Wednesday, December 7, 2005

O LITTLE TOWN OF JOYVILLE!

The Tooniverse, that alternate TV dimension inhabited by cartoon characters, contains many of the people who can be found in Earth Prime-Time.

Here are a few examples:
Superman - 'The Adventures Of Superman' & 'Super-Friends'
Fonzie - 'Happy Days' & 'The Fonz And The Happy Days Gang'
Number Six - 'The Prisoner' & 'The Simpsons'

And the same can be applied to locations as well. We've seen 'Gilligan's Island' in the Tooniverse, as well as the planet Vulcan from 'Star Trek', and the residence of Sherlock Holmes, 221-B Baker Street.

Now I've got a new one which hits very close to "home".....

You'll notice in my profile that I list my residence as Joyville in TV Land. Joyville was the fictional town in a local children's show from Connecticut during the 1960s, 'The Hap Richards Show'. Hap Richards ran the post office-general store, and Henry Tibbets was the mayor. (Not that I knew it at the time, but they were the same man. No wonder they appeared on alternating days!)

Having grown up with that show, and hearing my name read on the air once, the concept of a town called Joyville will always hold special meaning for me. I even still have my Certificate of Citizenship in Joyville!

So it was a big kick in the head while watching Harry Connick Jr.'s animated Christmas special 'The Happy Elf' to see the town of Bluesville transform into Joyville. With that "Happily Ever After", 'The Happy Elf' made this Goofy Firbolg a happy boy indeed!

I'm sure NBC and Connick both wish the special will become an annual holiday tradition, which is why it had a timeless rather than topical feel. So who knows when exactly the story was meant to take place. But even if it can be locked down to having occurred in recent times, it's just one small detail that deviates from the "history" of Joyville in the main TV Universe. Nothing says it still can't be the same town in both dimensions.

After all, both of them can be found in the same place, despite the dimensional divide - in the heart of the imagination.

Not sure if a GPS could locate Joyville, however.......

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

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