AS SEEN ON TV: PERRY MASON

I always knew that if I was facing a deadline crunch for the "ASOTV" showcase on a "Two for Tuesday", then Perry Mason would be able to get me out of a jam just as he so often did for his clients.

Today's that Tuesday.......

PERRY MASON

AS SEEN IN:

'Perry Mason'

CREATED BY:

Erle Stanley Gardner

PORTRAYED BY:

Raymond Burr

TV DIMENSION:

Earth Prime-Time

PERRY MASON

AS SEEN IN:

'The New Perry Mason'

PORTRAYED BY:

Monte Markham

TV DIMENSION:

Evil Toobworld

or

The Toobworld of Remakes

TV STATUS (FOR BOTH):

Multi-versal

From Wikipedia:

Perry Mason is a fictional character, a defense attorney who was the main character in works of detective fiction authored by Erle Stanley Gardner. Perry Mason was featured in more than 80 novels and short stories, most of which had a plot involving his client's murder trial. Typically, Mason was able to establish his client's innocence by implicating another character, who then confessed. 

Gardner, who was one of the best-selling authors of all time, had "135 million copies of his books in print in America alone in the year of his death" in 1969. The character of Perry Mason was portrayed each weekday on a long-running radio series, followed by well-known depictions on film and television, including "television's most successful and longest-running lawyer series" from 1957 to 1966 starring Raymond Burr; another series in 1973–1974, starring Monte Markham, [Harry Guardino, Dane Clark], and Brett Somers; and 30 made-for-TV movies filmed from 1985 to 1993.

O'BSERVATIONS:

Perry Mason originated in BookWorld, but could also be found in the Cineverse (played by Warren William as well as by Ricardo Cortez and originally by Donald Wood). And he was played by Bartlett Robinson, Santos Ortega, and Donald Briggs in the first three years of the radio drama before John Larkin took over the role.

In my Toobworld novel, the Monte Markham version of Perry Mason shows up, although not named (of course).  He's revealed to be an impostor, one of those bent-pinkie aliens as seen in 'The Invaders'......

Any other suggestions for the radio universe besides "Radioverse"?

BCnU!

GENDER BLUNDER - I GOT SOME SPLAININ TO DO.....

The "Gender Variations In The Arts" blog pointed out this difference between the real world and the events that took place in 'Tales Of The City':

"Anna could not go to Denmark in 1964, because after the Jorgensen affair, Denmark had passed a law limiting gender surgery to Danish citizens."

Earth Prime-Time must reflect life in Earth Prime as much as possible. Allowances can be made for androids, talking animals, slightly different birthdates, but if the exception is abused, the "offending" TV show gets shoved off to a different dimension. 

Toobworld has no problem with Poochinsky (except that the pilot was horrible, of course), but a town full of talking bovines? Moo Mesa gets relocated to the Tooniverse. 

 

If Jules Verne is said to have been born a decade later than in real life, we can live with that discrepancy. Sherlock Holmes in the 21st Century - no matter if he's in London or New York City - has to find his 221 B Baker Street lodgings in some alternate Toobworld.

In this case concerning Danish law, I don't see how holding off on that ruling on gender surgery for at least a decade to accommodate Andy Ramsay (better known now as Mrs. Anna Madrigal) would have affected any other TV shows.

Of course, I haven't seen any Danish TV dramas or sitcoms that might have addressed the topic, but even so, I think this can be granted a pass......

BCnU!

RECASTAWAY WISH-CRAFT - "A MAN AND A GIRL*"

In today's "ASOTV" showcase, I mentioned that Anna Madrigal (as played by Olympia Dukakis in 'Tales Of The City' and its sequels) should be considered a recastaway. Even though we never saw her past life up until the late 1960's in flashback (as far as I can tell), she had been a man named Andy Ramsay. When he was 44, Ramsay went to Denmark to get a sex change (what's called a "gender reassignment" surgery today) and changed her name to Anna Madrigal.

Since the series took place in the early 1980's and the operation was performed twelve years before, I'd say Andy Ramsay existed until the late 1960's before becoming Mrs. Madrigal.

If for Toobworld purposes only, Inner Toob wanted to see Andy Ramsay in a flashback, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for it to happen. This is something that would have to be theorized as part of the Dynamic. But to actually visualize it, I think it could be accomplished by using film clips of some actor who bore a passing resemblance to what Olympia Dukakis might have looked like as a man, and in clothing and locations that suggested the time period. (And I prefer using clips from movies, a different fictional universe, rather than from TV shows that have already played out in the same TV dimension.)

Because I recently featured him in the November induction into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame, the first actor who came to mind was Fredd Wayne.

This picture is from 'Perry Mason',
so it doesn't count as a flashback candidate

We've seen scenes culled from other sources integrated into TV shows before:

• Bruce Springsteen's video for "Dancing In The Dark" became part of Jules Cobb's high school life on 'Cougar Town'.
• Scenes of William Shatner and Ralph Bellamy from the 'Studio One' pilot of "The Defender" illustrated the stormy relationship Denny Crane had with his father in an episode of 'Boston Legal'.
• 'Diagnosis Murder' resolved some plotline loopholes in an old episode of 'Mannix', bringing back many of the original actors.
• And 'Murder, She Wrote' created a sequel to a movie called "Strange Bargain", which absorbed that film noir out of the Cineverse and into the Toobworld Dynamic.

So pulling clips of Fredd Wayne out of some other movie to instead be considered as the pre-op life of Anna Madrigal would not be outside the realm of believability.

If they're in black and white, so much the better - it would enhance the flashback mood.

It would be nice if the dialogue from these scenes might tie in somehow with Mrs. Madrigal's past. But something generic - like Fredd Wayne's character coming home to greet his wife - would be acceptable. However, if there's nothing that could be recycled in the dialogue, the flashback scenes of Fredd Wayne as Andy Ramsay could be seen without the original dialogue but with a voice-over by Olympia Dukakis as she reminisced about her life as a man.

The picture I used of Mr. Wayne is from an episode of 'Perry Mason' and so I wouldn't want to use anything from that nor from any other TV show. But here are a few movie titles that might yield four results (if I stretch the parameters of the search for a decade):

• "Seven Days In May"
• "Sex And The Single Girl"
• "Chamber Of Horrors"
• "Hang-Up"

I only have those four examples because Mr. Wayne worked more often in television......

BCnU!

*"A Man And A Girl" is an anagram for "Anna Madrigal"........

AS SEEN ON TV: MRS. MADRIGAL

ANNA MADRIGAL

AS SEEN IN:

'Tales Of The City'

CREATED BY:

Armistead Maupin

PORTRAYED BY:

Olympia Dukakis

TV STATUS:

Recastaway, on a technicality

(For 44 years, she lived life as Andrew Ramsey, before going to Denmark and getting a sex change. "Anna Madrigal" is an anagram for "A Man And A Girl".  I don't think we ever saw Andy in a flashback, but he has to exist out there in the Past of Toobworld.  Which makes me wonder - who would play him?)

TV DIMENSION:

Earth Prime-Time

Mrs. Madrigal was the pot-growing landlady of 28 Barbary Lane.

From Everything2.com:

Character from Armistead Maupin's "Tales of the City" series. Anna, formerly Andy Ramsey, owns the house at 28 Barbary Lane. She's a marijuana-growing, perspicacious, witty and elegant 'old lady who used to be a man', ie, a transsexual. (Her name is an anagram of 'a girl and a man'). She calls her tenants her 'children', and mothers them, especially Mona Ramsey, her natural daughter. She meets Edgar Halcyon, Mary Ann Singleton's boss and DeDe Halcyon Day's father, on a bench, and they have an affair, which ends when Edgar dies. She doesn't get up to much after that until the last book - when she goes on holiday with Mona to Lesbos and has a nice affair with a Greek - but is kind of ever-present, and a constant link between the other characters.

(Written by "girlotron")

For more details, click here:

Mrs. Madrigal: 

Welcome to 28 Barbary Lane. 

Mary Ann Singleton: 

Thank you. 

Mrs. Madrigal: 

Yes, you should. 

Mary Ann Singleton: 

Do you have any objection to pets? 

Mrs. Madrigal: 

Dear, I have no objection to anything.

BCnU!

CALL ME MAYBE, DOCTOR?

And here is your "Doctor Who" Video Weekend content.....

I SECOND THAT STOP-MOTION!

It's time to pay the bills......

Since we're being inundated with the holiday specials, here's a classic blipvert that probably took place somewhere just south of the North Pole... in the same TV dimension where you would find "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer".

FANTASMAS NO ELEVADOR

This has been making the rounds on Facebook. It's from a Brazilian prank show a la 'Candid Camera'.

I first learned of it from Chuck McCann, who posted it but didn't like it because somebody could have had a heart attack and maybe even died.

Me? I'm one of those dark-hearted folks who believes that as long as it's not happening to me, it's funny.....

JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE TOONIVERSE (1967)

JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE TOONIVERSE (1977)

AS SEEN ON TV: PROFESSOR LIDENBROOK

PROFESSOR OTTO LIDENBROOK

AS SEEN IN:

'Journey To The Center Of The Earth'

CREATED BY:

Jules Verne

VOICED BY:

Ron Haddrick

TV DIMENSION:

The Tooniverse

From Wikipedia:

"A Journey to the Centre of the Earth" (French: "Voyage au centre de la Terre", also translated under the titles "Journey to the Centre of the Earth" and "A Journey to the Interior of the Earth") is a classic 1864 science fiction novel by Jules Verne. The story involves a German professor (Otto Lidenbrock in the original French, Professor Von Hardwigg in the most common English translation) who believes there are volcanic tubes going toward the centre of the Earth. He, his nephew Axel (Harry), and their guide Hans descend into an extinct Icelandic volcano, encountering many adventures, including prehistoric animals and natural hazards, before eventually coming to the surface again in southern Italy.

The story begins in May 1863, the Lidenbrock house in Hamburg, with Professor Lidenbrock rushing home to peruse his latest purchase, an original runic manuscript of an Icelandic saga written by Snorri Sturluson ("Heimskringla"; the chronicle of the Norwegian kings who ruled over Iceland). While looking through the book, Lidenbrock and his nephew Axel find a coded note written in runic script. (This is a first indication of Verne's love for cryptology. Coded, cryptic or incomplete messages as a plot device will continue to appear in many of his works and in each case Verne goes a long way to explain not only the code used but also the mechanisms used to retrieve the original text.) Lidenbrock and Axel translate the runic characters into Latin letters, revealing a message written in a seemingly bizarre code. Lidenbrock attempts a decipherment, deducing the message to be a kind of transposition cipher; but his results are as meaningless as the original.

Professor Lidenbrock decides to lock everyone in the house and force himself and the others (Axel, and the maid, Martha) to go without food until he cracks the code. Axel discovers the answer when fanning himself with the deciphered text: Lidenbrock's decipherment was correct, and only needs to be read backwards to reveal sentences written in rough Latin. Axel decides to keep the secret hidden from Professor Lidenbrock, afraid of what the Professor might do with the knowledge, but after two days without food he cannot stand the hunger and reveals the secret to his uncle. Lidenbrock translates the note, which is revealed to be a medieval note written by the (fictional) Icelandic alchemist Arne Saknussemm, who claims to have discovered a passage to the centre of the Earth via Snæfell in Iceland. In what Axel calls bad Latin, the deciphered message reads:

"Descend, bold traveler, into the crater of the jökull of Snæfell, which the shadow of Scartaris touches (lit: tastes) before the Kalends of July, and you will attain the centre of the earth. I did it. Arne Saknussemm ”

Professor Lidenbrock is a man of astonishing impatience, and departs for Iceland immediately, taking his reluctant nephew with him. Axel, who, in comparison, is cowardly and anti-adventurous, repeatedly tries to reason with him, explaining his fears of descending into a volcano and putting forward various scientific theories as to why the journey is impossible, but Professor Lidenbrock repeatedly keeps himself blinded against Axel's point of view. After a rapid journey via Lübeck and Copenhagen, they arrive in Reykjavík, where the two procure the services of Hans Bjelke (a Danish-speaking Icelander eiderdown hunter) as their guide, and travel overland to the base of the volcano. In late June they reach the volcano, which has three craters.

According to Saknussemm's message, the passage to the centre of the Earth is through the one crater that is touched by the shadow of a nearby mountain peak at noon. However, the text also states that this is only true during the last days of June. During the next few days, with July rapidly approaching, the weather is too cloudy for any shadows. Axel silently rejoices, hoping this will force his uncle – who has repeatedly tried to impart courage to him only to succeed in making him even more cowardly still – to give up the project and return home. Alas for Axel, however, on the last day, the sun comes out and the mountain peak shows the correct crater to take. After descending into this crater, the three travelers set off into the bowels of the Earth, encountering many strange phenomena and great dangers.

O'BSERVATIONS:

There was an animated series in 1967 which would be the Tooniverse sequel to the 1977 version, even though it aired first by a decade.

Professor Oliver Lindenbrook (as voiced by Ted Knight) is a "modern-day" (1970s) descendent of Otto Lidenbrook, whose family changed their name when they came to America.

From the 1967 show's opening narration:

"Long ago, a lone explorer, named Arnie Saknussen, made a fantastic descent to the fabled lost kingdom of Atlantis at the Earth's core. After many centuries, his trail was discovered...first by me, Professor Oliver Lindenbrook, my niece, Cindy, student Alec McEwen, our guide, Lars, and his duck, Gertrude. But we were not alone. The evil Count Saknussen, last descendant of the once noble Saknussen family, had followed us...to claim the center of the Earth for his power-mad schemes. He ordered his brute-like servant, Torg, to destroy our party. But the plan backfired, sealing the entrance forever. And so, for us, began a desperate race to the Earth's core...to learn the secret of the way back. This is the story of our new journey to the center of the Earth."

BCnU!