LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES - BILLY DEE THREE

Time once again to look in on our TVXOHOF member of the month......

BILLY DEE WILLIAMS

AS SEEN IN:

'Scrubs'

["Her Story II"]

O'BSERVATION:

Although it's not the same as being a blood relative, here we find another fictional character related to a real person. So one's televersion should be considered fictional and just as valid for crossovers as other TV characters.

BCnU!

"TOM TERRIFIC" - REMEMBERING MY DAD

It was twenty years ago today that my Dad, Tom O'Brien Jr., passed away due to lung cancer. He smoked for fifty years - since he was thirteen - switching to a pipe in his later years. And even though it was too late, I'm glad he was able to quit on his own terms, before he found out that it was going to kill him.

I've always said that everybody has a televersion, a counterpart in the TV Universe (even if it's just footage of you in the background during a live report on the evening news, or getting hit in the crotch with a nerf bat as seen on 'America's Funniest Home Videos'.)

And there are always the "Missing Links" - those connections I find between TV shows which are not officially sanctioned.

In this case, as I remember my Dad, I've got a Missing Link between a TV mini-series and a real life event in which Tom O'Brien was involved.....

'The Scarlet And The Black' was the adaptation of a real world adventure in which Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty of the Roman Curia was able to hide downed pilots, escaped prisoners of war, and Italian resistance fighters from the Nazis. In that mini-series, Sir John Gielgud portrayed Pope Pius XII.

From May to August of 1950, the Essex-class aircraft carrier known as the USS Leyte (not to be confused with the USS Leyte Gulf) was deployed to the Mediterranean. On July 2, 1950, the crew of the Leyte were granted an audience with Pope Pius XII.

Here's a picture from that meeting:

And there's my Dad, second sailor to the Pope's right, with his eyes fixed on the Pontiff.

So basically what I'm saying is that even though it happened off-screen, Life continued after the events of 'The Scarlet And The Black' for all of the characters involved. (An on-screen crawl detailed what happened with Monsignor O'Flaherty and Colonel Herbert Kappler, for example.)

And that means the televersion of Pope Pius XII, looking like Sir John Gielgud, met the televersion of my father five years after the mini-series ended.

But that would have only been one episode in my Dad's televersion life.  (And since it happened in July, it wasn't even a Sweeps event.)

There would have been the gentle family sitcom, sixties-style, which for a long while would have been 'My Three Sons' but with both parents.  (And that red-headed oldest son suffering from Bonaduce Syndrome - you know, a wise-ass.)  After a nine year run in that format, his sitcom life would have added two more moppets (the youngest one in curls) to the family dynamic to refresh the format, as many sitcoms often did.

And there would be quite a gallery of supporting players - the eccentric co-workers at the Post Office, let's say.  Then there would  be 'The Mothers-In-Law'. (And Kaye Ballard and Eve Arden weren't far off the mark in comparison to his own Mom and her counterpart.)  A father-in-law combining the best (and worst) of Archie Bunker and Uncle Joe Carson, but with whom Dad bonded as though Papa was his own father.  And there would be the three brothers-in-law, two of whom married to his wife's sisters.  There would be the impish TV repairman who dressed like Les Nessman  (Bowties are cool!); the conservative sergeant in the National Guard; and then there's the traveling Texan married to his sister.

As for the televersion of my Mom and her two siblings?  Collectively they could be dubbed the "Three Weird Sisters".......

There was always a beagle in our lives, so I don't think a talking dog a la Cleo from 'The People's Choice' would have been out of place.  

Twenty years after, it makes for a nice day-dream.  I just wish there was a TV movie out there in which Dad was still with us. (It's a "Wish-Craft" that I am able to fulfill in the closing chapter of my Toobworld novel.....)

He would have turned 84 later this year, just two weeks before Ed Asner does the same.

So there it is, my poor tribute to my father on the 20th anniversary of his death, in TV terms.

I love you, Dad......

LOCATION SHOT: TEMPLAR'S DIGS

'THE SAINT'

1] "The Careful Terrorist" (October, 1962)

2] "The Happy Suicide" (March, 1965)

With that first episode, Simon Templar was living in New York City on East 73rd Street. But three years later, he was staying at the Waldorf Astoria (which is where I got my first job when I moved to the City.)

I have yet to see all the episodes in between these two (for some reason "The Happy Suicide" was shown out of sequence), so it could be that a reason was given for the change. Then again, script continuity was never a major concern in those days. And it may just be a detail considered too trivial to bother with. (Of course, that's what interests me the most!)

But there are a few possibilities as to why Templar moved:

• Being such a world traveler, he no longer needed a fixed address in New York.
• He was only subletting the apartment temporarily.
• He was subletting it to somebody else.
• He was having the apartment renovated and/or fumigated.

I'm rather partial to that last one as Toobworld Central underwent such an upheaval over the last few weeks.

BCnU!

LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES - EARTHA KITT

EARTHA KITT

AS SEEN IN:

'The Nanny'

["A Pup In Paris"]

From Share-TV:

Mr. Sheffield is off to Paris. His mother wants him to talk to Nigel, his brother, who's spending his trust fund on a nightclub. He accidentally takes the bag with Chester instead of the one with his clothes to Paris, and Fran chases him into the plane. Unfortunately, it's too late to get out, and now Fran and Maxwell are together in Paris. They go shopping and touring around the city, after Maxwell has a horrible fight with Nigel. Eventually, he realizes all he wants is to be like Nigel, so he takes the first flight back to NY. The plane goes through heavy turbulence, and upon the threat of a disaster Maxwell opens his heart and tells Fran he loves her. To Be Continued

O'BSERVATION:

When Eartha Kitt is introduced to Maxwell Sheffield, she makes that growling purr that could probably be considered her trademark. In an aside, Fran tells her to "Back off, Catwoman."

I don't think this is a Zonk, even though Eartha Kitt was the second woman to portray the feline felon from 'Batman'. That Catwoman is still considered - within the "reality" of Toobworld - to be Tina Mara, a contortionist who once worked for the US government. ('Mission: Impossible')

The life of Tina "Catwoman" Mara was so full of drama - Previously, she had been a drug addicted cabaret singer known in Hong Kong by the stage name of "Angel" ('I Spy') - that eventually a movie would surely have been made about her. And who better to play her than a famous entertainer like Eartha Kitt who looked exactly like her?

So Fran Fine was making a reference to Ms. Kitt's role in such a movie.

Zonk averted!

BCnU!

THEORY OF RELATEEVEETY - FRESH AS 2 DAISIES

TV shows have always reused plotlines from other TV shows, so I feel comfortable in calling on one from 'Friends' for this theory of relateeveety.....

Daisy Wick, a forensic pathologist at the Jeffersonian Institute in Washington, D.C., probably doesn't realize that she has an identical half-sister in California. (She's probably the result of an affair by Daisy's father.)

We don't know the sister's real name*, but her porn star name was also Daisy!

It could be that porn star Daisy had no clue about pathologist Daisy. She might have chosen the name in tribute to an actress from 1930's - Daisy Adair, who died in a fire on the "Gone With The Wind" set. Daisy may have been inspired by Miss Adair because of all the sexual affairs she had with the big stars of the day.

Or, in keeping with the 'Friends' plotline, she did know she had a half-sister named Daisy and so chose to use her name as her porn star alias as some childish revenge against their father.

Perhaps, as happened in the case of Phoebe Buffay, who also had a twin sister working in porn films, maybe Daisy used Daisy Wick's full name. But as happened with Ursula Buffay, the joke would be on porn star Daisy once the residuals started arriving in pathologist Daisy's mailbox.

I guess we'll never know.....

SHOWS CITED:

• 'Bones'
• 'Californication'

(Carla Gallo plays both Daisies....)

BCnU!

* It could be that porn star Daisy's mother deliberately named her daughter after Wick's other daughter, in her own form of revenge when he didn't leave his wife for her......

LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES - LENA HORNE

Take a guess who's visiting the Inner Toob blog today?

That's a pretty good guess.....

LENA HORNE

AS SEEN IN:

'Sanford And Son'

["A Visit From Lena Horne"]

From TV Rage:

Fred spots Lena Horne's car in the parking lot while touring the NBC studios and sneaks away to meet "the first lady of his dreams."

From the IMDb:

Fast-thinking Fred fools Lena Horne into visiting the Sanford home after he spins her a sob story about little lame Lamont who looks upon Lena as a second mother.

From the Paley Center:

One in this series of comedies about the life and times of a junk dealer and his son. In this episode, Fred is embarrassed when no one will believe that he met Lena Horne while on an NBC studio tour. He tries to convince the singer to come over to the house by fabricating the story that his son, Lamont, is a handicapped child who sees her as a mother figure. Fred bets money with his friends that Horne will come, and he grows nervous when the time of her arrival comes -- and goes.

Here I come, Elizabeth!

THEORY OF RELATEEVEETY: ARCHER & ED

But this is not a crossover between those two TV shows.......

Did you ever wonder why Ed Norton of 'The Honeymooners' never talked about his twin brother? Oh. You didn't know he had a twin brother?

Well, Norton probably never mentioned his brother because he was the black sheep of the family, always on the wrong side of the Law.

We've seen Ed Norton's brother on TV. But he wasn't in New York City - he was part of the criminal element in Gotham City.

He was the arch-villain known as "The Archer".

And his name was Ed Norton.*

What's this? Two brothers with the same name? (Admit it - you just read that in the voice of the 'Batman' announcer. If not, you will now.....)

It's not unheard of in Toobworld. My favorite example would be the two Arthur Dales as seen in several episodes of 'The X-Files'. (Although we never met her, they also had a sister named Arthur Dales, and allegedly a dog by that name as well. I've always pictured Frances Sternhagen as being that third Arthur Dales.)

But the two Ed Nortons didn't exactly have the same name. Ed Norton, who worked in the sewers and was married to Trixie (real name = Thelma), had the full name of Edward Lilywhite Norton. It's my belief that the Archer was Edmund Norton and probably the younger of the twins.

Edward & Edmund.... rather Shakespearean, isn't it? Or if you prefer, Blackadderish.

As for Edmund Norton's middle name, I'm going to suggest "Archeron", but "Archibald" will do as well. And that he went by the nickname of "Archie" to avoid any confusion with his brother.

Archie Norton may have been the smarter of the two brothers, with a predilection for classic literature of derring-do. And because of that interest, before live-action role-playing games became a regular past-time, Archie Norton took an interest in archery, just like Robin Hood in the old legends.

But as I mentioned earlier, he got himself in trouble with the Law. Instead of repenting, however, he fully embraced his dark side and pursued a career as the Archer.

And that's why Ed Norton never mentioned him to his friend Ralph Kramden......

BCnU!

*Of course, this is all supposition on my part, but it keeps me off the streets.......

LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES - ROY HIBBERT

ROY HIBBERT

AS SEEN IN:

'Parks And Recreation'

From Wikipedia:

Roy Denzil Hibbert (born December 11, 1986) is an American professional basketball player for the Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He plays at the center position, and graduated from Georgetown University in 2008. He was drafted 17th overall in the 2008 NBA Draft by the Toronto Raptors and was immediately traded to the Pacers on draft night. He has represented the Jamaican national team in international competition; he was eligible because his father is originally from Jamaica. On February 9, 2012, Hibbert was selected to his first All-Star Game as a reserve for the Eastern Conference.

Hibbert appeared as himself on the September 29, 2011 episode of Parks and Recreation, in which he was employed by Aziz Ansari's character Tom Haverford to play one-on-one basketball with Detlef Schrempf for 75% of his NBA salary during the 2011 lockout. He later appeared in another episode of the show, in which Tom Haverford hired him at his company's farewell party to distribute shrimp, and again made a cameo in 2013, buying steak for all the characters except Tom who "owes me a lot of money."

BCnU!

THE TOOBWORLD BOWER HOUR

Frances Galesko was a spiteful, wealthy woman in a loveless marriage to famous photographer Paul Galesko. She refused to give him a divorce (unless of course he was willing to part with his own fortune while she kept her own), so Galesko devised a plot to murder her. (The details of his plot made him the second most ruthless murderer in all of the cases investigated by Lieutenant Columbo.*)

Mrs. Galesko wasn't around long enough on our TV screens to really get to know her (although she was so vindictively mean that I wasn't upset when her husband finally killed her. I may have even pulled the trigger myself!) But thanks to the un-patented method of Toobish speculation, I think we can find a few relatives for her.

This is all conjecture, of course, but I believe her maiden name was Clavell. And like SO many characters in Toobworld, Frances had a twin sister.  Her name is Shelby Clavell.

During the 1960's, Shelby worked at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico, in charge of expenditures and reimbursements made by American staff members as well as those made by... government employees with certain nebulous connections. Twice she dealt with spies Kelly Robinson and Alexander Scott, dickering over their expense accounts (like a five dollar charge for "glass pants".)

When it came to her job, Shelby was just as strong-willed as her sister, but she never could be as cold and rancorous as Frances.

Again, it's just conjecture, but I'm going to claim that their great-grandmother was Janet Coburn, an animal trainer who once worked for big game hunter Warren Trevor in the wild, wild West. Thanks to a heightened sense of greed, Janet was more than willing to turn to a life of crime, helping Trevor to print legal currency made with the plates stolen from the mint in Carson City, Nevada.

But apparently she got away with it simply by making love to Secret Service agent Jim West. It was from this liaison that she gave birth to the grandparent of Frances and Shelby. (Jim West was one of those TV characters with "super sperm". Of course she was going to get pregnant!)

Paul and Frances Galesko had no children of their own, but it's pozz'ble, just pozz'ble, that Shelby Clavell eventually married (probably to a man she could better control than Kelly Robinson) and had children of her own. (And nothing says she needed to get married to accomplish the continuation of the family tree. I don't believe her great-grandmother let the strictures of Victorian society force her into a marriage just because she found herself pregnant.)

But even so, I know we can't trace Shelby's branch of the family tree far into the future to a "sorceress" named Sylvia who grappled with the crew of the starship Enterprise. Sylvia was in reality a strange little alien creature that looked like some kind of avian fetus. But she may have taken her human form from a descendant of Shelby Clavell.

SHOWS CITED:

• 'Columbo' - "Negative Reaction"
• 'I Spy' - "Return To Glory" & "Crusade To Limbo"
• 'The Wild Wild West' - "The Night Of The Sudden Death"
• 'Star Trek'- "Catspaw"

[Each of these women were played by Antoinette Bower.]

BCnU!

*The most ruthless murderer caught by Columbo, in my opinion, would be Nora Chandler in "Requiem For A Falling Star".

LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES - NICHELLE NICHOLS

NICHELLE NICHOLS

AS SEEN IN:

'Futurama'

["Anthology Of Interest 1"]

&

["Where No Fan Has Gone Before"]

'The Simpsons'

["Simple Simpson"]

TV DIMENSION:

The Tooniverse

From Wikipedia:

Nichelle Nichols (born Grace Dell Nichols; December 28, 1932) is an American actress, singer and voice artist. She sang with Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton before turning to acting. Her most famous role is that of communications officer Lieutenant Uhura aboard the USS Enterprise in the popular 'Star Trek' television series, as well as the succeeding motion pictures, where her character was eventually promoted in Starfleet to the rank of commander.

Her 'Star Trek' character was groundbreaking in U.S society at the time, and civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. personally praised her work on the show and asked her to remain when she was considering leaving the series.

Nichols appeared in animated form as one of Al Gore's Vice Presidential Action Rangers in the "Anthology of Interest I" episode of 'Futurama', and provided the voice of her own head in a jar in the episode "Where No Fan Has Gone Before". In 2004, she provided the voice for herself in 'The Simpsons' episode "Simple Simpson".

BCnU!