A GENOA SALAMI

Many bloggers dip into the old mailbag on occasion and address their readers' concerns and comments.

Me, I confront those voices in my head.....

VOICE: How come you haven't splained away that big Zonk on 'Entourage' a couple of weeks ago?

ME: What big Zonk?

VOICE: Come on! How could you miss it? It was as big as your gut!

ME: No need to get personal.

VOICE: Aris' wife took a job on the soap opera 'The Young & The Restless'.

ME: Right. Mrs. Ari used to be a regular on the show as Kendall Scott, the town slut of Genoa City. So?

VOICE: So??? Your sainted mother's favorite show was 'Y&R'! Shouldn't it be part of your silly TV universe, just as much as 'Entourage'!

ME: And it is.

VOICE: But they treated it like a TV show and not as part of their own reality!

ME: But it is a TV show on Earth Prime-Time, as well as being part of that world. This isn't the first time it's happened, you know. When you've been the Number One soap opera for a couple of decades, other shows are going to notice and they'll want to tap into that magic with references made on their shows.

We've seen it referred to as a TV show before on other shows, like 'The Nanny' ("The Nanny Napper") and 'Boy Meets World' ("And Then There Was Shawn"). Best of all was on 'Diagnosis Murder', when Amanda won a guest role on the soap opera and wouldn't you know it? An actual murder took place while she was on the set.

VOICE: But the 'Entourage' set looked just like the coffee house on 'Young & The Restless'!

ME: Well, it should! Don't you want verisimilitude?

VOICE: Do I? Sounds like something that's been going around....

ME: Look, since they were going to show the Seattle skyline in 'Frasier' each week, they knew they had to make it accurate. Otherwise there would be nitpickers out there who would tell them so otherwise. Probably somebody like Kaye's maid Esther, who lives in the "real" 'Y&R' world, would be watching the Toobworld 'Y&R' while she should be cleaning the Chancellor estate. And you know "Miss BooHoo" would see the difference if her set didn't look like the real place, which is a TV show set for her!

VOICE: I'm still trying to grasp the idea that actors from the real world are playing themselves in Toobworld, and those versions are playing the TV versions of the characters they play back in the real world!

ME: It gets easier. Various cast members of 'The Young & The Restless' appeared in that 'Diagnosis Murder' episode as themselves, and not as the characters they play in the show. Eric Braeden, Jeanne Cooper, Lauralee Bell, Melody Thomas Scott, Kristoff St. John, Heather Thom, J. Eddie Peck, and Doug Davidson all showed up and many of them mistook Amanda for the actress who plays her in the real world, Victoria Rowell. (That's because Ms. Rowell played Drusilla Winters on 'Y&R'. So there's another great example that a character and the actor who played them can exist in the same universe.)

VOICE: Boy! You do go on! So that should be a Zonk right there!

ME: No, because it's just a case of them portraying the "real life people" of Genoa City, like what happened here in the real world with 'Toma', 'Bat Masterson', and George Steinbrenner in 'Seinfeld'.

That didn't negate the relationship both shows share with Toobworld to cause a Zonk. All we really know about Toobworld's 'Young & The Restless' is that it takes place in Genoa City, Wisconsin, as well, and that although it features actors playing the real-life people of that city, it also has characters not found in the real world version (which of course is the basis for its inclusion in Toobworld).

For all we know, the versions of people like Victor and Nikki Newman and Cricket are just minor characters in that version of 'Y&R', but Kendall Scott and her former student - played by Javier Gracho in Toobworld, who is played by Xavier Torres in the real world - could have been the leading roles during their runs on the show. And those two characters don't exist in the "real" Genoa City.

VOICE: If I had my own head to live in, you'd be making it hurt.

ME: This isn't the first time we've seen this happen in Toobworld. It's obvious that the Toobworld version of 'Days Of Our Lives' can't be the same one in our world, because Joey Tribbiani appeared in that version as Dr. Drake Ramoray. And the plotline about him falling down an elevator shaft and getting a brain transplant from some other "fictional" character never occurred on the true 'DOOL'.

VOICE: I surrender!

ME: Good. It's late. I need to get some sleep......

BCnU!
Toby OB

"We'll return to 'The Young and the Restless'

Right after this word from Feeny.
And here is the word:
Shut up!"
Mr. Feeny
'Boy Meets World'

CROSSOVER OF THE WEEK!

"Law & Order"

&

"Star Trek"

I probably should have taped 'Law & Order' this week, considering Paul Robinette was making a re-appearance (But now on the other side of the courtroom as the lawyer for the defense). But I didn't. And now I have to rely on my faulty memory for the details in some of the arguments between McCoy and Borgia.

But first, here's a recap of the episode from the NBC press release:

"WAS ABUSIVE MOTHER UNKNOWINGLY STERILIZED WITH ILLEGAL I.U.D.? FORMER 'LAW' MAN RICHARD BROOKS RETURNS TO GUEST-STAR

When an abusive young mother and murder suspect suddenly dies in her prison cell, an autopsy tells Detectives Fontana (Dennis Farina) and Green (Jesse L. Martin) that the woman has died from an I.U.D. containing benecrine -- an illegal drug that sterilizes its users -- given by a nurse practitioner (guest star Stephanie Roth Haberle) with a social agenda.

As A.D.A.s McCoy (Sam Waterston) and Borgia (Annie Parisse) consider filing second-degree manslaughter charges, they meet a former A.D.A. -- Paul Robinette (Richard Brooks) -- who is now defending the nurse and thinks he has a good case."
~~~~
During their discussion about the historical background to the case, McCoy and Borgia referred to several cases of enforced sterilization argued before the Supreme Court, and to the timeline of the practice, to show how recently it had been applied even in California, a state known for its more liberal leanings.

[Interested in learning more about the historical aspect of forced sterilization in America? Click on the link for "Footnote TV" over there to the left, and check out the 'Law & Order' entry for "Birthright".]

Now I could be mistaken about my memory on this, but I'm fairly certain they made mention of its practice in Europe; and they did so as if to say that it might be still going on over there.

I'm fuzzy on the details, but there's no doubt in my mind as to what they called the practice - Eugenics.

From the Memory Alpha website:

"Eugenics (also known as Selective Breeding) the philosophy or practice of selectively breeding traits in or out of a group of organisms. While widely used in botany and horticulture, eugenics via genetic engineering in sentient lifeforms (creating "Augments") is illegal in the Federation.

The Eugenics Wars were a series of conflicts that took place on Earth from 1993 to 1996 with a total death toll of 30 million, although some historians think it was closer to 35 million. The wars began in 1993 when the Augments seized control in 40 Earth nations.

To average inhabitants of the United States of America and other industrialized nations, the wars had very little impact on everyday life, and went unmentioned and possibly unknown to much of the world population at the time. It may have been some time before much of the world knew of the massive wars taking place around them. The United States of America were relatively untouched by the Wars, but American troops fought in theaters such as Northern Africa."
~~~~
Toobworld is NOT the Real World. People, objects, locations, and events happen in the TV Universe which never occur in the Real World. It drives me nuts when people refer to something that's happened in a TV show and dismiss it because it hasn't happened yet in the Real World.

Here's a trivial example - nitpickers complained when Josh Lyman used a Verizon phone booth in a flashback scene - which took place some time before Verizon came into being.

Yeah... so? People, how come you're not all bent out of shape because Josh Lyman doesn't actually exist in the Real World? "W" is our President, not Jed Bartlet. Where's your sense of outrage over that? (On second thought, I think that's building....)

Toobworld is NOT the Real World. So stop carping over the details that don't jibe with our reality.

"It's fiction, babe."

Anyway.....Here in the Real World, we didn't have the Eugenics Wars during the 1990s. Instead we had a near equivalent with an Orwellian name to neutralize its horror - "ethnic cleansing". But basically, it served the same purpose as its dimensional counterpart - the winnowing of the "chaff" from the breeding stock of the human race.

And here we had Jack McCoy of 'Law & Order' discussing the 'Star Trek' concept of Eugenics, and in such a way as to acknowledge that the Eugenics Wars did take place.

For this televisiologist, that moment of realization was bracing, as it was totally unexpected. Most of the time 'Star Trek' is nothing more than a Zonk!, a joke reference in other TV shows. But it's very rare when you get a hint that other TV shows outside of the franchise acknowledge 'Star Trek' as being a part of the same universe. If at all, the reference is usually an accident - as I'm sure the planet Vulcan was in a 'Doctor Who' story arc.

But every so often you get a deliberate nod - like the scientist Jackson Roykirk in an episode of 'Team Knight Rider', who was first mentioned in 'Star Trek' as the inventor of "Nomad".

This reference to Eugenics on 'Law & Order' was probably not meant as a direct reference to 'Star Trek'. But at the same time, I can't picture any TV writer not thinking of 'Trek' when invoking the term.

What else might we infer from a link between 'Law & Order' and 'Star Trek'?

Could Jack McCoy somehow be related to "Bones" McCoy?

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

ALTAR EGO TRIPS

'Hi Honey, I'm Home' was about a sitcom family that left the world of Television to live in the "real world", passing themselves off as real human beings. Occasionally they were visited by other sitcom characters who actually came from existing old sitcoms, like Gomer Pyle, Alice Kramden, and Grandpa Munster.

It was nightmare headache for the concept of Toobworld.

I finally figured it this way: the sitcom characters of 'Hi Honey, I'm Home' originally came from Toobworld, Earth Prime-Time. But the "real world" characters actually existed in an alternate TV dimension where all of the TV shows we watch in the Trueniverse only exist as TV shows. So that it's like our world, but is still a TV show itself.

The characters who visited this other dimension from Toobworld have no counterparts in that world; they really are just living TV characters. This is unlike Toobworld in which the TV characters can watch the same TV shows we do in the real world, while still co-existing with the characters from that show. (Each example has its own unique splainin, but for the most part there are plenty of TV characters who have had their lives adapted for Toobworld TV.)

This other dimension may be the same one where the "real world" of 'Once A Hero' was located. Possibly it could access some sort of gateway to the fictional universe of comic book heroes as well.

Confoozlin', I know.

At any rate, the idea that TV characters could come out of the TV set and exist in the real world could never actually work (aside from the fact that it would be nothing more than the ravings of a deranged lunatic). But if they could, they would face resistance and resentment from the general populace of actual living, breathing humans.

I think we saw an example of this happen last year when Sascha Baron Cohen was pummeled outside a nightclub by some guys who didn't take kindly to being heckled by the comedian while he was in "Borat" mode.

And I think what could happen to such characters was demonstrated at the TCA press tour a few days ago.
Roger Catlin (TV Eye) of the Hartford Courant wrote about what happened when Alexandra Wentworth tried to conduct her press conference in character from her new Starz show, 'Head Case':

But [Alexandra] Wentworth’s own attempt to extend the improvisation to a lunchtime press conference turned against her.

After attempting to answer questions in character, reporters shouted her down. “Could you stop doing that please, and talk to us,” said one. Another just shouted “You need to stop now.”

She went out of character quite quickly at that point.

“We were just trying to have fun,” she said, trying to explain. “We thought you guys would enjoy a little yuck.”

“Head Case” starts in April on Starz.

I don't think it's off to a very good start. It'll be interesting to see if that hostility translates into the reviews for the first episode....

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

NYPD BLURRED

Last week's 'Blind Justice' exemplified why Toobworld is basically the Real World, but with TV flourishes like talking horses, reincarnated automobiles, and food that can sing and dance.

The murder suspect threatened to go to Commissioner Kelly and have him come down hard on the cops doing the interrogation. This means that the police commissioner for NYC in Toobworld is the same as it is here in our world, Raymond W. Kelly.

[That is, unless some other show with better tele-credentials - like 'Law & Order' perhaps? - comes along and proclaims some fictional character to be the NYPD commissioner.]

Whenever possible, Toobworld should hew closely to the real events and personalities of our world. If George W. Bush is the President of the United States in the Real World, then he's the POTUS for shows like 'Whoopi!', TV movies like 'DC 9/11: Time of Crisis', and even for his own sitcom ('That's My Bush!'). This means that shows like 'The West Wing' and '24' must be relegated to alternate TV dimensions.

'NYPD Blue', the predecessor for the 'Blind Justice' timeslot, followed the same line of thinking when it came to the police commissioner. In fact, Howard Safir, who was commissioner at one time, even made an appearance on the show, playing himself.

[Raymond W. Kelly appeared as himself in a special about 'NYPD Blue' and its tenth anniversary on the air. Since that's basically a Zonk!, we'd rather disregard it.]

Darryl F. Gates, the former police commissioner, portrayed himself on several episodes of 'Hunter'. But in Toobworld, at least one of his predecessors in the job was fictional, and a murderer to boot - Mark Halperin on an episode of 'Columbo'.

I'm not sure if the NYC police commissioner has ever been mentioned, let alone portrayed, on 'Law & Order' or any of its franchise spinoffs. But as a matter of necessity, they do have to use a fictional District Attorney rather than the Real World's Robert Morgenthau. At least with the first DA, Adam Schiff, the show acknowledged the fact that Morgenthau is older than dirt by having Schiff be the same.

And now for something completely different, during the last few years the latest DA is a conservative red-stater from the South, Arthur Branch. But the show may also have anticipated the outcome of this year's election by having a woman as the interim DA, Nora Lewin. [It's possible Judge Leslie Crocker Snyder may beat Robert Morgenthau for the job come November. And then he can go on TV as well - either playing himself on some show, or as Pruneface in a revival of 'Dick Tracy'......]

The last two Real World mayors of New York City have made appearances on 'Law & Order' as themselves: Rudy Giuliani and Mike Bloomberg. And yet the producers fictionalized the governor of Connecticut to blend the troubles of former Ct. governor John Rowland with those of former New Jersey governor Jim McGreevey for a storyline.*

They did so at a time when both Real World governors had plenty of face time on the TV and should have been accepted as part of Toobworld [if only for their "Come to our state!" promos when they were in office].

The producers had to bring in a governor from another state for the storyline set in New York City. God forbid they instead fictionalized NY's governor! Don't want to insult Borin' George Pataki and rile him up enough to make it.... uncomfortable to film in the City......

They should have made the state Delaware. When was the last time any political figure from that state gained national awareness?

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

*Long time readers of this blog might remember how much I hated that 'Law & Order' episode, "Gov Luv". It bothered me so much that I finally decided that it should be banished from Toobworld entirely and stand alone as an example of what the show must be like in the evil mirror universe. Because that sure as hell wasn't the Jack McCoy I'd want in Earth Prime-Time.....

AS SEEN ON TV: PEDRO ZAMORA & "THE REAL WORLD" CAST

On Wednesday night, MTV will premiere "Pedro", a movie about the life of Pedro Zamora, who appeared on 'The Real World: San Francisco'. The movie will simulcast on mtvU, LOGO and MTV Tr3s at 8PM, with a special introduction by former President Bill Clinton.

From the press release supplied by MTV:

In 1994, Zamora captured the hearts of millions as the first-ever openly gay, HIV-positive main character on TV—on MTV’s 'The Real World: San Francisco'. Zamora’s time in the house on Lombard Street brought a face to the AIDS crisis. President Bill Clinton has long credited Zamora with personalizing and humanizing the epidemic, and he will introduce "Pedro" when it makes its world television premiere April 1st.

“To this day, Pedro Zamora remains an extraordinary example of what a huge impact one young person can make in our world,” President Clinton said. “I’m glad to have known him, and I’m grateful his life has been able to inspire and enrich so many others.”

Told through the eyes of his friends and family, the film "Pedro" celebrates the extraordinary life a young man who found out he was HIV positive at 17, then made the courageous decision to dedicate his life to speaking out about the disease. Zamora testified before the United States Congress to argue for more explicit HIV/AIDS educational programs aimed at youth of color before auditioning for 'The Real World' in 1993.

Zamora’s story heightened awareness of the AIDS/HIV epidemic in America, and now 15 years after his death MTV will tell his story. From his early life in Cuba to his death at the age of 22, "Pedro" will give viewers a look into the life of this great man.

Pictured above are the actors from the TV movie, portraying the cast of that San Francisco chapter of 'The Real World'. Pedro is in the striped blue shirt.

Another, more infamous, resident of the Frisco house is behind him to the far left: Puck.

It just seems a shame that if they really wanted to get this message out, they wouldn't have scheduled it opposite 'American Idol' and 'Lost'.....

BCnU!
Toby O'B

WHY "OUTLAW" IS OUTLAWED IN TOOBWORLD

Two new TV shows have fallen - one from FOX ('Lone Star') and the second from ABC ('My Generation'). Now a third show has been put on hiatus -NBC's 'Outlaw', and that's just a limbo stop before cancellation.

Oftentimes it's only the pilot episode that's of any interest to a televisiologist such as myself. The premise is established; the characters are introduced; and government agencies, corporations, institutions, fictional cities and countries and even alien planets and races are created - all expanding the TV Universe. After that, the series settles down into its groove, which doesn't provide anything new of interest for Toobworld for the most part. (Unless of course it is a sci-fi show which boldly goes to new worlds and new civilizations each week.)

'Outlaw', the courtroom drama starring Jimmy Smits was like that. The pilot episode established the premise - Supreme Court Justice resigns from the Bench in order to champion the rights of the underdog as a defense lawyer. And that Justice's name was Cyrus Garza (a candidate for the worst new TV character name).

The only thing of real import to Toobworld Central was the question about the place of 'Outlaw' in the TV Universe.

I'm taking the stand (heh heh. "Taking the stand." Because it's a courtroom show. Heh heh. Heh heh.... Nothing.) that it doesn't belong in the main Toobworld, Earth Prime-Time. That's because the make-up of the Court had too much of a deviation from the real SCOTUS. It may not seem that the Supreme Court needs to be exactly the same as in the real world, like the President and Vice-President. After all, Toobworld easily handles plenty of fictional senators, congressmen, governors, and even the L.A. mayor and the NYC district attorney.

But there have been shows that have referred - and shown! - the Supreme Court as it is int eh real world: 'Picket Fences', 'Boston Legal', and the TV movie 'Recount'.

Here's a screen capture from teh one scene to portray the Garza Court:

To Justice Garza's right, there in the foreground, is a female jurist who might suggest Roth Bader Ginzburg. But look to the far end of the Bench - that's a black woman, and the Court doesn't have one.... yet.

Most of the TV audience isn't going to know every member of the Court, so one deviation liek Cyrus Garza could have worked. Since he resigned anyway, the Court could have been realigned to fit with the established Supreme Court of the Trueniverse. But there looks to be too much of a difference going on here for that idea to work.

So if 'Outlaw' isn't in the main Toobworld, where can we use it?

A knee-jerk reaction would be the TV dimension of 'The West Wing'. I posted recently a "Super Six" list of TV shows that share the 'West Wing' dimension, but my blogging buddy Brent rightly pointed out a flaw in my choices.

'The Human Target' - Although a different Queen Elizabeth and the title of "Princess of Wales" that doesn't exist in the real world could work for 'The West Wing', a Duke of York named Edward Andrew (mentioned by Will Bailey in an episode of 'The West Wing') brought the Royal Family back to the True One in the Real World. So I needed a new candidate for that Super Six list.

But it won't be 'Outlaw'. We saw in a file photo during a news broadcast that Garza had been nominated for the Bench by George W. Bush. The line of presidential succession in the 'West Wing' world diverged from the real world after Richard Nixon. Before Jed Bartlet, there was Owen Lassiter and before him was D. Wire Newman. There were no George Bushes, W. or H.W. And that same argument would keep 'Outlaw' out of the 'Commander-in-Chief' TV dimension. 'Outlaw' could possibly end up in the TV dimension for 'First Monday' and 'The Court'. Or it could be played in the TV dimension shared by 'The Agency', 'The District', and 'Prison Break'.

But wherever it ends up, I know one place where you won't find it - in my DVR queue. Like I said, it's the type of show that won't have anything of interest that could be added to Toobworld.

BCnU!

AS THE WORLD TURNERIZES

The main reason I posted that opinion piece on comedy sketches was due to a sketch I stumbled across while randomly surfing the other day.

I landed on Comedy Central and they were showing 'Mad TV'. (Maybe it's me, or just the time of day, but I seem to ALWAYS land on 'Mad TV' when I visit Comedy Central!)

In the sketch, a black & white family from a 1950s sitcom were sitting around the dinner table, extolling the virtues of that night's meal. And everything they said was a double entendre, involving swallowing hot dogs, eating Mom's pie, and shaving the... cat.

Those who know me well would call it a "go there" moment.

Finally the family got sick of making everything a double entendre and tried to find subjects in which nothing had a dirty meaning. They finally gave up and tucked into Mom's pie.

Even though they were characters living within a sitcom premise of the 1950s, they were tele-cognizant; that is, they were aware they were in a TV show. And they were up-to-date with the current lingo and what passed for suggestive to the TV audience.

Therefore, I had to figure that, like the Nielsens of 'Hi Honey, I'm Home', this family was also living outside of their own TV world in a sitcom relocation program.

'Hi Honey, I'm Home' has always been a show I'd rather avoid altogether because of the headaches it causes for Toobworld. It was about a sitcom family no longer being watched on a regular basis and so the government somehow moved them out of the TV world and into the "real" world until such time - if any! - when they could go back and be viewed by the masses again.

But if what we see on the TV is considered Toobworld, then their "real world" is actually Toobworld. Therefore, that world's TV world is a further dilution of the many-worlds theory.

It gets worse, trust me. Each episode of 'Hi Honey, I'm Home' also had appearances by actual TV characters from other, "real" TV shows: Alice and Trixie from 'The Honeymooners', 'Gomer Pyle', Mr. Mooney of 'The Lucy Show', and Grampa from 'The Munsters'.

Sure, it was great to see them reprise their roles, but those characters are supposed to be living in Toobworld along with the Duff Family (who were the Nielsens' next door neighbors). They're not supposed to know they are TV characters, and the Duffs should not be thinking of themselves as being "real" in comparison to them.

It's too late for this splainin to keep me sane, but maybe it might help anybody else who finds themselves easily obsessed by the trivial.......

The "real world" of 'Hi Honey, I'm Home' is in fact not Toobworld at all. It is another alternate dimension controlled by tele-cognizant deities who abduct characters from Toobworld to bring them through the vortex for their own unknowable purposes.

The TV dimension from which the Nielsens and that 'Mad TV' sketch family came from is the actual Toobworld. And once relocated to that alternate dimension, they are aware that they came from a world based on TV shows.

They may not be 'The 4400', but not everybody who mysteriously disappears from our TV screens is automatically abducted by the people from the future. Or by aliens.

I may be wrong about this, but I think of all the celebrity character cameos on 'Hi Honey I'm Home', the only one to be ever seen again on Earth Prime Time was Alice Nelson of 'The Brady Bunch'. (She appeared last year in a commercial celebrating the liberation from drudgery of the household help on our TV shows, thanks to the Swiffer Duster.)

But that doesn't mean the others didn't slide back from that alt. world. Although many of them have passed away since the show was on we might still see Gomer Pyle and Eddie Haskell one day in some program or blipvert. (We still have Trixie Norton and June Cleaver with us, but I'd rather preserve my memories.)

However, Grampa might want to show up again, somewhere, somehow. Even at his advanced age and with the amputation of his leg, Al Lewis has always been irrepressible. And his ordeal in that other dimension could be used to splain away his missing leg......

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

"THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW" @ 50: THE VAN DYKE ZONKS

One thing I always liked about 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' when it came to pop cultural references was that it was probably the most literary of sitcoms. Mentions are made regarding many of the plays by Shakespeare, that most famous of sonnets by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, novels by Jack London, Hemingway, and . It's also very cinematic, especially when it comes to the great film classics from the 1940's. And since they're in the New York City area, there are plenty of Broadway mentions to boot.

But when it comes to possible Zonks about other TV shows, there are very few to worry about - mostly to 'Gunsmoke', 'The Defenders', 'The Untouchables', 'The Twilight Zone', and 'What's My Line?'. Easiest of all to de-Zonk would be the mention of Sebastian Cabot, which at the time referred to the series 'Checkmate', but which can be about almost anything now.

It's not so much that these Zonks would then require me to splain them away. What I hate is that they're writing crutches which could date a series so many decades later (as that 'Checkmate' reference shows.)

The reference to 'What's My Line?' (and another one mentioning the show's host, John Daly) is the easiest to splain away. The game shows we watch in the real world exist as well in Toobworld. And as we've seen in the past with shows like 'Jeopardy', 'Password', and 'Wheel Of Fortune', TV characters have appeared in the televersions of those shows.

I thought that the mention of 'The Twilight Zone' in "It May Look Like A Walnut" could be just taken at face value - Rob was having a nightmare about a horror sci-fi movie he saw about aline invaders from the planet Twilo. At one point he wonders if he's in "the Twilo zone". That didn't have to mean Rob knew about the Rod Serling TV show; it could have been just a straight-up reference to the situation in which he found himself.

But then in "Young Man With A Shoehorn", Sally mentions the show by name so there goes that opportunity.

Over the years, 'The Twilight Zone' has been cited in many different TV shows so there's no sense in trying to splain this reference away. We just have to accept that there's a televersion which may or may not feature the same stories at the show did here in the real world.

'Gunsmoke' and 'The Untouchables' can be looked upon as being in the same category - historical recreations. 'The Untouchables' really was based on the crime-fighting team led by Eliot Ness (very loosely, though) while 'Gunsmoke' would be the adaptation of the events in the life of "historical" lawman Matt Dillon. The main reason James Arness would have been hired to play the role is because he looked so much like the "real-life" marshal.

It's 'The Defenders' which might be harder to argue. It's because of a scene from that ground-breaking law drama which was presented in an episode of 'Mad Men' (with mention of EG Marshall by name and image), that I was willing to just toss 'Mad Men' out of Earth Prime-Time and into some alternate TV dimension, no matter how good the series is.

But once again, Sally brought up a real TV show: "This is like watching 'The Defenders' but without a TV set!" she said in one episode; and by calling Rob EG Marshall at one point. And there was no way I was going to toss 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' out in the cold as well.

So after years of trying to come up with ways of de-Zonking the mentions of other TV series by shows that should have been sharing the same dimension, I finally accepted a blanket splainin: while all TV shows from the real world are "real life" within Toobworld, some of them would see their real events adapted for TV within TV.

And that would have been the case for 'The Defenders'. Some enterprising TV producer within Toobworld saw the potential in the cases handled by the Prestons and decided to buy the rights to their story for a TV drama. And since EG Marshall was mentioned in both 'Mad Men' and 'The Dick Van Dyke Show', O'Bviously he was hired to play Lawrence Preston because of his - ahem! - remarkable resemblance to the lawyer.

You know what else would need to be de-Zonked? 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' itself. It's been mentioned in such shows as 'The Nanny', 'The Jackie Thomas Show', 'Pushing Daisies', and even 'The X-Files'.

(One type of show that we don't have to worry about in this case would be cartoon series, like the three times it was spoofed in 'Family Guy'. Shows like that take place in an alternate TV dimension called the Tooniverse and have no connection to the "real world" of Earth Prime-Time. The characters from that world can cross over into ours, however.)

The splainin I came up with is a case of art imitating life. In the last episode of 'The Dick Van Dyke Show', "The Last Chapter", the rights to Rob's autobiography are sold to Alan Brady. His plan was to make a sitcom for himself once 'The Alan Brady Show' variety program was canceled. But it's my supposition that - like Carl Reiner before him - Alan Brady crafted a program that mirrored his own life, and the network rejected him for the role of Rob Petrie, even though there was probably nobody out there with more expertise in the back-stage world of entertainment to play the role.

Hoping to save the project, I think Alan Brady would have scrambled to find an actor to replace him in the role of Rob Petrie. And just like in the Trueniverse some five years before, he settled on the choice of Dick Van Dyke to play Petrie. Maybe Mary Tyler Moore was also hired to play Laura, or that could have stayed with Barbara Britton. (Although she was almost a decade older than Van Dyke and that would have altered some of the "true-life" events in the Petrie family - like Laura being only 17 when she married Rob.)

So this only-on-TV version of 'The Dick Van Dyke Show', which began over six years after the original one aired in the real world, would be the show mentioned and watched by other TV characters. The faux 'Van Dyke' would be the one watched by 'Friends' Joey and Chandler from their leather comfy chairs, not the real show.

The people on this Toob-only 'Dick Van Dyke Show' and the people who inspired them would become famous, which is why Buddy and Sally would appear in 'Herman's Head' when Herman Brooks' id needed inspiration for witty repartee. And that's why FBI agent Mulder would use the names "Rob and Laura Petrie" as their alias while investigating the supernatural occurrences at a gated community.

When thought-killer Modell first saw FBI Assistant Director Skinner in the episode "Kitsunegari", he exclaimed, "It's Mel Cooley!" It could be that he knew of the actual Mel Cooley - maybe Mel stepped out from the shadows behind his brother-in-law. But it's more likely that he was more familiar with whomever was the actor who played Mel Cooley in the Toobworld version of 'The Dick Van Dyke Show'.

And it inspired Jerry Harper to become a TV writer and work in sitcoms. (It's just a shame he wound up behind the scenes at the show-within-a-show " 'Jackie Thomas Show'.)

BCnU!

SUPER SIX: KEEPING COMPANY WITH "THE WEST WING"

Those of you who understand the Toobworld concept knows that we had to invoke 'Sliders' and put the instant classic 'The West Wing' into its own TV dimension because the President of the United States - the central character of the series! - differed from the one established in Earth Prime-Time. Toobworld has to have the same POTUS as the real world; too many shows will end up referencing the current holder of the office. (This week's season-ending episode of 'The Closer' is a good example with their mention of Obama.)

But 'The West Wing' doesn't have to reside in its TV dimension all by its lonesome. Here's a Super Six list of shows that would fit in nicely with the administration of Matt Santos (whom I assume is still the Commander in Chief of that world....)

1] 'MR. STERLING'
Although it never came up in the show, and could have benefitted from a crossover, this series was meant to be considered as being part of the 'West Wing' world.

2] 'SMALLVILLE'
Why shouldn't a world with Jed Bartlet also have Clark Kent as well? But if Superman did exist in the 'West Wing' world, couldn't he have saved that ship that was lost at sea during a hurricane? This is why 'Smallville' is the TV version of the Superman mythos that best suits 'The West Wing'. Clark Kent was still learning about his Kryptonian powers and had not asssumed the identity of the Man of Steel while Bartlet was in office.

3] 'CASTLE'
Their New York City has a black mayor named Bill. Thanks to 'Law & Order', '30 Rock', and a Muppets Christmas special, real world NYC mayor Mike Bloomberg also holds that post in the main Toobworld. 'Castle' might even be bumped from the world of 'The West Wing' if they end up mentioning Obama as the President.

4] 'BATTLESTAR GALACTICA' (THE REBOOT)
It doesn't matter that the remake of the sci-fi original was considered the better series. The first 'Battlestar Galactica' made more connections with other series in the Great Link - with 'McCloud', 'Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman', and with its own spin-off, 'Galactica 1980'. As the reboot landed on Earth in the prehistoric past, it doesn't interfere with the history played out during Bartlet's term.

5] 'HUMAN TARGET' (THE REBOOT)
I once harbored hopes that both versions of 'Human Target' could exist in the main Toobworld. But that was before they introduced a different Queen Elizabeth of England - with a daughter who was the Princess of Wales and next in line for the throne.

But that would work perfectly for 'The West Wing' dimension. Lionel Tribbey mentioned that he had met with that world's Queen Elizabeth and at the time it was probably just assumed that he was talking about the same woman who sits on the throne in the real world and the main Toobworld. But now we can assume that he was referring to the woman seen in an episode of this series....

6] 'MISS MARPLE' & HERCULE POIROT
Just as 'The West Wing' dimension should have its own Superman, so too should it have its own versions of Agatha Christie's most famous sleuths. Joan Hickson will be the official Jane Marple of the main Toobworld, but Geraldine McEwan, her successor, would fit in nicely with the quality of the 'West Wing' world. (No need to wonder just yet as to where Julia McKenzie's version might end up.)

As for the Belgian detective, there can be no other than David Suchet's portrayal to exercise his little grey cells in Toobworld. But Peter Ustinov portrayed Poirot in at least one TV movie - and he could bring along those big screen outings from the Cineverse. After all, the movie universe already has Albert Finney's version (and Tony Randall's to boot!)

What shows would you suggest for the world of 'The West Wing'?

BCnU!

CROSSOVER OF THE WEEK! (6/12/06)

Have you seen the series of Netflix ads?

Up until now, they've featured generic characters from a wide variety of movie genres who invade your home with each delivery of a new Netflix title. But this time, the latest blipvert features an actual character from Toobworld - Paulie Walnuts Gaultieri, as played by Tony Sirico.

Since he's not identified by name, the character could be any mob enforcer that he's played over the years in the movies. But the clothing, the clipped manner of speech, the precise hand movements, all point to Sirico appearing in the ad as Paulie Walnuts.

As these commercials play out, the characters are appearing as fictional beings brought to life in your home, thanks to the use of Netflix. We in the audience are supposed to see them as not being as real as the person who rented the movie.

However, in this case, Sirico's character (and again, I think it's Paulie) is "advising" the homeowner that it would be in his best interests to get Netflix rather then go out to the local video store.

The person who rents movies in these commercials is a character in Toobworld by virtue of being in a broadcast TV commercial; living in the same universe borne of Mankind's artistic output as Paulie Walnuts should be. But even though there is no red envelope from Netflix in the house just yet, it's obvious that this version of Paulie is supposed to be from the TV show and not a fellow member of the TV Universe.

So how do we reconcile the two characters to be in the same dimension even though one is supposedly less real than the others?

THE CROSSOVER OF THE WEEK!
NETFLIX - "GANGSTER"
&
'HI HONEY, I'M HOME!'

'Hi Honey, I'm Home' was an offbeat sitcom made for both ABC and Nickelodeon in which sitcom characters from shows no longer on the air would be sent into the "real world" to live in the "Sitcom Relocation Program" until the time came when they would be called upon to grace the airwaves again.

One such TV family was the Nielsens, who moved in next door to Elaine Duff and her kids; one of whom figured out that his neighbors were escapees from a TV Universe.

Among the guest stars from actual past programs were Grandpa Munster, Gomer Pyle, Alice Kramden and Trixie Norton. So we're led to assume that they came out of TV Land, and the Duffs were from the Real World.

It sounds like it represented everything Toobworld stands for.

But the premise falls apart because of the basic Toobworld concept. Since whatever is broadcast is part of the TV Universe, (Earth Prime-Time AKA Toobworld), then Elaine Duff and her kids are just as fictional as the neighbors.

It's the same situation found with Paulie Walnuts and the potential Netflix customer (and that guy's wife as well, but she's already been rolled up in the carpet.)

Since the Duffs and the Netflix guy are also from the TV Universe, they are the ones who must be considered on the first level of Earth Prime Time, the main Toobworld. And so the relocated sitcom characters and Paulie Walnuts would be from Toobworld's own version of a TV Universe.

We know Toobworld has its own fully realized TV dimension into which "real" characters can escape. We've seen it in a light beer commercial in which two guys slap their beer bottles down on top of the TV set and find themselves transported into whatever was showing on the Toob at the time. (In this case, it's a martial arts movie and they end up kicking ass... until something goes horribly wrong by the end of the commercial and they find themselves channel-surfed into a new scenario.)

Obviously - unlike our Real World in relation to Toobworld - it's a two-way street for crossovers. Toobworld residents can enter their own TV dimension and those who already live in that TV Land within TV Land can travel out to the "real world".

So whether it's done via a secret government program, or through the auspices of the Netflix company, TV characters twice removed from the reality of our own world can come one step closer to "reality" by stepping out of their own fictional dimension into that of Toobworld.

And that means Paulie Walnuts of the Netflix ad (but not the Paulie Walnuts of 'The Sopranos', who is "real") and the Nielsens of 'Hi Honey I'm Home' are from the same dimension.

And there's your Crossover of the Week.

As to why so many TV characters would have TV shows about them being broadcast, especially characters with secrets to hide (like Paulie Walnuts and Clark Kent, for example).......

Well, that's a poser for some other prime time.

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

Warning: this blog post was especially designed to cause Ivy's head to explode.

SATURDAY COMICS - OH, ROB! OH, REED!

The Official Dick Van Dyke Show Book page on Facebook shared this artwork by Alex Ross which had been submitted by page member Jim Alexander.  It’s from a 1994 edition of “Marvels” and this was Ross’ rendition of the big event from the mid-1960s which was written by Stan Lee and drawn by Jack “King” Kirby – the wedding of Dr. Reed Richards and Sue Storm, both of the Fantastic Four.  (They were known in their superhero guises as Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Girl.)

A lot of the guests in this picture are obvious – those Marvel superheroes who came in their uniforms.  Captain America, Iron Man, Quicksilver, Hawkeye, Thor, Scarlet Witch, Daredevil, Dr. Strange, and especially Sue’s brother Johnny (The Human Torch) and the other member of the Fantastic Four, Ben Grimm, AKA The Thing.  Other Marvel characters in attendance are J. Jonah Jameson, Norman Osborne, mailman Willy Lumpkin, and Alicia Masters as Sue’s maid of honor.  There is a theory that one of the photographers, that young fellow in the front row might be Peter Parker, the Spiderman.

The reason I’m bringing this up is because there are two TV characters among the witnesses to the wedding. 

There were plenty of people in the audience who were not really part of the Marvel Universe, some who were from the real world and a few from Marvel’s chief competitor, DC Comics. 

Among the real people – George Herbert Walker Bush, perhaps there in his capacity as an operative for the CIA, and all four Beatles, scattered through the attendees.  And I think that’s Jerry Lewis in the back on the left.  I’ve heard rumors that JFK and Jackie are sitting there next to the Kents.  But how could that be if this was taking place in 1965?

Two other real-life figures there – on a technicality – are Stan Lee and Jack Kirby their own selves.  See Nick Fury and Gabriel Jones confabbing there in the back next to the slightly ajar door?  According to the original story, they’re talking about two guys outside whom they chalked up to be wedding crashers as they don’t have invitations.  We learn in the original comics dialogue that they are indeed Lee and Kirby.

As for DC characters, could that be Jimmy Olson behind Peter, also working the wedding but as a photog for the Daily Planet?  Clark Kent is near the back next to George Harrison.  (Probably ready to run to the nearest broom closet should trouble arise.)  On the other side of the room, that could be Jonathan and Martha Kent behind Paul McCartney. 

And now, what you’ve been waiting for… the TV characters!

Sitting in front of Osborn, Jameson and Lumpkin, but behind Thor and Iron Man are the Petries, Rob and Laura from ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show’!

We have to remember, this is taking place in the Comic Books universe, not the many Comic Books TV dimensions.  That’s not to say it couldn’t happen….

As to why the Petries were there?  That original comic book came out in October of 1965, and ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show’ would end the following year.  During the course of the series, Rob Petrie related flashback tales of his past life and those he eventually wrote down and collected into a book.  It was published in 1966 and Alan Brady bought the rights to it in order to adapt it into a TV sitcom for him to star in. 

Rob’s writing talents were already well-known of course, as the head writer for Brady’s variety show. And as such, he came to the attention of the secretive shadow ops organization known as UNReel.

In case you’ve never heard me mention UNReel before, it’s a creation of mine for when I’ve got some splainin to do when dealing with TV characters treating other TV characters as being fictional when they should be sharing the same world. (Look out!  Runaway sentence!)

UNReel is loosely connected to U.N.C.L.E. and UNIT, but for the most part they work independently of those other organizations.  Their mission is to establish fictional manifestations of actual people in Toobworld in order to gull the general public into believing people and organizations and certain events are fictional so that those people can go about their business unobstructed by interference by outsiders.  If the citizens of Toobworld come to believe certain heroes and even villains are fictional, then they might shrug off anything they see as being a scene from a movie being filmed perhaps and thus shrug off the inclination to intercede.  Among those who have been fictionalized by UNReel include U.N.C.L.E. agents, James Bond, Superman and other superheroes and even super-villains, and a certain Time Lord from Gallifrey.

William Shakespeare may have been the prototype of an UNReel agent.  All of his plays are historicals, with Prospero and Titania being as real as Richard III and Portia Catonis.  But in general, such characters as Puck, Caliban, Hamlet’s Father, and the Three Weird Sisters are looked upon as being fictional so that the populace of Toobworld would not be stirred into mass panic if they found out fairies, monsters, ghosts, and witches actually existed in their world.

Dr. John Watson may have been the inspiration for the work of UNReel.  He stated in his writings about the cases of his friend Sherlock Holmes that names were sometimes changed to protect the identities of the people involved.  The best example would be the King of Bohemia, which I’m sure most readers understood to be actually the Prince of Wales AKA “Bertie”, the future Edward VII.

Or it could be that UNReel was already in existence by then – if so, then the stories written by Watson were handled by his literary agent Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  I’ll make the claim that in Toobworld, he was an operative for UNReel.

But all of that is in my video sandbox of Toobworld and in this case we’re seeing Rob and Laura Petrie in the Comic Book Universe.  However, we have Superman existing in the TVU (actually, in several Toobworld dimensions) and the Petries are now in the CBU, along with Sgt. Bilko, the Mavericks, the crew of the Enterprise, and Perry Mason.  So why couldn’t an organization like UNReel exist in the CBU as well?

What if Rob Petrie has been recruited by UNReel over there with the intention of finding a way to mask the activities of the Fantastic Four as being fictional rather than CBU reality.  And the way decided upon was a cartoon TV series.

This wedding took place in 1965.  By 1967, there was a ‘Fantastic Four’ cartoon on TV in the Real World.  (That Real World cartoon is in itself a reality in its own dimension, the Tooniverse.)

The Fantastic Four doesn’t exist yet in the Main Toobworld; I’m not sure if they’ve ever been mentioned in the various Toobworld Comix dimensions.  So for now, this is just a theory for the Comic Book Universe.  It’s not my usual bailiwick, and that’s why I won’t vigorously defend this theory:

The Rob Petrie of the CBU was recruited by UNReel to help disguise the Fantastic Four activities as a TV series (rather than a cartoon series as in the Real World.)  During his time working on this project, he came to know Reed Richards and the others in the team, even becoming friends with them.  And that’s why he and his wife Laura were invited to the wedding.

As I said, the Fantastic Four don’t exist in the Real World, but perhaps they did back in the 1960s and we just didn’t get to see it through the dimensional vortex back then.

So maybe it could have happened.  But if not, we could at least consider the notion that Rob Petrie worked for UNReel and was able to “fictionalize” the lives of others in Toobworld.  By 1966, that could have meant he worked on the cases involving April Dancer of U.N.C.L.E., and more likely – considering his comedy background - the exploits of CONTROL.

Just a theory…..

Excelsior!

VETERANS' DAY - WAYNE MORRIS OF THE TRUENIVERSE

FOR VETERAN'S DAY
NOVEMBER 11, 2016

'MADAM SECRETARY' 
"SOUTH CHINA SEA"

PRESIDENT CONRAD DALTON:
Good evening, my fellow Americans. 

As many of you are aware, earlier today, a Chinese fighter jet struck the aircraft carrier USS Wayne Morris in the South China Sea, taking the lives of three American sailors and wounding many others.

During tense negotiations with China, a Chinese fighter jet clipped the con tower on the USS Wayne Morris, killing three sailors and injuring others. 

In the real world, there appears to be no ship named the Wayne Morris. There is no Navy ship by that name in the real world; no need to do any research into the possibility that there might be one in Toobworld as 'Madam Secretary' takes place in an alternate TV dimension where Conrad Dalton is the POTUS. 

So could it be that the USS Wayne Morris in that dimension is named after the most famous person to bear that name?

From Wikipedia:
Wayne Morris (February 17, 1914 – September 14, 1959) was an American film and television actor, as well as a decorated World War II fighter ace. He appeared in many notable films, including "Paths of Glory" (1957), "The Bushwackers" (1952), and the title role of "Kid Galahad" in 1937.

While filming "Flight Angels" (1940), Morris became interested in flying and became a pilot. With war in the wind, he joined the Naval Reserve and became a Navy flier in 1942, leaving his film career behind for the duration of the war. He flew the F6F Hellcat off the aircraft carrier USS Essex.

A December 15, 1944 Associated Press news story reported that Morris was "credited with 57 aerial sorties, shooting down seven Jap Zeros, sinking an escort vessel and a flak gunboat and helping sink a submarine and damage a heavy cruiser and a mine layer."

He was awarded four Distinguished Flying Crosses and two Air Medals. He flew with the VF-15, the famed "McCampbell Heroes."

Morris died of a coronary occlusion September 14, 1959, aboard the USS Bon Homme Richard. 

There's no problem with the assumption that a Real Worlder like Wayne Morris existed in that Toobworld; after all, in various episodes of the show, we saw the real Madeline Albright, Jane Pauley, and Bob Schieffer. 

But he didn't have to lead the exact same life as the original from Earth Prime-Time. Remember, there had to be changes in the lives of other Real Worlders in order to bring about a world in which Conrad Dalton became President of the United States. 

As a fighter pilot the Wayne Morris of this alternate Toobworld may have done something else during the war to warrant having a major Navy vessel named after him in that world. He may have even have been in a different branch of the military. 

So today, Veteran's Day, Toobworld Central is saluting the memory of Wayne Morris of the Real World in thanks for his service during WWII. We're glad this trivial tip of the hat to his counterpart in the fictional TV dimension of 'Madam Secretary' brought him to notice again. 

BCnU!

THE SUPER SIX: 2010 TV SHOWS IN OTHER DIMENSIONS

The penultimate episode of 'Rubicon' on AMC climaxed with an event that might lead to the series being banished to an alternate TV dimension.

I hope not.

As it stands now, I think it could be saved and the "event" absorbed into the overall scheme of things played out in Earth Prime-Time, in much the same way as the Eugenics War has been.

We'll see what happens in next Sunday's finale.

But in the meantime, here's a Super Six List of those shows from this year that have already been banished to alternate TV dimensions (and probably none of them are sharing the same one).

1) 'BLUE BLOODS' - CBS
We've already discussed this series here at Inner Toob. It could have remained in the main Toobworld with Tom Selleck's Frank Reagan as the NYC Police Commissioner - Raymond Kelley of the real world has never been incorporated into the fictional world of Earth Prime-Time. But NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg has, with appearances on 'Law & Order', '30 Rock', and a Muppets Christmas special. Since 'Blue Bloods' has a different mayor played by Bruce Altman, OUT IT GOES!

2) 'HAWAII FIVE-O' - CBS
We already dealt with this show as well. If only this had been a continuation of the original series rather than a remake, it could have remained. Only the names needed to be changed to protect the originals, but noooooo! (And even then, we could have kept the new Danno and the new Chin Ho Kelly with the appropriate splainins.) But there can only be one Steve McGarrett in the main Toobworld, so OUT IT GOES!

3) 'THE EVENT' - NBC
This is the most common reason a show gets bumped to its own dimension: As the current President of the United States in Toobworld is Barack Obama, just like in the real world, and since the POTUS on this show is named Martinez, OUT IT GOES!

4) 'OUTLAW' - NBC
We went into this at length after it was announced that the show was going into hiatus. Some suit must have read my arguments (as if!) because now the show is cancelled. And the reason why it had to be dismissed? Not for the POTUS but for the SCOTUS: the members of the Supreme Court in this show were too different from the real world versions which were featured in shows like 'Boston Legal', 'Picket Fences', and in the TV movie "Recount". So OUT IT GOES!

5) 'HUMAN TARGET' - FOX
The second season will begin in November, but the show didn't debut until January of this year. Everything was going smoothly for this fun show - I even found a way to splain a way around the fact that it had already been a TV series back in the early nineties so that it could avoid the remake stigma, unlike 'H5O'. I was even using it as a tent-pole in my theory on how to track Redjac through the current Toobworld timeline! But then they had to introduce a totally different Queen Elizabeth, and have her heir apparent be designated as the Princess of Wales (which is a title that doesn't exist in the real world). And you know what that means..... OUT IT GOES!

6) 'THE WAKING DEAD' - AMC
This show won't debut until the very appropriate night of Halloween, but you can surely guess why this show had to go - a world decimated by a zombie virus has no place in the main TV Universe. So, what happens then, Team Toobworld? OUT IT GOES!

BRAINNNNNNNNSSSSSSS.........! (Hush, Maudling!)

BCnU!

TUESDAY NEWS DAY - A STATEMENT OF SECRETARIES

Former First Lady and New York Senator Hillary Clinton was the Secretary of State under President Barack Obama in his first term 2009 to 2013.  She served as the inspiration for the CBS drama 'Madam Secretary' and now will be appearing on the show - along with two other former Secretaries of State.

Here's the CBS Twitter announcement from last Tuesday:

We've got some BIG guest stars in store for Season 5! Former Secretaries of State @HillaryClinton, @Madeleine, and Colin Powell will be appearing on the season premiere of #MadamSecretary on Sunday, October 7!

It will be the first time for Powell and Clinton, but Albright is an old hand at appearing on this show. 

“Having three powerhouses of diplomacy agree to come on our show is awe-inspiring and humbling. And that we were able to find a time in their busy schedules when they were all available is a miracle,” executive producer Lori McCreary said in a statement.

As this is occurring in Toobworld - and an alternate TV dimension at that! - one thing to remember is that these are not the former secretaries of state from the Trueniverse.  Clinton, Powell, and Albright will be their televersions on our TV screens, doppelgangers in another universe/dimension.  Anything they say or do in this episode cannot be ascribed to their real-life originals.

It also raises questions about the timeline in the Toobworld in which 'Madam Secretary' takes place.  (This is not the dimension in which we find other series of a similar nature - '24', 'The West Wing', 'Commander-in-Chief', 'Designated Survivor' 'Agent X'.  Each of them has their own Toobworld.)

When Madeleine Albright appeared on the show, that was an acknowledgement that Bill Clinton had been the POTUS for that timeline.  But at some point afterward, that world's history changed to reflect this new world.

Now we have to expand that.  Powell served under George W. Bush for his first term from 2001 until 2005.  And as already mentioned, Clinton served until 2013.  So that means the timeline had to be altered after that.

Did that world's Obama serve only one term?  If the world of 'Madam Secretary' has a timeline concurrent with that of the main Earth Prime-Time (and of our own Earth Prime), then the former Secretary of State for President Conrad Dalton, Vincent Marsh, perished in a plane crash in the Atlantic in 2014.

Dalton is now serving his second term, having been elected as an independent.  So that means at least there wouldn't be a President Trump.  Must be nice there....

I don't think they'd do something that radical - the part about Obama serving only one term, that is.  Drumpf would be a different story; I don't think there's anyway to get around the fact that Dalton is serving instead of POTUS #45.

Therefore, I think we have to look at the timeline for this world differently.  This is a world which is set in our future by at least three years.  Conrad Dalton was elected after Obama's two terms in office and they have already had the 2020 presidential election there.  

So everything has to be pushed forward in Time - the crash of Marsh's plane didn't happen in 2014 but instead in 2017.  And that means each of these members of the League of Themselves will be portraying themselves as they might be in 2020.

Big stress on "might be".  Hopefully, all will be well in their lives here in the real world until then.  But if the untoward happens, that will be a major divergence from the real world equal to the idea of Dalton being president instead of that other guy.....

I'll have to watch that October 7th season premiere* to see if anything is mentioned which would contradict this idea.  But however it shakes out, in the end it doesn't really affect the rest of Toobworld since it's in its own TV dimension.  (So far I don't have any other shows which could be added to that world, unlike the dimension for 'The West World'.)

BCnU!

O'Bservation:
Who am I kidding?  I'd be watching it anyway; I like the show!

TOOBWORLD TIMELINE - PAWNEE 2017... AND BEYOND!

For the final season of 'Parks And Recreation', the show was set in the "future" - 2017.  It's only a jump of two years, and I'm fairly certain we won't see very many changes here in the Trueniverse.  But P&R contributed plenty of events that should be set in stone on the Toobworld timeline even if they don't happen in our world.

There have been shows in the past which were set in their own future which has since come and gone, and for the most part they have been integrated into the dimension of Earth Prime-Time.  For example - 'Land Of The Giants'.  The show was broadcast from 1968 until 1970, but the storyline began in 1984 when the sub-orbital flight of the Spindrift entered a dimensional rift that landed him on the giants' world of Brobdingnag.  Nothing about that violates life as we view it in Toobworld, especially since most of it happens off-world.  The existence of the Spindrift and its disappearance and that of its crew can be easily absorbed into a world where lunar expeditions have been happening since the 1950s.

Speaking of the Moon, another example is 'Space: 1999'.  This was a show that would be a major Zonk to the dynamic of Toobworld, considering it's established in the first episode that the Moon was ripped out of its orbit and sent hurtling into space.  Such a cataclysmic event meant that the Earth was severely damaged by the loss of its satellite's gravity.  There is no way that could ever be incorporated into Toobworld.  So I came up with a different splainin: when the nuclear fuel dumps exploded on the far side of the Moon, the explosion left Commander Koenig in a coma.  Everything we saw in the show, including the existence of shape-changer Maya, was part of the dream Koenig had in his coma.  (He may still be in that coma at this point.)

The Jupiter 2 still blasted off in 1997; anything else that happened on 'Lost In Space' after that took place in another part of the galaxy and had no effect on Toobworld.

Don't get me started on the futures established by 'Star Trek', 'Babylon 5', and ......  They are set in stone as well but it's not like we'll ever be around to confirm it one way or the other.

So now that we've got all of that out of the way, let's get working on how 'Parks And Recreation' has changed the future of Toobworld......

LIFE IN 2017

Shia LaBeouf has a line of wedding dresses which he designed.  And he's also the designer of jewelry pieces.

Hey, this is a world in which Abraham Lincoln and Benjamin Franklin dealt with time travelers, and Franklin and Mark Twain actually traveled forward into the future.  In fact, Twain even went into space.  So this change in LaBeouf's career path is no big deal.  It can easily be accepted for his televersion.

Elton John owns Chick-Fil-A.

The same situation applies in this case.  In fact, despite the singer's high profile as a gay and as an advocate for gay issues, this would be under the radar in Toobworld.  Who cares about the financial holdings of celebrities unless it involves making fur coats out of dead puppies......

The Cubs will have won the World Series.

The Cubs last won the Series in 1908.  Hope schwings eternal as Wayne Campbell would say, and Baseball can be a magical world of miracles and wonder.  But I'm not about to hold my breath over this happening.  Still, Toobworld is not our world and when the Tele-Cubs win the Series either this year or next, it won't have any major impact on the world at large.  Sorry to break it to you, those who live and die by the "Show", but Baseball is not the be-all and end-all.

The "Jason Bourne" franchise has been rebooted, but this time? Kevin James is the lead.

In Toobworld, Jason Bourne was a real person, as real as he was in the Cineverse and originally in BookWorld.  So any mention of a movie about Jason Bourne would be biographical.  However, calling it a reboot could mean that the movie producers were breaking free of the limitations of "reality" and planned to do a spoof of his life.  There's no other way to justify the idea of Kevin James as Jason Bourne because I can't see him going through a massive reboot of his own physique in the same way that Chris Pratt did for "Guardians Of The Galaxy", can you?

Everybody seems to be using the Gryzzlepad as their tablet of choice.

If other shows don't have tablets with 3-D holographic screens by 2017, we can just say that Gryzzle was still beta-testing the product near their home-base only.

The latest fashion fad: diamonds embedded into the elbow area.

They could be doing this on other TV shows in 2017 as well.  But only those characters whom we never see in short sleeves.....

The televersions of the following people are guaranteed to still be alive in 2017:

• Jimmy Carter (Not seen, but mentioned and in such a way as to presume he was still alive)
• Jon Ceda
• John McCain
• Barbara Boxer
• Cory Booker
• Madeline Albright
• Kirsten Gillibrand
• Orrin G. Hatch

If they die in real life, their appearance in 2017 cameos on this show will guarantee them some extra time on Earth Prime-Time.  Additionally, Barbara Boxer was addressed as Senator and seen in what I assume was her office.  However at some point after she filmed her cameo, Senator Boxer announced that this term would be her last in office.  This can be easily splained away: she will always be addressed as "Senator Boxer" in retirement; it's a tradition.  As for her office, perhaps retired Senator Boxer rented a new office in the nation's capital and had it decorated to resembler the office she used while in office.

The televersions of Vice President Biden and his wife Jill get a guarantee of at least ten more years of life in Toobworld since Ben and Leslie were seen in their home in 2025.  The assumption for the audience was that Biden was now the President of the United States since Ben mentioned that Leslie always got a little excited when in their home.  Why would she get excited over being in someone's home, even if it was Biden's unless it was something about the house itself.  As in could they have been in the White House, the residence section?  I can't say.  I don't know where that particular scene was filmed.  But who the President is by 2025 has to be set in stone to be the same as he or she is in the real world.  If it's Biden, then fine.  No Zonk to be disabled.  But here's my splainin if needed (should I not be around then to address the situation):  They were in the private residence of the former Vice President and if it looks like the interior of the White House then the Bidens had it decorated that way.

There will be only eight corporations in the future.  One of these will be a merger of Verizon, Exxon, and Chipotle.

This will never happen in the real world, but I don't see anything about the idea that would have any real impact on Toobworld at large.

Ethel Beavers is still alive and will deliver a rather scandalous eulogy at the funeral for Mayor Gunderson.

Ms. Beavers is played by Helen Slayton-Hughes.  She falls into the same category as the actors from 'Star Trek'.  DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, and Leonard Nimoy have passed away, but their iconic characters are not yet even born.  So their deaths have no impact on their characters,  Gods forbid that Ms. Slayton-Hughes should die before then, but like the real life people mentioned above, it would have no impact on her character of Ethel Beavers.

With the final episode, there were time jumps all over the place as the cast took "One Last Ride" before splitting up to go their separate ways.

  

2022

The United States will run out of beef.  No reason is given for this calamity, but I'm guessing it would be some kind of virus that wipes out the herds of cattle all across the country.  Mad Cow Disease on an epic scale perhaps.  Hopefully it is a short-term disaster so that if somebody is shown eating meat in 2023 and beyond on some other show, there won't be any Zonk involved.  Perhaps in a move reminiscent of 'Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home', somebody went back in Time to bring forward enough herds of cattle from the past to replenish the need for beef.  Sounds like a job for the Doctor and his TARDIS, which is bigger on the inside......

  

2023

Donna's husband mentioned that Middle Korea is a beautiful place.

  

In the coming eight years, it could be that there will be some kind of conflagration between North and South Korea that leads to war, considering the nutjob in charge of North Korea.  But I think it would be only in Toobworld that a third country springs up to act as a buffer between the two.  It also could be just a geographical turn of phrase that signifies an unofficial area of either or both of the two Koreas.

Tom Haverford will publish a best-seller: "Failure: A Success Story".

Lots of TV characters have published books over the years and there is no impact between those and the real world.  And there's no reason why they should be acknowledged in Toobworld either.

A Space Haystack was being constructed around the Space Needle in Seattle.

This is a project that would have to be eliminated in order to maintain harmony in Toobworld.  At some point after the year 2023, Seattle will be seen on TV in some show or another and there won't be a Space Haystack to be seen around the Space Needle.  How to get rid of it?  Sadly, terrorism wil be an option, but I'll go with wiser heads prevailing in the City Council and the funding for the project will be rescinded.  What was already completed would be dismantled.

I have one other note from the finale but I don't think I even knew what it meant when I jotted it down: "Jack Dwyer Baby".  If anyone has a splainin for this, let me know.

2025

As mentioned earlier, Leslie always gets excited when she visits the Bidens' "home" and the scene suggests that it's taking place in the White House.  So without stating it, they seem to be claiming that by 2025, Biden would be the POTUS.  I don't think so.  But who knows?  If by 2025, Biden is NOT the President, then a splainin will have to be provided to keep P&R in the system.  As I stated earlier, I think that scene took place in the actual residence of Joe and Jill Biden and not in the White House.

2048

Mayor Garry Gergich dies at the age of 100.

God bless the luckiest man in Toobworld.  Okay, so they spelled his name wrong on the tombstone ("Girgich"), but that could never diminish what he had in life - an immortal wife who never turned him into the Undead.

Here's the big puzzler - at the graveside service for Garry, a bodyguard leaned in to the elderly Leslie and whispered that it was time to go.  Everything about the two bodyguards suggested Secret Service agents, so could it be that by 2048 Leslie Knope was the President of the United States?  Only in the alternate Toobworld which also houses 'Mr. President', 'Hail To The Chief', 'Nancy', and 'Cory In The House'.  For Earth Prime-Time, those bodyguards should be just that - bodyguards.  Perhaps they were assigned to escort the former Governor of the state of Indiana.

I think I covered it all.  Let me know if I left any future Zonks unattended....

BCnU!