THE HAT SQUAD FOR 2009

This is Toobworld Central's annual list of those who died during the year who contributed to the creation of Toobworld, in front of the camera and behind the scenes. Within their categories, they are in no other order than the order in which they passed away. (Some of those are approximate as in some cases, months might have passed before I heard the news.) If I had been playing favorites, several names would have risen to the top..... It's bad enough that Patrick McGoohan is so close to the top as it is......

If there is anyone who passed away in 2009 that you know I missed, please let me know and I will add to the honors list.......

ACTORS
Pat Hingle ('Gunsmoke')
Cheryl Holdridge ('The Mouseketeers')
Steven Gilborn ('Ellen', 'The Wonder Years')
Don Galloway ('Ironside')
Harry Endo ('Hawaii Five-O')
Patrick McGoohan ('Danger Man', 'The Prisoner')
Ricardo Montalban ('Fantasy Island', 'Star Trek')
Bob May (Robot, 'Lost In Space')
Clint Ritchie ('One Life To Live')
James Whitmore ('The Law And Mr. Jones')
Philip Carey ('One Life To Live, 'Bengal Lancers', 'Laredo')
Diane Holland ('Hi-De-Hi')
James Bree ('Doctor Who', 'I, Claudius', 'Rumpole Of The Bailey')
Frank Gallacher (Scottish-Australian actor)
Wendy Richard ('EastEnders', 'Are You Being Served?')
Anna Manahan ('Fair City', "The Beauty Queen Of Leenane")
Jimmy Boyd ('Bachelor Father', "I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus")
Lisa Renee Davis (in music videos for Jason Michael Carroll and Keith Anderson)
Ron Silver ('Rhoda', 'The West Wing')
Betsy Blair (1950s TV, English TV, "Marty" on film)
Altovise Davis (Sammy Davis' widow)
Terence Edmond ('Z Cars')
Bob Arbogast (voice-over artist, 'Roger Ramjet')
Monte Hale (cowboy actor)
Lou Perryman ("Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2", "Poltergeist") - murdered
Mary Scott ('Alfred Hitchcock Presents')
Jody McCrea (Deadhead in "Beach Blanket movies", son of Joel McCrea)
Stephanie Parker (Stacey Weaver on 'Belonging' from 15 to 22, show ended just days before she was found hanged.)
Andy Hallett ('Angel')
Bea Arthur ('Maude', 'The Golden Girls')
Dom DeLuise ('Lotsa Luck')
Frank Aletter ('Bringing Up Buddy', 'It's About Time')
Monica Bleibtrau (Austrian/German actress)
Lucy Gordon (hanged herself in France, young English actress, "Stella")
David Carradine ('Kung Fu', 'Kung Fu: The Next Generation')
Johnny Palermo ('Everybody Hates Chris')
Farrah Fawcett ('Charlie's Angels', 'Harry O')
Gale Storm ('My Little Margie', 'Oh, Susanna!')
Fred Travalena (impressionist)
Karl Malden ('The Streets of San Francisco', 'Skag')
Harve Presnell ('Andy Barker, P.I.', "Fargo")
Mollie Sugden ('Are You Being Served?')
Jan Rubes ("Witness")
Anna Karen Morrow ('Peyton Place', 'Star Trek')
Dallas McKennon ('Gumby', 'Daniel Boone')
Beverly Roberts (1930s, did TV)
Les Lye ('You Can't Do That On Television')
Harry Towb (Irish actor who worked in 'Avengers', 'Doctor Who', 'EastEnders')
Ruth Ford ('Camera Three', 'Studio One')
Leela Naidu (Indian actress, episodes of 'Channing' and 'Man Of The World')
Shaukat Baig ('Bollywood Hero')
Virginia Carroll ('Dragnet', 'The Roy Rogers Show')
Lee Kurty ('Dr. Kildare' love interest)
Dudu Topaz (Israeli actor-comedian, suicide in jail)
Wayne Tippit ('Melrose Place')
Jack Manning ('The Paper Chase')
Patrick Swayze ('The Beast')
Paul Burke ('Naked City', 'Twelve O'Clock High')
Zakas Mokae ('The West Wing', 'The X-Files')
Henry Gibson ('Laugh-In')
John Hart ('The Lone Ranger')
Robert Ginty ('Baa Baa Black Sheep')
Mimi Weddell ('Sex And The City', 'Law & Order', subject of documentary "Hats Off!")
Pamela Blake ('The Range Rider', 'The Cisco Kid')
Al Martino ('The City', 'Adam-12', "The Godfather")
Lou Albano (WWF, Cyndi Lauper videos)
Joseph Wiseman ('The Twilight Zone', "Dr. No")
Collin Wilcox Horne ('The Twilight Zone', 'To Kill A Mockingbird')
Lou Jacobi ('Ivan The Terrible')
Carl Ballantine ('McHale's Navy', Ballantine the Great)
Joe Maross ('The Twilight Zone')
Edward Woodward ('The Equalizer', 'Callan')
Dennis Cole ('Bearcats!')
Jack Kissell ('Life With Bonnie")
Paul Naschy (the Boris Karloff of Spain, mostly werewolf movies but Spanish TV as well
and one episode of 'I Spy' with Karloff)
Richard Todd ('Robin Hood', "Dambusters")
Vyacheslav Tikhonov (Russian actor, "17 Moments of Spring" mini-series)
Warren Vanders ("Empire" (as Chuck Davis), "The Big Valley," "Bonanza," "Daniel Boone," "Alias Smith and Jones," "Gunsmoke," "Kung Fu," "Nevada Smith" and "How the West Was Won,")
Eva Soreny
Mark Ritts ('Beakman's World', 'Storytime')
Gene Barry ('Bat Masterson', 'Burke's Law', 'The Name of the Game')
Val Avery ('Columbo', 'The Odd Couple')
Wayne Allwine (voice of Mickey Mouse)
Connie Hines ('Mr. Ed')
Brittany Murphy ('King of the Hill', 'The Torkelsons')
Alaina Reed Hall ('Sesame Street', '227')
Arnold Stang ('Top Cat', "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad Mad World")

PERSONALITIES
Veatrice Rice (nurse/security guard on 'The Jimmy Kimmel Show')
Jon Hager (of the Hager twins, 'Hee Haw')
Tony Hart (BBC - presenter on 'Take Hart', 'Vision On', 'Saturday Special')
Paul Harvey (Radio personality)
Geoffrey Smith (BBC gardening expert)
Jade Goody (reality TV star in the UK)
George Kell (Detroit Tigers player and broadcaster)
Lennie Bennett (British game show host, 'Punchlines', 'The Comedians')
Phil Kalas (Phillies broadcaster)
Sir Clement Freud (BBC broadcaster, dog food commercials, grandson of Sigmund)
Koko Taylor (blues legend - in both 'New York Undercover', 'Arthur' as herself)
Ed McMahon ('The Tonight Show', 'Star Search', Budweiser commercials)
Michael Jackson ('The Jackson 5', "Thriller", "Billie Jean")
Billy Mays (infomercial king)
Ginger (Taco Bell dog)
Alexis Cohen ('American Idol' try-out who cursed out Simon)
Reverend Ike (The Rev. Frederick J. Eikerenkoetter II was one of the first evangelists to embrace television.)
Les Paul (electric guitar wizard)
Ryan Jenkins ('Megan Wants A Millionaire' - killed his ex-wife and then himself)
DJ AM ('Entourage' as himself)
Saad Khan (died while filming a reality promotion for Unilever shampoo)
Army Archerd (show biz columnist, played himself in 'Columbo', many other shows)
Mike Bongiorno (Italy's Quiz King)
Fred Cusick (voice of the Boston Bruins)
Keith Floyd (British cooking shows)
Joanne Jordan (spokesmodel for Hazel Bishop lipstick in the 1950s)
Byron Palmer ('This Is Your Music')
Don Lane ('Tonight Show' in Australia; Oz's Lanky Yank)
Soupy Sales ('The Soupy Sales Show')
Bill Chadwick (Rangers color analyst)
Tom Sparks ('Wipeout' reality show contestant, stroke)
Ken Ober ('Remote Control')
Al Alberts (founding member of the Four Aces, hosted 'Al Alberts Showcase')
Wayne Thomas ('Engineer Bill')
Oral Roberts (king of the televangelsts)
Yvonne King Burch (of the King sisters)
George Michael ('Sports Machine')
Erik Gates ('Mythbusters' amateur rocket expert)

DIRECTORS
Kim Manners ('The X-Files', 'Supernatural')
Howard Zeiff (Alka Seltzer - "Mama Mia, That's A Spicy Meatball")
John Hughes (80's director, also wrote episodes of 'Delta House')
Arnold Lavan ('The Rifleman', 'The Big Valley')
Linda Day Varnum ('Archie Bunker's Place', 'Married With Children')
Paul Wendkos ("Gidget" movies, "The Legend of Lizzie Borden", "A Woman Called Moses")

WRITERS
John Mortimer ('Rumpole of the Bailey')
John Updike ('Witches of Eastwick')
Philip Jose Farmer ('Riverworld')
Millard Kaufman ('Mr. Magoo', "Enola Gay", 'Police Story')
Mort Lachman (wrote for Bob Hope and Red Skelton)
Robert Fisher ('All in the Family', 'Alice')
John Furia Jr ('Twilight Zone', 'Waltons', 'Bonanza', 'Felony Squad')
Michael Ross ('Chico & The Man', 'Jeffersons', 'Three's Company')
Vince Powell ('Nearest And Dearest', Brit sitcom writer)
Judi Ann Mason ('Good Times', 'Sanford')
Frank McCourt ("Angela's Ashes")
Budd Schulberg ('What Makes Sammy Run?')
Dominick Dunne ("The Two Mrs. Grenvilles", 'Studio One' producer)
Larry Gelbart ('M*A*S*H', 'United States', wrote for Sid Caesar)
George Eckstein ('Fugitive' finale, "Duel")
Troy Kennedy Martin ('Reilly, Ace Of Spies')
David Lloyd ('The Mary Tyler Moore Show', 'Cheers', 'Frasier')
Dan O'Bannon ("Alien" franchise)

NEWS FIELD
Irving R. Levine (NBC News)
Thomas Braden (CNN's 'Crossfire', inspiration for 'Eight Is Enough')
Matt Quinn ('Matt Quinn's Chronicles' on WFAA, died in burning of Stoneburg, Tx)
Milton Lewis (last surviving member of original WABC Eyewitness News Team)
Walter Cronkite ('CBS News', 'You Are There')
Robert Novak (CNN)
Don Hewitt (producer of '60 Minutes')

PRODUCERS
Jack Reilly ('Good Morning America' producer)
Richard Goldstone ('Adventures In Paradise', 'Peyton Place')
Harvey Frand ('Battlestar Galactica', 'The Pretender', 80's 'Twilight Zone')
Dick Berg ('Checkmate', 'Key West', Michener's "Space")
Kevin McGee (also former husband to 'Little Britain' star Matt Lucas, hanged)
Barry Letts ('Doctor Who')
Daniel Melnick ('Get Smart', 'Ages Of Man', 'Death Of A Salesman')
Marvin Minoff (Nixon/Frost interviews)
Bernard Birnbaum (Charles Kuralt's 'One The Road')

CREW
Gary Sherman ('Perfect Strangers', 'Dharma & Greg')
Jack Michon (Emmy-winning editor of 'Taxi')

OTHER
Ben Blank (created graphic images for news broadcasts)
Thomas T. Goldsmith, Jr. (one of the creators of the cathode ray tube)
Nora O'Brien (NBC executive)
Anne Roberts Nelson (64 years as a CBS executive)
Ken Roberts (announcer - 'Love of Life', 'Secret Storm', and 'Electric Company')
John Kiermaier (Channel 13 PBS station in NYC, 1960's)
Ed Reimers (Allstate announcer, also 'Maverick' & 'Cheyenne' announcer, and played Admiral Fitzpatrick in 'Star Trek' tribbles episode)
Frank Batten, Sr. (Founder of Weather Channel)
Pierre Cosette ("Father of the Grammy TV broadcast")
Caro Jones (casting director)
Douglas Duitsman (former president of the Television Academy of Arts & Sciences)
Vic Mizzy (composer, 'The Addams Family' & 'Green Acres')
Winter D. Horton Jr., KCET co-founder, CTW director
Roy Disney (Walt's nephew, head of Disney Corporation)
Harold Bell (created Woodsy Owl)

Thank you all for the ways you enriched my little fantasy world. I just pray I won't have so long a list to work on next year.....

BCnU......

AS SEEN ON TV: HENRY FORD

Henry Ford was replaced by his son Edsel as president of the Ford Motor Company on January 1st, 1919.

HENRY FORD

AS SEEN IN:
"Ford: The Man And The Machine"

AS PLAYED BY:
Cliff Robertson

BCnU!

THE "WHO'S ON FIRST" WRAP-UP

So there you have it, the Toobworld Central salute to the Doctor of 'Doctor Who' here at Inner Toob. As we take our leave of David Tennant's portrayal of the Tenth Doctor and welcome the arrival of Matt Smith as Doctor Number Eleven, here's my wish for the future of the series:

More sooner than later, the show has to address the roadblock up ahead: a Time Lord is only supposed to have 13 regenerations, which would mean the original Doctor played by William Hartnell (and Richard Hurndall) and the 10 regenerations that followed, with room for three more recastaways after Matt Smith.

Christopher Eccleston and Colin Baker only lasted a year each; Paul McGann only had the one TV movie. Who knows how quickly they're going to burn through the actors to come?

This is sci-fi TV at its best - well, at the very least at its longest-running, so there must be some techno-babble to get around this. Perhaps with the Gallfreyans being re-introduced, the ruling council can offer the Doctor the chance for more regenerations, as they once did to the Master..... At any rate, the Doctor is dead. Long live the Doctor!

Allon-sey!

MAGIC ROUNDABOUTS

As much as I now firmly believe that RTD's hand should have been forcibly removed from the throttle long before this hot mess of a fiinale for the Tenth Doctor, I do think he deserves his props for certain things that came up during his reign. One of these was his attention to detail in making sure certain plot threads were tied off before the end of his run.

One of these was addressing the fact that Dr. Martha Jones resembled a woman who worked for Torchwood in the "Army Of Ghosts"/"Doomsday" two-parter. Invoking the "identical cousin" trope that's firmly established in Toobworld, we found out that Martha and Odeola were related.

Simlarly, in "The Stolen Earth"/"The Journey Home" two-part finale of last year, we found out that Gwen Cooper belonged to the same family tree as Gwyneth, the Cardiff maid from 1869. The strong echo of genetic material is also a common theme in Toobworld.

Then there was the introduction of the alien invaders known as the Sycorax. The name appeared to be just another appropriation of an established word, as we saw so often in 'Star Trek' which had "Vulcan", "Romulus", "Charon", etc. But then with "The Shakespeare Code", the Doctor mentioned the Sycorax in front of the Bard, who decided to steal it for himself to use (as he would do in "The Tempest").

From that same episode, we found out that Queen Elizabeth I was royally bleeped off at the Doctor, but even he didn't know why as it had not happened in his own personal timeline yet. But we've finally found out - at some point between the end of "The Waters Of Mars" and the beginning of "The End Of Time", the Doctor ended up getting married to "Good Queen Bess" and took away the veracity of her nickname.....

And so it goes....

DEEP SIX: THE GRAND MOFF WISH-CRAFT

Here's my wish-list for Steven Moffat to consider for future episodes of 'Doctor Who':

1) Get Stephen Fry to write that episode which he was supposed to have already supplied, but was too busy. Free up some time, Fry!

2) If the Time Lords are back, bring back Romana from E-Space for a guest spot. In fact, while you're at it, bring back Carole Ann Ford as Susan. Wouldn't it be interesting for her to be reunited with her grandfather again, especially now that he looks so much younger than her?

3) Let the Messiah Complex stories fade away with the RTD regime.

4) Continue the famous writers theme. May I suggest Tolkien? The inhabitants of the Forest of Cheem might have been the inspiration for the Ents....

5) Bring Paul McGann back and show his involvement in the Time War. Give the Eighth Doctor his due!

6) Persuade the BBC to do a crossover with 'Being Human'. It seems like a natural, especially now that the Doctor "appears" to be the same age as George, Mitchell, and Annie.

BCnU!

NAN'S GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PRESENT

Christmas may have passed, but here's David Tennant (reteamed with Catherine Tate) as the Ghost of Christmas Present......



BCnU!

TEN FOR ELEVEN: CROSSOVERS WE'D LIKE TO SEE

With Matt Smith taking over as the Eleventh Incarnation of the Doctor, Toobworld Central is realigning its Wish-Craft suggestions for 'Doctor Who' crossovers with other TV shows currently on the air so they reflect a better mesh with Eleven....

In no particular order:

'True Blood'
'Being Human'
'Eureka'
'Supernatural'
'Primeval'
'Chuck'
'Stargate: Universe'
'Fringe'
'The Vampire Diaries'
'Warehouse 13'

Here are ten others which didn't make the top ten:

'Mad Men'
'White Collar'
'Royal Pains'
'Gossip Girl'
'Flash Forward'
'Heroes'
'Psych'
'The Mentalist'
'Sanctuary'
'Bones'

O'Bviously many of these would be unrealistic. That doesn't mean we can't wish for 'em.....

(I also wish there was a good Western on now that could be used......)

BCnU!

BY ANY OTHER NAME: SELTZMAN & HAYTER

When Professor Jacob Seltzman used his mind-exchange technology to perform a three way exchange between himself, the Colonel, and 'The Prisoner', Seltzman put his mind into the body of the Colonel and was able to make his escape from "The Village". It could be that Seltzman decided to hide in plain sight in order to avoid those who would force him to continue his research for their own corrupted goals. If so, he could have assumed the identity of a "Professor Hayter" to go with his new body. As such, he may have taken a position at Darlington where he could conduct research on perceptual conditioning, which for him would probably be a rather non-taxing pursuit. (Mentally, he would probably still feel all of his years as well as the effects of the recent traumatic events in his life; and this line of work would have been quite easy for him.) In 1982, Professor Hayter was on board a Concorde Flight which was "temporally hijacked" by a Gallifreyan Time Lord known as "The Master". Perhaps due to his mind transfer, Professor Hayter was able to withstand the hypnosis imposed on the other passengers.

Stranded in the prehistoric past, Hayter joined forces with another Time Lord, one who was known as "The Doctor". Ultimately, Hayter sacrificed his physical life to the Xeraphin Gestalt in order to gain total scientific knowledge. (A similar fate would befall Lt. Ilia and Commander Willard Decker several hundred years into our future.) Although his physical presence had "died", Professor Hayter lived on as a spiritual being and even came back long enough to help defeat the Master's plans.

SHOWS [& MOVIES] CITED:
'The Prisoner' - "Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling"
'Doctor Who' - "Time-Flight"
"Star Trek: The Motion Picture"

[Nigel Stock played the Colonel/Professor Seltzman in 'The Prisoner' - "Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling" and he played Professor Hayter in 'Doctor Who' - "Time-Flight"]

BCnU!

SPLAININ TO DO: FIXED POINTS IN TIME

Once upon a time in the old Tubeworld Dynamic website, I speculated on the reason why Superman didn't come to the rescue of the TV version of the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001. The Toobworld splainin was that Superman was already dead in the TV Universe, having died from Krypton radiation poisoning in the early sixties. (This was after he rescued a couple of characters from the TV series 'Crime Story' from an atomic test site.)

But Russell T. Davies gave us a TV concept that would have meant the Twin Towers were doomed even if Superman had been alive: fixed points in Time.

Here's a splainin from the Doctor Who Wiki:

The Laws of Time were connected to the concept of "fixed points" in time -- events and/or individuals who have such a long-standing impact on the timeline that no one, not even Time Lords, were allowed to interfere with their natural progression. The Doctor, while free to interfere in alien invasions and save planets in most cases, cannot interfere/interact with these fixed points. Examples include Jack Harkness after his rejuvenation by Rose Tyler (DW: Utopia (although the Doctor nonetheless shared several adventures with him), the destruction of Pompeii by the Vesuvius volcano (DW: The Fires of Pompeii, and the death of explorer Adelaide Brooke (DW: The Waters of Mars).

The case of Brooke marks one of the only times the Doctor has intentionally interfered with a fixed point, under the rationale that, being the last surviving Time Lord, the Laws of Time were now his to command. Ultimately, he is unable to prevent Brooke from committing suicide, thereby allowing the timeline to unfold, with only a few minor changes. (DW: The Waters of Mars) However, the 2009 Dalek Invasion of Earth, despite the fact it led to Brooke becoming a fixed point in time, was not, itself, a fixed point and therefore the Doctor was able to stop it from continuing. (DW: Journey's End).

The resolution of the Last Great Time War, which involves the destruction of Gallifrey, has been "time locked", rendering it technically an unalterable -- and inaccessible -- point in space and time. Nonetheless, Dalek Caan was able to circumvent the restriction and retrieve Davros, though at the cost of his sanity. (DW: The Stolen Earth/Journey's End)

The Time Lords themselves once sanctioned what could be the greatest-ever attempt at interfering with a fixed point in time, when they assigned the Doctor the task of preventing the creation of the Daleks. The Laws of Time, however, remained intact as the Doctor did not do so. (DW: Genesis of the Daleks)

Exactly what constitutes a fixed point in time is unclear. For example, the birth of Earth religious leader Jesus Christ was a major event in the cultural evolution of the planet Earth, so much so its common calender was dated from his estimated year of birth, and innumerable aspects of human civilization related to worship of the man. Yet the Doctor once claimed to have influenced the birthplace of Jesus, who was born in a barn due to the inn in Bethlehem having no rooms; the Doctor said he'd gotten the last room at the inn. (DW: Voyage of the Damned). However, much like the eruptions of Vesuvius, it may have been simply a case of the Doctor experiencing a predestination paradox and being part of the natural progression of events.

Makes your head hurt, don't it?

So this is why there's no fantasy rewind for events like the collapse of the Twin Towers, the explosion of the Challenger space shuttle, the sinking of the Titanic, the assassinations of Lincoln, the Kennedys, Gandhi, and Dr. King.....

BCnU!

SPIN-OFF CITY: CAPTAIN JACK & SARAH JANE

It may have happened anyway, no matter who played the Tenth Doctor, but it was during Tennant's Tenure as Ten that we got two strong spin-offs from the original 'Doctor Who'.

Captain Jack Harkness was introduced during Christopher Eccleston's year-long portrayal of the Ninth Doctor, and Torchwood was mentioned during his penultimate episode, "Bad Wolf". But it was after Ten was piloting the TARDIS that we saw him spur the creation of the Torchwood Institute in 1879, and get caught in a three-way battle between the Daleks, the Cybermen, and Torchwood at Canary Wharf.

And Sarah Jane Smith never ran into any of the following incarnations of the Doctor after she was unceremoniously dumped as a Companion by the Fourth Doctor. (Her involvement in "The Five Doctors" took place while she was still the Companion to the Third Doctor.) She finally crossed paths with Ten in "School Reunion", and that seems to have led to the creation of 'The Sarah Jane Adventures'. That show is geared more towards the younger set while 'Torchwood' is for a more adult audience than that targeted by 'Doctor Who'.

So even though Tennant isn't technically responsible for this expansion of the TV Universe, it can't be argued that his participation helped propel these two characters to their own series.

BCnU!