Recommended Reading
William Saletan points out the many contradictions in last night's State of the Union address. […]
Author: Mark Evanier
Posts by Mark Evanier
Following Up
Just for fun — not that I expected to get anywhere with it — I phoned the offices of 60 Minutes this morning and attempted to talk to someone about last night's story on Stan Lee, the sole creator of Marvel Comics. The call went about as I expected: I was shunted over to a […]
Gene Splicing
Buzz Dixon informs me that the dancer playing Gene Kelly in that Volkswagen commercial is David Bernal. Here's a page about him and some of his other work. […]
More of the Cat
That there's the cover of Volume 3 of the DVD releases of Garfield and Friends, a cartoon show I wrote and co-produced and voice-directed and, unlike some I've done, actually watched. There will be five of these sets in all and once they've all been issued out, all 121 half-hours of the series will be […]
Gene, Gene the Dancing Machine
I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this. It's a video (a QuickTime file, by the way) of a new Volkswagen commercial that looks like Gene Kelly doing the famous "Singin' in the Rain" number, only now he's doing modern steps not unlike breakdancing, and he's selling Volkswagens. The ad makers skillfully re-created the […]
Recommended Reading
Speaking of bad reporting: Rob Garver ticks off a list of just some of the mistakes William Safire made in his column in The New York Times. […]
Must See Lee TV
The 60 Minutes Wednesday story on Stan Lee tonight is a good example of why I've lost so much respect for TV news. Some fans will probably be upset with Stan because he was hailed as the sole creator of Spider-Man, The Hulk, The X-Men, etc., with no mention of his collaborators. Jack Kirby was […]
While at WonderCon…
As I think I mentioned here some time back, I am not a great fan of "pop art" painter Roy Lichtenstein. Nevertheless, some of you are, and that may even include some folks attending the WonderCon in San Francisco in two weeks. So it might interest you to know that the Museum of Modern Art […]
Glorious Godfrey
An author named Lee Munsick sent me the following and asked that I post it here… Lee Munsick of Virginia is researching for his upcoming book about Arthur Godfrey, his activities and associates. This includes the many folk who appeared on his programs over the years, especially the most well-known group from the television years […]
Birthday Boy
You see that comic book cover at left? That's the second issue of Detective Comics, which came out in early 1937. Detective was one of the first comic books to feature all-new material instead of reprints of newspaper comic strips. This may have been because its publisher-editor, Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, was (as he said) dedicated […]
Today's Political Rant
I've been trying to follow the Social Security arguments and I must admit that at some point, the math makes my eyes glaze over much as they did back in Mr. Buck's Geometry class in eleventh grade. The main difference is that I knew Mr. Buck wasn't trying to juggle the numbers to arrive at […]
The Catcher in the Wry
Baseball great Yogi Berra is suing the makers of the TV series, Sex and the City, for an ad that uses his name. The Smoking Gun has the details and no, I don't know why he never sued over Yogi Bear. If attractive women wanted to talk about having sex with me, I wouldn't mind…but […]
Turning Loose
David Letterman's tribute to Johnny Carson the other evening neatly bookended the official mourning period for The King of Late Night. I liked Jay Leno's a bit more, in part because it was so immediate (Dave was on vacation at the time) and in part because lately, I've enjoyed Leno's show more than Letterman's…though, truth […]
Another TiVo Setting
Not only will Stan Lee be the subject of a piece on 60 Minutes Wednesday tomorrow night but he will also be a guest on The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson, several hours later. […]
A Rocky Trip
My favorite actress, June Foray, tells us all about a recent excursion to Tokyo. […]