"HOUSE" CALLED OUT

In a comment to my post "Royal Splains", in which I theorized how 'McGyver' could be so well-known that TV characters who share his world could still make references to him, my blog buddy Mercurie mentioned that the same thing could apply to Dr. Gregory 'House'.

And Merc's right. Even with all of the false starts, House is still the most amazing of diagnosticians currently in practice in Toobworld. But I think his fame at that hospital in Princeton is augmented by another factor: I think there has been a "reality show" about him on Toobworld television.

This would help splain away those references to 'House' as a TV show. And as to why we don't see the cameras following him and his staff around, the Toobworld series ended before the real world series began.

Here are a few examples collected from the IMDb.com:

"Arrested Development: Motherboy XXX (#2.13)" (2005)
- Tobias appears with a "DR HOUSE" license plate, a reference to an acting job he'd hoped for but never got.

I've got a good reason why Tobias never got that part - because it was a reality TV show. Let's face it, Tobias was a bit of a dim bulb on that show. He might not have been able to tell the difference.

"Joey: Joey and the Big Break: Part 1 (#2.1)" (2005)
- "Oh, when the dude on Dr. House does it, it's fine."

Speaking of dim bulbs.....

"Scrubs: My New Suit (#5.18)" (2006)
- Dr. Kelso to Dr. Cox: You're so edgy and cantankerous. You're like House without the limp.

"Navy NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service: Driven (#4.11)" (2006)
- when Jeanne says, "Cytology tests take seventy-two hours. But Doctor House gets the results back in ten minutes. It's ridiculous."

It's called "editing". Another TV character who doesn't realize the "televersion" show about Dr. House is something of a documentary series....

"Torchwood: End of Days (#1.13)" (2007)
- Owen says "Well done, House, that's what you're up against." after discovering the people were infected with the "Black Death"

"Psych: Game, Set... Muuurder? (#1.13)" (2007)
- Shawn: I want a hard target search for every outhouse, hen house, cat house, Waffle House, House, M.D.!"

Los Serrano: La mano amiga (#6.23)" (2007)
- The show is mentioned during this episode.

I have no clue what the reference was on that show. Even if I heard it, I would never understand it....

Le está viendo!

SPECIAL OLYMPICS

With "The Glory That Was", an episode of 'Law & Order: Criminal Intent', we learned that Caroline Walters (the murder victim) had won the Olympic equestrian bronze medal in 1992, and the gold in 1996. Mrs. Walters rode for Belgium in both of those years.

It was easy enough to look up the Olympic medal winners for both 1992 and 1996 to see who did win the medals in those years. And just to reassure you, I'm not so deluded about the reality of Toobworld - yet - to think that I would actually find a Caroline listed there. (Walters was her married name.) But I was curious to see how closely the facts of this case had been ripped from the headlines; I thought it might be possible that Belgium might have placed among the winners in both years. A situation like this, in which real world history deviates from what is established in the fictional world of TV Land, is easier to accept once enough time has passed. It's a lot easier to now squeeze in Jeremy Thorpe as the British Prime Minister back in 1974 than it had been when the 'Doctor Who' episode "The Green Death" first aired.

(Maybe I'm showing my provincialism in that, being an American - I can accept alterations to the tele-British leadership, but I'm dead set against any tampering with the line of succession when it comes to the American presidency in Toobworld.)

It's easy enough to ignore the existence of Robert "Pruneface" Morgenthau as the District Attorney in New York City on 'Law & Order'; it's not like he's exactly the kind of person to be seen or even referenced in other TV shows. It gets harder with the Empire State's governorship on the same show when you go from the Spitzer scandal to David Paterson, a legally blind black man who was thrust into the job. Both of them have been mentioned in the dialogue of other shows. Perhaps the passage of Time will allow us to find a way to squeeze the fictional Donald Shalvoy into the office.....
At any rate, the records for the Olympics now stand as an example of the difference between the TV Universe and the "Trueniverse"....

BCnU!

TELE-GENETICS: DONALD & CHRISTOPHER

Donald Westphall was a doctor at St. Eligius Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, whose roots were in New Hampshire. He moved there after leaving the hospital dubbed 'St. Elsehwere' and probably retired there after leaving again in the late 1980s.

Christopher Foyle was a police detective in Hastings, England during World War II who retired on the same day that Winston Churchill announced that the war was over.

Decades and distance separated the two men. But I think if you went far enough back in the Toobworld timeline and in the genealogy of both DSI Foyle and Dr. Westphall, you'd find the men had a common ancestor. In Toobworld, tele-genetic echoes are quite strong; people with similar features are found all the time, even if no apparent familial link can be established. I'm not saying they're cousins, identical cousins, but you have to admit there is a similarity between them.

I'm one of those students of the TV Universe who believes that the finale of 'St. Elsewhere' could be interpreted differently. It's my belief that the entire run of the series actually did happen in Toobworld, and that the final "snow-globe" scene was young Tommy Westphall's fantasy as he stared out the window at the falling snow.

Therefore, there would be no Zonk in imagining that both Donald Westphall and Christopher Foyle were distantly related; both series could co-exist with each other easily in the Great Link that is Toobworld.

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: JOSEPH WELCH

I'm on a bit of an Ed Flanders kick today.....

JOSEPH WELCH

AS SEEN IN:
"Citizen Cohn"

AS PLAYED BY:
Ed Flanders

Joseph Nye Welch (October 22, 1890 – October 6, 1960) was the head attorney for the United States Army while it was under investigation by Joseph McCarthy's Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations for Communist activities. This investigation (known as the Army-McCarthy Hearings) was under way when television was first becoming a common household product in the United States. It was the first time many people got a first-hand view of McCarthy.

On June 9, 1954, the 30th day of the hearings, McCarthy accused Fred Fisher, one of the junior attorneys at Welch's firm, of association (while in law school) with the National Lawyers Guild (NLG), a group which J. Edgar Hoover sought to have the U.S. Attorney General designate as a Communist front organization (see Army-McCarthy hearings). Welch wrote off Fisher's association with the NLG as a youthful indiscretion and went after McCarthy for dragging the young man's name before a nationwide television audience with no prior warning or previous agreement to do so:

"Until this moment, Senator, I think I have never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness. Fred Fisher is a young man who went to the Harvard Law School and came into my firm and is starting what looks to be a brilliant career with us.... Little did I dream you could be so reckless and so cruel as to do an injury to that lad. It is true that he will continue to be with Hale and Dorr*. It is, I regret to say, equally true that I fear he shall always bear a scar needlessly inflicted by you. If it were in my power to forgive you for your reckless cruelty I would do so. I like to think that I am a gentle man, but your forgiveness will have to come from someone other than me."

When McCarthy tried to go on the attack once more, Welch stepped in again and famously rebuked:

"Senator, may we not drop this? We know he belonged to the Lawyers Guild.... Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator. You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"

McCarthy tried to ask Welch another question about Fisher, and Welch cut him off:

"Mr. McCarthy, I will not discuss this with you further. You have sat within six feet of me and could have asked about Fred Fisher. You have brought it out. If there is a God in Heaven it will do neither you nor your cause any good. I will not discuss it further. I wll not ask Mr. Cohn any more questions. You, Mr. Chairman, may, if you will, call the next witness."
[from Wikipedia] I got to play Mr. Welch in high school, in a staged reading of "Point Of Order", and I've always thrilled to hear that line: "Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"

(In that last picture, James Woods is also pictured as Roy Cohn....)

BCnU

FACEBOOK 'EM, DANNO

When you've got nothing better to do than laze about on a rainy weekend afternoon, making snide comments on your friends' Facebook comments is a great time-waster......

Yasmin: WOW I Did it...............
Make sure you wipe away all of your fingerprints - and stop confessing!

Tavie: I have drunk more alcohol lately (like 6 drinks a week) than in any other period of my life (lifetime avg 2 drinks a month.) (Not a big drinker.) I blame this entirely on work.
I usually blame it on alcohol being within reaching distance.....

Michael: is feeling the wrath of having no cat food.
I warned Mark he would get hooked on the stuff......

Keith: I totally wimped out and let Jenny go out in the rain by herself to the farmer's market at Lake Anne to buy the week's veggies.
Good for you! Ralph Kramden would have been so proud of you......

Micki: Enjoying a Turkish coffee (yummmm) and getting ready to go work on some pottery martini glasses that I'm handbuilding...
Are you getting your plants drunk again? I hope you're not going to then take them across state lines to some cheap motel....

Lydia: Yep ... I'm definitely a year older this morning ...
Then that means you partied correctly!

Kelly: 6 massages in one day = tired Kelly.
I take it you didn't GET 6 massages in one day. LOL

Megan: got to feed her nephew. sigh... babies are lovely
Fed your nephew to what?

Of course, my friends also know how to respond in kind....

Toby: My sister freaked to see my answers. She must think I'm some kind of drunk, homicidal cross-dresser....
Kristopher: She's way out of line. I mean, I've never seen you drink.

BCnU!

NEW PEEK AT "TWIN PEAKS"?

From Broadcasting & Cable's website:

"Kyle MacLachlan is interested in bringing back 'Twin Peaks' as five-minute webisodes. These would, as has been reported, not involve original co-creator/brilliant-though-certified wackadoo David Lynch, who is busy meditating and creating music. But the other brilliant mind behind it, Mark Frost, has to be out there somewhere. MacLachlan knows it’s a “crazy idea” but he wants to do it."

Maybe we could finally get an answer to the question: "How's Annie?"

UnCB......

FIRED UP

According to 'Late Show with David Letterman', these are the "Top Ten Things Overheard at last week's ‘Fire David Letterman’ Rally":

10. “David who?”

9. “Well, it was nice of CBS to provide the catering.”

8. “We should have done this years ago.”

7. “What idiot turned Broadway into a pedestrian mall?”

6. “Isn’t there always a crowd demanding Letterman be fired?”

5. “March around the potholes, people.”

4. “Can we also get CBS to bring back ‘Gunsmoke’?”

3. “When does Cheney get here with the waterboarding gear?”

2. “He should apologize for that hairpiece.”

1. “Thanks for coming, Regis.”

Say... isn't that Jerry Springer at the rally?

BCnU!

BACK IN THE SADDLE AGAIN

My blog buddy Ivan, who sails the good ship "Thrilling Days Of Yesteryear"* (link to the left, me hearties!), posted about the The Western Writers of America Association and their lists of the all-time 50 Best TV Western series and the 50 Best TV Western movies & mini-series.

Here are the lists of their choices, and in their order:

Continuing Series

1. Gunsmoke (1955-75)

2. Maverick (1957-62)

3. Rawhide (1959-66)

4. Bonanza (1959-73)

5. Have Gun, Will Travel (1957-63)

6. The Rifleman (1958-63)

7. Wagon Train (1957-65)

8. High Chaparral (1967-71)

9. Death Valley Days (1952-70)

10. The Virginian (1962-70)

11. Deadwood (2004-06)

12. The Westerner (1960)

13. Cheyenne (1955-63)

14. The Big Valley (1965-69)

15. Wanted: Dead or Alive (1958-61)

16. The Lone Ranger (1949-57)

17. The Roy Rogers Show (1951-57)

18. Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (1955-61)

19. The Wild, Wild West (1965-70)

20. The Rebel (1959-61)

21. The Little House On The Prairie (1974-83)

22. The Young Riders (1989-92)

23. Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (1993-98)

24. Lawman (1957-62)

25. Laredo (1965-67)

26. Cimarron Strip (1967-68)

27. Daniel Boone (1964-70)

28. Branded (1965-66)

29. Zorro (1957-59)

30. The Yellow Rose (1983-84)

31. Tales of Wells Fargo (1957-62)

32. The Lazarus Man (1996)

33. The Gene Autry Show (1950-56)

34. Alias Smith and Jones (1971-73)

35. Adventures of Brisco County Jr. (1993-94)

36. Trackdown (1957-59)

37. Kung Fu (1972-75)

38. Lonesome Dove, the Series (1994-95)

39. The Magnificent Seven (1998-2000)

40. Broken Arrow (1956-60)

41. F Troop (1965-67)

42. Sugarfoot (1957-61)

43. Guns of Will Sonnett (1967-69)

44. Wild Bill Hickok (1951-58)

45. Tales of the Texas Rangers (1955-57)

46. Stoney Burke (1962-63)

47. Sgt. Preston of the Yukon (1955-58)

48. Restless Gun (1957-59)

49. Laramie (1955-63)

50. Hec Ramsey (1972-74)

'Maverick' is in my top five of all-time favorite shows, any genre. And I've always had a soft spot for 'The Adventures Of Brisco County, Jr.', 'Alias Smith And Jones', 'Heck Ramsey', 'The Guns Of Will Sonnett', and of course, 'The Wild, Wild West'. (After all, that show provided me with my all-time favorite TV character, Dr. Miguelito Loveless!)

Movie/miniseries

1. Lonesome Dove (1989)

2. Centennial (1978)

3. The Sacketts (1979)

4. Conagher (1991)

5. Monte Walsh (2003)

6. Davy Crockett (1954-55)

7. Last Stand at Saber River (1997)

8. Broken Trail (2006)

9. Riders of the Purple Sage (1996)

10.Into the West (2005)

11. You Know My Name (1999)

12. Skinwalkers (2002)

13. I Will Fight No More Forever (1975)

14. The Shadow Riders (1982)

15. The Good Ol' Boys (1979)

16. Son of the Morning Star (1991)

17. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (2007)

18. Crossfire Trail (2001)

19. The Macahans, How the West Was Won (1976-77)

20. Rough Riders (1997)

21. Streets of Laredo (1995)

22. Return to Lonesome Dove (1993)

23. Geronimo (1993)

24. Purgatory (1999)

25. The Quick and the Dead (1987)

26. A Thief of Time (2004)

27. Coyote Waits (2002)

28. The Johnson County War (2002)

29. Buffalo Girls (1995)

30. Mr. Horn (1979)

31. Kenny Rogers as the Gambler (1980)

32. Last of the Mohicans (1977)

33. The Alamo: Thirteen Days to Glory (1987)

34. Comanche Moon (2008)

35. Gunsmoke: Return to Dodge (1987)

36. And Starring Pancho Villa As Himself (2003)

37. The Avenging Angel (1995)

38. Crazy Horse (1996)

39. The Court-Martial of George Armstrong Custer (1977)

40. Desperado (1987)

41. The Jack Bull (1999)

42. The Desperate Trail (1995)

43. Gunsmoke: The Long Ride (1993)

44. The Texas Rangers (1981)

45. The Virginian (2000)

46. Wild Times (1980)

47. The Blue Hotel (1977)

48. Buffalo Soldiers (1997)

49. Gunsmoke: To the Last Man (1992)

50. Life on the Mississippi (1980)

Aside from stating that my favorite here is "Centennial", the only comment I could make on this second list is that - as a Caretaker for Toobworld - I just wish the fourth "Gambler" movie, "The Luck Of The Draw", could have made the cut.....

But I'm just recounting the lists. You should read Ivan's impressions about the series, because he also reminds us of those shows that didn't make the cut. (Like my holy grail, 'Nichols'.)

And click through to read the full story about the WWA and their annual convention's lists.

BCnU!

*I probably should have gone with a more Western analogy, considering.....

PROP SCHOOL

Through the use of props, all of them to be found in the beachfront mansion belonging to Tucker Bryant's family, 'Royal Pains' made some connections to other TV series and TV movies. Sure, they may be pretty tenuous, but they work, Mate!

First up, from the pilot episode:

TWO HONUS WAGNER BASEBALL CARDS
Recently, a Honus Wagner card sold for over 1.6 million dollars. That wasn't even the record price - in 2007, another card was sold for 2.5 million dollars. The inference would be that - at least in Toobworld - Tucker's father, Marshall Bryant, was the bidder behind both purchases.

Matthew Modine played Honus Wagner in a TV movie "The Winning Season", which was a fantasy time travel story. And it was a magical Honus Wagner card that caused the time travel.

TWO GUITARS SIGNED BY JOHN LENNON

John Lennon has been portrayed several times in TV movies, including:

"Two Of Us"
"John And Yoko: A Love Story"
"In His Life: The John Lennon Story"
"The Linda McCartney Story"
and in the TV series, 'Dark Skies'.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN'S CLOTHES WORN FOR THE "BORN TO RUN" COVER
We know Bruce Sprinsteen exists in Toobworld - Bob and Carol Chase of Nutley, NJ, went to one of his concerts in the pilot episode of 'Quintuplets'. And in the Aussie soap 'Neighbours', Karl named his rooster after the singer. Even the demi-god 'Cupid' quoted him! BRUUUUUUUUCE!

Baby, we were born to BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: JOSHUA (& NOAH)

Time for a little Sunday schoolin'....

Skeptics think that a lot of the people depicted in the Bible are just characters. But that's not the case in Toobworld - so long as they are portrayed on TV, then they actually did exist.

In a recent essay I wrote about the origins of the Earth, I showed the picture of Noah from the mini-series about the Great Flood, "Noah's Ark". Noah was played by Jon Voight (and as Noah, he collected living things like his daughter Angelina Jolie does.)

Another person from the Old Testament is Joshua, who also had a presence on Earth Prime-Time:
AS SEEN ON:
'The Time Tunnel' ("The Walls Of Jericho")

AS PLAYED BY:
Rhodes Reason

Here's the description of Tony and Doug's encounter with Joshua.

The travelers arrive outside of the tent of Joshua during the night, two days before the end of the Israelite siege of Jericho. Joshua comes to believe they are who they say they are–time travellers–and sends them to spy inside the city. Doug and Tony save a young virgin from being sacrificed to the Levantine deity Chemosh by the high priest of Jericho.

Doug is captured and sent to the dungeon to be tortured as an Israelite spy. Tony escapes into a house with an unlocked door. When the resident arrives, he calls her (Rahab) because, from the Biblical account, she is the one who sheltered the two Israelite spies. (Rahab is the sister of the almost-sacrificed virgin.)

After Tony rescues Doug from the dungeon, they take refuge on the roof of Rahab's house, but are betrayed by her servant lady, who desires the reward of 1,000 talents of silver. Doug escapes to tell Joshua the information that he seeks.

Tony and Rahab are about to be stoned to death, but when the Israelites complete their march, blow their trumpets and shout, the walls of the city fall down as what appears to be a tornado traces the destruction. Ann, a skeptic, decides that since a tornado is a natural phenomenon, that the fall of the walls was not a supernatural event, while Ray is convinced it was supernatural (perhaps because tornadoes are not known to strike in the Holy Lands).

The travellers are transported to a new era after telling Rahab she'll be safe.
[from Wikipedia]

BCnU!