LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES - DR. SMOOT

DR. GEORGE SMOOT

AS SEEN IN:
'The Big Bang Theory'
["The Terminator Decoupling"]

From Wikipedia:
George Fitzgerald Smoot III (born February 20, 1945) is an American astrophysicist, cosmologist, Nobel laureate, and $1 million TV quiz show prize winner ('Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?'). He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2006 for his work on the Cosmic Background Explorer with John C. Mather that led to the measurement "of the black body form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation."

This work helped further the Big Bang theory of the universe using the Cosmic Background Explorer Satellite (COBE). According to the Nobel Prize committee, "the COBE project can also be regarded as the starting point for cosmology as a precision science." Smoot donated his share of the Nobel Prize money, less travel costs, to a charitable foundation.

Smoot had a cameo appearance as himself in "The Terminator Decoupling" episode of The Big Bang Theory. He contacted the show as a fan of their often physics-based plots and was incorporated into an episode featuring him lecturing at a fictional physics symposium.

From the "Big Bang Theory" Wiki:
In "The Terminator Decoupling", George Smoot delivered the keynote address for a symposium that featured discussions on bioorganic cellular computer devices, the advancements in multi-threaded task completion, plus a roundtable on the nonequilibrium Green’s function approach to the photoionization process in atoms. Sheldon, Leonard, Raj and Howard took the Coast Starlight train to attend this "must-see" conference in San Francisco. In the interim, Leonard read Smoot's book, "Wrinkles in Time, and Sheldon fretted over a forgotten flashdrive as he wanted Smoot to light up as he read his brilliant paper on astrophysical "probes of M-theory effects in the early universe which was contained in the storage device. At the conference, Sheldon presumably showed George Smoot his paper, as Penny e-mailed it to him, and suggested a collaboration continuing Sheldon's research, Cooper-Smoot, to bring Smoot back on top with another Nobel Prize; Smoot surmised Sheldon was crazy and walked away, as Sheldon asserted he is a diva and that it could be Smoot-Cooper. Earlier, Sheldon had said Dr. Smoot is one of the great minds of our time and his work in black body form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation cemented our understanding of the origin of the universe.

BCnU!

SUPER SIX LIST - BUONO NO BUENO



I'm still operating without a computer at Toobworld Central, so anything besides the daily League of Themselves will be a little skint. I may be doing a few of these entries - the Super Six List.

I just saw Victor Buono in an episode of 'I Spy' and in the pilot for 'The Wild, Wild West' this week, and it struck me how much I miss his style of acting. So I decided to come up with this Super Six List of his best TV villains.....

1] KING TUT (Professor William Omaha McElroy) - 'Batman'
Probably this will be his best-known character for eternity. He played the flamboyance to the hilt and made it seem normal for the character. The added twist that he was a split personality gave it some pathos.

2] COUNT CARLOS MARIO VINCENZO ROBESPIERRE MANZEPPI - 'The Wild, Wild West'
Count Manzeppi pales in comparison to Dr. Loveless when it comes to creating a recurring villain for Secret Service agents West and Gordon, but he does fit the steam punk theme well.  (In the pilot episode he played a Chinese businessman named Wing Fat, who has inspired another Super Six list, coming soon.)

3] KARAFATMA - 'I Spy'
I just saw this one for the first time. The Turkish spy thought he found a way to overcome his shortcomings in espionage, but when he was trumped by Scottie, it probably sealed his doom.

4] BEN HUGGINS - 'Perry Mason'
Huggins was an updated version of Fagin from 'Oliver Twist' and it was perfect casting!  That episode ("The Case Of The Twice-Told Twist") was also in color, the only one to be seen as such.  .

5] COLONEL HUBRIS - 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' [pictured above]
Somewhere I have a quote from Hubris in my files, but I haven't been able to find it. Just as one of his henchmen is about to dispatch the other one who failed the Colonel, Hubris says something to the effect of "Do enjoy the journey. They say getting there is half the fun." But don't quote me on that!

Hubris was in the episode "The Deadly Goddess Affair' and could have been in another episode the next season but Buono was unavailable. Jaques Aubuchon filled in as a Colonel Hamid.

6] MR. SCHUBERT - 'The Man From Atlantis'
Buono's last great recurring villain for Toobworld. The world's oceans suited his outsized talents.......

BONUS:
JULIUS LIMEWAY - "GOODNIGHT, MY LOVE"
I really need to find this movie, a fantastic pastiche of old Bogie detective films. With Richard Boone and Michael Dunn as the private eyes (not your usual!), Barbara Bain as the femme fatale, and Buono as the Fat Man. The lingering shot of him left behind in the restaurant booth, knowing that his doom was nigh, has stayed with me.

BCnU!

LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES - MUSICIANS AS MURDER SUSPECTS

WILLIE NELSON

AS SEEN IN:
'Monk'
["Mr. Monk And The Red-Headed Stranger"

From the 'Monk' Wiki:
After a rehearsal for his latest concert in San Francisco, Willie Nelson has an argument with Sonny Cross, his road manager, accusing him of embezzling $400,000 worth of money. He warns Cross that if he doesn't pay it back, he may not return to Austin. The next day, Sonny arrives at the radio station where Willie has an interview that morning. He sees a note instructing him to use a side entrance. Two gunshots are heard from inside, rousing a radio jockey, who races outside. A woman, Wendy Mass, is screaming for someone to call for help, and Willie Nelson is standing over Sonny's dead body. Willie informs the jockey that Sonny has been shot, and the jockey asks him about what has happened.

Everyone, including Stottlemeyer, is irritated by the fact that Monk refuses to accept the obvious: Willie Nelson is a killer. But both Monk and Trudy were big fans, and Monk can’t believe bad of him. He also notices something suspicious: Cross entered the alleyway because a note pinned on the door told him to use the side door; however, the note was addressed “J. Cross”; Sonny’s real first name was Jason, but Willie and seemingly everyone else has forgotten this.

KID ROCK

AS SEEN IN:
'CSI: NY'
["All Access"]

From CSI Files:
Nick Russo, Kid Rock's limo driver, is found dead outside the venue where Kid is performing, but Mac Taylor barely has time to examine the scene before he hears a disturbing call on the police scanner: shots have been fired and an officer may be down at an address he recognizes all too well: Stella's. He and Flack find Stella in her apartment, unconscious and beaten. The body of her boyfriend, Frankie Mala, lies nearby, dead. Stella is taken to the hospital where she will undergo a complete work up. The CSIs are relieved to learn Stella hasn't been raped, but they need to piece together what led her to kill Frankie, whom she shot three times. Flack sits down with Stella to help her piece together what happened.

Danny and Lindsay tackle the Russo case, their suspicions first landing on Blake Mathers, Kid's original limo driver, who was fired for bringing groupies up to the parties. But Blake maintains his innocence, so Danny turns to a CD found in the limo, which contains Kid's new song, and was apparently used by Nick to release the song onto the net. Could Kid have killed him? The rocker denies it; he wanted Nick to release the song, to build buzz for his new album.

Two for Tuesday!

BCnU!

ROGER CLINTON ON "THE NANNY" (NO, NOT LIKE THAT!)



I could probably do a whole week of Alex Trebek appearances as himself. 

Hrmmmmm.......

LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES - ROGER CLINTON

ROGER CLINTON

AS SEEN IN:
'The Nanny'
["Where's Fran?", "Franny and the Professor", "The Nanny Behind the Man"]

From Wikipedia:
Roger Cassidy Clinton (born July 25, 1956) is an American actor and musician and the half-brother of former President Bill Clinton.

Clinton has guest-starred on a number of television shows, including The Nanny as himself (neighbor).  



BCnU!

A CROSSOVER I'D LIKE TO SEE!

SUPER SIX LIST -

SIX TV CHARACTERS

AT THE CENTER OF GREAT SITCOM ENSEMBLES

1]  ROB PETRIE, 'The Dick Van Dyke Show'
2]  MARY RICHARDS, 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show'
3]  ALEX REIGERT, 'Taxi'
4]  DAVE NELSON, 'NewsRadio'
5]  SAM MALONE, 'Cheers'
6]  DR. BOB HARTLEY, 'The Bob Newhart Show'

Your mileage may vary.....

BCnU!

LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES - DICK VAN DYKE

By Jill Jacobs, Reuters:
From "Mary Poppins" to "Night at the Museum" and his own long-running TV comedy, Dick Van Dyke has done it all during a show business career spanning seven decades.

On Sunday, Van Dyke, 87, gets a lifetime achievement award from the Screen Actors Guild in Los Angeles, just a year after his 1960s "Dick Van Dyke Show" co-star Mary Tyler Moore received the same honor.

DICK VAN DYKE

AS SEEN IN:
'The Scooby Doo Movies'
["The Haunted Carnival"]

TV DIMENSION:
The Tooniverse

From "Scoobypedia":
When the gang arrived at a carnival they discovered it completely abandoned except for Dick Van Dyke asleep in a ticket booth and discovered he owned it. He then disguised himself as a carnival barker and a strongman to make the gang think it was not abandoned. After his strongman disguise failed, he revealed to them that the reason for the carnival being abandoned was that it was haunted by the ghost of a strongman. He then helped Scooby Doo and the gang subdue the ghost.

BCnU!

BLACKADDER OF WORLDSTAGE

Late last year, Rowan Atkinson and Tony Robinson brought back their classic TV characters of Edmund Blackadder and Sodov Baldrick (respectively) - but they did so in a sketch during the "We Are Not Amused" benefit at the Royal Albert Hall. (The benefit was to fill the coffers of the Prince's Trust.)

This time out, Blackadder was an immoral banker who picked up his title of Lord at the Parliamentary gift shop. He was the head of the Melchett, Melchett and Darling Bank which ws in debt to the tune of £20billion. Because of that, Lord Blackadder was called to testify before a committee of MPs investigating the financial crisis.

Lord Blackadder blamed his gardener Baldrick and millions of others like him for the problem by running up debts for ‘luxury items such as fuel and food’.

Baldrick had a cunning plan to get the country out of debt but Blackadder sneered that it would have to be ‘so brilliant that it would win a place at Oxford University – even if it had a Northern accent’. But as usual in such schemes by the pair, it didn't pan out.

So the characters of Blackadder and Baldrick, reborn souls who were inducted into the TV Crossover Hall Of Fame for Christmas of 2002, crossed over into a different fictional universe, that of the Theater, WorldStage.

Here are a couple of scenes from that sketch:

BCnU!

LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES - LUCY LAWLESS

Let's visit the Tooniverse for today's member of the League of Themselves.....

LUCY LAWLESS

AS SEEN IN:
'The Simpsons'
["Treehouse Of Horror X"]



From 'The Simpsons' Wiki:
Lucy Lawless played Xena in the hit show 'Xena: Warrior Princess'. She appeared in the ('Simpsons') Halloween Special "Treehouse of Horror X" playing herself, although in the persona of Xena.

Anything goes in the Tooniverse!

Ms. Lawless may show up again later this year - IF I can find the right picture!


BCnU!