Category Archives: Video Links

Every so often, Jon Stewart and his crew come up with one which we just have to embed here…

This is the event I attended last Thursday evening in Santa Monica. If you'd like to get the full sensation of what it was like to be there, watch it in a store that could comfortably hold about 300 people and get about two thousand in there with you…

A comedy classic from 1933: W.C. Fields tells the story of The Fatal Glass of Beer…

In January of 1979, NBC aired two of the most bizarre TV specials you've (perhaps) never seen. They were hour-long, live-action comedy shows produced by Hanna-Barbera featuring Batman, Robin, Green Lantern, The Flash and other DC super-heroes. One was a silly adventure with the heroes running around, interacting with a batch of super-villains. The other was a superhero "roast" hosted by Ed McMahon. Why did someone think these would be a good idea? I'll tell you that story in a moment.

Adam West and Burt Ward re-created their roles as Batman and Robin. Charlie Callas played Green Lantern's arch-nemesis, Sinestro. Jeff Altman played the Weather Wizard. Howie Morris played Dr. Sivana. William Schallert played a new and elderly character named Retired Man. (You'll see him in the clip below.) A lot of roles were played by folks who hadn't done much before and don't seem to have done much since.

The shows themselves are hard to describe. They were called The Legends of the Superheroes and the last few years, the bootleg market offered up a DVD of fuzzy, incomplete copies. Now, the Warner Archive is making them available in a new made-to-order version made from the original masters and including footage that was edited before broadcast. Are they worth buying? I'm telling you about them, not recommending them. You might try watching this clip. If you enjoy it, order a copy from Amazon by clicking on this link. If you don't…well, I'm afraid it doesn't get a lot better than this, though the sheer campiness of the shows might amuse you…

Now then: The story of how these shows came to be. You may find this hard to believe and I'm not 100% sure I do, either. I'll just tell you that the following was told to me by a man I worked for once named Lewis Heyward, who was running Hanna-Barbera at the time and that I related it to Bill Carruthers, who directed one of them. Bill said, "Yeah, that's the way I heard it."

Shelly Moldoff, who drew comics for DC for years, suggested the idea of a super-hero roast. This concept was passed on to Joe Barbera and it was among about fifty he had on his mind one day when he went to NBC to pitch ideas for prime-time specials. With him was the studio's agent, Sy Fischer, a very nice and smart man who played a large role into building Hanna-Barbera into the huge company it became. Joe and Sy were a terrific team: Joe knew how to interest networks in ideas. Sy knew how to close a deal. If you can do those two things, you can be very successful.

Joe Barbera was a great salesman. In the meeting, he was dazzling and funny and hypnotic as he tossed out idea after idea, sometimes merging two into one or one into six. Finally, after an hour or so of dozens of ideas being discussed, the Vice-President in Charge of Variety for NBC said, "That's great, Joe. We'll buy two hours."

That was Sy's cue to end the meeting. First rule of selling: When they say "yes," get out. If you stick around, you give them the opportunity to change the "yes" into a "no." So Sy said something like, "Whoops! We're late for another meeting, Joe. Gotta run!" And they left. They were out in the hall when J.B. turned to Sy and said, "I know they just bought two hours…but I'm not sure which idea they agreed to." Sy said, "Neither do I…but let's close the deal and then figure it out."

The next day, someone at NBC called Sy and said, "Uh, we're going to honor the commitment of course, but…well this is kind of embarrassing but could you tell us what we bought?" Once Sy and Joe had left the meeting, the assembled NBC execs realized they weren't sure. A couple thought it might have been the idea about a superhero roast…so H-B went ahead and started on two roasts. Then they realized the roast idea was only good for one hour (if that) so they turned the other hour into more of an adventure story.

That's how I was told it happened…and having seen Mr. Barbera in action, I think I can believe it. I can believe he actually sold something to a batch of network execs…and neither Joe nor the execs knew what he'd sold and they'd bought.

Lisa Henson, daughter of Jim, discusses the origin and later sale of the company that bears her dad's name. It runs three and a half minutes and may be preceded by a brief ad for something you'd never buy in a million years…

From the PBS show Newshour, an interview with Stephen Sondheim…

From 1962, we have an interview on a CBS morning show with the great silent comic and climber-of-buildings, Harold Lloyd. It's in three parts that should play one after another (with minimal overlaps) in the player I've embedded below. The whole thing runs a little under 20 minutes and that includes some commercials which you may also enjoy.

You will note that throughout the chat, Mr. Lloyd tries to keep his right hand out of sight. Few of his fans ever knew that he was missing the thumb and forefinger of his right hand, the result of a prop bomb that detonated when he was holding it in a 1919 photo session. He kept the injury a secret — it was not mentioned in his 1928 autobiography — and appeared in films wearing a glove with prosthetic fingers. (He was right-handed, which makes many of his physical on-screen feats all the more amazing.) Eventually, the glove deteriorated and he never got around to getting another one made…so when he made public appearances later in life, he artfully kept the hand out of sight. The one time I met him, he had it in his pocket the entire time and shook with his left.

During the sixties, it is said he was frustrated that his name and body of work were not as revered as were that of Chaplin or Keaton or several others. Part of that may simply have been because he owned his best films and for a long time, they were not shown anywhere. He tried to rectify that by issuing two compilations, the first of which he's plugging in this clip, but he was reportedly disappointed with the reception. I always found his movies quite watchable and even funny though I somehow didn't love him the way I loved Keaton, Laurel and Hardy, the best of Chaplin and several others. So often in his movies, he isn't funny; the script is. Still, he deserves to be remembered as more than that guy hanging off the clock…

Louis Armstrong and Danny Kaye in a scene from The Five Pennies. Boy, they were good…

My friend Shelly Goldstein complained on Facebook yesterday that no one seemed to be showing her favorite holiday special, Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol. Okay then…here for Shelly and anyone else who wants to watch is the entirety of Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol with, as they say, "limited commercial interruption." (The reason the timer says it's an hour and 17 minutes is that the hour-long Xmas special is followed by some other Magoo shorts.)

Two other points before we get to it: If you love this special, you probably should own the fine book written by animator Darrell Van Citters all about the making of the show. The book has recently had a second printing which contains new info not included in the first. You can order a discounted copy here though they may send you the first edition. You can definitely order the second at full price and you can find out additional things about the special at Darrell's website.

Also: There was never a soundtrack album of the show, despite its fine score by Broadway tunesmiths Bob Merrill and Jule Styne. Finally though, you can have the tunes on your iPhone or other player. They're available for purchase as individual or collective downloads over at Amazon by clicking on this link.

Okay, I think that's it. Shelly, here's your favorite Christmas special…and like I said, the rest of you can watch, too. Make yourself a hen sandwich before you click and don't forget the razzleberry dressing…

Opening next February is what I'm told is an odd but fascinating movie about Jonathan Winters. Here's the trailer and needless to say, I'm curious to see it…

There's a new baby panda, just a month old, down at the Atlanta Zoo. You can find out more about him (and watch streaming video during daylight hours) over at this page. He is, of course, very cute. You may be cute too but you're not as cute as a baby panda. Nothing is. Not even (sniff) me.

This is a rerun that someone asked me to post here again…

The brilliant comedian Jeff Altman has been a frequent guest with David Letterman as long as Dave's been on TV. They met at the Comedy Store in the mid-seventies and were regulars on a short-lived 1977 variety show featuring everyone's all-time favorite musical group, the Starland Vocal Band. I always loved seeing Jeff appear with Dave, not only because Jeff is so funny — if you ever get the chance to see him live, do not hesitate — but because Letterman always seems so danged happy to have him there. Dave rarely appears pleased to have anyone on but there's always a certain delight when he has Altman in the guest chair. I suspect it's an admiration because Jeff can do all the comedy things that Dave can't: Impressions, characters, physical comedy, etc.

Some time in the eighties, back when Dave was on NBC, his show gave Jeff some money to make some short videos that he could use in his appearances. Jeff decided to shoot some bits where he'd be a "test boy" at NASA, being subjected to various experiments, and he enlisted a couple of friends to help. I was one of those friends. The idea was that we'd tape about thirty ten-second gags and every time Jeff guested with Dave, he'd show three more. They were shot in one long afternoon in a video studio out in Woodland Hills.

Our clip today is a long segment that Jeff did with Letterman and near the end, he shows three of those short vignettes — the only ones that ever aired. Shortly after this, and before the time Jeff was next booked with Dave, there was a huge accident — the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster, I think it was — and someone decided it was not a good time to be making sport of folks who train for NASA missions.

The black guy in the first one is some acquaintance of Jeff's whose name I don't remember. I'm the guy holding Jeff's eyes open in the last one. But the more difficult role I played was holding the leash in the second one, keeping Jeff (a very strong person) away from a friend of mine I asked to come out and put on a bikini for a couple of bits. Her name was Angela Aames and she was a lovely, gifted actress who died unexpectedly one night at one of those ages where you're way too young to be dying unexpectedly. She still has fans and friends who remember her fondly and I'll bet few (if any) knew that that was her in that blackout. So I thought I'd mention it here so that those who Google her name, as so many do, will know.

I didn't post the first obit/tribute on the 'net of Leslie Nielsen but I may have been the first to make mention of his love of an invention called the Handi-Gas. If you search, you'll see that almost every personal remembrance of Mr. Nielsen since has mentioned how he would constantly use a concealed device to emit fart sounds in public places, sometimes even during television appearances. Some of the pieces called it a Whoopie Cushion but that's not correct. You sit on a Whoopie Cushion. Leslie's weapon of choice was the Handi-Gas, so-called because it was cradled in the palm of one's hand for just the perfect moment. I mentioned here that I'd been unable to find the one he gave me or to locate a photo (or even any mention) of this scientific marvel on the Internet.

The fine cartoon voice actor Greg Berg wrote me that one day when he was working with Howie Mandel, he witnessed Howie use one he'd gotten from Leslie Nielsen. The setting was in an elevator and the "victim" on whom the prank was played was Gary Owens…whose reaction, Greg says, was "polite." Greg then went out to get one of his own but couldn't find a Handi-Gas anywhere. He wound up purchasing a Pooter-Tooter — that's one in the photo above — which is identical except for coloration. The Handi-Gas I got from Leslie Nielsen was flesh-colored, though Leslie's was wrapped in electrical tape and he suggested I do the same with mine. "It makes them last longer," he said. The way Leslie used his, he should have reinforced it with titanium pegs and a cast-iron bellows.

(Greg Berg, by the way, should not be confused with Gregg Berger, who is another fine cartoon voice actor…and we've all spent a lot of time trying to straighten out the Internet Movie Database on which is which. Greg Berg — with one less "g" and no "er" — counts among his many fine roles the part of Baby Fozzie on The Muppet Babies. Fozzie Bear is just the kind of character to use one of these things.)

Getting back to the Pooter-Tooter (and there's a phrase I've never used before and will never use again): I would like you to all know that I have only dwelled on this topic as a matter of historical record. Although I had and still have the greatest respect for Leslie Nielsen as a comic actor, I think making fart sounds to embarrass or discomfort others is just about the most childish, unfunny thing a person can do, right up there with lighting a bag of dogshit, leaving around rubber vomit or performing Jackie Mason's current act. On the other hand, I do find the tutorial for the Pooter-Tooter rather amusing…

In 1936, MGM Studios prepared a little eight minute featurette to promote upcoming movies. For it, a brief opening and a briefer closing were filmed featuring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, along with their frequent co-star, Jimmy Finlayson. Apparently, all copies of this film have vanished off the face of the planet…at least, copies of it in English. A few years ago though, someone in Europe somewhere found a print that had been dubbed into French and this is it. As I said, Stan and Ollie are at the beginning and at the end. It's always nice to see hitherto-unseen footage of my favorite performers even if I'm not sure what the heck they're saying…

Ever since I posted this item about the abrupt hospitalization of cartoonist-theorist Scott McCloud, I've gotten e-mails from folks asking if Scott is all right. Saturday night, I saw him and his terrific mate Ivy at a party and am happy to report that Scott seems to be all right. I mean, I didn't take his pulse or do a blood count on the guy but he appeared to be in good health…and he and Ivy and I and my terrific mate Carolyn and our fine friend Kurt Busiek and I think Len Wein and his terrific mate Chris are all having dinner this week. If Scott's well enough to eat with me, he's fine. But as we talked, I realized that I never embedded this excerpt from a talk he gave for the Ted project. Here's seventeen minutes of Scott discussing comics in the way that only Scott can…