F.C.C. Commissioner Michael Powell says, "I am outraged at what I saw during the halftime show of the Super Bowl. Like millions of Americans, my family and I gathered around the television for a celebration. Instead, that celebration was tainted by a classless, crass and deplorable stunt. Our nation's children, parents and citizens deserve better." […]
Here's Eric Alterman making the case that George W. Bush was AWOL from the National Guard. I must admit that I am uneasy about this kind of thing. It kind of creeps me out that so much of presidential politics is about digging into a candidate's past and finding things to charge him with, long […]
You know who Sid Couchey is? Not surprising. He was one of the anonymous artists who drew comics for Harvey like Richie Rich and Little Dot. He did thousands of pages of some of the most beloved funnybooks of all time and I don't think he ever got his name on any of them. You […]
I didn't see Saturday Night Live last night but a friend who did and who lives in Los Angeles told me that for no visible reason, the last half-hour of the show didn't air and in its place was a half-hour "town meeting" with Joe Lieberman. This is the real Joe Lieberman, not Darrell Hammond […]
Brent Seguine suggests I emphasize that the Marx Brothers Collection I mentioned earlier (the DVD set of seven Marx movies) will not be out until May. It should not be confused with a currently available Marx Brothers Collection which offers five DVDs crammed full of public domain material. This one contains old TV pilots, trailers […]
I am not watching the Super Bowl. I have the Internet all to myself. […]
My apologies. I prepared a reminder the other day about this but I just plain forgot to post it. As you doubtlessly know, Fantagraphics Books will soon be issuing Volume 1 of The Complete Peanuts, a year-by-year reprinting of Mr. Schulz's classic newspaper strip. It will take many years and cost mucho money to get […]
Since I set up a special e-mail address for folks to send Get Well messages to Julius Schwartz, I've been swamped. And a pretty impressive number of what I've received has not been about Get Rich schemes and genitalia enhancement. Most of the messages have been lovely expressions of good wishes for the man who […]
One of the joys of the Internet is getting to read The New York Times every day not only for free but without leaving my chair. There are a lot of articles I think are myopic or pointlessly sensationalized, but less so than most papers. Their coverage of Wen Ho Lee was so embarrassingly wrong […]
Apart from the fact that it mentions the silly issue of whether John Kerry has had cosmetic surgery, this column by David Brooks is pretty good. […]
Here's great news. May 4, you'll able to purchase The Marx Brothers Collection, a 5-DVD set featuring seven whole Marx Brothers movies…A Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races, At The Circus, Go West, Room Service, The Big Store and A Night in Casablanca. There are new "Making of…" documentaries for the first […]
Every year, the Museum of Television and Radio in Los Angeles has its annual William S. Paley Television Festival. These used to be wonderful: They'd salute great old shows and bring in everyone they could find who'd been a part of them for a big panel discussion. If you ever go to the Museum (and […]
The Reprise! theater group stages several classic musicals a year in short run, no-scenery productions up at Freud Hall at U.C.L.A. Tomorrow and Sunday are the last performances of their revival of Kismet, the 1953 musical which had a book by Charles Lederer and Luther Davis, and songs by Robert Wright and George Forrest. Lederer […]
First off, I just edited the previous post to remove the "f" word. I had a couple of complaints, one of which made a lot of sense to me. It's too long to post here but essentially, the guy said, "I encourage my kids to read your site because I like the way you express […]
Political websites are currently erupting with the charge that John Kerry has had Botox injections in his face, especially his forehead. May I be among the first to ask, "Who cares?" I've decided. I'm going to cast my presidential vote for whichever candidate runs on what they're actually going to do for the next four […]