MEMORIAL TVXOHOF 1 - PRESIDENT GEORGE H..W. BUSH

From the Los Angeles Times:
George Herbert Walker Bush, the linchpin of an American political dynasty and 41st president of the United States, who rode foreign policy triumphs to high popularity at the end of the Cold War only to suffer a revolt in his own party and a painful defeat for reelection, has died at his Houston home. He was 94.

During his single term in the White House, the Berlin Wall fell, newly democratic states sprang up across Central and Eastern Europe, and the Soviet Union came to an end. And in the Middle East, the U.S. military launched its most successful offensive since World War II.

Until his defeat in 1992 at the hands of Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush — as he became known after his son's rise to power — had lived what many called a charmed life, one largely dedicated to government service.

He had been a college athlete, a Navy pilot and war hero, a business success, a congressman, a diplomat, the director of the nation's intelligence service, vice president and, finally, president.

Barbara, his wife of 73 years, died on April 17, 2018. He is survived by their sons George, Jeb, Neil and Marvin; their daughter, Dorothy; 17 grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren and three siblings, Nancy Ellis and William and Jonathan Bush. Another daughter, Robin, died of leukemia at age 3 in 1953.  

I had a feeling that this day would soon come after the death of his wife Barbara in April.  There was a palpable love between them that isn’t often evident in other First Couples.  And so I held off on doing a memorial induction into the Television Crossover Hall of Fame for Mrs. Bush until they could enter together.

With this post, I’ll be focusing on George H.W. Bush and will follow with the dedication for his wife later today.

When I first started looking for tally requirements of possible candidates, I usually focused on the IMDb entries under the categories of “Actor” and “Self”.  But when dealing with someone who is possibly entering the Hall as a member of the League of Themselves, I started checking out the listings in “Archive Footage” as well this year.

And based on that, the 41st President of the United States
is eligible for entry into the TVXOHOF as his own self in the main Toobworld.  I don’t even have to include his portrayals in the alternate dimensions of Skitlandia and the Tooniverse.  But I will mark them here:

‘SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE’
Portrayed by Dana Carvey

O’Bservation – Carvey’s impression of Bush probably eclipsed any of his sketch characters like the Church Lady.  This is especially true because of his catch-phrase “Na ga do it.”  And President Bush enjoyed the impression – unlike Drumpf today – and never saw it as a caricature assassination.  After he left office in 1993, the former President and the comic actor became friends.

Saturday Night Live
- Dana Carvey/Edie Brickell & Paul Simon (1994)

When Carvey returned to host the show a third time, President Bush appeared to point out how off the impression really was, but again it was all in jest.

‘The Simpsons’
“Two Bad Neighbors”

From the IMDb:
Former President George Bush and his wife, Barbara, move into the Simpsons' neighborhood and soon clash with Bart and Homer.  To avoid politics, former President George Bush and his wife Barbara retire to Springfield, citing its low voter turnout. They quickly become friends to the conservative Flanders family, but George soon becomes the enemy of Bart and Homer Simpson.  

This was kind of a politics-free storyline and instead was more of a spoof of the dynamic between Dennis Mitchell and George Wilson from ‘Dennis The Menace’.

Also, the short-lived animated series ‘Capitol Critters’ basically took place underneath the Oval Office during the last year of George Bush’s administration.

But it is the archival footage of the actual man which will serve President Bush as testimony to his existence in Earth Prime-Time.

Murphy Brown
- I Would Have Danced All Night (1989)

Murphy’s co-workers had a few ideas as to why she didn’t get an invite to Bush's inaugural ball:

• Could be you ruffled too many feathers.
• There was your story on Iran-Contra.
• Yeah, and your piece on Bush's tenure at the CIA.

Everybody but Murphy seemed to be going to the ball, even Phil the bartender.  But he had a good reason as to why he was invited.

Phil:

Phyllis and I are going to the ball.

Murphy:

You can't.

You've been a Democrat since Roosevelt.

Phil:

I don't wanna go.

I have to.

Bush wants to thank me for
that "thousand points of light" idea.

Hell, Murph, it was a joke.

I didn't think it would get him elected.

Murphy finally found out that her tickets had been sent to the wrong people and so she went to confront them to get her tickets.

Murphy Brown:

You met President Bush?

Murray Brown:

At Dulles Airport.

We were saying bye to one of our grandchildren.

Anyway, he was coming home from a campaign tour.

We were trying to get out of the terminal,

and the next thing I know he's shaking my hand.

Who would have thought he remembered us?

Murphy:

Right….

In the end, Murray and Lillian Brown went to President Bush’s inaugural ball with Murphy’s tickets.  But big-hearted Murphy still wanted to drive by the site and moon the attendees.

Saturday Night Live:
Presidential Bash 2000

O’Bservation – The individual sketches of any SNL show are considered part of the Skitlandian dimension.  But the late-night variety program overall is a TV show within a TV show, watched by the characters in Toobworld as well as by the real people of the Trueniverse.

NCIS
- Hiatus (Part #1) (2006)

From the IMDb:
Aboard a Turkish-flag ship an explosion occurs, killing one person and leaving Gibbs comatose with burns, abrasions, and a concussion; the team investigate. Eventually Ducky welcomes Gibbs back, but Gibbs does not remember him. 

O’Bservation – I’m not sure how the archive footage of former President Bush fits into this; perhaps in the memories Gibbs is trying to recover?

The Colbert Report
- Episode #5.77 (2009)

O’Bservation – As the other guest on this episode was former President Bill Clinton, I’m going to assume that it was in connection to their charitable work in the aftermaths of the Indonesian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina among other projects which led to them being good friends in their private lives. 

Because this was a different persona for Stephen Colbert than his League of Themselves presence on ‘The Late Show’, I think it should be in a different TV dimension. (Especially since Colbert recently referred to that other character while threatening to sue the current POTUS.)  And as that persona was a Bill O’Reilly conservative pundit, I’m tempted to dump that Colbert into the Evil Mirror Universe.  (Not everybody has to be evil in that world, as evidenced in other TV shows.)

Hap and Leonard
- The Dive (2016)

From the IMDb:
As the group closes in on the stolen money, Hap, Leonard, and Trudy revisit their past. Loyalties are tested within the gang during a fateful gathering at Leonard's house.  

 The X-Files
- My Struggle III (2018)

From the IMDb:Mulder and Scully learn that they aren't the only ones desperately searching for their long-lost son, William. The very fate of the world may depend on the outcome. 

Bush's appearance in this episode was archival footage and it probably was seen during this monologue by the Cigarette Smoking Man:

My name is Carl Gerhard Busch. But I've been known by many aliases during my long career with the U.S. government. It's been a humbling job, though I'm hardly known as a humble man. I've been a witness to history, much of it violent, much of it an abomination of the values Americans hold dear. I've had a privileged seat at the centers of power, held the reins of that power, making sacrifices few are capable of, of which even fewer are willing. If people knew the truth, they'd riot in the streets. Too much is made of the will to power, as if our will is free, our choices our own. Our destinies are forged in our bones, made real by a raging impulse to self-destruct. I'm not a bad man, more a practical man. I've taken certain gifts I was given and made good men great. It is my greatness. I'm a father to two men who have figured more in the future than they might ever know. Both would end up working for the FBI, both complex but dedicated men who sacrificed dearly, and in their dogged pursuits would end up paying a terrible price, searching for truths as I parceled them out, truths held only by the few who knew the levers of power and the invisible hand controlling them. Is there life out there? Good heavens. To doubt it is a failure of more than the imagination. It is a failure to recognize the limits of our own stupidity, the nascency of our science, the rudiment of our tools. We listen, we search. We hope for a sign, as if our eyes and ears are good enough, our brains large enough, our egos small enough. I'm an old man now. I will leave my own mark upon history, more than presidents or tyrants. I don't ask for loyalty and trust, the fleeting bonds of men. I ask only for the years to show my sons and their sons I was right. What their father did, had to be done.

Star Trek: Enterprise
- Storm Front, Part II (2004)

From the IMDb:
After Silik attacks Trip, Vosk wants to make a deal with Archer: supplies of the ship for the completion of his time machine in return for a trip to the 22nd Century.

From Memory Alpha:
An image of [Bush], with Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev, was among several historical images seen by Daniels and Archer in the time stream as the timeline reorganized itself. (ENT: "Storm Front, Part II") 

O’Bservation – I took this episode out of its place in the sequence for the broadcast timeline and placed it here where it belongs in the Toobworld timeline, hundreds of years after Bush’s passing.

Here’s another appearance I’m taking out of the timeline to give a special showcase:

Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue (1900)

O’Bservation - Thanks to ‘Space Ghost: Coast to Coast’, we know there is a quantum conduit between Earth Prime-Time and the Tooniverse.  Here we had another example as the First Couple introduced this adventure as a public service.  (Which also marked George and Barbara Bush as serlinguists.)

Other TV series in Earth Prime-Time confirm the existence of George H.W. Bush’s televersion with mentions of him as the POTUS or as the Veep.  Here are a few of them:

Barney Miller- Field Associate (1981). 

Detective Arthur Dietrich about the Trilateral Commision:
"It’s an organization founded in 1973 by David Rockefeller to bring together business and political leaders from the United States, Europe, Japan so they could work together for better economics and political cooperation between their nations."

William John Klein:
"Would you like to hear the names of a few of the people who have been on the Trilateral Commission?

• James Earl Carter
• Henry Kissinger
• Walter Mondale
• John Anderson
• George Bush

“Now, do you remember at the convention? Everybody thought it was gonna be Ford for Veep. You know what happened? David Rockefeller just picked up a phone, put in a call - “Hey Ronnie! Forget Gerry; it’s George. Byeee!” No matter who won in November, they’d have their own man in the White House!"

‘The X-Files’
“Shadows”

From the ‘X-Files’ wiki:
President Bush had met HTG Industrial Technologies businessman Howard Graves sometime prior to his death in 1993.

Saved by the Bell
- Beauty and the Screech (1989)

From the IMDb:
After discovering she is failing in Science, Kelly is tutored by Screech, and soon develops a crush on him.  

O’Bservation - I'm not sure how both of the Bushes figure into this episode.

Designing Women
- Keep the Homes Fires Burning (1990)

From the IMDb:
When Charlene is distressed about Bill being on a classified mission, she goes to a support group for military spouses where she meets a military husband, also named Bill. While they start to grow closer, she imagines what life was like for wives on the home front in WWII.  

O’Bservation – I can’t find the transcript for this episode yet, but I’m thinking there must have been some mention of both George and Barbara Bush as a loving couple during the war years.

‘Murphy Brown’
- “Back To The Ball” (1993)

From the IMDb:
With a new presidential administration beginning, Murphy's reputation is forgotten and she receives an invitation to the inaugural ball. Her new difficulty is finding a date.  

‘Millenium’
“Beware Of The Dog”

From the ‘X-Files’ wiki:
In 1997, a woman named Cora claimed that the town of Bucksnort had been without a sheriff since the Bush administration.
 
L.A. Law
- Safe Sex (1993)

John Shale is the prosecutor in the Glassman case and vows to make it his personal mission to see Glassman spend the next 20 years of his life in prison.  He tells Stuart Markowitz that he got the job through his close personal friend Richard

Kleindienst and that he has proudly served in the Justice Departments of John Mitchell and Ed Meese.  Shale has a framed picture of former President George H.W. Bush hanging behind his desk.

I pulled this out of the timeline to address it individually – finding all the ways in which Bush 41 can be integrated in the great mosaic of Toobworld will take time.  As the president of the United States, his picture probably can be seen hanging in government offices from TV shows between 1989 and 1993.  So as each one is found they will be added to the photo gallery of Mr. and Mrs. Bush.  This marks the first one to be collected.
One final O'Bservation re: President Bush and his portrayal in Toobworld.....

There is a puppet version of George H.W. Bush who hangs out at the 'D.C. Follies' bar.  However, that is one of the spirit people from Puppetland who has chosen the likeness of a famous human as their puppet shell.  And when they inhabit their puppet shells, they take on the characteristics of the shell.  So for all intents and purposes, Kermit was a frog, Chairy was a chair, Batley was a bat, etc.  And so this puppet thought of himself as actually being the 41st President of the United States.  (It's a major reason why puppet people are kept segregated from the general human populace.)  But he is not included in Bush's tally of appearances in Toobworld.

I didn’t vote for George H.W. Bush in either of his two campaigns.  There was only one Republican I might have voted for to lead the country – Senator Howard Baker.  I came of political age with Watergate and I now have a knee-jerk reaction against ever voting for a Republican.  And boy howdy, is that true today!

But with 20/20 hindsight and a better grasp of History, I’ve come to see that Mr. Bush was not the living embodiment of a sketch comedy character.  He was a decent, intelligent, fair-minded, and brave man who tried to do the best for all of us, not just for his base.  I’m sorry that it took his passing for me to remember what it was like once upon a time, before these last two years.

Good night and may God bless, Mr. Bush.  Welcome to the Hall.  I hope you’ll find this to be a fitting tribute for your televersion….