Sunday, February 15, 2004

Krofft Supershow

Tuesday night, TV Land is running four hours of shows produced by my occasional employers, Sid and Marty Krofft...segments of Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, H.R. Pufnstuf, ElectraWoman and DynaGirl and others. I wrote none of these so like you, I can enjoy them as they regress me to an earlier age. You can get the schedule over at this page and they have interviews with Sid and Marty, and with the wonderful Billie "Witchiepoo" Hayes on this page, though I wasn't able to get them to play. There's an article about these shows over on the New York Times but it's written by a lady who doesn't know what she's talking about so I'm not going to link to it.

• Posted at 10:01 PM · LINK

Schwartz Obit Watch

Nice piece on Julie Schwartz on CBS Sunday Morning. You can nitpick little almost-errors in these things but the overall effect was something that would have pleased Julie greatly. Also, Alan Brennert informs me there was a nice Schwartz obit on ABC's This Week With George Stephanopoulos.

And here's a link to a good column by Andrew "Captain Comics" Smith, though I will nitpick a few points: He says, "Schwartz (with John Broome and Carmine Infantino) introduced a brand-new Flash in Showcase No. 4." Broome was the most important writer of that incarnation of The Flash but the introductory story was written by Robert Kanigher. There were four Showcase issues of the character and each had one story by Kanigher and one by Broome. Julie also — and I made this mistake, myself — did not introduce H.P. Lovecraft to the world. He sold a few of Lovecraft's last stories. But all in all, it's another tribute that would have delighted its subject.

By the by: Amidst all these obits, there seems to be some argument over whether Julie lived to be 88 or 89. I just did the math. Julius Schwartz was born on June 19, 1915. He died early the morning of February 8, 2004. Therefore, he was 88 years, 7 months and 20 days old. I may have contributed to the confusion because I told a story involving Julie last year and said he was 88 at the time...but that story occurred after that year's birthday.

• Posted at 1:29 PM · LINK

Talk Show Politics

I'm surprised there hasn't been more talk about two Tonight Show appearances this past week by men ostensibly running for the Democratic Presidential nomination. I say "ostensibly" because Dennis Kucinich's on Thursday night seemed like such a desperate bid for attention. He came on, not to discuss politics or what he'd do as Chief Exec, but to participate in a sketch. They did The Dating Game with bachelor Kucinich picking from three celeb bachelorettes — Jennifer Tilly, Kim Serafin and Cybill Shepherd. Radio talk show host Serafin gave some anti-Democrat responses and Shepherd was acting boisterous, so Kucinich chose Tilly...for a "dream date" at a Vegan restaurant in Santa Monica. Jay Leno kept thanking the Ohio congressman for being a good sport, which is always a tip-off that someone is being demeaned. It should have been, "Thanks for coming here and sacrificing the last scraps of your image as a serious politician so we could do this during Sweeps Week." More humbling was that elsewhere in the show, Leno talked about how much he was looking forward to chatting with Senator John Edwards the following night. In other words, at this key time in the primaries, Edwards would be coming on to boost his candidacy and speak about a few issues, whereas Kucinich was only welcome if he let them poke fun at his height, diet and lack of spouse.

It's hard to say what was on Kucinich's mind. It's long past the stage where he can have any delusions about being this year's Democratic nominee, and I haven't heard anyone mention him for the veep slot. Like Al Sharpton from the start, he's running to enhance his profile as a statesman, perhaps for future candidacies, and also to get his message out. I don't see that playing The Dating Game does either of those things. He looked awkward and not thrilled to be there, and I can't imagine one viewer coming away from the experience more likely to mark his name on a ballot...not even Jennifer Tilly. That Kucinich was ever even marginally a contender came from the fact that he's a good, fiery orator with the ability to mobilize an audience. When they don't let him do that, he certainly doesn't look like leadership material.

The following night, John Edwards did. Sitting (unlike Kucinich) in the guest chair, the Senator was folksy and managed to get in a lot of personal anecdotes that suggested he was "one of us" but still managed to hit a few issues. He said flatly that he was for letting individual states decide on the matter of gay marriage...and it wasn't so much his position as the fact that he said it so clearly that may have impressed some voters. Much has been made of the fact that Edwards is from the South, and some believe a Democrat cannot win the presidency without some Southern support...but what struck me was that Edwards' real strength may be that he's just plain a better, more interesting speaker than anyone else in the contest, except maybe Sharpton who, of course, isn't really in. Kerry seems to be racking up delegates in landslide numbers but I suspect that's mostly a matter of him being the front-runner at a time when people who hate George W. Bush are eager to get behind a Democrat. I can't help thinking that most of them are buying Kerry but would be happier with Edwards.

• Posted at 10:16 AM · LINK

Quick Points

As umpteen e-mails inform me this A.M., the piece on Julie Schwartz did indeed air on CBS Sunday Morning. It's about 46 minutes into the show, I'm told. I have it on my TiVo and will watch it later.

Vince Waldron suggests that I was deficient (or maybe he was too polite to suggest, foolish) in not providing Amazon links to the DVD recorder I was just discussing. They have the Panasonic DMR-E80H for around $512, which is a pretty good price.

In reciprocation, I plug Vince's website (where you can order his must-own book on sitcoms) and his comedy improv troupe (where you can laugh your buttocks off). I am nothing if not fair.

• Posted at 9:05 AM · LINK