LINKIN' HAZE: AN IRONCLAD SPLAININ?

Despite being shot at nearly point-blank range by a professional hit man, Mozzie survived into the season premiere of 'White Collar' and he's well on the way to recovery. No big surprise for fans of the show, I'm sure. (Even so, I chose Mozzie's shooting as the 2010 Toobits Award winner for Best Cliffhanger. Hey, you never know - Willie Garson may have had a movie opportunity come up.)

Once he was out of the hospital (as seen in "Burke's Seven"), Mozzie spent the rest of the episode in a motorized wheelchair, prompting FBI Agent Peter Burke at one point to address him as "Ironside". And Mozzie nodded in acknowledgement. "Ironside", considering there was a wheelchair involved, had to be a reference to former San Francisco Chief of Detectives Robert T. Ironside, who was confined to a wheelchair due to a sniper's bullet.

Chief Ironside was seen in the eponymous crime drama that ran on NBC from 1967 to 1975. But that doesn't make his reference a Zonk. A dedicated law enforcement agent like Peter Burke would have known about a legendary cop like Ironside.
As for Mozzie, perhaps in his younger days he was "working" out of San Francisco. And paranoid that he is, I'm sure it would have paid for him to know his possible opponents on the police force there.

BCnU!

LINKIN' CASE: "FRINGE" & "TWIN PEAKS"

January isn't even over and yet we already have a slew of new crossovers for Toobworld. Before the month is over, we'll even have what I guarantee to be the Crossover of the Year!

But this one was pretty cool as well......

'Fringe' returned to the airwaves* on Friday night with the episode "The Firefly". At one point, Dr. Walter Bishop was sporting custom-made, wire-framed 3D glasses. When Astrid commented on them, Walter said that they were a gift from his friend Dr. Jacoby, who was in Washington state. Dr. Lawrence Jacoby was a character in the 1990 cult hit 'Twin Peaks', a town situated in Washington. And Dr. Jacoby was known to wear such eyewear during the course of the series. Walter and Jacoby may not have been classmates in college - there's about a decade's difference in their ages. But they could have been colleagues in research (at least before Walter ended up in St. Claire's.) There's no age limit in that - after all, Dr. William Bell was over a decade older than Walter as well.

It's always possible that Walter's "son" Peter was on his way to visit Dr. Jacoby (perhaps an old family friend as well as Walter's research associate) in the state of Washington when he became entangled in the events of the episode "Northwest Passage".

'Fringe' has made connections to 'The X-Files' and to 'Lost' in the past, both of which can link to many other TV series. So this would bring 'Twin Peaks' into the fold and that's a big get. There have been more obscure references to the off-beat classic in the past, but shots of swinging traffic lights, damn good coffee & cherry pie, and eery Badalamente-style music aren't enough to declare a connection to the 1990 cult classic. And for shows like 'The Chronicle', 'Beverly Hills 90210', and 'The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air', it was just a TV show anyway.

The show that came the closest to making a theoretical connection would be 'Northern Exposure'. In the episode "Russian Flu", Holling took Joel and his fiancee to the waterfalls of Cicely, Alaska, (which suspiciously looked like the waterfalls in Twin Peaks, Washington), and there they saw a woman who looked a lot like the Log Lady from the other show.

Okay, so we never actually got to see the Log Lady. But I'm willing to accept that it was Margaret Lanterman anyway, seen from a distance. Now, the filming locations for both shows were near each other, but in the reality of Toobworld, there's quite a distance between Twin Peaks and Cicely. Easily splainable - Ms. Lanterman was on vacation up in Alaska.

(The recent 'Psych' episode "Dual Spires" was James Roday's homage to 'Twin Peaks'. But even though so much was similar to the original series, and aside from the use of five cast members from 'Twin Peaks' appearing in guest roles, no connection can be made between the two shows.)

Having Walter actually be friends with a character from 'Twin Peaks' is quite a prize for Toobworld Central. It's a moment to be treasured....... Too bad it can't be wrapped in plastic.

BCnU!

* I realize in this age of digital, cable, and satellite TV, the term "airwaves" - as well as "broadcast" and "televised" and "telecast" may be archaic, but they're part of the history I'm not willing to give up.....

AS SEEN ON TV: KEITH OLBERMANN

KEITH OLBERMANN

AS SEEN ON:
'Saturday Night Live'

AS PLAYED BY:
Ben Affleck

From CBS News & 'CBS Sunday Morning'

(CBS/AP) NEW YORK - MSNBC host Keith Olbermann announced Friday that he is leaving the network and has taped his last "Countdown" show. MSNBC issued a statement that it had ended its contract with the controversial host, with no further explanation. Olbermann hosted the network's top-rated show, but his combative liberal opinions often made him a target of critics.
Olbermann did not explain why he was leaving.

"There were many occasions, particularly in the last two and a half years, where all that surrounded the show - but never the show itself - was just too much for me," he told viewers.

"MSNBC thanks Keith for his integral role in MSNBC's success and we wish him well in his future endeavors," the network said.

A spokesman said Phil Griffin, MSNBC's president, would not comment on Olbermann's exit. Spokesman Jeremy Gaines would say only that the acquisition of NBC Universal by Comcast, which received regulatory approval this week, had nothing to do with the decision.

Olbermann, before leaving the show with a final signature toss of his script toward the camera, thanked his audience for sticking with him and read a James Thurber poem.

The host reminisced about his brief goodbye at ESPN's "Sports Center" that was cut short to accomodate a result from a tennis match and his time at MSNBC, thanking his fans, highlighting the $2 million in donations they sent to National Association of Free Clinics in honor of his dying father.

"This may be the only television where in the host was much more in awe of the audience than vice versa," said Olbermann during his sign-off. "You will always be in my heart for that, and for the donations to the Kranich family in Tennessee and these victims of governmental heartlessness in Arizona..."

More from CBS on the story:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/01/21/entertainment/main7270700.shtml

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/01/23/sunday/main7274479.shtml

BCnU!

A MAJOR BIRTHDAY!

Today is the birthday of my friend, Natalie Major.....

In celebration, here are three YouTube videos culled from her performance at the Bitter End on January 13th of this year. (I was supposed to go, but that was during my week of the bathroom renovation nightmare. Having no access to a shower for a few days wouldn't have been fair to the others in her audience.)

I hope you enjoy!

Happity happity, Natalie!

SKED ALERT: "GAME OF THRONES"

We've got to wait until April before HBO finally unveils its adaptation of George R.R. Martin's fantasy world of "Game Of Thrones".

But that doesn't mean we can't start sampling it now.....

Expect Toobworld Central to be all over this new series with splainins and Zonks and Wish-Craft when it debuts on April 17! Because as it stands now, I expect that its world can be part of the TV dimension for Earth Prime-Time.... But that doesn't mean it takes place ON Earth Prime-Time.

My cyber-friends, I'm thinking this ties in nicely with my ideas about Earth's "twin", Mondas......

"Game Of Thrones" comes to HBO on April 17.

BCnU!

HURTIN' ON HURNDALL

For this Sunday's edition of Video Weekend at Inner Toob, I was going to do a video post that might splain away the presence of Richard Hurndall as the First Incarnation of the Doctor (as seen in "The Five Doctors".) But then I realized that would be perfect for the "Who's On First" celebration next New Year's Day. (Besides, the whole point of Video Weekend is to avoid heavy cerebral lifting.....)

So instead, here's a fun - and short - bit o' wish-craft on the part of some 'Doctor Who' purist who has his own views on the subject of Richard Hurndall's participation.....

BCnU!

IT GETS BETTER

The cover story for the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly is about the high visibility of gay teens on TV and the positive image they convey at a time when real life gay teens could use all the support they can get.

There's an online project going in which famous and not so famous people reach out to that audience to counsel them that, as bad as things may seem right now, it will get better; urging them to find the inner strength to hold on and to seek out those willing to listen and care.

The creative team from Pixar put together their own video as well....

BCnU......

JABBA JIVE

'Parks & Recreation' FINALLY came back to the NBC schedule this week. (Stupid move on your part, Peacockers, to hold off for so long!)

And as soon as the theme song kicked in, I was reminded of this video....

BCnU!

THE FRIENDS & FAMILY OF "TREK"

Years ago, MCI had a "Friends & Family" phone deal commercial that utilized many of the cast members from the original 'Star Trek'... plus an added guest.....

I'm guessing this could have come out around the same time as "Star Trek 10: Generations", when the 'TNG' cast took over the movie franchise. But I could be wrong.

This isn't a Zonk, of course. No mention is made of the 'Star Trek' franchise; none of the actors refer to their characters. It's just a bunch of actors whom we know to be forever associated with the greatest sci-fi contribution to Toobworld. And that doesn't necessarily mean this local chapter of the League of Themselves weren't all connected to some other TV or movie project within the reality of the TV Universe.

Why would they be so put out by the presence of Frakes? Maybe he directed them in some disasterous project they'd all sooner forget....

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: CHARLES LINDBERGH

On this date in 1941, Charles Lindbergh testified before the U.S. Congress and recommended that the United States negotiate a neutrality pact with Adolf Hitler.......

CHARLES LINDBERGH

AS SEEN IN:
"The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case"

AS PLAYED BY:
Cliff De Young

From Wikipedia:
In his January 23, 1941, testimony in opposition to the Lend-Lease Bill before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Lindbergh proposed that the United States negotiate a neutrality pact with Germany. President Roosevelt publicly criticized Lindbergh's views on neutrality three months later during a White House press conference on April 25, 1941, as being those of a "defeatist and appeaser" and compared him to U.S. Rep. Clement L. Vallandigham (D-OH), the leader of the "Copperhead" movement that had opposed the American Civil War.

Three days later the famed aviator resigned his commission as a Colonel in the U.S. Army Air Corps in an April 28 letter to the President in which Lindbergh said that he could find "no honorable alternative" to his taking such an action after Roosevelt had publicly questioned his loyalty.

In a speech at an America First rally in Des Moines on September 11, 1941, "Who Are the War Agitators?" Lindbergh claimed the three groups, "pressing this country toward war [are] the British, the Jewish and the Roosevelt Administration" and said of Jewish groups:

"Instead of agitating for war, the Jewish groups in this country should be opposing it in every possible way for they will be among the first to feel its consequences. Tolerance is a virtue that depends upon peace and strength. History shows that it cannot survive war and devastation."

In the speech, he warned of the Jewish People's "large ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio and our government", and went on to say of Germany's antisemitism, "No person with a sense of the dignity of mankind can condone the persecution of the Jewish race in Germany."

Lindbergh declared:

"I am not attacking either the Jewish or the British people. Both races, I admire. But I am saying that the leaders of both the British and the Jewish races, for reasons which are as understandable from their viewpoint as they are inadvisable from ours, for reasons which are not American, wish to involve us in the war. We cannot blame them for looking out for what they believe to be their own interests, but we also must look out for ours. We cannot allow the natural passions and prejudices of other peoples to lead our country to destruction."

BCnU!