PARTYIN' LIVE WITH THE LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES

Where in the world is Matt Lauer?

Well, in Toobworld he was at Karen's party last night on 'Will & Grace'.

For their second live episode this season, 'Will & Grace' spent the whole episode in Karen's palatial bathroom during her birthday party. Matt Lauer was the only televersion who needed to use the facilities while they were all in there, (Actual character Beverly poked in as well.) but there was a stellar array of celebs just beyond the door.... at least so we were told.

Among the invited:

Yoko Ono (Rosario was convinced Yoko wanted her.)
Gore Vidal
Happy Rockefeller (Karen feared that Happy would be farting all night if she ate Will's pickled shrimp.)
Susan Sarandon
Tim Robbins
Liza Minnelli
Philip Seymour Hoffman (Grace grabbed his ass; he grabbed her boob.)
Diane Sawyer (Rosario's idol.)
and
John McCain (Grace thought he starred in 'Cheaper By The Dozen'.)

I don't know if Happy Rockefeller was ever mentioned in passing on a fictional TV series before. I would think some snarky sitcom would have at least mentioned the infamous circumstances surrounding her husband's death back in the late 1970s.

But if not, she should hope to get some other credits under her belt or it'll be the image of "Happy Farts" that will forever haunt her in Toobworld.

Despite their appearances on news programs, talk shows, and variety specials, Liza Minnelli, John McCain, Diane Sawyer, and Philip Seymour Hoffman have no actual televersions to speak of in Toobworld. (I'm not sure about comments made about their fictional lives in other shows; I would think Liza would be a natural in that department.)

This was especially surpising for Diane Sawyer, in that I would have thought she might have appeared on 'Murphy Brown' at some point as herself.

Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins both appeared on 'The Footy Show' and even though most of the people on that oddball series appeared as themselves, there was still Trevor Marmalade who relegates the whole exercise to "The Land of Fiction".

(Tim Robbins also has a 'Primetime Glick' to his credit, which has a similar application.)

As for Matt Lauer, his only other Toobworld apperance as himself is off in the Tooniverse, where he appeared in an episode of 'Father Of The Pride'.

So that leaves Gore Vidal and Yoko Ono, two names not normally associated with the idea of a TV Universe.

But Mr. Vidal has made appearances in two different dimensions of Toobworld. On Earth Prime-Time, he visited 'Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman' in her Fernwood home back in the mid-1970s. And in an alternate dimension that will split off from the main TV Land with the next Presidential election, Vidal hosted a TV documentary that looked back on the life of President Bobby McAllister. (In that dimension, he remained remarkably fit well into the 2020s, for a man born in 1925!)

As for Yoko Ono, she hosted Paul Buchman's visit to her home in the Dakota on 'Mad About You'.

The whole episode of 'Will & Grace' might have made for an excellent Crossover of the Week... with itself! That's because, aside from the crossovers due to the League of Themselves, the episode was performed live again a few hours later for the West Coast. So that episode, as with all live episodes of such dramatic shows that are repeated a second time that night, would be relegated to Earth Prime Time Delayed.

It would have made for a great Crossover of the Week.... except for a big Zonk!, that is. When Grace saw Jack in his flowery, garish dressing gown, she called him "Mrs. Roper". That would have been easy enough to splain away, but then Jack had to compound it by hitting us over the head with the fact that it was a reference to 'Three's Company'.

At least he didn't mention the spin-off of 'The Ropers'!

BCnU!
Tele-Toby