TVXOHOF, MARCH 2025 - HERCULES (AKA KEVIN SORBO)

With March, the Television Crossover Hall of Fame gets at least one member of the League of Themselves into its ranks.

This year, it's a little bit different - the character was the real person and the League of Themselves member was the fictional character, not just the fictional television of a real-world person.

HERCULES

AKA

KEVIN SORBO

From Wikipedia:
Kevin David Sorbo (born September 24, 1958) is an American actor. He had a starring role in two television series: as Hercules in 'Hercules: The Legendary Journeys' (1995–1999.)

In 1993, Sorbo received his breakthrough leading role as the ancient greek demigod Hercules in a series of five television films that aired as part of Universal Television's Action Pack.

The first film to premiere was "Hercules and the Amazon Women", which aired in April 1994, the others following later in the year. The ratings success of the films paved the way for the commission of the television series 'Hercules: The Legendary Journeys', which started airing in syndication from January 1995 and ran for six seasons. The series made Sorbo an international star and was one of the highest rated syndicated television shows at the time.  The show was filmed in New Zealand.

The success of the show spawned the popular spin-off series 'Xena: Warrior Princess' starring Lucy Lawless, who was introduced in a three-episode arc in the first season of Hercules. This allowed several characters from both shows to make crossover appearances. In 1998, a spin-off direct-to-video, animated film titled "Hercules and Xena – The Animated Movie: The Battle for Mount Olympus" was released with both Sorbo and Lawless voicing the characters.

'Hercules' was canceled midway through the filming of Season Six, of which only eight episodes were produced. The final episode aired in November 1999.  Although it was not revealed at the time, health issues reduced Sorbo's abilities to perform the physically demanding role during the later seasons. Sorbo made his final appearance as Hercules on 'Xena', in the Season Five episode "God Fearing Child", which aired in February 2000.

Here are the reasons why Hercules (aka Kevin Sorbo) is now in the TVXOHOF.  Usually a list like this is in broadcast order, and for the most part, it is.  However, this list should be seen also as a timeline in the honoree's life, the first half in the Age of Legend and the second part in the last few years of the 20th Century onward into the new millennium.

HERCULES AND THE AMAZON WOMEN (1994)

From the IMDb:
Hercules and Iolaus take time out from Iolaus' wedding preparations, to help a distant village under attack from "monsters". When they reach their destination, they find the monsters are in fact Amazonian women who are controlled by Hera.

HERCULES AND THE LOST KINGDOM (1994)

From the IMDb:
Hercules comes to the aid of a young woman who is seeking the lost city of Troy. He leads her to a camp of refugees from the city, which has been taken over by Hera's Blue Priests. Hercules helps the refugees take back the city.

HERCULES: THE LEGENDARY JOURNEYS
- HERCULES AND THE CIRCLE OF FIRE (1994)

From the IMDb:
Hercules and Deianeira go in search of fire to save the world from cold. All the world's fires are fast going out. Hercules' father, Zeus, is on hand to help (and sometimes hinder) the two.

HERCULES IN THE UNDERWORLD (1994)

From the IMDb:
A woman asks Hercules for his help because a hole leading to the underworld has opened up in her village. Hercules wants to help her, despite knowing that she comes from a group of women notorious for leading men to their doom.

HERCULES IN THE MAZE OF THE MINOTAUR (1994)

From the IMDb:
Hercules has settled down with his wife and children, but misses the good old days travelling around having exciting adventures. One day, he is persuaded out of his farming retirement to help a distant village which is being attacked.

HERCULES: THE LEGENDARY JOURNEYS
111 EPISODES (1995-1999)

From the IMDb:
Hercules is half-man, half-god and a hero of fantastic strength. After his malevolent stepmother, Hera, kills his wife and children, he wanders about Earth with mortal best friend Iolaus, fighting evil and trying to overcome his loss.

XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS
PROMETHEUS (1998)

From the IMDb:
Prometheus is chained by Hera and humanity loses all the gifts that received from the titan, including the fire and the ability to heal. Xena and Gabrielle join forces with Hercules and Iolaus to free Prometheus, but Xena and Hercules know it is a suicide mission: the one who uses the only sword that can break Prometheus' chains will instantly die. Mission accomplished. Xena and Hercules exchange a kiss as do Iolaus and Gabrielle.

XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS
GOD FEARING CHILD (2000)

From the IMDb:
When Zeus learns that Xena's unborn child is part of a prophecy that foretells Zeus's demise, he launches an attack against the pregnant warrior princess, prompting Hercules to fly to her rescue.

O'Bservation:
The following episode of 'Hercules: The Legendary Journeys' explains why we're celebrating Hercules and Kevin Sorbo as one person....

HERCULES: THE LEGENDARY JOURNEYS
YES, VIRGINIA, THERE IS A HERCULES (1998)

From the IMDb:
Kevin Sorbo doesn't show up for filming in New Zealand after an earthquake hits Los Angeles, and the rest of the staff frantically tries to either locate him or find a replacement.

From the "Hercules" wiki:
Strife says Ares' idea to cause the earthquake was "a stroke of genius." Ares says he knew his brother would not put the show above saving innocent lives. Ares says that his brother's "legendary journeys" will soon be over and he can watch Millennium in peace. They hear a voice from the doorway and look to see Hercules in a suit. Ares says he is pathetic for pretending to be a mortal called "Kevin Sorbo". He mentions that his father, Zeus, thinks poorly of actors, with Hercules asking him when he cared about what Zeus thinks. He then says, "The world isn't ready for the truth." Ares swears they will meet again and he and Strife vanish.

Hercules unfreezes everyone and they are glad to see him, he tells them he was stuck in traffic, because "after all I'm only human." As everyone leaves to get the show in production, a news report by Mary Contrary states that an unknown figure has prevented a lot of casualties in the earthquake that happened.

CHEERS
LICENSE TO HILL (1992)

O'Bservation:
Mostly, unknown at the time, Sorbo appeared as a bar patron.  But nothing says that he couldn't have been the televersion of Kevin Sorbo (the human alias for Hercules.)

DON'T TRUST THE B IN APARTMENT 23
THE WEDDING... (2012)

From the IMDb:
Even Chloe is impressed by model pupil June's progress after lessons in New York-styled assertive attitude, but now feels somewhat threatened when June steps into the limelight with James. However, the cocky act shrivels when June is invited to her former fiancé Steven's wedding. James agrees to play along after Chloe gets them in at the arm of Hercules star Kevin Sorbo, whom she made believe it's a benefit for his mother's disease, MS.

And that's all I have to say about Mr. Sorbo. 

CROSSOVER OF THE WEEK!

"The answer goes beyond the realm of History,
Into the realm of Legend....."
Professor Samantha Gaines
"Cerberus"

I thought the Crossover of the Week would have to rely once again on the League of Themselves - and from 'The King of Queens' again at that.

But the gods answered my prayer for something completely different. Literally.

(Not that the crossover I originally had in mind was so bad, even if it was a bit Zonk!ish. But now I can save that for where it truly belongs - as part of tomorrow's tribute to the November inductee into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame!)

On Saturday, Sci-Fi Channel presented a made for TV movie "Cerberus". In the story, a comely young professor of antiquities from the Van Buren Museum of Art needed to save her scalawag of a brother. To do so, Professor Gaines teamed up with a squad of First Gulf War vets in an attempt to regain the Sword of Mars from their former comrade-in-arms, a mercenary named Cutter.

Cutter's theft of the sword from the tomb of Attila the Hun unleashed the wrath of Cerberus, the three-headed dog from Hell, upon the world. (Or at least upon a small village in Romania.)

In Toobworld, mythology is the real deal. It's not just legend; it's not a fractured fairy tale. The gods of Olympus and Asgard have just as much legitimacy in Earth Prime Time as witches married to mortals, Martians stranded in Los Angeles, eloquent equines, and maternal units reborn as automobiles.

Apollo clashed with the Enterprise crew in an episode of 'Star Trek'. Thor battled 'The Incredible Hulk'. And Hermes worked his magic for a New England college's football team. (Within the "reality" of Toobworld, 'Olympus 7-0000' was probably presented as a musical because of the demonic influence of Mr. Sweet from 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer'.)

And yes, I know Thor is from the Norse myths of the Elder Eddas, from the land of those crinkly fjords. Be thankful I didn't dredge up Hanuman the Monkey God! At least I can tie Thor into all of this.

Hrmmmm...... Now that I've mentioned a Viking god, I've suddenly got this hankering for Spam......

Anyway, looming large in the pantheon is the demigod who had several of his own TV series to his credit, both in the main Toobworld and in the Tooniverse - Hercules!

"Cerberus"
&
"Hercules In The Underworld"
&
'Hercules: The Legendary Journeys'

It's Kevin Sorbo's portrayal of the Son of Zeus that is the "official" representative of the character for Toobworld. And by "official", I mean "Because I say so." By extension, Ryan Gosling as 'Young Hercules' exists in the same dimension, being just the younger version of Sorbo's character. The Hercules who looks like actor Paul Telfer, as seen in the NBC mini-series 'Hercules', belongs to a different TV dimension. He's probably from Earth Prime Time Delay but not from the evil mirror universe, as Kevin Sorbo assayed that role in a few episodes of his own series.

As for Brian Thompson's portrayal of Hercules in the mini-series 'Jason And The Argonauts', I feel comfortable leaving that in the main Toobworld. That's because he wasn't the true Hercules; rather he was an alien bounty hunter assuming the demigod's identity, thousands of years before he would resurface again in 'The X-Files'.

Before Kevin Sorbo settled into a weekly series as the Son of Zeus, his Hercules was introduced in a series of five tele-flicks. One of these was "Hercules In The Underworld", in which we saw the dramatization of one of the twelve labors of Hercules - the capture of Cerberus, that "three-headed, mean-assed, bad-breathed dog" from Hell (as described in Saturday's TV movie.)

The mythology of Toobworld differs from the mythology of the Real World; as it should, just like all aspects of Life in TV Land. In the established myth, Hercules had to retrieve Cerberus from Hades without benefit of weapons as one of twelve tasks for King Eurystheus of Tiryns. To do so, Hercules put a choke hold on each of the three heads until the devil-dog finally passed out.

But in the TV movie, Hercules was in the Underworld to save a village from the escaping souls near a Hellmouth. And while down there he recaptured Cerberus as a favor for his half-brother Hades. But to do so, he simply restrained the beastie and then talked soothingly to him. (As he reminded the others with him, "sometimes a little kindness does the trick.")

Perhaps we didn't see it because he used sleight of hand, but I'll bet Herc slipped Cerberus an Olympian-sized Doggie Downer while restraining him!

As for the story that became the established legend? That was most likely due to the story told by Hercules' mortal brother Iphicles who would often pass himself off as his own brother in order to cadge drinks in the taverns:

“Hades was worse than your foulest nightmare. It was pitch black -- sweltering hot -- and evil lurking around every corner. So I had to find Cerberus, the three-headed dog? And bring him back to King Eurystheus -- without using any weapons. No! No! No! Really!

So -- using nothing more than my bare hands -- I choked this biting, clawing, fire-breathing beast -- and I dragged him outta Hades!

The thing is -- the king didn't want this monster! I mean, who would? So I had to turn around and take him back!”

Hercules and Cerberus met again a few years later when the demigod once again ventured into his half-brother's underworld realm to rescue Persephone, as ordered by her mother Demeter. But this time, their encounter was a violent clash. (Hercules was probably in no mood to be gentle this time around since he knew his now-deceased wife Deianeira and their children were "guests" of Hades in Hades.)

Thousands of years later, Samantha Gaines and Jake Adams could have used the help of Hercules as they struggled to defeat Cerberus. And had he been in the area of Strajerul, Romania, perhaps Herc might have done so. That's because - as established in 'Hercules: The Legendary Journeys', - Hercules still lives in the mortal world today... known as the actor Kevin Sorbo!

Other links could be made to "Cerberus", if only thematically. Professor Gaines and her quest for magical antiquities like the Breastplate of Attila and the Sword of Mars would make her an excellent candidate to work with "The Librarian", the character Noah Wyle played in a TV movie (for which he's apparently making a sequel).

Actually, we never did find out who Jake and his friends worked for - was it for the American government as "black ops", or for an international organization like 'U.N.C.L.E.'? Or maybe they also worked for "the Library".

Since she mentioned Hitler's obsession with the occult, there's always the possibility that Samantha Gaines knew Professor Henry Jones, Jr., whose presence was established in Toobworld thanks to the 'Young Indiana Jones Chronicles'.

Jake Adams and his buddies Burke and Willis, along with their nemesis Cutter, all served together fifteen years before in the Gulf War. While there in Iraq, they might have met former government scientist Paul Turner who appeared in his own series, 'Strange World'. And they may have actually fought against a member of the Iraqi Republican Guard named Sayid Jarrah, who is now 'Lost' after the crash of Oceanic Flight 815.

And finally, - and this one is really off the wall! - we never learned what Cutter's full name was. We never even learned whether or not "Cutter" was just a nickname; his prowess with the Sword of Mars seemed to indicate that the bloodthirsty mercenary was certainly at ease with a blade.

So what if Cutter was in fact a former trucker by the name of BJ McKay? We haven't seen him in Toobworld since 1981; maybe during that off-screen period he was lured over to the dark side after the death of his simian sidekick known as "The Bear".

I know if any of my chimp buddies got killed off, I'd be pretty bleeped off as well. Unless it's a guy I work with, who is descended from Hanuman the Monkey God. Him, I wouldn't miss.

There you go, making me mention Hanuman. I warned you not to let that happen! Now that I'm thinking about my jerk of a coworker, I feel a Maalox Moment coming on........

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

"He who lies down with dogs gets up with fleas."
Herman Munster
'The Munsters'

DAY OF SWINE AND PROSE

"In some other world, maybe people will be in cages,
And animals will be throwing us peanuts."
Wilbur Post
'Mr. Ed'

The list of 2005 inductees into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame was set well in advance; in fact, I'm prepared with at least three more years of nominees... just in case someone needs to pick up the mantle and shoulder on. (And next year we revamp slightly to induct somebody new every week!)

So it was not only sad but ironic to note that Eddie Albert passed away last week, just before one of his 'Green Acres' co-stars would be the June inductee into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame.

As much as he is deserving of the honor, Oliver Wendell Douglass will easily gain entry into the Hall when his time has come because he officially met the requirements. But one of his co-stars, however, needed to be herded along from the sty to the Hall before somebody made a dime bank outta him.
I'm referring of course to Arnold Ziffel.

Arnold Ziffel was the son of Fred and Doris Ziffel. Not their natural-born son, of course; he was a pig. So he's adopted.

(It could be that Sam Drucker, the first ever inductee into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame, may have been responsible for the deaths of Arnold's birth parents. At the very least, he was an accessory after the fact. Sam sold pig's knuckles in his general store at 89 cents a jar, which worked out to be about 12 cents a knuckle.

Arnold Ziffel was smart. According to TV Acres:

"Arnold could play the piano, drink lime soda from a straw, deliver letters from the mail box, turn the channels on the television (he loved to watch THE CBS EVENING NEWS with Walter Cronkite), predict weather with his curly tail, and play cricket with his own miniature cricket bat. "

He was such a smart pig that it's a porcine puzzle as to why he was still in school. Arnold was not only smarter than the other kids in school, he was smarter than many of those in that farming community of Hooterville. He ended up being drafted into the military and he went out to Hollywood to work in the movies. (I think what he really wanted to do was direct.)

Arnold even figured out a way to drink in bars without fear of being carded, decades before Toonces the Cat gave pub-crawling a try.

Young Master Ziffel proved to be so popular that he even showed up on Joey Bishop's late-night talk show. Technically, since Arnold was playing a tele-version of himself on his own show, it could be argued that this appearance was the third requirement for entry, fulfilled. But I wouldn't push that.

(It might be fun, however, to take that clip from Joey Bishop's talk show and rejigger it through editing. Excise any mention of 'Green Acres' as a show and of his co-stars as actors, and splice in an establishing shot from Joey's old sitcom so that we would be watching him host as Joey Barnes, not as Joey Bishop. The real trick would be to broadcast it to make it legit, but hey! That's why there's public access!)

In 1990 we were reunited with Arnold and most of the other "Poople of Heeterville" in the TV movie 'Return To Green Acres'. And this marks the second fulfillment for entry into the Hall of Fame.

Now, some might think I would choose the episode of 'The Jackie Thomas Show' in which Jackie tried to enlist the help of Eddie Albert in getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Arnold Ziffel. But that's actually a "Zonk!" which violates the integrity of the TV Universe. It belongs lumped in with Arnold's appearance on 'The Joey Bishop Show' and on 'What's My Line?', as well as appearances on the annual telecasts of the Patsy Awards. (In fact, all of those appearances would add up to a qualifying sub-set to keep the nit-pickers of pork as happy as a pig in shit. But where's the sport in that?)

One of the main reasons for the existence of the Inner Toob is to splain away the discrepancies of the TV Universe. This is something I've been interested in since Darrin Stephens changed from looking like Dick York one week to looking like Dick Sargent the next. Such a mission would include why - and how! - a pig could be as intelligent as Arnold Ziffel clearly was.

'Hercules: The Legendary Journey'
"Porkules"
80. Discord shot Hercules with Artemis' bow, turning him into a pig. Then she sent the hunter Colchis after Hercules, but the pig jumped from Iolaus' arms and ran off. After a butcher caught him and threw him into a meat wagon, Hercules was befriended by a female pig, Katherine. Autolycus and Iolaus rescued the two pigs from a slaughterhouse, where Hercules communicated with his friends through Fleevio the parrot.

Retreating to Alcmene's home, they eventually got the drop on Discord. Iolaus shot the mischievous goddess with Artemis' bow, turning her into a chicken, and Hercules returned to normal.

"One Fowl Day"
81. The pig Katherine, who had fallen in love with Hercules, told him of her deisre to become human. Hearing this, Aphrodite turned Katherine into a woman in her own image. The human Katherine happily stripped off all her clothes to roll in the mud.

Meanwhile, Ares punished Autolycus and Iolaus for turning Discord into a chicken. Mistaken for the Big-footed Two-headed Forest People of legend, the pair was on display at a circus when Hercules rescued them. In the end, Aphrodite turned katherine back into a pig, and the animal was happy to rejoin her family.

We don't end up seeing every moment of Life in the TV Universe. Some of it ends up taking place during the commercial breaks. (Classic example: Chekov's introduction to Khan on 'Star Trek'.) And that's what happened with the relationship between "Porkules" and Katherine. Whether it happened during episode 80, "Porkules" while they were both piglets, or in 81, "One Fowl Day" when they both assumed human form, it's probable that Hercules got Katherine pregnant.

Come on! Of COURSE they had sex! Hercules - even in the guise of a pig! - was a demi-god, the son of Zeus.

"Like father, like son.... Think about it, won't you?"
[anti-smoking PSA]

And it's standard practice in mythology that all unions between gods and mortals will bear issue. And it's not likely he wrapped his pigskin in lambskin first. No, his piggly-wiggly was probably riding bareback.

So the children of Hercules and Katherine would be part god, part human, and part porker. Those in piglet form would have the intelligence of all sentient beings, while those that were more humanoid in appearance would still bear porcine characteristics like the snout, the ears, and the curly tail.

And there would have been humanoid babies in that litter, but they would have been looked upon as monsters by society at large and by the gods who would have been offended y such issue. Most of these babies would have been tossed into Tartarus to be raised as demons, so it's possible that a fellow like the demon Clem (who wasn't such a bad sort as seen on 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer) would in fact be descended from Hercules. And a piggy.

Some of these humanoid hogs would eventually have made it back to Earth where they would continue to interbreed with humans. Some of their descendants would many generations later be found in Royston Valley and in Mellonville, Ohio. ('The League Of Gentlemen' and 'SCTV', respectively)

But for the purposes of this essay, we are more concerned with the descendants of those children who had the outward appearance of pigs. Even as they diluted the family line down through the thousands of generations, yet their intelligence quotient would have remained high.

And some of them might have continued to evolve to become more erect in stature as their ancient brethren had been. When the Slitheen launch their plot to destory Earth in March of 2006, I don't think they had to do much fiddling with the brain and skeleton of that unfortunate Ungulate which crashed a spaceship into Big Ben. ('Doctor Who')

Not that the Time Lord known as the Doctor would have known this, but I think that pig was kin to Arnold Ziffel.

Someone in Arnold's family tree admired the Ziffel heir so much that they named their child after him. Kipper the Dog has a friend, Pig the pig. And Pig's little cousin, Arnold the Pig, always comes along on their adventures even though he's too little to speak yet.

I wonder if Arnold Ziffel served as his namesake's hogfather?

And because such a theory would help to broaden the TV Universe and splain the reasoning behind this character, that is why Toobworld Central is so high on the hog about inducting Arnold Ziffel into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame for June of 2005.........

Okey dokey, Porky, er Pokey?

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

THE RECASTAWAY GOD

On the left is THE Hercules of Toobworld, as seen on 'Hercules: The Legendary Journeys'. On the right, that's Leo Francisi of the new CW show 'Valentine, Inc.'. And apparently, he's supposed to be Hercules as well. (At one point, Aphrodite called him "Hercules Leonardo Johnson". But that was in the pilot, so maybe his name has been altered again.)

Toobworld Central accepts that gods can change their appearance, so for any other Greek "deity", I could accept the recastaway. However, 'Hercules: The Legendary Journeys' established that the original Hercules is still around, living in Los Angeles, and is known today as Kevin Sorbo.

This is easy enough to splain away - Leo Francisi is the son of the original Hercules. I'm sure Hercules has taken lovers and sired children over the millennia. Leo could even be several generations separated from the founder of the family tree.

And if they get more specific about his background on 'Valentine, Inc.' to the point where he is credited with the actions of the original, we can splain that away as well. Leo was just emulating his famous ancestor. And if they say he was alive back in the Age of Legend, fine. He's an immortal; no problem!

You can get away with a lot with the gods!

BCnU!
Toby O'B

HERCULES SORBO TRUSTS THE "B"

'DON'T TRUST THE B____ IN APT. 23'
"THE WEDDING"

This sitcom solidified its presence in the Toobworld Dynamic with a League of Themselves appearance by Kevin Sorbo. This comes just a few weeks after Jack Donaghy at '30 Rock' pointed out that he knew the actor.

Chloe brought Sorbo to a wedding reception (telling him that he was the keynote speaker at an MS fund-raiser) because her room-mate June had poached her "go-to" celebrity (James Van Der Beek) to be her plus one at the party.

During the explanation, Sorbo was referred to as "Hercules", which is the role Sorbo played not only in the Trueniverse but in Toobworld as well. However, the actor is also the actual Hercules, and "Kevin Sorbo" is an alias.

But within the context of this scene, I don't think any of the others actually knew this; it was just a reference to his TV role. Like calling Leonard Nimoy "Spock" to his face long after 'Star Trek' ended.....

As for Sorbo's references to his Aunt Bonnie, who died of MS and was pictured in his lapel button, she would be part of his adopted family which helped Hercules with the illusion of Sorbo's personal life. Whether the woman ever knew Sorbo made this claim that she was his aunt will most likely never be known.

Still, Sorbo now has another title to his credit for inclusion in the TV Crossover Hall Of Fame:

'Hercules: The Legendary Journeys'

'Xena, Warrior Princess'

The "Hercules" TV movies

'30 Rock'

'Don't Trust The B In Apartment 23'

'Santa Barbara'

(Maybe the delivery man he played in one episode of the soap opera was "Kevin Sorbo" as he was just starting out as an actor......)

BCnU!

HERCULES AT 30 ROCK

On '30 Rock', Jack Donaghy mentioned that Kevin Sorbo introduced him to his podiatrist. Normally, such a mention of a celeb's televersion wouldn't be worthy of a mention here in the blog. (But it would still count towards that televersion's presence in Toobworld.)

However, Kevin Sorbo is no ordinary celebrity televersion. Within the reality of Toobworld, he also starred in the TV show 'Hercules: The Legendary Journeys'. But he's also the actual demi-god Hercules, only working under the alias of "Kevin Sorbo".

Jack's mention of Kevin Sorbo as part of his fictional life connects '30 Rock' to both 'Hercules: The Legendary Journeys', the various TV movie prequels and sequels, and to 'Xena, Warrior Princess'.

Kevin "Hercules" Sorbo may one day find himself on the Birthday Honors List for the TV Crossover Hall Of Fame.

BCnU!

SORBO: THE NEW "LEGENDARY" JOURNEYS

Here's another press release for a new series:

On "Legendary," Sorbo will play Kevin Sorbo, a former syndicated TV star. The half-hour single-camera series, from David Eick and scribes Adam Karp and Royal McGraw, follows Sorbo as he's recruited by a fan to help defeat actual creatures that threaten to destroy Los Angeles.

Hopefully they won't mention 'Hercules: The Legendary Journeys' as that syndicated TV show which made Sorbo a star, but more than likely they will. Even so, it's okay: in one episode of that series, we saw the behind the scenes work on the show, fictionalized. So there was a Toobworld version of 'Hercules: The Legendary Series', based on the real demi-god whose adventures were actually seen during the rest of the series.

And as it turned out, the televersion of Kevin Sorbo really was Hercules, so both shows can now be considered linked - thanks to the League of Themselves. (If you wanted, you could toss in any TV appearance he made on game shows, talk shows, reality shows as himself, because "Kevin Sorbo" was merely an alias for Hercules.)

BCnU!

TODAY'S TWD: PIC-A-NIC BASKING AT ASGARD

'Doctor Who' - "Silence In The Library"
Before she realized that the Doctor was from a time before she met him, Dr. River Song looked through her diary to get an idea as to "when" he was in their relationship. As cue to trigger his memory, she brought up several highlights they shared together, and one of these was their picnic at Asgard.

This is a reference that could work two ways. One would be to the classical version of Asgard as the home of the Norse gods, the Aesir. It would have been in its own dimension yet still on earth (perhaps a shift in dimensional harmonics or some such technobabble) and could only be accessed by Bifrost, the rainbow bridge.

Although established in the Elder Eddas, Asgard could only be a part of Toobworld once it was seen in some TV show or TV movie. And it was during an episode of 'Hercules: The Legendary Journeys' that we got to see Asgard ('Norse By Norsevest').
As the TARDIS can travel through Time And Relative Dimensions In Space, it would have been easy enough for the Doctor and River Song to reach the home of the gods, perhaps at some pivotal point in their legends.

But there's another possibility......

The Asgard is the name of an alien race, ancient, wise, and mentors to the human race, who have allied themselves with Earth via the Stargate team. They resemble the classic "Roswell Grey" type of alien, with the oversized heads, large dark eyes, and thin bodies with almost stick-like limbs.

Originally their home planet was Othala in the Halla System of the Ida Galaxy. But the Asgard abandoned it during the wars with the Replicators and instead settled on Orilla in the same galaxy (perhaps a different star system, however). From there, they triggered the collapse of Halla's star so that they would all die in the resultant apocalypse. (Their race was doomed and they didn't want anything left behind which could prove an advantage to their enemies.)
So their planets were Othala, Orilla, maybe Halla as well. But it could be that their home planet became identified with the name of their race as well, so that it was also called Asgard. And it could be on one of those homeworlds where River Song had her picnic with her Doctor.......

Me, I'm a sucker for pseudo-deities so I'm rooting for my first splainin!

BCnU!
Toby OB

Hercules:
Do you know any legends about your Gods,
you know, where they're supposed to live?
Hilda:
Oh, sure. In Asgard.
Hercules:
How would I get there?

Hilda:
Die in battle, d'uh!
'Hercules: The Legendary Journeys'

SORBO KNOWS

Actor Kevin Sorbo has a gripe against Sam Raimi, with whom he worked on 'Hercules: The Legendary Journeys'. And he got a lot off his mind in an interview with Film Stew:

According to Sorbo, "I think I’m a good enough actor that he can put me in a secondary part in one of his feature films. It would be nice if he did that. I think he’s holding a grudge over me."

If this was taking place in Toobworld, Sam Raimi might have a valid reason to keep his distance from Kevin Sorbo - proximity to the gods tends to make some people nervous.

You see, in Earth Prime-Time, the televersion of Kevin Sorbo is not only an actor in a TV series about the legendary demi-god, but he actually IS Hercules. (This was established in an episode of 'Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.)

Sam Raimi would probably be aware of the legends surrounding Herc - how he was driven to murder his wife and kids, as well as his mentor, the centaur Chiron.

If Raimi found out that Sorbo was in fact the real Hercules, he probably figured that giving direction to such a hot-head might lead to good publicity since they worked together before, but it wasn't worth his possible death and dismemberment.

Hrmmmm..... maybe Sorbo should work with Uwe Boll or Vincent Gallo.....

Just sayin', is all....

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

SPLAININ TO DO: CERVIDAE SAPIENS

Ever since the "Lord Of The Rings", the World has discovered what a magical place New Zealand is.

Within Toobworld, however, it might be an even more magical place than here in the Real World....

Check out the latest blipvert from FedEx:

http://youtu.be/VlRkE9dkuyM

So at least in New Zealand, the deer are intelligent enough to place an online order, with access to some method in paying for their purchases, and to use their novelty "Groucho" glasses in order to hide from hunters (who have shown their own sub-par intelligence in not detecting the subterfuge by the deer.)

We have seen intelligent animals in Toobworld before. And usually we have a good splainin for why:

DOGS: They are reincarnated humans. ["Poochinsky"]

CATS: They are witches and warlocks, magically transformed. ['Sabrina The Teenage Witch']

HORSES: Thanks to Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" being absorbed into Toobworld with an adaptation, we know intelligent horses come from the Land of the Houyhnhnms.  ['Mr. Ed']

PIGS:  Intelligent swine are part human, descended from Demi-god Hercules who had been magically transformed into "Porkules" - during which time he got Catherine, a female pig, pregnant. ['Green Acres']

I think we can add deer to this collection with a TV-spawned splainin for them.

DEER: Similar to the story with Hercules, intelligent deer are descended from the Cervidae children of Herne the Hunter. ('Robin Of Sherwood')

I also think Herne could have sired  children with human females.  Some of his descendants could have been Golden Hinds. ('Hercules: The Legendary Journeys')

BCnU!

TODAY'S TWD: GREEKSHOW

"Gods Behaving Badly" is a book by Marie Phillips, dealing with the legendary gods of the Greek myths (now living in London). It'll be out in paperback June 5th in the UK, and it's been optioned for a TV series by Ben Stiller.

Should it reach fruition as a TV series, there's no fear of it Zonking any other incarnations of the Greek gods in other TV shows, movies, or commercials. That's because the gods had the power to transform themselves to look like other people. Sometimes this happened within the same series - for example, the "god-father" Zeus. In 'Hercules: The Legendary Journeys', Zeus was played by Anthony Quinn and Charles Keating.

Just for giggles, here are a few examples of the main gods and goddesses of the Olympian Pantheon as seen in various TV productions.
Zeus - 'Sabrina, The Teenage Witch'

Hera - "Jason And The Argonauts"

Apollo - 'Star Trek'

Hermes - 'ABC Stage 67': "Olympus 7-000"

Aphrodite - 'Fantasy Island'

Athena - 'Helen of Troy'

Hestia - 'Xena, Warrior Princess'

Ares - 'Young Hercules'

Artemis - 'Spellbinder: Land of the Dragon Lord'

Neptune aka Poseidon - "The Little Mermaid" - 'Faerie Tale Theatre' & 'Shirley Temple's Storybook'

Demeter - 'Hercules: The Legendary Journeys'

Hephaestus - "Goddess Of Love"

Dionysus aka Bacchus - 'The Twilight Zone' (1985)

Cupid - 'Cupid'

BCnU!
Toby OB

KEVIN SORBO: ALL IN A DAY'S HERC

Tim Stack of "Entertainment Weekly" had this scoop:

'Don't Trust The Bitch In Apartment 23' will be a midseason series on ABC. (I'm not really sure if the title will actually have "Bitch" in it, but I'm not going to shy away from using it if others are just using "B____" for propriety's sake.)

And it has several Toobworldly factors going for it. First off, that the apartment in question is number "23" gives it a 'Lost' missing link, as "23" is one of the numbers in Hurley's unlucky sequence.

Then there's James Van Der Beek co-starring as himself. It's not a novel idea - 'Half Nelson' with Dean Martin and 'It's Like... You Know' with Jennifer Grey have done it before - but it will foster a lot of 'Dawson's Creek' Zonks I'll have to deactivate.

Van Der Beek is not the only one who will be appearing as members of the League of Themselves on the sitcom. Dean Cain will show up as Van Der Beek's rival, while Kevin Sorbo will be in another as Chloe's wedding date.

If they want to make 'Lois & Clark' jokes about Dean Cain, I'm okay with that. 'Lois & Clark' took place in an alternate TV dimension and it could be that since the mythos of Superman is known to everybody in Toobworld since he died, then there might be a TV series based on the Man of Steel.....

But the most exciting bit o' news was for the casting of Kevin Sorbo as himself. This will tie the series in to 'Hercules: The Legendary Journeys', which established that the former TV Herc was actually the true Hercules using the alias of Kevin Sorbo!

Sweet. Kevin Sorbo may actually get into the TV Crossover Hall Of Fame based on this new series. (There's also the project "Legendary" which would have Sorbo playing himself, not to mention his appearances as Hercules in episodes of 'Xena-Warrior Princess'.)

BCnU!

RECASTAWAYS - CAGNEY & CAGNEY & CAGNEY & LACEY

Let's take a quick look at the casting discrepancies for 'Cagney & Lacey'.....

From Wikipedia:

'Cagney & Lacey' is an American television series that originally aired on the CBS television network for seven seasons from March 25, 1982 to May 16, 1988. A police procedural, the show stars Tyne Daly and Sharon Gless as New York City police detectives who lead very different lives: Christine Cagney (Gless) was a single, career-minded woman, while Mary Beth Lacey (Daly) was a married working mother. The series was set in a fictionalized version of Manhattan's 14th Precinct (known as "Midtown South"). For six consecutive years, one of the two lead actresses won the Emmy for Best Lead Actress in a Drama (four wins for Daly, two for Gless), a winning streak unmatched in any major category by a show.

And that's how the show will always be remembered.

But the role of Chris Cagney was not always played by Sharon Gless.

It all began with a pilot film starring Tyne Daly as Mary Beth Lacey, but it was Loretta Swit who played her partner.  Unfortunately for her, the Powers That Be behind 'M*A*S*H' would not let Swit out of her contract in order to take part in the series.  So the role was recast with Meg Foster.

But Ms. Foster only appeared in the first six episodes arc of the series as a mid-season replacement before the role was recast yet again with Ms. Gless.  And the rest, as they say, is History.

From several reports I've seen, CBS wanted Foster replaced because she was coming off as too aggressive and they were afraid she would be perceived as being a lesbian.  (I always wondered why they didn't make the same decision about Gless.  The way those suits thought - if they even bothered to - Gless' voice at times might have made them see her as being a bit too butch as well.)

Regarding the casting of Loretta Swit in the role, that's a softball splainin.  That pilot movie is shipped off to Toobworld-MOTW, where many of the TV movies which just don't fit into Earth Prime-Time can also be found.  And with this Recastaway conundrum, that's the best of all possible Toobworlds for it.

Now, as for those first six episodes which might as well be considered a mini-series.....

Normally I would have cited Occam's Razor on this recasting and gone for the simplest splainin: Those first six episodes took place in that Prequel Toobworld while the remaining bulk of the series claims residence in Earth Prime-Time, the main Toobworld.

But in this case, I wanted to take on the challenge of keeping it in the main Toobworld along with the Gless episodes.  I felt something more was needed to give the Toobworld Dynamic some of that TV pizazz.  It needed a flashier splainin for the Recastaway to keep those first six episodes in Toobworld Prime.  Something along the lines of a temporary alien replacement.  

And it's all because of those hypnotic eyes of Meg Foster.

Foster has always been stunning with the bluest eyes imaginable.  They are practically unearthly!  So it was not hard to then imagine that it was an alien who stole Chris Cagney's identity for a few weeks before finally abandoning the ruse and the real Chris Cagney was able to return.

But which alien?  Surely it should be an alien whom Ms. Foster had already played in Toobworld.

And that's why I'm going to claim that for a few weeks, Detective Chris Cagney was impersonated by Hera, the Greek demi-goddess and errant wife of Zeus.

You may not ever have considered it, but Hera - as well as all of the demi-gods of mythology (not just the Greek pantheon) - were aliens not of Earth Prime-Time.  They were - are! - pan-dimensional beings who crossed over from their home dimension to establish dominion on Toobworld.  Some ruled from their seat of power at the locus for the multi-dimensional rift near Mount Olympus; others held sway in the "great white North" of Asgard accessible by the burning rainbow bridge of Bifrost.

I can't speak for all the fictional universes created from Mankind's collective imagination, but for Toobworld, those demi-gods still exist as do their half-breed human spawn like Hercules.  (In Toobworld today, Hercules hides in plain sight as the actor Kevin Sorbo.)  Some of those demi-gods, like Apollo, will still be around somewhere in the galaxy centuries from now.

All of that information... information... information has already been established in other TV shows.  So it's not inconceivable to consider Hera still existing in Toobworld in the 1980s.  In fact, she may have "hidden in plain sight" several times over the millennia.  Here are two pozz'bilities - the 1700s and the 1880s:
  

Perhaps her life was in danger from some other demi-god.  Let's face it, back in those days of Legend, Hera was "μια ενόχληση" - she had a tendency to really piss people off.  It might even have been her husband Zeus spoiling for a bit of a domestic dispute.  At least a rematch....

But I think it more likely that the demi-goddess felt the need to be an avenger for a period of time, to make right what once went wrong.  Perhaps she was atoning for some past transgression by this action.  

And so Hera chose to do her penance in the guise of a detective in the NYPD.  She used her magicks to abscond with the real Chris Cagney and hold her as a (hopefully!) pampered prisoner while she impersonated the policewoman.

And neither Chris' partner Mary Beth Lacey, nor Lt. Samuels or any of the other detectives in the squad - Isbecki, La Guardia, or Rob Petrie's third cousin Mark - ever noticed the change.  Like most of the demi-gods, Hera had the talent to alter her appearance and so to everybody else she looked just like Christine Cagney.  

But because we saw this all play out from our position in the Trueniverse, our perspective showed us Hera as she truly looked.  It would be much the same situation years later when we saw Dr. Sam Beckett leap into the lives of various people at different points in his own personal timeline.  No matter who they were, we only saw them as they truly looked whenever we saw their reflection.  Otherwise, we saw Sam Beckett.

Eventually the demi-goddess must have realized that she could no longer maintain the illusion of being Chris Cagney.  Perhaps Hera achieved the goal she was seeking.  At any rate, she returned the true Christine to her own life - with her memory of that period erased, of course, and false memories instilled into her mind - before departing through the vortex and back to a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity; the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition.......

Thanks to Hera's ability to shape-change, we could make the claim that any TV role assayed by Meg Foster could be the demi-goddess.  So with having 'Hercules: The Legendary Journeys' and 'Xena, Warrior Princess' already to her credits, we just might induct Hera into the TVXOHOF as a Birthday Honors member some day......

That's my splainin and I'm sticking with it.

BCnU!

My thanks to John Hadlow for the inspiration for this post.  Recently he posted a picture on Facebook of Meg Foster and Tyne Daly as 'Cagney & Lacey' (that last one of the dynamic duo) and I realized I had never addressed this discrepancy before.  Probably a good thing as I might not have thought of the Hera connection before now......