Busy For Fun Blogs: By Any Other Name

Showing posts with label By Any Other Name. Show all posts

Showing posts with label By Any Other Name. Show all posts

AS SEEN ON TV: THE BRITISH HOME SECRETARY, 1913

REGINALD McKENNA

AS SEEN IN:
"The Masks Of Death"

AS PLAYED BY:
Ray Milland

In this TV movie in which Peter Cushing once more assayed the role of Sherlock Holmes (albeit now with Sir John Mills as his Dr. Watson), Holmes was called away from his investigation into the strange deaths of several men by a special request to investigate the disappearance of a German prince which might have international repercussions in that volatile year leading up to World War I.

That request came from no less than Great Britain's Home Secretary, personally.

The Home Secretary was never named, but since we know the affair took place in 1913, it was a simple combination of Google and Wikipedia which led to the information... information... information........

From Wikipedia:
Reginald McKenna (6 July 1863 – 6 September 1943) was a British banker and Liberal politician. He notably served as Home Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer during the premiership of H. H. Asquith.

Home Secretary
In office
24 October 1911 – 27 May 1915

Monarch: George V

Prime Minister: H. H. Asquith

Preceded by Winston Churchill

Succeeded by Sir John Simon

McKenna was elected at the 1895 general election as Member of Parliament (MP) for North Monmouthshire. He served in the Liberal governments of Henry Campbell-Bannerman and Herbert Henry Asquith as President of the Board of Education, First Lord of the Admiralty and Home Secretary.

As Chancellor of the Exchequer in Asquith's coalition government, he opposed the introduction of conscription, and retired into opposition upon the fall of Asquith at the end of 1916.

Even though Cushing's Holmes preceded that of Jeremy Brett with a TV series back in the 1960's (of which only five episodes remain), it is Brett's interpretation that is considered the official version for Earth Prime-Time. Therefore, the alternate dimension in which Peter Cushing portrayed Holmes may have had a different man in the office of Home Secretary.

However, I don't think we have to consider Cushing's Holmes to be living in either the dimension of '24', 'Commander-In-Chief', or 'The West Wing'. (Or - closer to home - the alternate dimension of the 'Human Target' remake, which had an entirely different Royal Family in England.)

Perhaps he could be found in the Land of Remakes, or in the "Evil Mirror Universe" - the two major alternate TV dimensions, where the historical figures should still remain the same as those found in Earth Prime-Time as well as in Earth Prime. And whichever one was not chosen, that could be the home for Ronald Howard's portrayal of Sherlock Holmes.

BCnU!

TVXOHOF: 2011 BIRTHDAY HONORS LIST II

For my birthday, I decided there should be two new inductees into the TV Crossover Hall Of Fame for the Birthday Honors List. This is usually reserved for those TV characters that normally would not technically qualify for the honor.

The two "honorees" today fall into the category that was begun with Dr. Miguelito Loveless - that is, they played at least three characters who had enough in common to be considered the same person. (As long as the argument held up.)

With the three characters played by Irene Gilbert all rolled into "Nurse Griffin", each of them was a nurse in Los Angeles, but only one who had a name.

I wrote about this next entry previously in the Inner Toob blog, so I'm taking that post and revamping it slightly to make the case for her inclusion into the Hall......

Until I bought the DVD collection for myself, I used to watch the opening minutes of the 'Burke's Law' repeat which American Life Network used to show, in order to see who the guest stars were going to be. Then I would watch the full episode when I got home in the morning from work.

One night, I had to look up who the actress was playing Lucy Brewer, the woman who discovered the murder victim. (Like Marlyn Mason who was also in "Who Killed Jason Shaw?", she didn't merit a major credit at the beginning of the episode.)

Joyce Jameson played the slightly addled woman who did "favors" as her profession, and according to the IMDb.com, she played several women named Lucille over the course of her career. Even better, none of those other roles had last names attached to them and all of them were to be found in Los Angeles!

'The Fall Guy'
- "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harold" (1982) .... Lucille

'Baretta'
- "They Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To" (1976) .... Lucille

"Promise Him Anything" (1975) (TV movie) .... Lucille

'Emergency!'
- "Kidding" (1975) .... Woman Stuck in Door

(I threw that last one in as a gimmee. After all, why shouldn't we assume that her name may have been Lucille, and Lucy Brewer at that?)

So, it could be that Joyce Jameson as Lucy Brewer was the same woman in all those TV shows and that one TV movie. And therefore, Lucille "Lucy" Brewer can be added to the TV Crossover Hall of Fame as part of my birthday honors list.

Sadly, Ms. Jameson won't ever know about it. She took her own life back in the 1980s.

BCnU....

TVXOHOF: 2011 BIRTHDAY HONORS LIST I

Irene Gilbert convinced her mentor Stella Adler to open a chapter of her acting academy in Los Angeles and became one of its directors. She also appeared in about a dozen TV shows, mostly in single episode small roles.

Sadly, I never would have heard of her had she not just recently passed away.

But looking through her TV credits, the case could be made that she deserves entry into the TV Crossover Hall Of Fame as a special Birthday Honors List inductee, thanks to three of those small roles back in the 1970's.

Here are those roles, in the order in which she played them:

'Medical Center' - "The Adversaries" (1969)
O.R. Nurse

'The Bold Ones: The New Doctors' - "One Lonely Step" (1971)
Desk Nurse

'Barnaby Jones' - "The Deadly Conspiracy: Part Two" (1975)
Nurse Griffin

So the argument could be made that each of those nurses were the same woman and her last name either was Griffin the whole time, or she eventually got married and Griffin was her husband's surname. But for ease in writing about her, we'll just call her Ms. Griffin, and leave her marital status undetermined. (Unless of course there's a good candidate named Griffin we can draft as her husband?)

Up to 1969 at least, Ms. Griffin worked in the operating rooms at the university-connected medical center in Los Angeles. But it is a stressful occupation - not as stressful as being an ER nurse! - and Nurse Griffin may have been keeping an eye open for new opportunities. So when the chance came to work as one of the nurses at the reception desk of the Craig Institute, she applied for the job and got it.

I can't say where Nurse Griffin was working by the time she got involved in the "Deadly Conspiracy" which was being investigated by Frank 'Cannon' and 'Barnaby Jones', because I haven't seen that two-part crossover since it first aired on CBS back in the mid-70's. And I have no idea if she survived the episode. But I'd like to think she went on to enjoy a long career in one of the most noble professions.

Perhaps, working outside the box, one could take this picture of Ms. Gilbert with Lindsay Wagner at the Stella Adler Awards of 2002 and make a suggestion to any 'Bionic Woman' fanficcers out there - perhaps this is Nurse Griffin with Jaime Sommers. Just as a suggestion of course, but maybe due to problems with the aging equipment installed in the 'Bionic Woman', Jaime needed a full-time nurse/companion.....

That's the way I'd run with it, but you fanficcers may have other ideas.

Good night and may God bless, Ms. Gilbert. And welcome to the TV Crossover Hall Of Fame!

My thanks to Lydia Doyle in the preparation of this piece.

BCnU!

This is the first of two new members via the Birthday Honors List. I have so many of these "By Any Other Name" hypothetical connections that I thought I should take advantage of my birthday being in June, for which the Zodiac sign is Gemini (the Twins), that my birthday is a double number (6/6), I was born in a double number year (never mind), and that my first name officially is Thomas, which means "twin".......

FROM THE LAST STREET IN MANHATTAN TO ALBUQUERQUE

With the 'Law & Order: Criminal Intent' episode entitled "The Last Street In Manhattan", NBC (as the parent company) missed out on a great chance for a two-part crossover on USA Network.

In "The Last Street In Manhattan", Sean was a bar owner in Inwood (just north of Toobworld Central), and when his daughter Vanessa thought he had been killed by a neighborhood mobster, she finally told the truth about how that thug killed her former boyfriend. Afterwards, she was reunited with her father who was very much alive.

That's where the episode ended. But the story of Sean and Vanessa should have continued - straight into the show that follows 'Law & Order: Criminal Intent' on USA Network: 'In Plain Sight'.

In order to protect Vanessa from harm before she had a chance to testify against the mobster - and afterwards as well - she and her father should be put into the Witness Protection Program with new identities.

And that would mean we'd get to see U.S. Marshals Mary Shannon and Marshall Mann interact with Detectives Bobby Goren and Alexandra Eames as the transfer of the two took place. Then we could see Sean and Vanessa's story continue in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

'Law & Order: Criminal Intent' and 'In Plain Sight' are already connected, so it's not like this would have been an impossible dream. Mary Shannon showed up in New York to take custody of a witness and she met with Captain Danny Ross and Detectives Mike Logan and Megan Wheeler.

Oh well. Maybe next time.....

But at some point, we may see actor Jack McGee (who played Sean) in a guest spot on some other show. Since he's such a good character actor, that's probably a given. And if we don't learn that much about his character - and so long as he's in some other location than New York City, we might be able to make the claim that he's actually Sean in his new identity.

BCnU!

WU WHO

From Pat Coleman, a member of Team Toobworld:

Ugly Betty's Suzuki St. Pierre ( ABC ) just crossed over to Rules of Engagement ( CBS ).

Suzuki didn't give his name. but the actor's clothing, hair and mannerisms were him.

So I caught the episode on cbs.com and sure enough - there he was as the manager of a restaurant who offered the young couple champagne and cake because he thought they were in a proposal.

Suzuki St. Pierre was the alter-ego of Bryan Wu, a serious journalist. So.....

What if he finally got called on the carpet for trying to pass himself off as somebody he's not? With the profession in dire straits these days, journalists have to keep themselves on the straight and narrow.

If he did lose his job as Suzuki St. Pierre and then couldn't find employ under his own identity, perhaps Bryan Wu took the job as restaurant manager in order to keep the roof over his head.....

Yeah, it's a theoretical connection and wouldn't pass muster in strictly maintained TV Universe sites, but it works perfectly for the Toobworld concept.

Thanks, Pat!

THE HAT SQUAD: PHOEBE SNOW

Singer and songwriter Phoebe Snow passed away today at the age of 60. She had suffered a brain hemorrhage in 2010. Ms. Snow was best known for her song "Poetry Man" which reached #5 on the charts back in 1974.

Ms. Snow appeared as herself on plenty of variety shows and talk shows and was a featured profile on 'CBS Sunday Morning', which told the tragic circumstances that followed the birth of her daughter in 1975. (My favorite appearance of hers on TV - singing "The Married Men" with Linda Ronstadt on 'Saturday Night Live' back in 1979.) I'll feature a couple of videos from her TV appearances during the coming Video Weekend.

But Phoebe Snow also contributed a couple of Toobworld citizens as well.

In 1988, she played Rebecca, who may have been the host of a cable talk show on which 'Throb' employees Sandy and Meredith were asked to appear so that they could promote a self-help book which they had not even finished writing.

More than twenty years later, she appeared as Mrs. Schablansky, who appears to have been a teacher who caught Jackson Stewart cheating on an exam. (Jackson is the brother of Miley Stewart, AKA 'Hannah Montana'.)

As I'm always on the lookout for ways to "tidy up" Toobworld and combine various TV characters, I don't see any argument against why in those twenty years Rebecca could have left the low-paying world of local cable TV and become a teacher. Maybe it paid even less, but the rewards would have been greater.

She could already have had the last name of Schablansky, or she got married at some point after doing that cable talk show.

I'd like to think Mrs. Rebecca Schablansky lives on in Toobworld.....

Rest in peace, Phoebe Snow. Good night and may God bless.

BCnU!

THE HAT SQUAD: TREVOR BANNISTER

My friend Michael Cleary is currently working on two more posts for Inner Toob, one of which would be about Mr. Lucas as seen in the early years of 'Are You Being Served?'

I offered to collect the frame grabs of Trevor Bannister, including some from his appearance in an episode of 'Keeping Up Appearances'. So apparently as I was doing so on Thursday, or probably a bit earlier due to the time difference, Mr. Bannister died of a heart attack.

Here's the scene he did with Hyacinth Bucket, as played by Patricia Routledge.....

Good night and may God bless.

BCnU......

DA BRUNS!

The Classic TV History blog (Link to the left, Historians!) recently ran a very interesting series of articles on the bit part actors in 'Naked City' who never got credit for their work. Many of them would go on to establish themselves as either stars or recognized character actors.

Here are the links to the three articles in the series:

PART ONE
PART TWO
PART THREE

Before I surrendered to the delusion of Toobworld, knowing all about the actors themselves was my prime fixation. So this series fed into those old interests. But for Toobworld Central, it has to be taken a step further - nowadays I'm interested in those nameless roles and who they might be in the greater TV Universe.

So first off, a very big thanks to Stephen Bowie of the Classic TV History blog for the work that went into gathering these examples.

And then, what I'd like to do on an irregular basis, is to feature one of these pictures and consider who they might actually be.

So for now, here's Phil Bruns as an EMS technician in the final episode of the series, "Barefoot On A Bed Of Coals". (And of course, you should recognize the young punk he's treating for a gun-shot wound!)

I've eliminated Bruns' most famous character from consideration - George Shumway of 'Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman'. In the Toobworld timeline, George and Martha (Larkin) Shumway spent their whole lives in Ohio, if not exclusively in the town of Fernwood.

Two other roles to be discarded as pozz-bilities: Gene Stafford, the murder victim in the 'Columbo' episode "An Exercise In Fatality", and whoever that was impersonating Morty Seinfeld in the first appearance of Jerry's parents on 'Seinfeld'.

But just a few years on from the 'Naked City' finale, Bruns would appear in an episode of the next good cop show set in New York City, 'N.Y.P.D.' In "Cry Brute" he played Mel Wiley, who was planning to sue the police department for his broken arm.

Since his ambulance driver went nameless, maybe these two characters could be the same man.....

BCnU!

BY ANY OTHER NAME: MILES & MILES

'N.Y.P.D.' ~ 'Sex And The City'
A man named Tom Franklin was beaten to death by a Vietnam veteran on the stairwell in the building where Franklin's ex-wife now lived. Because of the circumstances, Detective Corso had to question Mrs. Franklin about her relationship with her ex-husband, since they divorced back in February of that year.

Nearly forty years later, Mrs. Franklin - whose first name was Joan - met Carrie Bradshaw at the Cafe Edison. She imparted the wisdom that comes with age and experience as she ate her ice cream laced with her prescription meds.

BCnU!

My thanks to fellow Iddiot Brian-El, for tracking down some of the pictures used for this post. Whenever I don't have access to the Toobshots I need, there's always a member of Team Toobworld ready to come to my rescue!

TELE-FOLKS DIRECTORY: ON SCREEN AND ONLINE

Speaking of 'CSI', a recent episode featured a video gamer who had been murdered while playing online against a lot of other fans of the game "Aeron's Legion".

As Muskie Muskrat said, it's pozz'ble, just pozz'ble that some of those players could be found as regular characters in other TV shows like 'Dweebs', 'Deadly Games', and perhaps Turtle from 'Entourage' - if his tastes in video games extended beyond mixed martial arts. Maybe even Hardison of the 'Leverage' team was in it to win it.

I suppose Sheldon Cooper is loyal to "The World of Warcraft", but maybe his friends Leonard, Raj, and Wolowitz could have been in the running as "Descendants" in "Aeron's Legion".....

See that first name in the list? "TodDAMAn003" might have been a character in a recent episode of 'The Big Bang Theory' named Todd Zarnacki. Todd committed "The Zarnacki Incursion" - hacking into Sheldon's online gaming account and stealing all his files.

It's pozz'ble... just pozz'ble......

BCnU!

"THE CLEARY THEORY" FOLLOW-UP

If you haven't read Michael Cleary's special guest appearance here at Inner Toob - "The Cleary Theory" - please scroll down and do so. Michael grasped one of the fundamentals for the Toobworld concept - that the small, unnamed guest roles in TV shows could be characters in other series - and he ran with it to connect 'Are You Being Served?' to 'Absolutely Fabulous', 'Fawlty Towers', and 'Doctor Who'.
In that article, I marked a few comments with asterisks so that I could elaborate on them later. None of these embellishments negate what Michael posted; I'm just adding a few details to their lives during prime-time.

First up:

She visited Grace Brothers with a dog to buy him some clothes. (Yes it is a different breed, but it would seem that since she loves them so much, she must have more than one.*)

Mrs. Chase first showed up at the Grace Brothers department store one year before she was seen staying at Fawlty Towers. In most episode guides she is listed as "Roger's Mistress". In others, as "Customer".

What Michael didn't point out was that she went on that shopping trip not only with her dog Roger, but also her husband, who was only listed as "Roger's Master".

Raymond Bower played three other roles in 'Are You Being Served?' and it's likely that the "Sweater Customer" ("Mrs. Slocombe Expects") and "The Shrunken Sock" ("The Hero") could have also been the same character. But Mr. Crawford ("It Pays To Advertise") was either a different character or using an alias for some reason. (In any other circumstance, I would have just said Mr. Crawford was the other three customers as well - Grace Brothers likes repeat business! - but Michael's theory was too good to pass up. And not every character played by the same actor on the same series has to be the same person. Just look at Vito Scotti on 'Columbo' for proof of that!

Anyhoo......

At some point after that trip to Grace Brothers, Mrs. Chase lost both her husband and her poodle Roger. Either they both had died - perhaps together in a car crash on the way to the vet? - or the Chases got a divorce and Mr. Chase got custody of Roger.

So one way or t'other, Mrs. Chase must have consoled herself by getting a new dog and by forgetting her troubles with a trip to Torquay.

Next up....

Based on the facts of her past history in the series, she seemed to have worked early on at Grace Brothers*, as well as a His and Hers perfume model... as seen in these pictures:

Joanna Lumley guest-starred on 'Are You Being Served?' long before she became the physical wreck Patsy Stone on 'Absolutely Fabulous'. But according to most episode guides, when she was working at Grace Brothers she was known as "Miss French".

However, at no point during the episode "His and Hers" is her name actually given; and she is never addressed as "Miss French". The name doesn't even appear in the end credits - not that I've ever given any weight to the end credits in the past.

If we need to hold to the notion that she was appearing as Miss French, it could be that Patsy Stone used that name as her nom de mode when she was a model (which she demonstrated during the episode). Or maybe she was meant to be addressed as "Mz. French" - perhaps she had been briefly married at some point. (We know that "Stone" was her birth name and not a married name because her sister was Jackie Stone - as played by the devilish Kate O'Mara.)

But in the end, I think Toobworld Central is going to side with what actually was on air - and that was her name was never mentioned at all. So as far we're concerned, she was Patsy Stone.

And finally.....

Maybe two of the most horrid people in the comedy world got to share a great moment together*.

Here's the scene in which John Cleese and Eleanor Bron made cameos on 'Doctor Who' as snobby, pretentious art patrons in a Parisian art gallery:

I think MIchael is right - the actors were actually appearing in 'Doctor Who' as Basil Fawlty and Patsy's Mother. (She never was given a name on 'AbFab'.)

They probably only just met in the museum that day, but the experience of seeing the TARDIS vanish gave them a bond shared by very few in the World of the Toob. And because Basil could easily succumb to the base nature of his human frailties, and because Patsy's Mother was prone to be - well, let's face it, a slut - then I think it's pozz'ble, just pozz'ble, that the two of them ended up in a Parisian hotel room together that day.

Paris... "The City Of Little Deaths" if you know what I mean. Nudge nudge wink wink.

BCnU!

SPOTLIGHT ON: THE CLEARY THEORY

Michael Cleary is one of the uncles to my god-daughter Rhiannon, and one of my best friends as well. He offered to write up a post for Inner Toob that would connect three classic Britcoms to the greatest science fiction series of all time. And I, lazy bastid that I am, greedily accepted.

And so, without further ado......

First off, I write this as an homage to Toby O'B's wonderful "Toobworld", and also to the man himself. He actually has made me "perk up" and watch credits and really think about the smaller roles people play, and how they are NOT unimportant! As they say, we have no small roles, only small actors. So thank you, Toby!

Ok, here I go!

'Are You Being Served?' was a British sitcom broadcast from 1972-1985. It was set in the fictional Grace Brother department store. The idea for the series came from Jeremy Lloyd working at Simpson's of Piccadilly, a clothing store which operated for 60 years until 1999. Two other stores that inspired the series were Rossiters of Paignton and Clements of Watford.

I'm going to run with the idea that Grace Brothers was set in almost the place as Simpson's of Piccadilly, due to the fact that throughout the series, many characters dealt with transit strikes and bus trips, and also going out to major attractions in central London, while lamenting about the long trips home, or also, how close they are to the store. (Piccadily is a major center area of London).

Along the run of the original series, I was amazed that we might have connections to two other BBC series, via characters on both of them who might also be on 'Are Your Being Served?' The important thing I learned is that all these people showed up at one time or another on the series (mostly within 3-4 years) and were never named, which I will assume means they were the same characters from the other shows.

First up is 'Fawlty Towers'. 'Fawlty Towers' is set in Torquay, which is in the south east of England, putting it around 3 hours from London, depending how you travel. It is the 45th largest city in the country and during the peak summer season they recieve over 200,000 tourists. Torquay was also the home of Agatha Christie who lived most of her life there. But most importantly, it also contained Basil Fawlty.

Basil's hotel also served as a sort of a "old peoples home" for wealthy people. This included Major Gowen, whom my friend Toby already did a piece on, and I absolutely agree with it. Why wouldn't any of the guests staying in the hotel get away to London once in a while?

Which brings me to another famous guest from the episode "The Kipper and the Corpse" named Mrs. Chase.

She shows up with a little dog that tends to bite people, yet she pampers it, no matter what it does. Major Gowen shows some interest in it, but then loses his mind again worrying about dead bodies and Germans. Mrs. Chase was played by the late, great Mavis Pugh and here is a shot with herself, the Major, and the dog:

Now, at the same time the Major went to Grace Brothers, we have to assume so did Mrs. Chase, since she showed up the same season. She visited Grace Brothers with a dog to buy him some clothes. (Yes it is a different breed, but it would seem that since she loves them so much, she must have more than one.*)

At around the same time I come to another BBC show, 'Absolutely Fabulous', which has the ex-model, current Fashion Executive (depending on who you ask in the series) and major drug addict and drunk, Patsy Stone, played by Joanna Lumley. Based on the facts of her past history in the series, she seemed to have worked early on at Grace Brothers*, as well as a His and Hers perfume model... as seen in these pictures:

"You've certainly caused a stir in the trouser department."

Captain Peacock

She seems to have angered the staff and also showed a touch of early Patsy Stone with John Inman:

In the series of 'Ab-Fab', her mother (who never wanted her) was played by the great Eleanor Bron. Patsy's mother lived in Paris as a hippie and art lover, yet hated her daughter as seen in this flashback scene in 'Ab-Fab':

This leads me to wonder about the scene in 'Doctor Who': "City of Death" (Episode 4). Did Basil Fawlty show up in Paris, because he got away from his wife for just a day to visit a museum? (Sybil always went away for a day, or even an overnight, with her best friend. Why not Basil?) And at the same time did he run into Patsy's art-loving mother?

Maybe two of the most horrid people in the comedy world got to share a great moment together*...... You decide!

Yes, I know; I have a big mouth.......

Thanks, Michael!

As you may have noticed, there are a couple of asterisks to be found throughout MIchael's piece. I have some notes of my own about what he had to say at those points, but I didn't want to detract from the excellent research into this four-way Missing Link. I agree with everything he's claiming here, but there are some details that need to be covered. So I'll have those up in a separate post later today......

I'm hoping that somewhere out there amongst Team Toobworld, or anybody else who happens upon this post, someone will feel inspired to send along their own version of Toobworld televisiology which I can showcase here at Inner Toob. (Sean, you still owe me that 'Enterprise' piece!) Give it some thought and write it up. If you can't find the appropriate pictures, don't worry - I probably already have it in the Toobworld database.

Once again, a very big thanks to Michael Cleary for all the research. (And for doing all of the work! As I'm slowly getting used to this new format on Blogger, I could use a bit of a break in the writing department.....)

BCnU!

"FAWLTY TOWERS" & "ARE YOU BEING SERVED?"

Major Gowen was a permanent tenant at the Torquay hotel known as Fawlty Towers. His main preoccupations in his later years was the delivery of the morning papers and the prompt opening of the hotel bar at 6:00 PM. But the Major must have had other interests, and one of them appears to have been fly fishing.

The Major went into London to visit the Grace Brothers department store in order to buy a fresh supply of flies. As he told Mr. Humphries, his dexterity had diminished with age and so he was no longer able to do his own fly. (Which Mr. Humphries took the wrong way, of course.)

Not many in Toobworld are immortal, so it's safe to assume that Major Gowen has passed away, perhaps not long after the death of Ballard Berkeley in the real world "coincidentally".....

SHOWS CITED:

'Fawlty Towers'
'Are You Being Served?' - "Memories Are Made Of This"

This Tele-folks Directory profile would not have been possible had it not been for one of my best friends, Michael Cleary, who pointed out that Berkeley appeared in both series. And what makes it work is that his character in 'Are You Being Served?' was never named. He's listed in some episode guides as "Fisherman" and in others as "Customer".

BCnU!

GRAVE GARDENS

On the British version of 'Being Human', Richard and Emma were an ancient vampiric couple* living on the island of Barry in Wales. (I used the past tense because Richard was definitely killed by the werewolf McNair; I'm not sure - yet - if Emma survived the slaughter or not.)

They had a large estate, due to Richard being a carpet magnate. And on that estate, tucked away in the garden, are the graves of six humans who were drained dry by the vampires.

There's probably seven graves now, as Richard and Emma feasted on a gimp weirdo who gave up his career as well as his past life as a family man for the fleeting excitement of his carnal desires, even if it did mean he was doomed to a shortened life.

And all the other six, for whatever reason, willingly sacrificed their lives as well to take part in Emma and Richard's depravities.

The role of Number Seven appears to be Morgan James' first role in Toobworld, so we don't have any other one-shot characters of his to make the claim that one of them could have been the latest victim of Richard and Emma.

But with the other six, any one of them could be TV characters from other shows who were just forgotten by the show runners as time went by. Victims of the "Chuck Cunningham Syndrome".

I'm not sure of their timelines - some of them may have lasted with Richard and Emma for a few years; at least one of them could have been with them for a decade.

Most of the "Chuck Cunningham Syndrome" victims were American TV characters. I would imagine there must be several characters from 'EastEnders' and 'Coronation Street' - or, closer to home for Emma and Richard - 'Pobol y Cwm' and 'Caerydydd' - who fell off the map. (We just have to remember that Number Four was the only woman. And she may have been suffering from Epstein-Barre. Anybody know of a British or Welsh TV woman who fits the bill?)

To tie up loose ends in that corner of Toobworld, we could always claim that these lost characters ended up as fertilizer in Richard and Emma's garden.

But I'm not the one who's going to be doing the research.......

BCnU!

* Yes, I've changed my mind about Emma's place in the family tree of Gwen from 'Gavin & Stacey' - she's probably a long-lost ancestor from over 100 years earlier. And I'd like to think she had been a member of the Hellfire Club ('The Avengers') back then.......

DEVANE INTERACTION

The two-part "Candy Man" episode of 'N.Y.P.D.' had a great guest cast: James Earl Jones, William Devane, Julius Harris, Tom Aldredge, Barbara Colby, and Rudy Bond. (Harris, Devane, and Barbara Colby are pictured above with stars Robert Hooks and Frank Converse.) Devane played a member of Phoenix House named John, a former drug addict trying to get his life turned around after nine years of shooting junk into his arms. Since the episode took place in 1967, that means he had been a drug addict since at least 1958. (Who knows when he actually stopped using the stuff?)

What we didn't know until an episode several months later was that his full name was John Laney and that he was married to a woman named Barbara. Through the auspices of Phoenix House, John Laney straightened himself up enough to land a really good job which took him out of town a lot. At some point in 1968, Barbara Laney thought Detective John Corso had come to her home to investigate her involvement in a ring of housewives turned prostitutes, so once she let him into her house, she ripped her own bathrobe and screamed assault. John Laney howled for Corso's blood over the alleged attack, which may have been fueled by his recognition of Corso from the burglary investigation conducted against Phoenix House members several months earlier. If so, he hid it well. As for the cops, they never recognized him; it's true it had happened some months before and they deal with a lot of people every day. But then again, they might not have seen the Phoenix House members as individuals, just a bunch of addicts.....

SHOWS CITED:
'N.Y.P.D.' -
"Candy Man, Parts One & Two"
"The Screaming Woman"

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AN IGNOBLE NOBLE BACKSTORY

Back in 1968, a couple of NYC housewives on a gentrified street of brownstones was running a prostitution ring out of their homes. At least one of them was doing it without her husband's knowledge and only when he was out of town on business.

But one day he came home early and caught her with a guy who had been sent over by her "pimp" working out of the local bar. Luckily for that guy, the 'N.Y.P.D.' was already there to arrest her, so once they were let into the house by "The Screaming Woman", they were able to stop her husband from beating the "client" to death.

It looks like the cops let the "john" get off with a warning, which was a godsend for his future political career. Because that "john" turned out to be a future state governor, Eugene Xavier Gatling (as seen on 'Benson').

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MAKING THE LINKIN' CASE: "N.Y.P.D." & "KOJAK"

Dan Frazer played the Chief Of Detectives in the 'NYPD' episode "The Witness". His character wasn't given a name and was only referred to as "Chief".

Could he have been Frank McNeil, the Captain who oversaw Lt. Theo Kojak and the other detectives in the 13th Precinct of Manhattan South?

Since I had no clue about how rank works in the NYPD, I asked a friend of mine who only recently retired from the force in the last few years......

Captain is the highest civil service title one can achieve in the NYPD. After captain it is discretionary, at the authority of the Commissioner, you can be promoted to deputy inspector (gold leaf), inspector (eagle), deputy chief (one star), assistant chief (two stars) or a super chief (three stars) who usually head a bureau, patrol, narcotics, OCCB, etc. So Chief of Detectives is really a captain ('cause that was the last official test he took, passed and was promoted to) acting in the rank of Chief of Detectives.

Usually ranks after Captain follow that line as I laid out above and don't skip a rank. However, to be a commissioner or deputy commissioner the chain of rank doesn't necessarily hold. Bernie Kerik is the latest example. He was a simple investigator or Detective 3rd grade who was made Police Commissioner by the mayor because it's a civilian title. Do you follow me so far?

So to answer your question which I already have, the Chief of Detectives is a Captain, acting in a higher rank. Which means that if the commissioner wanted to, for disciplinary purposes which I doubt would ever happen, he can bust a Chief down to a Captain, no lower.

Thanks, Mo!

But apparently it must have happened, because by the time we meet up with Frank McNeil again, he's not the Chief of Detecives anymore. Whatever may have caused the change, he's only in charge of the 13th Precinct. Later in the 'Kojak' series, however, McNeil must have finally redeemed himself in the eyes of the Police Commissioner and was once again made the Chief of Detectives. (It was probably a new Commissioner who gave him his old job back.)

And that would have been a perfect "Game Of The Name" theory - had it not been for Dan Frazer's second appearance on 'N.Y.P.D.', in the episode "Cry Brute".

Detectives Peconic and Corso both addressed him as "Captain", so that fits in at least with having the Chief of Detectives holding the rank of Captain. But then Corso actually states his name this time around - he addresses him as "Captain Laney".

(Somebody on that show must like the name "Laney". It was also the name of the couple at the center of the housewives as prostitutes investigation.)

In a way, I'm glad this happened. I wasn't that happy with the splainin for Frank McNeil losing his job as Chief of Detectives in between 'N.Y.P.D.' and 'Kojak' and then reclaiming it years later.

However, I'm not about to give up on the claim that both of these Dan Frazer roles are the same guy. But my new splainin may seem too far out there for such a gritty, "realistic" cop show, especially after I declared that previous splainin not realistic enough, mundane as it was.

You see, I'm going to hit the 'Primeval' reset button.

First off, let me remind everybody that the Toobworld Dynamic is inclusive of all TV show genres - the main Toobworld sitcoms, sci-fi, Westerns, period pieces, legal dramas, medical shows, reality programming, commercials, mini-series, TV movies and some cartoons (those that crossover into the real world.) If a show is banished to another TV dimension, it's only because it clashes with the overall dynamic.

So 'N.Y.P.D' shares the same world as 'Gunsmoke' and 'Star Trek'. Or to keep it all on the same timeline, with 'Family Affair' and 'The Invaders'. And theoretically, since they all share the same world, they should be able to cross over with each other.

The British sci-fi series 'Primeval' serves as a Toobworld "Essential" because of a very important plot point - at the end of the first season, Toobworld's timeline was altered back in prehistoric times and certain changes occurred. Some drastic, others trivial.

Toobworld Central uses the timeline alteration to re-adjust certain problems in other TV shows - like the different President in 'Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea', a different California governor in an episode of 'Monk', and we're going to use it to fix the difference between the two Dan Frazer episodes.

In 'Primeval', the timeline alteration caused one member of the Anomaly Research team to never exist in the first place. However, although Claudia Brown was now gone, there was a woman named Jenny Lewis who looked exactly like her and served in the same general capacity as Claudia did.

That's the route we're taking here. With the adjustment of the Toobworld timeline, Chief of Detectives Captain Laney no longer existed. Instead, he was replaced by his exact double, Captain Frank McNeil. Only in this new timeline, although he was still a Captain when those 'N.Y.P.D.' stories once again play out, he is no longer the Chief of Detectives. And the only thing that needs to take place off-screen between the two TV series is that he transfers out of the 27th Precinct to the 13th Precinct where he'll work with Lt. Theo Kojak instead of Lt. Mike Haines.

And dat's de name o' dat tune, as Baretta would say!

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