Category Archives: Uncategorized

You can always count on it: Just when I have me a ton o' work to get done tonight, power is out all over Los Angeles, including at my house. Judging from the note of despair in the voice of the guy on the D.W.P. recorded announcement, it's gonna be a while before they figure out what caused it, let alone get the juice flowing again.

So what can I do with this time? I mean apart from lamenting that my TiVo is not recording Jerry.

Carolyn just suggested this might be a good time to do the laundry…since no one else is using power. I'm thinking about trying to figure out if I can use my new Blackberry to post to the Internet. This is how our ancestors used to blog in the days before electricity.

Charlton Comics was a low-low-budget firm that published comics from the mid-forties through the mid-eighties. They published a lot of ho-hum books produced on the cheap but there were occasional treasures…probably more than the company deserved, given how abominably they paid their talent. One fine (though brief) body of work emerged when a writer named Will Franz scripted (and occasionally co-drew) a combat series called "The Lonely War of Capt. Willy Schultz." An accomplished artist named Sam Glanzman was his collaborator and what they produced was several cuts above Charlton's usual war material, and probably as good as any such tales ever produced anywhere.

Mr. Franz didn't write many comics then. Truth to tell, I don't know much about him other than that he was responsible for a small number of gems. More recently, we're hearing that he is ill and in a bad way, financially. To help him out, Sam Glanzman is selling the original art for four of his collaborations with Franz. They're up on eBay — here's a link — and 100% of the proceeds will go to Willy Franz. As a sad indicator of how poorly guys like him were paid…if just one of these stories goes for the minimum bid, it will probably bring him more money than he grossed in his entire career writing comic books.

I expect the stories to go for way more than the minimums. First off, it's Sam Glanzman art. Sam has been a true professional in comics since 1939 and he has an awful lot of fans out there. Of all his many projects, none is loved more than the work he did in tandem with Willy Franz. In fact, I'd bet Sam has held onto these originals for some time, well aware of their value. Now, he's selflessly turning loose of them because someone is in trouble and that fact alone oughta prompt some of you to bid up the prices. Here's your chance to do a good turn AND (big "and" here) get yourself some fine and precious comic book art for your collection. Go for it.

Okay, I know I said I wasn't going to post much this weekend but that was before I read this. The following is a slightly-condensed version of this item I just noticed…

(CNN)–The ranking Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee says Idaho Senator Larry Craig should seek to withdraw his guilty plea, and possibly his resignation from the Senate. "I'd like to see Larry Craig go back to court, seek to withdraw his guilty plea and fight the case," Senator Arlen Specter said on 'Fox News Sunday'. Drawing on his earlier experience as District Attorney of Philadelphia, Specter said, "On the evidence Senator Craig wouldn't be convicted of anything. And he's got his life on the line and 27 years in the House and Senate, and I'd like to see him fight the case because I think he could be vindicated."

"Listen you can go to court and withdraw a guilty plea, of course disorderly conduct is not moral turpitude," Specter said. If he went to trial "he wouldn't be convicted of anything. And if he went to court, was acquitted, all of this hullabaloo would have no basis."

Speaking on the same show, Senator Patrick Leahy, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Specter raised a good point. "From a legal point of view he makes a very good point," Leahy said. "Now from a political point of view I don't pretend to know what Idaho politics are or how they might be, but Senator Specter has laid out as strong a legal case as I've heard."

Specter is probably right that Craig could get the guilty plea withdrawn and the charges dropped. What he couldn't do is get all of America and particularly the voters in his state to believe he wasn't prowling for gay sex in that lavatory. His colleagues in the Senate have pretty much shown that they believe it by the rapidity with which they threw the senator from Idaho under the bus. At best, some people might just believe he got nabbed too early in the process and that slick lawyering had gotten the case dismissed. No one in this country confuses "the cops didn't prosecute" with "there was nothing to the allegation," especially with regard to the wealthy and powerful.

And of course, if it could ever be proven that Craig was completely innocent, then he'd still be a guy who was stupid enough (and/or afraid enough of having his sexuality examined in a courtroom) to plead guilty to a bogus sex crime arrest because he thought it would all go away. A lot of folks would still find that a perfectly fine reason for him not to be in the Senate.

So no, the hullabaloo would still have a lot of basis.

But the part I love is Patrick Leahy egging Craig on to remain in the Senate and fight the charges. If I were a prominent Democratic leader, I'd sure love to see what that would do to Republican solidarity and whatever anti-gay efforts the party might undertake. There's a reason the members of his party want him outta there a.s.a.p. and it isn't just because they're afraid to use the men's room when he's around.

My book on Jack Kirby (this one) will be going to press very soon so I have to spend some time on it this weekend. That's why you won't see a lot of posting here in the coming week. And that will also serve as this week's excuse for me not getting back to some of you who've e-mailed in this direction. I'll have a different excuse next week.

As noted here in the past, I am/was a big fan of the folk-singing group, The Limeliters. There's still a group touring by that name, and I'm sure they're quite good, but it's a new generation of Limeliters…not the ones I grew up listening to.

The trio originally consisted of Lou Gottlieb, Alex Hassilev and Glenn Yarbrough. Around 1965, they more or less disbanded but began getting back together for occasional reunion concerts in the seventies. Thereafter, there were occasional performances with other performers filling in here and there, especially for Yarbrough, who went off and pursued a rather successful career as a solo. Gottlieb passed away in 1996 and for a time, Hassilev anchored whatever appearances were made by a group under the Limeliter name. He recently retired, although I'm told he occasionally goes out with the current troupe and once in a while, they're booked in tandem with Yarbrough, I believe.

Anyway, this clip is from a 2002 PBS Special. That's Alex Hassilev introducing the song and performing, and this may be the last bit of video of the group with him in it.

If what George Packer is hearing is correct, we're about to get bombarded with arguments that the U.S. needs to be at war with Iran. And don't worry. It'll only last a few weeks, it'll pay for itself and we'll be greeted as liberators.

It's the Labor Day Weekend and we all know what that means: Jerry. For the seventy-three thousandth time, Jerry Lewis will host The Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon "live" (not really) from the South Point Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Here's a quote from the official press release…

MDA National Chairman and Telethon star Jerry Lewis, joined by anchor Ed McMahon and co-hosts, Jann Carl, Tom Bergeron, Alison Sweeney, Tony Orlando, Billy Gilman, Norm Crosby, Bob Zany and the Muppets. This year's on-air talent includes Celine Dion, Montgomery Gentry, Christopher Meloni, Mariska Hargitay, Tony Danza, Ivanka Trump, John Madden, Vanessa L. Williams, Michael Urie, Ace Young, Bear in the Big Blue House, Commodores, George Wallace, John Tesh, Lance Burton, Louie Anderson, Maureen McGovern, Ronn Lucas, the casts of Grease and Legally Blonde and much, much, more.

Thousands of business and community leaders, along with some 250,000 volunteers nationwide will appear on the Telethon or work behind the scenes of the marathon 21½-hour show.

No offense meant to any of the names above, a couple of whom are friends of mine…but why are there so few superstars listed? I remember when the telethon was Frank and Sammy and…well now, it's Bear in the Big Blue House. (And conversely, where the hell is Charlie Callas?) What we're getting this year is pretty much whoever's playing Vegas plus a few of Jerry's longtime pals…and I doubt even Celine Dion is actually showing up. They probably arranged to just tape a number or two during one of her performances at Caesars Palace.

Jerry Lewis is highly revered by just about everyone in the field of comedy. Once upon a time that wasn't so but he's survived to become one of our few Living Legends. You'd think more Big Names would turn out for the cause.

By the way: Keep in mind that not every channel on the Love Network airs the entire telecast. On my satellite dish, I can bring it in on three different channels. I can watch it via WGN in Chicago, where it starts at 8 PM Sunday night (that's Pacific time since that's where I am) and runs until 1 PM on Monday when WGN stops airing Jerry and instead shows the Chicago Cubs playing the Los Angeles Dodgers. After the game, Jerry resumes and runs until 5 PM…so that's twenty-one hours minus the three or so that the ball game will require.

I can also pick up the telethon on WNUV, which is located in Baltimore. There — and again, these are L.A. times I'm giving you — it starts at 8 PM Sunday night and ends at 3:30 PM Monday afternoon. That's nineteen and a half hours.

Those of us in Los Angeles are the lucky ones. Here, it starts on KCAL Channel 9 at 6 PM Sunday night and runs until Monday at 5 PM. That means that we get twenty-three hours of a telethon that, according to the above, runs twenty-one and a half hours. I'm assuming this is simply a matter of repeating hours. In recent years, several large chunks of the telethon have been rerun within the body of the show. Even at 21.5 hours, there are probably many repeated segments in there and I'm assuming that number is just an arbitrary one. The telethon can really be almost any length. Anyone have any idea how many hours they really do?

In 1959, the Kellogg's people decided to bring out their version of Cheerios, which was the most popular cereal from their competitor, General Mills. They added a "K" to what was basically the same thing and called it Kellogg's OK's.

Originally, the product's mascot was a burly Scotsman named Big Otis. I have no idea why they thought kids would spark to the character and I'm guessing that someone at Kellogg's was afraid they'd made a bad call on that one. Almost immediately, Yogi Bear became co-spokesperson for OK's and before long, Otis was off the box and the bear was in his place. I'm also guessing that Kellogg's had their highest hopes for this cereal and that as they assigned other Hanna-Barbera characters to appear on cereal boxes and in commercial, they saved H-B's most popular star, Yogi, for the most important assignment.

Yogi may have been smarter than the average bear but he wasn't much good at selling cereal. In the early sixties, Kellogg's decided to give up and discontinue OK's. Their product development team was asked to come up with a new product that could use the same manufacturing equipment…and that's how Froot Loops were born.

This is a commercial that I recall as the one that introduced OK's, at least in the Los Angeles area. Since Yogi liked it, I immediately asked my parents to get a box, which they did. I liked it but I liked Cheerios more. Apparently, I wasn't the only kid who made this decision.

Timothy Noah reviews the O.J. Simpson If I Did It book…which I guess has now been retitled, If I Did It. It's a two-part review. Here's part one and here's part two. I agree with what Noah says about the text revealing Simpson as a very sick man with great anger towards his murdered spouse. I don't agree that the new character who's been introduced into the scenario — a friend named "Charlie" who helped Simpson commit the murders — is real.

I recently purchased one of these. It's the Sony DVPCX995V 400-Disc DVD Mega Changer/Player — a carousel that holds 400 DVDs. I have it in my office, all loaded with about 250 of my favorite movies and another 150 or so DVDs from my stack of ones I've had sitting here and never gotten around to watching. The machine is a bit slow and clunky but it does work. My plan is to keep taking out movies I will probably never re-watch and insert better films…to the point where I eventually have it all or mostly filled with fave flicks.

Here's one silly little problem I have. As you may know, a DVD of a movie sometimes has the name of the film encoded into it. Some players will read and display this encoded name, and my DVPCX995V builds a whole TiVo-like menu of them. I push a button on the remote and get a screen I can scroll through of all the movies in my player and then select the one I want to watch. In many cases — most, actually — there's no title encoded so I have to enter it manually. That's okay. My problem is that frequently, when there is a movie title encoded, I want to change it on the screen…and the Sony player won't let me. I have to live with their encoded name on my menu.

In some cases, it's not all that coherent. The name encoded on A Fish Called Wanda is "fisch_wanda." So that's what pops up on my menu and I can't change it. On Dr. No, the encoded title is blank…so a blank title appears on my menu and I can't change it. There are several encoded titles that misspell the name of the movie. Anyone have an idea how I can change this? Or how I can recode the DVDs to strip out that disc info? I have a hunch I'm outta luck on this.

Other than that, it seems like a great little machine. If you're thinking of getting one, wait a few weeks. I'll play with the one I got and let you know if I change my mind about it.

Isn't it interesting how everyone in the country except Larry Craig knew that he'd have to resign?

Time for a clip from some Milton Berle program or another. This one's four minutes and you can ignore the first minute or so, which is kinda lame. But then Arnold Stang enters. We love Arnold Stang. He was a great cartoon voice actor. He was Top Cat and Herman the Mouse and many others. He was a great character actor. He was in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. And he's still with us. (I had the honor of directing him once on a cartoon show and he still sends me a Christmas card every year.) So let's watch Arnold.

Radio Master Paul Harris did a great interview yesterday with Noel Blanc, son of Mel. Meanwhile, Stu Shostak has a great interview up this week with Bill Marx, son of Harpo.

So you have your choice. You can listen to the son of the Man of a Thousand Voices or the son of the Man with None.

Matt Taibbi has written a long article about how military contractors are raking it in because of the Iraq War. Just in case you need something else to make you angry about this whole mess.

According to this story, Tribune Studios — more commonly known as "The KTLA lot" — is on the auction block. This is the former movie studio on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, bordered by Van Ness and Bronson. It was originally built by Warner Brothers in 1919 and they made most of their early pictures there, including The Jazz Singer starring Al Jolson. Leon Schlesinger's cartoon studio, the birthplace of Bugs Bunny and his amigos, was on that lot.

After Warners built a bigger lot in Burbank, the Hollywood lot was sold to Paramount, which housed its local TV station (KTLA, Channel 5) there and used some of the soundstages for filmed TV shows. (Gunsmoke shot there for a time.) Gene Autry purchased KTLA and the lot in 1964 and thereafter, it was a studio that housed a TV station but primarily rented space to other producers. I wrote a lot of shows for Sid and Marty Krofft that taped there. The first season of WKRP in Cincinnati was taped there. Dinah Shore did her talk show there. Hundreds of game shows taped there. Solid Gold taped there. Donny and Marie taped there. And so on. In 1985, Tribune Entertainment bought KTLA and a few years later, they bought the studio, too.

Someone in the above-linked article predicts that the new buyer, whoever it is, will upgrade the property and keep it functioning as a TV production facility. I'll be delightfully surprised if this happens but it feels like another of those "mixed-use" developments with some production facilities but also condos and retail outlets. In terms of history, I'd like to see it remain a big TV studio but geographically, it's probably more suited nowadays for a big mall anchored by a business not unlike Walmart. KTTV/Metromedia, which had a similar history and which used to be across the street, is no longer across the street. There's a new school building going up on that property…but the point is that the owners of that facility didn't try to keep TV production going there. I have no idea who'll buy KTLA but I'd bet they won't, either.