Fred and Barney selling Welchade Grape Drink. Alan Reed does the voice of Fred. The dinosaur's sounds, the dialogue by the vendor and the voice of Barney all come from Mel Blanc. More than that ye need not know...
We have long since lost our sense of amazement that there seems to be no paying gig beneath the dignity of William Shatner. In fact, we have a certain admiration for the fact that the man doesn't take himself that seriously. In that sense, his new project should have much to admire.
David Letterman had Bill O'Reilly on last night in a show taped the previous Monday. If you didn't see it, I'll summarize: Dave was practically yelling at O'Reilly about the Iraq War and how senseless it seems to him to keep getting American soldiers killed for reasons that, to him, don't make any sense. Bill largely avoided engaging the host in direct terms, preferring to joke to the audience that their relationship wasn't as sour as it appeared; that they really went bowling together all the time. To the extent he responded, O'Reilly fell back on his old line of insisting that "geopolitics" are too complicated to be understood by anyone who thinks we could or should just pull out of Iraq. That was not a bad tactic, given how Letterman constantly jokes about how little he comprehends of what's in the news.
It's nice in a way to see David Letterman passionate about anything but if he thought he was influencing the opinions of any significant number of viewers, he's probably wrong. Telling O'Reilly — here's a quote — "You're putting words in my mouth, just the way you put artificial facts in your head" is funny but Letterman also brags that he's never seen O'Reilly's show or read his new book so the insult lacks a certain gravitas.
The bottom line, of course, is that both men got what they wanted. O'Reilly, who's very smart when it comes to moving product, got the plug for that new book and probably looked like a hero to his target audience for being willing to venture into enemy territory. Rush Limbaugh hasn't done that in years...and wasn't even any good at it when his opponents couldn't razz him about his drug use. Letterman got a promotable guest and better than his usual ratings. (He had a 4.0 compared to a 4.2 for a Tonight Show rerun opposite him.)
Anyway, nice to see my old pal Jeff Altman in the guest chair after Bill. I couldn't help think that they consciously decided they had to follow a guest Dave clearly despises with one that he loves. Jeff tried a story about a time he and Dave went to a guy's house so that Jeff could see an old car he might purchase. The telling of the anecdote got a little awkward as Jeff, apparently on the spot, decided he'd better not mention that the fellow selling the car was Jay Leno.
To view a video of the O'Reilly segment (and a fact check on what little Bill did say, as scored by an admittedly Liberal site) go here.
Last year, as reported here, the United States Postal Service announced (and earlier this year, issued) a sheet of postage stamps featuring ten characters from DC Comics. I almost typed "properties from DC Comics" because the images were obviously selected with merchandising considerations in mind. Many fans wondered why one hero was selected over another, and the answer is that at any given moment, the company has reasons to promote one hero over another. Some of those would include making sure the heroines are represented, which is not a bad reason.
To no one's surprise, a pane of Marvel stamps has just been announced for 2007. No specific release date is given in the press release you'll find if you scroll way down this page, but I'm guessing it'll coincide with that year's Comic-Con International in San Diego. One hopes that Marvel will do what DC did, which was to foot the bill to arrange the presence of the artists who are still with us and whose work is depicted on the stamps...or at least, as many of them as were able to attend. In Marvel's case, it won't be as many.
Before they can do that though, we have to correct some of the artist identifications on the press release...and these names are also being printed on the obverse side of the stamps. They have a Sub-Mariner portrait credited to Gene Colan when it's actually by John Buscema. They have a Captain America portrait credited to John Romita when it's actually by Jack Kirby. (That one's off the cover of Tales of Suspense #59, which was done years before Romita came back to Marvel.) I think the Spider-Woman drawing is Romita not Infantino and the Hulk drawing — I'm not sure where it's from — may have been pencilled by John Buscema but the linework and face are definitely John Romita. Some of the cover images are credited to both penciller and inker and some only to the penciller. Joe Sinnott, Frank Giacoia and Syd Shores are therefore among the uncredited. It would be nice to get these right, especially if Marvel's going to spring to get some of these folks — the few who are still with us — out to San Diego.
Also, continuing with my complaints, the art has not been treated well. The ten cover drawings have been squished to fit the stamp proportions. (This was done with the DC stamps but it was not as overt.) Also, there's an art oddity in there...and yes, I know this is quite trivial. The Silver Surfer stamp is a flop. I don't mean it's a failure. "Flop" is the term when a drawing is flipped mirror-image. In this case, it's the cover of Fantastic Four #50. Years ago, someone pulled the drawing — by Jack Kirby and Joe Sinnott — and flopped it to fit some specific composition in an ad or piece of merchandising. It's been used and re-used over and over since then and no one's ever bothered to flip it back or to return to the original. The drawing works that way, of course, but it's a wee bit off in subtle ways.
Lastly, since I'm being an unrelenting kvetch here, I'll complain about one more thing. Marvel has routinely employed some very talented letterers and there are also many wonderful fonts out there that replicate great comic book hand lettering. There is also a very common, awful font called Comic Sans that no one would ever use in a Marvel Comic because it's so ugly and sloppy. Whoever designed these stamps used Comic Sans for the new lettering.
Dan Kravetz sent the following, which is in reference to this item from the other day...
It is correct that Welch's grape products had nothing to do with Robert Welch, who founded the John Birch Society. The Welch's Candy company had little to do with the JBS, either. Robert Welch had been employed by his brother James O. Welch, who owned Welch's Candy, until he retired in 1956. He founded the JBS in 1958. Welch's Candy was acquired by Nabisco in 1963, ending any possibility that consumers of Junior Mints and Sugar Daddies might have been helping to fund the JBS.
Actually, I never thought consumers of Sugar Daddies could do much of anything. The only time I tried one, it tasted like sweet tar and I couldn't get my jaw unstuck for about nine hours. What an awful candy. I could never understand why anyone would buy that when the same stores sold Krackel bars, Peanut M&Ms and Butterfingers. (And watch: I'll get more angry e-mail about my taste in candy bars than I do about my views on the Iraq War.)
It seems odd to write of having a "good time" at a memorial service. I mean, you're in a room filled with people who are only there because of the death of a loved one.
That said, we — his friends — had a good time last Thursday night at the memorial service for Lennie Weinrib. It was fascinating because the speakers ran the gamut — from a gentleman named Tony Monaco who gave Lennie his first acting job...to actor Alan Oppenheimer, a longtime friend who visited Lennie in Chile just two weeks before Lennie died. Sid and Marty Krofft spoke about their long association with Lennie, which even predated their first TV series, H.R. Pufnstuf. (Lennie co-wrote that show and did half the male voices, including that of the title character.) Billie Hayes, who played Witchiepoo on that show, talked about Lennie. Jackie Joseph, who appeared with Lennie in the famous Billy Barnes Revues, talked about Lennie. (Jackie was there with her ex-husband, Ken Berry, who was also in some of those shows.)
Our pal was also remembered by producers (Bonny Dore) and writers (Paul Pumpian) and directors (Wally Burr) and actors (Eddie Carroll and Edie McClurg). Gary Owens spoke eloquently of his friend, Lennie. I suspect Gary could describe a cockfight and sound eloquent but in this case, his affection and respect for Lennie came through loud 'n' clear. A number of Lennie's other fellow voice artists were also present, including June Foray, Bob Bergen, Gregg Berger, Greg Berg, Phil Proctor and Neil Ross. But of course, the most important speaker was our hostess for the evening — and a talented vocal performer, herself — Lennie's first daughter, Linda.
(The Weinrib bloodline seems to have talent chromosomes in it. Linda's kids are following the tradition and Lennie's two daughters in Chile, Grace and Heidi, seem to have it, too. Grace is a successful painter. Heidi has a fine singing career going and was recently a finalist on a Chilean program not unlike American Idol.)
Linda told a wonderful story about her father that I'd heard but forgotten. When Lennie enrolled at U.C.L.A., he was pursuing what was then his goal in life: To become a doctor. He had already begun medical training when, one day, he met a fellow student — a red-headed lady who was there to study acting. She invited him to see her in a play and he did. It was that evening, Linda says, that her father had an epiphany. As she put it, "He realized that you could also make people feel better by making them laugh." A few days later, Lennie switched majors and not only joined the red-headed lady in many of her classes but he became her scene partner, often performing with her.
The red-headed lady couldn't make it to the memorial service but she sent a lovely floral arrangement and a note about how much Lennie had meant to her. Linda didn't find out it was from her until after the ceremony so she couldn't mention it. But if you were there, you might be interested to know that the biggest bouquet was from Carol Burnett.
Before I forget, I'd like to thank Stuart Shostak, Vince Waldron and Earl Kress for helping me whip up a video overview of Lennie's TV and movie career. I'm thanking them the best way you can thank people on the Internet: I've linked their names to their websites.
When I got home — and it took a while because no one wanted to leave — I found an e-mail from a friend of Lennie's. It said, in essence, "I'm not going to be there because memorial services are about death." I suppose some are...but this one was about life. It was a life that ended too soon, true...but it was still quite a life. I hope you heard what we all said, Lennie. I'm not sure if you were in the room but I know you're still somewhere on the Internet.
October 29, 2006
