Saturday, March 21, 2009

AS SEEN ON TV: ZELDA FITZGERALD

We've finished using the "As Seen On TV" feature to salute the memory of actor Ron Silver, but sadly, we have one more tribute to publish.....
Among her select roles for television, the late Natasha Richardson portrayed the equally tragic "Zelda" Fitzgerald in a TV movie with Timothy Hutton playing her husband, F. Scott Fitzgerald.

BCnU....
Toby O'B

STEWIE BEAT

In May, FOX will have a very off-beat crossover event - Agent Booth will suffer a head injury on 'Bones' which will cause him to hallucinate several conversations with Stewie Griffin of 'Family Guy'.

This isn't the Zonk it sounds like. Stewie lives in the Tooniverse and most people in Earth Prime-Time consider such characters to be just "toons". However, these pen-and-ink figures are just as alive as flesh-and-blood characters.

And sometimes they cross over to the actual Toobworld.

The few who know the truth about Toons include Regis Philbin, Kathie Lee Gifford, Jerry Seinfeld, David Letterman, Ryan Seacrest, Drew Carey, Giselle McKenzie, Mimi Bobeck, Lois Lane, and Jimmy Olsen.

(This story was reported by Ausiello of Entertainment Weekly, and his online graphic for his story was so good, I decided to hijack it.)

BCnU!
Toby O'B


GOAL: YOUNGER

Tim Stack is reporting in Entertainment Weekly that the May 11th episode of 'Gossip Girl' serves as a back-door pilot for a prequel series for the younger version of the Lily van der Woodsen character. She'll be depicted as a wild, fun-loving teen in 1980s Los Angeles, and the creators of the show (Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage) are mulling over the idea of having Lily meet the younger versions of characters from Schwartz' earlier series, 'The O.C.' Specifically he's thinking of Kirsten Nichol and Jimmy Cooper.

While they're at it, why not bring in a teen-aged version of Big Mike from his other series, 'Chuck'?

BCnU!
Toby O'B

Friday, March 20, 2009

SIMPSON GO BRAGH!

An episode of 'The Simpsons' aired in the United Kingdom and in Ireland this past Tuesday - St. Patrick's Day - before it aired in the United States. So even though its home audience has yet to see it, it's already taken place in the Tooniverse.

Perhaps because the story had the Simpson family going to Ireland was the reason for its premiere on SKY1 (and whatever network showed it in Ireland). (The episode's title was "In The Name Of The Grandfather".)

BCnU!
Toby O'B

THEY SAY IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY

Thank goodness for blogmates like Ivan at "Thrilling Days Of Yesteryear" (link to the left, dear reader)! Without him to point it out for me, I never would have known that today marks the birthday of Carl Reiner, the man responsible for bringing 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' to Toobworld and into my personal top five of shows. Mr. Reiner is 87 today, and I'd like to think that the same could be said for Alan Brady, his most enduring TV character (from 'The DVD Show') and a member of the TV Crossover Hall of Fame.

Ivan also passed on word that today would have been Ozzie Nelson's 103rd birthday. (Which he learned from another blogmate, Bill Crider - also linked to the left.) The former bandleader spent fourteen years as his own tele-version in Toobworld (with years doing the same in the radio universe), one of the longest runs in the history of Earth Prime-Time. And that was just from the original series, 'Ozzie and Harriet'; he returned years later with 'Ozzie's Girls' in syndication.

Luckily for my waistline I'm too lazy to run out to the store; otherwise, I might have picked up some Rocky Road ice cream to salute his memory.....

BCnU!
Toby O'B

TVXOHOF, 03/2009-C: QUINCY MAGOO

I doubt anybody even noticed, but I completely forgot to post this week's inductee into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame.

This year we're celebrating the tenth anniversary for the site and so to celebrate, there's a new member brought in each week - with a theme for each week. For the third week in each month, we're inducting somebody from the Tooniverse. And with the passing of writer Millard Kaufman this week, who died in his 90's, we're going to make a last minute replacement and induct Mr. Quincy Magoo. (Mr. Kaufman helped create the nearly blind "adventurer".) Mr. Magoo had his own series:

'The Famous Adventures Of Mr. Magoo'

'Mister Magoo'

and
'What's New, Mr. Magoo?' His best contribution though has to be the wonderful holiday musical, "Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol", in which Mr. Magoo performs as Ebenezer Scrooge on Broadway. Quincy Magoo also schilled for products ranging from GE products to Stag Beer. And he appeared with other citizens of the Tooniverse like Fred Flintstone, Yogi Bear, and Olive Oyl in a 1999 blipvert for Mastercard. (Basically, it lifted its footage of Mr. Magoo from the theatrical short "When Magoo Flew".

Congrats on entering the Hall of Fame.....

But not through that door!

Ah, Magoo, ye've done it again!

BCnU!
Toby O'B

AS SEEN ON TV: "MIKE FINE"

Friday marks the final tribute to Ron Silver's gallery of real world figures "As Seen On TV", and for this last one we have something a little bit different.....

"Master Spy: The Robert Hanssen Story" detailed how FBI agent Hanssen sold out his country and put the lives of many working undercover in danger. Silver played Hanssen's boss in the Bureau, Mike Fine, and he's seen here telling Hanssen that he has to play down his intelligence if he wants to get ahead in the organization. The thing is... Mike Fine didn't really exist. Instead, he's an amalgam of several real life people, but mainly he is David Majors, who actually was Hanssen's boss.

In order to prepare for the role, Ron Silver met with Majors as seen in this publicity photo: BCnU!
Toby O'B



Thursday, March 19, 2009

THE HAT SQUAD: NATASHA RICHARDSON

Natasha Richardson has passed away at the age of 45, after her family made the decision to take her off life support. She suffered brain injuries after a fall while skiing in Canada, but it wasn't apparent for hours. She leaves behind her husband Liam Neeson, their two boys, and other members of an acting royalty family - her mother Vanessa Redgrave, sister Joely, their brother Carlo, her aunt Lynn and her uncle Corin.

She also left behind a body of work in theatre and movies that have been mentioned extensively since the news about her condition first surfaced. But as always, I'd like to point out the contributions she made to Toobworld over the years:

The Mastersons of Manhattan (2007) .... Victoria Masterson

Haven (2001) .... Ruth Gruber

The Man Who Came to Dinner (2000) .... Host

Zelda (1993) .... Zelda Fitzgerald

Hostages (1993) .... Jill Morrell

Suddenly, Last Summer (1993) .... Catharine Holly

Ghosts (1987) .... Regina

In the Secret State (1985) .... Jilly

GUEST APPEARANCES
"Tales from the Crypt" .... Fiona Havisham

- Fatal Caper

"Worlds Beyond"
- The Barrington Case (1987)

"The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" .... Violet Hunter
- The Copper Beeches (1985)

"Oxbridge Blues" .... Gabriella
- The Muse (1984)

MINI-SERIES
"Ellis Island" (1984) .... Young whore

Good night, and may God bless....

BCnU!
Toby O'B

AS SEEN ON TV: RON KERSHAW

For a look at Ron Silver as Ron Kershaw in "Almost Golden: The Jessica Savitch Story", this was the best photo I could find, that of the video box cover. But it's fine because unlike his portrayals of Bobby Riggs, Robert Shapiro, and Dr. Kissinger, Silver's Kershaw looks just like the Ron Silver I'm most familiar with.

From Wikipedia:
Prior to his move to Baltimore, Kershaw had been dating Jessica Savitch, a news reporter who had worked for a rival television station in Texas. Kershaw helped develop her skills as a reporter during their stormy 10-year on-again and off-again relationship. The relationship was depicted in the made for television movie: Almost Golden, about the life of Jessica Savitch. In 1987, Kershaw met Giselle Fernandez, whom he had hired as a reporter at WBBM-TV. They found they had a lot in common and soon they were engaged to be married. It was never to be. Kershaw died in July 1989 of pancreatic and liver cancer.

Tomorrow, one last look at a real world figure played by Ron Silver in Toobworld. And we then, sadly, continue with another tribute on Saturday....

BCnU!
Toby O'B

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

WITH A BIG PILL TO SWALLOW?

Okay, that didn't take long.......
A minute ago in the comments section for "Kings World Production", I said I'd add a picture of the drugstore from the 'Land of the Giants' episode if I found one. Went to Hulu.com, and there it was!

BCnU!
Toby O'B