Late tonight (or early tomorrow morn, if you're the kind of person who sees a glass as half-full instead of half-empty), NBC is running the fifth episode of Saturday Night Live. It was performed on November 15, 1975 and was guest hosted by Robert Klein. It's not one of the stronger early shows. Klein does […]
One of the great TV comedy writers, Herb Sargent, died this morning at the age of 81. Mr. Sargent had a long list of credits, some of which are itemized in this obit, but two biggies were That Was the Week That Was and the original Saturday Night Live. When Lorne Michaels assembled his first […]
Took the lovely Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Maltin to see the May edition of Totally Looped, a clever show of improv comedy that is done but once a month up in Hollywood. Here's a report I filed eleven months ago about this fun enterprise. Everything I said then is still true, especially the parts about […]
Over on Salon, Joe Conason summarizes the recently-unearthed British memo that sure seems to prove there was a lot of lying done to justify the U.S. invasion of Iraq. You may (I'm not sure) need to register or watch ads to read the whole article but here's a taste… What the minutes clearly show is […]
As announced in this news release, I have agreed to be part of a five-person "jury" (along with Denny O'Neil, Jules Feiffer, Roy Thomas and Jerry Robinson) that will decide on a new trophy — the Bill Finger Award, to be presented at this year's Comic-Con International and every one thereafter. Jerry convinced the necessary […]
If you belonged to the old Merry Marvel Marching Society in the sixties, or if you longed to belong, you might enjoy Terrence Brady's article on that august organization. For those who don't know, the M.M.M.S. was a mail order deal where you could "join" (i.e., buy a membership kit for) the official fan club […]
Many moons ago, there was a 78 RPM novelty record performed by Larry Vincent and the Pearl Boys entitled "Sarah Sitting in a Shoeshine Shop." Dr. Demento plays it every other decade but I'm looking for a copy — like, an MP3 file — for a friend. Anyone got one? I need the whole thing, […]
The other night, Jay Leno's musical guest was Bright Eyes, singing a rather amazing song — amazing because it was allowed on network TV, I suppose. "When the President Talks to God" isn't much of a tune. There's very little melody and the ends of most lines feel like they should rhyme but don't. Still, […]
If you know what's good for you, don't click on this link. (If that doesn't work, don't try this one.) […]
My Internet comes to me via cable from Comcast, and I've had relatively little problem with them. My one big complaint is that for some reason, they don't offer a dial-up number so you can connect to the 'net while on the road. To solve this, I subscribed to a cheap dial-up Internet Service Provider […]
Some great articles over on Slate. Edward Jay Epstein explains how much money Michael Moore and his associates made off Fahrenheit 9/11. (Hint: It's enough to buy a better outfit.) Jacob Weisberg makes a good point about what's happened to the Conservative movement in this country. Jack Shafer discusses what's gone awry over at the […]
Mom's a lot better and things are returning to normal, thank you. It's been a couple of rough days, and I thank those of you who sent encouraging messages, especially those that said, "No need to respond." I don't know how in one week, I could slip three weeks behind on everything I'm doing, but […]
And another round of apologies for not posting anything here lately. I'm dealing with an unhealthy mother and an even less healthy company that is supposed to provide certain home health services for her. Or at least, I was dealing with them, which meant endless hours (hours, plural) on the phone, being placed for long […]
Didn't post anything yesterday and this may be it for today. Briefly, I'm inundated with other matters, which also explains why so many e-mails are languishing in the "To Be Answered" folder. My apologies. I made time for the obit of Zeke Zekley because…well, he was Zeke Zekley. Other affaires d' blog have to wait. […]
A great cartoonist named Zeke Zekley died yesterday at the age of 90, and others in his field are sadly phoning one another to ask, "Have you heard?" Zeke was born in Chicago on February 11, 1915 and grew up in Detroit. His first cartooning job was at age 18 for the Detroit Mirror which, […]