WHAT DREAMS MAY ZONK

I'm cleaning out my email box of all the notes for blog posts I never completed. And I found this account of a dream I had. I have no memory of it now:

Woman called me looking for Cordell Walker - or at least wondering if Walker was the same man she had a fling with.

Her description did not fit Walker, who was a friend of mine and an author. I had a book by him wit his name in big letters on the cover.

her description included the fact that he had a military family background.

I told Walker - who looked like Tom Selleck, but he had no clue.

The corner of my bed on the floor was covered with grey hair balls.

I slept in the basement, it looked like family house on Highland avenue.

i realized that this woman might come looking for me to shut me up if i knew too much.

I was lying in bed with a beautiful woman, who was fully clothed, and we did not have sex. she was with me while I talked to woman n phone, yet still could have been that woman somehow.

I feared that she may kill me when I tried to cross the street.

She ordered me not to say anything to anybody about the call.

The most disturbing thing about the dream is that I would dream about a Chuck Norris character.....

BCnU!

LOST BOYS

My brother, an editor at a Connecticut newspaper, let me know that two former members of the 'Lost' cast are sharing a birthday today: Dominic Monaghan is 33 and Ian Somerhalder is 31. Both of their characters, Charlie Pace and Boone Carlyle respectively, were killed off on the show, but have shown up in flashbacks and weird metaphysical visitations.

And both actors have landed on their feet since leaving 'Lost'. Monaghan is currently playing Simon Campos on 'Flash-Forward' while Somerhalder is bad-boy vampire Damon Salvatore in 'The Vampire Diaries'.

Happy birthday boys!

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: COTTON MATTERS

ELI WHITNEY

Eli Whitney (December 8, 1765 – January 8, 1825) was an American inventor best known as the inventor of the cotton gin. This was one of the key inventions of the Industrial Revolution and shaped the economy of the antebellum South. Whitney's invention made short staple cotton into a profitable crop, which strengthened the economic foundation of slavery. Despite the social and economic impact of his invention, Whitney lost his profits in legal battles over patent infringement, closed his business, and nearly filed bankruptcy.
(from Wikipedia)

AS SEEN IN:
"Swing Out, Sweet Land"

AS PLAYED BY:
Dean Martin Eli Whitney was the inventor of the "cotton beer" over in Skitlandia. (This variety special was fully sponsored by Budweiser.) As Whitney splained it, he didn't need eight Clydesdales to pull a martini.

But in the Tooniverse, Eli Whitney invented something that had nothing to do with cotton.....

AS SEEN IN:
'Time Squad'

AS PLAYED BY:
Tom Kenney (voice)

Here's part two of the first adventure on 'Time Squad', which gets to the heart of the story:



BCnU!

PS:
I... imagine you thought I'd feature somebody else today? Plenty of December 8ths to come for that. Besides, next year will be the thirtieth anniversary, sadly......

TVXOHOF, 12/2009-B: CHARLES DICKENS

Our next inductee into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame for December, representing the "As Seen On TV" category, has made several appearances in the posts of Inner Toob in the past.

CHARLES DICKENS

AS PORTRAYED BY:
Simon Callow

AS SEEN IN:
. . . "Doctor Who" (2005)
{The Unquiet Dead (#1.3)} . . . An Audience with Charles Dickens (1996)
. . . Hans Christian Andersen: My Life as a Fairy Tale (2001)

. . . The Mystery of Charles Dickens (2000) That many appearances in Toobworld as Dickens earns Simon Callow the "honor" of representing the author in the Hall of Fame gallery.

(There's also "Christmas Carol: The Movie" from 2001, which is mostly an animated film. But it begins with a live-action introduction that takes place in 1857 Boston where Dickens is about to give a live reading of "A Christmas Carol" - as we saw him do in that 'Doctor Who' episode'. And again, over in the Cineverse, Simon Callow played Dickens.)

This doesn't negate any other portrayals of Charles Dickens on television; all save one, that is. Most of the others can be placed in alternate TV dimensions.

The one exception is the Dickens played by Jonathan Harris in an episode of 'Bonanza'. In his tour of America, Dickens never made it past the Mississippi River, and yet there he was in Carson City, Nevada and at the Ponderosa Ranch if I'm not mistaken.

O'Bviously, as I once splained in the old Tubeworld Dynamic website, this charlatan was a professional Charles Dickens impersonator who scammed the people of the wild, wild West into paying him for his "lectures". He was a very confident confidence man - not even after being arrested for a crime he didn't commit did this grifter drop the ruse and reveal himself to be anyone else other than Charles Dickens.
Here's Charles Dickens, as seen in "The Unquiet Dead", one of my favorite episodes of 'Doctor Who':



And here's the imposter as seen in the 'Bonanza' episode "A Passion For Justice":



So here's to Charles Dickens, and to his "official" representative, Simon Callow, for this induction into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame.

BCnU!

ZONKS: SCROOGED BY "FLASH-FORWARD"

'Flash-Forward' has now gone on hiatus until March, and when it returns, it'll probably play out its storyline before leaving the airwaves forever.

I've been enjoying the series, although it never had the must-see right away quality of the show it was most compared to - 'Lost'. Still, I'm invested in what happens to the Benford family and their friends and co-workers, and in finding out the secret behind the massive blackout.

However, I'm also not keen on solving any Zonks that might pop up in the series because it has no bearing on the main Toobworld. From the very first episode we knew this was an alternate dimension, because one of the planes that crashed was Air Force Two carrying the Vice President. Had this been Earth Prime-Time, that would have meant that Joe Biden was now dead because he's the Veep for both Toobworld and the real world.

So when Demetri Noh blathered on about an established TV character and the actor who played him, I didn't go diving for my notebook to write down the details - because Dem and that other TV character weren't sharing the same dimension. (I wish now I had jotted down the information though - at least then I'd have remembered the character's name!)

In a later episode we learned the Toobworld/F-F Vice President's name, although bleeped if I could remember it now. But we also got to meet the POTUS, and it's not Barack Obama - his name is David Segovia (played by the great Peter Coyote). And we also met the future Vice President, Senator Joyce Clemente played by Barbara Williams. So Earth Prime-Time/F-F doesn't have to be held to the same rules as those that govern the maintenance of Earth Prime-Time, the main Toobworld. And that's why I don't have any problem with the characters of a TV show were watching a TV production of 'A Christmas Carol' in this last episode before the hiatus. Instead of showing us Reginald Owens or Alistair Sim or Albert Finney (or even Jim Carrey if ABC really wanted to push the Disney synergy!), the "Christmas Carol" clips were of Sir Michael Hordern as Ebenezer Scrooge and John LeMesurier as Jacob Marley. This was from a cheaply produced, poorly received 1977 version from Britain. In this at least, Toobworld/F-F and the real world have something in common: this version of "A Christmas Carol" was made for TV. Although why it was considered good enough to be shown twice in Hong Kong, I have no idea....

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: DOROTHY DANDRIDGE

DOROTHY DANDRIDGE

AS SEEN IN:
"Introducing Dorothy Dandridge"

AS PLAYED BY:
Halle Barry

Dorothy Jean Dandridge (November 9, 1922 – September 8, 1965) was an American actress and popular singer. Dandridge was the first African American to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress.

All of her early parts were stereotypical African-American roles, but her singing ability and presence brought her popularity in nightclubs around the country.

In 1954, director and writer Otto Preminger cast Dandridge, along with Harry Belafonte, Pearl Bailey, Brock Peters, Diahann Carroll, Madame Sul-Te-Wan (uncredited), and Joe Adams in his production of "Carmen Jones". Dandridge's singing voice was dubbed by Marilyn Horne.

"Carmen Jones" grossed $60,000 during the first week and $47,000 in the second upon release in 1955. The film received favorable reviews, and Dandridge was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress, becoming only the third African American to receive a nomination in any Academy Award category (after Hattie McDaniel and Ethel Waters). Grace Kelly won for her performance in "The Country Girl".

On September 8, 1965, Dandridge spoke by telephone with friend Gerry Branton. Dandridge was scheduled to fly to New York the next day to prepare for her nightclub engagement at Basin Street East. Several hours after her conversation with Branton ended, Dandridge was found dead by her manager, Earl Mills. Two months later a Los Angeles pathology institute determined the cause to be an accidental overdose of Imipramine, a tricyclic antidepressant. She was 42 years old.
(edited from Wikipedia)

BCnU

HEIR A PERRIN?

'Dollhouse' returned last night to polish off its remaining episodes. One of the characters introduced this second season was Senator Daniel Perrin, played by Alexis Denisof. Perrin had more information on the Dollhouse system than any outsider really should have, and was publicly trying to end the practice through the influence of his office.

With no idea of what is the final fate of Senator Perrin before 'Dollhouse' goes off the air for good, and with a couple of hundred years separation to keep the issue cloudy, it's pozz'ble, just pozz'ble, that Ambassador Sarek's third wife Perrin could have been named after this theoretical ancestor.... Just sayin', is all.....

BCnU!

BLOODLINES: HERRICK

Jason Watkins made quite an impression this year as the vampire Herrick in 'Being Human'. And coming from me, that's high praise as I'm not a fan of recastaways which are too much work when it comes to splainins. Also, I'm a big fan of Adrian Lester, who played Herrick in the 'Being Human' pilot.

We know that William Herrick was already a vampire during World War I, where he turned John Mitchell into one as well.

Here's what Wikipedia has about the character:

William Herrick (Jason Watkins) is a socially powerful vampire who is interested in the way Mitchell lives his life. They used to be close partners but grew apart as Mitchell decided to try and control his vampire urges. Herrick was the vampire who "recruited" Mitchell, during World War I. Herrick is the leader of the vampires based in Bristol, their headquarters being a funeral parlor called B Edwards. He works as a police sergeant. He is leading a vampire styled Final Solution, which sees the whole world either turned into vampires, or kept like cattle as food. Their motto is 'No one gets left behind'. [Watkins's portrayal of the character was designed to be "more down-to-earth" than that of his predecessor in the role.]

I took out the next paragraph - it's a spoiler.

This doesn't tell us when Herrick was "embraced" into the Kindred himself. He could have been hundreds of years old, at least. And he was certainly old enough to have sired children before he became a vampire.

So there could be many family trees out there in Toobworld that can be traced back to William Herrick. And every so often the tele-genetics of Toobworld could produce a carbon copy of the source for those lineages - such as:

Oswald Cooper in 'Lewis' - "The Great And The Good"
Havers in 'Holby Blue' - "Episode 2.11"
Murray in 'Hotel Babylon' - "Episode 3.5"
Desmond Marshall in 'The Last Detective' - "Once Upon A Time On The Westway"
Barr in 'Blue Murder' - "In Deep"

(This is a picture of Jason Watkins in "Wild Child", but it could have easily been of Oswald Cooper at least.)

But Herrick can't be the ancestor for Colin Merrick in a second season episode of 'Life On Mars'. I won't play Spoiler King here for those still not exposed to one of the greatest TV series ever. But those in the know understand why this is not an option.

BCnU!

REFLECTIONS OF A CATHODE BRAIN

As I waited for the subway tonight to go to work, a woman walked past me whose hair had been dyed a deep day-glo orange. She wore tight dungarees and a checked red jacket.

And all I could think about was what it would be like to boink a post-op tranny Howdy Doody......

That's not too much information... information... information, is it?

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: OTTO PREMINGER

Otto Preminger's birthday was yesterday. But as Walt Disney is a member of the TV Crossover Hall Of Fame, he won the day's ASOTV showcase.....

OTTO PREMINGER

AS SEEN IN:
"Introducing Dorothy Dandridge"

AS PLAYED BY:
Klaus Maria Brandauer
(Seen here with Halle Barry as Dorothy Dandridge)

Otto Ludwig Preminger (5 December 1906 – 23 April 1986) was an Austrian-born American film director who moved from the theatre to Hollywood, directing over 35 feature films in a five-decade career. He rose to prominence for stylish film noir mysteries such as "Laura" (1944) and "Fallen Angel" (1945). In the 1950s and 1960s, he directed a number of high-profile adaptations of popular novels and stage works. Several of these pushed the boundaries of censorship by dealing with topics which were then taboo in Hollywood, such as drug addiction ("The Man with the Golden Arm", 1955), rape ("Anatomy of a Murder", 1959), and homosexuality ("Advise and Consent", 1962). He was twice nominated for the Best Director Academy Award. He also had a few acting roles.

While filming Carmen Jones (1954), Preminger began an affair with star Dorothy Dandridge, which lasted four years. During that period, Preminger reportedly had been in discussions to secure Dandridge for the featured role of Tuptim in the 1956 film of "The King and I". However, for reasons unknown, Dandridge was not cast. She ended the affair with Preminger upon realization that he had no plans to leave his first wife to marry her. Their affair was depicted in the HBO Pictures biopic, "Introducing Dorothy Dandridge".
(from Wikipedia)
Among those "few acting roles" is a Toobworld character that is still a Zonk waiting to be splained away: Mr. Freeze from the 1960's show 'Batman'. Preminger was the second to assay the role, after George Sanders but before Eli Wallach. I'm still not sure if they were: all different men taking on that alias; the same man with splainins regarding the change in appearance; or a combination of both splainins.

BCnU!