WHAT DREAMS MAY COME

Here in the United States, we're two weeks into the third season of 'Slings & Arrows', which tells the behind-the-scenes story of a Canadian Shakespeare festival and the madmen, lovers, fools, and ghosts who work there. (The third episode airs tomorrow night on the Sundance Channel at 8 o'clock EST.)

Obviously the Canadians have seen it already, as have the TV critics with their advance screeners. So if you folks are reading this - which will be my thoughts on what may come - PLEASE don't write in to tell me what actually does happen.

(I'm sure Brent would never do that, but then again, maybe it's a good thing he's using a crappy computer right now.....)

Like I said, I'm only two weeks into this season, but I can already sense that this may be its last. Events both on the screen and off are giving me indications of that.

Let's deal with the boring stuff off-screen in the Trueniverse first....

At least two of the show's writers are involved in other projects that should have kept them too busy to work on a fourth season of 'Slings & Arrows'. Bob Martin (with Don McKellar, who plays Darren Nichols in the show) has written the hit Broadway musical "The Drowsy Chaperone" and he's playing the lead role of Man In Chair. (I just saw it last week finally and loved it. I probably should go see it again while Georgia Engel is still in the cast!)

Mark McKinney, who also played Richard Smith-Jones in the series, is working in Hollywood as a writer and actor on 'Studio 60'. Granted, that show seems doomed at the moment, but McKinney didn't know that going in. He might have expected a run as long as Aaron Sorkin's previous series, 'The West Wing'.

As for Susan Coyne, who created 'Slings & Arrows', I don't know what lies in store for her in the Trueniverse, but she's certainly setting up an exit strategy for the character she plays on the show. Anna is caught up in the fate of a troupe of Bolivian musicians stuck in Canada without Visas while their homeland is besieged with a coup.

I think I can see where that's going - Anna will fall in love with the main musician and throw in her lot with them, no matter what happens in Bolivia.

So now that I've broached the subject of the characters, let me throw out my ideas on what lies ahead for the others, at least as far as the major characters are concerned.

'Slings & Arrows' has always reflected aspects of the Shakespeare plays the company is performing, as well as some from the other plays as well. There have been deaths, betrayals, young love, madness, and men transformed into asses in love. So I think the three stages that "King Lear" goes through - betrayal and loss, madness, and death - are being played out with three of the main characters.

ELLEN FANSHAW - Her major sub-plot from last season was re-introduced in Week Two - she still owes the $27,000 in back taxes. In this aspect, I think she'll be the one most likely to be stripped of everything she owns and left with nothing, forced out of her home.

I also think it's through Ellen that we'll see Betrayal. We've been introduced to her friend Barbara, who's moved in with Ellen and Geoffrey while she plays one of Lear's daughters at the festival.

Barbara is going through "The Change" and she seems to have embraced the idea that this means she's entitled to sex with no strings attached.

I think she's going to make a play for Geoffrey, which just might make Geoffrey's "faulty unit" rise to its former glory. (Barbara certainly seemed keen on the idea that Ellen gets to sleep with her director.)

Such a betrayal could be considered "Shakespearean", and would fit in with the motifs and character types from the plays that have been throughout the series - the young lovers, the ambitious schemers, the pair of clowns, even a door porter, and of course, the ghost.

So if Geoffrey cheated on Ellen with Barbara, first off you've got a gender switch on 'Othello' regarding race. And a gender switch when it comes to who feels like they've been wronged as well.

The betrayal doesn't have to actually happen, either; it could all be in Ellen's mind, just as it was for Othello. Stripped of everything else, if Ellen thought she lost Geoffrey as well she could snap and perhaps even kill him in revenge.

It would certainly be in keeping with the world in which they've immersed themselves.

GEOFFREY TENNANT - That brings me to this fear I'm having with the third season - that Geoffrey may die.

The series has always wrapped the characters' "real" lives into the great Shakespearean themes of the plays they are doing, and we're already seeing that with Geoffrey. He feels his "madness" returning; he's showing signs of age what with his "faulty unit"... all steps along the way for a Lear-like finale.

We're being prepped as an audience for Charles Kingman (the actor hired to play Lear) to die - perhaps even right on stage as he conclued the opening night of "King Lear".

But I keep thinking we're being set-up for a bait and switch. Remember that scene from "Jaws" (another great Shakespearean drama - LOL!) when Richard Dreyfuss is approaching the boat with the hole in its side? As the audience, we're being prepped for the shark to show up through the use of music and allegedly through subliminal images.

So we're sitting there thinking "Shark... shark... shark..." and then WHAM! Head in the boat!

I think that could happen here.

"Kingman dies..."
"Kingman dies..."
"Kingman dies..."

And POW! Geoffrey!

It certainly would be Shakespearean as a finale.

At the same time, it would be a depressing way to end what has been such a light and magical series, despite the milieu surrounding the characters. Not every play by Shakespeare ended with everybody dying on stage; we may yet get one of those happy endings with lots of weddings. After all, that sub-plot of the younger members of the company, with its rivalry between the classically trained and the singers and dancers from the musical, must be leading somewhere - perhaps a third variation on the "Romeo And Juliet" theme?

(And I say "we may yet get" knowing full well that officially in Toobworld, these events have already played out one way or the other.)

OLIVER WELLES - Whether he's a real ghost or just a figment of Geoffrey's madness, I think Oliver is approaching the end of his time on Earth as a spiritual manifestation. He's already losing control over his abilities to haunt and he fades away at inopportune moments. And then there's the fact that he just wants to move on to whatever the next stage may be.

Oliver has taken an interest in Charles Kingman, who's only got two months to live due to cancer. It could be that as Kingman gets closer to that moment, he will actually be able to see Oliver. Of course, if those types of scenes only occur when Geoffrey is around, we'll never have an answer as to whether or not Oliver was real.

(As for me, I exhult in what Toobworld has to offer. For me, 'The Prisoner' actually took place; it's not an allegory. 'St. Elsewhere' was not the daydream of an autistic boy. And Oliver Welles is really a ghost. 'Newhart' was just a Japanese food-inspired dream, however. The final scene left no wiggle room for interpretation on that score, as was the case with those other two series' finales.)

RICHARD SMITH-JONES - Richard doesn't fit in with that progression of Lear's character as the other three do. If anything, he may be the Fool, even though he started out in the series as a pale copy of Maccers in his role as a plotter.

I don't know if Shakespeare ever dealt with the Peter Principle, but Richard has reached his level of incompetence. God loves an idiot, they say, and no matter what happens - even if the New Burbage Shakespeare Festival burns to the ground - Richard will float above it all.

I suppose if they must find something of "Lear" to unload on Richard, it could be blindness - more symbolic than physical, of course. Blind to the chaos bringing the company down while he's immersed in the musical production of "East Hastings".

Then again, it could manifest physically. Something's bound to go wrong with that new car of his, I'm thinking....

There's one more reason why I think 'Slings & Arrows' has run its course - what big Shakespearean play could they possibly do next as a central theme for the season? "A Midsummer Night's Dream" was just ending its run when we were introduced to New Burbage. And "Romeo And Juliet" followed The Scottish Play at the end of Season Two.

(They may also have mounted a production of "Antony And Cleopatra" already without us seeing it. Geoffrey did promise Ellen the chance to perform the role at the end of the first season.)

"The Tempest"? "The Merchant Of Venice"? "Henry V"? Personally, in my Toobworld fantasy of what happens when we can't see the characters in action (mental fanfic, I know), Geoffrey and Brian, whom we met in Season Two, reconciled their differences and Brian came back to work at the Festival. I like to think we could have seen him on the Second Stage, performing the role of Sir John Falstaff in "The Merry Wives Of Windsor". Sadly, the actor who played Brian, Leon Pownall, passed away last year. Hopefully, Brian lives on in New Burbage.....)

But with each season of 'Slings & Arrows', the central Shakespeare play has been a steady progression for the ages of Man - the indecision of Youth, the ambitions of Middle Age, and now the conclusion of Life in "King Lear". Honestly, where could they go from there?

So anyways.....
I doubt I'll hit the mark on most of those musings. In fact, I hope I'm wrong on some of them.

It must seem strange that I'm so obsessed with 'Slings & Arrows', to the point one would expect from a fan of 'Star Trek' or 'Doctor Who'. But when I first saw the show back in 2005, it turned out to be one of only three series that year in which I eagerly anticipated the next episode as soon as the current one ended. (The other two shows were 'Doctor Who' and 'Lost'.)

I guess when all is said and done, I may even be glad that this season could be the last one. Let it go out on a high note and not just fade away.

One month more and it'll all be over. Then again, it already is in Toobworld, as I mentioned. This is just a Caretaker catching up......

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

WONDER ZONK III

Here's a quickie:

RIDIKKALIS:
"What kind of plane you want to buy?"
JACK DONAGHY:
"Clear, like Wonder Woman's."
'30 Rock'

I've gone over this before - Wonder Woman actually exists in the TV Universe, and just about everybody knows it. And as a result, they also know she has an "invisible" plane.

So there's no Zonk when Jack mentions it on '30 Rock'.

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

NICKED CAVE

Two years ago, I chose the Capital One "Visa-Goths" over the Geico Cavemen for best commercial characters in the annual Toobits awards. I thought the barbarians had more staying power.

They're still making commercials but the concept is running out of steam, whereas the Cavemen are still going strong with blipverts that have them at the airport, on talking heads news shows, at a psychiatrist's office, and just taking it easy at parties.

Now ABC plans to expand on the idea with a half-hour sitcom dealing with the trio of cavemen fighting prejudice as they carve out a niche for themselves as 'thirtySOMETHING's in modern-day Atlanta.

Too bad this sitcom wasn't being developed for CBS; they could have brought back the Sugarbakers for a very special episode during Sweeps!

The show is being written by Joe Lawson, who was behind the idea for using the Cavemen in the ads, so there might be some legitimate linkage involved - especially if the same actors are involved.

Producer Lorne Michaels got pissed when he heard NBC was going with Aaron Sorkin's take on 'Saturday Night Live' and wanted to make sure the one from his production company had a shot as well. So this season we had both 'Studio 60' and '30 Rock'.

Maybe now he'll demand the chance to produce a Caveman sitcom as well, since the late Phil Hartman played "Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer" on 'SNL' over a decade ago.

And maybe CBS should jump into the act as well since it's been forty years since they introduced the idea of cavemen from the prehistoric past being brought forward in Time to live in Los Angeles on 'It's About Time'.

And then the "Visa-Goths" can swoop in and slaughter them all!

What's in your wallet?

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

A DIFFERENT SHADE OF AMBER

I'm trying to avoid thinking - even reading! - about the TV pilots being picked up by the networks because it just confuses the issue when it comes to Toobworld. The basic rule is that if it's broadcast, then it becomes part of the TV Universe. That's when I would have to start worrying about how the new show fits in (and where).

But even so, sometimes I read the description for one of these pilots and I have to share it with you.

This could be part of the CBS line-up next season:

20th Century is developing 'Babylon Fields', which promises to be "an apocalyptic comedic drama about the dead being resurrected and trying to resume their former lives".

In the show, Amber Tamblyn will play a young woman who helped her mom kill her father because he was so abusive to the both of them. And then dear dead old dad goes and comes back to pick up where he left off.

If this had been the plotline for 'Baby, I'm Back', it would have lasted a couple of seasons.

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

AMBER IN PORTRAIT

It's been almost a year now since my Mom passed away, and I've been thinking a lot about her lately. And because I yam what I yam, invariably my thoughts drift to TV.

From 12:30 to 1:30 pm weekdays, you couldn't pry her away from 'The Young & The Restless', so today - after reading an item about 'Y&R' in the New York Daily News that had a connection to the family name, - I thought I'd check out the soap opera again. Hadn't seen it since a couple of months before Mom died.

And I was surprised to see Amber, a character from her other fave soap, 'The Bold & The Beautiful' on 'Young & The Restless' instead.

A quick search provided an interview Adrienne Frantz, who plays Amber Moore, did for cbs.com in which she talked about returning not only to daytime TV, but also to the character she'll always be most famous for.....

ADRIENNE FRANTZ: I got the call saying they wanted me to come over to 'The Young and the Restless' to play Amber. And I always said that was the only character I would want to play in Daytime because I think she's so much fun to play.


CBS.com: Isn't it great that you've become a character that can cross over to both shows?
ADRIENNE FRANTZ: It's really great that we've created a character that is known and can transfer to different shows and have just the same fan base and people know who she is. It's very comforting to know that I've created a character like that. It's an honor in a way knowing that I could go to [either show] and play the same character.

The character of Amber Moore is ready for her close-up in the TV Crossover Hall of Fame because her third qualification was a strange crossover with 'The Price Is Right'. She designed the dresses to be worn by "Barker's Beauties" on an episode of the game show, and Bob Barker and two of the girls arrived at Forrester Fashions to inspect the finished product. In a later episode of 'The Price Is Right', the girls were indeed wearing those designs.

But if that's not good enough for the nitpickers, then they just have to wait until March 27th, when Amber will be involved in a 'Y&R' crossover with 'As The World Turns'. Amber will face off against Emily Stewart of 'ATWT' regarding Emily's sister Alison.

You can read the full Adrienne Frantz interview here.

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

THE TRUMAN SHOW

Also on that 'Charlie's Angels' disk was an episode entitled "Consenting Adults" which provided a link to 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show' through an historical tele-revision.

The link begins with 'Charlie's Angels'. The client in that episode was Maggie Cunningham who hailed from the South. When asked about a picture of her with Harry Truman, she told them an anecdote in which she was the one who first uttered the phrase, "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen."

Apparently, President Truman liked it so much, he told Maggie that he planned on using that phrase for himself.

When he finally did so, he said it Mary Richards' aunt, legendary journalist Flo Meredith. But as she admitted, Truman didn't exactly say it to her - she was standing in the way when the President said it to the chef.

Even though Harry S. Truman isn't seen in either of those episodes (except in a photo in "Consenting Adults"), both shows will be included in his body of work when it comes time to induct him into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame because they expand his TV presence in a fictional sense.

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

ONE FOR THE ANGELS

As a treat for the guys I work with, I ordered a disk from the "Best of 'Charlie's Angels' set through Netflix. Of course the one I got included "Angels In Chains", the legendary episode in which Farrah supposedly popped out of her prison shirt while running through the swamp.

Well, no matter how slow I ran it or when I froze the scenes altogether, we couldn't find exactly where it's supposed to happen, although we had a few viable candidates. But the guys I work with are easy to please, and they were quite happy with the "darts" shot earlier in the episode when Farrah was without bra in a yellow top.

"Angels In Chains" had the girls working undercover in a women's prison. There they befriended another young woman named Linda Hunter who also had been wrongfully imprisoned. Later, at the end of the episode, Charlie Townsend offered Linda a job as a receptionist for the detective agency. So it's to be assumed that from that point on in future episodes, Linda was sitting just outside the main office at her reception desk.

And it's pozz'ble, just pozz'ble, that on one or more of the many cases we never saw dramatized from Toobworld, Linda joined in with the other Angels in working undercover to solve the mystery. She may not have had police training, but she was smart and probably picked up skills while in prison that came in handy in times of distress. And I think she'd be eager to help out in their fights for justice after being wrongfully accused herself.

There I go, enabling fanficcers again. I know somebody who's going to be upset with that.....

But here's the thing; why I bring it up. The actress who played Linda Hunter was Kim Basinger. So in the long line of Angels who worked for Charlie Townsend, unofficially there was one who was portrayed by a future Oscar winner!

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

NUMBERS RUNNING: LEVEL 42

According to Outpost Gallifrey, here is a list of episode titles known so far for the coming season of 'Doctor Who':

1. "Smith and Jones" by Russell T. Davies, directed by Charles Palmer
2. "The Shakespeare Code" by Gareth Roberts, directed by Charles Palmer
3. Episode 3 by Russell T. Davies, directed by Richard Clarke
4. "Daleks in Manhattan" (part one) by Helen Raynor, directed by James Strong
5. Episode 5 (part two) by Helen Raynor, directed by James Strong
6. "The Lazarus Experiment" by Stephen Greenhorn, directed by Richard Clarke
7. "42" by Chris Chibnall, directed by Graeme Harper
8. "Human Nature" (part one) by Paul Cornell, directed by Charles Palmer
9. "The Family of Blood" by Paul Cornell, directed by Charles Palmer
10. "Blink" by Steven Moffat, directed by Hettie MacDonald
11. "Utopia" by Russell T. Davies, directed by Graeme Harper
12. "The Sound of Drums" (part one) by Russell T. Davies, directed by Colin Teague
13. Episode 13 (part two) by Russell T. Davies, directed by Colin Teague

Five with RTD's name attached. That's troubling....

But the one that seems most intriguing, based only on the title and from a Toobworld perspective, is of course Episode Seven: "42" by Chris Chibnall.

Will there be any connection to 'The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy'? Perhaps even to 'Lost'?

We know there is a connection to HHG2TG already - the Fourth Doctor was once seen reading "The Origins Of The Universe" by Oolon Colluphid. And the Tenth Doctor revealed that he knew Arthur Dent.

As for 'Lost', regular readers of "Inner Toob" might remember a few weeks ago when I theorized that Desmond unknowingly met the White Guardian in the shop when he wanted to buy a ring for Penny. And there's one more connection I think I can make to the Seventh Doctor, but I'm not yet ready to spring that one.....

Just getting the titles for the coming season with only a month to go before the season debut has been difficult enough, so I guess I'll just have to wait to satisfy my spoilerish curiousity until it's closer to that episode's broadcast....

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

POPPING A RESURRECTION

It doesn't have any bearing on the lives of those who live in Toobworld, but I found it interesting nevertheless that in less than one week, two different shows resurrected two great old pop songs by 3 Dog Night.

Last Thursday, 'My Name Is Earl' used "Black and White" to appropriate effect in the episode "Guess Who's Coming Out Of Joy", while last night's 'Lost' ("Tricia Tanaka Is Dead") had Hurley grooving to "Shambala" as he tooled about the island in his VDub Dharma microbus.

Now, if a bullfrog named Jeremiah shows up before the end of the day in some cartoon animal show, we've got ourselves a trifecta!

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

TVXOHOF 3/07 - LOUUUUUUU!

For the March induction into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame, we turn to the world of Toobworld journalism (as we will once again before the year is out). We've already inducted several newspapers into the Hall - the NY Ledger, the LA Sun, and the LA Tribune - and now it's time to have one of their editors join the ranks.

Lou Grant.

Here's some information... information... information gleaned from the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago. (Their link is to the left.)

Ed Asner is one of U.S. television's most acclaimed and most controversial actors. Through the miracle of the spin-off, Asner became the only actor to win Emmy awards for playing the same character in both a comedy and dramatic series.

James L. Brooks, Allan Burns and 'M*A*S*H' executive producer Gene Reynolds began adapting the Lou Grant character to a dramatic role for CBS, in which Asner would star as the crusading editor of the fictional L.A. Tribune. Despite a shaky start, the beloved comic character gradually became accepted in this new venue. More than just moving to the big city and losing his sense of humor, however, Asner's more serious Grant become a fictional spokesperson for issues ignored by other mass media venues, including the mainstream press. At the same time, the dramatic narrative offered opportunities for exploring the character more deeply, revealing his strained domestic relationships and his own complex emotional struggles. These revelations, in turn, complicated the professional persona of Lou Grant, the editor.

This series drew on the comedy character of the executive producer of TV news in the long-running 'Mary Tyler Moore Show'. But it transformed that comic persona into a serious, reflective, committed newsman at a major metropolitan newspaper.

Reynolds risked undercutting issue-oriented themes by importing Ed Asner from the long-running comedy about a flaky TV newsroom to act as city editor of a daily newspaper. Asner... effectively adapted the original comedic character to the serious role of Lou Grant.

'Lou Grant' is also significant in the history of MTM Productions as the "bridge" program between comedies such as 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show' and later, more complex dramas such as 'Hill Street Blues'. Few independent production companies have had such visible success in crossing lines among television genres. The transformation of Asner's character, then, and the focus on serious social issues pointed new directions for the company and, ultimately, for the history of American television.

The singularity of his Emmy wins puts him in the same company as Dr. Frasier Crane (3 Emmy wins for the same character in three different shows) as being one of the main reasons he deserves the "accolade" of Hall membership. However, the two series wouldn't be enough to qualify save for an Honors List technicality without that one last appearance.

And in 1974, Lou Grant showed up in New York City for the two-part wedding celebration of his old friend 'Rhoda' Morgenstern.

There was talk back in the late 1990s that there might be a second MTM reunion movie after "Mary And Rhoda", this time with Mary and Lou. But it's probably safe to say that the idea was scuttled.

Still, Lou Grant did appear again in Toobworld, but this time in an alternate dimension, that of Skitlandia - the world of sketch comedy.

There it is the norm for characters to suddenly change appearance due to casting revisions. (Look how many alterations Bush has gone through on 'Saturday Night Live' alone.)

So Lou Grant once showed up on 'Saturday Night Live' (allegedly) in a spoof on 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show' hosted by Steve Martin and looking more like John Belushi than Ed Asner. But later, actor and character were reunited when Lou Grant led a band of South American rebels in a rescue mission to free Mary Richards from the endless loop of syndication repeats.

And he did so during one of her parties, always a focal point for disaster!

Lou Grant:
Mary, you've been stuck here for seven years in syndicated reruns, doing the same things over and over and over. You've been promoted to Producer, you met Walter Cronkite, you went to the Teddy Awards, you went to Chuckles the Clown's funeral - not once, but hundreds of times! Two, three, four times a night, in some cities! You're in a rut!

There's a big, wonderful world out there, and you've missed it! I mean, you missed MTV, you missed Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, you missed "The New Odd Couple" show.

And, all of you would like it out there! Murray, you know what they have now? Hair weaving. Rhoda! Your mother's making a fortune out there, selling Bounty paper towels!

["Lou Grant Rescue Mission" from 'Saturday Night Live']

For all of these reasons, we salute Lou Grant as the March 2007 inductee into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame.

Go on. You can shout it out. You know you want to.....

Oh, Mr. Grant!!!!

BCnU!
Tele-Toby