Monday, March 26, 2007

Marshall Rogers, R.I.P.

Various comic book news sites (Newsarama, for example) are reporting that artist Marshall Rogers has passed away — at the age of 57 from as-yet unknown causes. I have nothing to add to what is being posted elsewhere. Condolences to his friends and family.

• Posted at 8:04 PM · LINK

Crow Report

I've been telling you people about the Monster Crows that I've been seeing in my area lately. Some of those birds must be three or four hundred pounds and every so often, I see them cracking open a Mazda the same way normal-sized birds break into peanuts. Here, thanks to my pal Dana Gabbard, is an article about the crows. It doesn't mention anything about how huge they're getting but I understand that's because no one wants to alarm the population.

• Posted at 10:59 AM · LINK

Memorial Days

The L.A. Times has a report on last Saturday's memorial service for Richard Jeni. I almost attended this but I'm on a deadline and had to choose between this one or the Sunday memorial for Ron Carey.

At the Carey memorial, a couple of folks were talking about the Jeni memorial, complaining that at least one speaker treated the event like an Open Mike audition of his stand-up act. That is (sadly) a not-uncommon occurrence at show biz memorial services. There always seems to be at least one person at the lectern who forgets about the deceased and talks at length about themselves. As you might expect, it's never the Biggies who do this. It's the folks for whom it's a rare treat to be in front of an audience...especially an audience that contains someone who might give them a big career break. You wish someone would tell them that no one has ever been "discovered" at a funeral.

Someone else was saying the true tragedy of Richard Jeni is that death-by-depression is always curable. I don't think that's so, even with properly administered medication. I'm thinking now of a couple of acquaintances who took their own lives...but those lives were in such disrepair that being depressed was perfectly understandable and maybe even not the least of their problems. The sad, stunning thing about Jeni is that apparently his life wasn't in bad shape. One reader of this site wrote me to suggest that Jeni had cause for gloom; that he wasn't as successful as a Leno or Letterman or Seinfeld and that most of his upcoming bookings were at grindhouse comedy clubs in hick towns. I don't think that's a true picture...and even it was, the man had still attained a stature that most comedians would envy. Based on the success of his recent cable specials, he certainly had offers and opportunities for even better things.

Still, you never know quite what others want out of their lives. I certainly know people who've set impossible goals for themselves, almost to the extent of ensuring their own inability to reach them. Was Jeni that kind of guy? I have no idea and the folks who knew him well don't seem to, either. I suspect that's why a lot of them went to that memorial service...to see if they could get a clue or two towards solving that riddle.

• Posted at 10:23 AM · LINK

Today's Video Link

At the end of every episode of the old game show, What's My Line?, there was the famous Mystery Guest segment for which the panel would don blindfolds and attempt to guess the identity of some celebrity. Over the years, hundreds of stars from the world of show business and sports signed in, then attempted to disguise their famous voices while answering the panelists' questions.

The big achievement, of course, was that the show managed to get someone every week. It was done live for most of its existence so it was not possible to delay if someone didn't show or showed up late or even showed up drunk. The producers were quite prepared for this to happen and they had two emergency plans if they were suddenly caught without a Mystery Guest at the crucial moment. One was for the show's Executive Producers, Mark Goodson and Bill Todman, to go on as Mystery Guests. The other was for the show's host, John Daly, to pretend to be a Mystery Guest.

In the show's eighteen year history, they came close a number of times to using the first of these fallback plans. At least twice, Goodson and Todman were backstage, waiting to "enter and sign in, please" when the actual Mystery Guest made a last second appearance. (Goodson and Todman did go on as Mystery Guests a couple of times for anniversary episodes but these were planned, not because someone hadn't shown up.) The idea of Daly as Mystery Guest occurred to a lot of people over the years and it was constantly suggested to the program staff. They agreed it would be funny but wanted to save it for the night when it might be needed.

When it came time to select a Mystery Guest for the final broadcast on September 3, 1967, someone realized there was no point in saving the idea for the future. The show had no future. It was also, obviously, appropriate for the last show. So Daly pretended to be a Mystery Guest, attempting to stump a panel that consisted of Martin Gabel, Arlene Francis, Steve Allen and Bennett Cerf. Let's see how he did...

• Posted at 1:02 AM · LINK