Friday, August 15, 2003

Allan Sherman Revisited

As a kid, I was a huge fan of Allan Sherman, song parody author extraordinaire. I collected all his albums and can still sing, from memory, almost all of his songs in a voice even worse than his. And of course he inspired me to start writing my own song parodies, which has led to occasionally writing lyrics for songs on TV shows I work on.

I never got to meet the man. The closest I came was a brief conversation one day with his son, who was two years ahead of me at University High. Though Robert Sherman went on to a career in the TV business, our paths have somehow never crossed.

So I was quite interested to read this article, which is about how Robbie's trips to summer camp inspired his father's million-selling hit, "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh." You may enjoy it even though you didn't go to high school with the guy.

• Posted at 11:44 PM · LINK

Rude Surprise

My pal Steve Rude has put together a sketchbook which, at the moment, I believe is only being sold via eBay. It will presumably be available elsewhere but there's no reason for you not to go to this link and buy one. Steve is one of the best comic artists around and one of the nicest guys.

• Posted at 8:44 PM · LINK

DVD on DVD

Vince Waldron has been in touch with the producer of the forthcoming Dick Van Dyke Show DVD sets. He reports that the advertising is wrong: The second volume includes 33 episodes, not 31. One of those 33 is "All About Eavesdropping," which was filmed as part of the second season but aired in the third. This sounds Fair and maybe even Balanced.

• Posted at 1:03 PM · LINK

Zumanity

I have no idea what the name means, either. But it's the name of the new, R-rated Vegas show from the Cirque du Soleil people. Here's a Fair and Balanced sneak peek at this odd production.

• Posted at 12:56 PM · LINK

Good Night

Happy Fair and Balanced dreams!

• Posted at 3:35 AM · LINK

More on the DVD DVDs

Several folks (including Daniel Frank and Vince Waldron) point out that the final episode filmed for the second season ("All About Eavesdropping") wasn't aired until the following year. So that may go half the distance to explaining why the DVD release of Year Two of The Dick Van Dyke Show promises 31 episodes when there were actually 33.

Vince is doing some digging to find out what's up with this, so we may have an answer here before long. But he tells me that from everything he's heard, these DVD releases are first-rate productions both in terms of video quality (and completeness) and in unearthing some amazing extras. I'm so grateful to him for this info that I'll remind you that he authored The Official Dick Van Dyke Show Book, which is rightly subtitled, "The Definitive History and Ultimate Viewer's Guide to Television's Most Enduring Comedy." You can order a copy of the new, revised and expanded edition from Amazon by clicking here. If Vince hadn't written this book, I would have, except that I wouldn't have done half as good a job as he did.

With one exception. Vince inexplicably forgets to mention the Gold Key comic book version. I'm sure he'll correct this in an upcoming edition but other than that, it's everything the subtitle claims. Plus, it's Fair and Balanced.

• Posted at 2:37 AM · LINK

Tracing Tracey

The bastards at Comedy Central changed the link to the Tracey Ullman interview on me. Thanks to someone named Destiny, I've fixed it. (If you don't want to scroll down, here it is again.)

Comedy Central is a great channel but I'm beginning to suspect they're not Fair and Balanced.

• Posted at 2:25 AM · LINK

Information Blackouts

If you want to know all about great power failures, this website will tell you absolutely everything about them. And it's even Fair and Balanced.

• Posted at 2:21 AM · LINK

Back From Black

Yesterday afternoon when I told my friend Tracy that I was driving to Brea to see Lewis Black, she said, "Boy, you must really like Lewis Black." It wasn't so much the distance (at rush hour, about 90 minutes) as the fact that it was Brea. But I've liked Mr. Black on TV, especially on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, and I figured I might like an extended dose of him in person. So my pal Earl Kress and I braved the freeway and found it well worth the journey. In person, Lewis Black stammers a lot more than he does on television and gets generally angrier. He also employs the "f" word so often that that you'd think he's getting paid per usage, and he quickly succeeds in draining it of its charming impact.

But we had a great time, especially in the last half-hour when Black turned political. He delivered a diatribe against the California recall that I think would convince Arnold to vote against it. He went after Enron execs and politicians and those who would advise us on what to eat or not eat for our health, and it was all fresh and funny and justifiably outraged. I think the "justifiable" part is a lot of what I like about him. Comedians are always complaining about stupid ads and stupider politicians, and they often fail to convince me that there's any real passion for anything beyond getting a good joke out of the topic. The position is whatever leads to a punch line.

Not so with Black. He's a smart man who's serious about comedy, and he doesn't go for the obvious topic or, at least, the obvious take on the obvious topic. If you'd like to see him, his current schedule is up over at his website. He's about to embark on something called The Comedy Central Tour, which will take him into various cities, usually in big rooms with other stars of the network, such as Dave Attell.

Preceding Mr. Black was comedian Mike Birbiglia. Opening for a headliner can be a thankless task. You have to convince the audience that came to see the guy after you that you're a bonus, not a speed bump. With sharp material and an unjaded delivery, Birbiglia quickly won us all over. Near the end, when he said it was almost time to bring on Lewis Black, the audience did not seem eager for the next act...which is about the best you can expect of an opening act. You can learn more about the guy at his website and if you have the time, there are some video clips of his TV appearances.

Lastly, this will probably interest five or less of you, but Earl and I had dinner before the show at a restaurant called Riley's, which is just down the street from the Brea Improv. As you darn well know if you've read my latest book, Wertham Was Right, I used to be a huge fan and patron of the many Love's Barbecue Restaurants that once dotted the land. Now, there are only a few and until last November, when it disengaged from the parent company and changed names, the place now called Riley's was one. But it still looks like a Love's and when I stepped inside, it was like walking through a time warp, right into the Love's that used to be on Pico Boulevard in West Los Angeles. Same floor plan, same furnishings, even the same beans. I'm not sure if I enjoyed the cuisine quite as much as the personal nostalgia, but I certainly enjoyed something there.

The Love's website lists only six remaining outlets, and that includes the one in Jakarta, Indonesia (!) and the one I went to last evening, which is now Riley's. I visit the site occasionally to order another case of their barbecue sauce, which I use at home in cooking. It was fun to taste it again in its natural habitat.

• Posted at 2:13 AM · LINK

August 16, 2003 • Current • August 14, 2003