JUST SAYIN', IS ALL.....

TOOBWORLD TAKE-AWAY: "MAN UP!"

I didn't bother with watching the pilot for 'Man Up!'. I was bored even by the commercial for it. And if something meant to promote a series proves to be boring.....

I won't even bother with finding a related picture to go along with this mention of the series. Instead I'll just grab something at random from my overly-stuffed hard drive....

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: DENIS THATCHER

DENIS THATCHER

AS SEEN IN:
"The Long Walk To Finchley"

AS PLAYED BY:
Rory Kinnear

From Wikipedia:
Major Sir Denis Thatcher, 1st Baronet, MBE, TD (10 May 1915 – 26 June 2003) was a British businessman, and the husband of the former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. He was born in Lewisham, London, the elder child of a New Zealand-born British businessman, Thomas Herbert (Jack) Thatcher, and his wife (Lilian) Kathleen, née Bird. He is the most recent person outside the Royal Family to be awarded a hereditary title.

On 28 March 1942, Thatcher married Margaret Doris Kempson, (23 January 1918 – 8 June 1996), the daughter of Leonard Kempson, a businessman at St. Mary's Church, Monken Hadley. They had met at an officer's dance at Grosvenor House the year before.

Although initially very happy, Thatcher and his first wife never lived together. Their married life became confined to snatched weekends and irregular leaves as Thatcher was often abroad during the war. When Thatcher returned to England after being demobilised in 1946, his wife told him she had met someone else and wanted a divorce. Their childless marriage ended in the first weeks of 1948. Kempson married Sir (Alfred) Howard Whitby Hickman, 3rd Baronet (1920–1979) on 24 January the same year.

Thatcher was so traumatised by the event that he refused fully to talk about his first marriage or the separation, even to his daughter, as she states in her 1995 biography of him. Thatcher's two children found out about his first marriage only in February 1976 (by which time Margaret was leader of the Conservative Party) and only when the media revealed it.

In February 1949, while attending a Paint Trades Federation function in Dartford, he met Margaret Roberts, a chemist and newly-selected parliamentary candidate. They married on 13 December 1951, at Wesley's Chapel in City Road, London. That was because not only were the Roberts Methodists but also because as a divorced man, Thatcher could not at that time remarry in an Anglican church.

They later had twin children, Carol and Mark, who were born on 15 August 1953.

BCnU!

FANSHAWE: THE GAME OF THE NAME

I can't speak with any authority on which surnames are the most common in Great Britain. Alls I know is that the St. John-Mollusc family tree has died out, thanks mostly to the annual Upper Class Twit Of The Year awards.

Even so, I don't think a surname like "Fanshawe" could be that commonplace in the UK. It recently popped up on American TV screens last week as the name for the British Ambassador and his son. (By the way, as sainted a memory as his late wife might enjoy, Ambassador Fanshawe really should get a paternity test on that d-bag kid....)

So it's pozz'ble, just pozz'ble, that Ambassador Fanshawe could be descended from Harry Fanshawe, from episode one of the historical mini-series 'The Devil's Whore'.

Harry was soon unjustly killed off in that opening episode on orders of Charles I's government and the rest of the series dealt with his widow Angelica and her taking up the cause of revolution, bringing her in contact with historical figures like Thomas Rainsborough and Oliver Cromwell.

I haven't seen the mini-series; I hadn't heard of it until I started research into the name "Fanshawe". But I don't think Harry and Angelica were married long enough to have children and I don't think he left her with child before she died. But there's always a chance that, despite his love for Angelica, Harry did have his way with some saucy tavern wench in the district and saddled her with a bastard. And this unofficial Fanshawe could have begun his own family tree which would eventually lead to Ambassador Richard Fanshawe*.

BCnU!

* I'm seeing the name spelled as "Fanshaw" at certain sites, notably the IMDb, which as we all know is always correct. However, in the episode we saw the layout for the ambassador's residence labeled as "Fanshawe Mansion".

TOOBWORLD TAKE-AWAY: "ENLIGHTENED" & "LAST MAN STANDING"

This is going to be a real tele-quickie, for both shows - with thanks to two of my favorite TV reviewers.....

"LAST MAN STANDING"

In the headline for his review of 'Last Man Standing', HitFix TV columnist Alan Sepinwall said that the new Tim Allen sitcom was "groan-worthy".

That was good enough for me; I didn't even bother to record an episode to sample it. I only saw a handful of 'Home Improvement' episodes (for Toobworld purposes, like the 'Soul Man' crossover, for example), so it was as though I had to give up a new chance to visit with an old favorite.

As for its place on Earth Prime-Time, I think it's safe. They won't be changing the President to somebody fictional, because that would rob Tim Allen's character of the chance to rail against Obama, just as Archie Bunker used to praise Nixon.

"ENLIGHTENED"

As for the new Laura Dern series on HBO, 'Enlightened', I had the first episode in my DVR queue, but never got around to watching it. But after reading Rob Buckley's review at his blog "The Medium Is Not Enough", I'm going to erase it without sampling it.

Quoth the Buckley:

"Possibly the dullest, most pointless TV drama since… oh, 'Pan Am', but even less happens..... One episode was enough and so little is happening in it, that I couldn't even work out what I'd put in a full review. So this is all it's getting."

I'll take his word for it.

The show seems to be low in social standing for any of its character to have any kind of impact on the status of 'Enlightened' in the main Toobworld. So even if it is that bad, it still has a home in Earth Prime-Time.

Another sign I'm not going to invest any time in these shows?  I didn't bother to find pictures for either one of them.  Instead I'm just going to pull out a random picture from my Augean stables of a hard drive:

By the way, links to both Rob's "The Medium Is Not Enough" and Alan's "What's Alan Watching?" can be found among the links to the left, you last men enlightened. Because that's how I blogroll.....

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: THOMAS RAINSBOROUGH

THOMAS RAINSBOROUGH

AS SEEN IN:
'The Devil's Whore'

AS PLAYED BY:
Michael Fassbender

TV Dimension:
Earth Prime-Time

From Wikipedia:
Thomas Rainsborough (1610 – 30 October 1648), or Rainborough or Raineborough or Rainborowe or Rainbow or Rainborow, was a prominent figure in the English Civil War, and was the leading spokesman of the Levellers in the Putney Debates.

Rainsborough commanded the Swallow and other English naval vessels in the first civil war. By May 1645, he was a colonel in the New Model Army, taking an active part in the battles at Naseby and at Bristol. Later that year, he captured the symbolic stronghold of Berkeley Castle. In 1646, he helped conclude the Siege of Worcester.In January 1647, Rainsborough became a member of parliament for Droitwich. He was the highest ranking supporter of the Levellers in the New Model Army and one of the speakers for the Leveller side in the Putney Debates (July 1647), where he opposed any deal with the King.

In early 1648, he was due to return to the Navy as a Vice-Admiral, but his Leveller sympathies were unpopular with some officers, and a mutiny ensued. He was returned to Army service.

In October, Rainsborough was sent by his commander, Sir Thomas Fairfax, to the siege at Pontefract Castle, where he was killed by four Royalists during a bungled kidnap attempt. His funeral was the occasion for a large Leveller-led demonstration in London, with thousands of mourners wearing the Levellers' ribbons of sea-green and bunches of rosemary for remembrance in their hats.

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: MARIE LLOYD II

MARIE LLOYD

AS SEEN IN:
"Edward The King"

AS PLAYED BY:
Adrienne Posta

TV DIMENSION:
Earth Prime-Time (Conditional)

The Toobworld Central rules for inclusion of a character in the main Toobworld are as fluid as some of the scripts themselves which feed the TV Universe.

First rule of thumb - the first depiction of a character should get precedence. This has been the overall case for shows like 'The New Addams Family' and the remake of '87th Precinct', as examples. But sometimes the original must be jettisoned in favor of a remake that has more compelling reasons to be included.

As an example: "The Incredible World Of Horace Ford", an episode of 'The Twilight Zone' starring Pat Hingle. This story was previously done with Art Carney in the title role, written by the legendary Reginald Rose for 'Westinghouse Studio One'. But that version is probably only available at museums like the Paley Centre for Media in New York and Los Angeles., whereas the T-Zone version pops up frequently, mostly when Syfy has a 'Twilight Zone' marathon. So that's the one that is a more permanent part of the consciousness which powers the TV Universe.

When it comes to historical figures, many of whom are recast in different productions, several factors come into play. If the character is the focal point of their own story, that has more weight than if he or she is a supporting player in someone else's drama. It also doesn't hurt if they appear in a regular series and have interactions with the main fictional characters.

In the case of Marie Lloyd, there were three portrayals of her in television. Because "Marie Lloyd - Queen Of The Music Hall" was all about her, then Jessie Wallace's portrayal gets the preferential gig in Toobworld.

As for Georgia Brown playing the popular entertainer in an episode of the anthology series 'The Edwardians', the main thrust of the story centered on a fictional character in a fictional confrontation during a real-life event, the Music Hall War of 1907. Therefore the whole production could be looked upon as a Toobworld dramatization that we happen to see in the Trueniverse.

The last portrayal of Marie Lloyd, in the real world chronology the second one to be broadcast, was by Adrienne Posta in an episode of the mini-series 'Edward The King'. The argument could be made that we're seeing Marie Lloyd as the Prince of Wales envisions her and not as she really appeared. Or we could say that she is the same Marie Lloyd as we would later see played by Jessie Wallace. However, for this one performance with the future King present, she underwent a massive transformation with make-up and a blonde wig to please His Royal Highness.

(It would have been nice if it remained a distant shot from the audience so that we never really got to see what she looked like. But I'm sure Ms. Posta was happy to get the close-up.)

I used to have a strict policy that if I accept one historical adaptation, then I was accepting every portrayal of the historical figures from that one version and all others had to be packed off to alternate TV dimensions unknown. But I've accepted that the Toobworld Dynamic is a sloppy mess, just like real life is. And I've come to accept blended versions of historical reality, usually based on that principle regarding having one's own story told. So it's Timothy West as Bertie from 'Edward The King', but it's Marie Lloyd from "Marie Lloyd - Queen Of The Music Hall". (As for the portrayal of Queen Victoria by Annette Crosbie in 'Edward The King', I'm afraid that as great as she was, her performance is trumped by that of Prunella Scales in three different TV productions.)

BCnU!
 
(We got a "Two for Tuesday" after all......)

I ZONK LUCY

Ann Perkins:

"I bought this Mackerel at the Supermarket.

I've been standing in the water with the fish on my hook for 30 minutes.

I saw it on an episode of 'I Love Lucy'.

Pathetic?

Maybe, but it feels pretty good to have a bunch of little boys be super in to me.

That came out wrong....."

'Parks & Recreation'

There's no getting around it - Lucy Ricardo is one of the many TV characters who would have their lives adapted for a TV show within TV shows.

And when you think about it, her life was worthy of a TV show - she was the wife of a celebrity who tried many far-fetched ideas to get into the business herself. A similar situation would be of Alan Brady adapting Rob Petrie's memoirs into a sitcom for himself. First as a vehicle for himself in which the character based on him (while he played Rob Petrie) would be called Alan Sturdy; and then as a vehicle in which Rob Petrie look-alike Dick Van Dyke assumed the role.

BCnU!

A big thanks to Lisa of the Flaming Nose Blog (link to the left, lucites!) for the picture of Lucy.....

AS SEEN ON TV: MARIE LLOYD

I didn't find out about her until it was too late to mark the occasion of either her death or her funeral on the proper dates....

MARIE LLOYD

AS SEEN IN:
"Miss Marie Lloyd - Queen Of The Music Hall"

AS PLAYED BY:
Jessie Wallace

From Wikipedia:
Matilda Alice Victoria Wood (12 February 1870 – 7 October 1922) was an English music hall singer, best known as Marie Lloyd. Her ability to add lewdness to the most innocent of lyrics led to frequent clashes with the guardians of morality. Her performances articulated the disappointments of life, especially for working-class women.

Marie's first major success was "The Boy I Love Is Up in the Gallery", and she quickly became one of the most famous of English music hall singers. Despite her own success she supported other performers during the Music Hall War of 1907, when performers demonstrated outside theatres for better pay and conditions. During the First World War, in common with most other music hall artists, she enthusiastically supported recruitment into the army.

She first appeared in the USA in 1897, but in 1913 was initially refused entry to that country for "moral turpitude". On 4 October 1922 Marie collapsed on stage as she was performing at the Empire Music Hall in Edmonton, London, and died three days later. Her funeral on 12 October was attended by more than 100,000 people.
BCnU!

INVASION OF THE COUGAR TOWNIES

From "USA Today":
In an unusual spectacle of stunt casting, Courteney Cox and her co-stars on the third-season ABC comedy ['Cougar Town'] will pop up in background roles on more than a dozen shows across several networks before its season premiere early next year.

Ian Gomez [kicked] things off as a doctor on 'Grey's Anatomy', followed by Cox and Christa Miller as a lesbian couple at a fertility clinic on 'Private Practice'.

Almost all the roles are designed to be uncredited, non-speaking appearances for a cast that also includes Dan Byrd, Josh Hopkins, Busy Philipps and Brian Van Holt. To date, 13 shows are on board, says Lawrence, who hopes eventually to have more than 20. Series include:

•ABC: 'Body of Proof', 'Castle', 'Dancing With the Stars', 'Man Up!' and 'The Middle'

•CBS: 'How I Met Your Mother'

•Nick Jr.: 'Yo Gabba Gabba!'

NBC's 'Parenthood' and CBS' '2 Broke Girls' are also likely.

In return, 'Cougar Town's writers and actors, some of whom have thousands of Twitter followers, will tweet to promote their appearances.

AOLTV reported the story and then bleeped it up with their own observation:
This isn't the first time 'Cougar Town' stars have done crossovers. Last season, series stars Dan Byrd and Busy Phillips appeared as background characters on 'Community,' a nod to the NBC show's running story about Danny Pudi's characters' love of the series. Pudi himself also appeared in an episode of 'Cougar Town.'

These new appearances by the cast of 'Cougar Town' will NOT be crossovers (for the most part). These are actors appearing on other shows as different characters. With 'Dancing With The Stars', Courtney Cox wasn't even a character - she appeared as herself in support of her husband David Arquette.

There's always the pozz'bility that some of these appearances, if they remain nameless and perhaps without dialogue, could be considered to be their characters from down in TV-Florida. But we'll just have to wait and see if these roles can support that hypothi- hypotha- can support that splainin.

As for those appearances between 'Cougar Town' and 'Community', I've written about that already.
 BCnU!

My thanks to my "Little Buddy" Sean for suggesting this topic.....