T.H.A.T.
(Television History and Trivia)from
www.hologlobepress.com
by
Victor Edward Swanson,
Publisher
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- - - T.H.A.T., Edition No. 31 - - -
Since Labor Day, I have been adding a lot of index cards to the collection of index cards that I have about television, and now I must have about 111,000 index cards. Some of the cards give information about news series that are being shown, and some cards are related to the new season for series that have been airing on television since at least last season (the 2005-2006 season). A lot of the information on the cards that I have added is "credit information," of course., which notes that names of people and what they have done, and, really, like past editions of T.H.A.T., this edition OF T.H.A.T. has a lot of "credit" information and has other stuff.
As usual during the fall, I have done my sampling of credits for all the prime-time shows on the broadcast networks, and I have some comments to make about the what I found. Generally speaking, I had no trouble getting the end credits to shows shown on ABC-TV, CBS-TV, Fox, and NBC-TV, or I will say that the size of the end credits for shows shown on ABC-TV, CBS-TV, Fox, and NBC-TV were easily enough to read (when I used a videotape machine to record credits and use the pause feature of the videotape machine to read the credits that were recorded), though I wish the end credits were ever so slightly bigger. I had a hard time reading the end credits to shows shown on The CW Network, since the lettering was small, but I was able to get most of the credits shown at the end of most of the shows that I sampled (I could not get them all or I could not get the all the names listed, and I am disappointed by that). The CW Network puts the small lettering on a greenish background (or what seems to be greenish to me (I have a little bit of color blindness), and I recommend that a dark background be used. In addition, I see no reason why the lettering should be so small during the end credits for the shows shown on The CW Network--the credits are shown within a rectangular block at the bottom of the screen, and the rectangular block has a lot of bare space. The CW Network should increase the size of the lettering. I think all the actors and crew members of the shows shown on The CW Network should complain (or all the unions should complain) about not being able to read their names. However, The CW Network does a better job about presenting credits than MyNetwork Television, since, in essence, MyNetwork Television provides almost no end credits or opening credits. Incidentally, I have only talked about end credits within this paragraph, since opening credits are not difficult to read for any of the shows on each of the networks.
Since I live in the Detroit area of Michigan, I am able to see CBC-TV programming (through a CBC-TV affiliate based in Windsor, Ontario, Canada), and I have a complaint about the CBC-TV. I watch episodes of the new Doctor Who series, which features David Tennant, Billie Piper, and Noel Clarke, on CBC-TV, and CBC-TV presents the end credits poorly, using very small lettering (for the previous season of Doctor Who, CBC-TV used bigger lettering). The BBC should complain to CBC-TV about how the end credits of Doctor Who are shown. (I am disappointed the Web site for the BBC and Doctor Who does not provide at least the same amount of credits for this season of episodes as it did for the previous season of episodes, which had the names of "guest" actors and some production personnel).
It is interesting to me to see what names show up on the screen in the credits. I see James Whitmore Jr. (who did acting in shows years ago and is the son of Actor James Whitmore) is still directing episodes of prime-time series, one of which was an episode of NCIS (he has been doing directing since at least the 1980s if I remember correctly). Here are some unusual names that I found: Vanja Cernjul (a director of photography on Ugly Betty), Skip Collector (an editor on Twenty Good Years), Khemmarat Benjatanawat (a unit administrator on Survivor: Cook Islands), Utit Choomuand (the overseas animation director for The Simpsons), Xochi Blymyer (a 2nd assistant director on Prison Break), Tom Szentgyorgyi (a co-executive producer on The Nine), and Vali Chandrasekaran (a story editor on My Name is Earl). A person with the longest last name that I found was listed as a "story editor" for an episode of Family Guy, and the person is Cherry Chevapravatourmrong. (Okay, radio announcers, pronounce all the names correctly.)
In my files, I have a section that has information about "firsts" in television history, mostly broadcast-network-television history, and, recently, I added another "first" to my files. Over the years, twins have often been used as actors for television series. Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen are twins, and, for one, they did acting work on Full House, and for the show, which was shown on ABC-TV in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the two girls played the same character, Michelle (when the twins began appearing in Full House, they were really young, and they took turns playing Michelle in scenes). I have noted in past editions of T.H.A.T. that Jean Sagal and Liz Sagal were twins who appeared in Double Trouble (which was shown on NBC-TV during the 1983-1984 season and the 1984-1985 season) and that Tia Mowry and Tamera Mowry were twins who appeared in Sister, Sister (which was shown on ABC-TV and The WB networks in the mid-1990s and late 1990s), and the Sagal sisters played different characters in Double Trouble, and the Mowry sisters played different characters in Sister, Sister. I could note other instances in which twins appeared in the same series, but I will only pass on information about two more shows in which twins appeared for this edition of T.H.A.T. , and one show is Francine Pascal's Sweet Valley High (which sometimes is only referred to as Sweet Valley High), which had Brittany Daniel and Cynthia Daniel and was shown in syndication during the 1994-1995 season, the 1995-1996 season, and the 1996-1997 season, and the other show is The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, which has, Dylan Sprouse and Cole Sprouse and is still being shown on ABC-TV and the Disney Channel. This season, one of the series of The CW network is entitled The Game, and two of the performers in that series are Tia Mowry and Brittany Daniel, and because Tia and Brittany are appearing in the same series together, it is the first time that, as far as I can remember, two actresses who once appeared with their twins as regulars in past television series are performing in the same series.
Let me add that twins Dylan Tuomy-Wilhoit and Blake Tuomy-Wilhoit appeared as regular characters in Full House.
Okay, let us talk about TV Guide again and cover a topic that has been covered in several editions of T.H.A.T. , such as the previous edition. Once again, the crew of TV Guide has given the television series entitled Grey's Anatomy the featured spot on the cover of one of its magazines, particularly the edition for October 16-22, 2006, and the featured spot has a photograph of Eric Dane. That means within one year, Grey's Anatomy has had the featured spot on seven covers of TV Guide, and, to me, it shows me that TV Guide plays favorities--for whatever reasons.
A long paragraph in the previous edition talked about a television series entitled Bob Hope Presents The Chrysler Theatre and a particular episode of that series, which was really a two-part episode and became a derived TV movie (as least as it is listed in my files). The particular show was called Code Name: Heraclitus, and a scene from that derived television movie led to me asking a question for you to answer--"What did the little girl lose, and what did Gannon give her?" The answer is: The little girl dropped and lost a quarter, and Gannon took a quarter from his pocket and gave it to her.
In the twenty-ninth edition of T.H.A.T., I posed a question about the television series entitled Hawaii Five-0, and the question dealt with a woman who is seen during the opening credits (the credits during which the main actors of the series are introduced, such as Jack Lord), and in the previous edition of T.H.A.T., I noted that I did not yet have an answer to my question, and now I am at the thirty-first edition of T.H.A.T., and I have an answer. The reason that I have an answer now is I had time to look for an answer. The answer came about through a gamble that I made. I found a Web site--or really a Web page related to a main Web site--related to the television series entitled Hawaii Five-0 that is operated by a man named Mike Quigley. His main Web site, mjg.net or the associated Web page did not have an actual e-mail address for Mike Quigley listed, so I gambled and guessed what his e-mail might be (I used mikequigley@mgj.net), and he answered me. Mike led me to an article written by Burl Burlingame of the Star-Bulletin of Hawaii, and it was Burl Burlingame who had the answer for me. I now know something I have wondered about for years (decades)--the gal who is seen in the opening credits of Hawaii Five-0 is Elizabeth Louise Malamalamaokalani White Logue, who, for one, as noted by Burl Burlingame, was once a "poster girl for the Hawaii Visitors Bureau." (The article about Ms. Logue that was written by Burl Burlingame is found at http://starbulletin.com/96/10/21/features/story1.html .) I thank Burl Burlingame and Mike Quigley for their work in providing an answer to a question that I had in my mind for many years (and did not get around to finding an answer to), and I note that Mike Quigley's main Web site leads to a few other Web pages of his that deal with television shows, one of which is SCTV.
By the way, if you wish to go directly to the Web page about Hawaii Five-O that Mike Quigley has, you should use www.mfq.net/fiveo/ (and not www.mjq.net/five0/).
And, by the way, I note that I was the person who was instrumental in getting Danielle Wallace, who operates the Web site known as www.emmasamms.net (which is about Emma Samms), to put her e-mail address on her Web site known as www.emmasamms.net so that people who do not use the "Outlook Express" e-mail format can send her e-mail easily.
As always--or almost always--in an edition of .T.H.A.T., I have at least one trivia question to pass along to you, which will be answered in the next edition of T.H.A.T., and it is a "credit" question. Here are some names: Yuri Reese, Bill Smith, David Concors, Craig Hunter, Charlie McDaniel, Craig Porter, Adam Sawelson, Doug Davey, Joe Earle, Elmo Ponsdomenech, Kathy Oldham, Jack Donato, Ralph Kelsey, Larry Benjamin, Kevin Valentine, Bo Thacker, Peter Sullivan, Dean Derand, Tom Dehl, Mark Fleming, Todd Grace, Ed Carr, Eric Justen, Jeffrey Perons, John Bickelhaupt, Ross Davis, Rick Norman, Peter Kelsey, Ken Teaney, Scott Weber, Frank Morrone, Gary Alexander, Nello Torri, Rusty Smith, Bill Freesh, Alan Decker, Mark Linden, Dean Okrano, John Cook, Bob La Masney, Robert Douglass, Mark Server, Chris Jacobson, Marti Humphrey, Richard Morrison, Michael Olman, Kenneth Kobett, Andrew D'Addario, Ken Burton, Andre Perreault, Matt Waters, Joe Barnett, and Jon Wakeham. What do these persons have in common or what credit are they very likely to have attached to their names in the end credits of prime-time television shows? (You have a hard question to answer, since you will probably have to watch the end credits of shows to get the answer.)
Stay well!
Vic
copyright c. 2006
Date published: November 10, 2006
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