Saturday, March 20, 2004

Recommended Reading

Here's Frank Rich on the new (and, I think, inane) movement towards censorship of radio and television. Here's one key section...

The strange history of Bono and the Golden Globes is a case in point. It was 14 months ago that the front man for U2 inadvertently used a contraband seven-letter word as a modifier preceding the word brilliant in expressing his joy upon winning a best song award for the film "The Gangs of New York." The F.C.C. received only 234 complaints nationwide and ultimately ruled that Bono's word, free of carnal innuendo, was not actionable. But that was in 2003. In 2004 the Bush-chosen F.C.C. chief, Michael Powell, having failed to achieve much else in his job, has reopened the case to reverse the original verdict.

In other words: The Bono matter never really bothered anyone at the time and it's long since been forgotten. But we have to go after the guy now because we need to intimidate some people and to show the Religious Right we're fighting for their values.

Incidentally, I'm using a new means of linking to New York Times articles. It should allow you to read them without registering over there...though for the life of me, I can't understand why some folks object to doing that. It should also cause the articles not to become unavailable as quickly...but I wouldn't count on it.

• Posted at 11:23 PM · LINK

TV Funnies

A few months ago, this site presented a stirring history of the little-known comic book version of The Dick Van Dyke Show published in the sixties by Gold Key Comics. It's all archived over here. Some of you have written in to ask me about some of the other comics Gold Key did based on popular TV shows so in the coming weeks, I'll try to present some of them here. The three featured above all lasted one issue apiece.

In the case of Gilligan's Island, this was probably due to the show being cancelled. The last episode of the TV program (before it achieved eternal life in syndication) aired in August of 1967. The comic book came out the previous June...so I'm guessing Gold Key purchased the rights late the previous year, put an issue into work around February and then heard that the show would not be getting a fourth season, so they aborted the comic book. The story inside ("The Castaway Cookbook") was about Mr. Howell getting bored with the food on the island. In the tale, he announced a contest — one million dollars to whichever of the others could cook up the best dish. Naturally, they all went scampering to win. Gilligan found some tasty plants on the far side of the island and whipped up a stew...without realizing that the plants were a rare breed that had very odd side effects, transforming everyone the way Red Kryptonite used to change Superman. The story was silly but then so was the TV show, and the comic was nicely drawn by Warren Tufts, who was best known for his work on the newspaper strip, Casey Ruggles. (He later drew the Gomer Pyle comic book for Gold Key, which I'll feature here in a few days.)

The one issue of The Odd Couple was prepared out of Gold Key's New York office. There is no official record of the writer but the artwork was obviously done by Sal Trapani, who earlier had done the Get Smart and Hogan's Heroes comics for Dell. The story was very clever but apparently when Neil Simon heard about this, he had his lawyers inform Paramount Television that they did not have the right to turn Oscar and Felix into comic book characters. Kind of a shame, really. The story in this issue — "Murray's Manhunt" — was a good one. The Odd Couple's pal, Murray the Cop, hasn't arrested a real criminal in something like ten years and a new Sergeant orders him to make a bust or get into a new line of work. Oscar and Felix try to help him but one investigation after another goes wrong. Finally, he manages to break up a bookmaking ring and arrests his first actual criminal in quite some time...Oscar Madison!

The only issue of the WKRP in Cincinnati comic book received limited distribution due to the problems of Western Publishing, which by then had changed the name of its comic book line from Gold Key to Whitman. For a time, they published their comics under both imprints — that is, part of the press run would say "Gold Key" and part would have the "Whitman" insignia. The ones that had "Gold Key" in the upper left were for conventional newsstand distribution, whereas the "Whitman" titles were sold on a non-returnable basis to department and toy stores, the same way Western distributed its activity and coloring books. By 1980 when they did this one issue of WKRP, they had given up on newsstand outlets so no more Gold Key editions were being published, and many books that were written and drawn were not published at all, even under the Whitman logo. (A few, like the Disney titles, were printed overseas.) It's possible that subsequent issues of WKRP were drawn but never made it to press. Again, the writer is unknown but the art was by J. Winslow Mortimer, who at one time was a main artist for Superman and Batman. He had done a long run for Gold Key on the Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids comic, and some others, and was then drawing Spidey Super Stories for Marvel. He did a nice job drawing "Blonde Ambition," in which Jennifer (the Loni Anderson character) goes on a TV show not unlike The Dating Game, little realizing that the unseen bachelors she must pick from are her co-workers, Johnny Fever, Les Nessman and Andy Travis. As she questions them, each fantasizes about marrying Jennifer and we see these daydreams acted out. The ending of the story is a bit of a cop-out as the unctuous game show host invokes a hitherto-unknown rule and claims the date with Jennifer for himself.

That's it for this time. In the future, I'll be showcasing more obscure Gold Key comic book versions of great TV shows. If you have any requests, send 'em in.

• Posted at 8:08 PM · LINK

DVD Diagnosis

I've received a number of suggestions and explanations regarding the problem I've been having with my Panasonic DVD Recorder. One gent — and I'll thank him by name once I'm sure he's right — told me to switch from 4X disks to 1X. The Panasonic manual doesn't seem to say what kind to use (other than to recommend "Panasonic brand") and neither does their website. I started using 4X since that's what what my Pioneer DVD Recorder likes and for more than a month, they worked fine in the Panasonic, too.

Today, I went by CompUSA and bought a batch of 1X DVD blanks of their house brand, and also some 2X from TDK. So far, I've dubbed about three of each in the Panasonic with no problem. So things are definitely looking better. If I get through another dozen or so without a problem, I may declare the matter solved.

• Posted at 6:50 PM · LINK

TiVo: Love It or Lose It?

We love TiVo about as much as this author in the New York Times. And we'd like to believe that this author is incorrect that TiVo may not be long for this world.

• Posted at 8:42 AM · LINK