TIME FOR SOME CULTURE.....

WISH-CRAFT: CASTING VLAD

I caught up to the last two episodes of 'The Inbetweeners' this morning. In one of them, Simon had to "baby-sit" with an exchange student from France.

Here's the actor who played the part, Vladimir Cosigny:

I'm putting this out there as a suggestion to casting directors - get this kid for some TV show over here in America! I think you'll find he's going to bring in a lot of female eyes to whatever show you put him in.

Here are a few suggestions:

'ENTOURAGE' - Remember "Bizarro Jerry" on 'Seinfeld'? Cosgny could be the French version of Vincent Chase, and a possible threat when it comes to landing certain roles - and women.

'GOSSIP GIRL' - He'd be perfect as a foreign exchange student, but whether he ends up with one of the girls or one of the guys....?

'VAMPIRE DIARIES' or 'TRUE BLOOD' - Perhaps as a vampire from France or even down home-grown Louisiana bloodsucker? How hard can it be to take his natural accent and fine-tune it to Cajun?

Any of the procedural shows as a possible suspect in a murder investigation would be a likely way to go, or a 'White Collar' case, a 'Leverage' caper; maybe a 'Burn Notice' client ......

Sitcoms like 'Community', 'How I Met Your Mother', '30 Rock'......

I wonder if he'll turn up in other Brit shows like 'New Tricks' or 'Doctor Who'.....?

There's a YouTube video out there of a scene from this movie "Hellphone". I don't feel right embedding it or even linking to it, but it certainly shows Cosigny would be willing to take chances in a production.

You'll find it, don't worry.....

BCnU!

STANDING IN FOR CAGNEY & LACEY

In the pilot episode of 'New Tricks', one of Gerry Standing's ex-wives compared him to "Cagney and Lacey".

Within the "reality" of Toobworld, she wasn't referring to the TV show; we can't allow that since both shows should be sharing the same universe.

But she could have been referring to the characters as real people. For their time (which in my perspective, wasn't that long ago), NYPD detectives Chris Cagney and Mary Beth Lacey could be seen as pioneers, ground-breakers, giving the women who came after them on the force the opportunity to break their own glass ceilings. And in a world where everybody will have their own TV show eventually, that stance most likely garnered them notice from some TV producer.

That's the simplest splainin possible. Probably the only one. It's not like we can claim that the mention of "Cagney and Lacey" was about two totally different people. After all, too many shows have mentioned the series in the past.

Among them:

'Mayo'
'Dempsey & Makepeace'
'Burn Notice'
'Angel'
'Married... With Children'
'Veronica Mars'
'Growing Pains'
'The Nanny'
'Red Dwarf'
and
'Mystery Science Theater 3000'

As a matter of fact, a character in an episode of 'Mayo' used it as her alibi in an investigation.....

BCnU!

JOY OF ZONK DISABLING

Every so often a scrap of paper rises from a deep strata of detritus here at my desk in Toobworld Central, with some TV quote I scribbled down for one of my blog riffs someday.

That day has arrived for this one:

"Joy can tell how a 'CSI' episode will end by the 45 minute mark."
Crabman (probably)
'My Name Is Earl'

'My Name Is Earl' was rife with Zonks. Remember that episode where they acted out 'Friends'? The girl in Earl's class with a mustache, whom Earl tagged as 'Magnum, P.I.'?

Luckily, this Zonk is easy to cross off the list.......

'CSI' is such a generic title that in Toobworld it could be a reality series about crime scene investigations. If the location or the characters on that show are mentioned in any other series, then it's a reality show about the Las Vegas crime lab officers.

And an O'Bservation? I don't think figuring out the ending by the 45 minute mark is all that spectacular. Try figuring out a 'Monk' episode before the opening credits!

BCnU!

MORE ON THE WORLDS OF MARPLE

Many times when characters from Earth Prime-Time "slide" over to another dimension, the people they meet are twins to their counterparts back in the main Toobworld. But the greater concept of Toobworld doesn't always work that way. Because some properties are reworked and then recast, they generally wind up in the remake dimension. And because of the recasting, characters sharing the same name, occupation, their basic life, will have to look different from the original.

As I'm on one of my periodic Christie kicks, we'll use Miss Jane Marple as an example. In the main Toobworld, she was played by Dame Joan Hickson, who appeared in TV adaptations of all the novels. Nearly a decade after she retired from the role, Geraldine McEwan moved into St. Mary's Mead as Miss Marple - but now had to be placed in the remake dimension.

(Gracie Fields played Miss Marple in a one-shot back in the 1950's and technically should be considered the Miss Marple of Earth Prime-Time. But as Dame Joan has an impressive body of work in the role, Toobworld Central has judged in her favor. Ms. Fields can share the same alternate TV dimension as Art Carney as Horace Ford and Ronald Howard as Sherlock Holmes.....)

And it's not just the characters' tele-genetics that go through changes from one TV dimension to the next. Architecture is another example. Check out these two images of Gossington Hall from the two different productions of "The Body In The Library".....

From 1984, with Joan Hickson as Miss Marple: and twenty years later with Geraldine McEwan as the spinster sleuth: Because each individual has free will, the lives of characters in the main Toobworld don't have to be scrupulously copied in the alternate dimensions. And again, "The Body In The Library" serves as the example.

As that example, I don't think it gives anything away to say that the character of Conway Jefferson was confined to a wheelchair for a different reason in each dimension. In the main Toobworld, it was due to a plane crash. In the remake dimension, it was caused by a German bomb during the War. All of the other dire results from both tragedies remained the same....

I just watched both productions this week, and without giving anything away (I hope!), I can say that even though the murder plot, the motive, and the many characters involved remained the same, ultimately the answer to the mystery was not quite the same for both. In fact, the revelation was altered for a more... salacious solution.

As an O'Bservation:I've seen more of the McEwan "Marple" mysteries than I have of Hickson's, and so far I am leaning towards the first set of remakes as being the more entertaining. (Except for the casting of the guest stars, I'm not too keen on the newer version, now that Ms. McEwan retired. Julia McKenzie now plays the role of Jane Marple.)

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: CLARK ROCKEFELLER

Lifetime presented a TV movie about this guy on Saturday......

CHRISTIAN KARL GERHARTSREITER
alias
CLARK ROCKEFELLER

AS SEEN IN:
"Who Is Clark Rockefeller?"

AS PLAYED BY:
Eric McCormack

From Wikipedia:
Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter (born February 21, 1961) is a German man who came to the United States, assumed the alias Clark Rockefeller, and married a successful lawyer. The couple later separated. Gerhartsreiter abducted his daughter, Reigh Storrow Mills Boss in July 2008 and was apprehended six days later. It was determined that Gerhartsreiter had wildly embellished his background to give the impression that he was born into great wealth. He was later convicted and imprisoned on the abduction charge.

BCnU!

NUMBERS RUNNING: LOST LICENSE

One of "The Numbers" from 'Lost' showed up in 1953 on the license plate of Colonel Melchett's car in "The Body In The Library", a Miss Marple mystery.....

BCnU!

BOOKING A DATE WITH MISS MARPLE

I'm watching the 1984 adaptation of Agatha Christie's "The Body In The Library" starring Joan Hickson as Miss Jane Marple. And within the first few minutes, I was able to determine where in the Toobworld Timeline the mystery takes place..... "She Died Laughing" by Leonard Gribble was published in 1953. As this looks to be a first edition, or at least from the very first printings, I'm going to state that the mystery at Gossington Hall took place in that year....

BCnU!

HANDLING THE BAREFOOT TRUTH

I'm planning on seeing the group Barefoot Truth when I go on vacation this summer. I was checking out their videos on YouTube because I had never heard of them before, and this is the one that won me over into choosing them over the other options for those two weeks:



BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: CASEY JONES

On this date in 1863, the legendary railroad engineer Casey Jones was born.

CASEY JONES

AS SEEN IN:
'Casey Jones'
AS PLAYED BY:
Alan Hale, Jr.
From Wikipedia:
John Luther "Casey" Jones (March 14, 1863 – April 30, 1900) was an American railroad engineer from Jackson, Tennessee who worked for the Illinois Central Railroad (IC). On April 30, 1900, he alone was killed when his passenger train collided with a stalled freight train at Vaughan, Mississippi on a foggy and rainy night. His dramatic death trying to stop his train and save lives made him a folk hero who became immortalized in a popular ballad sung by his friend Wallace Saunders, an African American engine wiper for the IC. Due to the enduring popularity of this song, his life and legend have been celebrated for over a century.

There's a Tennessee museum dedicated to the man and myth.

So long for now we'll be seeing you when

Casey comes rollin' by again

With a steamin' boiler and a smokin' stack

And the wheel striking thunder of the railroad tracks

There'll be Casey Jr. and Old Red Rock, too

Fireman Wally and the rest of the crew

In a thrilling adventure that's a lot of fun

When Casey takes the throttle for another run

I've used a lot more pictures than I usually do for an "As Seen On TV" profile, but I couldn't resist that big dopey grin on Alan Hale......

BCnU!