AS SEEN ON TV: MAGGIE ROGERS

MAGGIE ROGERS

AS SEEN IN:
"Backstairs At The White House"

AS PLAYED BY:
Olivia Cole

From Wikipedia:

Margaret 'Maggie' Rogers was a maid at the White House who served for 30 years (1909–1939), during the administrations of Taft, Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, and part of Franklin D. Roosevelt's, eventually rising to head housemaid.

Her years of service were memorialized in the book "My Thirty Years Backstairs at the White House" by her daughter, Lillian Rogers Parks, who worked as a seamstress, also in the White House. The story was later produced as a miniseries by Ed Friendly Productions.

BCnU!
Toby O'B

OFF TO HIATUSPORT!

Yes. That is a picture of a cream of mushroom soup can.

According to Mark Evanier in his "News From ME" blog (link to the left):

This, as anyone with an I.Q. higher than that of a cocker spaniel can tell you, is an ancient Internet tradition that few besides me carry on. The pic means that the proprietor of the website is too busy to post much of anything for a little while.

He says that Tradition holds that it should be a picture of a Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup can. However, I thought I'd give props to Heinz, if only because I'm still going to be posting over the next two weeks while I'm on vacation. But the difference is that all of my posts - each one as part of the "As Seen On TV" feature - have been automatically set up to publish daily.

I've made a vow to really cut down on the time I spend on the Internet this vacation up at "the Lake". Although it may be harder right now since I'm not sure the weather will be all that cooperative for being outside. And after getting sliced and snipped and having bits of me frozen at the dermatologist Monday because of all the time I spent in the sun up at the Lake in my errant youth, I'm not all that keen now to continue that tradition. (At least I didn't end up with "elf ears" like my Dad did when he got snipped!)

So hopefully you won't even notice I'm gone - if you ever noticed my presence here in the first place. (Groveling for pity here, folks! LOL) I have a feeling some of these pre-programmed "As Seen On TV" posts may end up looking a bit off, but I'll fix them when I get back.

By the way, the theme will be Presidents and their First Ladies (as welll as a few others) from the mini-series "Backstairs At The White House"......

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: HERMANN GOERING

Since I collected the pictures anyway......

HERMANN GOERING

AS SEEN IN:

"Nuremberg"

AS PLAYED BY:

Brian Cox

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VAMPIRES: A DEVILISH DENIAL

Devil:
"Here's the vessel for your next soul, Tracy Reed.
Thought she was a vampire when she was alive."

Sam:
"Seriously, she was a vampire?"

Devil:
"Well, you do know that vampires don't really exist, don't you, Sam?"
'Reaper'

I'm way behind on 'Reaper'; had I been up to date, I could have included mention of "I Want My Baby Back" in the article about Dr. Bishop's denial of vampires in 'Fringe'.

So there's no need to get into too much detail about this. As Tony the Demon later pointed out in the same episode, the Devil always lies.

Which means that vampires do exist in Toobworld.

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SWEDE DEAL

The British mystery series 'Wallander' has come to America as part of 'Masterpiece Theatre'. The first episode introduced Swedish police detective Kurt Wallander and his fellow investigators, as well as Wallander's daughter and his father - a painter stricken with Alzheimer's. Kenneth Branagh plays Wallander and David Warner guest-starred as his father.

P.T. Barnum once said that everything outside New York was Bridgeport. Similary, Toobworld Central says that in Toobworld, almost all foreigners will have British accents. (Especially if you go back in Time - like to the age of the Caesars in 'I, Claudius'.) No one in 'Wallander' even made the attempt to pull off a Swedish accent, but the names, locations, even the print on the newspaper were all Swedish.

Not any sort of a hurdle for Toobworld, but even so, 'Wallander' must be relegated to 'The West Wing' dimension rather than being allowed to stay in Earth Prime-Time. That's because there was a Swedish TV series adapted from the novels in 2005. Krister Henriksson starred as Detective Wallander and since it was broadcast first, it belongs in Earth Prime-Time.
And that only seems appropriate, doesn't it? A Swedish show about a Swedish character should have preeminence in Toobworld....

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: "GIBBSVILLE"

ROBIN & BARRY GIBB

AS SEEN ON:

'Saturday Night Live'

AS PLAYED BY:

Justin Timberlake and Jimmy Fallon

This was from this past weekend, when Timberlake hosted for the third time. (It's taking far too long to get him into the Five-Timers' Club!) Fallon returned to the show from another floor, where he's now hosting 'Late Night' every week night.

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THE GANG THAT COULDN'T ZONK STRAIGHT

"So what do we do?
Hop in the car,
Drive down to the Bada Bing?"
Detective Kate Beckett
'Castle'

For Toobworld, this is a clear link to 'The Sopranos'. There was no mention of the TV show or that the Bada Bing strip club was fictional. Taken at face value, the 12th Precinct detective and the author of 26 best-sellers live in the same TV dimension as Tony Soprano and Big Pussy.

However, just a week ago or so, it was decided that 'Castle' had to be banished to the TV dimension of 'The West Wing', since the NYC Mayor in the series is a black man named Bobby. Mike Bloomberg is currently the mayor of New York in Toobworld, thanks to appearances on '30 Rock', 'Law & Order' and in a Muppets Christmas special.

I have no problem with 'The Sopranos' being relocated to that dimension as well, especially considering how many Zonks there were over the run of the series between mentions of 'The Rockford Files' and actual shows seen on Tony's big-screen high-def TV down in his entertainment room.

On the whole, I'd rather keep both 'The Sopranos' and 'Castle' in Earth Prime-Time, but sometimes tough decisions have to be made.

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: HENRY T. KING

From the New York Times:

Henry T. King Jr., Prosecutor at Nuremberg, Dies at 89

By DENNIS HEVESI

[Henry T.] King was one of the last Nuremberg war crimes prosecutors and an influential voice since World War II in international efforts to bring war criminals to justice.

Mr. King was “one of a handful of uniquely credible veterans in his field, one of the last voices of Nuremberg,” John Q. Barrett, a law professor at St. John’s University and an expert on the trials, said Monday. “He influenced students and lecture audiences, international diplomats and even heads of state.”

“Nuremberg left a lifelong imprint on Henry King,” Professor Barrett continued, “and through the next 60 years of his life, he spoke and wrote constantly about the value that came out of Nuremberg.”

Assigned in 1946 and 1947 to the second phase of the trials, Mr. King investigated medical experiments performed on concentration camp inmates and gathered evidence against Walther von Brauchitsch, the commander of German armed forces. But his primary work was as assistant trial counsel in the case against Erhard Milch, a high-ranking German officer who was convicted in connection with the abuse and executions of slave laborers. His life sentence was later commuted to 15 years.

To gather evidence for the Milch case, Mr. King interviewed some of those already convicted, including [Albert] Speer. It was the start of a long relationship, one in which Mr. King could never quite comprehend the contradictions in the seemingly contrite Speer. For more than 30 years, Mr. King corresponded with Speer and visited him. He kept a photograph of Speer by his bedside. Still, he said, he was not taken in by the war criminal.
"Speer closed his eyes to the world of humanity, and thus, a concern for human ethics never intruded on his relentless drive as armaments minister,” Mr. King wrote in a 1997 memoir, “The Two Worlds of Albert Speer.” “In a technological world, the magic concoction for evil consists of blind technocrats such as Speer led by an evil and aggressive leader such as Hitler.”

In that first picture above, King is the second from the right at the prosecution table. This was taken at the Milch trial as the verdict was announced.

Seeing this obituary, my first instinct was maybe to feature the main Nazi on trial at Nuremberg, as seen in the 2000 TV movie "Nuremberg": Hermann Goering (played by Brian Cox).

However, the obituary for Mr. King revealed that he was born in my Connecticut hometown, and pride in the "Silver Capital of the world" prompted me to try to honor Mr. King instead.

It wasn't easy. "Nuremberg" focused mostly on Robert Jackson, as did some foreign TV productions about the Trials. A few others prosecutors, like fellow Connecticut lawyer (and future governor) Thomas Dodd, were depicted. But none of their cast lists specifically identify any of the prosecutors as Henry T. King. Any one of those lawyers seen seated behind Alec Baldwin (as Jackson) in this picture could have been King. I'd go with the guy two back from Jackson's right (seen to our left). The fellow seated on the left in this picture could also be considered to be Henry T. King.

There was a German TV mini-series called 'Speer un er', which chronicled the life of the Third Reich's armaments minister. For alls I know, this picture from the series could be showing Speer with King. (Although I don't know why Mr. King would be depicted as wearing sunglasses; they would have interfered with his need for his regular eyeglasses.) At any rate, Henry T. King serves as an example of those thousands - millions? - in History who have been relegated to the nameless crowds in Toobworld representation. This was my small attempt to rectify that for a fellow Meridenite..........

BCnU!

NIMOY VEY!

The new 'Star Trek' movie looks to be on track to top the 200 million dollar mark, the first 'Trek' movie to do so. (But inflation should be taken into account, right?)

In advance of the official opening, David Letterman had Leonard Nimoy appear on 'The Late Show' Thursday night to present the Top Ten list:

Top Ten Lines Never Before Said in a Star Trek film:

10. Warp factor 8! Arby's closes in 10 minutes.

9. We're entering a breach in the space-time continuum or a wormhole or some crazy crap like that.

8. Set phasers to fabulous!

7. Welcome aboard the Starship Enterprise – today's in-flight movie is "Big Momma's House 2."

6. We've been hijacked by Somali pirates.

5. Sir, I'm going to need Saturday off to attend my nephew's Bar Mitzvah.

4. My baby-daddy is a Vulcan – on the next "Maury."

3. The Enterprise just hit a goose – we're gonna have to land in the Hudson.

2. Live long, prosper, and keep on hangin' and bangin'.

1. I find your choice of hairpiece highly illogical.

Over the weekend, Nimoy also appeared in the Weekend Update segment on 'Saturday Night Live' with co-stars Zachary Quinto and Chris Pine.

BCnU!

NUMBERS RUNNING: IN PLAIN SIGHT

Federal Marshal Mary Shannon's boyfriend Raphael came to the rescue of Tripp Sullivan in a recent episode of 'In Plain Sight'. But he broke his hand subduing the abusive boyfriend of Tripp's mom and needed treatment at the scene.

Here we see him standing behind one of the Albuquerque squad cars that answered the 911 calls. And the I.D. number for that vehicle? C-08. "8" is one of "The Numbers" from 'Lost'. The sequence has some sort of mystical power in the TV Universe.

BCnU!