John Ficarra and Sam Viviano — respectively, the former editor-in-chief of MAD magazine and its Art Director — were fortunate enough to be invited to Donald Trump's big birthday celebration and parade on June 14th. They shared the wonderful invitation they received with the Albany Sun Times and that newspaper published it for all the world to see. Go take a look at it.
The 78th Annual Tony Awards are being doled out tonight at Radio City Music Hall in New York. They're viewable on CBS and I assume you know how to find CBS on your TV or iPhone or iPad or Galaxy Phone or computer browser or Etch-a-Sketch or whatever the hell you have. The live show on most CBS stations will be followed by a full replay of the event…and my, broadcast television has changed from not-that-long-ago when CBS demanded that the Tonys occupy the smallest time slot possible and not a second more.
That presentation starts at 8 PM East Coast Time and you're smart enough to figure out what that translates to where you live. It will be preceded at 6:40 PM — again, that's East Coast Time — by a pre-show which will be streamed on the Live Music channel on Pluto TV. Here's what I believe (I could be wrong) is a link to the Live Music channel on Pluto TV which usually runs programs which are not live. In fact, most of them are ancient episodes of Showtime at the Apollo, which is about as "not live" as you can get.
Pluto TV is free but you may need to sign up for a free account in order to watch…and then again, you may not. Life can be strange that way.
In 1973, ABC tried something which probably sounded good in the meetings but didn't work as well as they'd hoped. In their 11:30 PM weeknight slot, they had The Dick Cavett Show, which was critically acclaimed and attracting enough viewers to show a modest profit. But alas, it wasn't beating Johnny Carson in the ratings and there were reportedly execs then at the network who felt such a feat was, no matter what anyone said, possible. They pared Cavett back to one week per month and declared that henceforth, whatever appeared in that time slot was part of something called ABC's Wide World of Entertainment.
In other words, rotating shows. I suppose that worked somewhere at some point on one of the three networks we had then but no example springs to mind. Usually, if people like a show enough to watch it, they want to watch it every day or every week. As I understand it, ABC tried this particular experiment figuring that at least one of three things would happen…
One of the shows they slotted into their "wheel" would attract enough of a following to make it a regular, Johnny-beating series five (or so) nights per week.
One or more of the new shows would click is such a way that it could go from being a late night tryout to being a regular prime-time hit. Or…
The entire ABC's Wide World of Entertainment would score higher ratings than Carson…or at least higher than Cavett.
And of course, none of these three things happened. It certainly didn't happen with Jack Paar Tonite. One out of every four weeks, you got a talk show bringing the former host of The Tonight Show back to television after being away for many years. It was just a sad, little-watched show, in large part because Paar hadn't updated his act and, frankly, wasn't that interesting in 1973. I wrote about this show in this blog post and linked you to a video of its first episode. If you want, you can watch it and decide for yourself why Mr. Paar was soon scurrying back into retirement.
The other two weeks, they featured a wide array of specials, some of them one-shots while others recurred now and again. There were — among many other efforts — rock music specials under the name In Concert, a spooky anthology series from Great Britain called Thriller, Playboy specials, a news magazine hosted by Geraldo Rivera called Good Night, America, and a funny news program called Comedy News. It is a slightly-fuzzy episode of Comedy News that we have for you today.
I remember watching and liking Comedy News but feeling that it was often one of those good half-hour shows stretched to a longer length. This particular installment features Mort Sahl, Dick Gregory, Bob & Ray, Peter Schickele, Spencer Quinn (I don't know who that is), Joan Rivers, Fannie Flagg, Anthony Holland, Marian Mercer and your anchormen, Andrew Duncan and Kenneth Mars. I remember other episodes including Stan Freberg (a major reason I watched), Robert Klein, Richard Pryor, Richard Dawson and many others.
Here's this one and thanks to "John G" for alerting me that it was online. The video starts with a few seconds of the end of the local (Los Angeles) 11 PM Eyewitness News, which is kind of what Comedy News was parodying. Inattentive viewers might not have realized that the allegedly real news show had ended and the spoof had begun…
We have heard nothing about Boop! The Musical being added to the list of shows performing at the Tony Awards tomorrow night…so either that ain't gonna happen or they've added it and are keeping it ultra-super-duper-secret to make it a huge surprise. Since the show's sets would have to be moved in and out at some point and the company would have to block and rehearse, it's tough to believe the latter is possible.
So I'll predict that the only love the show will get on the telecast will be a big audience cheering when the name of Jasmine Amy Rogers is read as a nominee for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical…an award she won't win. Something could be said if — and this, I hear, is likely — the show's director Jerry Mitchell wins for Best Choreography but I don't think that award is presented on-air.
It is worth reminding ourselves that award shows like this don't always get it right. As I've mentioned here, I was once on a committee for the Television Academy that looked into ways to make the awards for animated shows fairer. The committee never reached any conclusions — or if it did, I didn't participate in the final reaching. But the conclusion I came to on my own was that the awards weren't fairly decided and that all the people involved in this kind of thing wanted for was them to be looked on as important and as a really big, legitimate "win" for those whose names wound up in the envelopes.
A gent named Chris Peterson who heads up a widely-read blog about the theatre wrote this piece listing some times he feels the Tonys picked the wrong Best Musical…and it's certainly true that sometimes, a show which didn't nab the trophy has had a longer life and earned more respect than the one that did that year. I don't think I agree with all his examples but that's kind of the point.
Those backing Trump's "Big, Beautiful Bill" say it would do certain (good) things for Medicaid and other ways via much of the population receives its health care. Those opposing the bill say it would do other (bad) things to those people. FactCheck.org tackles the question of what it would really do…or might do.
Politifact takes a look at what's in the oft-mentioned Epstein Files. I'm kinda skeptical this will ever lead to anything major — maybe to some embarrassment but not to anything that will change the allocation of power in our government. In this article, a lawyer who's poked around in it says, "If they were playing partisan politics then Trump would have released stuff with Bill Clinton in it and Biden would have released the parts with Trump." But these guys were playing partisan politics…all of them.
Snopes has a primer on the end of the Donald/Elon bromance…so far.
And Steve Benen takes a look at Trump's insistence on investigating Joe Biden and the Biden administration while still admitting he has no proof of anything amiss.
Good Night and Good Luck is, among other things, the name of a play currently packin' 'em in Broadway. In it, George Clooney plays veteran CBS newscaster Edward R. Murrow back in the fifties, standing up to those who saw Commies hiding under every bed and in every closet. It's about to conclude a very successful limited run in New York and this Saturday, CNN (of all channels) will broadcast its next-to-last performance live. It starts at 7 PM Eastern Time. For more details, click here.
Ken Jennings, host and one-time champ of Jeopardy! writes about the value of facts in our society and how it's becoming beastly hard to find them at times. When the man's right, he's right.
The fine folks who run Comic-Con International today announced…
Don Glut, Sheldon Mayer to Receive 2025 Bill Finger Award
Don Glut and Sheldon Mayer have been selected to receive the 2025 Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing. The selection, made by a blue-ribbon committee chaired by writer-historian Mark Evanier, was once again unanimous.
"As usual, the judges considered a long list of names, but these two jumped out at us," Evanier remarked. "They're two men who made important contributions to the comic book industry and artform and who haven’t received proper recognition and maybe not proper compensation."
Don Glut and Sheldon Mayer
Don Glut in his teens distinguished himself as an amateur filmmaker before embarking on a career that would include becoming a professional filmmaker, having co-produced, directed, and written eight feature-length films. He has also written TV shows and novels and, most important to this award, comic books. Much of that work was for Gold Key Comics, where he co-created and wrote three series that formed a little "Don Glut Universe" within the company’s line: Dagar the Invincible, The Occult Files of Doctor Spektor and Tragg and the Sky Gods. They attracted a loyal following then on the newsstands and more recently in fancy reprint collections. For Warren Publishing, Don authored tales for Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella, and for Marvel, his writing could be found in, among others, Captain America, The Invaders, Kull the Destroyer, Solomon Kane, Star Wars, and What If…? Don also has more than 80 books to his credit, including The Dinosaur Dictionary and the authorized novelization of the movie The Empire Strikes Back.
Sheldon Mayer (1917–1991) was a key contributor to some of the earliest comic books, with work traced back as far as the mid-1930s. After a brief stint at the Max Fleischer animation studio, he began writing and drawing for Dell Comics, producing some of the earliest original (i.e., not reprinted from newspaper strips) material featured in comic books. These included his semi-autobiographical strip Scribbly, about a boy cartoonist. In 1936 he began working with industry pioneer M. C. Gaines at the McClure Syndicate, and two years later he was the person who convinced Gaines to reconsider an oft-rejected submission. That submission — Superman by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster — wound up appearing in DC Comics and revolutionizing the field. When Gaines (and partner Jack Liebowitz) formed the All-American comic book company in 1939, Mayer was their first editor and presided over the creation of many popular properties, including The Flash, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern. He also found time to write and draw humorous comics, including a revival of Scribbly. When All-American was acquired by DC Comics in 1944, Mayer came along as editor, but four years later he retired from editing to create, write, and draw new features for DC, most notably The Three Mouseketeers and his masterpiece, Sugar & Spike. Mayer later wrote for DC's ghost comics, co-created and wrote The Black Orchid for Adventure Comics, and even adapted The Bible into a special edition DC comic. He passed away in 1991, but his granddaughter Chelle will be on hand to accept his Finger Award at the ceremony.
The Bill Finger Award was created in 2005 at the instigation of the great comic book artist and cartoonist Jerry Robinson. It was his way of preserving the memory of his friend and colleague, William Finger (1914–1974), who was the first and, some say, most important writer of Batman. Many have called him the "unsung hero" of the character and have hailed his work not only on that iconic figure but on dozens of others, primarily for DC Comics. Evanier explains, "When Jerry first suggested this award, it was the worst-kept secret in comics that Finger had co-created Batman and much of the mythos and supporting cast of that character. Nowhere on the comics or movies or TV shows was Bill Finger credited. That has changed, but there are still plenty of important, undercredited writers for us to put into the spotlight. Which is what this award is all about."
In addition to Evanier, the selection committee consists of Charles Kochman (executive editor at Harry N. Abrams, book publisher), comic book writer Kurt Busiek, artist/historian Jim Amash, cartoonist Scott Shaw!, and writer/editor Marv Wolfman.
The major sponsor for the 2025 award is DC Comics; supporting sponsors are Heritage Auctions and Maggie Thompson.
The Finger Award falls under the auspices of Comic-Con International and is administered by Jackie Estrada. The awards will be presented during the Eisner Awards ceremony at this summer's Comic-Con International on Friday, July 25.
I couldn't resist posting and replying to this message from David Daskal regarding this earlier post here…
Hi, Mark. Remember when we spoke last year about cold calls? Yeah, we did not.
I am a devoted fan of the blog, and there is no argument that your cold call stories provide you with non-stop opportunities for engaging content, but…why do you answer these calls?
I, and most other folks with Caller I.D., never answer calls from sources we can't identify. The State Lottery is not calling to tell me they found a missing million dollar ticket with my name on it. Hollywood is not calling to tell me they want to buy the rights to my life story (granted, in your case that may be a limited possibility). Even if similar circumstances were to occur, there is such a thing as Voicemail.
Meaning no disrespect, but certainly you never open e-mails from unfamiliar sources? (Speaking here about your personal email account) How is opening Spam e-mail any different than answering "mystery" phone calls? Do you secretly enjoy these telephone encounters?
Sometimes I think I might have missed meeting my ideal wife by not answering a Spam phone call (The male fantasy of redeeming a lost soul in a Strip Club may have been replaced by rescuing a desperate young woman from a Call Center). But then, I will readily admit I am delusional.
I will admit that once in a while, I enjoy sparring with Spam-Callers…but the real reason I answer calls of unknown origin is that in the past, I tried not answering them. And in so doing, I sometimes missed important calls that were, when the phone rang, indistinguishable from the calls trying to sell me a ten-year supply of War Surplus Mayonnaise or something. And when I say "important," I'm flashing back to the years when my mother was constantly in and out of the hospital…or later years when my lady friend Carolyn was in one.
I received a lot of calls from doctors or other medical personnel and when the phone rang, I dared not not answer. They were occasionally urgent and if I did let them go to Voicemail, it was sometimes a long and difficult process to get that person back on the line. My doctor and the folks in his office currently phone me from various numbers I can't know are or aren't legit without answering them.
And then the other day, a call came in — no Caller I.D. and I didn't recognize the number — and I took a gamble. I answered and it was someone I was glad I could speak to. I'm having a dispute over a bill I received. They think I owe them one amount. I think I owe them another with one less digit. It's impossible to reach anyone over there when I call them and it had been on my mind a lot. Talking to them then and there, we cleared it all up in my favor. If I hadn't answered what could have been a Spam call, I'd still be thinking about it a lot and they'd still be tacking on interest penalties. Now it's all settled and off my List of Things I Have To Deal With.
I do not like Spam calls. I find them annoying and intrusive and often insulting. I've sometimes even said to such callers, "I'm sorry but I'm not quite stupid enough to fall for your offer." But I've sometimes inconvenienced myself more by not answering a call I wasn't sure about.
My friend Tom Galloway (who knows everything about everything) sent me this note about the video link just before this post…
FYI, the intersection they start off in, and return to a time or two, is Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo, considered the busiest pedestrian intersection/crossing in the world. To the point where it's actually a tourist attraction (although being in a major shopping area doesn't hurt). At peak times, there can be literally thousands of people crossing in it. I'm curious how much work/time it took for them to get filming permits for their video there. Possibly worth looking at a YouTube video or two that just shows it in normal everyday use.
I am sometimes amazed (and at times, annoyed) at how much most cities in the U.S. are willing to discomfort and inconvenience their citizens if some movie or TV company wants to stop traffic or block off streets to film a scene for just about anything. I guess it's the same in Japan.
I don't know why I've become such a champion for Boop! The Musical, a show I haven't seen. I guess it's just that I've heard good things about it from friends who've seen it, I like the online clips I've seen and I'd like the show to still be up and running if/when I get back to New York later this year. (By the way, the cast recording will be released before this week is out.)
This morning when I woke up, the first thing I checked online was to see if the folks who program The Tony Awards had found a place for the show to present a number on their telecast this Sunday. No word yet even though the online petition has over 5,000 signatures. That's almost half the people who watch the Tony Awards each year.
