BENOIT BLANC & TOOBWORLD'S MANIFEST DESTINY

At some point in the timeline for the "Knives Out" movie franchise, Benoit Blanc - that master detective with the Southern drawl - officially became a resident of Earth Prime-Time, the main Toobworld.

We don't know when it happened at any point in Blanc's unseen life between the three movies ("Knives Out", "Glass Onion", and the current entry, "Wake Up, Dead Man.")  Benoit Blanc appeared as a guest on the fictional televersion of 'The View'.

'The View' is a member of the Television Crossover Hall of Fame.

In fact, it may have happened even before that first movie, because Blanc was already a celebrated private detective with enough notoriety to make him recognizable to the average viewer of the talk show.

The following shows are all part of Earth Prime-Time and their characters have acknowledged the existence of ‘The View’ as being a TV series in their lives:

‘The Mountain’, ‘‘The Nanny’, ‘Gilmore Girls’, ‘Third Rock From The Sun’, ‘Just Shoot Me’, ‘Sabrina the Teenage Witch’, ‘Will & Grace’, ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’, ‘Scrubs’, ‘Reba’, ‘Veronica Mars’, ‘Bones’, ‘Entourage’, ‘Law & Order: SVU’, ’10 Things I Hate About You’, ‘Greek’, ‘Community’, ‘Cougar Town’, ‘Modern Family’, ‘Psych’, ‘Chuck’, ‘The Office’, ‘Drop Dead Diva’, ‘Hot In Cleveland’, ‘Happy Endings’, ‘90210’, ‘Workaholics’, ‘Us & Them’, ‘The Neighbors’, ‘Looking’, ‘Melissa & Joey’, ‘Faking It’, ‘Last Man Standing’, ‘Revenge’, ‘2 Broke Girls’, ‘Justified’, ‘The Jack and Triumph Show’, ‘The Big Bang Theory’, ‘Orange Is The New Black’, ‘’Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’, ‘The Muppets’, ‘Fuller House’, ‘Loosely Exactly Nicole’, ‘NCIS’, ‘The Goldbergs’.

O'Bservation - Since I posted that in 2021, other TV series may have acknowledged its existence in Toobworld.

THE 2025 ROSTER

‘The View’ also gets mentioned/watched in shows which take place in other Toobworlds – ‘The West Wing’, ‘Doom Patrol’, and a couple of shows in the horror world known as “Nosferatoob” – ‘The Vampire Diaries’ and ‘iZombie’.  Plus it has become a cottage industry to be spoofed in Skitlandia (thanks to ‘SNL’ and ‘MAD-TV’) and in the Tooniverse.  (‘Family Guy’ and ‘The Simpsons’ for example.)

Plus, there are several series in which ‘The View’ is not only mentioned, but characters from those shows appear on the talk show and interact with the televersions of the real-life hosts – Jenna Maroney of ’30 Rock’, Casey McCall of ‘SportsNight’, and a fictionalized ‘Bette’ Midler whose life in the eponymous sitcom is very different from that of Trueniverse Bette.  

Surprisingly, Daniel Craig has never appeared on 'The View'.  It would have been fun to include a screen grab from an appearance and claim it was Benoit Blanc.

"SKAEP NIWT - 3#, 5202 REBMETPES, FOHOXVT"

In the last few years, the Television Crossover Hall of Fame inducts actual TV series into the Hall.  These are not the TV shows as we watched them back in the Trueniverse; these are the televersions of those shows, as either seen or mentioned in other TV series.

I had already planned September to be a double tribute to the late David Lynch, who revolutionized the Television landscape with ‘Twin Peaks’.  And then I thought:  “Why not make it a tribute three times over?  When was the last time TV had a triplecast?”

And so with this ceremony, the TVXOHOF is proud to welcome the televersion of….

TWIN PEAKS

These are just some of the TV shows in Earth Prime-Time – the main Toobworld* - which also have their own ‘Twin Peaks’:

THE CHRONICLE   SMART GUY   GRACE UNDER FIRE  
L.A. LAW   CAMP WILDER   EERIE, INDIANA  
PARKER LEWIS CAN’T LOSE   HEAD OF THE CLASS
MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000   MURPHY BROWN
THE FRESH PRINCE OF BEL-AIR   COMMUNITY
NOT NECESSARILY THE NEWS   PARENTHOOD
BEVERLY HILLS 90210   CHASING LIFE
DETECTORISTS   WAREHOUSE 13   JONATHAN CREEK

To be qualified for membership in the TVXOHOF, a minimum of 3 separate appearances are required, and ‘Twin Peaks’ easily covered that.  But I’m thinking from now on, since pop culture references are always good for a quick mention in the dialogue, that I should make it harder for TV show televersions.  

We’ll see… but first, a piece of pie to mull it over.

Welcome to the Hall, ‘Twin Peaks’!

* ‘Twin Peaks’ is actually a multi-dimensional series, with fictional televersions to be found in alternate Toobworlds like Toobworld-DCU and especially in the Tooniverse.  But Earth Prime-Time is the Hall’s main focus, so we’re focusing on that.
 

TVXOHOF FOR JUNE, 2025 (THE GEMINI INDUCTIONS) - OLIVER & LISA DOUGLAS

With the June entry for the Television Crossover Hall of Fame, we salute the Gemini concept – twins, loving couples, any kind of duos (dynamic or otherwise.) 

This year we’re celebrating a partnership in marriage in which both members appeared together in all the connecting qualifiers... for Earth Prime-Time.  There wasn’t a time when one appeared but not the other… at least in the main Toobworld.  

Theirs was an unconventional marriage but they were a true partnership in which they loved each other.

OLIVER WENDELL & LISA DOUGLAS

I couldn’t do better than the Wikipedia entry, so I’ll just use that:

‘Green Acres’ is about Oliver Wendell Douglas (Eddie Albert), a prominent and wealthy New York City attorney, fulfilling his dream to be a farmer, and Lisa Douglas (Eva Gabor), his glamorous Hungarian wife, uprooted unwillingly from an upscale Manhattan penthouse apartment to a dilapidated farm in Hooterville that Oliver purchases from the ever-hustling Mr. Haney, to the disbelief of the residents.

The debut episode is a mockumentary about their decision to move to a rural area, anchored by former ABC newscaster John Charles Daly. Daly was the host of the CBS game show ‘What's My Line’, and a few weeks after the show's debut Albert and Gabor returned the favor by appearing on ‘What's My Line’ as that episode's Mystery Guests, and publicly thanked Daly for helping to launch their series.

Oliver Wendell Douglas
(portrayed by Eddie Albert)

Named for Oliver Wendell Holmes, he is an attorney who makes the rash decision to leave his successful law practice and pursue his lifelong dream of being a farmer, despite having no real-world knowledge or experience, as evidenced by him doing farm chores while wearing a three-piece suit (in "The Hooterville Image," the denizens decide Oliver is ruining the town's image by doing his chores in a suit and demand that he wear overalls).

Much of the humor throughout the series derives from Oliver's striving toward success and happiness in an absurd situation, despite the rural citizenry, his high-maintenance wife, and his affluent mother (Eleanor Audley), who ridicules him for his agricultural pipedreams in the episode "The Wedding Anniversary."

Oliver is also subjected to ribbing by the Hootervillians when he launches into starry-eyed monologues about "the American farmer"—replete with a fife playing "Yankee Doodle" in the background (which every on-screen character except Oliver can hear). 

Oliver drives a Lincoln Continental convertible, a stark contrast to the often decrepit vintage vehicles generally shown. In later seasons, the Lincoln is replaced by a Mercury Marquis convertible.

Lisa Douglas
(portrayed by Eva Gabor)

Lisa and Oliver are both veterans of World War II. In "Wings Over Hooterville," she recalls how they met. According to Lisa, she was a sergeant in the Hungarian underground, and he was a United States Army Air Forces flier, forced to bail out of his plane.

However, she gives several other fanciful versions of how they met in subsequent episodes. In the episode, "A Royal Love Story," he is a tourist in Paris, and she is a waitress/tour guide, living with her father, the deposed King of Hungary.

Pampered by her wealthy family, her skewed world view and domestic ignorance provide fertile ground for recurring gags. Instead of washing dishes, Lisa sometimes tosses them out the kitchen window.

In the episode, "Alf and Ralph Break Up," Lisa admits she has no cooking abilities and that her only talent is Zsa Zsa Gabor impersonations (the real-life sisters were often mistaken for each other).

Oliver and Lisa are both depicted as fish out of water. While Oliver instigated the move from Manhattan to Hooterville over Lisa's objections, he is typically uncomprehending of and impatient with his new situation. Lisa, on the other hand, somehow understands the sometimes surreal world of their neighbors, and they in turn are accepting of her own bizarre notions.

Here are the appearances which qualified them for membership….

GREEN ACRES
170 Episodes (1965-1971)

PETTICOAT JUNCTION
12 Episodes (1965-1968)

THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES
1 Episode (1968)

RETURN TO GREEN ACRES (1990 TV Movie)

And now for the reason behind my elliptical hesitation earlier.

HI HONEY, I’M HOME
1 Episode (1992)

O'Bservation:
Lisa Douglas appeared in an episode of this sitcom in which the premise was that characters from TV shows knew they were fictional and were now living on Earth Prime-Time in some kind of witness protection program until their shows could be brought back.  As weird as it could get within the reality of ‘Green Acres’, the majority of the residents of Hooterville, like most of the Toobworld citizenry, were never fully tele-cognizant.  

So there were two Lisa Douglases, making her multidimensional.

And there you have it, the TVXOHOF team for June, 2025!

Welcome, "Oleevar" and that Hotscake herself, Lisa Douglas!

(This has not been a Filmways presentation, Dahlingks....)

TVXOHOF: FEBRUARY, 2025 - DETECTIVE FRANK PEMBERTON

Every year, the Television Crossover Hall of Fame celebrates the Black History Month of February with a TV Character (or a League of Themselves member) of Color is welcomed into the Hall. 

This year is no different....

DETECTIVE FRANK PEMBLETON

From Wikipedia:
Francis Xavier "Frank" Pembleton is a fictional homicide detective on the television drama series Homicide: Life on the Street portrayed by Emmy Award–winning actor Andre Braugher. He is a primary character of the show through the first six seasons. Although the show featured an ensemble cast, Pembleton would become the fan favorite and is often identified as the show's signature character.

He is based on Baltimore Police Department Detective Harry Edgerton, who, like Pembleton, was an eccentric New York–born African American detective in the BPD homicide unit featured in David Simon's book "Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets". The character also appeared in the 'Law & Order' episode "Charm City".

Pembleton was born into a Catholic family in New York City on July 1, 1961. It was implied that he had siblings, but they never appear on the show. He was educated first in a Catholic elementary school and then in a Jesuit high school, a reference to Braugher attending a Jesuit school, St. Ignatius College Prep, in Chicago. Frank later said that "the Jesuits taught me how to think," which comes up on the show from time to time.

He knows Latin and Greek and is well-versed in Catholic theology. He met his future wife, Mary, on the Great Lawn in Central Park shortly after graduating from the police academy when he was 24. He claims that he knew as soon as he met her that she was "the one." They were married in 1986.

In October 1988, Frank and Mary moved to Baltimore because Frank wanted to be a detective and felt there was no room for advancement in the NYPD. The move caused a permanent rift between him and his in-laws, since he had moved "their little girl" so far from home. He loved working in Baltimore, however, and Mary got a job as a lobbyist and often took trips to Washington, D.C. where her family lives.

He had become a homicide detective by 1989.

Frank and Mary, once settled in their careers, decided to have a family. They were forced to see a variety of fertility specialists before Mary was able to become pregnant. They had two children, a daughter Olivia (born 1996) and a son, Frank Jr.

Frank was the only detective to maintain a marriage — the others either never married, had their spouses die, or got divorced. Frank and Mary's did go through some rough times, owing to Frank's incredible drive for work. Even after marriage counseling, Mary felt that he had become too detached from his family. She was also bothered when he lost his faith, especially when he denied Olivia a baptism for many months. Mary left for a couple of months while pregnant with Frank, Jr. but eventually came back. She was happy that he quit the force in the Season 6 finale.

From the first episode right through to the movie finale, references are made to Pembleton's reputation as a "legend" in terms of his skills as a detective; he is especially skilled in interrogation, and he is depicted as a master of getting confessions from suspects in "the Box." Through a mixture of sympathy, confusion and fear, Pembleton almost always gets a suspect to crack. At the same time, he often fails to endear himself to his fellow detectives, who resent his black-and-white attitude toward the job and his arrogant demeanor.

These are the three separate appearances which guaranteed Pembleton membership in the TVXOHOF:

HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREET
100 Episodes (1993-98)

LAW & ORDER
CHARM CITY (1996)

HOMICIDE: THE MOVIE (2000)

The World lost Andre Braugher just over a year ago. 

Many times, it has been the position of Toobworld Central that even if the actor passed away, their character(s) would live on in Toobworld.  (Unless of course that character lived in the past or had otherwise already died.)  I would have considered Tony Soprano to still be alive had it not been that James Gandolfini had died.  I doubt anybody could see Tony Soprano be recast in modern times.  

The same holds true with Frank Pembleton and Andre Braugher.  I have no problem thinking that Pembleton died after a relapse with another stroke and heart attack.  Sadly, there was no hope to have seen the detective again with Braugher gone.  And I can't be the only one who would reject any other actor assaying the role.

So these 101 episodes and a TV movie would be the only collection of Pembleton's appearances in Earth Prime-Time.  And luckily that collection is made of three segments, making him qualified for membership in the Hall.

Welcome to the TVXOHOF, Detective Pembleton.

TVXOHOF REMEMBERS - DR. MONICA QUARTERMAINE

Something new which I hope won’t be utilized very often over the coming year in the Inner Toob blog – posts to mark the passing of the members of the Television Crossover Hall of Fame.

And unfortunately, with 2025 barely underway, we already have news to share.

From ABC News:
The "General Hospital" family has lost one of their own.

Leslie Charleson, who played Monica Quartermaine on the iconic soap opera for nearly five decades, from 1977 to 2023, died recently at the age of 79.

Frank Valentini, executive producer of "General Hospital," shared a statement about Charleson's death to the show's official Instagram account on Jan. 12.

"It is with a heavy heart that I announce the passing of my dear friend and colleague, Leslie Charleson," Valentini wrote. "Her enduring legacy has spanned nearly 50 years on General Hospital alone and, just as Monica was the heart of the Quartermaines, Leslie was a beloved matriarch of the entire cast and crew."

Dr. Monica Quartermaine was inducted in September of 2018 for the following appearances:

GENERAL HOSPITAL
2079 Episodes
(1977-2023)

PORT CHARLES
27 Episodes
(1997-2001)

GENERAL HOSPITAL: NIGHT SHIFT
2 Episodes
(2008)

DIAGNOSIS MURDER
PHYSICIAN, MURDER THYSELF
(1997)

In all but that last entry, Ms. Charleson portrayed Monica Quartermaine.  But for that ‘Diagnosis Murder’ episode, she was credited only as “New Doctor”.  So why couldn’t she have shown up at Community General as Dr. Quartermaine?

Even if some Crossover Powers That Be struck that off her credentials, she more than covers the basics to qualify with the other three series.  Three series is the minimum needed to be worthy of the “honor”.  But not many in the Hall now can lay claim to having played the role 2,108 times!

As Red Skelton would say, good night and may God bless, Ms. Charleson.  Thank you for sharing Monica with us all these years.

A TOOBITS AWARD WINNER!

Every year in the Inner Toob blog, I do an awards presentation for "Best Of" categories for the year just ending... just like every other media site.  'Doctor Who' gets plenty of attention since it returned in 2005, mostly for historical revisions, guest characters, and of course, for "Recastaways" when it happens every few years.

This year, it's for Best Crossover Character between two different media.  (Mediums?)

On Christmas Day, as BBC and Disney+ launched the 'Doctor Who' Christmas Special ("Joy To The World"), Mashable published a story by Kristy Puchko about a minor - but intriguing! - member of the guest characters:

'Doctor Who' has returned with the tender yet tear-jerking holiday special "Joy to the World." And amid a rollicking adventure across time involving dinosaurs, holograms, game night hangouts, and villainous capitalism, returning writer Steven Moffat also dropped some exciting new lore into the canon: James Bond and Doctor Who exist in the same world.

The link between these epic British heroes (and their franchises) is a bombshell named Sylvia Trench. In an interview with Mashable, Doctor Who executive producer and "Joy to the World" writer Steven Moffat revealed the details of her Whoniverse appearance and what it means.

Sylvia Trench was the first Bond girl. The late British actress Eunice Gayson played the sultry spy's love interest in 1962's "Dr. No" and 1963's "From Russia with Love". Notably, it's in 1962 that this stylish character crosses paths with the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa).

In "Joy to the World," the two-hearted time traveler zips through several Time Hotel doors, popping into 1940 Manchester, 1953 Everest, and 1962 Italy. The last of these is where he meets a beguiling brunette in a coral-colored skirt suit, cradling a copy of Agatha Christie's "Murder on the Orient Express" — along with a handwritten love letter.

The woman never reveals her name, but the episode's end credits identify her as Sylvia Trench (played here by Niamh Marie Smith, who teased the appearance on Instagram on Oct. 4). This detail connects our lovely traveler to James Bond, and gives greater context to her scenes in the episode, as well as her life beyond Bond.

In our interview, Moffat confirmed this Sylvia Trench is intended to be the same chic stunner from "Dr. No" with a simple "Yes, yes."

Moffat felt Sylvia deserved better than she's gotten from pop culture. "Sylvia Trench remains James Bond's girlfriend for the first two films. He has a regular girlfriend back home in the first two films!" Moffat emphasized, "But while she was doing all that, she was also having an affair with the woman and traveling on the Orient Express. I thought, 'That's inevitable.' I felt I was doing her justice, you know? Because she's the most cheated-on woman in the history of fiction, right? Because she made the mistake to go out with James Bond."

In "Joy to the World," Moffat gives her a surprising new spin. When the Doctor comes back to Sylvia during the climax, he takes a look at the love letter she carries and scoffs, "You are better off without him. His sentence structure is appalling."

O'Bservation: But she wrote the letter.

The Doctor tries to recover with a smile and by saying, "Great letter! You should send it to him." To which she retorts tartly, "To her!" And as fast as the Doctor skedaddles out of her train compartment, Moffatt has re-imagined Sylvia Trench.

No longer is she a tragic Bond girl left waiting for her globe-trekking spy boy to come back. She's off on her own adventure, racing across Italy in the Orient Express, penning a letter (however poorly structured) to her Sapphic lover.

Thank you, Ms. Puchko, for that article.  When my brother and I watched the episode, we knew there had to be something about her.  Because it was 1962, we knew it couldn't have been a recasting of Agatha Christie - she was too young!

Sylvia Trench is my 2024 Toobits Award winner for Best Crossover between Toobworld and the Cineverse.  (Unfortunately, the character did not appear in any of the Ian Fleming novels.  That would have been a fantastic triple crossover!)

A COUPLE OF CROSSOVERS

THE WHO'S ON FIRST BLOG-A-THON 2025

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I hope everybody had a great New Year's Eve?

Welcome to the 17^th anniversary edition of the "Who's On First?" blogAthon.  For the next 24 hours, there will (hopefully) be twenty-four posts about 'Doctor Who', one every hour.

I wrote this WELL in advance:
This round-the-clock celebration of 'Doctor Who' began somewhat modestly - there were only seven "episodes" for that first outing.  But it has grown to the point where for the last couple of years we have tried to present a new blog post about the universe of the Doctor every half hour.   That may not be the case this year.  We'll at least try to get one in every hour.

And I always amaze myself that I find enough topics each year.  But then, I have yet to see every episode of the 59 year old series.

Because of their time-sensitive nature, there were a few posts I published earlier in the year.  Some are just mentions of the Doctor, most of them dealt with the breaking news about the show.  If so, I'll re-post them early in the day's schedule (when it's the middle of the night for most visitors.)

This edition will hopefully be special.  (I'm setting up this post on January 1, 2024!)  And I see this as the perfect moment to thank everybody who came up with the wonderful memes and artwork which I hope is okay to share.  (If not, I'll replace it.)

So here it is - the kick-off to the 2025 edition of 'Who's On First'!  And as always, we begin with the frame grab from 'Robot Chicken' which has become our mascot.... 

TVXOHOF BIRTHDAY HONORS LIST 2024 - IAN CHESTERTON & BARBARA WRIGHT

I had another post ready to go for the Birthday Honors List in the Television Crossover Hall of Fame today.  But the news on Tuesday threw those plans out the window….

From Yahoo! News:

William Russell, the actor who first uttered the words: “Doctor Who?”, has died aged 99.

His death on 3 June 2024 has been confirmed by The Guardian.

Russell was best known for his role as schoolteacher Ian Chesterton in the long-running BBC sci-fi series Doctor Who.
He appeared in the show’s first episode, “An Unearthly Child”, in 1963, greeting William Hartnell, who introduced himself as “the Doctor”, with the famous question: “Doctor Who?”

As Chesterton, Russell appeared in Doctor Who’s first two seasons before leaving in 1965.

He reprised his role as Chesterton in 2022 when he appeared in a cameo as part of the “companion support group” in Jodie Whittaker’s final episode, “The Power of the Doctor”.

My Birthday Honors List is the perfect place to induct a duo.  It’s during the Gemini month, after all, and it falls on 6/6.  And the motto for the honors list is “What I say, goes.”  This means there is some leeway sometimes in making sure a character can get in.

So Ian Chesterton easily makes it into the TVXOHOF based on his credits.  But a bit of finagling was needed so that the other half of the Birthday Honors Couple could join him on that journey.  And I set that up years ago.

Come along for the ride….!

IAN CHESTERTON

&

BARBARA WRIGHT

First up, Ian….

From Wikipedia:

Ian Chesterton is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series ‘Doctor Who’ and a companion of the First Doctor. He was played in the series by William Russell and was one of the members of the programme's first regular cast, appearing in much of the first two seasons from 1963 to 1965.  Ian appeared in 16 stories and 77 episodes. He later returned for a cameo appearance, played once again by Russell, in the 2022 episode "The Power of the Doctor".

Ian Chesterton is a science teacher at the Coal Hill School and works with Barbara Wright, a history teacher. One of their students, Susan Foreman, the granddaughter of the Doctor, shows unusually advanced knowledge of science and history.

Attempting to solve the mystery of this "unearthly child," Ian and Barbara follow Susan back home to a junkyard, where they hear her voice coming from what appears to be a police box. When they investigate further, they discover that the police box exterior hides the much larger interior of a time machine known as the TARDIS, and are whisked away on an adventure in time and space with the Doctor and Susan.

And now for Barbara….

From Wikipedia:

Barbara Wright is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series 'Doctor Who' and a companion of the First Doctor. She was one of the programme's first regulars and appeared in the bulk of its first two seasons from 1963 to 1965, played by Jacqueline Hill. Barbara appeared in 16 stories (74 episodes).

Barbara Wright first appears in the first Doctor Who serial, "An Unearthly Child" (1963), where she is teaching history at Coal Hill School in London in 1963, working with science teacher Ian Chesterton (William Russell). They are curious about their student Susan Foreman (Carole Ann Ford), who shows an unusually advanced knowledge of science and history, but a rudimentary knowledge of other subjects. In an attempt to learn more about Susan, Barbara and Ian follow her home to a junkyard, where they hear her voice coming from what appears to be a police box. During a confrontation with her grandfather, the Doctor (William Hartnell), Barbara rushes in to the police box, only to discover that its exterior hides the much larger interior of the TARDIS.

After the Doctor reveals to Barbara and Ian that he and Susan are aliens exiled from their own planet, he tells them he cannot risk their revealing information about the TARDIS to their contemporary world, and dematerializes the craft against Susan's protests. At this point in the series the Doctor had no control over where or when it would land, making a return to London in 1963 impossible to co-ordinate. They are transported back in time to 100,000 BCE Earth, where they are captured by a prehistoric tribe seeking the secret of fire.

Once they escape back to the TARDIS, their second trip takes them to the planet Skaro, where they encounter the Daleks for the first time. At the end of the first episode of that serial, Barbara becomes separated from her fellow travelers and is threatened by an unseen creature with a metal arm, marking the first appearance of a Dalek.

Following her departure in “The Chase”, Barbara has been name-checked in the series on four subsequent occasions. She was mentioned by Vicki in episode one of “The Time Meddler”; by the first Doctor in episode four of “The Massacre”, by his third incarnation on Spiradon in episode one of “Planet of the Daleks” and again by the seventh Doctor, who intoned her name amongst a list of former companions to ward off the haemovore attack in “The Curse of Fenric.”

Barbara was also mentioned in episode one of the 1993 ‘Children In Need’ charity special “Dimensions In Time” and again in “Death of the Doctor”, a two part story in the fourth series of ‘The Sarah Jane Adventures’ transmitted in October 2010. (After meeting Jo Grant and the Eleventh Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith reveals that she has researched the lives of some of the Doctor's Earth-bound companions and discovered that Ian and Barbara have married each other, become professors, live in Cambridge and are rumored to have not aged since the 1960s.  This non-aging rumor however, has been seemingly contradicted by an elderly Ian Chesterton’s appearance in the 2022 episode story, “The Power of the Doctor.”  [Don’t worry.  I have “some splainin to do” about that.])

Just some additional info from the TARDIS Wiki:
Barbara Chesterton, née Wright was a companion of the First Doctor.  Before meeting the Doctor, Barbara was a history teacher at Coal Hill School in 1960s London.

Barbara eventually moved into her own flat in London.  She started working as a history teacher at Coal Hill School.  Barbara met Ian Chesterton during his first year teaching at Coal Hill.

Usually I list the roles which qualify the inductions after sharing all the other information.  But I think it’s best in this case to do it now.

DOCTOR WHO

1963–1965
77 episodes

In 1963, Barbara taught Susan Foreman history at Coal Hill School in Shoreditch, London.   She had a particular interest in the Aztecs.

The odd gaps in Susan's knowledge and her knowledge of things she could not know intrigued Barbara. Informing her colleague Ian Chesterton of the strange girl, together they followed Susan to 76 Totter's Lane, where they heard her voice from inside a police box. They forced their way inside, discovering the massive console room of the Doctor's TARDIS. Susan's grandfather, the First Doctor, kidnapped Ian and Barbara in the TARDIS, which traveled back in time.

Despite his obvious enjoyment of his travels, Ian never lost sight of his desire to return to his own home and time. When the opportunity arose, Ian and Barbara risked travel in a Dalek time ship to return home. When they emerged from the time machine, they were delighted to be back and, according to one account, discovered that two years had passed since their departure.

"Just one more thing!"

COLUMBO

PUBLISH OR PERISH (1974)
[For Barbara only]

O'Bservation:
More on that later.

DOCTOR WHO

THE CRUSADE
(Home Video version)

In the late 1990s, William Russell reprised the role of an aged Ian for a series of links in BBC Video's restoration of The Crusade. (It was filmed at his actual house, being passed off as Ian's house.)

In their old age, Ian and Barbara mostly kept their stories to themselves, knowing what people were thinking when they found out the truth. Ian occasionally told people about his adventures.

O'Bservation:
Based on how he spoke of his wife, I believe Ian and Barbara were still together.  But likely due to the seeming difference in their ages, they had mostly withdrawn from public appearances.

I don't think Ian is a serlinguist; that is, I don't believe he is breaking the fourth wall and addressing us on Earh Prime.  He's probably got a UNIT camera crew there to record his memories.  (By the time they're ready to leave, they'll wipe his memory of that visit.)

THE SARAH JANE ADVENTURES
DEATH OF THE DOCTOR PART TWO (2010)

The Tenth Doctor was shown visiting all of the companions that had appeared in the current series prior to his regeneration. The Eleventh Doctor reveals that during that time, he not only visited the current series companions, but also all the companions that appeared in the classic series as well.

Sarah Jane reveals that she has done some research on the whereabouts of the Doctor's former companions. She reveals that Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright were professors at Cambridge and had not aged since the 1960's, that Tegan Jovanka was in Australia fighting for Aboriginal rights, that Ben and Polly were running an orphanage in India, and that a "Dorothy something" ran a foundation called A Charitable Earth (ACE, implying Dorothy Gale "Ace" McShane). Sarah Jane also says that her former co-companion Harry Sullivan saved thousands of lives through vaccines. She speaks of Harry in the past tense, implying that he has passed on.

According to a rumor which Sarah Jane Smith shared with her friends Clyde Langer and Rani Chandra, Barbara and Ian had become professors at the University of Cambridge by the 2010s and reportedly had not aged since the 1960s.

O’Bservation:
As Ian was already aging in the late 1990s, Sarah Jane’s information about him and Barbara never aging was not up-to-date.  (I blame Mr. Smith.)  We have visual evidence that Ian was aging, but nothing says that Barbara can’t be as young-looking as she was in the 1960s. 

DOCTOR WHO FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY

THE DAY OF THE DOCTOR (2013)

From the TARDIS Wiki:
Sometime in the 2010s, an "I. Chesterton" had become the Chairman of the Governors for the Coal Hill Secondary School.

CLASS

[Entire series]

From the IMDb:
The list of Governors of the Coal Hill Academy includes Chesterton, I and Wright, B. (Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, companions of The Doctor in Doctor Who (1963)'s first few seasons).

From the TARDIS Wiki:

In the 2016 spin off ‘Class’, the refurbished Coal Hill Academy contains a building called "The Barbara Wright Building".

DOCTOR WHO

THE POWER OF THE DOCTOR (2022)
[For Ian only]

From the IMDb:
The episode marks the largest reunion of previous ‘Doctor Who’ cast members in the show's 59 years.

Although 'The Day of the Doctor' (2013) showed representations of all of the actors to portray The Doctor up to that time, most were done using archival footage. With seven actors who portrayed The Doctor, "The Power of the Doctor" has the most appearances filmed specifically for one episode (Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, David Tennant, Jodie Whittaker, and Jo Martin), plus David Bradley portraying the William Hartnell Doctor.

Ian Chesterton (William Russell) is the first companion from the first episode, “An Unearthly Child” (1963) and the entire 1960s era, to appear in the revival series. With a gap of 57 years, his cameo holds the world record for the longest gap between televised appearances as the same character.

From the TARDIS Wiki:

In 2022, Ian attended a meeting of many of the Doctor's past companions, including Graham O'Brien, Dan Lewis, Yasmin Khan, Tegan Jovanka, Ace, Melanie Bush and Jo Jones. He expressed surprise upon hearing Dan refer to the Doctor as "her".

I don’t take into account any of the stories from novels, comic strips, short stories, or audio dramas.  There are just too many opportunities for contradictions and discrepancies.  (See the original stories for ‘Human Nature’, ‘Blink’ and the comic book adventure dealing with the Meep.)  But of all the adventures which I saw described in the TARDIS Wiki, this intrigued me….

From Wikipedia:
One BBC Books novel, “The Face of the Enemy” by David A. McIntee (1998), picks up the story of Ian and Barbara, now married to each other, in the early 1970s, the two of them collaborating with the Doctor's colleagues at UNIT and his enemy the Master when Ian is hired as the Third Doctor's temporary replacement while the Doctor is taking a trip away from Earth. In this book, they have a young son named John. Many of the novels mention a 1980s pop star named Johnny Chester or Johnny Chess, intended to be the same character. Chess is idolized by the Seventh Doctor's companion Ace and has apparently been romantically involved with the Fifth Doctor's companion Tegan.

I know it's photo-shopped, 
but I have a soft spot for this picture.

I can’t state for certain that holds true for the televersions of Ian and Barbara, save for the being married part, of course.  I think that has to be a given in all the fictional metaverses.  Like a fixed point.  

But as for the existence of Johnny Chess as a son of Ian and Barbara in a hypothetical untold story from Toobworld, I’ll just leave it unsaid.  The possibility is out there.

Between the original series, the cameo at the end of the Thirteenth Doctor’s run*, and those videotapes recorded by UNIT regarding the adventure during the Crusades, Ian is covered for the minimum amount of appearances to qualify for Hall membership.  

Barbara, on the other hand, has the original series and the references in the home video of "The Crusade" and that episode of ‘The Sarah Jane Adventures’.  She needs one more entry to qualify and I’ve had that ready for years.  (Remember – with the Birthday Honors inductees, “What I say, goes.”)

In several posts over the years, I’ve played with my splainins, tweaking them every so often as new ideas came to me or new information was available from the show.

When it came to the idea of bringing the characters back (especially after it was learned that they stopped aging in the 1960s), it was O’Bvious that while it was a sweet premise, it couldn’t really play out on the screen.  We already saw that Russell was getting older in those narrative videos for “The Crusade”, but more importantly – and sadly – Jacqueline Hill had passed away in 1993.

I don’t know if it was ever suggested that the roles could be recast, but if so, I’m glad somebody put the (technobabble alert!) kibosh on that. In my Inner Toob blog, I have often let my displeasure for recasting be known.  There are circumstances in which I don’t mind a different actor coming in to take over, but I don’t think any of them could apply to Ian & Barbara.  (It’s bad enough that they recast William Hartnell with David Bradley as the First Incarnation, but at least a good splainin was provided for that when the Tenth Incarnation met the Fifth in the short, “Time Crash”.

TENTH INCARNATION to FIFTH INCARNATION
"The frowny face! I remember that one!
Mind you, a bit saggier than I ought to be.
Hair's a bit greyer.
That's 'cause of me, though.
Two of us together has shorted out the time differential.
Should all snap back into place when we get you home."

But humans can't regenerate.  Well, except for River Song.  It's one of the few splainins for a Terran recastaway which I can't use.  And I wouldn't want to have the roles recast and leave it at that.  It would have to be Jacqueline Hill and William Russell or forget it.

O’Bservation:
I accept that William Russell and Jacqueline Hill have “televersions” in Toobworld; they were played by actors in the TV movie which provided a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of ‘Doctor Who’ – “An Adventure In Space And Time”. From what I understand, both of those actors have gone on to play Ian and Barbara in audio dramas and I have no issue with that.  Those take place in a different fictional universe.

So how do we splain away Ian aging if he was supposed to be immortal?

What if in some unseen adventure, fanfic if it must be, Ian journeyed back in Time to ancient Greece in the Age of Legend?  Doesn't even have to be with the Doctor, no matter what incarnation you favor.  There are plenty of Time Agents and other resources for reaching back to that time... the Time Tunnel!  Why not?  I am partial to crossovers, after all.

But if you want to keep it within the Whovian stratosphere, then I think traveling with the Curator might be the best bet.  At some earlier stage in their lives, still an unseen adventure, Barbara and Ian gained their immortality.  (It may be unseen, but perhaps not unread - I'm sure somebody has addressed the immortality question by now, either in some licensed forum or fanfic.)

However....  Something must have gone wrong in Ian's case.  And it didn't become recognizable until he and Barbara, traveling with the Curator, arrived in ancient Greece, during the Age of Legend.  Perhaps it was the work of a sorcerer or a warlock - using a spell aimed directly at Ian.  He was still immortal, with ever-lasting life.  But he wasn't granted ever-lasting youth.  He became old, and frail, and withered.  And among those who witnessed this phenomenon would be a story-teller who passed on the tale as myth, being the only way the people of his time would come to accept what must have seemed so inconceivable as Truth.  

(Not too far off from what happened in the present day when the people of Earth Prime-Time easily accepted the emergence of the Cybermen from St. Paul's, the Army of Ghosts all across the world, the Battle of Canary Wharf, the Clan Slitheen attack on Big Ben, and the total removal of the planet from the Solar System by Davros and his Daleks, as being mass hypnosis, publicity stunts, whatever to keep them from acknowledging the Truth.)

But after they departed, that story-teller began weaving this new myth, one in which the sight of Ian shriveling down due to the rapid aging process and looking rather like an insectoid.  And they would forever after be remembered by new names - as the goddess Eos and her lover Tithonus.

This is only my suggestion as to what happened.  You might have your own.  That’s the glory of fanfic.

Barbara was not affected by that aging affliction at all.  She would be still looking the same as she did when she left the TARDIS with Ian all those decades ago. But they couldn't stay together forever with Ian in his aging condition.  Eventually the Curator would have to do the only thing possible: he would have to bring Ian to the planet of New Earth where he could be tended by the Sisters of Plenitude.  Since we saw Ian in 2022 at that support group meeting of former companions, it would have to happen at any point after that.  (Death of an actor in the real world does not also signal the death of their character in Toobworld.  The mention of Jacqueline Hill's Barbara Wright as still being alive seventeen years after Ms. Hill had died proves that officially.)

These are the musings I wrote about Barbara’s continued existence in Toobworld.  In these blatherings you will find that one last credit which she needed for membership in the Hall….

1]

Barbara should be considered as still living on Earth Prime-Time; she will never die and she will always look as she did in the early 1960s.  I'd like to think that the Curator provided for her in some way, perhaps by setting up living quarters for her in a disused wing of the Under-Gallery.  And she would not be wanting for company, as I'm sure that there would always be somebody from the Doctor's band of former Companions who could spend time with her.  Who else could understand what a difference the Doctor made in their lives?

And more than likely, Barbara would be kept busy by UNIT.  She could spend her time in research, or drawing on her skills as a teacher to impart her experiences to UNIT officials.  And she might have taken on a lover or three - she would always love Ian, but she would have accepted that he was but a memory now; Life goes on.

2]

In an earlier post, I pointed out that Barbara had become a writer by the early 1970s, fictionalizing her adventures with the Doctor.  Locked away in the Under-Gallery, I'd like to think she's there still, typing up new stories which she could sell.  In fact, this idea just struck me - in my vision of Toobworld, it is Barbara Wright-Chesterton who is now the head of UNReel, the organization which is in charge in keeping the public from panic should they ever find out that the exploits of the Doctor, James Bond, the men from U.N.C.L.E., and others are actually happening.  Better for the general safety of the world that they think it's all fiction.....

3]
I’ve made the claim in the past that ‘Columbo’ had a definite crossover with ‘Doctor Who.”  It can be found in the episode “Publish Or Perish” when he is examining the poster for a book released by Greenleaf Publishing – MODERN AZTEC COURTSHIP PRACTICES.

The woman seen in the illustration of that cover is the artist’s rendering of Barbara Wright, one of the first Earthlings to travel with the Doctor.  Along with fellow teacher Ian Chesterton, she accompanied the First Incarnation of the Doctor and his granddaughter back in Time to the era of the Aztecs.  (And just to double down on the 'Columbo' connection, the artist was Max Barsini from the 'Columbo' episode "Murder: A Self Portrait".)

And it was during that time among the Aztecs when Barbara made note of the courtship practice which almost landed another wife for the Doctor because of the miscommunication regarding the offering of cocoa….

And there you have it, the reasons why Ian and Barbara (Wright) Chesterton are eligible for membership in the Television Crossover Hall of Fame.

Good night and may God bless you both.  

Welcome to the Hall!