Science Fiction Trivia

[ffutures]

OK then - let's try Guiding Light, a US soap (the worlds longest-running soap that began on radio in 1937, and on TV in 1952, ending in 2009) that suddenly added an SF / superhero subplot in 2006 after decades of being a straight soap opera

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guiding_Light
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guiding_L ... 80%932009)

"By 2006, Guiding Light continued to end up near the bottom of the ratings. The longest running character, Ross Marler, was presumed dead in a plane crash. Phillip Spaulding was still lingering in a state of confusion somewhere out of town. The disappearing Holly Norris would make a cameo appearance before retreating back offscreen. Her daughter, Blake, became the Springfield Blogger, was poisoned, and fell into a coma for months. Blake's half-brother, Sebastion Hulce, was briefly mentioned. Harley Cooper would also receive powers for a crossover with comic book publisher Marvel Comics, including a continuation of the episodes in their comics released."

The nearest I can find to a clip of it is this, which goes into comic book mode about 4 minutes in - not sure what that's about.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6kUhtyebg4

later - belated learn there was also a cloning plot in 1998

"In 1998, Esensten and Brown wrote a hotly debated story arc that generated considerable controversy around Guiding Light. Reva, who was believed to be dead a second time, was cloned at the request of her grieving husband Josh. When Reva was found alive, the lonely clone (named Dolly, like the sheep) committed suicide by drinking too much aging serum. As she lay on her death bed (actually a couch), Josh fumbled with a cure that would have reversed the effects of the aging serum. Unfortunately, he dropped it behind the couch and it was too late to save Dolly. The controversial plot alienated erudite, intelligent viewers, and hurt the integrity of a once-intelligent, honored series. It was preceded and then followed by other outlandish storylines that usually featured the character of Reva, such as Reva The Ghost, Reva The Amish Amnesiac, Reva The San Cristobelian Queen, and Reva the Time Traveller."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guiding_L ... 80%931999)

[RockDoctor]

OK then - let's try Guiding Light, a US soap (the worlds longest-running soap that began on radio in 1937, and on TV in 1952, ending in 2009) that suddenly added an SF / superhero subplot in 2006 after decades of being a straight soap opera

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guiding_Light
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guiding_L ... 80%932009)

"By 2006, Guiding Light continued to end up near the bottom of the ratings.

Always a good sign, in a bad sense of "good".

Harley Cooper would also receive powers for a crossover with comic book publisher Marvel Comics, including a continuation of the episodes in their comics released.[/b]"

The nearest I can find to a clip of it is this, which goes into comic book mode about 4 minutes in - not sure what that's about.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6kUhtyebg4

later - belated learn there was also a cloning plot in 1998
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guiding_L ... 80%931999)

Well, the numbers certainly argue with you - 1937 to 1998 for "straight" soap (would "spaghetti" be a better simile for soaps' plots?) and continuing to 2006 with only a thin smattering of not-very-fictional-SF then adding an accelerating trend of "alien ectoparasite eats the scriptwriter's brain". That's about 5% SF, which is a dusting, not the main meal.

The show had a rotating slate of writers,

Oh, that's a kiss of death, if ever I heard one.

numerous characters from the series' past passed through Springfield one last time

That ... I wonder if there is some relationship there with the naming of The Simpson's home town.

That sounds like you've really plumbed the depths of soapery, and I award you the FOURTH point in this never-ending story, as well as a Meaninless Bonus Point for a very wrinkled skin from your delving into the morass.

From what little I've seen, the South American soap scene has some deep swales and underwater traps to sink into, which might repay a fetid exploration.

ONE to go. Who's going to get the poisoned chalice?

[RockDoctor]

numerous characters from the series' past passed through Springfield one last time

That ... I wonder if there is some relationship there with the naming of The Simpson's home town.

From the Wiki page on the Simpsons,

Groening has said that he named it after Springfield, Oregon, and the fictitious Springfield which was the setting of the series Father Knows Best. He "figured out that Springfield was one of the most common names for a city in the U.S. In anticipation of the success of the show, I thought, 'This will be cool; everyone will think it's their Springfield.' And they do."

OK, maybe not.

[ffutures]

OK, I've got another - must admit I did search a little

The Colbys (1985-7), a Dynasty spin-off, only ran to two seasons. The last one ended with a cliff-hanger where one of the characters (Fallon) was abducted by a flying saucer. She later turned up unconscious several miles from where she was abducted, in a later episode of Dynasty. So far as I can determine this was never explained as anything other than a genuine alien abduction.

https://web.archive.org/web/20110720113 ... on2co.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Colbys

[RockDoctor]

OK, I've got another - must admit I did search a little

The Colbys (1985-7), a Dynasty spin-off, only ran to two seasons. The last one ended with a cliff-hanger where one of the characters (Fallon) was abducted by a flying saucer. She later turned up unconscious several miles from where she was abducted, in a later episode of Dynasty. So far as I can determine this was never explained as anything other than a genuine alien abduction.

https://web.archive.org/web/20110720113 ... on2co.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Colbys

And like a hadrosaur basking in the terminal asteroid-burn of the Mesozoic, we stumble over the finishing line. And if there were ever a monumentally awful soap opera to die on an alien abduction gig as Burt started off with Soap just a few years earlier, then this piece of derivative spin-off is surely a sad swan song to a slow slog for examples.
A poisoned chalice to ffutures, along with TWO increasingly Meaningless Bonus Points - one for finding a truly low point of popular culture to wash the Petri dishes in, and a second for carefully avoiding the question of who did shoot JR, and why wasn't he nuked from orbit.

[ffutures]

OK... let's have a few fictional companies. Five brief descriptions, name the company and the source or sources (sometimes there is more than one). No two originate in the same universe so far as I know.

1: Based in San Narciso, California, this company is famous for aerospace and computer technology.
2: Founded by an American anthropologist, this company is a global leader in robotics but unfortunately not always good at keeping them under control, with catastrophic consequences when a government defense initiative goes wrong. The company name is an anagram of another, much better known, from the same fictional universe.
3: Possibly the world's unluckiest airline, this company has suffered numerous crashes and disasters including several with SF-related causes, and has appeared in Futurama although that is not its original source.
4: The world's premier airship company, based in Millwall and Buenos Ayres
5: A paper company that's actually the cover for an intelligence organization, whose premier agent must eventually work against their agenda to protect his family.

[RockDoctor]

1: Based in San Narciso, California, this company is famous for aerospace and computer technology.

Would that be Yoyodyne Inc, from Several of Thomas Pynchon's works including "The Crying of Lot 49". Also, appears in a number of examples in computer manuals.
I'm trying to work out what would be the fate of that book's female version of Oedipus. It can't be the obvious, because that job is filled by Phaidra elsewhere in the mythos.

[ffutures]

1: Based in San Narciso, California, this company is famous for aerospace and computer technology.

Would that be Yoyodyne Inc, from Several of Thomas Pynchon's works including "The Crying of Lot 49". Also, appears in a number of examples in computer manuals.
I'm trying to work out what would be the fate of that book's female version of Oedipus. It can't be the obvious, because that job is filled by Phaidra elsewhere in the mythos.

And one point, plus a MBP for pointing at Pynchon rather than a fairly obvious SF source, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, in which Yoyodyne is the Red Lectoid front company.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adven ... _Dimension

[ffutures]

OK, some little hints

2: The founder of the company has a first name more often seen as a surname.
3: Owes some of its history to re-use of stock footage.
4: Originates in a work by a Nobel Prize winner.
5: Has a back story complicated by repeated use of time travel and precognition.

[RockDoctor]

3: Owes some of its history to re-use of stock footage.

Well I'm failing to make any progress on the "Futurama" front. The "Flight To Remember" episode (S1, production ; S2 broadcast) slapsticks the Titanic, which was the White Star Line in real life. But I can't find any reference or relevance to that ... oh, hang on ... no, following up on the (arguably) most famous bit of air crash newsreel isn't hitting any Futurama buttons. (That's the Hindenburg.)
Taking a dig at #2, the "global leader in robotics" and "catastrophic consequences" sounds rather like Skynet, by "Miles Dyson", out of "Cyberdyne" corp. But Dyson designs microprocessors as well as vacuum cleaners, which isn't a day job normally associated with anthropology. And "Cyberdyne" is rather short on anagrams. So I don't think that one is going anywhere.

[Nite Owl]

Dislike giving answers that have to be looked up on Google but since all of the usual suspects seem to be struggling this session here goes.

#4

Author: Rudyard Kipling

Sources: With the Night Mail, A Story of 2000 A.D. (1905); As Easy as A.B.C. (1912)

Company Name: Aerial Board of Control

These are the only Science Fiction stories Kipling had published. The Aerial Board of Control is a world dominating Zeppelin company that delivers mail and passengers across the globe. It dominates not only the air and air traffic control but all world governments as well. Although these two stories predate it they are somewhat similar to the predictions made by H.G. Wells in The Shape of Things to Come (1933). All three works postulate on a world dominated by whomever controls the skies.

[Cholmondely]

Dislike giving answers that have to be looked up on Google but since all of the usual suspects seem to be struggling this session here goes.

#4

Author: Rudyard Kipling

Sources: With the Night Mail, A Story of 2000 A.D. (1905); As Easy as A.B.C. (1912)

Company Name: Aerial Board of Control

These are the only Science Fiction stories Kipling had published. The Aerial Board of Control is a world dominating Zeppelin company that delivers mail and passengers across the globe. It dominates not only the air and air traffic control but all world governments as well. Although these two stories predate it they are somewhat similar to the predictions made by H.G. Wells in The Shape of Things to Come (1933). All three works postulate on a world dominated by whomever controls the skies.

Kipling! How super! I'll have to read it...

[ffutures]

OK... Well spotted. It is indeed With the Night Mail, which was one of two stories set in a 21st century airship utopia by Kipling. As it happens the first release of my Forgotten Futures RPG was based on them, so I have both on my web site in a rather nice illustrated PDF version:

http://www.forgottenfutures.com/game/ff1/nm-abc.pdf

Have a point for finding the stories, but the actual COMPANY is the Standard Dig. Co. of Millwall and Buenos Ayres - Dig. is short for dirigible. The first story was published as an excerpt from a 21st century magazine with other articles, ads, ec., including two for Standard Dig Co., so no bonus point ;-(



The "A.B.C." mentioned in the bit you quoted was the nearest thing these stories have to a global government - the Aerial Board of Control, whose job is to make sure that the airships run on time and only occasionally finds it necessary to stage 200-airship raids on American cities...

[spud42]

i knew i had read that somewhere but couldnt remember....

[Disembodied]

5: A paper company that's actually the cover for an intelligence organization, whose premier agent must eventually work against their agenda to protect his family.

I think this is probably Primatech Paper Co., from the TV series Heroes. Based in Odessa, Texas, it's actually the front for The Company, an organisation that tracks and monitors superheroes.