"Don't ask, don't tell" is history. Kaput. Gone. Dead parrot time. Heck, by some polls, 80% of the country thinks it oughta go. All we have to get through is the little show where right-wing politicians try to wring votes and campaign contributions out of the 20% by telling them, "We can stop this!"
In other, related news: Yet another closeted, gay-bashing Republican legislator has now been outed as gay. To his credit, Roy Ashburn has the decency to admit his lie and to change his tune.
I have this friend named Stu Shostak. That's him above in a photo with Stan Freberg. Stu does many things. He does warm-ups for TV shows. He's a TV historian and archivist and he produces special features about old TV for DVD extras. He also has his own radio station — Shokus Internet Radio — which I plug often on this site. I have been known to trek out to his little studio in Chatsworth, California and guest on Stu's Show, which is the signature program for the station. Each week on Stu's Show, Stu interviews someone who has made great contributions to the teevee medium. Often, they're folks like Freberg, Shelley Berman, Chuck McCann, Pat Harrington, Bonnie Franklin, June Foray or Tom Kennedy. And then when he can't snag a biggie, he has me.
He's now done more than 170 of these two-hour broadcasts. In the past, you had to tune in to his station at specified times to hear them. That is no longer the case. He's just set up a website that will allow you to download mp3 files of many episodes. If you're going to pick one to sample, I would particularly recommend the Shelley Berman one which aired on 9/3/08...but scan the listings and see what grabs you, then grab it. If you're interested in cartoon voices — either the history of the art or how to get into the field — there are some superb episodes about that. There are also discussions about sitcoms, game shows, animation, etc.
At the moment, downloads are free but you're far too decent to take something that valuable and not leave something in return. So if you download a show or two, use Stu's donation link and upload him some cash. It's the right and proper thing to do.
And don't forget! You can still listen to Stu's Show live at its appointed hour on Wednesday afternoons. This Wednesday, his in-studio guest will by Wally Wingert, a talented gent whose voice is heard on dozens of cartoon shows, including The Garfield Show, where he speaks for the cat's owner Jon and gets directed by Yours Truly. Directing Wally Wingert: Easiest job I ever had. The only tough part is that I have to finish the sessions in time for him to run out to his other job, which is announcing for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. You can hear Wally talk about all this and more, this Wednesday on Stu's Show. I'll be listening if only to make sure he doesn't say anything which will cause me to fire him.
Congrats to our pal Tom Richmond (and all the others) who won NCS Awards last night at the annual banquet of the National Cartoonists Society. Tom has all the winners over on this page of his blog.
Dick Cavett recalls what it was like to have to write jokes for the late Art Linkletter back when Art hosted The Tonight Show.
Just to be historical: There was a six-month gap between the last Jack Paar Tonight and Johnny Carson's first. Paar exited on March 29, 1962 and Carson started on October 1. This was not, as Cavett theorizes, because Johnny didn't want to follow Paar immediately, though that may have been fortunate. Carson had several months left on a current contract to host the afternoon game show called Who Do You Trust, spelled with no question mark. Johnny asked for his early release and reportedly, ABC was willing to grant this in exchange for some unknown quid pro quo they wanted from NBC. But the producer of the game show, Don Fedderson, was not. He reasoned that the departure of Johnny would hasten the demise of series...so why let him out?
Since Fedderson refused, Carson did Who Do You Trust for the balance of his contract, sprinkling the broadcasts with occasional jokes about performing under duress or being held hostage. NBC filled Paar's old slot with a rotating array of guest hosts, the first of whom was Art Linkletter. If you want to harp on technicalities, this made Art Linkletter the first host of The Tonight Show.
The series Steve Allen hosted in that time slot was called simply Tonight. He occasionally referred to it as "The Tonight Show" but that was an informal reference. Allen was followed by a short-lived series called Tonight: America After Dark. When that flopped, they brought in Paar and again, the show was called Tonight. They seem to have changed it at some point to Jack Paar Tonight, and then for a year or more, they just called it The Jack Paar Show. Around the time it became official that Paar was soon to depart, they quietly changed it back to Jack Paar Tonight...and then when the guest hosts started, it was The Tonight Show, commencing with Mr. Linkletter.
Eventually, Carson's contract ran out and he took over The Tonight Show. That worked.
His replacement on Who Do You Trust, by the way, was Woody Woodbury, who I wrote about here the other day. Mr. Woodbury kept the ship afloat for a little while. Carson's last episode was September 7, 1962 and with Woody Woodbury at the helm, the show stuck around until December 27, 1963 — not an especially swift demise but Fedderson was probably right that the show needed Johnny.
Somewhere here, I have a scan of a ticket from the Woodbury version of Who Do You Trust but I can't seem to find it. I did come across this — a ticket from Woodbury's talk show of the late sixties. I remember the show as a light, fun affair that its syndicators offered to stations for any conceivable time slot. Some ran it in the morning, some in the afternoon, some in prime time and some in late night. I think its Los Angeles station had it in several dayparts.
May 29, 2010
