Really, really sad to hear about the passing of a real good friend, Rick Hoppe. People knew him best as an animation designer and animator, especially for Disney where he worked on Mickey's Christmas Carol, Black Cauldron, Aladdin, Little Mermaid and so many more, occasionally also contributing to other studios' projects. I knew him before all that. In the seventies, he was dabbling in comic books, doing a little (just a little) work for Gold Key Comics and for the Tarzan and Korak comics I edited for the Edgar Rice Burroughs Estate.
We lost touch for a while, reconnected, lost touch again, etc. I always thought if he'd followed his muse to draw comic books, he would have been one of the greats but he was slow and he fit in better at Disney where they paid him by the hour, not by the drawing, and didn't mind if he took a week to produce one. Because it was always worth the wait. Real nice, talented guy. He was 75.
I received this message this morning and I'm going to omit the sender's name so as to not embarrass him. Just in case he wasn't deliberately trolling me…
The story I always heard about Run, Buddy Run! was that NBC wanted to cancel I Spy because it was costing so much in location shooting money. So they offered to greenlight Run, Buddy Run! for Sheldon Leonard's production company if he would let I Spy go off the air.
I think it was a bad bargain, all in all. Watching this episode again was painful.
There are a few problems with that story you always heard, starting with the fact that I Spy was on NBC and Run, Buddy, Run! was on CBS. Also, I Spy was a pretty popular show for its first few years and networks tend not to want to cancel popular shows…and when they do want to drop a program, they don't have to bribe the producer.
Also, I Spy was on NBC from September of 1965 until April of 1968, whereas Run, Buddy, Run! went on in September of '66 so even if it had been for the same network, it would not have displaced I Spy.
Also, Sheldon Leonard had nothing to do with Run, Buddy, Run!. The Exec Producer of that show was Leonard Stern, who was not the same person. Mr. Stern was a pretty successful creator and/or seller of TV programs including — in that era — Get Smart, The Hero, He & She, The Good Guys, The Governor & J.J., McMillan and Wife and I'm Dickens, He's Fenster.
Paul Krugman wonders if the Jimmy Kimmel "loss" for Trump is a turning point with more and more corporations being unwilling to knuckle under to his whims and will.
Krugman also makes mention of something I've seen mentioned elsewhere. Most polls now 54% of the population of this country disapproving of Trump's leadership versus 42% approving. Those are pretty bad numbers but they may be worse for D.J.T. than they appear because increasingly, the ones who hate Trump hate him a lot more than the ones who love him love him.
This is the second in a series of I-have-no-idea-how-many parts about a gastric bypass operation that I underwent in 2006. To read the first part, click here.
For several months in 2004, my splendid doctor-friend Dr. Preston and I talked about employing Gastric Bypass Surgery to lower my weight to some level below Morbidly Obese. Dr. Preston thought it could easily get me down to merely Obese…and then maybe we could lower it a few more notches via more conventional and time-tested means. We might even get it down to the point where, when Cirque du Soleil needed a new tent, they wouldn't phone and ask if I had an old pair of pants I was ready to give away.
Dr. Preston never pressed. He knew the ultimate decision had to be mine and I wasn't there yet. One thing that made me hesitant was that the news was then filled with stories about a weight-loss method known as Phen-phen. It had been a fad for a while and a lot of people, including people I knew, seemed to have lost a lot of weight on it. But there were problems and Wikipedia can explain them better than I can. Here's a cut-'n'-paste of what they have to say…
"Phen-phen" refers to Fen-Phen, a former anti-obesity drug combination of fenfluramine and phentermine. The drug was withdrawn in 1997 due to serious health risks, including heart valve disease and pulmonary hypertension, leading to significant legal damages. Phentermine, however, is still available as a separate medication for weight loss, while fenfluramine was removed from the market.
One of the people I knew who'd tried Phen-phen was the wonderful comic actor and human being, Chuck McCann. Chuck had been watching TV on April 1, 1996, the opening day of the 1996 Major League Baseball season. As the game was just getting started, home plate umpire John McSherry staggered away from his position and collapsed on the ground, the victim of a fatal heart attack. His weight, reported at 382 pounds, obviously had a lot to do with it and I'm sure Chuck wasn't the only person in America who thought, "God, I need to slim down before that happens to me."
Chuck and me, years later after we both lost a lotta poundage.
Chuck went on Phen-phen, dropped a serious amount of weight and then — fortunately — got off the drug before any of the bad stuff could happen. If he hadn't, he might not have had a 70th birthday party for me to attend in September of 2004. It was at the lovely home he shared with his even-lovelier wife Betty and it was so full of familiar faces that it brought to mind the joke, "My God…I'm the only one here I've never heard of!" Before I'd been there a half hour, I'd talked with Betty White, Fred Travalena, Tim Conway, Don Knotts, Harvey Korman and Jack Sheldon. Jack had his jazz quartet set up in the McCann living room and they played all evening, including several repeats of Jack's best-known performance, "I'm Just a Bill" from Schoolhouse Rock.
It was a wonderful party but I was ill at ease there. I just felt big and always in the way. No matter were I sat or stood, I was in someone's way and afraid to turn around for fear of knocking someone or something over. The buffet was, for me, really awkward: Plenty of yummy food but you had to fill your plate, stick the silverware in your pocket or somewhere, then find someplace to sit and eat, balancing the plate on your knees. After rejecting several chairs that looked flimsy and expensive, I found one next to my friends, Leonard and Alice Maltin.
It was my sturdiest option but I still worried that it might not survive me sitting on it and I was also afraid that out of sheer clumsiness, I would spill food all over myself and/or the McCanns' magnificent living room. I was sitting there, hearing the chair legs creak below me, wishing I was smaller and more graceful when Alice started telling me about her recent weight loss. She'd had Gastric Bypass Surgery and it had made a world of difference to her health, her life, her attitude, everything.
Why was she telling me all this? Well, why do you think?
Before that evening, I'd been keeping the notion of Gastric Bypass Surgery at arm's length. Phen-Phen had been the thing to do for a while but then the medical world figured out it was more dangerous than they thought. Gastric Bypass Surgery was the new thing to do. What if I had it done and then, a few years down the line, the medical world figured out it was more dangerous than they thought?
Then again, it had sure worked for Alice.
All this time, we had a great view of the front door, which was wide open. Every so often, we'd see some recognizable person arrive. Just as Alice finished telling me about the glories of her Gastric Bypass Surgery, we all spotted two young ladies walk in…two stunningly gorgeous young ladies.
They were very blonde and very tan and though they almost certainly weren't related, they were trying to look like twins. They were dressed in matching skimpy halter tops that barely covered very large breasts which may or may not have been real. They were also wearing tight, cut-off jeans. Everyone around turned to stare at them and everyone thought the same thing: "Hef is here!" They were, it turned out, his honor guard of sorts, heralding his arrival.
Sure enough, they were followed in by Hugh M. Hefner himself who was in turn followed by his bodyguard. Hef was dressed in silk pajamas with a yachting/captain's cap and quickly began making the rounds, speaking briefly to everyone at the party. All eyes were on him and his ladies and you could hear people murmur, "I don't believe it! Hefner leaving his mansion? To visit someone else's house?" Clearly, this was not something the publisher of Playboy did often.
Clearly too, he was not going to be doing it for long. The main assignment of the bodyguard seemed not to be to protect his boss from harm but to protect him from getting drawn into long conversations, the better to get the hell out of there A.S.A.P. Someone told me later that the whole time Hef was in Chuck's house, a limo was waiting outside the front door with the motor running. The bodyguard also whispered to Hef to tell him the names of certain folks he did not recognize.
In a chair to my left was seated a man in a red pullover sweater like Mort Sahl always wore on stage…which was entirely appropriate since he was Mort Sahl. I heard Hefner say hello to him and say "I'm Hugh Hefner" — and then, loud enough for me (and probably Mr. Sahl) to hear, the bodyguard whispered "Mort Sahl" to Hef and Hef realized he was talking to one of his oldest friends. When he got to us, Hef didn't remember me — I wouldn't have expected him to — but he also didn't remember Leonard, who knew Hef a lot better than I did and who had worked for Playboy a lot.
All of this led up to a moment I will never forget, nor should I. Because in hindsight, it was a pretty important moment in my life…
Hefner was talking to Leonard, not entirely sure who he was. The two drop-dead-gorgeous blonde ladies were standing directly behind my chair but I couldn't even turn to look at them, paralyzed as I was by the fear that the chair I was in was about to implode with me in it. I felt like if I made a move, I would at the very least spill buffet food all over myself, the Maltins and maybe even Hugh Hefner or Mort Sahl. Everywhere around me was an elevated potential for embarrassing myself in front of a lot of friends and people I admired. I'd certainly ruin Chuck McCann's wonderful birthday party…
…all because I was clumsy and awkward and just too fucking big.
I am not one prone to panic attacks. This is the only one I can remember and I sure as hell can't forget it…or stop shaking a bit as I'm writing this. All I could do at that moment was to not move an inch and to stare straight forward. And when I stared straight forward, what I saw was a man I recognized as Chuck's doctor, Dr. Bush.
How is it I recognized Chuck's doctor? Because Chuck's doctor had occasionally consulted on my medical issues. He was one of five doctors who practiced in a medical office in Beverly Hills and one of the other four was my Dr. Preston.
I summarized for myself what was happening: Alice telling me about Gastric Bypass Surgery…me feeling awkward sitting on a chair that could shatter at any minute and dump me on my XXXL butt…food balanced precariously on my knees…breasts to the left of me and I was afraid to turn to look at them…breasts to the right of me and I was afraid to turn to look at them…one of my doctors four yards from me…
That's when I said — not aloud, just to myself — "Okay, okay…I get the message!" I remained motionless until Hefner, the bodyguard and the Playboy Twins had moved on so Hef could greet some other old, dear friend he didn't recognize. I then carefully handed my buffet plate to Alice Maltin, got up even more carefully from the creaky chair which had somehow survived having me on it, then I staggered over to Dr. Bush who saw me coming and said, "Mark! Great to see you!"
I said, "I want to see you…you and Dr. Preston, Monday morning if it's possible. I want to start the process to have Gastric Bypass Surgery."
Dr. Bush said, "Well, it's about time."
This story will continue in a day or three. We have a long way to go…
Before I get to Today's Video Link, a word about Yesterday's Video Link: A lot of you have written to ask about why I ran an old Buster Keaton short comedy and didn't point out that, decades before Blazing Saddles, there was a character in there named Hedley Lamarr. I noticed that when I watched it and I'm kinda wondering why I didn't point that out myself.
On to Today's Video Link…
Here's a sitcom from the sixties that I vaguely remember. It's the first episode of Run, Buddy, Run! starring Jack Sheldon as a hapless guy who happens to overhear some mobsters planning some murders and then has to flee for his life. This first episode aired on September 12, 1966, the last episode (of sixteen) aired on January 2, 1967 and the next week, its time slot was filled by Mr. Terrific, a super-hero sitcom that I also vaguely remember.
The first and only issue of the Run, Buddy, Run! comic book published by Gold Key Comics came out on March 23, 1967, by which time everyone in America — including, probably, Jack Sheldon — had forgotten all about Run, Buddy, Run!
Some talented and experienced people were behind Run, Buddy, Run! but I don't think you'll have to watch a lot of it to wonder why it didn't go. You may be wondering why it even got picked up as a series at all…
This is the first in a series of I-have-no-idea-how-many parts about a gastric bypass operation that I underwent in 2006. I didn't write that much about it at the time and I'm not sure why because it is, I'd like to think, a pretty interesting story. I will now but I want to make one thing clear from the start: I am not recommending anyone rush out and have this operation…or any operation. At most, I might be recommending that if it seems like something that might be right for you, you seek out a qualified doctor and discuss this and other options. There are more options these days and the procedure, as performed now, is surely quite different from what I experienced in 2006. Just so we're clear on this.
Now then: I didn't have a weight problem until sometime in my late twenties, early thirties. It crept up on me so slowly that I didn't see it happening and I don't think those around me did either…not at first. Eventually, though my eating habits and physical activity did not change, I did. I got larger and larger.
I do not know just when I reached my peak weight but this photo, taken at a 2002 Christmas party, was probably around the heaviest I was. The other folks in the photo are Buddy Hackett, Leonard Maltin and Chuck McCann. I would have never thought I'd be the fattest person in a photo with Buddy Hackett…
Thanks to a number of factors, the gastric bypass being but one, I am now at my lowest weight this century. Here is a recent photo of me with my friend Gabriella. She took the picture and cropped off the top of my head where, if it were uncropped, you'd see that I have very little of the hair I had in the above photo. But there's a lot less of the rest of me, too…
But these stories are about the gastric bypass and the path that led me to mine began with a very fine doctor I had at the time — a man who was as much my friend as he was my physician. He prescribed a few weight-control drugs but they either had no effect on me or not-good ones. For reasons that wouldn't interest you, I'm going to change a few names in these tales and I'm calling this doctor of mine Dr. Preston.
Dr. Preston did not scold me or shame me or make me feel like I had done something horribly wrong to let my weight get so outta my control. He simply reminded me that it was a matter that had to be addressed — preferably sooner, not later — and that the later it got, the harder it would be to handle. At the time, I was experiencing no medical problems from being overweight. I was just Too Damned Big.
The problems I did have were the problems of living in a world that was not designed to accommodate someone of my girth. I felt large and clumsy and like I didn't fit onto the planet I was trying to inhabit. No matter where I was, if I was around other people, I felt like I was in the way. I had problems getting in and out of chairs and when seated in something that might break, I had a constant fear that it would break — because once or twice, it did. On airplanes, I had to ask for the Seat Belt Extender and even with it on and even when occasionally being flown First Class, I still felt uncomfy and wedged into my seat.
One day, Dr. Preston said something that really registered with me. He said, "Your problem, Mark, is that you're not paying a high enough price for being so overweight. You would do something about it now if you were experiencing the medical problems it will create for you in the future."
He let that sink in for a minute and then he added, "And in the future, it will be a lot harder to fix."
And as that was sinking in — deep — he began telling me about Gastric Bypass Surgery, which at the time was relatively new. A lot of folks didn't even know its name or what it was. They referred to it as "That thing Al Roker did to lose all that weight!" Mr. Roker, a fixture still of The Today Show, had indeed been transformed by it and appeared, before and after, on many a magazine cover. Those covers were excellent recruiting posters for the procedure.
But like I said, it was new. It was also scary. There were statistics that said that X out of Y people who underwent the procedure experienced serious problems from it, up to and including death. "X" and "Y" varied but none of the specific ratios I heard or read sounded like great odds. Doc Preston did not shove me towards this option…gently nudged, maybe, but I did not feel shoved. He said, speaking as much as my friend as my doctor, that if and when I was ready to seriously discuss it, he would clear the time for that discussion.
That time would come and it came as a result of a party I attended. At the party were two of the three other people (not counting the largest guy, me) in the top photo above — Leonard Maltin and Chuck McCann. I shall tell you about this party in the next installment of this, a series that will probably run longer than you want it to.
Posted on Thursday, September 25, 2025 at 11:53 PM
Here's another short comedy that Buster Keaton made for Columbia Pictures — in 1941, in this case, when he was somewhat past his prime. This is General Nuisance and in it, he lives down to that title. It's a far cry from Buster at his best but nothing he did was without interest, especially when he was teamed with Clyde Bruckman, one of the best writers of Keaton's style of comedy.
Bruckman wrote for (and occasionally directed) the likes of Laurel and Hardy, The Three Stooges, W.C. Fields, Harold Lloyd, Abbott and Costello and others. Bruckman was, in fact, responsible for getting Columbia to hire Keaton when no one else would. This is not him at his best either but maybe you'll enjoy some of this silly little film…
I have removed The Washington Post from the roster of fact-checkers on this blog. The Post, which built its reputation on fact-checking Richard Nixon right out of office and which compiled the most authoritative list of Trump lies during that man's first term (30,573!) has shown no recent interest in fact-checking Donald or any public official. I canceled my subscription to their website a few months ago and my access expires today. A free press requires comedians being able to make fun of our elected officials but it even more requires newspapers to point out when politicians ain't telling it like it is. In the words of some president who told 30,573 lies in his first term…sad.
FactCheck.org rips into the "Tylenol causes autism" here and here. Politifact has even more.
And lastly: People are claiming all sorts of different amounts of cash that Disney lost by suspending Jimmy Kimmel's program. A writer for Snopes tries to sort out what is known from what is not knowable.
Posted on Wednesday, September 24, 2025 at 8:43 AM
The video I embedded here last night with the opening of Jimmy Kimmel's return has received over 10,000,000 views on YouTube — and that wasn't even the only copy of it on YouTube or the only place to watch it online. It may turn out to be one of the most-watched things on television in a long, long time…and that's without clearances in something like 25% of the country. Should serve as a good reminder to the networks that they don't have as much control over what we watch as they once did.
I thought Kimmel rose to the awkward occasion nicely. He was conciliatory without admitting that his attackers were right in their attack and he made clear that he ain't changing his act because of it. As I've said, I've never been a fan of this guy but he did a good job last night.
Trump had a terrible day yesterday. His appearance at the United Nations, as Fred Kaplan explains, was a humiliating display by a man who doesn't seem to know or care when he's humiliating himself. If Joe Biden had ever delivered a speech like that, every single Trump supporter would be screaming about senility and demanding they take The Button away from that man and end his presidency, A.S.A.P.
Trump continues to deteriorate before our eyes and to say things that verify so much of what his detractors say about him. I don't expect a major defection of supporters. That won't happen until they see a viable alternative leader to follow. But if I were a Republican senator or congressguy or anyone who wants a future in office, I'd sure be looking for an escape route from being dragged down to defeat by this guy.
And now, all that said, I'm going to spend the rest of my day trying not to think about Donald J. Trump. If you haven't tried that, you might find it helpful.
My buddy John Fugelsang has a new book out about what he sometimes describes as "Christ-free Christianity." The book is called Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person's Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists, and Flock-Fleecing Frauds and you can order it from Amazon here.
Not only that but you can see John's discussion of it on tonight's The Daily Show with Jordan Klepper…
