Friday, January 16, 2004

Bill's Back

I watched the season debut of Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO this evening. If you'd like to see actor Ron Silver and the Reverend Al Sharpton mud-wrestling, you might want to catch one of the many replays during the week. It's probably more enjoyable if you think of it as theater rather than as an actual exchange of political ideas.

Silver served up one argument (against a point by Maher) that's making the rounds and which strikes me as a real Red Herring cheapshot. Maher was complaining that the Iraq War was predicated on a lie and Silver asked, "Would you be happier if Saddam Hussein were still in power?" To me, that's the new variation on "Have you stopped beating your wife?" Obviously, it's possible to believe that the regime change was good for humanitarian reasons but that there were many things wrong with how it was done. I'm not even going to argue here what some of them might have been. I just think it's disingenuous to try and misrepresent your opponent's position into something like that. Liberals have been known to do much the same thing with the race card, branding an opposing position as racist. It's a crummy trick, no matter who does it.

• Posted at 10:56 PM · LINK

Impressions of Today

Several times a year, a group to which I belong called the Pacific Pioneers Broadcasters honors a famous show business figure with a luncheon that is part roast, part tribute. (I had the sirloin of beef, which was part roast, part Reebok.) Today, the famous show business figure was impressionist and actor Frank Gorshin, and he was saluted by a dais that included Hal Kanter, Adam West, Edie Adams, Julie Newmar, Paul Picerni, Jimmy Van Patten and Chuck McCann. There were some wonderful anecdotes about Gorshin and an awful lot of affection. Several speakers goaded Gorshin to give up smoking, and he seemed genuinely touched when the audience applauded the idea.

West praised the man who played the Riddler for challenging him to do better work on Batman. Ms. Adams spoke about working with Frank on The Kopycats. McCann described being in the room when Gorshin got his first TV audition. And I'm still not sure what Ms. Newmar said but who cares? She's Julie Newmar.

As usual for a P.P.B. luncheon, the place was filled with fascinating show biz veterans. Saw the lovely June Foray, who is still doing so much voice work that she hasn't finished her autobiography. Chatted with Eddie Carroll, whose Jack Benny Tribute Show is an uncanny and very entertaining impression. Eddie is also the current voice of Jiminy Cricket for the Disney people.

Sat next to Jim MacGeorge, a very funny comic actor who has usually been the guy playing Laurel when Chuck McCann plays Hardy. Jim was the voice of Beany, Cap'n Huffenpuff and many other characters on the old Beany and Cecil cartoons, and has been heard on many, many other shows since. It's so odd to see a guy telling stories about Stan Laurel and, without quite realizing he's doing it, lapse into the impression, delivering Stan quotes as Stan. If I'd been wearing a tie, I'd have started twiddling it and doing slow burns to an unseen camera.

And there were a lot of other neat folks present: Walker Edmiston, Tom Kennedy, Jack Narz, a great comedy writer pal of mine named Paul Pumpian, dialect specialist Robert Easton, Ed Rothhaar (who hosts I Remember Television for PBS), Fred "Mr. Game Show" Wostbrock, and a whole bunch of others whose names escape me at the moment. My friend Earl Kress tagged along and we had a great time. Actually, Earl had a better time than I did. He didn't order the sirloin of beef.

• Posted at 10:17 PM · LINK

My Wish

Wouldn't it be great if there was a site on the Internet where you could see old photos taken in supermarkets? Oh, wait. There is!

• Posted at 8:53 PM · LINK

More Silliness From Florida

If you're interested in the (sad) fate of the Disney animation studio in Florida, hustle over to Jim Hill Media. There are several good articles that have been posted in the last few days about what's going on down there.

Naturally, I am dismayed almost any time any studio decides to pare down its animation department...and I note that it often turns out to be one of those short-term, "we shouldn't have done that" decisions. Someone thinks it'll make the balance sheets look better for a few quarters but eventually, they realize they've gutted a major long-term profit center, so they wipe out whatever they saved (and then some) starting the division up again. Assuming it's even possible.

Animation — even old-fashioned, drawn-by-hand animation — is still enormously profitable when done with the slightest business acumen. Someone else said, and I think I agree, that the only way to lose money on an animated feature is to be really, really disorganized in the production budget. And it's true that there are studios that have been amazingly adept at spending $60 million to make a $20 million animated feature. Still, you'd think someone in those executive offices would have the confidence that they can minimize those kinds of errors. You can of course argue that Disney should adhere to Disney traditions and keep on making films roughly the way Walt did...but I think an even stronger argument can be made that it's just good business. In the long-run, anyway.

• Posted at 10:48 AM · LINK

January 17, 2004 • Current • January 15, 2004