WORKING TO WATCH

Candace Corner is a writer for CareerBuilder.com and she's listed the top ten jobs for TV Junkies:

1. Animator
2. Camera Operator
3. Broadcast Captioner
4. Broadcast News Reporter
5. Film/Video Editor for Broadcast/Television
6. Executive Producer
7. Promotions Producer
8. Director
9. Staff Writer
10. Casting Director

With each category, she fills in a few details as to what the job entails and approximately how much each of them pays annually. (She got these salary stats from Payscale.com, The Bureau of Labor Statistics, The Writer's Guild of America, CNNMoney and Salary.com.)

But those are all jobs for people who want to work in the business. I've always held the opinion that, like laws and sausages, the production of TV shows should not be seen being made.

For me, a job for a true TV junkie is one in which you can get paid to actually watch TV. And I don't mean TV critics, columnists, professional bloggers, or as part of some research group.

I mean, having a regular job on which you can also watch TV during your shift.

I think that as a hotel night auditor, I've got that type of job. (Maybe Ivan over at the Thrilling Days Of Yesteryear can back me up on that.)

During my lunch hour, there's always the TV in the lunch room, of course. But there are several hours during the shift that is like a "dead zone": after I've finished the audit, but before the first wave of checkouts begin around 4 am. (And even then!)

I suppose I could bring in a small portable and see what kind of reception I get there in the lobby. But with all the skyscrapers in midtown, I'm not sure it would be very good.

However, I do have a small DVD player and with that I'm able to catch up on a lot of shows from the past through their boxed sets.

Right now, I'm "working" my way through the boxed set for 'Naked City' starring Horace McMahon and Paul Burke. In the past, I've watched the boxed sets for 'Goode Neighbours', 'Dream On', 'The Job', and a bootleg set of DVDs for the Ninth Doctor of 'Doctor Who' (culled from bit torrents, I'm told).

It doesn't interfere with the job itself, - nobody's coming to the desk and I'm just sitting there anyway! - and helps me to make some headway in my backlog of shows to watch in order to find more trivial information to expand the TV Universe. (For instance, Detective Arcaro in 'Naked City' was shot in one episode and ended up in Manhattan General Hospital. This same hospital was the central location for 'Kay O'Brien, Surgeon'.)

And best of all, I'm getting paid during that time.

Sweet.

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

THE JUNG & THE RESTLESS

There's just something wrong when the announcer proclaims, "Get inside 'How I Met Your Mother'!"

Made me squirm when I heard that on the tape this morning.....

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

BY THE WAY: "MEN IN TREES"

I got that second chance with the 'Men In Trees' pilot on Friday night when I got home from the movies. But this time I never made it to the second episode which followed it.

Sorry, but it just didn't grab me.

I was rather neutral about it, unlike my brother Bill, who sat there loudly grousing that we didn't need another TV show set in Alaska after 'Northern Exposure'.

Speaking as a Televisiologist, this attitude doesn't make sense to me. Would we ever have 'Taxi', 'Rhoda', 'Friends', 'Seinfeld' or 'How I Met Your Mother' if we never allowed another sitcom set in New York City after 'I Love Lucy'?

My brother can be a jerk. All three of them can be. It must be hereditary.

Wait a minute.....

At any rate, I don't see myself heading back north to Elmo, Alaska, any time soon.

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

SOON TO BE RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES

From the AP:

When Susan Kuhnhausen returned home from work one day earlier this month, she was ambushed by an intruder wielding a hammer.After a violent struggle, the 51-year-old nurse managed to fend off her attacker and strangled him with her bare hands.

Neighbors praised the woman for her bravery, and investigators said they believed the dead man, Edward Haffey, was burglarizing Kuhnhausen's home.

But after an investigation, cops say the intruder was a hit man hired by her 58-year-old estranged husband.

The husband was busted last week and held on $500,000 bail. Haffey - a violent repeat offender - had worked as a custodian under Michael Kuhnhausen at an adult video store, according to prosecutors.

Inside a backpack Haffey left at the scene was a day planner with, "Call Mike, Get letter," scribbled on the week of Sept. 4, officials said. Michael Kuhnhausen's cell phone number was jotted on a folder, police say.

First off, it's "Dial M For Murder"/"A Perfect Murder" brought to life.

I'm not sure if it's already been done; the basic plot seems easy enough. But I could see this as being one of those "ripped from the headlines" episodes of 'Law & Order'.

Of course, they would add their own little twist.....

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

LINKS TO THE LEFT, ME LADS AND LASSIES!

I think any blogger will agree with this - the most boring part of the "job" is the maintenance. And for me, that mostly deals with keeping my links to other sites up to date.

Today, I've added eleven new links to the list at left. There's a very general sense of placement with no intention of ranking them by importance or favoritism, just keeping them in the basic community of links in which they are best suited.

Here's the list of newbies:

The TV Guy
Television Commercial Database
uninflected images juxtaposed
The TV Room
Cartoon Brew
Muppet Wiki
Reel Fanatic
Bill Crider's Pop Culture Magazine
U.S.T.V.
Drew's Script-O-Rama
The Internet Movie Script Database

Give them a look-see; they're all worthwhile and a great waste of time.

And isn't that why we're all here in the first place?

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

"ALIAS SMITH AND JONES": A SPLAININ REVISED

I was on vacation this past week - as Rob Buckley would put it, I was "on me hols". And the place where I was staying had access to the Encore Westerns channel. When I was up there during July, I treated myself to watching 'Alias Smith And Jones' each day at 6 pm EST. It's always been one of my favorite series, even outside the Western genre.

(Thinking of it now, I should have listed Hannibal Heyes as one of my Top 25 TV characters. I'd probably have to send Maggie Jacobs of 'Extra' further down the list.....)

I figured: why give up on a good thing? So I watched the show while I was there again.

But the week began with two episodes from when Roger Davis was playing Hannibal Heyes, after the suicide of Pete Duel.

Years ago, when I was running the Tubeworld Dynamic website, I wrote a multi-page splainin on how Hannibal Heyes was able to change his complete appearance, right down to his voice. I thought it was a pretty good essay, especially as it gave me the chance to bring my favorite TV character, Dr. Miguelito Loveless into yet another TV show, deep background. And it provided theoretical links to 'The Wild Wild West' in other ways as well as to other shows like 'The Avengers' and 'The Prisoner'.

But as I begin collecting all my old splainins to see what kind of shape I can knock them into, I decided that particular splainin was wayyyy too complicated. And one thing I want to do is simplify, simplify, simplify the TV Universe.

It had been years since I saw those 'AS&J' episodes which featured Roger Davis, perhaps not even since they first aired. And even then, I think I finally fell away from the series because of his involvement, since there was just something missing without Peter Duel involved.

So I watched those two episodes with great interest, with a fresh perspective, and decided it was time to re-think and re-tool my splainin for the new look sported by Joshua Smith aka Hannibal Heyes.

I decided the simplest splainin would follow the template I'm using for the two different versions of Joey Bishop's sitcom. Bishop played Joey Barnes first as a talent agent bossed around by his family, and then as a late night talk show host with a beautiful wife. Although the change-over occurred between the first and second season, Joey Barnes was supposedly a talk show host for awhile.

The splainin for this involves alternate TV dimensions.

For Earth Prime-Time, the Hannibal Heyes as played by Pete Duel is the official version of the character. Not so much because he was the first, because that rule is flexible. (As is the case with 'The Joey Bishop Show' - the three years in which he was a talk show host belong in the main Toobworld because of a mult-episode crossover with 'The Danny Thomas Show'.) The first incarnation of 'Alias Smith And Jones' belongs in Earth Prime-Time because Pete Duel was inarguably the best in the role.

Roger Davis served well as a replacement after Duel died, and the audience was already somewhat accustomed to him as the narrator for the original version. He may even have been better received had he been the first.

But once you've seen Duel, ain't no one more cool.

What especially helps with the idea that there is a distinct, dimensional divide between both versions of the show is that the opening of the series - in which Curry and Heyes confer with Lom Trevors - was re-shot. Both the Duel image of Hannibal Heyes and the Davis version have the same conversation with the Sheriff about the possibility of amnesty.

This is what especially tosses my original theory about Heyes' mind transplant into the body of the 'Smiler With A Gun' (thanks to the scientific genius of Dr. Loveless) out the window. With that theory, life for Hannibal Heyes continues onward in his new body; he doesn't go back in Time and relive it all over again.

By the way, I used to include the transition of 'Burke's Law' into 'Amos Burke, Secret Agent' as an example of the same show existing in two different dimensions. This is because Burke returned in the 1990s and was still the head of the L.A. Homicide department, with no mention of his tenure as a spy for the U.S. government.

However, I've looked through the episode guide for that last season of Gene Barry's show and found this:

The Prisoners of Mr. Sin 10/27/65
With his knowledge, expertise, and photographic memory, [Dr. Walter Bannister] is highly sought after. Deep in his brain are the files of twenty-one of the country's best agents, including Burke.

Planning on selling his information, Bannister is instead captured by Mr. Sin, who plans to auction off Bannister's facts to the highest bidder, keeping the money for himself.

Mr. Sin was played by the late, great Michael Dunn, best known for playing Dr. Miguelito Loveless on 'The Wild, Wild West'. It's always been the contention here at Toobworld Central that Loveless was immortal, and that he was still active on Earth Prime-Time one hundred years after the events of 'The Wild, Wild West'.

When he was next seen in Toobworld, he was operating under several aliases: Mr. Big ('Get Smart') and The Clown ('Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea'). As an alias, Mr. Sin fits nicely into that same groove, so how could I ever leave 'Amos Burke, Secret Agent' out of the main Toobworld?

But getting back to Hannibal Heyes - Remember Hannibal Heyes? This is a post about Hannibal Heyes. - there is still a splainin needed for the difference in appearance for the version played by Roger Davis.

And that's easy to splain: a simple twist of his DNA strand before birth. This happens all the time in the dimension of Earth Prime-Time Delayed, which is where we house all the remakes and/or lesser known versions of other TV shows.

So even though Kid Curry aka Thaddeus Jones remained the same (being played by Ben Murphy in both incarnations of the show), we might as well toss the re-tooled incarnation of 'Alias Smith And Jones' over into the Remakes dimension with 'The New Addams Family', 'The New Monkees', and 'The New Gidget'.

"I wish the Governor would let a few more people in on our secret."
Hannibal Heyes
'Alias Smith And Jones'

Well, I may not be the Governor of Toobworld - I'm just a Caretaker, - but hopefully this splainin will serve......

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

TOOBWORLD GOES TO THE MOVIES: "HOLLYWOODLAND"

I spent the last week in Connecticut on vacation. Figures the sun would come out today as I got ready to head back to the City.

So I'm back at Toobworld Central for this last night off, giving me the chance to re-adjust to life here before I head back to work Sunday overnight.

But on Friday night, my brother Bill and I crossed the state line to Millerton. There we saw "Hollywoodland", the new movie that delves into the mysterty surrounding the death of actor George Reeves, THE Superman for the main Toobworld dimension - was it suicide or murder?

Basically, this is two movies in one. In flashback, we see the life of Reeves, beginning with when he was struggling to re-start his career and when he became involved with Toni Mannix, the wife of a powerful MGM executive.

We see the steady progression of Reeves' life to its tragic end within the framework of the investigation by a down-and-out private eye into how the actor died. Adrien Brody plays the investigator, a fictional character named Louie Simo.

In several of the blogs which I haunt, I've seen my compadres divided as to which story is better. For some, it's the bio-flick for Reeves; for the others, it's the attempt at film noir and a 1950s version of "Chinatown".

As for me, I just didn't buy into Brody as even being in that time period, let alone that he was this private eye who was down on his luck. And I just couldn't care very much for the turmoils in his private life.

But I was fascinated by the story about Reeves, and obviously with regards to the behind-the-scenes look at his work in 'The Adventures Of Superman' and how it caused serious harm to his status as an actor.

As far as the Toobworld concept goes, I try not to deal with that aspect. I keep the life of the actor separate from that of the character. How the shows are made should have no impact on what transpires on the screen... and from there, on what transpires in the TV Universe.

'The Adventures Of Superman' was canceled two years before Reeves' death. But in the Toobworld mythos, Superman lived on Earth Prime-Time into the early 1960s, outliving the actor.

According to my theory, Superman saved two gangsters who drove into a Nevada A-bomb test site just as an explosion occurred. ['Crime Story'] However, the radiation drove Kryptonite particles deep into Superman's body and it eventually killed him. That's why he's no longer around in the main Toobworld to save the day for Truth, Justice, and the American Way.

I always add TV series production to sausages and laws for those things that should never be seen being made. But even so, I found Reeves' story riveting in "Hollywoodland" and only wish it had been filled out to be the entire movie. Or at the very least, Brody's role should have been recast with a lesser-known actor who didn't need his part so beefed up. Had the role of Louie Simo only been used to launch the flashback into the life of Reeves and then perhaps showcase each of the theories, it would have worked. I didn't need to see his home life (or lack thereof), his tangles with the powerful studio system, and the other case he was working on - which he botched big time.

Still and all, for fans of the 1950s Hollywood system and especially those interested in a backstage look at 'The Adventures Of Superman', I recommend this movie. Ben Affleck was especially good in the role of George Reeves.

But if you want a good story that mixes a fictional private eye with famous Hollywood figures, I'd suggest reading Stuart Kaminsky's excellent series of novels about Toby Peters.

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

NOT IN THE STARS FOR XENA

Those astronomers who demoted Pluto from being the 9th planet in our solar system weren't done kicking the now-classified dwarf planet when it's down. They've gone so far as to strip it of its name; the former ninth planet is now known as simply 134340.

And that newly discovered dwarf planet, which had a groundswell of support to be named after 'Xena, Warrior Princess', will now be known as Eris.

Believing in the power of names, I'm sure there will be plenty of discord in the outer reaches of the solar system now.....

The odd thing is, those astronomers probably didn't want to sully their krelboyne image with a TV reference. But Eris appeared in two episodes of 'Xena, Warrior Princess'. And now she's pulled an "All About Eve" on the star character!

But getting back to 134340, it'll always be Pluto in my heart. And as I posted a few weeks ago here at the "Inner Toob", it will not only be known as Pluto once again in Toobworld's future, but it will also have its status as a planet restored.

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

[Thanks to Roger Catlin, TV Eye, for the info.]

THE HAT SQUAD: PABLO SANTOS

From FOX News:

TOLUCA, Mexico — Teenage actor Pablo Santos, who starred in the television series"Greetings from Tucson,"died after a small plane in which he was riding crashed in Mexico, a hospital official said Saturday.

The Piper Malibu crashed Friday just over a mile short of the runway as it was making its approach to the airport in Toluca, some 35 miles west of Mexico City, according to the Mexico State Security Agency. Six other people were hospitalized.

Santos starred as the son of a Mexican-American family portrayed in"Greetings from Tucson,"which ran on the WB network from 2002 to 2003.

He had appeared in numerous episodes on other television programs, including 'Boston Public', 'Law & Order' and 'American Family', as well as films such as "Sea of Dreams" and "Party Animalz."

Born in Monterrey, Santos moved with his family to Los Angeles when he was 12.

Officials were investigating the cause of the accident.

TV SERIES
"Greetings from Tucson" (2002) TV Series .... David Tiant

TV MOVIES
Walkout (2006) (TV) .... Mickey Fernandez

TV GUEST APPEARANCES
"Boston Public"
- Chapter Sixty Seven (2003) TV Episode .... Student
"The Proud Family"
- Johnny Lovely (2003) TV Episode .... Johnny Lovely
"Law & Order: Special Victims Unit"
- Angels (2002) TV Episode .... Ernesto Diaz
"Jeremiah"
- Red Kiss (2002) TV Episode .... Fipps
"American Family"
- Crash Boom Love: Part 1 (2002) TV Episode .... Spyder
- Crash Boom Love: Part 2 (2002) TV Episode .... Spyder
"The Shield"
- Our Gang (2002) TV Episode .... Olman
"Alias"
- Doppelganger (2001) TV Episode .... Boy
"Resurrection Blvd."
- Comenzando De Nuevo (2000) TV Episode .... Juan

BCnU....
Tele-Toby

THE HAT SQUAD: PAT CORLEY

From the New York Times:

Pat Corley, the character actor who served sage advice along with drinks as Phil the barkeep on 'Murphy Brown,' died here on Monday. He was 76.

The cause was congestive heart failure, according to his son, the actor-comedian Jerry Corley. He had undergone surgery for the placement of coronary stents.

Pat Corley appeared on 'Murphy Brown,' the CBS show starring Candice Bergen as a television newswoman, from 1988 to 1996. Among his other television roles was a baseball team owner on 'The Bay City Blues' and the coroner Wally Nydorf on 'Hill Street Blues. '

From a Toobworld perspective, it's pozzble, jes' pozzble, that the characters Mr. Corley played on 'Simon & Simon' and 'Magnum P.I.' (Sheriff Brian MacKenzie and Dennis MacKenzie respectively) were twin brothers, as both series were linked by crossovers.

Looking over his TV output, it seems sheriffs and bartenders were his main stocks in trade. I'm not sure if the Bartender he played in the TV Movie "I Want To Live" could be the same as Phil or even a twin brother, but at the very least he could be an identical cousin. And perhaps the Bartender he played in an episode of 'The Waltons' could have been Phil's father.....

TV SERIES
"Murphy Brown" .... Phil (1988-1996)
"He's the Mayor" (1986) TV Series .... Chief Walter Padget
"Bay City Blues" (1983) TV Series .... Ray Holtz
Callie & Son (1981) (TV) .... Deputy Sheriff

TV RECURRING ROLES
"Hill Street Blues" .... Chief Coroner Wally Nydorf
- Say It as It Plays (1986)
- Life in the Minors (1983)
- The Belles of St. Marys (1983)
- No Body's Perfect (1982)
- Phantom of the Hill (1982)

TV SEQUELS & PREQUELS
Saved by the Bell: Wedding in Las Vegas (1994) (TV) .... Sheriff Myron Thorpe

TV MINI-SERIES
"Roots" (1977) (mini) TV Series .... Referee
"A Year in the Life" (1986) (mini) TV Series .... George Bilzarian
"Robert Kennedy & His Times" (1985) (mini) TV Series .... Andy McLaughlin
"Fresno" (1986) (mini) TV Series .... Earl Duke

TV MOVIES
When Time Expires (1997) (TV) .... TV Car Salesman, Beck's Interface
In Defense of a Married Man (1990) (TV) .... Det. Brendan Bradley
Poker Alice (1987) (TV) .... McCarthy
The Stepford Children (1987) (TV) .... Sheriff Weston
The Christmas Gift (1986) (TV) .... Bud Sawyer
Stark: Mirror Image (1986) (TV) .... Wichita Police Chief Waldron
Silent Witness (1985) (TV) .... Brad Huffman
Stark (1985) (TV) .... Wichita Police Chief Waldron
Stormin' Home (1985) (TV) .... Broker
Scorned and Swindled (1984) (TV) .... Ty Jenkins
Calendar Girl Murders (1984) (TV) .... Tony
I Want to Live (1983) (TV) .... Bartender
Starflight: The Plane That Couldn't Land (1983) (TV) .... Joe Pedowski
The Executioner's Song (1982) (TV) .... Val Conlan
Of Mice and Men (1981) (TV) .... Carlson
The Best Little Girl in the World (1981) (TV)
Mark, I Love You (1980) (TV) .... Bucky Sims
Act of Love (1980) (TV) .... Sgt. Waterson
City in Fear (1980) (TV) .... Supermarket Manager
The Gift (1979) (TV)
The Two Worlds of Jennie Logan (1979) (TV) .... Realtor
Flesh & Blood (1979) (TV)
The Best Place to Be (1979) (TV)
And I Alone Survived (1978) (TV) .... Kaminsky
A Death in Canaan (1978) (TV) .... Judge Vincet
The Night They Took Miss Beautiful (1977) (TV) .... Roman
The Quinns (1977) (TV) .... Eugene Carmody
Alexander: The Other Side of Dawn (1977) (TV)

TV GUEST APPEARANCES
"Coach"
- It's a Swamp Thing (1997) TV Episode .... Jeb
"Murder One"
- Chapter Four (1995) TV Episode .... Marvin Siegalstein
"Cagney & Lacey"
- A Fair Shake: Part 1 (1988) TV Episode .... Sheriff Craddock
- High Steel (1982) TV Episode .... Tom
"Night Court"
- Another Day in the Life (1988) TV Episode .... Otis Edwards
"J.J. Starbuck"
- Cactus Jack's Last Call (1988) TV Episode .... Cactus Jack
"Mr. Belvedere"
- Commentary (1988) TV Episode .... Mr. Patton
"Simon & Simon"
- Desperately Seeking Dacody (1987) TV Episode .... Sheriff Brian McKenzie
- Still Phil After All These Years (1986) TV Episode .... Don Brighton
- Our Fair City (1984) TV Episode .... Mayor K.K. Drinkman
"L.A. Law"
- Pigmalion (1987) TV Episode .... Uncle Willard Sabrett
"Falcon Crest"
- The Stranger Within (1986) TV Episode .... James Saunders
"Magnum, P.I."
- A Little Bit of Luck...A Little Bit of Grief (1986) TV Episode .... Dennis MacKenzie
"Murder, She Wrote"
- Powder Keg (1986) TV Episode .... Frank Kelso
"Hardcastle and McCormick"
- She Ain't Deep but She Sure Runs Fast (1985) TV Episode .... Buzz Bird
"Moonlighting"
- Gunfight at the So-So Corral (1985) TV Episode .... Frankie Tate/Farley Wrye
"Scarecrow and Mrs. King"
- A Little Sex, a Little Scandal (1985) TV Episode .... Detective Tuggey
"Hawaiian Heat"
- Missing in Hawaii (1984) TV Episode .... Charlie
"Domestic Life"
- Harold at the Bat (1984) TV Episode .... Coach
"The Fall Guy"
- Spaced Out (1983) TV Episode .... Sheriff Baker
"St. Elsewhere"
- Release (1983) TV Episode .... Norman Wyler
"House Calls"
- Ducks of Hazzard (1982) TV Episode
"McClain's Law"
- What Patric Doesn't Know (1982) TV Episode
"Flamingo Road"
- Old Friends (1982) TV Episode
"Hart to Hart"
- The Hartbreak Kid (1981) TV Episode .... Monty
"Darkroom"
- Siege of 31 August (1981) TV Episode .... Colonel/Sheriff
"Mr. Merlin"
- The Cloning of the Green (1981) TV Episode .... Roy Oakland
"Lou Grant"
- Dogs (1980) TV Episode .... Organizer
- Andrew: Part 2 (1979) TV Episode .... Judge
"Barnaby Jones"
- The Price of Anger (1980) TV Episode .... Sam Powell
- The Wife Beater (1977) TV Episode .... Sid Markham
"The Waltons"
- The Idol (1980) TV Episode .... The Bartender
"The Amazing Spider-Man"
- The Con Caper (1978) TV Episode
"Starsky and Hutch"
- Moonshine (1978) TV Episode .... Ben Meadows
"Delvecchio"
- Numbers (1976) TV Episode
"The Blue Knight"
- Throwaway (????) TV Episode .... The Man
"Kojak"
- Cross Your Heart and Hope to Die (1974) TV Episode .... Mr. Miller
"Get Christie Love"
- Highway to Murder (1974) TV Episode

THE TOONIVERSE
"Hey Arnold!" - On the Lam/Family Man (2002) TV Episode (voice) .... Mr. Camacho

BCnU....
Tele-Toby