FEBRUARY, 2020 TVXOHOF - FIN TUTUOLA

After last Sunday’s tragic news, I got an email from a member of Team Toobworld wondering if I had any candidate in mind for February’s  monthly showcase induction ceremony. Even if I did, they wrote, maybe I might consider bumping them in favor of Kobe Bryant.

I do have the post honoring Kobe already set up to run on Monday as a “Monday Memorial TVXOHOF Tribute”.  But I couldn’t see bumping the already scheduled “honoree” – not when he was bumped two years in a row and then set aside last year for the 20th anniversary theme of superheroes and super-villains.  I couldn’t do that to the guy.

And his body of work – the character has appeared 464 times so far in the multiverse (even if most of that is from one show) and counting with no end in sight – far outweighs that of Kobe Bryant’s as seen in a cold logical light.

Therefore, for February 2020, the newest member of the Television Crossover Hall of Fame is…..

DETECTIVE FIN TUTUOLA

From Wikipedia:

Odafin "Fin" Tutuola is a fictional character on the TV drama ‘Law & Order: Special Victims Unit’, played by Ice-T. He is a sergeant with the New York Police Department's Special Victims Unit.

Tutuola was raised in the Harlem area of New York City and was six during the 1968 riots following the Martin Luther King Jr. assassination, making his birth year 1961 or 1962.  When he was a child, he witnessed his mother being murdered by a business rival of his father, a petty criminal; 30 years later, while investigating an unrelated case, he inadvertently discovered that his mother's killer was himself murdered.

According to the Season 11 episode "Disabled", Tutuola, while still in the police academy, was forced by circumstances to place his maternal grandfather, whom he credits for raising him, in a nursing home. His grandfather later died as a result of abuse from the staff. Tutuola later describes this action as "the worst decision [he] ever made", and says that in his grief, rage, and guilt, he repeatedly started fights with fellow officers "for the hell of it" and was almost kicked off the force until an academy instructor intervened and helped him salvage his career.

Tutuola was previously a US Army Ranger and served on two tours.  His military background remains sketchy as he rarely speaks of it or only makes vague and indirect references to it; however, in season 10, he explicitly mentions serving on Operation Gothic Serpent in Somalia in order to connect with a military rape victim.

Tutuola has a son named Kwasi (nicknamed Ken) with his ex-wife Teresa Randall. Subsequent episodes reveal that he has a strained relationship with his family. As of "Intersecting Lives", he is due to be a grandfather, as that episode revealed that Ken and his husband are expecting a baby via surrogate.

As of the Season 19 episode "Mood", his paternal grandfather Iggy is still alive and healthy at the age of 95, despite suffering from diabetes.  At the start of the episode "Send In the Clowns," Ken and his husband bring their infant son Jaden to the squadroom for a birthday party.

Tutuola is an avid fan of first-person shooter video games, and is a regular at an annual video game convention. On why he would play such games considering the nature of his job and his military background, he explains to his colleagues that he views these games as an escape from the grey areas he faces in his job, and that he finds solace in the "black and white" nature of these games in which he gets to hunt down and defeat a clearly defined "bad guy".
Here are the appearances for which Fin is being honored:

FIN TUTUOLA

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
458 episodes (2000-2020)

Law & Order
- Flaw (2005)

Chicago P.D.
- The Song of Gregory Williams Yates (2016)
- The Number of Rats (2015)
- Conventions (2014)

30 Rock
- ¡Qué Sorpresa! (2011)

O’Bservation:
It is a Warholian mantra that eventually everybody in Toobworld will be featured in a TV show.  The incredible work done by the Special Victims Unit over the last twenty years certainly deems them as being worthy to be showcased in a series.

But is it a fictional reenactment or a documentary series?  Are we seeing the TV character Fin or the televersion of Ice-T?  Based on references in the dialogue of other shows, I’m siding with it being a fictional TV show  More on that in a few weeks. (nudge nudge wink wink.)

And Fin is seen in Skitlandia as well, making him a multidimensional:

Saturday Night Live
- Kit Harington/Sara Bareilles (2019)

O’Bservation:
Again, this is an acknowledgement that ‘L&O: SVU’ is a TV series in Skitlandia as well.  It’s likely we’re seeing Skitlandia’s Ice-T playing his impression of the Skitlandian cop.  (And again, this may come up again in a few weeks.)

Two Hall of Famers

Welcome to the Hall, Detective!  You’ll find many other members of the ‘Law & Order’ franchise here, mostly from the 27th Precinct, as well as the man who made it all possible, Dick Wolf.

JANUARY HALL OF FAMER SHOW - "STAR TREK"

I learned early on in my televisiology research that I “got some splainin to do” when dealing with a Zonk (translation: a major discrepancy.)  That particular bugaboo which makes my “job” harder dealt with TV series which mention other TV series, when they both should be sharing the same world, Earth Prime-Time.

My goal has been to keep as many TV series on the same world, the main Toobworld, as possible.  Of course, certain TV shows were always going to defy me on that.  Naughty shows!  The zombie shows had to be relegated to their own dimension and the same goes for any remakes with all-new casts.

And thanks to the influx triggered by ‘The West Wing’, a whole slew of new Toobworlds had to be created for each concurrent series dealing with a fictional President of the United States.  (Earth Prime-Time has to have the same President as Earth Prime because plenty of shows will eventually mention the POTUS.  And with Presidents like Clinton and Drumpf, there were references a-plenty!)

But I wasn’t going to just keep tossing TV series out the window just because some TV show considered them to be a TV show and not part of their own world.  So I had to come up with that splainin.

And it’s a multiple part splainin.  First of all, I had to accept that there were citizens of Earth Prime-Time whose lives proved to be so fascinating to some producer that they made a TV show about those people which would then be shown on TV within the TV Universe.

Sounds confusing, don’t it?  But think of all those times you’ve seen clips from our TV shows being watched by fictional characters who should be living on the same world as the people who are in those TV shows they’re watching.  This is the best way to get around that.

Although the show may be based on their lives, the plots don’t necessarily have to adhere to the storylines we saw on our own version of those shows. There have been times when a character will mention an episode of a TV show which has a plot that bears no resemblance to what we actually saw in the real version of the show.

I saw this happen in a TV movie clip in which the main character mentioning that she saw her current situation play out at a wedding reception in an episode of ‘Columbo’.  No such scene existed in the ‘Columbo’ episodes we got to see.  And in an episode of ‘Extras’, Andy Milman got to act out a scene in ‘Doctor Who’ with David Tennant which never existed for us.

But the actors they hire to do those shows have to be the televersions of those actors in the “real” version of the show, because of those clips being shown.  The aforementioned Tennant is a good example.

In my head, I keep coming back to ‘The Brady Bunch’ as an example of Toobworld citizens whose home situation was perfect fodder for a TV series to some fictional version of Sherwood Schwartz (just in case he ever gets cited in the dialogue.)  For us, we’re seeing the televersion of the Bradys being played by the real actors.  For the fictional characters in other shows who are watching ‘The Brady Bunch’, they’re s’eeing the Brady Family’s televersions being played by the televersions of the actors we know.

Another reason these Zonkish TV shows exist is because of a shadow ops group which I’ve called UNReel creates them in order to debunk claims that such things actually happened in their world.  So that people who claim to have seen something outrageous – like superheroes, alien invasion, secret agents and a certain alien Time Lord in action – they could be dismissed as crackpots who can’t distinguish between “reality” and a TV show.  A video version of “swamp gas”.

I bring this all up because this year I’ll be inducting a few of those televersions of TV shows within TV shows into the Television Crossover Hall of Fame – as long as they pass the requirement of being mentioned or even seen in at least three other TV shows.

And I’m kicking it off with ‘Star Trek’.

From Wikipedia:

‘Star Trek’ is an American media franchise based on the science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry. The first television series, called ‘Star Trek’ and now known as "The Original Series", debuted on September 8, 1966 and aired for three seasons on NBC.

It followed the voyages of the starship USS Enterprise on its five-year mission, the purpose of which was "to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before!".

The USS Enterprise was a space exploration vessel built by the United Federation of Planets in the 23rd century. The ‘Star Trek’ canon includes the Original Series, an animated series, five spin-off television series, the film franchise, and further adaptations in several media.

“Star Trek” has been a cult phenomenon for decades. Fans of the franchise are called "Trekkies" or "Trekkers". The franchise spans a wide range of spin-offs including games, figurines, novels, toys, and comics. ‘Star Trek’ had a themed attraction in Las Vegas that opened in 1998 and closed in September 2008. At least two museum exhibits of props travel the world.

The series has its own full-fledged constructed language, Klingon. Several parodies have been made of ‘Star Tre’k. In addition, viewers have produced several fan productions. As of July 2016, the franchise had generated $10 billion in revenue, making ‘Star Trek’ one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time.

‘Star Trek’ is noted for its cultural influence beyond works of science fiction. The franchise is also noted for its progressive civil rights stances. The Original Series included one of television's first multiracial casts.

Since ‘Star Trek’ took place four hundred years into Toobworld’s future, there had to be a different splainin as to how Toobworldlings of the 1960s until now could see a TV show and movies about the their own future.

And I blame the time traveler known as The Doctor.

In a way, it’s probably like the ‘Doctor Who’ episode “Blink” in which Sally Sparrow had to get all of her notes to The Doctor so that he could then prepare her for what was coming in her past.  A temporal loop.

In this case, The Doctor brought a massive file to the late fifties, early sixties, and delivered them to a motorcycle cop named Gene Roddenberry with instructions that he should develop it all into a TV series, right down to supplying suggestions as to who to cast in the proposed series.

It’s one way to splain how a CHiPs officer could come up with such an idea.

There has to be both a TV show as well as the actual events in our far future.  Not even including their own spin-offs, there were several sci-fi shows in the same basic timeline which had dialogue in which it is suggested that they were aware of Starfleet’s existence.

I’m not sure if the world of ‘Star Trek’ exists in the future of those shows which have to be relegated to other Toobworlds and yet still have mentioned the show, like ‘Lois & Clark’ or ‘Spin City’.

As for ‘Blake’s 7’ which made a somewhat veiled reference to the show, it is set in the Evil Mirror Dimension an thus is current with the Evil Spock as Captain of the Enterprise.

‘Star Trek’ is a good show to begin this end of month series of TVXOHOF inductions – there are so many TV shows in which fictional characters are watching ‘Star Trek’ or discussing it, and sometimes even acting it out themselves, complete with costumes.  An episode of ‘Alfred Hitchcock Presents’ even mentioned that there was a ‘Star Trek’ musical!

I’m disqualifying mentions in certain TV dimensions, like Skitlandia, the Tooniverse, definitely Zombie Toobworld.  Also those shows which have anachronistic references like ‘Maid Marian and her Merry Men’ and ‘The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.’

But even if the name ‘Star Trek’ isn’t actually stated, we know that the show exists when characters from other shows start spouting the dialogue.  Lines like “Beam me up” (Scotty or no), “He’s dead, Jim”, “To boldly go where no man has gone before”, “Set your phasers on stun”, and “I’m a doctor, not a (fill in the blank.)” - these are a sure sign some fictional character is a Trekkie.  Or Trekker.

And the same goes for those who attempt the Vulcan neck pinch.

It's time to present the evidence to support its membership.  We’ll begin with those shows which actually showed scenes from ‘Star Trek’.

• ‘Young Sheldon’
• “Der Minister” (a TV movie)
• ‘St. Elsewhere’ (Actually we heard it on the TV as John Doe #6 changed the channels.  Our POV was from an angle where we couldn’t see the screen.)

Okay, now.  Take a deep breath and then dive into this list of shows which have made reference to ‘Star Trek: The Original Series’ over the years.  Most of them are in chronological order….

‘The Wonder Years', 'Bewitched’, ‘Last Of The Summer Wine’, ‘Here‘s Lucy’, ‘Sanford and Son’, ‘Love Thy Neighbor’, ‘Family’, ‘Man About The House’, ‘Nurses’, ‘Are You Being Served?’, ‘Mork & Mindy’, ‘Lou Grant’, ‘Diff’rent Strokes’, ‘Sykes’, ‘Terry and June’, ‘WKRP In Cincinnati’, ‘The Muppet Show’, ‘Fraggle Rock’, ‘Fame’, ‘Emu’s World’, ‘V’, ‘The A-Team’, ‘Just Good Friends’, ‘Riptide’, ‘No. 73’, ‘E/R’, ‘Moonlighting’, ‘Miami Vice’, ‘St. Elsewhere’, ‘Doctor Who’, ‘Juliet Bravo’, ‘Lovejoy’, ‘Cheers’, ‘Perfect Strangers’, ‘Growing Pains’, ‘Hill Street Blues’, ‘Out Of This World’, ‘Sledge Hammer’, ‘Golden Girls’, ‘Boys Will Be Boys’, ‘ALF’ & “Project ALF”, ‘Beauty and the Beast’, ‘Valerie’, ‘Family Ties’, ‘It’s Garry Shandling’s Show’, ‘Day By Day’, ‘China Beach’, ‘Knots Landing’, ‘Superboy’, ‘Press Gang’, ‘Night Court’, ‘Alfred Hitchcock Presents’, ‘Alien Nation’, ‘Doogie Howser, M.D.’, ‘Red Dwarf’, ‘My Secret Identity’, ‘Nearly Departed’, ‘Not Necessarily The News’, ‘Parker Lewis Can’t Lose’, ‘Saved By The Bell’, ‘Only Fools and Horses’, ‘Degrassi High’, ‘Operation Blue Line’, ‘Seinfeld’, ‘Clariss Explains It All’, ‘Knight Rider 2000’, ‘Golden Years’, ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’, ‘Married… With Children’, ‘Roseanne’, ‘Eerie, Indiana’, ‘The Larry Sanders Show’, ‘Quantum Leap’, ‘Absolutely Famous’, ‘The Tomorrow People’, ‘The Nanny’, ‘Boy Meets World’,’Goodnight, Sweetheart’, ‘Frasier’, ‘Weird Science’, ‘Melrose Place’, ‘Dead at 21’, ‘Home Improvement’, ‘Friends’, ‘Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge’, ‘NYPD Blue’, ‘Northern exposure’, ‘The Vicar Of Dibley’, ‘The X-Files’, ‘Full House’, ‘Dream On’, ‘The Langoliers’, ‘The Big Bang Theory, ‘Caroline In The City’, ‘Cracker’, ‘Law & Order’, ‘Flash Forward’, ‘Are You Afraid Of The Dark’, ‘Home And Away’, ‘Might Morphin Power Rangers’, ‘ER’, ‘Due South’, ‘Mad About You’, ‘NewsRadio’, ‘3rd Rock From The Sun’, ‘Suddenly, Susan’, ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’, ‘Mystery Science Theater 3000’, ‘Psi Factor: Chronicles Of The Paranormal’, ‘Honey, I Shrunk The Kids’, ‘Hard Time’, ‘Teen Angel’, ‘Student Bodies’, ‘Homicide: Life On The Street’, ‘Almost Perfect’, ‘The Red Green Show’, ‘Muppets Tonight’, ‘Dawson’s Creek’, ‘Team Knight Rider’, ‘Two Guys, A Girl, and A Pizza Place’, ‘Sliders’, ‘Cupid’, ‘Diagnosis Murder’, ‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer’, ‘Will & Grace’, ‘The Outer Limits’, ‘Stargate SG-1’, ‘Queer As Folk’, ‘Spin City’, ‘Charmed’, ‘Farscape’, ‘Freaks and Geeks’, ‘Sports Night’, ‘Twice In A Lifetime’, ‘Angel’, ‘Just Shoot Me’, ‘Action’, ‘A Touch Of Frost’, ‘Cleopatra 2525’, ‘Roswell’, ‘That’s 70s Show’, ‘Popular’, ‘Coupling’, ‘Neighbours’, ‘Popular’, ‘Gilmore Girls’, ‘Time Gentlemen, Please’, ‘The Lone Gunmen’, ‘Malcolm In The Middle’, ‘Undergrads’, ‘The Office’, ‘Odyssey 5’, ‘CSI’, ‘That’s So Raven’, ‘Da Ali G Show’, ‘Tremors’, ‘Train 48’, ‘Dead Like Me’, ‘NCIS’, ‘Degrassi: The Next Generation’, ‘Joan of Arcadia’, ‘Scrubs’, ‘Stargate: Atlantis’, ‘Corner Gas’, ‘Lost’, ‘Law & Order: Criminal Intent’, ‘Smallville’, ‘My Wife and Kids’, ‘Robson Arms’, ‘Entourage’, ‘Criminal Minds’, ‘Boston Legal’, ‘Supernatural’, ‘The King of Queens’, ‘Everybody Hates Chris’, ‘Bones’, ‘How I Met Your Mother’, ;Life On Mars’, ‘Veronica Mars’, ‘Joey’, ‘Heroes’, ‘Psych’, ‘Pastewka‘, ‘Eureka’, ‘Ugly Betty’, ‘Numb3rs’, ‘General Hospital’, ‘Peep Show’, ‘The Sarah Jane Adventures’, ‘Chuck’, ‘Hannah Montana’, ’30 Rock’, ‘Bionic Woman’, ‘Primeval’, ‘Zoey 101’, ‘Weeds’, ‘Wizards of Waverly Place’, ‘The Middleman’, ‘Sons of Anarchy’, ‘Cold Case’, ‘The Mentalist’, ‘House’, ‘Being Human’, ‘Fringe’, ‘Dollhouse’, ‘Castle’, ‘Warehouse 13’, ‘Californication’, ‘The Thick Of It’, ‘Sanctuary’, ‘The New Adventures Of Old Christine’, ‘White Collar’, ‘Cougar Town’, ‘NCIS: Los Angeles’, ‘Skins’,  ‘In Plain Sight’, ‘Breaking Bad’, ‘Parks and Recreation’, ‘Ashes to Ashes’, ‘Community’, ‘Party Down’, ‘The Hard Times of RJ Berger’, ‘The Middle’, ‘iCarly’, ‘Being Erica’, ‘Blue Mountain State’, ‘Lost Girl’, ‘CSI: Miami’, ‘Gossip Girl’, ‘Hawaii Five-0’, ‘Breaking In’, ‘The United States of Tara’, ‘Stargate Universe’, ‘Haven’, ‘Leverage’, ‘Bodies of Evidence’, ‘Terra Nova’, ‘Life’s Too Short’, ‘Revenge’, ‘Star Trek’, ‘The Secret Circle’, ‘Portlandia’, ‘Mrs. Brown’s Boys’, ‘Nikita’, ‘Mad Men’, ‘Continuum’, ‘Suits’, ‘The Newsroom’, ‘Raising Hope’, ‘Defiance’, ‘Arrested Development’, ‘Perception’, ‘Orange Is The New Black’, ‘Sam & Cat’, ‘The Killing’, ‘Switched At Birth’, ‘Chicago Fire’, ‘It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia’, ‘Last Man Standing’, ‘From Dusk Til Dawn’, ‘Modern Family’, ‘Orphan Black’, ‘The Inbetweeners 2’, ‘Lab Rats’, ‘Looking’, ‘2 Broke Girls’, ‘Forever’, ‘Hot In Cleveland’, ‘iZombie’, ‘Maron’, ‘CSI: Cyber’, ‘Liv and Maddie’, ‘The Mysteries of Laura’, ‘The Librarians’, ‘The Magicians’, ‘Shadowhunters’, ‘NCIS: New Orleans’, ‘Santa Clarita Diet’, ‘The Goldbergs’, ’12 Monkeys’, ‘Superstore’, ‘This Is Us’, ‘Ryan Hansen Solves Crimes On Television’, ‘Young Sheldon’, ‘Fresh Off The Boat’, ‘The Kids Are Alright’, ‘The Good Fight’, ‘Pandora’, ‘The Neighborhood’, ‘The Good Doctor’.

And that list is still growing!  The series premiere of 'Avenue 5' had Hugh Laurie's

That’s-a some spacey mentions!

Here's just one example from an episode of 'Nurses':

Welcome to the Television Crossover Hall Of Fame, ‘Star Trek: The Original Series’!

THURSDAY THEORY OF RELATEEVEETY - MOCHRIE MEN

Colin Mochrie appeared in two episodes of ‘Murdoch Mysteries’ – “8 Footsteps” & “Manual For Murder”.  In both he played Ralph Fellows who was the hotel detective at Windsor House.  He was jealous of Detective William Murdoch’s success which eventually drove him to desperate measures.

It appears Fellows had no offspring, at least not officially.  He may have had “relations” with a woman in Toronto which led to the birth of a child outside of marriage.

If so, that family lineage might have eventually led to Neil Jacott of Bishop, Canada.  Neil was also played by Colin Mochrie and was seen in the 2nd season opening episode of ‘Carter’ – “Harley Wears A Wig.”

Neil was known by the Bishop police as a chronic conspiracy fanatic, always reporting crimes that had not taken place.  So when he alleged that his wife was missing and perhaps kidnapped, only Harley Carter, now a private investigator, believed in him.
If Neil and Ralph are related, Ralph is probably either his grandfather or even great-grandfather.

And there’s another theory of “Relateeveety”, eh?

 

TWO 4 TUESDAY NEWS DAY SUPER SIX LIST

Amazon is developing several Italy-based, Italian language TV series for their streaming platform, not just for Italy but for other countries as well.  Perhaps the US as well.

This will be one of them:

“Vita da Carlo” (“Life as Carlo”) featuring Italian comic actor and director Carlo Verdone whose films systematically score well at the Italian box office. This Rome-set comedy series will see Verdone star as a fictionalized version of himself alongside cameos from some of Italy’s biggest stars. Aurelio and Luigi De Laurentiis, who have a longstanding rapport with Verdone, with produce the 10-episode show via their Filmauro shingle with production set to start this year.

This will be a big boon for Toobworld’s League of Themselves which feature the televersions of famous people as seen in the TV Universe.

If the show comes to the States, it’ll be good for those Italian actors as well.

So that was Tuesday News Day.  Let’s make this a Two for Tuesday now and add in a Super Six List.

My Six Favorite TV Shows Featuring The League Of Themselves

1. The Larry Sanders Show
2. Curb Your Enthusiasm
3. Extras
4. Arli$$
5. Entourage
6. Here’s Lucy/The Lucy Show

BCnU!

MONDAY MINUTIAE - JOE THE BARTENDER

PERRY MASON
THE CASE OF THE VIOLENT VEST

Frank Jenks played Walter Clemens the Bartender in this episode.  But when he was talking with Joy LeBaron and demanding to see her driver’s license, Joy kept calling him “Joe”.  When he told her that his name wasn’t “Joe”, she said of course his name was Joe – all bartenders were named “Joe”.

I think that’s a good indication that she had to be a fan of Jackie Gleason’s sketch character of Joe the Bartender (with Frankie Fontaine as Crazy Guggenheim) in ‘Jackie Gleason: American Scene Magazine’ which ran on CBS from 1962 to 1966.

There is no Zonk involved.  Jackie’s Joe the Bartender does not exist in the main Toobworld.  He and Crazy Guggenheim would be found in Skitlandia, an alternate Toobworld.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it 
 

FRIDAY HALL OF FAMERS 01/24/20 - CORPORAL STEVE HENSHAW

Last year we inducted Corporal Rocco Barbella into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame as a Friday Hall of Famer, and for this month’s showcase, the Classic TV entry, we added Sgt. Ernie Bilko to kick off 2020.

It only seems fair that we now complete the show’s triumvirate of tricksters….

CORPORAL STEVE HENSHAW

From Wikipedia:
While appearing on Broadway in “Stalag 17”, [Allan Melvin] got his break into television by getting the role of Corporal Steve Henshaw on the popular ‘The Phil Silvers Show’ program. U.S. Television fans of this era usually best remember his role as Henshaw, Sgt. Bilko’s right-hand man on that show.

“He was proudest of that show,” Amalia Melvin said. “I think the camaraderie of all those guys made it such a pleasant way to work. They were so relaxed.”  

Allan Melvin, who played Henshaw, was not involved in the original pilot “The New Recruits.”  Jack Warden played Corporal Henshaw in that.

I’m assuming based on his listing in the IMDb that Warden's first name was not mentioned in the pilot.  And even if it was, I doubt that it’s that unique a name; I’m sure there could be plenty of Steve Henshaws around the country.

Since the motor pool was made up of soldiers from all around the country, I don’t see how it would be that unusual to not only have two soldiers named Henshaw, even Steve Henshaw, and not only that, but that they would both attain the rank of corporal.

That aside, it does mean that Melvin’s Henshaw is lacking one-third of his requirement to join the TV Crossover Hall of Fame....  Officially.

Luckily for us, Allan Melvin was a prolific performer in television; in fact, it looks as though he was so busy that he only could fit in two movie roles – in “With Six You Get Eggroll” and as the voice of “H.R. Pufnstuf”, replacing Lennie Weinrib.

Melvin made several appearances on ‘The Andy Griffith Show’ as various characters, all but two of whom had names.  One of those exceptions was “Recruiting Sergeant” in the episode “Ernest T. Bass Joins The Army.”

I always love when an unnamed character is able to come to my rescue when I’m in need of a “splainin to do” to conflate two characters into one.

I’m making the claim that Melvin’s recruiting sergeant was Steve Henshaw.  We know it can’t be Sgt. Charley Hacker, Sgt. Vince Carter’s rival, because he was in the Marine Corp. It’s right there in the title of the show: ‘Gomer Pyle, USMC’.  And the title of this TAGS episode makes it clear that the sergeant is recruiting for the Army.

It’s nice to think that Henshaw eventually was promoted and the Army found a good use for his persuasive con man skills.

There is another possible candidate however – “Harrison B. Harding of Camp Crowder, Mo.” from that eponymous episode of ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show’.  But that can be easily challenged – good old “Horseface” visited the Petries in 1961 and by then he had been out of the Army for some time.   He couldn’t have been a recruitment officer in 1963.

Four actors whose characters
are now in the TVXOHOF:
Harvey Lembeck, Allan Melvin, Phil Silvers
from 'The Phil Silvers Show
and Dick Van Dyke for
Dr. Mark Sloan of 'Diagnosis Murder' &
Rob Petrie of 'The Dick Van Dyke Show'

I am partial to a theory of “relateeveety” in which Steve Henshaw, Charley Hacker, and Harrison B. Harding are the euphemistic kind of “identical cousins”.  In their case, they weren’t actual cousins like Cathy and Patty; “identical cousins” is just a polite way of saying they were all  half-brothers, each with a different mother.

Who knows?  Maybe their father (who probably looked like Allan Melvin as well) had a thing for women whose married names began with “H”?

I wouldn't be surprised if Archie Bunker's friend Barney Hefner was another twin brother from a different mother!

None of that counts toward Henshaw’s qualifications for TVXOHOF membership, of course. Just adds a bit of supposition flavoring….

Here are the roles which “qualify” Cpl. Henshaw for induction into the Hall:

1955-1959
The Phil Silvers Show
143 episodes

1959
Keep in Step (TV Movie)
Cpl Steve Henshaw

1963
The Andy Griffith Show
- Ernest T. Bass Joins the Army
Recruiting Sergeant

Welcome to the Hall, Corporal -# I mean, Sergeant Henshaw.  I’m sure you’ll find your old cronies in a game down in the rec room…..

Cpl. Henshaw is a multiversal.
Here he is in a cigarette print ad.

THEORIES OF RELATEEVEETY - THE HEIDEMANN BROTHERS

PERRY MASON
THE CASE OF THE CLUMSY CLOWN

During a power struggle between two dueling owners of a small circus, the top clown in the company was doing his routine using a gun filled with blanks.  However, the gun shot one of the circus owners dead and it was witnessed by everyone in the audience – including Perry Mason, Della Street, and even Lt. Arthur Tragg.

That clown was Felix Heidemann, but thanks to being represented by Mason, the charges against him were dropped and the real murderer was exposed.

And we have a theory of relateeveety for Felix!

COLUMBO
A STITCH IN CRIME

Dr. Edmund Heidemann, one of the leading researchers in developing a drug to help lessen the chance for a human body to reject a transplanted organ.  Dr. Heidemann was not obsessed with finishing  before any of their rivals in order to reap the praise.

However, his junior partner on the project, Dr. Barry Mayfield, lusted for the acclaim and he wanted the sole credit.  But Heidemann wouldn’t budge on declaring the project as complete so Mayfield plotted to kill his senior partner. 

Luckily for Dr. Heidemann, Lt. Columbo proved Mayfield was plotting to kill him which saved Heidemann's life.

Here’s the theory of relateeveety: Edmund and Felix Heidemann were brothers.  True, there are seventeen years separating them, with Edmund being the elder, but that isn’t surmountable.  There’s thirteen years between me and my baby sister; in fact, I was old enough to be her godfather!

There is one catch.  Dr. Heidemann received a telegram from his German rival and the surname was spelled with only one “n” at the end of the name.

However, I’ve got some splainin to do….

It’s simply a typo, perhaps based on Dr I.C. Brechman knowing somebody who spells the name as “Heideman”.

And I should point out that in the IMDb, both characters have their family name spelled with two “n”’s.

BCnU!

"WHAT IF?" WEDNESDAY - PINOCCHIO DOES SPEED

HUGE thanks to my brother Bill for pointing this out to me – that diner patron sitting behind “Pete Nocchio”?  He was played by Carlos Carrasco, who played Ortiz in the movie “Speed”.

Now of course, “Speed” is in the Cineverse, but every so often Toobworld absconds with a film and absorbs it into Earth Prime-Time.  (I don’t think I can fit any more “abs” words into that sentence.  Has ‘Jeopardy!’ ever had a “Nice ABS” category?)

Where was I?  Oh yeah.  “Speed”, TV.

I’m not saying it wouldn’t be in the Cineverse anymore.  Just that TV has always had their own versions of hit movies for the small screen.  Sometimes with some of the cast members from the movie, like Gary Burghoff of ‘M*A*S*H’ fame, and Yul Brynner in ‘The King And I’.

Back in the 1950s, I think it was 20th Century Fox who had an anthology series dedicated to remaking their big movies in a condensed form, again with some of the original cast members.  (A&E ran the syndicated episodes about ten or fifteen years ago.)

Well, why not accept that even though we may not see it play out, movies as they were meant to be – scene by scene the same, with no recastaways – exist in Toobworld as well.

It’s not a blanket absorption of theatrical movies; Toobworld Central would consider them on a case by case basis.  Any movie that was remade for television (“Double Indemnity”, “Miracle On Thirty-Fourth Street” - twice over!) or adapted as a TV series would have to remain in the Cineverse.

A lot of my crossoverist comrades accept a mixture of movies and TV shows already, and I love what I’ve read of their works. (Some even accept the printed word; I have to remain guarded on that.  Too many discrepancies.)

But in this case, I see nothing wrong with accepting “Speed” into Earth Prime-Time. Nothing in the movie contradicts what is established in the main Toobworld – no alternate POTUS, no destruction of the world, etc.

As such, I then have no problem with considering this diner patron to be Ortiz.

I believe we have a candidate for the 2020 Toobits Awards in the Best Theoretical Crossover Between Movie and Commercial…..

Again, thanks to Bill O'Brien for bringing this to my attention.  I never would have remembered him from the movie.

BCnU!

"CRISIS" O'BSERVATIONS - SARGON THE SORCEROR

The CW show runners for “Crisis On Infinite Earths” threw in a lot of televersions for DC Comics characters into the mix to represent the expansive stakes of the Multiverse.  Most of them were already established in other shows and movies and thus most of them were the major players.

But in the final episode of the mini-series, passed off as an episode of ‘Legends of Tomorrow’, they needed a villain with magical abilities in order to have a way for Beebo to once more rear his furry blue head.

And so they tossed Sargon the Sorceror into the stew.

It was just an introductory cameo for the character, played by Raul Herrera, but he’ll be back in this season’s ninth episode (according to the IMDb.)

Here’s what the Arrowverse Wiki had to say for Sargon’s appearance in the mini-series:
"Sargon the Sorcerer" is an otherwise unnamed criminal and sorcerer who formerly operated in Star City.

In January 2020, Sargon created a giant Beebo out of a magical substance to act as a distraction for him to rob a bank, but was discovered by the Flash and White Canary, who knocked him out and presumably sent him to prison.

Wikipedia had more about his televersion:
Sargon the Sorcerer appears in the fifth part of the "Crisis on Infinite Earths" crossover event portrayed by Raúl Herrera. He was seen committing a heist while using an illusion of a giant Beebo as a diversion. When Supergirl, Batwoman, Flash, Sara Lance, Atom, and Heat Wave fought the giant Beebo, they found it wasn't real when they tried to trip it with some cable wire. Flash and Sara were able to find Sargon the Sorcerer in the middle of his heist. Before knocking out Sargon the Sorcerer, Sara stated that Beebo is off limits. Once that was done, the giant Beebo illusion disappeared.

Sargon serves as a good example of why I don’t like to blend “literary” sources into Toobworld.  The biggest problem has been from tie-in novels, especially for ‘Star Trek’, which don’t take into account details from other writers.

And the same holds true for comic books. Look at all the variations in the life of the Joker.  You don’t even have to include the movie or cartoon versions.  Look at the liberties taken in the 1966 ‘Batman’ as well as in ‘Gotham’.

We have yet to see more of Sargon’s story in ‘Legends Of Tomorrow’, but I doubt it will be filled with as much background detail as found in the comics.

More from Wikipedia:
Sargon the Sorcerer is a name used by multiple characters in the comics, namely John Sargent and his descendants, as magic-users and stage magicians.

Sargon the Sorcerer is a fictional character, a mystic, superhero and sorcerer appearing in DC Comics publications during the Golden Age. The original Sargon first appeared in All-American Comics #26, (May 1941), and was created by John B. Wentworth and Howard Purcell. The modern Sargon first appears in Helmet of Fate: Sargon #1 (April 2007) and was created by Steve Niles and Scott Hampton.

The name Sargon is of Mesopotamian origin, and one king of Akkad and two of Assyria bore this name.

Taking his professional name from the ancient king of the same name, Sargon has had a checkered career, acting mostly as a hero during the Golden Age aided by his cartoonish fat little comic relief sidekick / manager Maximillian O'Leary as he battled crooks, spies and his azure-skinned archenemy the Blue Lama, the Queen of Black Magic, but re-emerging in the Silver Age – as a villain, at least at first. It was later explained that his villainous activities were the result of certain side effects of possessing the Ruby of Life.

He was brought back for occasional guest appearances in the Silver Age and was awarded with an honorary membership in the Justice League in Justice League of America #99.

Sargon maintained contacts with several other mages in the DC Universe, notably Baron Winters, Zatara (a fellow faux stage magician), and the younger mage John Constantine. Sargon answered the summons of Constantine to participate in a ritual at the mansion of Winters to help deal with the effects of the Crisis on Infinite Earths, using the Swamp Thing as their portal into the war being fought in Hell.

Locking hands in a circle of power, and using the psychic powers of Constantine's drunken acquaintance Mento, the group of sorcerers (which also included Zatara's daughter Zatanna) observed the events unfolding, and attempted in turn to channel their magical powers into several other mystical characters present in Hell, including Etrigan, the original Doctor Fate, and the Spectre.

Their enemy, a primal form of evil (called the Great Evil Beast) that was surging upwards to obliterate everything in its path, sensed their interference and lashed out several times; its power raced around the circle, finding a weak link and incinerating it.

The first to fall was Sargon. At first panicking and crying out for the others to help him, and almost pulling his hands away from the circle, Sargon was rebuked by Zatara to maintain his composure and die like a sorcerer. In a final act of will, Sargon apologized for his outburst, calmly sat in place and was burned alive without a whimper, never letting go of his colleagues' hands the entire time. This ritual also kills Zatara and drives Mento completely insane.

That story alone would make for a great episode!I

At any rate, I wonder if there will be any mention of Sargon once being a good guy and working with superheroes in the past.  However the divergence between the DC comics universe and the CW’s “Arrowverse” is vast.  I’m sure there will be no mention of any superheroes in Sargon’s past because the Arrowverse isn’t that deep with superheroes from before ‘Arrow’ came along.

But this story could be adapted to fit the Arrowverse version of the DC Universe.  They have John Constantine already and this season marks the exits of Ray Palmer and Nora Dahrk.  So maybe Constantine and Nora with Sargon and a few others recreate that circle of power.  Sargon burns up and perhaps so does Nora.  At a loss, Ray walks away from being a Legend.

It would also be a way to bring one of my favorite DC characters, Dr. Fate, into the Arrowverse.

But that is all wish-craft on my part.  We shall see what we shall view.

BCnU!

NOT SO FINAL THOUGHTS ON THE "CRISIS" CROSSOVERS

So the CW mega-crossover of their DC Comics’ super-hero shows, “Crisis On Infinite Earths” is over and the over-riding maxim held true; “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”

After all the sturm and drang about how this might affect the Toobworld Dynamic, even though none of those (current) shows took place in the fictional TV dimension of which I’m most concerned, that of Earth Prime-Time, the main Toobworld, by the end the Multiverse was returned.

There were a few changes of course.  All of the CW shows now exist on one world which they call Earth Prime.  (That’s from their perspective.  Forgive them, they don’t know any better.  LOL)  So ‘Black Lightning’ and ‘Supergirl’ no longer exist on their separate worlds but will now be able to cross over with ‘The Flash’ and ‘Legends of Tomorrow’ (and even ‘Arrow’ until this final season is officially over) without all of that metaphysical hoo-hah of dealing with dimensional vortexes.

But during the winter break, I was ready to hang up my spurs as the Caretaker of Toobworld because of the implications from the destruction of the Multiverse.  My feeble splainin that the Anti-Monitor was not that powerful and only destroyed a relatively small portion of all those dimensions wasn’t that strong.

I was however ready to claim that even if they came back with just the one Earth (one that might include the shows from the DCU streaming service – ‘The Doom Patrol’ and ‘The Teen Titans’ and the upcoming ‘Stargirl’ – even if they never crossed over), they weren’t so all-knowing.  They would have no idea that Toobworld was out there and that’s why they felt secure in dubbing their own world “Earth Prime”.  I’m sure all of the other Earths see themselves as being Numero Uno as well.

Here’s what I wrote in response to my Crossoverist friends in the FB page about the Television Crossover Universe:

Well for me, Earth Prime is our world and Earth Prime-Time is the main Toobworld where almost all TV shows take place, including the original ‘Flash’, ‘The Adventures of Superman’, ‘Wonder Woman’, and ‘Batman’ ‘66 took place. If there has to be a numbering system, that’s Earth 1.

But I can be “diplomatic” - they can continue to think of their Earth Prime as Earth 1 (means the same thing) while my Earth Prime-Time is Earth A.

Sound familiar? I call it the Bender Solution. LOL

As for all those movie worlds that were brought in, I’m leaving them in their various incarnations of the Cineverse. Not my bailiwick. But obviously there must be a greater mosaic bringing in all of those other universes where they could cross over.

Otherwise I had no problem with their distribution/numbering of worlds. Let their Dick Grayson be on Earth 66; he’s still just a döppelganger for the original on Earth Prime-Time.

So Toobworld still exists… not that I will be probably doing too much with it anymore.

The output of new TV shows has grown exponentially with all of these new streaming services and cable networks, more than I can handle.  It would probably have been more than I could have handled when the flame of enthusiasm burned bright for my work as a telly archivist and crossoverist.

I see myself more as a Sherlock Holmes in that it’s time for me to retire from those duties and move to my version of Sussex.  In my case, “Sussex” is my fictional “realm” of the Connecticut village of Wayside and the other villages within Midwich County.  There I have total control over the characters. (Well, almost total control; I have brought in a few literary fictionals from other sources… mostly free from copyright concerns.)

At least with Wayside, Connecticut, I won’t have to bend over backwards to come up with those pesky “splainins” to make the TV Universe’s cohesiveness logical… at least to me.

Hmmm....  Holmes retired to Sussex to tend to his bees.  I think that's what Wayside needs... a beekeeper.

I’ll still be posting here on occasion.  I don’t plan to give up adding new members into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame every Friday with a dozen big monthly showcases every year.  And when something strikes my fancy otherwise, I’ll dash something off.

And I still have O'Bservations to make about the "Crisis on Infinite Earths".  I'll get around to them eventually.....

BCnU….

PS:
If you're interested, I've been putting the first drafts of my Wayside stories on Facebook in the "Wayside, Connecticut" page.  Like I said, they're just the first drafts and you may find discrepancies in other stories as you go along because I've since changed various aspects like names, dates, etc.

If you enjoy them, thank you.  I hope you'll hit the Like button often.  If you don't, feel free to send me a message with your observations and critiques.  I'm sure it will hurt, but I want to improve my experience in writing them as well as yours in reading them.

And hopefully, you'll like the entire page so that my base of Wayside tourists continues to grow.

Which reminds me.  I need a good collective term for the base.  I was using "Tourists", but that's a bit meh.  "Waysiders"?  "Side-Seers"?

Any ideas?  Let me know!