Monthly Archives: April 2018

In the pantheon of columnists I follow, my two go-to guys for war-related stuff are a liberal (Fred Kaplan) and a conservative (Daniel Larison). Neither thinks any good will come from our new air strikes against Syria though Larison seems to me to be the more outraged of the two…

• Read this Kaplan column and then this one and then this one.
• And then read this Larison column and then this one and then especially this one.
• And if you want to get terrified of what may result, read Matt Taibbi.
• In other news, we have a wide array of columns about what an incredible failure Paul Ryan was as Speaker of the House…unless, of course, all that matters to you is that rich people pay less in taxes no matter what it does to the deficit and the social safety net.  Read Matthew Yglesias, Tara Golshon, Jamelle Bouie and (again) Daniel Larison.
• Joe Conason thinks Trump is about to do something very bad to Veterans.
• And Martin Longman finds eerie similarities between Richard Nixon in his last days in office and Donald Trump in these days in office.

With all this going on, it's easy to forget that the re-trial of Bill Cosby is well under way.  They're up to the part where various alleged victims tell what Cosby did to them and Cosby's lawyers try to brand those accusers as liars and opportunists.  Coming soon: The part where Cosby is portrayed as an old, sick blind man who did so much good for so many that it would be cruel to send him to prison and therefore to his death.

Years ago, there was a very fine TV program called Likely Stories which featured great short films and sketches. It was produced by my pal David Jablin and he's given me the okay to bring you a segment that was done for it starring our dearly departed Chuck McCann. David writes…

It was written and directed by the very talented David Wechter and done mostly in blue-screen with matte paintings which was pretty unusual for 1982. We actually made a kinescope of the finished piece to make it feel like an authentic TV show of that era.

I was always a big fan of Chuck's and knew he was a video technology nut. He was totally fascinated by our "highly inventive" video production and really got into it. He was a blast to work with and as you well know, full of great stories. I also cast his pal Pat McCormick in the piece as a doctor from the future.

Chuck is playing the father and I recognize Ed Peck as the narrator and the other roles he plays. Take a look at his IMDB listing and see if you can name a TV show of the sixties or seventies that never hired him, usually to play a humorless authority figure. But mostly just enjoy another bit of glorious silliness featuring Chuck…

The magazine known as MAD got started about the same time I did. I bought my first copy of it at the old Westward Ho market on Westwood Boulevard here in Los Angeles. It was issue #70, cover-dated April 1962…so it probably came out in January of that year when I was not quite ten years of age.

Its impact on me was so overwhelming that I began to search local second-hand book shops for back issues and by the time MAD #71 came out, I owned copies of all the magazine issues plus most of the paperbacks and specials. From where I sit as I blog today, I am about twenty feet from my complete run and I own other MAD memorabilia. I even have one of its star cartoonists — some guy named Sergio — who is here much of the time. I consider him part of my collection.

So I love MAD. I love some eras of it more than others but I love MAD and have contributed to it and written a book on its history. I also know (or knew) most of its major contributors…like its recently-departed (but still very much alive) editor, John Ficarra. For years I told John that though I liked him very much, if I ever thought he was ruining MAD, I would rip his friggin' guts out. I like to think that's the main reason he did such a good job as editor there: Fear of me.

As you may have heard, MAD has migrated. It's no longer based in New York with that staff there. It's now edited in Burbank, California with that staff there, headed up by my longtime friend Bill Morrison. MAD has been slightly reinvented and revamped — not as much as some feared when the changeover was announced but there was certainly at least the slight possibility that it might stink.

This worried me because, as we've established, I love MAD. I also like Bill and didn't really want to rip his friggin' guts out.

I spent much of yesterday over at the offices of DC Comics, which of course publishes MAD. I was there to discuss another matter but when I had to wait for one meeting, someone handed me a copy of the new MAD #1 to pass the time. It'll be on newsstands any day now and this was the first I'd seen of it. First reaction? I was actually a little scared: What if it sucked the big one and I had to go rip out my pal Bill Morrison's friggin' guts?

Then again, at that moment, Bill was just down the hall in his office. So if I did have to rip out his friggin' guts, it would be very convenient. I wouldn't have to make a special trip to do that.

Well, I'm happy to say no gut-ripping was necessary. It's pretty good. It also still has much of the old Usual Gang of Idiots. It's got Desmond Devlin and Dick DeBartolo and a fold-in by Al Jaffee and "Spy Vs. Spy" by Peter Kuper and some stuff by that guy Sergio and other familiar styles. I laughed out loud at a number of things, which is all an issue of MAD really has to do. I suggest you give it a try.

My biggest complaint? You're going to think this is potrzebie but I think the paper is too good. Someone picked out a great, durable stock which is so good, it may even make it difficult to fold-in your fold-in. (I didn't attempt this.) It just doesn't feel — in the tactile sense — like MAD and great paper somehow makes good but crude drawings seem misplaced. I wish they'd had this stock when the magazine printed Mort Drucker, Jack Davis and Wally Wood. Even if you don't buy a copy, grope one and see if you don't agree with me.

So deep exhale. Bill is safe until #2 and I have the feeling the new MAD will just get better and better. If it goes downhill…well, there are just some things a man's gotta do.

Another selection from Sgt. Sonny. I like this guy…

My buddy Mike Clark has assembled an interesting history and discussion of colorizing old movies and especially old TV shows. There are some hot 'n' heavy arguments on the 'net about this and I think it might be more constructive if all the arguers could first agree on a number of points…

1. Some colorization is bad because it's just plain badly done.  The issue of whether films or TV shows should be colorized at all is a separate discussion.
2. Some black-and-white movies and TV shows use light and the absence of color so artfully that a major aspect of them is lost when you colorize.
3. And with some, it's not as important.  Maybe what you lose in some cases is more than made up for by what colorization brings to a project, even if it's only to make the episodes of a series that were filmed in b&w more of a piece with other episodes that were made in color.
4. Sometimes, the filmmakers like having their work colorized.  Carl Reiner is ecstatic over it being done to The Dick Van Dyke Show.  Frank Capra was reportedly enthusiastic about the colorizing of his movies, especially when he was going to participate in the process.  It would be a different discussion if, as has also happened, someone with creative moral authority was saying, "I hate what they're doing to that film I worked on."  And it's yet another kind of discussion when, as is increasingly the case, there's no one around who has any kind of creative moral authority on the work in question.
5. The discussion of whether or not to colorize certain works is largely more of a financial discussion than a creative one.  Maybe that shouldn't be but that is always a factor when art is sold to the public.
6. Often, consumer rejection of black-and-white films and TV episodes is not really (or only) because the work lacks color.  Often, it is because the available black-and-white prints are pretty lousy in terms of image quality and/or completeness.  Most colorized versions at least are completely restored.

And there are probably other things to be said.  I don't think it's a major sin that "these kids today" won't watch anything in black-and-white.  First off, I think they will if the production is highly recommended or it seems relevant.  Hell, there's stuff on Turner Classic Movies that I TiVo and then am unable to sit through.

I think we forget how much media there is out there for a young person to investigate and enjoy.  Just wading through all the good current or recent TV shows and movies is a daunting task.  It could easily consume the portion of one's life one is willing to spend in front of a TV or movie screen.

If they do start investigating "the old stuff," there are plenty of old films in color that are worth watching.  It would be nice if they got around to the black-and-white stuff, especially certain TV shows like Bilko and Twilight Zone…and if colorizing The Dick Van Dyke Show gets it moved up higher on their "to watch" lists, that's fine by me.  Especially since it's fine with Carl.

I'm getting tired of writing about people dying so I'll be as brief as I can about Mitzi Shore, who has passed away at the age of 87. This obit well recounts the facts of her life and how a divorce gave her ownership of what turned out to be the most important franchise ever in the world of stand-up comedy.

The list of funny people who benefited from performing at the Comedy Store is endless, though nowhere near as endless as the list of those who got onto her stages, tried to emulate the success stories of that profession and wound up selling insurance for a living. Unless you saw an Open Mike (Try-Out) Night at the Store, you have no idea how unfunny some people who think they're hilarious can be.

Mitzi culled from those auditioners the <1% who showed some talent — which I never thought was as difficult to discern as some insisted — and gave them a showcase and a shot. Many who parlayed their shot into stardom will tell you that they owed much of it to her. As a writer for a few of those guys during the Golden Era at the store, I was in a position to observe without having to kiss up to Mitzi for good time slots and I'll give her this: She was really, really good at running the business side of that business and it made her very wealthy.

One of these days, when more time has passed since her passing, I may be in the mood to write about the flip side of that. It has to do with how in show business, some people will give you a great break and even though they profit from it too, they expect you to keep paying them back forever for it. For now, let's just thank her for helping out the careers of a lot of people we know, love and laugh at.

What I did Monday evening was to take Leonard and Alice Maltin, along with my friend Amber, to see the fine cabaret performer Mark Nadler. It's rare to see him playing the piano and singing show tunes in Southern California but he was briefly in town. I wanted to see him. I wanted Amber to see him. I thought Leonard and Alice would enjoy seeing him. If and when you get the chance, you will too. He plays well, he sings well and he annotates the songs he plays with fascinating and funny facts. In this case, it was an evening of songs written by Cole Porter…and showtunes don't get much better than that. Just as performers of them don't get much better than Mark Nadler.

The location for this was Upstairs at Vitello's, a small but serviceable room on the second floor of Vitello's restaurant in what they call Tujunga Village, but I think it's actually Studio City out in the valley here. Vitello's is probably most famous as the Italian restaurant where Robert Blake dined with his wife just before she was murdered by some unknown person who most people think was Robert Blake.

The place should be known as one of the better rooms around L.A. for cabaret-style performing, which is as easy thing to be as most of them are pretty awful. It is a constant frustration of performers that the venues where they can perform do not share the income fairly and force them to invite people to come see them in a room with cramped seating, poor sight lines, mediocre food, overpriced mediocre food and, often, maddeningly-poor service. A subject for another time here.

Naturally, we talked a lot about our friend Chuck McCann. Leonard has penned a fine tribute to the man and you can read it here.

As you may know, my life abounds in strange coincidences. Just as we were getting away from the topic of Chuck, Leonard and I noticed that about twelve inches from us, seated at the next table was Sonny Fox. At the same time Chuck was a superstar of kids' TV in New York, so was Sonny Fox on Wonderama and other shows, and their paths crossed constantly. After Mr. Nadler did that voodoo that he do so well, we had a great conversation with Sonny about Chuck. Sonny even produced Chuck's last attempt to do classic-style programming for children. It did not go well but Sonny's love and respect of Chuck was not diminished.

Then last night, I attended a meeting of Yarmy's Army, the local social club of funny writers and performers to which I belong. Chuck was among its founding members and we all sat around, ate Chinese food and told anecdotes about the guy. I still don't know if and when there's going to be a memorial for Mr. McCann but I feel like I've already been to two of them. Which is fine because there's no end to the stories that can be told about the guy.

One of the job requirements for hosting a late night talk show is that you have to be able to tell a truly wonderful anecdote about something that happened to you. Last night, Seth Meyers told what may well have been the best "desk story" ever…

Obits for Chuck McCann in The New York Times, Newsday and The Hollywood Reporter. I know nothing about funeral or memorial arrangements.

Bob Bergen is one of the top voiceover guys in the business and a former client of Don Pitts. This morning on Facebook, Bob wrote about Don and he gave me permission to share some of it with you here…

Don was my first agent, and signed me when I was 18. At that time he had just left Abrams, Rubaloff and Lawrence and set up shop at Commercials Unlimited. Even though I was a seasoned V.O. student with four years of study behind me, I had no clue how I'd hit the agent jackpot…until one day early on in my representation.

CU had this tiny little V.O. booth. I got a call to come in for an audition. Sunny (Sonny??), the beautiful receptionist, gave me my copy and asked me to have a seat on the couch. In walked a larger than life man, oozing with the essence of cigar and body odor, and sat next to me. He was sweating profusely, which dripped a bit on my arm. I was so deep in thought with my copy, it took me a moment before I realized it was Orson Welles.

Welles looked over my shoulder and said, "Young man, I think you are my partner in this audition. Would you like to step into the hallway and rehearse a bit?" My first thought was, "Orson Welles has to audition???" My second thought was, "Holy crap on the floor, I'm going to rehearse with Citizen Kane!"

We were summoned into the booth by Don, who also played engineer. Again, a tiny booth. Welles and I were stomach to stomach. I had to lean into the mic as there was no way Don could mic me properly. Orson's (may I call him Orson?) shirt was sweat soaked. When we were done, I had a round sweat stain on my shirt where our stomachs met. And I hoped I could somehow absorb his DNA genius. (didn't need the body odor though)

When we walked out, Orson shook my hand and told me I had the best agent in the business.

Almost every male voice talent who was represented by Don — and I suspect, a few of the ladies — could do a great impression of Don. Every once in a while in some cartoon, I've heard an impression of Don coming out of the animated mouth of some bit player. I wonder if Orson did him, too.

Don Pitts, who was once the most powerful agent in the Los Angeles voiceover business, has passed away. I can't tell you his exact age but 90 is a good guess. He did outlive his last two clients, Janet Waldo and June Foray. The photo above is from the mid-eighties — Don with another wonderful voice actress, Susan Silo.

Anyone who listened to radio in San Francisco may remember Don as a top-rated on-air personality, mostly on KGO and KYA. On this page, you can hear about twenty-one minutes of a broadcast he did around 1956.

Don started in radio in 1945 but in the sixties, he made a move to Los Angeles and into representing other folks in front of microphones. Nearly everyone in town who did voiceovers in the sixties and into the seventies was a Don Pitts client including June, Janet, Mel Blanc, Orson Welles, Casey Kasem, Paul Frees, Paul Winchell, Rod Roddy, Henry Corden, Don Messick and Daws Butler. That is a very partial list. He was a fine gentleman and even though I'm sick of writing about death this week, I had to note his passing.

I often had Chuck McCann on my Cartoon Voices panels at Comic-Con in San Diego. Here, from 2011, I got him to tell one of my favorite anecdotes. The lady on the right is the wonderful Laraine Newman…

Speaking of losing someone near and dear to you…

A year ago today, my lovely friend Carolyn Kelly lost her battle with cancer. Actually, she lost it many months before 4/9/17 and probably admitted it to herself some weeks before…but it was that Sunday night that someone from the hospice agency called and told me it was all over.

By then, she had no awareness of where she was or what was happening, pretty much sleeping 24/7 as two hospice nurses tag-teamed to monitor her breathing and other vital signs. I stopped in twice a day because I felt I should but we were well past the point when I could do anything or she even knew I was there.

Something one of the hospice nurses said has stayed with me. I sat with her for many long hours as Carolyn slept, already gone effectively gone from this world. The nurse was young and bright and so very, very compassionate. I asked her why of all the positions in her profession, she had chosen hospice…tending to people who were soon to die. She said, "I tried various jobs but I found this one gave me a real sense of taking care of people and helping people."

I said, "Helping them to die?"

"I'm not here just to take care of people like her," she said, nodding towards Carolyn. "I'm also here to take care of people like you."

She spoke of the families and friends who are usually unprepared to take care of someone who is dying, or to deal with the maze of emotions that can accompany the death of a loved one. Carolyn's case, she said, was an easy one because there was just one loved one around — me — and I had it more or less together.

Later, I discussed it with one of my own doctors. He asked me if I was familiar with the five stages of death as defined by Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross and her colleagues. I made him laugh by replying, "Yes, I've seen All That Jazz." They are Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. My doctor said, "What a lot of people don't get is that it isn't just the dying person who goes through those five steps. It's usually also the people who love them and care for them."

Not always.  I don't think I went through the first three at all. In fact, I think my value to Carolyn the last year was that I was anchored in the reality of the situation when that became difficult for her. She, I believe, jumped from Denial to something that was more like "Denial + Combat" and eventually to a mix of Depression and Guilt.  The guilt had to do with how much time and money she was costing me and others. She was a caring and sensitive person…the kind who was embarrassed when something she did created a problem for someone else.

Was it one year ago? Really?  At some moments, it feels like one decade and at others, like one week. I have done what I hope all my friends will do when I go. I have mourned briefly, I have taken care of (most of) the business that was left dangling and I have reconfigured my life without her. That last item may sound callous but it has to be done and you can do it without trampling on or losing the memory of the departed one.

Carolyn was a wonderful, smiling, positive presence not only in my life but in the lives of everyone she met. No one was not better for having known her.

In these last twelve months, one of the big "wish she was here to see this" moments was when I received the first, hot-off-the-presses copy of Pogo: The Complete Syndicated Comic Strips, Volume Four. I promised her we'd get the book out and keep getting subsequent volumes out until her father's masterpiece of comic art is reprinted in full, all according to Carolyn's plan. Volume Five will be out by Halloween of this year and it's darn near ready to go to the printers now.

That would have made her happy…and everything that made her happy made me happy so I'm now being happy on her behalf. It's not as good as having her around but since a year ago today, it's as close as I can come.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar writes of his friendship and debt to Bill Cosby and of the struggle to balance that against what Cosby has done and come to represent. And once you consider what it means to those who loved and respected Cosby, think about what it means in reference to folks accused of lesser offenses…or where there is lesser evidence.

Here's Chuck McCann singing what may well have been the theme song of his life…

It's one of those times when this blog cannot seem to get off the subject of death. My main post tomorrow is about it and now I feel I should post word that Mitzi Shore, proprietor of The Comedy Store, is in hospice and her son Pauly has tweeted, "…let's all prey [sic] she when she goes to heaven she go peaceful I know she was loved by many of you."

I did not get along with this woman but even I have to acknowledge she may have been the most important non-performing person in the world of comedy for a couple of decades. When she goes, some newspaper will run a long, long list of successful comedians who might not have had careers without Mitzi Shore. I'm sure there will be quotes aplenty from performers like David Letterman and Jay Leno and so many others. Given the way that industry has changed, I doubt anyone ever will have more impact than she did.