Oh, and let’s add a CIDU tag for the Pardon My Planet.
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For the vampire, who’s not interested in this woman, the date is a waste of time. The woman is upset by his rebuttal and says so. Since the vampire is immortal, what are a few hours/days/years/eons to him ? Immortals can afford to waste time, can’t they ? They will never run out of it (although towards the end, it could get boring: http://www.physlink.com/education/askexperts/ae181.cfm ).
Towards the end? If they’re immortal there’s no “end”.
There’s no end to them but there is to the rest of the universe; it’d be like staying after the end of a party: no lights, no music, no drinks: boring.
I’m going to guess the vampire’s regular suit is at the cleaners, and he threw together what he’s wearing from stuff he found at a rummage sale.
Is the plot or backstory recounted in the last panel of the Fox Trot an actual TV show?
It is- for The Highlander. It started with a movie about Connor MacCleod (or MacCloud- I can’t recall the spelling) I just re-watched it on Amazon Prime last week. Sean Connery is in it. There are a few movies plus a few seasons of a TV show with Adrian Paul as Duncan MacCloud. The idea is that the Immortals “give up” their power when they lose their head and it goes to the Immortal who killed them. Eventually, all the power will be in one Immortal, and you’re supposed to root for the good guys to get it. Overall, they have no beef with mortals – the battle is only among the Immortals. It’s one of those shows with a contemporary setting and flashbacks from the past 400 years which explain why the current bad guy is after Duncan. Kitchy – but a suspend-your-disbelief kind of fun …and Adrian Paul shirtless is never a bad thing.
Mitch4 asked about the last panel, Irene.
I’m guessing Paige is just recounting a stereotypical soap opera plot.
Thanks — Though I indeed was asking about the last panel, I also appreciate the fill-in on Highlander, which I was able to identify of course, but only knew a little of the premise.
I don’t think Highlander and a vampire should count as a synchronicity. YMMV.
I think that’s 90210 and/or Melrose Place.
Mea culpa! Not sure why I read it wrong. :-)
“There’s no end to them but there is to the rest of the universe; it’d be like staying after the end of a party: no lights, no music, no drinks: boring.”
Well, YOU’VE never been to Milliways, clearly. If you’ve done six impossible things before breakfast, why not top it off with lunch at Milliways, the restaurant at the end of the universe?
Billy and Allison match up as characters on Melrose Place, and if the Wikipedia page is reflective of the show, it did have the labyrinthine plotting that Paige suggests of the mystery show. But I never watched the show, and couldn’t make any sense of the Wikipedia page, and didn’t look to see if “Brooke” and “Brooke’s dad” were characters. So maybe.
Research indicates that Brooke Armstrong was played by Kristin Davis.
“I don’t think Highlander and a vampire should count as a synchronicity. YMMV.”
The counterpoint:
True, immortal highlanders and immortal vampires are not immortal in the same way. But… there is considerable variation under the umbrella of “vampire”… Bram Stoker and Stephanie Meyer weren’t talking about the same thing, and Larry Niven REALLY had something different in mind, all under the aegis of “vampire”.
So if “vampire” isn’t even always the same thing as “vampire”, there’s no harm in a synchronicity of “highlander” and “vampire”.
From what I can find, Paige’s description does in fact reflect actual plot developments on “Melrose Place” (except that “Allison” should be spelled “Alison”).
Thanks for the Melrose Place info!
I agree with Winter Wallaby. The only thing “synchronous” about these two strips is that they both mention the word “immortal”. The concept is not actually used by the Foxtrot strip at all, it’s just an incidental part of the show the brother is watching.
I dunno, synchronicity about immortality seems like a valid thing. Can’t really expect to find a reference to the Poul Anderson series Highlander was ripped off from…
Bill once said (or wrote) that it wasn’t enough for the same object (or concept) just to “appear” in a strip (otherwise we would have synchronous tables and chairs every day).
Immortal humans, tables and chairs… same, same.
It’s really more an art than a science: “Okay, that really weird that two cartoonists would be using such similar gags on the same day.”
And timing matters: two comics about reindeer with a fear of heights will have to meet a much higher standard for sameness in December than in July.
Of course, if somebody else sends me the comics, I’ll virtually always greenlight it (same as with LOLs, etc), whether I see it or not, because I’m not in this alone.
Bill, you’ve NEVER been in this alone.
There’s that real-estate guy in Seattle.
My son was in Seattle last week. I should have asked him to go to the real estate office, find IBB, and claim to be his long-lost son.
Bill, he sells real estate, not milk.
Big difference between Highlander TV and movies is that in the movies they don’t die when injured or should have been killed and in the TV show they die and then come back to life – as long as they didn’t lose their head.
Major error – (spoiler alert also) – at the end of the first movie they are down to the last immortal – as in “there can be only one” and then after that – in the sequels – there are a lot more of them.
There is also a second Highlander TV show called “The Raven” which was a sequel – in which people who were friends in the first series suddenly did not know each other. Season 7 of the main Highlander show was mostly trying out women’s characters for the sequel series. The Raven was played by a character who was a semi-regular on the main show and was played by Elizabeth Gracen – the 1982 Miss America who was from Arkansas – and one of Bill Clinton’s girlfriends.
(and if you would like to know where the highlander was in each epsiode/time period I may still have the list Robert made up to see if they made any errors as we watched the series over and over – on the air and on DVD.)
Comics I Don't Understand 
For the vampire, who’s not interested in this woman, the date is a waste of time. The woman is upset by his rebuttal and says so. Since the vampire is immortal, what are a few hours/days/years/eons to him ? Immortals can afford to waste time, can’t they ? They will never run out of it (although towards the end, it could get boring: http://www.physlink.com/education/askexperts/ae181.cfm ).
Towards the end? If they’re immortal there’s no “end”.
There’s no end to them but there is to the rest of the universe; it’d be like staying after the end of a party: no lights, no music, no drinks: boring.
I’m going to guess the vampire’s regular suit is at the cleaners, and he threw together what he’s wearing from stuff he found at a rummage sale.
Is the plot or backstory recounted in the last panel of the Fox Trot an actual TV show?
It is- for The Highlander. It started with a movie about Connor MacCleod (or MacCloud- I can’t recall the spelling) I just re-watched it on Amazon Prime last week. Sean Connery is in it. There are a few movies plus a few seasons of a TV show with Adrian Paul as Duncan MacCloud. The idea is that the Immortals “give up” their power when they lose their head and it goes to the Immortal who killed them. Eventually, all the power will be in one Immortal, and you’re supposed to root for the good guys to get it. Overall, they have no beef with mortals – the battle is only among the Immortals. It’s one of those shows with a contemporary setting and flashbacks from the past 400 years which explain why the current bad guy is after Duncan. Kitchy – but a suspend-your-disbelief kind of fun …and Adrian Paul shirtless is never a bad thing.
Mitch4 asked about the last panel, Irene.
I’m guessing Paige is just recounting a stereotypical soap opera plot.
Thanks — Though I indeed was asking about the last panel, I also appreciate the fill-in on Highlander, which I was able to identify of course, but only knew a little of the premise.
I don’t think Highlander and a vampire should count as a synchronicity. YMMV.
I think that’s 90210 and/or Melrose Place.
Mea culpa! Not sure why I read it wrong. :-)
“There’s no end to them but there is to the rest of the universe; it’d be like staying after the end of a party: no lights, no music, no drinks: boring.”
Well, YOU’VE never been to Milliways, clearly. If you’ve done six impossible things before breakfast, why not top it off with lunch at Milliways, the restaurant at the end of the universe?
Billy and Allison match up as characters on Melrose Place, and if the Wikipedia page is reflective of the show, it did have the labyrinthine plotting that Paige suggests of the mystery show. But I never watched the show, and couldn’t make any sense of the Wikipedia page, and didn’t look to see if “Brooke” and “Brooke’s dad” were characters. So maybe.
Research indicates that Brooke Armstrong was played by Kristin Davis.
“I don’t think Highlander and a vampire should count as a synchronicity. YMMV.”
The counterpoint:
True, immortal highlanders and immortal vampires are not immortal in the same way. But… there is considerable variation under the umbrella of “vampire”… Bram Stoker and Stephanie Meyer weren’t talking about the same thing, and Larry Niven REALLY had something different in mind, all under the aegis of “vampire”.
So if “vampire” isn’t even always the same thing as “vampire”, there’s no harm in a synchronicity of “highlander” and “vampire”.
From what I can find, Paige’s description does in fact reflect actual plot developments on “Melrose Place” (except that “Allison” should be spelled “Alison”).
Thanks for the Melrose Place info!
I agree with Winter Wallaby. The only thing “synchronous” about these two strips is that they both mention the word “immortal”. The concept is not actually used by the Foxtrot strip at all, it’s just an incidental part of the show the brother is watching.
I dunno, synchronicity about immortality seems like a valid thing. Can’t really expect to find a reference to the Poul Anderson series Highlander was ripped off from…
Bill once said (or wrote) that it wasn’t enough for the same object (or concept) just to “appear” in a strip (otherwise we would have synchronous tables and chairs every day).
Immortal humans, tables and chairs… same, same.
It’s really more an art than a science: “Okay, that really weird that two cartoonists would be using such similar gags on the same day.”
And timing matters: two comics about reindeer with a fear of heights will have to meet a much higher standard for sameness in December than in July.
Of course, if somebody else sends me the comics, I’ll virtually always greenlight it (same as with LOLs, etc), whether I see it or not, because I’m not in this alone.
Bill, you’ve NEVER been in this alone.
There’s that real-estate guy in Seattle.
My son was in Seattle last week. I should have asked him to go to the real estate office, find IBB, and claim to be his long-lost son.
Bill, he sells real estate, not milk.
Big difference between Highlander TV and movies is that in the movies they don’t die when injured or should have been killed and in the TV show they die and then come back to life – as long as they didn’t lose their head.
Major error – (spoiler alert also) – at the end of the first movie they are down to the last immortal – as in “there can be only one” and then after that – in the sequels – there are a lot more of them.
There is also a second Highlander TV show called “The Raven” which was a sequel – in which people who were friends in the first series suddenly did not know each other. Season 7 of the main Highlander show was mostly trying out women’s characters for the sequel series. The Raven was played by a character who was a semi-regular on the main show and was played by Elizabeth Gracen – the 1982 Miss America who was from Arkansas – and one of Bill Clinton’s girlfriends.
(and if you would like to know where the highlander was in each epsiode/time period I may still have the list Robert made up to see if they made any errors as we watched the series over and over – on the air and on DVD.)