LIKE BILL CRIDER SAYS: WBAGNFARB

I think I've found the name for my band....

Jim Mueller:
The Skeeeeeeeviest Phrase of the Night award goes to 'Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations' for the use of the term... condiment udders. Never heard it before, now I can never forget it.

Thanks, Jim (and Mr. Crider)!

COMMISSIONER GORDON - RECOMMISSIONED

Commissioner Gordon doesn't appear in the OnStar commercials featuring Batman, but his voice can be heard when the Caped Crusader makes a call to his office from the Batmobile. We can tell it's not the Commissioner Gordon from the 1966 'Batman' series, and since it's not taking place in the Cineverse, it's probably not Gary Oldman providing the voice either.

It's not a recastaway, and I don't think it should be a theory of relateeveety with this new Commissioner Gordon being the son (or even grandson) of the original. Instead, I'm going with it being a totally different man as the Gotham City Police Commissioner. "Gordon" is a fairly common name and after forty plus years, it was pozz'ble, just pozz'ble, for the latest man to helm the department to be named Gordon.

BCnU!

ICEPICK OF THE LITTER

'THE FINDER'

"VOODOO UNDO"

In the penultimate episode of 'The Finder' (and I'm going to miss the series), Walter Sherman was faced with a contract killer who was only known by the name of "Icepick".

Thomas 'Magnum, P.I.' knew a retired gangster who was also known as "Icepick".

I'm resisting the urge to make the claim that they were father and son, with Junior picking up the family trade, because it doesn't seem likely that Elisha Cook, Jr. (as Francis Hofstetter) could have been the father of a character played by Michael Des Barres.

But I'll leave the door open for that possibility. Icepick Senior may have sent the lad off to boarding schools and then to Eton (which would splain the accent) to make sure he had everything in Life which he himself lacked.

"I thought that, that when it was your time, 

that you would be the one to hold the string.

Senator Corleone; Governor Corleone....."

Don Vito Corleone

"The Godfather"

That sort of thing......

However, if they were related, then Icepick Sr.'s plans, like Don Corleone's, fell apart.

The new Icepick may have picked up the alias after the original Icepick died (which would have been around 1995.) And if he was his son, maybe he chose to be known only as "Icepick" because he wasn't too crazy about the last name of "Hofstetter".

Who knows? Perhaps the new "Icepick" eased the original into that permanent retirement just so that he could have sole claim to the name......

Here's another thought - instead of being the son of the original Icepick, maybe the new Icepick was the front man for a rock band called Scum of the Earth.  Sir Charles "Dog" Weatherby and his band-mates took great pleasure in violence (as seen when the radio station 'WKRP In Cincinnatti' hosted one of their concerts.)  And "hoodlum rock" may have led to him branching out to more hardcore mayhem as a contract killer......

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: HAWKEYE & CHINGACHGOOK

NATTY "HAWKEYE" BUMPPO & CHINGACHGOOK

AS SEEN IN:

AS CREATED BY:

James Fenimore Cooper

AS PLAYED BY:

TV STATUS:

Originals (1957)

TV DIMENSION:

Earth Prime-Time

From Wikipedia:

HAWKEYE

Nathaniel "Natty" Bumppo is the protagonist of James Fenimore Cooper's pentalogy of novels known as the Leatherstocking Tales.

Natty Bumppo, although the child of white parents, grew up with Native Americans, becoming a near-fearless warrior skilled in many weapons, one of which is the long rifle. Hawkeye (one of his many nicknames) respects his forest home and all its inhabitants, hunting only what he needs to survive. And when it comes time to fire his trusty flintlock, he lives by the rule, "One shot, one kill." He and his Mohican "brother" Chingachgook champion goodness by trying to stop the incessant conflict between the Mohicans and the Hurons.

Before his appearance in "The Deerslayer", Bumppo went by the aliases of "Straight-Tongue", "The Pigeon", and the "Lap-Ear". After buying his first rifle, he gained the name of "Deerslayer". He is subsequently known as "Hawkeye" and "La Longue Carabine" in "The Last of the Mohicans", "Pathfinder" in "The Pathfinder", "Leatherstocking" in "The Pioneers", and "the trapper" in "The Prairie".

CHINGACHGOOK

Chingachgook was a fictional character in four of James Fenimore Cooper's five Leatherstocking Tales, including "The Last of the Mohicans". Chingachook was a lone Mohican chief and companion of the series' hero, Natty Bumppo. Chingachgook married Wah-ta-Wah, who bore him a son named Uncas but died while she was still young. Uncas, who was at his birth "last of the Mohicans", grew to manhood but was killed in a battle with the Huron warrior Magua. Chingachgook died as an old man in the novel "The Pioneers", which makes him the actual "last of the Mohicans," having outlived his son.

Chingachgook is said to have been modeled after a real-life wandering Mohican basket maker and hunter named Captain John. The fictional character, occasionally called John Mohegan in the series, was an idealized embodiment of the traditional noble savage. The French often refer to Chingachgook as “Le Grand Serpent”, the Great Snake, because he understands the winding ways of men's nature and he can strike a sudden, deadly blow.

BCnU!

BATMAN IN THE MODERN TOOBWORLD III

Once again, I am indebted to Robert Wronski, Jr. After I published the article about Batman in the modern world, he reminded me of the OnStar TV commercials featuring Batman.

As it turns out, there were six commercials in that series, but I only saw the one that featured Michael Gough as Alfred. YouTube has all six of them available for viewing, which I posted over the weekend. But someone has edited them all together into a movie trailer.

The studio gave OnStar access to the revamped Batmobile, sets from the movies, and even clips from the films. However, I think this could still be considered the Gotham City of the main Toobworld. We're just seeing a section of town that never showed up in the 1966 series.

The look from the movie was also used in the series 'Birds Of Prey', but that's in a different TV dimension because of the recasting of Barbara Gordon and the inclusion of Helena Kyle, the daughter of Batman and Catwoman. (That clashes with the Toobworld Dynamic vision of the Catwomen - not a typo.) In the pilot of that series, Bruce Thomas also played Batman as he does in the Onstar blipverts. However, the Dark Knight had since apparently abandoned the city (which is now known as New Gotham.)

I'm thinking the "evil mirror universe" would be a good place to put that spin-off from the Batman mythos.

In the main Toobworld, perhaps in that alt-dimension as well, Bruce Thomas would be portraying the third Caped Crusader, after Bruce Wayne, the original Batman, and Dick Grayson, who used to be Wayne's ward and sidekick known as Robin, the Boy Wonder. 

Eventually, as happened in that other TV dimension, this Batman may abandon the cause and leave Gotham City. Or he could be killed by one of his opponents. This will occur once Batman is recast for a new TV series that could be set in Earth Prime-Time. (Because of Bruce Thomas' age, I doubt he would be considered for the role again.)

With that new Batman, he'd probably be known as Bruce Wayne as well. And if they go into his origin story, his father should be Dr. Thomas Wayne. So I think we can assume the new Batman would be named after his grandfather, Bruce Wayne the original Batman.

As for the Batman portrayed by Bruce Thomas, he could be just about anybody from the actor's resume of TV credits, someone who could have had a career as a costumed crime-fighter in their past or in their future. Except maybe Stephan Trager, the father of two teen-agers in Seattle, Washington, who took in 'Kyle XY' as a fosterling.

So that takes care of how the OnStar Batman can remain in the main Toobworld along with the 1966 'Batman'. Now we just have to work up the splainins for the Joker, the Riddler, the Penguin, Alfred, Commisioner Gordon, and Vicky Vale.....

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: AUGUSTE DUPIN

AUGUSTE DUPIN

CREATED BY:

Edgar Allen Poe

PORTRAYED BY:

George C. Scott

AS SEEN IN:

"Murders In The Rue Morgue"

TV STATUS:

Recastaway

TV LOCATION:

TBD - possibly Earth Prime-Time (or alternate)

From Wikipedia:

Le Chevalier C. Auguste Dupin is a fictional detective created by Edgar Allan Poe. Dupin made his first appearance in Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" (1841), widely considered the first detective fiction story. He reappears in "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt" (1842) and "The Purloined Letter" (1844).

Dupin is not a professional detective and his motivations for solving the mysteries throughout the three stories change. Using what Poe termed "ratiocination", Dupin combines his considerable intellect with creative imagination, even putting himself in the mind of the criminal. His talents are strong enough that he appears able to read the mind of his companion, the unnamed narrator of all three stories.

Poe created the Dupin character before the word detective had been coined. The character laid the groundwork for fictitious detectives to come, including Sherlock Holmes, and established most of the common elements of the detective fiction genre.

Dupin is from what was once a wealthy family, but "by a variety of untoward events" has been reduced to more humble circumstances, and contents himself only with the basic necessities of life. He now lives in Paris with his close friend, the anonymous narrator of the stories. The two met by accident while both were searching for "the same rare and very remarkable volume" in an obscure library. This scene, the two characters searching for a hidden text, serves as a metaphor for detection. They promptly move to an old manor located in Faubourg Saint Germain. 

For hobbies, Dupin is "fond" of enigmas, conundrums, and hieroglyphics. He bears the title Chevalier, meaning that he is a knight in the Légion d'honneur. Dupin shares some features with the later gentleman detective, a character type that became common in the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. He is acquainted with police prefect "G", who appears in all three stories seeking his counsel.

Dupin is portrayed as a dehumanized thinking machine, a man whose sole interest is in pure logic. This view of Dupin serves as a counterpoint to Poe's concept of perversity, introduced in "The Imp of the Perverse". This impulse embodies no reasoning and, in fact, urges people to act upon things in the opposite manner to what logic would suggest.

In "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", Dupin investigates the murder of a mother and daughter in Paris. He investigates another murder in "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt". This story was based on the true story of Mary Rogers, a saleswoman at a cigar store in Manhattan whose body was found floating in the Hudson River in 1841. Dupin's final appearance, in "The Purloined Letter", features an investigation of a letter stolen from the French queen. Poe called this story "perhaps, the best of my tales of ratiocination". Throughout the three stories, Dupin travels through three distinct settings. In "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", he travels through city streets; in "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt", he is in the wide outdoors; in "The Purloined Letter", he is in an enclosed private space.

Dupin is not actually a professional detective, and his motivations change through his appearances. In "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", he investigates the murders for his personal amusement, and to prove the innocence of a falsely accused man. He refuses a financial reward. However, in "The Purloined Letter", Dupin purposefully pursues a financial reward.

This is another example of a character who is also shared by the Wold Newton Universe, but the Toobworld Dynamic does not have the connections between Dupin and members of the Wold Newton Family.

Scott's portrayal was not the first English-language version; that honor goes to Edward Woodward for an episode of 'Detective' eighteen years earlier. However, this is more accessible and more expansive on the characterization, so I lean towards this trumping that earlier production and being the official televersion for Poe's detective in Earth Prime-Time.

As for the other portrayals, Daniel Gelin, Laurent Terzieff, and Pierre Vaneck - they can all be found in alternate TV dimensions in which the French held sway in world domination. (Surely, out of the thousands of alternate dimensions mentioned in 'Sliders', there had to be more than one in which the whole world spoke French.)

Gelin, being the first of the French actors to play the role, would be given supremacy in the main French TV dimension in which I place other TV shows from France. Terzieff and Vaneck, like Woodward, played the role in episodes of anthology series, whereas Scott and Gelin played Dupin in longer, more detailed productions. In fact, the argument could be made that since the story takes place in France, then Gelin's portrayal should be considered the true Dupin of Toobwoorld.  (I'd like to know your opinion on the subject.....)

The very first TV portrayal of Dupin was in 1954, in a German production with Walter Andreas Schwarz as the Chevalier. So that can be placed in the TV dimension in which the Germans conquered the world back in the 18th Century. And again, that was in only one episode of an anthology series.....

The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1986) (TV) Played by George C. Scott

"Histoires extraordinaires"
- La lettre volée (1981) TV episode, Played by Pierre Vaneck (as Dupin)

"Les grands détectives"
- Le Chevalier Dupin: La lettre volée (1974) TV episode, Played by Laurent Terzieff

Le double assassinat de la rue Morgue (1973) (TV) Played by Daniel Gélin (as Dupin)

"Detective"
- The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1968) TV episode, Played by Edward Woodward

"Die Galerie der großen Detektive"
- Auguste Dupin findet den entwendeten Brief (1954) TV episode, Played by Walter Andreas Schwarz

BCnU!

LEGGO MY EDDARD!

This being Sunday, I have to have some 'Game Of Thrones' content, only not what you might expect.....

BCnU!

SUPERHEROES IN OTHER TV DIMENSIONS

POST #7600

While I'm on the topic of Batman in Toobworld, let's take a look at some other super-heroes in the TV Universe - especially now with "The Avengers" entering a second strong weekend in theaters.....

Here are the Avengers, but this has to be in some other TV universe, maybe even more than one. I'm thinking the Promoverse and Skitlandia.....

And here's Spiderman again, but this time he's solidly in the Skitlandia camp:

BCnU!

BATMAN IN THE MODERN TOOBWORLD II

Robert Wronski, Jr. of the Television Crossover Universe (see the TVCU link to the left, Caped Crusaders!) reminded me of the Onstar commercials featuring the Batman. Until yesterday I didn't know there was more than one blipvert in the series. (I had only seen the one with Michael Gough as Alfred.)

Bruce Thomas played the Batman in these ads which aired at the turn of the millennium and it looks like he's a viable candidate to be Batman #3 in Toobworld. (Come on, we have to figure Dick Grayson got a shot at the job eventually, right?)

Here are the six Onstar commercials:

I'll have more on this topic later in the week.....

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: HELENA VESEY

We're going dark for Mother's Day....

HELENA VESEY

CREATED BY:

Domini Taylor

(Roger Erskine Longrigg)

PORTRAYED BY:

Dame Diana Rigg

AS SEEN IN:

'Mother Love'

TV DIMENSION:

Earth Prime-Time

From Wikipedia:

Mother Love is a British television drama that first aired in 1989. It was adapted by Andrew Davies from Laura Black's novel concerning a mother's obsessive love for her son, vengeful hatred of his father, her ex-husband, and the effect on her daughter-in-law and grandchildren. It starred Diana Rigg, David McCallum, James Wilby, and Fiona Gillies, and was directed by Simon Langton.

Christopher "Kit" Vesey (James Wilby) and Angela Vesey (Fiona Gillies), a British yuppie couple, have a presumably idyllic existence. Yet there is one troubling factor in their lives - an eccentric, and possibly, difficult mother-in-law (Diana Rigg).

Her odd behavior is confirmed in a series of incidents involving her ex-husband (David McCallum), a concert musician, and her ex-husband's second wife, Ruth (Isla Blair), an artist. Flashbacks throughout the series reveal bits of Helena's troubled past. Little by little, the young couple's life begins to fall apart and the mother-in-law begins to act out her feelings of intense jealousy in the form of revenge, implicating a dear old friend, and leading to murder.

BCnU!