AN O'BSERVATION

When Brittany Murphy hosted 'Saturday Night Live' back on November 16, 2002, she said in her monologue:

"Wow! Thank you guys! Oh my! I am thrilled to be here. I just did this movie "8 Mile" with Eminem. But now I get to do this! I can't believe this, I've been a fan of the show since I was a little kid."

Which didn't protect her two weeks ago when Abby Elliott mimicked her supposedly spacey nature in a "Weekend News Update" segment. (A screen captcha of "Brittany" appeared in the Inner Toob "As Seen On TV" gallery a few days later.)

But then, SNL has never really shown any loyalty to their hosts, except maybe Steve Martin. (Just ask OJ.....) Just sayin', is all.......

"Yo,Yo,

I've had it with all the commotion,

So stop the emotion and turn your devotion

To me - Ms. B. - the host with the most you see in movies,

While you're mocking me on late night TV.

From Girl Interrupted, to Freeway, to Clueless

I get paid for my work, You get paid to look foolish.

My movie "8 Mile" is doing so well

What's Eminem like?

I'll never tell.

Yo,Yo So don't forget it's my name you know

The baddest, the maddest, the best host of the show."
- Brittany Murphy

BRITTANY MURPHY'S 2002 SNL MONOLOGUE

BCnU.....

Brittany Murphy:
Thank you to Nelly, Kelly Rowland, Adam Sandler, Rob Schnieder, Garret Morris. Thank you, everyone. America we love you. Number one!

PEE-WEE'S LETTER TO SANTA

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: EDWARD P. MITCHELL

In researching the story behind the classic Christmas editorial "Yes, Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus", I first learned about this man:

EDWARD P. MITCHELL

AS SEEN IN:
"Yes, Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus"

AS PLAYED BY:
Ed Asner

From Wikipedia:
Edward Page Mitchell (b. Bath, Maine, March 24, 1852 - d. New London, Connecticut, 1927) was an American editorial and short story writer for the New York Sun, a daily newspaper. He became that newspaper's editor in 1875, succeeding Charles Anderson Dana. Mitchell retired in 1926, a year before dying of a cerebral hemorrhage. Decades after his death, Mitchell was recognized as a major figure in the early development of the science fiction genre. Mitchell wrote fiction about a man rendered invisible by scientific means ("The Crystal Man", published in 1881) before H.G. Wells's The Invisible Man, wrote about a time-travel machine ("The Clock that Went Backward") before Wells's The Time Machine, wrote about faster-than-light travel ("The Tachypomp"; now perhaps his best-known work) in 1874, a thinking computer and a cyborg in 1879 ("The Ablest Man in the World"), and also wrote the earliest known stories about matter transmission or teleportation ("The Man without a Body", 1877) and a superior mutant ("Old Squids and Little Speller"). "Exchanging Their Souls" (1877) is one of the earliest fictional accounts of mind transfer.

You really should check out the rest of his Wikipedia page; Mitchell was a fascinating man ahead of his time.....
BCnU!

THE BEST OF LUANNE

In memory of Brittany Murphy.....



BCnU......

AS SEEN ON TV NEWS: MP 2

Here's an "As Seen On TV" double feature to look forward to:

Brian Cox will be portraying Michael Martin, the former Speaker of the House of Commons in a BBC drama about the scandal surrounding the expense accounts of the MPs - for which Martin was forced to resign in May.

The Daily Telegraph revealed a long list of their questionable expense account claims which caused a public outcry; but it was the five-year campaign by Heather Brooke to get the MPs to reveal the details of their expenses that got the Telegraph involved.

Michael Martin did quite nicely afterwards despite the scandal - even though he resigned in disgrace and gave up his Glasgow seat, he was given the title of Lord Martin of Springburn.

The BBC4 drama will be called "Bringing Down The House" and will co-star Anna Maxwell Martin as Heather Brooke. (Brooke wanted Gillian Anderson for the role, but I'm a big fan of Anna's from her role in the 'Doctor Who' episode "The Long Game".)

Above is a picture of the two main actors involved, but once the production is closer to broadcast, we'll show them as their characters.....

BCnU!

HUSH-A-BOOM: TOOBWORLD & TOONIVERSE

Here's a question from one of my IDD friends.

Tay asks:

On tonight's 'Better Off Ted' - they were working on Hushaboom! And eating bananas - but they were not connected. (I seem to recall the reason Bullwinkle knew the formula for Hushaboom was because he ate the banana with the formula written on it, and he had an eidetic memory for anything he had ever eaten?? Anyone else remember if that's how it works?)

Anybody out there know the answer?

I found this recap at TV.com:

"Banana Formula" - 'Rocky & Bullwinkle'
Everyone has a talent, even if it's just sticking six flashlights in your mouth at once or going over Niagara Falls in a giant barrel, and Bullwinkle's happens to be that he can remember everything he ate, [but] it's nothing compared to what inventor Bermuda Schwartz has just accomplished across town: He's invented the Hushaboom, the first completely silent explosive. Inventor Bermuda Schwartz may be a brilliant bomb maker, but he's pretty darn gullible when it comes to his own mother-actually, Boris in disguise. Once he's conned the gullible professor to hide the Hushaboom formula, Boris adroitly writes it on the inside of a banana peel, then zips said banana back up. Unfortunately, because of his evil nature, Boris can't quite resist selling that very banana to a passing moose for an exorbitant price.

A definitely disgruntled Boris hops a steamroller, intending to commit squash-and-run upon the banana-munching moose, but, just in time, Rocky streaks aloft like a bullet managing to shove Bullwinkle into an open manhole right before the steamroller rumbles past.

Repairing to a nearby drugstore (where Boris and Natasha just happen to be hiding under a table) for a nerve-soothing soda, Rocky (and the two villains) realizes that Bullwinkle - whose one talent it is to remember precisely everything he's ever eaten - can regurgitate the formula at will. So to connive the formula out of the gullible moose, Boris dresses up as a giant lollipop and announces that he's Allen Fink, host of the Candied Camera TV show; Bullwinkle obliges by gladly telling the banana formula.



BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: TIGER WOODS

To kick off the Christmas week gallery for "As Seen On TV".....

TIGER WOODS

AS SEEN ON:
'Jimmy Kimmel Live!'

And to make matters worse, here's the clip.....



BCnU!

THE LEGEND OF SANTA LARRY

This is Larry.

I believe that all his life, it has been Larry's dream to play Santa Claus. No, even better - it has been his dream to BE Santa Claus.

It is the contention of Toobworld Central that Larry grew up in the Seattle region, and began playing Santa Claus at his family's holiday gatherings in his late teens. He parlayed that into gigs for office parties, at day care centers and schools, and finally he became a department store Santa at several of the area malls. He may have also volunteered to be one of the bell-ringing Santa Clauses on the street corners of Seattle.

After years of dedication to his craft, Larry finally made it to the big time: he was chosen to be THE Santa Claus for the annual Christmas Parade in Seattle, which was covered by Channel 6.

The Christmas Parade had a long tradition on Channel 6, since the days when it was covered by Bob Vernon and Sgt. Michelle the Traffic Lady. But by the 1990's, it was hosted by Cal and Kelly Kirkland - until 2000, when Kelly discovered that Cal had been boinking her cue card girl. Because of their impending divorce, Dr. Frasier Crane got a chance to co-host with Kelly; but when she was sidelined by an accident, Frasier's co-host was his rival at the radio station, "Dr. Mary". Poor Larry had no clue what was in store for him during that year's parade. When Santa Claus reached the Channel 6 reviewing stand, Frasier was so bent out of shape that "Dr. Mary" was horning in on his interview with Santa that the radio psychiatrist accidentally broke Santa's nose with his microphone.

[You can see the full episode here.]

Even though he was the victim, it looks like Larry ended up paying the price. Perhaps because of his angry outburst over the bloody "attack", it could be that Larry lost the parade gig and was blacklisted from working as Santa in the general Seattle region. The reason we surmise this is because he finally resurfaced as Santa Claus seven years later... in Washington, D.C. Despite his setback in Seattle, it looks like Larry didn't lose his desire to be Santa Claus, nor did he lose his charitable spirit. But it was all severely tested when he and his fellow Santa volunteers were all suspects in the murder of another Santa Claus (who was legally named Kris Kringle).

Here's the promo for that episode:

After that, Larry decided to abandon the Nation's Capital and he headed to America's Heartland, deep in 'The Middle' of nowhere: Orson, Indiana. However, even there Larry wasn't safe from the travails of the job. Two years into his run, one visit to his lap by young Brick Heck, and Larry ended up questioning the meaning of his existence. Because of that, Larry couldn't even fulfill his commitment to play out the season as Santa Claus there in Orson. So he decided to find somewhere else where he could ply his trade as Saint Nick. And he chose Philadelphia.

I can picture his thought process: Philadelphia is the City of Brotherly Love. What could possibly go wrong?

Charlie Kelly for one...... The following clip is not safe for work. It's not safe for home viewing at home if you have impressionable children about. But here's what happened when Santa Larry met Charlie:

Charlie vs. Santa Claus

I'm hoping Santa Larry survived the attack. I'm pretty sure he did. But I also hope that it doesn't spoil his enthusiasm for playing that jolly old elf. Perhaps next year around this time of the season, in some part of the country, we'll see him again on some TV series in the role he was born to play - Santa Claus! BCnU!
This has been a post of pure speculation about the characters played by Donovan Scott (seen above as himself) in the following TV series:

"Frasier"
- Mary Christmas (2000)

"Bones"
- The Santa in the Slush (2007)
(This is the episode in which we learned that his real name is Larry.)

"The Middle"
- Christmas (2009)

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: It's a Very Sunny Christmas (2009)

You can bet Santa's workshop that someday Santa Larry will be inducted into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame!

AS SEEN ON TV: BRAD CUNNINGHAM

Tomorrow we begin a week of Christmas-related "As Seen On TV" posts. So let's take one last stroll down the dark path before we bathe in the glow of the holiday......

BRAD CUNNINGHAM

AS SEEN IN:
"Dead By Sunset"

AS PLAYED BY:
Ken Olin

From Mystery Crime Scene:
When attorney Cheryl Keeton's brutally bludgeoned body was found in her van in the fast lane of an Oregon freeway, her husband, Brad Cunningham, was the likely suspect. But there was no solid evidence linking him to the crime. He married again, for the fifth time, and his stunning new wife, a physician named Sara, adopted his three sons. They all settled down to family life on a luxurious estate. But gradually, their marriage became a nightmare....

From Wikipedia:
Dead By Sunset is a 1995 true crime novel by Ann Rule. It is based on the 1986 Oregon case of the murder of Cheryl Keeton, who was found beaten to death inside her van on the Sunset Highway and the later conviction of her estranged husband, Brad Cunningham.

Later in 1995, NBC aired a mini-series named Dead By Sunset. It was based on the book and starred Annette O'Toole as Keeton and Ken Olin as Cunningham. Mystery Crime Scene gives a full account of the Cunningham case.....

Certainly not the kind of Cunningham you'd expect to find in Toobworld....

BCnU!

PUDSEY'S BAND-AID

Back around the time we were celebrating Thanksgiving over here, the UK was in the midst of their big annual charity cause, "Children In Need". In the past there has always been a real attention-grabbing video to really stir people into digging deep into their pockets to help out Pudsey the Bear's cause. (For those who don't know Pudsey, he's the Teddy Bear who's playing the guitar solo.)

In the past there was the bridge between the last of Christopher Eccleston's run as the Doctor and David Tennant's ascension to the TARDIS, in which Rose tried to adjust to the Doctor's new form. And then there was the 10th Doctor's encounter with the Fifth Doctor in "Time Crash". There have also been music videos by casts from various shows like the one from 'EastEnders' which was all sixties pop.

But this year the big event was the music video produced by Peter Kay in which most of the beloved children's TV characters all joined in to sing a medley of songs including "Jai Ho", "Don't Stop", "Tubthumping", and "Hey Jude".

In my research into British TV, I've become familiar with a lot of the classic characters - Bagpuss, Andy Pandy, the Flowerpot Men, Muffin the Mule, Postman Pat, Bob the Builder, Thomas the Tank Engine and the various Gerry Anderson supermarionettes. And who could avoid recognizing the Tele-Tubbies? But there were so many more that I just had no clue about. For instance, those rat-like creatures known as the Wombles? I thought they were connected somehow to Roland the Rat. (O'Bviously I knew the American visitors like Ben Ten, Spongebob Squarepants, and Shaggy and Scooby-Doo.)

Luckily there's a Wikipedia page that gives a run-down of all the characters with links to their own entries. (I just wish those pages included pics of them all. For instance, who was the guy whose head was a tied off sack, and who had a carrot for a nose? And who was the young kid playing the drums? I liked them.)

So, for those of you who haven't seen it yet, here's the Children in Need music video:



For those who like to know some of the actors involved, I'm pretty sure that was Jane Horrocks (best known over here for Bubble in 'Absolutely Fabulous) singing the lead on the "Jai Ho" segment. Bernard Cribbins (who narrated the story of the Wombles), 'Doctor Who' voice man Roy Skelton, and some guy named Ringo Starr are also in the mix.

There were two characters I wish had been involved - Danger Mouse and Basil Brush......

I think since I first saw this on Wednesday, I must have watched it twenty times. And I've ordered a couple copies of the CD. I'm hoping a Region 1 version of the DVD might become available over here as well!

By the way, I think it safe to say that this is going to be a Toobits Awards winner....

My very big thanks go out to Andrew Brook, who gave me the head's-up not only to the video, but also to the Wiki key to the identities of everybody concerned.

BCnU!