ANNIVERSARY SCHMALTZ

While I was on vacation, "Inner Toob" reached its fifth anniversary. It was at this point in its life that my old website "The Tubeworld Dynamic" was forced to close down by AOL's change in procedures for blogging. I trust the same fate won't befall me here with Blogger.....

"Inner Toob" celebrates the concept that nearly everything seen on TV constitutes a fantasy universe, in the spirit of "The Incompleat Enchanter" by Fletcher Pratt and L. Sprague deCamp. Nearly 4,240 posts ago, I presented my description of what "Toobworld" was all about:

The TV Universe is my version of collecting tin foil: a minor hobby that has been growing larger than I can control!

I like to look for the type of TV trivia that can help me link various TV shows together so that eventually they're all sharing the same universe. It doesn't matter if it's a cop drama or a sitcom or a cartoon or a mini-series or a Western or a space opera or even a commercial; it's my personal delusion that everything we see on TV shares the same alternate universe.

Sure, there are a lot of obvious links - the crossovers and the spinoffs that are actually designed by the producers to help boost ratings.... [But] I look for thematic crossovers as well - certain situations, locations, products, and characters which can bind shows together. As I continue with this blog, I'll elaborate on that topic, as well as post what "crossovers" I've found so far this year, entrants into the Crossover Hall of Fame, and what crossovers I'd like to see.

And as you watch TV, let me know whenever you find a possible crossover that might be of interest!

To mark the fifth anniversary, I'd like to explain the many labels I have for the posts, which I've only been adding since 2007:

ALTERNATEEVEE - "Toobworld" is the colloquial term for Earth Prime-Time, that fantasy universe in which nearly everything from TV happens. But thanks to shows like 'Star Trek' and 'Sliders', there are other TV dimensions - which comes in handy when a show proves too difficult to place in the main Toobworld.

AS SEEN ON TV - This has become a daily feature this year, in which we showcase the portrayals of historical figures on TV.

AGATHA CHRISTIE
REAL WORLD & TOOBWORLD

BIG SCREEN TV - Sometimes a theatrically released film has ties to Toobworld, with regards to sequels, remakes, inspirations for TV shows, or actual crossovers (as was the case with "This is Spinal Tap" and 'The Nanny', for instance.)

AL POWELL
MOVIE UNIVERSE & TV UNIVERSE

BLIPVERTS - TV commercials have just as much right to belong in the TV Universe as the shows they sponsor. And occasionally, they prove to be more entertaining. (The term comes from 'Max Headroom'.)

BLOGMATES - These are my comrades in arms, whose links you'll find listed over there to the left.
BOOK 'EM - As with movies, sometimes there are books that have some connection to TV shows. But also this category deals with the fictional books you can only find in the libraries of - the Twi- er, in Toobworld..... [Title inspired by the oft-used 'Hawaii 5-O' catch-phrase.]

BORN TO RE-RUN - Re-incarnation plays a big role in Toobworld, especially helpful in forging theoretical links between shows.

BY ANY OTHER NAME - Sometimes characters played by the same actor on different shows are one and the same person. My favorite example? Dr. Loveless on 'The Wild, Wild West' was also Mr. Big on 'Get Smart', The Clown on 'Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea', and Arthur Boyle in "Goodnight, My Love".

CURTIS/NUMBER 12 & NELSON BRENNER
ONE AND THE SAME!

CROSSING ZONE - There's probably at least one TV show that can be linked for every episode of 'The Twilight Zone'. Cataloguing them was an ongoing project in the old website; someday I may take it up again on a regular basis here.

DEEP SIX - Letterman has his Top Ten list; the Waterbury Republican-American has the Morning 5. This is my occasional list of six connected items in a theme.

DOUBLE VISION - For those TV characters played by the same actor but in different series (not always) - and who are not the same person using an alias - this is the general category to "splain" why they look the same - clones, plastic surgery, alien impersonation, masks, quantum leaping, etc.

2 NICK CUTTERS
[ONE'S A CLONE]

2 GILLIGANS
[ONE'S SOME KIND OF EVIL TWIN]

FANFICCER'S FRIEND - I don't usually have the patience anymore to read fan fiction crossovers, and I do feel guilty about the concept since the authors do get carried away with their belief in their "rights". But that doesn't stop me from being an enabler - every so often I'll publish a picture from a movie to suggest a possible crossover for TV characters played by the actors in that movie. Here's a good example:

GAME OF THE NAME - I've always been fascinated with names and this category serves as an umbrella category to explore that fixation. Aliases, origins, even just a celebration of the "music" in a name...... [A play on the series title 'The Name Of The Game'.]

HALL OF FAME - Usually once a month, we induct some TV character into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame. The only requirement is that the character had to appear in three different TV sources - series, commercials, movies, mini-series, even cartoons. For 2009, we're inducting one every week in celebration of the tenth anniversary of the Hall of Fame online.

HAT SQUAD - Our tributes - our tips of the hat - to those actors, writers, directors, and others connected to the medium of television who have passed away. [The title was from a short-lived detective series.]

IDD - The Idiot's Delight Digest group is my longest-running association with an online organization. It's a celebration of free-form deejay legend Vin Scelsa, who can still be heard on WFUV and on Sirius. My best description of his talents is that he could start off with a "Ramones Attack" and by the time he's finished with his segue of records he's playing Josephine Baker singing in French. And you understand how he reached that point; it all makes musical sense.

Every so often, the IDD contingent of fans known as "Iddiots" (a word I proudly coined!) gives Toobworld Central a helping hand....

KEEP ON TREKKIN' - As you might expect, this label is for anything related to 'Star Trek'.

LA TRIVIATA - those bits of business that can often serve as the building blocks for the Great Link, the Grand Mosaic, that is Toobworld.

LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES - When a real-life personality appears as themselves in a fictional TV show - Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton on 'Here's Lucy', Mayor Bloomberg on 'Law & Order', for example - they are just as fictional as the characters around them. The League of Themselves celebrates their presence in the TV Universe.

LIFE DURING PRIME TIME - A general category, usually dealing with events that occur in the lives of TV characters.

LINKIN' CASE - This covers the arguments made in defense of a link which Toobworld Central deems good enough to be considered official and not just theoretical. [A play on Lincoln Case, from 'Route 66'.]

LINKIN' HAZE - This is the miasma in which we're never really sure if the connection is valid. [A play on Lincoln Hayes, from 'Mod Squad'.]

LINKIN' LOGS - Usually a list of links or some other type of categorization. Probably the only time the file clerks at Toobworld Central get to shine. [A play on "Lincoln Logs", of course.]

LOST IN THOUGHT - As with "Keep On Trekkin'", this is a label for any essays that have to do the TV series 'Lost'. As we await its final season, we're mostly holding off on these theories until the all of the producers' answers are "set in stone".

MAILING TOOB - Letters! We get letters! Well, not many. But we'd love to give you a spotlight if you do have something to say about Toobworld! Please.....?

MISSING LINKS - This is for those theoretical links that nobody else probably ever thought could exist. There's no way they'd ever be official, but hopefully we present a compelling argument for them to be considered as such.

MUSEUM PIECE - For those TV shows I've seen at the Paley Center for Media or the really oldie but goodies I've found (mostly as bootlegs - shhhh!)

MY SO-CALLED LIFE - I know a lot of people use their blogs for revealing their personal life or to rant about the stuff that bugs them. I rarely do that - too many walls! - but occasionally something slips through a crack..... [The name was stolen directly from the TV series.]

NUMBERS RUNNING - All the speculation about the sequence of "The Numbers" on 'Lost' has really been an O'Bsession for me. With this category, I look for them in other TV shows and tele-flicks. Perhaps because Douglas Adams made it so famous, one would expect to find "42" popping up; but it's amazing how many times I keep finding "23"! O'BSERVATIONS - My personal thoughts about various TV topics. As for the spelling, I'm an O'Brien, and this is a form of protest when I see the apostrophe being eliminated from my computerized life vis a vis credit cards, bills, subscriptions, etc. O'Tooles, O'Malleys, O'Rileys, O'Shaughnessys, et al - are ye with me?

ONLINE TV - Over the years, Toobworld has had to expand its parameters to include online content. Currently a good example is 'The Adventures Of Little Monk', which serves as a prequel to the show 'Monk'.

OUTSIDE THE BOX - Every so often something occurs in the real world that doesn't really have a connection to Toobworld or even to television in general, but which attracts my attention and I feel the need to bring it to yours.

OZ-BITS - "The Wizard Of Oz" is my all-time favorite movie, and it has proven to be so influential that it keeps cropping up in references on TV all the time. This is my small way to point to that out.....

PILOT PROGRAM - Not every pilot for new TV shows make it on the air, and thus must be relegated to some sort of Toobworld limbo. But some of them have really intriguing premises and this is where we give them consideration.

REALI-TV - Real-life news and events that find themselves incorporated into the fictional world of Toobworld - the Titanic, 9/11, Viet Nam, the assasinations of Kennedy and Lincoln, the trampling deaths at The Who's Cincinnatti concert... all of them have had fictional characters blended into their reality.

RECASTAWAYS - When a character suddenly looks different because a new actor is playing the role - a common occurrence in soap operas - there has to be some kind of "splainin" within the reality of the TV Universe. Here's where we find 'em.

HANNIBAL HEYES (AKA JOSHUA SMITH)
FROM TWO DIFFERENT TV DIMENSIONS

DARRIN STEPHENS
APPEARANCE ALTERED BY MAGIC

SIGN OF THE CROSSOVER - Usually these are the official crossovers, or at least those which have such incontrovertible proof that they should be considered official.

SKED ALERT - If there's something coming up on TV that I think you should really check out, I'll post a notice for it. But don't ever depend on me to be a substitute TV Guide! (Check out my blogmate TVaholic for that - as always, link to the left!)

SKITLANDIA - Comedy sketches don't belong in Toobworld proper; too many Zonks (see below) are created by them. So Skitlandia is an alternate TV dimension in which they can flourish. Every so often, a Skitlandian crosses over into Earth Prime-Time. For example: the refrigerator repairman played by Dan Aykroyd in an episode of 'The Nanny' originally appeared in a "Nerds" sketch on 'Saturday Night Live'.

SPECIAL GUEST APPEARANCE - Sometimes I'm just too lazy to write up a post myself. That's when I "quote extensively" from some other source. I give them credit, but I'm usually too lazy to provide links. I guess I'm no better than a plagiarist at times.....

SPIN-OFF CITY - This category deals with sequels, prequels, and spin-offs from other shows. [A play on the sitcom title 'Spin City'.]

SPLAININ TO DO - "Splainin" may be the most used coined TV word to be found in "Inner Toob". These are my explanations for things that occurred in Toobworld, or why certain shows should be connected to each other, or a way to get rid of discrepancies. As you might imagine, it's the one label I use the most! [As most people must know, the term comes from 'I Love Lucy'.]

TELE-FOLKS DIRECTORY - This category is for our examinations into the "lives" of the citizens of Toobworld.

TELE-QUOTES - For those great lines we repeat, usually as headers for an essay.

THEORIES OF RELATEEVEETY - Sort of a "Missing Links" category in which we describe how two TV characters from different shows might be related. This could include re-incarnation, illegitimate offspring, and that old stand-by, "Identical Cousins".

BON CHANCE LOUIE & EDWARD ST. JOHN
FATHER AND SON?

TIDDLYWINKYDINKS - A play on radio legend Bob Steele's old spotlight on those little known facts of no importance. This was a daily feature last year, but it proved to be exhausting. If used at all anymore, it's usually in conjunction with an historical event that has been depicted or mentioned on TV.

TOOBIT AWARDS - The annual celebration of our personal favorites from the past year.

TOOBWORLD CENTRAL - Currently our headquarters can be found here:

TOONIVERSE - A dimension similar to Skitlandia, but in which all of TV cartoons can be found. As is sometimes the case with Skitlandia, characters from the Tooniverse cross over into Earth Prime-Time - Daffy Duck on 'The Drew Carey Show' for example. But they must remain as cartoons; if they appear as actual humans, like 'Batman', for example, then they are just dimensional counterparts.

TV CLASSIQUE - Just a fancy name for great old TV shows....

TV MOVIES - This is actually two categories. Mostly it deals with actual TV movies rather than TV shows or commercials. But it could also refer to those fictional movies that can only be found in Toobworld.

TV ON TV - Similar to TV Movies and Book 'em, this category is mostly about fictional TV series found in real TV series - like 'FYI' on 'Murphy Brown'.

TV TIMELINE - Dealing with historical as well as fictional dates........

TWIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES - Every so often a news story breaks that is either directly associated with television, or which has connotation to the medium. The title is a play on the 'Law & Order' concept, with "Twip" coming from that old fake multi-purpose product found in TV Land interstitials.

WHO'S ON TV - Similar to Crossing Zone, Keep On Trekkin' and Lost In Thought, this category deals with anything to do with 'Doctor Who'.

WIKIPEDIAPHILE - Sure, it's not the most reliable resource for information on any given topic, but it's the most accessible for nearly everything imaginable. So Wikipedia serves as the go-to for just the facts, ma'am, on the real-life background for Toobworld topics.

WISH-CRAFT - Conscripted from Tabitha's attempts to say "Witch-craft" on 'Bewitched', this is the category where we make suggestions and just basically wish for certain things to happen in our favorite shows. It'd be nice if someday some network suit sees our suggestion box and actually utilizes the wish-craft. Shyeah, right!

WORLD TOOB - Stories about TV from around the world. Toobworld isn't just made up of the TV shows from the United States. O'Bviously there are a lot of posts about British TV, but we've also covered shows from Sweden, Israel, India, Iraq, and Mexico. View local, imagine global.

ZONKS - Every so often, a TV show refers to another real TV show as being just a TV show, when they should both be sharing the same world. This discrepancy is called a Zonk. Among the biggest offenders - references to 'The Twilight Zone', 'Star Trek', 'The Brady Bunch', 'Gilligan's Island', and 'The X-Files'. Any show that registers high on the popularity scale will most likely be referenced in shows that thrive on such pop culture nuggets, like 'Gossip Girl', '90210', etc. Toobworld Central does its best to disable these Zonks, but sometimes we just have to throw up our hands in defeat - currently we get bitch-slapped a lot by 'Entourage', just as we used to with 'The Larry Sanders Show'. I'm sure this coming storyline on 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' about the 'Seinfeld' reunion is going to be a Toobworld nightmare. Oy view! (The term comes from 'Let's Make A Deal'.)

If you've found "Inner Toob" to be a time-suck or just too stupid to exist, blame Sean Cleary. My "Little Buddy" inspired me to give this blogging thing a try when he started up his own way back then....

BCnU!