STRIKE ZONE 2

"You writers!
You live in a dream world!"
Gomez Addams
'The Addams Family'

Even if that was true, the networks and the studios are turning it into a nightmare.....

As the WGA strike enters its second week, I want to provide you with two links which can keep you up to date on the strike's progress, and give you plenty of suggestions as to how we, as fans, can help out.

United Hollywood

Fans 4 Writers

Also, here are a couple of YouTube videos to check out:

Why We Fight

The Voices Of Uncertainty

This may be the only place to see "The Voices of Uncertainty" now. According to YouTube, it's been pulled from the site....

BCnU!
Toby OB

GIRL GIRL ACTION

And now, a cautionary tale of a life gone wrong in Toobworld.....
Back in the early sixties, there was a high-priced escort working in Hollywood who catered to the eccentric desires of rich men like I.A. Bugg. We don't know what her real name was, but she told Captain Amos Burke of the LAPD that she was simply "Girl Girl".

Even though she was guilty of prostitution - Captain Burke did catch her in the act (even if it wasn't strictly sexual) with Mr. Bugg, one of his suspects in a murder case - Burke turned a blind eye to her activities because he was more concerned with catching the murderer of a sorceress named Purity Mathers.

Girl Girl probably spent a few more years in the trade, but with an eye to finding a different yet still lucrative profession. (After all, there's only a short time-frame for that lifestyle before you have to drop the prestigious clientele, as well as your price....)

It could be that one of her clients was a suave ciminal mastermind who offered his services to both THRUSH and KAOS. His name was Victor Gervais, but as a KAOS turncoat informer he was known as Kinsey Krispin. During the years after his wife ran off and left him, Krispin might have found comfort with Girl Girl. And after the toxic accident that turned his skin chalky white and his hair green, he could have sought Girl Girl out to be his "moll".
That's right - Victor Gervais, aka Kinsey Krispin, became the Clown Prince Of Crime (at least in Toobworld).

Reviewing her options, Girl Girl saw that the Joker's offer as a chance to provide not only an escape from her fate in prostitution, but also as an opportunity to gain the ultimate rush of an adventurous lifestyle. Since he was to be known as The Joker, he gave Girl Girl the nom de crime of "Queenie".

When we first met the Joker and Queenie, the Joker was in prison. (O'Bviously he had already been nabbed by the Dynamic Duo in Gotham City before the series began.) Queenie escaped capture that time, but was ready to be reunited with him once he escaped. They returned to Gotham City for revenge against Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder, intent on unmasking them on live TV.

Unfortunately for them both, the Caped Crusaders triumphed and this time both of them went to prison. And it appears that when the Joker escaped yet again, this time he severed his relationship with Queenie/Girl Girl and left her behind in jail in favor of new delights in feminine pulchritude.


Whether we ever saw Girl Girl again in Toobworld, either using her true name or an alias, or even if we ever saw her before she became Girl Girl, it would require more research into the TV roles played by Nancy Kovack.

One thing is for certain: Girl Girl did NOT live long enough to become Nona of the planet Neural. (But she may have been reincarnated as that mystical cu-# er, Kahn-ut-tu woman......)

SHOWS CITED:
'Burke's Law' - "Who Killed Purity Mather?"
'Batman' - "The Joker Is Wild"/"Batman Gets Riled"
'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' - "The Never Never Affair"
'Get Smart' - "The Reluctant Redhead"
'Star Trek' - "A Private Little War"

BCnU!
Toby OB

CARLIN'S BLOG LABEL: BANK ROBBER!

We all know Elliott Carlin had problems. We saw it on 'The Bob Newhart Show'; we saw it in an episode of 'St. Elsewhere'; we even saw this in an episode of 'Alf'.

But how bad were his problems? Could he have been so depressed that he would try to rob a bank?
If so, he at least had enough sanity to not do it in Chicago, where people would recognize him. From this scene in 'Too Close For Comfort', it looks like he flew all the way out to San Francisco in order to pull off a bank job. (Not that he was successful at it; he finally left the bank with nothing.)

It also looks like he changed his toupee for the occasion......

BCnU!
Toby OB

"CULLENARY" CONNECTION

Am I the only one who sees the inspiration for Drew Carey as host of 'The Price Is Right'?

They weren't going for a new Bob Barker, but for a more historical model.....
I'm avoiding the temptation to say that's Drew getting tips from his mentor.....

Oops. Too late!

BCnU!
Toby OB

[Pictured: Bill Cullen on 'I've Got A Secret']

WILLIAMS. BRIAN WILLIAMS.

Over in Skitlandia, the alternate dimension in which sketch comedy rules, 'The NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams' has a new, ultra-cool opening:

[Thanks to 'Saturday Night Live']

Maybe they really should use it in the real world. Especially during Sweeps!

BCnU!
Toby OB

FROM DOODY- TO HOOTERVILLE: DOWISETREPLA

New York City has plenty of neighborhoods which are known by acronyms:

DUMBO - Down Under Manhattan Brooklyn Overpass
TRIBECA - Triangle Below Canal
SOHO - South of Houston
NOHO - North of Houston

And now - at least in Toobworld - there's a new neighborhood known by its acronym:

DOWISETREPLA
In a recent episode of 'How I Met Your Mother', Marshall and Lily moved into the Dowisetrepla area without really knowing what the acronym stood for. But of course, not wanting to look out of it or square, they acted as if they did.

The whole transaction was done on a weekend and it wasn't until the business week started did they learn the true meaning of the name:

Down Wind of the Sewage Treatment Plant.

For our sakes, it's a good thing we don't have smell-0-vision!

BCnU!
Toby OB

VETERANS' DAY: THE ADMIRABLE ADMIRAL

Today is Veterans' Day. We remember and pay tribute to the men and women in the military who risk all to protect us and our freedoms back home, here in the United States. Far too many make the ultimate sacrifice in defending us.

Two years ago we paid tribute to the memory of Emil Peterson from 'The Bob Newhart Show'. "The Hostile Mouse" had been a Marine at Iwo Jima and had been portrayed by John Fielder, who passed away earlier in 2005.

In 2006, we honored Leroy Jethro Gibbs of 'NCIS' and Mac Taylor of 'CSI: NY', both of whom survived the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut back in 1983.

This year our salute honors Admiral Harriman Nelson, who left a brilliant career in the Navy at the beginning of the 1970s to focus his attentions on his own oceanographic pursuits at his center, the Nelson Institute of Marine Research. (If only it was the Nelson Institute of Marine Observation.... Then its acronym would have been "NIMO"!)

However, Nelson and his employees still worked for the US government with a top-secret base under the Institute from which the nuclear powered submarine Seaview would set sail on he missions.

I've seen it said that 'Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea' took place around 1973, even though it was broadcast in the early 1960s. Taking that into account, it's quite possible that Admiral Nelson is still alive in his 80s, maybe in his 90s even, but probably not very active in the daily workings of his own research institute.

I wrote about Admiral Nelson the other day, charting the genetic link between him and one of his ancestors, Captain Aron Sligo (as seen in 'Gunsmoke'). But I know far less than I should about the man who designed the Seaview, so I am bowing to others more knowledgeable than myself.

Writers and fans of 'Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea' have crafted several excellent biographies, character sketches and pictorial portfolios of this seafarer. And you'll find those links below.

But first, this is from the Special Archives Library at UCLA. It's a selection from Irwin Allen's Writers' Guide for 'Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea'.

ADMIRAL HARRIMAN NELSON, U.S.N. (Ret.) – the head of the Nelson Institute of Marine Research in Santa Barbara. A brilliant engineer-scientist of mature middle age, he resigned his position as Dean of the Department of Science at Annapolis to form the Research Institute which bears his name.

His imaginative and creative mind conceived the design for Seaview and his driving, forceful personality made it possible to bring the dream to reality. Even to those who know him best, it came as a distinct surprise when this dedicated and gifted officer gave up his Naval career to devote the rest of this life to science. But only a handful of people know that Nelson’s retirement was in name only. Actually he and his Institute of Marine Research serve as a powerful and secret intelligence force, ranging the world under cover of scientific research on missions of vital importance to the security of their country.(My thanks to the Daffron and Delaney site for unearthing that.)

For more on Harriman Nelson, check these sites:

From the "Richard Basehart" fan site

A Character Sketch by Roger Thompson

A "Biography" from Daffron and Delaney

And click on Basehart's name for more on Richard Basehart and his feelings about Harriman Nelson

[From all of those links, you can go further in exploring more about 'Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea'.]

On this Veteran's Day, we salute you, Admiral Harriman Nelson.

BCnU!
Toby OB

"A man learns a great deal from sitting on top of an armed nuclear bomb for 24 hours."

Admiral Harriman Nelson

'Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea'

KERMIT'S CREDIT

Kermit the Frog added to his wealth of appearances in Toobworld this past Friday night by appearing on 'Deal Or No Deal'. This may have been the weakest rationale for inclusion into the mandatory "Green is Universal" theme week on NBC, what with Howie Mandel claiming he rode his bike in to work when he probably never set foot to the pedal until just a second before the cameras started rolling.

Having Kermit as a guest star on the game show does tie into the theme in more than just the fact that his felt pelt is green. Kermit is linked to that Ford Hybrid which promotes its own boon to the environment.

But I think mostly he was on to somehow push the fact that he's appearing in the new Dustin Hoffman movie, "Mr. Magorium's Magic Emporium".....

BCnU!
Toby OB

RERUNNING A ZONK OR ZONKING A RERUN?

When Dee Reynolds and Mac put on the outfits that Mac picked out for their duties as quasi-Guardian Angels, Sweet Dee thought he looked more like Rerun than Curtis Sliwa.

For us at home, this was an allusion to the character from 'What's Happening' and 'What's Happening Now!'. But within the context of the scene, Dee's reference could have gone either way - she might have meant Frederick "Rerun" Stubbs, or the actor who played him, Fred Rerun Berry. (Fred Rerun Berry legally changed his middle name to Rerun.)

TV actors are known in Toobworld just as much as their characters, but usually we consider them to be famous for something else entirely in order to preserve the divide between character and actor.

For instance, thanks to 'The Larry Sanders Show', Peter Falk is just as much a citizen of Toobworld as Lt. Columbo, Daniel J. O'Brien, and the Latin American dictator he portrayed in an episode of 'The Twilight Zone'. So when Falk appeared on Sanders' talk show, he couldn't be there to promote 'Columbo'; he would have had to have been there to plug a movie appearance, real or fictional.

Fred Rerun Berry had enough TV appearances as himself to qualify as a character in Toobworld (and for membership in the TV Crossover Hall of Fame). He was seen backstage in a weird green room bacchanaalia (but I can't remember what show it was!), and he was famous enough to "star" in one of JD's daydreams in an episode of 'Scrubs'. His televersion also showed up in episodes of 'Martin' and 'Linc's'.

Perhaps he made his name in show business by being a "Rerun" Stubbs impersonator. In several episodes of both 'What's Happening' series, Rerun's quest for stardom was well-documented. And o'bviously he finally made it to the Big Time - as evidenced by his appearance on a variety program hosted by the guy who used to be Johnny Bravo and his Brady siblings. ("Rerun" Stubbs definitely qualifies for the Hall of Fame.)

So whether you go with her reference being about either Fred Rerun Berry or Fred "Rerun" Stubbs, the Zonks don't apply.

BCnU!
Toby OB

CRAIG'S LISTED

The Larry Craig scandal was a toe-tapping non-musical in which the Idaho Senator was arrested for soliciting a homosexual encounter in the men's room of the Minnesota airport. It was widely reported in TV news reports; it was the subject of countless late night monologue jokes; and it was probably satirized in a comedy sketch somewhere. Senator Craig even got a prime time special out of it - not that anybody actually watched it.

The historical events of Toobworld pretty much follow those of the real world, with some revision due to script demands. (For instance, the reversal of fortunes in the battle of Five Forks during the Civil War can be attributed to the hay fever of a soldier named Wilton Parmenter.) We can assume that what has occurred in the real world has also happened in Toobworld, but it's always nice to get confirmation.

Something of the sort has taken place with the Larry Craig scandal. On last Sunday's 'Brothers & Sisters', a political strategist named Isaac was brought in on a consult by Kitty Walker, communications director for Robert McCallister's presidential campaign. By the way she hemmed and hawed about why she called him, Isac wondered if McCallister had been caught tapping his foot for sex in a Minnesota airport bathroom.

Larry Craig's name was never mentioned, but it's o'bvious he was the inspiration for Isaac's assumption.

So even though Robert McCallister is the senator from tele-California instead of Dianne Feinstein, Toobworld resembles the real world enough so that Larry Craig is the senator from TV-Idaho.

Sorry, Idahoans.

BCnU!
Toby OB