THE HAT SQUAD: ED-TV [PART TWO]

Here are some video tributes to Ed McMahon, mostly showcasing his talents as a pitchman....

First up, a classic from 'The Tonight Show' when they did live commercials, this time for Alpo:



And here was Ed's "bread and Budder" when it came to commercials: Budweiser.........









Ed did a couple of Budweiser commercials with Frank Sinatra:





Even with the Clydesdales, Ed McMahon ended up as the straight man:



Okay... this one is bawdy, not Budweiser. I'm guessing by this point in the day, Johnny Carson was getting a little tired of filming promotional spots. If you're easily offended, just don't click on it!



From the 'Dean Martin Roast' of Ed McMahon, Pat Buttram and Ed's "psychiatrist" give him a couple of shots.



Finally, here's a handful of Ed McMahon tributes I found at YouTube:









BCnU.....

A VALIANT EFFORT

In the second episode of 'Merlin', the villain was a knight named "Valiant". Could it be that he was supposed to be a tele-version of the classic comic strip character Prince Valiant?

Prince Valiant does have a strong presence in the Tooniverse, as well as in the universe for movies (where he was played by Robert Wagner).
Save for the name, nothing about Will Mellor would suggest the Hal Foster character. But then again, nothing about this series is anything like the established views of Merlin and the man who would be king, Arthur.
And it is at least once removed from the main Toobworld, Earth Prime-Time, because of that deviation from the legend's norm.

So in the end, it doesn't matter. And therefore, why am I even bothering you with this?

BCnU!

ON THIN ICE WITH THIS THEORY....

'Primeval' may be canceled, but supposedly there are still plans underway to develop the story about "anomalies" which open gateways into the past - and lets all sorts of horrible little beasties out to play in the present - for a movie. And there's even been talk of a tele-version of the story for American broadcast.

And why not? After all, everything is already set in place as far as Toobworld is concerned. In fact, the anomalies are cropping up all across America even before the show is made, let alone televised!

And the Denver Museum is capitalizing on that fact by using this obviously pirated camera phone footage to drum up business........



At least that's going to be the Toobworld position on this blipvert's place in the Great Link.....

BCnU!

THE HAT SQUAD/AS SEEN ON TV: DR. JERRI NIELSEN

From the New York Times online:
BOSTON (AP) -- Dr. Jerri Nielsen FitzGerald, who diagnosed and treated her own breast cancer before a dramatic rescue from the South Pole, has died. She was 57.

Her husband, Thomas FitzGerald, said she died Tuesday at their home in Southwick, Mass. Her cancer had been in remission until it returned in August 2005, he said Wednesday.

She was the only doctor among 41 staff at the National Science Foundation's Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in winter 1999 when she discovered a lump in her breast. At first, she didn't tell anyone, but the burden became too much to bear.

''I got really sick,'' she told The Associated Press in a 2003 interview. ''I had great big lymph nodes under my arm. I thought I would die.''

Rescue was out of the question. Because of the extreme weather conditions, the station is closed to the outside world for the winter. She had no choice but to treat the disease herself, with help from colleagues she trained to care for her and U.S.-based doctors she stayed in touch with via satellite e-mail.

She performed a biopsy on herself with the help of staff.

A machinist helped her with her IV and test slides, and a welder helped with chemotherapy.
She treated herself with anti-cancer drugs delivered during a gripping mid-July airdrop by a U.S. Air Force plane in blackout, freezing conditions.

In a headline grabbing rescue, she was lifted by the Air National Guard in October, one of the earliest flights ever into the station when it became warm enough -- 58 degrees below zero -- to make the risky flight.

After multiple surgeries in the U.S., including a mastectomy, the cancer went into remission until 2005.

DR. JERRI NIELSEN

AS SEEN IN:

"Ice Bound"

AS PLAYED BY:
Susan Sarandon

BCnU.....

THE HAT SQUAD: ED-TV

Yes, there was 'Star Search', and that show about TV bloopers, the endless commercials for which he was the consummate pitchman, and of course, his years as Johnny Carson's sidekick on 'The Tonight Show'. But as a League of Themselves member, Ed McMahon did exemplary service for Toobworld with his connections to two dozen different TV shows. McMahon died just after midnight on Tuesday at the age of 86, after a series of health problems including a broken neck in 2007. And he had financial difficulties in his last years that cast a dark cloud over the public's memories of him.

But for Toobworld, we just want to remember the larger than life personality and good humor of Ed McMahon which could not be contained even by his hearty frame.

Here are those shows which can be considered linked together in Toobworld because of the participation of Ed McMahon:

"Scrubs"

- My Roommates (2005)

"Las Vegas"

- Degas Away with It (2004)

"ALF's Hit Talk Show"
- Drew Carey/Dennis Franz (2004)

"It's All Relative"

- Our Sauce, It Is a Beauty (2004)

"That '80s Show"

- Road Trip (2002)

"Popular"

- The Brain Game (2001)

"Just Shoot Me!"

- Finch on Ice (2000)

"Sabrina, the Teenage Witch"
- Prelude to a Kiss (1999)

"Suddenly Susan"
- Ben Rubenstein, Meet Joe Black (1999)

Jerry Seinfeld: 'I'm Telling You for the Last Time' (1998) (TV)

"Muppets Tonight"

- Episode #2.5 (1997)

"Malcolm & Eddie"

- The Commercial (1997)

'Weird Al' Yankovic: (There's No) Going Home (1996)

"Roseanne"

- Halloween - The Final Chapter (1995)

"Living Single"

- Crappy Birthday (1993)

"The Larry Sanders Show"

- Hank's Wedding (1993)

"Who's the Boss?"

- A Well-Kept Housekeeper (1991)

"Full House"

- Star Search (1989)

"The Cosby Show"

- Can I Say Something, Please? (1989)

"ALF"

- Tonight, Tonight: Part 1 (1988)

- Tonight, Tonight: Part 2 (1988)

"Amazing Stories"

- Remote Control Man (1985)

"CHiPs"

- Roller Disco: Part 1 (1979)

- Roller Disco: Part 2 (1979)

"Here's Lucy"

- Lucy and Johnny Carson (1969)

Ed McMahon provided a series of fictional characters to the Toobworld registry as well. The one I remember best is Lamont Franklin in "The Adventure Of The Eccentric Engineer". (Not that he was around long in that episode of 'The Adventures Of Ellery Queen' - Franklin was the murder victim.) Probably his longest-running fictional character would have been Charlie Dickerson, a TV personality in St. Paul, as seen on Tom Arnold's series, 'The Tom Show'.

He even gave voice to characters in the Tooniverse, from 'The Angry Beavers' to 'Bruno The Kid', and even to a cartoon version of hmself in 'Duck Dodgers'.

THE TOONIVERSE

"Duck Dodgers"

- Queen Is Wild, The/Back to the Academy (2003)

"Family Guy"

- When You Wish Upon a Weinstein (2003)

"The Simpsons"

- Treehouse of Horror IX (1998)

"Pinky and the Brain"

- The Pinky and the Brain Reunion Special (1998)

Ed was an old hand at being a pitchman, from the old school. And he had quite a line of products that benefitted from his endorsements. His appearance in most of these* should also be counted in his League of Themselves tally.

TV commercials:

Cheer laundry detergent

DirectTV (1998)

Conseco Direct Life (w/Alex Trebek) (1999)

Miller Automotive car dealer (Los Angeles area)

Mr. Mobility (2006)

Premier Bathrooms (2005)

American Family Publishers

Cash4Gold.com, 2009

Longtime commercial spokesman for Anheuser-Busch, makers of Budweiser, Michelob and other brands of beer.
*I'd exclude any blipvert in which he played some other character - like the Budweiser commercial with Frank Sinatra in which they were both members of the US Cavalry.

I'm thinking 2010 will be the Year of the League of Themselves for the TV Crossover Hall Of Fame. And for January, traditionally the month in which we celebrate Classic TV, who could be a better candidate than Ed McMahon?

I am correct, Sir!

Heyoooooo and Godspeed....

BCnU.....

THEORY OF RELATEEVEETY: BAIN'S BAIRN

I won't argue if anybody says that I think about Toobworld topics way too much. Here's one that actually came to me in a dream and woke me up.....
Barbara Bain was born in 1931, and her character of Cinnamon Carter on 'Mission Impossible' would have been the same age. 'Space: 1999' was set in "the future", and the birth date for her character of Dr. Helena Russell was established on the series as being 1957, which made her 42 at the time of the lunar explosion at the nuclear dump. Had Dr. Helena Russell been the same age as Ms. Bain, she would have been 44 in 1999 (like me).

Here's the Toobworld Central hypothesis - in 1957, Cold War femme fatale Cinnamon Carter gave birth to a daughter out of wedlock. The baby was named Helena, but we don't know what family name she was given. It may be that Cinnamon gave the child up for adoption because her life as a spy made it impossible for her to be a mother as well. But I think Helena was raised by her birth father, a prominent physician.

Helena's last name of Russell was her married name - she had been married to Lee Russell, an astronaut who was missing and presumed dead on the Astro 7 mission to Jupiter.

As to the identity of Helena's father, the lover of Cinnamon Carter? In the script for the episode "Bringers Of Wonder [Part One]", we learned that Helena's father died of a massive coronary while she was a first year intern. As she remembered it, she "was there in the house when happened. I haven't lost many patients, but the first one had to be my father."

(I suppose the temptation would have been to suggest that Cinnamon's IMF partner Rollin Hand could have been the father. But Rollin didn't join the team until shortly before we met him on 'Mission Impossible' in 1966, and before that he wasn't even known as Rollin Hand. Two years before, in April of 1964, he defected to the United States to offer his services to the government. His name was Major Ivan Kochenko and the story of his defection can be found in the 'Twilight Zone' episode "The Jeopardy Room". At least, that's the premise Toobworld Central supports.) My only regret is that Cinnamon Carter's return to the small screen on 'Diagnosis Murder' took place in 1997. She seemed somewhat frail and careworn in the episode "Discards"; and had it taken place in 1999 we might have suggested that her condition was due to the death of her daughter Helena in the lunar explosion.

(In case you didn't know, the lunar explosion of the nuclear waste dumps which kicks off the series 'Space: 1999' was the only thing that actually happened on that show. Everything else - the Moon breaking free of its orbit and the adventures of Moonbase Alpha while hurtling thorugh space - was part of the coma dream playing out in the mind of Commander Koenig, who barely survived the blast. Sadly, Dr. Russell was not one of those who survived.

Incidentally, her character has been described as dour and humourless in the first season of 'Space: 1999', but she became more playful in the second season. I think the change can be ascribed to the type of medications given to Koenig while he was comatose; it altered the landscape of his dream world.)

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: IT'S FRANKIEEEEEE!

I'm never surprised by the many things I can find through the Internet; I'm more shocked by those things I CAN'T find!

After writing up the story of how Mia Farrow allegedly threw herself at "Mini-Gene" (at least according to the lead singer in the band Mini-KISS), I went looking for pics of either Patsy Kensit as the actress in "Love & Betrayal" (about the scandal of her relationship with Woody Allen), or Nina Siemaszko, who played the role in the TV bio-pic "Sinatra".

It was impossible. (Although there may be somebody out there who can prove me wrong.)

So instead, today's "As Seen On TV" showcase is of Mia Farrow's first husband, Ol' Blue Eyes himself.....

FRANK SINATRA

AS SEEN IN:
"Sinatra"

AS PLAYED BY:
Philip Casnoff

BCnU!

FRANK STALLONE AGAIN, NATURALLY

Thanks to Frank Stallone poking fun at his own image on 'Z Rock' (which was reminiscent of how celebs play themselves in the series 'Extras'), Toobworld Central can now link 'Z Rock' to 'Movie Stars'.

In 'Movie Stars', Todd Hardin was stuck in the shadows of his brother Reese's celebrity, and he found a chance to vent about it at his weekly poker game. The other players at the table were Don Swayze, Joey Travolta, and Frank - all of whom knew what it was like to have a more famous brother.... BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: H.G. WELLS, TIMES TWO

Something a little bit different for Two For Tuesday in the "As Seen On TV" department: two portrayals of H. G. Wells, but from the same series....

H.G. WELLS

AS SEEN IN:
'Lois & Clark'

AS PLAYED BY:
Terry Kiser
Hamilton Camp

Since these were appearances in which time travel was involved, and it was a science fiction series, this recastaway is easy to splain away.

When Hamilton Camp began appearing as Wells, Lois Lane and Clark Kent were meeting the H.G. Wells of another TV dimension who had travelled forward not only in Time but in the "relative dimensions" of Space as well.

BCnU!

MAMA MIA!

In this week's episode of 'Z Rock', the boys opened for Mini-KISS. Afterwards at the backstage party, Mini Gene (far left) told Paulie about his encounter with Mia Farrow, who really wanted to have her way with him. He turned it down and a day had not gone by when he didn't regret it.

Now THAT is guilt by association for a League of Themselves member!

BCnU!