Great story start to finish! I made a ePub of it so if anyone wants a copy I can post a link to it…
Kentucky Fried Politics: A Colonel Sanders Timeline
- Thread starter gap80
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I'm sorry I haven't posted here because I had to reconfirm my email and for some reason it wouldn't send one to my old email (likely due to a lack of storage), so I had to use another one. I continued following this TL despite all that, though.
For Derek Savage, I meant the man behind Cool Cat Saves the Kids, a 2015 low-budget film patched from three shorts that has a man in an orange cat costume. I really should've clarified. Also, I was planning to make even more suggestions, such as what happened to the likes of Chef Boyardee, The Price is Right, Sid and Marty Krofft, Justin Bieber, The Brady Bunch, Wreck-It Ralph, Rapsittie Street Kids, pro wrestling, Chuck Lorre sitcoms, Charlie Sheen, Shari Lewis, Archer, Foodfight! (a 2012 CGI film that took ten years to release and bombed), Keith David, Roddy Piper, David Carradine, Billy Mays, Vince Offer, Issac Hayes, Stephen Hawking, Stan Lee, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Hotel Transylvania, the Lego Movie, Gordon Ramsay TV shows, Samy and Amy Bouzaglo, any food products formerly with POC mascots such as Aunt Jemina, Marty Robbins, Mills Lane, Osmosis Jones, Craig Bartlett, Joe Murray, Justin Roiland, Pendleton Ward (and any shows those four may have created), The Iron Giant, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Dog the Bounty Hunter, Mary Kay Bergman, June Foray, Doug and Rugrats, MadTV, In Living Color, Gloria Tesch (a failed author, model, rapper and filmmaker), Robert Stanek, Christopher Paolini and Stephanie Meyer (all widely mocked authors), Steam Powered Giraffe (an indie steampunk band someone I know likes), The Dana Carvey Show, Jimmy Neutron, Greg the Bunny, Oprah, Harvey Comics (including Richie Rich and Little Audrey), the spaghetti Western genre, Roger Corman, Troma, Godfrey Ho, Johnny Depp, Amber Heard, Robot Chicken, the Kardashian and Jenner families, Phil McGraw, Mehmet Oz, Adam McKay, Reading Rainbow, the Jetsons and Hanna-Barbera, Ruby-Spears, and Filmation in general, Rugrats, Caillou, Barney & Friends, the 1966 Batman, the My Little Pony series, any Sonic or Mario TV shows, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, social media platforms, Tom Clancy, the Microsoft and Apple computers, Alvin and the Chipmunks, America's Funniest Home Videos, Shrek, Ed Wood, highest-grossing movies, and logo histories, if it's not too late. That's a lot of topics, I know.
Anyway, I'm sad to see this timeline end because I have never read this forum too much before I discovered this for the first time. An amazing amount of detail, love and care went into this from beginning to end, and 66 years of history (nearly 90 years, counting the POD) are covered so nicely. Still, I'm glad we got it, and that's all that matters. I especially loved seeing George Floyd as a Supreme Court justice.
For Derek Savage, I meant the man behind Cool Cat Saves the Kids, a 2015 low-budget film patched from three shorts that has a man in an orange cat costume. I really should've clarified. Also, I was planning to make even more suggestions, such as what happened to the likes of Chef Boyardee, The Price is Right, Sid and Marty Krofft, Justin Bieber, The Brady Bunch, Wreck-It Ralph, Rapsittie Street Kids, pro wrestling, Chuck Lorre sitcoms, Charlie Sheen, Shari Lewis, Archer, Foodfight! (a 2012 CGI film that took ten years to release and bombed), Keith David, Roddy Piper, David Carradine, Billy Mays, Vince Offer, Issac Hayes, Stephen Hawking, Stan Lee, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Hotel Transylvania, the Lego Movie, Gordon Ramsay TV shows, Samy and Amy Bouzaglo, any food products formerly with POC mascots such as Aunt Jemina, Marty Robbins, Mills Lane, Osmosis Jones, Craig Bartlett, Joe Murray, Justin Roiland, Pendleton Ward (and any shows those four may have created), The Iron Giant, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Dog the Bounty Hunter, Mary Kay Bergman, June Foray, Doug and Rugrats, MadTV, In Living Color, Gloria Tesch (a failed author, model, rapper and filmmaker), Robert Stanek, Christopher Paolini and Stephanie Meyer (all widely mocked authors), Steam Powered Giraffe (an indie steampunk band someone I know likes), The Dana Carvey Show, Jimmy Neutron, Greg the Bunny, Oprah, Harvey Comics (including Richie Rich and Little Audrey), the spaghetti Western genre, Roger Corman, Troma, Godfrey Ho, Johnny Depp, Amber Heard, Robot Chicken, the Kardashian and Jenner families, Phil McGraw, Mehmet Oz, Adam McKay, Reading Rainbow, the Jetsons and Hanna-Barbera, Ruby-Spears, and Filmation in general, Rugrats, Caillou, Barney & Friends, the 1966 Batman, the My Little Pony series, any Sonic or Mario TV shows, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, social media platforms, Tom Clancy, the Microsoft and Apple computers, Alvin and the Chipmunks, America's Funniest Home Videos, Shrek, Ed Wood, highest-grossing movies, and logo histories, if it's not too late. That's a lot of topics, I know.
Anyway, I'm sad to see this timeline end because I have never read this forum too much before I discovered this for the first time. An amazing amount of detail, love and care went into this from beginning to end, and 66 years of history (nearly 90 years, counting the POD) are covered so nicely. Still, I'm glad we got it, and that's all that matters. I especially loved seeing George Floyd as a Supreme Court justice.
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Okay.
Here we go!
1 Derek Savage – Oh. Huh, well, uh, looking him up, now, he’s an, um, “interesting” guy. Well, he got his start in modeling; maybe here he stays in that lane longer, and ends up acting in low-budget films, many of which are many by Vince Offer, while Savage is less involved behind the camera?
2 The Price is Right – given that I already stated that Bob Barker’s life was pretty much the same as it was IOTL, I’m gonna say the same goes for this, though I don’t know who takes over once he retires
3 Sid and Marty Krofft – pretty much the same as OTL, since I already mentioned McDonaldland in Chapter 69, and McDonaldland was based on the Krofft brothers’ late 1960s/early 1970s children’s TV shows (H. R. Pufnstuf, in particular); their lawsuit against McDonald’s over it probably ends up in the same way, too, providing the Hillenburg Brothers with legal clarifications for how to avoid ripping off others when designing the SpongeBob’s Undersea Cuisine restaurant chain and subsequent commercials and TV show.
4 Justin Bieber – dude, the guy was born in 1994, a whopping 62 years after the POD and over 30 years after the butterflies really start changing many things nationwide and globally (and one month ahead of me, and while I’m not famous or wealthy, at least I can say that thousands have never called for me to be kicked out of America); given the butterflies between 1932 and 1994 (62 years of changes), I’m not even sure if my parents end up together ITTL, and I know more about their pre-kid lives than those of Bieber’s parents.
5 The Brady Bunch – still succumbs to the “Cousin Oliver” effect.
6 Wreck-It Ralph – the idea of a video game character wanting to try out life in other games sounds like something from a 1990s movie; and according to Wikipedia, “the concept of Wreck-It Ralph was first developed at Disney in the late 1980s, under the working title High Score”; so maybe here, Pixar releases it under that title, and much earlier, like around the year 2002, 2003, or 2004 or so.
7 Rapsittie Street Kids – given that production began on it 70 years after this TL’s POD, I’m going to just take a wild guess and assume that it was spirited away by the Butterfly Effect
8 Legos – I built with Legos a lot in my youth; I liked (but didn’t love) the first movie, and I found the sequel to be rather lackluster/underwhelming; I remember the Lego company trying to make their toys more like typical standard toys, with less assembly (like those awful Galidor sets), so maybe here, they reverse course on that even quicker than they did in OTL and return to their roots. “Brickfilms” (brick stop-motion films) has been around since the 1970s, so maybe here, they avoid the whole Bionicle debacle with New Zealand and in the 1990s begin looking into how to use CRI technology to make show and films based on other toy lineups like the Lego City or City Star Wars themes; in 2001 or so, a TV series begins airing, followed by movie coming out in 2006 or so, maybe something kind of like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego:_The_Adventures_of_Clutch_Powers but with a bigger budget and a theatrical release
9 Batman (1960s TV series) – that’s an excellent question; this is my favorite version of Batman because so many other version are so dark and brooding that the campiness is a welcomed refreshing contrast to the modern versions; ITTL, after Season 3 (1967-1968), the potential of getting picked up for a Fourth Season leads to there being better security in place around the hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of Batman sets, and as a result, they are not destroyed during 1968 talks of NBC taking over the series from ABC; thus, the show lasts for six seasons, with Season 4 airing from 1968 to 1969, and Season 5 from 1969 to 1970, and Season 6 from 1970 to 1971; for Season 6, writers and actors were torn on whether or not to somehow address the Ark Wave, and ultimately increased the presence of Batgirl and Catwoman in the episodes; Eartha Kitt’s activism, and poor ratings, contributed to NBC deciding to inform the writers ahead of time that there would be no Season 7, which gave them enough time to make a series finale special.
10 In Living Color – Ran from 1990 to 2001, with the Wayans Brothers working on the TV show “The Wayans Bros.” from 1995 to 2000 (concluding after five complete seasons, as mentioned in Chapter 109); serving as “a Black version of SNL,” the show dipped in ratings after the Wayans began shifting more focus onto TWB, and after years of “retooling,” format changes, and casting changes, the brothers ended the show with a series finale that ends on a fourth-wall-breaking sketch suggesting that the whole point of making the show was “to get us a Black President. [And now that Jesse] Jackson’s in the White House…we can finally stop doing this s#it!” The Wayans have worked on several other movies and TV shows since then, including a short-lived revival of ILC in the 2010s.
11 Pro wrestling – I mentioned in Chapter 54 that Hulk Hogan is more prominent in the 1980s, personifying American “victory” in the Cold War upon the USSR collapsing in 1984, which was “written into” wrestler “storylines,” and continuing with it during the scandal-filled later half of the 1980s to “maintain Americans’ self-confidence” and “faith in one another;” I also mentioned Dwayne Johnson likely still being born and Chris Pratt entering wrestling right out of High School, but as I don’t follow wrestling, I don’t how else the line-up of things could be altered; perhaps the progressive years of Jackson and Wellstone included a rise in wrestler unions/worker rights, meaning Roddy Piper’s health problems and death at 61 are butterflied away; or Jackson’s DOJ persecutes the McMahons, or the WWF locks horns with the Wellstone DOJ after coming very close to becoming a monopoly; or maybe all of the above!
12 Chuck Lorre sitcoms – most likely they’d be very similar to the ones of OTL; it’s the same person, so he’s probably going to still have the same ideas except for ones based on specific observations or experiences he wouldn’t have ITTL, and I’m not sure what those would be.
13 Charlie Sheen – became an actor like in OTL, with his career reaching a high point in the early 2000s with an Oscar nomination, but he is considered the “black sheep” of the Sheen family due to his lifelong struggles with alcoholism, substance abuse, marital problems, and numerous domestic violence and sexual pestering allegations (as early as 1986 and as recent as 2019).
14 Foodfight! (a 2012 CGI film that took ten years to release and bombed) – If Kasanoff still comes up with the idea in 1999, given that “CRI” is more advanced by 2001, I imagine security measures would be so too, especially given cyber issues being prominent at the turn of the century (and again in the 2010s), so the original copy of the film isn’t stolen and/or destroyed (or if it is stolen, it is recovered), and so I’d say it is released in 2003 as planned; to avoid criticisms of excessive product placement being possibly geared toward children, the movie’s trailers show how it is more clearly adult in content, and the movie itself is more self-aware of its blatant product placement, with characters in the film admitting to “shameless plugs” via fourth-wall breaks. Again, if the movie still gets thought up, but isn’t stolen in 2002 like IOTL, and given how far away 1999 is from TTL’s POD, it’s very possible that it simply gets butterflied away; but then again, the idea of it actually not at all being so terrible is an interesting one...
15 Keith David – pretty much the same as OTL
16 David Carradine – he was still drafted into the Army in 1960 like in OTL, but because his job was drawing pictures for training ads while being stationed at Fort Eustis, Virginia, he probably didn’t see any actual military combat after the Cuba War broke out in 1961; the hit series Kung Fu lasts longer, from 1972 to 1977 and again from 1983 to 1986; he still ends up having several children, many marriages (including a brief one to Tina Turner), and multiple arrests for various incidents; his career hit a low point/dry spell when several ex-lovers revealed his self-bondage fetish in a joint press briefing during the Second Ark Wave (1986), leading to rumors of other acts of “sexual deviancy” stalking him for years before finally seeing a career revival starting in the late 1990s; he appeared in the 2004-2008 Kung Fu remake; he is still alive and still acting at the age of 84
17 Billy Mays – still got into the salesman business, which is appropriate given that he would have grown up under the Presidency of Colonel Sanders; due to America getting universal healthcare in 1990, his hypertension probably gets diagnosed and properly treated, so he’s likely still alive today ITTL.
18 Vince Offer – he is the Jason Friedberg/Aaron Seltzer of this TL
19 Stephen Hawking – pretty much the same as OTL
20 Stan Lee – pretty much the same as OTL; first mentioned all the way back in Chapter 17, as Stan Lee named the X-Men comics “The Mutants” like originally planned IOTL, popularizing the term “after its first issue hit the shelves in September 1963”
21 Marty Robbins – probably strongly backed President Sanders; given that, according to Wikipedia, he “developed cardiovascular disease early in life,” he probably doesn’t live that long in this timeline, either, likely dying in his late 60s at most.
22 Aqua Teen Hunger Force – since I mentioned Space Ghost Coast to Coast still coming into existence in the 1990s, maybe this show gets developed, too, as the characters were based on earlier designs that appears on SGCtC, but given how far away it is from the POD (68 years), I’m thinking the chance of ATHF still coming into existence is below 50%
23 Isaac Hayes – still a singer, songwriter, actor and producer, but without South Park existing ITTL, he’s best remembered for his music and some film roles than primarily for voicing the cartoon character Chef; passed away from complications from a stroke in 2017, two weeks after turning 75
24 Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs – The book still gets written in the 1970s. I loved this book when I was little; I loved the way it was drawn, its atmosphere, details, and manner of storytelling, etc. It was only a few years ago that I found out about its sequel, where IIRC some people return to the island after the “food storm” subsides and they decide to distribute the giant food to hungry/starving/poverty-stricken/malnourished people across the globe, essentially solving world hunger; I could see them making a movie version around this premise at some point ITTL; I think it could be done in a big-budgeted live action film (with the good kind of CRI (and maybe some practical effects?) for the food), by someone who can balance spectacle and warmth, like Spielberg (I don’t think Cameron would be interested in it, would he?), and it could come out in the 2010s ITTL (also, I really liked the CGI movie they made in 2010 but I disliked the main character designs (I feel like making them more realistic-looking and less cartoonish would have made for a nice contrast between a reality-like town and the fantastical giant food that descends upon it, but that’s just me), and I really disliked the 2013 sequel for some reason).
25 Hotel Transylvania – would this franchise even survive several decades worth of butterflies?
26 Gordon Ramsay – very similar to OTL, rising in prominence in the late 1990s, appearing on UK cooking shows during the SARS pandemic, and making it big outside of the UK in the post-SARS boom as people returned to eating at actual restaurants; already mentioned as heading a TV show called “Kitchen Chaos” near the start of Chapter 97 (I think I misspelled his surname in it; I should go back and fix that…); he’s hosted several TV shows similar to those of OTL.
27 Samy and Amy Bouzaglo – Those terrible people? No idea!
28 “POC Mascots” – oof, touchy subject; in my opinion, any company using a mascot that truly does offend any group should comply with the requests of said group to amend or replace the image (it shouldn’t be an assumed issue, like when they got rid of Speedy Gonzalez in 1999, only for Mexican-Americans to point out that they found him endearing, not offensive: https://www.latimes.com/california/...onzales-cancelled-hollywood-mexican-americans); so maybe here, such mascots such as, for example, Uncle Ben and Aunt Jemima, are criticized, so they are given more modern looks, or begin appearing in advertising in more dignified manners, or are simply replaced – it depends on how African-American communities view them ITTL.
29 Robert Stanek and Gloria Tesch – Those frauds? No idea!
30 Christopher Paolini – would he still be born in November 1983?
31 Stephanie Meyer – IOTL, the idea for Twilight came to her in a dream in 2003. I feel like this would be butterflied away. Maybe here, she continues working as a receptionist and is encouraged by her children to write some different book idea she comes up with later on. Or maybe she goes to law school in the 1990s as originally planned, and she’s currently working on some legal drama treatise while working at some law firm. Can’t say for sure.
32 Steam Powered Giraffe – for the person who likes them, let’s say they somehow evade butterflies and still form in 2008; maybe here, they are more prominent and successful, with a 2011 album being a best-seller, winning dozens of awards, embarking on a high-grossing concert tours in 2012 and 2013, and collectively earning roughly US$55million in 2014 according to Forbes.
33 The Dana Carvey Show – gets retooled to be less controversial and airs from 1997 to 2001 before being cancelled for risqué humor; brought back during Carvey’s career revival in the early 2010s, running from 2012 to 2017 before being cancelled yet again for going too far on some jokes.
34 Mills Lane – huh, interesting guy, I’ve never heard of him before; I’m not sure how things go differently for him once the butterfly effect begins to really hit in the 1960s; what do you think?
35 Osmosis Jones – I’m sure some similar movie inevitably gets made here, because Otto Klement and Jerome Bixby still came up with “Fantastic Voyage” ITTL; the idea of personifying the paramecium of the human body has the potential to be both entertaining and educational, so maybe some CRI TV show centered around it similar to Ozzy and Drix is made and is aired by Turner-Kennedy Broadcasting; given that the SARS pandemic raised awareness of proper health habits, maybe such a show comes out in the mid-2000s decade and is more successful than the OJ movie and show were in OTL!
36 Craig Bartlett – most likely very similar to OTL, though I don’t know if shows like Hey Arnold, Party Wagon, and Ready Jet Go, still happen like IOTL.
37 Joe Murray – similar to OTL, as was already mentioned in Chapter 76
38/39 Justin Roiland and Pendleton Ward – I’m not sure; do you know if Roland and Ward would still end up being born in 1980 in 1982, respectively, 48-46 years after the POD?
40 The Iron Giant – that’s one of my favorite animated movies, but its origin story is messed-up – the original book was written by an abusive ex-husband for his children to comfort them after their mother killed herself; their mother was the poet Sylvia Platt, who was clinically depressed for most of her adult life and committed suicide in 1963, possibly too soon to be butterflied away, given the aforementioned condition of her mental state; thus, the book probably still gets written, but we likely wouldn’t get OTL’s movie version of it, given how wildly different it is from the source material; for all we know it’d be a musical, like originally planned IOTL (after a rock musician adapted the book into a “concept album” in 1989 (IOTL can be very peculiar at times, eh?)).
41 Dog the Bounty Hunter – IOTL, he joined a motorcycle club in 1968 and didn’t become inspired to become a bail bondsman until an incident during his time in prison for murder; lots of variables at play there, so I’m sure how his post-1960s life would have ended up here, but the motorcycle connection makes me think that he would be a big fan/supporter of Harley Brown ITTL.
42 Mary Kay Bergman – because mental health gets more attention and talking about it starts to become a bit less of a social taboo during the 1990s, her husband decides to do something about her comments/confessions to him, and he ultimately convinces her to go to therapy; she’s still alive today.
43 June Foray – same as OTL; previously mentioned in Chapter 73
44 Doug – Given that the series creator was born in 1953 and pursued an interest in drawing at a young age, I guess it inevitably gets made at some point, albeit maybe a bit later than in OTL given the unusual and unconventional way that it was picked up in OTL.
45 Rugrats – was still one of those major cartoon shows of the 1990s (Klasky Csupo was mentioned in Chapters 68, 76, and 78)
46 MadTV – probably gets created during the “comedy wars” (between the US’s SNL and Canada’s Second City) of the 1980s and finally gets the ax in 2002 or so after a long decline in ratings
47 MTV – doesn’t exist here; basically, TumbleweedTV and TON’s MVO (Music Videos Only) Channel fill in the void during the 1980s
48 Jimmy Neutron – already mentioned as premiering in the 1990s; for details, see late July/early August of Chapter 76 (the show lasted from 1997 to 2009 due to the Marstronaut program making sci-fi/space shows all the rage during the early-to-mid-2000s).
49 Greg the Bunny – shelved for an extra year to allow the writers more time to strike the right balance between focusing on the puppets and the live-action actors; retooled the characters to be more likeable by making Greg more naïve and innocent to better contrast the industry riddled with sleaze in which he is employed, and also focused more on the dynamics of human and puppet relations to better combine the two halves of this show’s world; the rewrites also introduced a mystery element – suspicion that one of the main characters is a serial killer – and gave the series an arc of sorts by having side characters increasingly involved in activism to oppose puppets being treated like second-class citizens, a theme focused on more in the rewrites as well; these and other changes make the show more successful, resulting in it lasting from around 2003 to around 2010 or so.
50 Oprah – similar to OTL, being at the emotional forefront of moments like the Second Ark Wave and interviewing survivors of tragedies such as the Pinnacle-Sirena Collision, as was previously mentioned in Chapters 54, 66, and 113
51 Harvey Comics – Marvel Comics assumed publication of some of their characters in 1982, like what almost happened IOTL; after declining sales and growing revenue and funding problems, the remaining titles were sold off and the company folded/went defunct in the early 2000s. Richie Rich probably declines in popularity in the 1980s or 1990s alongside Little Audrey, though efforts to try and revive their popularity probably briefly sprout up in the 2010s.
52 The Spaghetti Western Genre – that’s an excellent question, given that Colonel Sanders and to a lesser extent folks like Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater evoke elements of the Western Lifestyle; the train ride and carriage ride the Colonel takes to the 1968 GOP National Convention certainly helped with it, so maybe here, it lasts from the mid-1960s until the early 1990s, with an oversaturation of films making them lose mainstream appeal by 1992, the 1993 announcement of the Marstronaut program returning audiences’ focus to sci-fi by 1999, and the death of Sergio Leone in 2001 at the age of 72 from heart failure being the final nail in the subgenre’s coffin; in recent years, the Spaghetti Western is being re-evaluated for its filmmaking milestones and innovations, and it seems it may experience a small revival in the new decade (the 2020s).
53 Roger Corman – very similar to OTL, I guess; being “attacked” by Governor Reagan’s anti-violence efforts to “monitor” (re: censor) material in the name of child safety prompted him to work on films outside of Hollywood for practically all of the 1970s; he has less legal/court problems with studios during the 1980s; his comic book imprint lasts from 1995 to 2000 before the company closes down; at the age of 90 in 2016, he produced and directed “An Ax To Grind,” his first major studio film in over 20 years; he’s still alive today
54 Troma Entertainment – still around, similarly to OTL; in 2011, negotiated a deal with Ourvids.co.can to release many of their films onto the platform in a move that “opened the floodgates” to other film companies looking into the practice, and sparking debate on ontech community sharing practices in relation to netsite policy negotiations
55 Godfrey Ho – slightly more successful and prominent than IOTL, with his films developing a cult following ontech in the late 1990s encouraging him to keep making films; retired from filmmaking in 2015 to spend more time with family
56 Johnny Depp – still an actor like in OTL, reaching a career peak in the 1990s as the rebellious teen heartthrob type, fading in relevancy during the aughts, and starring in several well-received dramas during the 2010s; mentioned briefly in Chapters 99 and 114
57 Amber Heard – if she still ends up being born in 1986, let’s say she married Christian Bale (or someone else?) instead? (I’m not sure…)
58 Robot Chicken – since Seth Green still ended up being born here, I guess he still makes this show, whether it’s called “Junk in the Trunk” or something more random or whatever, for some network and becomes a popular thing in the 2000s decade before dropping in prominence in the 2010s like in OTL.
59 The Kardashian and Jenner families – huh, didn’t realize I hadn’t mentioned them; I don’t pay attention to them, so I don’t know who is who, or who is married to whom, so I have no idea what happens with them ITTL. I mentioned Jenner in Chapter 52 as playing Bruce Palmer Jr. in a war movie (though it looks like I wrote Caitlyn twice instead of stating she still went by Bruce at the time); here, Caitlyn’s acting career starts off better, and even stars in an action movie in 1990 called "Ghost Bullet" known for its long, continuous single-take shots/scenes of him running, before she abruptly stops playing such “masculine” roles in the mid-1990s, with most assuming that it is due to the fact that she is approaching 50 and wants to retire while still in good health; she came out as trans in late 2003, months after same-sex was legalized nationwide, and has considered running for public office several times but has never taken the plunge.
60 Phil McGraw – started off as a trial consultant in OTL; ITTL, Oprah doesn’t have her feud with Amarillo beef (food libel suit thing) in 1995, so McGraw stays in the field of law for a while longer before entering the advice/psychology/TV industry in the 2000s, even getting in own show for a few years, but after getting pulled in to a weight loss product scam amid a messy divorce, he declines in prominence in the late 2010s
61 Mehmet Oz – started off as a surgeon before becoming a TV barker for various pseudoscientific products, similar to OTL but is less prominent nowadays than in OTL 2021; in 2006, US Senator Ralph Nader famously grilled him during a Senate hearing on consumer protection for his role in promoting pseudoscience during the SARS pandemic, which many believe is why Oz could only get a TV show on The Herring Network (2011-present)
62 Reading Rainbow – still on the air since premiering in 1983, but Burton stopped regularly hosting in 2001; other people who are not famous and never made it big in OTL have served as host since then, with celebrities guest-hosting from time to time (Bob Ross in 2006; Burton several times; Sesame Street characters in a one-time crossover, 18th-century enthusiast of OTL youtube fame Jonathan Townsend in 2015, 2018, and 2020; etc.)
63 The Jetsons – originally aired from 1962 to 1964; sequel series more focused on Elroy and Judy, aired from 1973 to 1975; revival series aired from 1983 until 1987, followed by The Jetsons Meet The Flintstones (1988) and The Jetsons Movie (1992); mentioned in Chapter 71 as appearing in Star Trek the Animated Series as a crossover episode
64 Hanna-Barbera – already mentioned in Chapters 118, 78, and 66; still around as a subsidiary of Turner-Kennedy Broadcasting (parent company of KNN and other companies) and considered by some to be a shadow of its former self, giving it currently relying less on original material and more on old staples like Scooby-Doo to stay relevant and financial profitable
65 Ruby-Spears Productions, Inc. – similar to OTL, getting absorbed by TON’s animated division in 1999
66 Filmation Association – still founded in 1962, and after working on Star Trek and Animated Series, Archie and its spinoffs, and cheap, low-quality TV shows for the Mattel toy company, the company entered years of decline in the 1980s; after the early 1990s recession cost them financially, the company sold its intellectual property and materials to The Overmyer Network’s Ton-O-Toons department and then folded/went defunct in 1997.
67 Caillou – I don’t know; the show’s based on children’s book made in the 1990s, so maybe here the author writes something else?
68 Barney & Friends – no idea; maybe it doesn’t get made because Sheryl Stamps-Leach finds something else for her son to watch/listen to, or maybe Larry Rifkin never rents a video of Barney and the Backyard Gang in 1991 for his daughter; maybe their respective lives go in different directions by then due to the ripple effect of so many changes to so many things; I’m really not sure…
69 My Little Pony – already mentioned the franchise near the start of Chapter 117
70 Sonic TV/movie franchises – the success of the Sonic TV show and the Sonic X-Treme 2 vidgame culminated in animated Sonic movie (starring Jaleel White, Mary Kay Bergman, Robin Williams, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Tim Curry and Chris Tucker, among others) coming out in 1999; reviews praised its animation “blending” American and Japanese styles, but the film underperformed because it had to compete against Justice League premiering in the same months, and so was overshadowed and subsequently overlooked by many moviegoers; it yielded a profit in Micro-LD sales, but Sega decided against making a sequel; however, in recent years, calls for a sequel or reboot have increased.
71 Mario TV/movie franchise – The Mario franchise had several shorter-lived TV shows throughout the 1990s, as formats and framing devises kept changing as the video games evolved and animated studios slowly adapted CRI technology (the last show being a CRI show kind of similar in appearance to Jimmy Neutron coming out in the early 2000s decade). Despite the Sonic movie’s lackluster performance, executives at Nintendo believed, given rising nostalgia ontech from people who grew up playing Mario in the mid-to-late 1980s, that a “Mario Movie” (first suggested in the early 1990s but stalled and abandoned soon after) would perform better than the 1999 Sonic movie; after years in development hell, Harold Ramis agreed to direct in 2009 in what would be his final film project; as such, he worked hard with the writers to find the right balance of humor for both children and adults (I’m not sure who makes up the cast for it – any thoughts?); the film, upon release c. 2011, did about as well as OTL’s Jim Carrey Sonic movie, not spectacular but not terrible, either.
72 Who Wants to Be a Millionaire – a game show where people answer questions for money, but one at a time instead of competing side by side in order to focus on the drama of each person trying not to mess up? I’m pretty someone thought that up eventually.
73 Social media platforms – already mentioned several times throughout the 2000s and 2010s chapters
74 Tom Clancy – similar to OTL, a best-selling novelist known for writing espionage/military-science stories; still a conservative Republican like IOTL, he dedicated many of his books to notable figures such as Colonel Sanders, William Westmoreland, and Lee Iacocca, and strongly supported KW2 (later writing several books based on or inspired by the “last great American war”); if the Hunt for Red October gets written in 1982-1984, just as the USSR is falling apart, it probably concerns Soviets agitated by their nation collapsing, and Red Storm Rising would be much different if it is even written; I could imagine him being accused of being a Denton apologist for writing a book about an innocent President who gets impeached for defending people who then betray his trust, only for his career to rebound in the wake of the Iacocca assassination; dies from a heart attack in 2008 or 2009.
75/76 Microsoft and Apple – already mentioned several times throughout the timeline (Apple: Epilogue, Chapters 121, 66, 65, and 41; Microsoft: Chapters 121, 106, 85, 83, 73, 71, 68, 53, 47, and 41)
77 Alvin and the Chipmunks – unfortunately, the Chipmunk song would still be recorded in the 1958; I honestly don’t get their appeal, so I don’t know if they’d remain relevant in this alternate ’60s, if The Alvin Show would enter syndication for so long (if it even gets made in the first place) or if Bagdasarian would continue work on the franchise if he survived his 1972 heart attack; IOTL, his son, who apparently “worshipped” his dad, revived the franchise in the 1980s; maybe here, that doesn’t happen and they remain this obscure thing from the late 1950s/early 1960s? I really don’t know and so I really can’t say for sure.
78 America's Funniest Home Videos – if the Japanese series Fun TV with Kato-chan and Ken-chan still premieres in 1986 then I guess ABC still makes their own version of it a few years later
79 Shrek – William Steig shifts to writing children’s books in the late 1960s like IOTL; however, with the Arkwaves of 1970 and 1986 making the subject of self-esteem and other self-image issues more relevant and publicly-discussed topics, Shrek the book comes a few years earlier with the then-original idea of turning the fairy tales tropes upside down and having a theme of perspective and self-acceptance, but a similar story to OTL’s book; a CRI movie version is made in the late 1990s, and is one of the first majority-CRI films by New Line Animation; given the book IOTL/ITTL was illustrated via watercolor, NLA used the “character-models-over-painted-backgrounds” method pioneered by Disney in the 1970s to make this film; Farley and Garofalo voiced the main characters with some of the more violent elements from the OTL book (like Shrek fatally shooting clouds) either not making it into the film or not making it into the book to begin with; the film was a modest success at the box office and among critics and audiences, but never became this huge franchise like IOTL, instead staying this quaint (but still crass) story of self-confidence.
80 Ed Wood – mentioned in Chapters 102 and 65; ITTL, Attack of the Giant Salami, starring Joe E. Brown, was made in 1966 as a spoof of horror film tropes in general but unintentionally came off as a parody of his own films; the film brought in enough funding for him to finance production of Devil Girls, a crime drama based on a novel would had written; it premiered in 1968 but was panned and was a box office bomb, which sent into a deep depression and years of further alcohol abuse; in one final attempt to salvage his career and return to non-pornographic filmmaking, he and long-time drinking buddy John Agar travel to Guanajuato Mexico in 1978 to film a horror there called The Day the Mummies Danced; however, on-set fighting over multiple issues, including funding disappearing in the wake of that year’s sudden economic recession, ends in tragedy when Wood, in a drunken rage, fatally stabbed producer John Agar in the chest with a knife; at the 1979 trial, Wood claimed he thought the knife was a prop knife (the kind where the fake blade slides into the handle), and had just wanted to scare/intimidate Agar, but later claimed he had no “clear” memory of the incident because of how drunk he was at the time; in early 1980, less than an hour after being found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to prison, Wood died from a heart attack at the age of 55.
81 Highest-grossing movies – excellent question; here’s the top-ten highest-grossing films of all time (as of 2020) when adjusted for inflation: 1) Gone with the Wind (1939), 2) Avatar (2008), 3) Titanic (1997), 4) Star Wars (1977), 5) Justice League (1999), 6) The Sound of Music (1965), 7) E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), 8) The Ten Commandments (1956), 9) Doctor Zhivago (1965), 10) Avatar 2 (2017).
82 Logo histories – generally, the rise of the technet and Apple computers, and the consequent “bubble” look of the turn of the century (c. 1999-2001) leads to many logos being simplified in the 1990s and oughts, but in recent years there’s been some pushback to this trend when some logos became so simplified they were mocked and ridiculed ontech; for example, the Pringles mascot became a white oval with two black circles and an overly simplified moustache in 2005; after years of mockery, the company switched to a symbol that one can actual tell is a man with a moustache and a pringle-shaped head in 2014.
83 Chef Boyardee – the company was founded before the POD; given that OTL Chefs like Julia Child never seem to have interacted with their brand, I doubt the Colonel would have, either – their circles are similar but not the same, so the two chefs would have had complimentary things to say about one another but that’s about it; still, I do have KFC get into the frozen foods game in the 1990s, so maybe the companies are seen as competitors during that decade, leading to CB releasing a line of products with chicken in them (ravioli, spaghetti, spaghetti-Os, pasta shapes, pizza bites, etc.) ; perhaps their twistaroni product line is still available from time to time, too, along with something new like “pizzaroli” or something like that.
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Star Wars, if you haven't covered it already.
John Goodman and Billy Crystal.
Pixar, if that wasn't covered already, and some alternate movies they might have done in this universe.
John Goodman and Billy Crystal.
Pixar, if that wasn't covered already, and some alternate movies they might have done in this universe.
What has become of the James Bond and Indiana Jones film franchises in TTL?
He's covered the Star Wars franchise in several chapters, as well as listing Pixar's filmography in another.
Star Wars – three prequel movies were made in the 1990s/early 2000s decade (IV: The Knights Arise, V: The Resistance Endures, and VI: Guardians of the Force), and several TV shows have aired since 2006 that do some worldbuilding and character backstory development, and cover what happens in certain places after Episode III.
John Goodman – still a prominent actor like in OTL, appearing in The Flintstones (as mentioned in Chapter 73), Roseanne and other projects found in both TTL and OTL; portrayed President Denton in a 2010 drama (as mentioned Chapter 99); after playing a character who survives a heart attack in a 2008 drama, gaining more weight led to him surviving a heart attack in real life in 2012; the event led to him shedding all the weight by 2014, which allowed him to get a wider range of roles in the second half of the decade.
Billy Crystal – still went into acting; previously mentioned portraying Wellstone in a biopic (Chapter 117), having a minor role in Toy Story (Chapter 69; he probably did voicework for other animated films and shows, too), and depicting Jodie Dallas in the 1970s/1980s (Chapters 42 and 48).
Pixar – from Chapter 119:
Though do note: I do have to go back and add “Fair Game (2004)” (TTL’s version of Wreck-It-Ralph) to the list) to this list.
List of James Bond films:
1 Dr. No (October 1962) – US Secretary of State Jack Kennedy, a fan of the books, personally praises Connery’s acting
2 From Russia With Love (November 1963) – released in the US six months earlier (one month after its OTL London release)
3 Goldfinger (September 1964) – author Ian Fleming died from poor health at the age of 56 just six weeks after the film premiered
4 Moonraker (September 1966) – With Fleming dead, the franchise is in a state of uncertainty; with Kennedy out of a job, he steps in to support the next film, but does not appear on credits as a producer because he helped the actual producers find funds; still, many refer to the project as “his” Bond film. One review from the time: “Despite the affluent former Secretary’s love for the books, the best efforts from Producers Cubby Broccoli, Harry Saltzman, and the stellar acting from the new face of Bond, Christopher Lee, it’s just not the same without the Fleming touch.” The film underperforming is the final nail in the coffin for RKO Radio Pictures, which was co-producing the Bond films with Paramount since 1961; after over decade of waning, RKO permanently folded in November 1968, the same month Kennedy lost the 1968 Presidential Election to incumbent Colonel Sanders; Kennedy declines working on the next film.
5 On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (December 1969) – George Lazenby played Bond after Paramount fired Christopher Lee over “creative differences” concerning the character and over depicting the tragedy at the end of the movie
6 Diamonds Are Forever (April 1971) – Connery returned to the role amid a bit of a dry spell for his career
7 From Russia with Love (October 1973)
8 For Your Eyes Only (March 1976)
9 Thunderball (May 1978)
10 The Spy Who Loved Me (December 1979)
11 You Only Live Twice (June 1983) – Timothy Dalton’s first time playing 007, after Connery “permanently” retired from the role; Dalton was selected in 1981 over then-41-year-old James Brolin, and many others, including Kris Kristofferson, Tom Selleck, Ed O’Neill, and Harrison Ford (who, reportedly, only auditioned as a favor to a friend)
12 The Man with the Golden Gun (April 1985) – experienced last-minute rewrites and reshoots due to the plot initially being about the Soviet Union (which collapsed in 1984) so it instead concerned unhinged former Soviet hardliners refusing to acknowledge the USSR’s demise
13 Octopussy (October 1987) – Sam Neill was selected to be the new 007; the film was noticeably patriotic in tone despite the film containing a subplot concerning corruption within the United States government
14 The Living Daylights (March 1990) – noted for trying (and, debatably, failing) to address Bond’s “problematic” history/relations with women in previous films; went through several rewrites and reshoots; underperformed at the box office.
15 A View To A Kill (February 1992) – the first in a line of Bond films based on closely Ian Fleming’s short stories
16 Quantum of Solace (March 1995) – barely turned a profit and was widely criticized by audiences and critics for several “missteps”; when released on LaserDisc and Micro-LD later, a four-minute scene in which Bond defeats a sniper was edited out (but included in the bonus features as a “deleted scene”) in light of the Iacocca assassination, but the scene was put back in for the tenth anniversary re-release.
17 The Hildebrand Rarity (June 1998) – Sam Neill’s final time portraying 007; criticized for being too “formulaic” despite its unusual title.
18 The General of The Sun (October 2001) – Josh Brolin’s first time portraying 007, with slight “adjustments” to his character but still recognizable as 007; filmed in Greece; revived the floundering franchise; Brolin, who was praised for his performance, won the role over Karl Urban, Skeet Ulrich, Hugh Jackman, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Sam Worthington, and several others.
19 License to Kill (May 2004) – first Bond film not based on an Ian Fleming story
20 License to Kill Twice (May 2006) – direct follow-up to the previous film; notable for featuring cameos from Connery, Dalton, Neill, and Dalton as former agents, and James Brolin in a separate scene; Bond dies on-screen in this film
21 Goldeneye (July 2009) – Bond mentions at the start of the film that he had to recently fake his own death, which somewhat works to address the prior film’s ending; 34-year-old Sam Worthington portrayed Bond, after Josh Brolin retires to pursue other roles (others who auditioned included Aiden Turner, Henry Cavill, Tom Hiddleston, Idris Elba, Damian Lewis, Tom Hardy, Michael Fassbander, and Christoph Waltz, plus many more)
22 Nobody Lives Forever (June 2011)
23 Scorpius (September 2012)
24 Occam’s Razor (July 2014)
25 Die Another Day (November 2017) – suffered from rewriting and recasting issues
26 Devil May Care (September 2021) – Worthington is retiring from the role after this one
Two currently unnamed Bond films, #27 and #28, are planned for release in 2023 and 2024, respectively, but the casting selections have not been announced yet
Young Bond (TV Series) – based on the book series that began in 2005, this prequel series premiered in 2010 (starring Calum Chambers as James Bond (though, interestingly, he’s never referred to by either first or last name), with Callan McAuliffe and others in recurring roles); the writers have announced the 2021-2022 season will be the final season for a number of reasons
Indiana Jones – Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Temple of Doom, and The Last Crusade are pretty similar to OTL and came out in 1981, 1984, and 1989, respectively (okay, maybe the love interest in Temple is less annoying and the dinner scene is less offensive, maybe); the fourth film, Indiana Jones and the Mountain’s Secrets, was made in 1998 and set in 1946; in it, Jones is called away to Europe to study unusual artifacts stolen by the Nazis during WW2 but left behind as they retreated from territory they conquered as the war came to an end; the film was praised for its pacing, acting, directing, and story, and for addressing racism toward Asian-Americans (at the beginning of the film) at a time when such events were prominent in the aftermath of KW2; the film ends with Jones and Marion returning home from their adventure and paying their neighbor for “five days of babysitting” in a scene revealing that they got married and had two young sons since the third film. A fifth film, Indiana Jones and the Fire of the Fallen, was finally made in 2015, when Ford was 73 years old; set in the 1960s, at the height of the Cold War, a retired Jones reluctantly takes up the job of studying an archeological site only to have to save both of his sons from terrible fates, as his one son has followed (rather clumsily) in his footsteps, and the other has defected to the Soviet Union; the film was seen as a satisfactory conclusion to the franchise, but network executives are enthusiastic about making a prequel series if they cannot convince the almost-80-years-old Ford to sign up for “one last adventure.”
Also:
Jaws (1975) – still a big hit like in OTL
Jaws 2 (1978) – pretty much the same as OTL
Fin (1982) – parody film (mentioned in Chapter 49) also released as “Jaws 3, People 0;” starred Bo Derek, Richard Dreyfuss, and a young Rodger Bumpass; considered by Spielberg to be the third installment of the franchise instead of its own separate thing; despite this, the next “serious” installment was not called Jaws 4.
Jaws 3 (1984) – a shark attacks a water themed-park, with underwater tunnels and lagoons, that is modeled off of SeaWorld
Jaws 4: The Scars of War (1987) – considered the second-best Spielberg-direct film in the franchise; a prequel, directing by Spielberg, about a young Quint surviving shark attacks after the sinking of the USS Indianapolis in 1945
Jaws 5: The Revenge (1991) – studios believed the previous film was too dark, so sought to make this film “more acceptance to a wider audience”; critics panned this film for being too over-the-top but in a sadly lame way and for “disrespectfully” killing off a main character from the first movie
Jaws 6 (1997) – a reboot that does not acknowledge any of the previous films; starred Dolph Lundgren as a chemical engineer fighting off the shark; it was an attempt to renew the franchise, but it only did “meh” at the box office
Jaws 2000 (2000) – already in production when Jaws 6 premiered, the studio came very close to cancelling it twice
Jaws 8 Everyone! (2002) – released in January; viewed as a terrible comedic, tongue-in-cheek but not self-aware sequel that killed the franchise for 15 years
Jaws 9 (2017) – one of director Richard Donner’s last films and produced by Spielberg; praised for its “return to roots” quality that ignores all but the first, second, and fourth films; was a success at the box office; had a tie-in with Tv’s Shark Week; starred Jason Statham and Sylvester Stallone
Jaws 10 (2019) – starred Liam Neeson and Richard Dreyfuss, returning to the franchise for the first time in 33 years; one more sequel is reportedly planned, but the studio has not made any further announcements in nearly two years, suggesting it is in development hell
Yep! The writers developed enough material to merit it being split into 2 films
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Awesome! The Star Wars films and Indiana Jones sound fantastic! But 2 From Russian From Love movies?
What are some of the streaming services of this world, and do they offer audio described audio tracks for blind users of their services?
Peter Jackson, if you haven't covered him already? Christopher Lee after James Bond?
Near the end of this thread, I predicted that there would be a major Terrorist attack in the United States ITTL in 2021, the likes of which hadn't been seen in decades. Looking back, I'm not sure who could have caused something like that to happen. Homeland Terrorists? A Revenge Group for North Korea and the Kim family hiding out somewhere? It's hard to say. If it does come to pass, it'll probably happen later in the year. If not, well, I guess the world is just that good a place to live. 
Near the end of this thread, I predicted that there would be a major Terrorist attack in the United States ITTL in 2021, the likes of which hadn't been seen in decades. Looking back, I'm not sure who could have caused something like that to happen. Homeland Terrorists? A Revenge Group for North Korea and the Kim family hiding out somewhere? It's hard to say. If it does come to pass, it'll probably happen later in the year. If not, well, I guess the world is just that good a place to live.
On the last part of your post I agree. TTL is a much better place to live IMO and it does it in a plausible way. Not utopian but still has the world a more stable place. The presidents are mostly good while still having flaws but at least being good natured people doing what they believe is best (besides Denton with his scandals). Otherwise the Koreas are united, America is generally peaceful, green energy is more popular, and America has advanced minority rights earlier with gay marriage being legalized in 2003 IIRC. Over all the world has issues but is doing good for itself ITTL IMO.
