Category Archives: To Be Filed

Another John Cleese interview from his book tour. I think he did about fourteen of these a day…

You probably have the same problem I had: Dozens of deserving charities hitting you up for donations all the time. Should you give to feed starving children in this country or try to wipe out a certain disease in that country? Most seem worthy and you can only spare so much. How do you decide where it goes?

A few decades ago, I read in Dan Rather's autobiography how he'd solved that dilemma. He decided the Salvation Army did enormously good work without a lot of the money going into executive pockets and he decided to make that charity the recipient of all that he could afford to donate. I have a feeling he could and did donate a lot more than I ever could but I liked the principle.

I looked around, read some reports and decided on Operation USA, which then had a different name. That I happened to know some of the folks involved in its top-level management and knew them to be good, sincere people was a deciding factor but by no means the only one. The surveys that monitor such things told me that I wouldn't get any more "bang" for my buck anywhere else. They spent very little on themselves and as much as possible on helping those in need of help.

Obviously, I am mentioning this here today because of the great tragedy and devastation in Nepal. If you feel like you'd like to do something to help, a donation to Operation USA will do a whole lot o' good. For the people in need over there and for your spirit over here.

Some scientists calculated that to print out everything on the Internet would take 136 billion sheets of paper which would require 16 million trees. I pray that they abandon this mad, pointless plan.

Once upon a time, there were over a thousand Howard Johnson's restaurants in this country. A few weeks ago, we were down to three. Now, there are two — one in Bangor, Maine and one in Lake George, N.Y. The hotel chain that spun off from them remains but the restaurants are teetering on extinction.

In the early seventies when I worked for Jack Kirby, there was one in Thousand Oaks, not far from the Kirby home. Jack and his wife Roz liked it because it reminded them of the ones they'd frequented back in New York. Often at the end of a workday out there, my partner Steve Sherman and I would join whatever portion of the Kirby family was around in a visit to their local HoJo's. I always had a hot turkey sandwich and for dessert, a scoop of their orange sherbet which came with a cookie stuck in it.

Jack rarely said much over dinner. His mind was always deep into the next story he would write and draw. He let Roz order for him and ate whatever she selected.

I have a very vivid memory of one dinner at that Howard Johnson's. Jack had been asked to come up with a new book for DC — something in a monster/horror vein. He came up with a name to play with — The Demon — and then didn't have much time to think about it until that dinner. Either Roz ordered his meal or he ordered what she told him to order…and then he went silent. Conversations swirled around him but he was quiet. He was writing.

Maybe fifteen minutes later, our server delivered the entrees and as we dug in, Jack said, "I've got it." He then proceeded to tell us all the entire plot of what would be Demon #1. He'd figured out who his demon was, where he came from, how he functioned, the supporting characters around him, what would transpire in his debut appearance, what everyone would look like…everything. I feel quite certain Jack worked all that out in his head while they were making my hot turkey sandwich.

He didn't exactly rush us to eat quickly. He was too considerate for that. But we could all sense Jack was eager to get home and begin committing his idea to paper so we dined at a brisk clip and I took bigger bites of my sherbet than usual. The entire comic was created at that Howard Johnson's.

It's long gone and sadly, so is Jack, though his work and influence endure. I'm sure many people my age or older have great memories of one Howard Johnson's restaurant or other. That's the only one I have but I think it's a good one. Here's an article about the next to the next to the last one closing. Soon, no one at all will get the reference in Blazing Saddles.

Here's a replay from December 14 of 2001. Not much to add to it today except to say that I wish some cable channel would find a place for Ed Sullivan reruns. A pretty large number of the old shows still exist and I think they hold up fairly well. The show was so fast-paced that it's tough to get bored with even the lamest of acts. They'd be gone in about the time it would take you to find your remote control and locate the Fast Forward button. I imagine there might be clearance issues here and there but I do think there'd be an audience for it. If nothing else, it might reach the older audience as well as any of those channels filled with commercials for Rascal scooters and staircase lifts…

I'm on a deadline and I didn't have anything in particular I wanted to post here, so I thought I'd throw together a quick update. The photo above was selected just because I thought it was kinda neat, and because I somehow neglected to say anything here upon the passing of George Harrison.

I wasn't the only one who took scant notice. Had the events of 9/11 not already plunged a lot of folks into a state of ongoing mourning — and made us thoroughly conscious of our own, meager mortalities — the death of another fourth of The Beatles would have been a major kick in the karma.

As I look at the above photo, I can't help but think what Ed Sullivan must have been thinking as it was taken…something along the lines of, "The people I have to put up with to keep my show high in the ratings." From all reports, America's Master Showman — at least on Sunday nights on CBS — had no special affection for any of the zillions of singers and comedians and jugglers and performing anthropoids who traipsed across the stage where Mr. Letterman now works. Ed just loved the success and the money and especially the fame. When in one famous network match-up, Steve Allen went head-to-head against him on NBC, a lot of TV reporters wagered heavily on Steverino. After all, it was Steve, the man who could do anything — sing, do jokes, play piano, write songs, etc. — against Ed, the man who couldn't even introduce Jack Carter without it coming out "Jack Carson." (My fave of all the reported Sullivan gaffes was the time he described an actress as "currently starving on Broadway.")

Sullivan was an appallingly amateurish host, but that was an indicator of his greatest skill: He was a survivor. When he first started hosting The Toast of the Town — later redubbed The Ed Sullivan Show — just about everyone on TV was appallingly amateurish. Ed just had the tenacity and drive that allowed him to stick around, long after the professionals had encamped. It was almost charming that he never got any better.

But he hung in there. He beat The Steve Allen Show because, I suspect, he had the greater need to succeed. After all, Allen knew that if his show got cancelled, there'd be another Steve Allen Show along, sooner or later — and there was. (There were several, in fact.) Sullivan, it is said, lived with the belief that his show was his one shot at being a famous, well-paid TV star. He believed — probably accurately — that once it went off, he'd be back to being just another sports/Broadway columnist in the increasingly less-lucrative newspaper industry. So he fought like mad, trampling over competitors to book the biggest stars, the hottest acts…which led to the night The Beatles graced his stage.

In the Billy Crystal movie, Mr. Saturday Night, the comedian character he played had the misfortune to be booked that night to precede John, Paul, Ringo and George. This meant facing an audience of hysterical teen-age girls who resented every second anyone not from Liverpool was on stage. Well, that happened…to my friends, Charlie Brill and Mitzi McCall, who were the luckless comedy team on that evening's show. Charlie can still wake up in a cold sweat, recalling the worst challenge any comic has ever faced.

But it made them a part of history…for something changed in America that night. When Elvis graced the Sullivan line-up — from the waist up — the change commenced, and when The Fab Four sang "She Loves You" or "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" or whatever they performed that night, the transformation was complete. The youth of the day had won, and the world would be all about them from that moment on…with the music of The Beatles often playing in the background.

I have no idea how much George Harrison had to do with this revolution, though I doubt he was carrying pictures of Chairman Mao. Perhaps he was just one of those historical figures who was fortunate enough to be near the epicenter when the Earth moved. Everyone seems to feel that John and Paul were the heart and brains of the band, not necessarily in that order.

Perhaps Mr. Harrison was just a good musician. His solo albums — which I seem to have liked more than a lot of rabid Beatles fans did — would bear that out. But, hey, he financed a couple of the better Monty Python projects and even put in a cameo in The Rutles…and I don't recall anyone ever saying anything bad about him. For that alone, we should weep for the man…that is, when we're not weeping for the sad fact that The Beatles, and therefore a lot of us, are now old men. Physically, at least.

Would that I could forsake all I have to do today and just blog for you but I can't so up goes the soup can. Sorry but here are a few odds 'n' ends before I leave you until tomorrow or the next obit, whichever occurs first…

My buddy Jeff Abraham says that the Friars Roast — the one I posted the photo from — aired on 1/21/70. He oughta know.

I said something here the other day about Time-Warner owning Time-Warner Cable and many of you wrote to tell me no, Comcast now owns Time-Warner Cable. Well, you were all right then but the deal's been scuttled so I'm right now. I think we should all pool our money and buy Time-Warner Cable ourselves. Given their level of service, it can't cost more than a few grand.

Matt Taibbi thinks the Republican party has a real problem: Younger Republicans aren't rallied and are maybe even alienated by cries to stop Gay Marriage. Older Republicans still are. So how do you take a stand and hold onto both?

I seem to not be speaking at any memorial services for departed friends this weekend. Looks like it'll be a good weekend.

I may post a video and a rerun article later but barring any obits, I'm outta here 'til tomorrow. Bye!

This is a history of the various lions and logos that have appearing at the opening of MGM movies. My friend Paul Harris had this video on his fine blog and he remarked…

Watching this reminded me of the story of the MGM Grand Casino/Hotel in Las Vegas, which once used a giant lion's mouth as its entrance. Unfortunately, the company didn't understand that superstitious Asian gamblers — who made up a large portion of its player base — considered walking into the cat's mouth to be very bad luck, so they stayed away in droves. It cost MGM millions before it realized its mistake, and millions more to rebuild the doorway so that customers entered near the lion, not through its mouth.

What Paul reports is true but I have my own, other Leo/Las Vegas memory. I'll tell you about in a moment. First, here's the video…

The hotel that is now Bally's used to the the MGM Grand. This was before they sold it and built the new MGM Grand. Back then, it featured a lavish production show called "Hallelujah Hollywood," which later morphed into "Jubilee!" At one point near the opening of the first show — and I think this carried over for a time into the second — they tried to replicate live this famous movie opening.

They had an actual, live lion and they had a big image of the rest of the screen and there was a hole in it for the lion's head to appear. I have no idea how they managed to get him to roar on cue but I have a feeling the Humane Association would not have or did not approve.

The lion was on some sort of platform with the rest of the image in front of him. At the precise moment, the spotlight hit it and while the lion did roar at the right moment, he managed to get turned around so you were staring at his rear end and tail. You also didn't hear the roar well since he was not facing the microphone. I saw the show two times about a year apart and this happened both times.

Later on, I met a dancer in the show and mentioned it to her. She said, "Yeah, Leo shows his ass in that show even more than I do."

Chris Hayes had Judith Miller on his MSNBC show the other day. Miller is, of course, the New York Times reporter who authored story after story about how we had to go to war in Iraq because Saddam definitely had those weapons of mass destruction. She's now on a press tour, trying to rehabilitate her image as a lackey of the Bush Administration who helped the U.S. make a big, big mistake. She's pushing the idea that she honestly reported what good sources said and she's pushing a book that makes that case.

Hayes, unlike others who've had her on, did a fairly good job of cross-examination. She admitted the war was a terrible mistake. She admitted her sources were wrong. Then Hayes said, "Go ask the editor at Rolling Stone about what happens when your source is wrong." You can view the video or read a transcript of it here.

Jaime Weinman writes about David Letterman, specifically about how viewers who only know him from the last decade or so may wonder how this cranky guy stayed on so long and why he is so revered. Whenever friends of mine discuss great moments with Dave, it's always something from his NBC show or the early days of his tenure on CBS.

It's never anything from this century…or when it is, it's because fate, not Dave's wish to do something different, forced a memorable moment on him. His post 9/11 speech was memorable. His shows when he returned from major medical problems were memorable. His speech about being blackmailed was memorable. It was rarely anything that occurred on a "normal" episode. On those, he seemed to be striving for uniformity, even to the extent of repeating monologue jokes from the night before.

CBS, by the way, is airing a prime-time special about Dave's career with them on May 4, hosted by Ray Romano. It will include a lot of those memorable moments. Dave's last show is May 20.

After he departs, we're probably going to hear a lot more from folks who worked inside his operation. I'll own up to a certain curiosity as to Wha' Happened? It just seemed over the years that he got more and more uninterested in prepared comedy bits, in doing remotes, in doing much more than entertaining the studio audience. Almost every episode I've watched the last few years included some joke that was incomprehensible to home viewers since it was a reference to something someone in the audience had said during the non-televised warm-up.

My pal Paul Harris wrote in a not-dissimilar essay…

While his legend will always include dozens of memorable moments and wacky bits he created (or borrowed from Steve Allen) and his paradigm-shifting attitude towards late-night television, which spawned the current generation of competitors, the fact is that it's been a long time since Dave said or did anything original.

Paul and I have talked a lot about Letterman, a guy we both admired tremendously. We agreed that at some point, Dave became utterly uninterested in his own show and especially anything that required work or prep. He couldn't even feign interest in about two-thirds of his guests, which is the main thing that drove me away. When I did watch the last few years, it was because I saw he had on some guest — like a Steve Martin or a Tom Hanks — who might make Dave care and rise to the occasion. When he was good, he was very good. He almost reminded you of the guy who followed Carson all those years on NBC.

I can name some factors other than Letterman himself that harmed the show — factors that have hurt all the late night shows. One is that viewing audiences have shown a marked disinterest in reruns that feel like reruns. Carson used to select shows to be repeated from a year or so back on the theory that viewers would have largely forgotten what happened on them and would be ready to see them again. Rating patterns the last few years have yielded a new working premise: Old shows feel like old shows.

Today, all the late night talkers select reruns from just a few weeks back because (a) they now assume that even those who like the program aren't, even in the age of TiVo, watching every night…and (b) current references will make it feel more like a new show. Mr. Carson did his shows with the idea that he was building a library; that highlights from any show could be rerun forever. He even pushed for things like Carson's Comedy Classics, a series which reused old segments.

No one has so much as suggested that what Dave, Jay, the Jimmies, et al, have been doing the last ten years has any reuse value anywhere. The shows aren't even being rerun weeks later on the networks' late night schedule or their cable channels, as was done a lot a decade ago. The stars and their staffs are all aware they're probably doing disposable shows, many of which will never be seen again, a few of which will be seen one more time, then will disappear.

Also, audience patterns have shown that the best way to get tune-in is to book the hot star or the hot new movie or the hot new series. This has presented problems for a guy like Dave who probably hasn't watched the hot new movie or series and doesn't have much interest in its hot new star. But more than that, to book the hot new star, you now have to contend with the hot new property's publicist who frets that one awkward, unplanned moment will harm the hot new marketing campaign. They want to know the questions in advance. They want to veto certain questions. They don't want the hot new star getting stuck in a situation where he or she would have to ad-lib.

Leno, in his exit interviews, has spoken a lot about the frustration of dealing with these publicists and handlers. I'll betcha Dave has even more frustration…and a strong sense that this just ain't his game anymore. That was one of Carson's main problems in his last few years. He just plain didn't know (or care to know) a lot of celebs he had in his guest chair (or should have had in his guest chair)…and those folks did not come on for unscripted conversation. They came on to stay "on-message" about the movie they had opening next Friday.

I'm not sure that what has ruined late night TV for me is wholly the fault of the guys behind the desks these days. I think it has a lot to do with what they have to do to stay viable, ratings-wise. At some point, someone at CBS must have talked to Dave about creating "viral videos" and I'll bet his eyes glazed over and he thought, "I've been doing this too long to learn a whole new set of rules."

The main thing that interests me about Letterman these days is to wonder what he's going to do with the rest of his life, entertainment-wise. Leno couldn't beat Dave when it came to witty ad-libbing and revolutionizing the late night form but he's blitzed him in career management. Jay has something to do now and Dave doesn't. Jay is very happy (and well-compensated) doing stand-up and a little cable show that, wisely, in no way resembles The Tonight Show. Dave was never happy doing stand-up and for him, a little cable show would be such a comedown, especially if it was a low-rent version of what he's done in television the last several decades.

I hope he comes up with something. When he's on his game, he's a very clever man and one of the most important talents in television history. I wish there was a cable channel reairing his old NBC shows so that new generations might know that…and why some of us care about that unhappy old guy who's stepping down next month.

Let's go way, way back to December 27, 2001 on this blog, which is when I posted this. The one thing I need to update should be obvious. Not only are none of the gentlemen in the photo still performing today but none of them is still breathing today…

This isn't particularly timely but I just came across this terrific photo, taken at a televised Friars' Roast of Jack Benny that ran on the Kraft Music Hall TV show in (I'm guessing) 1970. It was definitely before Johnny Carson moved The Tonight Show to Burbank, which he did in 1972. The folks depicted — just in case anyone's puzzled — are, left to right: Carson, Alan King, Ed Sullivan, Dennis Day, Phil Harris, Benny, George Burns and Milton Berle. It is perhaps significant of something that the only one of these men who is still performing is Alan King, who was recently seen on Comedy Central's airing of the Friars' Roast of Hugh Hefner.

The photo reminds me of one of the funniest ad-libs I ever heard on a TV show…and it was also, perhaps, the last time anyone ever did a "surprise walk-on" on a talk show that the host didn't know about in advance. I suspect Mssrs. Leno and Letterman would fire their entire staffs if anything ever happened for which they did not have adequate preparation, including a few pre-scripted lines. It's a shame since one of the great appeals of the talk show was, once upon a time, the spontaneity and the joy of seeing witty men working without a net.

The line I loved was uttered by David Steinberg. He was guest-hosting The Tonight Show that evening while Mr. Carson was elsewhere in the building (Rockefeller Center in New York) taping the above roast.

So what happened was that Steinberg was interviewing some guest and, all of a sudden, Milton Berle walked out on stage — absolutely unannounced and apparently a complete surprise to Steinberg. The audience, of course, went berserk. Berle ousted the guest from the guest chair, sat down and said a few words before Jack Benny walked out. Again, the audience went nuts.

Benny displaced Berle in the chair next to the desk and muttered a few words. The audience was cheering and howling with glee, and I thought they couldn't get any more excited.

Then Johnny Carson walked out from the wings.

That's right: Johnny Carson did a surprise walk-on on The Tonight Show. I have never heard an audience get as excited, as utterly apoplectic as they did at that moment. Finally, the ruckus died down and Carson — now seated in the guest chair — explained how they could only stay a minute since they were on a break from taping The Kraft Music Hall. For some odd reason, Steinberg chuckled.

"What are you laughing at?" Johnny asked him.

Steinberg grinned and replied, "I was just thinking about how wonderful the rest of this show's going to go after you all leave."

I'm not likely to vote for Jeb Bush for president but he does have some good ideas. One of them is to revive the "Death Panels" in Obamacare — or at least what folks like Sarah Palin tried to pass off as "Death Panels." Brian Beutler has more.

I need to get back to New York to see the new revival of On the Twentieth Century with Kristin Chenoweth and Peter Gallagher. Here's much of the cast getting up early to lip-sync a sampling of tunes from it on The Today Show. Which I guess means there are seats available…

Marvel has a storyline which reveals that Iceman of the X-Men is gay. I just spoke to a reporter who wanted me to comment on this and my comment was along the lines of "If it makes for some good stories, great." There are gay people. It stands to reason there are gay super people.

However, I really don't know if you can do meaningful stories about him being gay. The gay folks I know all have issues about being treated as "different" and "unusual." If you're a mutant made of ice, your sexual identity may be the least unusual thing about you. I would think that being the only individual on the planet like that — and constantly being involved in incidents that could mean the destruction of said planet — would have a bit more impact on your personality and create a lot more problems than being attracted to others of the same gender.

So then the next question — and the reporter didn't ask me this but it's being discussed a lot on the web — is "Well, is Iceman gay?" Answer: Iceman is a fictional character. He's gay if the folks writing and controlling his usage at the moment say he's gay.

I have not followed the comics closely enough to know how much, if at all, those in charge of him lately have hinted at this. My guess is that some have, some haven't. When a character is around for a while — and Iceman has passed the half-century mark — he or she gets handled by all sorts of folks who have different ideas. Certainly, many of those who have written Batman have not written the same guy in the suit.

They don't even all read each other's work and some of those who do are consciously seeking to "undo" what others did. I do not believe you should ever expect consistency in characterization from a character who's been under the creative control of more than three people.

In fact — and this is a side discussion — I think a lot of great characters become devalued by the fact that since dozens of different people are in charge of them, no one is really in charge of them. You know the old saying about how a camel is a horse that's been designed by a committee? Well, Bugs Bunny and many others I can name sure seem to be growing humps lately. But that's a rant for another time.

Apparently, some writers suggested in their stories that Iceman was generally cold to the idea of heterosexuality (I'm sorry) and then fans seized upon whatever hints were embedded and expanded on it in articles and fan fiction. And then the current custodians of the character thought it would be a good idea to make it official. I don't know them well enough to know if it was decided for creative reasons or marketing ones.

You see, I don't have a lot of contact with mainstream comics these days. When I did though, there was this constant push from both DC and Marvel to put out something "sexy" each month. That was the descriptor Dick Giordano used when he was in charge at DC. "Sexy" meant that at least one comic or mini-series had to stand out as very special. Sometimes, it could be achieved by the sheer assignment of a superstar writer and/or artist. Frank Miller doing a comic was an event. Another way was a "high concept" mini-series…like The X-Men crossing over with Star Trek or something like that.

Yet another way to create a "sexy" comic was to impose some life-changing storyline on an existing property. Some character was killed or married or resigned, etc. A more recent life-changer is to reveal someone is gay.

What's interesting is that "gay" may be the only permanent life-changer. Superman can be killed and later come back to life. Spider-Man can get married and then someone can turn back time and say it never happened. Captain America can quit and turn the costume over to someone else…then later take it back.

But gay may be forever. I would think it would be distasteful and really, really stupid for someone later to do a comic in which Iceman's gayness was "cured." They'd probably have to kill off the character and have someone else become Iceman…and if it was obviously done just to have a straight Iceman, that would be insulting to the gay community. So Iceman is gay.

What I think could be interesting is if they also decided that The Human Torch was gay. The two of them could fall in love…and if the man made of fire were to have sex with the man made of ice, it could trigger an explosion of weather that would stop Global Warming. If Marvel ever uses this idea, I expect royalties.

We like to track how certain restaurant chains are or are not in certain states. For many years, one of my favorites in California — and only a few other states — was Koo Koo Roo. Alas, the last Koo Koo Roo has closed and it looks to be gone for good…but one of its old locations in West Hollywood is soon to become the first Shake Shack in my state. Many people are excited. If I'd ever dined at a Shake Shack, I might be, too.

Steve Benen argues that Republicans these days don't seem to know what the word "socialist" means. They think it describes someone who does anything they don't like. Obama is being called a socialist by people who also think he has allowed the wealthy to get even wealthier. Apparently, he's a socialist who is achieving the exact opposite of socialism.