Category Archives: Uncategorized

One of my favorite movies (some days, just plain "my favorite") is It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. If it's one of yours and you own a Blu-ray player, know this: A Blu-ray edition of that film is being released but not everywhere. It's a Walmart exclusive and you can pre-order a copy here for ten bucks. There are others in this series of only-at-Walmart releases including When Harry Met Sally, A Fish Called Wanda, Legally Blonde and Throw Momma From the Train.

As far as I know, this release of Mad World is exactly the same in terms of running time and scenes included as the currently-available DVD version. Also as far as I know, we are never going to see the kind of fully-restored, just-like-it-was-when-it-first-came-out release about which some Mad World lovers fantasize. Some cut scenes could be restored for a future release if very expensive video work were to be done…but some simply do not exist. Some day soon, I hope to complete a big article listing the actual run times of the various releases and what was cut from each. Based on e-mails I get on the topic, I think some people think a lot more was cut than actually was.

I am not, by the way, ordering a Blu-ray copy because I do not own a Blu-ray player. There are two reasons for this, one being that I have my home video setups all set-up nicely and don't have a burning need to tamper with those arrangements. It would mean finding new inputs and outlets and rack space and…well, I just don't want to rearrange all that again. More importantly, if I were to suddenly decide to go Blu-ray, the following conversation would occur somewhere at the company that decides when it's time to bring out a new format…

"Good news, sir. We've been monitoring his purchases and Mark Evanier has finally ordered a Blu-ray player."

"Finally! Well, keep monitoring. As soon as he has a substantial investment in Blu-ray discs, let me know so we can make them obsolete with one of the many better formats we have waiting. Oh — and I especially want to know when he orders Goldfinger for…how many times will that be?"

"Twenty-eight, not counting the two different Laserdiscs that looked like different releases but were actually exactly the same."

"Excellent."

So I'm doing all of you who have Blu-ray a big favor by not joining your throng. If I did, you'd have to junk your players and all your Blu-ray discs in favor of something new. I'm guessing the next big thing will be either View-Master reels or a slightly fancier version of the Kenner Give-a-Show Projector.

Jackass performer Ryan Dunn was stinkin' drunk and driving around 130 MPH when he totalled his car, himself and his passenger, Zachary Hartwell.

So then Roger Ebert tweets, "Friends don't let jackasses drink and drive" and a lot of people get upset at him.

Insensitive? Maybe. But on a scale of 1 to 10, with "1" representing minor rudeness and "10" denoting total assholerly, I have a hard time seeing Ebert's comment as much above a 2. And if he'd waited two days to tweet it, it wouldn't even have qualified as a "1."

On the other hand, driving on a public road at 130 MPH is at least a 10, more likely a 12 or 13.

That's if you're sober. Driving with a blood alcohol level of 0.196 — more than double the legal limit — is at least a 15. Add them up and you get around a 27…on a scale of 1 to 10.

Anyway, I look at this and have trouble seeing Ebert as the bad guy, especially since he was basically right. He may have been a little early with it but he was basically right. Apart from the timing, the only way he could have been more correct is if he acknowledged that sometimes, friends try to stop friends from drinking 'n' driving and they can't. But that wasn't the advertising line he was referencing.

See that guy at the drawing board? That's Jerry Eisenberg and this photo was taken some time in the sixties at the Hanna-Barbera Studios. Jerry was one of the key designers and layout artists at that studio during its Golden Era, working on everything from The Flintstones to The Jetsons. There aren't a lot of those guys around and Jerry was one of the best. He's also kind of a cartoon character himself…roughly a mashup of Peter Potamus, Magilla Gorilla and Penelope Pitstop.

Jerry is the very special guest today on Stu's Show, the must-hear pop culture talk program heard every darn Wednesday on Shokus Internet Radio. If you're interested in that era of animation — or in hearing a master cartoonist discuss his career — you'll want to tune in and hear your genial host Stu Shostak interview Jerry about his days at H-B…and they'll also be talking about the many things Jerry has done at other studios, including Ruby-Spears and Warner Brothers. Stu does his show live at 4 PM Pacific Time (7 PM Eastern) and it runs two hours that go by in no time. To listen in, go to the Shokus Internet Radio website at the appointed hour and click as directed. The show repeats throughout the week but you'll enjoy it more if you tune in while they're doing it. Trust me…and by "me," I mean me.

There's not much to say about the content of Keith Olbermann's first telecast on Current TV. It was pretty much the same show, pretty much what we all expected. The only thing I heard that I might not have heard on his old MSNBC program was the claim of Liberal Activist Markos Moulitsas that he [Moulitsas] no longer appears on MSNBC because he ticked off Joe Scarborough…and Scarborough has the power to block guests from being on other hosts' shows. Olbermann concurred and he's obviously in a position to know. I would have liked though to hear Olbermann say whether he had (and if so, ever exercised) the power to block some guest from appearing on Scarborough's show.

My big complaint about the first Countdown was its length. About halfway through, Keith announced they'd be going past the hour mark…an announcement that was of no help to those of us watching the show via TiVo. We recorded for one hour and the show went about 64 minutes. Olbermann is today being criticized because that meant he cut into Rachel Maddow's show on MSNBC. There are obviously folks out there who wanted to watch him then watch her and he made that difficult. Hey, never mind that. He made it impossible for some of us to watch the last four minutes of his show. Where is the upside for him in that?

I haven't bothered catching any of the replays and I wonder if they've been edited down or maybe even sped up or if they run 64 minutes. If so, how does that work with the other shows on the Current TV lineup which are all pre-filmed and an hour long and supposed to start on the hour? I think when Bill Maher's HBO show began, he occasionally ran over…but HBO has so much filler between some programs that it was probably easy to clear a few extra minutes for his initial transmission and then I believe they sped up or edited Maher's show for the rebroadcasts.

But I really don't get how this is good business for Olbermann to run over, making the show after his start later, screwing up anyone who records the show via DVR or VCR. If they want to make it difficult for people to tune over and watch Maddow, why don't they just officially make Olbermann's show 65 minutes long?

The main company that supplies program listings to cable providers, satellite TV services and DVRs has decided to change the name of Keith Olbermann's new show which debuts later today on Current TV. They originally said it was called Keith Olbermann. Now it's Countdown with Keith Olbermann. If you set your TiVo or DVR to record it under the first name, you might have to reset things to get it under the second name. Thanks to James J. Troutman and others who alerted me to the switch.

I know I promised a real report on the Licensing Show and it'll be along soon, along with a photo that was taken there of me posing with one of my favorite TV stars. I also owe you all the second part of my rant about drive-in movies. This will all happen.

I was talking earlier with someone about the concept of advance-ordering books (like my pal Vince Waldron's) from Amazon. I don't think people get that it's a chance to lock in the lowest-possible price that Amazon will sell the book for until its publication date. If the price goes up, you get the item for the price when you ordered it. If the price goes down, you get the item for the lower price. You can also cancel the order before it comes out. It's really a great service.

And so is Amazon Prime. If you don't know how this works, it's simple: Once a year, you pay them $79 and that covers two-day shipping on most items. You can do the math for yourself and see if that's cheaper than paying as much as you annually pay to Amazon for postage and handling. It is for me and it's also liberating in this way: I no longer have to worry about ordering at least $25 each time I want something from them. I can just order a $2.00 item and they pay to ship it to me. Or if my order is up to $24.37, I no longer have to browse around trying to find something for 63¢ in order to qualify for Free Shipping.

Come on…you know you've done that.

I really like Amazon. I can't recall the last time an order was wrong or late. I can't even recall the last time they were out of something I wanted to buy. The few times there have been problems, they've always been resolved to my satisfaction. If I had anything there to complain about, you know me: I would. But I don't. About the only thing I wish they could do that they don't is to not make me feel guilty when another independent bookseller goes under because people like me are ordering from Amazon. I do not, however, feel guilty enough about that to stop buying the easiest, cheapest way for me…and the easy part is more important than the cheap part.

Last night, I spent about a half-hour just updating software on my computer, downloading and installing the latest version of this program and that program and that other program and so on. It seemed like everything I downloaded asked me if I wanted to also install someone's taskbar or some other program I didn't want and I had to be very careful and uncheck the proper box not to get a lot of unwanted extra installations.

About an hour ago, I awoke from a dream and I can't remember all of it. But I remember walking into some sort of fast food restaurant and asking for the chicken and rice…and I remember a woman behind the counter saying, "Fine. And would you like to also download Google Chrome and make it your default browser?"

Today only on Amazon, you can order The Larry Sanders Show: The Complete Series for only sixty bucks. It retails normally for $150 and Barnes & Noble (I just checked) currently has it for $135. But at Amazon, today only, you can order the totality of one of the best situation comedies ever done for just sixty bananas. Here's the link you'll want to click on and you'll want to click now.

Don't thank me for the tip. Thank writer-director Vince Waldron. In fact, I'll give you the chance later this week when I plug the hell out of his new book which you'll also want to order from Amazon. Just in case you want to order it the same time as the Larry Sanders set, I'll tell you a bit about it now…

Many moons ago, Vince wrote the (dare I say it?) definitive book on another of the best situation comedies ever done, The Dick Van Dyke Show. Later this year, but you can advance-order it now, an updated and revised version of that book will be coming out. Even if you got the earlier edition, you'll want this one and you can order it by clicking here. I'll be telling you more about it in the days to come. Right now, you're busy ordering.

Craig Ferguson goes to Paris. Thanks for the tip, Robert J. Elisberg.

Hey, did you know that MAD has a blog? It's true, it's true: MAD has a blog. How do you get to the MAD blog? You click right about here and you'll be transported to the MAD blog. Don't get spoiled. It's pretty funny over there.

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark opened the other night on Broadway to reviews that would probably close any other show…but this isn't any other show so who knows? There might be enough interest out there to keep it going a while. This notice by Ben Brantley was pretty typical of about a dozen I read.

If you have the slightest interest in MAD magazine, enjoy this slide show about the publication from the files of Life magazine.

And it's time once again to avoid the way-too-obvious joke about giving someone the finger and make this year's announcement…

SAN DIEGO — Bob Haney and Del Connell have been selected to receive the 2011 Bill Finger Award for Achievement in Comic Book Writing. The choices, made by a blue-ribbon committee chaired by writer/historian Mark Evanier, was unanimous.

The Bill Finger Award was instituted in 2005 at the instigation of comic book legend Jerry Robinson. Each year since then a committee has selected one living and one deceased writer for the award, which is given out during the Eisner Awards ceremony at Comic-Con International: San Diego.

"This award is a corrective of sorts," says Evanier. "Bill Finger never received the recognition or rewards he deserved, so Jerry Robinson proposed an award in his name. It's to recognize and honor other writers who have contributed an impressive body of work but who haven't received the laurels they deserve. Del Connell, for example, wrote and/or edited thousands of comic book stories, and I'm not sure he ever got his name on a single one. Millions of readers enjoyed the work without a clue as to who had created it."

Bob Haney began writing comic books in 1948, freelancing for a wide array of publishers, including Fawcett, Standard, Hillman, Harvey, and St. John. In 1955 he began a long association with DC Comics, where he wrote hundreds of scripts in the genres of war, western, mystery, romance, and of course, superheroes. He is best remembered for his work on The Brave and the Bold, The Unknown Soldier, Teen Titans, Aquaman, World's Finest Comics, and especially Metamorpho, which he co-created with artist Ramona Fradon, and The Doom Patrol, which he co-created with writer Arnold Drake and artist Bruno Premiani. Haney retired from comics in the late 1980s and passed away in 2004.

Del Connell began working as an artist at Disney Studios in 1939 and soon segued into the story department. He contributed to many shorts and features, including The Three Caballeros and Alice in Wonderland. He began writing Dell Comics for Western Publishing Company as a freelancer in 1950 and joined its editorial staff in 1954, though he continued to be the firm's most prolific writer. Among the many comics he originated were Super Goof, Wacky Witch, The Close Shaves of Pauline Peril, and Space Family Robinson, which was adapted into the popular TV series Lost in Space. He eventually became editor-in-chief of the West Coast office of Western Publishing's comic book division until it ceased activity in 1987. For over twenty years, he also wrote both the daily and Sunday editions of the Mickey Mouse newspaper strip. Del, at age 94, will be on hand to accept his award.

The Bill Finger Award honors the memory of William Finger (1914–1974), who was the first and, some say, most important writer of Batman. Many have called him the "unsung hero" of the character and have hailed his work not only on that iconic figure but on dozens of others, primarily for DC Comics.

In addition to Evanier, the selection committee consists of Charles Kochman (executive editor at Harry N. Abrams, book publisher), cartoonist/historian Scott Shaw!, writer Kurt Busiek, and writer/editor Marv Wolfman.

The awards will be presented on the evening of July 22 during the Eisner Awards ceremony at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel. The 2011 awards are underwritten by Comic-Con International. DC Comics is the major sponsor; supporting sponsors are Heritage Auctions and maggiethompson.com.

Here I am. More after I unpack.

Hello from McCarran Airport and where was I? Oh, right: I'll post more about the Licensing Show when I'm home and can upload some of the photos I took.

Vegas in 108° heat has its drawbacks. It's not like 108 in a humid climate but it's still uncomfy and it really hits you when you briefly travel between one sealed air-conditioned environment and another. You can feel the oddest parts of your body dilate and contract. There are times when I want to yell at the locals in my best Sam Kinison impression, "YOU'RE LIVING IN A DESERT!!!" Perhaps most of them know that.

Some people like to roam The Strip with these long drinks in glasses that look like you could use them to pole vault…and I swear, every time I come to this town, it's like they've decided to release an even taller glass. Yesterday, Mickey and I had breakfast at an outlet of Dick's Last Resort, which is a great place to eat if you like bad food and being waited on by assholes. Anyway, there was a lady customer there getting a drink — something blue — and I'm not exaggerating when I report that her drink was taller than she was. The Margarita Girls could have done body slams in it. I don't drink that much water in a week.

Time to get on the plane. I'll continue this from another state…