LONG LIVE JOHN FREEBORN!

As I mentioned earlier, I went to the Paley Center for Media on Thursday to see the two "From Sea To Shining Sea" specials from 1974. These were supposed to be just the first two of a series of nine that would lead up to the Bicentennial, but no others were made. (Thumbnail review - great casts but not all that compelling, despite being written by Ernest Kinoy and directed by Buzz Kulik.)

The first one was "Give Me Liberty" and was set in 1774-75, ranging from the Virginia frontier back to the more settled area around Alexandria and then up to Philadelphia. The second one, "Land Of The Free" began on the shores of Massachusetts and ended down South on the road to New Orleans in 1814.

In both, Robert Culp played the same character, John Freeborn.

Now, the time that passed between those two periods would approximately be about the same time span that Robert Culp himself went through from his days as a 'Columbo' murderer to the time leading up to his death just last week. And that passage of Time left its mark on him as it does on all men:
And yet, in these two TV specials, John Freeborn didn't age at all. In fact, when he should have been in his 70s, Freeborn was serving on board a British navy vessel; pressed into service after his own ship had been seized at sea.

When I pointed this out the other day, I made an off-hand suggestion that since John Freeborn was something of an "Eternal Man", as Trent was described in the opening narration for "Demon With A Glass Hand" on 'The Outer Limits', then perhaps Trent used one of those Kyben time-mirrors to go back even further in Time. (Off-hand, glass hand. Heh heh....)

But that was forgetting my own rule of thumb (more hand imagery!) about following Occam's Razor - always go for the simplest splainin.

I was too eager to combine Robert Culp characters to tighten up the TV Universe. Instead, I should have used John Freeborn as a way to connect the two historical specials to another TV series, which would have the same effect.

I should have seen John Freeborn for what he really was - an Immortal. Like MacLeod in 'Highlander'.
The name "John Freeborn" could be looked upon as an alias, to cover his real identity from centuries, even a millennium, earlier. It's true we don't see him with a sword, but that could have been hidden among his supplies on his pack animals. And he might have lost it when he was captured by the English in March of 1812. Eventually he would have gained a new one, but it was just something we never got to see happen.

Another scene, right at the very beginning of "Land Of The Free", could also be interpreted as proof that Freeborn was an Immortal. We see him being dragged ashore in the Massachusetts surf by young Jamie MacGillivray, a Connecticut schooled, 1/8th Creek Indian (played by Jeff Conaway). Jamie leaves him there on the beach and goes off to look for supplies.

It could be that Jamie was dragging Freeborn's body on shore, knowing his secret that he would come back to life in a few minutes despite drowning at sea. He looked near as dead lying there on the beach.

After that, we can then play the guessing game as to which of Culp's characters in the future could have been John Freeborn under an alias. So long as his TV Western characters survived the episode they were in, I think they're fair game. (They also shouldn't be the bad guys. Not that John Freeborn was the all-too-noble white-hat guy; he was a peddler just trying to mind his own business and to make sure he got paid his due. At one point, after he made it back to America in 1814, Freeborn was determined just to quit the young republic and go to the Indies.)

I wouldn't include Culp's first leading role, that of Hoby Gilman in 'Trackdown', among the other aliases for Freeborn. Toobworld Central has other ways to link that show to the main TV Universe - 'Wanted: Dead Or Alive', 'Zane Grey Theater', and 'I Spy'.

And besides, too many details about a character's past life can come up when he has an extended run on our TV screens. Better to use somebody who's in and out in just one hour.

Among the candidates to be John Freeborn under another name could be:

Ed Payson - 'Bonanza': "Broken Ballad"
Robert Culp as a former gunfighter trying to live down his past.

Baylor Crofoot - 'Wagon Train': "The Baylor Crofoot Story"
Schoolmaster Baylor Crofoot persistantly turns the other cheek when provoked by a blustering bully. But it seems that he holds these principles only to mask his cowardice.

Craig Kern - 'Rawhide': "Incident At The Top Of The World"
A howling prairie storm known as a "Norther" and a cattle drover with emotional problems, known only to Gil Favor, threaten to hamper the Sedalia-bound cattle drive in more ways than one.

At the very least, Kern and Crofoot could be the same character but not necessarily John Freeborn....

A little further up the Toobworld timeline, I'd like to add Lyle Pettijohn of 'Roots: The Next Generation' to the list of possible new identities for John Freeborn. The fact that he would have incorporated his old name into his new identity makes it especially appealing. As he wasn't the focus in the story (O'Bviously), I don't remember there being much personal background given to his character. (Also, he could have fathered Pvt. "Littlejohn", Dick Peabody's character on 'Combat!' The characters' timelines overlapped to the point that this would be unlikely for anybody else, but Freeborn was around a long time earlier to make it possible.)

Making any definite claims to John Freeborn's other identities at this time would be useless without seeing many of his guest roles and TV movies again. But making the claim that he was an Immortal, and thus providing a link to 'Highlander', 'Highlander: The Raven', and a batch of follow-up TV movies, is good enough for now....

Robert Culp may have left us in the real world and taken many of his signature roles with him, but his characters of John Freeborn and Trent will live on for VERY long times in Toobworld.....

BCnU!

A MISSING LINK QUICKIE

The Katana blade from the 'Warehouse 13' episode "Implosion" was a 14th Century blade that could cause "invisibility". Hiro Nakamura time-shifted back to the 17th Century, but some of those blades could have been legacies, handed down over generations and originally made by that same craftsman. That same swordmaster might have also forged the Katana blades used by several of the immortals encountered in 'Highlander' and in its sequel, 'Highlander: The Raven'.

Just putting it out there as possibilities.....

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: LORD BYRON

LORD BYRON

AS SEEN IN:
"Beau Brummell: This Charming Man"

AS PLAYED BY:
Matthew Rhys

From Wikipedia:
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, later George Gordon Noel, 6th Baron Byron, FRS (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), commonly known simply as Lord Byron, was a British poet and a leading figure in Romanticism. Amongst Byron's best-known works are the brief poems "She Walks in Beauty", "When We Two Parted", and "So, we'll go no more a roving", in addition to the narrative poems "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" and "Don Juan". He is regarded as one of the greatest British poets and remains widely read and influential, both in the English-speaking world and beyond.

Byron's notability rests not only on his writings but also on his life, which featured aristocratic excesses, huge debts, numerous love affairs, and self-imposed exile. He was famously described by Lady Caroline Lamb as "mad, bad and dangerous to know." (It is odd, however, that generations of scholars have taken her at her word. As Francis Henry Gribble makes clear in his "The Love Affairs of Lord Byron", chapter 11, she was herself not far from insane, morally highly equivocal, and capable of creating more than enough danger to convince any prudent man to stay well clear of her.)

Byron served as a regional leader of Italy's revolutionary organization, the Carbonari, in its struggle against Austria. He later traveled to fight against the Ottoman Empire in the Greek War of Independence, for which Greeks revere him as a national hero.

He died from a fever contracted while in Missolonghi in Greece.

At least... that is what he wanted the world to think.

LORD BYRON

AS SEEN IN:
'The Highlander' - "Modern Prometheus"

AS PLAYED BY:
Jonathan Firth

Upon his death, he was reborn as an Immortal and continued for centuries in his wanton ways. By the 1990's, Byron had refashioned himself as a modern day rocker.

Here's the epguides.com description of his final days in that life.....

Lord Byron, the brilliant Romantic poet, is alive and well and living the decadent life of a rock star. He lives life way over the edge and has taken some promising young musicians over the edge with him. When following in Byron's footsteps tragically ends the life of Dawson's protege, MacLeod is faced with a decision -- is the beauty and genius that is Byron worth the cost?

Usually when it comes to the portrayal of an historical figure, we can afford to send off most of them to other TV dimensions; share the wealth as it were. This is especially true with the historical bio-films, like with Kennedy or Lincoln; instead we keep their appearances within TV series episodes and just assume the true history as a given to fill in the blanks.

But in this case, we can keep an extra portrayal of Lord Byron in Earth Prime-Time and not have to worry about the discrepancy in appearance due to there being a recastaway. So - as there were many TV portrayals of Lord Byron - Toobworld Central decided to keep his appearance in the TV movie about Beau Brummell. That way we get to keep James Purefoy's performance as Brummell. (It would have been nice to also claim a "Born To Rerun" theory, that Lord Byron was reincarnated as Kevin Walker on 'Brothers & Sisters' since they were both played by Matthew Rhys. Unfortunately, Kevin's timeline overlaps Byron's in that 'Highlander' episode.)

How can we claim this? Because Lord Byron as seen in the past flashbacks during "Modern Prometheus" are the memories of Duncan MacLeod, influenced by how he sees Lord Byron today. And those memories can be tampered with - not only does he see Byron as he looks in the present of that episode, but he doesn't always remember that Byron had a limp due to a club foot. (This can splain away the Zonk that Firth didn't always remember to play his scenes with the handicap.)

As for Byron's change in appearance in the 1990's from how he looked back in the early 19th Century, there was plenty of time after his rebirth as an Immortal for the poet to get a facelift. A lemon-squeezy splainin. You know, easy-peasey. (Like Byron, I'm a poet and I don't even realize it!)

LORD BYRON

AS SEEN IN:
'Star Trek: Voyager' - "The Darkling"

AS PLAYED BY:
Christopher Clarke

As it turns out, we can even keep a third portrayal of Lord Byron without fear of recurring the wrath of a Zonk. When the holographic program of The Doctor on board the starship Voyager decided to expand his personality subroutines, the simulation of Lord Byron was among those that he studied. (Thank you, Memory Alpha!) As this was a simulation programmed into the ship's computer, the image was interpreted by the program's designer.

Byronmania: it's not the real thing, but an incredible simulation!

How about that? It's a Three for Tuesday!

BCnU!

BIG MAC ATTACK

I caught an old episode of 'McMillan & Wife' last week, that has a very tenuous link to 'Highlander' and 'Doctor Who'.

In "Death Of A Monster, Birth Of A Legend", Commissioner Stuart McMillan and his wife Sally (along with their maid Mildred and Mac's assistant, Sgt. Charlie Enright) returned to the ancestral homeland of the McMillans near Kinross, Scotland. There they got caught up in solving the murder of Mac's uncle Michael, "The McMillan", which had been arranged to look like a suicide.
During the course of the investigation, they learned of the family history: on the eve of the Battle of Kinross, four McMillan generals discovered that one of their compatriots, a member of Clan MacCready, had remained behind, hidden in the castle. As punishment for his cowardice, the others walled Ian MacCready up behind the wall of the tower, and it is said that his ghost still walks the halls of the castle.

Only afterwards did the McMillans find out that MacCready was also a thief - he had hidden away the McMillan treasure which was eventually discovered during the investigation.

I Googled "The Battle of Kinross", but all that comes up are references to a music festival featuring Rage Against The Machine. So I'm not sure it actually occurred, but acting on it being fictional, I'm going to say that the Battle of Kinross probably took place in 1746. There were a series of battles between the Jacobites and the Hanoverians, culminating with the Battle of Culloden which decisively ended the Scottish uprising against British rule.

The Battle of Culloden is important for Toobworld because two of its best sci-fi characters fought during it: Jamie McCrimmon, a Companion of 'Doctor Who', and Duncan MacLeod of 'Highlander' fame (the successor to his cousin Connor from the movie franchise).

There's nothing to say that any of the McMillans ever knew the MacLeods or Jamie McCrimmon, but then again... who's to say they didn't? Who knows? Maybe Jamie eventually married into Clan McMillan. (I'm sure there must be some record of whom he married in other sources like the various tie-in novels, but I don't count them in the TV canon.)
BCnU!
Toby O'B

SWITCH HITLER

As Adolph Hitler is in the spotlight today for our "As Seen On TV" feature, I thought we'd take a look at the man in Toobworld, specifically the reason why his appearance kept changing......

There's a 'Twilight Zone' episode called "The Man In The Bottle" in which a genie grants a curio shop owner and his wife four wishes. But the wishes were booby-trapped, so that Mr. and Mrs. Castle came to regret each one. And with the penultimate wish, when Arthur Castle desired to become the ruler of a foreign country in the 20th Century who couldn't be voted out of office, the genie turned him into Adolph Hitler at the end of WWII.

Hitler is one of those real-life historical figures who prove to be irresistible to screenwriters, like Lincoln or JFK. He's made an appearance in many TV shows as well as TV movies which could have caused a zonkish headache due to all those recastaways.

The TV movies and many of the mini-series aren't really a problem; there are plenty of alternate TV dimensions which should have their own Hitler. But the series - including 'Highlander', 'Red Dwarf', and 'The Time Tunnel (all pictured below) - should all be sharing the same dimension, so having so many different incarnations of Hitler could have been a problem.
This is why "The Man In The Bottle" is part of the Toobworld Essentials collection. It provides the splainin as to why Hitler's appearance kept changing in Toobworld - that genie (or another one from a different bottle) kept replacing the Fuhrer with men who wished to be a man of power in the world.

Really, look at the "Hitler" with Tony and Doug from 'The Time Tunnel'; that's got to be a wannabe! And the same goes for that "Hitler" who survived the explosion in 'Highlander'. (As for that scene in 'Red Dwarf', that's stock footage into which Dave was inserted. However, Kenneth Hadley did portray Hitler in an episode.)

For a little variety, of course, we could always claim that a few of those Hitlers were quantum leapers from the future, when the technology was more stable.

So, unless Adolph Hitler is played by Michael Sheard on TV (and sadly, that's no longer possible), then we're seeing an imposter transplanted there by a 'Quantum Leap' or by a genie's magic.

And many of those imposters would handle the opportunity far better than Arthur Castle... of 'The Twilight Zone'.

BCnU!
Toby O'B

PS:

An interesting side-note, outside of Toobworld..... Luther Adler, who played Arthur Castle in this episode of 'The Twilight Zone', also played Hitler in two movies as well. However I don't think we should be dragging them into the TV universe since he was in command of himself as Hitler in those films. Arthur Castle was shocked by the realization that he had become Hitler in the bunker near the end of Hitler's life.

VALDEZ IS COMING (AND GOING)

Juan Valdez is retiring. Long live Juan Valdez!

The ambassador to the world for Colombian coffee, Carlos Sanchez, is hanging up his trademark poncho after four decades of playing the role of "Juan Valdez."

Now the national federation of Colombian coffee producers, owners of the Juan Valdez trademark, is searching for a man to inherit that poncho.

Sanchez and his trusty mule Conchita have promoted Colombian coffee since 1969 with a leather bag, bushy mustache and straw hat typical of rural Colombia. That Juan Valdez trademark has become one of the world's most recognizable, and the fictional figure has become one of the most famous Colombians of all time.

For a country so closely allied in the global mind with drug traffickers and terrorists, Colombians have been grateful to Valdez for presenting another side to their country.

"I feel like a flag, I feel like I've represented the country," said Sanchez in a press conference, at times struggling to hold back tears as he talked of his joy at playing the role of a generation. "There is a big sense of gratitude from Colombians abroad for this."

Sanchez, 71, said his advancing years made it hard to keep up a strenuous schedule traveling all over Colombia and the world promoting coffee.

In searching for a replacement, the federation sent teams across the streets, farms and - of course - cafes in the coffee region in the west of the country. With the help of U.S. consultants, they narrowed down 400 contenders to 10. It will announce the new Juan Valdez, the third incarnation, by the end of June.

"Of course he must have a mustache," joked Gabriel Silva, the general manager of the federation. Sanchez nodded in approval and stroked his own impressive mustache.

"This is not a beauty contest," said Silva.This was quickly confirmed when images of the casting call showed dozens of mustached men, some with notable paunches, doing their impressions of Juan Valdez.

Asked what he wants to do now he's retired, Sanchez said "paint like a madman."

[edited from the AP story]

The story mentions that Carlos Sanchez was the second man to portray Juan Valdez; Jose Duval was the first. But I'm sure the general public watching the ads never noticed the difference when the role was recast.

Upon closer examination of the two versions, I'm sure people would be able to tell one from the other. As I'm sure they will be able to tell the difference between Mr. Sanchez and his successor if pressed to examine them both.

Now it could be argued that Juan Valdez is an Immortal, as found in the TV shows 'Highlander' and 'Highlander: The Raven', and therefore the same man throughout the run of these commercials. But I think we should cite Occam's Razor and go for the easier splainin: in this particular branch of the Valdez family, it is tradition that the oldest son is named Juan. And we will be seeing "Juan Valdez: The Next Generation" in these new blipverts.

Of course, this doesn't explain his seemingly magical ability to teleport himself (and his mule Conchita) into supermarkets all over the United States and then back to Colombia to trod the hills of its coffee country. But that's some kind of genetic talent that is also passed down from generation to generation along with the name.......

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

DOCTOR BOMBAY & THE LAZARUS MAN

The TV Crossover Hall of Fame, part of the Toobworld experience, officially began in 1999. Of the first twelve honorees that year, the October inductee was Dr. Bombay, the witch doctor played by Bernard Fox. Best known for his 18 appearances on 'Bewitched', he also guest starred on an episode of the spinoff, 'Tabitha'. And then on September 17, 1999, he appeared in an episode of the soap opera, 'Passions'.

There are a lot of TV characters who have been seen in three different TV shows (the minimum requirement for inclusion to the Hall), but what made that 'Passions' guest spot extra special (and which gave Bombay the fast track) was that it happened on the 35th anniversary of the 'Bewitched' premiere.

So those were the three "official" appearances in Toobworld for the prestidigitatin' practitioner. (He showed up in another episode of 'Passions' a few months later.) But this week, I may have found a fourth appearance by Dr. Bombay - earlier than the others in both the timelines for the Real World and Toobworld.

Sadly, it took the death of Robert Altman for me to have stumbled upon it......

During World War II (after D-Day), a baseball "superstar" was assigned to Sgt. Saunders' squad. Most of the unit was in awe of Del Packer, especially Private Billy Nelson. And Private Kelly hoped to make some quick cash by using Packer as a ringer in a pickup game with a rival platoon.

As it turned out, Packer was fearful of damage to his "golden arm", and was determined to do whatever it took to protect it and his future career in the big leagues - even at the expense of the other members of his platoon.

It turned out to be 19 year old Billy who paid that ultimate price when Del Packer froze in battle.

And yet, Billy Nelson - as played by Tom Lowell, - returned for nearly thirty more episodes of 'Combat!' before the series ended.

How did Billy come back from the dead? I think the answer lies in his medical treatment.

If you ever get the chance to see this episode of 'Combat!' ("The Celebrity"), check out who was the doctor treating Billy. No, not 'Doctor Who' - it's an uncredited turn by Bernard Fox. (I have to say, though, having rewatched the episode, I'd never assume it was Mr. Fox just based on his appearance. There's something... 'off' about his look. And without the opportunity to hear him speak...... Three different sources credit Bernard Fox with the role, so it could be that Dr. Bombay just modified his appearance to better fit in to his surroundings.)

Bernard Fox, as an unnamed doctor, whose patient dies and yet comes back to life.....

Who else could it be but Bombay the witch doctor?

One has to wonder why Dr. Bombay chose Billy Nelson to bring back from the dead of all the soldiers lost in WWII. I don't think Billy was a brother warlock; there's no evidence in any of the other episodes to support the idea that he had magical powers.

I think it could be that Dr. Bombay needed Billy to die in order to have an impact on Del Packer.

Other times when we saw Dr. Bombay during 'Bewitched', he had been called away from one sporting event or another - polo matches, ostrich races, that sort of thing.

I'd hate to think that Dr. Bombay wanted to meddle in the lives of mortals just to affect the outcome of a sporting event. But we've seen from the in-laws of Darrin Stephens that witches and warlocks can be capricious and cruel.

Perhaps Dr. Bombay had an interest in Del Packer's future baseball career, either for or against him. (Bombay had been around long enough to probably even know Abner Doubleday!)

After Dr. Bombay achieved his intended effect, he brought Billy Nelson back to life. However, it's also my belief that having died once, Billy lost the ability to ever die again. The proof of this can be found in "Gomer Maneuvers", an episode of 'Gomer Pyle, USMC' from 1969.

While engaged in war games, Private Pyle met Corporal Nelson, looking no more than two years older than he did when last seen back in 1944-45, a quarter of a century before.

After years of watching the adventures of FBI agents Mulder and Scully, I'm inclined to believe the government understood what a secret weapon they had in Billy Nelson They kept him in the army as a special ops agent for all of that time. Billy would have gone along with the arrangement because, as Littlejohn pointed out*, Billy was the type of guy who wanted to be in the army; he wouldn't be happy anyplace else. (Whether he still works for the government now is unclear. If I was Billy Nelson, I'd have finally bolted to lead my own life. And that's probably what would have happened in this post-"X Files" era of Television.)

Billy Nelson's situation is similar to that of Captain Jack Harkness, renegade Time Agent from the 52nd Century, as seen in 'Doctor Who'. In the year 200,100 AD, Jack was killed during yet another Dalek invasion of Earth. But thanks to the intervention of the "Bad Wolf", Rose Tyler (who had absorbed the Timestream), Jack was brought back to life.

However, now that he's back in present day Cardiff as the leader of 'Torchwood', Captain Jack has found that he can't die - even when shot in the forehead at point blank range.

Although I hold fast to my belief that it is Dr. Bombay who appears in that episode of 'Combat!', it could be that the witch doctor had no connection to the resurrection of Billy Nelson. It could be that it was automatically triggered so that he became immortal... until somebody cuts off his head after his encounter with Gomer Pyle. (It would certainly help splain away why we never see Billy Nelson again. Even if we did find some other character who could be him under an alias, Tom Lowell has continued to age over the years.)

After all, as 'The Highlander' reminded us, "There can be only one......"

Shows cited:
'Bewitched'
'Combat!'
'Gomer Pyle, USMC'
'Doctor Who'
'Torchwood'
'Tabitha'
'Passions'
'The Highlander'
'The X-Files'
'Law & Order'

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

*This type of insight by Littlejohn is a trait that might have been passed down to his own son. It's a Toobworld Theory of Relateeveety that Littlejohn had a bastard son in 1955, who grew up to assist the New York District Attorney's office as a forensic psychologist. That character? Dr. Emil Skoda of 'Law & Order'.......

TODAY'S TWD: POMPEII & CIRCUMSTANCE

With this run of "Turn Left" Tiddlywinkydinks, we're looking at those episodes of 'Doctor Who' which were set in the past and which should have had dire effects for the Earth if the Doctor was no longer alive to be the planet's guardian. (That premise was established in the episode "Turn Left".)

The world could have been - SHOULD have been! - destroyed several times over if the Doctor had not stepped in to save the day. So why did the basic set-up of daily life in London seem so normal for Donna Noble at the beginning of "Turn Left"?
Unlike the episodes which I looked at before yesterday, I don't think the four historical episodes (and two of the three suggested) could have been rectified on their own. The villains involved were all too powerful and should have wreaked havoc which would have made an impact to the present day.

So I think somebody else stepped in to take care of matters in each episode. And this being about Toobworld, I think those somebodies would be from other TV shows!

"THE FIRES OF POMPEII"
Today we're looking at the first historical episode of 'Doctor Who' to feature Donna Noble, "The Fires Of Pompeii". This was not addressed in "Turn Left", but the absence of the Doctor should have caused seismic changes. (Literally!)

Maybe the lack of an eruption for Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD wouldn't have had an effect on modern day England, but the Pyroviles should have been in control of the entire planet. Yet there was no sign of them in Donna's revised time-line.

So what happened to the Pyroviles? And did Vesuvius blow its top in Donna's brave new world?

It's not likely there were too many alive at that time who might have been able to defeat alien beings made of Living Fire. But there was (and still is) a classification of humanoids that would have at least been brave enough to face them - and with the intelligence gained from many lifetimes of experience to give the Pyroviles a good fight.
And those people were the Immortals.

There are/were differrent sub-groups of Immortals. Some of them were:

Vampires
Witches
Demi-Gods
And those who absorb the bio-energy from other Immortals (and sometimes from humans)

As you can see from these classifications, "Immortal" can be a relative term......
I'm not sure which witch of Toobworld might have been alive that far back, maybe Aunt Clara of 'Bewitched'. But as I've focused on them in my examination of the revised world of "The Shakespeare Code", I'm going to set them aside for this post.

As for the demi-gods, it's always possible that Zeus and the other-dimensional super-beings of Olympus would have had to step in if they wanted to make sure their worshippers survived! And since they were able to defeat the Titans, the Pyroviles should have been a walk in the Parthenon, especially with any special water cannons that Vulcan/Hephaestus might forge.....

We can probably eliminate any of the Vampire clans (as established in "Kindred: The Embraced") that were in existence at that time as being involved. The Nosferatu, the "sewer rats" of vampires, might have even been living in the dark caverns that ran through Vesuvius; keeping out of the sight and knowledge of the Pyroviles after they awakened. And even if they knew what the Pyroviles intended and even if they could divine the future, why would they have risked the loss of their undead lives and their home by blowing up the volcano?

Immortals like Walter Jameson ('The Twilight Zone' - "Long Live Walter Jameson"), Flint ('Star Trek' - "Requiem For Methuselah"), and Methos ("The Highlander' - many episodes) - who may have eventually taken on the nom de plume of Flint - would have had no prior knowledge of what should have been the destiny of Vesuvius. After all, they were living out the passage of Time as it happened; as such, they were time travellers in the best Spider Robinson sense of the word - travelling at the rate of one second per second. But once the Pyroviles made their presence known in the world, such Immortals would have recognized the threat to their home planet and their place in it. And if they were in the area, they would probably try to find some way to prevent the Pyroviles from succeeding - with the hope that their immortality could protect them against the fiery monsters.

Involvement by Jameson and Flint/Methos depended a lot on the coincidence that they just happened to be in the area at the time. But Coincidence plays a major role in Toobworld; there should be a Greek God in charge of it! TV characters are always present at the great moments in world history just by happenstance: Lady Marjorie Bellamy ('Upstairs, Downstairs') perished on the Titanic; Mac Taylor's wife Claire ('CSI: NY') died in the World Trade Center collapse; and Sophia Petrillo ('The Golden Girls') witnessed the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.
So maybe one or more Immortals were in Pompeii before Volcano Day. And if so, they could have engaged the Pyroviles in combat, which would have given someone else with knowledge of how the Future should play out to make sure that Vesuvius erupted.

The only ones who would know that would have to be time travelers from the Future. With the Doctor dead, that would leave the home-grown variety - "Voyagers" from the Temporal Agency, like Phineas Bogg, a now-adult Jeffrey Jones, Captain John Hart, and Captain Jack Harkness, perhaps Captain Z-Ro, among others.
But the best candidates would be the scientists Tony Newman and Doug Philips who were working on Project Tick-Tock, the Time Tunnel. Using themselves as guinea pigs, Doug and Tony ended up trapped somewhere along the infinite corridors of Time. Speaking of great coincidences, they often found themselves landing at key junctures in world history - Pearl Harbor, Custer's Last Stand, the Fall of the Walls of Jericho. It almost seemed as if they were being drawn to these events. So I think we can assume that eventually, had they remained visible to the audience watching in the Trueniverse, we would have seen them arrive in Pompeii just before August 24th, 79 AD.

There's only one problem with this. Tony and Doug were stupid. For scientists who specialize in the study of Time, they never gave any consideration to the consequences if they should disrupt the original flow of the Timeline. It always seemed like no matter where they landed, they tried to stop the original event from occurring. This would have caused major chaos all down the timeline.

So it's quite possible that once they arrived in Pompeii, Doug and Tony would have taken the decision upon themselves to let the Pyrovile plan play out so that the citizens of Pompeii would survive. Either way, I don't think the two of them would have survived Volcano Day, and it's probably just as well.....

(In the original timeline, we don't know whatever happened to Tony and Doug after the series ended. Looking at the TV series as a stand-alone, it's always possible they are still tumbling along the infinite corridors of Time even into their seventies. But this is Toobworld. It's more likely the Doctor finally rescued them himself and then made damn sure they couldn't bleep up the timeline again; probably by using his sonic screwdriver to destroy 'The Time Tunnel'.)

If the Pyroviles were successful without the Doctor's interference, the lack of an explosion of Vesuvius would be noticed in the future. And who you gonna call? 'Voyagers!' Phineas and Jeffrey could have gone back and made sure that history was re-aligned by finding some way to detonate the volcano. And unlike Tony Newman and Doug Philips, they'd be able to use the Omni to get themselves out of there in time!
Or it could have been due to alien tampering by another race who would want to make sure the Pyroviles were defeated. Perhaps it might be the Asgard arriving via the 'Stargate', or maybe even Terraphile Exigius 12½, citizen of Mars. (He would be better known in the 1960's as "Uncle Martin O'Hara" on 'My Favorite Martian'.)
Because the Pyroviles were not prevalent in the revised timeline of "Turn Left", we do have to figure that somebody put an end to their plans of conquest for Earth. And that means that Vesuvius had to explode. But this time, without the Doctor present, it meant that not only did Lurcio ('Up Pompeii') and the other citizens of Pompeii perish, but so did the family of Caecillius, whom the Doctor rescued at the urging of his Companion Donna.
This would have been a major blow to the timeline when it comes to other residents of Toobworld who were of Italian ancestry. We have no idea who should have been part of the family tree of Caecillius, but we could have lost such Italian-Americans as the aforementioned Sophia Petrillo as well as the following:

Lt. 'Columbo'

Carla Tortelli & Coach Ernie Pantusso ('Cheers')

Joey Tribbiani ('Friends')

Arthur Fonzarelli ('Happy Days')

Dominic Santini ('Airwolf')

Tony Vincenzo ('Kolchak')

Larry Mondello ('Leave It To Beaver')

Laverne DeFazio ('Laverne & Shirley')

Vinnie Terranova ('Wiseguy')

Mrs. Baciagalupe ('The Abbott And Costello Show')

Michael Garibaldi ('Babylon 5')

Captain Frank Furillo ('Hill Street Blues')

'The Fanelli Boys'

'Bert D'Angelo, Superstar'

'Bonino', 'Delvecchio', 'Petrocelli'

and 'The Sopranos'

as well as Mama Magadini, maker of those spicy meatballs!

Those are just some ideas about what could have happened, and who could have been involved. The best part about suppositions like this, unlike other Toobworld theories, is that we don't have to hold to them. After all, it was all a moot point since Donna was able to revert the timeline back to its original version.


SHOWS CITED:
'Torchwood'
'Voyagers!'
'Kindred: The Embraced'
'The Golden Girls'
'Upstairs, Downstairs'
'CSI: NY'
'The Twilight Zone'
'Time Tunnel'
'Hercules: The Legendary Journeys'
'Up, Pompeii'
'Stargate: SG-1'
'The Highlander'
'My Favorite Martian'
'Bewitched'
'Star Trek'

BCnU!
Toby O'B

AS SEEN ON TV: PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

AS SEEN IN:
'The Highlander'

AS PLAYED BY:
Christopher Staines

From Wikipedia:
Percy Bysshe Shelley (4 August 1792 – 8 July 1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets and is critically regarded among the finest lyric poets in the English language. He is most famous for such classic anthology verse works as "Ozymandias", "Ode to the West Wind", "To a Skylark", and "The Masque of Anarchy", which are among the most popular and critically acclaimed poems in the English language. His major works, however, are long visionary poems which included "Prometheus Unbound", "Alastor", "Adonaïs", "The Revolt of Islam", and the unfinished work "The Triumph of Life". "The Cenci" (1819) and "Prometheus Unbound" (1820) were dramatic plays in five and four acts respectively. He wrote the Gothic novels "Zastrozzi" (1810) and "St. Irvyne" (1811) and the short works "The Assassins" (1814) and "The Coliseum" (1817).

Shelley was famous for his association with John Keats and Lord Byron. The novelist Mary Shelley was his second wife.

In Duncan MacLeod's faulty memory, Shelley was married to Mary Wollstonecraft when he met them at the Villa Diodati in 1816. But they weren't married yet.

Being immortal doesn't guarantee a perfect memory.

BCnU!

THE HAT SQUAD - ACTORS & PERSONALITIES

2019 PICK-UPS
Natalie Trundy ('The Twilight Zone', 'Quincy M.E.', 'Bonanza')
Jack Sheldon ('The Merv Griffin Show', 'Run, Buddy, Run', 'Schoolhouse Rock')

ACTORS
Edd Byrnes ('77 Sunset Strip', 'Sweepstakes')
Stan Kirsch ('Highlander', 'Invincible', 'General Hospital')
Harry Hains ('Chase')
Derek Fowlds ('Basil Brush', 'Yes, Minister', 'Heartbeat')
Nora Michaels ('King of Queens', 'Easy A', 'Mind of Mencia')
Bruce Armstrong ('Dragonball')
Terry Jones ('Monty Python's Flying Circus')
John Karlen ('Dark Shadows', 'Cagney & Lacey', 'The Doctors')
Marj Dusay ('Guiding Light', 'Santa Barbara', 'All My Children', 'Days Of Our Lives')
Neville Buswell ('Coronation Street', 'Emergency Ward 10', 'Turn Out The Lights')
Kirk Douglas ('The Moneychangers', "Amos", "Victory At Entebbe", 'Tales From The Crypt')
Kevin Conway ("The Lathe From Heaven", "The Deadliest Season", 'Star Trek: The Next Generation')
Orson Bean ('To Tell The Truth', 'Desperate Housewives', 'Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman', 'The Twilight Zone')
Robert Conrad ('The Wild, Wild West', 'Hawaiian Eye', 'Centennial', 'Black Sheep Squadron')
Paula Kelly ('Santa Barbara', 'Night Court', 'South Central')
Ron McLarty ('Spenser: For Hire', 'Cop Rock', 'Law & Order')
Cheryl Wheeler Duncan Sanders (stunt woman - 'Dharma & Greg', 'Temple Grandin', 'GCB')
Lynne Cohen ('Damages', 'Law & Order', 'Sex And The City')
Janet Du'Bois ('Good Times')
Miller Lide ('Tattinger's)
Kellye Nakahara ('M*A*S*H')
Elaine Hyman ('The Doctors', 'Dark Shadows', 'A Flame In The Wind')
Claudette Nevins ('Headmaster', 'JAG', 'Return To The Planet Of The Apes', 'Melrose Place', 'Husbands, Friends And Lovers')
Joyce Gordon ('Law & Order', 'The Mickey Rooney Show', lots of voice dubbing)
Max Von Sydow ('Game of Thrones', 'The Tudors', 'Professione fantasme', 'Christopher Columbus', 'Quo Vadis?')
Nicholas Tucci ('Daredevil', 'Ramy', 'Pose')
Lorenzo Brino (one of quintuplets to play '7th Heaven' baby)
Lyle Waggoner ('The Carol Burnett Show', 'Wonder Woman')
Roy Hudd ('The Roy Hudd Show')
Suzy Delair
Kenny Rogers ('The Gambler' TV movie franchise)
William Dufris (American voice of 'Bob The Builder')
John Callahan ('All My Children', 'Santa Barbara', 'Days Of Our Lives', 'General Hospital',)
David Schramm ('Wings', "Dreamer of Oz", 'Kennedy')
Julie Bennett (Cindy Bear in 'Yogi Bear', 'Dragnet')
Forrest Compton ('Edge of Night', 'Gomer Pyle, USMC')
Honor Blackman ('The Avengers', 'Columbo')
James Drury ('The Virginian', 'Alias Smith and Jones')
Logan Williams ('The Flash', "When Calls The Heart")
Hamish Wilson ('Doctor Who')
Tim Brooke-Taylor ('The Goodies', 'I'm Sorry, I Haven't A Clue')
Danny Goldman ('The Smurfs', 'Columbo')
Brian Dennehy ('Star Of The Family', 'Blacklist', 'Hap and Leonard', 'The Fighting Fitzgeralds', 'Public Morals')
Ranjit Choudhoury ('Cosby', 'The Office', 'Prison Break')
Shirley Knight ('Maggie Winters', 'Desperate Housewives', 'Buckskin')
Irrfan Khan ('In Treatment', 'Tokyo Trial')
Rishi Kapoor
Jerry Stiller ('Seinfeld', 'King of Queens')
Fred Willard ('Fernwood Tonight', 'America 2Night', 'Modern Family', 'Back To You', 'Versailles', 'A Minute with Stan Hooper', 'Everybody Loves Raymond', 'Maybe It's Me', 'D.C. Follies', 'Sirota's Court', 'Space Force')
Ken Osmond ('Leave It To Beaver', 'Still The Beaver')
Richard Herd ('V', 'Seinfeld')
Heather Chasen ('Crossroads', 'EastEnders')
Michael Angelis ('Thomas the Tank Engine' narrator)
Chris Trousdale ('Lucifer', 'Days Of Our Lives')
Mary Pat Gleason ('The Middleman', 'Mom')
John Winston ('Star Trek' - Lt. Kyle)
Tony Scannell ('The Bill', 'Family Affair')
Peggy Pope ('Barney Miller', 'Soap', 'Calucci's Department', 'Billy')
Ian Holm ('Game, Set, and Match', 'The Borrowers')
Jill Gascoigne ('The Gentle Touch')
Linda Cristal ('The High Chaparral', 'General Hospital')
Earl Cameron ('Doctor Who', 'Danger Man')
Louis Mahoney ('Doctor Who' - "Blink")
Naya Rivera ('Glee')
Kelly Preston ('CSI Cyber', 'Medium', 'For Love And Honor')
Nick Cordero ('Blue Bloods', 'L&O: SVU', 'Lilyhammer', 'Queer As Folk')
Phyllis Somerville ('The Big C', 'Little Children')
John Saxon ('The Bold Ones: The Doctors', 'Falcon Crest', 'Dynasty')
Olivia De Havilland ('The Love Boat', 'Roots: The Next Generation', 'North & South Book 2: Love & War')
Royana Black ('Raising Miranda')
Jacqueline Scott ('The Fugitive', 'Gunsmoke',')
Wilford Brimley ('The Boys of Twilight', 'Our House', 'The Waltons', "Ewoks: Battle of Endor"}
Brent Carver ('Inside Canada', 'Street Legal')
Reni Santoni ('Owen Marshall, Counsellor', 'Manimal', 'Hill Street Blues', 'Murder One', 'Sanchez of Bel Air'. 'Midnight Caller', 'Seinfeld')
Raymond Allen ('Sanford & Son')
Ben Cross ('Dark Shadows', 'Banshee', 'The Citadel')
Alan Rich ('Hill Street Blues', 'Judging Amy', 'Barney Milller')
Norm Spencer ('X-Men' cartoon voice actor)
Salome Bey ('Due South', 'Night Heat')
Kevin Dobson ('Kojak', 'Knots' Landing')
Leslie Hamilton Freas (twin sister of Linda Hamilton, her stunt double)
Diana Rigg ('The Avengers', 'Diana', 'Mrs. Bradley Mysteries', 'Game of Thrones', 'Mother Love', 'Doctor Who')
Alien Huong ('Love You', 'Tokyo Juliet')
Michael Lonsdale ('Smiley's People', 'Maigret')
Yuko Takeuchi ('Miss Sherlock', 'Flash Forward')
Archie Lyndhurst, son of Nicholas ('So Awkward', 'Bad Educatiion')
Frank Windsor ('Z Cars', TVXOHOF member)
Thomas Jefferson Byrd ('She's Gotta Have It', 'Living Single')
Clark Middleton ('The Blacklist', 'Twin Peaks', 'Fringe')
Margaret Nolan ('The Newcomers', 'Crown Court', 'Q6')
Conchata Ferrell ('Two and a Half Men', 'LA Law')
Diana Devlin ('Clerks')
Doreen Montalvo ('Madam Secretary', 'Elementary')
Rhonda Fleming ('Wagon Train', 'Burke's Law', 'The Love Boat', 'Ellery Queen', 'McMillan & Wife')
Sean Connery ('Age Of Kings', 'ITV Play of the Week')

Elsa Raven ('Wiseguy')
Eddie Hassell ('Surface', 'Devious Maids')
Johnny Leeze ('Coronation Street', 'Emmerdale')
John Sessions ('Whose Line Is It Anyway?', 'Doctor Who', 'Tom Jones')
Geoffrey Palmer ('Hot Metal', 'Butterflies', 'As Time Goes By')
Ann Lynn ('Just Good Friends', 'Minder', 'EastEnders')
John Fraser ('The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes', 'Doctor Who', 'Columbo')
Lynn Kellogg ('The Edge of Night', 'Mission: Impossible', 'The Beverly Hillbillies')
Broselianda Hernandez Boudet (Cuban actress)
Kirby Morrow (voice actor, 'Dragonball Z', 'The X-Men')
Philip Voss ('Vicious', 'Doctor Who', 'Fish', 'Melissa')
Dena Dietrich (Mother Nature, 'The Practice', 'Adam's Rib', 'Philly', 'The Ropers')
Louise Pajo ('Cop Shop', 'Carson's Law', 'Doctor Who')
David Prowse (Darth Vader, 'The Saint', 'The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy')
Abby Dalton ('The Joey Bishop Show', 'Falcon Crest', 'Hennessey')
Hugh Keats-Byrne ('Farscape', 'Ben Hall', 'Secret Valley')
Betty Bobbitt ('Prisoner: Cell Block H', 'Cop Shop')
David Lander ('Laverne & Shirley', 'On The Air', 'Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters From Beverly Hills')
Pamela Tiffin ('The Survivors', 'The Fugitive')
Natalie Desselle-Reid ('Eve', 'Built To Last', 'For Your Love')
Marguerite Ray ('The Young & The Restless', 'Sanford', 'Dynasty')
Tommy "Tiny" Lister ('Mann and Wife', 'On The Court', 'First & Ten')
Carol Sutton ('Treme', 'In The Heat Of The Night', 'Roots' [remake])
Barbara Windsor ('EastEnders', 'The Rag Trade', 'Worzel Gummidge', 'Doctor Who')
Jeremy Bulloch (original Boba Fett, 'Starhyke', 'Sloggers', 'Agony', 'Robin Hood')
Peg Murray ('All My Children', 'Me and Mrs. C', 'The Doctors and the Nurses')
Rosalind Knight ('Gimme Gimme Gimme', 'Jackanory', 'Martin Chuzzlewit')
Rebecca Luker ('Boardwalk Empire', 'NCIS: New Orleans', 'The Good Wife')
Lee Wallace ('Ryan's Hope', 'World War III', 'Mrs. Columbo')
Marcus D'Amico ('Tales of the City', 'The Trainer', 'The Bill')
Basil Moss ('UFO', 'Compact', 'First Among Equals')
Dawn Wells ('Gilligan's Island', 'Gilligan's Planet', '77 Sunset Strip')

PERSONALITIES
Derek Acorah ('Most Haunted', 'Ghost Towns')
Jack Van Impe (televangelist)
Nicholas Parsons ('The Benny Hill Show')
Kobe Bryant (Basketball legend)
Tyler Gozdz ('The Bachelorette')
Caroline Flack ('Love Island', 'Bo Selecta!')
Bill Britten ('Bozo The Clown', 'Time For Fun')
Al Sperling (Hair Club for Men' president and spokesman)
Marty Sullivan (Superhost for 'Monster Theater', 'Prize Movie')
Danny Tidwell ('So You Think You Can Dance?')
Mal Sharpe (prankster)
Eddie Large ('The Little And Large Show')
Vic Henley ('Comedy Central Presents', 'The Stand-up Show')
Ashley "Miss Minnie" Ross ('Little Women: Atlanta')
Lynn Faulds Wood ('Good Morning, Britain', 'Watchdog', 'World In Action')
Don Shula (Miami Dolphins coach, 'Ballers')
Corrie La Barrie (YouTube personality)
Roy Horn, of Siegfried & RoyB
Phyllis George (Miss America - 'NFL Today', 'People', 'The $10,000 Pyramid')
Margarita Procatan ('The Clive James Show')
Hugh Downs ('Today', 'Concentration', 20/20')
Grant Imahara ('MythBusters')
Regis Philbin ('The Joey Bishop Show', 'Live with Regis and Kathy Lee/Kelly', 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire')
Rene Carpenter ('Everywoman')
Becky Mullin ('The Gorgeous Women of Wrestling')
Mahlon Reyes ('Deadliest Catch')
Chi Chi DeVayne ('RuPaul's Drag Race')
Mary Hartline ('The Mary Hartline Show', 'Super Circus')
Lloyd Cafe Cadena (Filipino YouTube personality)
Stevie Lee Richardson (Puppet The Psycho Dwarf)
Aaron Grissom ('Top Chef')
Christopher "Kentucky" Ellis ('Street Outlaw')
Michael Peredes ('Wipeout')
Whitney Collings ('Bad Girls Club')
Mac Davis ('The Mac Davis Show')
Helen Reddy ('The Helen Reddy Show')
Thom Kennedy ('Password Plus', 'To Say The Least', 'You Don't Say')
James Randi (magician, debunker)
Eddie Van Halen (musician, guitarist of Van Halen)
Nikki McKibben ('American Idol')
Nate Burrell ('Sixty Days In')
Luis Troyano ('The Great British Baking Show')
Alex Trebek ('Jeopardy!')
Norm Crosby ('The Ed Sullivan Show')
Bobby Ball ('Cannon & Ball')
Des O'Connor ('Countdown', 'Today with Des & Mel'), 'Des O'Connor Tonight')
Ben Watkins ('Master Chef')a
Jose Luis Da Silva (Brazilian media star)
Nick McGlashon ('Deadliest Catch') 

NEWS & SPORTS
Harold Burson (AFN)
Jim Lehrer (PBS, NBC anchorman)
Bobbie Batista (CNN)
Jimmy Gordon, Lord Gordon of Strathblane (STV political editor)
Bill Small (News Executive at NBC and CBS)
Nina Kapur (WCBS News)
Kathy Plasker (KCBD forecaster)
Bowie Meeks (Hockey Broadcaster)
Jeannie Morris (WBBM, WMAQ sportscaster)

THE PHYSICAL ASPECT

This season, Toobworld has given us two TV shows which splained the physical characteristics of one of their actors in the context of the character they play.

On 'Brothers & Sisters', we found out how Tommy Walker got that scar in his right eyebrow - during the last "Game Night", Kitty threw the trophy at her brother in anger.

And on 'Lost' we learned all about the meanings for the tattoos on Dr. Jack Shepherd's arm, and how he got them while in the Far East.

The difference was that with 'Brothers & Sisters', it was a passing mention; 'Lost' built a whole flashback sequence around it and nearly derailed the audience again.

Those are just trivial details that were dealt with. (My specialty!) But there have been more noticeable traits addressed in Toobworld.

Right now over in the "reality TV" category (Ugh), you have Heather Mills kicking up her heels - so to speak - on 'Dancing With The Stars'... with bookies ready to pay off should her artificial leg go flying!

This hasn't been the first time the physical characteristics of an actor were worked into their character's background. And I'm not referring to such attributes as the ample endowments of Jennifer Marlowe on 'WKRP In Cincinnatti', or the fact that Bailiff Bull Shannon, like CJ Cregg on 'The West Wing' and Detective Michael 'Raines', was "freakishly tall".

Robert David Hall plays Dr. Al Robbins on 'CSI' as having an artificial leg; he was seen putting it on in an early episode when caught unawares by either Catherine or Sara (can't remember now, but I'm pretty sure it was a female member of the forensics team).

Jim Byrnes, who played Lifeguard on 'Wiseguy', lost both his legs in a motorcycle accident, and his character was played that way. It didn't have to be so, as Byrnes can walk on both of his artificial legs. They could easily have splained away his gait (as he walked on the show with a cane) to some crippling nerve damage sustained during his tenure with the Bureau. (I'm not sure whether or not Byrnes' character of Joe Dawson on 'Highlander' was portrayed as missing his legs or not.)

Speaking of 'Wiseguy', when former 'Lancer' star James Stacy guest-starred in one of the show's "arcs", his missing arm and leg - lost in a traffic accident - not only were acknowledged for his character, but proved to be integral to the plotline.

Geri Jewell has cerebral palsy, but that hasn't stopped her from staking out a couple of memorable characters for the Tele-Folks Directory. She's probably best known for playing Cousin Geri on 'The Facts of Life' and most recently as Jewel on 'Deadwood'. (Strange how both characters ended up with names similar to her own in the real world.)

When Madelyn Rhue was diagnosed with MS back in 1977, she continued working for as long as she could, and sometimes her condition was written into the role for her. Angela Lansbury made sure a recurring role as the Cabot Cove librarian Jean O'Neill was created for her so that she wouldn't lose her union's medical coverage.

But all of that is a far cry from the old days in Toobworld. For example, Gary Burghoff has a deformed hand and tried to keep it out of view when he was portraying Corporal Walter "Radar" O'Reilly on 'M*A*S*H'. If it was an accepted part of his character, the producers would have had to find some reason as to why he was accepted into the Army with it.

During World War II, James Doohan gave the finger to Hitler. Literally. His middle finger was shot off while he was among the thousands of troops storming the beaches at Normandy. But unless you go looking for it, it's not noticeable. I was standing right next to him on the old FX "apartment" set when he was the special guest star for a charity auction they were holding, and I never noticed it!

Like Burghoff, Doohan kept his four-fingered hand out of view while he was playing Commander Montgomery Scott on 'Star Trek'. But there was a time when his right hand was integral for a shot - Scotty once had to put his hand on a visor/plate that could read the veracity of his statements when he was giving testimony under oath.

For the shot of his hand on the panel, a stunt hand was brought in to show a hand with all five fingers.

Had the same scene been filmed today, there would have already been some kind of splainin as to how Scotty lost the finger during an accident in Engineering; perhaps while trying to fight off Khan's genetic supermen when they tried to commander the department.

Yet over twenty years later, they missed the perfect opportunity to address his missing finger when Scotty was rescued from an endless transporter booth transmission on an episode of 'Star Trek: The Next Generation'. It could have been splained that the finger didn't survive the completed transmission after eighty plus years, and that Scotty was lucky it was only that finger that didn't make it through!

Leo McKern had a glass eye, but that was never mentioned in any of the episodes of 'Rumpole of the Bailey', nor in his episodes of 'The Prisoner' as Horace's identical cousin, Number Two.

I never even knew he had a glass eye until after his death, but now I can't help but notice it when I see him on TV......

I would have put Peter Falk into that same category for 'Columbo', but the fact that he has a glass eye was finally addressed in the 25th anniversary special, "A Trace Of Murder". While looking at some evidence with his forensics partner (as well as suspect), the rumpled detective mentioned that "three eyes are better than one".

At some point in his later career, Lt. Columbo had to have lost that eye; and it had to have happened after the episode of "Negative Reaction" (the one where Dick Van Dyke is the murderer). I'm not clear on the details, but the question of his eyesight came up during Columbo's encounter with Mr. Weekly of the DMV (played by Larry Storch). As I remember it, the Lieutenant indicated that there was nothing wrong with his eyes.

Definitely, Peter Falk's other series role, that of my televersion's relative Daniel J. O'Brien in 'The Trials of O'Brien', was portrayed as though he had two real eyes and so that's what sets the lawyer apart from the guy who played him.

There must be plenty of other examples in which an actor's physical characteristics were worked into the role they played as a regular or semi-regular on a TV series. If you know of any to add to the list, contact me and let me know!

BCnU!
Toby OB

TVXOHOF, OCTOBER 2017 - GUIDO THROUGH THE YEARS

It has long been the tradition here at Toobworld Central for the October inductee into the Crossover Hall of Fame to be somehow connected with horror, or just be horrible in general.  Even when there were year-long themes, I found a way around that - like Frank Barone of 'Everybody Loves Raymond' and Kang the Klingon from 'Star Trek'.  And that was all due to the month being the home of Halloween.

But October is also the month in which we celebrate the heritage and contributions of Italian-Americans.  (If you feel it necessary to call it Columbus Day, feel free.  I just don't think he deserves to be honored in connection with the ethnic pride of Italian-Americans.)

So since I'm using this year to catch up with the memorial inductees into the Hall, I thought I might finally tackle a thorny problem with an Italianate connection - how to splain away Guido Panzini.

 

GUIDO PANZINI

From Wikipedia:

Pat Harrington became famous in the 1950s as a member of Steve Allen's television comedy troupe, the "Men on the Street" (which also included Don Knotts, Tom Poston and Louis Nye). He made many appearances as the comedic Italian immigrant "Guido Panzini" on 'The Jack Paar Show' in the mid-1950s.

In a 1965 episode of 'The Man from U.N.C.L.E.' ("The Bow-Wow Affair"), Harrington reprised his role as "Guido Panzini" (whom he also played in the February 8, 1966 episode of 'McHale's Navy' and in the May 2, 1983 episode of 'One Day at a Time'). 

So the appearances of Guido Panzini split right down the middle - six shows in total, three involving comedy sketches and the other three in which Guido got involved in Toobworld adventures.  So my easy splainin is that there are two Guido Panzinis - one in Skitlandia seen in the 1950s and the other one who lived in the main Toobworld.

However....

Although Guido appeared first in the main Toobworld in an episode of 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.', on the Toobworld timeline he showed up first involved with the crew of the PT 73 during World War II.  Twenty years later he was then seen dealing with the international spy agency.  And about two decades after that, he was a fashion designer who bore an uncanny resemblance to Duane Schneider, a building super.  

And yet he didn't seem to age significantly.  In fact twenty years after World War II, he looked younger than he did during the Big One.  (I'm thinking it was done with wigs, fake beards. and makeup.)

He also had a variety of jobs - he was a con man in Italy, an expert on dogs and a veterinarian to boot when Illya consulted with him, and as mentioned earlier, a fashion designer working with Ann Romano.

Although he was a confidence trickster during the war, I don't think he was just passing himself off with those other occupations.  I think he had live long enough to gain a degree in veterinary medicine and then decided to try his hand at fashion.

Here's what I'm thinking - Guido Panzini was an immortal.  And probably the Highlander kind.

This would splain away why Guido disappeared for long stretches of time.  It was a combination of taking the time to learn a new trade, and also he was hiding from the other Immortals who were seeking to cut off his head to gain his immortal energies.

Guido Panzini was never seen again in the main Toobworld.  And as Pat Harrington has passed away, I''m afraid it's not likely he ever will grace our screens again.  In fact, I'm afraid that it's pozz'ble, just pozz'ble that Guido Panzini's luck finally ran out with the other Immortals......

Now even though I said Panzini was not seen again in Toobworld, I should qualify that as meaning he was never seen again under that name.  Some of Harrington's other characters could have been Guido with an alias.  (I would not be surprised if he also knew how to drop that accent when necessary.)

But I'm not going to work through the list to find some likely candidates.  It would entail learning about those characters to see if they had back-stories which would disqualify them from consideration.

I will put forward this suggestion though - a theory of relateeveety.  I know the Immortals were supposed to be rendered sterile by their transformation from being normal humans, but what if that was just a mistakenly held myth?  What if they could procreate?

It would mean that a lot of characters in Toobworld who looked like Guido had inherited his strong telegenetics.  And Guido could have been dipping the Panzini Pencil into some willing inkwells - no, wait.  That metaphor doesn't work.  No matter.  I never metaphor I didn't like....

Anyhoo, Panzini was pretty free and easy with Li'l Guido throughout the ages, ever since he had been transformed.  So nothing says that characters played by Harrington who lived in the past - like NY Examiner columnist Mitch McCully couldn't share the same father as those who were seen in more contemporary shows like Thomas Kitzmiller, the Vice President of Public Relations for the Oceanic International Oil corporation.

But they didn't inherit his immortal lifespan.....

And as a theory of relateeveety, there's another reason the Guido Panzini deserves membership.  It might not actually be true, but who's to say so?

Here's a list of Guido Panzini's appearances in Skitlandia:

"The Steve Allen Plymouth Show" 

1 episode (October, 1958)

"The Jack Paar Tonight Show" 

13 episodes (November, 1958 - January 1961)

"Laugh Line" 

Pilot episode (1959) 

And then we have the immortal Guido Panzini of Earth Prime-Time:

"The Man from U.N.C.L.E."
    - The Bow-Wow Affair (1965)

The Man From UNCLE S01E20.The.Bow-Wow.Affair by Michael-London-65

"McHale's Navy"
    - McHale's Country Club Caper (1966)

"One Day At A Time"

    - Panzini (1983)

And Guido exists in the audioverse as well.....

One of the first crossover enthusiasts I met online, Thom Holbrook, has an amazing archive of well-researched and indexed crossovers at his Spinoffs & Crossovers site.  And he tackled the Panzini issue as well.  You can read it by clicking here.  (But I also suggest you dive in and sample other pages as well.)

So TWO Guido Panzinis enter the Hall today!

Benvenuto, Guido Panzini!  E arrivederci......