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 […]
Good afternoon and welcome back to the great new game that's sweeping the nation, "What Does Mark Think Is Wrong With These Pictures?" It has far surpassed the previous game that was sweeping the nation before yesterday, "Playing Pickleball Against An Otter." And before we dive into it, let me just remind you of the […]
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I'm not watching or reading a lot of news or political chatter at the moment but on a whim, I read this article by Rich Logis and thought it was spot-on about what we're facing in this country right now, Trump-wise. Years ago, I wrote a comic book story about a new executive in the […]
Yesterday was apparently National Moose Day and I have no idea what anyone is supposed to do with that information. Do you buy someone a moose and if so, how do you wrap something with antlers? Do you buy something for a moose and if so, what do you buy the moose and what do […]
From 1959 to 1961, the great Ernie Kovacs had a weekly half-hour prime time game show on ABC called Take a Good Look. It was an odd game show because, at least the times I saw it, nobody won much of anything…or if they did, it didn't have much to do with winning a game. […]
Longtime New York Times columnist Paul Krugman is now former New York Times columnist Paul Krugman…some sort of dispute about how the Times' editors were editing his work. He quit and now he writes for Substack. If you wanna read him, go here and sign up. Very smart man. […]
In the sixties, DC Comics did a revamp of their (now) billion-dollar property, Batman. The character had previously been drawn in a somewhat cartoony style not unlike what Chester Gould had done quite successfully with Dick Tracy in the newspaper strip of the same name. Commencing in 1964, the Caped Crusader was drawn in a […]
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Here are a bunch old animated commercials, none of which I remember. I dunno who did the voice in the Twinkles commercial but the first one for Peter Pan Peanut Butter has Cliff "Ukulele Ike" Edwards narrating and he's heard in a couple of others in his most famous voice role as Jiminy Cricket. The […]
Someone who signs his name Seth wrote to ask… You're such a consistent blogger, and it's clear you are paying regular attention to what's happening on YouTube and certain online reporting and blogging spaces. On the other hand, you don't strike me as someone who would be particularly interested in what's happening on platforms like […]
Glen K. writes to ask… I just read your update about your ankle and it occurred to me that you have not posted about your backyard cats in a while. I imagine you are in no position to feed them. How are they doing? Hope they are OK. Sorry to say, Glen, they're not OK. […]
Hey, it's the latest installment of Everything You Need to Know About Saturday Night Live, bringing us up to Season 20, which led to another one of those "Is this the last season?" crisis points. Since they're now celebrating fifty years of SNL, the show obviously survived but this was one of several periods in […]