It's a shame that the episode order for 'The Middleman' has been cut down; to me, that means the show is doomed. Which is a shame since it's been such a fun summer treat.
Besides the plots and the characters, it's been a fun run for in-joke references, mostly in the aliases used by the Middleman and his sidekick, Wendy.
But with tonight's episode ("The Obsolescent Cryogenic Meltdown"), one of those in-joke references can make a "Theory of Relateeveety" link to one of my five favorite TV Westerns - 'The Wild, Wild West'.
Wendy was temporarily teamed up with the unthawed 1969 Middleman, working undercover at an illegal, underground card game with rare artifacts as the stakes. ("69" anted up the missing 18 minutes of the Nixon tapes, which he snared during a quickie time travel trip to 1972 back in 1966.)
One of the other players was identified as Count Manzeppi. This is the same name of the villain played by Victor Buono in the 'WWW' episodes "The Night Of The Feathered Fury" and "The Night Of The Eccentrics".
With a name and title so specific, I would have to say that within the Toobworld reality it's a title that was passed down through the Manzeppi family, with probably six generations at most separating the two characters.
For Toobworld Central, that's a great link!
BCnU!
Toby O'B
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