Category Archives: Video Links

This is a bit of a cheap shot but it's also funny and it's something that John McCain was almost asking for. It's a short film of the Maverick family — the folks whose ancestor gave his surname to the dictionary — saying and even singing about how much it pains them to hear McCain call himself one.

I'm not sure if McCain ever deserved that label but I'd like to think so. At least, I'd like to think I wasn't fooled when I believed what I used to believe about him. But a couple of years ago, he decided that the only route to the presidency involved kissing up to what Jon Stewart calls (and McCain even agreed with him was) "crazy base world." So the Senator from Arizona fell in lockstep with their wishlist, which meant anchoring himself to the least popular President in the history of mankind.

There are many reasons McCain's doing as poorly as he's done… and a bad, dishonest campaign is certainly high on the list. But it may be as simple as the fact that Americans really, really hate what George Bush has done to this country so they're fixin' to vote for the guy least likely to continue his policies, end of argument. I don't know if being a real "maverick" could have gotten McCain the G.O.P. nomination but the fact that he isn't seen as one is probably costing him the general election.

Here's the video link, for which I thank Bob Elisberg. I am not, by the way, embedding this because I think it's going to change anyone's mind. I think we're long past that moment. I just thought the video was worth seeing. It's a shame that James Garner is said to be ailing. I mean, it's a shame because we love James Garner and he's a great actor and from all reports, one of the nicest guys in the business. But wouldn't it be fun if he was up to making a video in this election? For either side?

The image is a little dark but you'll mostly want to listen to this one, which runs three minutes. And let's thank Phil Pollard for sending me the link.

Raymond Scott (1908-1994) was a composer and musician who created a lot of popular music but who holds a special place in the hearts and ears of cartoon buffs. Carl Stalling, who did the music for most of the classic Warner Brothers cartoons, liked to use Scott compositions in his work, especially after 1943 when Scott sold his publishing company to Warner Brothers Music. Thereafter, Scott tunes were heard often in Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, especially the song in this clip, "Powerhouse." Stalling usually employed "Powerhouse" whenever the on-screen action involved automation or robots or anything of that nature.

This clip is from the April 16, 1955 edition of Your Hit Parade, a long-running radio-then-TV show which each week presented musical acts and performances of tunes that were then climbing the charts. I don't think "Powerhouse" was at that moment but Mr. Scott was the orchestra leader on the series so he was often featured. He called his group the Raymond Scott Quintette, even though it always had six guys in it. He's the one tickling the ivories, as they say…

I'm always a sucker for a video of a hippopotamus eating pumpkins…

Here's Jon Stewart last night chatting with William Kristol. Kristol's track record as a pundit is riddled with bad predictions and the hasty abandonment of folks he championed the week before…but he does seem to have his finger on the pulsebeat of those who set the public Conservative agenda. It's also kinda fascinating that he's developed this frozen ventriloquist smile that is always there, even when knocked out or having to defend the indefensible.

Stewart makes what I think is a solid point which Kristol can't really refute: The leaders pushing the idea that Obama is a socialist or a Marxist don't believe it for a second. It's just something they're saying because they think there are votes in it…and that a lot of people out here are stupid enough to fall for it. There are times when this kind of approach works but it sure doesn't look like it's working this time.

Twenty-five years ago (or so), a friend of mine named Will Meugniot and I created a comic book called The DNAgents which we enjoyed doing, and which we may just bring back one of these days when you least expect it. A new reprint collection is now available from Image, and Will has just made up this animated video. I think he did a great job…

Okay, I found a clip of the segment on CNN today. I'm in there for a few seconds, looking way too serious for the topic…

Just watch this. It's less than two minutes…

This is an amazing bit of video editing. It demonstrates exactly what I think is wrong with so much of the political discourse during an election…and with those "three" debates the presidential contenders had. Remember how I said it was like instead of having three debates, they had one debate three times? (If there's no video embedded below, try this link.)

Here's a nice little music video…the song "Stand by Me" by Leiber and Stoller as sung by different singers around the world…

Here's another episode of Garfield and Friends that shouldn't be on YouTube. I'm told the lawyers will get around to getting them all taken down any day now. Of course, they've been saying that for months so you probably have plenty of time to watch this and the other clips before they disappear.

Quick story…or maybe not so quick. Season Five of the show, I wrote an episode called "Picnic Panic" which was one long song/adventure about Garfield and his chums getting bested by a colony of musical ants. I did the lyrics and a brilliant music guy named Ed Bogas did the tune and also sang for the ants. The episode aired and drew a ton of mail asking when it could be seen again and if the song was available on a record. (Answer to the latter: Nope.) This was unprecedented.

Saturday morning cartoon shows, back when we had such things, almost never got mail; not unless you count the occasional "I love you, [character name]" in Crayola…and there weren't even that many of them. Once in a while, there'd be what seemed like an outburst of complaints about something but even that would only be like twenty letters. Some very fine, long-running shows never drew one bit of written viewer response and even most episodes of Garfield and Friends received no mail whatsoever, positive or negative.

Until the ants. "Picnic Panic" (which you can view here) got a sackful or three, all of it enthustiastic, which caused many at CBS to take note. One day soon after it first aired, I was over at the network on an unrelated project and I was introduced to that week's Vice-President in Charge of Programming Until He's Fired. He shook my hand, made the connection and said, "The man who gave us the singing ants! When are you bringing them back? You have got to do another episode with those ants!" I got the impression it was not only his favorite episode of our show but also the only one he'd seen.

The producer I was with had no idea what we were talking about and he got even more confused as the Network Veep began singing — out of tune and from bad memory — a little of the ants' song. I told him we had talked of bringing the ants back but nothing had been written. "Please," he said. "You've got to do one as soon as possible. When are you doing more episodes?" I told him we'd try to get one ready in time for our next recording session, which was a few weeks away.

The day before that recording, I was finalizing the scripts when I received a call from someone at the studio. "I understand we're recording a sequel tomorrow to that singing ant cartoon of yours," said this person. I said no, I hadn't gotten around to writing one yet. Back came a worried response: "Well, you'd better get around to writing it, right away. The network called to make sure and we promised them there'd be one in the next batch." A brief argument ensued and I finally decided it would be prudent to postpone one of the scripts I'd planned to record the next day and quickly whip up the return of the ants.

I called Ed Bogas in San Francisco and told him what I wanted to do. I had to write the lyrics and work out all the actions to accompany them, and he had to write and arrange the music and record a temporary music track for the actors to sing to…and since we both had plans for that evening, we had to do it late, after we'd returned from our respective engagements. Ed said he was up for it. I think I started writing about 11 PM, e-mailing chunks of script to Mr. Bogas, and he'd phone me back every hour or so and play sections of the music for me. Around 4 AM, I received from him an MP3 of the temp music track…and five hours later, I was at the studio to direct the actors in the following song, as well as other things we recorded that day.

Here's what we wrote that night: "Another Ant Episode." Lorenzo Music is Garfield, Thom Huge is Jon, Gregg Berger is Mr. Crater the Bug Eliminator, and that's Ed again singing for the ants. This YouTube video is a tad outta-sync at times but I think it's still watchable. You'll notice that what was on my mind was that we were doing this story only because of viewer response…

By contrast, the ants' return did not yield a flood of complimentary letters or even a trickle. I believe CBS did receive one complaint that a cartoon show had used the word "butts" — as in "kicking butts." The people over at CBS Standards and Practices (very benevolent, non-destructive people, by the way) later told me that since they couldn't think of another word to go in there that would rhyme, they'd decided to pretend they hadn't noticed it. Not for that reason, I prefer this one over the first ant episode. We never got around to doing a third one.

So there you have it. And just in case Sergio Aragonés (or someone else who understands Spanish) reads this posting, here's the same cartoon in that language. I have no idea what they're saying but I think I like it even better this way…

Here's another clip from Weekday Heroes, that 1984 special on the kids' show hosts of Los Angeles. This one is about Sheriff John. (I linked to a clip about Chucko the Clown in this post. Again, that's Tony Dow hosting.)

John Rovick was another one of those staff announcers and TV personalities in local television who was told one day to come up with a costume and a persona and to go out and host cartoons. Almost everyone who was on staff at a local station in the fifties got such orders and some of them became so popular that they did it for years and became part of countless childhoods. Sheriff John was on KTTV from '52 (the year I was born) until 1970. He then continued to work as a staff announcer at the station for at least another ten years before retiring to Idaho where, we hear, he's still alive and well.

Got 46 seconds? Let's watch the opening to The Bugs Bunny Show. What? You say you've seen it a million times? Maybe so. But have you ever seen it in German?

Here it is, people: The best video I've seen this entire election. And before any of you start muttering about Hollywood Liberals…I've actually talked politics with two of the three men in this video and I would have bet on Cindy McCain endorsing Barack Obama before I'd have put money on these guys…

Today, we have five minutes of commercials for Gulf gasoline, several of which feature Professor Ludwig Von Drake. Paul Frees supplied the professor's voice and one of his spots was announced by Gary Owens. (Goofy utters a couple of syllables in the first one and I think that's Hal Smith.) Fill 'er up!

For today's video link, we bring you…me. This is a 48 minute talk I gave in September at the offices of Google. The topic was Jack Kirby, the subject of the book I keep plugging here. The nice lady who introduced me mispronounced my name and got some of my past credits confused with my current credits…but that's okay because I misspoke about one or two things I can't remember right now.

I've only watched a little of it — I hate watching myself — but I was surprised to see that I looked rather dour throughout my rambling. I remember having a very good time there and the audience seemed to, as well. Hope you do.