The weekend late night Saturday Night Live reruns have begun jumping around from season to season again. Last week, they had one with Charlton Heston from the 1993-1994 season. This weekend, they hop back to the tenth season, which was the one with Billy Crystal, Martin Short, Christopher Guest and (briefly) Harry Shearer. The scheduled […]
It's getting to be fun to watch those old The Name's the Same episodes on GSN. It's still a lousy game show and I still wince at some of the phony planted questions. (The other night, the panel had to guess that guest star Joan Alexander was going to display a photo of her new […]
Have you noticed that for about the last week or so, no matter what the latest development may be in the Terri Schiavo case, the news stories are usually headlined either,"Judge Denies Request to Reinsert Feeding Tube" or "Terri's Parents Low on Options"? For people who were low on options seven days ago, they sure […]
An article in the New York Times by Brent Staples raises the old question of how much of the credit Stan Lee deserves for the Marvel Superheroes…but doesn't supply much of an answer. Mine, as you may know, is that the characters should be described as co-creations. […]
That crazed Liberal, William F. Buckley, weighs in on the Terri Schiavo matter. […]
Michael Palin is sitting on top of the world. [Los Angeles Times, registration needed] […]
Frank Rich on those who exploit religion to pander to what is really a rather small chunk of the American electorate. […]
For those of you who are not sick of the Terri Schiavo matter, here's a link to an interesting FAQ which seeks to dismiss some of the myths and misunderstandings of the case. And here's Andrew Sullivan writing about the matter, but more importantly about the contradictions he sees in the present-day Conservative movement. […]
Neil Gaiman wrote me last night asking me to explain what's going on with the current rift between the Writers Guild of America, West (hereafter referred to as WGAw) and its Right Coast counterpart (WGAe). That's right, Neil. Give me the impossible assignment. I'm almost afraid to tackle it because the dispute sounds so petty […]
I dunno the release date yet but Warner Home Video is preparing DVD sets of the first seasons of The Huckleberry Hound Show from 1959 and The Yogi Bear Show from 1961. That is to say, one set of Huck, one set of Yogi. These are some of my all-time favorite cartoons, especially due to […]
Came home from something I'll describe in the next posting to find no less than fourteen messages reminding me (or asking me if I knew) that Ross Bagdasarian (aka David Seville) had a nice role in Mr. Hitchcock's esteemed Rear Window — playing a songwriter, no less. Yes, indeed. […]
A couple of folks wrote to ask if I was kidding when I said that "David Seville" created Alvin and the Chipmunks. One wrote, "He was a cartoon character, wasn't it?" Well, yes, he was…but he was the alter ego of Ross Bagdasarian, the songwriter-singer responsible for the Chipmunks records. Even before Alvin squeaked into […]
David Brooks, who does a column for the New York Times, is the Conservative that Liberals most often cite when they want to prove they're fair-minded enough to not write off everything any Conservative says, just because he's across the aisle. I'm not sure who the Liberal is that Conservatives would cite as fair-minded. Some, […]
Warner Home Video has finally issued a DVD of the 1960 movie version of Bells Are Ringing, starring Judy Holliday and Dean Martin, complete with a glorious hunk of bonus material. There's a short "making of…" documentary, there are cut numbers and alternate takes…and if you have any fondness for this film adaptation of a […]
At least, we hope Stephen Sondheim is both on this, his 75th birthday. He should be. I mean, he's only our greatest living Broadway composer, and a lot of people think he's the best ever. He probably won't read this but maybe, if we all think good thoughts in his direction, he'll sense them, enjoy […]