Monthly Archives: January 2003

It's National Gorilla Suit Day and I just have a few moments before I have to start going door-to-door in my gorilla suit.  (Yeah, I know.  You've all been out in yours for hours.  Well, I overslept.)  Anyway, I felt I should mention that I thought last night's Jimmy Kimmel Live! showed a solid glimmer of progress.  He still doesn't look like a talk show host to me but at least he doesn't look like a deer caught in someone's headlights.  If they can get some decent guests, and a co-host with something to say, this crate might fly.  Ratings were up a bit last night, too.  I'll bet ABC's wishing they'd hired Kimmel while Politically Incorrect was still on, and let him get the bugs out in the time slot following Bill Maher.

The Rockies have crumbled, Gibraltar just tumbled (They're only made of clay) and Amazon.Com now lists Mad Art as more-or-less in stock.  It usually ships in "2-3 days," they say, which is a big step up from not coming out until some time in the distant past.  So rush over and order hundreds of copies.

By the way, I had a great time last night chatting and plugging said book with Garry Lee Wright on WGN radio out of Chicago.  Thanks, Garry!

An awful lot of Stan Freberg fans visit this site, and here's something they'll like.  The above photo is from November 2, 1960.  It was taken at the East Los Angeles Junior College football stadium.  The 22,000 seat arena was jammed, and another 15,000 people were turned away from the event as a bevy of Hollywood stars rallied support for Democratic nominee John F. Kennedy.  From left to right, the celebrities are actress Janet Leigh, singer Jo Stafford, musician Louis Prima, comedian Milton Berle, and Freberg.

The other day on the phone, I asked Stan what he remembered of that evening.  He recalled Berle repeatedly trying to get his cigar lit as Senator Kennedy was speaking.  After a few tries, Uncle Miltie announced — just loud enough for all to hear — "This lighter won't work.  It's just like my brother-in-law."  J.F.K. gave him a quick glance, then returned to his speech.

That's right.  Berle was trying to upstage the man who, six days later, would be elected the 35th President of the United States.

Speaking of Milton Berle: Next Monday evening, the E! Entertainment Network is rerunning the 1979 installment of Saturday Night Live hosted by that gent.  This is one of two episodes in the original five year run which Lorne Michaels thought was so dreadful that for a long time, it was absent from the rerun package.  The other was one hosted by Louise Lasser, who was reportedly going through some "personal problems" (I'm being polite) and she was rambling and occasionally incoherent.

"Mr. Television" was at least coherent but — they way they tell it — way too determined to make funny faces and interject old bits.  At one point, he insisted on singing "September Song" and interjecting a syrupy philosophical discourse, along with plugs for his autobiography.  At its close, a friend he'd planted in the audience leaped to his feet to lead a "spontaneous" standing ovation.

Long unseen, the Berle episode finally turned up in a 30-minute cutdown in one of the SNL syndication packages.  That version, as I recall, pretty much cut Mr. Television down to about half a monologue.  E! is running an hour-long version and it will be interesting to see if whoever performed the edit (from the original 90-minute airing) will preserve or trim the parts Michaels found so unbearable.  If it were me, I'd leave it in.  That's what made this one famous.

Several folks — most notably, Fred Hembeck — have written to say that the Dragnet 1966 TV-Movie/pilot was made then but that it didn't air until '69.  I've read that in the official histories, and I guess it didn't stick because that's not the way I remember it.  I'm not sure I'm right about this one, but I'm not sure I'm wrong, either.  I'm also not sure it matters much.

Fred also reminds me that Jack Webb made his final appearance in the role of Sgt. Joe Friday on Jack Benny's final TV special.  It was called Jack Benny's Second Farewell Special and it ran in early '74.  (Benny's previous special was his First Farewell Special; the premise was that he was going to do Farewell Specials, ad infinitum.  Unfortunately, he passed away during the
preparations for what would have been #3.)  Since I happen to have a photo from that special, I thought I'd run it here.

The extremely clever Hembeck, I should mention again, has a website that comic book fans will especially enjoy.  It's www.hembeck.com, and the best part is his weblog, which he calls "Fred Sez."  Here's a direct link to that page.

Spinsanity is one of the most refreshing political websites.  Its operators analyze news stories and political speeches and point out distortions of fact and bogus emotionally-weighted arguments.  And what's refreshing is that they'll do this with both liberal and conservative diatribes.  Plenty of sites will skewer the opposition and claim objectivity but few really mean it.  Spinsanity does, as evidenced by its current debunkings of Michael Moore's documentary, as well as the Bush tax cut proposal.  Check 'em out.

The editor has revealed it over on the DC Comics Message Board, so I might as well mention it here: DC will be bringing out two volumes reprinting the Jack Kirby issues of Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen.  Yes, they'll be in color.  No, the Superman and Jimmy Olsen heads — redrawn by others in their original printings — will not be restored or retouched to Kirby's version.  (That's really not technically possible.)  I dunno when they'll be out but I turned in the foreword for the first volume a few months ago.  And I've just finished the intro for the first of two volumes that will reprint Jack's work on Challengers of the Unknown.  If you've never read either of these series, you're in for a real treat.  If you have, then you'll want copies all the more.

Weblogs like this are great for venting at the frustrations of dealing with companies.  As I'm writing this, I'm on the phone — on "hold," waiting for the Next Available Representative at the McAfee Customer Service Department.  I switched from McAfee's virus protection program to Norton, and the McAfee folks don't seem to want to turn loose of me.  Their subscriptions work off automatic renewals, meaning that if I do nothing, they charge my credit card each year.  They make it very difficult to stop them from doing this.  Their website is full of all sorts of wonderful Customer Service options, all designed to let you control your account online and to minimize the chance that you'll need to speak to an actual human being on their staff.  You can do just about anything over there except to cancel your account or turn off the automatic renewal option.

That, for obvious but odious reasons, they make difficult.  They tell you to "Contact Customer Service," which I have done repeatedly by e-mail to no apparent effect.  Fortunately, I have a secret weapon: The credit card I gave them when I signed up has since expired.  They keep trying to charge it to no avail.  If it hadn't expired, they would have long since charged it for a service I no longer want, and — assuming I realized that — I'd now be fighting them for a refund instead of what I'm doing, which is to get them to just cancel the account and not keep sending me e-mail that there's something wrong with my credit card and… Hold on.  Someone just came on the line.

Okay.  A nice lady just cancelled my account.  According to the timer on my phone, I was on "hold" for 19 minutes.  Remember that the next time you sign up for any service that does automatic renewals.

There.  I've vented and I feel better.

The word from inside ABC is that Jimmy Kimmel Live! should be renamed Begging For Guests.  A friend predicts they will dump the "live" aspect, partly because it makes the network nervous and partially because taping earlier may make it a bit easier to get stars to come in and sit on the couch.

Some time in the eighties, Mr. Carson announced that he would start doing The Tonight Show live every evening.  He never did.  Too many of the guests they wanted were available in the late afternoon but busy in the evening, either with premieres or local performances.  Network worries about the "live" part of Mr. Kimmel's show seem to be less about censorship than they are about the show just looking sloppy, tech screw-ups, etc.

Go read Michael Kinsley.  There's the Iraq problem in a nutshell.

Hey, when Al Gore proposed eliminating oil-burning internal combustion engines, Republicans called him "Ozone Man" and a kook, and claimed that he wanted to take away everyone's car and make us all bicycle to work.  So what's this with George W. proposing hydrogen-powered automobiles?  I'm sure the same folks will rush to denounce him as an environmental wacko, right?

The internet is an amazing resource for gathering trivial info.  I posted the question below at 11:30 PM, my time.  At 11:54, Tom Stewart sent me this link to a matchbook for Al Lewis's restaurant.  It was Grampa's Belle Gente at 252 Bleecker Street.  This is a much more important use of the World Wide Web than discussing the State of the Union address.

"Grandpa" Al Lewis — best known for his roles on The Munsters and Car 54, Where Are You? — used to have a restaurant in Greenwich Village in New York.  It was called either Grandpa's or Grampa's and it's not there anymore.  But which was its name and what was its address?  I was by there once and I think it was on Bleecker, but for reasons too boring to explain, I'm trying to find its exact location for someone.

Jor-El has passed. Actor Robert Rockwell has died at the age of 82.  The newspaper obits (like this one) are noting that he was the second member of the cast of Our Miss Brooks to leave us in as many weeks, after Richard Crenna.  Rockwell played Mr. Boynton on that show, and performed countless other roles on other shows and on the stage.  But a lot of us remember that he was Superman's father, Jor-El, in the 1952 origin episode of the Superman TV show starring George Reeves.  It was probably only a forgotten day's work to an actor with such a prolific career.  But some of us will never forget it.

The overnight ratings for the first airing of Jimmy Kimmel Live! in its regular time slot did not give ABC much cause to party.  See for yourself…

Someone will probably be out spinning this as a good start, noting that many affiliates didn't clear the show, and saying the network has great confidence and will give it time to grow.  And some of that's probably true.  But Kimmel's show had every ounce of hype the network could muster and it got about the same numbers that Politically Incorrect received in that slot with none.

By the by: Don't bother coming back here tomorrow to check on tonight's numbers because I won't be posting a chart every day or maybe even ever again.  But I thought just this once was worth the effort.

Angelenos will be happy to know that the dulcet tones of Gary Owens can once again be heard on L.A. radio.  For twenty-some-odd years (some of which were very odd), Gary was the top-rated afternoon personality in town, holding court and his ear over on KMPC, 710 AM.  Now, he's on KLAC, 570 AM where the playlist spans Frank Sinatra to Rod Stewart, and he's on from 1 to 4 weekday afternoons.  This is enormously good news, as Gary is the best at what he does, and a helluva nice guy as well.