SATURDAY MORNING "SUPER-HEROES" - BUFFY VS. THE WALKING DEAD

Ross Pearsall has done it again at his Super Team Family blog with an excellent comic book cover that mashes together two TV series that were comic books as well:

Luckily for Toobworld, this is only in the Comic Book Universe!  I'd hate for Earth Prime-Time to lose Buffy to Zombie Toobworld!

BCnU!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TIM O'BRIEN!!!

ALL THE BEST ON YOUR BIRTHDAY, BROTHERMINE!

AS SEEN ON TV: GENERAL DOUGLAS MACARTHUR

'THE BLACK SHEEP SQUADRON'

"UP FOR GRABS"

From the IMDb:

General MacArthur is visiting everyone in the Pacific and Boyington's men are his next stop. On the day he is suppose to arrive, some Japanese soldiers show up and take everyone captive, with the intent to grab MacArthur. But fortunately Wiley and Casey went fishing so they weren't captured. So they must try and find a way to stop them.

From TV.com:

Early Sunday morning, Casey and T. J. go fishing. Anderson is fixing breakfast, and Hutch is hitting the showers. Suddenly, Meatball yelps, and things get eerily quiet. Pappy comes out of his tent to find out what's wrong, and comes face to face with Japaneses soldiers. The pilots are herded into the compound, and a wounded Anderson and Hutch are dragged to their feet. The pilots are put in the SHeep's Pen, Bragg puts up the flags, and Pappy goes to play Reveille. As Casey and T.J. hear the music and head back to camp, they see that the flag is upside down. T.J. hides under the Pen and hears what is going on---MacArthur is coming to La Cava, and the Japanese are there to capture him. Casey takes off in a plane to try to warn Espritos Marcos about the Japanese, but is shot down. When MacArthur's plane lands....you just have to watch the show! Look for the editing continuity error in the Sheep's Pen.

Harry Fleer portrayed MacArthur.

From Wikipedia:

Douglas MacArthur (26 January 1880 – 5 April 1964) was an American five-star general and Field Marshal of thePhilippine Army. He was Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s and played a prominent role in the Pacific theater during World War II. He received the Medal of Honor for his service in the Philippines Campaign, which made him and his father Arthur MacArthur, Jr., the first father and son to be awarded the medal. He was one of only five men ever to rise to the rank of General of the Army in the US Army, and the only man ever to become a field marshal in the Philippine Army.

MacArthur was recalled to active duty in 1941 as commander of United States Army Forces in the Far East. A series of disasters followed, starting with the destruction of his air forces on 8 December 1941, and the invasion of the Philippines by the Japanese. MacArthur's forces were soon compelled to withdraw to Bataan, where they held out until May 1942. In March 1942, MacArthur, his family and his staff left nearby Corregidor Island in PT boats andescaped to Australia, where MacArthur became Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area. 

For his defense of the Philippines, MacArthur was awarded the Medal of Honor. After more than two years of fighting in the Pacific, he fulfilled a promise to return to the Philippines. He officially accepted Japan's surrender on 2 September 1945, aboard the USS Missouri anchored in Tokyo Bay, and oversaw the occupation of Japan from 1945 to 1951. As the effective ruler of Japan, he oversaw sweeping economic, political and social changes. He led the United Nations Command in the Korean War until he was removed from command by President Harry S. Truman on 11 April 1951. He later became Chairman of the Board of Remington Rand.

For Wikipedia's coverage of MacArthur in World War II, click here.

BCnU!

TIDDLYWINKYDINKS - SAINT JEROME

'MURDER, SHE WROTE'

"MURDER THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS"

Disguised as a priest, a DSS Internal Affairs agent who called himself Patrick Francis requested that Jessica Fletcher meet him at St. Jerome's Church in Hartford.

From Wikipedia:

Saint Jerome (Latin: Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; c.  347 – 30 September 420) was a Latin Christian priest, confessor, theologian and historian, who also became a Doctor of the Church. He was the son of Eusebius, born at Stridon, a village of Italian influence on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia. He is best known for his translation of most of the Bible into Latin (the translation that became known as the Vulgate), and his commentaries on the Gospels. His list of writings is extensive. 

Known as the “protégé” of Pope Damasus I, who died in December of 384, Jerome became well known for outlining the type of lifestyle that was acceptable for Christians living in cosmopolitan centers like Rome. In many cases, he focused his attention to the lives of women and identified how a woman devoted to Jesus Christ should live her life. This concentration stemmed from his close patron relationships with several prominent female ascetics who were members of affluent Roman “senatorial families”.

He is recognised as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Churches, the Lutheran Church, and the Church of England (Anglican Communion). Jerome is commemorated on 30 September with a memorial.

Just thought you'd like to know on his day of remembrance.....

BCnU!

TUESDAY NEWS DAY - TV Q&A WITH HÉLÈNE JOY

From TV, Eh?

(A Canadian TV news site)

Greg David interviewed Hélène Joy about a variety of subjects, but of course, I'm only interested in 'The Murdoch Mysteries' Season 9.....

Showrunner Peter Mitchell told me at the end of Season 8 that this upcoming season will feature more of William and Julia.

We did give the fans some of that last season, but they wanted more. What they did get, they loved. We’re allowed to play and flirt and be completely open and there is way more of that this year because we know how much the fans love it.

The next step for Julia and William is a baby…
I think that would be amazing. I think it would be hilarious because I think they’d be terrible parents. They’re a couple of nerds who don’t really have any idea what they’re doing. Neither of them would stop working, so how would they balance that?

If I remember correctly, Julia is unable to have children after an abortion that went wrong.  Here's hoping it was a medical misdiagnosis....

The new season begins in about a week, on October 5th. At least in Canada, that is..... 

BCnU!

DE-ZONKING "BUDS OF MAY"

"I thought being a farmer's wife was going to be all 'Darling Buds Of May'."

Karen Pryor

'Vera'

From Wikipedia:

'The Darling Buds of May' is a British comedy drama first broadcast between 7 April 1991 and 4 April 1993. It is an adaptation of H. E. Bates' novel "The Darling Buds of May", published in 1958, and its sequels.

It was produced by Yorkshire Television for the ITV network. It is set in an idyllic rural 1950s Kent, among a large, boisterous family, the Larkins.  Yorkshire TV called it a drama but audiences and critics have generally
considered it a comedy/drama.

From what I can gather from the IMDb, there haven't been any other Zonks pertaining to 'The Darling Buds Of May' in other TV shows.  In fact, they don't even list this one.  There is a slightly obscure one from the move "Shawn Of The Dead", but that a problem for the Cineverse.

So as far as I'm concerned, Mrs. Pryor's reference was to the series of books by H.E. Bates.  And the TV show was the "real life" of the Larkins upon which the books were based.  Should there ever be another quote like this, hopefully it will be along the lines of this one so that we can ignore the existence of a TV show.

BCnU!

VIDEO SUNDAY - A FISTFUL OF SPIDERMAN

First off, let me tell you that I already know where this "movie" will end up - in Doofus Toobworld.  

I think this was a fan-made spoof, more of spaghetti action movies than of the comic book Spidey.

I won't tell you any more about it, but I will offer up this trailer as a warning.....

And now, on with our show.....

VIDEO SUNDAY - HAVE A YEN FOR SPIDERMAN?

Looks like we're going for a full Video Weekend here......

The saga of Spiderman in Toobworld is different from that as seen in Marvel Comics, although the basic premise remains the same.  In the comics, he is timeless, hardly aging, while in the TV Universe, Peter Parker and his alter-ego are locked into the mid-1970s.

However, there appears to be another Spiderman out there in Toobworld, more than one actually, and they are of international origins.

There's a Spiderman operating in TV-Japan, for instance.......

Here is an episode from the Japanese Spiderman TV show and you'll see why I'm tempted to move this to another TV dimension altogether.  (Although probably not to Comic Book Toobworld.)

 

 

 

If that floats your boat, I'm sure you'll find plenty more examples at YouTube.  I saw a link there for Episode 39!

BCnU!

LITTLE BIG SCREEN: NICK & NORA AND CHARLIE CHAN

'MURDER, SHE WROTE'

"NIGHT OF THE TARANTULA" 

In order to get into a locked room, in which a key was still in the lock, Jessica Fletcher put a paper doily under the door and then poked the key out of the lock so that she could slide it out from under the door.

Olivia Waverley: 

Where on earth did you learn that?

Jessica Fletcher: 

I think it was "The Thin Man Returns". 

Or was it "Charlie Chan in Hong Kong"?

Here is the list of "Thin Man" movies which starred William Powell and Myrna Loy:

• The Thin Man (1934)
• After the Thin Man (1936)
• Another Thin Man (1939)
• Shadow of the Thin Man (1941)
• The Thin Man Goes Home (1945)
• Song of the Thin Man (1947)

And these are the "Charlie Chan" movies during its classic period when Charlie was portrayed by Warner Oland, Sidney Toler, and then Roland Winters: 

• Charlie Chan Carries On (1931)
• The Black Camel (1931)
• Charlie Chan's Chance (1932)
• Charlie Chan's Greatest Case (1933)
• Charlie Chan's Courage (1934)
• Charlie Chan in London (1934)
• Charlie Chan in Paris (1935)
• Charlie Chan (1935)
• Charlie Chan in Shanghai (1935)
• Charlie Chan's Secret (1936)
• Charlie Chan at the Circus (1936)
• Charlie Chan at the Race Track (1936)
• Charlie Chan at the Opera (1936)
• Charlie Chan at the Olympics (1937)
• Charlie Chan on Broadway (1937)
• Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo (1937)
• Charlie Chan in Honolulu (1938)
• Charlie Chan in Reno (1939)
• Charlie Chan at Treasure Island (1939)
• City in Darkness (1939)
• Charlie Chan in Panama (1940)
• Charlie Chan's Murder Cruise (1940)
• Charlie Chan at the Wax Museum (1940)
• Murder Over New York (1940)
• Dead Men Tell (1941)
• Charlie Chan in Rio (1941)
• Castle in the Desert (1942)
• Charlie Chan in the Secret Service (1944)
• Charlie Chan in The Chinese Cat (1944)
• Black Magic (1944)
• The Jade Mask (1945)
• The Scarlet Clue (1945)
• The Shanghai Cobra (1945)
• The Red Dragon (1945)
• Dark Alibi (1946)
• Shadows Over Chinatown (1946)
• Dangerous Money (1946)
• The Trap (1946)
• The Chinese Ring (1947)
• Docks of New Orleans (1948)
• Shanghai Chest (1948)
• The Golden Eye (1948)
• The Feathered Serpent (1948)
• The Sky Dragon (1949)

But there's no "The Thin Man Returns".  There's no "Charlie Chan In Hong Kong".

Nick and Nora Charles and Charlie Chan, along with his Number One Son, exist in Earth Prime-Time ('The Thin Man' and 'The Adventures Of Charlie Chan'.)  Both movie franchises are Zonks in the Toobworld Dynamic, but not so much for Charlie Chan.  By the time we saw him in Toobworld, he was old enough to have built up a reputation as a crime-solver to bring him to the attention of Hollywood producers, even back when he was in his thirties.

With the Charleses(?), they were too young when seen in the 1950s to have been the subject of a movie in 1934.  Nick was only eleven years old!  And yet that movie definitely existed back then - we've seen its poster in the apartment of 'Remington Steele' and it was discussed by the "Bomb Girls' working in a WWII munitions factory.

I think the easiest, simplest splainin could be that the movies were based on the lives of Nick's parents.  (It's just a coincidence - Toobworld is rife with coincidences! - that Nick would grow up to marry a woman named Nora just like dear old Dad.  Not at all creepy.....)

I'd like to think that both "The Thin Man Returns" and "Charlie Chan In Hong Kong" were later entries in their franchises, perhaps from the late 1950s, early 1960s.  And on top of that, I think they were based on the lives of the televersions of Nick and Nora Charles and of Charlie Chan.

BCnU!

DOUBLE VISION - A COUPLE OF ISLAND MANSIONS.....

'MURDER, SHE WROTE'

"THE NIGHT OF THE TARANTULA"

At some point in the 18th Century, an architect, whose name is lost to History, built a mansion on a large estate in Jamaica. It was large and sprawling with beautifully detailed hardwoods inside and it came complete with a hidden passage that ran through the house.

While it was being built a Gallifreyan Time Lord visited the island and so loved the architect's work that he wanted the same thing built for himself on a small island he controlled in the Pacific Ocean. In every detail - at least with regards to its exterior - that second mansion was the twin to the original on the other side of the world in Jamaica.

But on the inside....? Oh, it was bigger. Much, much bigger.  As a Time Lord, that Gallifreyan used his mastery in dimensional space to create a pocket dimension which he could call home.

And that Time Lord would be known as "Roarke", which was an alias meaning famous ruler on Earth, the planet he favored, (but among a people with whom he otherwise had no real connection.)

So that is why we saw two such identical mansions, to be found on opposite sides of Earth Prime-Time. As you can see, the only real difference between the two locations is in the landscaping, each with a different style of fountain.....

BCnU!

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