FRIDAY HALL OF FAMERS, 06/28/19 - LIBERACE!

Here we are – the last Friday of June, which kicks off Pride Weekend.  And chosen for this Friday Hall of Famer we have one of the great entertainers known only by one name.  No, not Charo – although come to think of it, I think she qualifies for membership….

No, the latest member of the Television Crossover Hall of Fame is:

LIBERACE!

From Wikipedia:
Władziu Valentino Liberace (May 16, 1919 – February 4, 1987) was an American pianist, singer and actor.  A child prodigy born in Wisconsin to parents of Italian and Polish origin, Liberace enjoyed a career spanning four decades of concerts, recordings, television, motion pictures, and endorsements. At the height of his fame, from the 1950s to the 1970s, Liberace was the highest-paid entertainer in the world, with established concert residencies in Las Vegas, and an international touring schedule. Liberace embraced a lifestyle of flamboyant excess both on and off stage, acquiring the nickname "Mr. Showmanship."  

As a member of the League of Themselves, Liberace’s appearances in these shows solidified the presence of his fictionalized televersion in Toobworld:

The Jack Benny Program 
- Liberace Show (1954) 

The Liberace Show  
8 episodes

You Bet Your Life
- Episode #6.24 (1956) 

Date with the Angels 
- Star Struck (1957) 

The Monkees 
- Art for Monkees' Sake (1967) 

Here's Lucy 
- Lucy and Liberace (1970) 

The Muppet Show 
- Liberace (1978) 

Kojak 
- 60 Miles to Hell (1978)

The Muppets Go Hollywood (TV Special)

Hotel 
- The Offer (1983) 

Another World 
(1985, 1986)   

Leo & Liz in Beverly Hills 
- The 'A' List (1986) 

The Pride parades always look like Liberace’s armoire exploded, so this is the perfect time of year to welcome him into the Hall…..

Here are some photos of Liberace with several other members of the TVXOHOF:

By the way, that isn't an empty suit at the top of this post.  Liberace is actually in that outfit!
Welcome to the Hall, Mr. Showmanship!

 

THURSDAY THEORY OF RELATEEVEETY - THE PODELL FAMILY

For today’s theory of relateeveety – SURPRISE!  LOL – Yeah, it’s another familial connection to ‘Columbo’.  But I can’t he’p m’self; it’s one of my five favorite TV shows of all Time and the characters, even the ancillary ones, were so rich in their portrayals.

Today we’re sailing on the high seas to anchor this theory.

Get it?  High seas… anchor…?  I crack myself up.

‘COLUMBO’
“TROUBLED WATERS”

At the age of 31, clarinetist Artie Podell secured for himself the position of bandleader on board the Sun Princess* cruise ship which sailed from Los Angeles to Mazatlán.

Peter Maloney played Artie; it was his fourth onscreen appearance and his first for television.

It’s the only time we got to see Artie in Toobworld, but I’m making the claim that we saw a few of his brothers as well as “identical cousins”, especially lately.  And I think we’ve also met his paternal great-grandfather as well as his maternal grandfather in other TV shows.

What offers up so many options for his family tree are three factors:

1]  A lot of characters played by Mr. Maloney are listed only by their occupations and not by their names.

2]  Most of these characters are centrally located in the New York City area.

3]  As it does with all of us, Prime-Time marches on.  Forty plus years on, not many of us can claim that we look the same still.  And so that gives us leeway in making these claims.

First, let’s give mention to some other characters played by Mr. Maloney who still could be related to Artie Podell.  That great-grandfather might have sired a large brood of children, from which the succeeding generations could have been just as large.

So these other characters, balding redheads all, were probably second cousins or first cousins twice removed, whatever, just not close enough on the family tree to get special mention.

Among these kinfolk:

• Mr. Stansley, ‘Ed’
• Alex Conrad, ‘Lou Grant’
• Uncle Red, ‘Rescue Me’
• Red Donnelly, ‘Spenser: For Hire’
• McClancy, ‘Dellaventura’
• Mr. Janowitz, ‘A Gifted Man’
• Teddy Mercer, ‘Law & Order: Criminal Intent’
• Geoffrey Downs, ‘Law & Order: Special Victims Unit’

I think you can see right away that there is a possibility that two of those characters could be the same person.  Red Donnelly could be Tommy Gavin’s “Uncle Red”, despite the difference in last names.  (That sort of thing is never a problem for a “splainin to do”, especially in a country – and the fictional version, at that! - where changing your name is common.)

Let’s take the family tree as far back as we can…..

The Knick
They Capture The Heat (2014)
Barber/Doc

I’ve never seen this show; I don’t have Cinemax.  But from that description, it sounds like Great-Grandpa Podell was following in the tradition of Theodoric of York but in New York City at the turn of the 20th Century – someone who treats your ills and cuts your hair.  But I could be wrong; I usually am.

At any rate, Toobworld Central sees this character as the first official member of the Podell line, the founder of the family tree in modern times.

Next, we cross over to Artie’s maternal family tree, to his mother’s father, his grandfather:

Remember WENN
On The Air (1996)
Mr. Gianetti

Back in the 1930s, Mr. Gianetti was the scriptwriter for radio station WENN in Pittsburgh.  But he was a souse and he expired on the job, before finishing the script that was being presented on the air at that moment.  This occurred probably in 1939. 

It is our conjecture that his daughter was already married to Doc Podell’s grandson, or would be soon after.  (Artie would be born in 1944.)

Personally, I think Artie’s parents were married before Mr. Gianetti passed away.  And that Artie was their youngest of three sons.  The oldest, named Paul, would grow up to be ordained a priest in Manhattan. 

Law & Order
Collar (2002)
Father Paul
&
Gossip Girl
Seventeen Candles (2007)
Priest

As for the middle son, we don’t know his name here at Toobworld Central.  But we know he passed the NY bar exam when he was younger and for most of his career he served as a defense lawyer. 

Queens Supreme
Pilot (2003)
Plaintiff’s Lawyer

But he had come to hate the hectic life in New York City and wanted to make enough money to quit the rat race and retire to his vacation home in New Hampshire, a state in which he had also passed the bar exam.

Bull
Light My Fire (2016)
Judge

It came to pass that just before Mike Bloomberg began his third term as mayor, Mr. Podell learned that a judgeship was available near his second home in Kavanaugh.  Podell put his name forward in contention and was pleased to discover that he was accepted.  He quit his position with his law firm in Queens and moved his family north to live permanently in Kavanaugh, New Hampshire, full time.

Now let’s take a look at two of Artie Podell’s “identical cousins”….

If you’re familiar with my use of the term, you know that most times in Toobworld, identical cousins occur because of infidelities by one or more partners in a marriage.  However, while this isn’t exactly the same situation as faced by Patty and Cathy Lane whose fathers were identical twins, it’s reasonably close.

In Artie Podell’s family tree, his paternal great-grandfather Podell from the early 1900s and his maternal grand-father from the 1930s were somewhat similar in appearance, enough so that their DNA sequences created strong telegenetic patterns which echoed along the family tree.  Therefore, it could be that Artie’s father had a sister who married a man named Burgess and together they produced twin sons who looked like their three Podell cousins.

St. Elsewhere
Bypass (1982)
Dr. Burgess

The firstborn of their twin sons would grow up to become the top radiologist at St. Eligius Hospital in Boston.

The Good Fight
Henceforth Known As Property (2017)
Doctor

Later, Dr. Burgess transferred to Chicago Poly-Tech where he put his skills in radiology to use in stem cell research.  By 2017, however, he was close to retiring, mainly because his hearing was giving out on him.

Black Box
Forget Me (2014)
Harry

On the other hand, Harry Burgess was not as successful, but he and his family were happy… and thankful that Will Van Ranseller’s father had been in their lives. 

Harry Burgess was a bartender in Manhattan and he worked for Will Van Ranseller.  He knew Will’s father back in the day and there were times in the early days of his marriage when Harry and his wife were living on beans and toast.  But every Thanksgiving, a huge turkey was left for Harry at the bar where he was at that time working.

One Thanksgiving it was his turn to get to the bar and open early and he found Will’s father sneaking in with the turkey.  Ever after, Harry Burgess and his family gave thanks for Will’s father in their lives.

Crashing
Yard Sale (2017)
Weird Old Man

It was 2014 when he told that story to Will Van Ransellar and his fiancée Dr. Catherine Black.  Harry might have known by then that he was suffering from Alzheimer’s; maybe he didn’t.  But by 2017, his condition was worsening, to the point where he gave up his job as a bartender in Manhattan and moved upstate to be closer to the family of one of his children.

There his personality began to change – no longer easy-going, but now combative, he even got into a roadside argument once with a comedian who just wanted to get back his composition notebooks full of joke ideas which were mistakenly sold along with a chest of drawers.

So.  That’s my look at the family tree of Artie Podell….

BCnU!

WIKI TIKI WEDNESDAY - ANNA SEWELL

For years, the end credits for ‘Masterpiece Mystery’ has contained word puzzles – a series of random letters are colored red and when lined up they spell out a word or three which have some relevance to the episode just seen.  (There have been times when they served as a little preview clue to the upcoming episode.)
I don’t know why, but I’ve always enjoyed most the ones to be found in episodes of ‘Endeavour’ and ‘Sherlock’.
Let’s take a look at the word puzzle from the most recent episode (in the US, that is) of ‘Endeavour’ – “Pylon” (S06E01).  I also apologize for the quality of my screen shots.  For some reason, the red letters tended to wash out, so I circled them.

“ANNA SEWELL”
At one point, a little girl in the episode was seen reading Ms. Sewell’s claim to literary fame – “Black Beauty”.

So – in keeping with my belief that television should be  teaching tool, let’s take a look at the authoress.
From Wikipedia:
While living in Old Catton, Sewell wrote the manuscript of “Black Beauty” – in the period between 1871 and 1877. During this time her health was declining; she was often so weak that she was confined to her bed. Writing was a challenge. She dictated the text to her mother and from 1876 began to write on slips of paper which her mother then transcribed.

Although the book is now considered a children's classic, Sewell originally wrote it for those who worked with horses. She said "a special aim was to induce kindness, sympathy, and an understanding treatment of horses".  In many respects the book can be read as a guide to horse husbandry, stable management and humane training practices for colts. It is considered to have had an effect on reducing cruelty to horses; for example, the use of bearing reins, which are particularly painful for a horse, was one of the practices highlighted in the novel, and in the years after the book's release the reins became less popular and fell out of favour.
Sewell sold the novel to Norwich publisher Jarroldson 24 November 1877, when she was 57 years old. She received a single payment of ₤40 (£3,456 or US $4,630 in 2017) and the book was published the same year.

After the publication of her only novel, Sewell fell seriously ill. Sewell was in extreme pain and completely bedridden for the following months, and she died on 25 April 1878 of hepatitis or tuberculosis, only five months after the publication of “Black Beauty”.
Be seeing you!

FRIDAY HALL OF FAMERS- PAUL RYAN

So far, our July Friday Hall of Famers, we’ve inducted a defense lawyer, a British detective from the beginning to the end of his career, and a hard-nosed American cop.  For our last Law & Order inductee into the Television Crossover Hall of Fame for this month, we’re going to look at the prosecutorial side of a court case.
This week our inductee is Paul Ryan.  Not not that Cheesehead who was the Speaker of the House.  I’m talking about the assistant district attorney for Los Angeles County from the late sixties to the early seventies – at least as far as what we could see on the TV.  (Life goes on in Toobworld after cancellation.)

PAUL RYAN

From Wikipedia:

'The D.A.' is an American half-hour legal drama that aired Fridays at 8:00-8:30 pm on NBC for the 1971-72 season. It ran from September 17, 1971 to January 7, 1972 and was replaced by the more successful 'Sanford and Son' the following week. The show was packaged by Jack Webb's Mark VII Limited for Universal Television and is not to be confused with a show Webb produced in 1959 with a similar name, 'The D.A.'s Man’, which starred John Compton in the lead role.

'The D.A.' starred Robert Conrad as Deputy District Attorney Paul Ryan, a tough-minded, hard-hitting prosecutor in Los Angeles County who was assisted by criminal investigator Bob Ramirez (Ned Romero). He prosecuted all types of cases under the watchful eye of his supervisor, Chief Deputy District Attorney H. M. "Staff" Stafford (Harry Morgan, who directed at least one episode himself). His opponent was usually Public Defender Katherine Benson (Julie Cobb).

During the courtroom segments Ryan also provided a voice-over narration (like 'Dragnet'), which brought the audience in on legal jargon and court procedures and allowed there to be less exposition in the dialogue, which was necessary due to the program's brevity, as most legal dramas have episodes twice the length of that of 'The D.A.'.
Robert Forward produced the show, which was spun off from two TV-movies produced by Webb's production company, Mark VII Ltd., "Murder One" from 1969 and "Conspiracy to Kill" from 1971, both of which fictionalized cases prosecuted by Vincent Bugliosi, world-famous as the prosecutor of Charles Manson. Bugliosi served as technical advisor on both of the pilot films. In his account of the Manson prosecution, "Helter Skelter", Bugliosi stated that Conrad modeled the Ryan character on Bugliosi.

A two-part cross-over episode began on another Webb show, 'Adam-12', in which officers Malloy (Martin Milner) and Reed (Kent McCord) made an arrest. In the follow-up episode from 'The D.A.', Ryan handled the eventual prosecution. Co-star Morgan also accompanied Webb's Joe Friday character on the 1967-70 version of 'Dragnet' as Officer Bill Gannon.

Four episodes of the series were combined into a feature-length TV-movie called "Confessions of the DA Man". "The People vs. Saydo" was used as the basic plot, and, while Ryan is attempting to get a friend of the defendant to testify, describes previous cases to try to illustrate the importance of testifying. The cases he recounts are "The People vs. Slovik" because the witness's idealism reminds Ryan of the attorney he faced in that case, "The People vs. Fowler" to illustrate the importance of testifying even when it's difficult (as in the case of the rape victim), and "The People vs. Walsh" to illustrate the dangers faced by police in their daily jobs. The film first aired January 20, 1978 as a 'CBS Late Movie'.

Here are Ryan’s qualifications for membership:
D.A.: Murder One
(1969 TV Movie)
D.A.: Conspiracy to Kill
(1971 TV Movie)
The D.A.  
(1971-1972)
15 episodes
Adam-12
- The Radical (1971)
Confessions of the D.A. Man
(1978 TV Movie)
O’Bservation – As stated above, this is basically a retread of one of Ryan’s cases which featured his flashback memories of three other cases. So it should be combined as such.

This marks Conrad’s second character in the TVXOHOF as a character, James T. West being the other.  There may be two more who are eligible, with one being saved until his death, which I hope is a long way off…..

Welcome to the Hall, Mr. Ryan!

TUESDAY NEWS DAY - THE "GOOD OMENS" PROTEST

Feel free to click through to the story and enjoy their stupidity.  But first, just savor the magnitude of that stupidity:

Here's the link:

CHRISTIAN GROUP PROTESTS THE WRONG PREMIUM PLATFORM OVER “GOOD OMENS”

What gets me more than their protest against Netflix instead of Amazon Prime was their opposition to the Voice of God being supplied by Frances MacDormand.  I should think God would be honored to have a two-time Oscar-winning actress portray the Supreme Being.  But this group of Holier Than Thous sees it as a sin that God should be voiced by a woman. 

Has God ever spoken to them?  Personally I doubt it.  And if he did, it was only after they stopped taking their meds.  I also think it’s a sign of their lack of faith that they O’Bviously don’t believe that God is omnipotent.  If God can do anything, then assuming a feminine voice should be a simple party trick.  And you don't think God could pull that off?

Bunch of heathens….

One last point - these types of protests never work.  They're only going to entice people to watch the show now.  It was the same situation when efforts were made to ban "Lady Chatterly's Lover" and James Branch Cabell's "Jurgen: A Comedy of Justice"; the attempts only made them extremely popular.

When I was a kid, there was this Catholic newspaper called the Catholic Transcript.  And they had this regular column called "Condemned Movies".  You know kids in seventh grade in those days were going to try to see those flicks!

And I welcome those vain attempts to ban Mark Twain's masterpiece "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn".  I figure that's the best way to get a kid interested in reading it.

So protest all you want against "Good Omens".  And make sure you stage demonstrations outside your local Blockbuster (Tee-Hee) when it comes out on DVD. 

Everybody involved will thank you.

BCnU!

MISSING LINKS - BOOKS FROM "ENDEAVOUR"

‘ENDEAVOUR
“PYLON”

There were five children’s books about horses seen and/or mentioned in this episode, only of which was real.  That was “Black Beauty” and we’ll have more on that for Wednesday.

These were the four fictional books:

• “Caring For Your Pony”
• “Ride Like The Wind”
• “Blue Ribbon for Binky”
• “Gypsy Wins Through”

Now here's the thing:

Russell Lewis has filled previous episodes with so many "Easter Egg" references and crossovers from other sources - not just from other TV series, but from movies, songs, literature, plays, etc - that I would not be surprised to find out that these titles had a life in some other fictional venue.  But so far I haven't found any attributio

Do they sound familiar to you?  Let me know.
BCnU!