AQUA-MANAGEMENT

The WB has finally announced who will be their next small screen hero in the upcoming series 'Aquaman'. Twenty-eight-year-old newcomer Will Toale will star in the title role in the new series from 'Smallville' creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar.

The Florida-born Toale worked as a model before landing a supporting role in "A Streetcar Named Desire" at Broadway's Roundabout Theater alongside Natasha Richardson and John C. Reilly.

Broadway, Tennessee Williams, Richardson and Reilly.... no small potatoes!

The pilot is expected to be shot in Miami, and the series will start as part of the WB’s fall offering lineup. (There are reports that 'Aquaman' will not be the title for the series.)

"In the comic, Aquaman's the lost king of Atlantis," said Gough. "But in our version, he is Arthur Curry, this twenty-something who owns a dive shop."

I'll have to take a wait-and-see attitude on this new 'Aquaman'; wait for more information. If the show remains independent of 'Smallville', then everything is fine, because the 'Smallville' universe (which also houses 'The West Wing' and 'Mr. Sterling') already has its own 'Aquaman'. The trouble and splainins begin if a crossover ever happens.

And how could they resist? Same network, same producers, and 'Smallville' is enjoying some of its best ratings ever. Kal-El may not have his cape yet, but he's got some great coattails to ride.

So if they do cross over the new 'Aquaman' to 'Smallville', a splainin will have to be found as to why he no longer looks like Alan Ritchson in that stand-alone episode, 'Aqua'.

If he never crosses over, we can leave him beached in some alt. TV dimension. But which one?

The Tooniverse has its own Aquaman; a traditional rendering of the superhero based on the comic books. And in the main Toobworld, Aquaman is just a comic book character, and a joke at that considering the scorn heaped on the concept by Vince Chase's 'Entourage'.

But their contempt comes from ignorance about a race of mermen that actually do exist in Toobworld. Most notably there is Mark Harris, 'The Man From Atlantis', but various merfolk have been seen in episodes of 'Doctor Who' ("The Underwater Menace") and a tele-flick for 'Sabrina The Teenage Witch' ("Sabrina Down Under").

According to the comic books, Arthur Curry is the son of a human father and an Atlantean mother. (In a similar vein, 'Fantastic Journey' featured Liana, who was born of a human mother and an Atlantean father.)

The fact that Aquaman is a comic book character in Toobworld doesn't negate the possibility that he actually exists there. Superman is regarded mostly as a comic book character in today's Toobworld, but he actually did exist, serving Metropolis and saving the world until his death in the early 1960s. (Whole other story!)

But even while he was alive, Superman was a comic book character, as seen in "The Birthday Letter" episode of 'The Adventures of Superman'. I would guess that Supes okayed its publication, so long as all profits went to some charity to help the kids.

And after his death, somebody - perhaps Superman's pal Jimmy Olsen? - was able to reveal the full story of the Man of Steel. And that's how Jerry 'Seinfeld' knew that Superman's birth-father was Jor-El.

So if the King of Atlantis is out there as Arthur Curry in Earth Prime-Time he has not revealed himself.

He wouldn't have been hard to miss, though, with that garish orange body-shirt!

BCnU!
Tele-Toby