#groody to the max

[lovertm]

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[kwebtv]

Character Actor

Whitner Nutting Bissell (October 25, 1909 – March 5, 1996) Character actor who has appeared in hundreds of films and television episodes as a prominent character actor.

Bissell appeared as a guest star in many television drama series between the early 1950s and the mid-1970s, with more sporadic appearances after that. He guest-starred in a couple of episodes of The Lone Ranger. He appeared on other syndicated series, including Sheriff of Cochise, The Rifleman, Whirlybirds, Peyton Place and The Brothers Brannagan. He was cast in the religion series Crossroads and Going My Way, and in the NBC education drama series Mr. Novak.

Bissell played murderer Larry Sands on CBS's Perry Mason ("The Case of the Crooked Candle", 1957). He made three other Perry Mason appearances, including the role of Max Pompey in "The Case of the Lavender Lipstick" (1960), Laurence Barlow in "The Case of the Nautical Knot" (1964) and Dennison Groody in "The Case of the Carefree Coronary" (1965). He appeared in an episode of Peter Gunn. (1958) He played different roles in multiple episodes of the ABC series The Rifleman.

From 1959-61, Bissell was a regular for the third and fourth seasons of the television series Bachelor Father, costarring John Forsythe, Noreen Corcoran, and Sammee Tong. He was cast three times on the long-running NBC western series The Virginian.

Bissell's most prominent television role came when he played as General Heywood Kirk in 30 episodes in the 1966–1967 season of the science-fiction television series The Time Tunnel. He often played silver-haired figures of authority, here as in many other roles (as described by AllMovie), "instantly establishing his standard screen characterization of fussy officiousness", leavened in many instances with a military bearing. Other examples of such authoritative roles as military or police officials, include appearances in The Outer Limits (1963), Hogan's Heroes (1966), and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1966).

Bissell appeared in the classic episode "The Trouble with Tribbles" of Star Trek, footage of which was re-used in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's "Trials and Tribble-ations".

In 1978 and 1980, Bissell appeared in episodes of The Incredible Hulk, first in the second-season episode "Kindred Spirits", and next (and lastly) in the second part of the fourth season two-parter "Prometheus". He played a different professor in both episodes.

In 1960, Bissell had appeared in George Pal's production of The Time Machine, as Walter Kemp, one of the Time Traveller's dining friends. He also appeared in a 1978 TV movie adapting the H. G. Wells novel for a more modern setting. Bissell's Time Tunnel co-star, John Zaremba, also appeared in the telemovie. Thirty-three years later, in 1993 the documentary film Time Machine: The Journey Back (which featured Bissell, Rod Taylor and Alan Young), Bissell recreated his 1960 role as Walter in the opening sequence. It was Bissell's last acting performance. (Wikipedia)

[luescris]

Discovered

Edit: Because this has always been a thing I wanted in the show, I decided to write about what would happen if the Turtles got found out. :P Enjoy!

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Joan Groody--the reporter of the live TV show Groody to the Max--crept down the passageway of the sewers under New York City, her cameraman following behind closely, looking around wearily while trying to keep the camera trailed on the newswoman. She peaked around the corner they came upon, and once seeing it was clear, turned it. 

“You all may be wondering why I'm down in the sewers,” She said into the microphone in her hand quietly. “The answer is simple; there have been some strange reports going on down here. My intention is to find out what exactly has been causing those reports, since no one else has wanted to do it. Is it unsanitary? Maybe. But it will be worth it if we manage to catch anything.”

The cameraman rolled his eyes. He could've done other things than wasting his time and talents following around a crazy lady that thinks leprechauns are real. He didn't know what he was getting himself into when he signed up for this job. He was promised adventure, new discoveries, but so far the only discovery that they made was of Trash Man and all the invasions of the alien brains. Everything else had been misleads, especially of the story of mutant ninja turtles. Seriously? What kind of nonsense was that? He knew that was the real reason as to why they were down there-- and he bet his boots so did the people watching. She wanted to prove to the world that she was right, no matter how many fans she lost, no matter how many times she'd been called crazy. Joan said so herself to him. He just found it pointless. There was no such thing. 

Or so he thought. 

Joan stopped suddenly, holding up a hand and looking down a sewer with train tracks going down it. “Wait. Listen.” She whispered. 

The cameraman strained his ears, but he didn't hear a thing. She really must be going insane. He thought bitterly when she moved forward, slower than before. 

The silence was supposed to be intense, especially with the way Joan was moving. Body tensed, footstep after footstep gently meeting the concrete ground. And at first, all the cameraman felt was annoyed. He took a breath and opened his mouth to say something (Which went against the very meaning of being a cameraman, since they were supposed to be unknown and quiet, but he really couldn't take anymore of this), but then a voice, as loud and clear as day, echoed from the depths. He didn't know what was said. 

But they both stopped. 

Joan looked behind at the camera after a second, an excited gleam in her eyes and a grin stretching her lips apart. She made a jerk motion with her head; move. 

The cameraman couldn't help but get excited himself. Logic said it could've just been another human being. Maybe a worker trying to fix a broken pipe. But the other adventurous side of him told him that maybe, just maybe, Ms. Groody wasn't crazy after all. So he followed as she crept closer to where they heard the voice coming from, allowing himself to slip into the tension. They stayed close to the railroad next to them, and that seemed to have been the right thing to do. There were more voices, he was sure of it. And he could make out what they were saying. 

+-+-----------------

“Mikey!! You cheated!” Raphael roared, throwing the game controller onto the couch and sending a glare of daggers at his younger brother. 

“Nu-uh!” Mikey retorted. “You just can't handle being a loser! Raph's a soreee loooserrrr~~!” He taunted with a teasing grin, pointing up at the hot-head. 

Raph scowled and narrowed his eyes. “I won't be the only one who'll be sore.” He pounced off of the couch like a cat. “C'mere!!!”

Mikey yelled out in fright and tried to scramble up to his feet to run away, but was too slow. Raph caught him, wrapping a tight arm around his neck and pinned him against himself. Mikey struggled to break free, grasping his brother's arm desperately. 

Leo, who had been sitting aways from the two, sighed and shook his head as he stood. “Alright, that's enough you two. Raph let Mikey go. I think we've had enough video games for today.”

He picked up the tv remote as Raph gave Mikey a rather painful knuckle sandwich before letting him go. Mikey gasped, falling to his knees and rubbing his neck as Raph stood above him with a triumphant smirk. 

“Who's the loser now?” He sneered. 

Mikey pouted, and stuck his tongue out angrily. 

Leo rolled his eyes and looked away from the two, switching to the channels. “Wonder what sort of thing Groody to the Max is snooping out now.” He muttered. 

He froze when reaching the live show, eyes widening. 

“Woah,” Mikey said from behind him. “That looks like us!”

Them it was. The television showed the three in the angle of the entrance, camera zoomed in enough to see every detail of each mutant turtle. 

“That.. That's because it is us!!” Leo cried. He whipped his head to the entrance to see that there was, in fact, a camera pointed straight at them, and the woman standing in clear view looking almost as bewildered as Leo felt, but with a smile on her face. 

Donnie’s voice interrupted the sudden tension, panic in his voice. “Guys!! Guys!! You're on--!” He went rigid once seeing the two humans. “.. Oh shoot.”

“I can't believe it..” Joan whispered. “There are four of them..! I was right..!”

“She was right…” The cameraman murmured. 

Raph gripped Leo's arm. “Leo,” He whispered hoarsely. “Leo, what do we do??”

Leo wasn't sure. He was so shocked to his core, he was freaking out on the inside like never before. He wasn't thinking straight, felt like his world had suddenly cracked and torn away. 

They were found out. 

This couldn't be possible.

All he managed to say was one single word:

“Run.”

That's exactly what they did. The three bolted after Leo away from the direction where the two humans stood, disregarding any and all ninja training for complete and utter panic. 

“No!” Joan cried after them. “Wait!” She looked back at the cameraman. “Come on! Follow them!”

He nodded and the two ran off as well. 

“Through the garage!!” Leo hollered to his brothers. “Donnie, you close the door so that they can't follow us! We gotta get to the streets!!”

“How many people do you think were watching that?!” Raph cried. “They'll be waiting for us up there! There's nowhere to go!”

“Not if we go stealth! We'll find a way out of this!”

They reached the garage, and Donnie stopped and waited until the other three ducked under the door before closing it from the other side just in time, locking it in place quickly. Then he ran after his brothers. 

“Not sure how long that'll hold them!” Donnie yelled once rejoining the group. 

“Just keep running!” Leo called back. 

They ran for a while, looking for a way to escape what was once their safe home, hearts pounding in their chests for four different reasons. Mikey, scared that they might not ever return to their home. Raph, completely forgotten about Chompy and hoping for dear life he'd stay hidden. Donnie, worrying that they might find and take all his precious inventions that he had in his lab. And Leo, fearing what they were going to find up in the streets once they climbed out of a manhole. 

He spotted one, speak of the devil, and pointed it out to the others. “There! Manhole! Go!”

He paused and waited as Donnie went up first, with Raph close behind and Mikey following after that, gripping onto the bars of the ladder fearfully. Leo climbed up after him, ignoring the pain in his eyes from the light that shone down on him when the cover was opened. Donnie climbed out, disappearing from the hole for a second, then his head and hand popping back in. Each turtle grabbed it one by one, and he pulled them up. Leo came out last, and he gave a nod of thanks to Donnie and made to move forward when a voice stopped him. 

“Freeze, freaks!! Hands in the air!” 

All four heads turned. 

They were surrounded by police and army men alike, guns all pointed and trained on the turtles. They were all parked in a circle around the manhole they had climbed out of. There was even a tank, canon pointed downwards at the four who backed into each other's shells, looking around their surroundings with plain fear. Humans were all clumped up around the weaponry behind the police tape. Most of them had their phones out, taking videos that were most likely being seen by thousands of people across the world. 

“I said hands up!!” Terence Monahan--the chief of the NYPD--hollered into the megaphone, standing on top of a car. “I know you can understand me, you monsters!”

“We're not monsters!” Mikey hollered back, though sounding like a whine, as if he was close to tears. 

About twenty guns cocked in unison. 

Leo slowly rose his hands in the air first, glaring at his surroundings. Raph looked at him incredulously, and looked as if he was going to say something, but the leader in blue shot him a look that said, there's nothing we can do. Try anything, and we die. 

So Raph followed his lead slowly, though looking as if he'd rather not. Donnie and Mikey rose their arms up as well after Raph, giving eachother nervous glances. 

Joan came up from another manhole not too far from the scene, startling a few policemen as she climbed out. She took a few moments to take in her surroundings as her cameraman followed after her, and gasped upon seeing what all the guns were pointing at. The four turtles she had discovered, three-fingered hands raised in the air and wearily eyeing every piece of machinery they were surrounded by. 

This.. This doesn't seem right… Joan thought, bewildered. 

She looked around and made her way to the commander of the army, calling out to him. "Sir, excuse me sir! What exactly is happening right now? What's with all these guns?"

The commander turned to her, looking rather irritated. "Don't you already know? You are the one who found them after all. These creatures are obviously hostile and dangerous, and have been living under this city for who knows how long." He turned back to the scene, narrowing his eyes. "I know this, because I've met them before. Nasty things they are. I've been trying look for them, and now that I have, thanks to you, I can finally finish them off."

Joan blinked in confusement. ".. But.. They didn't willingly attack when I found them. And they're not doing anything now. Could it be that it's all just a misunderstanding?"

"Negative. It's all just a ploy. A trick to have us fall into a false sense of security." The commander replied. "That's what they want you to think. But I know better." He walked away, leaving Ms. Grody staring after him.

The commander pushed passed all the guns and armored men, slowly making his way to the clearing in between the missionary and the mutant turtles. He studied all four creatures with a clear look of disgust, and stood with his hands behind his back. All four turned their attention to him when he stopped, the tension in the air immediately rising.

"Which one of you is the leader." The commander demanded.

The turtle with the blue mask on met his gaze with a hard look. "I am."

The commander smirked. "Figured. Tell me, freak, what were you doing in the sewers under the city?"

"That was our home." Leo responded. "We lived there for our entire lives. To hide from the world."

"And why should I believe you?" The commander hissed, narrowing his eyes. "For all I know you could be dangerous threats to our peaceful city."

"We've been alive for seventeen years. If we were enemies, wouldn't we have done something by now? Besides, the only dangerous thing I see here is you, and those guns you pointed at us." Leo raised his chin. "I'd say that's pretty suspicious. We wouldn't have gotten to this if we were just left alone." He glanced at Joan, who stood by the police tape, her cameraman still recording everything that was happening.

Joan flinched at his comment, then looked down at the ground guiltily, biting her lip.

The commander scoffed. "Left alone?? This is New York City! No one gets left alone, especially not mutant freaks who don't belong here! Only spies and enemies hide in big places!"

"Hey!" Raph shouted angrily. "It's not our fault we got mutated! It just happened! And we wouldn't be hiding if you humans didn't hate us for the way we look!"

"So you steal our stuff? You obviously didn't get those weapons yourself. Or anything else you might have had that let you live." The commander spread his arms. "Just admit it; You don't belong here, you don't fit, and you never will. You know why? Because freaks don't belong in my city."

"That's it!!!" Raph roared, and plunged forward, pulling out his sais. 

The others immediately caught him, holding him back desperately with all their might--Mikey grasping onto one of his arms, Leo tightly hugging around his shell, and Donnie grabbing a leg--as the commander flinched back and immediately barked, "fire!" into his walky talky.

"WAIT!!!!" 

A little girl stood in front of the four, who had stopped upon hearing the shrill shriek of her voice, her arms wide open on either side of her with a pout on her face and a determined glint in her eyes.

Leo blinked. "Chloe?"

"You will not hurt Mr. Turtle and his brothers!" Chloe shouted at the commander.

"Wh- Who's child is this?!" The man roared in bewilderment, looking around to the audience, which had began to murmur with surprise. "This is no place for a little girl!" 

"Chloe, get back here now!" A woman cried from behind the police tape. "Get away from those dangerous creatures!"

The little girl shook her head. "No Mama! They're not dangerous! They saved my life!" She looked back up at the commander angrily. "And I'll protect them, no matter what!" She looked back at the turtles, who wore stunned looks on their faces. "They're my friends."

"Ours as well." Came yet another voice, and one the turtles immediately recognized as they turned their heads to watch April and Casey come up to them. April stood at Chloe's side, crossing her arms. "They've done so much more for us humans than you could ever realize or imagine. It's sad how this is how we thank them."

"You government scum make me sick," Casey growled. "Trying to make them look like the bad guys. Truth is, you're the ones trying to look good by making the worst decision of your life."

The commander snarled angrily. "You must be kidding! I am not listening to some crazy weirdo kids while my city is infested by monsters like them-!"

"They're the monsters?!" April scoffed. "Let me ask you this, commander- Who do you think saved New York from all those alien invasions? Have you ever seen them before?"

"Why does that matter?!"

"Because you're looking at 'em!" Casey yelled.

"O-okay, guys," Donnie finally butt in, pushing in between Raph and Mikey as he tried to place a hand on Casey's shoulder. "I-I think that's enough."

"No, Donnie, it's not enough." April protested, turning to him. "It's about time you guys get some recognition. I'm tired of seeing the world treat you like this. If this will convince them, then you can finally stop hiding from everything. It's time you get that chance."

She walked forward with authority, towards the audience, no falter in her steps whatsoever. She cleared her throat, then took a breath to speak.