Kliph Nesteroff is a writer/blogger who appreciates a lot of the same stuff I do...and since you come to this site, you may be of the same odd bent as us. Kliph and I share an interest in old comedians and back in '04, he did (and has now posted) an interview with Woody Woodbury. Mr. Woodbury was a bawdy comedian who went legit...and of course, by "bawdy," I mean he told jokes that you could now feature on Nick Jr. But back in the late fifties and early sixties, what he did was deemed a teensy bit naughty or racy so he played clubs and made "party" records.
There were a lot of comics who did that and Woodbury was one of the few to break out of that ghetto. He got himself into television is what he did, plus he also had a showy role in the legendary beach party movie (which was actually more of an infomercial for Pepsi-Cola), For Those Who Think Young. In TV, he's the guy who replaced Johnny Carson on Who Do You Trust when Johnny left that quiz program to host The Tonight Show. Later, Woodbury had a syndicated talk show of his own for a time.
I have several of his albums and they're pretty funny. Most of those "adult" records weren't that funny...and weren't even that "adult." But Mr. Woodbury, unlike so many of his peers, came across as likeable and rascally. I'm glad Kliph tracked him down and got him to talk and I wanted to link to the interview so you could get a look at it. Woody Woodbury also has his own website which sells CDs of those old albums, offers some online audio clips and tells you more about his history.
I selected a photo of Gary Coleman when he was young and cute. That's a much nicer way to remember him...not as the former child star who'd outgrown that job description and never found another one that fit. I was saddened to read that he'd died. Then again, I was saddened by darn near every news item I read about him the last few decades.
Gary was on a show I wrote for Sid and Marty Krofft around 1979, around the time Diff'rent Strokes was riding high in the ratings and the kid was a superstar. We also had Ron Howard on that show and it was impossible not to make comparisons. Ron was a former child star who'd gone on to become a current adult star, and he was also starting to direct movies. Gary was a current child star who...well, no one imagined he'd fall so far but even then, there was a sense that it wasn't going to end well. I'm not sure I can explain it except that Gary was a star not because of what he did (i.e., act) but because of what he was. You just knew he wasn't going to grow into his stardom.
When I hear Gary Coleman's name, I think of how angry and frustrated Joe Barbera was one day. Joe was the undisputed master of the "pitch." One of the reasons Hanna-Barbera produced so many poor shows was that Joe could sell anything, which he often managed by modifying the product on the fly, quickly molding it into whatever he sensed the buyer would buy. He might well walk into your office with a good idea to sell but if you weren't receptive to that and had some notion of what you did want, Joe could instantly reshape his idea into that — whatever it was and however unworkable.
Usually, he pitched to network execs and sponsors. The day I'm recalling, he came back from having to pitch to a 14-year-old boy who looked like he was twelve. Gary Coleman had a committment from NBC to star in a Saturday morning cartoon show. If Hanna-Barbera wanted the job of producing that show, J.B. had to come up with a proposal that Gary liked. So Barbera swallowed his pride, grabbed up a pile of show ideas (some of them, probably pretty good) and went over to Gary Coleman's home or office to "pitch."
Barbera got the deal. Barbera always got the deal. But first, he said, he had to listen to about an hour of little Gary Coleman telling him how they should rerun Space Ghost, how Gary didn't like the Godzilla cartoons, how Gary thought Scooby Doo was getting stale, etc. Then he had to sit there as Gary rejected pitch after pitch, lecturing J.B. on how to create a good cartoon show. Finally, Gary described his ideas for a show and Barbera spun and mixed-and-matched and formed Gary's ideas into something that might fly...but it was a painful process. Eight months later, The Gary Coleman Show debuted on NBC...produced by Hanna-Barbera. Joe hated the show and would sometimes cite it as the lowest moment in his studio's history. But I always thought what he really hated was the pitch meeting.
If you've always wanted to try the Koo Koo Roo restaurant chain, you'd better hurry. We've been predicting its demise here for a few years and — sad to say — it's coming true. Once upon a time, there were more than twenty Koo Koo Roos in or around Southern California plus a few in other states. Two years ago, they were down to 13 outlets in Southern California and none in outlying areas. Today, there are three: One in Santa Monica, one in West Hollywood and one over on Larchmont.
Not that long ago, Koo Koo Roo was acquired by a company called Magic Brands LLC, which also runs the Fuddruckers burger chain. Last month, Magic Brands filed for bankruptcy protection and agreed to sell most of its assets to a private investment firm called the Tavistock Group. The sale may or may not go through as some Fuddruckers franchisees are reportedly trying to block the transfer...but whatever happens, I doubt Koo Koo Roo will see palmier days. (The press release announcing the closing of ten outlets stated that the remaining three were still profitable and in no danger. We're skeptical.)
A number of restaurant-oriented websites are discussing what went wrong. Koo Koo Roo offered very healthful (and tasty) meals with the convenience and price points of fast food, and some are drawing the conclusion that it's this simple: People these days just don't want cuisine that isn't fried 'n' fattening. And it's easy to leap to that view since the new KFC Double Down is selling well. I'd like to suggest a simpler, more likely reason for the crash of Koo Koo Roo: Their food had become lousy.
I was a big Koo Koo Roo fan. They had no more loyal customer than me...but over the last year or so, I sadly gave them up. Obviously, I was not the only one. Their chicken, ostensibly the same recipe, had become tasteless. Their delicious side dishes all seemed like they'd been in the display case since my previous visit. It took me several disappointing visits to realize that I wasn't just hitting them on a bad day. Someone really had let the quality plunge that far. And I usually went to the Larchmont one, one of the three they say is still turning a profit. How bad was the food at the ones that went outta business?
That's about all I have to say on the topic. They used to have great meals and they were successful. Then they didn't and they closed down. That's what happened with Koo Koo Roo. Don't listen to anyone who gives you any other reason for their downfall.
I linked to a slightly different version of this three years ago. It's the trailer for a documentary about Irv Benson, the last surviving burlesque comic. In the eighties and early nineties, Irv played in Vegas and Reno and I was known to drag friends to shows of varying shabbiness to watch the old pro perform, usually in tandem with the last surviving burlesque straight man, Dexter Maitland. Dexter is no longer with us but Irv's still around and we're still waiting for this film about him and his life...
The Comic-Con International has added more special guests to this year's roster, including the return of Stan and Hunter Freberg. Last year, they ran out of time with a presentation about Stan's amazing career. So this year, we get Part Two.
As usual, I will be hosting eighty-seven million jillion panels down there. Details to come.
May 27, 2010
