SUMMER READS

My goal is to read more on my summer vacations rather than watch a lot of DVDs. (Although I do plan on bringing 'The Sarah Jane Adventures' to share with my seven year old nephew.)

During the two blocks of two week vacations, I'm already planning on finishing "All-Consuming Fire" which teamed up Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson with the Seventh Incarnation of the Doctor from 'Doctor Who'. And then there's "Mirkwood" a novel about J.R.R. Tolkien.

This may make a nice companion piece to the latter.....

BCnU!

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COMING SOON!

Continuing the Muppet superhero theme from yesterday....

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YOPLAIT, NO FOUL

From the Huffington Post:

Yoplait has agreed to pull a yogurt commercial that the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) believes could trigger dangerous behavior in those suffering from eating disorders.

"[For those with eating disorders], opening a refrigerator is like walking off a bridge," said Lynn Grefe, president of NEDA. "And to see this behavior in a commercial tells people with eating disorders, see, it's even on TV. It's ok and normal for my head to go through all these mental exercises."

Grefe says that NEDA "applauds" Yoplait and parent company General Mills for agreeing to pull the commercial days after the group voiced concerns.

"We had no idea," Tom Forsythe, VP of Corporate Communications for General Mills, said to the Huffington Post. "The thought had never occurred to anyone, and no one raised the point. We aren't sure that everyone saw the ad that way, but if anyone did, that was not our intent and is cause for concern. We thought it best to take it down."

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THE LAST "GAME OF THRONES" PREVIEW FOR SEASON ONE!

Tonight on HBO, at 9 PM ET, the final episode of this first season of 'Game Of Thrones' will air. After the shocking finale of last week's episode, I wonder if the ratings will soar through the roof... or plummet due to the anger of those who hated what happened in Episode 9.

Here's the preview for tonight's episode:

And Entertainment Weekly teases that there's still plenty of time to get rid of yet another favorite character. We'll see.....

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GINGER ALERT!

Being a ginger m'self who had a bout of sun poisoning once as a kid, this PSA left me concerned.......

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MOVIE/COMIC BOOK/TV CROSSOVER!

What isn't explained is how Beast was brought forward in Time from the Cuban Missile Crisis to be at the University of Farmer's. And conversely, how that Farmer's agent was sent back in time to the X-Men school in 1962.....

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HOLY EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES!

Time for our weekly PSA......

I believe that infernal incendiary device would indicate the infamous involvement of the Clock King......

This counts towards the TV Crossover Hall of Fame requirements for Batman & Robin and Batgirl.......

BCnU!

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SKED ALERT - 'GAME OF THRONES' ON HBO

Here's a reminder - tonight HBO is presenting the seventh episode in their new series 'Game Of Thrones':

And here are a couple of scenes to give you a taste of what's to come.....

I'm guessing she'd answer the White Walkers......

I'll let you in on a little secret: 'Game Of Thrones' has a lock on best new series for this year's Toobits Awards. And it's racking up the nominations for a lot of other categories besides!

'Game Of Thrones', Episode 7 ("You Win Or You Die") airs tonight on HBO at 9 PM EDT. Check your local listings for the schedule in your own time zone......

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MMMM-MMMMM! IT'S BABY-KICKIN' GOOD!

We have to pay the bills here at Toobworld Central, and that means showing commercials......

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PSA TIME: THE "R" WORD

I have a lot of fun here during the Video Weekends, but sometimes I have to pull back and offer a showcase for an important issue. This is one of them:

And in a similar vein (sorry about that pun - you'll see....), here's Friday's Birthday Boy:

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TOOBWORLD STUDIES - IN ANOTHER UNIVERSE

Here's a recent entry from the comic strip "Soup To Nutz":

What Andrew and Royboy Nutz probably didn't realize is that - even though they are residents of the comic strip universe - they were dabbling in televisiology.

Whoever the actress was who was appearing in the blipverts for the laxative and acid reflux products, the claim could be made that she was playing the same person. And Royboy picked up on that.....

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COURTESY OF AUNTIE BEEB.....

A big thanks to the sister of my nephew's girlfriend for pointing this out......

I've seen a couple of these promo blipverts over the last few years, and most of those TV movies and mini-series never see the light of day over here in America.  And some of them look really good too; I'm sure they'd find an audience over here.

But I guess BBC-A is just too busy I guess with their on-the-cheap "reality" programming about cleaning your house and finding cash in the attic....

Anyhoo, thanks, Mara!

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THE HAT SQUAD: HARMON KILLEBREW

From the New York Times:

Harmon Killebrew, the Hall of Famer who developed the strength to hit home runs by lifting 10-gallon milk cans as an Idaho farmhand and grew up to be one of the most feared sluggers of his generation, died on Tuesday morning at his home in Scottsdale, Ariz., four days after announcing that he was ending treatment for esophageal cancer. He was 74.

Among the many TV appearances he made on talk shows and televised sporting events over the years as a member of the League of Themselves, he did appear in a series as his fictionalized televersion.

In a 1995 episode of 'Step By Step', Killebrew's interview with a star player was interrupted by Brendan after he discovered that the player was only in it for the money and didn't give a bleep about his fans. (The episode title was "Where Have You Gone, Joe DiMaggio?")

He also practiced his serlinguistic skills in at least one blipvert:

Good night and may God bless.

BCnU......

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SKED ALERT: "GAME OF THRONES" (EPISODE 5)

We're already up to Episode Five of HBO's new series 'Games On Thrones'. Based on the series of fantasy novels by George R.R. Martin, it takes place in the Seven Kingdoms on the continent of Westeros (which for Toobworld purposes only is considered to be on the planet Mondas, Earth's orbital "twin").

Here's the preview trailer for the new episode, which airs tonight at 9 PM EDT.....

And here's an extended scene from the episode:

It's not too late to dive into 'Game Of Thrones'. You can catch earlier episodes on HBO On Demand.....

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SPACE DUST

Thanks to Retroland for pointing out this weird blipvert from our hippy-trippy past....

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VW TIGUAN: "PINATA"

I predict a big future for the kid in this blipvert. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if he gets scooped up for a role in some family-oriented sitcom. He has enthusiasm and great facial reactions!

And I'm not just saying that because he's apparently related to the legendary Chuck McCann.....

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COME WITH ME, BACK TO THE PROMOVERSE!

On Wednesday I wrote about the Promoverse, and gave a few video examples of its existence. My choices for that post were to illustrate why they can't be considered part of Earth Prime-Time - while some TV characters may exhibit talents like serlinguism outside of their home base TV series with the pozz'bility that they could do the same in their own shows, those three examples were just too flagrant to be believable for the regular depiction of the characters.

But these other interstitials combining USA Network shows could be pozz'ble, just pozz'ble, as scenes unseen.......

(Gus would just have to make a trip to the East Coast. Not insurmountable.... And while he was in the New York area, he may have had this encounter at a bar.)

(For alls we know, Hank might have been in that same establishment.)

(Unlike his friend Michael, Sam Axe is not tied down to the Miami area.)

(I guess this took place in Miami, since Michael is somewhat quarantined there. And he must have had to call in a major favor to get FBI agent Peter Burke off his back.)

(Both Shawn Spencer and Adrian Monk may have been waiting to get interviewed for the chance to consult on a murder investigation, somewhere outside of both San Francisco and Santa Barbara.)

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WELCOME TO THE PROMOVERSE!

TINA FEY'S ALIEN FETUS
BENZOLATING ITS F'RVAAN

One of the tiniest of the major TV dimensions is that of the Promoverse. In this world, the TV characters we know from various shows appear in quick interstitials, sometimes in concert with characters from other shows.

This would be a dream for crossoverists, but too many problems - not exactly Zonks - crop up, which put them at odds with how they're portrayed in their home shows.

Such problems include serlinguism (talking directly to the Trueniverse audience), tele-cognizance (an awareness of being a TV character), and inter-action with characters from the lesser, parallel dimensions (those dimensions which are off-shoots of the major TV dimensions). The home dimension of Earth Prime-Time has all of these off-shoots, primarily the "Evil Mirror Universe" but also all of the parallel worlds from 'Sliders'.)

USA Network has had the most success in populating the Promoverse, with blipverts that combined 'Monk' with 'Psych', 'The 4400', and 'The Dead Zone' (a series that shifted its focus from the John Smith of Earth Prime-Time to that of John Smith who lived on a Toobworld that had a different President than the one for Earth Prime-Time and the Trueniverse.

Lately USA has also been mixing and matching between 'Psych', 'White Collar', 'Burn Notice' and 'Royal Pains'.

Here are a couple of examples of the residents of the Promoverse, displaying some of the qualities mentioned above:

The Promoverse also accommodates members of the League of Themselves, and as could happen in Skitlandia (mostly - but also in the main Toobworld), there could be major differences with their alternate TV counterparts.

For example, here's a serlinguistic Tina Fey revealing that she has been impregnated with alien seed during her sked alert about hosting 'Saturday Night Live'.

By the way, 'Saturday Night Live' as a whole is not part of Skitlandia; only the individual sketches are. 'SNL' is a TV show within the TV Universe as it is in the Trueniverse.

In real life, Tina Fey is married to Jeff Richmond. I don't see any reason why she shouldn't be married to him in the Promoverse as well. But he's an alien who has always been disguised as Jeff Richmond, or only recently replaced Jeff Richmond in Tina's life. Since she seems happy about carrying this alien hybrid spawn, I'm guessing the former - and she's okay with that.

Ecce Promo!

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"BY THE HAMMER OF THOR!"

Unfortunately for Marvel Comics, the character of Thor the God of Thunder in the Norse mythology is in the public domain. So the night after their big blockbuster to kick off the Summer line-up of super-hero movies opened in theatres, "Almighty Thor" debuted on the Syfy Channel. Another selection from Syfy's Saturday sleaze-fest......

I meant to record it, just for the Toobworld info it could provide - I need to know if it can be counted as part of the main Toobworld or punted to a different TV Universe (probably Earth Prime-Time/MOTW).

If it had to be banished, it would only be due to plot discrepancies, certainly not for recasting. The so-called gods of mythology are pan-dimensional beings with incredible powers who crossed over into Earth Prime-Time's dimension and were treated as gods by the local yokels. As such, they have the power to alter their appearances - Zeus did it at least twice, as seen during the run of 'Hercules: The Legendary Journeys'.

Thor appeared in episodes of 'Hercules: The Legendary Journeys' and a 1988 TV movie about 'The Incredible Hulk'. (Now that version was the official Marvel depiction of the Hairy Thunderer.) In both, they were played by different actors but aht was just a case of shape-shifting over the centuries.


THOR WITH AN AUTOMATIC WEAPON!
CLASSIC CHEESE!

"Almighty Thor", had it stayed in modern times, could use the same splainin and be done with it. But from the promo blipverts, there looks to be an origin story that might clash with what has already been established, especially with regards to Odin. Again, I'll have to see it to make sure.....

Myirt!

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¿HACE COGIDA DE KATE MOSS COMO UN CONEJITO?

A week late for Easter, but you know the Chilean postal service... am I right?

BCnU!

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