NOT THE PEANUTS CHRISTMAS YOU EXPECTED

Along with the shopping for Christmas, the holiday parties are now underway as well.....

(That's Robert Downey, Jr. as the voice of Mr. Peanut.)

BCnU!

JACK BENNY CAUSES THE FIRST CHRISTMAS BLACK FRIDAY

I have to admit, this is a little grim for a sitcom, but the holidays aren't a happy occasion for everybody.......

Maybe I'll post the full episode as well at some point.....

Ho ho ho?

A TWICE-TOLD "DRAGNET" CHRISTMAS STORY

Starting this weekend, the Inner Toob Video Weekend will be filled with Christmas oriented goodies. Not all of them will bring you Christmas cheer (Beware of December 18th!), but they should provide the holiday diversions you need as the big day approaches.

First up, here's a charming blend of two episodes from 'Dragnet' which basically tell the same story, but in different eras of the show:

The repetition of a plotline isn't uncommon in Toobworld, but not so often within the same series as the original. It became a standard in 'Bewitched' once Samantha altered the facial appearance of her husband Darrin; and it was the first sign that homicide captain Amos Burke was suffering from Alzheimer's, when he couldn't remember during the 1990's that he once solved a murder with the exact same M.O. and and a similar suspect with the same motive back in the 1960's.

I don't think mental deterioration would be the cause here. I think Joe Friday, with the heavy caseload he had over the years, must have just forgotten the circumstances. But then again, he was once more dealing with Father Xavier Rojas, the parish priest from that last "case" fourteen years earlier.

Maybe it was now the elder Father Rojas who was beginning to show signs of dementia, and Friday was hoping not to embarrass him by reminding him of what happened in the previous case.

Ho ho ho......

AS SEEN ON TV: BABY HOFF

You think it's wrong? So what?

BCnU!

DOCTORING A THEORY OF RELATEEVEETY

Not too long ago, we lost a great character actor from Great Britain - Graham Crowden. Mr. Crowden was perhaps best known to American audiences as Tom Ballard in the Britcom 'Waiting For God'.

In 1970, he appeared in a 'Callan' episode entitled "A Village Called G". He had a featured role as an unlicensed doctor known only as "The Groper". He was slightly effeminate, and because of the interest he took in one of Callan's male associates, most likely homosexual. As to why he no longer had a medical license, it could have been that he performed abortions before it became legal in Great Britain in 1967. But I think it more likely that with a nickname like "The Groper", it's possible that he was caught sexually molesting patients. (I'm going to take a shot in the dark and guess they were young males.)

So without a real name established, we could make any number of wild theories as to his identity. And with those, we could also indulge in a few theories of relateeveety.

But I'll keep it simple and suggest only one - that his last name was Rafferty.

And as such, he may have had a younger brother named Sid.

Sid Rafferty had been a medical officer in the United States army for 23 years before he went into private practice in Los Angeles.

Could it be pozz'ble, just pozz'ble, that he was originally of British origin, but lost his accent once he was in the Army?

I could see Sid being the younger brother who idolized his older brother, unsuspecting of his compulsions; he even followed his brother into the medical profession.

But once he discovered his brother's... inclinations... the more conservative Sid decided to put distance between himself and his sibling by joining the United States army as a doctor. Then, once the truth about "The Groper" came out publicly, maybe that's what caused Dr. Sid Rafferty to resign his rank of colonel and leave the Army. (As a series, 'Rafferty' came out in 1977, so the timing between events isn't so distanced as to be impossible to connect.)

It's just a theory of relateeveety, remember. "The Groper" could just as easily be related to any other Patrick McGoohan TV characters, including John Drake/Number Six of 'Danger Man'/'Secret Agent'/'The Prisoner' and Nelson "Curtis" Brenner of 'The Prisoner' and 'Columbo'.

The theory of relateeveety between any characters played by Graham Crowden and Patrick McGoohan was suggested by my very good friend Michael, who believes they have a similarity in appearance. In the interest of full disclosure, I should point out that he offered me a bribe if I agreed.

Which hopefully I'll one day collect.....

BCnU!

FRIDAY NIGHT BLIGHT: THIS WEEK'S TELEFLUVIA

Michael Ausiello reported this on Facebook:
VAMP DIARIES is casting a killer new bloodsucker. Character's name is Klaus. Described as in his late 20s to mid 30s (although he's really, like, 1000), he's devastatingly handsome, charming, intelligent, and quick-witted. He's also the only person who can out-Damon Damon. Strong series regular potential. At the very least recurring. Um, Jason Dohring anyone?!

Um... no. I mean, I like Dohring. I thought he was great in 'Veronica Mars' and in 'Moonlight'. I'll go along with him matching almost all of the description for this vampire named Klaus. But there's no way you can claim that he's "devastatingly handsome".

Besides, it's "been there, done that" I would think for Dohring and vampires. Toobworld Central would just have to make the claim that his character from 'Moonlight' is this same guy.
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A quick note from fellow Iddiot Brian-El re: the passing of Leslie Nielsen:

"Just realized that Leslie Nielsen, Peter Graves, and Barbara Billingsley all died this year...hmmm..."
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In researching the various real-life people from 'Dynasty' that were portrayed in that behind the scenes movie, I discovered that Inner Toob screwed up and ran basically the same "ASOTV" showcase about Joan Collins twice. Once this year and once last year. I hang my head in shame......
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While in an IM session with my Little Buddy Sean over in Taiwan, we got to talking about 'Fringe'. And Sean said: "Can not wait for the next ep. - in bed with the wrong Olivia" I realized that he came up with a great lyric for a Country Western song!
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Here's a comment I made about a recent episode of 'Human Target'. I was glad to see that somebody agreed with me!

Toby O'B
I thought the ending had a big flaw - Chicago was a "cleaner", and all of them had seen his face. If you were in that bunch, would you really drink from a bottle he supplied, no matter how tempting the booze inside? Otherwise, a fast-moving and always fun hour.....

RocketDigitalPro
I'm with Toby O'B in that I would never ever consume or even accept a "gift" from him.
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I'm about four days ahead of schedule in my pre-programmed blog posts. Sadly, that's all due to the passing of Leslie Nielsen. Just posting videos for him took only minutes to set up my video weekend.
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From an EW interview with Kevin Bacon about his Logitech commercial:

"So I started to talk with the director, this guy Ringan Ledwidge."

Ringan Ledwidge..... Like "Doonesbury" once said about Newt Gingrich - sounds like a creature from "Dune". Or "Star Wars". Or "The Lord Of The Rings". Or.....

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: KING WILLIAM IV

KING WILLIAM IV

AS SEEN IN:
"Victoria & Albert"

AS PLAYED BY:
Peter Ustinov

From Wikipedia:
William IV (William Henry; 21 August 1765 – 20 June 1837) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of Hanover from 26 June 1830. William, the third son of George III and younger brother and successor to George IV, was the last king and penultimate monarch of the House of Hanover.

He served in the Royal Navy in his youth and was, both during his reign and afterwards, nicknamed the "Sailor King". He served in North America and the Caribbean, but saw little actual fighting. Since his two older brothers died without leaving legitimate issue, he inherited the throne when he was 64 years old. His reign saw several reforms: the poor law was updated, child labour restricted, slavery abolished in nearly all the British Empire, and the Reform Act 1832 refashioned the British electoral system. Though William did not engage in politics as much as his brother or his father, he was the last monarch to appoint a Prime Minister contrary to the will of Parliament. Through his brother, the Viceroy of Hanover, he granted that kingdom a short-lived liberal constitution.

At his death William had no surviving legitimate children, though he was survived by eight of the ten illegitimate children he had by the actress Dorothea Jordan, with whom he cohabited for 20 years. William was succeeded in the United Kingdom by his niece, Victoria, and in Hanover by his brother, Ernest Augustus.

BCnU!

THE FIRST LADY GAGA

BCnU!

WNU-TOOB: FANTOMAS IN ATLANTIC CITY

While Nucky Thompson was getting ready for a Halloween party in the season finale of 'Boardwalk Empire', his former lover (Margaret Schroeder) came to see him.

Appraising his white tie and tails and the eye mask that he wore, she told Nucky that he looked like "a dapper villain in a Sunday serial."

I think she was referring to one of the greatest villains in all of French fiction - Fantômas.

From Wikipedia:
Fantômas is a fictional character created by French writers Marcel Allain (1885–1969) and Pierre Souvestre (1874–1914).One of the most popular characters in the history of French crime fiction, Fantômas was created in 1911 and appeared in a total of 32 volumes written by the two collaborators, then a subsequent 11 volumes written by Allain alone after Souvestre's death. The character was also the basis of various film, television, and comic book adaptations. In the history of crime fiction, he represents a transition from Gothic novel villains of the 19th century to modern-day serial killers.

And because Margaret was referring to Sunday serials, and the first season of the series took place in 1920, I think she had a specific version of Fantômas in mind.

Again, from Wikipedia:
There was a 1920 20-episode American "Fantômas" serial directed by Edward Sedgwick starring Edward Roseman as Fantômas, which bore little resemblance to the French series. In it, Fantômas' nemesis is detective Fred Dixon played by John Willard. It was partially released in France (12 episodes only) under the title "Les Exploits de Diabolos" ("The Exploits of Diabolos").

We don't see every minute of a TV character's life during a show, so it's quite possible that Margaret entertained herself on a Sunday afternoon by going to the movies and seeing these chapters of "Fantômas".

Looking at the poster of what Fantômas looked like, it's easy to see why she made the comparison between the French villain and Nucky in his "costume".

Had this been the end of it, there would have been no Zonk involved as Fantômas would have been a character in books and the movies, two different universes unconnected to the TV Universe for the most part. It might have been something the Wold Newton scholars might have wanted to reconcile if they wanted 'Boardwalk Empire' absorbed into the WNU.

But Toobworld Central will have to do that as well, since eventually there was a televersion of the infamous murderer.....

One last entry from Wikipedia:
A 'Fantômas' series of four 90-minute episodes was produced in 1980 starring Helmut Berger as Fantômas, Jacques Dufilho as Juve and Gayle Hunnicutt as Lady Beltham. Episodes 1 and 4 were directed by Claude Chabrol; episodes 2 and 3 by Luis Buñuel's son, Juan Luis Buñuel. So we have to disable that Zonk since Fantômas and Margaret should share the same world, separated by decades and location.

This is easy to do, because of something mentioned earlier in the Wikipedia article - the "Fantômas" serial made in America in 1920 was said to have little similarity to the original stories and movies, which could be said to be about the real Fantômas. So the serial was a fictionalized version of the real villain's life. Therefore, no Zonk! BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: DANDY DON MEREDITH

DON MEREDITH

AS SEEN IN:
"Monday Night Mayhem"

AS PLAYED BY:
Brad Beyer

From The New York Times:

By DOUGLAS MARTIN and BILL CARTER
Don Meredith, a former star quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys who helped change the perception of professional football with the easy Texas charm and provocative wit he brought to its first prime-time telecasts on Monday nights, died on Sunday in Santa Fe, N.M.

He was 72.

Don Meredith was a Dallas Cowboys quarterback for nine years.

The cause was a brain hemorrhage, his lawyer, Lisa Fine Moses, said.

Turn out the lights, the party's over.....

BCnU.....