Saturday, June 6, 2009
SNOWGLOBAL II
BIRTHDAY M*A*S*H-UPS
Let's have a little fun on my birthday!
You may have seen the "Han Solo, P.I." video mash-up on other sites - scenes from the various "Star Wars" movies synchronized to the music of 'Magnum, P.I.'.
But the guys who put it together have also cobbled together a video that compares "Han Solo, P.I." to the original opening credits for 'Magnum'.
Have a look-see:
I love this sort of stuff! There's another one out there of 'Star Trek: The Next Generation" as if it was the next incarnation of 'The Love Boat'!
And here's the original crew of the Enterprise working as 'The A-Team':
But my favorite combination is that of 'Doctor Who' and 'Quantum Leap'; they just are perfect together, like chocolate and peanut butter!
This is the first one I found at YouTube a few months back:
And here's a more recent one, that's a bit more detailed:
I like 'em both.
BCnU!
SNOWGLOBAL
"I believe that creatures and places can exist if they exist in the collective imagination. Although we'll never find a vampire corpse or a real alternate species of human or sub-human, they do exist by virtue of the fact that we have all willed them into reality. The same as dragons and a few other creatures."
It's a point that comes up early in my Toobworld novel!
BCnU!TVXOHOF, 6/6/09: THE BIRTHDAY HONORS LIST
And as I have done for most of this decade, there is a Birthday Honors List induction into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame.
Last year, the special honoree was Archibald Beechcroft, who entered 'The Twilight Zone' and became every single TV character who was alive on a particular day in the early 1960's. I should have saved that entry for this year - when we're celebrating the tenth anniversary of the TV Crossover Hall of Fame.
But I do have something similar that hopefully should be just as good.....
This year, the Birthday Honors List pays tribute to:

THE INTERSECT
The Intersect is the super-computer repository of all the government's secret files, which is now housed in "ze little gray cells" of 'Chuck' Bartowski's brain.And 'Chuck' doesn't have just the records of the cases he's worked during the course of the show; his brain has been uploaded with the combined data from agencies working under the aegis of Homeland Security - the NSA, the CIA, the FBI, SID, CONTROL, and probably even those from the World Security Bureau, Section One, UNIT, and U.N.C.L.E.
We know that Chuck, now known as "The Asset" to the NSA, has been able to access the info from those agencies as seen in other TV shows, even those of rival networks. We saw this happen in the second episode from the first season ("Chuck vs. The Helicopter") when he blurted out the cause of the crash of Oceanic Flight 815. This is a reference to 'Lost' (but we didn't get to see Chuck complete the answer).
If he could only access it, Chuck Bartowski could give us the intel on all of the alien invasions covered up by the government and about the Village..... which is where Chuck may wind up some day if he's not careful......
So inside the brain of 'Chuck', the Intersect has all the encrypted files from all of the spy and espionage shows.
My compadres at TV Acres have compiled a dossier on those shows which would probably have had their files uploaded into the Intersect; that is, a list of all of those shows that dealt with spies and intelligence agencies.
With the possibility that all of those shows have Chuck's brain as their nexus, is it any wonder why it should be in the TV Crossover Hall of Fame.But even so, this is a Birthday Honors List and one must always obey the mantra....
What I say, goes.
BCnU!
PS:
Hey, for alls I know, they have info from 'Highway Patrol' to boot!
AS SEEN ON TV: SELLERS MARKET, PART SEVEN

from the many "Pink Panther" movies.
Clousseau is seen here "practicing" martial arts with his manservant Kato, who would always attack at the most inopportune time. Kato was played by Burt Kwouk, who in turn is portrayed in the HBO movie by Tom Wu.
Good luck at the Tony Awards, Mr. Rush!
BCnU!
Friday, June 5, 2009
TOOBWORLD: ON BROADWAY!
Despite my fondness for Megyn Price, I had never seen an episode of 'Rules Of Engagement' before. The original previews for the show just smacked of the type of sitcom I just don't have the tolerance for anymore (except for 'The Big Bang Theory' and 'Two And A Half Men'). The ones I do watch now? Besides those first two examples, there are 'My Boys', 'HIMYM', '30 Rock', 'Z Rock', and 'Better Off Ted'. I guess 'Krod Mandoon' too if it comes back.....Anyhoo, this week I caught a repeat episode because I saw that it would concern going to the theater. And I thought - what the bleep; might as well see if there's anything in this for Toobworld.....
So first off, I have a question, since I don't watch this series..... Does it take place in the NYC area? Everything seemed to lead me to that conclusion - the mention of the theatre district, a yearly boat show, Megyn Price is a magazine editor.....
I just want to make sure.
Because there were three major discrepancies between Toobworld and the real world with this episode!
1] "Wicked" is playing at a Lyric Theatre. The official Lyric Theatre of Manhattan was on 42nd Street but was transformed into a cinema in the 1930's. There's one in Battery Park and one in Brooklyn as well. But in the real world, "Wicked" is playing at the gargantuan Gershwin theatre on W. 50th Street... and has a far more grandiose marquee than seen in this show!
On 'Ugly Betty', Daniel took an advertiser to see "Wicked" on Broadway and you KNEW that was the Gershwin! So for Toobworld purposes, "Wicked" finally moved to a smaller theater, which sometimes happens in the real world. And should a series ever show it again at the Gershwin, we can just say that in Toobworld it moved for restoration purposes....
2] Instead of the official magazine for the theatre-goer being "Playbill", Audrey and Russell and the other people in the audience can be seen reading and clutching their copies of "Castbill". Let's hope that little prop nugget gets used again in some other show!
3] When Jeff finds out that Audrey is seeing shows with Russell, they're at a showing of a new Stephen Sondheim musical called "Bound For Broadway". (Russell mentioned that a problem with these Sondheim shows is that he doesn't write any intermissions anymore - always good for a bathroom break!BCnU!
ECCE PROMO: WESTEN HOSPITALITY
Sort of a Welcome Wagon, meet the neighbors, kind of get-together....
BCnU!
AS SEEN ON TV: SELLERS MARKET, PART SIX
AS PLAYED BY:Geoffrey Rush
AS SEEN IN:
"The Life And Death Of Peter Sellers"
Peter Sellers was nominated for the 1980 Academy Award as Best Actor for his role as "Chauncey Gardiner" (actually Chance The Gardener) in "Being There". It was a tough category that year - he was up against Roy Scheider, Al Pacino, and Jack Lemmon, and they all lost to Dustin Hoffman in "Kramer vs. Kramer". (I think Scheider should have won for "All That Jazz", but what do I know?)
"Being There" was Sellers' penultimate film role......
Thursday, June 4, 2009
THE HAT SQUAD: DAVID CARRADINE
It feels so much better when we can honor a unique contribution to Toobworld while the person involved is still alive, rather than after they're dead.Not that David Carradine ever knew about it, but in July of last year, his character of Kwai Chang Caine was inducted into the TV Crossover Hall Of Fame.

Apparently the Darkness had been with him a long time; he talked of suicide during interviews in the past. I don't know what pushed him to finally go through with it this time, especially after seeing him in a recent TV interview to plug a Hallmark TV movie in which he starred with Bruce Dern and Rip Torn. I haven't read any of the articles; not sure I really want to know.....
Goodnight, and may God bless......
THE HAT SQUAD: KOKO TAYLOR
Legendary blues singer Koko Taylor, of "Wang Dang Doodle" fame, has passed away from post-surgery complications. She was 80 years old.In Toobworld, she made fictionalized appearances as herself in two series - one set in the live-action Earth Prime-Time, and the other one in The Tooniverse.
In "The Enforcers", a 1996 episode of 'New York Undercover', she showed up while Detective Williams was investigating the murder of his son's tutor.
As usual, things were a little different over in The Tooniverse: for starters, Koko Taylor was now a humanoid animal in an episode of 'Arthur'. She stopped in to the ice cream shop and later helped "Big Horns George" find his voice in the Blues.....
Good night and may God bless.
Wang Dang Doodle.....

