THEORIES OF RELATEEVEETY - PENN'S MAMA

Jack and Annie Walker
at the Rovers Return Inn

In Accrington, Lancashire, Dr. Amos Walker, a veterinarian, and his wife Joan raised four children - John (otherwise known as Jack), James, Arthur, and Louise.  A decade seperated John, who was born in April of 1900, from his little sister Louise.  And although Jack Walker was visited in Weatherfield (where he ran the Rovers Return Inn with his wife Annie) by both of his brothers, Louise never showed up at the Walkers' pub on Coronation Street.  Louise never attended the wedding of her niece Joan Walker to Gordon Davies, nor did she come back to pay her respects to her departed brother when Jack Walker died in 1970. 

And there was probably good reason for that.  Even though she was never seen on the TV screens of the Trueniverse audience, I believe Louise Walker had immigrated to America to be close to the man she loved and who was the father of her child... even if that American was married to another woman.

This is the basis for the theory of relateeveety I came up with for the mother of Dr. Penn Walker from the 'Murder, She Wrote' episode "The Night Of The Headless Horseman".

At the pub in Archbury

Just as her older brother Jack worked as a publican until he could afford his own bar in Weatherfield, Louise also worked in a bar - a small village pub not far from the airfield in Archbury which would house American airmen by 1942.  Because of that close proximity, Louise would be destined to become one of the 70,000 British war brides.  The only hitch was that the airman Louise had fallen in love with - a B-17 Flight Engineer named Edmonds - was already married.  He had a wife and a three-year old son awaiting his safe return to Cabot Cove, Maine.

Louise Walker knew what she was getting into, falling in love with a married man.  But the saying was true before Woody Allen said it: "The heart wants what it wants."  When she got pregnant, her snooty sister-in-law Annie Walker was scandalized.  Thinking more of her own standing in the Weatherfield community, Annie convinced Louise that she and the coming baby should follow Airman Edmonds back to America where she could convince him to divorce his wife and marry her.

But Edmonds had other ideas. 

He set Louise up in Wenton, a small town in Vermont near to where he would often travel on business anyway in the years before the war.  There in Weston Louise supported herself (as the "widowed" war bride Mrs. Walker) by working as a housemother at the Wenton Academy for Boys.  With financial assistance from Edmonds, she raised her son, whom she gave the name Penn, and sent him off to college to become a dentist.

It is unknown if Louise Walker lived into her seventies (which would have been during the 1980s.)  But had she been alive there must have been a good reason why she wasn't at her son's side during his time of personal crisis in 1987.  If she wasn't already deceased, then she may have been confined to a nursing home for whatever frailty that might have afflicted her at that age.

Dr. Penn Walker with Jessica Fletcher

At any rate, this is my theory of relateeveety connecting "Doc" Walker from one episode of 'Murder, She Wrote' to Louise Walker, technically from 'Coronation Street'.  (She was mentioned on that British prime time soap opera, but never appeared on it over its long history.  So she was a blank canvas upon which any Toobworld storyline might have been applied.....)

As I said, Louise Walker never showed up in 'Coronation Street'.  So her appearance is not affixed to any one actress.  Who could have played her?

Here are four actresses who could have played Louise Walker in that 1987 episode of 'Murder, She Wrote' - the main reason being they were each born in 1910.  For alls I know, each of them could have affected a slight English accent, nearly lost after forty plus years in Vermont.  (Originally I had chosen five, but it turns out that Virginia Bruce died in 1982.)

CLAIRE TREVOR

 JANE WYATT

SIGNE HASSO

PAULETTE GODDARD
[Maybe Louise Walker was the Weston Academy's school nurse]

SHOWS CITED:

• 'Murder, She Wrote' - "The Night Of The Headless Horseman"
• 'Coronation Street'
• '12 O'Clock High'

BCnU!

THEORIES OF RELATEEVEETY - SIEBERT SIBLINGS

'MURDER, SHE WROTE'

"THE SINS OF CASTLE COVE"

"INDIAN GIVER"

"NIGHT OF THE HEADLESS HORSEMAN"

Sybil Reed was a former high school student of Jessica Fletcher's while she was growing up in Cabot Cove.  Now a published author herself, Sybil wrote "The Sins Of Castle Cove" - which she claimed was only based on the geographical features of her former hometown.  But it was filled with characters whose personalities and histories were easily recognized by the citizens of Cabot Cove.

At least in Cabot Cove, the book became a best seller and soon enough one of the townsfolk was murdered in exactly the same manner as her counterpart was in the book. 

Several of the down home scandals were described in the episode, but there's one they never bring up.  It went unspoken but it was obvious to everyone - one of the leading citizens in that Maine town had an unacknowledged half brother in the nearby state of Vermont.

Norman Edmonds was the town banker, who held all of the mortgages in Cabot Cove.  He had a lot invested in getting a resort complex built in town and that was in jeopardy with the 1758 land claim by the supposed descendent of Chief Manitoka.  Meanwhile,the dentist in Wenton, Vermont, Dr. Penn Walker, was Norman Edmonds' identical twin.  

According to the Toobworld Dynamic theory of relateeveety, Edmonds' father had a mistress (with the last name of Walker) who bore him a son whom she named Penn.  The name could have been a nod to the state from which she came.  But then again, maybe she came from somewhere else in Toobworld....  (I'll have more on that in the following post.)

Nobody in Cabot Cove knew of Penn Walker's existence until a grisly murder occurred in connection to the Wenton Academy for Boys.  It was such a sensational crime, Doc Walker's face was splashed across TV screens throughout New England, especially the news channels like ZNN and the Wolf Network, and in national publications like NewsTime and Crime, a magazine from Howard Publications.

The book was released two years after the scandal which involved Doc Walker.  Combining that with his questionable parentage and his resemblance to his half-brother Norman, I would be very much surprised if there wasn't some kind of sub-plot about twins in there......

OTHER SHOWS CITED:

• 'The Name Of The Game'
• 'The Dick Van Dyke Show'
• 'Murphy Brown'
• 'NCIS'

BCnU!

O'BSERVATION: Norman Edmonds and Dr. Penn Walker were both played by Charles Siebert, only months apart.

TV-GPS: BAY CITY, CALIFORNIA

'RUN FOR YOUR LIFE'

"I AM THE LATE DIANA HAYS"

This episode takes place in Bay City, which means it can be linked to the following TV shows:

• 'Another World' - This long-running soap opera crossed over with other soaps and is a major location hub for Toobworld
• 'Starsky And Hutch' - The exteriors were filmed in San Pedro. So San Pedro served as Bay City but also appeared as itself in 'San Pedro Beach Bums'
• 'The Rockford Files' - As with 'Run For Your Life', it is the location for only one episode. In this case, "Exit Prentiss Carr". (It is also mentioned to be "45 minutes from Pasadena by freeway".)
• 'Bay City Blues' - The city had its own minor-league baseball team, which probably played against clubs like the NY Empires and the Pioneers

Bay City, California, will one day enter the TV Crossover Hall of Fame....

BCnU!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY, MANCHESTER EDITION

'CORONATION STREET'

'SCOTT & BAILEY' - S1.E2

CHARACTER STUDIES:

JACK WALKER (1900-1970) - FATHER

DSUP. THOMAS WALTERS (1931 -) - SON

In the Weatherfield suburb of Greater Manchester, the center of community interaction is the Rovers' Return Inn which was run by Jack Walker from 1937 until his death in 1970.

Walker and his wife had two children, Billy and Joan.  But as seems to be endemic in most soap opera locales, Jack had at least one illegitimate offspring.  However, it's likely that this child, a boy, was born out of wedlock to another woman before Jack Walker was married to Anne Beaumont.

It's my theory of "relateeveety" that Jack knew this girl from his school days; that they shared the same homeroom because they had similar last names: He was a Walker and she was a Walters.

Jack and Miss Walters met up again when they were about thirty and had a brief fling which resulted in Miss Walters giving birth in 1931 to a boy.  She named him Thomas and despite how it looked during those times, she raised him on her own.

By the time we in the Trueniverse audience met Thomas Walters, he was a retired Detective Superintendent of the Manchester Police, already 80 years of age.  DC Janet Sharp consulted with him about the one murder case he could never solve and which he could not let go - that of a six-year-old girl who had been Janet's childhood friend.

Working with new leads, Janet was able to solve the case, which probably gave D.Sup Walters the closure he sought for a more peaceful retirement.

ToobNotes:

Usually when I do these theories of "relateeveety", it's because the same actor is playing the two roles.  But this was something special: D.Sup Tom Walters was played by Tony Broughton while Jack Walker was portrayed by Arthur Leslie during those first ten years of 'Coronation Street'.  

And in real life, Mr. Leslie was the father of Mr. Broughton.

That both characters were living in the Manchester area, with such similar names, made it too irresistable to pass by as a link.

Happy Father's Day!

SATURDAY MORNING SUPER-HEROICS

In Skitlandia, my "cousin" Conan was doused with gamma rays which cause him to occasionally turn into a Hulk-like mutate, especially when he's mad.

However, it doesn't look as though it transforms him into a rampaging behemoth as it did to David Banner......

BCnU!

TV ON TV - "DANGER DOCTOR" VS. "DR. DANGER"

'MURDER, SHE WROTE'

"STEAL ME A STORY" 

GARY PATTERSON
ACTOR

In the mid-1980s, actor Gary Patterson revived his flagging career by starring in the action/adventure mystery series 'Doctor Danger'.  The show co-starred Brenda Blake and was produced by Sid Sharkey and Avery Stone (who also served as the script supervisor). 

In 1987, the production of the show was rocked by scandal and murder when the show plagiarized one of the mystery novels written by Jessica Fletcher, which led to the death of Sid Sharkey by a bomb.

The police were able to solve the murder, thanks to the help of Ms. Fletcher and Sharkey's loyal secretary, Frieda Schmidt.  And the notoriety from the case gave 'Danger Doctor' added life, extending its production by about two years.

'DIAGNOSIS MURDER'

"TRASH TV" (PARTS ONE & TWO)

JACKSON BURLEY
TV PRODUCER

Ten years later, producer Jackson Burley decided to revive the concept as 'Dr. Danger'.  But to save on royalty fees to the creator of the previous show, Burley claimed that his show was based on the career of Dr. Mark Sloan at Community General Hospital in Los Angeles.  Dr. Sloan often worked in collaboration with his son, Detective Steve Sloan, on cases that usually turned into murder investigations.

'Dr. Danger' starred Derek Shaw in the lead role but he was murdered before the show could hit its stride.  Eventually, Burley would not only produce the show but also play the lead role himself. 

BCnU!

MY FRIENDS IN TOOBWORLD - MARK THOMPSON

I've previously mentioned the televersion of my friend Mark Thompson, as seen in the main Toobworld.

I don't know what differences there may be in the lives of Mark and Mike's televersions.  But taking some inspiration from their lives - Mark would be this rogue physicist whose non-sanctioned experiments nearly cracked open the Wall between Worlds.  And now he wanders the country, "making right what once went wrong" and helping strangers whose lives he affected in small meaningful ways.

And today I can expand on his storyline.....

'THE TOOBWORLD CHRONICLES'

"COMFORTABLY NUMB"

As a rogue physicist, Mark gained a reputation in dealing with transversing dimensional vortices and this brought him to the attention of the "Slider" hybrid Quinn/Mallory.  Quinn Mallory, who was originally born on the Kromagg Earth but raised on Earth Prime-Time (known in the main Toobworld as Earth Prime*), was fused with his double from an alternate Earth who was known as Mallory.  Quinn's fellow Sliders tried to get the experiment reversed, but too much time had passed and the conjoined minds would remain as this new being.  Mallory proved to have the stronger personality and soon he so dominated their shared psyche that it was feared Quinn would be forever lost.  

(All of that did happen in several episodes of 'Sliders'.)

However, there were signs that Quinn was still "in there" and he took control long enough to contact Mark Thompson for his help.  

"Is there anybody in there?
Just nod if you can hear me.
Is there anyone home?"

Were they successful in separating Quinn from Mallory?

You'll have to track down that episode and see for yourself.  Muwhahahaha!

So why did I choose today to add to the list of credits for Mark Thompson's televersion?

Because today is his birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MARK!

BCnU!

* Earth Prime is the real Earth on which we live......

ECHOES: SETTLERS OF CATAN

Kristen Clark:
Do you play chess?
Detective Fischer:
 No.

Kristen Clark: 
Well, Queen takes rook.
Cameron: 
I'm a Settlers Of Catan man myself.
 

Cameron:
Are you a Settlers of Catan man?

(Thug pulls knife)

Cameron: 
More of a Risk player, I take it.

'Stitchers'

ITEMS OF INTEREST - TANAKA'S TREASURES

'MURDER SHE WROTE'

"THE BOTTOM LINE IS MURDER"

Back in 1987, Jessica Fletcher was conducting her own investigation into a murder at TV station KBLR in order to help clear the name of her niece's husband.  She met the station's janitor, Burt Tanaka, who had been working there for 35 years and had his own little museum of celebrity trash in his office.

He showed Jessica three of the items in the collection.  First up was a bronzed apple core from David Eisenhower, which showed that he must have had a chipped tooth. 

Eisenhower didn't play himself in any TV series, but has appeared in a Bob Hope special and on several news/talk shows as himself.  Over in Skitlandia and a TV movie dimension, he was portrayed by other actors.

But the other two items were better fits for making connections to other TV shows and could guarantee Burt Tanaka an honorary position in the Television Crossover Hall of Fame as the curator of such exhibits.

The second item was a salami wrapper encased in a lucite block which belonged to Frank Sinatra.  Ol' Blue Eyes has been mentioned in plenty of other TV shows, mostly when the regular characters have tickets to his shows.  (Or, in the case of the 'Here's Lucy' episode "Lucy Gives Eddie Albert The Old Song And Dance", Lucy read about Sinatra coming out of retirement in 1973 in Joyce Haber's column.)

But Sinatra did make appearances as himself on quite a few shows and one TV movie:

"Young at Heart"

'Daddy Dearest'

- You Bet Your Life

'Who's the Boss'

- Party Double

'The Name of the Game'

- I Love You, Billy Baker: Part 1
- I Love You, Billy Baker: Part 2

'Make Room for Granddaddy'

- A Hamburger for Frank

'The Thin Man'

Neighbor
- Scene of the Crime

Sure, that last one isn't necessarily supposed to be Frank, but he's in that league with Sammy Davis Jr., Bob Hope, George Burns, and Milton Berle where they are more convincing as themselves rather than as fictional characters.  So why couldn't Frank Sinatra have been that neighbor?


The last item from Tanaka's collection was also encased in a lucite block.  It was a milk container which Pat Boone had discarded only a month before.  So that would have been in January of 1987.  [See top of post.]

Here are Pat's credits in which he appeared as himself:

'Dave's World'
- Touched by an Agent

'The Fall Guy'

- Beach Blanket Bounty

'That Girl'

- She Never Had the Vegas Notion

'The Beverly Hillbillies'

- Collard Greens An' Fatback

'Second Noah'

- Diving In

Both Pat Boone and Frank Sinatra will one day be inducted into the Television Crossover Hall Of Fame as themselves.  I may even devote an entire year to that theme......

BCnU!

TWO FOR TUESDAY - SUPER SIX LIST OF TV ROLES FOR CHRISTOPHER LEE

As you must have heard by now, Sir Christopher Lee passed away on June 7.  He was 93 years old.

He appeared in well over 200 movies and is considered one of the greatest cinema Draculas, if not THE greatest of all Time.  And so many of his other great roles are hallmarks in their genres - Sherlock Holmes, Mycroft Holmes, and Sir Henry Baskerville, Saruman, Kharis the Mummy, de Rochefort and Fu Manchu.  (Funny how so many of those originated in great works of literature.)

He did a fair amount of television as well, but he didn't really have that one defining character on the small screen.  I think the closest would be Professor Stone and his android double in 'The Avengers', in a storyline that would have worked in 'Doctor Who'.  (I always fantasize about Steed and Mrs. Peel meeting the Third Incarnation of the Doctor.)

If only he had been cast in some other TV shows over the years.  There was no denying he was a great talent who could do more than horror roles - appearing in an episode of 'Charlie's Angels' and hosting 'Saturday Night Live' proved that.  (In fact, his role as Mr. Death in an SNL sketch remains my favorite of his TV roles.)

So many TV shows could have used him, but as this is a Super Six List, I must limit my suggestions....

SIX TV SHOWS THAT SHOULD HAVE CAST CHRISTOPHER LEE

1]  'THE TWILIGHT ZONE'

As I mentioned, "Mr. Death" in that SNL sketch was my favorite of his TV roles, and I think that might have been a good fit for him in that dimension of Sight and

Sound.  Not in the specific episode which featured Robert Redford - let's face it, there's no way Gladys Cooper would have opened the door to let Death in if he looked like Christopher Lee.  

Another role which would have been perfect for him was the Devil.  Sir Christopher would later play Lucifer in a pilot movie starring Sammy Davis, Jr., "Poor Devil".  In 'The Twilight Zone', the Devil made several appearances and although he was portrayed by a wide variety of actors, it is accepted that each of them was Lucifer in another guise.  One of the other fans at the T-Zone page on Facebook suggested that Lee could have been the Howling Man and I think that is the best option.  I would just want a better make-up job for his transformation.

2]  'STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION'

Sir Christopher made an appearance on 'Space: 1999'.... How is it possible he never showed up at some point in the 'Star Trek' franchise?  Seeing Lee perform opposite Patrick Stewart would have been incredible.  (The world within the 'Babylon 5' space station would have suited him nicely as well.  Perhaps as a techno-mage or soul hunter?)  I could see Christopher Lee as a Vulcan high priest or even better as another facet of the Q Continuum taking human form.  Yeah, nothing less powerful would have been good enough.  Why didn't they make it so, Number One?

3]  'DOCTOR WHO'

If one wanted to follow cliche, seeing Christopher Lee in his own opera cape facing off against the Third Incarnation of the Doctor would have made for a cracking serial at the time.  And when the show rebooted in 2005, Ol' Rusty surely could have come up with a storyline fitting for his talent, against either Christopher Eccleston or David Tennant in the role of the Doctor.  

I think he might have been a better choice for Lucius Petrus Dextrus, the Chief Augur of Rome in "Fires Of Pompei", instead of Phil Davis.  Davis is one of my favorite actors, but he has a more contemporary air about him when he's acting, better suited for coppers and crooks in the present day.  (In fact, my wish-craft is that he would play a Metropolitan DCI who travels with Peter Capaldi's Doctor.  It would be a welcome change from all the women who have been the Companions so far.)

4]  'COLUMBO'

I might have included 'Murder, She Wrote' as a television mystery series for him - that is, until I read this excerpt from his obituary in The Telegraph:

After almost 20 years of playing Dracula, Lee eventually tired of the role. He moved to the United States where he enjoyed a lucrative career in both films and made-for-television mini-series such as The Far Pavilions and Shaka Zulu. While in America, Lee resisted all offers of parts in soap operas including Dallas and Dynasty.

“You find yourself appearing with 15 other guest stars,” he recalled, “and word gets round that you’re on the skids.”

'Columbo' was also known for stocking its episodes with guest stars - "The Most Crucial Game" was overloaded with them!  But as the murderer in the episode, Christopher Lee would have been the focus of attention.  And the haughty demeanor he exuded would make him a perfect foil for Peter Falk as the rumpled homicide detective.  The height difference would have accented the dichotomy in their cat-and-mouse game.

As to which 'Columbo' murderer he could have played, I'd prefer an all new story for him during the classic years; that would have been best.  But if he had to be swapped in for a previously cast actor, I would not mind seeing one of the roles played by the actors who were called upon again and again to be the murderer - Cassidy, Culp, McGoohan - be given to Sir Christopher instead.  Maybe I surrender too easily to cliche, but in the classic NBC run, I could see him as the Great Santini, the magician/Nazi played by Jack Cassidy in "Now You See Him".  In the ABC return for the series, perhaps Lee might have assayed the role of Erik Prince, undertaker to the stars.  I'd believe him capable of lifting Rue McLanahan's corpse more than Patrick McGoohan.

5]  'THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW'

"This is getting to be like a bad horror movie. 

All we're missing is Vincent Price and the thunder and the lightning."

Sally Rogers

'The Dick Van Dyke Show'

How about Christopher Lee instead?

I think it can be assumed that Rob Petrie was a fan of horror movies.  Not only because he watched that outer space alien invasion movie about the planet Twilo, but because he would mimic Boris Karloff on occasion.  An appearance by Christopher Lee could have gone in two different directions:

1)  By the time of the series, Lee was an established star of the Hammer films, having played Frankenstein's Creature and Count Dracula.  He could have appeared in an episode as himself, making a guest appearance in a special Halloween edition of 'The Alan Brady Show'.

2)  Falling back on yet another cliche, Lee could have played a mysterious stranger who at first appears menacing to the Petries.  In the end, it would prove to have been a big misunderstanding.  

What I wouldn't give to have seen Christopher Lee going toe to toe with Morey Amsterdam as Buddy Sorrell!

6]  'SESAME STREET'

This should have been Christopher Lee, not Liam Neeson.

Plenty of British stars have appeared over the years on this children's classic.  (Here's 17 of them.)

I can't believe the Children's Television Workshop never got Christopher Lee to appear opposite the Count! It would have been supernaturally natural!

BCnU!