Wednesday, February 27, 2008

NEW @ TOOBWORLD CENTRAL

I now have that 'Pioneers of Television' mini-series which aired on PBS a few weeks back. I may have ordered it through Amazon, but it's definitely a PBS offering.

Since I was just across the street at the New York Times today (after having lunch with my buddy Michael who's an editor there), I stopped into my favorite resource for bootleg DVDs and picked up two containing episodes of the 1990s version of 'Burke's Law'. One for the pilot, which contains a great crossover prop (more on that soon), and the other for the remake of an episode from the earlier incarnation of the show. "Who Killed Alexander The Great?" had the exact same crime and solution as "Who Killed Merlin The Great?" written by Levinson & Link, the creators of 'Columbo'.

I use this episode as the basis for my contention that Captain Amos Burke was showing signs of Alzheimer's......

BCnU!
Toby OB

TODAY'S TWD: GEORGE GERSHWIN

George Gershwin (September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer. He wrote most of his vocal and theatrical works in collaboration with his elder brother, lyricist Ira Gershwin.

George Gershwin composed songs both for Broadway and for the classical concert hall. He also wrote popular songs with success.

Early in 1937, Gershwin began to complain of blinding headaches and a recurring impression that he was smelling burned rubber. He had developed a brain tumor. In June, he performed in a special concert of his music with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra under the direction of French maestro Pierre Monteux. It was in Hollywood, while working on the score of The Goldwyn Follies, that he collapsed and, on July 11, 1937, died at the age of 38 at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital following surgery for the tumor.
[from Wikipedia]

Those are the facts, as laid out in the real world. However, in the TV Universe, we're left to deal with a twist in that reality. In the 'Poirot' mystery, "Sad Cypress", retired Belgian detective Hercule Poirot picks up a newspaper before taking a taxi to the library. The news vendor is hawking the edition's big story as "Gershwin Dies". We even see the story in Poirot's newspaper.

And yet, on the opposing page, there is this obituary notice:
How could it be that Gershwin's death didn't become news in England until two months later?

Maybe there wasn't the instant communication system we have today via the Internet, but the people in 1937 had access to the telephone, telegrams, MAIL! - which would have crossed the Atlantic much faster than it would appear by this story. I don't know why - or how - but the life of George Gershwin's televersion must have died September 16th of 1937 as well.

But then again, maybe it's best to employ the Toobworld version of Occam's Razor and go for the simpler splainin: the typsetter at the paper made a mistake with the notice of Mrs. Welman's death. It should have read that she died in July, not September.

Perhaps the typesetter was drunk, upset over the news about Gershwin.

Young Indiana Jones met the famous composer twice in his life, in June and August of 1920. Introduced by a mutual friend, they jammed together in New York and Gershwin introduced him to some of the leading names in theatre (George White, Irving Berlin) as well as to its critics (Dorothy Parker, Alexander Wolcott). Later that year, Gershwin got Indy a job in Hollywood working with Carl Laemmle, Erich Von Stroheim, and John Ford. (Both encounters can be found in 'The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles' in the episodes "Young Indiana Jones And The Scandal of 1920" and "Young Indiana Jones And The Hollywood Follies".)

The televersion of George Gershwin didn't quit the stage, as it were, once he died. About fifty years after his death, Gershwin's spirit was summoned via a psychic to provide inspiration for Jo-Jo Gillespie, a Broadway lyricist, after he split with his partner Jerry Lane. What kept the ghost earthbound was "Gershwin's Trunk", as recounted in the episode from 'Amazing Stories'.

BCnU!
Toby OB

ECHOES: OOGA BOOGA!

Dean - "FYI...ghosts are real, too. So are werewolves, vampires, changelings, evil clowns that eat people ..."
Henricksen - "Okay then."
Dean - "If it makes you feel any better Bigfoot is a hoax."
- 'Supernatural'

"I think a world like that - where there might be aliens; where there might be a Bigfoot, or a Loch Ness Monster; where it might be possible that Elvis and JFK are alive in Switzerland and living in a sanitarium.... I think that's a more interesting world and that's the world that I want to live in! And that's the world I'm gonna keep on living in!" - George O'Grady, 'The George Carlin Show'

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DON PARDO

A belated happy birthday to announcer Don Pardo, who turned 90 last Friday. It was announced by Tina Fey during the curtain calls for 'Saturday Night Live', the first episode since the return from the writers' strike.

The curiosity factor was probably the reason why 'SNL' had its highest rating since a February 2006 episode with Steve Martin as host (who also showed up in Tina Fey's monologue). So Don Pardo got to benefit from that, having such a large audience to witness as he tried to blow out 90 candles.

Don's been with NBC since 1944 and has always been a major contribution to the 'SNL' experience. (There was just something... wrong about that year when somebody else was the announcer for the show.)

So here's to you, Mr. Pardo! All the best for many more!

BCnU!
Toby OB

PORT SIDE

This week's episode of 'Burke's Law' shown on American Life TV was "Who Killed Cassandra Cass?". As usual, the guest cast was a feast for fans of old time stars: Lola Albright, William Bendix, Shelley Berman, Louis Nye, Elsa Lanchester, Nehemiah Persoff, Nancy Malone.

There was a moment early on that serves as a bit of "Serendipiteevee", and this time not a personal one. It's not an in-joke, but more of a nice connection to a different TV series.
Sgt. Les Hart stuck to his dependable theory that the butler did it, which he felt was confirmed by the fact that Hooper was now drunk on port wine. As far as Captain Amos Burke was concerned, this just served to confirm that old adage - any port in the storm.

Along with Detective Tim Tilson, the trio had a good laugh over the bad joke.

Tim Tilson was played by Gary Conway, who would later become the star of 'The Land Of The Giants'. And the last role I can associate with him was that of the murder victim in an episode of 'Columbo'.

His character was Ric Carsini, a playboy who was intent on selling the family vineyards for the money, which angered his older half-brother Adrian. And that led to Ric's murder.

And the name of that episode? "Any Old Port In The Storm".

Like I said, there was no deliberate connection between the two uses of the phrase. Just one of those bits of tele-magical fluff.

BCnU!
Toby OB

TWD: JACKIE MOON, SPOKESMAN

I never did get around to completing my look at certain commercials that premiered during the Super Bowl this year. One of those I missed was for Bud Light starring Will Ferrell, as his character Jackie Moon from the upcoming movie "Semi-Pro".

And now Jackie Moon has another blipvert to his credit, with an ad for Old Spice.
This places the character two-thirds of the way towards being qualified to enter the TV Crossover Hall Of Fame.

As "Semi-Pro" gets closer to its opening, we may yet see Jackie Moon reappear in other TV commercials for products like Gatorade, Nike, Gold Bond's powder, who knows? His participation might be enough to drag commercials for the Clapper and Chia Pets out of the Christmas-only closet!

BCnU!
Toby OB

Monday, February 25, 2008

MR. MONK AND THE SEASON FINALE ZONKS

With the season finale of 'Monk', the series presented several Zonks to overcome before finally creating a situation where it would appear that the series should be tossed out of the main Toobworld and into some parallel dimension. Mr. Monk might agree, since he'd also like to keep things nice and tidy.

But before I get into those problems, however, I do want to give the episode its due for touching on its own history. With the world thinking that Adrian Monk was dead, Randy Disher mentioned that Sharona Fleming and her son Benjy would be coming back to San Francisco for the memorial service. Sharona had been Monk's personal assistant in the first two seasons, but she left to remarry her ex-husband and move back East. (Of course, in real life, it was a conflict over her contract.)

So let's get down to the Zonks of "Mr. Monk Is On The Run, Part II" and see if they can be de-Zonked......

"Car Wash Columbo"
This was the nickname given to Monk by the press, when he solved the hit-and-run murder of a highway worker in Nevada. At the time, they thought he was actually Leland Rodriguez since he was hiding out under an assumed name.

This isn't a problem. There was never any mention of 'Columbo' as a TV series whenever the nickname came up. So it could be that it was a reference to Monk being the car wash version of the actual detective on the Los Angeles police force.

Since it's getting more unlikely that we're ever going to see one last outing by Peter Falk as the rumpled detective, the Lieutenant is probably retired by now. And his fame has been well-publicized over the years - in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if a best-selling novel was written about him! (He may even have had a TV show based on his career, much like David 'Toma' did in the real world. If so, that would go some way towards splainin those Zonks which do mention 'Columbo' as a TV show.)

Dale "The Whale" Beiderbecke
This was the third appearance of Monk's arch-enemy, and this was the third actor to play the role. Dale the Whale is Professor Moriarty, Dr. Loveless, Wo Fat, and Batman's Rogue Gallery all rolled into one corpulent, disgusting mound of flesh to rival that of Mr. Creosote.
He was played by Adam Arkin when we first met the billionaire blob, and then by Tim Curry. This time out, Ray Porter fleshed out the role of Dale Beiderbecke (with more than a little help from the makeup department.)

I may have addressed the issue back when I was running the Tubeworld Dynamic website as a going concern. (The TwD ended in 2002, and the Inner Toob blog didn't begin until 2004.) And if so, I think the reasoning I had for the change in appearance for the character was due to a fluctuation in his massive weight. Either by gaining more poundage in prison or by dropping some excess avoirdupois due to those circumstances, somehow Dale's visage went through an alteration .

I think that excuse can work in this case as well, now that Ray Porter is playing the portly prisoner. (The hair coloring changes as well as the addition of a Van Dyke also helps.)

Governor Richard Wechsler
And now we come to the reason why 'Monk' should be banished from Earth Prime-Time and instead take up residency in an alternate dimension like that for '24', 'The West Wing', 'Commander-In-Chief' or any other dimension created for TV shows which posit elected officials who differ from the real world and its mirror image in Toobworld.

Monk disrupted the Centennial celebration parade for Riverton, Calfifornia, in order to save the life of the governor who was seen and identified as Richard Wechsler. (The Governor was marked for assassination so that the Lieutenant Governor would assume the office. As he was in the pocket of Dale the Whale, he would have made sure the billionaire had his sentence commuted.)

As most everyone should know, Arnold Schwarzenegger is the California "Governator", both in the real world and in mentions in Toobworld as well. (He's also the Governor in Skitlandia, but may already be the President in the Tooniverse, thanks to "The Simpsons Movie".) Too many TV series have made passing references to Schwarzenegger as the Governor, and more will likely occur while he's in office. Therefore, having the governor identified as Wechsler would mean that 'Monk' has to move.

The best bet would be to create a dimension for USA Network shows, since they all shared the same reality in various promos for the network. 'Monk' has met Shawn Spencer of 'Psych', John Smith of 'The Dead Zone', and Shawn Farrell of 'The 4400'. John Smith was already cast out of Toobworld once the POTUS of their show was assassinated, and it was always dodgy at best as to where 'The 4400' stood in the TV Universe firmament.
Up until this last episode, everything about 'Monk' could have stayed in Earth Prime-Time. So I'd rather just claim this one storyline is from an alternate dimension, which we got to view as the audience, in much the same way we got to see the Evil Mirror dimension of 'Star Trek' in an episode of 'Enterprise'. I'd have no problem with the show mentioning the events that transpired in this two-part season finale, just so long as the name of Wechsler was never brought up again. Just calling him "the Governor"... where's the harm in that? Then we can assume that Monk performed heroically in the same situation in the main Toobworld, but saving Governor Schwarzenegger instead.

Should they persist in referring to or revisiting the character of Governor Richard Wechsler on 'Monk', we may have no choice but to toss 'Monk' to the vortex wolves.

Or....
This may be a time when we have to call on the services of Dr. Sam Beckett of 'Quantum Leap' or those of Dan Vasser of 'Journeyman' to save the day with their trips back in Time to change History. (Something Tony and Doug never seemed able to do with 'The Time Tunnel'.)

BCnU!
Toby OB

TWD: OSCAR, OSCAR, OSCAR.....

Once again, because I work an overnight shift, I watched the Oscars telecast in a time-delay, and I made it through my "divvered" recording in just under an hour this morning.

As usual, the "In Memoriam" section made me choke up with the images of the various actors and production people who passed away last year between the dates of February 1st, 2007 to January 31st, 2008. (This span of time was posted on screen, which I've never noticed them do before; but it did give them the opportunity to bring in Heath Ledger.)

I compared their list to mine of TV actors who passed away last year, thinking there had to be someone who belonged on both lists. And I found several that surprised me by their omission by the Academy.

Putting aside some names because their Television work far outweighed their movie output (like Charles Nelson Reilly, Lois Nettleton, and Tom Poston - although it would have been nice to include him along with his wife Suzanne Pleshette!), there were still four notable actors missing from the tribute:

Ian Richardson
Yes, the actor is better known for his stage and TV work, but this list of movies is not to be dismissed lightly:

"The Fourth Protocol"
"Dark City"
"M. Butterfly"
"Year of the Comet"
"Cry Freedom"
"Marat/Sade"
"Man of La Mancha"
"A Midsummer's Night's Dream"

Alice Ghostley
Again, perhaps she was better known for her TV work, but who could deny what she added to these movies:

"The Graduate"
"With Six You Get Eggroll"
"Grease"
"The Flim-Flam Man"
"Rabbit Test"
"The Odd Couple II"
"Viva Max"

Maybe those last three could be written off as inconsequential fluff, but there is also her contribution in "To Kill A Mockingbird", for Bleep's Sake!

Joey Bishop
Just for his Rat Pack connections to the movies in "Sergeants Three" and the original "Ocean's Eleven", the comic should have been included.

Charles Lane
But the biggest oversight was that of Mr. Lane, who passed away in July of last year at the age of 102. He had been making movies since 1931, with his last job in 2006. Probably over 200 movies in all!

Movies like "On The Twentieth Century", "You Can't Take It With You", "It's A Wonderful Life" - Frank Capra cast him in ten movies and called him his "Number One Crutch". He was one of the founding members of the Screen Actors Guild - for that alone, he should have been honored!

If I was to address the producers of the Oscars telecast over these slights, I'm sure the excuse would be a matter of time. However, I noticed that with the writers' strike resolved, the introductions crafted for the presenters took up more time than many of the acceptance speeches. Those could have been cut down so that these few names could have received their due (and the award winners wouldn't have to be so rushed to get through their acceptance speeches).

Just sayin', is all.....

BCnU!
Toby OB

Sunday, February 24, 2008

LINKIN' BRIGADE REPORT

Thanks to Joe at "I Am A TV Junkie" (link to the left, Party Faithful), I've been checking out a Toobworld website for Jennings and Rall. "J&R" is a Haliburton-styled corporation that looks to be conspiring to take over what's left of America in the alternate TV dimension for 'Jericho'.

I'd add them to the blogroll of similar links to the left for such shows as 'Eureka', 'Lost', and 'Doctor Who', but it doesn't look as though the Nut Brigade was successful in bringing larger audiences back to 'Jericho'. Apparently, it's going to be the seven new episodes and out for the post-nuke drama.

One thing the website will spur me to do - a bit o' spring cleaning on those other sites. I'm guessing some of those "freakylinks" might be dead ends by now.....

BCnU!
Toby OB

UPDATE:
So, three fictional blogs have bitten the dust - Barney's, Adam's, and Dave's. BAD - I don't like the portent of that! I also found a new link for Widmore Labs (which had morphed into a real estate site), and added two blipvert links - one for Adweek's Ad of the Day and one for TV Spots' Ad Archive.

TIDDLYWINKYDINKS: SEAVIEW KNIGHT

A fellow enthusiast for the crossover, and a frequent commenter at the Tommy Westphall LiveJournal (link to the left), "RAF" wrote to "Inner Toob" recently after the premiere of the 'Knight Rider' TV movie sequel:

"There is also a connection between 'Knight Rider' and the 'Seaquest's. In an episode, a poster for Knight Industries can be seen on a season 2 episode of 'Seaquest DSV', just one [of] the many links on my list."
RAF

Checking out his claim, I found this mention in an "Easter Egg" site:

In Season 2, Episode 9, 11 minutes in, you see Brody and a woman hiding next to a billboard pole on a pier. As they talk you can see a poster right next to their heads for a
car show. One of the manufacturers listed is Knight Industries, a clear reference to Knight Rider which was also produced by NBC.

So I ordered up the appropriate disc from Netflix and found the evidence this morning:
However, I believe that we have to put 'SeaQuest DSV' into an alternate TV dimension. Even though it's set in the future, it's not far enough into the future to make it likely that all of the scientific advancements promised by the series will come to pass by the time the real world, or even the main Toobworld, catches up to its timeline.

As such, I think then that we can say 'SeaQuest DSV' shares the same dimension with the 'Knight Rider 2000', which was set in a TV Universe in which guns were outlawed and prisoners were cryogenically imprisoned.

But that's... okay, as Stuart Smalley would say. It's nice to know that 'Knight Rider 2000' won't be lonely in its dimension. (I think we can even put the 'Birds of Prey' series in with them!)

BCnU!
Toby OB