MISSING LINKS: "THE DESPERATE ZONE"

Submitted for your approval.....

When I was running the Tubeworld Dynamic website, I had a monthly feature in which I linked an episode of 'The Twilight Zone' to another TV series.

Some examples:

"Where Is Everybody" - 'Columbo'
"Will The Real Martian Please Stand Up?" - 'Farscape'
"You Drive" - 'My Mother The Car'
and
"A Hundred Yards Over The Rim" - 'Quantum Leap'/'Time Tunnel'

There was one I never got around to - I wanted to link "The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street" with 'Leave It To Beaver'. My premise was that since both were shot on the same backlot street (as were the old "Andy Hardy" movies"), and thus their layout looked similar, than Maple Street had to be in Mayfield as was the Cleaver house.

Well, I'm glad I held off, because now I have an even better link; and this time, I've got proof right off the TV screen!

There's a new regional commercial here in the NYC area for WPLJ radio starring Scott Shannon and Todd Pettengill. The scene opens with them exhorting their troop of volunteers to persuade people to join their listener recruitment drive.

And we can clearly see from a lovingly scripted street sign that they are on Wisteria Lane, the street in Fairview where the 'Desperate Housewives' all live! It's the same backlot street as seen in the show, and not looking too different from its incarnation in both 'Leave It To Beaver' and "The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street".

The volunteers are instructed to canvass the neighborhood of Maple while Scott and Todd work Wisteria.

Thus we have the link to that episode of 'The Twilight Zone'. Had we been able to see a block over from Maple Street when the riots began, we might have seen the homes where Edie, Lynne, Gabriella, and Bree would one day live.

The commercial is definitely making the link to 'Desperate Housewives' at least. Scott and Todd are greeted at one door by a buxom blonde who is clearly meant to be Edie. (We only see her from the back - obviously they weren't going to shell out the big bucks to get Nicolette Sheridan to do the cameo!)

After Scott is forcibly yanked into the house for a little afternoon delight, Todd practices a bit of serlinguism (which would be appropriate, considering we're using this blipvert as a bridge between 'Housewives' and 'Zone').

"Wow!" he exclaims to the camera. "She really is desperate!"

Now, the discerning televisiologist might question this premise based on one simple fact: why are these dorks trying to drum up business in Fairview, California, when their radio show is broadcast in the tri-state region on the East Coast?

Fair question. It's because they're probably doing this campaign all across the country, in order to get more listeners for the live stream of the radio show online!

http://www.plj.com/default.asp

BCnU!
Tele-Toby