Thursday, September 13, 2007

What's Keeping Them?

According to CourtTV's VerdictClock, the jurors in the Phil Spector trial have been out for almost four days now. As some of you may know, I've made a decision that if that man is acquitted, I'm going on a killing spree. You've got a guy here who's a known looney, who's repeatedly threatened people — especially women who wanted to leave his house — with guns. A woman who was apparently trying to leave his house was shot and Spector staggered outside with the smoking pistol and said, "I think I killed someone." Add to that the fact that the best his side can come up with as a defense is that the lady was (they say) unhappy with her life so she took the opportunity of a visit to Spector's house to kill herself there. And oh, yeah — the chauffeur who heard Spector say that may have misheard because there was the sound of a water fountain nearby.

There's actually more evidence of Spector's guilt than that but that's plenty. So I figure if he doesn't get convicted, no one who's in show business will ever be convicted and I might as well go on a little killing spree...nothing major. I may just off the kid at the Whole Foods Market who doesn't understand what "no mayonnaisse on the sandwich" means, the guy who keeps repainting the house number on my curb without being asked and demanding money, and maybe the network guy who told me the show with the two Japanese ladies couldn't miss. As you can see, I'm not big on Enemies Lists.

But here's the problem. If there's no verdict today, there might be one tomorrow...which would mean the ideal time to start my killing spree would be Saturday. Trouble is, I have plans for the weekend. I can't spare the time to murder three people. I could maybe squeeze in one but what kind of killing spree is that? Wouldn't even make the tabloids. And then Monday and Tuesday, I have meetings all day so that won't work.

This is very annoying. Just what do these people have to discuss in that jury room? Spector's ongoing campaign to top each stupid hairstyle or wig with a stupider one? If they're going to give us a totally illogical, stupid verdict, the first O.J. jury came in with one of those in three hours. If they're going to arrive at an intelligent verdict, they could have done that in half the time. In the words of the eminent philosopher, Larry the Cable Guy, git-r-done! For God's sake.

• Posted at 4:36 PM · LINK

Wood Works

The late/great comic book artist Wally Wood was an amazing creative talent who didn't always work on material worthy of him. His friend and collaborator Bhob Stewart has a weblog that sometimes remembers Woody and on it, he's posted a piece about an Alka-Seltzer print ad that Wood did to much acclaim. He also has a link to a video of a TV commercial based on that ad. Go read it...but also read Stewart's comments on how Wood wasted so much of his talent on unimportant, quick-money jobs. The guy was so much better than so much of what he produced.

• Posted at 1:50 PM · LINK

A Host of Others

A couple of you have written to me, aghast at my remark that "...the Oscars oughta be hosted by a movie star." They are horrified that I seem not to be aware that Johnny Carson, who was not a movie star, was one of the most successful of all Oscar hosts.

Yes, I know. In fact, I thought he did a very good job when he hosted. I still think the Academy Awards ought to be emceed by someone in the motion picture community.

To the seeming contradiction, I would point out a couple of things. One was that Johnny was a TV star in a way that no one else is or perhaps ever will be. He was such a big TV star that it transcended the fact that he was not a movie person. No one around today is on that level. He was also Johnny Carson, a position in show business that remains sadly unfilled since his retirement, despite hollow claims that Dave or Jay or someone else was The New Johnny Carson.

To put it another way: I thought Johnny was wrong for the position but he did it so well that it didn't matter. He did a lot of things that you can't honestly expect anyone else in show business to be able to do these days.

And this is not one of those issues that I feel so strongly about that I'm prepared to defend it to the death. It's just a feeling and no big deal.

• Posted at 1:33 PM · LINK

Recommended Reading

Back in January, that Bush guy in the White House promised us The Surge would achieve a lot of things. So, uh, what did he promise and how much of that has come to pass? Answer: He promised a lot and almost none of it has happened. As this article explains.

But maybe we have to give it another six months. And then another six months. And then another six months...

• Posted at 9:37 AM · LINK

Today's Video Link

When Amos 'n' Andy was a radio show, the main roles were played by the program's creators, Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll. For more than thirty years, these two white guys played beloved black guys on the radio.

In 1951 when it came time to turn it into a TV show, Gosden and Correll stepped aside — what else could they do? — and cast the series with black actors — or "colored people," as they were then called. This was quite a big deal at the time because America loved Amos, Andy and their cronies on the radio, which meant that Gosden and Correll had to convince the viewers that the characters wouldn't be ruined; that they'd still be the same, popular folks. (Another reason that the characters couldn't change is that Gosden and Correll were continuing to do them on the radio, though for a declining audience.)

To this end, the first TV episode started like this. It runs about five minutes and it's Gosden and Correll introducing the actors to an audience that came in to watch the first show and to have their laughs recorded. (This is all explained in a graphic at the beginning.) The casting was actually quite good...especially Tim Moore, who played the Kingfish and stole every single scene in which he appeared. So changing actors wasn't a problem and the show did rather well in the ratings. The problem, which caused it to be yanked off the air after two years, was that the nation was changing in its attitude about minorities, and a lot of folks weren't happy with how the show depicted blacks. The series stopped production at the end of its second season and had a checkered presence in off-network reruns for a short time before disappearing completely.

Here's the film of Gosden and Correll introducing their players. Unfortunately, it doesn't include the explanation that they gave the audience about why they were recasting the parts. We all know why they did it but it would be interesting to hear the phrasing and the rhetoric they used.

• Posted at 12:07 AM · LINK