The Blue Man (Jonathian comedy show)

This is about the Jonathian comedy show by Central Productions. You may be looking for one of 2 Fortlese shows, either the drama from 1976 broadcast on FSTV, or the cancelled remake of this show in 2010.
The Blue Man was a Jonathian comedy show created by Callie Etherfield, produced by Central Productions and aired on NBC during 2007 and 2012. The show was centered around a man with a blue coat, hat, and umbrella, named Ralph (played by Alexander Washington), going on his day while having to deal with the town around him. In the show, Ralph is pictured as a cheerful but lazy man who loves the colour blue. His wife Angela (played by Martha Snow) despises Ralph, but still finds him a funny guy.
The show has received positive ratings over it's 5-year run, and has been awarded by Jonathian newspaper Marida Examiner the award for best television show of 2011. The show was cancelled in 2012 after Alexander Washington, who plays Ralph, left the show as he was getting quite bored of the role. A reboot was announced by NBC in 2019, however filming has since been delayed to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Blue Man is the only Central Productions show not to air on RBA, though the show is available on RBAX.
==Cast==
*Alexander Washington as Ralph Tupsid, a Jonathian man from East Grinford, a fictional suburb just on the edge of Voureg, Unadia. He has a love for blue, and despises the suburb's governor.
*Martha Snow as Angela, the wife of Ralph. She is known for her signature line, "wanna some 'ea, 'alph?" (literally meaning: Want some tea, Ralph?).
*Daniel Walding as Peter, the son of Ralph and Angela. He has been seen in at least 25 episodes.
*Zoe Millard as Dr. Eugene H. Elp, a doctor working for a fictional branch of the NHS.
*Reuben Foster as State governor Moss von Deubert, the suburb governor of East Grinford. He is bitter rivals of Ralph, but both men refuse to leave the suburb, for different reasons.
*Michael Lachlan as Dave Wood, Ralph's neighbour. He believes everyone to be "dead", despite people's numerous attempts to explain to him that he's not in heaven.
Other people who have appeared in the series include:
*Rupert O'Neil as an unnamed NBC News reporter. He appears regularly.
*Montgomery David as Dr. Ingrid Johansson, an assistant to Dr. Elp.
*Jonas Albert as himself. He has appeared in two episodes.
*Li Wei as an unnamed cashier working for the Blostian/Reulese restaurant in East Grinford.
*Callie Etherfield as herself. She appeared in one episode.
==Notable scenes and references==
===Shooter attack scene===
In the season 5 episode Fun's Blazing, a scene involving the NBC News reporter (Rupert O'Neil) appeared. It reported on a school shooting near East Grinford College. In the scene, the News Reporter told of people running away panicking, as loud gunshots could be heard in the background. After some time, the shooter attempts to ambush the fleeing civilians. The news reporter then passes Jonas Albert, then an unknown figure, who is seen lying on the ground talking to himself. In the previous episode, Party in the MI5, it was told that the prime minister would be on a state visit to Unadia - and that Jonas was only present to witness this..
Later in the episode, in the East Grinford NHS, victims of the shooting are being treated to. Jonas could be seen being hauled in on a trolley. He gains much attraction after Dr. Johansson (Montgomery David) recognizes him from his now-inactive Streame channel, and begins questioning him on a photo with him. Jonas states that he can't feel his legs; likely due to people trampling him; before sarcastically stating that he feels well.
===Just 4 Laughs references===
Just 4 Laughs is another comedy show by Central Productions similar to The Blue Man. The Blue Man has made notable references to the show on multiple occasions.
In the season 4 episode Corn on a Cop, multiple police officers pile together in a street in order to stop a speeding car; the latter being driven by Ralph in order to get home quickly after accidentally lighting a fast food restaurant on fire. The police officers clump together with riot shields, while screaming "Stop right there, criminal! You need to stop!", before running off as the car approaches. This is a reference to a similar scene on J4L that aired around the same month, which showed police attempting to stop a taxi rolling down a steep street. As the police attempt to protect civilians, the attempt is in vain, as the taxi slams into the police. Several people are knocked over, while others scatter.
===Jokes on countries===
The Blue Man has made multiple jokes about countries along it's history. Starting from season 2, a recurring joke would be to mock anything the Fortlese did recently. On the 27th of May, 2009, a St. Henderson council bus had it's window smashed by angry students in protest of the new "School Tax", which would see students be taxed for attending school. About a month later, in the season 4 episode Get Schooled, a university bus is attacked by what the show comments to be as "angry homework haters". Ralph happens to be in the bus, and uses a ping-pong bat to try and stop the stones from ruining his lunch. Eventually, one of the students throws a printer, which pops a tyre and causes the back of the bus to blow up, effectively destroying Ralph's lunch.
In reaction to the failure of the Fortlese remake of the show in 2010, The Blue Man showed a gag which showed Ralph and Angela booing at the TV of what appears to be a low-quality Fortlese remake of popular Albian comedy series Rodt-Duarfa, which was described by Angela to be starring popular Fortlese movie director Daniel Hanforth.
==Cancellation==
On the 7th of April, the final episode of season 5, Memories of rain gone by, drew to a close with Ralph driving off into the countryside, promising he'd be back in 2 weeks. After the credits occurred, the NBC announcer Colin Lamont announced that the show would not be returning for an sixth season; albeit in a confused manner, as the news on the cancellation had been quite sudden, but had spread quickly through NBC, Central Productions later revealed that the reason for the cancellation was due to the fact that the main actor, Alexander Washington, was getting quite bored of being in the show. After efforts to find a new actor failed, Callie Etherfield, the director and creator of the show, as well as board members of Central Productions, decided to cancel the show.
==Spin-offs==
===Fortlese version===
Despite the original version having been broadcast on NET, a pilot episode for a Fortlese version (known as The Blue Man Fortland) was produced through Nord Park Studios with the intention of broadcasting on FSTV in 2010. The show essentially followed the same story as the first episode of the original series, using Fortlese actors for most of the main roles. It was written by Gillian Freeman and directed by Joseph Maller, with Callie Etherfield onboard as creators and executive producers. The pilot episode includes footage from the Jonathian series in its title sequence, although it did not retain the logo or the theme music of it's Jonathian counterpart.
====Differences====
The casts in both shows change slightly. Another notable fact is that the news reporter changes channels. In the Jonathian version, he works for NBC. On the Fortlese version, however, he works for a fictional local channel called SevenBnB (in reference to the B&B Joseph Maller lived next door to).
Character 	Jonathian actor 	Fortlese actor
Ralph 	Alexander Washington	Gregory Bormann
Angela 	Martha Snow 	Laura Simpson
Peter 	Daniel Walding 	Daniel Walding
Dr. Elp 	Zoe Millard 	Katherine Lambert
Moss von Deubert	Reuben Foster 	Siaosi Alfred
News reporter 	Rupert O'Neil 	Connor Frijd
A major difference between the Jonathian and Fortlese shows was it's base location. In the Jonathian version, the show was based in a fictional suburb on the outskirts of Voureg, Unadia, called East Grinford. In the Fortlese version, the suburb was called Grinland, and was instead located in southern St. Henderson.
====Reaction====
During filming of the pilot, the audience reaction was good and it was felt that the story had been well received. However, when the pilot was aired on FSTV on the 16th of October, 2010, the show had mixed reactions. While quite a lot of companies, like the film and television magazine MediaMonday, praised the pilot of keeping true to the original story, the show received poor ratings from people all over Fortland, 21% of the ratings from people who were hoping for a full remake of the Jonathian pilot.
After airing 1 more episode, the latter seeing poor ratings, and FSTV's lowest watch time since 1978, the show was cancelled. When interviewed in 2014 about the show, Callie Etherfield stated this;"The show was basically a failure right from the start of filming. I actually didn't like the Fortlese script, but accepted it anyway, as the two of them [Gillan Freeman & Joseph Maller] were really hopeful for it."
==Legacy==
Despite it's short run, The Blue Man has been recognized as one of the greatest Jonathian sitcoms of all time, sometimes even pulling away viewers from rival sitcom People, which continues to air on JBC to this day.
===Dubs===
In 2017, a French-language dub was commissioned by Corbarian broadcaster TC1. As NBC no longer held the rights to the show at the time, the national broadcaster of Jonathia, JBC, took it upon themselves to support the French production, having owned the international rights since 2015.
A German-language dub was commissioned in 2018 by Dutlese broadcaster NRD.
A full list of voice actors can be found here.
===New show===
In December of 2019, NBC announced that they had bought out the rights to make a modern version of the show based on the original. Filming for the show was due to begin in April of 2020, but was postponed to the following year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As of April 2021, NBC has stated that filming has begun, albeit lacking a live audience.
Previous attempts to restart the show included a one-off special on NBC in 2016, a short-lived Commolacian remake by the CRTC in 2014, and a cameo of the show on Comedy Central's Christmas Comedy Corner show in 2018.
===Actors in the show===
Callie Etherfield would later be called on by Circle Corporation's movie division to direct a soap opera, Hatherlow Street. The show first aired on CBC on December 1st, 2019, and became an instant hit. It's biggest rival is JBC's soap opera, Life.
Alexander Washington appeared in a number of shows, his most notable appearance post-Blue Man being his appearance on another NBC comedy, Just 4 Laughs, in 2015, where he did a one-off in Season 6, Episode 23 (The Corner Shop), where he played an old man who worked for a corner shop. Other shows he appeared in include Rolling Hills, TV Burp, Hatherlow Street, and a celebrity special of The Weakest Link.
Martha Snow has since moved on from television sitcoms, and has appeared in a number of blockbuster movies.
Daniel Walding and Li Wei have started a show together with former opera singer Andrew Wolt on JBC Kids, called the Three W, a children's show.
Zoe Millard later became co-host with Laurence Smith on the Brianese television show "Fair Go", based on the Canadish show of the same name.
Reuben Foster returned to film-making in 2014, after a hiatus starting in 2001. His first film to be released post-2014 was TCA Studios' Jonathian War, based on the Jonathian front of the Great War. It was released in 2015.
Category:NBC
Category:Central Productions
Category:Jonathia
Category:The Blue Man
Category:Television
Category:Television shows
Category:Television shows by NBC
Category:NBC Studios