If you aren't oversaturated with hearing about Tim Russert, this might interest you. My pal Paul Harris, who chats with interesting people on the radio all the time, chatted many a time with Mr. Russert. On his website, Paul has put up this audio file of one such conversation. It's a good little discussion about Russert's book, his face-offs with controversial public figures and even his appearance as a contestant on Jeopardy!
Paul was on radio in St. Louis for many years, then lost his gig when the broadcasting company did a big economy move. He's lately been bouncing around the country doing a week here, a week there. I'm sure he'll land somewhere soon with a permanent slot — or at least, as permanent as anything can be in radio. I just hope it's on a station I can listen to over the Internet.
We are way too happy to report that the Popeye DVD series is going the distance...at least through the black-and-white cartoons produced by the Max Fleischer studio, plus a few color specials by the same outfit. A couple years ago, if you'd gathered cartoon buffs in a room and asked them to fantasize the ideal DVD release of some vintage animation series, the consensus would have been very much like what we're now getting. The early Fleischer Popeyes were the most-desired cartoons that (then) seemed to not be anywhere on the horizon...and the buffs would have yearned for them to be reissued with sharp restoration, everything in sequence, nothing censored, etc., with just the right bonus material.
Volume 1 came out last July and all I could say was, "Well, blow me down." Sharp restoration, everything in sequence, etc. Apart from the fact that I was in the bonus material, it was perfect.
You can order that first volume from this link and you can pre-order the second, which comes out this week, from this link. The third volume will follow closely. It's currently scheduled for the end of September.
Do not, by the way, get confused. Time Warner Home Video is also bringing out a single-disc this week called Popeye and Friends. This is a batch of the 1978 Popeye cartoons produced by Hanna-Barbera. I'm not including a link for that one because you don't want to order it...but make sure you get the other sets.
Jerry Lewis is famous for saying — in an annoying, high-pitched voice — "Hey, lay-dee!" Right? Of course. You've all heard him say it. So how come some friends of mine who need a clip of him saying this can't find one?
They're watching old Jerry Lewis movies and screening old Jerry Lewis TV shows and they haven't yet been able to find him saying, "Hey, lay-dee!" or even just "lay-dee!"
Do you know where they can find such a thing? Drop me a note if you do. This is for a rather important project.
I hereby withdraw my prediction that the Tony Awards might garner decent ratings on Sunday night. That was based in large part on the erroneous (it turns out) belief that nothing of note would be on opposite it. Now, I find out that Game 5 of the Lakers-Celtics match-up will be on ABC that evening. That's something of note.
My pal Bob Claster is outraged that while the Tony broadcast will include a lifetime achievement award for Stephen Sondheim, they apparently are not clearing the time to do a production number of Sondheim tunes. There will, however, be eleven musical numbers from current shows...including several productions that were shut out from the "Best Musical" nominations. Young Frankenstein, for example, will be represented by Megan Mullally performing the song, "Deep Love," which does not strike me as the kind of number that will cause stampedes to the box office.
I also think the Tonys are missing a bet to not bring on Mel Brooks to present something and complain about his show's paucity of nominations.
I'm not sure the question of who will win matters much to anyone who isn't a nominee, a relative of a nominee or someone whose income might be impacted by a win. Just in case you're in one of those categories: Everyone will be very surprised if Patti LuPone doesn't win for Best Actress in a Musical. She's doing Gypsy but the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical will probably go to South Pacific and its director, Bartlett Sher, will probably win in his category. I'd like to see Xanadu win for Best Musical because I saw it and liked it, but the buzz is favoring In the Heights, which I didn't see.
August: Osage County will win for Best Play, Boyd Gaines and Laura Benanti will win for Featured Actor and Actress (respectively) in a musical, and beyond these, I have no forecasts — although I'm guessing we can expect a couple of jokes about John McCain's age, Gay Marriage in California and fist bumps. Also, there'll be one along the lines of, "Patti LuPone just won for Best Actress but Hillary Clinton is still refusing to concede."
Enjoy the show. I'll be watching via TiVo so I can do a lot of fast-forwarding.
Six minutes of Angela Lansbury in Gypsy. The picture ain't great and there's time code in the way...but come on. It's Angela Lansbury. Thanks to Shelly Goldstein for letting me know about this.
June 15, 2008
