From the E-Mailbag…

Gary Dunaier wants to know…

What's the deal with the box of Kellogg's Corn Flakes in the corner of the picture of Davy Jones that you ran in your blog? (The weird thing is that I remember, back in the day, seeing an image of a box of Kellogg's Puffa Puffa Rice cereal in the corner during the closing credits of an episode of The Monkees.)

Back in the fifties and sixties, most TV shows had direct sponsorship. Chevrolet sponsored Bonanza and Kellogg's sponsored The Beverly Hillbillies and so on. In some cases, it changed from season to season on a multi-season show or two sponsors would split a show or an ad agency would contract for a show on behalf of several companies it represented and would rotate their sponsorship.

Eventually, networks decided it was in their best interest to not let the sponsors and ad agencies have that much control of programming so they got rid of, for the most part, situations where one sponsor was responsible for a show. Now, sponsors buy individual spots throughout many shows.

When that was the practice, it was not uncommon for the sponsor to have its product displayed throughout the credits like that. If you watch a rerun today of The Dick Van Dyke Show, you'll see the end credits formatted to allow a space at bottom left that's usually filled with a picture of Dick. When those credits first aired, there was a pack of Kent cigarettes there. So the box of corn flakes on Davy Jones's credit indicates that the screen shot was made from a print of The Monkees that was made up when Kellogg's was the sponsor.

Mickey for a Fin!

mickeymousebook01

If you want a bargain, grab this now. Someone at Amazon will probably wise up any minute and realize they can't sell you a whole hardcover collection of Mickey Mouse newspaper strips by Floyd Gottfredson for five bucks. This is a handsome volume produced by the Fantagraphics folks — the first volume of a series. I think I recommended this when it was at its full price of $25 or $30 and I still recommend it at that price. It's wonderful material and it's presented with all the grandeur it deserves.

But right this minute, it's $5.08 if you click this link and order. If I were you, I'd order other items at the same time and get my order up to the level where Free Shipping kicks in. Just don't dawdle.

Davy Jones, R.I.P.

How doubly-sad to hear that Davy Jones of the Monkees has died of a heart attack at the age of 66. That would be just plain sad at any time because he was a talented fellow. The Monkees were a manufactured, artificially-created band in that a bunch of execs sitting behind desks decided there should be Monkees and they did auditions and said, "Uh, let's use that guy and that guy and that guy and…oh, how about that guy?" That shouldn't have worked. Musical groups should be more organic than that. But by a happy combination of clever writing on their show and the natural charm and ability of the four guys selected, the Monkees became as legit as any group of their era. Davy Jones was more than 25% of the reason for that.

What makes it doubly-sad is that some of us got to meet him just 18 days ago at the Hollywood Show out in Burbank. He had a long line of autograph-seekers and folks who just wanted to shake his hand and tell him what his work meant to them. As I explained here, he could not have been more gracious and nice to his fans. Shelly Goldstein (seen in a video not far below these words) was one such admirer. She complimented him on his work on stage in Oliver! and he started singing a song from that score for her, a cappella and all the way through to the end. An hour or so later, he saw her walking by and he sprinted out from behind his table to gift her with a CD he was selling there that contained a medley of Oliver! tunes. She was amazed not only at his generosity but at the sheer fact that he remembered her and thought to do that. What a shame to lose someone that charming.

Today's Political Comment

The Field Poll, which usually does a decent job of measuring opinions in California, finds a 25-point gap between those who approve of Gay Marriage and those who don't. A 25-point gap! That's especially significant because as far as I know, public sentiment has only ever moved in one direction on this issue. If you toss out margin-of-error fluctuation in polls, there has never been a case anywhere — California or elsewhere in the U.S. of A. — of support for Gay Marriage dropping.

So it's over in my state. I don't think the various court decisions are going to stop folks of like gender from getting legally hitched but even if they do, a statewide vote would make that happen. Just a matter of time. Then we can all speculate on how long the redder states can resist if New York, California and other blue ones have Gay Marriage and God doesn't send locusts and make it rain frogs.

I have a feeling that the "leaders" rallying their troops against it have known for a long time it was over; that they were not in a winnable battle. Certainly Bill Bennett was saying it years ago until (one suspects) others of his party got to him and told him to shut up about it. The issue still had value to them as a rallying cry to get right-wing voters to the polls and to donate money. It'll never completely go away. Heck, there are still people out there making very good livings promising to destroy Hillary Clinton if only you'll give them enough money. But at some point, Stopping Gay Marriage has to become such a lost cause and non-issue as to close that spigot down to a trickle. We may be closer to that point than it seems.

Go Read It!

Teller (of Penn &…) reveals secrets of being a great magician. For some reason, he leaves out the one about making sure the saw is sharp enough when you cut the lady in half. That was the thing I always got wrong.

Today's Video Link

Our friend Shelly Goldstein has a story to tell you. Pay close attention, kids…

Some Recent Tweets

  • Today's potatoes are from Laverelle Stecklien, Blackfoot, ID. #
  • Rick Santorum should be worried. His presidential campaign was just posthumously baptized by the Mormons. #

me on the radio

Speaking of folks on the radio: Throughout February, regular listeners of Radio Rashy, the weekly podcast of writer Paul Dini and magician-actress Misty Lee, have been subjected to a steady dose of me. I recorded four episodes of my silly anecdotes and they've been posted one per week this month. The last one is there now for your dining and downloading pleasure. In it, I discuss working for Sid and Marty Krofft and tell a long story about Glenn Close and seeing her in Sunset Boulevard…and we ramble through other topics. I will not be on the show in March because I'll be busy eating Creamy Tomato Soup at my local Souplantation. Here we are.

Inside Marx Manor

Back in this here post, I said complimentary things about Raised Eyebrows, a book by a gent named Steve Stoliar. Steve worked for several years for Dr. Hugo Z. Hackenbush, more commonly known as Julius H. Marx, even more commonly known as Groucho. He was a witness to the controversial craziness that was Erin Fleming, the woman who invaded Groucho's last years. In his book (which I highly recommended) Steve told the story in colorful, apparently-honest detail. You can order a copy of it from Amazon here or get it autographed by and from the author here.

And you can hear Steve discuss those years and his own colorful life today on Stu's Show, my favorite Internet Radio Station. Stu Shostak does his show live at 4 PM Pacific Time which is 7 PM on the East Coast…and you can probably figure out the time it's on where you are. It runs two hours with occasional overages and it's a lot of fun. Hear it live and free at the appointed hour at the Stu's Show website. Or download it later there for a measly 99 cents. Either way, I'm sure you're going to like what you hear and hear what you like.

Today's Video Link

Here's one of my favorite comedians, Pete Barbutti, on The Tonight Show. This, people, is how you tell a joke…

The Wonders of WonderCon

WonderCon is less than three weeks away.  For those of you who find the Comic-Con in San Diego too overwhelming, this one may be just right.  And for those of you who can't wait for Comic-Con, WonderCon can be a nice way to tide you over 'til then.  Run by the same expert crew, it's a smaller convention…though still bigger than most.  I've been to many in San Francisco and always enjoyed myself.  This year, it's in a new venue in Anaheim, a hoot and a holler from the Magic Kingdom so it'll be different…but I see no reason to expect it'll be any less enjoyable.  Details can he had here.

But the details you really want are in the Programming Schedule, which has just been posted online.  I'll be helming a Sergio-less Quick Draw! on Friday and a Cartoon Voices panel on Saturday afternoon.  Also, earlier on Saturday, I'll be interviewing Joe Ruby and Ken Spears, who were easily the most important people to create and produce animation for Saturday morning and who weren't named Hanna or Barbera.  More on Joe and Ken in another posting to come.

On Sunday, I'll be emceeing a panel on four legendary greats of the comic book field — Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, Jerry Robinson and Will Eisner.  And I'll be hosting another Art of the Cover discussion with five of today's most skilled creators of comic book covers.  I'll tell you more about all these events in the next few days.  I do suggest that if you're thinking of attending that you check out the schedule and jot down what you want to see and when it is.  You will note that the two events you most want to attend are scheduled opposite each other but that's how it always is.

Sergio Upgraded

I recently did a long overdue revamp on the website of my amigo/partner Sergio Aragonés.  It has an all-new look and is now running on software that will make it simple for us to keep our promise of updating it on a regular basis.  When you get a moment, go take a look at read the new Sergio Blog.

Da Oscars

Just read two reviews of the Oscars by different friends of mine. Ken Levine is always funny when he doesn't like something. Leonard Maltin is always wise even when I don't agree with him. (Leonard, you and I need to have a talk about this aberrant notion you picked up somewhere that Joan Rivers is funny…) Read Ken here, including his comment thread. Then read Ken here, also including his comment thread. Then read Leonard here and don't skip over his comment thread. That's if you're at all interested in this topic and I could well understand how you might not be. You might even be a better person for thinking all this is beneath you. I wish I could.

What would I do if I were producing the show? I'm actually happy to say that's never going to happen. It's one of those jobs that can't be done without having your work likened the next day to The Titanic (the disaster, not the movie) but here are some thoughts…

They need to rethink the role of the host. I don't think he or she matters that much insofar as audience tune-in, though the host is usually the first person blamed/credited if the ratings are down or up. That's like blaming Vin Scully if a Dodgers game is boring. People tune into the Academy Awards in relation to how much they care about who wins that year's Academy Awards. Some years, the host-pickers seem to think, "We need to get younger viewers to tune in. Who's hot with younger viewers?" So you get James Franco. Some years, they ask, "Who's a hot stand-up comic who'll get the show off to a great start?" That's probably the better question of the two but it gets you Chris Rock and instead of the Oscars, you've got The Chris Rock Show for the first half-hour and then he disappears for long stretches. And if they don't know what question to ask, you get Billy Crystal doing the same act he did last time. And the time before and the time before…

What I'd do is pick a host who can do a short monologue and not make the first half-hour of the show all about himself or herself, then have the host pop up more throughout the telecast to keep things moving. Steve Martin was pretty good. I'll bet Albert Brooks or George Clooney could do it. Brooks would have been a lot funnier this time than Bob Hope always was when he complained about not being nominated. And it feels to me like it oughta be someone who's done enough films to be considered a Movie Star and who isn't up there to promote his or her next time as Movie Star. Billy Crystal seemed to think he had to keep reminding us he was and will be again.

Then I'd do away with the idea of a theme. Each year, someone sits down and comes up with some movie-related cliché that absolutely no one believes. Let's celebrate the joy of movie houses! (News flash: None of the people in the live audience go to them!) Let's celebrate how international the movies are! Let's celebrate the great, memorable lines of the movies! There were a couple of years there where the Emmys were stuck in the rut of TV as a family experience: Every show is a family and then families all get together and watch those shows as a family experience! Themes lead to real forced, boring presenter speeches where some performer has to come out and read copy by some writer who had to find some way to tie Costume Design into that year's arbitrary theme.

The Oscars need a couple of presenters who the audience will be thrilled to see up there. Forget demographics. Imagine if to give out Best Director, they had Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks go out there. Imagine if for Best Screenplay, Roger Ebert and his wife came out and Roger's computer voice announced the winner. A few years ago, I polled readers of this site about who would excite them and a lot of folks suggested teams — like having the three most notable James Bonds all come out together or a tag-team of Jerry Lewis and Adam Sandler.

Change the "In Memoriam" segment to "In Celebration" and pick a jazzy, "up" tune that says, "Isn't it great we had these people around and that their work will live forever?" And if the nominated songs aren't good enough to perform on the Oscar show, they weren't good enough to be nominated.

And lastly: Get rid of presenters telling nominees how great they were in the film for which they've been nominated. It's enough that the evening is about multi-millionaires celebrating other multi-millionaires. Those asses have been sufficiently smooched by the nominations and the walk down the red carpet. I think a lot of home viewers find the Oscars distasteful for the same reason I find it distasteful when some CEO making ten million a year explains that his lifestyle demands a higher salary. Show business has always had this unfortunate tendency to act like it's the highest calling in life and if you some day figured out how to cure world hunger…well, that's nice but it's too bad you wasted your life and didn't grow up to be Jeff Bridges. At a time when a large part of America is outta-work and hoping the local Target store resumes hiring, folks would like to get away from their troubles and watch a little glamour for an evening. But there's a point when the exaltation of Hollywood reaches the stage of contempt for the "little people" and the Oscars have always danced on that dividing line. They need to dial it back a notch if they want the world to dial up their show.

Of course, if you did all of the above, you'd have the Best Oscar Telecast Ever and all the same people would still say it was the worst. Because the Academy Awards is the institution that so many love to hate. And they hate it because it's basically a promotional vehicle for movies and the people who make them…and it'll never be as magical as we want it to be.