Category Archives: To Be Filed

The Comic Art Professional Society is still running one of the greatest auctions ever of comic art…and it's all to benefit cartoonist Stan Sakai and his wonderful wife, Sharon. For those who came in late: Sharon is suffering from a horrendous medical condition that has to do with a brain tumor. Though the Sakais have health insurance, the costs of the necessary 24/7 care Sharon requires far exceed what the insurance covers. Stan is a great guy who has always been there to help others. Now, others are rallying to help him and Sharon. There's a fancy must-have art book coming soon from Dark Horse featuring drawings that the world's best cartoonists and comic artists have donated to the cause. Now, you can bid on and purchase the original artwork for those drawings, as well as many others that have been donated. Go here to take a look at the latest round of offerings. It's a chance to do a real two-fer: Help out some good people and get yourself a treasure at the same time.

• Latest rumor: CBS offering Letterman's job to Stephen Colbert providing he changes his name to Jimmy Colbert.

What would Alfred E. Neuman look like if he was a real person? Go see.

Lots of stuff around about Letterman. Here's a relic — his 1984 interview with Playboy. Note that Dave said he felt the show should be steering away from the kind of guests Ted Koppel booked — i.e., figures in the news, politicans and such. And of course, now he books presidents and people who were president and want to be president. Leno said the same thing and didn't stick with it when he started on The Tonight Show. I suppose most talk show hosts do.

And here's a segment Keith Olbermann did on whatever sports show he now hosts. It goes a little far trying to make a baseball analogy but on the rare occasions when I've watched ESPN or any sports programming, I always seem to see someone going too far trying to view the world in sporting terms. It's as if they figure if you're watching their program, you can't possibly process information that cannot be discussed this way…

The Programming Schedule is up for this year's WonderCon in Anaheim! If you're attending the convention, I suggest you take the time to go over the offerings and make a little list of what you want to see and where it is and what else you might want to get into if your first choice is full. WonderCon panels tend not to get as full as Comic-Con panels but you never know. They even have a handy online tool that will aid you in making up a personal schedule and transferring it to your iPhone or Android or Etch-a-Sketch. I will be on these panels…

Friday, April 18

THE SERGIO AND MARK SHOW
Sergio Aragonés, Mark Evanier, and maybe others who bring you the award-winning, ship-sinking Groo the Wanderer have actual news of actual, for-real upcoming Groo comics as well as other exciting projects. Come hear Sergio explain what's up and then hear Mark translate it into English!
12:30pm – 1:30pm / Room 213

THE MEN WHO MADE BATMAN
2014 marks the 100th birthday of Batman's uncredited co-creator Bill Finger, the 75th anniversary of Batman's first appearance, the 50th anniversary of the "New Look" Batman, and the 25th anniversary of the Tim Burton motion picture that proved the world would welcome a serious Dark Knight. Celebrate by looking back at how Bob Kane and Bill Finger created the character and how ghost creators Jerry Robinson and Gardner Fox helped them shape the Caped Crusader's first year in print. Dr. Travis Langley (Batman and Psychology: A Dark and Stormy Knight), Mark Evanier (Bill Finger Award), Alan Kistler (The Ultimate Batman Trivia Challenge), Robert O'Nale (The Cape Creator documentary), Jens Robinson (son of Jerry Robinson), and the rest of their super team of bat-experts unite to answer the question, "Who built the bat?"
2:00pm – 3:00pm / Room 210A

Saturday, April 19

THAT 70'S PANEL
What was it about comics in the seventies that made them so different from the ones that had gone before and the ones since? Witness a lively discussion on the topic among four folks who brought you comics then: Marty Pasko (Superman), Len Wein (Swamp Thing), Marv Wolfman (Tomb of Dracula), and your moderator, Mark Evanier (Scooby Doo).
10:30am – 11:30am / Room 203

CARTOON VOICES
It's one of the most popular panels at any convention! Five masters of speaking for animated superstars demonstrate their talents. The dais will consist of Greg Berg (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Gregg Berger (The Transformers), Candi Milo (Dexter's Laboratory), Wally Wingert (The Avengers), Debi Derryberry (Jimmy Neutron), and Fred Tatasciore (The Hulk). And it's all moderated by animation voice director Mark Evanier (The Garfield Show).
12:30pm – 1:30pm / Room 300DE

HANNA-BARBERA HISTORY
Learn the history of the world's most prolific cartoon studio and meet some of the men who brought you shows like The Flintstones, Yogi Bear, Scooby Doo, and even the Wacky Races! Your host Mark Evanier (who worked there in the eighties) interrogates men who were there in the sixties and before: Tony Benedict, Jerry Eisenberg, Wally Burr, and maybe a few others.
1:30pm – 2:30pm / Room 300DE

Sunday, April 20

COVER STORY: THE ART OF THE COVER
What's a good cover on a comic book? How are the best ones created? Be there for this "shop talk" discussion with artists who've been responsible for some of the best: Paul Gulacy (Star Wars), Cliff Chiang (Wonder Woman), and Tony Daniel (Superman/Wonder Woman). Presiding will be moderator Mark Evanier and co-moderator Len Wein.
12:00pm – 1:00pm / Room 207

WRITING FOR ANIMATION
Mark Evanier has written hundreds of hours of cartoons for television, including Scooby Doo, Richie Rich, Dungeons & Dragons, Superman: The Animated Series, and many more. He is currently head writer and supervising producer of The Garfield Show, and now he's offering a reprise/sequel to this topic he spoke on last year and knows better than anyone!
1:30pm – 2:30pm / Room 300DE

IDW PUBLISHING: KIDS COMICS! PONIES, TURTLES AND MORE!
Editor Sarah Gaydos and a host of amazing creators discuss the growing slate of all-ages titles at IDW-including My Little Pony, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles New Animated Adventures, Samurai Jack, Powerpuff Girls, Ben 10, Ghostbusters, Popeye, KISS Kids, and more! Plus, free comics!
2:30pm – 3:30pm / Room 213

Need I add that times and rooms and plans are subject to change? No, you know that. Hope to see you at some or all of these.

I'm getting a lot of questions in my e-mailbox…

How do you think Leno's departure impacted Letterman's decision to retire?

Well, before Fallon replaced Leno, there was a theory around that a certain percentage of Jay's audience would be dissatisfied with Jimmy and would flock to good ol' reliable Dave. Now, it's evident that did not happen…so there's no event looming that might change the dynamic of late night. Letterman has been finishing a bit ahead of Jimmy Kimmel in total viewers but it's more than likely that he won't be able to do that for long; that he'll wake up one morning in third place.

He's announcing his retirement before that can happen…before people start saying, "Hey, CBS has been good to this man. Why doesn't he step aside and let them bring in someone who has a chance of being Number One? The Leno/Fallon hand-off proved that can be done." It may even have caused CBS to increase the nudging.

Some articles I'm reading say Craig Ferguson has a "Prince of Wales" clause in his contract that guarantees him 11:35 if Dave retires. Some say he doesn't. Which is it? And if he does, don't they have to give it to him?

I seriously doubt anyone who says Ferguson does or does not have such a guarantee has actually seen the contract. He may well have such a clause and it may well be similar to one Letterman had in his NBC deal back when his show followed Carson's. It said that if Johnny left and Dave didn't get 11:35, Letterman would be paid a penalty fee of one million dollars. That, of course, was not going to prevent NBC from going with whoever they wanted.

For reasons I stated earlier, I don't think Ferguson is a serious candidate for the job. I don't think he's ever had the clout to get the kind of deal that would force CBS to give it to him if they'd prefer someone else.

The author of this article suggests that Ellen DeGeneres would be a great replacement for Letterman. What do you think?

I think Ellen has a great, successful gig that reaches more viewers than Letterman and almost as many as Fallon and which probably pays her more than she'd make taking over Dave's time slot. She can probably do that show for another decade or two and I can't imagine why she'd give it up to gamble on a more volatile situation. Would she be good at 11:35? Maybe…but why? Finally…

Is it possible CBS won't replace Dave with Late Night Hosted By Someone Else? What about another kind of program?

Possible but it would be a big gamble. Remember that before Dave went on in that slot, CBS tried all sorts of shows at 11:30 or 11:35 and Dave's was the first to succeed. The runner-up was The Pat Sajak Show and its early ratings (and some in-house research) suggested that viewers liked the idea of a talk show there; that CBS had just picked the wrong host. If they put someone else on with a similar show and it doesn't click, they might well try a different kind of program. But for now, it's more likely that they'll stick with what's worked there, hoping that the gravitas of sitting in Dave's chair can enhance another guy.

Like I said, I dunno who they'll get. A couple of folks have mentioned Neil Patrick Harris to me and that sounds like a good choice. So does Tina Fey. So does Chris Rock. So does Louis C.K. But I can't shake the feeling that it's going to be like one of those murder mysteries where they reveal the killer and it's someone you never thought of because there were no clues.

My pal Alan Shearman sent me this. It's some feats of spectacular juggling by Russian juggler Alexander Koblikov. So how long do we think this guy had to practice to be able to do all this?

My pal Marvin Silbermintz, who used to write for Jay, posted that "Letterman & Leno will cohost the new internet series, Comedians in Cars Getting Unemployment.

Ten folks have written me since the previous post to ask what I think the odds are that Letterman's replacement will be either Jay Leno or Conan O'Brien. I'd say they're about the same as the odds of his replacement being Chiang Kai-shek or me.

Both Leno and O'Brien, talented though they may be, are Old News…of no use to a network that's looking for a guy (or it could be a gal) who can capture the youth market and establish a franchise there for another decade or two. Leno might get better ratings than his competitor for a little while…but for the long run? I also don't think Leno would do it.

Moreover, networks don't like picking up another network's discards. They do it very rarely and never for something as important as this. It's just embarrassing for a network to admit it couldn't find and groom anyone who'd be as good as a guy NBC got rid of.

Conan, especially. Apart from a few weeks there when America was tuning in to watch him trash NBC for firing him, when was the last time Conan O'Brien demonstrated any ability to attract a big audience? His 12:35 show at NBC did fine when he had Leno as his lead-in…but the last year or so of it, he was getting tied (usually) or beaten (sometimes) by Craig Ferguson, who had a show with a much worse lead-in, very few Big Star guests and an operating budget about a fourth as large. I do not believe that in 2004, NBC would have promised O'Brien The Tonight Show in 2009 if they'd imagined what his ratings on Late Night would have been in 2008. The network probably deserved some points for not reneging on that deal.

Since O'Brien went on TBS, his ratings have been acceptable but way below what he and the network hoped to achieve. Does anyone really think that's the guy on whom CBS is going to bet its entire late night schedule?

I don't know who they have in mind other than that it's probably someone young enough to do the show for 20 years if he or she clicks and someone who's comfortable with social media and the Internet. And like I said, it would not shock me if they already have a handshake and maybe a contract.

Details are sketchy about David Letterman's announced retirement in 2015 so I thought I'd get an early jump on the speculation to come. Can't wait to see how CNN will tie this in with the missing Malaysian plane.

Why is Dave quitting? Well, first of all, is he quitting? His ratings versus Fallon and Kimmel have not been great. He's generally been finishing second in total viewers, third in the 18-49 bracket. It's not hard to imagine him losing both contests soon but it is hard to imagine anything reversing the trend. America has long since decided how much they feel like watching Dave at night and the new, younger viewers are not drawn to him. So that's a decent reason to retire but it's also a fine reason for CBS to suggest that strongly. My guess would be it's both. And someone probably feels that Dave's only real chance of getting his numbers up at all is a year of "farewell" shows, trotting out the best guests and reprising the best bits.

Then again, it's important to remember that the reasons for a decision like this may not all be visible to us. Maybe it's just Dave's mood or Dave's family or Dave's health. When someone leaves a great job, it's kind of a cliché for them to say they weren't fired; that they resigned on their own accord to "spend more time with the family." That usually means they were fired…but not always.

Who's going to replace him? Beats me. If I were CBS, I'd send a Dodge Viper filled with cash to Stephen Colbert's door to see if he's ready to abandon his Comedy Central show and the character he plays on it. But I don't think it'll be Colbert. I think they're going to want someone fresher…and it wouldn't surprise me if it was someone more skilled at Social Media and YouTube than delivering a great monologue.

I don't think it'll be Craig Ferguson. Some reports say Ferguson has (or had) a succession deal in place while some say otherwise. If he had a deal guaranteeing him the time slot, I assume CBS will exercise some sort of escape clause. Ferguson didn't do well against Fallon at 12:35. Why would he be competitive at 11:35?

(I'm still a big fan of Mr. Ferguson, by the way, even though I rarely watch his show. I think he's one of the brightest, quickest humans on television and when he's really interested in a guest, a better interviewer than any of his competitors unless you count Jon Stewart. But lately, Ferguson has been trending in the same direction via which Conan O'Brien lost me: Too much mugging and dancing and making the show about how much he can make the studio audience love him. I've given up O'Brien because he seems way more interested in topping his guests and talking about himself than he is in helping them to score. Craig is drifting the same way.)

(One more aside before I get back to Dave: For April Fools Day, Ferguson and Drew Carey traded jobs. Carey hosted The Late, Late Show and Ferguson hosted The Price is Right. Neither did that well but Carey did better with his assignment than Ferguson did with his. I don't think Craig knew how to split the difference between getting laughs and running a game. You can't be too silly on a game show since you don't want to interfere with anyone's ability to win that new car and given that restriction, I don't think Craig knew what tone to take. I still think the guy's brilliant but it didn't work. It was interesting though to see him go the other direction, being too subdued instead of not enough. End of aside.)

One thing I suspect about Letterman's replacement: CBS already knows who it'll be and probably has paper signed. They may not want to announce it right away. It'll make Dave's departure seem less like he was elbowed aside if they don't announce the new person too quickly. But the selection has probably already been made.

What intrigues me more than that person's identity is So what is Dave going to do?

A person who was close to Carson told me that when Johnny retired, he honestly wasn't sure what, if anything, he'd do in the public eye. He thought some options would present themselves…and some did though he didn't like any of them. Letterman worships Carson but I can't see him disappearing the way Johnny did. I also can't see him going out and doing stand-up like Leno or guesting on other shows or…anything. He's a very funny, popular man and it would be such a waste if he didn't do something. I'm wondering what it will be…and it wouldn't surprise me if he's wondering, right along with the rest of us.

More as this story develops.

Here's what happens when you board a flight and the cast of the Disney musical of The Lion King just happens to be aboard…

Jonathan Chait on the good news for Obamacare. I suspect the program still faces possibly-lethal court challenges and a whole lot of tweaking…but the predictions that it could never work, that it would never meet sign-up projections are starting to look a lot like Dick Morris's assurance of that Romney landslide. Actually, they remind me of a producer I once worked for who told me that a certain project was definitely going to be picked up for production. I asked her how she could be so sure and she said, "Because I need it to be." It wasn't…but if it had been, it would not have been because of that.

Michael Hiltzik debunks the claims that the White House is fibbing about the enrollment success of Obamacare. People are going to believe what they want to believe — I still get messages from a guy who insists it's been "inarguably proven" that Obama's birth certificate is bogus — but I think the tide has turned on the Affordable Care Act. Not that some people won't give up without a fight…

Today (Wednesday), Stu Shostak has another of all his always-lively discussions on the state of the TV industry with his resident TV critics, Steve Beverly and Wesley Hyatt.  As Stu's website says, "First, we'll pay tribute to game show hosts Jim Lange and Geoff Edwards.  Then we'll discuss DirecTV dropping The Weather Channel (and nobody except TWC seems to care), the Comcast-Time Warner merger and what it means for we poor consumers, the latest on the Aereo streaming TV lawsuit (and what that means for we consumers), the surprise ratings bonanza Jimmy Fallon is experiencing (and how long it will last), and GSN doing it again with another lame series pickup…" And on and on from there…

Stu's Show can be heard live (almost) every Wednesday at the Stu's Show website and you can listen for free there. Webcasts start at 4 PM Pacific Time, 7 PM Eastern and other times in other climes. They run a minimum of two hours and sometimes go to three or beyond.  Shortly after a show ends, it's available for downloading from the Archives on that site. Downloads are a paltry 99 cents each and you can get four for the price of three.  Great shows at a great price.

This is to remind my friends in the Southern California area that Frank Ferrante will be doing An Afternoon With Groucho at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts on Sunday, April 13 at 3 PM. Go here to get tix because they may not be available for long…and it will probably be a quite a while before the next time Frank does his show in our neck o' the woods.

For those of you new to this blog: Frank is this incredible actor I met who gets on a stage and miraculously transforms himself into the one, the only Groucho Marx. He sings. He dances. He tell stories. He heckles the audience. I'm not a big fan of "impersonator" shows but this is a lot more than an impersonation. I've seem him about a dozen times so I may skip this chance…but you shouldn't.