GMA: ON THE ROAD AND READY TO POTTY!

TV Newser (link to the left, Newsies!) published this picture of the 'Good Morning, America' mini-bus, saying:

Good Morning America had the Little Juniata Rapids train, GMA Weekend has a 1962 VW minibus. The crew hit the road this weekend, broadcasting live from the University of North Carolina campus as part of the "50 States in 50 Days" initiative. Unlike the train, as far as we know there is no control room in the minibus. It looks like it doesn't have a bathroom, either. I don't know who the blonde is, but man! She really needs to go weeee!

BCnU!
Toby O'B

WHAT'S THAT I HEAR?

This is for all of you out there who know your TV theme songs.....

Is it me? Or does the theme music for 'Real Time With Bill Maher' sound an awful lot like the 'MadTV' theme music?

Just askin', is all.....

BCnU!
Toby O'B

MOTO-CROSSOVER

This could make for an interesting, full-bore cross-over.....

'The Sons of Anarchy' "club" talked about the L.A.-based bikers known as the "One-Niners". Here's what the wiki for 'The Shield had to say about this fictional gang of black bikers:

The One-Niners is an African-American gang that is central to the plot of Season Four.

The One-Niners were the target of coordinated efforts by Captain Monica Rawling to bring them down, using asset seizures and court injunctions, [and by] using an Anti-Gang Task Force coordinated by Vic Mackey.

Toobworld doesn't really need anymore than that to establish this as a link between 'The Shield' and 'The Sons Of Anarchy'.

BCnU!

Toby O'B

TODAY'S TWD - CRAZY 88: A BIRTHDAY REMEMBRANCE

Jay Ward was born on this date in 1920. He passed away from liver cancer in 1989. And for more about his life in between, I'll turn it over to my old pal Wiki J. Pedia:

J Troplong "Jay" Ward (September 20, 1920 – October 12, 1989) was an American creator and producer of animated television cartoons. He is known for producing animated series based on characters such as Crusader Rabbit, Rocky & Bullwinkle, Dudley Do-Right, Peabody and Sherman, Hoppity Hooper, George of the Jungle, Tom Slick and Super Chicken. His company, Jay Ward Productions, also designed the trademark characters for Cap'n Crunch, Quisp and Quake breakfast cereals and made commercials for those products, among others. Ward produced the non-animated 'Fractured Flickers' series that featured comedy redubbing of silent films.

Jay Ward was married to Ramona "Billie" Ward. He had three children: Ron, Carey, and Tiffany.

Ward moved into the infant medium of television with the help of his childhood friend, animator Alex Anderson. Anderson was the nephew of Terrytoons founder Paul Terry, and had unsuccessfully tried to sell Terry a concept for a cartoon series made specifically for the new medium. Together, Ward and Anderson took the character, Crusader Rabbit, to NBC and pioneering TV-program distributor Jerry Fairbanks. They put together a pilot film, 'The Comic Strips of Television', featuring Crusader; a parody of Sherlock Holmes named "Hamhock Bones"; and a bumbling Mountie named Dudley Do-Right.

NBC and Fairbanks were unimpressed with all but Crusader Rabbit (though Dudley would make his appearance, finally, 10 years later). Crusader Rabbit premiered in 1949 and ended its initial run in 1952. Adopting a serialized, mock-melodrama format, the series followed the adventures of Crusader and his dimwitted sidekick Rags the tiger. It was, in form and content, much like the series that would later gain Ward fame, 'Rocky and His Friends'.

Ward and Anderson, through a series of legal maneuvers against them, lost the rights to the character, and a new color Crusader series under a different producer premiered in 1956. An unsold series idea from his Crusader Rabbit days would eventually earn Ward a permanent place in animation history. Taking place in a TV studio in the North Woods, the series featured a cast of eccentrics such as newsman Oski Bear and two minor characters named Rocky the Flying Squirrel and Bullwinkle, described in the script treatment as a "French-Canadian moose." This was the genesis of what would become 'Rocky and His Friends' and later, 'The Bullwinkle Show', when NBC gave Rocky's sidekick top billing.

Premiering on ABC in 1959 (and moving to NBC two years later) the series reached a level of sophistication in its humor rarely seen in cartoons before. Thanks to Ward's genial partner Bill Scott (who contributed to the scripts and voiced Bullwinkle and other characters) and a corps of top comedy writers, puns reached new heights (or depths) of shamelessness: in a "Fractured Fairy Tales" featuring Little Jack Horner, upon pulling out the plum, Jack announced, "Lord, what foods these morsels be!"

Jay Ward is seen here on the right, with Bill Scott
and an unidentified kids' show host in the center.

Self-referential humor was another trademark: in one episode, the breathless announcer (played by William Conrad) gave away the villain's plans, prompting the villain to grab the announcer from offscreen, bind and gag him, and deposit him visibly within the scene. It skewered popular culture mercilessly, taking on such subjects as advertising, college sports, the Cold War, and television itself. The hapless duo from Frostbite Falls, Minnesota, blundered into unlikely adventures much as Crusader and Rags had before them, pursued by "no-goodnik" spies Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale, perennially under orders to "keel moose and squirrel."

The segments were serialized, generally ending with a cliff-hanging peril; the announcer would urge the viewer to "tune in next time" for the next adventure, featuring two dreadful puns in the titles, like "Mine Eyes Have Seen the Gory, or Moose's in the Cold, Cold Ground" and "When a Felon Needs a Friend, or Pantomime Quisling," or "Portrait of a Moose, or Bullwinkle Gets Framed."

In a running joke tribute to Jay Ward, many of his cartoon characters had the middle initial "J.", presumably standing for "Jay" (although this was never stated explicitly). One contributor to this entry wrote to Jay Ward in 1961 and asked him what the J stood for in Rocket J. Squirrel and Bullwinkle J. Moose. Ward wrote back that the J stood for George. The cartoonist, Matt Groening, later gave the middle initial "J." to many of his characters as a tribute to Jay Ward.

In 2000, he was recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, paid for as part of the publicity for the live-action and animation film "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle".

Of course, that entry was a bit too dry to serve as a fitting tribute to Jay Ward, so let me steer you to three other sites:

TOONOPEDIA

TOON TRACKER

ROCKY AND BULLWINKLE

And from those you'll find plenty of other links to specific characters in the Jay Ward gallery.

Jay Ward would have been 88 today. Rocky, Bullwinkle, and all their friends are ageless.

BCnU!
Toby O'B

FROM TOOBWORLD WITH LOVE

In the mid-season finale of 'Burn Notice' this week, Michael Weston was checking out the mysterious fourth floor and realized that Carla's hitman was going to use it as a sniper's nest. His buddy Sam Axe was downstairs, acting as look-out, and was in contact with Mike through his ear-piece.....

"What do you see up there?" asked Sam. "A mastermind petting a Persian cat?"

Of course, Sam was referring to Blofeld, the villain from the James Bond movies. And those are movies in Toobworld as well, even though James Bond existed in the TV Universe.

But TV's Bond, James Bond, was an American operative back in the 50s who was often called Jimmy Bond. We only saw him once on the TV screens, in a 1954 adaptation of "Casino Royale" in an episode of 'Climax'. Barry Nelson played Bond and is officially the first actor in the role.

All of those movies, even the books by Ian Fleming, we can make the claim that they're all based on the exploits in Jimmy Bond's life. (And "Casino Royale" - at least in Toobworld - wasn't published until after the events of that TV show.)

BCnU!
Toby O'B

HAWKING A LOUIE

While putting together a tribute to the late Jeff MacKay, I tarried in the episode guide for 'Tales Of The Gold Monkey'. And according to the back-story, Ron Moody originally played Bon Chance Louie in the pilot for the series. However, there were "differences of opinion" between Moody and the producers about how the role should develop and be played. So for the series itself, the late and legendary Roddy McDowall was brought in to play Louie. (And according to MacKay, McDowall brought real class to the role.)

As much as I have enjoyed Ron Moody in the few productions I've seen, Roddy McDowall would always win out [in my opinion] as the real Bon Chance Louie. I'm that big a fan. However, I shouldn't be playing favorites with the Toobworld concept. (Although, let's face it, I do!)

Therefore, Ron Moody must be considered the true Bon Chance Louie. So a splainin must then be found to satisfy Toobworld's inner reality as to why Roddy McDowall was a recastaway.

I'm tossing out plastic surgery right away. For the times and the location, surgery of that sophistication would have been impossible. They would have been performing 'M*A*S*H'-quality "meatball surgery" (and not even on a par with the "skills" of Frank Burns!) on those islands.

Another possibility that came to me would have been Dr. Jonathan Willoway of 'Fantastic Journey'. He could have found a dimensional escape route and used it to save himself. And having once arrived back on Earth Prime-Time in 1938, he would have dispatched Louie and taken his place.

But he was a bit of a con man and something of a coward, and I don't see him staying long there. There were too many other con men and thieves all around him at the Monkey Bar, and not enough chance for making a fortune for himself.

There's only one character he could be - Edward St. John V, from the 'Quantum Leap' episode "A Leap For Lisa". In that storyline, Dr. Sam Beckett leaped into the life of a much younger Al Calavicci, which caused a disruption in Al's personal history. And until Sam could fix the problem, the future history was also altered so that Al was no longer his personal guide through the past. Instead, he was replaced by Edward St. John V, who had no clue who Al Calavicci was supposed to be.

We know from other episodes of 'Quantum Leap' about that evil Queen Bitch leaper that the technology for leaping would be greatly improved so that a leaper could pinpoint their destination and have control over it. So I'm thinking that Edward St. John V, who probably worked on the Quantum Leap Project staff regardless of Al's fate, eventually was called upon to accept a long-term leap assignment....
He was probably asked by the government to step in and replace Bon Chance Louie, for at least the duration of the coming World War II. The idea could have been that this operation would ensure that History in that region would continue on its prescribed destiny. As the original Bon Chance Louie had been a thief sent by the French to keep an official eye on other thieves, I'm thinking the "Timecops" of the future couldn't take the chance that Bon Chance would hold up his end of the bargain.

So Roddy McDowall may not have been the original, but his character of Edward St. John V proved to be the better Bon Chance Louie.
BCnU!
Toby O'B

[My thanks to Al's Place, a 'Quantum Leap' website, and the 'Tales Of The Gold Monkey' fansite for their unwitting contributions to this piece.]

TODAY'S TWD: WALLACE BROMLEY

Soon after the events began in the second episode of 'Fringe', Homeland Security boss Philip Broyles addressed a secret committee made up of more than just security experts, scientists, and elected officials.

"Thank you all for convening at this late hour. 43 minutes ago, we were alerted to an incident at the Wallace Bromley Medical Center. While the details are still coming in, it appears to be another anomaly whose mysteries and origins remain the sole purpose of this committee."

I assumed that the hospital in question was in Boston, Massachusetts, - after all, that's what those giant block letters are for in establishing each scene. And yet the only "Wallace Bromley" of real note that I can locate so far is the 14th District's Republican representative in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives who resigned on May 31st, 1927.

There was a Wallace Bromley who was born in Charleston, NY in 1824 and died February 14th, 1874. He married and had children in Charleston, so again, it doesn't look like he would have had any impact in Boston to be so honored with a medical center named after him.

From 1880 Michigan records, there's the listed marriage of Wallace Bromley, a 23 year old laborer from Foley to Mary Ann Francom, a 19 year old from Bridgeport and Foley on October 18th. I don't think there's anything there to suggest he would one day have a hospital in Boston named after him, either.

I did find this Google entry amusing: "Any opinion, fify fat nude women give and the the, fat nude women Society, Wallace Bromley great latterly submitted have than of doctrine call on, ..." I imagine it used to be just a come-on link (literally) but now it doesn't open to anything.

So the Wallace Bromley Medical Center appears to be a fictional creation for the show 'Fringe', which is named after some fictional Wallace Bromley who meant something to the city of Boston or to the state of Massachusetts.

I'd be curious to know where JJ Abrams and his writing team got the inspiration for the name. But then, I'm freakish that way.....

BCnU!
Toby O'B

THREE MASONS LODGED

A bit of serendipiteevee: the other morning at work, I was up in the operator's dungeon where the overnight operator was watching an episode of 'Quantum Leap'. And I passed by just as Sam said that the only thing he knew about the Law came from a TV show whose name he couldn't even remember. At that point his holographic companion Al showed up to say "It's Perry Mason!"

It's not the first time Erle Stanley Gardner's famous literary creation cum TV character legend was cited in another TV show. In the second pilot for 'Columbo', "Ransom For A Dead Man", Leslie Williams sneered at the Lieutenant, "I'm familiar with the 'Perry Mason' school of justice." And on 'Dream On', Toby Pedalbee exclaimed, "I watched 'Perry Mason' a hundred and eighty times and this has never happened!"

This is all easy enough to splain away, Your Honors.

Perry Mason shares the same TV dimension as Toby, Ms. Williams, Dr. Sam Beckett and Al. And as Perry Mason made quite a name for himself as a lawyer in Los Angeles, Colorado, and across the nation, they must have read about him in the papers over the years. It could be that Mason became so famous as a lawyer with such a high recognition factor, that some network executive must have figured he could pull in the ratings with his own show about the law.

And I can cite precedent from the real world proving that lawyers have heeded the lure of a television appearance - William Kunstler, Melvin Belli, Gerry Spence, F. Lee Bailey, Johnnie Cochran, and Robert Shapiro.

So when TV characters talk about Perry Mason being on TV, they're not talking about the TV show we know starring Raymond Burr*. They're talking about the actual character as a "real" person showing up on TV.

As for Leslie Williams' crack about the "Perry Mason School of Justice"? Maybe he had a law school named after him.

Hey; you never know.....

The Defense rests.

BCnU!
Toby O'B

*The Monte Markham version of 'Perry Mason' does not belong in Earth Prime-Time. Although in the Toobworld novel I've been working on, I got some splainin to do about why he existed. And the answer lies in his little finger......

HELLBENT ON A RECASTAWAY

Earlier today I wrote about the possibility of "Hellboy" coming to Television, and thus, officially to Toobworld. (He's got a few TV commercials to his credit so far.)

And as I wrote it up, I wondered who might be a good choice to play the demonspawn working for the good guys. Ron Perlman plays him in the movie franchise, but I don't think he'd want to be tied down under all of that make-up, week after week in order to do a TV series.

Later in the day I finally got around to finishing off the run of 'Generation Kill' and it was in the ranks of Bravo Company marines that I found the actor who might be a good fit for the role of Hellboy.

Meet Marc Menchaca.

Getting the chance to play Hellboy could be a big step to stardom for Menchaca. Aside from playing Gunnery Sgt. Mike "Gunny" Wynn in 'Generation Kill', there isn't that much of note yet in his resume. "Business Guy" on an episode of 'Guiding Light'; "Store Assistant" in the TV movie "Beyond The Prairie, Part Two"; even the episode he did for 'Arrest And Trial' doesn't give him much of a name - "Junior"

And his movie roles don't fare much better - Interrogator, University Cop, Shipping Clerk.

He's young though, plenty of time for him to fill out his resume.

So I think he'd jump at the chance to play Hellboy!

And look at this picture of Marc Menchaca as Gunny in 'Generation Kill':

Doesn't it remind you of the way Hellboy shaves down his horns?

Just sayin', is all......

BCnU!
Toby O'B

MOVING TO STRIKE

I saw the first episode of 'Raising The Bar' when it premiered a few weeks ago and I wasn't impressed. I was kind of bored, and was able to guess a few twists before it ended. But I may have stayed with the show if only Currie Graham wasn't playing Nick Balco as the District Attorney of New York City.

Right now, Jack McCoy is the DA (acting DA, I think) on 'Law & Order'. No matter who held the job in the past on that show, that's who would be the NYC DA for Earth Prime-Time, just from the sheer volume of episodes racked up over the years.

For the purposes of Toobworld, my virtual sandbox where every TV character is part of my army of action figures, I could have accepted Nick Balco as another Executive ADA, or in charge of one particular sub-set of ADA supervisors (if there's even such a thing). In fact, since his office is open to view by everybody else in the communal office, I would have thought Balco is some kind of middle management in the DA's office. But if he is the District Attorney when it should be Jack McCoy holding sway in the top spot, the entire show has to be bagged.

Like I said, I wasn't keen on the show personally, but I've always liked Steve Bochco's work in the past. So I want to make sure we find 'Raising The Bar' a good home, preferably in a nice neighborhood.

So I'm thinking the same alternate TV dimension which houses 'The West Wing', 'Mr. Sterling', and 'Smallville' (because 'The West Wing' couldn't be in a TV dimension in which Clark Kent was already operating as Superman.)

I'll think they'll make 'Raising The Bar' feel at home.

And if 'The West Wing' ever showed a character who was the Manhattan District Attorney or even just mentioned his or her name, no worries. We can just say that since that time, Nick Balco was elected to the job.

And of course, I can easily reverse my decision if it turns out Nick Balco isn't the District Attorney but a glorified office manager.

BCnU!
Toby O'B