THEORY OF RELATEEVEETY - A BRANCH FROM THE BRANCH FAMILY TREE

In 2006, the Television Crossover Hall Of Fame honored many of the characters from 'Law And Order' with membership in the Hall.  Among them was DA Arthur Branch, inducted in November of that year with 142 episodes over four TV series.

Here's what we know about Arthur Branch:

Branch graduated from Yale University and Yale Law School. He was later a professor at Yale Law School. He and his wife, Lillian, have lived in New York City since moving in the early 1980s from the state of Georgia. According to McCoy, Lillian "loves the smell of concrete", and would not allow Arthur to move from New York City back to Georgia.  Arthur and Lillian have at least one child, a son named Bobby. They also have a grandson and a granddaughter named Maggie. He also has a nephew named Andy. He owns a Chevrolet and a Porsche.  He speaks with a southern accent and commonly uses colorful metaphors.

Branch is elected the Manhattan District Attorney in 2002, replacing Nora Lewin.  He says that he was elected DA because the people of Manhattan wanted to feel safe after the September 11 attacks.  He and Abbie Carmichael are the only characters in the show known to be Republicans. Branch's administration is a sharp contrast to that of Lewin, as he supports the death penalty and does not believe in the existence of a Constitutional right to privacy.  He had written a book on the justice system and represented the Chinese government when he worked in private practice.

ADA Michael Cutter told Branch's successor Jack McCoy that Branch was being recruited to participate in a reality television show. He did not respond when McCoy asked if that statement was a joke.  

[Wikipedia]

Branch resigned in 2009 with no reason given and it is assumed by Toobworld Central that, like the actor who portrayed him, Arthur Branch has passed away.

So we know about three branches of the Branch family, down to the third generation with his two grandchildren.  But what if we looked back into his family history?  Even just one generation - do we know who his father is, for example?

I think we can take a pretty good guess at who Daddy Branch was.  And when it comes down to it, the Theories of Relateeveety in the Toobworld Dynamic are only conjectures at best.

In the early 1960s, Randolph E. Branch was the Secretary of Science in the Johnson Administration.  The Department of Science is a cabinet post only in Toobworld.  It was an all-encompassing field which would be divided up into the Departments of Energy, Health & Human Services, the Environmental Protection Agency in the Trueniverse.

And the Department of Science would also have dealt with the more shadowy investigations into extraterrestrial activity (handled by the shadow ops group known as Majestic 12.)

'THE OUTER LIMITS'

"THE INHERITORS, PARTS I & II"

This was the one time we got to see Science Secretary Randolph E. Branch in Toobworld.  His assistant Adam Ballard was investigating four veterans who had been shot in the head during the Vietnam War.  The bullets had all been forged from the metal of a mysterious meteorite which Ballard claimed was the reason why the soldiers exhibited the same brain wave patterns.  The veterans were engaged in a furtive plan to build a spaceship in which they planned to spirit away a group of disabled children to a world where they would lead normal, healthy lives, free of their handicaps.

In the end, convinced of the sincerity in the plans by the quartet of alien representatives, Ballard let them go on their mission.  I'm assuming Secretary Branch agreed once he learned of all the facts in the case.

It doesn't come up in the two-part episode, but it has to be a given that Randolph Branch was originally from the state of Georgia.  And I'll offer up another theory of relateeveety: Randolph E. Branch married a Connally girl whom he met in college.  Her first name unknown, Miss Connally was from Absaroka County in Wyoming.  Her brother had a son named Barlow who idolized Branch to the point that he named his own son "Branch" after his uncle.

And that's about all I can think of now for Arthur Branch's father.  I suppose I could have forged a few connections to 'The X-Files', 'Threshold', and any series based in Washington, D.C., that was not relegated to some alternate TV dimension because of a different occupant in the Oval Office.  But I didn't want to push it.

At any rate, that's our contribution to the celebration of Father's Day in TV Land, 2017.

Happy Father's Day!