Saturday, November 15, 2003

Pinky Uncovered

For those of you interested in cartoon voices, we have here a good interview with Rob Paulsen, one of the best of the current crop. I worked with Rob once on a series and couldn't have been more impressed with his talent and professionalism.

• Posted at 11:55 PM · LINK

Hello, Ball!

TV Land just finished running, as a tribute to Art Carney, a "marathon" of all 39 filmed episodes of The Honeymooners. I caught a few of the less-familiar ones and again marvelled at how good he was on that show. A year or three ago, I got a few folks all hot and bothered in an Internet discussion of Jackie Gleason by saying that I felt his rep as "The Great One" was overrated; that the best thing Mr. Gleason ever did for television was to hire Art Carney and not completely blast him off the screen. A star can do that...cutting down the other actors' roles, telling them not to do this or that. Berle was famous for that and so was Gleason, though Jackie never fully mastered the art of keeping Art in a strait-jacket. A Gleason show was woefully under-rehearsed: They did it until Jackie felt he had his part down, and then it was every man for himself. To my knowledge, Carney never went public with his belief that he was being deliberately handicapped but it was common knowledge within the business. You can almost sense it in some episodes. The dullest ones keep Norton in the corners and out of the spotlight. The best ones give him something to do, preferably something physical and/or exasperating to Ralph: Norton poaching in the Kramden apartment to watch TV, Norton teaching Ralph how to play golf, Norton and Ralph rehearsing to do a TV commercial, Norton and Ralph handcuffed together, Norton and Ralph deciding to get drunk together, Norton prepping Ralph to go on a TV game show, Norton competing with Ralph in a costume competition, Norton sleepwalking, etc. Gleason used to say that The Honeymooners was the story of a couple that lived in near-poverty but kept going because of their love for each other. He was wrong. The Honeymooners was the story of friendship between a bus driver and a sewer worker, and it was the sewer worker who made it a classic.

• Posted at 4:44 PM · LINK

Turkey Lurkey

Having recently done a big "Bah, Humbug!" to Halloween, we now turn our attention to Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is no great deal to me, and really hasn't been since about the time I got out of school and it no longer yielded a four-day weekend. When you're self-employed, you're like the atheist who is dismayed at the lack of holidays in his life. We work when we have to work and taking four days off just puts us four days behind. Then there is this matter of parades. Once upon a time, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade was a joy carried on both CBS and NBC. One year, one channel was almost exactly a half-hour ahead of the other so if I saw a float I liked on NBC at 8:42 AM, I'd make a note and switch over to see it again on CBS at 9:12. The parade was festive and colorful and if it was freezing in New York, as it usually seemed to be on Thanksgiving Day, I could sit in sunny Los Angeles and watch other people shiver and exhale visible breath. But the last few times I tuned in to the Macy's festivities, they were only on one channel, they were truncated down to supposed highlights, and what was there was pretty much a marching infomercial for upcoming movies and TV shows, toy promotions and videogames. I suppose there was always some of that but it had gotten too prevalent and pushy for me to enjoy. So what's left to love about Thanksgiving? Well, big family gatherings to eat turkey were fun in their way, but most of my family has passed away and when what's left gathers, it only reminds us of lost loved ones. Plus, eating turkey is no big deal. Since I cut way back on red meat, I dine on turkey two or three times a week, and I'm not the only one. Year-round turkey consumption in America is way up. Lately in the market, you find it in all sorts of forms — burgers and filets and ground turkey and turkey meatballs. Someone has even brought out a turkey-and-gravy soda. If they could figure out a way to get a potato and some carrots in there, they'd have almost everything I eat in one bottle. And everything I like about Thanksgiving.

• Posted at 1:03 PM · LINK

Miss Crabtree Remembered

The lovely face above is that of actress June Marlowe (1903-1984) who is probably best remembered as the teacher in a number of Hal Roach's "Our Gang" comedies. She had a nice career modelling and in movies and a very interesting life. All of that is captured over on this website devoted to her, including rare photos and a nice, long biography. I was amazed to see that Miss Crabtree only appeared in six of the "Our Gang" shorts. I've seen all those films and I would have guessed two dozen or so. I guess that's testimony to what a strong impression she made when she appeared. Shortly after she passed away, I got to spend a couple of hours with Hal Roach, who got to talking about her and who said (approximately), "She was the most beautiful woman we ever had on the lot. She could have been the biggest star in the business if she hadn't run off and married that guy." A bit later, Mr. Roach told me a please-don't-repeat story about a lady who got roles in movies back then by sleeping with various studio execs. I didn't think he meant June Marlowe but he made a point of telling me it was not her; that there was no "hanky-panky" (his term) with June. Then, even though he was 93 years old at the time, he sighed and added, "...unfortunately." Guess that's why Miss Crabtree only appeared in six films.

• Posted at 12:24 AM · LINK