LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES - SCOTT WOLF

SCOTT WOLF

From Wikipedia:

Scott Richard Wolf (born June 4, 1968) is an American actor, known for his roles on the television series 'Party of Five', as Bailey Salinger, 'Everwood', as Dr. Jake Hartman, and in the Sci-Fi series 'V' as the morally ambiguous journalist Chad Decker.

AS SEEN IN:

'Action'

"Twelfth Step To Hell"

SYNOPSIS:

Peter turns down Scott Wolf for the lead in "Beverly Hills Gun Club" and Leonardo DiCaptrio proves uninterested. So, he pulls Holden van Dorn out of rehab and leaves him in Adam Rafkin's care. (from the IMDb)

BCnU!

MISSING LINK THEORY - "KING & MAXWELL" AND "HOUSE, M.D."

In the "Pilot" episode of 'King & Maxwell', we were introduced to the private eye team of Sean King and Michelle Maxwell, both of whom were once Secret Service agents (but not at the same time.)  While investigating the death of his friend and mentor, Sean King opened up about his past:

His Secret Service career ended when the presidential candidate he was assigned to protect was assassinated.  Sean hit rock bottom after that, falling into a never-ending bender.  But his friend pulled him out of his drunken funk, got him through law school, and then helped set him up as a private investigator.

My Toobworld-honed mind immediately asked: "Who was the presidential candidate?"

'King & Maxwell' is based on a series of novels by David Baldacci, but a TV series is quite the different beastie.  That candidate may have been named in the books, but not in the show.  (At least, not yet.....)  So the tele-version is fair game for speculation.

The timeline is going to be tight, but I do have a candidate for the candidate:

Senator Gary H. Wright

(Joe Morton)

'House, M.D.'

"Role Model"

The episode took place in April of 2005, when the Senator faced serious health issues that were first diagnosed as AIDS, then as hairy-cell leukemia, and eventually treated correctly as Epstein-Barre Virus.  Senator Wright would be okay, but he'd have to be on medication for the rest of his life.

The Senator told Dr. House that he still intended to campaign for President.  He knew he didn't have a chance to win, but hopefully he would open the door for somebody else.

And as we all know, Senator Barack Obama became the 44th President of the United States in 2008, both in the real world, Earth Prime, and Earth Prime-Time.

Like I said, the timeline is tight, but it looks like somebody couldn't risk Senator Wright losing that race.

I'm going to claim that Senator Gary H. Wright was assassinated later in the year - Summer of 2005 would be my guess.  An outdoor campaign event would be the perfect venue for an assassin.

Sean King quit the Secret Service in disgrace for failing to protect his charge, and then slid into an alcohol-fueled depression for several months.  (Any longer and he could have ended up dead.)  Eventually his friend pulled him out of it and guided him into law school.  

Law school usually takes three years, so by 2010, Sean King had his degree and passed the bar.  But instead of becoming a lawyer, he set up shop to be a private eye, just like his mentor.

A couple years into his gig and Michelle Maxwell quit the Secret Service as well.  She gets her private eye licence and he takes her on as a partner.

When we met them in that first episode, it was still early days in their partnership.  Sean was still learning things about her - like how she's a slob.  And their agency had serious financial concerns, as any new business might have.

So all in all, the timeline could work to bring us up to date in 2013.

I'm sorry I had to sacrifice Joe Morton's character, but it was a one-shot and he has several others to still represent the actor in Toobworld.  One of them, a doctor at 'Mercy Point', hasn't even been born yet!

And it's not likely this claim will be contradicted on 'House', as that show is cancelled.  But it's pozz'ble, just pozz'ble, that we may one day learn the name of the assassinated candidate in a future episode of 'King & Maxwell'.

If so, fine.  The great thing about the Toobworld Dynamic is its fluidity.

BCnU!

LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES - STEPHEN J. GOULD

The invasion of the cicadas will soon be over, and those that survived this trip to the surface will head back underground for another seventeen years, until 2030.

Far be it from me not to find some way to mark this occasion for Inner Toob......

STEPHEN J. GOULD

From Wikipedia:
Stephen Jay Gould (September 10, 1941 – May 20, 2002) was an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and historian of science. He was also one of the most influential and widely read writers of popular science of his generation. Gould spent most of his career teaching at Harvard University and working at theAmerican Museum of Natural History in New York. In the later years of his life, Gould also taught biology and evolution at New York University.

Gould's most significant contribution to evolutionary biology was the theory of punctuated equilibrium, which he developed with Niles Eldredge in 1972. The theory proposes that most evolution is marked by long periods of evolutionary stability, which is punctuated by rare instances of branching evolution. The theory was contrasted against phyletic gradualism, the popular idea that evolutionary change is marked by a pattern of smooth and continuous change in the fossil record.

Most of Gould's empirical research was based on the land snail genera Poecilozonites and Cerion. He also contributed to evolutionary developmental biology, and has received wide praise for his book Ontogeny and Phylogeny. In evolutionary theory he opposed strict selectionism, sociobiology as applied to humans, andevolutionary psychology. He campaigned against creationism and proposed that science and religion should be considered two distinct fields (or "magisteria") whose authorities do not overlap.

Gould was known by the general public mainly from his 300 popular essays in the magazine Natural History,and his books written for a non-specialist audience. In April 2000, the US Library of Congress named him a "Living Legend".

AS SEEN IN:

'The Simpsons'

"Lisa The Skeptic"

TV DIMENSION:

The Tooniverse

And why did I choose him in connection to the cicadas?

From Stephen J. Gould:
Many potential predators have 2-5-year life cycles. Such cycles are not set by the availability of cicadas (for they peak too often in years of nonemergence), but cicadas might be eagerly harvested when the cycles coincide. Consider a predator with a life-cycle of five years: if cicadas emerged every 15 years, each bloom would be hit by the predator. By cycling at a large prime number, cicadas minimize the number of coincidences (every 5 x 17, or 85 years, in this case). Thirteen- and 17-year cycles cannot be tracked by any smaller number.

BCnU!

MISSING LINKS - "DOCTOR WHO" & "WAREHOUSE 13"

The artifact in the "Runaway" episode of 'Warehouse 13' was an amphora once owned by a Pompeii merchant who was able to escape death in the explosion of Mt. Vesuvius.  That traumatic experience imbued the amphora with the ability to send out a lava flow.

According to the episode, the merchant was never named.  So why couldn't he be a marble trader by the name of Caecillius?

From the TARDIS Core Wiki:

Lucius Caecilius Iucundus was a man who lived in Pompeii before Vesuvius erupted in 79. Husband of Metella and father to Evelina and Quintus, Caecilius was a marble trader with political ambitions; it was to impress Lucius Petrus Dextrus, high priest of the Cult of Vulcan, that he bought the Tenth Doctor's TARDIS at the market, intending to display it as "modern art".

Along with his family, Caecilius was spared from the devastation of Pompeii by the timely intervention of the Doctor. By early 80, Caecilius and his family had resettled in Rome, and adopted the Tenth Doctor and Donna as their household gods. (TV: "The Fires of Pompeii")

Now....

From the 'Warehouse 13' Wiki:

This jar was originally owned by a merchant that survived the Eruption of Mount Vesuvius on August 25th 79 A.D.

After surviving the destruction of Pompeii, the amphora was possessed with the destructive force of a volcanic eruption.

Collected by Steve, Myka and Pete after the side of a prison wall suddenly started to spew lava. It was later discovered that 2 prisoners has escaped in the confusion. One of the escapees had a pen pal whose grandmother recently passed away; the grandmother left her antique collection to her granddaughter which had just arrived from Italy. [O]ne of the escapees used the amphora to murder his partner and then proceeded to do the same to local gang members in an attempt to stop his son from becoming a gang banger like him.

When the lid on the amphora is opened lava begins pouring out of it like water out of a hose. This artifact can be used to bury someone in lava, create a river of lava, or be used like  a welding torch to burn through solid objects. Also, when this artifact is activated volcanic ash begins falling from the sky. When this artifact is deactivated any lava that has been created cools and turns to stone almost immediately.

In the year of 79 AD, Mount Vesuvius erupted in one of the most catastrophic and famous eruptions in European history. Historians have learned about the eruption from the eyewitness account of Pliny the Younger, a Roman administrator and poet.  ("Runaway")

So I think we just may have an unofficial link between 'Warehouse 13' and 'Doctor Who'.  In fact, I would not be surprised to learn that the writer of the episode deliberately left the name of the Pompeii survivor a mystery so that Crossoverologists such as myself could make that connection!

BCnU!

LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES - GEORGE PLIMPTON

GEORGE PLIMPTON

AS SEEN IN:

'Just Shoot Me'

"A&E Biography: Nina Van Horn"

&

'The Simpsons'

"I'm Spelling As Fast As I Can"

From Wikipedia:

George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 – September 25, 2003) was an American journalist, writer, editor, actor, and gamesman. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review.

Television appearances:

• Plimpton! The Man on the Flying Trapeze, (documentary), himself, ABC, February 1971
• Mouseterpiece Theater, host, himself, Disney Channel, 1983–1984
• The Civil War, reading the diary of New Yorker, George Templeton Strong, 1990
• Wings, "The Shrink," Dr. Grayson 1994
• Voice, Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns, PBS 1994
• Married... with Children, 200 Episode Special Host "Best O' Bundy" 1995
• ER, playing "John Truman Carter, Sr.," 1998 and 2001
• Saturday Night Live, as himself, uncredited, 1999 and 2002. In the March 13 episode of Saturday Night Live Season 1, he is one of the audience cutaway shots (usually featured in the early seasons with comedic and fictitious non-sequitur captions as to whom the audience member was, or what they did). He is labelled as having "Roomed with Wendy Yoshimura".
• A Nero Wolfe Mystery, playing various roles in 10 episodes, 2001–2002
• The Simpsons, playing himself in the episode "I'm Spelling as Fast as I Can", originally aired February 16, 2003
• Just Shoot Me, playing himself in the show's A&E Biography of fictional character 'Nina Van Horn', 2003
• Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser, pitchman, himself, released by Oldsmobile in late 1968 for the 1969 model year
• Intellivision, pitchman, himself, released by Mattel in 1979
• "Pop-Secret", pitchman, himself.

Two for Tuesday!

BCnU!

LIFE DURING PRIME TIME: ALBULENA PRELVUKAJ

We've got another edition of "Life During Prime Time" today.  This is the third installment of a new feature in which we take a look at how living La Vida TiVo could be different from the mundane life people live in the real world.  And for the time being, my subjects are friends of mine.

We're taking a more fanciful approach with today's model.  Which is not surprising since she captures the fancy.....

ALBULENA PRELVUKAJ

This isn't a great picture for seeing Albulena, who's a loverly young lady (and whose nickname is my grandmother's name, so bonus points there!) But I've chosen it because it's more due to her association with the squirrel.

No, really!

As you can see, it's a red squirrel, which had an episode of a 1960s sitcom focused on one of its species:

'MY FAVORITE MARTIAN'

"MY NUT CUP RUNNETH OVER"

Martin's malfunctioning molecular reassembler is what Tim uses to accidentally turn a squirrel into a human being. Martin has to fix the reassembler within 8 hours or else "Red" as they've coined him will be permanently changed to that of a human. In the meantime, Red's family moves in with the O'Hara's until he can be changed back to his proper squirrel state. Problems arise when Det. Brennan and Mrs. Brown come for a visit and notice a squirrel entering the apartment. The detective talks about calling in an exterminator to which Red takes offense and runs off. Tim finds him in an obvious location, a nut shop. To explain Red's conviction to the store clerk and the police called in that he's a squirrel, Martin states that they are a singing group called the Squirrels performing at that evening's Police Follies. They do perform at the Follies, much in the same vein as the Chipmunks, before they take Red home to transform him back to his proper state. Written by Huggo for IMDb

I took this plot-line and ran with it, claiming that Red's enhanced intelligence was retained once he was returned to his natural form. And that meant that the red squirrel population which grew exponentially from Red onwards, was now one of the most sentient species on Earth Prime-Time.

Since red squirrels can, on occasion, mate with the more populous gray squirrels, that IQ capability was transferred to the grays as well... but with disasterous results. It led to a spike in gray squirrel crime!

But here we see Albulena with one of the reds in the real world. Had this been Toobworld, however, there could be an entire backstory to this. For instance, perhaps she's friends with the squirrel; maybe even partners in some venture. (They fight crime!)  As with Wilbur Post and 'Mr. Ed', maybe Albulena's televersion can actually converse with the squirrel, something that isn't known to the general public. That could lead to awkward situations; hilarity ensues.

And it should have a typically bad sitcom title - like "Nutty Buddies"!

But it certainly beats how the majority of people end up playing themselves on TV - either getting dragged out of their homes with no shirt on (a la 'Cops'), or getting hit in the groin with a rake like happens all the time on 'America's Funniest Home Videos'.

Speaking of nuts.....

BCnU!

LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES - REBECCA WHEATLEY

REBECCA WHEATLEY

AS SEEN IN:
'Pie In The Sky'
"In The Smoke"

From Wikipedia:Rebecca Wheatley (born 1965) is a British actress and musician.

She is best known as Amy Howard, the receptionist in the BBC's 'Casualty' drama, a role which she played for four years from September 1997 until March 2001. She was a regular panelist on 'Loose Women' in 2002.

Although Wheatley originally trained as a classical singer, she has become well known for various types of popular music. She has sung in many of the cabaret venues in the West End of London, including The Café Royal, The Ritz and The Savoy. She has also sung at the Grand Opera House in Belfast in televised performances for BBC Northern Ireland, and at the Royal Albert Hall for The TV Times "Christmas Carols with the Stars" event.

While in Casualty, she recorded two Top 10 singles; "Everlasting Love" with the 'Casualty' cast, and "Stay With Me (Baby)" solo, as well as a solo album,"Time Stands Still".

On 4 December 2007, she was a guest on 'The Paul O'Grady Show' where she talked about her 12.5 stone (175 lb) weight loss after following the Slimming World plan, to coincide with the release of her weight-loss DVD.

O'BSERVATION:

Ms. Wheatley was only listed as "Singer" in the credits, but as she is a professional singer and was performing at a very trendy little nightclub, I think it's safe to assume that she was playing herself.

BCnU!

HAVE WE LEARNED NOTHING FROM "HEIDI"?

The CBS affiliate in Atlanta decided to cut away from the Tony Awards Sunday night with about seven minutes to go in order to start their local news show was not met with much approval.  And their attempt to make up for it later in the broadcast didn't go over well either.....



In the comments someone claimed that the station did show the lost portion later on all of their platforms, but it never should have happened in the first place.

TOOBMUSIC - "CALL ME MAYBE" (with THE DOCTOR'S COMPANIONS)

LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES - GEORGE KENNEDY

GEORGE KENNEDY

 

AS SEEN IN:

 

'Wings'

"What About Larry?"

 

SYNOPSIS:

While on Nantucket for a nice quiet vacation, the Oscar winning actor is constantly pestered by Brian Hackett......

 

This is going out to my brother Andrew.  It's his birthday today.

 

When he was a little boy, his imaginary friend's name was George Kennedy.

O'BSERVATIONS:
Kennedy's membership in the League of Themselves links this show to a two-part story on 'Benson'.  It could also be argued that his hosting duties on 'Saturday Night Live' could also be considered part of Earth Prime-Time.  (Any sketches he appeared in would be part of Skitlandia.)
 

BCnU!