THE 2024 WHO'S ON FIRST BLOG-A-THON: INTRODUCTION

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I hope everybody had a great New Year's Eve?

Welcome to the 16^th anniversary edition of the "Who's On First?" blogAthon.  For the next 24 hours, there will (hopefully) be forty-eight posts about 'Doctor Who', one every half hour.

This round-the-clock celebration of 'Doctor Who' began somewhat modestly - there were only seven "episodes" for that first outing.  But it has grown to the point where for the last couple of years we have tried to present a new blog post about the universe of the Doctor every half hour.   That may not be the case this year.  We'll at least try to get one in every hour.

And I always amaze myself that I find enough topics each year.  But then, I have yet to see every episode of the 59 year old series.

Because of their time-sensitive nature, there were a few posts I published earlier in the year.  Some are just mentions of the Doctor, most of them dealt with the breaking news about the show.  If so, I'll re-post them early in the day's schedule.

This edition will hopefully be special.  (I'm setting up this post on January 9, 2023.)  By November of 2023, we should be celebrating the 60th anniversary of 'Doctor Who'.  If we haven't wiped ourselves out by then.

So here it is - the kick-off to the 2024 edition of 'Who's On First'!  And as always, we begin with the frame grab from 'Robot Chicken' which has become our mascot.... 

By the way, that quote in the picture of the Tenth Incarnation and Martha is from the lyrics of the song "The Toast" by one of my favorite singer/songwriters, Adam Ezra.

Check out the Adam Ezra Group on YouTube; join the Gathering!

GATWA!

 

Well, there’s no sense in delaying the inevitable any longer….

Last year it was announced that Ncuti Gatwa would be playing the Doctor.  Almost everybody assumed that it meant that he would be the 14th Incarnation of that Time Lord.  But when the 13th Incarnation regenerated, she became an older version of the 10th Incarnation.

So Gatwa will be the 15th Incarnation.

So far we may have seen him in action, but in a promo for David Tennant’s stint as the 14th Incarnation [Pictured up top]. 

Whether that is canon or not remains to be seen.  It’s only 3 seconds long at best, but it could be his future incarnation already existed but was trapped in some kind of limbo.  Not unprecedented – we saw several of the previous incarnations in a limbo at “the edge” in the 13th Incarnation’s final regular episode.

So he won’t be appearing in the actual series before the year is over – it most likely won’t be back until the 60th anniversary as it is.

In the meantime, here are pictures of Gatwa in connection to his upcoming role as the Doctor.  These are publicity photos, fan-made photo-shopped images, plus Gatwa with Russell T. Davies as the returning showrunner.  

He’s also seen with Millie Gibson who will be playing the new Companion, Ruby Sunday.

I’m looking forward to his work as the Doctor.  When he was announced, I started watching him in ‘Sex Education’ and enjoyed his vitality in his role.

It's usually reported that the actors chosen to be the next Doctor participate in the choice of their costume.  In Gatwa's case, I hope his input is limited if his choice for his personal wardrobe is any indication of his tastes....

Good luck, Ncuti!

MY FINAL FINALE PREDICTIONS

Well, I was wrong with last week’s predictions about the penultimate episode of ‘Game of Thrones’… so far.  Many of them could still happen in the finale.

But the big one that I got wrong was that Arya was going to die.  She may yet; I don’t trust GRRM.  But I was too specific in how it would happen.  I thought she would be killed by the Mountain in an attempt to strike Cersei off her list.  And her death would be the trigger Sandor Clegane would need to overcome his fear of his brother Gregor and kill him.  In that fight, I figured the Hound would also overcome his fear of fire in finishing the fight.

In a way, I was right.  But I never saw how Sandor and Gregor would finished the battle which is known online as the Clegane Bowl.

So now for the finale….

I’m still holding out hope that Jon Snow never changes his name to his birth name; that instead he takes Tormund’s offer to go back beyond the Wall and live among the Wildlings.  That means he will Well, I was wrong with last week’s predictions about the penultimate episode of ‘Game of Thrones’… so far.  Many of them could still happen in the finale.

But the big one that I got wrong was that Arya was going to die.  She may yet; I don’t trust GRRM.  But I was too specific in how it would happen.  I thought she would be killed by the Mountain in an attempt to strike Cersei off her list.  And her death would be the trigger Sandor Clegane would need to overcome his fear of his brother Gregor and kill him.  In that fight, I figured the Hound would also overcome his fear of fire in finishing the fight.

In a way, I was right.  But I never saw how Sandor and Gregor would finished the battle which is known online as the Clegane Bowl.

So now for the finale….

I’m still holding out hope that Jon Snow never changes his name to his birth name; that instead he takes Tormund’s offer to go back beyond the Wall and live among the Wildlings.  That means he will foreswear his claim to the throne.  But it won’t go to Danaerys; she proved herself unfit for rule now. 

I think Tyrion will end up on the throne.  And I think it will be reminiscent of how Claudius became the emperor – he was considered handicapped but would do in a pinch in chaotic times.  Only later did he prove how capable he was to be the ruler of the Roman Empire. 

The same will happen in this case. 
After seeing that hate-filled glare which Grey Worm shot at Jon during the battle, I think he's going to try to kill the King of the North himself.  His loyalty to Danaerys is absolute.  But he'll fail and fall.

As for Dany?  She’s over the edge and she has to go.  She killed the people she was to rule, out of madness and spite.  She killed kids!  But even so, Jon might have resigned himself to stand by her because he loved her.  However, I think she’s going to make the mistake of revealing one of her plans to Jon out of over-confidence.  I think she still harbors a deep resentment for Sansa and plans to kill her as another traitor. Somehow Jon will find a way to kill her and Drogon as well.  (Personally I’d like to think another cache of wildfire will ignite as Drogon flies over it, perhaps even triggered by Drogon’s dracarys and incinerate both him and Danaerys.  It’s the romantic in me.)

Who am I kidding?  I’m probably wrong.  But no matter what happens, I’m going to strap in and enjoy the ride….

BCnU!

SKED ALERT! "JEOPARDY!" AND THE NJ HALL OF FAME

New Jersey Hall of Fame
c/o The Charles Edison Fund
1037 Raymond Boulevard, 
Suite 340 
Newark NEW JERSEY 07102

ECCE PROMO! BEANO ON THE MONDAY MENU

Usually we shunt the videos off to the weekend in order to give me a break from writing, but today we have something special - the teaser for the new season of 'Doctor Who'!

This debuted on the BBC right after the World Cup on Sunday and I've already shared a nice breakdown of the teaser yesterday evening from a 'Doctor Who' YouTuber who calls himself Ace Creeper.  (You should check him out; perhaps even subscribe as I did.  He always has some interesting stuff to vlog about.)

I'm not going to get any deeper into it than to say that at first I was underwhelmed.  And I wasn't sure what was going on - it was moving at 'Flash'-like speed.

But I didn't go boogatz about it; it was supposed to be a teaser.  I'm assuming there will be something more to share once Comic-Con is over next weekend.

But there is something televisiological about the teaser which I totally missed - my thanks to Ace Creeper for pointing out.

Near the end, Bradley Walsh's character has his newspaper switched by the Doctor to an issue of Beano magazine.

For the benefit of many of my American readers....

From Wikipedia:

The Beano is the longest running British children's comic magazine, published by DC Thomson. The comic first appeared on 30 July 1938, and was published weekly. In September 2009, The Beano's 3,500th issue was published. One of the best selling comics in British popular culture, along with The Dandy, the weekly circulation of The Beano in April 1950 was 1,974,072. The Beano is currently edited by John Anderson. Each issue is published on a Wednesday, with the issue date being that of the following Saturday. This means Beano will strike 4000 in the summer of 2019.

It wasn't just a random choice to use that magazine, certainly not that issue.  It's shown up in the Whoniverse before.

As the Radio Times pointed out today:

BBC journalist Lizo Mzimba pointed out on Twitter, that issue of the Beano cropped up in 2013 episode "The Rings of Akhaten", when Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor went back in time to the 1980s to spy on the parents of then-companion Clara Oswald (Jenna Coleman) and used the comic to hide behind.

Last summer, when we got the teaser announcing that Jodie Whittaker would be the thirteenth incarnation of the Doctor, people wondered if it could be considered canon.

Here it is again:

Since then, we've seen what costume she'll be wearing on a regular basis and it sure isn't this outfit!  In fact, I'm not the only one who was hoping that this would be the new costume for the Doctor.

But I think this still can be considered canon.  

At the end of the Christmas special, the new incarnation of the Doctor was ejected from the TARDIS and was last seen plummeting to the Earth.  We don't know how long they'll be separated - indeed, we don't even know how she'll survive that fall!  And we don't know where she's going to get her new duds - from the TARDIS wardrobe room, or from scrounging like she seems to have done in making a new sonic screwdriver.

But one thing I always wondered with the series - why does the Doctor wear the same outfit all the time?  Sure, eventually one of the incarnations will change the basics - Fourth, Sixth, (apparently) Eighth, Eleventh, and Twelfth.  And others clearly had variations in their regular outfit - like the Third and the Tenth.  Let's face it, surely they all had to change their shirts, socks, and underwear. 

But for the most part, they stayed in the same outer garments day in, day out.  I think there must be days unseen by us when they wear something totally different.

So at some point in the run of Jodie's tenure as the Thirteenth Incarnation, she could be wearing this hooded cloak in the woods. 

(As for the key materializing in her hand?  Perhaps that's a new trick she's picked up, like when he learned how to snap his fingers to get the TARDIS door open.)

Anyway, let's get back to Beano and making sure it's canon.

So we know the Eleventh Incarnation had that magazine; it was probably still inside the TARDIS.

But when is this teaser taking place?  Has she already met her three new companions and was just punking them by taking their food (newspaper) and/or replacing it?  Or was this before she met any of them?  And is she wearing that new outfit?

It looks like she is in the new outfit based on the quick flashes.  And that's why we have to assume she is reunited with the TARDIS and this is after she has met the new Companions.  Otherwise she is zipping around under her own power as if she was Barry Allen or the other speedsters in the various TV dimensions.

But if that issue of Beano was still in the TARDIS, it had to be deeper inside than just in the console.  Because when the TARDIS disgorged her, a lot of papers got sucked out as well.  (There's a televisiological topic - what was on those papers?  Maybe the cure for cancer brought by aliens in that episode of 'The Twilight Zone', "The Gift".)  If that Beano was in the console room, kiss it goodbye unless it was in the jacket of the Twelfth Incarnation.  The TARDIS-like properties of the Doctor's pockets has already been chronicled; a magazine could easily fit in there.

Ha!  Usually I want the Monday blog post to be short & sweet - I usually call it "Minutiae Monday".  So I went on too long with this.  To make this short story long, let me wrap this up by saying the Beano magazine we see in the teaser is the exact same issue we see in the "Rings Of Akhaten" episode.

Just a programming note - make sure you visit this blog on New Year's Day, 2019 for at least 48 blog posts about 'Doctor Who' in my annual "Who's On First?" blogathon.

BCnU!

"DYNASTY" - A FALL PREVIEW O'BSERVATION

From Wikipedia:

'Dynasty' is an upcoming American prime time television soap opera series reboot based on the 1980s series of the same name, which ran on ABC from 1981 to 1989. Set to air on The CW, the new series was developed by Josh Schwartz, Stephanie Savage, and Sallie Patrick. It stars Grant Show as Blake Carrington, Nathalie Kelley as Cristal Flores, Elizabeth Gillies as Blake's daughter Fallon, and James Mackay as his son Steven. The pilot, which was announced in September 2016, was ordered to series in May 2017. 'Dynasty' will premiere on October 11, 2017.

So off it goes to Toobworld 2, the Land O' Remakes.  I make no predictions on how long it will last; the demographics it's aimed at probably never even saw the original and this certainly amps up the salacious factor.  But the 1980s was a crux for the combination of once-great stars with fresh up-and-comers and 'Dynasty' took full advantage of that - they even had mega-wattage names like Heston and Stanwyck for the spin-off!  

And the original version had something this can't possibly attain - the guidance of Aaron Spelling, who knew how to sell the glitz and glamour with just the right amount of titillation.  

I'm sure with steamy sex scenes between the Carrington son and his gay lover, plus his sister in an inter-racial affair with the chauffeur, who goes down on her like Grey Worm on Missendei, it'll hold its audience.

But even so, Earth Prime-Time already has its 'Dynasty'.....  

BCnU!

TUESDAY NEWS DAY - ALOHA, MacGYVER!

The new versions of the CBS action shows 'Hawaii Five-0' and 'MacGyver' both take place in the Land O' Remakes since they're both reboots of long-gone series (from CBS and ABC respectively.)  So unlike the time 'Five-0' crossed over with 'NCIS: LA' back in 2012, there is no Zonk that needs splainin away when characters from 'Five-0' appear in the March 10th episode of 'MacGyver'.  And the fact that they share the same showrunner in Peter M. Lenkow makes the crossover seem pre-destined.

Here's the plot summary from TVLine:

In the 'MacGyver' episode, titled “Flashlight,” Mac and the team travel to the big Island of Hawaii to aid in earthquake-relief efforts. There, Mac and Jack team with Chin Ho and Kono to rescue a group of government scientists trapped in a building on the verge of collapse. But as they do so, a dangerous group using the erchaos as a distraction aim to steal some top-secret weaponry that the scientists were working on.

As I noted in that previous post, the version of 'NCIS: LA' which we see each week is rooted in the main Toobworld; there are just too many other TV series connected to it.  (And I'm not about to surrender such Earth Prime-Time shows like 'Scorpion', 'JAG', and the other two 'NCIS' series to the Land O' Remakes.)

But many shows do have their counterparts in alternate TV dimensions; in fact, the Land O' Remakes has nothing but counterparts to so many other shows - 'The New Addams Family', 'The Fugitive', '87th Precinct', maybe 'Gotham' if that's not berthed in the world of Comix Toobworld.  It's just that in the Land O' Remakes, their version of 'NCIS: LA' happens to showcase the original characters as they look in the main Toobworld instead of being Recastaways.

Since these two shows don't have any impact on Earth Prime-Time, I say: Have at it!

For the full news story, click here.

BCnU!

PS:

Thanks to Rob Buckley for pointing this story out.  It hadn't come up in my Facebook news feed yet.  (You'll find the link to Rob's great site "The Medium Is Not Enough" to the left in the blogroll, Team Toobworld!)

THE NEW OLD BRITCOMS AND WHERE THEY STAND IN THE TOOBWORLD DYNAMIC

In celebration of their “Britcom” heritage, the BBC has launched a showcase of “Landmark Sitcoms” and “Lost Sitcoms” this month.  Already presented have been new takes on ‘Porridge’, ‘Are You Being Served?’, ‘Til Death Us Do Part’ and ‘Young Hyacinth’, while a new version of a lost episode of ‘Hancock’s Half Hour’ will be broadcast tomorrow and a new ‘Steptoe And Son’, as another 'Lost Sitcom' is scheduled for the 14th. 

I have no information… information… information yet on those last two, but by hook or by crook, I will.*  In the meantime, I have a few O’Bservations on the others which have already been broadcast. (The difference between the "Landmark Sitcoms" & the "Lost Sitcoms" is that the BBC is re-making an episode of each of 'Hancock's Half Hour', 'Till Death Us Do Part' and 'Steptoe And Son' for which a script still exists but the original recording has been lost from the BBC archives while all the others are continuations in one form or another.)

1] ‘PORRIDGE’

Only two of these new offerings are accepted as being part of the world of Earth Prime-Time and this is the one I’m most eager in seeing.  It’s all new cast, but they’re playing new roles and in fact the show is even set in a new prison, updated with 21st Century technology.  We still get Fletch as the main character, but he’s the grandson of the great Ronnie Barker’s Norman Stanley Fletcher.  I’m hoping I’ll get the chance to see this somehow and from what I’ve heard it may have a shot at being picked up as a series.

2] ‘YOUNG HYACINTH’

This show is a prequel to ‘Keeping Up Appearances’, set in the 1950s, and it would also be accepted for the Main Toobworld.  Toobworld Central makes allowances for recasting when it comes to aging and this would work in reverse as well.  If this doesn’t find its way across my eyeballs, I won’t get verklempt.  The original series, for me, was carried by Patricia Routledge’s exuberant portrayal of Hyacinth.

3] ‘TIL DEATH US DO PART’

This "Lost Sitcom" is definitely a version of Alf Garnett and his family to be found in an alternate TV dimension – most likely the Land O’ Remakes.  It’s set during a time when the Garnetts were already established in their classic incarnations and follows exactly the events in the particular episode that's been wiped from the archives.  Who could ever think they could replace Warren Mitchell as the January 2015 inductee into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame?  (But taking place in an alternate dimension, I have no squabble with Simon Day’s interpretation of the role.)

4] ‘ARE YOU BEING SERVED?’

Of all these shows, I would think this department store comedy is most beloved by the American audience.  So a lot would be riding on it if it did get presented over here.  From what I’ve seen of the pictures, this total remake appears to be a slavish copy of the original.  You look quickly at Mrs. Slocombe and probably could be excused for thinking it was Molly Sugden resurrected.  But so far, I’m not hearing good things about it – perhaps it was too much like the original and modern sensibilities might not be so forgiving of its style of humor.  But I do salute them for bringing racial diversity into the cast with a new character.  So this would also have to be relegated to another dimension, and since it takes place in 1988, perhaps it’s a world in which the events of ‘Grace & Favour’ never took place…..

If you do get a chance to see them, or the new ‘Steptoe And Son’ (which is also an exact remake of an old episode), let me know what you thought of them.  (I admit to not knowing very much about 'Hancock's Half Hour' at all.  Was Hancock and the rest of the cast playing themselves each week, making him on a par with Jack Benny, George Burns, and Jerry Seinfeld?  Was the situation different each week?  Was it more like a sketch comedy show?  I need to learn more!) 

I understand 'Goodnight, Sweetheart', the time-traveling bigamy sitcom, was also remade for this celebration - it picks up 17 years after the events of the last episode, in which Gary Sparrow (perhaps related to Sally Sparrow?) was permanently stuck in the 1940s.  So that means it's now the 1960s for him.  I'm not sure who else is in the cast besides Nicholas Lyndhurst and I'm not even sure if recasting would matter, since the two women in Gary's life became recastaways over the course of its six seasons.

I have a long distance FB friend named John Hadlow, but who uses the “nom de whom” of Jon Pertwee. While appearing on BBC Radio Devon the other day to discuss these remakes, he talked about the show he’d most like to see remade – ‘Come Back, Mrs. Noah’.  It would have to be recast since Molly Sugden is no longer with us, but I think it would be an excellent idea.  (My casting suggestion would be Lesley Nicol, who played Mrs. Patmore in ‘Downton Abbey’.  A fellow named Owen McGhee came up with a good choice as well – Annette Badland.)

Just so long as they avoid a remake of ‘Fawlty Towers’!  A current stage show is one thing, but a new televersion would bring out the villagers with their pitchforks and torches!

BCnU!

* That was a reference to another British series, long my favorite show of all time but now relegated to being the “new Number Two”.  It also had a remake several years ago, albeit not a very good one.

VIDEO SUNDAY - WHO WHAT NOW?

Usually I save all of my 'Doctor Who' posts for the big celebration held every January 1st - the annual "Who's On First" blogAthon!  What better day than January 1st?  Hopefully we had a Christmas special only the week before, so we're still pumped up for anything Whovian.  And January 1st is perfect when discussing a Time Lord - what could be better than an artificial demarcation of Time and the one marking the first day of a new yarron?

But this post needed to go out now as it's a time-sensitive news story.

Yesterday, the BBC announced the actor who will be playing the Doctor's new companion.  It will be Pearl Mackie, playing Bill:

So here are my O'Bservations:

First off, check out this article from the Radio Times.

Like the article, I also think Bill is from the 1980s.  Before I read the piece, I had no clue that was a Prince T-shirt, but I could feel how the 1980s were emanating from her wardrobe as a whole.  And I like that a new companion is from the past; it means that there would be more of a reason to use her relationship with the Doctor to ease new viewers into the series as he'll have to "splain" everything to her (as he does with Bill re: the Daleks here.)  

She's going to be quite upset when she gets to 2017 and finds out that Prince died back in 2016!  So she'll be someone most of us can relate to right away.....

It's a shame she couldn't be the first Companion to be playing herself.  Because "Pearl Mackie" is a cool name.  But even just "Pearl" would have been fine. 

Someone online noted that her name as "Bill" could be a tip of the hat to Billie Piper, the first Companion once the series returned in 2005, and to William Hartnell, the first Doctor over fifty years ago.  I think it's a great tribute.

But the fact that she's not going by "Billie".....  That got me thinking....

What if she had a sexual reassignment?  

What if she was once .... a may-un!  ("Roger Rabbit" reference....)

I think Pearl Mackie looks hot.  I'm not basing this theory on her looks at all. (It would be a different story if we were talking about  Ann Coulter!)  But I think she could do a convincing acting job as a transgender, post reassignment.

In that case, Bill would have once been "William" instead of "Wilhelmina" which is the way most people must be thinking right about now.

And to have such a character would show that this science fiction show would be on the cutting edge of  television.

But it looks as though we'll have to wait until 2017 before we can see her truly in action to find out if that theory has legs...

Here's one last point to consider - is this teaser trailer to be considered canon?  Will this clip be blended into the flow of action in the actual show just after they first met?  Or is it going to end up some alternate timeline?

Time will tell.....

BCnU!
 

TUESDAY NEWS DAY - GAIMAN'S "AMERICAN GODS"

Neil Gaiman's "American Gods" has been at home in 
BookWorld since 2001, but Starz will be making sure that it will have a counterpart in the Toobworld Dynamic.  Production on the series will begin just as soon as they can lock down the casting for Shadow Moon.

Here's a description of the fantasy novel from Wikipedia:

"American Gods" is a Hugo and Nebula Award-winning novel by Neil Gaiman. The novel is a blend of Americana, fantasy, and various strands of ancient and modern mythology, all centering on the mysterious and taciturn Shadow. Several of the themes touched upon in the book were previously glimpsed in "The Sandman" graphic novels.

The central premise of the novel is that gods and mythological creatures exist because people believe in them (a form ofthoughtform). Immigrants to the United States brought with them spirits and gods. However, the power of these mythological beings has diminished as people's beliefs wane. New gods have arisen, reflecting America's obsessions with media, celebrity, technology, and drugs, among others.

Among the characters along with Shadow Moon is Mr. Wednesday, who could be Odin All-Father of Norse mythology.  Technically Odin already exists in a TV dimension as the Marvel movies are absorbed into Comic Book Toobworld.  Other gods from other mythologies could be involved, so there's another reason why this couldn't be allowed into the main Toobworld, where so many of those demi-gods have already been portrayed.  So I'm thinking this will be taking place in a Borderland in much the same way as happened with "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell".

Expect to see "American Gods" on Starz in 2016.  Hopefully.....

BCnU!

TUESDAY NEWS DAY - HOLLOW BONES

I don’t know if somebody was pulling a fast one with a joke news story, but they’re claiming that ‘Sleepy Hollow’ and ‘Bones’ will cross over next season on FOX.  It will be a two part story, running on both shows.  (Next season, they will share the same night on the schedule – Thursdays from 8 to 10 pm EST.)

I’m being skeptical because this may yet be a case of “The Boy Who Cried FOX” – several years ago it was announced that ‘Bones’ would cross over with ‘Lie To Me’ which starred Tim Roth as an expert in reading people for the Truth.  But that never came about.  Burn me once…..

I’m not about to toss ‘Bones’ overboard from the good ship Toobworld even though ‘Sleepy Hollow’ has to take place in an alternate dimension:  Not only has the actual story by Washington Irving been portrayed in Earth Prime-Time, but several other TV shows have made reference to the source material.  (Chief among these would be ‘Murder, She Wrote’ with its ‘The Night Of The Headless Horseman’ episode.)

‘Sleepy Hollow’ does share a dimension with one other show with a similar premise, in which the main characters are adapted from BookWorld but who operate in a TV dimension centuries beyond when the original stories took place.  And it’s a world where those original books are not acknowledged.  That other show?  ‘Elementary’.

But there’s nothing to say that this “Lit-Less” Toobworld can’t still have their own version of characters from the main Toobworld.  But definitely the world of ‘Bones’, Earth Prime-Time can’t support a modern day Ichabod Crane.

We’ve seen this situation happen in the past.  Perhaps the most recent occurrence was when the reboot of ‘Hawaii Five-0’ crossed over with ‘NCIS: LA’.  Just for that one plotline, we were watching the counterparts to G. Callan and Sam Hanna from the Land O’ Remakes rather than the usual suspects of Toobworld One.

So I’m not too excited by this; it doesn’t help explore the main TV Universe at all.  But I will be recording it and watching it.  You can bet on that!

‘Bones’ and ‘Sleepy Hollow’ will return October 1, but it looks like this crossover won’t be on the schedule until later in the 2015-16 season.  I would expect it for the February Sweeps.

BCnU!

VIDEO SUNDAY - "THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E."

This remake of the TV spy classic will be released on Friday.  This is the first trailer, which was released back in February:

Personally, I still wish they had done a continuation story in which the plot revolved around the United Network Command for Law Enforcement, but that these were new agents working for the organization.  And Robert Vaughn and David McCallum could have appeared as the much older versions of Napoleon Solo and Ilya Kuryakin.  Toobworld Central could have then absorbed the movie into the Toobworld Dynamic.

As it stands, this origin story must remain in the Cineverse along with so many other adaptations of TV shows - like "The Wild, Wild West", "McHale's Navy", and "The Addams Family" & "Addams Family Values".

BCnU!

VIDEO WEEKEND - HARRY PALMER TRAILER PARK

Harry Palmer is the July inductee into the Television Crossover Hall of Fame, even though three of his five qualifications for membership were theatrically released movies.  But they have been officially absorbed into Earth Prime-Time since Michael Caine revived the character for two TV movies.

So here are some videos celebrating Harry Palmer.....

MINUTIAE MONDAYS - THE LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES... ON SKATES!

'CHiPs'

"ROLLER DISCO: PART 2"

In September of 1979, Ponch organized a roller disco dance for charity and - thanks to Ed McMahon and a talent agent named Balford - he was able to get a lot of Hollywood stars for the event, to participate in the "Skate With A Star" segment of the evening.

• Melissa Sue Anderson
• Vivian Blaine
• Todd Bridges
• Ruth Buzzi
• Michael Cole
• Antonio Fargas
• Victor French
• Gwynne Gilford
• Dody Goodman
• Dan Haggerty
• Richard Hatch
• Earl Holliman
• Jackie Joseph
• Dianne Kay
• Nancy Kulp
• Tina Louise
• BarBara Luna
• Peter Lupus
• Robert Mandan
• Peter Marshall
• Philip McKeon
• Lee Meriwether
• Connie Needham
• Richard Paul
• George Peppard
• Jo Ann Pflug
• Dana Plato
• Andrew Prine
• Johnnie Ray
• Madlyn Rhue
• Adam Rich
• Susan Richardson
• Tommy Sexton
• Brett Somers
• Vic Tayback
• Dick Van Patten
• Cindy Williams
• Jo Anne Worley

What makes these appearances a perfect storm of members in the League of Themselves is that none of them were linked on-air with the shows or characters they play in Toobworld.  (Or in the case of Johnnie Rivers, his song "Secret Agent Man" and its connection to 'Danger Man'.)  That would have been a bleep-load of Zonks to deal with!

Some of these stars served as judges for the Beauty Contest: Andrew Prine, Todd Bridges, Melissa Sue Anderson, Ruth Buzzi, Richard Paul, and Lee Meriweather among them.  Earl Holliman presented the winner of the contest to the gathered crowd.

If any of these stars appeared in other shows as themselves - for instance, Earl Holliman ('The Larry Sanders Show') and Cindy Williams ('Strip Mall') - then this episode serves as a central link to connect them all.....

BCnU!

O'BSERVATIONS - MARK TWAIN IN TOOBWORLD

'The Murdoch Myseries' is one of my current favorite TV series, although I hate the fact that it's called 'The Artful Detective' on Ovation.  And there was big news the other day when star Yannick Bisson tweeted this:

 

Still later in the day, a picture was released of William Shatner in make-up to play Mark Twain.

 

I thought - and actually I was hoping - that maybe this was more than just a behind the scenes picture taken of the show's star and perhaps the most famous guest star the series has ever had.  I was hoping that Shatner was not fully in costume yet; that he had yet to don a white wig to complete the resemblance to Samuel L. Clemens as he would have looked in 1903.  But alas, it is not to be.

 

As recounted in The Star, Shatner took a dislike to even sporting the mustache; he was not about to be saddled with a white fright wig as well.  I suppose the Grumpy Old Man (TV Edition) is planning to just invoke the spirit of Twain without actually resembling him.

 

That would be fine in Theater, where an actor without prosthetics or makeup can present himself to be "The Elephant Man" on stage.  And over in Skitlandia the Not Ready For Prime Time Players (at least in the beginning) didn't bother going all out with the make-up to impersonate the leading figures of the day who were being lampooned in the sketches.  Chevy Chase didn't look like or sound like or even act like Gerald Ford; Dan Ayckroyd played Richard Nixon with a mustache. 

 

And with a shared universe like the Toobworld Dynamic, adherence to authenticity when it comes to the portrayal of historical figures in various TV shows is vital.  Granted, they are not always going to resemble each other from show to show because different actors play the role.  But they should all at least put the effort in.  Who's going to believe some fat bald guy with a soul patch as Abraham Lincoln?

 

('Jack Of All Trades' presented a midget Napoleon [played by Verne Troyer of Mini-Me fame], but The Toobworld Dynamic take on the adventures of Jack Styles, a Colonial spy in the South Pacific, is that they were a fictionalized version recounted by a syphilitic and delusional Styles at the end of his life.)

 

There have been so many televersions of Mark Twain* - who was inducted into the Televsion Crossover Hall Of Fame in 2009 - that as Caretaker of the TwD I can afford to pick and choose which ones are allowed to be part of Earth Prime-Time.  Straight off I would put each of the one-shot performances into their own TV dimensions.  Spread the wealth as it were.  O'Bviously the cartoon depictions of Twain in 'Johnny Bravo' and 'The Venture Brothers' would be different aspects of the same man in the Tooniverse.  And that would apply as well in sketch comedy shows like 'Drunk History' and musical variety specials like 'Sing Out, Sweet Land' in which Der Bingle played Clemens - characters in Skitlandia are all recastaways.

 

Earth Prime-Time, on which I am most focused, has had several actors playing Mark Twain over the years on shows in which they interacted with the regular characters.  And all of them  made the effort to look the part:

 

 

• Kevin McCarthy in 'The Rifleman'
• John Cullum in 'Touched By An Angel'
• Jerry Hardin in 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' (My personal favorite)

 Over the long span of years for 'Bonanza', Mark Twain visited the Cartwrights three times but each time was played by a different actor:

 

 

• Howard Duff - "Enter Mark Twain"
• William Challee - "The Emperor Norton"
• Ken Howard - "The Twenty-Sixth Grave"

My claim is that the "View Continuum" forced the Trueniverse audience to witness two different TV dimensions, just as was the case with the three Mr. Freezes from 'Batman'.  Because he most closely resembled the Mark Twain image, it is Ken Howard in the episode "The Twenty Sixth Grave" who is the 'Bonanza' contribution for the writer in the main Toobworld - even if he was the last one to assay the role.  Especially since his age seemed to regress from the previous two appearances.  Howard Duff may have been the first to play the role on 'Bonanza', but it was hard to picture him as Clemens, even with the reddish hair.  So it's off to another dimension, perhaps Evil Toobworld, maybe 'West Wing' world, for that one episode.

 

As for the middle portrayal?  William Challee was NOT playing Samuel L. Clemens.  He was actually an alien from the future (now "our" past) who fled Earth Prime-Time into its own past using some kind of variation of the atavachron device from the planet Sarpeidon.  This faux-Twain was a member of an alien race from some unknown planet but which used Mars as a launching pad to take over the Earth in the 1960s.  Their plans went awry, or else they would have been present in all of the TV shows now on the air.  (I think the Doctor dispatched them, as he did with so many other alien incursions into Earth Prime-Time.  Personally, based on the description of what these aliens really looked like before they took human form, I think they were Krillitane.)

And so we come back to William Shatner in the role of Mark Twain.  As he looks nothing like the Twain televersion should, I'm afraid I shall have to cite it as being of someone else claiming to be the author.  I won't fall back on the claim that it is Twain in some other TV dimension because I refuse to give up one of my favorite TV shows to some alternate Toobworld, not even one episode.

I will wait until I have actually seen the episode, but I already have a splainin which I think will adequately make this episode pozz'ble, just pozz'ble, in the main Toobworld.  And it won't require some alien interference as did the faux Twain in the 'Bonanza' episode.

Until then......

SHOWS CITED:

• 'The Murdoch Mysteries'
• 'Bonanza'
• 'Star Trek: The Next Generation'
• 'Touched By An Angel'
• 'Doctor Who'
• 'Star Trek'
• 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents'
• The Rifleman'
• 'Sing Out, Sweet Land'
• 'Drunk History'
• 'Jack Of All Trades'
• 'Saturday Night Live'
• 'Johnny Bravo'
• 'The Venture Brothers'

BCnU!

* For an almost complete list of Mark Twain portrayals on television, click here.)