FRIDAY HALL OF FAMERS 03/27/2020 - THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JOHNNY CARSON

“You can learn a lot
watching Johnny Carson.”

Mary Hartman

‘Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman’

Since March is the month in which the Television Crossover Hall of Fame celebrates the League of Themselves in which (mostly) famous people appeared in TV shows in which they portrayed their fictional televersions, and since the last week of each month this year we’re celebrating TV shows which have their own televersions, I could think of no other TV show which had so many members of the League of Themselves and which made appearances (or were at least mentioned) on so many other TV shows than:

‘THE TONIGHT SHOWSTARRING
JOHNNY CARSON’

One day I'll have to compile a list of all the TVXOHOF members who were inducted as part of the League of Themselves who appeared on 'The Tonight Show'. 

Here are two of them - Mister Warmth & Ol' Blue Eyes - with fellow member and the host, Johnny Carson. 

Johnny Carson himself was inducted as the January Classic showcase the year after he died.  As such, the shows which feature Johnny outside of ‘The Tonight Show’ milieu would not also be included in the tally for the show itself as they're being used for his own qualifications. 

Thus, ‘Cheers’ when Cliff wrote a joke for Carson and Cliff’s mother gave Johnny whatfor because he delivered it wrong would count for membership, but ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show’ in which Johnny showed up at a party which Mary hosted (disastrously) would not.

Dream sequences would count because a dream acknowledges that the show exists in Reality to serve as the basis for the dream.  So, the dream sequence in an episode of ‘The Joey Bishop Show’ qualifies ‘The Tonight Show’ for membership even though Johnny didn’t show up in it.  (Ed McMahon did however.)

In my personal opinion, the best use of ‘The Tonight Show’ within another show was in ‘Columbo’ – “Forgotten Lady”.  We saw plenty of scenes from one of the shows, enough so that I was able to pinpoint the night on which the murder took place in the Toobworld (and real time) timeline.

CARSON ON ‘COLUMBO’

Here are just a few of the other TV shows which have acknowledged the presence of ‘The Tonight Show’ in Toobworld with references and/or showed clips from the show or recreated it within their own reality.  (i was surprised by how many references there have been to Carnak over the years.  Maybe a Skitlandian inductee someday?)

‘Cheers’, ‘Columbo’, ‘The Joey Bishop Show’, ‘St. Elsewhere’, ‘Get Smart’, ‘Rhoda’, ‘All In The Family’, ‘The Monkees’, ‘Sanford and Son’, ‘The Rockford Files’, ‘Seinfeld’, ‘Lou Grant’, ‘The White Shadow’, ‘Soap’, ‘Diff’rent Strokes’, ‘Wonder Woman’, ‘WKRP In Cincinnati’, ‘Sykes’, ‘Taxi’, ‘Quantum Leap’, ‘Sanford’, ‘Hill Street Blues’, ‘Fame’, ‘Gimme A Break!’, ‘The A-Team’, ‘The Jeffersons’, ‘Family Ties’, ‘Miami Vice’, ‘Growing Pains’, ‘The Golden Girls’, ‘Charles In Charge’, ‘The Greatest American Hero’, ‘Boy Meets World’, ‘The X-Files’, ‘Just Shoot Me!’, ‘Do Over’, ‘That 70s Show’, ‘Scrubs’, ‘Modern Family’, ‘Psych’, ‘The Mentalist’, ‘Mad Men’, ‘Justified’, ‘Veronica Mars’, ‘Fresh Off The Boat’, ‘Better Call Saul’, ’30 Rock’, ‘The Kids Are Alright’.

That’s just a “few” of them.  You get the idea.

So here’s to ‘The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson’.  Welcome to the Hall!

O’Bservation:
Because for over thirty years ‘The Tonight Show’ was so indelibly linked with Carson, I think it has to be considered as its own entity, differentiated from those other incarnations hosted by Steve Allen, Jack Parr, Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien, and Jimmy Fallon.  But their versions of the show would figure into their own tallies once they were inducted into the TVXOHOF (and Leno already is a member and Conan is on the verge… if he’s not already.  Hey, I’ve been doing this for over twenty years; my memory’s shot.)

Carson and the show were seen dramatized in a recent Showtime series, “I’m Dying Up Here”, but I’ve got two possible splainins for that, both of which are connected to two of the series mentioned above.

I think a blog post on that may rouse me from my lethargy…..

FRIDAY HALL OF FAMERS 03/20/20 - KID ROCK

Sorry I’m late with the Friday Hall of Famers from last week.  This whole “living in isolation” we’re going through may have been par for the course for this sedentarianist, the reason has not been and it’s kind of overwhelming at times.  (I’m fine, by the way;  I hope you all are as well.)

So let’s kick this off.

For March we’re celebrating the League of Themselves, those celebrities who play their own fictional televersions in TV series.  And this week we’re going with....

KID ROCK  

In fact, we’re inducting two Kid Rocks – the one from the main Toobworld and the animated one from the Tooniverse.

From Wikipedia:
Robert James Ritchie (born January 17, 1971), known professionally as Kid Rock, is an American singer-songwriter, rapper, musician, record producer, and actor. In a career spanning 30 years, Rock's musical style alternates between rock, hip hop, and country. A multi-instrumentalist, he has overseen his own production on nine of his eleven studio albums.

Kid Rock started his professional music career as a self-taught rapper and DJ, releasing his debut album Grits Sandwiches for Breakfast in 1990 on Jive Records; his subsequent independent releases The Polyfuze Method (1993) and Early Mornin' Stoned Pimp (1996) saw him developing a more distinctive style which was fully realized on his 1998 album Devil Without a Cause (1998), his breakthrough album, which sold 14 million copies. Devil Without a Cause and his subsequent album, Cocky (2001), were noted for blending elements of hip hop, country, rock and heavy metal. Starting with his 2010 album Born Free, the country music style has dominated his musical direction. He has not rapped on his albums since the 2003 album Kid Rock, with the exception of one track each on Rock n Roll Jesus (2007) and Sweet Southern Sugar (2017).

One acting job which I'm not going to play fast and loose with is his appearance in:

Stacked
-Nobody Says I Love You (2005)
He is credited as the Delivery Man and is just a citizen of Toobworld who bears an uncanny resemblance to Kid Rock.  (However... had I been in need of another appearance as himself to qualify, I could have made the claim he was doing a side gig.  I don't know; maybe his career wasn't going so well at the time.  Luckily we're covered.)

Here are the roles which do qualify him in both fictional universes.....

TOOBWORLD

Fat Actress
- Charlie's Angels or Too Pooped to Pop (2005)
- Hold This (2005)

Saturday Night Live
- Alec Baldwin/Coldplay (2001)
- Jackie Chan/Kid Rock (2000)

Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector

CSI: NY
- All Access (2006)

Silicon Valley
- Minimum Viable Product (2014)

And now we slide over into the other universe....

THE TOONIVERSE

The Simpsons
- Kill the Alligator and Run (2000)

King of the Hill
- The Fat and the Furious (2002)

Stripperella
- You Only Lick Twice (2003)

Enjoy your time in the Hall…..

FRIDAY HALL OF FAMERS, 03/13/2020 - LIAM NEESON

For the month of March, the Television Crossover Hall of Fame is celebrating the League of Themselves, those fictional televersions of people from the Trueniverse played by those people from the Trueniverse and not played by other actors.  Some early inductees into the Hall for playing themselves include Bob Hope, George Burns, Milton Berle, Jerry Seinfeld, and Dr Joyce Brothers.  Buzz Aldrin is a rare case – inducted as himself and as a multiversal portrayed by several actors.

Next Wednesday is St. Patrick’s Day, so in keeping with that addition to the theme, the Friday Hall of Famers is inducting a member of the League of Themselves from the Old Sod….

LIAM NEESON!

From Wikipedia:
Liam John Neeson OBE (born 7 June 1952) is a Northern Irish actor. He has been nominated for a number of awards, including an Academy Award for Best Actor, a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, and three Golden Globe Awards for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama. Empire magazine ranked Neeson among both the "100 Sexiest Stars in Film History" and "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time".

In 1976, Neeson joined the Lyric Players' Theatre in Belfast for two years. He then acted in the Arthurian film “Excalibur” (1981). Between 1982 and 1987, Neeson starred in five films, most notably alongside Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins in “The Bounty” (1984), and Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons in “The Mission” (1986). He landed a leading role alongside Patrick Swayze in “Next of Kin” (1989).

Neeson rose to prominence when he starred as Oskar Schindler in “Schindler's List” (1993). He has since starred in other successful films, including the drama “Nell” (1994), the historical biopic “Michael Collins” (1996), the 1998 film adaptation of Victor Hugo's “Les Misérables”, the epic space opera “Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace” (1999), the biographical drama “Kinsey” (2004), the superhero film “Batman Begins” (2005), the action thriller series “Taken” (2008–2014), the survival film “The Grey” (2011), and the historical drama “Silence” (2016). He also provided the voices of Aslan in “The Chronicles of Narnia” trilogy (2005–2010) and the titular monster in “A Monster Calls” (2016).

Here are the appearances in Toobworld which qualified him for membership in the Hall.

Touched by an Angel
- Life Before Death (2000)

O'Bservation: I have no information on this yet....

Cubed
- Episode #1.39 (2010)

Bradley Cooper was in the episode as well

From the IMDb:
The 'Cubed' trio get a lesson in sexual harassment. Plus, Pizzi interviews the cast of 'The A-Team' and more.

Life's Too Short
- Episode #1.1 (2011)

Entourage - The Movie (2015)

From the Entourage Wiki:
Ari Gold is driving his car and talking to Lloyd Lee about Lloyd's wedding when a red light catches him. Ari then notices Liam in the other lane, in his car, also waiting for the green light to come up. When Ari calls out to Liam, Liam coldly exclaims "Go fuck yourself, Ari." Ari calmly suggests Liam forgive and forget, but an unmoved Liam shows Ari the middle finger and then drives off. Ari then shouts out, "Hey, Schindler! Leave no Jew behind"; a joke based on Ari being Jewish and Liam's acclaimed performance as Oskar Schindler, the German industrialist and Nazi Party member, who saved 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust.

Daddy’s Home 2 (2017)

O’Bservation – Neeson can be heard in the movie the family goes to see.

Neeson has also show up in the dimension of animation.

From the Tooniverse:

Family Guy
- Fighting Irish (2015)
- Brian's a Bad Father (2014)

Welcome to the Hall, Liam Neeson!

PS:
Today's post is dedicated to nephew Thomas, who is a big fan of Liam Neeson.  In fact, I told Mr. Neeson that he was a fan and he was nice enough to send a message to Thomas.....

 

FRIDAY HALL OF FAMERS 03/06/20 - PENNY MARSHALL

Last year, Laverne DeFazio was inducted into the Television Crossover Hall of Fame in tribute to Penny Marshall.  (She had been eligible for years, but it always felt as though we had time to do it.)

This year we complete the tribute to the late actress and director by inducting her as herself during the month in which we celebrate the League of Themselves.

From Wikipedia:
Carole Penny Marshall (October 15, 1943 – December 17, 2018) was an American actress, director, and producer. She came to notice in the 1970s for her role as Laverne DeFazio on the television sitcom ‘Laverne & Shirley’ (1976–1983), receiving three nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy for her portrayal.

Marshall made her directorial debut with “Jumpin' Jack Flash” (1986) before directing “Big” (1988), which became the first film directed by a woman to gross more than $100 million at the U.S. box office. Her subsequent directing credits included “Awakenings” (1990), which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, “A League of Their Own” (1992), “Renaissance Man” (1994), “The Preacher's Wife” (1996) and “Riding in Cars with Boys” (2001). She also produced “Cinderella Man” (2005) and “Bewitched” (2005), and directed episodes of the TV series ‘According to Jim’ and ‘United States of Tara’.

Here are the TV series in which she played herself and which qualified her for membership in the TVXOHOF:

Bosom Buddies
- Cablevision (1982)

From the IMDb:
Kip & Henry and their friends put together a cable TV show, to help keep a client and advertise his business. As well as promising him celebrity guest Penny Marshall.

Taxi
- Louie Moves Uptown (1983)

From the IMDb:
Louie has a revelation, he lives like he is so he sets his sights on a high rise condo. All he needs to do is borrow money from Jim and beat out Penny Marshall for the flat.

Tracey Takes On...
- Hollywood (1998)

From the IMDb:
Chic heads to Hollywood with a hot property left behind in his cab by Penny Marshall.

I'm with Her
- The Kid Stays in the Picture (2004)

O'Bservation:
I have no information on this....

Entourage
- Crash and Burn (2006)

PENNY MARSHALL:
- Hey, Ariel Gold.
ARI GOLD:
- Hey, Penny. Only my mom calls me that and still I better have a fever of 103.
PENNY MARSHALL:
- How are you?
ARI GOLD:
 - Okay.
PENNY MARSHALL:
- I was just up seeing one of your guys.
ARI GOLD:
 - Oh yeah? Who?
PENNY MARSHALL:
We're looking at Jimmy Whitaker for the Encyclopedia Brown trilogy.
ARI GOLD:
Jimmy Whitaker, the pride and joy of my young burgeoning teen division.
PENNY MARSHALL:
Yeah, I'll tell you what, let's make a deal. You do the whole "schlemiel, schlimazel, Hasenpfeffer Incorporated"
ARI GOLD:
- he's all yours, all right?
PENNY MARSHALL:
- Don't be a schmuck, Ari, okay?
ARI GOLD:
- What?
PENNY MARSHALL:
- It's a great project. It's gonna be a heck of a franchise. The first one takes place in the Kremlin.
ARI GOLD:
Really? Good luck faking Moscow in Vancouver.
PENNY MARSHALL:
No no no. The hell with Vancouver. We're doing it right.
ARI GOLD:
- Kazakhstan?
PENNY MARSHALL:
- Mm-hmm.
ARI GOLD:
Jimmy Whitaker is a spoiled prick. You want to hire Max Ballard. He's Dakota Fanning with a dick.
PENNY MARSHALL:
I heard Ballard was difficult.
ARI GOLD:
He's my next-door neighbor. He is humble as pie. I have been trying to sign that kid for years.
PENNY MARSHALL:
Wow, Ari. He's not even one of your guys.
ARI GOLD:
I am a team player. Boom! You owe me.
PENNY MARSHALL:
Come here.
[They hug it out.]
ARI GOLD:
- Max Ballard.
PENNY MARSHALL:
- Ballard.
ARI GOLD:
 - Quit smoking.
PENNY MARSHALL:
 - All right.

Bones
- The Woman at the Airport (2006)

REPORTER:
I'm here with Penny Marshall, one of the most prolific "hyphenates" in Hollywood. Actress, producer and director of such hits as "A League Of Their Own" and "Big". Her latest project is "Bred In The Bone", a thriller based on the bestselling novel by crime-fighting anthropologist Dr Temperance Brennan. OK, so how did this all come together?
DR. TEMPERANCE BRENNAN:
I have no idea.
PENNY MARSHALL:
Well, my brother Garry gave me the book, and I liked it, And then this whole bidding war started, and I usually don't get into that kind of thing, but in this case….
REPORTER:
A bidding war? That's got to be a thrill for a first-time author.
DR. TEMPERANCE BRENNAN:
I wasn't actually there.
REPORTER:
You must be a big fan of Penny's films. So which one's your favorite? I enjoyed her humorous treatment of the time/space paradox.
REPORTER:
"Big"! Very funny.
PENNY MARSHALL:
"Time/space paradox"….
REPORTER:
Penny, who is going to write the script?
DR. TEMPERANCE BRENNAN:
Don't I get to do that?
PENNY MARSHALL:
We'll talk.

The Bronx Is Burning
- Past Combatants (2007)

O’Bservation:
Her appearance in this was archival footage, so somebody on the Yankees or at the police precinct was probably watching ‘Laverne & Shirley’.

Welcome to the Hall, Ms. Marshall....

MARK IN MARCH! 03/2020 TVXOHOF - MARK HAMILL

For me, March is a boring month, save for my brother’s birthday and the occasional Easter.  So for this month’s Television Crossover Hall of Fame big crossover induction – as well as for the weekly inductions as Friday Hall of Famers – we have what I believe is an interesting theme to liven things up.

The League of Themselves!  Those are the people – usually famous in some fashion – who appear as their own “televersions” in a fictional setting.

And this year, we have someone who became famous for one of the best known movie characters, a character he’s finally said goodbye to after 42 years (on-screen, that is.)

MARK HAMILL

From Wikipedia:
Mark Richard Hamill (born September 25, 1951) is an American actor, voice actor, and writer. Hamill is best known for playing Luke Skywalker in the “Star Wars” films, which won him the Saturn Award for Best Actor three times. He is also known for his voice acting in animation and video games, especially for his portrayal of the Joker, beginning with ‘Batman: The Animated Series’ in 1992.  

In 1980, he also made a guest appearance on ‘The Muppet Show’, both as himself and as Luke Skywalker in “The Stars of Star Wars”; this episode also starred C-3PO and R2-D2 who were along with him on a search for Chewbacca.  

He appeared on ‘Saturday Night Live’ playing himself being sold on a “Star Wars”-themed home shopping sale.  Hamill appeared in single episodes of ‘3rd Rock from the Sun’ in 1997, ‘Just Shoot Me!’ in 1998, and ‘The Big Bang Theory’ – the episode in which Sheldon and Amy got married.

Mark Hamill is a member of a very select group within the TVXOHOF – he is being inducted twice over, once for his appearances as himself in Earth Prime-Time, and as his animated self in the Tooniverse.  Off-hand I can only think of one other League of Themselveser who pulled that off – Adam West.  Which figures – two genre icons.

Here are the roles he’s being inducted for in the main Toobworld: 

The Muppet Show
- The Stars of Star Wars (1980)

America 2-Night
- Legalizing Prostitution (1978)

3rd Rock from the Sun
- Fifteen Minutes of Dick (1997)

Just Shoot Me!
- The List (1998)

Player$
- May The Crunk Be With You (2004)

The Bronx Bunny Show
- Episode #1.3 (2007)

Nightcap
- The Show Must Go On: Part 2 (2017)

The Big Bang Theory
- The Bow Tie Asymmetry (2018)

In 1997, the Toobworld Mark Hamill communicated with Space Ghost in the Tooniverse:

Space Ghost Coast to Coast
- Switcheroo (1997)

As was the case with Ice-T, an inductee from last month, Space Ghost was interviewed the live-action Hamill while he had a Tooniversion Hamill available to be in the studio.

Hrmmmmm

And here are his qualifications from the Tooniverse:

Freakazoid!
- And Fan Boy Is His Name/Lawn Gnomes Chapter IV: Fun in the Sun/Freak's French Lesson (1995)

O'Bservation:
Just my opinion, but this was the best representation of Hamill in the Tooniverse.

The Simpsons
- Mayored to the Mob (1998)

Pepper Ann
- The Finale (2000)
- Unhappy Campers/The Search for Pepper Ann Pearson (2000) ...
- Beyond Good and Evel/One of the Guys (1999)
- Portrait of the Artist as a Young Milo/The Sisterhood (1998)

Johnny Bravo
- Johnny Bravo Goes to Hollywood (2004)

O'Bservation:
He was recognized as being the CGI version of himself.

The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle
- Amazamoose and Squirrel Wonder: Chapter Three (2019)

O’Bservation:
This might have been an appearance by the Toobworld Mark Hamill instead of a Tooniverse Hamill. That might be him in the picture, dressed as Shakespeare; I have no clue.

As mentioned in the Wikipedia excerpt, Hamill appeared as himself in a sketch on 'Saturday Night Live', but that belongs in Skitlandia.  One day he'll have enough credits playing himself in sketches - he might even have enough now! - to have his Skitlandean version inducted.

Hamill is also known for being the actor who has portrayed the Joker the most times.  And apparently there's an animated short out there in which the Joker kidnaps Mark Hamill.  But I don't know if that's just a rumor or if it actually exists.

Welcome to the Hall, Mark Hamill.

May the F--#  No.  I’m sure you must be sick of hearing that….