bringing to a close a running sub-plot of Rob writing his memoirs:
From the IMDb:
Rob and Laura decide to put aside all else for one evening after Rob tells
Laura that he has finished the manuscript for his book. Laura will read the
manuscript while a nervous Rob watches her reading, he trying to gage her
reaction. Their plans change when Laura refuses to let him watch. As Laura
starts reading, she is excited to learn that the book is the story of their
life, and she begins to reminisce about the situations written. Regardless of
Laura's reaction, Rob is equally as anticipatory about the reaction of the
publisher to who he sent the manuscript.
As it turned out, Alan Brady bought the rights to the book so that he could
turn it into a TV sitcom for himself, (albeit many years later once his variety
show went off the air - as if that would ever happen!)
So in Mirror Toobworld, there are two Rob Petries (as Rob played by DVD did
appear on TV himself). The other one looked like Alan Brady, who looked like
Carl Reiner.....
Here is the only known episode from Alan Brady's sitcom:
And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, marks the September entry in our year-long
salute to 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' in celebration of its fifty years since the
first episode aired. (And got it in just under the wire!)
Next week, we wrap up the theme on that anniversary day. One of the pieces
I'll be posting the answer to this trivia question which I posted back at the
beginning a year ago:
'The Dick Van Dyke
Show' has two somewhat tenuous connections to Andy Warhol. One was "outside the
box" - one of those six degrees of separation situations on the production side.
The other was within the "reality" of the show - one of Andy Warhol's works of
art actually appeared in an episode.
No one's even taken
a crack at answering either part of it, so you still have a chance to gain the
bragging rights. If you win, you could be awarded the Richard Rosebud Petrie
Prize - combining presents from the episodes "Punch Thy Neighbor" and "Empress
Carlotta's Necklace"!
As the Trickster once said, "Reality is boring, that's why I change it whenever I can."
I'm just "The Man Who Viewed Too Much", and "Inner Toob" is a blog exploring and celebrating the 'reality' of an alternate universe in which everything that ever happened on TV actually takes place.
Most of my theories about the TV Universe come from thinking inside the box and thus can't be proven. But I've never been one to shy away from a tall tale.....
Remember: "The more you watch, the more you've seen!"
