Like a lot of you, I'm hooked on playing Wordle from the New York Times every day. It's getting to be just about the only thing dependable in the New York Times. Several weeks ago, I did something that you can only do through sheer dumb luck. I saved a screen image of it to […]
There's a new version of Hollywood Squares now on CBS and my first thought was that this show gets revived more often than any decent villain who dies in a DC or Marvel comic book. But then I looked it up and say that the original series hosted by Peter Marshall ran from 1966 to […]
In 1974, Marlo Thomas and a bunch of her friends — some of them quite famous — put together Free To Be You And Me, a special which sought to break down antiquated stereotypes. Or at least, they were stereotypes that should have been antiquated, having to do with how boys should act and how […]
Because none is needed for this… Former RNC Chairwoman Lara Trump said hirings should be entirely merit-based during a stop by Fox News on Thursday. The one-time television producer and aspiring pop star, who landed her role as the head of the RNC with no political experience, had no answers for why someone other than […]
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis debuted on CBS on September 29, 1959. Based on a popular book by Max Shulman, which had already been made into a movie, this new situation comedy starred Dwayne Hickman as Dobie and Bob Denver as his beatnik pal, Maynard G. Krebs. The series lasted four seasons and its […]
John Oliver returns with new shows on February 16… […]
I caught a little of the hearings today in which Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was quizzed about things that would matter if he is to be our secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. I got the feeling that all or most Republicans who get to vote on his nomination are thinking that […]
Everyone seems to be talking about the price of eggs these days like (first of all) it's a crisis of epic proportions and (second of all) it's some sort of failure by either the Biden administration or the Trump administration, depending on which of the two you wish to view as utterly incompetent. But I […]
From a 1983 episode of Late Night with David Letterman, here's Larry "Bud" Melman performing stand-up comedy…or at least trying to. If you've never been to an Open Mike Night at a comedy club where anyone can get up to perform, trust me. You will see far worse than this… […]
"Early Bird" hotel bookings are now open for Comic-Con International, which takes place a mere 176 days from today in San Diego. And there's a coincidence: 176 is the exact number of panels I'll be moderating there. "Early Bird" hotel bookings are for hotels that aren't that close to the convention center but (a) they're […]
After reading this post here, a reader (who prefers to remain anonymous) sent this to me… Up until last November, I spent nearly a decade working for one of the big companies that provides TV listings for print, newspapers and cable guides. I edited listings for hundreds of stations, everything from small, local independents to […]
I'm a few days tardy in noting the passing of Art Nichols, a very fine artist and a real good guy. The cause was cancer and he was 63. Comic book fans knew him from his work on, among many others, The Punisher, The New Mutants, Team Titans, Conan, Justice League of America and Magnus, […]
I don't know if they still do them but the three major TV networks used to preview each new season with a promo film about the newly-debuting programs. I worked briefly on the one for ABC's 1983 Fall Season and no one ever gave me a satisfactory answer to where these promo films were shown. […]
The "45 Years Ago Today" refers to when I first posted this blog item, which was on November 8, 2006. I was writing then of my memories of the Bel Air Fire of 1961. A reader of this blog called this post to my attention and thought it said some interesting things in light of […]
I've mentioned Ed Bluestone a number of times on this blog — a very funny (I think) stand-up comedian who never quite got the attention and bookings I thought he deserved. Before he did stand-up, he worked for a time for the National Lampoon and reportedly was the guy who devised one of the most-imitated […]