MEET MARVIN D84!

Now that 'Doctor Who' is on hiatus until the fiftieth anniversary in November, we're back to showcasing some interesting videos about the show.

Here's a funny little mash-up between 'The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy' and the very first 'Doctor Who' story I ever saw - "Robots Of Death":

To prevent this from being a total Zonk, let's just say it happens in an alternate TV dimension, perhaps Skitlandia.....

My thanks to Crossover Amigo Matt Hickman for finding this!  (I'm always amazed by all of the crossover goodies he finds!)

BCnU!

BRUSHING WITH THE PETRIES

It's time to pay the bills......

This counts towards the inclusion of the Petries (all three of them!) in the TV Crossover Hall of Fame.  I'm thinking that they should kick off the roster for 2014, since January is the Classic TV month.....

BCnU!

UPFRONT SHOWCASE - ICHABOD & ME

Over the summer I'll be showcasing the videos for the new shows that will be seen on the networks this Fall.  

First up: 'Sleepy Hollow'

My only complaint (so far, having not seen the actual pilot) is that Ichabod Crane is now a pretty boy instead of the gangly schoolteacher he was when he was first alive.

The only splainin I can come up with right now is that somehow during the magical revival process, Ichabod was physically transformed.  This way we can keep this show in Earth Prime-Time along with the first portrayal of the character which would be Jules Munshin in an episode of 'Shirley Temple's Storybook'.

(Others who later portrayed Ichabod Crane for alternate TV dimensions would be Rene Auberjonois, Jeff Goldblum, Ed Begley, Jr, and William H. Macy.)

BCnU!

IN THE NEWS - THE BOY SCOUTS

By Miranda Leitsinger and Jason White

NBC News

GRAPEVINE, Texas -- The Boy Scouts of America voted Thursday to end its controversial policy banning gay kids and teens from joining one of the nation's most popular youth organizations, ditching membership guidelines that had roiled the group in recent years.

Over 61 percent of Scouting's National Council of 1,232 delegates from across the country voted to lift the ban, BSA officials said. The final tally was 757 yes votes, to 475 no (another 168 delegates did not cast a ballot since they were not present at the meeting). The ban on gay leaders was not voted on and will remain in place. 

But other kinds of Scout leaders are okay to remain....

BCnU!

LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES - THE ONE, THE ONLY, GROUCHO (& JACK BENNY)

In a way, we're putting the spotlight on one of the Founding Fathers of the TV Crossover Hall of Fame once again.....

GROUCHO MARX

[with JACK BENNY]

AS SEEN IN:

'The Jack Benny Show'

"You Bet Your Life"

SYNOPSIS:

Jack Benny appears on Groucho's game show in disguise in order to win some money.

BCnU!

THAT DARN ONE-ARMED MAN

'Body Of Proof'

"Breakout"

When Dr. Megan Hunt told Detective Tommy Sullivan that she believed an escaped convict was in search of the real killer of his lover, Tommy sarcastically asked if it had been committed by the one-armed man.

This was a reference to the killer of Dr. Richard Kimble's wife back in the 1960s, as seen in 'The Fugitive'.  For the people within the Toobworld reality, that was a true life crime that made headlines all across the country.  

It proved to be so riveting that eventually a movie was made out of it, the same movie we saw in the real world theaters, the one starring Harrison Ford as Kimble.  (Liberties were taken with the details.)

So when references are made to 'The Fugitive', it could either be to the real life news event of Toobworld or to the movie made about the case.  But it would not be a Zonk about the TV series starring David Janssen.

If Janssen himself is ever mentioned in connection to the series, then it means the story of Dr. Kimble was previously made into a movie, perhaps a TV movie.  

I think in this case, Tommy was referring to the actual crime, being a cop himself.

BCnU!

LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES - BOB DYLAN

BOB DYLAN

AS SEEN IN:

'Dharma & Greg'

"Play, Lady Play"

SYNOPSIS:

Dharma auditioned to be the drummer for Bob Dylan.

From Wikipedia:

Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman; May 24, 1941) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, music producer, artist, and writer. He has been an influential figure in popular music and culture for more than five decades.  Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly reluctant figurehead of social unrest. A number of Dylan's early songs, such as "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are a-Changin'", became anthems for the US civil rights and anti-war movements. 

Leaving his initial base in the culture of folk music behind, Dylan's six-minute single "Like a Rolling Stone" radically altered the parameters of popular music in 1965. His recordings employing electric instruments attracted denunciation and criticism from others in the folk movement.

Dylan's lyrics have incorporated a variety of political, social, philosophical, and literary influences. They defied existing pop music conventions and appealed hugely to the then burgeoning counterculture. Initially inspired by the performance style of Little Richard, and the songwriting of Woody Guthrie, Robert Johnson, and Hank Williams, Dylan has both amplified and personalized musical genres. 

His recording career, spanning fifty years, has explored many of the traditions in American song—from folk, blues, and country to gospel, rock and roll, and rockabilly to English, Scottish, and Irish folk music, embracing even jazz and swing. 

Dylan performs with guitar, keyboards, and harmonica. Backed by a changing line-up of musicians, he has toured steadily since the late 1980s on what has been dubbed the Never Ending Tour. His accomplishments as a recording artist and performer have been central to his career, but his greatest contribution is generally considered to be his songwriting.

Since 1994, Dylan has published three books of drawings and paintings, and his work has been exhibited in major art galleries. As a songwriter and musician, Dylan has sold more than 100 million records worldwide and received numerous awards over the years including Grammy, Golden Globe, and Academy Awards; he has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Minnesota Music Hall of Fame, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, and Songwriters Hall of Fame. The Pulitzer Prize jury in 2008 awarded him a special citation for "his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power." In May 2000, Dylan was awarded the Polar Music Prize. In May 2012, Dylan received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama.

O'BSERVATION:

Also seen in the video are T-Bone Burnett, Joe Henry, Tony Gilkyson, and John Fields - all playing themselves as well.

Happy birthday, Mr. Dylan!

BREAKING BAD WITH MARON

When Marc Maron found out that his estranged father had been selling questionable "vitamins" from his mobile home, he couldn't believe it.  "Who are you?" he asked. "Walter White?"

 

Walter White is the former high school science teacher who has become a meth maker and major distributor in the American Southwest, as seen in 'Breaking Bad'.  Right now, as far as we have seen on TV, he is not a household name.  So one would think that this is a Zonk reference to Walter White as a TV character when he should be sharing the same TV dimension as the televersion of the comic.

 

But the show will be ending this summer and who knows what that will bring?  Will Walter White be able to go to his grave "peacefully" and in anonymity with no one the wiser of his illegal activities?  Or will he die in a blaze of "in-glory"?  Perhaps he'll be arrested by his own brother-in-law, a DEA agent.

 

Either of those last two options could make his name known to anyone following the news, as Marc Maron would normally do to find fodder for his comedy act. 

 

And it all comes down to the perception of Time in Toobworld.

 

The passage of time is fluid in TV with no two shows moving at the same rate.  'Lost' is a good example of this in that no more than 108 days at most passed in "real" time before they finally left the island.  And yet for us watching at home, it took about six years to see that happen.

 

A great example of time being different between the real world and Toobworld is the period between TV seasons.  That hiatus, usually over a summer break, is about two months long, maybe three.  And yet with shows ending on cliff-hangers which pick up  immediately after, no significant time has passed, mere moments at best.  (Many times, the real break occurs between that season premiere and the second episode as things get back to normal.  Usually.)

 

So let's say that time span is collapsed for 'Breaking Bad'.  And those weekly breaks between episodes could be collapsed as well.  That means when the storyline for 'Breaking Bad' concludes, it may have occurred already on the Toobworld timeline and not around the same time as when we see it happen.

 

Meanwhile, I've seen nothing so far to indicate that 'Maron' has to be taking place exactly at this time just because it's been broadcast.  We could be watching events unfold from the near future, just a few months away,

 

Combining the two, it could be that by the time Marc Maron accused his father of being a "Walter White", the storyline of 'Breaking Bad' has come to an end. 

 

And therefore?  No Zonk.

 

But again, it all depends on whether or not Walter White could become a household name in the news by the end.....

 

BCnU!

 

LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES - KATEE SACKHOFF

KATEE SACKHOFF

AS SEEN IN:

'The Big Bang Theory'

"The Vengeance Formulation"

TV STATUS:

Dream Figure

SYNOPSIS:

When Howard Wolowitz was having relationship problems with Bernadette Rostenkowski, he sought advice from his fantasy figure, the star of 'Battlestar Galactica'.

O'BSERVATION:

In this case, 'Battlestar Galactica' is a fictionalized TV show within the main Toobworld.  It was created by the "UNReel" group to keep people from discovering that the Galacticans had actually arrived in the Sol system back in 1980.

From Wikipedia:

Kathryn Ann "Katee" Sackhoff (born April 8, 1980) is an American actress known mainly for playing Captain Kara "Starbuck" Thrace on the Sci Fi Channel's television program 'Battlestar Galactica'. In 2004, she was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress on Television for her work in the 'Battlestar Galactica' mini-series. In May 2006, she won the Saturn Award for the same role. She has also starred in the horror-thriller "White Noise: The Light" and the eighth season of '24' as Dana Walsh. She currently costars in the A&E series 'Longmire' as Deputy Sheriff Vic Moretti.

BCnU!

SUPER-SIX LIST - TV CHARACTERS WHO MAY BE DEAD BY NOW

WLIW-21, the Public Television outlet on Long Island, recently concluded its run of all the 'New Tricks' episodes currently available.  And the next season promises a major overhaul of the cast.

Only one remaining member of the original cast will remain - Dennis Waterman, who plays Gerry Standing.  Joining him will be Denis Lawson who came on board during the latest season as Stephen McAndrew from Glasgow, replacing Jack Halford (played by James Bolam).  Also new to the cast will be Nicholas Lyndhurst and Tamzin Outhwaite, who will be replacing Brian Lane (Alan Armstrong) and the head of UCOS Sandra Pullman (Amanda Redman) respectively.

Redman and Armstrong decided to just quit the series, citing its creative ennui, and so and that will be addressed during the upcoming tenth season.  (They weren't even involved in the ninth season finale while Gerry and Steve went up to Glasgow for a case.)

Jack's exit from the UCOS team was played out - it turns out that he only had months to live due to cancer of the liver (maybe the pancreas?) as we learned at the end of the August 2012 episode "A Death In The Family".  By the end of the last episode, "Glasgow UCOS", we still didn't know if Jack was alive or not.

The timeline for 'New Tricks' is dependent on the British broadcast, so unless it's stated otherwise in the first episode of the tenth season, it will be almost a year since Jack Halford left the team.  And so it can be assumed that he has passed away.

Which got me thinking about other TV characters, no longer on our TV screens, who are probably dead by now.

O'Bviously characters from the long past - in Westerns, Victorian costume dramas, Roman epics, caveman days, etc. are dead and buried - unless something about them made them immortal as in 'Highlander'.  And those from TV shows set in the far future aren't even born yet.  The time periods depicted in TV shows set in the mid-20th Century - like war dramas, noir private eye shows, Eisenhower-era sitcoms - that's a grey area.  The much older characters from those shows - yeah, they'd be pushing up daisies by now.  But it's pozz'ble, just pozz'ble, that some of the younger ones could still be alive.

So in memory of Jack Halford, I've made a Super Six list of characters who could be dead by now, most of them with indications within their shows that they were going to die soon.  But I won't cop to the admission that some of the others are just wishful thinking......

SUPER SIX LIST:

SIX OTHER TV CHARACTERS WHO COULD BE DEAD BY NOW

1]  PRESIDENT JOSIAH BARTLET, 'The West Wing'
Jed Bartlet left office in 2006 but was seen again in 2009 when his presidential library opened.  (In the alternate TV dimension of 'The West Wing', the dates for presidential elections differ from the main Toobworld and the Trueniverse.  Bartlet was elected in 1997 and began serving as the POTUS in 1998.)

But he was suffering from relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis which would eventually kill him.  He already made plans with his wife, Dr. Abigail Bartlet, to end his life before he was too far gone with the terminal disease.  So it could be that while he was still capable of making his own decisions, and more importantly, acting on them, former President Bartlet committed physician-assisted suicide.  (The "Death with Dignity" Act met with defeat in New Hampshire in 2011, but that was in the real world.  In the 'West Wing' dimension, it may have passed, leaving Abby Bartlet free of charges.

2]  DR. JAMES WILSON, 'House, M.D.'
At the end of the series, Wilson was suffering from terminal cancer.  So House agreed to accompany him on a cross-country motorcycle trip and to be with him until the very end.  The series ended in May of 2012 and it's likely that Wilson is now dead a year later.

And it doesn't mean that he died from the complications of the disease or through some sort of assistance by House.  He could have wiped out in a motorcycle crash, impaired by his condition.

You know what?  Even if that's what happened, I wouldn't be surprised if House might have caused it to spare his friend anymore suffering.....

3]  TONY SOPRANO, 'The Sopranos'
This HBO series came to a controversial halt when the screen just suddenly went black during the finale.  (I even jumped up thinking that something was wrong with my TV!)  But we left Tony Soprano with his family in a Jersey diner, where he was always watching the door as each person came in - never knowing if the next person to enter would be a rival mobster looking to rub him out.

"T" survived for far too long on luck, especially due to the fact that the law enforcement of the area were too stupid to find the evidence needed to arrest him.  But nobody's luck runs that long - unless of course it was Henry Weems from the 'X-Files' episode "The Goldberg Variations".  So I think by this point (since the series ended in 2007 (Has it been THAT long ago?), Tony Soprano has been killed and is probably providing support in a bridge abutment.

4]  SISTER BERTILLE, 'The Flying Nun'
Let's face it - after winning two Oscars, it's highly unlikely that we'll ever see Sally Field playing Sister Bertrille again.  The closest we came was during the 2013 presentation of the Oscars, when host Seth MacFarlane cajoled her to put on the cornet headgear one more time.

I'm thinking that eventually Sister Bertrille, the former Elsie Ethrington, might have had a tragic accident, perhaps even a mid-air collision with a bird, and that she plummeted to the ground or was dashed upon the rocks of the cliffs along the coast.  As she got older and put on some weight, she might not have realized that it would adversely affect her aerodynamics.  And she might have suffered early onset Alzheimer's and didn't properly prepare herself on that last doomed flight.

5]  CAPTAIN BENJAMIN "HAWKEYE" PIERCE, 'M*A*S*H'
Hawkeye was the same age as the actor who played him, Alan Alda.  And Alda is still hale and hearty and working steadily in the business. However, Hawkeye was not Alda's contemporary; he was that age nearly two decades earlier.

That means he was twenty years Alda's senior (as well as many of the other Alda characters in Toobworld, like Milton Green of '30 Rock').  And if calculations are correct, then he was born in 1914 and would be 99 years old today.

The way he drank during the Korean Conflict, I doubt things changed for the better once he returned home to Crabapple Cove, Maine.  Besides, he may have made a trip down the coast to Cabot Cove and ended up a murder victim.  But don't worry - I'm sure Jessica Fletcher figured out whodunnit.

6]  BERTHE OLSSEN, "Open Window"
Don't know the name?

That commercial has been running since at least May of 2011.  So yeah... I'd say the window was left open for the old girl by now.....

BCnU!