As I've occasionally mentioned here, we're currently in production on the second season of The Garfield Show — and be careful if you click on that link because loud audio may start automatically once you get there. This is a new animated series that is airing in many countries around the world. I am assured that this one, soon, will be among them. Today I was in a recording studio for much of the day playing Voice Director, mostly on scripts I wrote for said series. Here's who we had in today doing the voices I was directing...
Back row, left to right: Frank Welker (voice of Garfield and darn near everything else on this planet), me (looking like I didn't get much sleep the night before), Laura Summer (enchanting voice actress) and Wally Wingert (voice of Garfield's owner, Jon). Wally, by the way, is the announcer on The Jay Leno Show.
Front row, left to right: June Foray (legendary voice of Rocky the Flying Squirrel, among zillions of other credits), Stan Freberg (master satirist, cartoon voice and personal hero), Jason Marsden (fine actor and the voice of Nermal on our show) and Gregg Berger (yet another fine actor who, among his many credits, barks for Odie.) Gregg, by the way, will be a guest this weekend at the Mid-Ohio-Con in Columbus, Ohio and he and I are doing a panel on cartoon voice work on Sunday.
And may I just say what a personal thrill it is to work with June Foray and Stan Freberg? If you're anywhere near my age — physically, 57; emotionally, 12 — you may have some sense of how important these two folks were to many a childhood, especially one like mine. I've worked with them individually before many times. But between takes when they started lapsing into dialogue from St. George and the Dragonet, a record they did that I've played eighty thousand times in my life...well, that's not something you can ever get jaded about. I hope.
It's really annoying at a play when some audience member's cell phone goes off. Here, we see how Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig deal with that happening not once but twice in a recent performance of A Steady Rain on Broadway.
I must shamefully admit that I once had my phone go off during a show — a performance of the Follies revival a few years ago, also on Broadway. I had turned the thing off but it was in my shirt pocket and I guess when I folded my arms, I bumped it back on. Fortunately, our seats were far enough from the stage that the actors didn't hear it and get thrown. But I was so mortified that I didn't just quickly turn it off. I pulled the back of the phone off and yanked out the battery.
That was my old cell phone and for the rest of the time I had it, when I was somewhere one should not ring, I pulled out the battery. When I upgraded, I made sure to get one that was less likely to power up by accident...and when I go to a show now, I put it on "silent" and then turn it off. Just in case.
Here's what happened with Mr. Jackman and Mr. Craig. And by the way: The person whose phone went off was not the most flagrant disruptor of the rules that day. The person taking this video was.
Eight people wrote me in response to this musing I posted about Roman Polanski's situation. Oddly enough, seven of the eight opened their correspondence by saying something like, "I'm sure you've received a million messages about this by now." But I only got the eight. If I post here that I like one late night host more than another, I get at least thirty.
One person thought I'd written that there was really nothing wrong with statutory rape. This proves an old saying that I just made up, which is that one out of every eight people on the Internet cannot read. Half of the eight agreed with me, including two who identified themselves as one-time rape victims and one who said he was the father of one.
All of those who took issue with my view (all three of them) asked how, in my opinion, Polanski had "suffered" for what he did. Well, as I understand it, he did spend 42 days in prison. He did pay more than a million bucks to his lawyers and an undisclosed — but probably hefty — amount to the victim. He did effectively ban himself from this country. He did do considerable damage to his career. And he sure did an awful lot of damage to his name. People who can't name one movie he ever made can tell you, "Oh, yeah...he's the creep who raped an underage girl."
That may not all add up to a proper punishment for what he did but it's also not nothing. Moreover: At one point, both the judge in the case and the victim's family were quite willing to settle for even less. There was a plea bargain agreement for him to get off for just an apology and the time he'd already served. The judge signed off on it. The victim's reps signed off on it. Then the judge appeared to be reneging and that's when Polanski fled the country. (That judge has since passed away but the prevailing wisdom seems to be that he was seized with a desire for the attention that would come from presiding over a big, showy celebrity-laced trial.)
Two of the three who disagreed with me said that it was irrelevant that the victim — now, of course, a grown woman with a family — did not want Polanski prosecuted. "The victim doesn't get to decide," one wrote. Maybe not but her feelings are also not irrelevant, especially when she says that to pursue this matter would cause her and her loved ones greater discomfort than if we all put it behind us. Her name, by the way, is Samantha Geimer and she has written a couple of articles about the matter, urging everyone to just let it go. Here's one she wrote back when Polanski was nominated for an Oscar — which he later won — for The Pianist.
I've probably reached the extent of my interest in this matter except for the following suspicion. I think those who are rooting for Polanski to be dragged back here, treated like a common rapist and sent back to his old cell at Chino have false expectations. Between the victim's expressed wishes, the time that has passed, the judicial and prosecutorial misconduct alleged in the original case and the international outrage, I doubt Mr. Polanski will do any additional time. That is, if he's even extradited. All that will happen is that the state will spend a ton of money that could be put to more pressing matters, Ms. Geimer will have an old wound reopened and Polanski will look like a victim. I don't think any of those are things that ought to happen, especially that last one.
(Now, watch: I'm going to get sixteen more e-mails, two of which will think I'm trivializing the crime of drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl...)
Before the corporate takeovers, hotels in Vegas were owned 'n' operated by an array of colorful, seat-of-the-pants kinda guys. One of the last died on Friday. His name was Bob Stupak and while I never met him, I played at his casino (won, too) and followed his exploits in the press. Here's the official obit for him and here's a remembrance from a reporter who often wrote about him.
Stupak is the guy who, it is said, once acted on a sudden whim and signed the team of Marty Allen and Steve Rossi to a lifetime contract to play his hotel, Vegas World. It was an impulse that occurred over dinner with them and he put it in writing...on a napkin. This probably would have been an unwise move even back during the month or so when Allen & Rossi were the hottest comedy team in show biz...but Stupak made the offer and it was accepted in 1990 when the two had split up and neither was working much. As it turned out, the "lifetime contract" was good for about four years. Then for a while, Rossi played the showroom without Allen. Given that crowds weren't flocking to see Rossi with Allen, you could imagine how much business he did as a solo.
That was at Vegas World, a charming dump of a hotel which was later cleaned up and refurbished into the Stratosphere. When it was Vegas World, it had the most garish, mind-numbing interior decor you ever saw in your life — a lot of bad science-fiction imagery (robots, starships) covered with sequins. The dealers all wore ties that said, "Kiss me...I'm Polish," even if they were Oriental. I once chatted with a black lady while she was dealing me some pretty good Blackjack hands and she said the hardest part of her job was dealing with remarks about the tie...and drunks who wanted to act upon its suggestion.
Stupak is credited with inventing "Double Exposure 21," a variation on Blackjack where all the cards, including the dealer's, are dealt face-up. Gullible gamblers think that's great; that they can't lose if they can see the dealer's hole card. But of course, the rules and payoffs have been adjusted so that the odds are even worse than plain vanilla Blackjack. That he created it tells you a lot about him and that people play it tells you a lot about gamblers.
That's about all I have to say about the man. Just couldn't let his passing go unmentioned. Vegas wasn't as classy and fancy back when it was run by people like Bob Stupak. But it was a lot more fun...and a lot cheaper.
This is another photo of something Sergio drew on the wall of his art exhibit — the one I wrote about in this post. The outlet was just sitting there in the wall and he decided it needed to be made funnier.
This is a fan video that someone made regarding Jack Lord and the TV series, Hawaii Five-O. The visuals are of no consequence but the audio's worth a listen. It's a recording of the theme with lyrics, performed on a old record by Sammy Davis Jr. It's an example of the kind of work he did that led to a famous roast line — I forget who uttered it but it was so spot-on that it was hilarious — "You know, Sammy...you're allowed to turn things down."
I don't know the entire history of this song. A gentleman named Morton Stevens, who did music for the show, composed it, including the words I believe. I'm not sure if he wrote it for the series or if it was something he already had around and used for that purpose. But there were a number of recordings of it, including this one by Sammy and another one with the lyrics as performed by Don Ho. It sure was a great TV theme...as an instrumental. Most TV show themes have lyrics even if they were never used on the air.
The Mission: Impossible lyrics are pretty awful, though not as bad as the Odd Couple lyrics. At one time or another, Sammy Davis probably performed them all. Somewhere here, I have a recording of him doing the theme from My Mother, the Car, including the second stanza, which was never heard on the show. (It begins, "Well, everything my daddy never was / That's what she wants me to be / She's taken her place / As the fifth member of my small family.")
Every so often, I catch an old Hawaii Five-O in rerun. Some of them are quite good in spite of their repetitive nature. Years ago, I wrote this article about that. Here's Sammy...
September 29, 2009
