Category Archives: To Be Filed

Hey, if you're interested in the history of the theater — especially musical theater — they always seem to have something interesting over on the Playbill website. Recently, they posted some great photos of the original production of Damn Yankees with Gwen Verdon and Ray Walston. And in connection with a forthcoming revival of 1776, there are some pics of the original staging of that show.

Last Saturday evening, the sparkling Shelly Goldstein and I attended a benefit for the Alcott Center for Mental Health Services and the Los Angeles LGBT Center. It was the second and final of two performances and I wish there were many more so you all could see "An all-star reading of Jacqueline Susann's Valley of the Dolls."

Valley of the Dolls was the best-selling book of 1966 and it was turned into a pretty popular movie in 1967. The film starred Barbara Parkins, Patty Duke, Paul Burke and Sharon Tate, and the screenplay is quite wonderful when you recast it for a live reading with, for example, Alec Mapa in the role Ms. Parkins played. They are, as you can see below, pretty much the same type…

And they had Wilson Cruz in the Patty Duke role and Bruce Vilanch playing the role Sharon Tate played, with other parts filled by Steve Bluestein, Mo Gaffney, Robert Cant, Tom Lenk, Greg Louganis (yes, the diver), Sheryl Lee Ralph (she played the character Susan Hayward played in the film), Gordon Thomson, Joan Van Ark and Marissa Jaret Winokur, with Laraine Newman as the Narrator.

Sometimes, men played women. Sometimes, women played men. Sometimes, the genders matched up. All the time, it was hilarious. The production was produced by Jon Imparato and Steve Tyler, and directed by Richard Hochberg. (By the way, the original screenplay for the movie was by Dorothy Kingsley.)

How hilarious this all was is hard to describe except to say that everyone in the Renberg Theater in Hollywood laughed from start to finish. Some of that was due to the performers expertly camping it up but a lot of it was that many of the lines and situations in the film haven't aged well. Even read the way they were supposed to be read, they were quite ridiculous.

There was a reception before the show and a reception afterwards and it all made for an enormously fun evening. I'll try and let you know if they ever do it again. If they do and you go, you might just see Shelly and me there in the audience again. Bruce Vilanch as a slinky supermodel was worth the price of admission alone.

Matt Taibbi discusses "electability" and doesn't really make the point that all the old definitions have been proven false by the fact that You-Know-Who is now in the Oval Office. I agree generally with Taibbi.

There are really two questions about any candidate: Can he or she win? And would he or she make a good president? They're obviously related but I don't think anyone's going to think too hard about the second one this time around.

Gary Conrad was one of the storyboard artists (and one of the best) on the Garfield & Friends cartoon show. One time, he brought a video camera to one of our recording sessions and captured these few minutes. This was one of the times Jim Davis came out and was the voice director. Thanks to Bob Bergen for telling me about this…

Reruns of The Dick Van Dyke Show have just returned to the cable channel MeTV, kicking off with what are supposed to be Carl Reiner's ten favorite episodes.  For the record, they are…

1. "Coast-to-Coast Big Mouth" (The one where Laura went on national TV and told America that Alan Brady was bald.)
2. "That's My Boy?" (The one were Rob and Laura brought Ritchie home from the hospital and Rob was convinced they had the wrong baby.)
3. "It May Look Like a Walnut" (The one where Rob had a nightmare in which the world was being conquered by Danny Thomas.)
4. "The Curious Thing About Women" (The one where Rob, Buddy and Sally wrote a sketch about women being too curious and Laura lived down to it.)
5. "Never Bathe on a Saturday" (The one where Laura got her toe stuck in a bathtub faucet.)
6. "Where Did I Come From?" (The one where Laura went to the hospital to have a baby and Rob went insane.)
7. "October Eve" (The one where a painting for which Laura once posed turned up at a Manhattan art gallery.)
8. "All About Eavesdropping" (The one where Ritchie's toy intercom caused Rob and Laura to overhear their neighbors in conversation.)
9. "4 1/2" (The one where Rob and Laura got trapped in an elevator with Don Rickles.)
10. "The Alan Brady Show Goes to Jail" (The one where Rob, Laura, Buddy and Sally went to entertain at a prison and Rob got locked up.)

Those are ten pretty good episodes, though I might have swapped out the last three for three others.  But hey, it's Carl Reiner.  If he says those were the ten best, fine.

In June of 2009, I attended a performance of what was billed as the "first last tour" of the flamboyant Dame Edna Everage. In January of 2015, I attended a performance of what was billed — with apparent seriousness and an ending that made it pretty clear — of his/her actual final tour. I wrote here then, "If it turns out there's another [tour], I'm going to feel a little baited 'n' switched…but I'll probably go again then, anyway."

Looks like I'm going to get another chance to see comedian Barry Humphries in his greatest role. He (or she, if you prefer) is about to embark on a tour around Australia. And if he/she plays Australia, he/she will play America. I'll probably be attending final tours until I can't do it any longer…and Dame Edna will continue on without me.

Sergio Aragonés, Stan Sakai and I — three-fourths of the squad that makes Groo the Wanderer comics — will be guests at the Heroes Con in Charlotte, North Carolina from June 14 to June 16. This is a rare venturing outta the state for Sergio and me. Stan goes everywhere people know his great comic Usagi Yojimbo…which is, of course, everywhere. But Sergio and I rarely go to cons outside California so this is an outlier…and I think my first time in North Carolina.

Sergio and Stan will be selling sketches and books. I'll be selling nothing but I will be doing some panels, including one with Sergio and Stan. I'll tell you more about it when I know more about it. In the meantime, if you want to make it to Heroes Con, here's a link to their website.

I just set my DVR (which is no longer a TiVo and I'll explain why one of these days) to record Jordan Klepper's new show on Comedy Central. It's called Klepper — which must have taken them months to think of — and it debuts May 9.

I liked Mr. Klepper a lot on The Daily Show and a bit less on his own show, The Opposition. The trouble with the latter was that they had him playing a right-wing nutcase so he was working an area that had already been strip-mined by Stephen Colbert.  And since they ratcheted up the intensity, it made him pretty unpleasant. It's also difficult to parody Alex Jones when Alex Jones is doing such a fine job of that.

Klepper is devoted to field pieces, which Klepper did so well on The Daily Show. These are longer and a much deeper dive into the topics he covers. Advance publicity is stressing that in one, he actually got arrested. In another, he was on a boat that capsized. Say what you will about the guy, he may be the gutsiest person to ever do that kind of thing for television. And when he isn't trying to do Alex Jones, I find him pretty funny. I hope I like this show.  It looks so promising.

I see people who are acting like it's a done deal that the next presidential ballot will be Trump v. Biden. I don't accept either side of that as inevitable…but just in case Biden is the guy for the Dems, it might be nice to know a little more about his record on foreign policy. This may not matter since Trump won with no record whatsoever on foreign policy but in case you want to know about Biden's, Fred Kaplan has summarized it for us.

Here's a short video about Sid and Marty Krofft, two men I had the pleasure of working for for many years…and as I just typed that, I realize that "working" is the wrong word. First off, you didn't work for the Kroffts. You got adopted into the family. Secondly, I'm not sure I can describe what it felt like but it certainly didn't feel like work.

That's Marty doing the talking in this video. He's right when he says they're the only guys who were doing TV for kids in the seventies who've survived to this day. And he's right when he says they remained independent — fiercely so. There's never been anything else like them and there never will be again…

Part One was here.  It was about how some people get really upset if you don't love what they love.  Part Two was here.  It was about how some people (including probably most of the same ones) get really upset when you do love something they don't love.  In particular, one guy I know from afar gets upset every time I say I love the movie It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and almost demands that I listen to him, agree it's terrible and stop loving it.

Why I would want to do this, I cannot understand.  Why would I want one less thing in this world that makes me happy?  Shouldn't we all have as many of those as we can find?  I wish I loved coffee because there sure are a lot of Starbucks around.

In Part Two, I predicted I'd get the same reprimanding e-mail from the guy I always get when I say I love I.A.M.M.M.M.W. I was wrong.  He phoned, instead.  I didn't record the call but I think I remember his in-depth analysis well enough to summarize…

This thing in it just isn't funny.  That thing it isn't funny.  There isn't a laugh in this whole sequence.  This performer is especially unfunny.  This particular part is especially long and unfunny.  The people who were sitting there laughing were wrong because it's not funny. And there! I have just proved without a shadow of doubt that the movie is not funny and you have to stop saying you like it.

Well, it went something like that.  And in every other sentence, he kept saying things like, "I know comedy" and "There isn't anyone who knows more about comedy than I do."  And that's really what this is all about. When I don't agree with him, I'm denying the infallible expertise he's so proud of.

You know, I sometimes understand this win-the-argument-at-all-costs mentality with regards to politics and things that actually harm human beings and impact their lives. I don't get getting so worked up over someone liking a movie you don't like or preferring Pepsi to Coca-Cola. It didn't involve me but I once watched a friendship of many years break up over the Pepsi/Coke thing.

Then, as with all of these, I couldn't help but think there was some emotional subtext driving the argument; that someone had some latent need of the "win" and the argument wasn't really about the argument. We might actually be able to discuss the merits of a movie like Mad World if we both agree that in the grand scheme of life, it really doesn't matter a whole heap.

I've been getting off Facebook forums lately because of folks who take things way too seriously or feel they have to give their opinions about every-friggin'-thing that passes under their noses. Please, people. Dial it back. Or at least save it for issues that might occasionally deserve raising one's voice a bit. My second agent had a line he used to use when he found himself in debates that were way outta proportion. He'd say, "Hey, this ain't the moon shot. Nobody dies if someone is wrong." Lately on the 'net, I find that line popping into my head more and more.

• I'm confused. Is the Trump Administration obstructing justice in a case of obstructing justice or are they obstructing justice in a case of obstructing justice in a case of obstructing justice?

I always liked the Kander-Ebb song, "Maybe This Time." Here it is performed on the TV show Glee by Kristin Chenoweth and Lea Michele. The blonde guy at the piano is my buddy Brad Ellis, with whom I've occasionally written songs that were not quite as successful as this one. Just as the ladies are lip-syncing to pre-recorded voice tracks, Brad is miming the accompaniment, probably to his own playing.

Most folks associate the song with the musical, Cabaret but it was written by John Kander and Fred Ebb in the early sixties and recorded in 1964 by Liza Minnelli. When Cabaret was first produced in 1966, the song was not in it. Then in 1972 when the movie version was produced, the song was included and it was sung there by…Liza Minnelli. It has since turned up in many stage productions and become quite the show-stopper…

Here's a recent "behind the scenes" visit to Sesame Street done by 60 Minutes Australia. The featured Muppet/Puppet performer interviewed in this is Martin Robinson, who portrays (among others) Telly Monster, Mr. Snuffleupagus and Slimey the Worm. With the retirement of Caroll Spinney as Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch, I believe Mr. Robinson has seniority among those who play characters made of cloth…

I'm trying to restrict my thinking about Donald Trump to fifteen minutes a day. Even that's probably too much because nothing I think, say or do is going to change anything. I feel certain that voters, en masse, will change things and I suspect there are investigators and law enforcement officials and, yes, even Congresspeople who believe in oversight who will change things. I am not, however, in those last three job descriptions.

A friend of mine called yesterday and wanted to discuss Trump and I said, "I'm sorry. I've already used up the fifteen minutes I am willing to spare today for that topic. Everything else I have to do today, including rearranging my sock drawer, is more important. Especially rearranging my sock drawer."

And what I was thinking in yesterday's fifteen minutes — and I'll take today's fifteen minutes to write it out here — is that I believe we overthink Donald Trump. We try to understand a mind that is way simpler than we expect to find in someone who becomes that famous and that powerful. All Donald Trump cares about is Donald Trump: The wealth of Donald Trump, the fame of Donald Trump, the crowds cheering Donald Trump…

Oh, yeah — and Donald Trump staying out of legal trouble. He seems to be thinking more and more about that these days. He may have fifteen minutes a day when he's not thinking about that.

The other day, he said something really, really stupid and untrue about abortion. He said, as I'm sure you've read: "The baby is born. The mother meets with the doctor. They take care of the baby, they wrap the baby beautifully. And then the doctor and the mother determine whether or not they will execute the baby."

I assume I don't have to tell you why that's false or, at best, grossly misleading. But people are spending a lot of time arguing why he said that, what his agenda is, what he proposes to do to stop this crime as it exists in his imagination, etc. They're debating what he was thinking and my take is that he was thinking one thing and one thing only: "Hey, that's going to bring cheers from the kind of people who show up at my rallies."

He read it somewhere or he heard it somewhere and he knew it would thrill his devout followers and that's as far as it goes. Maybe somewhere down the line, he could get pressured into taking some action based on that false premise but when he says things, they're just things he says for immediate gratification. At some moment, he thinks it'll help him to promise a great new health plan or to praise Robert Mueller or to damn Robert Mueller or he loves Wikileaks or he never heard of Wikileaks or Mexico will pay for the wall or whatever it is.

Trump's like a guy I worked for once who would promise you a raise because he liked how nicely you'd treat him right after he said it. Later when you didn't get it and asked about it, it would be like, "What raise?" or even, "Oh, come on. You didn't really think I was going to give you a raise, did you?" He'd act genuinely astonished that you didn't understand that his words were just words and only of the moment. The only way to deal with someone like this is —

Oops. Sorry. Just looked at the clock and I've gone ten minutes over today's fifteen-minute allotment. Tomorrow, I'm only going to spend five minutes thinking about that man. Tomorrow's going to be a good day.