TVXOHOF MEMBER UPDATE - SAM HANNA

TVXOHOF MEMBER UPDATE

Sam Hanna (as played by LL Cool J) was inducted into the Television Crossover Hall of Fame in February of 2023.  Here is a rundown of what qualified him for membership in the TVXOHOF:

• NCIS: LA – 323 episodes
• NCIS: HAWAI’I – 12 episodes
• NCIS – 3 episodes

ALTERNATE TELEVERSIONS

AMERICAN DAD!
(The Tooniverse)

HAWAII FIVE-0
(Toobworld 2)

On April 21, 2025, Sam Hanna added to his tally with a fourth appearance on NCIS (“After The Storm”.)

Sam Hanna is the kind of character who could drop into any of the crime-fighting shows on the CBS Network.  He could crossover into any of the FBI series, if Dick Wolf was looking for any publicity juice; he could make a guest appearance in either 'Fire Country', 'Tracker', or even in 'Elspeth'. 

There are other options, but that would mean dealing with the televersion of Sam Hanna from Toobworld2 more than likely....

TVXOHOF 2025 FRIDAY FAREWELL - WINK MARTINDALE

Sadly, Prime-Time marches on for another member of the League of Themselves.  And these last two years have hit game show hosts hard….

From NPR:
LOS ANGELES — Wink Martindale, the genial host of such hit game shows as "Gambit" and "Tic-Tac-Dough" who also did one of the first recorded television interviews with a young Elvis Presley, has died. He was 91.  

Martindale died Tuesday at Eisenhower Health in Rancho Mirage, California, according to his publicist Brian Mayes.

Martindale had been battling lymphoma for a year.  

"He was doing pretty well up until a couple weeks ago," Mayes said by phone from Nashville.

WINK MARTINDALE

From Wikipedia:
Winston Conrad "Wink" Martindale (December 4, 1933 – April 15, 2025) was an American disc jockey, radio personality, game show host, and television producer. He was best known for having hosted 'Gambit' from 1972 to 1976 (and again from 1980 to 1981), 'Tic-Tac-Dough' from 1978 to 1985, 'High Rollers' from 1987 to 1988, and 'Debt' from 1996 to 1998.

Martindale's first break into television was at WHBQ-TV in Memphis, as the host of 'Mars Patrol', a science-fiction themed children's television series. At his tenure with WHBQ, Martindale became the host of the TV show 'Teenage Dance Party', where his friend Elvis Presley made an appearance on June 16, 1956. Following Presley's death in 1977, Martindale aired a nationwide tribute radio special in his honor.

Martindale's first game-show hosting job was on the show 'What's This Song?', which he hosted for NBC (credited as "Win Martindale") from 1964 to 1965. From 1970 to 1971, he hosted a similar song-recognition game show, 'Words and Music', again on NBC. His first major success came in 1972, when he took the emcee position on a new CBS game show, 'Gambit'. He spent four years hosting the original 'Gambit' and later hosted a Las Vegas-based revival for 13 months in 1980–81.

The emcee role for which Martindale is most widely known is on 'Tic-Tac-Dough'. He was tapped by Barry & Enright Productions to host the revived series in 1978 and stayed until 1985, presiding over one of the more popular game shows of the day. Coincidentally, Martindale died one day after the revival of 'Tic-Tac-Dough' premiered on Game Show Network, which occurred on April 14, 2025. While hosting 'Tic-Tac-Dough', Martindale (along with fellow game show hosts Art James, Jack Clark, and Jim Perry) made a cameo appearance in the 1980 TV movie "The Great American Traffic Jam" in a scene where the quartet played golf.

Martindale died from lymphoma at a hospital in Rancho Mirage, California, on April 15, 2025, at the age of 91.

Here are the roles for which his fictional televersion qualified to become a member of the TVXOHOF….

We'll begin with a listing of the game shows which he hosted....
HIGH ROLLERS 
WHAT'S THIS SONG? 
HEADLINE CHASERS   
WORDS AND MUSIC 
TRIVIAL PURSUIT 
DREAM GIRL OF '67 
CAN YOU TOP THIS? 
NEW TIC TAC DOUGH 
HOW'S YOUR MOTHER-IN-LAW? 
YOU DON'T SAY 
INSTANT RECALL 
LAS VEGAS GAMBIT 
CARD SHARKS

Without several of these game shows, Wink Martindale would probably never have been given the chance to appear in Toobworld as his fictional televersion.  (At least not enough times to qualify him for Hall membership.) 

But just hosting a TV game show isn't enough to qualify for membership in the Hall; there are plenty of his game shows which I'm not including as significant; but they do add flavor to his tally.  

However, the following game shows were either seen or mentioned in other TV shows, giving them fictional televersions as well.  (Whether Wink showed up in those clips or not is irrelevant.  He was associated with these shows.)

TIC-TAC-DOUGH (1978-1985)

O’Bservation:
This game show might qualify for its own berth in the TVXOHOF.

[Regarding the first episode on CBS, July 3, 1978]
Wink Martindale: This could be the best game show I've come across!

AS SEEN IN OR REFERENCED IN:

LEAVE 'EM LAUGHING (1981 TV MOVIE)
Shown on the TV at the hospital.

THE SIMPLE LIFE
PILOT (1998)
The crew member known as "Butt Crack" mentions that he worked on the show.

THE SOPRANOS
MADE IN AMERICA (2007)
Seen on TV

BEYOND THE BLACKBOARD (TV Movie 2011)
Residents of the shelter watch "Tic Tac Dough" in the TV room.

BLOODLINE
PART 15 (2016)
Heard playing on TV

BLINDSPOT
SCREECH, THWACK, POW (2018)
Rich says, "Circle gets a square."

O’Bservation:
I don’t know the context, but this could be more of a reference to that other Tic Tac Toe TV game show, ‘The Hollywood Squares’.

THE GOLDBERGS
1] I LOST ON JEOPARY (2019)
Title is mentioned; by then retitled simply "Tic-Tac-Dough"

2] SCHMOOPIE’S BIG ADVENTURE (2020)
Mentioned by Murray.

BETTER CALL SAUL
CARROT AND STICK (2022)
An episode of this show can be heard in the background of several scenes.

YOUNG SHELDON
UNCLE SHELDON AND A HORMONAL FIRECRACKER (2022)
Meemaw watches this show.

Next up....

YOU DON'T SAY (1965-1967)

REFERENCED IN:

WOMAN OF THE HOUR (2023)
A poster for the show is hanging in the dressing room.

O'Bservation:
I'm including this, but at that time in the Toobworld timeline Tom Kennedy was the host.  And according to the CTVA (Classic Television Archives), a website I've always trusted - check it out! - the only hosts were Kennedy and before him, Ralph Andrews.  

HIGH ROLLERS (1987-1988)
Wink Martindale was chosen to host this version of High Rollers for syndication. When Merrill-Heatter Productions brought this show back, they didn't get Alex Trebek, the host on the original NBC version of High Rollers because Trebek was already busy hosting the mega hit syndicated game show Jeopardy! (1984) and was set to host Classic Concentration (1987) on NBC's Daytime morning lineup. Martindale had just come off of his recently canceled show Headline Chasers (1985) when he was asked to do the pilot for High Rollers in 1986.

Wink Martindale has said that, of all the shows he's hosted, he would put "High Rollers" in his top 3 all-time as far as hosting it.

O’Bservation:
There doesn’t seem to be any TV shows connected to it, but as he did hold it in high regard, I figured it should be mentioned, since this will probably his last time in the spotlight here.

And now, on to the TV shows in which his fictional televersion appeared....

JUST OUR LUCK
THE SHABELLES (1983)

Shabu clones himself in a vocal quartet in order to enter a talent contest and win money so Keith can go on vacation.

O'Bservation:
I'm assuming that Wink hosted the talent contest.

EQUAL JUSTICE
WHAT COLOR ARE MY EYES? (1991)

From Wikipedia:
This series details the lives of the district attorney's office in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Despite earning critical acclaim, the show received low ratings throughout its run and was cancelled after only two seasons.  

O'Bservation:
Wink Martindale appeared as himself in the penultimate episode, but I have no other information.

MEDUSA: DARE TO BE TRUTHFUL (1991)

Medusa, a [swollen-head] talent of the 90's, takes you along on a bare-all documentary of her "Blonde leading the Blonde" tour. We see her get crushed by a giant penis, and visit the grave of her dead dog (then dig it up.) Spoof of Madonna's Madonna: Truth or Dare (1991) documentary.

Medusa:

Wink Martindale wants to do me in a Motel Seven!

DAVE'S WORLD
DAVE BERRY, CALL YOUR AGENT (1997)

A domineering agent (Beatrice Arthur) pushes even laid-back Dave to the limit. Wink Martindale appears as himself.  

O'Bservation:

He emcees the wake for a character played by one of my faves, Phil Leeds.  Later, he recounts to his agent that he was running a high fever during a taping of ‘Tic Tac Dough’.  He remembers nothing of the episode, but the tape later showed him French-kissing the runner-up, a housewife from Mile City.

O'Bservation:
All of the italicized descriptions were from the IMDb.

Welcome to the Hall, Mr. Martindale.  I think you’ll find a few other members of your exclusive club of quizmasters already here….

THURSDAY'S THEORY OF RELATEEVEETY - A COUPLE OF GRAYSONS

THURSDAY’S THEORY OF RELATEEVEETY

We’ll see how this goes, but I’m thinking of getting back into a more active role with the Inner Toob blog, beyond the monthly inductions into the Television Crossover Hall of Fame (and the unexpected memorial tributes.)

So I hope to add weekly theories of “relateeveety”, a way to connect TV characters in unofficial (for the most part) family trees.  You may disagree with some of them, which is why I’m presenting them only as theories.  I’m not going to go deeply into these theories; my focus these days is in building my fantasy world.  (One reason I stepped back from the Toobworld concept is that I don’t own it.)

To kick off the weekly theories of relateeveety, here is one which I shared in a Facebook comment recently.  As Stuart Best would say in ‘Murphy Brown’, for alls I know, I’m definitely not the first one to come up with this.  I would not be surprised if it is used in the concept of the Wold Newton Universe….

Mr. Spock’s mother was a human, Amanda Grayson.  She was (will be) supposedly born in 2210, according to one ‘Star Trek’ source.  Her lineage can be traced back to Richard Grayson, known by the nickname of “Dick”, who was the ward of millionaire Bruce Wayne in Gotham City.  What Toobworld at large did not know was that Dick Grayson was also Robin, the Boy Wonder; he was the sidekick to Batman, the Caped Crusader, who was Wayne’s alter-ego.

The 1960s TV series is – for Toobworld purposes – the official setting for the televersions of those DC comic characters (as well as the many other characters depicted in those episodes, everyone from Alfred the butler to King Tut (created for the TV show, but finally made his comic book debut in 2009.)  

‘Batman’ and ‘Star Trek’ share the same world – Earth Prime-Time.

O’Bservations:
1] This is for my purposes as the Toobworld Curator.  Your mileage may vary.

2] I would have used Zelda the Great for a true A to Z, but she has never appeared in the comic books.  So I went with one of my favorites.

In that incarnation, Dick was in high school.  In an interview, Alan Napier (who played Alfred) said that at the beginning of filming, Burt Ward – who played Dick Grayson – was already 21, but he sounded 15.  So, using that for as good a reason as any, I’m going to say that Dick was born in 1951.

And there you have it.  As to when Dick Grayson finally married, or at least fathered a child (no judgments) whose lineage would eventually lead to Amanda Grayson….  I’ll leave that to the fanficcers out there.  I just provide a few building blocks.

Hey now....  That was longer than I thought it would be.

BCnU! 

TVXOHOF TUESDAY TRIBUTE - REMEMBERING JAY NORTH

From The Hollywood Reporter:
Jay North, who starred as the young mischief maker with the characteristic blond cowlick on the 1959-63 CBS comedy 'Dennis the Menace', has died. He was 73.

North died Sunday (04/06/2025) at his home in Lake Butler, Florida, after years of battling colon cancer, Jeannie Russell, who played Margaret Wade on his show, told The Hollywood Reporter. She called him her “otherworldly brother.”

On Screen Gems’ 'Dennis the Menace', based on the comic strip created by Hank Ketcham, North starred as the well-intentioned but troublesome Dennis Mitchell, the only child of Henry (Herbert Anderson) and Alice (Gloria Henry). He often created chaos for his retired next-door neighbor George Wilson and then his brother, John Wilson (Gale Gordon).

(Joseph Kearns had played George, and after his death in 1962, Gordon was brought on to replace him).

North was 6 when he first auditioned for Dennis, 8 when the show went on the air in October 1959 and almost 12 when the series was canceled after four seasons. However, he would be seen by millions of viewers over the years as the half-hour show played in reruns and in syndication.

In a 1993 interview, North said he was not unhappy to see 'Dennis the Menace' come to an end.

“Between the pressures of the business and Joe’s dying, I became very serious, very morbid and very withdrawn from the world. I was the antithesis of the little kid that I played on the television show,” he said.

An only child, North was born in Los Angeles on Aug. 3, 1951. He was 4 when his father, also Jay, left the family, and he never saw him again. His mother, Dorothy, worked as a secretary for AFTRA.

While the series was on the air, North also appeared as Dennis on 'The Donna Reed Show' and 'The Red Skelton Hour' and in the 1960 musical comedy film "Pépé", starring Cantinflas.

Survivors include his third wife, Cindy.

JAY NORTH

When it comes to the Television Crossover Hall of Fame, Jay North is a great example of when a member of the League of Themselves appears as their fictional televersion which can cause Zonks because it’s always tied in to the character(s) they played.  With many of the early inductees known for playing themselves – like George Burns, Bob Hope, Milton Berle – it wasn’t that hard as most of their Toobworld personae was based on variety shows.  Jack Benny serves as a blend of being himself with the established caricature of being a miser vain about his age from his sitcom/variety show.  So there is no Zonk when he plays up that version on other show.

It was with the inductions of three characters by Lucille Ball, along with the woman herself in 2000 that the situation had to be addressed.  And the answer proved to be simple – those members of the League of Themselves who were eligible for the Hall were playing in dramatizations of those characters.  That way they can remain in the same TV dimension.

In North’s case, TV producers within Toobworld saw something in the life of young Dennis Mitchell which they deemed worthy for his own show.

But as he is not only a multidimensional but also a multiversal, there will be examples where North didn’t want to be associated with Dennis.  With later appearances on some talk shows (which don’t really factor into his qualifications for membership), North didn’t hesitate in voicing his anger about being tied to Dennis Mitchell.  And in one case, his televersion takes it farther.

Here are the appearances which qualified Jay North as a multiversal member of the TVXOHOF as himself:

From Earth Prime-Time:

THE RED SKELTON HOUR
JAY NORTH ADOPTS FREDDIE THE FREELOADER (1961)

O’Bservation:
Jay North also appeared in another episode two seasons earlier, but as Dennis Mitchell.  (The title was “FREDDIE’S MILLIONS”.)

THE MACY’S THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE (1962)

From the Macy’s Parades Wiki:
Jay North in his comic accurate appearance as "Dennis Mitchell" showed up at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1962 riding on a classic Space Ship float.

THE MERV GRIFFIN SHOW
Season 5 Episode 21 (1967)

As Sajid Khan was also on the same episode, it’s O’Bvious they were both there to promote their TV series ‘Maya’.

Season 8 Episode 133 (1971)
The topic was child stars.  Along with Jay, other guests were Paul Peterson, Sherry Jackson, Don Grady, Beverly Washburn, and the Lennon Sisters.  (According to the IMDb, the soundtrack featured “You and I and George” performed by Rowlf.  But no mention of him actually in the studio, nor of Jim Henson.)

O’Bservation:
For newcomers to the Hall, talk shows don’t usually count towards qualifying somebody for membership in the TVXOHOF.  Exceptions would be when the host/interviewer is already a member – Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien.  When it comes to the actual show within a show, some talk shows are also members because their fictionalized versions were seen on TV – ‘The Tonight Show’ and ‘The View’ are the main entries.  But since ‘The Merv Griffin Show’ was a key plot point in an episode of ‘Seinfeld’, I always make room for Merv.

HOLLYWOOD SQUARES (1967)
5 Episodes (October 30-November 03, 1967)

Jay North was on promoting ‘Maya’.  The other Squares were regulars Charley Weaver and Wally Cox, with Morey Amsterdam in the Center Square.  Also appearing were Barbara Feldon, Abby Dalton, Nannette Fabray, Ron Harper and Tim Conway.

THE DATING GAME
JAY NORTH (1969)

O’Bservation:
What could be a more fictional televersion of Jay North than to appear on this show?

And now we get to the fictional Jay North from alternate TV dimensions…..

From Skitlandia:

NOT NECESSARILY THE NEWS
INSIDE ENTERTAINMENT (1987)

Jay North is seen in a breaking news story as a homicidal psychopath on a rampage.

From The Tooniverse:

THE SIMPSONS

TAKE MY WIFE, SLEAZE (1999)

From the IMDb:
Jay North reprises his role as the title character of the 1959-1963 situation comedy ‘Dennis the Menace’ (1959) at Greaser's grand opening. His failure to impress Bart is a reference to Matt Groening's dislike of the TV show which was actually Groening's inspiration for creating the character of Bart Simpson first intended to be a "harder version" of Dennis Mitchell.

O’Bservation:
He is NOT playing Dennis Mitchell.  It clearly states on the sign that he is Jay North, the original Dennis the Menace.

All of those appearances made him multidimensional within the Grand Mosaic of the TV Universe.  But this one made him multiversal….

From the Cineverse:

DICKIE ROBERTS, FORMER CHILD STAR (2003)

From the IMDb:
A thirty-something former child star hires a foster family to re-create the childhood he never had.  About 30 former child stars gather to record a song about being a child actor which is reminiscent of “We Are The World”.  Jay North can be seen in the second row, towards the middle of the group, third from the right.

I hope to find pictures of Jay North from ‘Hollywood Squares’, ‘I’ve Got A Secret’, ‘The Merv Griffin Show’, and the 1962 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.  If you know where I can find them, contact me!

If you’re wondering about Dennis Mitchell, he qualified for membership and will kick off 2026 as the Classic Crossover Character for January.

Having Dennis with you all your life was apparently a heavy burden, but thanks anyway for bringing him to Life out of the comic strips.

“Good night and may God bless” as your fellow Hall member once said….

TVXOHOF, APRIL 2025 - JIMINY GLICK

April is the month for inducting the Fools of Toobworld into the Television Crossover Hall of Fame.  Usually this means the more humorous characters, but actual fools do make it into the Hall as well.  That’s why a certain Fool is an April member and not in the November wing for Newsmakers.  But then, he was inducted nearly a decade before becoming a standard Newsmaker Crossover, back when he was just a Citizen Fool.

So here we are, beginning the 26th year of the TVXOHOF, and I think we have a great candidate for this month’s candidate….

JIMINY GLICK

From Wikipedia:
Jiminy Glick is a fictional character created and portrayed by Martin Short in the TV series ‘Primetime Glick’ (2001–2003), the subsequent 2004 film “Jiminy Glick in Lalawood”, and Short's Broadway show “Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me.” He began as a recurring character on ‘The Martin Short Show.’

Glick is the main character in the feature film “Jiminy Glick in Lalawood.”

In “Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me”, Glick interviews (through complete improvisation) an audience volunteer tasked to become the show's "new star" after Martin Short is struck by lightning (a ploy to allow Short enough time to don the Jiminy Glick make-up).

O’Bservation:
Those appearances qualify Glick as a Multiversal.

Here is Glick’s biography from Wikipedia:
Born Malcolm Glickman on March 12, 1948, in Akron, Ohio (though he has claimed to have been born in Omaha, Nebraska and Baton Rouge, Louisiana), Jiminy Glick was "the middle child of 10 children" of Omar and Isabella Glickman.

Glick, who describes himself as a Tibetan-American, was often a loner and was regularly made fun of for his obesity at an early age. He was also very sickly until he was 13, when doctors discovered that he had a small Tonka truck stuck in his duodenum. As a child, while riding his bike and listening to the song "Michael Row the Boat Ashore", he lost his virginity when he fell on the "boy bar", He has said he never liked the name Malcolm and was given the nickname "Jiminy" as crickets laid eggs in his anus. But Glick also told Larry David that Jiminy is his real name, given to him because his parents "were from the Baháʼí Faith". In an interview with Ben Stiller, he asserted that he and his wife were Buddhists.

After graduating from Gale Gordon High School, and continuing on to DeVry Institute of Technology and the University of Wisconsin, his life changed forever when the play “Forty Carats”, starring Lana Turner, came to town. He was asked to join the show and traveled to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he played "Onlooker Number Two", which he said was "like a dream!" After his short stage acting career and a performance as the leper in the film “Papillon”, Glick became Charles Bronson's personal assistant for five years during the 1970s. He had planned on working for Robert Vaughn, but according to Glick, he "didn't pay".

Bronson was very cruel to Glick and at one point threw him off his boat, mistaking him for Sebastian Cabot. Glick was picked up in a boat by George Maharis, of the TV show ‘Route 66’, and his cousin, Leon Maharis. Leon asked Glick if he wanted to work with him at Chasen's in Beverly Hills, California, as a busboy. Glick eagerly accepted the offer. There he ran into numerous Hollywood celebrities, such as Justin Timberlake, Madonna, Britney Spears, James Dean, and Charlton Heston.

Then, one day, while catering a party at Roddy McDowall's house, George Schlatter from ‘Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In’ offered Glick a pilot episode deal for a daytime talk show. Glick accepted and started at the Beverly Garland Motel (as opposed to the Beverly-Garland Hotel). And, Glick has said, "That’s how it all started." The daytime talk show was canceled when Beverly Garland herself came downstairs and, lacking sleep and thoroughly intoxicated, shouted to Glick and his crew to "get the hell out!" Later in his career, Glick moved to prime time.

In 1974, Glick worked as Telly Savalas's personal assistant. Savalas was mean, so Glick embezzled $85,000 from him. He was caught on his way to Ecuador and served a four-month hard labor sentence in Mississippi.

Glick is married to a heavily medicated, alcoholic Southern woman named Dixie. Together they have "four wonderfully strapping young boys": Morgan, Mason, Matthew, and Modine (named for actors Morgan Mason and Matthew Modine).

Morgan and Mason are teenaged twins and Matthew and Modine are 10-year-old twins; they were actually triplets but he sent away the third one because "two was so much already." The Glick family resides in Tarzana, California.

Dennis Miller has described Glick's life as "one big CliffsNote missing a page."

These are the shows which qualified Glick for membership:

THE MARTIN SHORT SHOW

PRIMETIME GLICK

MADtv

HOLLYWOOD SQUARES

SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE
TOM BRADY, HOST (April 16, 2005)

MAYA & MARTY
Glick appears in Maya & Marty interviewing celebrities such as Larry David, Kevin Hart, Jerry Seinfeld and Ricky Gervais.

THE TONIGHT SHOW starring JIMMY FALLON (April 28, 2017)
Glick interviewed Donald Trump (portrayed by Jimmy Fallon) about his first 100 days in office.

REAL TIME with BILL MAHER
June 21, 2024

JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE!
Among those Glick interviewed on that talk show were Bill Hader, Melissa McCarthy, Sean Hayes, and Nick Kroll.

AC360
Glick talked with Anderson Cooper durng that week while he guest hosted 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!'

Welcome to the Hall, Jiminy!  You'll find the club room well-stocked with doughnuts and gumdrops.