FRIDAY HALL OF FAMERS FOR 11/29/2019 - ALEXANDER WAVERLY

Because of the holidays (Thanksgiving on Thursday, Dabsgiving on Friday), this week’s edition of the Friday Hall of Famers got off to a late start.  But thanks to the Dashboard system of Blogger, it will still show up as having been posted on this past Friday in the archives.  Time travel!

For our last induction of November, we’re going to be dealing with a man who wasn’t so much of a newsmaker who made the headlines.  He worked very much behind the scenes, doing his part through much of the 20th Century in shaping the course of the “Free World”.  Oftentimes the actions in which he either took part (in the beginning of his intelligence career) or oversaw (as one of the heads of U.N.C.L.E.) saved the lives of those who would be recognized as the newsmakers or prevented the actions of madmen from becoming the leading news story of the day.

In doing so, he never received the public accolades which he deserved, such as a knighthood.  Those of us in Earth Prime recognize his contributions and this honorific from the Television Crossover Hall of Fame is a paltry shade of the thanks due to him.

May I present….

MISTER ALEXANDER WAVERLY

“Hmm? Oh, yes.

Alexander Waverly.

Number 1 in Section 1.

In charge of this,

our New York headquarters.

It's from here that I send these young men

on their various missions.”

ALEXANDER WAVERLY

‘THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E’

From Wikipedia:
Alexander Waverly is a fictional character from the 1960s television show ‘The Man from U.N.C.L.E.’ and its spin-off series ‘The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.’.

Mr. Waverly is the head of the U.N.C.L.E. organization [an international espionage organization at the height of the Cold War] and was played by the English actor Leo G. Carroll.

[Carroll] had played the 'Professor', the head of the espionage agency in “North by Northwest” (1959), the film which inspired Norman Felton to bring the spy genre to the small screen.

O’BSERVATION:
On occasion, Toobworld Central absconds with movies from the “Cineverse”.*  Because of the character of “The Professor”, Toobworld has made the movie “North By Northwest” part of the TV Universe.  And it is our contention that “The Professor” was in fact Alexander Waverly.

(Nothing from the movie otherwise interferes with the integrity of the TV Universe.  It would take a lot more than killer crop-dusters, assassinations, and clambering over Mt. Rushmore to make this movie a Zonk in a world which is frequently invaded by Cybermen, Daleks, Black Oil, and aliens with bent pinkies.)

In his position as “The Professor”, working in Intelligence but not yet affiliated with U.N.C.L.E., Mr. Waverly may have been “working” undercover either at Channing College or at the Institute of Foreign Policy as Professor John Miller.  This would have occurred when Professor Paul Atherton was offered to become the new head of the Institute for Foreign Policy.  

Unfortunately I’ve never seen this episode, never seen any from the TV show ‘Channing’.  As the characters of the Professors John Miller and Paul Atherton were one-shots, I could see “Miller” (Waverly) as being the “retiring” head of the Institute (in order to take a position with U.N.C.L.E., no doubt) and that Atherton does take over its leadership.  But that’s supposition on my part.

Back to Waverly’s Wikipedia entry:
He is one of five regional heads in charge of the multi-national organization, though his position appears to be that of primus inter pares, i.e., first among equals. In one episode he presides over an annual meeting of the regional heads ('The Summit Five Affair').

In contrast to the ambiguity surrounding the backgrounds of Solo and Kuryakin, we are given some insight into Waverly's family situation. He mentions a grandson called Melvin in 'The Bat Cave Affair'. His cousin Lester Baldwin (also played by Carroll) appears in 'The Bow Wow Affair'. His brother-in-law is Professor Hemingway of Y.I.T., who he sometimes uses as a consultant ('The Mad, MAD Tea Party Affair'). In 'The Cap and Gown Affair' it emerges that Waverly is an alumnus of Blair University.

His niece Maude Waverly, played by Yvonne Craig, appears in the U.N.C.L.E. film "One Spy Too Many" although she does not feature in 'The Alexander the Greater Affair' the two-part television episode on which the film is based.

Mr. Waverly was also a regular in the short-lived, spin-off series ‘The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.’, making Carroll one of the first actors to play the same role in two television shows.  (He had two female agents using the code name of April Dancer.)

He is the head of Section One in U.N.C.L.E. headquarters in New York. He appears to have been something of a ladies man in his youth ('The Bow Wow Affair).

In the first two seasons Waverly is depicted as an unsentimental, tough, pragmatic leader. By the third season, however, he is presented as a more humane, although still pragmatic character. In the third season two-part episode 'The Concrete Overcoat Affair,' Solo objects to the fact that his partner Kuryakin has been sent on a suicide mission. Although he chastises the agent for questioning his authority, Waverly allows him to go to Kuryakin's aid. As Solo leaves, Waverly can be heard muttering, "Alexander Waverly, sentimental grandmother of the year."

Although primarily working out of headquarters, on rare occasions Waverly joins in missions in the field. He goes undercover in 'The Pieces of Fate Affair' and during the show's fourth season, he is captured along with three of his agents. He masterminds their escape with the aid of a blade hidden in a flower in his buttonhole ('The Deep Six Affair').

In 1968, Carroll made his final appearance in the role one week after the show's cancellation when he appeared on ‘Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In’, the series that replaced U.N.C.L.E. His final lines on screen are "Mr. Kuryakin, come quick. I think I've found THRUSH headquarters at last."

O’BSERVATION:
Toobworld Central has come up with a shadow ops organization to help in splainin away some of those discrepancies which we call “Zonks” – especially those in which TV characters talk about other TV characters from other TV shows as being fictional.

“UNREEL” is the group that foments this belief in the hopes that if the general public thinks characters like James Bond, and the Time Lord known as The Doctor are fictional, it then makes it easier for those do-gooders to continue in their work without alarming or generally involving ordinary citizens.  (But hey, it happens.)

The inspiration for UNREEL grew out of the details in Dr. Watson’s chronicles of his friend Sherlock Holmes’ exploits which he fictionalized for his friend’s sake, or his clients.  (Chief among these – in my opinion – would be the true identity of “The King of Bohemia”.)

We know that ‘Laugh-In’ is a TV show within the world of Earth Prime-Time  - Paul and Jamie Buchman dreamed about it!  So it’s our theory that UNREEL arranged it so that Mr. Waverly appeared on that pilot episode of the comedy sketch series to make it appear as if he was a fictional character, to go along with their earlier underwriting of ‘The Man From U.N.C.L.E.’ series using actors who bore incredible likenesses to the actual agents.

In this case, Waverly was played by Leo G. Carroll who performed a similar service for UNREEL with an earlier series based on the life of a banker named Cosmo Topper.  (UNREEL didn’t want to cause a panic among the general public with reports that ghosts actually do exist in Earth Prime-Time.)

To help muddy the waters further, Leo G. Carroll himself later made an appearance on 'Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In.'

To Wikipedia, once again:
Carroll died in 1972 and his character did not appear in the 1983 reunion movie “Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E.:The Fifteen Years Later Affair”, where it is implied that Mr. Waverly had died relatively recently.

O’BSERVATION:
According to Wikipedia, there was a Mrs. Waverly (whose maiden name was Hemingway) and they had at least one child since Mr. Waverly does mention a grandson named Melvin.  He also has a cousin named Lester Baldwin who is one of those Toobworld “rarities”  known as identical cousins.  (As for Maude Waverly, who appeared in the movie adaptation of one of the TV adventures but not in the original story, I’ll leave that for others to de-Zonk.)

But there is another relative I think helps the case for Mr. Waverly’s inclusion into the TVXOHOF.  It was said during the series that in his day, Mr. Waverly was something of a ladies’ man.  So it’s not outside the realm of being pozz’ble, just pozz’ble (as Muskie Muskrat would say) that he wasn’t always that careful with the dispensation of the Waverly seed.  It could be that he sired a child outside of marriage, and to spite him for not divorcing Mrs. Waverly to acknowledge this child, the mother gave her son the legal name of Alexander Waverly.

I would rather think that this son was a bastard rather than that he was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Waverly, as we would meet Alexander Waverly II in 1981 (about two years before his father’s death.)  You see, Alexander Waverly II was running a “health club” in Las Vegas in which his male trainers also worked as escorts.

I have seen a wiki entry for Alexander Waverly with quite a padded backstory in which it’s declared he was born in 1892; give the name Francis Alexander Nugent; and that he attended the Greyfriars School in 1907.  I have no problem with him having attended that school, but the years would not have synched up with that attempt to link him into the Famous Five of the Greyfriars stories by Charles Hamilton.  (Not to be confused with the Enid Blyton books about a different quartet of young people – and a dog! – known as the Famous Five.)

I believe in adhering to the age of the actor portraying a character unless otherwise specified within their series.  As an example, there was Luke Carpenter of ‘The Second Hundred Years’ who may have looked to be in his thirties but thanks to a natural case of cryogenics, he was over 100 years old.

As for Alexander Waverly, I prefer to think that, like Leo G. Carroll, he was born in 1886.  This of course means that he was close to 97 years of age when he died, lasting about a decade longer than the actor who portrayed him.  If that reference to him in the reunion movie as having died “recently” also suggested that he had been still involved with the U.N.C.L.E. organization, I think there’s a fanfic way to splain that away which I’ll get to in a moment.

But first, here’s a list of the qualifications for the entry of Alexander Waverly into the Television Crossover Hall of Fame:

ABSORBED FROM THE CINEVERSE
North by Northwest
The Professor

(Either acting under his own name or perhaps the alias of “John Miller”)

OFFICIAL EARTH PRIME-TIME ENTRIES
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
(1964-1968)
105 episodes

The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.
(1966-1967)
29 episodes

Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
Premiere
(1968)
Guests: Barbara Feldon, Flip Wilson, Leo G. Carroll, Lorne Greene, Buddy Hackett, Sheldon Leonard, Tiny Tim, The Strawberry Alarm Clock

TENTATIVE:

Channing
- A Claim to Immortality
(1964)
... Professor John Miller

REASON: GAME OF THE NAME
Mr. Waverly could have been using an alias.

Vega$
French Twist
(6 May 1981)

REASON: THEORY OF RELATEEVEETY
The character of Alexander Waverly was either the U.N.C.L.E. chief’s son in his marriage or an illegitimate child.

I mentioned a splainin for why Mr. Waverly was able to be active with U.N.C.L.E. into his late nineties.  And for that we have to venture into pure fanfic speculation.

There are several TV series which I think Mr. Waverly could make an appearance in their fan fiction.  For instance, if he was born in 1886, it could be possible that as a child he might have met Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.  (Could he have been at the Priory School in Mackleton when the Great Detective investigated the kidnapping of a student from there?  He would have been about fifteen at the time.)

But there could have been any number of opportunities for the young Waverly to have met Holmes and perhaps he was allowed to partake in Holmes’ scientific studies into the revitalizing effects of a queen bee’s royal jelly.

During the Great War, he might have crossed paths with several TV characters who also fought the Bosch – Matthew Crawley, Sherman Potter, Thomas Barrow, and William Mason among others.

Then there could be involvement with Quentin Everitt Deverill, Nick Carter, Adam Adamant, Colonel Robert Hogan, Sgt. Chip Saunders, Ellery Queen, Hercule Poirot, James West and maybe Artemus Gordon, and members of the Bellamy household, among many others.

I could even see him somehow getting tangled in adventures with Maurice and Endora, Exigius 12½, and The Doctor!

For an old duffer who was in his eighties before he was officially introduced as Alexander Waverly, our latest inductee racked up an impressive number of official credits in the role.

Welcome to the Hall, Mr. Waverly!

* The term “Cineverse” was created by Craig Shaw Gardner for a series of his novels set in the movie universe.

FRIDAY HALL OF FAMERS - SENATOR BOXER, 11/29/19

Politicians are a natural fit for the Television Crossover Hall of Fame in November, so we’re going to induct the televersion of a former senator as this week’s Friday Hall of Famer.

BARBARA BOXER

From Wikipedia:
Barbara Levy Boxer (born November 11, 1940) is a retired American politician who served as a United States Senator for California from 1993 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, she previously served in the U.S. House of Representatives 1983 to 1993.

Boxer won the 1992 election for the U.S. Senate. She previously held the record for the most votes in any U.S. Senate election in history, having received 6.96 million votes in her 2004 re-election, until her colleague, Dianne Feinstein, the senior Senator from California, surpassed that number in her 2012 re-election.  Boxer and Feinstein were the first female pair of U.S. Senators representing any state at the same time.

At the time of her retirement, Boxer ranked eleventh in seniority in the United States Senate, and was the most senior junior Senator from the retirement of Tom Harkinin January 2015 until her own retirement two years later. 

On January 8, 2015, Boxer announced that she would not seek re-election in 2016.  She was succeeded by California Attorney General Kamala Harris.

Here are the places in Toobworld where she made an appearance:

Murphy Brown
- Brown vs. the Board of Education (1994)

Gilmore Girls
- Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days (2002)

K Street
- Week 3 (2003)

Curb Your Enthusiasm
- The Anonymous Donor (2007) 

Parks and Recreation
- Ms. Knope Goes to Washington (2012)
- Ms. Ludgate-Dwyer Goes to Washington (2015)

I used to have frame grabs from the ‘Murphy Brown’ episode in which Murphy had lined up Senator Boxer and Captain Kangaroo to vouch for baby Avery to get him into one of the better day care centers in D.C.  Hopefully I can track down some replacements.

But even so, Senator Boxer has a nice showing here for her televersion in Toobworld.

Welcome to the Hall, Senator…..

FRIDAY HALL OF FAMER 11/22/19 - JIMMY BERLUTI

This week’s November Friday Hall of Famer wasn’t exactly the Newsmaker, but he got caught up in quite the Breaking News story in Boston sixteen years ago – a mentally unstable former client kidnapped fellow Hall of Famer Les Moonves and threatened to kill him on live TV.

Plus, he's from Boston, which makes him a sadly tenuous connection to the anniversary of this dark day in American History.....

JIMMY BERLUTI

From Wikipedia:
Michael Badalucco as Jimmy Berluti (1997–2004), an associate and later partner at the firm from a working-class background. Jimmy often struggles with his conscience, loneliness, feelings of inadequacy, and a gambling addiction.

From Share TV:
An associate, and later, partner at the firm. An Italian-American from a working-class background, Jimmy often struggled with his conscience, loneliness and feelings of inadequacy, as well as a brief story arc involving his problems with gambling addiction. Jimmy, like Bobby, was raised as a Catholic, and his strict upbringing often played a part in his various ethical dilemmas.

From Ryana’s Practice Page:
Jimmy Berluti is the 'teddy bear' of Donnell, Young, Dole and Frutt. Always the underdog, Jimmy is the only lawyer at the firm who isn't a partner, even though it's only because of his lack of experience. Jimmy's not the best lawyer, but he is much better than when he first joined the firm.

Jimmy's the lawyer with the biggest heart, taking the cases that touch him, like the community stricken with cancer. Previously known (and advertised) as 'Jimmy the Grunt', Jimmy has had to struggle to get over a less than flattering reputation.

Jimmy has had to grow both professionally and personally.  Whether it was dealing with his mother's admittance she was gay or staying in the firm's background while others took the forefront, Jimmy has pulled his weight. A prime example of this was his spectacular win for the firm in the liability suit against them led by Tommy Silva.

Here are Jimmy Berluti’s qualifications for membership into the Hall:

The Practice
166 episodes

Ally McBeal
- I Know Him by Heart (1999)

From the IMDb:
Ally decides she's going to become a dating machine, but it causes a whole lot of awkwardness, especially when Ling has lined up a parade of men for Ally to choose from.

(Jimmy was one of Ally’s dates.  It did not go well.)

Jimmy:
"I don't know what feminism even means. The girls I know, they want you to get the door and pick up the tab but ask them to rinse a few dishes and it's "Whoa, I'm a feminist. " What? They like dirty plates?"

Boston Public
- Chapter Thirteen (2001)

From the IMDb:
When Coach Riley is fired for withholding information about Buttle's affair, he hires the best attorneys in Boston - Ellenor Frutt and Jimmy Berluti.  

Gideon's Crossing
- Flashpoint (2001)

From the IMDb:
Ellenor Frutt is brought to Metropolitan General after collapsing and tells Ben that her baby comes first if anything happens to her.

(Jimmy comes to see Ellenor in the hospital.)

O’Bservation:
In putting this tribute together, I realize Ellenor Frutt deserves to be in the Hall as well.  Maybe next May?

And finally, as part of 'The Practice', Jimmy Berluti played a role in launching 'Boston Legal' as his own show was winding down, interacting with Alan Shore.

“I've spent my whole life thinking:

I'm not good enough.”

Jimmy Berlutti

You’re good enough to join the TVXOHOF, and that’s good enough for us.

Welcome to the Hall, Counsellor....

TV GPS - HOOTERVILLE

‘GREEN ACRES’
“DOUBLE DRICK”

In order to secure electrical lines to his farmhouse, Oliver Wendell Douglas traveled to the county seat for Hooterville.  The county was also called Hooterville, according to the sign in the power company office.

The exact location for Hooterville has always been a matter of discussion.  Almost every clue given in the episodes could be contradicted later, sometimes even in the same episode.

With the “Double Drick” episode, there was a visual monkey wrench thrown into the discussion – with the establishing image of the government building in which the power company office was located, we could see a palm tree off to the side.

It doesn’t help the cause though.  Here are the continental Eastbound states which have palm trees:

• Georgia
• Alabama
• Mississippi
• Louisiana
• Texas
• Oklahoma (disputed but true)
• Arkansas (disputed but true)
• South Carolina
• North Carolina
• Virginia (disputed but true)

So the search continues…..

BCnU!

TVXOHOF'S FRIDAY HALL OF FAMERS 11/15/2019 - MAYOR MERLE JEETER

As you can imagine, with November chosen to be the monthly theme of “Newsmakers” with it being the time of year we go to the polls, it’s the month when we induct politicians into the Television Crossover Hall of Fame, both real and fictional.

And so for the latest Friday Hall of Famer, we’re welcoming one of the greatest politicians of Toobworld, who is also in my Top 20 favorite TV characters  (Just barely.)

Here’s to Hizzoner…..

MERLE JEETER

Mayor of Fernwood, Ohio

(1976-77)

From the ‘Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman’ pages of the Mary Kay Place Place:

Merle entered Fernwood with an eight-year-old evangelist son and a scam called “Condos for Christ.” Neither made it very far. The Reverend Jimmy Joe Jeeter was electrocuted in his bathtub, and Merle’s plans for the condos dissolved.

Merle and the little reverend had attracted singer Loretta Haggers to their causes. Loretta was oblivious to Merle’s attraction to her...but not for long.

Merle tried to seduce Loretta in his motel room, but Loretta would have none of that. Just in time, Charlie Haggers arrived with his shotgun, which went off in the confusion. Unluckily for Charlie, the gun was aimed at his testicle. Ouch.

Merle was married to Wanda Rittenhouse Jeeter. Wanda was just about the only person who could outfox Merle. He sometimes treated her like dirt, but she often ended up on top.

Merle was Fernwood’s mayor and lived up to the negative stereotype of the crooked politician. Scandal after scandal kept viewers loving to hate him.

Merle was played by Dabney Coleman

Jimmy Joe warned Charlie Haggers that Merle had designs on Loretta when she was just about to fall into Merle’s lecherous clutches. Charlie showed up at Merle’s motel room with a shotgun and accidentally shot off his own testicle.

Soon after, Jimmy Joe was hoping to find one uplifting story on the evening news, but unfortunately the news schedule conflicted with his own bath schedule. Merle rigged a tenuously roped TV over Jimmy Joe’s bath and it was not long before Jimmy Joe gave his life for the 6:30 news.

For more about the series, click here.

Here we see Merle Jeeter in action, campaigning to weasel his way into the mayor's office.

Here are the shows which qualify Mayor Jeeter for membership in the TVXOHOF:

1976-1977
Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman
148 episodes

1977
Fernwood Tonight
- Talk to a Jew (1977)
- Episode #1.33 (1977)

1977
Forever Fernwood
Unknown number of episodes

Finally, here’s his appearance on Fernwood 2 Night:

Welcome to the Hall, Mr. Mayor!

FRIDAY HALL OF FAMERS, 11/15/19 - GORE VIDAL

CBS in their all-knowing and wise beneficence (I know how to kiss network ass with the best of them) has been airing the first season of ‘The Good Fight’ over “regular CBS” this summer.    It’s a great marketing “strategery” to get more viewers to sign up for CBS All-Access. (However, while I do love this series as I did ‘The Good Wife’, I’m adhering to my pledge of three premium platforms and no more.  But that trailer for ‘Star Trek: Picard’ is awfully damned tempting.)

‘THE GOOD WIFE’
“SOCIAL MEDIA AND ITS DISCONTENTS”

In a recent episode about drafting new terms of service for a major client who is basically the Toobworld version of Google, the following dialogue came up:

MARISSA GOLD:
They're working to get around your racist N-word ban.
DIANE LOCKHART:
How? 
MARISSA:
Whenever they mean N-word they instead type ‘Neil Gross’.
DIANE:
Yeah.
MARISSA:
I can print up the posts, but there are a lot.
DIANE:
All racist jokes with Neil Gross as the punchline….
That's not gonna go over well.

Later, Diane meets with the client, one Neil Gross…..

NEIL GROSS:
They're using my name? 
DIANE:
Yes.
NEIL:
I-I don't understand.  How? 
DIANE:
As a replacement for the N-word.
NEIL:
What, seriously? 
DIANE:
- Yes.
NEIL:
- Why? 
DIANE:
- They know you can't censor it.
NEIL:
- Oh, my God.

That idea of substituting a person’s name for what could be an obscene word was very familiar to me.  And while I didn’t read it at the time, I remember the reviews for “Myron”, Gore Vidal’s prequel to “Myra Breckinridge”.

From Wikipedia:

“Myron” is a novel by American author Gore Vidal, published in 1974. It was written as a sequel to his 1968 bestseller “Myra Breckinridge”. The novel was published shortly after an anti-pornography ruling by the Supreme Court; Vidal responded by replacing the profanity in his novel with the names of the Justices involved (e.g., "He thrust his enormous Rehnquist deep within her Whizzer White", etc.)

In his introduction to the novel, Vidal mentions the Supreme Court decision Miller v. California, which in his words "leaves to each community the right to decide what is pornography." Saying that the decision has "alarmed and confused peddlers of smut" by eliminating guidelines, Vidal says he has decided to substitute the names of the five Justices who voted for the decision, plus the names of anti-pornography crusaders Charles Keating of Citizens for Decent Literature and Father Morton A. Hill, S.J. of Morality in Media (whom Vidal had debated on ‘The David Susskind Show’ in 1968), for the "dirty words". He has done this to conform to the Supreme Court's imposition of the "community standards" test, as he wants "to conform with the letter and spirit of the Court's decision."

These are the words and their substitutions:

blackmun: ass
burger: fuck
father hills: tits
keating: shit
powells: balls
rehnquist: cock
whizzer white: cunt

Later editions of the novel do not use these substitutions.

The young gay, racist, neo-Nazi in this episode who was spearheading this online attack against the search engine ChumHum was no dummy.  He was intelligent and more than likely had come up with this campaign inspired by the same source I was thinking of – he knew about Vidal’s literary technique of name substitution to get around a problem.  He may have even read the televersion of the book “Myron”.

And of course there would be a televersion of “Myron”.  It was written by Gore Vidal, after all, and there is a televersion of the author in the main Toobworld as well as in the Tooniverse.

In Toobworld, Vidal’s fictional televersion is best known for his visit to a little town called Fernwood, Ohio in 1976….

‘Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman’
- Episode #2.08 (1976) ... (credit only)
- Episode #2.10 (1976) ... (uncredited)
- Episode #2.18 (1976) ... (uncredited)
- Episode #2.20 (1976) ... (uncredited)
- Episode #2.21 (1976) ... (credited)
- Episode #2.22 (1976) ... (uncredited)
- Episode #2.23 (1976) ... (credit only)
- Episode #2.25 (1976) ... (uncredited)

As for the Tooniverse:

‘The Simpsons’
- “Moe'N'a Lisa” (2006)

‘Family Guy’
- “Mother Tucker” (2006)

These three appearances make Gore Vidal eligible for the TV Crossover Hall of Fame as a multi-dimensional, even without a definitive link to ‘The Good Fight’. 

And as November is the month in which newsmakers like the late Gore Vidal are inducted, we’ve chosen the author to join the ranks.

Welcome to the Hall, Mr. Vidal…..

O'BSERVATION:
When I began the research on this post and learned that only the first edition of the novel had the substitute words, I decided to get a copy for myself, if only for the crass reasoning that it would be worth money - more money than I paid for it anyway.

I got a nice copy of the first edition - and signed by the late Gore Vidal to boot! - for a very reasonable price.  Ha!  And now by publishing this post in November (just over four months from now), I must be trying to increase its value by posting about it here.

I'm probably screwed.....  LOL

BCnU!

FRIDAY HALL OF FAMERS 11/08/19 - SENATOR BARBARA BOXER

With this being November, when the Television Crossover Hall of Fame celebrates the newsmakers.  Often that means politicians and that's who we've got today:

BARBARA BOXER

From Wikipedia:
Barbara Levy Boxer (born November 11, 1940) is a retired American politician who served as a United States senator for California from 1993 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, she previously served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1983 to 1993.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Boxer graduated from George Wingate High School and Brooklyn College. She worked as a stockbroker for several years before moving to California with her husband. During the 1970s, she worked as a journalist for the Pacific Sun and as an aide to U.S. Representative John L. Burton. She served on the Marin County Board of Supervisors for six years and became the board's first female president. With the slogan "Barbara Boxer Gives a Damn", she was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1982, representing California District 6. She served on the House Armed Services Committee, and was involved in government oversight, passing several procurement reforms.

Boxer won the 1992 election for the U.S. Senate.

Running for a third term in 2004, she received 6.96 million votes and set a record for the most votes in any U.S. Senate election in history, until her colleague, Dianne Feinstein, the senior senator from California, surpassed that number in her 2012 re-election.  Boxer and Feinstein were the first female pair of U.S. Senators representing any state at the same time.  

Boxer was the ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee and the vice chair of the Select Committee on Ethics. She was also the Democratic Chief Deputy Whip. Although generally identified with the San Francisco Bay Area, where her political career began, Boxer now lives in the Coachella Valley.

At the time of her retirement, Boxer ranked eleventh in seniority in the United States Senate, and was the most senior junior Senator from the retirement of Tom Harkin in January 2015 until her own retirement two years later. She was also dean of the California Congressional Delegation, since she had spent 10 years as a US Representative for California's 6th district before being elected to the Senate in 1993.

On January 8, 2015, Boxer announced that she would not seek re-election in 2016.  She was succeeded by former California Attorney General Kamala Harris.

For more, click here
 
As a member of the League of Themselves, Boxer’s televersion is well-established in Earth Prime-Time without the need for portrayals by actresses, if there ever was one.

From Wikipedia:
Boxer has made cameo appearances as herself in several television shows, including ‘Murphy Brown’ (1994), ‘Gilmore Girls’ (2002) and ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ (2007), as well as a cameo (as herself) in the 2000 film “Traffic”. 

(O'Bservation: That movie is not part of the Earth Prime-Time Universe and does not count toward her tally.)

In September 2012, it was reported that Boxer and soon-to-be-retired Republican Senator Olympia Snowe would appear together in an NBC sitcom.  On September 20, 2012, she and Senator Snowe appeared in the fifth season premiere of ‘Parks and Recreation’. Boxer later returned to ‘Parks and Recreation’ alongside several other U.S. senators in early 2015 in the seventh season episode "Ms. Ludgate-Dwyer Goes to Washington."

Here is the tally for Senator Boxer’s credits that will get her into the TVXOHOF:

Murphy Brown
- Brown vs. the Board of Education
(1994) .

From the IMDb:
Murphy tries to get Avery a spot in an elite school and invites the school's board to a party to secure it. When ‘FYI’ kills a story about one of its members, Murphy is concerned her ethics will be questioned.

Gilmore Girls
- Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days
(2002)

From the IMDb:
Rory returns from Washington just in time for the First Annual Stars Hollow End of Summer Madness Festival where she realizes her feelings for Jess might be a lot stronger than she thought, but is it too late to do anything about it? Lorelai is having strong feelings of her own.  

K Street
- Week 3
(2003)

From TV.com:In episode three of 'K Street', Amnesty International and others question the firm's decision to represent a Saudi Arabian agency, Maggie is threatened with a restraining order and Tommy keeps seeing that mysterious woman in red. Amnesty International protests the firm's decision to represent a Saudi Arabian government organization.  

Curb Your Enthusiasm
- The Anonymous Donor
(2007)

From the IMDb:
Larry decides to be nice for a change and actually donate money to a worthy cause. But when he's revealed to be the anonymous donor for the hospital wing, Larry goes ballistic. He then accuses a dry cleaner of giving his jersey to someone else, and goes off in search of it. Meanwhile, Larry, Jeff, and the Blacks get their reputation stained.

Larry and Cheryl move into their new home and welcome an additional house guest - Loretta Black's brother Leon - who Larry immediately accuses of an unspeakable act. In other news, Larry gripes over the questionable anonymity of a donation, and considers rewriting the laws of dry-cleaning.

Parks and Recreation
- Ms. Knope Goes to Washington
(2012)

From the IMDb:
Leslie and Andy go to Washington on business--and to see Ben and April. Back in Pawnee, Ron is in charge of the employee barbecue, and Tom and Ann pretend to still be together.

Parks and Recreation
- Ms. Ludgate-Dwyer Goes to Washington
(2015)

From the IMDb:
During a business trip to Washington, April tells Leslie that she wants to quit her job. Back in Pawnee, Andy, Ben and Ron may have found her the perfect new job.  

Mars
- Contagion
(2018)

From the IMDb:
When IMSF realizes one of their own has died as a result of the mysterious illness, they race to find its cause before more lives are taken.  

O’Bservation:
On the Toobworld Timeline, this episode takes place in 2033.  Senator Boxer is seen in archival footage.  We have yet to view if the Senator will still be alive at that time in the Real World (and if the episode will be deemed void by History, thrusting the show into an Alternate Toobworld.)

Welcome to the Hall, Senator!