The "Wall E" -- "Hello, Dolly!" -- "Star Trek" Conjunction!

Okay, enough David Cook around here! (Only kidding....) Let's get back to basics -- Star Trek!

By now many of you have probably seen the movie Wall E about the plucky and sentimental little robot, and many probably also immediately recognized the couple of tunes from the 1969 movie Hello, Dolly! which figure prominently in the plot of Wall E. There have articles around -- really sweet ones, actually -- about the songwriter Jerry Herman's thrill at having his tunes from the 1960s hit musical find a new audience, but how many of you can connect our favorite TV show to the new Pixar hit?

Here's how: In Hello, Dolly! Cornelius is played by Michael Crawford (who became almost a mainstream star over here -- he had been a star in England forever and ever -- when he was the original Phantom of the Opera onstage). Cornelius -- who is the singer at the beginning of the song "Put on Your Sunday Clothes" -- becomes enamoured of Irene Malloy, played by actress Marianne McAndrew. Crawford and McAndrew sing "It Only Takes a Moment" together, as seen briefly and heard in Wall E. And the Star Trek connection is...wait for it...in real life Marianne McAndrew has been married for over thirty years to Stewart Moss, the actor who guest-starred in two episodes of classic Star Trek! (They also starred together in an interesting horror movie called The Bat People in 1974.)

What did Stewart play in Star Trek? Well, none other than the tormented Joe Tormolen, friend of Lt. Kevin Riley and Mr. Sulu, who succumbs to the mysterious disease in the great 1st season episode The Naked Time and ends up fatally stabbing himself. Moss also was in the 2nd season ep By Any Other Name as Hanar, one of the Kelvan aliens; this is the episode where they turn a crewwoman (Julie Cobb) into a little block of...something...and crush her. (And we all know that Julie Cobb is the daughter of Lee J. Cobb, star of The Virginian TV series, don't we? No, I guess that's just me....)

Anyway, there's the Wall E -- Hello, Dolly! -- Star Trek Conjunction! And to complete our tour today, let's put up a few videos. First, the entire "Put on Your Sunday Clothes" number from Hello, Dolly! from whence Wall E gets his inspiration; you'll see Michael Crawford, Danny Lockin (and you can find out all about this talented actor's too-short and shockingly ill-fated life here on this excellent tribute website for him), Barbra Streisand, Joyce Ames, the very tall and very terpsichoreally talented Tommy Tune and a host of singer and dancers. Second, the "It Only Takes a Moment" number with Crawford and McAndrew.

Then, to take us back to Trek, let's look at the hilarious Saturday Night Live sketch "The Restaurant Enterprise" sketch starring the very real and hilarious William Shatner, et all. Now, unfortunately I can't get this one to embed, so here's the link, and I highly recommend watching it!

Classic SNL: The Restaurant Enterprise

I think that's enough for one day from me, eh?