IT WAS FORTY YEARS AGO TODAY.....

To celebrate today's 40th anniversary of the first lunar landing by man, here's an NBC special on the Apollo 11 mission.



Doesn't feel right, though, that it isn't a CBS special.....

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: MICHAEL COLLINS

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the first Moon landing. A lot of the visual images you see today will of course focus on Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin as they bounced around on the lunar surface.

But I want to tip the ol' Toobworld cap to the unsung member of that team. He may not have been able to do the moonwalk, but without him, Armstrong and Aldrin might not have made it home.....

MICHAEL COLLINS

AS SEEN IN:
"Apollo 11"

AS PLAYED BY:
Jim Metzler

From Wikipedia:
Major General Michael Collins (born October 31, 1930 in Rome, Italy) is a former American astronaut and test pilot. Selected as part of the third group of fourteen astronauts in 1963, he flew in space twice. His first spaceflight was Gemini 10, when he and command pilot John W. Young performed two rendezvous with different spacecraft and Collins undertook two EVAs. His second spaceflight was Apollo 11 where he served as the command module pilot. While he orbited the Moon, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin performed the first manned landing on the lunar surface. He is one of only 24 people to have flown to the Moon. "Usually, you find yourself either too young or too old to do what you really want, but consider: Neil Armstrong was born in 1930, Buzz Aldrin 1930, and Mike Collins 1930. We came along at exactly the right time. We survived hazardous careers and we were successful in them. But in my own case at least, it was 10 percent shrewd planning and 90 percent blind luck. Put LUCKY on my tombstone."
- Michael Collins
(with thanks to NASAWatch, an online site run by an old high school friend, Keith Cowing)

BCnU!

THE HAT SQUAD: FRANK McCOURT

Frank McCourt has died. He was the Pulitzer-winning author of 'Angela's Ashes' and 'Tis'. He provided his own televersion, a member of the League of Themselves, in the "Thursday's Child" episode of 'Cosby'. (A foster child in Erica's class wanted to move in with the Lucas family.) And I'm probably wrong about this, since I can't find proof anywhere online, but I think he may also have appeared once in 'All My Children' with his brother Malachy.....

BCnU.....

SKED ALERT! "TORCHWOOD: CHILDREN OF EARTH"

I've kept mum about the third season/series of 'Torchwood', even though I saw it last week thanks to my bit torrent allies. Like fellow TV blogger Joe over at "I Am A TV Junkie" (link to the left, citizens!), I'm maintaining a spoiler-free zone here at Toobworld Central.

But I do need to say enough about it so that those of you reading this in America will know that you should tune in, starting tomorrow night on BBC-America.

This is powerful, gripping, devastatingly emotional stuff, folks!

Even if you've never seen the previous two seasons of 'Torchwood', jump in and begin with this mini-series. All you need to know is that 1] Torchwood is a team dedicated to protecting their corner of the world from alien threats; 2] the team is currently composed of Captain Jack Harkness, Gwen Cooper, and Ianto Jones; and 3] Captain Jack never stays dead... and he's been alive a very long time.....

That really should do it. The rest is brand-spanking new and you should find it to be one of the most exciting and powerful adventures on TV this year.

This time out, 'Torchwood' is being presented as a mini-series played out over the course of the week - beginning Monday night and finishing up on Friday, 9 - 10:15 pm ET. (The official title of the mini-series is 'Torchwood: Children of Earth'.) There's an introductory special before Monday's installment, "Torchwood: Inside The Hub", to bring you up to speed on anything else you may need to know beforehand.

Well, I don't know what else to say about this without over-selling it, and I may be guilty of that already. The stars are John Barrowman, Eve Myles, and Gareth David-Lloyd; guest stars include Peter Capaldi and Lucy Cohu.

I hope you'll take me up on the suggestion that you watch it. At the very least it should provide you with a five+ hour alternative to summer reruns and reality shows. (Besides, most of you have DVRs now, and each episode airs several times over. No reason you shouldn't give it a try!)

As the week goes on, I'll be posting the typical Toobworld stories about theoretical links to other shows, as well as my splainins for certain events that will transpire....

They are coming!

BCnU!

And don't worry, BBC-America, I plan to watch it all again via your network.....

"COUSIN" MILES WITH UNCLE WALTER

Here's a personal O'Bservation from "cousin" Miles, about his first encounter with Walter Cronkite back in 1998. It's a great story which adds to the man's legend.....

"HOW I ALMOST BLEW IT WITH WALTER CRONKITE"

BCnU!

THE HAT SQUAD: DALLAS McKENNON

Today, Sunday the 19th, would have been Dallas McKennon's 90th birthday; unfortunately, he passed away just a few days ago.

From this picture, you might recognize him most of all as Cincinnatus, the tavern owner in the sixties series 'Daniel Boone'. Kids growing up in Los Angeles back in the elder days probably knew him as kids' show host Captain Jet.

But even with the best backwoods look since Arthur Hunnicut, Dal McKennon still might be a puzzle to many of my readers.

Until you learn that he was a prolific voice actor... and that his was the voice you heard playing these two roles: He also played Buzz Buzzard in the Woody Woodpecker cartoons, and both 'Courageous Cat' and his sidekick Minute Mouse. He did a lot of work for both Walter Lantz (Inspector Willoughby) and for Walt Disney over the years. (At EPCOT, McKennon provided the voice of Ben Franklin and can be heard in the old mine ride. He was also the Fox in "Mary Poppins".) But he also contributed live-action characters to Earth Prime-Time on series ranging from 'The Andy Griffith Show', 'Bonanza', and 'Cannon' (ABC!), to 'My Favorite Martian', 'The Virginian', and 'Wagon Train'.

Looking over his credits, a Joni Mitchell line came to mind: "You don't know what you've got till it's gone"......

Good night, and may God bless.

TV SERIES
"Daniel Boone" .... Cincinnatus (1964-1969)

TV MOVIES
The Andersonville Trial (1970) .... First guard

Daniel Boone: Frontier Trail Rider (1966) .... Cincinnatus

GUEST APPEARANCES
"Cannon" .... Bucky Fosdick
- Fool's Gold (1971)

"Dundee and the Culhane"
- The Thy Brother's Keeper Brief (1971)

"The Andy Griffith Show".... Brian Jackson
- The Statue (1967)

"Bonanza" .... Jenkins
- The Oath (1966)

"The Big Valley" .... Abner Wirth
- Palms of Glory (1965)

"Wagon Train"
- The Zebedee Titus Story (1964)
.... The Horsetrader
- The Kitty Pryer Story (1963) .... Alex
- The Eli Bancroft Story (1963) .... Frank Collins
- The Lisa Raincloud Story (1962) .... Jethro
- The Caroline Casteel Story (1962) .... Mr. Benson

"My Favorite Martian" .... Mailman
- The Awful Truth (1963)

"The Greatest Show on Earth"
- The Circus Never Came to Town (1963)

"The Rifleman"
- Which Way'd They Go? (1963) .... Judge Moze
- The Bullet (1963) .... Judge Hopkins

"The Virginian"
- The Small Parade (1963) .... Art Meadows
- The Big Deal (1962) .... Lumberyard Owner

"Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" .... Jim Tolliver
- Think Mink (1963)

"Laramie"
- Gun Duel (1962)
- Justice in a Hurry (1962)

"Ben Casey" .... Waco Martin
- Between Summer and Winter, the Glorious Season (1962)

"Gunsmoke"
- The Ditch (1962) .... Farmer
- Call Me Dodie (1962) .... Jake
- Chesterland (1961) .... Homesteader

"87th Precinct"
- New Man in the Precinct (1962) .... Dr. Blaney
- Line of Duty (1961) .... Autopsy Surgeon

"The Untouchables" .... Mr. Phelps
- The Gang War (1962)

"The Tall Man" .... Bartender
- The Judas Palm (1961)

"U.S. Marshal" .... Farmer who knows Lou
- Kill or Be Killed (1960)

"The DuPont Show with June Allyson" .... Store Keeper
- No Place to Hide (1959)

"Lawman" .... Randy
- The Prodigal (1959)

"Dragnet"
- The Big Lover (1953)

THE TOONIVERSE

GUMBY:
"Gumby Adventures" (1988)

"The Gumby Show" (1957)

ARCHIE/SABRINA'S CAT SALEM:
"Archie's Bang-Shang Lalapalooza Show" (1978)

"Sabrina, Super Witch" (1977)

"The New Archie/Sabrina Hour" (1977)

"The US of Archie" (1974)

"Sabrina, the Teenage Witch" (1971)

"Archie's TV Funnies" (1971)

"Sabrina and the Groovie Goolies" (1970)

"Archie's Fun House" (1970)

"The Archie Comedy Hour" (1969)

Archie and His New Friends (1969)

"The Archie Show" (1968)

INSPECTOR WILLOUGHBY

"Space Academy" .... Johnny Sunseed

Aesop's Fables (1971)

"The Hardy Boys" (1969) .... Joe Hardy / Chubby Morton

"Sinbad Jr." (1965) .... Sinbad Jr./Salty

"The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo"
- Mr. Magoo's Robin Hood: Parts 1-4 (1964) "Q.T. Hush" (1960) .... Q.T. Hush

"Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse" (1960) .... Courageous Cat/Minute Mouse

"Bucky and Pepito" (1959) .... Bucky/Pepito

"The Woody Woodpecker Show" (1957) Buzz Buzzard

BCnU.....

AS SEEN ON TV: BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

We featured Ben Franklin back in January for the "As Seen On TV" daily showcase, played by Richard Easton.

And here were are again, with the Tooniverse depiction of the "ultimate American". Can anybody figure out why?

Class?

Because we're also saluting the late, lamented, most trusted man in America, that's why.....

AS SEEN IN:
'Liberty's Kids'

Here's part of an episode of 'Liberty's Kids' in which Dr. Franklin was in England. To see just his scene, go to the 4:50 mark.




I don't think my dirty little mind is imagining that ol' Ben is putting the moves on Lady Phillips during the scene......

BCnU!

THE HAT SQUAD: UNCLE WALT & IRVING

I'm always finding strange patterns in the Hat Squad list each year, those who have passed away who had connection to television.

Just this year, we've had Molly Sugden and Wendy Richard, both from 'Are You Being Served?'; Patrick McGoohan and Ricardo Montalban, both on the same day and both having played murderers on 'Columbo'.

Walter Cronkite and Irving R. Levine both passed away in 2009; Cronkite just yesterday. But they have more in common than just being newsmen. They both appeared in a 'Murphy Brown' episode from November of 1989 - "Roasted", the ninth episode of the second season.....

BCnU.....

ROSETTOV STONE

I always say that TV can be a learning tool, no matter what the show. And aside from being an anarchist's cookbook, 'Burn Notice' is also good as a substitute for Berlitz.

On Thursday night I learned that the Russian word for "hardass" is "yctynkи". However, I checked it out at Babel Fish and it's actually more like "трудный ишак".

Meh. It's all geek to me......

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: CAPTAIN SMITH OF THE TITANIC

Mark and Michael, sadly encumbered with the task of being friends of mine, went to an event on Wednesday night to celebrate the new Titanic exhibit in Times Square (in the building that once housed the New York Times). So that's reason enough for me to feature an historical figure connected to that doomed ship in the "As Seen On TV" showcase.

CAPTAIN EDWARD JOHN SMITH

AS SEEN IN:
'The Time Tunnel'

AS PLAYED BY:
Michael Rennie

"Rendezvous With Yesterday" was the first episode in the series, and the producers went all out to make the Operation Tick-Tock base of operations look like there was more to the underground facility than would be seen through most of the series.

Captain Smith is listed in the end credits for the episode as "Captain Malcolm Smith" instead of as "Edward John Smith" which was his real name. However, Toobworld Central has made the determination in the past that names listed in the credits but not mentioned in the show itself can be discounted if trumped by either fact or by an onscreen contradiction. (I can't figure out how the continuity team on this production could have made such a glaring error.) It wasn't the only discrepancy in the episode to separate Toobworld from the real world. According to records, the entire complement of passengers and crew totalled 2,228. But for 'The Time Tunnel', there was a manifest listing 2,300. That means Toobworld can have plenty of elbow room for another 72 fictional characters to be on board the ship. Among them would be Miss Althea Hall - played by Susan Hampshire - and three senior officers who didn't exist in the real world: Mr. Grainger, Mr. Williams, and Mr. Thomas.

I'd like to think Mr. Grainger was the father to Ernest Grainger of 'Are You Being Served?" And as that Mr. Grainger was probably as old as the actor who played him (Arthur Brough was born in 1905.), then the ship's officer didn't need to survive in order to bring about that theory of "relateeveety"......

Earlier this year Toobworld Central featured the captains of the Lusitania and the Mary Celeste as they were portrayed on television. The captain of the Titanic completes the trifecta...... BCnU!