AN EMBARRASSMENT OF "THE RICHES"

Just so's you know, we're three episodes in to 'The Riches' and I'm really enjoying it for everything it's not - a sitcom, a crime procedural, a medical drama, etc.

It's not comfort viewing, in which you pretty much know in advance where the show will lead you despite the twists those other shows might throw out during the course of their plotlines. As such, it might prove difficult for many to stick with this show - too many in the audience are, I believe, the "rotten cabbages" McGoohan warned about who want TV shows to just wash over them.

I think 'The Riches' will provide stimulating viewing to those who enjoy what Television can offer.

And as thanks for my commitment and support of 'The Riches', those bleepin' bastids tried to Zonk me!

In the latest episode, the kids were protesting their parents' decision to enroll them all in school. Since Cael Malloy claimed he knew all about history and thus shouldn't have to go, his father Wayne asked him, "Who was Sulla?"

His daughter Di Di answered "The guy from 'Star Wars'." She couldn't even get the pop culture reference right!

(Youngest son Sam had the correct answer: the first dictator of Rome.)

Okay, so even though Di Di got the answer wrong, we as the audience at home knew what she probably meant - she could have been referring to Captain Sulu of 'Star Trek'. However, within the reality of Toobworld, we don't have to accept that. She may have really meant 'Star Wars' - at least, the tele-version of the George Lucas film.

Based on references in other TV shows, like 'Taxi' and 'That 70s Show', we know that most of 'Star Wars' as seen in Toobworld matches the version from the Trueniverse. However, perhaps there are some niggling little details that are not the same. And a character named Sulla might be one of them. Jabba's good twin, Sulla the Hut, perhaps?

And it just occurred to me as I write this, that Di Di really was thinking of 'Star Wars' after all... and yet still got the reference wrong. She may have been thinking of Han Solo; for her, he was "Han Sulla".

As for the place 'Star Wars' holds in the TV Universe, thanks to that infamous 1977 holiday special and appearances by Crossover Hall of Famers C-3PO and R2-D2 in 'Sesame Street', 'The Muppet Show', and many a blipvert, the galaxy of 'Star Wars' has been absorbed into the TV Universe. Somehow George Lucas learned of this and re-told their story for the movies.

Whichever splainin works for you, at least we don't have to consider this a 'Star Trek' Zonk. Not that it would matter at this point, since 'Star Trek' is one of the most Zonked series in the history of Television!

BCnU!
Tele-Toby