DAVID BURNS

As many in Team Toobworld know, I'm more focused on the characters of Toobworld rather than the actors who played them.  But for me, David Burns was always a man of mystery - nearly fifty years in the business, but mostly on stage. He was in a lot of movies since his film debut in "De-Luxe Annie" on this date 100 years ago.

He won two Tony Awards, one for "The Music Man" and the other for "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum".  That last one really impressed me - with so many other characters of acclaim in that show (Hysterium, Marcus Lycus, Milos Gloriousus), Burns must have been incredible in a smaller role like that.

I only know him from 'The Trials Of O'Brien' as The Great McGonagle, a rather bookish low-life of a private investigator (who looked more like an accountant with the eyesight of Henry Bemish.)  Had he lived, I think Mr. Burns would have been a perfect fit for 'Barney Miller' as one of the repertory players to visit the Ol' One-Two.

From Wikipedia:

[David Burns] won two Tony Awards for Best Featured Actor in a Musical, for his performances as "Mayor Shinn" in The Music Man and as "Senex" in "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum".  Burns introduced the hit song "It Takes a Woman" from "Hello, Dolly" as the original "Horace Vandergelder".

David Burns also won an Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor – Drama Series for his role of Mr Solomon in the 1971 TV episode (Hallmark Hall of Fame) "The Price" by Arthur Miller.

He died on stage, of a heart attack, in Philadelphia during the out-of-town tryout of Kander and Ebb's musical "70, Girls, 70".

BCnU!

TVXOHOF - THE NEW YORK CHRONICLE (05/18/18)

You may have noticed there was a gap of about two weeks in the blog before I picked up again this past Monday.  I was in the hospital, and while I might be considered now on my third life, I'm home again.

But it got me thinking that Life is indeed short.  And along those lines, maybe inducting new members into the Television Crossover Hall of Fame more often than just once a month.  

So until it burns me out, I'm aiming to induct a new TVXOHOF member every Friday.

And we're kicking it off with the first of five in a series - the New York Chronicle newspaper.

The Chronicle is perhaps most famous as being the newspaper which kept a roof over the heads of the Lane Family in Brooklyn Heights.  (Martin Lane was the editor of the paper while his twin brother Kenneth was a foreign correspondent.)

So here are examples of the paper as seen in 'The Patty Duke Show' and other TV series.

'THE PATTY DUKE SHOW'

'McCLOUD'

'THE ROGUES'

'THE THIN MAN'

'ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS'

'ALEX, INC.'
[As of this year, the New York Chronicle transformed into a tabloid newspaper.]

'THE TWILIGHT ZONE'

'HEROES'

[This series began in Earth Prime-Time, but once Hiro traveled back in Time, he altered the Future and so the show created a new Toobworld.]

And from Toobworld-MOTW:

"ELLERY QUEEN: DON'T LOOK BEHIND YOU"

And here are a few of the blog posts I've written about the New York Chronicle:

http://toobworld.blogspot.com/2008/10/view-all-about-it.html

http://toobworld.blogspot.com/2008/10/chronicle-of-missing-links_14.html

http://toobworld.blogspot.com/2007/09/la-triviata-read-all-about-it.html

http://toobworld.blogspot.com/2018/04/monday-minutiae-adding-to-ny-chronicles.html

http://toobworld.blogspot.com/2012/11/chronicling-link.html

http://toobworld.blogspot.com/2012/05/chronicle-of-missing-links-iii.html

Next week, we'll have the logical extension of this inductee....

TELE-FOLKS DIRECTORY - JACK STROLLER, "COLUMBO" COP

Warren Berlinger has always been a fun character actor for me to watch.  I can’t remember when he first stood out for me – might have been in the TV movie “The Girl Most Likely To….” (written by Joan Rivers) or ‘A Touch of Grace’, a sitcom in which he played Shirley Booth’s son-in-law.  (Personally I think he looked like her son.)

He was lucky enough to join the ‘Columbo’ alumni late in the series’ run, during its ABC years.  And even better, he got to be a member of that corps of LAPD detectives who assisted Lt. Columbo.

‘COLUMBO’
“DEATH HITS THE JACKPOT”

As Detective Jack Stroller, he helped Columbo bring Leon Lamarr and his nephew’s wife to justice for killing his nephew.

It was his only appearance in the series, but that doesn’t mean his existence Is limited to just that murder investigation.  He had a life before the ‘Columbo’ episode and it continues to this day.  God willing, may he continue for many more years.

As to that previous life, this is where the Inner Toob feature “Fanficcer’s Friend” comes in.  Publicity photos for actors are perfect in expanding the lives of the characters they played.

So here we have an early publicity picture of Berlinger. 

But we can also claim that it’s a photo of Jack Stroller, a fresh graduate of the police academy, ready to start his career in the Los Angeles police department.

As for this next picture, I don’t know its source.  But I’m fairly certain it’s from a movie, the Cineverse, and therefore fair game to be used for different purposes in Toobworld.  Therefore, why not consider it a picture of Stroller in the locker room when he was still a patrolman.

So now we’ve given a backstory for Detective Jack Stroller in Toobworld which will never be seen on your TV screen.

Oh!  Just one more thing....

We have a theory of "relateeveety" for Detective Jack Stroller.  He has a brother, older by five years, and considered far more handsome (even by Jack.)  But they were estranged - and by more than just the fact that Jack's brother had emigrated to Great Britain.

Albert Stroller sought his life's fortunes on the other side of the Law.  He was a grifter, looking to make a 'Hustle' in all manner of con games.  And he enjoyed doing so, working the long game with Mickey Stone's crew....

BCnU!

 

THE HAT SQUAD - REMEMBERING MARGOT KIDDER

Actress Margot Kidder, best known for her portrayal of Lois Lane opposite Christopher Reeve's Superman, has died. She was 69.


As expected, many of the tributes to Ms. Kidder will focus on her role as Lois Lane.  But for Toobworld, we're going in a different direction.

In 1971, she played Ruth the barmaid in the town of 'Nichols', opposite James Garner as Sheriff Nichols.  Two decades later, she played a cameo role as Margaret Mary in the movie continuation of Garner's star-making role of 'Maverick'.  

But that's the order in which they occurred in the Real World timeline.  In Toobworld, the order is reversed.  'Nichols' is clearly established as beginning at the beginning of World War I, 1914.  As for "Maverick", I think it has to be circa 1906.  I believe Bret Maverick had sired a son out of wedlock back in the late 1860s.  This would be Mel Gibson's character of Bret Maverick Jr. in the movie.  

So Ms. Kidder's character of Margaret Mary showed up first in the Toobworld timeline.  And being older, and resembling Ruth so closely, it is my contention that Margaret Mary is Ruth's mother - widowed and estranged from her daughter.

Good night and may God bless, Ms. Kidder......

TWO FOR TUESDAY - AFTER THE FOX

A little something for “Two for Tuesday” – ‘Columbo’ as seen in Earth Prime-Time and in what I’m calling Theo’s World.

Theo Solorio is a very talented artist who works in the style of Don Bluth and other animators.  And luckily for this “Columbo-phile”, she is currently doing most of her work in translating ‘Columbo’ characters into the world of funny animals.  (Search her art out on Facebook, mostly in the Columbo-TV group.)

‘COLUMBO’
“DOUBLE SHOCK”

So here we have a side-by-side comparison of Lt. Columbo and one of his main suspects in the murder of Clifford Paris – Dexter Paris, the murder victim’s nephew.  Dexter was a cooking show host and he cajoled Columbo out of the audience to assist him in making a recipe on TV.

In Theo’s version, Columbo is (as always) a “volpone”, a sly little fox as he was described in another episode.  As for Dexter Paris, Theo loves to go for the visual in-jokes.  Since Clifford Paris was electrocuted in his bath, Dexter is portrayed as an electric eel.  (The same holds true for his identical twin brother, Norman Paris.)

Another excellent job, Theo!

 

TIDDLYWINKYDINKS - TEDDY ROOSEVELT & HIS MAINE GUIDES

‘MURDOCH MYSTERIES’
“THE GREAT WHITE MOOSE”

Teddy Roosevelt:
The first I went hunting was in Maine.

I was taught by the best.

Bill Sewall, Wilmot Dow.
William Murdoch:

What were you hunting?
President Roosevelt:
Waterfowl, mostly.

I was rather nervous at first.

The anticipation.

The exhilaration of lying in wait, finger on the trigger.
And now I lie in wait for someone to shoot me.

From the National Parks & Recreation:
“They were tough, hardy, resolute fellows, quick as cats, strong as bears, and able to travel like bull moose." -Theodore Roosevelt writing on Sewall and Dow

"We were very close in those days and he talked over about everything with me.” -Bill Sewall reflecting on Theodore Roosevelt in the 1880s
 
William Wingate Sewall and Wilmot Dow first met Theodore Roosevelt in the 1870s, when they served as hunting guides for Roosevelt in Maine. Although they were skilled outdoorsmen, hunters, and woodsmen, that hardly qualified them for work as ranch hands; Sewall was more comfortable riding logs than he was riding horses. Nevertheless, when Roosevelt asked his two trusted companions to manage his new Elkhorn Ranch in 1884, they agreed. 

A photograph of Theodore Roosevelt, William Wingate Sewall, and Wilmot Dow during a hunting trip in Maine.

Left to right: Roosevelt, Sewall, and Dow.

WIKI TIKI WEDNESDAY IN WALLINGFORD

'TIMELESS'

"THE KENNEDY CURSE"

It's always a thrill when the televersion of my home state shows up in Toobworld.  Specifically, my hometown was mentioned in an episode of 'St. Elsewhere' - it's the city where the son of Dr. Kiem was found after walking away from Choate in Wallingford.

That same school showed up recently in an episode of 'Timeless'.  However, even though it was the same place in both shows, they aren't in the same TV dimension anymore.  (With the pilot episode, 'Timeless' began in Earth Prime-Time but with the alteration to the fate of the HIndenberg, it ended up in a new timeline.  And it has been creating new Toobworlds with every episode moving it farther and farther away from its original home.

Anyhoo, let's take a look at the Wallingford of the Real World....

From Wikipedia:

Wallingford is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 45,135 at the 2010 census. The urban center of the town is the Wallingford Center census-designated place, with a population of 18,209 at the 2010 census. The community was named after Wallingford, in England.

The Connecticut General Assembly created the town on October 10, 1667. This original plot of land near the Quinnipiac River is now considered Main Street. Starting on May 12, 1670 there were 126 people who lived in temporary housing, and five years later in 1675 there were 40 permanent homes.

In 1697 Wallingford was the site of the last witchcraft trial in New England. Winifred Benham was thrice tried for witchcraft and acquitted all three times.

Wallingford has diversified its commercial and industrial base over the past decade attracting high-technology industries as compared to traditional heavy manufacturing. It is the home of a large variety of industries and major corporations spanning the spectrum of the medical, health care, service, high-tech specialty metal manufacturing and research development. The development of the Barnes Industrial Park, Casimir Pulaski Industrial Park, Wharton Brook Industrial Park, and the South Turnpike Road area have greatly contributed to this transition. The Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, the town’s largest taxpayer, has established a research and development facility in Wallingford’s MedWay Industrial Park. An Interchange Zone which permits very restrictive commercial development of office parks, research and development centers and hotels has been created at the intersection of Interstate 91 and Route 68.

In terms of Wallingford's manufacturing and design history, silver-producing companies like Simpson, Hall, Miller & Co. and R. Wallace & Sons are of particular note. Simpson, Hall, Miller & Co. as well as Wallingford's Watrous Manufacturing later became part of the International Silver Company, which was headquartered in the neighboring city of Meriden.

The town of Wallingford has both public and private education. The Wallingford Public School System consists of eight elementary schools, two middle schools, and two high schools. Wallingford has a private sector of schools offering the following: Choate Rosemary Hall, Heritage Baptist Academy, and Holy Trinity School.

And that leads us to the next Wikipedia entry for that episode of 'Timeless'....

Choate Rosemary Hall (often known as Choate) is a private, college-preparatory, coeducational, boarding school located in Wallingford, Connecticut. It took its present name and began a coeducational system with the merger in 1971 of two single-sex establishments, The Choate School (founded in 1896 in Wallingford) and Rosemary Hall (founded in 1890 in Wallingford, moved later to Greenwich, Connecticut). At the merger, the Wallingford campus was enlarged with a complex of modernist buildings on its eastern edge to accommodate the students from Rosemary Hall.

The school has educated generations of the upper-class New England establishment and the American political elite, and it has introduced many programs to diversify the student population, including the introduction of a free education for families whose income is $75,000 or less. Choate is a member of the Eight Schools Association, begun informally in 1973–74 and formalized in 2006, when former Choate headmaster Edward Shanahan was appointed its first president. The member schools are Choate, Andover, Exeter, Deerfield, St. Paul's, Hotchkiss, Lawrenceville, and Northfield Mount Hermon.

Choate is also a member of the Ten Schools Admissions Organization, established in 1966 and comprising Choate, Andover, Exeter, Deerfield, St. Paul's, Hotchkiss, Lawrenceville, Taft, Loomis Chaffee, and The Hill School.

Among Choate's alumni are President John F. Kennedy, two-time presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson, playwright Edward Albee, novelist John Dos Passos, investor Brett Icahn, Ivanka Trump daughter of US President Donald Trump, philanthropist Paul Mellon, screenwriter Geoffrey Fletcher, and actors Glenn Close, Michael Douglas, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Paul Giamatti.

'Timeless' makes huge changes to History in each episode, so you could probably guess that the subject of this episode was young Jack Kennedy.  (One of the school's administrators tried to kill him in order to change History too early.  The later death of JFK was altered, but only in location....)

BCnU!

TVXOHOF, MAY 2018 - CONSUELO LOPEZ, R.N.

For the Television Crossover Hall of Fame's Queen of May 2018, we pay tribute to the late Elena Verdugo, who passed away last year....

From the L.A. Times:
When ABC first offered her a role on a upcoming prime-time television show about a warm family practitioner who still made house calls, Elena Verdugo could see where it was all headed.

"They were looking for a Mexican girl," she recalled. "And I said, 'Forget it. I'm not playing maids and housekeepers.' You know, that's all that they were showing."

But Consuelo Lopez on "Marcus Welby, M.D." was a level-headed, no-nonsense nurse and Verdugo jumped at the chance to play the character, slowly retrofitting it into what was one of the first portrayals of a professional Latina in a prime-time television series.

After the first season, she opted to eliminate an opening scene that showed her dutifully serving Dr. Welby a cup of coffee when he strolled into the office. And as time went on, she pushed for her role to more closely resemble the hands-on, front-line work of a skilled nurse, rather than a multi-tasking secretary.

"She was as American as apple pie," she said of her character in an interview with PBS. "But she had this Mexican — a little bit of fire — beneath it all."

The show lasted seven seasons and capped a decades-long career for Verdugo that began when she was a teen.

She was twice nominated for an Emmy for the role.

Here are the appearances she made as Consuelo Lopez which have earned her a place in the Hall of Fame:

'Marcus Welby, M.D.' 169 episodes 

  

'Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law' 

- "Men Who Care: Part 2" (1971) 
- "I've Promised You a Father: Part 2" (1974)

"The Return of Marcus Welby, M.D." (TV Movie)

(1984)

And so we salute the memory of Elena Verdugo with this tribute to Consuelo Lopez who was a Toobworld pioneer.

And for alls I know, Ms. Lopez is still alive in the TV Universe (not that we would ever see again.....)

Welcome to the Hall, Ms. Lopez!

VIDEO SUNDAY - "DR. FINDLAY"

I went to find episodes of 'Dr. Findlay's Casebook' and found these as well.  I thought I'd introduce Team Toobworld to them......

THE GAME OF THE NAME - THE CONTINUED ADVENTURES OF TASHA & TED

'V.I.P.'
"MOLAR ICE CAP"

From the IMDb:
A suspicious birthday card pits Tasha on the trail of her ex, dentist Ted McClellan, being attacked by fiends. They're after dental records for a scam planned by Bolivian drug cartel US market baron Simon Pike. So VIP protects Ted, and discovers Tasha's twice ex, the Owl, is also involved.

Here's how it looked in the French Toobworld dimension:

Ted and Tasha were married for only one year, but there is some question about Ted McLellan's standing in the list of Tasha Dexter's ex-husbands.  In this episode, he's identified as her second husband; but there was an episode in the second season ("The Return of the Owl") in which he's mentioned as her third husband.  

I think we can resolve this Zonk using that IMDb description above.  Since the IMDb can be written by anybody, I assume that it was written by someone with a poor command of English.  "Tasha's twice ex, the Owl" - that must mean that he was married in two different installments, with a divorce in between.  (At least I hope so.  I'd hate to think that they were trying to say "Tasha's second ex-husband".)

So in that sense, Ted was Tasha's second husband and her third husband from a different perspective.  He's the second man to marry her and it's her third marriage.
And I think they eventually got back together.....

'V.I.P' ran from 1998 to 2002.  The Chase Sapphire Card blipverts ran around 2009.  So it's pozz'ble, just pozz'ble, that Tasha and Ted found each other again at some point after 2002.  And based on these commercials, it appears that they are not only together but living under assumed names (whether it was because of her former job with V.I.P. or further complications from the Simon Pike investigation.)

I say this because the card shown at the end of the commercial has the last name of "Walden" embossed on it.  They seem to be living a carefree lifestyle in these commercials - fancy condo in the City, staying at a fancy hotel, enjoying a ski trip.  

But it could be that they're always on the run.  I don't know who wants to kill them, but I think The Owl is a good candidate.

Not that Chase Sapphire would want that kind of association.....

BCnU!

O'BSERVATION:
Molly Culver starred in 'V.I.P.' as Tasha Dexter and David Starzyk guest starred as Ted McLelland before they were reunited in the commercial series.