SKED ALERT! STRAX FIELD REPORTS

SKED ALERT! "DOCTOR WHO" - "THE NAME OF THE DOCTOR"

To get you ready for the season finale of 'Doctor Who' tonight....

"THE GOLDEN PINCE-NEZ"

This is the 'Sherlock Holmes' episode that can be considered linked to the 'Doctor Who' episode "The Crimson Horror".  Technically the connection can only be found in BookWorld, when Dr. Watson mentions the repulsive red leech as a story not yet shared with the world.

But the TV episode not only omits that, but Dr. Watson is missing as well (because Edward Hardwicke was busy on another film project.)  So Charles Grey stepped in as Mycroft Holmes.  

FAMOUS PEOPLE AS TOONIVERSIONS ON 'THE SIMPSONS'

This compilation clip includes Dr. Joyce Brothers, TV Crossover Hall of Fame member (Class of 2000) who passed away earlier this week....

REMEMBERING DR. JOYCE BROTHERS - "DREAM ON"

Here's an episode of 'Dream On' in which Dr. Brothers made a cameo appearance.  The series was a favorite of mine - I felt a kindred spirit in Martin Tupper (sadly, not in the ladies' department).  But if you don't feel the same, then you just have to watch the first few minutes in order to see the late pop psychologist.

LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES BLIPVERT - 2 SPOCKS 2!

It's time to pay the bills.  So why not make it a League of Themselves double-header at the same time in connection to the new 'Star Trek' movie?

LEONARD NIMOY & ZACHARY QUINTO

TV DIMENSION:

The Promoverse

BCnU!

ECHOES - "STAR TREK - THE BROMANCE"

Here's an idea for some slash-fic - Spock gets it on with the Vulcan who stole away his betrothed.

The title?

"Bromancing The Stonn"

BCnU!

"THE EQUALIZER" MOVIE - WHO YA GONNA McCALL?

A movie version of the CBS action series from the 1980s, 'The Equalizer', is in the works.  It's to be directed by Antoine Fuqua and will reteam him with his "Training Day" star Denzel Washington, who will be playing Robert McCall, a former CIA operative who is now an urbane lone wolf helping ordinary people in trouble.

Because they felt the need to be so slavish as to keep the original character's name, this movie could only be in the Cineverse with no connection to its Toobworld counterpart.  As far as the Toobworld Dynamic is concerned, there is only one Robert McCall AKA the Equalizer - and that is the late Edward Woodward.

I would have preferred to see them keep the title of "The Equalizer" - after all, it's just a job description - but give Washington a new character to play.  Then it could be assumed that he took up the mantle of the job after McCall retired or died.  (Woodward passed away in 2009.)

And that connection wouldn't even have to be made if you don't want to alienate any newbies to the concept, who might not be interested in tracking down the original series.  But at least it would be out there for the fans of the original series.

It just seems like they're trashing the memories of the show by erasing them.

This is the same problem I have with the upcoming remake of 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.'  I think it would be great to bring back the spy organization, but have the stars Tom Cruise and Armie Hammer play new characters.  Without Robert Vaugn and David McCallum in the roles, there's nothing inherently magical about the names Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin.  Cruise and Hammer could just as easily win over new fans to the franchise with new names without alienating the previously established fanbase.

Speaking of Tom Cruise, he and the other producers of the "Mission Impossible" movies were heading in the right direction with the first film by creating all new IMF agents.  But then they had to bring back Jim Phelps - but without Peter Graves to play the role.  And to top it off, they had to trash the memory of that character.  I've seen bad remakes of TV shows as movies - 'Sgt. Bilko', 'McHale's Navy', 'The Wild, Wild West' - but that was just incompetency in the production when it came to directing, writing, and casting.  This was a deliberate spit in the face of the original and the fans.

Someday I hope somebody buys the rights to "Jerry McGuire" or some other Tom Cruise character and makes him a repulsive figure.  Let's see how he likes that!

Anyhoo....

In other news about 'The Equalizer', Michael Sloane, who created the original series, has inked a deal to now write a novel about the character.  So that means Robert McCall will be joining a very select club - as a Multiverse character (Toobworld, the Cineverse, and BookWorld.)

BCnU!

LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES - ERNIE KOVACS

ERNIE KOVACS

 

AS SEEN IN:

'The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour'

"Lucy Meets The Mustache"

 

From Wikipedia:

Ernie Kovacs (January 23, 1919 – January 13, 1962) was an American comedian, actor, and writer.

Kovacs' uninhibited, often ad-libbed, and visually experimental comedic style came to influence numerous television comedy programs for years after his death in an automobile accident. Many iconic and diverse shows have been influenced by Kovacs, such as 'Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In', 'Saturday Night Live', 'The Uncle Floyd Show', 'Captain Kangaroo', 'Sesame Street', 'The Electric Company', and TV hosts such as David Letterman, Conan O’Brien, and Craig Ferguson.  Chevy Chase acknowledged Kovacs' influence and thanked him during his acceptance speech for his Emmy award for Saturday Night Live.  Chase appeared in the 1982 documentary called "Ernie Kovacs: Television's Original Genius", speaking again of the impact Kovacs had on his work.

On or off screen, Kovacs could be counted on for the unexpected, from having marmosets as pets to wrestling a jaguar on his live Philadelphia television show.

When working at WABC (AM) as a morning-drive radio personality and doing a mid-morning television show for NBC, Kovacs disliked eating breakfast alone while his wife was sleeping in after her Broadway performances. His solution was to hire a taxi driver to come into their apartment with his own key and whose job was to make breakfast for them both, then take him to the WABC studios.

While Kovacs and his wife Edie Adams received Emmy nominations for best performances in a comedy series in 1957, his talent was not formally recognized until after his death. The 1962 Emmy for outstanding electronic camera work and the Directors' Guild award came a short time after his fatal accident. A quarter century later, he was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame. Kovacs also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in television.

SYNOPSIS (from Wikipedia):
Kovacs and Edie Adams were the guest stars on the final installment of the one-hour 'I Love Lucy' format, known in network airings as 'The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show' and in syndication as 'The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour'. Kovacs and Adams appeared in the episode, "Lucy Meets the Moustache," which filmed March 2 and aired April 1, 1960. It was the last time Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz appeared together before the breakup of their marriage. According to Adams, Lucy and Desi barely talked to each other in between scenes, and divorce proceedings began March 3, the day after the show's filming.

BCnU!

DOUBLE VISION - THE "MARON"/"COMMUNITY" LINK?

'MARON'

"INTERNET TROLL"

Marc Maron decided to track down his arch-nemesis from Twitter and after a few hours of searching, he discovered that his name was Darryl and that he was originally from Colorado.

Darryl, aka "Dungeon Master", was played by Erik Charles Nielsen, who also plays Garrett Lambert on 'Community'.

 

'Community' takes place at Greendale Community College, which is located in... Colorado!

So I think we have a pretty clear case of identical twins here.  Both Darryl and Garrett look exactly the same and we never learned Darryl's last name.

But it's clear that Darryl was the more dominant of the twins.....

BCnU!