Sunday, January 8, 2006

It's Also Larry Storch Day! (Maybe)

That's right: Two for the price of one! Not only is today the 80th birthday of Soupy Sales but Larry Storch is 83 years old today...or maybe tomorrow. Depending on which source you consult, the star of TV's F Troop was born either January 8 or 9. There's no doubt though that he's one of the funniest comic actors to ever work in television...and did you know he also did a lot of cartoon voice work in the sixties? He was on Tennessee Tuxedo and The Groovy Goolies and a whole batch of other shows. I even brought him in once to do some voices on Garfield and Friends, partly because I thought he'd be great (he was) and partly because I just wanted to meet him and tell him how terrific I always thought he was in everything.

Legend has it that Storch's big break came when he got a role on a radio show starring Frank Morgan, who was best known for playing The Wizard of Oz in The Wizard of Oz. Morgan, the story goes, lost his reading glasses during a rehearsal — or in some accounts, just before going on the air live. Storch, who was a fine mimic, came to the rescue and not only did his own role but also read Morgan's lines in a perfect imitation. (That was his Frank Morgan impression you heard when he voiced Professor Phineas Whoopee on Tennessee Tuxedo.) He went on to a grand career on stage, in clubs, on TV and in the movies. He's still performing, mostly in theater...so happy returns of the day, Larry Storch. Either today or tomorrow.

• Posted at 2:39 AM · LINK

Recommended Reading

Frank Rich on the whole Wiretaps Without Warrants matter. And for what it's worth, I think Rich misses the point on one matter. He writes...

If fictional terrorists concocted by Hollywood can figure out that the National Security Agency is listening to their every call, guess what? Real-life terrorists know this, too. So when a hyperventilating President Bush rants that the exposure of his warrant-free wiretapping in a newspaper is shameful and puts "our citizens at risk" by revealing our espionage playbook, you have to wonder what he is really trying to hide. Our enemies, as America has learned the hard way, are not morons. Even if Al Qaeda hasn't seen "Sleeper Cell" because it refuses to spring for pay cable, it has surely assumed from the get-go that the White House would ignore legal restraints on eavesdropping, just as it has on detainee jurisprudence and torture.

It isn't that the terrorists on whom our nation eavesdrops would assume the White House would ignore legal restraints. It's that it doesn't matter. The warrants that the administration should be getting under the NSA act are secret warrants. The terrorists couldn't possibly know or care if procedure is followed or not.

• Posted at 1:39 AM · LINK

Happy Soupy Day!

Eighty years ago today, a baby was born in North Carolina who was destined to become a TV superstar...and also to get hit in the face with tens of thousands of shaving cream pies. Kids today have no one on television — absolutely no one — they could possibly feel as close to as my friends and I did to Soupy Sales during the years he lit up Los Angeles television. And kids who were the proper age when he worked in Detroit and New York feel the same way, I know. It wasn't just that he did one of those all-too-rare shows that though ostensibly for children held just as much delight for grown-ups. And it wasn't just that he did it without writers or much of a budget or even (much of the time) more than one person in his supporting cast. Soupy was just plain the most fun person to watch on TV when I was eight. He was also, for my classmates and me, a huge influence. We never talked to big dogs or wiseguy salesmen who hurled meringue our way but we did repeat his jokes and even, in our everyday speech, made feeble attempts to repeat his timing. Soupy "connected" with us like no one else I've ever seen on the screen.

Some time back, I wrote this article about him which was reprinted (with my permission, natch) in his autobiography. Beyond that, there isn't much I can say except to wish Soupy a happy 80th. I hear he's bouncing back from some health problems, which is great news. Here's hoping he has a great big cake today and that nobody throws it at him.

• Posted at 1:23 AM · LINK

Great, Scott!

The lovely Carolyn Kelly and I are back from the debut performance of Scott Shaw!'s Oddball Comics presentation at the Acme Comedy Theater in Hollywood. First of all, here are the details on how you can attend. Secondly, attend. If you are anywhere near Los Angeles, get thee to the Acme next Saturday night or a Saturday night not long after. For at least the next few weeks, Scott will be doing his show Saturday night at ten there and those who show up will have a very good time. I laughed a lot and so did everyone around me as Scott displayed bizarre comic book covers from his bizarre collection and delivered incisive, clever commentary. Four stars, two thumbs up, three cheers and tiger for me. End of plug.

• Posted at 1:02 AM · LINK