That Wacky Redhead

[Orville_third]

Too bad about Robin Williams's death. A lot of things will change from this.
I could hear Kermit's voice when I read that story!

 

[Brainbin]

Thank you all, as always, for your wonderful responses to my latest update! And now, as always, for my replies to your responses - but first...

Now we'll see what happens to Dynasty ITTL.

I am curious, THE OBSERVER, as to what you thought of the Trial of the Century, considering your stated interest therein prior to my posting the update in question.

Even with Hollywood accounting being technically legal, will the trial fallout get the IRS to start investigating movie studios for tax evasion?

Welcome aboard, Pesterfield! And what an excellent question. The answer, of course, is that it depends on the directives of the federal government...

And/or possibly some move to change the law to block such a loop-hole?

Likewise, please see above.

Looking forward to the big events of 1980!

And I'm looking forward to bringing them to you!

Here's hoping we can still believe in miracles...

There's only one way to find out!

Great update, though sad to see Williams die ITTL. But, as you say, you are not writing a utopia.

Thank you, Glen, and of course the death of Williams ITTL was indeed a great tragedy, but (for narrative purposes) a necessary one.

Oh, and glad to see the rise of SCTV ITTL!

I thought you might be Fortunately, with no SNL to compete against, it is far less likely to be overshadowed.

Great post, Brainbin.

Thank you, Dan!

Another fascinating post.

Thank you, Nigel.

On the subject of butterflying the deaths of musicians, can I put in a plea for Harold Chapin ? I don't know if you're going to be covering a Live Aid equivalent ITTL, but as Chapin was a long time campaigner on the subject of world hunger, he would certainly have been involved in a big way if he had survived.

Well, Chapin died in an a fashion that is easily butterflied... except that it was also in the style of "death by a thousand cuts", so I won't call it either way for now.

It's also reminiscent of The Murder on the Orient Express which was filmed in 1974 OTL, and so should still be fairly fresh in people's memories. Of course, it might not have been made ITTL. Apparently Christie wasn't very keen to have any more movies made from her books, and she needed some persuading. Of course she died in 1976, so if she did refuse ITTL, it might only have resulted in the film being made a couple of years later than in OTL, making it even more suitable for parody on the Richard Prior Show in 1980. IOTL, it was parodied by the Goodies in the episode Daylight Robbery on the Orient Express.

I was actually going to point that out (even to the point of drafting it as "the Murder on the Orient Express ending"), before I realized that would constitute a spoiler for an Agatha Christie novel. So, thanks for spoiling the surprise! You can assume that a Murder on the Orient Express film was made sometime in the 1970s ITTL.

Maybe this is what triggers Richard Pryor to stop his own addiction to drugs TTL?

IOTL, the death of Belushi did the same for Robin Williams.

An intriguing supposition!

Great update.

Thank you, Thande

Ah, I had forgotten that the Summer and Winter Olympics used to be held in the same year until recently.

1994, to be specific - at Lillehammer (the first Olympic Games I clearly remember).

Robin Williams' death was a shock but makes sense. Be interesting to see how pop culture views of him in TTL by today are different from ours.

An excellent observation - Williams, despite his extremely topical performance style, has tended to appear in projects which age very well, which has no doubt contributed to his career longevity. ITTL, though he was in the #1 show on television, that show was a variety program, and those tend to become inextricably tied with the era in which they were produced. Some people are able to transcend this limitation of their works and are remembered even today, however - so it's really hard to say.

Interesting that Deep Space uses so many ideas from OTL Deep Space Nine...I didn't think Roddenberry had that much input into that.

Keep in mind that Tartikoff had a bit of input into OTL Deep Space Nine, so the similarities needn't come from Roddenberry's input (and some of it is probably just coincidental on the part of the timeline, if not on the part of the author - Quirk/Quark, for instance).

LordInsane has it, here - Tartikoff was instrumental in the development of the OTL series, and therefore any ideas that resemble it (which do not flow naturally from the "frontier town in space" pitch) can be attributed to his creative influence. That said, remember that Quirk is just the bartender, not an entrepreneur

Too bad about Robin Williams's death. A lot of things will change from this.

Indeed they will - though mostly after the 1986 cutoff. Still, there's a lot that this TL will be without when the time comes...

I could hear Kermit's voice when I read that story!

Excellent

We'll see what Brainbin says about John Lennon when he replies to our posts.

Indeed you shall, and obviously, many of you had a lot to say about John Lennon's continued survival ITTL. Mark David Chapman, though obviously a disturbed individual throughout his life, was only 11 years old at the POD, at which time the Beatles themselves were still four years from separating. John Lennon, meanwhile, separated and later divorced from his second wife, Yoko Ono, in the early 1970s, and ever since that time has lived with his third wife, May Peng, with whom he has a daughter, June Lennon ("because she's in between May and Julia"). He has not produced or recorded any music for the last several years, seeming to prefer his life as a "house-husband".

Now, will that change in the coming decade? Maybe...

 

[Cataquack Warrior]

What I would pay to see some of those shows, especially the Muppets...

 

[Asharella]

Indeed you shall, and obviously, many of you had a lot to say about John Lennon's continued survival ITTL. Mark David Chapman, though obviously a disturbed individual throughout his life, was only 11 years old at the POD, at which time the Beatles themselves were still four years from separating. John Lennon, meanwhile, separated and later divorced from his second wife, Yoko Ono, in the early 1970s, and ever since that time has lived with his third wife, May Peng, with whom he has a daughter, June Lennon ("because she's in between May and Julia"). He has not produced or recorded any music for the last several years, seeming to prefer his life as a "house-husband".

According to our timeline's May Peng, John was open to reuniting with the other Beatles when he was with her. He and Paul had reconciled in the mid 70s. May says that it was Yoko who discouraged that, I suppose not so much from antagonism of the Beatles, she also seemed to get along with Paul and the others, but from wanting John to do his own thing. So with a long stable relationship with May in OTL, do we get a Beatles reunion sometime after John returns to making music when June is old enough for him to not need to be there 100% for her, which was the dynamic with Sean in OTL?

reposting for comment:

But Desilu's physical studio was bought from RKO, which did make movies, including King Kong, The Gay Divorce and Val Lewis' wonderful Cat People.

So in that sense they'd be returning the physical studio to movie production.

Why bother getting into movies? Ah... sequel to Journey of the Force and a Star Trek film?

But that is up to you, isn't it!

Also, I got behind in my reading and only now can respond to the Trial of the Century.

Fantastic! That Andy Taylor really wrestled Paramount right down to the mat and put them in a head lock, didn't he? I couldn't help but imagine Taylor wearing white, linen suits.

I wonder if Griffith followed the trial and developed an interest in playing a character based on the real (ITTL) Andy Taylor?

 

[THE OBSERVER]

I am curious, THE OBSERVER, as to what you thought of the Trial of the Century, considering your stated interest therein prior to my posting the update in question.

The trial was incredible and the verdict, it was shocking like a bomb going off out of the blue. I loved it. Paramount (And by extension, Gulf Western) is in trouble. Charles Bluhdorn is pretty much f***ed. I can see the feds and IRS opening an investigation to him and Gulf Western. There were some shady dealings going on there IOTL. Would you believe that the SEC opened an inquiry? For more info, read Infamous Players, by Peter Bart. Specifically, page 255-256. Also, lookup Joel Dolkart and read about him, Gulf Western, and dealings with the SEC. Have a pretty good feeling that Paramount is going to collapse soon ITTL and that the "The Mad Austrian of Wall Street" (A nickname for Bluhdorn) is about to die an earlier death ITTL (Or end up in jail first).

If anyone thinks the OTL collapse of United Artists after Heaven's Gate was bad, TTL's collapse of Paramount will be cataclysmic.

 

[NCW8]

Well, Chapin died in an a fashion that is easily butterflied... except that it was also in the style of "death by a thousand cuts", so I won't call it either way for now.

Fair enough. Apparently his song WOLD was influential on the making of WKRP - even the show's theme song uses similar themes.

I was actually going to point that out (even to the point of drafting it as "the Murder on the Orient Express ending"), before I realized that would constitute a spoiler for an Agatha Christie novel. So, thanks for spoiling the surprise! You can assume that a Murder on the Orient Express film was made sometime in the 1970s ITTL.

Well I did try and pot-hole it to the wikipedia article. It's not like I said something like "the policeman did it".

LordInsane has it, here - Tartikoff was instrumental in the development of the OTL series, and therefore any ideas that resemble it (which do not flow naturally from the "frontier town in space" pitch) can be attributed to his creative influence. That said, remember that Quirk is just the bartender, not an entrepreneur

Ah, but is his ear constantly being bent by chatter from Norm (sorry, I meant Morn).

Cheers,
Nigel.

 

[Richter10]

Robin Williams's death was na unexpected butterfly (although it could allow a more close adaptation of Isaac Asimov's "The Bicentennial Man" much later)

I wonder about TRON, Back to the Future and Knight Rider...

 

[MatthewFirth]

I had just read the entire timeline. One of the greatest stories I've ever read. A couple of questions though:

A. What happened to Eunice?
B. What's the status of TV News during this timeline, and did Baba Wawa ever get to become America's first female newscaster?
C. What happened next to Elvis Presley and John Lennon?
D. Does the Muppets get a spin-off series following the end of the Muppet Show?
E. Is there a new 5th network on the way?

And a couple of suggestions for spin-off timelines for your or your friends to tackle:
A. The history of British TV from 1966 to 86, and how this saga affects it
B. What happened to Elvis Presley either since he left the war or after 1973
C. What's happens to music during this timeline?

 

[Unknown]

I have a few questions:

1. What is the fate of the horror movie ITTL (IOTL, slasher movies had become popular, although they were spinoffs of the Italian giallo movies and the horror movies of the 1960s. If anyone knows more, PM Brainbin)?
2. In that overseas conflict, did a certain massacre occur (two letters for the massacre: M and L)?

Good updates.

 

[MatthewFirth]

According to our timeline's May Peng, John was open to reuniting with the other Beatles when he was with her. He and Paul had reconciled in the mid 70s. May says that it was Yoko who discouraged that, I suppose not so much from antagonism of the Beatles, she also seemed to get along with Paul and the others, but from wanting John to do his own thing. So with a long stable relationship with May in OTL, do we get a Beatles reunion sometime after John returns to making music when June is old enough for him to not need to be there 100% for her, which was the dynamic with Sean in OTL?:

I'm certain that Starting Over does flop here, it did originally until John died. John would then be encouraged to reunite.

 

[Brainbin]

Before I respond to this latest batch of replies, I'd like to acknowledge a milestone this timeline has crossed which I unfortunately overlooked previously: That Wacky Redhead has now received over 3,000 posts! This is currently the seventh-most replied-to thread in the After 1900 section, and (for archival purposes) at the time we reached this threshold, we had approximately 427,801 views. My thanks to every last one of you who made this possible - and all you had to do was reply to this thread

What I would pay to see some of those shows, especially the Muppets...

Glad you're still reading, Cataquack Warrior! Believe me, I'd be first in line to voyage on whatever inter-dimensional vehicle they construct that would make such a journey possible - if only to be able to witness all ~135 episodes of Star Trek! (And the miniseries, of course, although I'm not sure I would care for it nearly as much.) Certainly, those extra episodes of The Muppet Show would no doubt be a delight as well, especially the ones with Elvis, and of course, the finale with That Wacky Redhead.

According to our timeline's May Peng, John was open to reuniting with the other Beatles when he was with her. He and Paul had reconciled in the mid 70s. May says that it was Yoko who discouraged that, I suppose not so much from antagonism of the Beatles, she also seemed to get along with Paul and the others, but from wanting John to do his own thing. So with a long stable relationship with May in OTL, do we get a Beatles reunion sometime after John returns to making music when June is old enough for him to not need to be there 100% for her, which was the dynamic with Sean in OTL?

Well, I could tell you now, but that would just spoil the surprise, wouldn't it? However, you do raise an excellent point: May Peng is no Yoko Ono.

reposting for comment:

And my apologies for letting it slip through the cracks! You're the only one to have picked up on the implicit allusion to Griffith's second OTL series, Matlock, in which he played a Simple Country Lawyer (though from Georgia, not North Carolina or Maryland) with a preternatural appeal to the elderly viewing audience

How this influences the future career of the real Andy Griffith is another question entirely.

You are, of course, totally correct that Desilu purchased their studio space (except for Cahuenga, which had been theirs since 1953) as part of the RKO buyout in 1957. However, the studio only produced two movies in its lifetime IOTL: Forever, Darling (a failed star-vehicle follow-up to the hit Long, Long Trailer) in 1956, and then (of course) Yours, Mine, and Ours in 1968 (which has been butterflied ITTL). By the era of the latter film, That Wacky Redhead had already sold her studio to Gulf+Western. And remember, producing television (and running all those studios, many of which are or have been occupied by the productions of others, such as Paramount) and operating a post-production house is extremely time-consuming and exhausting work. As far as That Wacky Redhead is concerned, movie-making is simply a bridge too far.

The trial was incredible and the verdict, it was shocking like a bomb going off out of the blue. I loved it.

Well, thank you, THE OBSERVER, and I'm very glad that you enjoyed it!

Paramount (And by extension, Gulf Western) is in trouble. Charles Bluhdorn is pretty much f***ed. I can see the feds and IRS opening an investigation to him and Gulf Western. There were some shady dealings going on there IOTL. Would you believe that the SEC opened an inquiry? For more info, read Infamous Players, by Peter Bart. Specifically, page 255-256. Also, lookup Joel Dolkart and read about him, Gulf Western, and dealings with the SEC. Have a pretty good feeling that Paramount is going to collapse soon ITTL and that the "The Mad Austrian of Wall Street" (A nickname for Bluhdorn) is about to die an earlier death ITTL (Or end up in jail first).

If anyone thinks the OTL collapse of United Artists after Heaven's Gate was bad, TTL's collapse of Paramount will be cataclysmic.

Thank you for that reference, and as to your prediction... well, remember that we still have the appeals process to get through!

Ah, but is his ear constantly being bent by chatter from Norm (sorry, I meant Morn).

Well, no, of course not - that came from an entirely different Paramount series that Tartikoff went to bat for IOTL!

Robin Williams's death was an unexpected butterfly (although it could allow a more close adaptation of Isaac Asimov's "The Bicentennial Man" much later)

I wonder about TRON, Back to the Future and Knight Rider...

The prospects of Bicentennial Man being adapted into a film are somewhat beyond the chronological scope of this timeline. However, the other three projects you mention were all in various stages of development in the early 1980s IOTL, so perhaps they may bear further mention in a future update...

I had just read the entire timeline. One of the greatest stories I've ever read.

And I'm glad you're still reading as well, MatthewFirth! And thank you for the incredibly generous comment, you flatter me immensely

A. What happened to Eunice?

Still running in 1980-81 (its second season). Remained in the Top 30. Renewed for a third season. Carol Burnett and Vicki Lawrence were nominated for Emmys; neither won.

What's the status of TV News during this timeline, and did Baba Wawa ever get to become America's first female newscaster?

Well, no Nightline on ABC, for one (they still air Dick Cavett, though with considerable reluctance on their part - Merv Griffin does much better against Johnny Carson). Walter Cronkite is still on the CBS Evening News, though he may yet be forced into early retirement. Baba Wawa suffered a major career setback when she was revealed as the "other woman" in the Edward Brooke affair; at the time, her contract with NBC was up, but neither of the other networks wanted an adulteress to be the female face of their news division, so she was forced to accept a status quo contract renewal from NBC (who were laughing all the way to the bank, no doubt) and remains on the Today Show.

C. What happened next to Elvis Presley and John Lennon?

He spent most of the 1970s touring extensively, and riding the retro nostalgia wave. His first world tour ended just in time for him to undertake a Bicentennial Tour of the United States (and Canada, because it's just across the border and you don't even need a passport), before going back to the studio to record new music (mostly throwback rock-and-roll, along with Johnny Cash-style country rock, and gospel). He then embarked on another world tour to commemorate his 25th anniversary as a recording artist (starting in 1979, as he's counting from "That's All Right" in 1954), which is ongoing (it'll last at least until the anniversary of "Heartbreak Hotel" in early 1981).

D. Does the Muppets get a spin-off series following the end of the Muppet Show?

No, at least not anytime soon. As IOTL, Jim Henson wants to focus on the movies.

E. Is there a new 5th network on the way?

I assume you're counting PBS as the fourth network? (I know the narrator implied it was, but it isn't, really.) Either way: there's only one way to find out!

And a couple of suggestions for spin-off timelines for your or your friends to tackle:

Thank you for the suggestions, though it's looking increasingly like this timeline will be a stand-alone project. But I appreciate your enthusiasm!

1. What is the fate of the horror movie ITTL (IOTL, slasher movies had become popular, although they were spinoffs of the Italian giallo movies and the horror movies of the 1960s.

I don't really see the horror film scene changing appreciably from OTL, at least not domestically. Foreign horror films are outside the scope of this timeline.

2. In that overseas conflict, did a certain massacre occur (two letters for the massacre: M and L)?

I don't see why it wouldn't. Although the American public probably wouldn't become aware of it until after the peace treaty is signed.

---

And now for a special treat! Allow me to present to you something that I discovered in the very depths of my master file, from way back when I was still working on Star Trek. It's a take on the classic "thread on an alternate history forum ITTL" format which I've seen quite a few times, and which inspired me to write my own. This is fairly old - I wrote it back in 2011 - and the usernames are thinly-veiled versions of those who were regulars on my thread at the time. I thought I would share it with all of you now to celebrate this milestone, but be aware that the content is in no way canonical or reflective of the development of this timeline. Think of it as a thought experiment.

WI Star Trek Got A Sixth Season?[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]
Heart Container: Title says it all, guys. WI the production staff decided to continue with the series after all?

John_Doe: Didn’t everybody want to leave, and they only stayed because season 5 was going to be the last one? I don’t know if it would be the same with everybody gone.

JohnQ: Heart Container - Interesting idea which I’ve thought about a lot myself. Can’t say I know what would happen, but as John_Doe says I think a lot of people wanted to leave. And ratings would fall eventually, so there would be budget cuts which would hurt the show’s quality. I must admit I would have loved a sixth series when I was a child.

Major Tom: It’s good that it ended when it did. Think of all those Westerns that went on forever. Who would want Star Trek to end up like that?

Eagelheim: I think they were running out of ideas, too. Lots of rehashes of earlier plots in the later seasons. Maybe new blood would help in this case?

WildHoneyPie: I don’t know a lot about US television at this time, what would the network say? Or the studio?

Heart Container: A few interesting bits of trivia here: the following people would likely have left if this five season arrangement hadn’t been made: Gene Coon, D.C. Fontana, eventually Herb Solow, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, and either Shatner or all three of Doohan, Nichols, and Takei. David Gerrold would probably get Fontana’s old position and there would be a huge power and cast vacuum. Any season six would be radically different.

John_Doe: Wow! That would be a real disaster.

Major Tom: Shatner did have a big ego. He would have put all the great European Kings of history to shame. Sounds like a great idea for an ASB…

John_Doe: He’s certainly fat enough to be like Henry VIII!

Wilbur_Fourth: What would it be like, having a sixth season which much worse quality than the first five? We remember the show being consistently good all the way through, but would it leave a bad taste in our mouths?

Heart Container: That’s an interesting point. It also helps that “six” is very similar to a scatological term that I will not mention: c’est non permis.

John_Doe: What is with you and words you can’t or won’t say, anyway?

Wilbur_Fourth: That actually sounds hilarious.

JohnQ: Fellas - I don’t know if that term would catch on. It’s rather immature, even for childish fanboys

WildHoneyPie: I don’t know. I read about a guy calling the third season the “Turd Season” once.

John_Doe: What? The third season was awesome!

Major Tom: I think it was probably a joke, since in most languages the “th” sound doesn’t exist: third would be pronounced “tird”.

Heart Container: I agree with Major Tom. Clunky and preachy as it may sometimes be, I’ve never met a Trekkie who outright disliked Season 3.

Eagelheim: I don’t know. If I ever see that slave episode again… Did Shatner have to draw out every syllable like that? I’ve seen less painful line readings in silent movies.

Major Tom: Oh, come on, it’s cheese-tacular. Quoting the Declaration of Independence at them? Classic Kirk.

Wilbur_Fourth: We hold THESE truths… to-be-self-evident… that ALL MEN… are created EQUAL!

WildHoneyPie: Typical Amerocentrism… quoting that at them.

John_Doe: At least he didn’t actually say it was from the Declaration of Independence. He just said “this is what we think, guys”.

Heart Container: I think we’re getting a little distracted from the main point, guys. What would the sixth season look like?

Wilbur_Fourth: Like a disaster.

Heart Container: Well… succinct, anyway.

---

The episode our friends are alluding to is "Bondage and Freedom", which you can read about in further (canonical) detail right here.

And in other news, I plan on spending this weekend (starting today, in fact) working on the next update, in order to have it ready for all of you as soon as possible!

 

[MatthewFirth]

Thanks for replying to my questions.
One thing is for sure, it will probably be Desliu who attempts to make the 5th network, since Paramount is technically bankrupt.
And I predict John Lennon will be reuniting with the Beatles.

At the end of this timeline, could you round-up the award shows for each year (Oscars and Emmys, who cares about the Globes). Who was nominated? Of course, we know the majority of the winners.

 

[Daibhid C]

An intriguing update. Williams's death took me by surprise, but in retrospect was all too likely.

I'm afraid that as a Muppet geek I have to make a tiny, Muppet-geeky nitpick:

Lucille Ball herself was the final guest host of The Muppet Show, appearing in the series finale.

Unless the butterflies have been active here, TWR would have been a guest star, not a guest host. Guest hosts were the provenance of a different show that doesn't even exist.

I liked the Star Trek sixth season discussion.

It's just occured to me, what's the Doctor Who situation as of 1980? Is Jim Dale having the same kind of run as Tom Baker did IOTL, or did he take OTL Troughton's advice to Davison and stop at 3 years?

 

[THE OBSERVER]

Thank you for that reference, and as to your prediction... well, remember that we still have the appeals process to get through!

True. But I'm certain that the feds will be watching Paramount and Gulf Western under the microscope real closely than IOTL.

 

[Voice of The Empire]

So I've been reading the timeline for about a week- up to the end of the 74-75 season, and I must say, I'm impressed. Very fine work sir, and as a lifelong fan of TOS, I'm very pleased to see what you've done with it. Hope it continues as a franchise.

Couple points- very glad to see mister Rogers neighborhood still exist, not just because I was raised on the show, but as a horror freak as well. Let me explain- during the shows early days in the mid sixties, mister Rogers employed numerous local Pittsburgh film makers to work on his program. Among them was a young talented film maker who, encouraged by mister rogers to try his own hand, would make his own film, a dark and moody reflection of the times he lived in through the eyes of the besieged residents of a lonely farm house. The filmmaker? George A. Romero. Mister Rogers himself would attend a screening of the film, and have many kind words to say about it.

My only concern is with the early ending of....... An overseas political quagmire, if that film has been butterflied away.

Also, wondering what would happen worldwide without the nfluence of the film and the quagmire. In any case, great timeline, though with the rate I'm reading it, it's gonna be a bit before I read any comments on this.

 

[Pesterfield]

Do other countries entertainment industries use 'Hollywood accounting'?

Whatever the answer will it impact political discussion about regulation?

 

[Time slip]

It makes quite a bit of sense to make Quirk a bartender. The character spending a lot of time behind a bar would make it very easy to hide the puppeteer.

I am guessing the black lot would be dressed in such a way to make it look a bit more alien for filming Deep Space?

I am also curious about who else is a part of the cast of Deep Space beside Frank Oz.

I don't really see the horror film scene changing appreciably from OTL, at least not domestically. Foreign horror films are outside the scope of this timeline.

Yeah, given how much of the major influences on the slasher sub-genre (like Psycho, Herschell Gordon Lewis' splatter films, and Italian gialli) were in place by the end of the 60s, something similar to OTL's slasher movies would probably develop ITTL. That said, the effect of butterflies on influential 70s horror films could mean tropes and cliches of TTL's slashers might not be exactly the same.

 

[Asharella]

I'm certain that Starting Over does flop here, it did originally until John died. John would then be encouraged to reunite.

Gosh, that's not my memory of Starting Over. I remember it getting constant radio play as soon as it was released before he died.

 

[Asharella]

You are, of course, totally correct that Desilu purchased their studio space (except for Cahuenga, which had been theirs since 1953) as part of the RKO buyout in 1957. However, the studio only produced two movies in its lifetime IOTL: Forever, Darling (a failed star-vehicle follow-up to the hit Long, Long Trailer) in 1956, and then (of course) Yours, Mine, and Ours in 1968 (which has been butterflied ITTL). By the era of the latter film, That Wacky Redhead had already sold her studio to Gulf+Western. And remember, producing television (and running all those studios, many of which are or have been occupied by the productions of others, such as Paramount) and operating a post-production house is extremely time-consuming and exhausting work. As far as That Wacky Redhead is concerned, movie-making is simply a bridge too far.

Thanks. Now I'm wondering about the RKO catalog. In both OTL and ITTL, did Desilu buy the catalog?

If so ITTL that means a lot of those old great films are owned by the wacky redhead. That raises other questions. Would she be interested in film preservation long before it became chic? Would she be interested in re-release both to cinema and in the video format? I don't remember you talking about the King Kong remake in the 70s, but if Lucy owns the original then would there be a remake? Finally, does it ever occur to her to take some of these great old films and make them into TV shows?

And that new network, why can't Lucy by the one who creates a cable super-network first? She sure owns enough old shows and movies to fill it up.

 

[NCW8]

It's just occured to me, what's the Doctor Who situation as of 1980? Is Jim Dale having the same kind of run as Tom Baker did IOTL, or did he take OTL Troughton's advice to Davison and stop at 3 years?

That's a good point. Tom Baker's tenure as the Doctor was unusually long [1], which is what prompted Troughton's advice. ITTL, Pertwee held the role for six years, which might prompt similar advice to be given to Dale. So, you're right - there should be a new Doctor about 1980. Richard Griffiths was considered for the role of the fifth Doctor OTL, so he is a possible candidate.

Edit: Just for the fun of it, here's a compilation of clips from every Doctor Who story up to 2011.

Cheers,
Nigel.


[1] Unless you count Paul McGann as holding the role for the entire period 1996-2005, which might be retconned depending upon what is revealed about the John Hurt Doctor this November.