Saturday, March 14, 2015

TOOBWORLD CELEBRATES EINSTEIN'S BIRTHDAY


It's Pi Day and it's Albert Einstein's birthday!

Putting the World" back into Toobworld, here is a show about the scientific genius.....

For some reason, the second part of this show can't be embedded.  I guess you'll just have to click on the link to it after watching Part One.  Oh, the agonies of the modern age!





BCnU.....

SATURDAY MORNING SUPER HEROES


CBS has released the first images of Melissa Benoist in her 'Supergirl' costume:


I've already reconciled myself to the idea that the Superman to whom she is related is not the one who died back in the 1960s in Earth Prime-Time.  And since there is a lot of online chatter that eventually she will cross over networks to team up with 'Arrow' and 'The Flash', I have also said goodbye to the idea that she would even be in the main Toobworld.

Even so, I'm pumped to see the show.

But it has got me wondering who could have played Supergirl back in the 1950s when 'The Adventures Of Superman' was on the air.  I've already posted my ideas for some of the comic book villains if only the TV show had focused more on those stories rather than on simplistic gangster plots.  (But at least that gave Ben Welden a steady income.....)

As for the villains, I've suggested RG Armstrong for Lex Luthor, Michael Ansara as Brainiac, Michael Rennie as General Zod, and Mr. Mxyzptlk could have been played by the great Billy Barty.  (Here's another one that could have worked - Ed Wynn as the Toyman.)

But those are the villains.  How about Supergirl?


I bopped around the interwebz looking for a young blonde actress from the 1950s who might fit the role and I came up with Cheryl Holdridge.  She may have been too young for the Supergirl we picture today, but a recurring role on 'The Adventures of Superman' might have groomed her for an eventual spin-off of her own.

Oh well.  Only a dream.....

Up, Up, and Away!




Friday, March 13, 2015

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!

Thursday, March 12, 2015

WEDNESDAY'S GUESS WHO REVEALED


 
 
Yesterday's puzzle was to name the identity of this actor.  He shared the same name as his father who was a movie star from the 1930s through the 1960s.  This actor died one year after his father.
 
The answer: Edward G. Robinson, Jr.
 
This is a picture of him in a 'Name Of The Game' episode, "Laurie Marie".
 
BCnU!


TODAY, INNER TOOB IS FULL OF SHIRTS


Another simple offering today.....

The shows don't exist in the same TV dimension so there is no Zonk.  'The Big Bang Theory' is in Earth Prime-Time and 'The Flash' is in the Land O' Remakes.

BCnU!


Wednesday, March 11, 2015

LA TRIVIATA - GUESS WHO?


Okay, just something simple for today's blog entry......

This actor shares the same name as his father, who had been a major movie star from the 1930s through the 1960s.  The father's last movie is a science fiction cult classic.

And the son died one year after his father.  

Who is he?



Tuesday, March 10, 2015

TUESDAY NEWS DAY - MAIGRET RETURNS... AGAIN




Georges Simenon's famous French detective will once again be crossing through the dimensional veil from BookWorld to one of the dimensions of Toobworld.  ITV will be hosting two stand-alone movies about the character, this time starring comic actor Rowan Atkinson of 'Blackadder' fame as Maigret.  But fans of the novels shouldn't worry about that - he's a big fan of the character and wants to do right by him:

“I have been a devourer of the Maigret novels for many years and I’m very much looking forward to playing such an intriguing character, at work in Paris during a fascinating period in its history."  (The setting will be Paris in the 1950s.)

The plan is that if these two TV movies are successful, ITV hopes to continue on with more film adaptations of the novels rather than churning out a series.  The producers won't be at a loss for content - Simenon wrote 75 novels about Maigret from 1931 until his death in 1989.

This will also mark ITV's second attempt to bring Maigret to the small screen as they also offered up a series with MIchael Gambon as the detective in the 1990s.  But even that would not be found in Earth Prime-Time, the main Toobworld.  At least fourteen actors have played the role on TV over the years, which is what we are all about here.  So this doesn't take into account so many other portrayals of Jules Maigret in the Cineverse since the 1930s, including actors like Jean Gabin and Charles Laughton.

I've written about Maigret in the Toobworld Dynamic before.  (And my opinion as to who the official Maigret is for Earth Prime-Time has probably changed.



Perhaps the most "famous" of the TV Maigrets was played by Rupert Davies in a British TV series from the early 1960s.  If I'm not mistaken, even Simenon praised his portrayal.  However, I like to give preference to the actor who plays the role in the native tongue so to speak.  In this case, a French actor who played the French detective.  


 


Most recently, Bruno Cremer had the honor in 54 episodes about Miagret.  But starting in 1967 until the 1990s, Jean Richard captured the Francan essence of Simenon's detective over the course of 87 episodes plus a theatrically released movie which I've declared absorbed into Toobworld.

As for the others?



Legendary acting teacher Herbert Berghof was the first to play the role on TV, in a 1950 American adaptation of "The Trap".  Although I suspended the "first come" rule with regards to this character, Mr. Berghof should be recognized for being the first to bring Maigret to life on the small screen.  To that end, he is the Jules Maigret of Prequel Toobworld.



Jan Teulings played the Inspector from the Dutch/Belgian Toobworld (17 episodes) and Gino Cervi is the official Maigret from Italian Toobworld (16 episodes.)   Others spread out among the other Toobworlds were Sergio Catelitto, Rudolf Hrusinsky, Kees Brusse, Louis Arbessier, Ljuba Tadic, Luis Van Rooten, Basil Sydney, and Richard Harris (which means both actors who played Dumbeldore also played Maigret)

 


I'm hoping these two forays by Rowan Atkinson will be broadcast before the end of the year, but who knows when they might be seen on American television?

BCnU!

Monday, March 9, 2015

THE GAME OF THE NAME: CHALKY WHITE


'BOARDWALK EMPIRE' 
2010-14
'SERGEANT CORK' 
1966-68

There are times when TV characters from different series share the same names.  One example is Chalky White.  Most of you probably know that name from the Prohibition era gangster series 'Boardwalk Empire'.  


But in the Victorian England of Toobword, there was also a Chalky White who "walked both sides of the street" when it came to criminal matters.  (I think if he wasn't committing the crimes, he was grassing out those who did to 'Sergeant Cork'.)  


Even though it's an unusual name, I don't think a connection can be made between the two men.  Even a theory of relateeveety would be hard to make convincing, considering the different nations involved, the disparity in the time periods, and the races of both men.  It could be done, but it would require a serious suspension of disbelief.

BCnU!

Sunday, March 8, 2015

VIDEO SUNDAY - TVXOHOF, 03/2015


Time for our third British entry into the Television Crossover Hall Of Fame for 2015:


GEORGE BULMAN

Bit of a disclosure first: except for the YouTube videos included here, I've never seen anything on TV involving Bulman.  In fact, I only knew of Don Henderson for playing General Taggi in the 1977 "Star Wars" movie.  So I depend on Ol' Reliable, Wikipedia, for the following information:

Detective Sergeant George Bulman was a fictional detective created by Kenneth Royce in his series of books about The XYY Man (semi-reformed cat burglar Spider Scott), where the character's name was initially Alf Bulman. Here Bulman is presented as a 'bent copper', though the only examples of his corruption given are that he gained promotion to sergeant by persuading down-and-outs to confess to unsolved robberies, in return for a prison sentence which would put them inside during the coldest months of winter.

These books were turned into a Granada TV series in the mid-1970s, with actor Don Henderson playing Bulman, Scott's nemesis. Bulman lives only for the day that he can put Scott (played on TV by Stephen Yardley) back behind bars, but he and his sidekick Detective Constable Derek Willis (Dennis Blanch) are thwarted every time, even gaining some slight sympathy and respect for Scott as they discover how he and they have been used by the secret service. Bulman was originally portrayed as mildly eccentric, wearing woollen gloves, using a nasal inhaler and trying to 'better' himself by engaging in further education (showing off his learning with a pretentious erudition which makes him look foolish).

The Bulman character proved popular with viewers, and, with Willis, was given a spin-off series 'Strangers', which saw the formerly London-based detectives transferred to the north-west of England. During the five-year run of 'Strangers', Bulman's eccentricities were increased, and included such traits as a propensity for keeping his belongings in plastic carrier bags and his keeping of a pet hamster named Flash Gordon. His middle name was revealed to be Kitchener. Increasingly his erudition was used less to make him look pretentious and a joke figure, but instead underlined a zen-like wisdom and otherworldliness. He also leapt in rank, gaining a much overdue double-promotion from Detective Sergeant to Detective Chief Inspector in one bound!

In the mid-80s the character returned in 'Bulman'. Disillusioned, Bulman leaves the police to work as a private investigator while making a living repairing clocks. He kept a model railway layout in his office, and wore a 'Will Power' T-Shirt, bearing an illustration of William Shakespeare. Mirroring in some ways the post-prison career of Spider Scott, Bulman and his assistant Lucy McGinty (Siobhan Redmond) were often coerced or tricked into doing clandestine and dangerous work for the secret service.

Kenneth Royce returned to his Bulman character at the height of the show's success, writing two more XYY Man novels (The Crypto Man (1984) and The Mosley Receipt(1985)) and a Bulman novel, No Way Back (Hashimi's Revenge) in 1986. In the 90s he followed this with The Judas Trail (1996) and Shadows (1996). By this point, Royce's Bulman differs from the television version considerably - his is called Alfred George Bulman (the TV one is George Kitchener Bulman), and by The Crypto Man in 1985 has risen to be a Detective Superintendent in the Security Services section of the Metropolitan Police (his TV alternative never made it above Detective Chief Inspector before becoming a private investigator).










The following info came from the also-reliable (koff koff) IMDb:

'The XYY Man' (1976)

Thirteen episodes

'Strangers' (1978)
Thirty episodes
Don Henderson resurrected the eccentric police detective George Kitchener Bulman (from the short lived series "The XYY Man") in this British series which saw him reluctantly and grumpily transferred to a station in the North of England. Like the series which followed it ("Bulman") the show drifted between the standard hard edged, grittily realistic and violent policy which was prevalent in British police shows in the late 70s, and a peculiarly tongue-in-cheek reluctance to take itself seriously.

- Written by D.Giddings


'Bulman' (1985–1987)
Twenty episodes
Having left the police force in disgust, the eccentric and bad-tempered detective George Kitchener Bulman (Don Henderson) set himself up as a private investigator in this third appearance of the character (see also "The XYY Man","Strangers"). This leads him into trouble with the hard men of London's gangland underworld, and the devious men of the secret service. Although its darker qualities persisted, by the end of the series, precious little attempt was being made to take it seriously.

- Written by D.Giddings

Sixty-three episodes - not a bad run for a TV character.  Others have been inducted into the TVXOHOF with far less credits under their belts.


As the Wikipedia article states, BookWorld Bulman and Toobworld Bulman are radically different characters.  Another fine example as to why I can't absorb literature into Toobworld unless it has been adapted for TV first.

Henderson bought the rights to the character, hoping to make more stories about the character he brought to televisual life.  But he got caught up in other projects and died before he was able to do so.

So here's my tribute to another British TV character worthy of inclusion in the Hall of Fame!

BCnU!