SATURDAY COMICS - POTPOURRI II

I haven't done one of these blog posts in a while.  But recently I found a batch of comic book covers for TV shows that didn't really warrant separate posts.  Although maybe one day I might do one for 'My Favorite Martian'.  Uncle Martin aka Exigius 12½ is a member of the Television Crossover Hall of Fame after all....

So each of these comic books represent the versions of their TV shows as seen in the comic book universe......

BCnU!

LIFE AFTER PRIME-TIME - A YEATS REFLECTION

‘POLICE STORY’
“SLOW BOY”

When we see our favorite TV characters aging like everybody else when they’ve been on our TV screens for a long time, sometimes we don’t even notice the differences or remember how they looked when a show first started.  Of course, that’s hard to pull off with the advent of DVD collections and streaming services but even so, we accept them as being the same character even decades later.

Lieutenant Frank Columbo is a good example, seen here in his first appearance (“Prescription Murder”) and his last (at least in the main Toobworld) – “Columbo Loves The Nightlife”.

But then there are the characters whom we just never expect to see again on our TV screens; they only had very limited time in their TV shows and even though the characters lived, they were never expected to ever come back on screen… at least by that previously established name.

More than likely I’m not making myself clear.  Let me give you an example….

This is Walter Yeats.  In the early 1970s he was working in a supermarket and threw in his lot with a criminal named Slow Boy who had a penchant for robbing supermarkets.  He just needed the help of an inside man and in Slow Boy’s last heist Walter Yeats filled that role. 

It wasn’t stated as happening – this was ‘Police Story’ after all, not ‘Dragnet’ – but Walter Yeats ended up doing a stretch in prison for the part he played in that botched robbery.  I imagine he probably served ten years tops and was at least out by the time the 1990s were approaching.  Who knew what he made of that modern world?

And who knows what he must think of the world as it is today?  But he was at least out of prison long enough for the eventual societal changes to be eased into place.

We’re never going to see Walter Yeats ever again in Toobworld.  Looking him up in the IMDb, I don’t know if I ever saw the actor who played him in any other TV show or movie.  Charles Isen is his name and at least Isen’s entry in the IMDb lets us see what Walter might look like today:

WALTER YEATS
1972

Every so often, should I find an actor whose classic TV character is of interest, I’ll track down a relatively recent photo of them (or the last known picture should they have already passed away) and share it here at Inner Toob.

As to what these “atmosphere people” did with their lives after their brief moment in the Toobworld spotlight, maybe I’ll come up with some ideas, maybe not.

In the case of Walter Yeats, we know he went to prison.  Maybe he got a reduced sentence because he did help the police at the end… reluctantly.  But I think that if they hadn’t caught him, he never would have stepped forward and turn evidence against Slow Boy.

I’m also intrigued by the idea of a roman a clef televersion of Jack Henry Abbott, a prisoner who wrote “In The Belly Of The Beast” while incarcerated.  The book gained him fame and Norman Mailer fought to get him released from jail.  However, he soon got in trouble again, this time stabbing a young man to death.  Abbott was sent back to jail, where he finally died in 2002.  (I would not be surprised if one of the incarnations of ‘Law & Order’ fictionalized Abbott’s life as a “ripped from the headlines” plot.)

Maybe something similar happened with Walter Yeats.  However, his life wouldn’t have to slavishly follow that established by Jack Abbott.  Yeats could very well be still free, still writing, and perhaps even with a family of his own.

If so, this is what Walter Yeats would look like today, thanks to a publicity photo of Charles Isen…..

BCnU!

O'BLIGATORY POST WORLD SERIES BASEBALL STORY 2017

'IRONSIDE'

"THE RETURN OF THE HERO"

At the end of the episode, Ironside's team was buttering him up with gifts and praise, but he could tell they were up to something......

CHIEF ROBERT T. IRONSIDE

It wouldn't have anything to do with the Dodger-Giant game, would it?

SGT. ED BROWN

You mean the final game of the three-game series?  

Playing today?

MARK SANGER

Marichal versus Drysdale?

DETECTIVE EVE WHITFIELD

We haven't even thought about it. 

IRONSIDE

Good!  Because we have a robbery to cover; let's go!

EVE

Robbery? Where? 

IRONSIDE

The park! Candlestick Park.  

Willie Mays told me he's going to steal second, third and home.

This episode aired on April 4, 1968, and it was historical due to outside forces at work - it was during the broadcast of this episode on the East Coast that NBC broke in with the news that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had been assassinated.

But for this post, my focus is on what was happening within the TV Universe.  (It would be some time before Toobworld incorporated the assassination into its own reality.)  And so it is that Dodgers at Giants series at Candlestick, the third game in a three game series with Don Drysdale pitching against Juan Marichal, that is of concern to us today.

But I think the basic details of that game make it unique to Toobworld only.  I checked all of the Giants/Dodgers games at Candlestick for 1967 and 1968 and Drysdale battled Marichal only once - on July 8, 1967.  And that was the middle game of a series.

Outside the Box, I think we just have to leave it up to the imagination of the writer for this episode.  He knew it had to be a Giants game since the show is set in San Francisco, and Marichal was probably the best pitcher that year.  After that, I imagine the Dodgers were his own favorite team in the National League.

One day, Don Drysdale will be inducted into the Television Crossover Hall of Fame and this mention would count towards that since it does mean he exists in Chief Ironside’s world.  (Among the other shows that are in his tally are ‘The Donna Reed Show’ and ‘The Joey Bishop Show’.)

Willie Mays already is in the TVXOHOF, inducted on his 85^th birthday, thanks to appearances on ‘The Donna Reed Show’, ‘Mr. Belvedere’, and ‘Bewitched’.  And now I can include this mention of him being friends with Ironside among his credits.  (Pictured here are Mays and Drysdale with Donna Stone and another future member of the Hall, Leo Durocher.)

It’s his appearance on ‘Bewitched’ that makes his mention here in an ‘Ironside’ episode that much more interesting.  According to an episode in which Mays showed up at a witches’ party, he is actually a warlock.  This means that in addition to any episodes of ‘Ironside’ which dealt with supernatural themes (which were usually discredited), the cop show actually had connections to the real thing!

The Dodgers made it to the World Series this year, apparently without the help of any witches and warlocks nor a wesen of any kind.  (Although Justin Turner does look as though he would right at home in the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros.)  And the congratulations go to the Houston Astros for an incredible win in what will be a VERY memorable series.  They may not have had the help of any TV-related supernatural beings either, but the life story of George Springer - a fellow UConn grad from my home state! - is certainly worthy of a biographical TV movie!

BCnU……
  

TVXOHOF, NOVEMBER 2017 - JUSTICE ANTONIN SCALIA

When Judge Antonin Scalia died in February of 2016 (which seems SO long ago now!), I decided to check his name as a character in the IMDb - just to see if he qualified for the TVXOHOF.  I knew of his televerison's appearances in 'Futurama' and 'Boston Legal', but I figured that would be it.

Surprise!  Surprise! Surprise! as Gomer Pyle would say.....

"Picket Fences"
    - May It Please the Court (1994)
Played by Jack Shearer (as Justice Scalia)

Recount (2008) 

Played by Jack Shearer 

"Boston Legal" 

    - The Court Supreme (2008) 

    - Last Call (2008) 

Played by Jack Shearer

Futurama 

Into the Wild Green Yonder (2009)

Played by Billy West (as Antonin Scalia's Head)

So with this memorial induction to represent the tradition of newsmakers and politicians in November, I didn't have to play fast and loose with the tally by declaring all of Scalia's televersions across the greater TV Universe to be considered.  The Scalia Head in the Tooniverse can remain there and it doesn't affect the outcome; we still have three other productions in the main Toobworld and on top of that, all three were played by the same actor, Jack Shearer.

I had forgotten about that time Douglas Wambaugh for the Defense argued his case before the Supreme Court, and despite the advice of Alan Dershowitz, he tired to play on the sympathy of the Court by mentioning his affliction.  

It may turn out that Scalia could show up in Toobworld again, even though he's no longer with us.  There are those conspiracy mutterings out there that he was murdered in his sleep at that country club in Texas.  Somebody may see fit to have that theory dramatized.  Don't think of it as being outlandish.  There's been quite the cottage industry surrounding the deaths of others getting the fictional treatment.  JFK should immediately come to mind. (Cigarette Smoking Man, anyone?)

Tele-Scalia's main contribution to the world of the Toob was to officiate for the double wedding of Shirley Schmidt and Carl Sack and Alan Shore and Denny Crane.  I wonder how the real Scalia felt about that.....

And so a man who threw the Supreme Court into disarray for over a year just by not waking up in the morning will now be a member of a different institution - the Television Crossover Hall of Fame.

BCnU!

OUR HALLOWEEN OFFERING - PENNYWISE

I suppose the studio which produced the latest version of "It" was able to manipulate the logarithms of Google Images in order for Pennywise to pop up in the middle of your search, no matter what the topic was.  After it happened to me about four times, it began to freak me out.  And I realized I should have been saving the proof to show others.

And as luck would have it, as soon as I decided to do it Pennywise the Dancing Clown stopped showing up.  

Here are the ones I did get, all geared - as is par for the course with my search history - to TV shows......

"BLIND JUSTICE"

"COLUMBO"

"DREAM ON"

"PETER FALK" & "ROBERT GUILLAUME"


"THE PERSUADERS"

Happy Halloween!

MINUTIAE MONDAY - TOOBWORLD "FREAKS"

"FREAKS"

A circus' beautiful trapeze artist agrees to marry the leader of side-show performers, but his deformed friends discover she is only marrying him for his inheritance.

[IMDb]

I'm too chicken-bleep to actually watch this movie, yet I've been fascinated by it for decades.  

It exists in Earth Prime-Time as a movie and has been seen by several TV characters.  (We even saw Cassie Feder watching it on TV back in 1974 in an episode of 'I'm Dying Up Here'.)

I'm surprised it hasn't been a cultural touchstone in more TV shows set in Earth Prime-Time.  (I did ignore a few references to be found in 'Mystery Science Theater 3000' just on the general principle that show is a Zonk quagmire.  And 'The Simpsons' are only in the Tooniverse.)

So as we count down to Halloween, I thought I'd list some of the TV shows which acknowledge this horror classic as having a counterpart in Toobworld.....

'The Sopranos': 

"University" (2001)
Caitlin says she saw Tod Browning's "Freaks" and that it disturbed her.

'American Horror Story' 

"Show Stoppers" (2015) 

The film that was going to be watched by the freaks.

'I'm Dying Up Here'
"Girls Are Funny Too" (2017)
Cassie watches the movie at the end of the episode.

'The Big Bang Theory' 

"The Panty Piñata Polarization" (2008)
Wolowitz quotes the "One Of Us" song to Penny.

'Cougar Town'

"Keeping Me Alive" (2010)
"One of us, one of us"

'Blue Mountain State' 

"Vision Quest" (2010)
"One of us! One of us!"

'Orange Is the New Black' 

"Lesbian Request Denied" (2013)
"Gooble gobble, one of us!" scene is imitated by prison inmates

'Jekyll & Hyde' 

"The Calyx" (2015)
Fedora and Dance initiate Silas saying "Gooba, gobble, we accept you (one of us)".

BCnU!

VIDEO SUNDAY - "DARK NIGHT OF THE SCARECROW"

For our Video Sunday Halloween offering, here's  TV movie starring Charles Durning.....

BCnU!

SATURDAY COMICS - MY FAVORITE MARTIAN

From Wikipedia:

'My Favorite Martian' is an American television sitcom that aired on CBS from September 29, 1963, to May 1, 1966,[1] for 107 episodes (75 in black and white: 1963–65, 32 color: 1965–66). The show starred Ray Walston as Uncle Martin (the Martian) and Bill Bixby as Tim O'Hara.

John L. Green created the central characters and developed the core format of this series, which was produced by Jack Chertok.

A human-looking extraterrestrial in a one-man spaceship crash-lands near Los Angeles. The ship's pilot is, in fact, an anthropologist from Mars and is now stranded on Earth. Tim O'Hara, a young newspaper reporter for The Los Angeles Sun, is on his way home from Edwards Air Force Base (where he had gone to report on the flight of the X-15) back to Los Angeles when he spots the spaceship coming down. The rocket-powered aircraft had nearly hit the spaceship and caused it to crash.

Tim takes the Martian in as his roommate and passes him off as his "Uncle Martin." Uncle Martin refuses to reveal any of his Martian traits to people other than Tim, to avoid publicity (or panic), and Tim agrees to keep Martin's identity a secret while the Martian attempts to repair his ship. Uncle Martin has various unusual powers: he can raise two retractable antennae from his head and become invisible; he is telepathic and can read and influence minds; he can levitate objects with the motion of his finger; he can communicate with animals; he can freeze people or objects; and he can speed himself (and other people) up to do work.

Exigius 12½ (the Martian name of Martin O'Hara) was inducted into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame in October of 2001.  

 

 

 

Nanoo nanoo!

Oops.  Wrong Earth-based alien!

MYSTERY MANSION - MISSING LINK BETWEEN "COLUMBO" & "BARNABY JONES"

From Steve Skayman, writing in the "Columbo TV" Facebook page:
Alex lives in a nice house with a very rich wife, but when his mistress threatens to tell all then murder is not too far away and pretty soon unwanted callers will be knocking at the door...

Alex Benedict in "Etude in Black"? Yep but it's also Bill Bixby as Alex Chandler in the 'Barnaby Jones' season one episode "To Denise, With Love & Murder"

And here's some of the evidence he provided:

An excellent catch by Steve there, who's working his way through the first season of 'Barnaby Jones'.  (Click here to see his previous contribution to the Toobworld Dynamic.)

'COLUMBO'

"ÉTUDE IN BLACK"

Episode aired 17 September 1972

From TV.com:

The mistress of a conductor becomes a target for murder after threatening to tell all to her lover's wife.

'BARNABY JONES'

"TO DENISE, WITH LOVE AND MURDER"
Episode aired 22 April 1973

From TV.com:

Alex Chandler kills his mistress Denise during a quarrel, because she talked to his rich wife Hazel hoping to encourage a divorce. A disappointed Hazel leaves home and as she does not return her brother hires Barnaby to find out whether Alex murdered Hazel.

As most of you in Team Toobworld know about my particular fixation with the realm of Earth Prime-Time, I don't consider this to be a case of the same location being used again for different TV show episodes.  I have to find the "splainin" within the reality of the TV Universe.

This one seems relatively simple to solve.  Once Janice Benedict turned against her husband.  ("I could have stood for anything, Alex.  Anything in the world, but not murder."), and Alex was arrested, she and her mother decided that the best thing to do in order to put that part of her life behind her would be to sell the house.  She didn't need yet another reminder of Alex Benedict, especially since she was pregnant with his child.*

Her mother, Lizzie Fielding, took charge of the transaction and sold it as quickly as possible.  By coincidence, she arranged for it to be sold to another man named Alex - Alex Chandler.  And in less than a year, Alex Chandler had followed in Alex Benedict's footsteps and murdered his mistress as well.

The most basic premise of Toobworld is that we try to absorb as many TV shows into one universe.  So the claim that this mansion is the same one is an easy one to accept.  Where it gets tricky, however, is the fact that the Pasadena mansion used in these two examples showed up again in Toobworld.  (Luckily for me I don't get involved with the Cineverse because it showed up in quite a few movies as well!)

But as far as Toobworld goes....

'Starsky & Hutch'
“Targets Without A Badge, Part 2”

The Bay City mansion was owned by a man named Gunther.

‘Murder, She Wrote’
“A Death In Hong Kong”

It could also be found outside of the United States in Hong Kong.

But perhaps its most famous appearance is in the sitcom ‘Benson’ as the residence of the Governor. 

I don’t have anything else to base this on, but I believe ‘Benson’ took place in my home state of Connecticut because the Governor at that time was the cousin of Jessica Tate.  She lived in Dunn’s River, Connecticut, as depicted in the sitcom ‘Soap’.

That the same mansion should be found from one end of the country to the other and beyond to Hong Kong can be attributed to the same reason as other similar copies of buildings in other TV series.  It’s all because they were built by the same architect who simply used the same design over and over again.

I was hoping to find another TV character by the name of “Alex” in a TV show from the 1940s to the 1960s, someone who didn’t have much of a backstory. I could then have claimed that this Alex had committed a murder in that mansion and his spirit still haunted the place, causing others bearing his name to do the same.  Unfortunately I never did find one to fit the bill.

No matter.  Just the fact that, with Steve’s incredible research, I’m able to make a credible connection between ‘Columbo’ and ‘Barnaby Jones’ is good enough.  It’s a link that didn’t exist before.

BCnU!

BIG SCREEN TV - "ON THE BEACH"

'The Doctor Blake Mysteries'
"A Night to Remember" (2015)
It is mentioned that Jacqueline Maddern had recently had a role in an American film about the end of the world based on a book by Nevil Shute.

DR. LUCIEN BLAKE:

What sort of mood was Miss Maddern in? 

PAMELA GILCHRIST:

Excited. She was preparing for her trip. 

DR. LUCIEN BLAKE:

Trip? 

PAMELA GILCHRIST:

To the United States.
She, er, just had a role in that big American picture they were shooting here. 

DR. LUCIEN BLAKE:

Oh, yes. The one about the end of the world, the Nevil Shute book? 

PAMELA GILCHRIST:

Yes.

From Wikipedia:

"On the Beach" is a 1959 American post-apocalyptic science fiction drama film from United Artists, produced and directed by Stanley Kramer, that stars Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire and Anthony Perkins.

 

This black-and-white film is based on Nevil Shute's 1957 novel of the same name depicting the aftermath of a nuclear war. Unlike the novel, no blame is placed on whoever started the war; it is hinted in the film that the threat of annihilation may have arisen from an accident or misjudgment.
"On The Beach" was mentioned in another TV series set in the main Toobworld, but one which also could be found in the Audioverse originally.

'Hancock's Half Hour'

"Sid in Love" (1960)
Tony and Sid have been to see the film. Tony finds it a thought-provoking experience, but Sid is less sure. "Not my fault Fred Astaire didn't do any dancing," mutters Hancock.

And "On The Beach" also can found in an alternate TV dimension which had a different line of succession for the President of the United States.  (First there was the POTUS played by William H. Macy, and then his successor, President Benjamin Castillo who was in three episodes played by Benito Martinez.)  Even with that major difference, the alteration to their dimension didn't prevent "On The Beach" from being made.

'The Unit' 

"Sub-Conscious" (2007)
Kim refers to an old black-and-white movie "about the end of the world" with Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner.  (She had fallen asleep while watching "On The Beach" on the late show and it influenced her dream.)

There was a TV movie based on the book, which would make the characters multiversal, but they wouldn't be found in the main Toobworld, not with that plotline.  I suppose that version of Shute's novel would be in one of the many TV movie dimensions.

I'm actually surprised there were that many references to the movie.  I mean, it's a real downer.  But at least there were reasons for each.  Patricia Maddern appeared in the Toobworld version of the movie, and Tony and Sid went to see it in April of 1960, just over four months after it had opened.  By the time Kim had seen it, "On The Beach" was already playing on TV... and I would not be surprised if it was showing on the televersion of TCM.

BCnU!