USA discovers Dr. Ruehl!

The USA has discovered Dr. Ruehl! The USA Network, that is, which is featuring cult television legend and rising mainstream personality Dr. Franklin Ruehl, Ph.D in its popular “Characters Welcome” ad campaign.

What’s more, the Doctor’s legendary cult TV show is being offered across the universe online. And he’s being honored in the new movie from the producers of Napoleon Dynamite.

Ruehlmania is catching on!

Newcomers to the Tabloid Baby universe know Dr. Ruehl as a runner up for Tabloid Baby’s person of the year for 2005. “The nuclear physicist turned public access cult hero is television’s most indefatigable and optimistic personality,” we wrote. “On the brief and lamented return of A Current Affair, he led a groundbreaking and historic Bigfoot expedition, and brought celebrity coverage to new heights. Dr. Ruehl is one of a kind, and television nabobs will one day realize it.”

But Dr. Ruehl has been a valuable part of the Tabloid Baby universe since the start, contributing the popular “Ask Dr. Ruehl” column on the original Tabloidbaby.com and, in 2000, recipient of the very first Tabloid Baby commendation.

Dr. Ruehl does not merely represent everything that's good and indefatigable about the show business spirit. He's an actual nuclear physicist with a degree from UCLA, a noted researcher and lecturer who somewhere along the line went off the beaten path and into the realms of the unknown-- dedicating his life and career to the scientific evidence for UFOs and ETs, paranormal phenomena, cryptozoological entities, enigmatic structures, anomalous entities, and anything else of an intriguing and unusual nature.

All of it is poured into his long-running and influential cable television series, Mysteries From Beyond The Other Dominion.

We discovered the show and star a decade ago while producing a paranormal-themed syndicated television series and watching TV in the Hollywood Hills with veteran producer and tabloid television innovator Wayne Darwen.

The doctor sat at a desk in front of primitive green screen effects, and lectured on old sci fi movies, Biblical mentions of invisibility, and UFO sightings. When he took a break, instead of cutting to a commercial, the camera trained on a two-headed plastic dinosaur on his desk while the Doctor audibly sipped a glass of water. He came back, drove a straw through a potato, pointed at the camera and shouted, “May the power of the Cosmos… be with you! Yes! Yes! Yes!” as he and the desk flew off into the green screen cosmos.

We couldn’t tell how old the video was, whether he was dead or alive, if he was transmitting from space— if it was the tequila or the weed…

We found out the next day that Dr. Franklin Ruehl, Ph.D was alive and well and lively in Glendale, recording his show each week from the public access studio in Eagle Rock section of Los Angeles.

The man who hosted one of the first four shows to debut on the Sci Fi Channel became a regular on the series, Strange Universe—one of the many television shows, from Jimmy Kimmel to Tom Green to Extra, that would make use of his talents. Most recently, he was a fixture on the retooled A Current Affair, crashing Hollywood premieres and leading the expedition into Manitoba, Canada to track down Bigfoot.

His work on the Bigfoot series led to the call from movie producer Jeremy Coon, who was in Portland, Oregon shooting The Sasquatch Dumpling Gang, and rewriting to base a character on the real Dr. Ruehl. A Current Affair producers planned visit to the film’s set— but the show was canceled! We do know the film includes a character named Dr. Artimus Snodgrass—played by Carl “Apollo Creed” Weathers! (Dr. Ruehl himself will star in the Frozen Pictures documentary feature, “Bigfoot! The Mystery of Norway House,” now in pre-production.)

Earlier this month, the USA Network taped a spot with the good doctor in Dallas, in which he drives not one but ten straws into a potato in one minute.

It’s available now online and is part of a commercial now airing on USA, NBC, and his alma mater, Sci-Fi.

Meanwhile, Hungryflix is offering episodes of Mysteries From Beyond The Other Dominion for downloading, so you can carry Dr. Ruehl around on your i-Pod or PSP!

Now, perhaps Dr. Ruehl will get his due at last!

And if some smart young network executive wants to hear the pitch for “Dr. Ruehl’s Dance Party”-- featuring an Amazon B-movie queen and an albino Yeti dancing in a cage— contact this site!

And may the power of the Cosmos be with you! Yes! Yes! Yes!

Dr. Ruehl stars in music video, spins off solo site

Yes! Tabloid Baby pal, contributor, columnist and TV, movie and music video star Dr. Franklin Ruehl, Ph.D. stars in another music video! This one is Shout from the band Black Tide and the doctor writes to tell us:

"I play a teacher trying to stop the band, seen at the end (3:09-3:27). We shot that a few months ago at Fairfax High."

The video's on YouTube but the embedding's been disabled, so you'll have to click here to see it.

Which leads us to another Ruehlian item: You may have noticed we haven't posted many columns or videos from Dr. Ruehl in the few weeks. Well, that's because the Doctor has spun off onto a site of his own! Mysteries from Beyond the Other Dominion is a wild, colorful, bizarre and fascinating collection of Ruehliana that can be found here:

www.mysteriesfrombeyond.blogspot.com

The site is full of Dr. Ruehl's tributes, columns and fascinating minishows-- the main place to find Dr. Ruehl and his pop culture, sci fi, paranormal and cryptozoological updates and musing since his long-running public access television show was canceled along with public access channels in California.

We've linked to Mysteries from Beyond the Other Dominion and will keep you updated when Dr. Ruehl checks in. And may the power of the cosmos be with him! Yes Yes! Yes!

First he was dead, now Dr. Ruehl's a polygamist!

Tabloid Baby's good friend and contributor, public access TV legend and Tom Green Show regular Dr. Franklin Ruehl is turning out to be the most busy utility man in reality television. Last month, not long after he'd appeared as himself on NBC's Identity, he turned up dead, as a corpse who gets a bronzing treatment on E!'s Sunset Tan. It was only after emails started pouring in here, that we confirmed the Doctor wasn't dead--but acting!

Our reports led to international publicity for Dr. Ruehl, an appearance on The Soup, and ultimately a Sunset Tan confession that the "dead" man wasn't.

Well now, Dr. Ruehl is being outed as a polygamist!

That's his mug in ads for the Game Show Network's UK knockoff, Without Prejudice?, that premieres next Tuesday (July 17th at 9-- 8 Central Time).

"I will also be on GSN, in conjunction with this new show, announcing, 'I have seven wives!,'" Dr. Ruehl writes us. "Now, the irony is that I am actually a bachelor who has NEVER been married, in congruence with the program's theme that people are not always what they appear to be."

The ads appear in The National Enquirer and People magazine, which means that teens across the country will be ripping out the page and taing homemade Dr. Ruehl posters to their bedroom walls.

Worst movie ever? Not so, says Dr. Ruehl!

If you ever tried to sit through Babel or Match Point, you know it's just plain lazy to say that Plan 9 from Outer Space is the worst movie ever made. But it takes a great mind and expert in not only sci fi but science and cinema to make the point without drama while dressing down the editors of a major newspaper's arts section for letting the middlebrow impression slide.

Dr. Franklin Ruehl, Ph.D., one of the most fascinating television personalities since the era in which Plan 9 was made, sets the record straight in his letter published today in the Calendar section of the Los Angeles Times. By his own count, the TV host/lecturer/nuclear physicist/tabloid columnist/Bigfoot hunter/USA network character/public access legend and prolific correspondent has had 26 letters published by the Times. His latest is sure to generate controversy among hoity-toity cinephiles:

SCENES wildly oscillating between night and day! Dollar store UFO models! A chiropractor with his face covered standing in for the recently deceased Bela Lugosi ["When Horror Meets Horrible, It's All Camp," March 11]! Despite these celebrated negative elements of Ed Wood's 1959 cult entry, "Plan 9 From Outer Space," I submit that this production was by no means the worst film of all time.

This film was entertaining from start to finish, with no slow moments, an excellent musical score, solid acting by all involved and a credible sci-fi plot involving aliens resurrecting Earth's dead to use as warriors against mankind (the "Plan 9" in the title). Moreover, the narration by TV psychic Criswell was truly engrossing.

While admittedly not the topmost sci-fi/horror film ever produced, it was certainly far from being the bottommost!

May the power of the cosmos be with you!

FRANKLIN RUEHL
Glendale

Dr. Ruehl is a regular on Tom Green's Internet show, which relaunches with new episodes on March 26th. Two episodes of Dr. Ruehl's groundbreaking, earth-shaking and Tv-quaking series, Mysteries from Beyond The Other Dominion are available On Demand from Tom Green's website. Click here for a great and informative ride!

And someone get this guy on mainstream television!

(Update: How does the LA Times edit a letter? Click into the Comments section to see Dr. Ruehl's original letter to the editor.)

Dr. Ruehl: A man of letters (to the editor)

Dr. Franklin Ruehl, cable television cult hero, USA network character extraordinaire, nuclear physicist, and future host of Dr. Ruehl’s Dance Party, today sees his eighteenth letter published in the L.A. Times.

In today’s Calendar section, Dr. Ruehl, an esteemed sci fi authority on (among many other topics) sci fi movies and television series, sets the record straight on the classic BBC sci fi series, Doctor Who.

“I have never had any response to them, or been able to parlay them in any way to further my career,” says the Doctor. “But it is a nice ego trip.”

May the power of the cosmos be with you, Doctor! The letter follows:

SEVEN cheers for the original "Dr. Who" TV series! Silurians! Cybermen! Sontarans! Daleks! These are just a few of the intriguing alien entities that the seven original Doctors did battle with on the classic British TV series "Dr. Who." And they engaged in endless mind games with such nefarious foes as the Master, Davros, Morbius and the Rani.

Lewis Beale's emphasis on the series' "cheesy" special effects ["Sci-Fi Show With a Special Effect," March 19] unfairly denigrates a program that enraptured viewers week after week with one absorbing extraterrestrial encounter after another. It was a program that adroitly united the mystique of limitless time travel with the concept of unbridled space exploration.

Indeed, it proved that a sci-fi show, when written intelligently and abetted by solid acting, does not have to rely on multimillion-dollar special effects to captivate the imagination!

May the power of the cosmos be with you!

FRANKLIN RUEHL Glendale


Dr. Ruehl, Dr. Who & Dr. Smith

Requiem for Dr. Ruehl's public access dream

Tabloid Baby pal, contributor, columnist and TV, movie and music video star Dr. Franklin Ruehl, Ph.D. is is losing his legendary television show!

A new California policy that takes effect January 1, 2009 will allow cable television companies to pay cities a fee instead of producing public access content for their channels. That means public access channels that provide a daily collection of independent talk, entertainment and discussion shows will be canceled. That means Dr. Franklin Ruehl, Ph.D., whose legendary sci fi and paranormal show, Mysteries from Beyond The Other Dominion, has been a vital part of alternative culture for more than two decades, will lose its television base.

Dr. Ruehl sent us this requiem for his dream:

The Quietus of A Grand Era!
by
Dr. Franklin Ruehl, Ph.D.

A weekly series! Numerous specials! Wide-ranging pilots! These are among the many and varied projects that I was able to produce over the past 24 years on public access in southern California. But sadly, the public access era is coming to an abrupt end as of December 31.

I just taped my 349th and last episode of "Mysteries From Beyond the Other Dominion" the other day for airing in December. No additional production dates are available. No longer will individuals such as myself be able to express their creative drives in television productions in a professional setting at a very modest cost. Indeed, the only expense entailed purchase of professional 3/4-inch tapes (recently replaced by DVDs).

When I started out in 1984, all but 1 of my 1st 100 episodes were produced in a small room (the satellite studio for Century Cable in Sherman Oaks) with just a single cameraman and hand-made credit placards that I pieced together myself. Actually, despite my profound lack of artistic ability, those amateurish placards still look pretty good today!

As we had limited facilities, with no VHS recording capability, I could only record the episodes on my own audio recorder. My mother co-hosted the show for the initial six episodes, but bowed out after that, disappointed that a national network had not picked up the show!

"...That has been one of the primary
virtues of public access:
to permit individuals to express
their creativity and determine
if television production is really for them.
It has allowed everyone who has had even
the slightest scintilla of a dream
of entering the TV production realm
to try his or her hand at it."

Just as I had completed my 100th episode, the outlet was closed in 1987, but, coincidentally, United Artists Cable was just gearing up its public access facility in nearby Van Nuys. I got in on the ground floor there, and while we bounced around from one room to another, including using the green room and kitchen for some shoots, the production values were somewhat improved. But still, Hollywood was not calling.

When I guested on the Pat Sajak talk show, the segment producer asked me if I was not tired of doing the show after five years, still confined to the public access arena. I replied that I loved every aspect of producing my programs and would continue as long as public access existed!

Fortunately, a write-up on my program appeared in the "Characters" section of L.A.Style Magazine, and a chap (Marc Lafia) leafing through it searching for photos shot by a friend of his noticed the entry concerning me. He and his associate (Todd Stevens) were looking for a TV show to develop and soon thereafter produced a number of pilots of my show.

Unfortunately, none was picked up, so Todd, with his contacts, became an associate producer on "Major Dad" in its penultimate season, shooting at Universal. He showed my tapes to Michael Lansbury (nephew of Angela Lansbury), head of new programming, and incredibly, within a few months, Universal and USA Network jointly purchased the fledgling Sci-Fi Channel which the creator could not get off the ground.

Because of Todd's connection, my program was one of the four new shows to premiere on Sci-Fi when it was launched in September of 1992. This was a classic case of "not what you know, but who you know"! And I can definitely attribute this degree of success to having my program on public access!

However, despite enjoying the highest ratings among the new entries and Universal execs praising me, the show was not renewed beyond 1994. So I returned to public access where I have been ever since, with more sophisticated equipment involving three-camera set-ups and multiple roll-ins, endeavoring to rematerialize on the national scene.

But with the quietus of public access, those forlorn hopes have apparently been dashed to the ground. While I produced 349 episodes, and some individuals a far greater number, the vast majority of producers have created far fewer. Many, for instance, have tried their hand at it and left after only one or two or a modicum of shows.

But that has been one of the primary virtues of public access: namely, to permit individuals to express their creativity and determine if television production is really for them. It has allowed everyone who has had even the slightest scintilla of a dream of entering the TV production realm to try his or her hand at it. It will truly be missed.

Personally, I have not yet come to grips with its loss, as I am always researching material for forthcoming episodes, and thinking of possible ways to enhance the show. It represents an essential part of my life which is now being replaced with an enormous void that cannot be filled.

But I am genuinely grateful that I at least had an opportunity to partake of it while it existed.

May the Power of the Cosmos be with You!

Dr. Franklin Ruehl, Ph.D.

Dr. Ruehl carries on with his popular Realm of Bizarre Newsspots here on Tabloid Baby and other Internet locations. He will always have a home here-- though we know he will soar far higher! May the power... of the cosmos... be with him!

Yes! Yes! Yes!

A new weekly column from Dr. Ruehl

From the early days of the Tabloid Baby website, genius, cable television legend, TV and film actor, certified genius, supermarket tabloid writer and nuclear physicist Dr. Franklin Ruehl, Ph.D. has been a favorite of readers and a valued contributor.

His As Dr. Ruehl column answered questions from across the cosmos, and now Tabloid Baby is honored to announce that we’re picking up his syndicated Realm of Bizarre News column, a phantasmagoria of fascinating and often fantastic facts that has been enterianing and educating email recipients for at least 142 weeks now.

We pick up with No. 143:

This Week's
"Realm of Bizarre News"
Top 13

* Ouch! Chicago gal, 18, developed a massive 10-pound hairball in her tummy from years of chewing on her own hair! The bezoar, which resembled a dead rat, had to be surgically removed!

(Trivia Q: What is the technical term for eating hair? Answer below)

* Incredibly well-preserved fossil of a plant-eating dino, the hadrosaur, has been unearthed in North Dakota. Even its skin and some internal organs were recovered, allowing paleontologists to conclude that the creature may have been striped, perhaps like a zebra!

* Roadkill stuffed animals now being sold for Xmas! The 1st, Twitch the Raccoon, is marked by a tire print across its back. A zipper on each side allows the owner to remove its innards, and is accompanied by its own body bag!

* Understandable, completely understandable! A motorist in Knoxville, TN fired 3 shots into a speed camera with a high-powered rifle, putting it out of commission! Other such hated cameras have been smashed, hacked, and even burned in the states and Great Britain.

* New Yeti footprints have been discovered in the Himalayas in Nepal by an American television team! They will be subjected to intense laboratory analysis to determine if they do indeed represent an unknown species.

* Bad! A serious shortage of prized Hungarian goose feathers, used in pricey pillows, has developed as a result of bird flu and the soaring price of feed. These particular geese are feed a special diet, bathed in the summer, and kept cold in the winter, practices which yield extra-large soft feathers. Couldn’t they just use pigeon feathers instead? They’ll never run out!

* For the third time this year, surgeons at the Rhode Island Hospital have operated on the wrong side of a patient's brain! But the Ruehl solution can easily eliminate this problem: each patient slated for brain surgery should be appointed with a black monk's cowl, with plastic tape placed on the side on which the surgery is to be performed!

* Spooky! The image of a Jesuit priest executed for treason involving the Gunpowder Plot in England in the 1600s has materialized on the cover of a book chronicling his demise... Eerily, the cover was fashioned from the priest's own skin!

* A boy's metal ID bracelet lost some 25 years ago on a farm in Fairmont, Massachusetts, was discovered in the gizzard of a chicken being processed for market. The bird probably dug it out of the ground and swallowed it!

* Moo! A female artist in London is raking in a small fortune substituting cows for humans in her renditions of famous paintings, such as The Mona Lisa!

* Judge in Niagara Falls, Canada, infuriated that a cellphone went off in his courtroom, ordered all 46 audience members arrested, with a bail set at $1500! Ironically, he has been divested of his post as a result of this action!

* Study proves that the number 13 is unlucky, at least, for the British National Lottery. Mathematicians have determined that since 1994, when the lottery was initiated, 13 has come up the fewest number of times. Other unlucky numbers include 6,9, and 11. Contrariwise, the luckiest number is 38, followed by 25 and 31.

* Boy in a Cambodia village and his beloved pet python, Lucky, have slept together for the past six years, and are closer than if they shared the same skin!

(Trivia answer: The technical term for eating hair is "trichophagia.")


Dr. Ruehl is host of the cable TV series, Mysteries From Beyond The Other Dominion." Recently, he was the resident anomalist on The New Tom Green Show on MTV, guested on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" and the new ALF'S Hit Talk Show, and hosted a recurring UFO segment-- was profiled-- on "9 On The Town."

See Dr. Ruehl’s USA network promo here.

His own channel at Mania TV is viewable here.

His special"Hollywood Hopefuls" demo reel can be found here.

Two episodes of his show from Tom Green Productions here.

The trailer for the film in which he portrays "Running Owl" is here.

His straw-in-potato demo at "Heroes" website (1:26 minutes into reel) is here.

Check out the Doctor’s IMDb profile here.

Reed his UFO column here.

See his profile at Expert Village here.

See his straw-in-potato video at Expert Village here.

Link to his demo reel here.

New movie pays tribute to Dr. Ruehl

Tabloid Baby pal and contributor Dr. Franklin Ruehl, Ph.D. is the subject of a cinematic homage in a new film that arrived in theatres yesterday.

The film is The Sasquatch Gang, billed as being "from the guys that brought you Napoleon Dynamite" (which is on Tabloid Baby’s list of the Top 50 Movies of All Time). Two years ago, after leading Tabloid Baby pal and award-winning television and film producer Brett Hudson and rock goddess (and Tabloid Baby pal) Cherie Currie on an expedition to the Norway House Indian reserve in Canada to uncover evidence behind a reported sighting of a Bigfoot during the ill-fated revival of A Current Affair, Dr. Ruehl received a call from the producers who were filming in Oregon. The filmmakers asked for permission to use him as the model for the character of the Bigfoot expert.

The Doctor, of course, agreed.

Now, in a year that has seen Dr. Ruehl find tremendous success in his as avocation as a film and TV actor, the movie whose title has been shortened to The Sasquatch Gang, the character Dr. Artmus Snodgrass is a cinematic homage to Dr. Franklin Ruehl.

Dr. Snodgrass is played by Carl Weathers, who portrayed Apollo Creed in Rocky, Rocky II, III and IV.

Dr. Ruehl takes on the New World Order

For those of you who know Tabloid Baby pal, contributor and columnist Dr. Franklin Ruehl, Ph.D. as a benign Mr. Wizard, successful Hollywood actor, UFOlogist, cryptozooologist, anomalyst, legendary cult TV personality and horror & sci fi movie expert, prepare yourself for the dark side of the good Doctor's practice, in his new role as conspiracy expert.

Over at Video Jug, the online library of professionally-produced videos that strives to become an online "encyclopaedia of life," Dr. Ruehl is offering a two-hour conspiracy symposium called "New World Order":

"We live in a world of presidents, queens and dictators. But who really has the power? Some conspiracy theorists believe that a New World Order is upon us - and that Bilderbergs, freemasons, Illuminatis and other shadowy groups may be meeting this very moment to decide your fate. Dr. Franklin Ruehl details the conspiracy theories surrounding the New World Order, so you can decide who you think is calling the shots on the world stage."

The scope of Dr. Ruehl's individual lectures is awesome and frightening:

The Bilderberg Group
Skull and Bones
The Trilateral Commission
New World Order
The Illuminati Freemasons

He also weighs in on 911 conspiracy theories, CIA mind control, assassinations and, of course UFOs-- not always supporting, but explaining it all-- except for the UFOs, which he does believe in.

Which leads us to one conspiracy theory-- one that resonates particularly in this Presidential election year-- we'd like to see the good doctor tackle despite all it inherent controversies:

Who killed Sonny Bono?

To be continued...

Dr. Ruehl's corpse role leads to best week ever

Earlier this week, we let the cat out of the bag and revealed that E!'s Sunset Tan reality show faked a scene in which a pair of tanners called the Olly Girls were sent to apply bronzer to an embalmed corpse (see it here).

The "corpse" was not only alive-and-kicking-- he was none other than the liveliest man on television, Tabloid Baby contributor Dr. Franklin Ruehl!

Dr. Ruehl emails us his reaction to the exposure:

THANK YOU! Your posting of my portrayal of a cadaver on Sunset Tan elicited a call from VH1's Best Week Ever. They sent a limo over yesterday for me and interviewed me on the corpse role and other subjects. The clip (probably significantly abbreviated) will be on several times, beginning at 9 PM Friday.

That's tonight.

VH1's lively cadaver episode of Best Week Ever also airs:

Fri 11 PM
Sat 1:30 AM 11AM 10 PM
Sun 12:30 AM 10 AM 1 PM
Mon 2 AM 1:30 PM
Tue 1:30 AM

For you newbies, Dr. Franklin Ruehl, Ph.D. is a veteran TV personality: a real-life nuclear physicist, cryptozoologist and supercool pop culture genius best known for his legendary and long-running public access cable show, Mysteries from Beyond the Other Dominion, guest shots on shows like Identity and Gene Simmons' Family Jewels, roles as a real life Bigfoot hunter on A Current Affair and one of the USA network's "characters," a regular spot on Tom Green's Internet show, and his signature line, "May the power of the cosmos be with you! Yes! Yes!"

He's also the future host of Dr. Ruehl's Dance Party (he'll be in the Clay Cole role, with an B-movie amazon sidekick and a white Yeti dancing in a cage).

Dr. Ruehl says "alien" video looks awfully familiar

On Friday, we reported exclusively that new video, supposedly showing an extraterrestrial alien peeking through a house window was apparently a ten-year-old videotape that was broadcast on national television on November 24, 1997 on the television series Strange Universe.

We of course, turned the "Alien In The Window" story to Tabloid Baby pal, contributor, columnist, TV, movie and music video star, anomalyst and ufologist Dr. Franklin Ruehl Ph.D. The doctor's report is even more surprising than our own. He remembers a similar-looking video dating back even farther!

CONTROVERSIAL ALIEN FILM FOOTAGE!
by Dr. Franklin Ruehl, Ph.D.

When a Denver man named Jeff Peckman, who claims he has been in contact with ETs, promised to show a video of an alien last Friday, he immediately raised a red flag concerning it by refusing to allow it to be filmed by the press.

My initial thought was that he feared that it would be subjected to computer scrutiny which could reveal that it was a clever fabrication.

However, upon seeing the report on it in Tabloidbaby.com, I realized that he probably was more fearful that it would be recognized as footage that has been around at least since 1994, material that he appropriated rather than shot himself.

Specifically, I covered the footage he displayed in 1994 on the nationally syndicated TV program, "Weird TV," as part of my segments entitled "The Doctor Ruehl Show." The brief video showed a mother and daughter (who was reading a book) sitting on a sofa in the living room while a possible alien entity levitated up and down at a window behind them. When the daughter looked over to her mother, the alien jumped out of sight, reminiscent of the ET bedeviling William Shatner in the "Twilight Zone " episode, ‘Nightmare At 20,000 Feet."

It was not at all clear who shot the footage.

In addition to commentary by Lawrence Davis, a viewer from Middlerock, Arkansas, who submitted it, we included an analysis by noted ufologist John Carpenter indicated that the enigmatic figure could have been an extraterrestrial. I stressed in my overview at the time that the levitating entity could conceivably be an ET from a high-gravity planet, such as Jupiter, since it would be able to move more freely in our lower-gravity environment, just as our lunar astronauts were able to hop around on the moon's surface due to its lower gravity (1/6th of earth's).

In addition to being aired on "Weird TV," the video was also featured on "Strange Universe" in 1997, and conceivably elsewhere.

It is my thesis, my contention, that the universe is literally teeming with life, that life is indeed the common denominator of the cosmic backdrop. Within this context, it is certainly within the realm of feasibility that advanced ETs at some point in time landed on terra firma. Interestingly, Peckman showed a strikingly similar, but apparently different, “alien in the window” video that purportedly comes from Nebraska in 2003. Both videos could conceivably be evidence of an alien visitation.

On the other hand, one or both may be entirely apocryphal, and definitely need to be subjected to careful analysis by video experts to assess its true status. Although the 2003 video has been authenticated by a professor from the Denver Film School, both require further analysis.

May the Power of the Cosmos be with You!

Dr. Franklin Ruehl, Ph.D.

Dr. Ruehl guests on Tom Green's show

Dr. Franklin Ruehl is the special guest on The Tom Green Show tomorrow, Monday, April 2nd, at 11 pm Eastern time. Green's show broadcasts from his house, over the Internet.

You can click here right now to see Dr. Ruehl and other episodes on demand.

Dr. Ruehl, of course, was a legendary figure on public access television before his fame and appearances spread to syndicated and network television. His public access show, Mysteries from Beyond The Other Dominion, continues to be a public access winner.

And though Green's web show is a long way from his heyday on MTV and in the movies, as you can see by the schedule above, he gets better guests than Craig Ferguson.

Dr. Ruehl goes Green

Tom Green's Internet talk show, the one he does from the living room of his house, is said to be heading to real TV in January, and on tonight's episode, as they test and work the bugs out of some of the new equipment, Tom's guest will be none other than the very busy authority and actor-- and Tabloid Baby pal and contributor-- Dr. Franklin Ruehl, Ph.D.

Dr. Ruehl, a frequent Green guest, will talk UFOs. The show runs at 11 pm EST, 8 Pacific.

And as a bonus, catch Dr. Ruehl as a swinging hipster beatnik who still manages to express shock and embarrassment when a coffee house poetess flashes her, err, bongos (Ginsbergs? Ferlinghettis?), on AMC at 10 pm and 1 am, all time zones.

First photo! Dr. Ruehl at London movie premiere

"So the Nike SB premiere of Nothing But the Truth has been and gone and the team will be off on another plane to the last stop, New York, on their gruelling promotional tour of incredibly nice food, roof-top swimming pools and free flowing bloody Mary’s..." So writes the UK's Extreme Sports Channel in its report on last night's premiere at London's Royal Festival Hall on Southbank of the skateboarding movie that stars Tabloid Baby pal and contributor Dr. Franklin Ruehl.

Dr. Ruehl was one of two non-skateboarding professional actors who were on hand for the European debut of the movie.

The event sounds to have been quite a memorable bash. And the film, financed by Nike as the corporation moves in on the indie skateboard scene, also made a favorable impression on the Extreme Sports correspondent:

"Was it good? I think so. It was most certainly entertaining. Bizarre may be more apt to describe the breakdown of short skits appearing between some awesome skating. Opening with Lewis Marnell, some frontside 180 fakie nosegrinds from Wieger, ending up with P –Rod closing the show there was a lot of excitable whooping and cheering as the crowd threw their free popcorn around in rapturous applause.

"In many senses the film doesn’t stray from the traditional skate model but in other ways it certainly breaks moulds and in many ways is groundbreaking within the skate genre... By the looks of it filming was most definitely an enjoyable experience: busty blondes and a lot of fake sick will bring a smile to any male surely?... Conventional skate footage is accompanied by a basic story line. The result is something David Lynch may have come up with, albeit whilst he was still in nappies, all dumped on the set for The Hills Have Eyes. Interpret it as you will, I’m not sure even the stars of the show themselves knew quite what to make of it but the soundtrack is quite frankly brilliant... What everyone wanted to see was the skating and goddamn it that’s what they got!"

Dr. Ruehl plays a Hollywood producer in the flick. We'll get his first-person report as soon as he's back in town.

Dr. Ruehl's requiem for a screamer

It was announced last week that Hazel Court, an English beauty who co-starred with the likes of Boris Karloff and Vincent Price in popular horror movies in the 1950s and '60s, died at 82. Hazel was a screamer. She was in fact, the “scream queen.” Best known for her work in Roger Corman’s 1963 take on Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven,” she was also a guest on Mysteries from Beyond The Other Dominon, the legendary sci fi, paranormal and B-movie public access show hosted by Tabloid Baby pal, contributor, columnist and TV & movie star Dr. Franklin Ruehl, Ph.D. Today, as he did recently with departed horror hostess Vampira, the mourning doctor sends us this appreciation of Hazel Court, British goddess of horror and “The Greatest Screamer in the Business”:

A TRIBUTE TO HORROR STAR HAZEL COURT,
THE "BEST SCREAMER IN THE BUSINESS!"
by Dr.Franklin Ruehl,Ph.D.

Fabulous red hair! Radiant green eyes! A goddesslike face! A model's figure!

These are a few of of the physical features that describe the late horror film star. Hazel Court, who recently passed away at the age of 82. Added to those attributes was a rich cultured voice which made her an absolute joy to listen to whenever she appeared on screen. She became an icon in the horror/sci-fi/mystery genre with memorable appearances in such entries as "The Curse of Frankenstein" (1956), "The Man Who Could Cheat Death" (1959), "The Premature Burial" (1962) and "The Masque of the Red Death" (1964).

If I was pressed to name her most engrossing performance, I would nominate her role as a nurse dramatically debating the morality of revivifying the dead at the cost of another human life with leading man Kieron Moore in 1960's "Doctor Blood's Coffin."

In addition to delivering her lines ever so eloquently, Hazel also used her voice to regularly shriek in terror, becoming known as the "Best Screamer in the Business,” inheriting that mantle from "King Kong" star Fay Wray, who preceded her as the "Queen of Scream." As a guest on my cable TV show, "Mysteries From Beyond Other Dominion" back in 1988, I asked her to deliver a sample scream, but she initially demurred. Then, a few minutes later, without any warning whatsoever, she let out a bloodcurdling shriek which made my day and the show! When I later guested on "Donahue" in 1990, I was able to display part of that cherished interview.

She also appeared frequently on television, in particular, often guesting on "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" (she and Hitch's daughter, Pat, were close friends). Her appearance on "The Twilight Zone" in the episode, "The Fear," as a fashion designer who had suffered a nervous breakdown and encountered a UFO was absolutely mesmerizing and worthy of an Emmy although she never received even a nomination.

Hazel revealed that fans repeatedly mistakenly associated her with the title role of 1954's "Devil Girl From Mars," which actually belonged to actress Patricia Laffan (Hazel was an all-too-human model in the film).

While she did not make any appearances after 1981, her impact was powerful on many of us, and I will always remember and honor her by periodically showing clips from her films on my program!

And may the Power of the Cosmos be with You, Hazel, wherever you may be now!

In loving remembrance,
Dr.Franklin Ruehl,Ph.D.


(Hazel Court Died in Threes, by the way, joined in death this week by Bebe Barron, who with her husband Louis composed the first electronic score for a feature film — the eerie sounds in the 1956 science-fiction classic Forbidden Planet— died Sunday at 82; and Kate Phillips, the actress who cowrote the 1958 horror film The Blob, died last week at 94.)

TV Alert! Dr. Ruehl on Mad Men tonight!

Dr. Franklin Ruehl, the television legend who's gotten a lot of exposure this year as a regular on Tom Green's Internet show, a corpse on Sunset Tan, polygamist poster boy for GSN's Without Prejudice and himself on NBC's Identity, does an actual acting job tonight on AMC's Mad Men.

"I am a beatnik at a 1960s night club, sitting in the front in this episode entitled 'Babylon,'" the good doctor tells us. "Because of my energy, the director placed me in the front to capture my reactions to the readings and band.

"However, it remains to be seen how much, if anything, will be retained and how much left on the cutting room floor!"

Dr. Ruehl's big break is not without incident...

"When I applied for the role, I mistakenly thought that the title, Mad Men, referred to a mental institution or Hitler's inner coterie. Instead, I learned that the title is an abbreviation for "Madison Avenue Men," advertising execs during the 1960s. We shot this at the Lacy Studios in L.A. where I had a chance to spend quality time with the studio cat, Lacey, who is 17 and lost an eye four years ago in an encounter with an opossum.

"This was actually the second episode filmed, but was moved back to No.5 (1.5), but appears now to be the fourth one to air. This mirrors the case with Star Trek. The first episode that aired was 'The Man Trap,' involving an alien metamorph who drained humans of their salt, yet it was the fourth episode filmed. Execs wanted to debut the series with a fascinating creature, opting for it over the first produced episode, 'Where No Man Has Gone Before,' which aired third.

"That episode featured Captain Kirk's tombstone reading, 'James R. Kirk.' Yet in subsequent episodes, we learned that his name was James T. Kirk, with the T representing 'Tiberius.'"

Dr. Ruehl, Mad Men, AMC, tonight, 10pm, 11pm, 2am.

Dr. Ruehl stars as skateboarding movie premieres

Skateboarding movies, which usually premiere in board shops to crowds that number in the dozens, have jumped to a whole new level with Nike’s Jackass-meets-Lords of Dogtown motion picture Nothing But The Truth, which is opening with a series of high-profile, big-time premieres around the world, including one this week at Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre and on Tuesday, in London.

And guess which performer is getting top billing in the publicity blitz?

You got it! As the headline already gave away, it's Tabloid Baby contributor, pal and nuclear physicist-turned-public access cult figure-turned mainstream actor Dr. Franklin Ruehl, who has a major role!

“I portrayed a movie producer in the film and I was only one of two actors selected for the London trip,” the doctor tells us of his first trip to Blighty. “I will be departing Sunday for arrival Monday and the premiere on Tuesday.

"And I want to take in as much as possible without getting lost!”

See Dr. Ruehl in the trailer above. And stay tuned here for the latest on Dr. Ruehl’s ascent to movie stardom.