Monthly Archives: April 2009

Starlog, a magazine which has been covering the world of science-fiction and fantasy for 33 years, has announced the "temporary cessation" of its print edition and a shift to an Internet-only presence, at least for a while. I have no inside info here but I would imagine that its many contributors and fans are taking "temporary cessation" to mean what it usually means in the publishing world: "Cancelled, probably forever." I can't think of too many publications that ever left the newsstands and returned, at least under the same ownership. Issue #374 is the last in the paper format and from here on, they'll try and make a go of it online.

I wish them luck. I only followed the magazine intermittently but whenever I picked up a copy, I was struck by generally smart, well-researched reporting that didn't pander. When you're writing about current fantasy movies and TV shows, there's a temptation to cater to the geeky element that such enterprises usually attract…to focus, as one of my friends once put it, on the Spock ears and not on the actor wearing them. Starlog sold to that crowd without, I'd like to think, insulting or losing those who like their journalism with a few more ounces of dignity. I always especially liked their habit of focusing on the so-called "little people" on a film or program — behind-the-scenes folks and supporting players who have much to offer even if they haven't the marquee value.

Presumably, this approach will continue so you might want to keep an eye on their website. And my buddy Lee Goldberg, who pretty much launched his career writing for Starlog, has some thoughts. I fear we're going to be saying goodbye to a lot of hard copy before '09 is out.

For those of you still toying with the idea of attending the Comic-Con International in San Diego this July…

The four-day passes are sold out. Saturday is sold out. Friday will be sold out soon. Thursday and Sunday will follow. Long before the convention convenes, tickets will be as scarce as Dick Cheney supporters. Amtrak train reservations to S.D. may also be hard to come by.

Last year, I got an awful lot of calls and e-mails from folks asking if I could get them into the con. Don't make me say no to you. Get your tickets now while there are still tickets to get.

I'm not going to embed it but if you'd like to see Lawrence O'Donnell kick the derriere of Pat Buchanan in a debate, here's a YouTube link. The topic is whether a Catholic University should invite a president (in this case, Barack Obama) to speak there even though he is pro-choice about abortion.

Here's another photo that I found and didn't recall I'd taken. This is at the 1977 San Diego Comic Convention — or whatever they were calling it that year. It changed names but it was the annual event we now know as Comic-Con International. This was taken by the pool at the El Cortez Hotel, back when congoers had the opposite problem: You could get a hotel room. If you ever stayed at the El Cortez, you know why that was not a good thing.

The gentleman at the left is Don Rico, a Golden Age comic book writer-editor who went on to quite a career as a novelist and screenwriter. Don was a good friend of mine and he's a person I still miss a lot. The gent at right is Harvey Kurtzman who was, as any fool can tell you, the founding editor/creator of MAD and of many fine comics that didn't use the word, "Potrzebie."

As you can see, this was taken by the pool. Shortly after I snapped it, a young lady in brief swimwear ran up to Kurtzman, thrust her chest in his face and asked if he didn't think she'd be perfect to play his character Little Annie Fanny in a movie. If you went solely by the chest, she was probably qualified. As much as I loved Don Rico, I wish I had a photo of Harvey with the woman instead of with him. Maybe there's one in the slide boxes I haven't opened yet.

Are you familiar with the famous Soupy Sales Naked Lady incident? It's one of the more famous things to happen on a kid's show on live TV. Ed Golick, who seems to be the world's foremost authority on All Things Soupy, has written a little article about it and put up a clip of the famous footage.

Do you know the name of Robie Lester? Probably not. But if you're anywhere near my age and you ever listened to Disney records, you heard her. Here's an article that will tell you all about this fine actress.

Up until the day I got my first digital camera, I used the kind that affixed images to this thing called film. When I was shooting black-and-white, I used the kind of film that yielded negatives that could be turned into prints. And when I was shooting color, I sometimes used the kind that easily converted to prints but more often used the kind that you'd turn into slides. As a result, I have thousands of slides of friends, conventions, friends at conventions, family members, events I attended, etc.

My last slide projector died some time in the late eighties and I never got around to replacing it. As a result, my slides sat in boxes in a closet, generally neglected and forgotten. Isn't that how we all wind up, sooner of later? Sitting in a box in the closet, generally neglected and forgotten?

Recently though, I hauled them out, shuffled through the stacks to select a few hundred that seemed to warrant preservation and took them to a place that converts slides to digital images. Some came out not so great but some are terrific…and there are images in there that I even forgot I took.

The above pic totally surprised me. It's from one of the funniest moments I ever witnessed, a scene I described in this column. In case you're all clicked-out for the day and don't want to go read that piece, I'll summarize…

It took place at the world premiere for the movie, Flesh Gordon. This is around July of 1974 and I am there, covering the event for The Monster Times, a tabloid with at least as much dignity as The New York Post. Buster Crabbe, who played Flash ("Flash" with an "a") Gordon is present…for reasons no one in the audience can fathom. Mr. Crabbe does not seem able to fathom them, either. Equally inexplicable is the decision to delay running the movie and to have famed "psychic detective" Peter Hurkos come up and give a reading to Mr. Crabbe and to actor Jason Williams who has the misfortune to be starring in the film we are about to see.

To find out what happened next, you'll have to read my article. Basically, Mr. Hurkos did not convince anyone in the room that he had any psychic powers. I don't happen to believe anyone does…and was very pleased, by the way, when this article got a fan letter from James Randi, and a request to reprint it on his site. But that night, watching Hurkos stammer and perspire and get every single thing he "saw" wrong, would have convinced Sylvia Browne that E.S.P. is a fraud and a half.

I recall laughing my ass off at the "psychic reading" but I didn't remember taking the photo. As you can see, Mr. Crabbe doesn't look too thrilled with any of it and neither does Mr. Williams.

Anyway, I wanted to share the picture with you and I'll be sharing more as I dig through my new library of pix.

I agree with everything in this piece by Jerry Beck about how 3-D movies are an overhyped fad that will soon dissipate. Jerry's especially right that one of the motives in making them is to encourage movie theaters to go digital.

My comrade Aaron Barnhart complains that the NBC Tonight Show Experience webpage is missing someone. In its celebration of Tonight Show hosts — Steve Allen, Jack Paar, Johnny Carson, Jay Leno and the incoming Conan O'Brien — the name of Ernie Kovacs is omitted. Mr. Kovacs was the regular Monday-Tuesday host for several months late in the Allen era. Researchers don't seem to concur how long Kovacs did it but he did it. Shouldn't, Aaron wonders, his name and face be up there, too?

I dunno about this. Maybe. But it does raise the question: If you include Ernie Kovacs, shouldn't you also include Joan Rivers? She was the Monday host and did many full weeks, probably totaling a lot more broadcasts than Ernie Kovacs did. I've never seen anyone mention her in a list of past Tonight Show hosts, nor do they date Leno's stint from when he began sitting in for Carson on a non-temp basis. If Jay had not gotten the job after Johnny left, he would still have hosted more Tonight Shows than Jack Paar ever did.

And hey, what about the hosts of the short-lived Tonight: America After Dark that filled that time slot between the going of Allen and the coming of Paar? That was a different format but it was called, at least in part, Tonight. Raising this question would force us to define the program in question. Steve Allen hosted a show called Tonight (just Tonight, not The Tonight Show) that ran in the late night slot on NBC. So did Paar. The programs had somewhat different formats and staff. What makes them both the same show is the name and the approximate hour…and if that's the definition, then the flop that came between them pretty much qualifies too, doesn't it?

In which case, why not list Jack Lescoulie and Al "Jazzbeaux" Collins as past Tonight hosts? They weren't even guest hosts or Monday hosts. Lescoulie was the permanent, every-night host of Tonight: America After Dark and when he quit/was fired, Collins took over for the rest of the run. I actually met Mr. Jazzbeaux once — I'll do a post one of these days telling that story — and he was quite rankled that his name was always missing when folks listed past Tonight hosts.

Getting back to Joan for a second: I suppose the reason some would argue she shouldn't be listed as a past Tonight host is that she was identified as a Guest Host. Johnny's name was still on the show and the opening announce said she was sitting in for him. But is that more significant than the sheer number of times she hosted that program? Isn't what makes you a Tonight Show host the mere fact that you hosted The Tonight Show? And how sure is anyone that Ernie Kovacs wasn't billed as Steve Allen's guest host? I don't think any of those shows still exist.

Okay, I've officially driven this topic into the ground, taking it way too far. That's all I have to say. Goodbye.