Monday, March 10, 2008

Briefly Noted

Interview with me about my new book, Kirby: King of Comics over at ComicMix. I say a lot of stuff. I always do.

• Posted at 10:05 PM · LINK

Quick Question

Okay, I've lost count. Who's had more shows cancelled now? Tucker Carlson or Dennis Miller?

• Posted at 8:28 PM · LINK

People I'm Glad I'm Not Today

Eliot Spitzer. I don't particularly care about the moral issue of whoring around like that...or at least, I think we have a great many public officials doing things that are vastly more despicable, some of which are even legal. What I do think though if that if your job is to do things like bust call girl rings and you think you can get away with being a client at the same time, you oughta lose your job just for reasons of pure stupidity.

A quick sweep of news sites shows a lot of reports that he'd be announcing his resignation at 7 PM tonight Eastern time. It's that time now, he doesn't seem to be resigning and it would appear those sites are going back and tempering those reports. How long do we think it'll be before they're announcing the resignation and getting it right?

And how happy do we think Larry Craig is about this? It oughta cut the jokes about him by at least two-thirds.

• Posted at 4:08 PM · LINK

Alley Oops!

I used to have a close buddy who worked in aerospace and who was always pestering me to tell him little Show Biz News Items that weren't yet announced...things he could tell his co-workers and impress them. Every so often, I'd hear about some show being cancelled or some casting change before it became common knowledge. I'd tell him and then he'd tell all the folks at McDonnell-Douglas and he enjoyed this very much.

So now you remember when Shelley Long left Cheers? That was a big news story for a week or so there, and many were wondering who'd replace her. I was talking to one of the story editors on that series during this period (Cheri Steinkellner, who later became one of the producers there) and she told me that they'd just signed Kirstie Alley to more or less fill the slot Ms. Long had vacated. This had not been officially announced but it was not a secret and Cheri said it was okay to pass it on to l anyone I liked.

A few minutes later, with impeccable timing, my Aerospace Pal called to badger me for "inside info" he could spread at work. I told him about Kirstie Alley and he was ecstatic. It was a Sunday and I think he wanted to race to the office and camp outside so he could tell each and every employee as they arrived the next morning. I was thanked profusely.

Monday night, he called to thank me again. He'd told the news to everyone at the plant and had impressed the pants off of most of them. A few had questioned his info and without telling them how he knew it, he staked his reputation on it being true...and even staked some cash. Two co-workers had bet him a few dollars that it wasn't true and he'd taken the wager because he knew it was so. "Well," I said. "I'm glad you'll be making some bucks off Kirstie Alley's new contract." And I suddenly heard him cough and gasp.

"Kirstie Alley?" he moaned. "Did you tell me Kirstie Alley was joining the cast of Cheers?"

"Sure," I replied. "What did you tell everyone today?"

He coughed again and said, "I told them Ally Sheedy was joining the cast of Cheers."

• Posted at 10:54 AM · LINK

A Thought Before Bedtime

Just finished a script and e-mailed it to the producer. You know, if I hadn't had to set all my clocks ahead over the weekend, I could have finished it at 4 AM.

Good night, Internet!

• Posted at 5:08 AM · LINK

Today's Video Link

This clip is just thirty seconds from a Three Stooges short but it's an interesting thirty seconds.

As we all learned in college, the third member of that famed comedy trio kept changing over the years. Moe and Larry were the constants but different men at different times held the exalted status of Stooge #3. Shemp (brother of Moe) was originally in that slot when they were a stage act. He left and was replaced by another brother, Jerry, who shaved his head and called himself Curly. I always liked the others better but even I have to admit that Curly was, out and away, the most popular when the Stooges began making movies.

In 1946, Curly began having prolonged periods of illness, and Shemp began filling in for him during the team's occasional live stage appearances. In May of that year, Curly suffered a stroke and Shemp replaced him in the films in what was intended to be a temporary arrangement during the recovery period. This did not happen. Jerry/Curly never got to a point where he and his doctors felt he could resume performing and he died in early 1952 without ever returning to the screen...

...with one exception. In the third Stooges short with Shemp, Curly made a brief cameo appearance. It was called Hold That Lion, and it was released in 1947. The same footage was also used in another Stooge film, Booty and the Beast, released one year after Curly's death. Ironically, Moe, Larry and Shemp had just begun filming the new scenes for that short when they got the news that Curly had passed. Production was shut down and it resumed a few months later.

Our clip today is that scene...the only on-screen appearance to my knowledge of Moe Howard, Shemp Howard and Curly Howard, all together. It came about, they say, because Curly was visiting the set and someone thought it might bolster his sagging spirits. The scene was written on the spot and one can only wonder what audiences of the day thought. Even though he'd let his hair grow to human length, Curly was pretty recognizable. I'm sure some moviegoers assumed Shemp had taken over because the other guy had died...and now, here the other guy was in another film. Without further delay, we bring you the relevant half a minute of that film...

• Posted at 12:33 AM · LINK