John Cleese reflects on Fawlty Towers, which went on the air an amazing thirty years ago. There's a short video on there with a moment from the show and a recent line or two by Mr. Cleese. Thanks to Phil De Croocq, who sent the link.
We run so many obits on this site that it's nice when I can report that someone is healthy...
In May of '08, this site and many others reported that the great veteran comic book illustrator Gene Colan was pretty darn sick. A lot of folks rallied to his support with good wishes and even with fund-raising efforts to make some expensive medical treatments available to him. I am happy to report that Gene is now well enough to be back on the convention circuit. He'll be a guest at the Big Apple Con in New York on June 13 and he's a Guest of Honor at the Comic-Con International this July in San Diego. Yay.
Also getting better is the legendary Al Feldstein, who was the writer-editor of Tales from the Crypt and other classic EC Comics, and the editor of MAD magazine for 29 years. Al underwent double-bypass aortic valve replacement (i.e., heart surgery) on April 17 at the world famous Mayo Clinic. He's home now and recovering, and we're happy about that, too.
Contary to popular opinion, comic book editors do have hearts. They don't always use them but they have them.
I'm having a little e-mail problem. Anything sent me in the last 18 hours or so is trapped in an odd void where I can read it but not respond. This should correct itself soon.
I know I've written a lot about Dom DeLuise here but I can't resist sending you to two more links...
Deborah Friedman, who runs a blog called Plus Size Plum, talks about her experiences with the man.
And you've seen me rave about Zero Hour, a play in which my ol' pal Jim Brochu portrays the late Zero Mostel. Well, Dom went to see the play and wrote Jim the nicest letter anyone ever wrote an actor about his performance. Jim's companion Steve Schalchlin (Hi, Steve!) posted it on his blog.
Everything you need to know about Dom is pretty much in these two postings.
The University of Nebraska - Lincoln has a great comic book collection. It's completely made up of educational and government-commissioned comics but it's full of goodies and oddments, including some by some pretty important cartoonists and creators. You can view it online here and download PDFs of the books in question.
I wasn't particularly taken with the White House Correspondents Dinner last night. President Obama's speech was facile and appropriate, though I like him better when he's outclassing his foes. He does that better than engaging them, even in jest. I don't think any politician should get a lot of points for being able to deliver a joke someone else wrote. Several presidents of my lifetime have been pretty good at it and that didn't make them better presidents in any way.
I've enjoyed Wanda Sykes in the past, usually in small doses administered from Mr. Leno's guest chair. She deserves credit for keeping it a little shorter than most do and for not being afraid to do jokes that caused much of the audience to squirm a bit. I suspect a couple of the groaned reactions were feigned and/or a way of saying, "We're going to be hearing a lot of debate about that joke next week." Sitting home, Mr. Limbaugh was probably thrilled that he has something to be outraged about on Monday. If I'd spent my whole career savaging political opponents like he has, I'd look for every possible opportunity to play the victim card. He caters to an audience that will love hearing him lash back at the little black lesbian woman.
One e-mail this morn from a Conservative friend was annoyed that, by his count, she didn't take any shots at all at Obama. What I don't think some Republicans get is that there really aren't a lot of good Obama jokes, at least based on G.O.P. premises. You can mock things like the gifts he's given...and she did. But it's tough to write a joke about how he's a dirty commie socialist who wasn't really born in this country, isn't really Christian and can't say two words without a TelePrompter. For a political joke to work, the audience has to buy at least somewhat into the truth of the criticism and people don't...at least, not yet. The folks in that hotel ballroom last night sure don't, even if some find it financially advantageous to fan such flames.
But come on. 110 days into Bush's presidency, they weren't (yet) making jokes about him being unable to talk or read or being manipulated by Evil Cheney from an undisclosed location, either. In time, the Obama jokes will come. It's just too early for them.
A group of popular (I guess) Japanese singing stars perform "I Could Have Danced All Night" from My Fair Lady. You get the idea no one told the men in this that they were singing lyrics written for a woman? Or that the camera would be on them for part of the instrumental section when they aren't doing anything?
May 11, 2009
