Friday, May 6, 2005

Herb Sargent, R.I.P.

One of the great TV comedy writers, Herb Sargent, died this morning at the age of 81. Mr. Sargent had a long list of credits, some of which are itemized in this obit, but two biggies were That Was the Week That Was and the original Saturday Night Live. When Lorne Michaels assembled his first writing staff, he hired a lot of creative people who'd never written television before...plus one guy who had to show them how it was done. Herb Sargent was that one guy, and he was widely credited with teaching everyone there how to write and sharpen a script.

The last fourteen years, he had served as President of the Writers Guild of America, East. As you may know, WGAe is currently involved in a Tong War with the Writers Guild of America, West. Sargent was at the nexus of that battle and its associated lawsuits, and I'll bet no one has the slightest idea how his passing will impact matters except that, knowing the way WGA squabbles usually go, it'll probably make things worse.

• Posted at 3:57 PM · LINK

How I Spent Last Evening

Took the lovely Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Maltin to see the May edition of Totally Looped, a clever show of improv comedy that is done but once a month up in Hollywood. Here's a report I filed eleven months ago about this fun enterprise. Everything I said then is still true, especially the parts about it being very funny. You can find out about the June performance and all thereafter at the Totally Looped website, which looks a lot like this.

• Posted at 10:28 AM · LINK

Recommended Reading

Over on Salon, Joe Conason summarizes the recently-unearthed British memo that sure seems to prove there was a lot of lying done to justify the U.S. invasion of Iraq. You may (I'm not sure) need to register or watch ads to read the whole article but here's a taste...

What the minutes clearly show is that Bush and Blair secretly agreed to wage war for "regime change" nearly a year before the invasion — and months before they asked the United Nations Security Council to support renewed weapons inspections as an alternative to armed conflict. The minutes also reveal the lingering doubts over the legal and moral justifications for war within the Blair government.

It's kind of amazing how the standards keep changing for what constitutes a scandal in this country. They investigated Travelgate but they won't investigate this.

• Posted at 10:20 AM · LINK

Getting the Finger

As announced in this news release, I have agreed to be part of a five-person "jury" (along with Denny O'Neil, Jules Feiffer, Roy Thomas and Jerry Robinson) that will decide on a new trophy — the Bill Finger Award, to be presented at this year's Comic-Con International and every one thereafter. Jerry convinced the necessary folks that it would be a good idea to honor someone for a lifetime contribution to the art/craft (take your pick) of writing comic books. It's also, of course, a good way to remember the late Mr. Finger, who wrote an awful lot of comics that were much better than his financial compensation indicated...plus, we can all make "finger" jokes. I think it's long overdue.

• Posted at 8:44 AM · LINK

Stand a Little Straighter...

If you belonged to the old Merry Marvel Marching Society in the sixties, or if you longed to belong, you might enjoy Terrence Brady's article on that august organization. For those who don't know, the M.M.M.S. was a mail order deal where you could "join" (i.e., buy a membership kit for) the official fan club for Marvel Comics. There was a certain charm to the endeavor, courtesy of Stan Lee, even though the Merry Marvel Marchers never marched anywhere.

Also, fans of that era's Marvel Comics may be interested in Fred Hembeck's current column. In it, I correct him about a 1964 Marvel oddment and prove that there's nothing too trivial for some of us comic buffs.

In other news, Al Nickerson is posting a series of articles about The Creator's Bill of Rights, a 1988 brainstorm by a number of prominent comic book makers. My feeling about it, then as now, is that I agree totally with the goal and overall mission, but not necessarily with the methodology. (And I'm not sure I don't feel the same way about ACTOR, a charity set up to aid veteran comic book creators who are financially struggling.)

• Posted at 12:34 AM · LINK