If the Washington Post poll is to be believed, 56% of Americans support a law that requires all Americans to have health insurance, either getting it from work, buying it on their own, or through eligibility for Medicare or Medicaid. 41% opposes it...but even that number drops by a third when folks who are against it are told that low-income families will receive government subsidies that will help them to afford this insurance that they'd be required to purchase. That's a pretty solid majority of this country that's behind individual mandates.
In other news, Newt Gingrich makes what he calls a "straightforward promise;" that if any of this stuff passes, Republicans will make repealing Health Care Reform a major campaign issue in 2010 and 2012. I can't wait.
Next Monday, The Garfield Show debuts on Cartoon Network in the U.S. of A. This is the all-new series that I've been working on for the last couple of years as a producer, writer and voice director. It began airing some time ago in other countries and did so well that we're already into production on our second season. Cartoon Network begins airing the first season on October 26 and then each episode will run twice a day, Monday through Friday. On my set, the two telecasts are at 7:30 AM and Noon but it'll probably be 10:30 AM and 3 PM where you are. Consult, as they say, your local listings.
The show features Frank Welker as the voice of Garfield, Wally Wingert as Jon, Gregg Berger as Odie and Squeak the Mouse, Jason Marsden as Nermal, Julie Payne as Liz, and Audrey Wasilewski as Arlene. All those folks also speak for other characters, plus they've been joined by a number of guest actors including Laura Summer, Tress MacNeille, Stan Freberg, David L. Lander, Melissa Disney and Susan Silo. The shows were animated by Dargaud Media and Ellipsanime Productions, directed by Philippe Vidal. I tell you all this because unless they've remade the end credits without telling me, they'll be unreadable on your set.
But that's about my only complaint. I was initially leery of CGI animation but as I've come to realize, there's good CGI and bad CGI just like any other kind of animation. I think we got some very good CGI. This guy Vidal really knows how to make cartoons...and that's about all the hard sell I'll give it. Hope you'll catch some of them and I hope you'll enjoy what you catch. On the first episode, you can see what happens when Earth is invaded by people from another planet where everyone looks like a piece of lasagna. And don't think that couldn't happen.
The above is not a photo of Chico, Groucho and Harpo, nor is it a picture of Chico, Frank Ferrante and Harpo. It's actually Chico, Irving Brecher and Harpo. The late Irving Brecher (he died last November at the age of 94) not only wrote two of the Marx Brothers movies but one time when Groucho was ill and publicity pictures had to be taken, they stuck the screenwriter in a Groucho suit and used him in the photos. Brecher also wrote movies that didn't have any Marx Brothers in them — films like Meet Me In St. Louis and Bye Bye, Birdie and he even did a dialogue punch-up on The Wizard of Oz. He created the TV series, The People's Choice and the radio and TV series, The Life of Riley. He worked with all the great comedians but especially Milton Berle. And he was a very funny, clever man.
I have just read his newly (posthumously) published autobiography, The Wicked Wit of the West, which is aptly subtitled, "The last great Golden-Age screenwriter shares the hilarity and heartaches of working with Groucho, Garland, Gleason, Burns, Berle, Benny and many more." I dunno if he's genuinely the last but he did fraternize with all those folks and boy, has he got stories to tell. Some of them, I even believe — stories of how Berle discovered him. It happened when Brecher put a little classified ad in Variety offering to sell "Positively Berle-proof gags. So bad that not even Milton will steal them." Berle just had to hire a guy who'd advertise like that...and from there on, Brecher just kept getting more and more work until he was one of the leading comedy writers of his day.
You can see why since the book oozes humor...and Brecher's memory is pretty good, though a few tales feel invented to me and there are odd factual lapses. For instance, he keeps insisting that Ernie Kovacs was killed in a car accident on his way home from a New Year's Eve party. That had to have been some party because Kovacs died on January 13, 1962. But if you can get past lapses of that sort, you'll find the book hilarious and regret you didn't know its author. I met him briefly on a few occasions and it sure made me wish those occasions hadn't been so few and far between. Here's an Amazon link to order.
Here's an early sixties commercial for Dr Pepper — and by the way, that's how you spell it. They apparently took away the period after "Dr" the same time they revoked his medical license because he'd caused so many people to get cavities and diabetes.
October 21, 2009
