Okay, here's a story I'm fairly sure I haven't told here. In late 1998, the hottest ticket on Broadway — the one scalpers were getting actual scalps for — was a revival of the musical Cabaret. It was directed by Sam Mendes, co-directed and choreographed by Rob Marshall and it starred Alan Cumming as the […]
Read More… from Tales of Me Going To See Shows on Broadway #3
From CBS Sunday Morning for this Sunday morning… I have several e-mails asking me why there's no mention in the piece of MAD's longest-running illustrator, Sergio Aragonés. I would imagine that he was mentioned in the interviews but the piece only runs six and a half minutes so there wasn't time to include anything about […]
In 1966, a producer named Steve Krantz and an animation studio called Grantray-Lawrence produced 65 half-hours of The Marvel Super-Heroes — a syndicated cartoon series featuring Captain America, The Hulk, The Sub-Mariner, Iron Man and Thor. Years later when I asked Stan Lee, "Did anyone like that show?" his reply was, "Yeah, Steve Krantz. He […]
Mark is a little under the weather and also a lot under a deadline so I'm taking a day or three off from this blog. But I have some inventory goodies and a rerun or two to post so you won't miss me. There may be no current events and I'll probably be even lousier […]
Kamala Harris has agreed to another Presidential Debate, this time on CNN with the same rules as the ABC one. Donald Trump is reportedly considering it but has not agreed. If I were Trump, I'd decline to show up but ask that the debate proceed with Harris debating an empty podium. Donald would do a […]
So one day I was in Vegas, playing Blackjack at the Barbary Coast — a pretty good place to play back then. This was the early nineties and the Barbary Coast was located on the northeast corner of Flamingo Road and Las Vegas Boulevard South (aka "The Strip"). Since then, it's been sold and bought […]
One of the zillion-and-a-half things I don't like about Donald Trump is his mania to have things both ways: "Everyone agrees" he won the debate against Kamala Harris but she cheated with some sort of earpiece that told her what to say and the moderators were biased in her favor. And the proof that he […]
Hey, it's a new episode of Everything You Need To Know About Saturday Night Live and it's about Season 12 when the show was reborn with a batch of great new cast members, two of whom were friends of mine — Jan Hooks and Victoria Jackson. They also brought in several terrific new writers and…well, […]
I always try to remember — and it isn't always easy — that the Internet is all about clicks and clicks are all about clickbait. In a time like now with an important election looming, a great way to get clicks is to tell people either (a) what they want to hear or (b) what […]
The folks who bring you Last Week Tonight with John Oliver have uploaded the entirety of Season Five to YouTube. You can watch 'em here. […]
This coming Saturday is Returning Registration for next year's Comic-Con International in San Diego…which is a mere 311 days away. If you purchased a Comic-Con 2024 attendee badge, this is your chance to score one for next year. I suggest you study this page to learn what to do and when. There will be opportunities […]
Comedy writer Hank Bradford died January 18 at the age of 88 and the cause of death was heart failure. I have a fairly-good excuse for not noting this at the time. I was then in the hospital with my stupid broken ankle and not keeping up on the news as much as I usually […]
Sometimes, I post a video here just because it made me smile… […]
I'm still getting messages and seeing posts from people who are upset that some favorite on-camera performer was omitted from the Emmy Awards "In Memoriam" reel. And I still don't see anyone care about producers or writers or directors or behind-the-camera participants who were omitted. What some folks don't seem to know is that they […]
Here's something you may want to watch when you have two hours and thirty-seven minutes: The entirety of the 1958 movie, South Pacific, starring Mitzi Gaynor, Rossano Brazzi and Ray Walston before he became a Martian. It's a pretty good adaptation of the Rodgers and Hammerstein Broadway hit. Enjoy… […]