TODAY'S TWD: THE WAR OF THE WORLDS

October 30, 1938 - Orson Welles broadcasts his radio play of H. G. Wells's "The War of the Worlds", causing anxiety in some of the audience in the United States.

Vera:
"Anybody know it was a prank?"
Stillman:
"The power of radio in those days, Nick.
It was the only live news source."
Lilly:
"Back when the news wasn't about the latest starlet's drunk driving bust."
'Cold Case'

As Lisa Swan puts it in today's New York Daily News, "The Martians are coming! The Martians are coming! Seventy years ago [today], that was what some listeners of Orson Welles' radio dramatization of "War of the Worlds" feared was taking place. The Halloween-themed broadcast, which aired Sunday night, October 30, 1938, scared the living daylights out of millions of listeners."

From Wikipedia:

"The War of the Worlds" was an episode of the American radio drama anthology series 'Mercury Theatre on the Air'. It was performed as a Halloween episode of the series on October 30, 1938 and aired over the Columbia Broadcasting System radio network. Directed and narrated by Orson Welles, the episode was an adaptation of H. G. Wells' novel The War of the Worlds.

The first two thirds of the 60-minute broadcast was presented as a series of simulated news bulletins, which suggested to many listeners that an actual Martian invasion was in progress. Compounding the issue was the fact that the Mercury Theatre on the Air was a 'sustaining show' (i.e., it ran without commercial breaks), thus adding to the dramatic effect. Although there were sensationalist accounts in the press about a supposed panic, careful research has shown that while thousands were frightened, there is no evidence that people fled their homes or otherwise took action.

The news-bulletin format was decried as cruelly deceptive by some newspapers and public figures, leading to an outcry against the perpetrators of the broadcast, but the episode launched Welles to fame.Welles's adaptation was one of the Radio Project's first studies.

That historic broadcast was a factor in several TV productions and thus is incorporated into Toobworld. 'Studio One' presented "The Night America Trembled" which showed not only a recreation of the broadcast in the studio, but its effect on various people listening in the area. Among the actors were Warren Beatty, James Coburn, and Ed Asner. Over twenty years later, the TV movie "The Night That Panicked America" did the same thing with Vic Morrow and John Ritter as men caught up in the panic caused by the show and Paul Shenar as Welles. In 2003, "Days That Shook the World" presented "Fact or Fiction: The War of the Worlds and the Hitler Diaries".
It was also integrated into the plotlines of a few TV series. In 'The War of the Worlds', one episode took place in Grover's Mill during the 50th anniversary of the broadcast, it is revealed that Orson Welles was hired by the government to orchestrate the broadcast in order to cover up what was a reconnaissance mission by the same aliens who would launch an all-out war 15 years later. 'Touched By An Angel' featured parts of the original broadcast in a Halloween episode titled "The Sky Is Falling", where an old man had to deal with the trauma he endured during the nation wide panic, including the death of his father due to a misfire by a paranoid citizen.

The November 4, 2007 episode of 'Cold Case' dealt with a murder that took place during the panic surrounding the original 1938 radio broadcast. In the October 15, 1956 episode of 'I Love Lucy', "Lucy Meets Orson Welles", Lucy is shopping for scuba gear in Macy's at the same time Welles is signing record albums of his Shakespearian readings. After Lucy approaches him still wearing a Scuba mask, flippers and assorted air hoses, Wells takes one look at her and says, "My 'Man from Mars' broadcast was 18 years ago...where were you?"

[Those four plot descriptions were also from Wikipedia.]

For a great website about the historical perspective of "The War Of The Worlds", click here.

"This is Orson Welles, ladies and gentlemen, out of character to assure you that 'The War of The Worlds' has no further significance than as the holiday offering it was intended to be. The Mercury Theatre's own radio version of dressing up in a sheet and jumping out of a bush and saying 'Boo!'

"We couldn't soap all your windows and steal all your garden gates by tomorrow night. . . so we did the best next thing. We annihilated the world before your very ears, and utterly destroyed the C. B. S. You will be relieved, I hope, to learn that we didn't mean it, and that both institutions are still open for business.

"[Remember] the terrible lesson you learned tonight. That grinning, glowing, globular invader of your living room is an inhabitant of the pumpkin patch, and if your doorbell rings and nobody's there, that was no Martian. ... It's Halloween."
- Orson Welles
TV Crossover Hall Of Fame inductee (televersion)
October 2001

BCnU!
Toby O'B

LEAVE IT TO LAME BEAVER

Since I went to Colorado, 'Centennial' country, I've been playing around with an online English to Arapaho dictionary - I like to figure out how "Toobworld" might translate into other languages.

Near as I can tell, it would be ce'ískuu3óó hee3éí'o'béé', literally "Television World". (ce'ískuu3óó also stands for movie, so this would work for Craig Shaw Gardner's Cineverse.)

With those 3's in there, don't ask me how to pronounce it.

Just for kicks, I came up with some names for Senators Barack Obama and John McCain.

híni' céése' - That One

beh'iihehi' - Old Man

As for me? You can call me hoohookee heesooku'oonoo (The Crazy Guy Who Is Watching)!

heetce'noohobe3en!
Toby O'B

PHILLY FLASH

My sense of "serendipiteevee" came into play again tonight. I turned on the World Series at 9:58 pm, just in time to see the last pitch.

My team wasn't in it, so neither was my heart. But congrats to the Phillies.

Now I can only hope that it's reflected in some future episode of 'It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia'!


BCnU!
Toby O'B

TODAY'S TWD: DON GIOVANNI

While I was in Colorado, I was privileged to watch my young friend Rachel record an EP-CD and DVD for her college admission auditions to study opera. O'Bviously I'm prejudiced, but she's very talented and I am certain she'll find her niche in that world.

So today's Tiddlywinkydink is dedicated to her.....

October 29, 1787:

Mozart's opera Don Giovanni receives its first performance in Prague.

From the burgomeisters of Wikipedia:

Don Giovanni (K.527; complete title: Il dissoluto punito, ossia il Don Giovanni, literally "The Rake Punish'd, or Don Giovanni") is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with Italian libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte. It was premiered in the Estates Theatre in Prague on October 29, 1787. Of the many operas based on the legend of Don Juan, "Don Giovanni" is thought to be beyond comparison. Da Ponte's libretto was billed like many of its time as dramma giocoso: "giocoso" meaning comic, and "dramma" signifying an operatic text (an abbreviation of "dramma per musica"). Mozart entered the work into his catalogue as an "opera buffa". Although often classified as comic, it is a unique blend of comic (buffa) and drama (seria). Subtitled "dramma giocoso", the opera blends comedy, melodrama and supernatural elements.

The Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard wrote a long essay in his book Enten/Eller (Either/Or) in which he argues, quoting Charles Gounod, that Mozart's "Don Giovanni" is “a work without blemish, of uninterrupted perfection.”

The basic plot is this:

Don Giovanni, a young nobleman, after a life of amorous conquests, meets defeat in three encounters. The first is with Donna Elvira, whom he has deserted but who still follows him. The second is with Donna Anna, who must postpone her marriage to Don Ottavio after Don Giovanni tries to rape her and kills her father, the Commendatore, while escaping afterwards. The third is with Zerlina, whom he vainly tries to lure from her fiancé, the peasant Masetto. All vow vengeance on Don Giovanni and his harassed servant Leporello. Elvira alone weakens in her resolution and attempts reconciliation in the hope that Giovanni will reform. Don Giovanni's destruction and deliverance to hell are effected by the cemetery statue of the Commendatore, who had accepted the libertine's invitation to supper.

As a staple of the standard operatic repertoire, it appears as number seven on Opera America's list of the 20 most-performed operas in North America.

By my count, there have been 17 performances of "Don Giovanni" on television since 1967. Among those who have played the title role for TV are Eugene Perry and Bryn Terfel (whom even I, an opera imbecile, have heard of). Thomas Allen and Samuel Ramey have each played it twice for TV productions. Renowned stage director Peter Sellars set his TV production of "Don Giovanni" in the streets; I think Giovanni's final descent into Hell was through a sewer manhole.

"Don Giovanni feels that you can live without rules or obligations,

but that doesn't work.

Hell is (Don Giovanni) being himself. "

Nicolette Molnar

Utah Opera

BCnU!
Toby O'B

TMI WITNESS: FLIPPER

I'm not one who wants to know about the actors and actresses playing my favorite characters. I LOVE Laura Petrie and Mary Richards, but I don't need to know about Mary Tyler Moore's behavior on the set of the sitcom 'Mary'; it's too depressing and has no relevance to what goes on in the TV Universe. Unless of course, the actor or actress later appears as themselves in fictional settings - like the experience of Jennifer Grey's cosmetic surgery, which became a running joke in 'It's Like... You Know'.

So this exchange from an LA Times interview with Jessica Walter gave me pause... and more information... information... information than I needed to know!

You went out to L.A., and thought, "I'll hustle at the TV scene and do an episode of 'Flipper.' "

That was out of Florida! One of the first shows I ever did. I was 18, or 20 or something. . . . This is the worst. The story is, I remember, that we were in trouble on our boat, and medicine was dropped from a helicopter and it missed the boat and went into the ocean, so they sent Flipper to dive down and nudge it up with his nose. So I was saying to the other actors, "Isn't it amazing, they had Flipper fall from the helicopter and into the ocean and he doesn't swim away!" And they said, "Oh, that's the dead dolphin, they keep it on ice." Remember the little pelican, Pete? I said, "Isn't it amazing, Pete doesn't fly away!" They said, "Oh, they broke his legs." Welcome to TV!

It's like finding out Lassie's been beaten and burned!
I really didn't need to know any of that......

BCnU!
Toby O'B

TODAY'S TWD: OCTOBER FUSS

October 28, 1962 - Cuban Missile Crisis: Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev announces that he had ordered the removal of Soviet missile bases in Cuba.

Hitting the real world timeline yet again for the daily Tiddlywinkydink.......

From our comrades at Wikipedia:

The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation between the United States, the Soviet Union, and Cuba during the Cold War. In Russia, it is termed the "Caribbean Crisis," while in Cuba it is called the "October Crisis." The crisis ranks with the Berlin Blockade as one of the major confrontations of the Cold War, and is often regarded as the moment in which the Cold War came closest to a nuclear war.

The climax period of the crisis began on October 8, 1962. Later on October 14th, United States reconnaissance photographs taken by an American U-2 spy plane revealed missile bases being built in Cuba. The crisis ended two weeks later on October 28, 1962, when President of the United States John F. Kennedy and United Nations Secretary-General U Thant reached an agreement with the Soviets to dismantle the missiles in Cuba in exchange for a no invasion agreement and a secret removal of the Jupiter and Thor missiles in Turkey.

Kennedy, in his first public speech on the crisis, given on October 22 1962, gave the key warning,

It shall be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union.

"The Missiles of October" is a 1974 docudrama about the Cuban missile crisis. Its name comes from the book "The Guns of August" by Barbara Tuchman about the missteps among the great powers and the failed chances to give an opponent a graceful way out leading to the supposedly inevitable World War. The script is based on Attorney General Robert F Kennedy's book "Thirteen Days".

"The Missiles of October" takes us behind the scenes to see the inner workings, disagreements, and ultimate consensus of Kennedy's cabinet to blockade Cuba, rather than attempt to invade to dislodge the just discovered yet partially completed Soviet nuclear missile emplacements in Cuba. It also details US attempts to give the Soviets room to negotiate without appearing to capitulate. Although often dismissed by movie and television critics, the piece scores extremely well in viewer polls.

The made-for-TV movie was directed by Anthony Page with writing credits given to Stanley R. Greenberg and Robert Kennedy.

Cast
William Devane ... President John F. Kennedy

Ralph Bellamy ... U.N. Ambassador Adlai Stevenson

Howard Da Silva ... Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev

James Hong ... U.N. Secretary-General U Thant

Martin Sheen ... Att. Gen. Robert F. Kennedy
James T. Callahan ... David Powers, Special Assistant to the President

Keene Curtis ... John McCone, Director CIA

Charles Cyphers ... Press Photographer

Clifford David ... Theodore Sorensen, Special Counsel

John Dehner ... Former Secretary of State Dean Acheson
Peter Donat ... David Ormsby-Gore, British Ambassador to U.S.

Andrew Duggan ... Gen. Maxwell Taylor, Army Chief of Staff

Richard Eastham ... Gen. David M. Shoup, USMC Commandant

Dana Elcar ... Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara

Ron Feinberg ... Gen. Charles De Gaulle

Michael Fox ... Soviet Marshal

Arthur Franz ... Congressman Charles A. Halleck

Larry Gates ... Secretary of State Dean Rusk

Richard Karlan ... Chief of the Presidium

Stacy Keach Sr. ... W.E. Knox, President Westinghouse International
Will Kuluva ... Valerian Zorin

Paul Lambert ... John Scali, ABC Correspondent

Doreen Lang ... Mrs. Evelyn Lincoln, President Kennedy's Secretary

Michael Lerner ... Pierre Salinger, White House Press Secretary

Robert P. Lieb ... Gen. Curtis LeMay, Air Force Chief of Staff
Byron Morrow ... Sen. William Fullbright

Stewart Moss ... Kenneth O'Donnell, Special Assistant to the President
James Olson ... McGeorge Bundy, Special Assistant for National Security Affairs

Dennis Patrick ... Llewellyn Thompson, Former U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union

Albert Paulsen ... Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin

Nehemiah Persoff ... Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko

William Prince ... Secretary of the Treasury, C. Douglas Dillon

John Randolph ... Undersecretary of State George Ball

Kenneth Tobey ... Adm. George W. Anderson Jr., Chief of Naval Operations

George Wyner ... Civillian Aide

Harris Yulin ... KGB Agent Alexander Fomin

Thayer David ... Narrator (uncredited)

I remember watching this back when I was in high school. I felt that it was something I had to see, something of importance. It was one of many instances where my grasp of history, the news, and the world around me was shaped by TV.

BCnU!
Toby O'B

T.H.E. CATALDO

In the series premiere of the American version of 'Life On Mars', NYC Detective Sam Tyler is standing outside the Cataldo Apartments, across the street and next to his parked car. Suddenly he's struck by another vehicle; when he comes to, there's a sign across the street announcing that the Cataldo Apartments will be built upon that same site. Somehow he's been transported back in Time 35 years ago to 1973.

'Life On Mars' is produced by the same team that brought 'October Road' to ABC for two seasons. For fans of that show, the name "Cataldo" will be very familiar, as it's the last name for the series antagonist, Ray "Big Cat" Cataldo.

'October Road' took place in the town of Knights Ridge, Massachusetts, where Ray Cataldo was known as "The Concrete King". His construction company built office parks, condos, and even juice bars throughout town. Because of his age, there's no way he's the Cataldo for whom the apartments were named in 1973.

However, he could be related to that same Cataldo. Even though he lives up in Massachusetts, it's always pozz'ble (as Mushrat would say in those 'Deputy Dawg' cartoons) that Ray Cataldo's grandfather or some other older relative was in the construction business down in Manhattan nearly forty years ago. And if he was anything like that gasbag Trump, he's probably slapped his name up on all sorts of construction projects all over the area.

Whatever Sam Tyler's condition in this version of 'Life On Mars', the Cataldo apartments actually exist in Toobworld; they were there before he was struck down. So this could be a theoretical link between that series and 'October Road'.

As to how both versions of 'Life On Mars' (US & the original one from the UK) could co-exist in the main Toobworld.....? Well, I have that idea figured out; it's just a matter of writing it up. But don't worry, I'll get around to it.

BCnU!
Toby O'B

FLIPPIN' THE DAUPHINE*

Credit Dauphine was an international bank that served as a front for the spy organization SD-6 in 'Alias'. (Sydney Bristow was recruited out of college to work there as an office assistant in the L.A. branch where she would begin her training for what she thought was the CIA.) SD-6 was located on sub-level

But Credit Dauphine also showed up in the second season premiere of 'Eli Stone' as well.

Jordan Wethersby met with executives of Credit Dauphine, those in charge of mortgages, who were proud of the fact that they brought down the US economy. After telling them off, Jordan was trapped under rubble in a stairwell when a crane crashed into the building.

There's another interesting connection between these two series - Jordan Wethersby of 'Eli Stone' and Jack Bristow, Sydney's dad and an actual CIA agent, of 'Alias' are both played by the same actor, Victor Garber.

But this is not a case of Jack Bristow using - okay, I'll say it - an alias. It's a Toobworld conceit that many spies on TV series not only take the identities of middle-management corporate types (hoping to trade in on their supposedly colorless lives) but they sometimes even undergo plastic surgery so that they more closely resemble those unsuspecting citizens whom they're impersonating while on assignments.

We saw this happen in "Identity Crisis", an episode of 'Columbo'. The agent code-named "Geronimo" used the cover identity of A.J. Henderson, an advertising executive from Westport, Connecticut. And the CIA director at the time, who went by the code name of "Secret Agent X-9", must have undergone some plastic surgery to better resemble an advertising executive named Larry Tate, who also spent time in Westport, Connecticut.

So I'm thinking that Jack Bristow recognized the close resemblance to lawyer Jordan Wethersby and capitalized on it some more with a few cosmetic upgrades. This would have happened long before 'Alias' was first broadcast, which would splain why it was never brought up by his daughter Sydney. Before she found out that he was a CIA operative, he probably told her that he had to have the surgery because of a car accident or something.

BCnU!
Toby O'B

*Oh, that pun is horrible! That's why I love it......

TODAY'S TWD: WALLIS SIMPSON

On this date in 1936, Mrs Wallis Simpson filed for divorce which allowed her to marry King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom. This led to his abdication from the throne.

Here's a quick nugget of information about Mrs. Simpson from Wikipedia:

Wallis, Duchess of Windsor (born Bessie Wallis Warfield, later Spencer, then Simpson; 19 June 1895 or 1896 – 24 April 1986) was an American socialite who married, as her third husband, Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor, formerly King Edward VIII.

The King's desire to marry a twice-divorced American with two living ex-husbands and a reputation as an opportunist caused a constitutional crisis in the United Kingdom and the Dominions, which ultimately led to the King's abdication in December 1936 to marry "the woman I love". After the abdication, the former king was created Duke of Windsor by his brother George VI.

Edward married Wallis six months later, after which she was formally known as the Duchess of Windsor, without the style "Her Royal Highness".

The love story was the focus of several TV movies as well as a mini-series:

"The Woman I Love" (1972, made-for-TV movie) focused on Edward VIII's love affair with Wallis Simpson. Wallis was portrayed by Faye Dunaway; Richard Chamberlain played Edward.

'Edward & Mrs. Simpson' (1978, seven-part miniseries) was based on Frances Donaldson's 1974 biography, Edward VIII. The focus was on both the romance and the constitutional crisis that triggered the abdication. Cynthia Harris played Wallis (above), and Edward Fox, Edward.

"The Woman He Loved" (1988, made-for-TV movie) starred Jane Seymour as Wallis and Anthony Andrews as Edward.

"Bertie and Elizabeth" (2002, made-for-TV movie) tells the story from the point of view of Edward's brother Bertie, who was to become George VI after the abdication.

"Wallis & Edward" (2005, made-for-TV movie) was billed as the first scripted account of the romance from Wallis Simpson's point of view. Joely Richardson played Wallis, and Steven Campbell Moore, Edward.

Mrs. Simpson does not appear in the "Crown Matrimonial" presentation on the 'Hallmark Hall Of Fame', nor does she travel with her husband in the 'Tales Of The Gold Monkey' episode "God Save The Queen".

I suppose because 'Edward & Mrs. Simpson' was a mini-series, it provided more for the expansion of Toobworld, and thus should be considered the official version of the story for the main TV dimension. (Personally, it's Faye Dunaway in the role whom I remember best.)

Samantha Coughlan (Wallis Simpson) . . . "Days That Shook the World" (2003) {Affairs of the Crown}

Faye Dunaway (Wallis Warfield Simpson) . . . Woman I Love, The (1972)

Cynthia Harris (I) (Wallis Warfield Simpson) . . . "Edward & Mrs. Simpson" (1978)

Joely Richardson (Wallis Simpson) . . . Wallis & Edward (2005)

Amber Sealey (Wallis Simpson) . . . Bertie and Elizabeth (2002)

Jane Seymour (I) (Wallis Simpson) . . . Woman He Loved, The (1988)

BCnU!
Toby O'B

TODAY'S TWD: WYATT'S THEME

1881 - The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral takes place at Tombstone, Arizona.

As I suggested I might do earlier, I went to the timeline for the history of the real world to find the inspiration for Sunday's Tiddlywinkydink.

Many TV shows today forego theme songs altogether. But back in the day, they were elaborate splainins of what the show was all about - 'Gilligan's Island' may be the best example.

The theme song for 'The Life And Legend of Wyatt Earp' served not only as an introduction to the main character, but it could also stand alone as an American folk ballad about one of the most legendary characters in the Old West.

"The Legend of Wyatt Earp"
music by Harry Warren and lyrics by Harold Adamson
Performed by the Ken Darby Singers; as well as Johnny Western

I'll tell you a story
A real true life story
A tale of the Western frontier

The West it was lawless
But one man was flawless
And his is the story you'll hear.

CHORUS
Wyatt Earp, Wyatt Earp,
brave, courageous and bold.
Long live his fame and long live his glory
And long may his story be told.

He came to Kansas
To settle in Kansas
He planned on a peaceable life.

Some goods and some chattel
A few head of cattle
A home and a sweet loving wife.

CHORUS

He wasn't partial
To being a marshal
But fate went and dealt him his hand.

While outlaws were lootin'
And killin' and shootin'
He knew that he must take a stand.

CHORUS

He cleaned up the country
The Old Wild West country
He made law and order prevail

And none can deny it
The legend of Wyatt
Forever will live on the trail.

CHORUS

BCnU!
Toby O'B