FRIDAY HALL OF FAMERS FEBRUARY 7, 2020 - REDD FOXX

It’s been a grievous oversight by Toobworld Central that Fred G. Sanford has not been inducted into the Television Crossover Hall of Fame yet.  And it’s still not happening this year.  Sanford’s contribution to Earth Prime-Time is too strong to be relegated to the Friday Hall of Famers.

But as a member of the League of Themselves, Redd Foxx, the comic actor who played Fred Sanford, just barely makes it to fulfill the bare minimum of requirements to join the TVXOHOF.  And so as a prelude to the eventual membership for Fred, the TV Crossover Hall of Fame welcomes….

REDD FOXX

From Wikipedia:
John Elroy Sanford (December 9, 1922 – October 11, 1991), better known by his stage name Redd Foxx, was an American stand-up comedian and actor best known for his portrayal of Fred G. Sanford of the hit television show ‘Sanford and Son’. Foxx gained success with his raunchy nightclub acts during the 1950s and 1960s. Known as the "King of the Party Records", he performed on more than 50 records in his lifetime. He also starred on TV in ‘The Redd Foxx Show’ and ‘The Royal Family’. His film projects included “All the Fine Young Cannibals” (1960), “Cotton Comes to Harlem” (1970), “Norman... Is That You?” (1976) and “Harlem Nights” (1989).

In 2004 Foxx ranked 24th in “Comedy Central Presents: 100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time”. Foxx not only influenced many comedians but was often portrayed in popular culture as well, mainly as a result of his catchphrases, body language and facial expressions exhibited on ‘Sanford and Son’.

During the show's five-year run, Foxx won a Golden Globe Award and received an additional three nominations, along with three Primetime Emmy Award nominations.

Foxx was posthumously given a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame in 1992.

Here are the three TV series (four appearances) which qualify the late comedian for membership:

The Name of the Game
- I Love You, Billy Baker: Part 1 (1970)

From the IMDb:
Las Vegas entertainer Billy Baker doesn't like interviews - especially when they concern that girl who died so mysteriously, Jeff Dillon investigates.

- I Love You, Billy Baker: Part 2 (1970)

From the IMDb:
In the second half of this two-part episode, the world of entertainer Billy Baker begins to unravel completely.  

Sanford And Son
- Fred Meets Redd (1977)
[Also appearing – obviously – as Fred G. Sanford]

From the IMDb:
The fourth wall falls when Fred enters NBC's Redd Foxx look-alike contest and eagerly anticipates meeting his idol face to face.  

Flying High
- High Rollers (1978)

From the IMDb:
During a flight to Las Vegas, Pam gets to know Wilbur Dobson, a dentist on the verge of retirement. This one tells her of his intention, following a conflict opposing him to his psychiatrist son Glen, to open a home for the elderly. Hearing that, Pam decides to try anything to reconcile the two men. As for Lisa, she finds herself outright assaulted by Steve Enders, a variety artist who has got it in his head to test on her his theories about love at first sight.  

All of Redd's appearances on talk shows and variety programs don't contribute to his official tally, but they do add flavoring to his presence as himself in Toobworld.

Here are some of the more interesting additions to his League of Themselves appearances.....

And there's this clip from the talk show of another member of the TVXOHOF....

(In order: 'Flip', ;The Jacksons', 'The Brady Bunch Variety Hour', 'Donny & Marie', and 'Sammy and Company')

Welcome to the Hall, Mr. Foxx.  Just remember to keep the language in the Blue Room….

TVXOHOF TUESDAY - FROM THE "CARTER" LARDER

CARTER
HARLEY WEARS A WIG

In this series, Harley Carter starred as Charlie Carter in the action series 'Call Carter'.  Because of his past in Hollywood, Carter has name-dropped plenty of bold-type celebrities in its first season.  And those references establish them as being "alive" in the TV Universe.  While not as strong as an actual appearance, mentions still qualify such televersions as being eligible for membership in the Television Crossover Hall of Fame.

In this second season premiere of Jerry O’Connell’s series, Harley Carter revealed that Antonio Sabato, Jr. and Christine Baranski appeared in an episode of his TV series ‘Call Carter’:

Harley Carter:
You ever fall for a patient? Or let me rephrase that, you ever roll a patient up into a carpet and dump her off a bridge just like Antonio Sabato, Jr. did to Christine Baranski in episode 17, season 4 of ‘Call Carter’?

He later mentioned that he did a TV movie with lone Skye….

Captain Joyce Boyle:
You paid for your own chopper?
Carter:
I had a little extra change in my piggy bank. And by piggy bank, I mean a TV movie I did with lone Skye, where I played her lover with amnesia.

These are not the actual actors from our world, Earth Prime, but their televersions as seen on TV, meaning the actors from Toobworld, Earth Prime-Time.

These statements confirm that their televersions exist in the main Toobworld.  And should either one of them appear in another TV series as themselves, that other show would automatically be connected to ‘Carter’, thanks to their mentions in this episode.

Of the three, Antonio Sabato Jr. is now eligible for membership in the TV Crossover Hall of Fame as a member of the League of Themselves.  This mention can join these other appearances of his televersion:

Ugly Betty
- The Fall Issue (2009)

Scrubs
- Our Drunk Friend (2009)
- Our First Day of School (2009)

Ione Skye isn’t too far behind, however.  She appeared as her own televersion in three episodes of the “psychiatrist to the stars” sitcom ‘Head Cases’.  She really only needs one more TV show in which she appears as herself to qualify for the Hall.

Carter is now linked to 'Scrubs' and 'Ugly Betty' thanks to Sabato, and to 'Head Cases' because of Skye.  But alas, nothing yet from Baranski as far as I can make out.

Get your act in gear, Baranski!

BCnU!

MONDAY MEMORIAL TVXOHOF TRIBUTE - KOBE

From CBS News:
Los Angeles Lakers icon and five-time NBA champion Kobe Bryant died Sunday in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California. An investigation into the crash that killed all nine people on board, including Bryant, 41, and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, is ongoing, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department    

From Wikipedia:
Kobe Bean Bryant (August 23, 1978 – January 26, 2020) was an American professional basketball player. A shooting guard, Bryant entered the National Basketball Association (NBA) directly from high school, and played his entire 20-season professional career in the league with the Los Angeles Lakers. Bryant won five NBA championships, was an 18-time All-Star, 15-time member of the All-NBA Team, 12-time member of the All-Defensive Team, was named the 2008 NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP), and was a two-time NBA Finals MVP winner. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, he led the NBA in scoring during two seasons, ranks fourth on the league's all-time regular season scoring, and ranks fourth on the all-time postseason scoring list.

At 34 years and 104 days of age, Bryant became the youngest player in league history to reach 30,000 career points. He became the all-time leading scorer in Lakers franchise history on February 1, 2010, surpassing Jerry West. Bryant was also the first guard in NBA history to play at least 20 seasons. His 18 All-Star designations are the second most all time, while it is the record for most consecutive appearances as a starter. Bryant's four All-Star MVP Awards are tied with Bob Pettit for the most in NBA history. At the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics, he won two gold medals as a member of the U.S. national team. In 2018, he won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for his film, Dear Basketball (2017).

Bryant died on January 26, 2020, in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California. Eight others, including his 13-year-old daughter Gianna Bryant, and college baseball coach John Altobelli, were also killed.

I’m not a basketball fan, but I certainly knew of Kobe, the highs but also the lows.  That rape claim caught my notice, which basketball accolades never could.  And I did know of the Oscar win as well.

So sadly, I might never have even thought to research his qualifications for membership in the Television Crossover Hall of Fame had it not been for his death.  I couldn’t use his game footage, news reports, talk show appearances.  But I figured if he showed up in any TV show as his fictional televersion, it might be ‘Arli$$’.  So off to IMDb I went.

He definitely deserves to be in the Hall.

Here are the roles which qualified him:

Arli$$
- What About the Fans? (1996)

From the IMDB:
Arliss gets an offer he can't refuse: find a new home for the L.A. Kings hockey team and become their part-owner. Will it be Raleigh, North Carolina, Las Vegas or New Mexico?

Sister, Sister
- Kid-Napped (1996)

From the IMDb:
A new girl's popularity drives Tia and Tamera to pull strings. Playing himself, Bryant-as-a-character shot a commercial for popular girl Rhonda's father. He also had a line about loving waffles, because reasons.

Hang Time
- The Hustlers (1997)

From the IMDb:
In California, Julie and Teddy are the only ones practicing; the rest of the team goes with Mary Beth to watch for celebrities at their hotel. Julie and Teddy are targeted by professional basketball hustlers. Vince finds Mel Gibson's wallet.

In the House
- Men in the Black (1997)

From the IMDb:
When Marion dates a construction boss, the clinic's decor improves. Tonia attracts attention with her new appearance. Basketball players DEREK FISHER and KOBE BRYANT guest star.

Bette
- I Love This Game (2000)

From the IMDb:
Bette's attempts to score Lakers tickets at the last minute for her husband's birthday hardly go off without a hitch.

Modern Family
- Family Portrait (2010)

From the IMDb:
Claire goes through great lengths to organize a family portrait. Gloria and Phil have an awkward moment while taking Manny and Alex to a Lakers game. Cameron becomes a wedding singer, and Jay has to help Luke with a school project.

And he even had a presence in the Tooniverse.

The Proud Family
- One in a Million (2003)

From the IMDb:
Penny wins a chance to shoot a half court shot at a basketball game for one million dollars. Oscar convinces her to let him make the shot to make good on a high school dream.

I’m sorry for the reason you’re being inducted now, Kobe.  I wish it had been for a happier occasion – like your eventual induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame.  But welcome to the Hall.  Kareem Abdul Jabar is already here so you could get a game of Horse going in the gym.

And my condolences to all the family and friends of the other victims.

TVXOHOF SATURDAY SIDE NOTE - FIN TUTUOLA'S BAD DAY

As part of the celebration for Fin Tutuola's induction into the TV Crossover Hall Of Fame, here is a very strange meme which leading crossover archivist Thom Holbrook discovered back in August of 2015.....

FEBRUARY, 2020 TVXOHOF - FIN TUTUOLA

After last Sunday’s tragic news, I got an email from a member of Team Toobworld wondering if I had any candidate in mind for February’s  monthly showcase induction ceremony. Even if I did, they wrote, maybe I might consider bumping them in favor of Kobe Bryant.

I do have the post honoring Kobe already set up to run on Monday as a “Monday Memorial TVXOHOF Tribute”.  But I couldn’t see bumping the already scheduled “honoree” – not when he was bumped two years in a row and then set aside last year for the 20th anniversary theme of superheroes and super-villains.  I couldn’t do that to the guy.

And his body of work – the character has appeared 464 times so far in the multiverse (even if most of that is from one show) and counting with no end in sight – far outweighs that of Kobe Bryant’s as seen in a cold logical light.

Therefore, for February 2020, the newest member of the Television Crossover Hall of Fame is…..

DETECTIVE FIN TUTUOLA

From Wikipedia:

Odafin "Fin" Tutuola is a fictional character on the TV drama ‘Law & Order: Special Victims Unit’, played by Ice-T. He is a sergeant with the New York Police Department's Special Victims Unit.

Tutuola was raised in the Harlem area of New York City and was six during the 1968 riots following the Martin Luther King Jr. assassination, making his birth year 1961 or 1962.  When he was a child, he witnessed his mother being murdered by a business rival of his father, a petty criminal; 30 years later, while investigating an unrelated case, he inadvertently discovered that his mother's killer was himself murdered.

According to the Season 11 episode "Disabled", Tutuola, while still in the police academy, was forced by circumstances to place his maternal grandfather, whom he credits for raising him, in a nursing home. His grandfather later died as a result of abuse from the staff. Tutuola later describes this action as "the worst decision [he] ever made", and says that in his grief, rage, and guilt, he repeatedly started fights with fellow officers "for the hell of it" and was almost kicked off the force until an academy instructor intervened and helped him salvage his career.

Tutuola was previously a US Army Ranger and served on two tours.  His military background remains sketchy as he rarely speaks of it or only makes vague and indirect references to it; however, in season 10, he explicitly mentions serving on Operation Gothic Serpent in Somalia in order to connect with a military rape victim.

Tutuola has a son named Kwasi (nicknamed Ken) with his ex-wife Teresa Randall. Subsequent episodes reveal that he has a strained relationship with his family. As of "Intersecting Lives", he is due to be a grandfather, as that episode revealed that Ken and his husband are expecting a baby via surrogate.

As of the Season 19 episode "Mood", his paternal grandfather Iggy is still alive and healthy at the age of 95, despite suffering from diabetes.  At the start of the episode "Send In the Clowns," Ken and his husband bring their infant son Jaden to the squadroom for a birthday party.

Tutuola is an avid fan of first-person shooter video games, and is a regular at an annual video game convention. On why he would play such games considering the nature of his job and his military background, he explains to his colleagues that he views these games as an escape from the grey areas he faces in his job, and that he finds solace in the "black and white" nature of these games in which he gets to hunt down and defeat a clearly defined "bad guy".
Here are the appearances for which Fin is being honored:

FIN TUTUOLA

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
458 episodes (2000-2020)

Law & Order
- Flaw (2005)

Chicago P.D.
- The Song of Gregory Williams Yates (2016)
- The Number of Rats (2015)
- Conventions (2014)

30 Rock
- ¡Qué Sorpresa! (2011)

O’Bservation:
It is a Warholian mantra that eventually everybody in Toobworld will be featured in a TV show.  The incredible work done by the Special Victims Unit over the last twenty years certainly deems them as being worthy to be showcased in a series.

But is it a fictional reenactment or a documentary series?  Are we seeing the TV character Fin or the televersion of Ice-T?  Based on references in the dialogue of other shows, I’m siding with it being a fictional TV show  More on that in a few weeks. (nudge nudge wink wink.)

And Fin is seen in Skitlandia as well, making him a multidimensional:

Saturday Night Live
- Kit Harington/Sara Bareilles (2019)

O’Bservation:
Again, this is an acknowledgement that ‘L&O: SVU’ is a TV series in Skitlandia as well.  It’s likely we’re seeing Skitlandia’s Ice-T playing his impression of the Skitlandian cop.  (And again, this may come up again in a few weeks.)

Two Hall of Famers

Welcome to the Hall, Detective!  You’ll find many other members of the ‘Law & Order’ franchise here, mostly from the 27th Precinct, as well as the man who made it all possible, Dick Wolf.

JANUARY HALL OF FAMER SHOW - "STAR TREK"

I learned early on in my televisiology research that I “got some splainin to do” when dealing with a Zonk (translation: a major discrepancy.)  That particular bugaboo which makes my “job” harder dealt with TV series which mention other TV series, when they both should be sharing the same world, Earth Prime-Time.

My goal has been to keep as many TV series on the same world, the main Toobworld, as possible.  Of course, certain TV shows were always going to defy me on that.  Naughty shows!  The zombie shows had to be relegated to their own dimension and the same goes for any remakes with all-new casts.

And thanks to the influx triggered by ‘The West Wing’, a whole slew of new Toobworlds had to be created for each concurrent series dealing with a fictional President of the United States.  (Earth Prime-Time has to have the same President as Earth Prime because plenty of shows will eventually mention the POTUS.  And with Presidents like Clinton and Drumpf, there were references a-plenty!)

But I wasn’t going to just keep tossing TV series out the window just because some TV show considered them to be a TV show and not part of their own world.  So I had to come up with that splainin.

And it’s a multiple part splainin.  First of all, I had to accept that there were citizens of Earth Prime-Time whose lives proved to be so fascinating to some producer that they made a TV show about those people which would then be shown on TV within the TV Universe.

Sounds confusing, don’t it?  But think of all those times you’ve seen clips from our TV shows being watched by fictional characters who should be living on the same world as the people who are in those TV shows they’re watching.  This is the best way to get around that.

Although the show may be based on their lives, the plots don’t necessarily have to adhere to the storylines we saw on our own version of those shows. There have been times when a character will mention an episode of a TV show which has a plot that bears no resemblance to what we actually saw in the real version of the show.

I saw this happen in a TV movie clip in which the main character mentioning that she saw her current situation play out at a wedding reception in an episode of ‘Columbo’.  No such scene existed in the ‘Columbo’ episodes we got to see.  And in an episode of ‘Extras’, Andy Milman got to act out a scene in ‘Doctor Who’ with David Tennant which never existed for us.

But the actors they hire to do those shows have to be the televersions of those actors in the “real” version of the show, because of those clips being shown.  The aforementioned Tennant is a good example.

In my head, I keep coming back to ‘The Brady Bunch’ as an example of Toobworld citizens whose home situation was perfect fodder for a TV series to some fictional version of Sherwood Schwartz (just in case he ever gets cited in the dialogue.)  For us, we’re seeing the televersion of the Bradys being played by the real actors.  For the fictional characters in other shows who are watching ‘The Brady Bunch’, they’re s’eeing the Brady Family’s televersions being played by the televersions of the actors we know.

Another reason these Zonkish TV shows exist is because of a shadow ops group which I’ve called UNReel creates them in order to debunk claims that such things actually happened in their world.  So that people who claim to have seen something outrageous – like superheroes, alien invasion, secret agents and a certain alien Time Lord in action – they could be dismissed as crackpots who can’t distinguish between “reality” and a TV show.  A video version of “swamp gas”.

I bring this all up because this year I’ll be inducting a few of those televersions of TV shows within TV shows into the Television Crossover Hall of Fame – as long as they pass the requirement of being mentioned or even seen in at least three other TV shows.

And I’m kicking it off with ‘Star Trek’.

From Wikipedia:

‘Star Trek’ is an American media franchise based on the science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry. The first television series, called ‘Star Trek’ and now known as "The Original Series", debuted on September 8, 1966 and aired for three seasons on NBC.

It followed the voyages of the starship USS Enterprise on its five-year mission, the purpose of which was "to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before!".

The USS Enterprise was a space exploration vessel built by the United Federation of Planets in the 23rd century. The ‘Star Trek’ canon includes the Original Series, an animated series, five spin-off television series, the film franchise, and further adaptations in several media.

“Star Trek” has been a cult phenomenon for decades. Fans of the franchise are called "Trekkies" or "Trekkers". The franchise spans a wide range of spin-offs including games, figurines, novels, toys, and comics. ‘Star Trek’ had a themed attraction in Las Vegas that opened in 1998 and closed in September 2008. At least two museum exhibits of props travel the world.

The series has its own full-fledged constructed language, Klingon. Several parodies have been made of ‘Star Tre’k. In addition, viewers have produced several fan productions. As of July 2016, the franchise had generated $10 billion in revenue, making ‘Star Trek’ one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time.

‘Star Trek’ is noted for its cultural influence beyond works of science fiction. The franchise is also noted for its progressive civil rights stances. The Original Series included one of television's first multiracial casts.

Since ‘Star Trek’ took place four hundred years into Toobworld’s future, there had to be a different splainin as to how Toobworldlings of the 1960s until now could see a TV show and movies about the their own future.

And I blame the time traveler known as The Doctor.

In a way, it’s probably like the ‘Doctor Who’ episode “Blink” in which Sally Sparrow had to get all of her notes to The Doctor so that he could then prepare her for what was coming in her past.  A temporal loop.

In this case, The Doctor brought a massive file to the late fifties, early sixties, and delivered them to a motorcycle cop named Gene Roddenberry with instructions that he should develop it all into a TV series, right down to supplying suggestions as to who to cast in the proposed series.

It’s one way to splain how a CHiPs officer could come up with such an idea.

There has to be both a TV show as well as the actual events in our far future.  Not even including their own spin-offs, there were several sci-fi shows in the same basic timeline which had dialogue in which it is suggested that they were aware of Starfleet’s existence.

I’m not sure if the world of ‘Star Trek’ exists in the future of those shows which have to be relegated to other Toobworlds and yet still have mentioned the show, like ‘Lois & Clark’ or ‘Spin City’.

As for ‘Blake’s 7’ which made a somewhat veiled reference to the show, it is set in the Evil Mirror Dimension an thus is current with the Evil Spock as Captain of the Enterprise.

‘Star Trek’ is a good show to begin this end of month series of TVXOHOF inductions – there are so many TV shows in which fictional characters are watching ‘Star Trek’ or discussing it, and sometimes even acting it out themselves, complete with costumes.  An episode of ‘Alfred Hitchcock Presents’ even mentioned that there was a ‘Star Trek’ musical!

I’m disqualifying mentions in certain TV dimensions, like Skitlandia, the Tooniverse, definitely Zombie Toobworld.  Also those shows which have anachronistic references like ‘Maid Marian and her Merry Men’ and ‘The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.’

But even if the name ‘Star Trek’ isn’t actually stated, we know that the show exists when characters from other shows start spouting the dialogue.  Lines like “Beam me up” (Scotty or no), “He’s dead, Jim”, “To boldly go where no man has gone before”, “Set your phasers on stun”, and “I’m a doctor, not a (fill in the blank.)” - these are a sure sign some fictional character is a Trekkie.  Or Trekker.

And the same goes for those who attempt the Vulcan neck pinch.

It's time to present the evidence to support its membership.  We’ll begin with those shows which actually showed scenes from ‘Star Trek’.

• ‘Young Sheldon’
• “Der Minister” (a TV movie)
• ‘St. Elsewhere’ (Actually we heard it on the TV as John Doe #6 changed the channels.  Our POV was from an angle where we couldn’t see the screen.)

Okay, now.  Take a deep breath and then dive into this list of shows which have made reference to ‘Star Trek: The Original Series’ over the years.  Most of them are in chronological order….

‘The Wonder Years', 'Bewitched’, ‘Last Of The Summer Wine’, ‘Here‘s Lucy’, ‘Sanford and Son’, ‘Love Thy Neighbor’, ‘Family’, ‘Man About The House’, ‘Nurses’, ‘Are You Being Served?’, ‘Mork & Mindy’, ‘Lou Grant’, ‘Diff’rent Strokes’, ‘Sykes’, ‘Terry and June’, ‘WKRP In Cincinnati’, ‘The Muppet Show’, ‘Fraggle Rock’, ‘Fame’, ‘Emu’s World’, ‘V’, ‘The A-Team’, ‘Just Good Friends’, ‘Riptide’, ‘No. 73’, ‘E/R’, ‘Moonlighting’, ‘Miami Vice’, ‘St. Elsewhere’, ‘Doctor Who’, ‘Juliet Bravo’, ‘Lovejoy’, ‘Cheers’, ‘Perfect Strangers’, ‘Growing Pains’, ‘Hill Street Blues’, ‘Out Of This World’, ‘Sledge Hammer’, ‘Golden Girls’, ‘Boys Will Be Boys’, ‘ALF’ & “Project ALF”, ‘Beauty and the Beast’, ‘Valerie’, ‘Family Ties’, ‘It’s Garry Shandling’s Show’, ‘Day By Day’, ‘China Beach’, ‘Knots Landing’, ‘Superboy’, ‘Press Gang’, ‘Night Court’, ‘Alfred Hitchcock Presents’, ‘Alien Nation’, ‘Doogie Howser, M.D.’, ‘Red Dwarf’, ‘My Secret Identity’, ‘Nearly Departed’, ‘Not Necessarily The News’, ‘Parker Lewis Can’t Lose’, ‘Saved By The Bell’, ‘Only Fools and Horses’, ‘Degrassi High’, ‘Operation Blue Line’, ‘Seinfeld’, ‘Clariss Explains It All’, ‘Knight Rider 2000’, ‘Golden Years’, ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’, ‘Married… With Children’, ‘Roseanne’, ‘Eerie, Indiana’, ‘The Larry Sanders Show’, ‘Quantum Leap’, ‘Absolutely Famous’, ‘The Tomorrow People’, ‘The Nanny’, ‘Boy Meets World’,’Goodnight, Sweetheart’, ‘Frasier’, ‘Weird Science’, ‘Melrose Place’, ‘Dead at 21’, ‘Home Improvement’, ‘Friends’, ‘Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge’, ‘NYPD Blue’, ‘Northern exposure’, ‘The Vicar Of Dibley’, ‘The X-Files’, ‘Full House’, ‘Dream On’, ‘The Langoliers’, ‘The Big Bang Theory, ‘Caroline In The City’, ‘Cracker’, ‘Law & Order’, ‘Flash Forward’, ‘Are You Afraid Of The Dark’, ‘Home And Away’, ‘Might Morphin Power Rangers’, ‘ER’, ‘Due South’, ‘Mad About You’, ‘NewsRadio’, ‘3rd Rock From The Sun’, ‘Suddenly, Susan’, ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’, ‘Mystery Science Theater 3000’, ‘Psi Factor: Chronicles Of The Paranormal’, ‘Honey, I Shrunk The Kids’, ‘Hard Time’, ‘Teen Angel’, ‘Student Bodies’, ‘Homicide: Life On The Street’, ‘Almost Perfect’, ‘The Red Green Show’, ‘Muppets Tonight’, ‘Dawson’s Creek’, ‘Team Knight Rider’, ‘Two Guys, A Girl, and A Pizza Place’, ‘Sliders’, ‘Cupid’, ‘Diagnosis Murder’, ‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer’, ‘Will & Grace’, ‘The Outer Limits’, ‘Stargate SG-1’, ‘Queer As Folk’, ‘Spin City’, ‘Charmed’, ‘Farscape’, ‘Freaks and Geeks’, ‘Sports Night’, ‘Twice In A Lifetime’, ‘Angel’, ‘Just Shoot Me’, ‘Action’, ‘A Touch Of Frost’, ‘Cleopatra 2525’, ‘Roswell’, ‘That’s 70s Show’, ‘Popular’, ‘Coupling’, ‘Neighbours’, ‘Popular’, ‘Gilmore Girls’, ‘Time Gentlemen, Please’, ‘The Lone Gunmen’, ‘Malcolm In The Middle’, ‘Undergrads’, ‘The Office’, ‘Odyssey 5’, ‘CSI’, ‘That’s So Raven’, ‘Da Ali G Show’, ‘Tremors’, ‘Train 48’, ‘Dead Like Me’, ‘NCIS’, ‘Degrassi: The Next Generation’, ‘Joan of Arcadia’, ‘Scrubs’, ‘Stargate: Atlantis’, ‘Corner Gas’, ‘Lost’, ‘Law & Order: Criminal Intent’, ‘Smallville’, ‘My Wife and Kids’, ‘Robson Arms’, ‘Entourage’, ‘Criminal Minds’, ‘Boston Legal’, ‘Supernatural’, ‘The King of Queens’, ‘Everybody Hates Chris’, ‘Bones’, ‘How I Met Your Mother’, ;Life On Mars’, ‘Veronica Mars’, ‘Joey’, ‘Heroes’, ‘Psych’, ‘Pastewka‘, ‘Eureka’, ‘Ugly Betty’, ‘Numb3rs’, ‘General Hospital’, ‘Peep Show’, ‘The Sarah Jane Adventures’, ‘Chuck’, ‘Hannah Montana’, ’30 Rock’, ‘Bionic Woman’, ‘Primeval’, ‘Zoey 101’, ‘Weeds’, ‘Wizards of Waverly Place’, ‘The Middleman’, ‘Sons of Anarchy’, ‘Cold Case’, ‘The Mentalist’, ‘House’, ‘Being Human’, ‘Fringe’, ‘Dollhouse’, ‘Castle’, ‘Warehouse 13’, ‘Californication’, ‘The Thick Of It’, ‘Sanctuary’, ‘The New Adventures Of Old Christine’, ‘White Collar’, ‘Cougar Town’, ‘NCIS: Los Angeles’, ‘Skins’,  ‘In Plain Sight’, ‘Breaking Bad’, ‘Parks and Recreation’, ‘Ashes to Ashes’, ‘Community’, ‘Party Down’, ‘The Hard Times of RJ Berger’, ‘The Middle’, ‘iCarly’, ‘Being Erica’, ‘Blue Mountain State’, ‘Lost Girl’, ‘CSI: Miami’, ‘Gossip Girl’, ‘Hawaii Five-0’, ‘Breaking In’, ‘The United States of Tara’, ‘Stargate Universe’, ‘Haven’, ‘Leverage’, ‘Bodies of Evidence’, ‘Terra Nova’, ‘Life’s Too Short’, ‘Revenge’, ‘Star Trek’, ‘The Secret Circle’, ‘Portlandia’, ‘Mrs. Brown’s Boys’, ‘Nikita’, ‘Mad Men’, ‘Continuum’, ‘Suits’, ‘The Newsroom’, ‘Raising Hope’, ‘Defiance’, ‘Arrested Development’, ‘Perception’, ‘Orange Is The New Black’, ‘Sam & Cat’, ‘The Killing’, ‘Switched At Birth’, ‘Chicago Fire’, ‘It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia’, ‘Last Man Standing’, ‘From Dusk Til Dawn’, ‘Modern Family’, ‘Orphan Black’, ‘The Inbetweeners 2’, ‘Lab Rats’, ‘Looking’, ‘2 Broke Girls’, ‘Forever’, ‘Hot In Cleveland’, ‘iZombie’, ‘Maron’, ‘CSI: Cyber’, ‘Liv and Maddie’, ‘The Mysteries of Laura’, ‘The Librarians’, ‘The Magicians’, ‘Shadowhunters’, ‘NCIS: New Orleans’, ‘Santa Clarita Diet’, ‘The Goldbergs’, ’12 Monkeys’, ‘Superstore’, ‘This Is Us’, ‘Ryan Hansen Solves Crimes On Television’, ‘Young Sheldon’, ‘Fresh Off The Boat’, ‘The Kids Are Alright’, ‘The Good Fight’, ‘Pandora’, ‘The Neighborhood’, ‘The Good Doctor’.

And that list is still growing!  The series premiere of 'Avenue 5' had Hugh Laurie's

That’s-a some spacey mentions!

Here's just one example from an episode of 'Nurses':

Welcome to the Television Crossover Hall Of Fame, ‘Star Trek: The Original Series’!

THURSDAY THEORY OF RELATEEVEETY - MOCHRIE MEN

Colin Mochrie appeared in two episodes of ‘Murdoch Mysteries’ – “8 Footsteps” & “Manual For Murder”.  In both he played Ralph Fellows who was the hotel detective at Windsor House.  He was jealous of Detective William Murdoch’s success which eventually drove him to desperate measures.

It appears Fellows had no offspring, at least not officially.  He may have had “relations” with a woman in Toronto which led to the birth of a child outside of marriage.

If so, that family lineage might have eventually led to Neil Jacott of Bishop, Canada.  Neil was also played by Colin Mochrie and was seen in the 2nd season opening episode of ‘Carter’ – “Harley Wears A Wig.”

Neil was known by the Bishop police as a chronic conspiracy fanatic, always reporting crimes that had not taken place.  So when he alleged that his wife was missing and perhaps kidnapped, only Harley Carter, now a private investigator, believed in him.
If Neil and Ralph are related, Ralph is probably either his grandfather or even great-grandfather.

And there’s another theory of “Relateeveety”, eh?

 

TWO 4 TUESDAY NEWS DAY SUPER SIX LIST

Amazon is developing several Italy-based, Italian language TV series for their streaming platform, not just for Italy but for other countries as well.  Perhaps the US as well.

This will be one of them:

“Vita da Carlo” (“Life as Carlo”) featuring Italian comic actor and director Carlo Verdone whose films systematically score well at the Italian box office. This Rome-set comedy series will see Verdone star as a fictionalized version of himself alongside cameos from some of Italy’s biggest stars. Aurelio and Luigi De Laurentiis, who have a longstanding rapport with Verdone, with produce the 10-episode show via their Filmauro shingle with production set to start this year.

This will be a big boon for Toobworld’s League of Themselves which feature the televersions of famous people as seen in the TV Universe.

If the show comes to the States, it’ll be good for those Italian actors as well.

So that was Tuesday News Day.  Let’s make this a Two for Tuesday now and add in a Super Six List.

My Six Favorite TV Shows Featuring The League Of Themselves

1. The Larry Sanders Show
2. Curb Your Enthusiasm
3. Extras
4. Arli$$
5. Entourage
6. Here’s Lucy/The Lucy Show

BCnU!

MONDAY MINUTIAE - JOE THE BARTENDER

PERRY MASON
THE CASE OF THE VIOLENT VEST

Frank Jenks played Walter Clemens the Bartender in this episode.  But when he was talking with Joy LeBaron and demanding to see her driver’s license, Joy kept calling him “Joe”.  When he told her that his name wasn’t “Joe”, she said of course his name was Joe – all bartenders were named “Joe”.

I think that’s a good indication that she had to be a fan of Jackie Gleason’s sketch character of Joe the Bartender (with Frankie Fontaine as Crazy Guggenheim) in ‘Jackie Gleason: American Scene Magazine’ which ran on CBS from 1962 to 1966.

There is no Zonk involved.  Jackie’s Joe the Bartender does not exist in the main Toobworld.  He and Crazy Guggenheim would be found in Skitlandia, an alternate Toobworld.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it 
 

FRIDAY HALL OF FAMERS 01/24/20 - CORPORAL STEVE HENSHAW

Last year we inducted Corporal Rocco Barbella into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame as a Friday Hall of Famer, and for this month’s showcase, the Classic TV entry, we added Sgt. Ernie Bilko to kick off 2020.

It only seems fair that we now complete the show’s triumvirate of tricksters….

CORPORAL STEVE HENSHAW

From Wikipedia:
While appearing on Broadway in “Stalag 17”, [Allan Melvin] got his break into television by getting the role of Corporal Steve Henshaw on the popular ‘The Phil Silvers Show’ program. U.S. Television fans of this era usually best remember his role as Henshaw, Sgt. Bilko’s right-hand man on that show.

“He was proudest of that show,” Amalia Melvin said. “I think the camaraderie of all those guys made it such a pleasant way to work. They were so relaxed.”  

Allan Melvin, who played Henshaw, was not involved in the original pilot “The New Recruits.”  Jack Warden played Corporal Henshaw in that.

I’m assuming based on his listing in the IMDb that Warden's first name was not mentioned in the pilot.  And even if it was, I doubt that it’s that unique a name; I’m sure there could be plenty of Steve Henshaws around the country.

Since the motor pool was made up of soldiers from all around the country, I don’t see how it would be that unusual to not only have two soldiers named Henshaw, even Steve Henshaw, and not only that, but that they would both attain the rank of corporal.

That aside, it does mean that Melvin’s Henshaw is lacking one-third of his requirement to join the TV Crossover Hall of Fame....  Officially.

Luckily for us, Allan Melvin was a prolific performer in television; in fact, it looks as though he was so busy that he only could fit in two movie roles – in “With Six You Get Eggroll” and as the voice of “H.R. Pufnstuf”, replacing Lennie Weinrib.

Melvin made several appearances on ‘The Andy Griffith Show’ as various characters, all but two of whom had names.  One of those exceptions was “Recruiting Sergeant” in the episode “Ernest T. Bass Joins The Army.”

I always love when an unnamed character is able to come to my rescue when I’m in need of a “splainin to do” to conflate two characters into one.

I’m making the claim that Melvin’s recruiting sergeant was Steve Henshaw.  We know it can’t be Sgt. Charley Hacker, Sgt. Vince Carter’s rival, because he was in the Marine Corp. It’s right there in the title of the show: ‘Gomer Pyle, USMC’.  And the title of this TAGS episode makes it clear that the sergeant is recruiting for the Army.

It’s nice to think that Henshaw eventually was promoted and the Army found a good use for his persuasive con man skills.

There is another possible candidate however – “Harrison B. Harding of Camp Crowder, Mo.” from that eponymous episode of ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show’.  But that can be easily challenged – good old “Horseface” visited the Petries in 1961 and by then he had been out of the Army for some time.   He couldn’t have been a recruitment officer in 1963.

Four actors whose characters
are now in the TVXOHOF:
Harvey Lembeck, Allan Melvin, Phil Silvers
from 'The Phil Silvers Show
and Dick Van Dyke for
Dr. Mark Sloan of 'Diagnosis Murder' &
Rob Petrie of 'The Dick Van Dyke Show'

I am partial to a theory of “relateeveety” in which Steve Henshaw, Charley Hacker, and Harrison B. Harding are the euphemistic kind of “identical cousins”.  In their case, they weren’t actual cousins like Cathy and Patty; “identical cousins” is just a polite way of saying they were all  half-brothers, each with a different mother.

Who knows?  Maybe their father (who probably looked like Allan Melvin as well) had a thing for women whose married names began with “H”?

I wouldn't be surprised if Archie Bunker's friend Barney Hefner was another twin brother from a different mother!

None of that counts toward Henshaw’s qualifications for TVXOHOF membership, of course. Just adds a bit of supposition flavoring….

Here are the roles which “qualify” Cpl. Henshaw for induction into the Hall:

1955-1959
The Phil Silvers Show
143 episodes

1959
Keep in Step (TV Movie)
Cpl Steve Henshaw

1963
The Andy Griffith Show
- Ernest T. Bass Joins the Army
Recruiting Sergeant

Welcome to the Hall, Corporal -# I mean, Sergeant Henshaw.  I’m sure you’ll find your old cronies in a game down in the rec room…..

Cpl. Henshaw is a multiversal.
Here he is in a cigarette print ad.