SPELUNKING MLOR

After the penultimate episode of the first season for 'Heroes', Sean - my Li'l Buddy, fellow Iddiot, and father of my god-daughter Rhiannon - sent me the following poem about Ted Sprague's fatal encounter with Sylar:

Ted is dead.
Ted has no head.
Beneath him is red.
Red dead Ted.
Without a head.
For prison, he wanted a cell of lead.
"Maybe I'll explode," he said.
Sylar he fed.
Poor Ted.
Poor dead Ted.
Alas

Ted Sprague had the power to induce radioactivity in various forms. His power was absorbed naturally by Peter Petrelli and via the removal of his brain by Sylar. Here are the stats about his character from the 'Heroes' Wiki:

Known power Induced Radioactivity
Alias TeddyBear616
Age 33
Date of birth August 28th, 1973
Date of death November 7th, 2006
Home Los Angeles, CA
Residence 93 Laramie Street, Los Angeles, CA, 90016
Occupation Medical equipment salesman
Significant other Karen Sprague (deceased wife)
Ted was 5’10” tall, weighed 175 pounds and had brown eyes and hair.

Ted was played by Matthew John Armstrong, and when he first appeared on the show, there were a lot of people who thought he might be one of the actors playing the GEICO Cavemen in a series of blipverts for the car insurance company. But this rumor was later dismissed.

However, even though his character was not one of those cavemen, that's not to say Ted Sprague wasn't the first generation descendant of a cave dweller.....

"It's about time, it's about space,
About cave-people in the strangest place.
They will be here with all of us, dodging a taxi, car or bus.
Where will they go?
What will they do
In this strange place
Where everything is new?
Will they manage to survive?
Watch each week and see.
Will they get accustomed to
The 20th Century?
It's about time for our goodbyes
To all these prehistoric gals and guys.
IT'S ABOUT TIME!"

In 1967, two astronauts who had been tossed back in time to the prehistoric caveman days, were able to fix their spacecraft and make it back to the present times. But they didn't come back alone - they brought along a caveman named Gronk and his wife Shadd and their two children: a teenaged daughter named Mlor and a twelve-year old son named Breer.

Who knows what this disruption in the past did to the timeline for Toobworld! Whatever the world was like before Hector and Mac hurtled back into the Stone Age, a place right out of history, but we can use this temporal disruption to splain away any discrepancies that might have arisen in other shows.

At any rate, when Mac and Hector returned to 1967, the cave family had to adjust to modern day life - and to do it in New York City, no less! (If I had been in charge, I'd have stuck them out in a little house on the prairie, far away from anybody else where they wouldn't get into too much trouble.)

Life continues in Toobworld even beyond the cancellation of a TV series. Fox Mulder has assumed an alias and has helped NYPD Detective Andy Sipowicz on a case; the seventh incarnation of the Gallifreyan Time Lord known only as The Doctor helped solve a murder with Lt. Columbo; and Father Mulcahy once tried to perform an exorcism on Dave Crabtree's car (which allegedly held the spirit of Dave's mother).

And so it is with 'It's About Time', the TV show which charted the adventures of Mac and Hector across Time and Space. Breer and Mlor would have been sent to school (perhaps to Lexy High School, which the Davis children attended in 'Family Affair') so that they could function as normally as possible in the world of modern man.

This is pure speculation, of course, but by the early 1970s, Mlor would have been old enough to have children. (Her parents might even have thought that she was more than old enough by that point!) So it's pozz'ble, just pozz'ble, that she met a young man named Sprague and fell in love. Perhaps they met in connection to whatever top secret organization was monitoring Gronk's family. This Sprague could have been a bodyguard for Mlor and their close relationship led to her getting pregnant. (Sprague could have been anybody who crossed paths with Mlor. She may have had the reputation of being so easy, you didn't have to be a caveman to do her.)

Her pregnancy could have resulted in the birth of Ted, whose name Theodore means "Gift Of God".

And that "gift" would have been his ability to emit radiation, something that might have developed in him due to the combination of his father's Homo Sapien DNA with that of his Neanderthal mother's genes.

Ted Sprague would be only half-caveman, unlike the crew from the GEICO blipverts.
Just sayin', is all.....

BCnU!
Toby OB

TVXOHOF, JUNE 2007: KEEPING PACE & FLYING HIGH

The original choices I made for the June 2007 entry in the TV Crossover Hall of Fame weren't exactly tied in with this year's mini-theme celebration of 'Doctor Who', although they could have operated in the same universe easily enough. Scotland Yard detectives Charlie Barlow and John Watt ('Z Cars', 'Softly, Softly', and 'Barlow At Large') were supposed to continue the British invasion as a team for the Zodiac sign of the Twins, Gemini. (The 'Doctor Who' episode "The Feast Of St. Stephen" back in 1965 was actually supposed to contain a crossover with 'Z Cars', but for some reason it fell through.)

However, due to the seismic events in the third season finale of 'Lost', the proposed inductee for March 2008 was moved up: Charles Heironymous Pace, an apt pick for June since a tie-in to the series has been the novel "Bad Twin". (The choice of March for Charlie's induction would have worked as well, thinking of the March Hare, what with Charlie's fateful and fatal association with the "White Rabbit" logo of the Looking Glass station.) And to make that twin pairing idea work still, a second nominee has been added from 'Lost' - the airline responsible for stranding them there on the Island, Oceanic Airways.

CHARLIE PACE
Charlie was one of my favorite characters in 'Lost', and his noble sacrifice in order to insure his beloved Claire and Aaron made it safely back to civilization was a memorable high point for the series as a whole, not just in the season finale. But it's not because he died that Charlie becomes a member of the Hall of Fame. If that's all it took, roaming the halls of the Hall would be such ghosts as Dr. Eliott Axelrod from 'St. Elsewhere' hospital, Bobby Simone of the 'NYPD Blue', Livia Soprano, and Sheriff 'Nichols'.

No, Charlie is being inducted because of all the characters in the show, he is responsible for linking 'Lost' to two other TV series.

First up: during an episode of 'Alias', another show by 'Lost' producer JJ Abrams, the song "You All Everybody" could be heard playing at a birthday party. This was the one hit wonder of Charlie's band DriveShaft and so his music and his singing crossed over into another show.

Secondly, when Charlie was dating a girl back in England just so he could rip off her father's house, we learned that her wealthy Dad was away on a business trip. He was scouting out a paper company in Slough with the intent of acquisition. I don't think Slough is the kind of town that could support two paper companies, so it's O'Bvious that this was a reference to Wertham-Hogg, the company featured in the original version of 'The Office'.

There will be two other posts about Charlie in the coming days: one looking back at his death, and the other a "Wish-Craft" for him to show up in more flashbacks... on other shows.

OCEANIC AIRWAYS
This fictional airline was already being used even before 'Lost' brought it international infamy and scrutiny. It even shows up in the movie universe, thanks to its appearance in "Executive Decision", perhaps its most famous use prior to 'Lost'.

It was mentioned in an episode of 'Diagnosis Murder' and it was featured in two TV movies. First, there was "Code 11-14", for which the IMDb.com supplies this summary:

An FBI agent went to Australia with his family to capture a serial killer. When Australian Police captured the main suspect, he and his family went back to USA. Unfortunately the REAL serial killer also went back to USA in the same airplane with the FBI agent and his family.

And the same company, the same travel route (from Sydney to Los Angeles)!, was used in "Nowhere To Land":

Over 300 people are believed to be held hostage in a Boeing 747 enroute from Sydney, Australia, to Los Angeles, California. The plane, under command of veteran pilot Captain John Prescott, is two hours from land; however, early reports suggest that a biochemical device hidden onboard the plane is timed to detonate within the hour. The device, believed to contain a nerve gas ten times deadlier than the Sarin gas released in a Tokyo subway in 1995, is reported to be tied to a countdown trigger with less than an hour remaining. Apparently disguised within passenger carry-on luggage, the bomb seems to have been planted not by a political terrorist, but by a madman acting in hopes of revenge.

Since 'Lost' premiered, Oceanic Airways was also mentioned in an episode of sister show 'Alias' and a view of one of their planes was also the punchline for an episode of 'The War At Home' on FOX.

Here at Toobworld Central, we think the corporate giant that owns Oceanic Airways also has a stake in the Oceanic casino in Las Vegas, as seen in a recent episode of 'Hustle'. Or they could have sold it outright, but it maintained the name due to nostalgic value.

And so there's our pair of Gemini inductees into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame for June of 2007. And because it is June, we'll be having another inductee in just a few days!

BCnU!
Toby OB3

RETURN OF THE EIGHTH "MAN"

As much as many fans of 'Doctor Who' hate the FOX TV movie from the mid-1990s, they've generally accepted it with all its faults as being part of the Canon. After all, you can't refer to David Tennant's tenure as the Tenth Doctor without including the Eighth, as played by Paul McGann.

And there was the fact that the last actor to play the Doctor in the long-running series, Sylvester McCoy, was seen in the opening ten minutes of the movie as the Seventh Doctor before he was gunned down and forced to regenerate into the new incarnation.

It's just that business about his mother being human that bothered a lot of fans......

However, it looks like Paul McGann's portrayal is now officially part of the Canon - thanks to a sketch resembling him that shows up in the latest episode of the revived series, "Human Nature".

This could be the first baby step toward bringing back Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor - not in the series itself, but in a TV movie (which could lead to a franchise of side projects).

Empire Online is reporting that BBC and director Geoffrey Sax want to continue the story of McGann's Eighth Doctor in a way to separate it from the popular television franchise.

Here's the report from Empire Online:

"Because of the demand for Eighth Doctor stories on film, due to the popular Big Finish audios and BBC7 Radio audios made specifically for those productions, a film is finally in negotiations. There are still many things to finalize, such as if Paul McGann is interested in portraying The Doctor on film again. The Tardis interior from the 1996 TV movie [was] auctioned off back in 1999, but they plan on recreating the same interior from the TV movie, which is a popular design."

According to the article, the movie would avoid already established 'Doctor Who' villains like the much-overused Daleks, the Cybermen (Mondasian or Lumical), and the already utilized Master (who was played by Eric Roberts in the FOX version). Instead, a new alien species would be introduced, and instead of traveling to the United States, the TARDIS would be on Earth for just a few minutes before heading to three different alien worlds.

So far this is just rumor, something which the series can generate quite easily. Just last weekend, The Sun, allegedly a cat-pan liner which purports to be a newspaper in the UK, claimed that Freema Agyeman was going to be axed from the series because her work has been sub-standard. Of course, The Sun's timing sucked, as she's been garnering fantastic reviews for her work in "Human Nature".

The script for a TV movie about the Eighth Doctor has been updated several times since 1999. If it turns out to be successful, it could lead to a franchise of movies that would finally give McGann's portrayal the tenure it is due. And with the 45th anniversary of the series coming up, perhaps a pairing of the Eighth Doctor with the Tenth might be in order to mark the occasion.

BCnU!
Toby OB

THE FRIENDS OF TOMMY LOPAKA

When I can't find anything else to tape in the evening while I'm sleeping/getting ready for work/commuting, I turn to classic shows available on American Life Network.

Until my fave summer shows come back, I'll be doing that often, I think.

Monday night, I taped an episode of 'Hawaiian Eye' after 'Waking The Dead'. (That was on BBC-America.) It was called "Baker's Half Dozen" and it was about a pair of con artists who were swindling sailors in transit out of their money with the girl promising to marry each of them. The guy was a real scumbag (played by Peter Breck of 'The Big Valley'), but Dory Baker was never comfortable helping out in his hustle. Eventually, she helped Tommy Lopaka in nabbing her partner (who had killed his previous accomplice) and she promised to make things right for all of the sailors she conned.

In the end, it looked like Dory would even profit from the experience as she was probably going to end up married to one who was a member of an old-money family in Philadelphia. But first, she'd have to go to Denver, Colorado, and atone for a crime she had been involved in there.

As they parted at the end of the episode, Tommy gave Dory a letter of introduction to a friend of his in Denver who could probably help her. No mention of a name or occupation, and at first I thought it might be a reference to some other show from the Warner Brothers stable under the aegis of Wm. T. Orr, a member of the TV Crossover Hall of Fame (Creators' Wing). But my limited research didn't turn up any leads along those lines.

Basically that left me free to fill in the blanks as to the identity of this mystery character. I knew it couldn't be 'Perry Mason', as he didn't start practicing law in Colorado until the late 1980s. And a quick check of TV Acres (one of my favorite TV trivia sites, link to the left, of course!) didn't offer up any private eyes or police detectives who might have known Thomas Jefferson Lopaka.

So I chose Andrew Laird, an attorney who worked in Denver. By the 1980s, he'd be working almost exclusively for Carrington Oil (as seen in 'Dynasty' where he was played by Peter Mark Richman). Back in 1960, however, he could have been just starting out and willing to take any client who might help enrich his reputation. And Dory Baker's case may have been the perfect cause for him to champion.

And until somebody tells me otherwise, or gives me a convincing substitute that's even better, that's how it'll stand in Toobworld - one more tiny patch holding the great mosaic of the TV Universe together.

BCnU!
Toby OB

WWW.WTF

I'll be the first to admit that I'm off the deep end about Television at times, but some of these comments I see in TV-related blogs can sometimes scare me.

Take, for example, this one in response to a question about what to cover during the summer doldrums:

I loved Marc's suggestion about posting about old shows, or maybe a "do you remember..." thread for shows like 'Holmes and Yoyo' and 'Mr. Merlin'. You and I are prob about the same age, so I think I would enjoy that. A sort of Proust meets Bellisario, if you will.

Proust and Bellisario? Why not Kierkegaard and Grant Tinker?

Luckily for my computer screen I had my spit-take tendencies curbed through dream regression therapy.....

BCnU!
Toby OB

THE MAILBOX SNAKE: O'BSERVATIONS ON THE "LOST" FINALE

Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof, executive producers of 'Lost', have said for months that the third season finale would be a game changer. They called it "The Snake In The Mailbox".

And as a son of a letter carrier, I can tell ya - that was some mailbox snake!

Plenty of other sites have gone into detail about it. And I have to save a major chunk for a few days anyway for a special post. But these are just a few thoughts I had with a few Toobworld O'Bservations:

As everybody knows by now, the final scene was a reboot of the system. For three years, the "present" took place on the island, with most of the characters having flashbacks to their previous lives. But for these two hours, we weren't seeing Jack's flashbacks to his past, but "flashforths" of his time in the actual present time. Based on clues in those scenes, like the make of his phone (The KRZR wasn't released until October of 2006.), or some bridge graffiti (I've seen it alleged that there was a "PHS 2006" visible.), we were watching Jack as he is "now".

The island sequences in the finale were now the actual flashbacks.

In the present, Jack is now one seriously messed-up dude. And that fulfills the meaning of the show's title: Jack is more lost now than when he was stranded on that island.

According to that premenstrual Amazon bitch Bonnie, the code for the jamming signal had been programmed by a musician. Here's one of my pet theories, and it ties into another of mine (and that which is mine, is mine!): That musician who was working for the DHARMA Initiative was once a member of the rock group Geronimo Jackson. Let's face it, there has to be a reason for that band to keep popping up. (Their album "Magna Carta" was in the Hatch and the undercover agent at Locke's hippie commune was wearing the T-shirt.)

I also think that if you look at that album cover, easily to be found via a Google image search, one of the band members is striking a very Sawyeresque pose. It could be that he is actually the father of James Ford, and it was through his time in the band that he made all of his money - which drew Anthony Cooper to him as a mark for a con.

We've pretty much wrapped up Sawyer's storyline when it comes to his daddy issues in relation to the original Sawyer. It would be another venue to explore should he meet this DHARMA bum musician/computer programmer and find out that he was once a band-mate with his dad.

Here's an idea I have for what may develop over the coming season: having lost his best friend on the island, Hurley may step up to take the place of Charlie Pace in watching out for Claire and Aaron. (We saw that he had assumed some of that responsibility in preparing for the radio tower exodus while Charlie left for the Looking Glass Hatch.) I'm not saying that this will lead to romance, but at the same time, Hurley's a lovable guy so why shouldn't it?

One thing we know for sure - he could certainly provide for her and the baby once they got back to the mainland. (If in fact they do both leave. Although Desmond saw Claire and Aaron get on the rescue helicopter, maybe Hurley stays behind because his luck is better there.)

Desmond's dreams weren't always literal. He saw Charlie flicking the switch and then drowning. It wasn't as simple as flicking a switch - instead Charlie had to tap out the rhythm of "Good Vibrations" by the Beach Boys (perfect combo for this show!). And the drowning bit didn't follow immediately.

So what if it's not a rescue helicopter that he saw Claire and Aaron get into? Maybe it will be a black ops chopper from the Hanso Organization and they abduct Claire and the baby for some dark purposes off-island.

"Mailbox Snake" would make a great name for a band. I've already got it in mind for use in a Toobworld story.....

From TV.com:
When Charlie is about to drown in the looking glass he makes the sign of the cross. However he does it incorrectly. He touches the correct parts in the correct order, but he does make a fatal error; he uses his left hand instead of his right.

Charlie was such a religious person (even when he was a sinner), that it's inconceivable to this old altar boy that he could make a mistake like that. Even if you're a southpaw, the Church insisted that you make the Sign of the Cross with your right hand.

This show has been so attentive to its own details, could this really be a mistake? If so, I'm thinking that perhaps the film was reversed for some reason. But what if it wasn't done in error? I wouldn't put it past this show's creators to have had some hidden meaning for it.

Or, as with Jack's tattoos, they'll come up with some splainin for why it happened. Even if we don't want it, as with Jack's tattoos....

I sent an "Extra" in-joke to David Bianculli of the Daily News - that Kate was wearing Charlie's hoodie during the nighttime portion of the exodus. I think it was recognition of her off-screen sweetie's last episode......

It was the same zippered sweatshirt/windbreaker that Charlie was wearing during that first night on the island.

Ben told Richard Alpert to lead the rest of the Others to "the temple". I'm wondering if the temple has any connection to the remains of that four-toed statue?

And does the island provide yarmulkes at the temple?

I was sorry to see the character of Tom go; when it comes to villainous Others, he was a rather personable fellow. He was probably the show's best stand-in for Alan Hale as the Skipper.

But at the same time, I understood the justification Sawyer gave for killing him - in revenge for taking Walt off the boat. And Tom was in favor of killing Sayid, Jin, and Bernard against Ben's orders, something I would have thought was more in keeping with the personality of Ryan Pryce, the commando leader. (However, Pryce was not one to disobey orders.)

Speaking of following orders, there was a moment there when I thought Mikhail might break rank with Ben Linus, once he saw how much Ben had lied to them all about the Looking Glass Hatch. In the end, he did as he was told and killed Bonnie and Greta to make sure the communication jammer would never be activated. And when that failed, he nearly sacrificed his own life by detonating a grenade against the porthole to flood the communications room and drown Charlie.

(I say "nearly sacrificed his own life" because I'm not convinced Mikhail is dead. That Rasputin of 'Lost' will probably show up again someday, minus an arm perhaps - losing parts like Allardyce T. Merriweather in "Little Big Man" - but still alive and kicking.

Unless I actually see his body being chomped on by the DHARMA shark, I'll refrain from declaring him to be really most sincerely dead.)

Nice foot action by Sayid in killing that other Other. Had I been in that same situation, I could have done the same thing - except I'd just have to take the boots off and gas him like Ben's dear old Dad....

I wonder if Bernard's confession will ostracize him from the other 815ers, and especially his wife Rose? On the other hand (something Mikhail no longer has - an Other hand! ba dum dum!), we know she doesn't want to leave this island and may see his attempt to spare their lives as the only way they could guarantee both of them could stay there together.

I was sorry to see Marsha Thomason leave the show so soon after being introduced into the storyline. (The fembots of the Looking Glass Hatch were dispatched with even more dispatch, but they were little better than ciphers as characters.) In a way, Thomason's Naomi was this season's Leslie Arzt - introduced into the series with a sense that she'll be around for a while. I let my imagination cast forward in wondering what her flashback story might be, what was her full name and was it an anagram or had some link to a philosopher? Basically, the same kind of thing I did with Mr. Arzt before he blowed up real good.

Another reason it was a shame to lose her services on the show - Naomi was exotically beautiful and the island could always use that kind of scenery. Besides, the show has killed off way too many of the women over the last three seasons.

Perhaps we haven't seen the last of her - once they get around to pulling the knife out of her, maybe Naomi will begin to revive as Locke and Mikhail have been seen to do.

Or maybe Marsha Thomason might return to the series in another role. I get the feeling that there's supposed to be something to do with genetics when it comes to DHARMA research, which might be why Gary Troup's novel was called "Bad Twin". Perhaps when we see who else was aboard that freighter of hers, there's another woman who looks just like her; maybe even a whole platoon of them!

But the killing of Naomi totally pushed Locke into the villain category for me. (As if his selfish obsession to destroy the submarine and Mikhail's communication shack weren't bad enough to qualify.) I don't care if in the end he was right about trying to make sure they all stay on the island - that was morally wrong. Stabbing a woman in the back in order to prevent her from completing the call to the ship, and yet then not shooting Jack for trying to do the same thing? Bad guy. And one who can't even carry through with his convictions.

When Walt appeared to Locke while he was lying wounded in the mass grave, I'm convinced that it was a manifestation of the smoke monster, just as Eko's brother, Jack's Dad, Kate's horse and Sayid's cat were. And as such, quibbles about the height spurt by Malcolm David Kelley can be splained away by the smoke monster's fudging with the details.

But at least now, Walt can come back in some other "flashforth" since he grew too much to continue the island part of the story and yet still have it only be several months after the plane crash in 2004.

If so, it could tie in with one of several new mysteries for the last three seasons which were provided in Jack's "flashforth":

Who's in the coffin we saw when Jack went to the funeral and was the only person who showed up? I'm thinking it was for Michael Dawson, Walt's Dad. It was held in a black neighborhood of Los Angeles, probably similar to the one where Michael used to live during the Rodney King riots.

And the blowup of that newspaper clipping about the funeral seemed to suggest that whoever had died killed himself. After what Michael did to get himself and his son off the island, killing Ana Lucia and Libby, he deserved no better than the coward's way out. And it would also splain why nobody else bothered to show up to his funeral.

The clipping also suggested that the name of the deceased might begin with a "J" and end with "ntham", leading some to suggest that it's a "Jeremy Bentham", yet another philosopher name. Even so, Michael could have been using it as an alias.

Another "flashforth" mystery: Who is the mystery man Kate is living with now, off the island? (She said that she had to get back to him before he started wondering where she was.) Could it be Sawyer? Nathan Fillion's cop from Tallahassee? Some character from DHARMA we haven't met yet? Maybe she even hooks up with Richard Alpert?

And a third: What was the deal with Jack saying that his father was upstairs at the hospital - and probably drunk - when we saw that he was dead before Jack crashed on the island.

Or was he? Remember, the coffin was empty when Jack finally found where it landed. And even though he saw his Dad's body in the Sydney morgue, maybe Christian Shepherd was just temporarily paralyzed by the venom of a Medusa spider. (I believe now that those beasties have been introduced into the series, they better not be forgotten when it comes to island life!)

(I've read a LOT of online articles and interviews since this episode aired, so everything is starting to blend and blur. However, I think I may have read somewhere that Lindelof & Cuse have stated that Christian Shepherd is definitely dead. Not that it really matters - Death isn't all it's cracked up to be in this show!)

By now, readers of this blog post will have noticed that I've barely mentioned the sacrifice made by Charlie Pace, for me the high point of the episode. This is the segment I'm reserving for about three more days, and regular visitors to the site may figure out why......

All in all, this episode justified my claim that 'Lost' is one of the five best TV shows in my personal Toobworld pantheon. (Since you insist, the others are 'The Prisoner', 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show', 'The Dick Van Dyke Show', and 'Columbo'.) I've said it time and again that I'm in it for the ride, and Lindelof & Cuse have shown that nothing is presented in this series without reason.

Hurley's rescue mission in the Shambala DHARMA van proves that!

And finally, speaking of Hurley, I did have one small complaint which ties in with his appearance in the season finale:

Where was the Hurley bird?

For the last two season-enders, we got to see that weird bird fly at Hurley, screeching his name. It would have been a nice touch if it happened again while he was making that boastful challenge to the surviving Others via the walkie-talkie. (And by the way, with the finale, he and Bernard have joined the ranks of those among the survivors who have killed.....)

Well, sorry for the delay - not that I think anybody was on pins and needles waiting for my O'Bservations.......

Check back in a few days to see what I have in store for the late, great Charles Heironymous Pace......

BCnU!
Toby OB3

PS
"Jack Flashforth" would make a great name in a swashbuckler.....

NOT SO HEAVY TRAFFIC

Once again, my bestest of friends Ivy got peeved over the depiction of TV-NYC, this time in the disappointing finale of 'Heroes':

It's odd to see a fictional NYC with no pedestrians and no cars. In real NYC, Peter would've been squashed flat by a cab in two seconds rather than having a nap in the middle of the street. LOL!

She's right. In the two scenes of Peter lying in the street, we saw only one cab pass by off in the distance, near what looked to be the Met Life building/street arch. (Maybe that cab was from the Sunshine Cab Company of 'Taxi'?) Even the most desolate area in NYC has traffic well into the night, and this had to be early evening when the scenes took place.

And considering he collapsed right outside the entrance to a parking garage.....

I have no problem with fictional locations within an actual city like New York. This show provides an excellent example of that - Kirby Plaza, where the climax of the season-long story occurred. There is no such place in Manhattan; the location can actually be found in Los Angeles under a different name.

(The genesis for the name Kirby was a tip of the hat to the legendary comics artist Jack Kirby. But I'd like to think that WWII soldier Private Kirby {played by Jack Hogan on 'Combat!'} did something in the intervening years to merit having a plaza named after him.)

Tell me that ordinary people can develop super-human abilities, fine. But don't try to con me into thinking that the streets of the City are THAT deserted!

SNAP! There goes that suspension of disbelief.....

BCnU!
Toby OB

LIFE AFTER "JERICHO"?

For those in the viewing audience who are hoping for the chance to return to the TV dimension where 'Jericho' took place, CBS dangled something of a peace offering (probably just to stem the tide of nuts being sent by angry fans).

CBS Entertainment President Nina Tassler issued the following statement:

To the fans of Jericho:

We have read your emails over the past few days and have been touched by the depth and passion with which you have expressed your disappointment. Please know that canceling a television series is a very difficult decision. Hundreds of people at the Network, the production company and the incredibly-talented creative team worked very hard to build and serve the community for this show -- both on-air and online. It is a show we loved too.

Thank you for supporting Jericho with such passion. We truly appreciate the commitment you made to the series and we are humbled by your disappointment. In the coming weeks, we hope to develop a way to provide closure to the compelling drama that was the Jericho story.

Sincerely,
Nina Tassler,
President of CBS Entertainment

The way I read that, it's pozz'ble, just pozz'ble, that CBS may produce a two-hour movie, maybe even a four hour two-parter (I refuse to call those "mini-series"!) in order to wrap up the battle between Jericho and New Bern, Kansas.

Whether they do or not, it has no effect on Toobworld in general. The series took place in an alternate dimension, not on Earth Prime-Time. But even so, I'd like to see how that "war" concludes and would also like some answers behind the bombings in the first place.

We'll see how it goes.

I hope CBS finds a charity that can use that Twiloite inundation of nuts!

BCnU!
Toby OB

CHANCE OF A GHOST

Of the "spooky" shows that are on the air, among them 'Supernatural', 'Medium', and 'The Dresden Files', 'Ghost Whisperer' may have great ratings (for a Friday night show) - plus Jennifer Love Hewitt and the twins, to boot! - but it's the 'Murder, She Wrote' of the batch.

Don't get me wrong; I love watching 'Murder, She Wrote'. But when it comes to TV mysteries, it was like comfort food in its genre. And the same can be said of 'Ghost Whisperer'. It lacks an edge.

My friend Ivy broke down a typical episode 'Ghost Whisperer':

Ghost Whisperer finales are generally a LOT more interesting than the regular weekly installments, which break down like this:

8-8:15 -- Ghost Whisperer encounters Someone That Nobody Else Can See.
8:00-8:05, she is frightened (God knows why, since this seems to happen to her at least several times a day).
8:05-8:15 -- despite her fear, she decides to help anyway.
8:15-8:30 -- Ghost Whisperer digs around for family, background, etc.
8:30-8:45 -- Ghost Whisperer encounters Resistance from NonBelievers. Nine times out of ten, they banish her from the homes/stores/cars/streetcorners, etc.
8:45-9:00 -- NonBelievers suddenly become Believers (half the time, who knows why?) Ghost Whisperer brings Living and Dead together, loosely translates (and sometimes, I mean REALLY loosely) what the near-departed has to impart to the living. Nearly Departed, having achieved the release of finally getting one last soliloquoy in, goes off into the light. Ghost Whisperer always cries at this, though there is never any other outcome, except, of course, at season finale time!

All that's missing is the "chung-chung" between scenes!

Now, following a pattern is fine - so long as you have good scripts to provide its luster. 'Columbo' and the original version of 'Burke's Law' proved that.

But 'Ghost Whisperer' didn't really have that luster. It was safe, dependable... but it didn't generate the buzz which shows like 'Heroes' and 'Lost' get on a regular basis.
And while it may not ever reach those heights, the 'Ghost Whisperer' season finale set in motion certain changes that could provide that desired spark.

And all it would take for the show to spark some life was the death of the main character.

Here's how Roger Catlin of the Hartford Courant described it in his TV Eye blog:

It’s become common in many shows to make an impact by killing off a characters at the end of the season. Locke was shot in Wednesday’s “Lost,” Milo was killed in Monday’s “24.” But what show would be foolhardy enough [to kill off] a main character?

It happened Friday in the second season finale of “Ghost Whisperer” when Jennifer Love Hewitt’s Melinda Gordon was hit by a memorial tower while saving other kids.

She had been warned that a loved one would be killed as part of a five part foretelling. She though it would be her friend Carmyn Manheim that would go the way of Aisha Taylor, electrocuted by her turntable stylus one week and nearly hit by a truck this. But it was her, she was unhappy to find out, when she started to have the properties of ghosts on the show – people running through her and such.

Earlier she had agreed to help a weird guy with an accent to help assorted children who were survivors of a series of disasters that each occurred on May 11 the last few years. Did she not know this episode would also air on May 11? (And that explained why it was sort of a disaster too?).

Being killed on this show (and maybe on “Lost”) isn’t anything like being killed in real life, though. After all, half the characters any given week are ghosts looking to pass on, needing that little nudge Melinda gives them by being able to pass on messages to loved ones (James Van Praagh’s stories were the original inspiration).

She’s been in some sort of season-long apocalyptic duel with a bad spirit named Gabriel, who seems to have the upper hand as the season ends, setting the stage for an action packed third season or, in the unlikely case that it’s not picked up, she will already have been conveniently killed off.

It's not the first time a series has killed off the main character. But from 'Naked City' to 'Nichols', there were always the usual reasons. (A casting change in the former; a hoped-for change in the series' direction in the latter.) Plenty of ensemble shows kill off main characters all the time - 'Lost' and '24' and 'ER' currently lead the pack in that.

But this is one of those rare times when the main character has been killed off and still continues on the series. 'Randall & Hopkirk, Deceased' is another example. I suppose 'Topper' fits the bill as well.

There are two other examples that come close which came to mind - Gary's death on 'thirtySOMETHING' and the passing of Eliott Axelrod on 'St. Elsewhere'. However, in both of those cases, their "spirits" only remained for a few episodes longer. (Axelrod was gone in the penultimate episode of the series.)

This would have Melinda remain a ghost for the rest of the series' run.

It was a gamble, but it paid off. When CBS announced its fall schedule during the Upfronts, 'Ghost Whisperer' was on the sked.

I'm sure the producers of the show will find some way to bring her back to life, but I'm hoping Melinda Gordon remains dead and a ghost on the show. It would be certainly something different for a TV heroine. And being someone who was already intimately familiar with the "rules" of supernatural hauntings, she would be able to circumvent them in order to continue her work from the Other Side.

For instance, she wouldn't let that rule about haunting the place where you died or haunting a particular loved one keep her tied down to any one place. This would free up Melinda's spirit to go wherever she was needed most.

And by doing that, think of the crossover potential for the series with other CBS shows! Even if you wanted to preserve the genre integrity of some of those other series, especially the proliferation of procedurals ('NCIS', 'Without A Trace', 'Cold Case', 'Shark', all of the 'CSI' franchise), Melinda could work her mojo voodoo within the show without ever being acknowledged by the other characters.

Here's a good example - the finale of 'CSI' left Sarah Sidle trapped in her car out in the desert. Just as in the diorama created by the Miniature Killer, her arm was outstretched; but we saw that she still was alive as she grasped at the dirt.

Now it could go either way for her character, depending on actress Jorja Fox's contract negotiations. And either Melinda could get involved by helping Sarah accept the reality and make a peaceful passage over to the Other Side with a final goodbye to Grissom; or she could help the CSI team (without them knowing it) in tracking down where Sarah is in time to save her.

Whatever way this all plays out for Melinda Gordon, at least the season debut of 'Ghost Whisperer' should be worth a look-see!

BCnU!
Toby OB

SEAN'S SHOW: A LOOK AT "42"

Here's a review from that kid with kids, my Li'l Buddy from the Idiot's Delight Digest and as they would say in "Elfquest", family in all but blood, Sean:

"42" was a terrific episode. No argument.

You can argue, the helmet should have been not so clunky, it was derivative of "The Impossible Planet", it was heavy on action, whatever.

It was a terrific episode.

Why?

To begin with, it solidifies Martha as a genuine, top of the list companion. This is the relation of Doctor/Companion at it's best. We have this figure, the lost Gallifreyan, the Lonely God, master of Time and Space who needs, needs someone in his life, however transitory, to give him meaning and purpose.

The Doctor without companion is almost nothing. He becomes not lonely, but abandoned, desolate and destitute. He rescues a family from the sinking Titanic. He roams about, ferrying the Master's remains while sipping tea and listening to a gramophone. The Doctor bereft of Ace, even his TARDIS reflects his state. An industrial wasteland. The Lonely God does not need worshipers, he needs companions. However small next to him, however primitive, they are his beloved companions. They are his faith.

The reason that this episode is one of the great ones is that it gives us the Doctor at his weakest. The flawed god, the corruptible god, the god that needs his companion. Without the companion he would have fallen. With the companion he is raised. With the companion he is raised and he shows us the darkness. The thieves in us, the ignorance in us, the heartlessness in us. But only with the companion. The companion is his channel.

To continue, the reason that this episode is one of the great ones is because I loved it! It is the reason Doctor Who is wonderful. Like a Shakespearean play of old, it has something for everyone.

Like they say in the Drowsy Chaperone, it fills it's part. It has something for everyone! Some love the historical episodes. Some love the contemporary episodes. Some love the futuristic episodes. Some love action, some love drama. But the show has it all.

Where is the Doctor not? He is everywhere. He is in our pre-history, he is in our ever changing present, he is in our far-future. He is the ever-present god, and he is lonely.

And enter the companion.

Maybe the companion never fills the loneliness, who could? The Doctor is himself bigger on the inside than he is on the outside. The sheer amount of death he has witnessed, partaken in. But through a companion, he is able to channel that darkness into light, into meaning. The lonely god of death is able to smile, give life and meaning and go on.

This is a great show. Television itself could be summed up into one show, 'Doctor Who'. This is a terrific episode. It sums up the relationship between Time Lord and Human, Doctor and companion, god and follower. It is what it is; human and everywhere.

Sean