Saturday, February 5, 2011

PURELY SHIRLEY

Just in time for Black History Month, this YouTube video mash-up between 'Friends' and - is it 'Sealab 2020'? - a cartoon provides a rap song about the egregious lack of color in the entire history of the sitcom 'Friends'.....



That computer did a pretty good job of analyzing the content of the series and extracting every example of a black person on 'Friends', didn't it?

Wrong, Buffalo Breath!

They forgot a character who, for me, was the most important black character in the whole history of 'Friends':
PHOEBE'S BABY DOCTOR!

And why is she so important to me? Because the actress who played that role is my twin sister!

Well, okay. Not exactly, but she's one of my dearest friends, Shirley Jordan. Shirley is an actress who has garnered a lot of supporting roles in Toobworld over the years - among them 'ER', 'Shark', 'Better Off Ted', 'Desperate Housewives', 'Strong Medicine', and 'Boston Legal' & 'Ally McBeal'. (I combined those two characters into one.) Last year she was in "Munched", an acclaimed play in the Los Angeles area, and has an upcoming role in an episode of 'Friends With Benefits'.

I was able to combine all of her nameless medical roles into two characters who happened to be sisters. I'm even thinking she should receive the Birthday Honors List induction into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame. (I'm already in there myself, and I could use the company. Everybody else shuns me......) So I just wanted to set the record straight and make sure Shirley Jordan got her due as a black person on 'Friends'.......
BCnU!

REALI-TV: MILAN FALL

A word of warning from Milan - don't get too deeply engrossed in your gaming! Luckily for this ten year old, an off-duty cop sprang into action!




BCnU!

WHO'S ON TV: TURKISH DAFFY

Every Video Weekend, we add a 'Doctor Who' clip to the mix, something out of the ordinary to shake things up. This week? It's so far out of the ordinary to be just plain weird.

Turkish TV and movies are notorious for ripping off concepts without regard to copyrights. I own copies of their versions of "The Wizard Of Oz" and "Young Frankenstein", and I know that there are versions of "Star Wars" and 'Star Trek' out there as well.

But this is bizarre. It's the Turkish adaptation of 'Doctor Who'. And the only way you can tell it's supposed to be 'Doctor Who' is by the presence of the police box TARDIS. Otherwise it's just some horny hippie beating up an Apis-Cervidae, an insectoid-ruminant hybrid.

In other words, a "Bee-Deer". Or as the subtitles put it: a "beedeer".



The people who crap-slapped this together didn't even bother with getting the basic principles of the Doctor's character established (which, despite the changes in personality with each regeneration, remained the same.) Why should they, when they couldn't even be bothered to get the "Doctor" to actually act as if he's running down that green screened road?

And yet.... this is still a part of the main Toobworld. This guy will never be an incarnation of the Doctor, but apparently he's a renegade Time Lord who survived the Time War (depending on when this was broadcast in Turkey.) The way I see it, this Time Lord is similar to that alien from Gore Vidal's "Visit To A Small Planet" - maybe more powerful and smarter than the people of Earth, but considered retarded back home on his own world.

This was a Time Lord hopped up on some alien narcotic until his brains were fried and he acts it!

BCnU!

WHATCHOO CROSSING OVER?

On Friday we inducted the character of Arnold Jackson-Drummond, primarily known for 'Diff'rent Strokes', into the TV Crossover Hall Of Fame. So here are a couple of videos which show him in crossover mode....

First up, Arnold meets poor little rich kid Ricky Stratton in an episode of 'Silver Spoons'. This is a clip that definitely is confined to its own time, just based on that computer alone!




With this next clip, we're visiting a different dimension, not only of sight but of sound - sorry, runaway train of thought!

In this dimension, the Tele-folks watch the same shows as we do, but those TV show characters can cross over from Earth Prime-Time. So it's a TV world in a TV world in our TVs......

This was the central theme to a TV show called 'Hi Honey I'm Home', which was about a family of sitcom characters living in the "real" world. A lot of classic TV characters made the jump from Earth Prime-Time to this other TV dimension over the course of the series in cameo appearances.

Arnold was yanked out of the main Toobworld to replace this guy's son in his world in the "Remote Control Man" episode of 'Amazing Stories'.....



BCnU!

THE HAT SQUAD: MARGARET JOHN

First off, it's a bit of a downer as we pause to remember a British character actress who passed away earlier this week....

Margaret John appeared in two 'Doctor Who' stories - one with Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor, and the other was "The Idiot's Lantern" with the Tenth Doctor played by David Tennant. As far as Toobworld is concerned, she holds the record for the longest span of time between appearances in 'Doctor Who'. (But if you count the Peter Cushing movies as canon - which I don't - then it's Bernard Cribbins who holds the record.)

Her presence hasn't left us yet in the TV Universe, as Ms. John will be seen in the upcoming HBO fantasy series 'Game Of Thrones', which I'm eagerly anticipating.

But it was her 'Gavin And Stacey' role as Doris, the randy old neighbor on the island of Barry in Wales, for which I'll remember her best. If you've never seen the show - well, first off, you're missing something special! - Doris was something akin to Mother Dexter on 'Phyllis' thirty years ago. Tart-tongued, potty-mouthed, sexually active, and you're never quite sure if she was telling you the truth about her latest exploits or if she was just slinging the bleep.

Here's an example of Margaret John as Doris...




Efallai y nos da a Dduw bendithia

BCnU!

IT'S SUPER BOWL VIDEO WEEKEND!

It's that time of the week again - Video Weekend! All week long I've been adding videos here and there to the blog's Saturday & Sunday schedule to run automatically so that I can have a couple days off.

And with this being Super Bowl Weekend, we've got that theme to work with on Sunday. For today, it's quite the hodge-podge of clips.

So let's get started!

AS SEEN ON TV: NANCY HANKS LINCOLN

On this date in 1784, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, mother of Abraham Lincoln, was born......

NANCY HANKS LINCOLN

AS SEEN IN:
"Swing Out, Sweet Land"

AS PLAYED BY:
Celeste Holm

From Wikipedia:
Nancy Hanks Lincoln (February 5, 1784 – October 5, 1818) was the mother of Abraham Lincoln (the 16th President of the United States) and of Sarah Lincoln; she also was the wife of Thomas Lincoln.

On June 12, 1806, she married Thomas Lincoln. Thomas proposed to her at what is now Lincoln Homestead State Park. A record of their marriage license is located at the Washington County, Kentucky, courthouse. They had three children:

Sarah Lincoln Grigsby

(February 10, 1807 – January 20, 1828)

Abraham Lincoln

(February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865)

Thomas Lincoln

(died in infancy, 1812)

In 1816, Nancy Hanks and her family moved to southern Indiana.

Nancy Hanks Lincoln was thirty-four years old when she died on October 5, 1818, and her son Abraham was nine.

BCnU!

Friday, February 4, 2011

TVXOHOF, 02/2011: ARNOLD JACKSON-DRUMMOND

It's been the tradition for the TV Crossover Hall of Fame to observe February as Black History Month by inducting a person of color - whether it's a fictional character or the televersion of an historical figure, or even a member of the League of Themselves - into the Hall.

This month's "honoree" follows that lead, but in truth, he should have been a member of the Hall of Fame long before this. Not only because he has an impressive amount of credits to qualify, more than the minimum requirement, but also because he was such an iconic figure in the Toobworld landscape during the 1980's........
ARNOLD JACKSON DRUMMOND

Full disclosure: the main impetus to induct him now is the sad fact that Gary Coleman, who played Arnold, died last year at the age of 42.

Here are the shows that qualify Arnold Jackson-Drummond for entry into the TV Crossover Hall Of Fame:

'Diff'rent Strokes'

'The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air'

'The Facts of Life'

'Silver Spoons'

'Amazing Stories'
'Diff'rent Strokes' was his base, in which he appeared in 189 episodes during its run. The rest of the series listed were basically guest appearances:
'The Facts Of Life' was a spin-off featuring the former housekeeper, Mrs. Garrett, who was now working at a school for girls in upstate New York. In a two-part episode, Arnold came for a visit.
'Silver Spoons' also featured a rich kid growing up in New York City, so NBC saw the benefits in crossing them over.
And Arnold, accompanied by his "Dad", Phillip Drummond, appeared in the final episode of 'The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air' - along with George and Louise Jefferson from the classic CBS sitcoms 'The Jeffersons' and 'All In The Family'. "Remote Control Man", the episode of 'Amazing Stories' in which Arnold appeared, isn't part of the main Toobworld like the other TV shows listed. It took place in a TV dimension similar to the Trueniverse in one respect: they have the same TV shows we do. Arnold was just one of the TV characters summoned up by that magic remote control. Others included the Hulk, June Cleaver, The Face of 'The A-Team', and Ed McMahon, among many others. In effect, Arnold was pulled out of the main Toobworld and into this other dimension which is also shared by 'Hi Honey, I'm Home'. Gary Coleman appeared in a cameo on 'Married... With Children', but not as Arnold. In fact, his building code inspector was adamant that he was not Arnold Jackson and that he was not Gary Coleman of 'Diff'rent Strokes'. Because the show got mentioned, this is nothing more than a Zonk to bedevil my day!
As for this publicity picture? If anything, it belongs in the "Promoverse" with those USA Network blipverts.......

Fully grown, Arnold Jackson-Drummond was only 4'-8", but he stands tall in the Toobworld pantheon. And for that, we're inducting him into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame for February of 2011.

THE 2011 TVXOHOF ROSTER:
JANUARY - Aunt Bee Taylor
FEBRUARY - Arnold Jackson-Drummond

BCnU!

LOCATION SHOTS: ON 12th & HUDSON.....

Continuing with the contributions made by members of Team Toobworld, Vincent Audette sent along these two locations that link a lot of shows set in New York City:

I'm watching 'Blue Bloods' - "Hall of Mirrors" on CBS who try to stop a terrorist attack in NYC. The Reagans are family of cops, Tom Selleck plays the police commish and his sons (Will Estes and Donnie Wahlberg) both work in the 12th Precinct. First, This precinct is the home of TV's 'McCloud', 'Barney Miller', 'The Unusuals', 'Can't Hurry Love', 'Castle' and 'The Beat'.

Secondly, in tonight's episode the suspect is an engineering student at Hudson University. A fictional college used in all of the 'Law & Order' franchise and was mentioned in 'Without A Trace' and 'Tru Calling'.
With Hudson University, we can add 'The Cosby Show' and 'DeGrassi: The Next Generation' as two more shows with connections to that seat of learning. And those four shows, along with all of the 'Law & Order' dramas, share the same TV dimension: Earth Prime-Time, the main Toobworld.

It gets trickier with the 12th Precinct. Of the shows mentioned by Vince, these are the ones that exist in the main Toobworld:

'McCloud'
'Barney Miller'
'The Unusuals'
'Can't Hurry Love'
'The Beat'

'The Beat', although it only lasted a few episodes is a key addition to the Toobworld Dynamic, as it's one of the shows in which Detective John Munch appeared over the years. And it was on UPN, so it adds to his list of many networks as well.

With the end of 'Barney Miller', the original station house was closed down to become a museum dedicated to former police commissioner Teddy Roosevelt. So a new location was chosen which is what we saw each week in 'The Unusuals'. (I wish that show was still on the air.) But with 'Castle' and 'Blue Bloods', each of them had to be relegated to other TV dimensions. And they couldn't share one either. This is because both shows have different mayors for New York City who have appeared in episodes. I've stated in the past that the main Toobworld shares the same mayor as the NYC to be found in the Trueniverse. Currently, that's Mike Bloomberg. He's portrayed himself in episodes of '30 Rock', 'Law & Order', and in a Christmas TV movie with the Muppets. But for 'Blue Bloods', the mayor is named Russo and he's played by Bruce Altman as something of a thorn in the side of Commissioner Reagan. On 'Castle', he's a black man named Bill. Had Bill Thompson won the election vs. Bloomberg in 2009, we could have said that the series was set in the very near future and was not synchronous with the timeline of the real world. ('Castle' debuted in March of 2009.)

Mayor Bill has not been seen since the one episode in which he appeared, but we have to assume he is still the mayor. It's through his friendship that mystery novelist Richard Castle is allowed to tag along with Detective Kate Beckett and her team. Once Bill is no longer the mayor, Castle will probably be outtadere. If the 'Primeval' temporal reboot also takes place in these two TV dimensions, we could consider them brought back into line with the timeline of Earth Prime-Time. But we'd only do that once the series have been cancelled. (That way, no more pesky fictional mayors can show up to ruin it all.) As is the case with a series like 'Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea' with its fictional president, we in the Trueniverse audience will only be able to see the original timeline when watching reruns. But everything in those affected episodes will have been re-adjusted, so that Rick Castle had been friends with Mike Bloomberg, whose police commissioner would then be Frank Reagan.

Sorry, Ray Kelly - you don't have any presence in the main Toobworld.....

One last point - Hudson University also showed up in an episode of 'Castle' - That's where the frame grab came from! - as did the New York Ledger newspaper. So once we can realign the world of 'Castle' with that of Toobworld, it will fit in nicely in a world populated by so many 'Law & Order' spin-offs.


Thank you, Vince, for getting the ball rolling, which allowed me to be so long-winded on the topic. Others may not be so appreciative because of that......

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: BENJAMIN O. DAVIS

BENJAMIN O. DAVIS

AS SEEN IN:
"The Tuskegee Airmen"

AS PLAYED BY:
Andre Braugher

From Wikipedia:
Benjamin Oliver Davis Jr. (December 18, 1912 – July 4, 2002) was an American born United States Air Force general and commander of the World War II Tuskegee Airmen.

Davis was the second African-American general in the United States Air Force. Daniel "Chappie" James Jr., became the first in 1975. Davis, was later advanced to four-star general., on December 9, 1998, by President Bill Clinton. During World War II, Davis was commander of the 332nd Fighter Group, which escorted bombers on air combat missions over Europe. Davis himself flew sixty missions in P-39, Curtiss P-40, P-47 and P-51 Mustang fighters.

For more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_O._Davis,_Jr.

BCnU!

Thursday, February 3, 2011

CHARLIE'S BEAVER

I'm getting a lot of help in the last few days from members of Team Toobworld with suggestions for connections between various TV shows. Here's one from "Arclight":

I hope it's okay to respond to an old post like this but it reminded me of something very cool I caught on TV a long time ago. I was at my mom's and "Leave It To Beaver" was on. Specifically this episode:


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0630337/

Note the dream girl's name: Ginny Townsend. That's not why I'm writing. I'm writing because in the episode when June calls up information, she asks for the number of a Mrs. Charles Townsend.

(It's nice to see that serendipiteevee works for other people as well. Either that, or my own powers in that regard are far-reaching, making sure that others stumble upon these discoveries by "chance" to pass along to me.)

Arclight's message was in response to the blog post "
A Townsend Family Reunion", specifically to this line, quoted from a 'Charlie's Angels' website:

"He was once married but confessed to not be the monogamous type, and it is never indicated whether or not he has any legitimate children."

So it could be that instead of making paternity guesses for any of those other TV characters I listed, we may actually narrow it down to being Ginny in Mayfield - with the added bonus of learning who his previous wife was.

This could be Charlie Townsend and his wife with their daughter Ginny... and a son as well!

Charlie lived in California, with his detective agency in the Los Angeles area. But the Cleavers and all the people they knew are located in the town of Mayfield. The location for Mayfield was never nailed down in the series, but a blog dedicated to 'Leave It To Beaver' made a convincing suggestion that it should be in Ohio:

I have often thought that Ohio makes the most sense for the location of Mayfield, although the show was not very consistent in giving hints as to where Mayfield is located. However, in "Beaver Makes a Loan" from Season 3, the drug store is hanging Kent State banners! That seems rather strange for a drug store not in Ohio!
I'm willing to accept Ohio as the location for Mayfield. (The picture above is from that episode, "Beaver Makes A Loan".....)

The distance between both states can be reconciled. Mrs. Townsend probably met Charlie while they were in college in California. But when the marriage went bust (as might be depicted below), she moved back home to her native Ohio, taking Ginny with her. Thank you, Arclight, for that theory of relateeveety discovery!

BCnU!

Toobworld note: The pictures of John Forsythe, allegedly as Charlie and his "family", come from the movie "The Glass Web". O'Bviously, they're looking at somebody else..... Here's who got cropped out:

I AM "30 ROCK". I AM THE ISLAND ON "LOST".

My little buddy Sean, all the way from Taiwan, sent me this transcript excerpt from the latest episode of '30 Rock'. And a good thing too, because it just sailed right over my head!


Tracy Jordan:
"And I'm definitely getting a private island...."

LizLemon:
"You're getting an island?"

Tracy Jordan:
"Every crazy A-lister owns an island.
Nicolas Cage, Celene Dion, Charles Widmore
..."

(BTW - that's not a typo with the name of Tina Fey's character; that's the way Tracy says it - as one word.)

So with the mention of Charles Widmore being as real as Nicolas Cage and Celine Dion, and with no mention of 'Lost', we should be able to accept this as a legitimate connection between both shows.

However, '30 Rock' throws out references all the time to other TV shows AS TV shows which should be sharing the same TV dimension in which it resides. There are times when I just want to say, "Hang the sense of it," as Slartibartfast might, and toss '30 Rock' - along with 'The Larry Sanders Show' and 'Extras' and probably this new show 'Episodes' - into their own TV dimension and let them Zonk away to their hearts delight!

So it could be that Tracy had seen 'Lost' and was confusing a TV show with reality (as it is known in Toobworld, that is.) But for now, turning a blind eye to some of the more egregious Zonks, '30 Rock' and 'Lost' both exist in Earth Prime-Time. Somehow, Tracy learned about Charles Widmore - who, as a wealthy industrialist in the outside world, would have plenty of mentions in the news.

He just didn't know that Charles Widmore died on that island several years ago.....

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: HOSNI MUBARAK

Gee, for some reason, this guy seems to be on TV a lot lately the last two weeks. So the "As Seen On TV" showcase decided to jump on the bandwagon.....
HOSNI MUBARAK

AS SEEN ON:
'Saturday Night Live'

AS PLAYED BY:
Fred Armisen

By Clare Youell, for CNN

February 2, 2011
(CNN) -- Egypt's embattled President Hosni Mubarak addressed the nation for a second time Tuesday, declaring his intention not to seek re-election in September amid mass protests calling for his immediate resignation.

"It is not in my nature to give up responsibility. My first responsibility now is to restore the security and stability of the homeland," Mubarak said.

However the world's media has reported that his decision is not enough for most demonstrators, who fear that his legacy will continue through his potential successor -- former intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman.

Mubarak is on his way out, but the regime is still very much in power, says Britain's Guardian newspaper. Egypt's survival plan, it says, centers on Suleiman, also a close confident of Mubarak, who was recently been appointed vice-president.


For More:
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/02/02/egypt.mubarak.media.reaction/

BCnU!

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

AS SEEN ON TV: KING KAMEHAMEHA I

With all of this snow socking the country, I thought we could go to the Hawaiian Islands for the next "As Seen On TV" showcase.....
KING KAMEHAMEHA I

AS SEEN IN:
'I Dream Of Jeannie'

AS PLAYED BY:
Michael Ansara

From Wikipedia:
Kamehameha I (ca. 1758 – May 8, 1819), also known as Kamehameha the Great, conquered the Hawaiian Islands and formally established the Kingdom of Hawai'i in 1810. By developing alliances with the major Pacific colonial powers, Kamehameha preserved Hawai'i's independence under his rule. Kamehameha is remembered for the Kanawai Mamalahoe, the "Law of the Splintered Paddle", which protects human rights of non-combatants in times of battle. Kamehameha's full Hawaiian name is Kalani Pai'ea Wohi o Kaleikini Keali'ikui Kamehameha o 'Iolani i Kaiwikapu kaui Ka Liholiho Kunuiakea.
BCnU!

BURKE'S LINKAGE

I'm watching the boxed set of the first season of 'Burke's Law' and I'm finding it rich in theoretical pozz'bilities for Toobworld connections. Yesterday was the theory of relateeveety between Captain Burke's chauffeur Henry and Kato, the chauffeur/sidekick of the Green Hornet. I've done a few blog posts in the last few years about the TV show and it's connections to other shows, past and present, and thought you'd like to revisit them as well (if I got you into the 'Burke's Law' frame of mind.....)

It looks like Henry not only worked for the Green Hornet before Captain Burke, but also for Charlie Chan.......
http://toobworld.blogspot.com/2008/09/burkes-link.html

A theory of relateeveety to the soap opera 'Santa Barbara'.......
http://toobworld.blogspot.com/2008/02/warren-piece.html

A theory of "relateeveety" between a guest character and 'M*A*S*H'.....
http://toobworld.blogspot.com/2008/02/iron-guts-solange-kelly.html

A possible romantic liaison linking to 'Lou Grant' via the L.A. Tribune......
http://toobworld.blogspot.com/2008/01/tribunal.html

A reference to a 'Ben Casey' character as though they shared the same universe....
http://toobworld.blogspot.com/2007/11/zonking-zorba.html

A cartography connection to 'Get Smart'. (The 'Sherlock Holmes' series cited here no longer is considered part of the main Toobworld......)
http://toobworld.blogspot.com/2008/03/king-without-country.html

I totally forgot about this splainin as to why 'Amos Burke, Secret Agent' is not about the main character in 'Burke's Law', and yet can still remain in Earth Prime-Time.......
http://toobworld.blogspot.com/2008/11/burkes-flaw.html

A character study for a Hercule Poirot clone......
http://toobworld.blogspot.com/2008/12/profiles-in-cathode-bascule-doirot.html

I hope you enjoy!

BCnU!

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

FLANNERY ROW

As always, most of this is conjecture. That's why I call them "theories of relateeveety"......

Stephanie Douglas was born into wealth, with her father John being a rich businessman in Chicago. She attended Northwestern University, where she gained a reputation as quite the party gal (unlike the reputation she built later in life as being a woman of strong moral conservative values.)

Stephanie was dating a college classmate named Massimo Marone back in the 1950's and they slept together when they went off to Geneva, Switzerland, for a vacation. But soon after they broke up when Stephanie met and fell in love with Eric Forrester. Unbeknownst to any of them, Stephanie was pregnant with Massimo's child. However, since she had also been sleeping with Eric at that time, she naturally assumed Eric was the father of the baby whom they named Ridge.

After graduating from college and marrying Eric, Stephanie Douglas Forrester didn't want to trade on her father's name, wealth, and power; she was going to make it on her own. And so she forged her own career path in Los Angeles, one that could lead her one day to gain her own position of wealth and influence. Eventually she landed the position of secretary for famed gossip columnist Lilly Bentley. Susan Flannery was first seen - officially - as Stephanie in 1987 in the second episode of 'The Bold And The Beautiful'. But as the unnamed secretary for Lilly Bentley, she made one quick appearance in an episode of 'Burke's Law' ("Who Killed Harris Crown?") in 1963. By this point, Stephanie and Eric had been married for a few years and were adding to their brood with Thorne, Angela (now deceased), Kristen, and Felicia. With the strain on their finances because of their growing family, Stephanie wanted to make sure her dream of making it big could still be realized. So she went to John Douglas and asked her father for a major loan with which she and Eric founded their Forrester fashion firm. She quit her job as Lilly Bentley's secretary but may have used the contacts whom she met there to get the business off the ground.

But she never looked back - which is why it's never been mentioned on 'The Bold And The Beautiful' that Stephanie once worked as a secretary as seen in an episode of 'Burke's Law'.....
One last point:

Stephanie has never learned that her father had an affair with a married woman named Nelson. John Douglas fathered a daughter and even though there was a decade's difference in their ages, Stephanie Douglas Forrester and Edith Nelson looked exactly alike.*

The power of tele-genetics!

Like her half-sister Stephanie, Edith also started out in an office position. But thanks to the influence of her older brother, Admiral Harriman Nelson, she served as a stenographer in the West Wing of the White House. (This combines two characters Susan Flannery played on 'Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea', from the episodes "Traitor" and "Hail To The Chief".)

Now, that was during the administration of President Henry Talbot McNeill. But this Toobworld timeline vanished becaue of a course correction to the TV Universe. This was due to a temporal reboot caused by Nick Cutter and his wife Helen when they traveled back through an anomaly to 'Primeval' times. Whether Edith Nelson still held the position of stenographer at the televersion of the Nixon White House in the adjusted timeline is unknown, but likely.
SHOWS CITED:
'The Bold And The Beautiful'
'Burke's Law'
'Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea'

'Primeval'

BCnU!

*
Although Susan Flannery's appearance on 'Burke's Law' and 'Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea' were roughly a year apart, 'Voyage' took place about a decade into the future......

AS SEEN ON TV: GARY COLEMAN

Since today is "Two For Tuesday" and the first day of Black History Month, and because Mr. Coleman's most famous character is getting a special showcase this month.....

GARY COLEMAN

AS SEEN IN:
'The Simpsons'

AND:
'Family Guy'

BCnU!

Monday, January 31, 2011

KATO "KIN-ACTIONS"

Here's another chance - like the recent Rooster Cogburn post - to jump on the bandwagon for a current movie. (That's not to say I support that movie; in fact, I haven't seen it....)

In a 1963 episode of 'Burke's Law', Henry the chauffeur groused about getting out of bed late at night to drive Captain Burke to a murder scene:

"Never had aggravation like this when I worked for Green Hornet!"

As I mentioned, "Who Killed Alex Debbs?" took place in 1963, at some point in October. (It aired on October 25.) The TV series version of 'The Green Hornet' debuted September 9, 1966.

But that first episode of the show, "The Silent Gun", was not an origin story. The Green Hornet and Kato were already a crime-fighting team, fully operational.

So at some point before October of 1963, it's pozz'ble - just pozz'ble! - that the Green Hornet had Henry as his chauffeur and sidekick in fighting crime.

Why would Henry quit that in order to work for Captain Burke? Age - and with it the diminishment of skills - could have been a factor.

And maybe - this being just a theory of relateeveety, of course - Henry helped Brit Reid with a replacement by offering his own son to take his place. Henry's son was named after him, but he used the nickname of "Kato" to establish his own identity. (I'm familiar with that concept, actually - I'm Thomas O'Brien III, but I've been known by my initials sounded out since before I was born.) It could also be that "Kato" was the surname for their family. In either of the two series, we never did learn what Henry's last name was.

Eventually, Henry, Jr. - Kato - also grew too old for the job. Maybe the Green Hornet, who would have also aged, finally retired. He may even have been killed during the course of his crime-fighting activities. But I think eventually Henry, Jr. would put aside the identity of "Kato" and once again he could have replaced his father - this time as the chauffeur to Captain Burke. When it comes to recastaways, Toobworld Central always gives a pass when it comes to the depiction of aging. Like Cary Elwes and Jon Voight as Karol Wojtyla/Pope John Paul II, or Levar Burton and John Amos as Kunte Kinte/Toby. So I've got no problem in the change in appearance from Buce Lee as Kato to Danny Kamekona as Henry.

It could be that Captain Burke never really knew any of this about his chauffeurs; so that when Henry mentioned that he worked for the Green Hornet, Amos just shrugged it off as a joke. In another episode, Burke threatened to send Henry back to his previous employer - Charlie Chan (who does exist in Toobworld). And as another theory of relateeveety, the Chinese-American detective could have verified Henry's claim to have worked for him because family should always look out for each other. That's right - I'm suggesting that Henry could have been a cousin to Charlie Chan, or related in some way to the amazing Chan clan.....

It's pozz'ble, just pozz'ble, that this resume revision is what Henry told his old Captain in order to hide the truth from him. After all, the Green Hornet was considered technically on the wrong side of the Law. O'Bviously, this only concerns the televersion of Green Hornet and Kato. The characters are true Multiversals - beginning with their radio program origins in 1936, branching out to comic books, prose, a movie serial in the 1940's and now the current movie in theatres. Toobworld needs to ignore all of those in order to limit the splainins for all of the recastaways, but in the Wold Newton Universe, Win Scott Eckert and his cohorts have done an excellent job melding them together.

One concept that Toobworld Central does embrace is that the Green Hornet is related to the Lone Ranger. Back in the early days with the radio program, a genealogical link was suggested between Britt Reid and John Reid, who roamed the wild wild West as the Lone Ranger. Back then, the family connection was a lot closer, but for Toobworld alone we have to settle for several generations between the two men (and not a direct line of descent at that.)

And that means, in the grand scheme of all things Toobworld, 'Burke's Law' can be theoretically linked to the TV version of 'The Lone Ranger'... and to 'Batman' while we're at it, since Green Hornet and Kato appeared in a crossover between both shows. Anyhoo, hopefully you'll find this theory of relateeveety to have some merit in linking 'Burke's Law' to 'The Green Hornet'.

SHOWS & TV MOVIES CITED:
'Burke's Law' (1963)
'The Green Hornet'
'Burke's Law' (1994)
"Pope John Paul II"
'Roots'
'The Lone Ranger'
'Batman'
'Charlie Chan'

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: GRETA GARBO

GRETA GARBO

AS SEEN IN:
"The Silent Lovers"

AS PLAYED BY:
Kristina Wayborn

From Wikipedia:
Greta Lovisa Gustafsson (18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990), later known as Greta Garbo, was a Swedish actress primarily known for her work in the United States during Hollywood's silent film period and part of its subsequent Golden Age. Born and raised in Stockholm, Sweden, she moved to Los Angeles, California in 1925 to develop her film career. She appeared in only 27 movies, yet she remains one of the most popular and recognizable Hollywood stars.

The MGM marketing ploy "Garbo talks" became a catch-phrase of the 1930s. Her popularity with the Depression-era audiences allowed her to dictate the terms of her contract in 1932, and she became increasingly choosy about her roles. After 1941, she accepted no more roles, and retired to an apartment in New York City.Regarded as one of the greatest and most inscrutable movie stars ever produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and the Hollywood studio system, Garbo appeared in both the silent and the talkies era of film-making. She was one of the few silent movie actresses to successfully negotiate the transition to sound, which she achieved in Anna Christie (1930), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award. She appeared twice as the fabled Anna Karenina, once in silent film, Love (1927), and again with Anna Karenina (1935), for which she received the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress. She considered her 1936 performance as the courtesan Marguerite Gautier as her best performance and her role in Camille (1936) earned her a second Academy Award nomination.

During the World War II era, MGM attempted to recast the somber and melancholy Garbo into a comic actress with Ninotchka (1939) and Two-Faced Woman (1941), both of which featured her unusually loud, comical, and singing. For Ninotchka, Garbo was again nominated for an Academy Award; Two-Faced Woman did well at the box office, but was a critical failure. Garbo received a 1954 Honorary Academy Award. In her retirement, during which she became increasingly reclusive, she lived in New York City. A 1986 Sidney Lumet film, Garbo Talks, reflected the continuing popular obsession with the star. Until the end of her life, Garbo-watching became a sport among the paparazzi and the media, but she remained elusive. She died in 1990 at the age of 84 from pneumonia and renal failure.

For more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greta_Garbo

BCnU!