Saturday, March 27, 2004

The Campfire Scene...in Dolby Digital 5.1 Stereo

Coming your way at the end of June: The 30th Anniversary DVD of Blazing Saddles. It will include a documentary on a recent cast and crew reunion and another on the late, great Madeline Kahn. There will be "scene-specific" audio commentary by Mel Brooks, plus the unsold 1975 Black Bart TV pilot inspired by the series, and a collection of deleted scenes. (There were several, like the one where Bart tricks Mongo into going down a well in a deep sea diver's outfit, which didn't make it into the theatrical release but which occasionally turn up in TV prints.) This all sounds fun and we're hoping that somewhere on the disk, someone acknowledges the late Bob Ridgely, who played the Karloff-style executioner and whose name was accidentally omitted from the screen credits.

It's easy to forget how ground-breaking Blazing Saddles was when it debuted. I saw it the second or third night after it opened at a theater in Westwood with Mel Brooks lurking in the back of the house and occasionally heckling the coming attractions that preceded his feature. (During an ad for the L.A. Times, he yelled out, "Get this crap off the screen and show my movie!") No one present knew what to expect. We hadn't seen the best scenes or even any scenes on talk shows. We hadn't seen previews. We had no idea what kind of movie it was except that it was a western and it was Mel Brooks. And when Cleavon Little began singing, "I Get a Kick Out of You," we started laughing and never stopped.

• Posted at 5:32 PM · LINK

Font of Information

I love typography and clever graphic design, and am a fan of many folks who do this kind of thing and do it well. For umpteen years, I've admired the output of a gent named Leslie Cabarga, whose work you've seen in many venues. He's also the world's foremost authority on the Max Fleischer cartoon studio but that's more like an interesting sidelight. Mostly, he does graphics and does them quite well...including but not limited to the kind of thing some folks call "the retro look." I always think that's an odd term since today's retro look is tomorrow's current look and then later on, it will again be a retro look for a while, then current again, etc. Whatever you call it, Leslie's a champ...as you can see over on his website wherein you can purchase some of his books and fonts. And he doesn't seem to have it there yet but I'd highly recommend his new book with the long title, Logo Font & Lettering Bible: A Comprehensive Guide to the Design, Construction and Usage of Alphabets and Symbols. Profusely illustrated (of course), it explains common sense basics in a crisp, logical manner. I've recently come to know Leslie (big fan of Groo...he even has a font in the book whose name is an obscure Groo reference) but even if I didn't, I would still be suggesting you pick up a copy. Since you can't yet order it through his site, you'll have to get it through Amazon, which you can do by clicking here.

• Posted at 1:38 PM · LINK

Attention, Stan Freberg!

Go read the letter near the bottom of this page.

• Posted at 12:28 PM · LINK

Set the TiVo!

If your cable or satellite receives The Biography Channel...and if you're a fan of Sesame Street and/or the Muppets, you might want to set your TiVo or VCR for the wee small hours of next Saturday morn. They're rerunning a two-part "Biography for Kids" that Harry Smith did, visiting the set and interviewing the folks behind, in and under the Muppets. Special attention is given to Kevin Clash (who performs the role of Elmo), Carroll Spinney (who plays Big Bird and Oscar) and Steve Whitmire (who took over the roles of Kermit and Ernie after the death of Jim Henson). It's a really good look at how the show is made. Part One airs at 4:00 AM on my satellite dish with Part Two following at 5:00 AM. Your time zone or cable company may differ.

• Posted at 11:21 AM · LINK

Radio Wrassling

As my e-mail buddy Ben Varkentine notes on his blog, a lot of the publicity surrounding Al Franken's new liberal radio show is coming from right-wingers complaining that Al Franken's new liberal radio show is getting too much publicity. One such complaint comes from Hugh Hewitt setting up the (false, to me) premise that if the show doesn't succeed, it can only be because America really isn't interested in that message.

Why I think that's a false premise: A radio show can succeed or fail for any of a number of reasons, including whether or not the parent company can clear enough powerful stations. Most new radio endeavors do fail, regardless of their political message, and some take years to become viable. The odds are that Franken's show will tank, at least at first, because too many established radio franchises have all the key stations locked up. There are plenty of cities where it and the rest of the Air America Radio line-up won't be on at all.

Also, Al Franken might not be very good or very effective on radio. A lot of folks who are funny and successful in one venue do not translate well to another medium. There's a skill to being effective on the radio and it often requires years of practice — which Franken hasn't had — in small, unnoticed markets. Rush Limbaugh was on radio for years before he had any sort of following. And now, whatever else you may think of him, he's very good at what he does...very good at keeping people interested and listening. Hundreds of Rush imitators offering the same political rhetoric have failed. There was nothing uncommercial about their message but they didn't have the broadcasting skill to succeed.

Years ago, I did a TV show with Vince McMahon and a batch of W.W.F. wrestlers including Hulk Hogan and "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. Piper was the big star at the moment despite the fact that, by his own admission, he wasn't much of a wrestler. He wasn't huge, he wasn't brawny, he couldn't even lift his opponents off the mat...but he sure could fill arenas. I remember McMahon (who certainly knows his industry) remarking that Roddy was a star because of his showmanship. It was easy, Vince said, to find a guy who was 6'10" with rippling muscles and the ability to do all the physical moves. It was rare to find someone who could work the crowd as well as Piper, getting them fired-up and excited and entertained. It had nothing to do with wrestling and everything to do with selling tickets. I think Talk Radio is the exact same business.

• Posted at 10:27 AM · LINK