SUNDRY O'BSERVATIONS

Calloo Callay!

Elisabeth Sladen will return to 'Doctor Who' next season as her character of Sarah Jane Smith, intrepid companion to both the Third and Fourth Doctor.

Even if you don't count the charity special 'Dimensions In Time', she did appear as Sarah Jane in 'K-9 And Company', so she is eligible for entry in the TV Crossover Hall of Fame.

I think K-9 and Brigadier General Lethbridge-Stewart are also qualified for eventual entry into the Hall.
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Even when I go to the movies, I can't turn off the Toobworld-obsessed portion of (what's left of) my mind.

My brother and I went to see "The Fantastic Four" Saturday night here in Winsted, and as soon as Stan Lee showed up as Willy Lumpkin the mailman, I began to wonder if his appearances in other Marvel-based films were as Willy as well.

The guy dodging debris in both "Spiderman" movies was unnamed, so it may as well be Willie. And as far as the hot dog salesman goes in "X-Men'? Maybe Willy needed to make a little extra money on the side.

And that same argument could be applied to Stan Lee's appearance as a security guard (with Lou Ferrigno!) in 'The Hulk'. My Dad was a mailman and he took on a few extra jobs now and then.

But the movies aren't my bailiwick. And there's no reason even to think much about 'The Fantastic Four' in the TV Universe, as all of its incarnations have been located in the Tooniverse.
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And the crossovers are happening over in the world of comic strips too. Since 'Blondie' had been adapted into a TV series, I figured I'd pass this info along as well......

From the New York Daily News:
Dean Young, "Blondie's" writer (and son of Chic Young, the strip's creator, who died in 1973) has arranged for the strip's All-American stars to celebrate a 75th-anniversary party on Sept. 4 in the pages of its 2,300 client newspapers.

Leading up to that moment will be an unprecedented three-month story line; there'll also be a month-long post-party cruise to Hawaii.

In the comic-strip world, this is the party against which all others will one day be measured. At various points, the Bumsteads will join and be visited by dozens of characters from other strips, including "For Better or for Worse," "Gasoline Alley," "Beetle Bailey," "Hagar the Horrible" and "Curtis."

They'll also get a congratulatory phone call from President Bush and the First Lady, and while Dagwood naturally manages to fumble it, Young says he got a warm letter of thanks from the real-life White House.
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The new comedy on Showtime, 'Weeds', has added a new location to the geography of Toobworld: Agrestic, California. Maybe it's just up the highway from Fairview which can be found in 'Desperate Housewives'.
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I love when TV shows make predictions that come true. In a way, Toobworld influences the Real World rather than the other way around. The one example that comes to mind is DC Fontana's claim in an episode of 'Star Trek' that the first moon landing flight would take place on a Wednesday.

Writer/producer Bryce Zabel trumpets one of his own from 'Dark Skies' in which there was a tenth planet newly discovered. And now Cal Tech is backing that up.

Here's the story:http://bztv.typepad.com/newsviews/2005/07/dark_skies_ahea.html
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I re-watched the Slitheen Family two-parter on 'Doctor Who'. And I think my new buddy Words Say Nothing was right - it's probably June of 2006 when the episode takes place. Nobody was walking around with the heavy winter clothing you'd expect if it was set in March.

And UNIT does show up in the episode, although fleetingly and on a video monitor. The Doctor does recognize the people in the scene, but none of the quartet look like any of the UNIT officers with whom we're familiar.
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I haven't added them yet to that list of recommended links off to the left, but here's a few blogs that I think might be of interest to others interested in the Toobworld philosophy.

SIFTIN'
http://siftin.blogspot.com/

NEWS! - VIEWS! - SCHMOOZE!
http://bztv.typepad.com/newsviews/

POP CULTURE JUNK MAIL
http://pcjm.blogspot.com/

BCnU!
Tele-Toby