Category Archives: Video Links

There was a Hollywood Collectors Show out in Burbank last weekend. I usually go and wanted to attend this one, as three of the four "Sweathogs" I worked with on Welcome Back, Kotter were present. Alas, I was too busy so I got no closer than watching this short video report from the Slate folks.

Only a few folks are interviewed in this, one of whom is Lou Ferrigno. Mr. Ferrigno seems to be at every autograph show and convention in America. If you see him at one, stop at his table, say hello, and buy the little book he wrote about his days playing The Incredible Hulk. It's a good book and he's a nice man, who patiently endures being asked over and over and over what it was like to be painted green every day. It amuses me that most of the conventions he attends put his table up front on the apparent assumption that it might be nice to have the muscle guy nearby if there's trouble.

Here's the video…and by the way, I don't think that's Jay Leno in the background when they're interviewing the daughter of Mickey Dolenz. But it sure looks like him, doesn't it?

What's Mark got for us today? Well, how about a brief chat with voice legend Thurl Ravenscroft?

Mort Walker, the creator of Beetle Bailey and about 400 other strips, has devoted much time and cash to a National Cartoon Museum that has been intermittently (and is currently) semi-homeless. If you don't feel like clicking the video link below to watch a report on it, you can read this article. But you'd probably prefer the video…

And here's a slide show that Mort narrated about his work and collection…

A week or three ago here, we showed you a couple of approaches to the classic illusion, "Metamorphosis." I should have tossed this one in because it's in some ways, the most impressive.

The magician is Mark Wilson, a real champion of his art form. An awful lot of guys my age got interested in magic because of a TV show he had on from 1960 to 1964 called The Magic Land of Allakazam. I'm not sure if we were more impressed by how amazing his tricks were, how clever he was about teaching the essentials of magic to us, or by his lovely assistant (and spouse), Nani Darnell. I see Mark and Nani around the Magic Castle when I'm up there. He's still a legend and she's still lovely.

This is from one of the first HBO specials back in the early eighties…a thing called Mumbo Jumbo, It's Magic! It's one of those tricks that's impressive even if you know how it's done.

Reader Craig Robin suggested I link you to this excerpt from The Name's The Same to illustrate what I was writing about in the previous post. It's a good example. It's pretty obvious that Joan Alexander was told (a) to start by asking about the physical attractiveness of the person in question, (b) to get to that question about working with trained animals and (c) to not make a guess that would prevent the game from moving on to Bill Cullen. It's also pretty obvious to me that Mr. Cullen figured it out right away but decided (or was told to) play dumb to make for a more interesting segment. It would not surprise me if the producers had a way to signal that it was time to end a spot like this so someone should go ahead and give the answer.
The "gambits" got much worse on later episodes but this one illustrates the principle at work…

Much of the current presidential election is going to be about John McCain trying to convince America that he's not offering George W. Bush's third term. You'd think the folks they send out to spread this message on news broadcasts would at least have one or two talking points to offer…

And speaking of Wally Wingert…Wally is the voice of Jon Arbuckle on the new Garfield projects (like the new show I'm writing and directing — which, by the way, debuts on Cartoon Network some time next year). He was also a guest at CONvergence in Minneapolis last week, and will be on the Saturday Cartoon Voice panel at the Comic-Con International in San Diego. The following video tour of Wally's little Ackermansion will give you some idea of why he and I get along so well…

Speaking of the Adam West Batman TV show, as I was: My pal Rubén Procopio is a master sculptor and he has recently completed a bust of Mr. West that you can see and order at this site.

While you're there, take a peek at the clip of another friend of mine, Wally Wingert, talking about it on The Florence Henderson Show. If you don't know Wally, I'll introduce him in today's video link…

In 1978, Paul Lynde was touring in a production of the play, The Impossible Years, and wound up in Toledo. Ohio. To promote it, he went on the local news there and someone got the idea of asking him to do the weather forecast. Mr. Lynde was a very funny man but you do get the idea he didn't know a whole lot about Geography…

Speaking of Chuck McCann and Cocoa Puffs: Here are some vintage commercials with Chuck performing the roles of both Gramps and Sonny. Chuck stopped doing these some time in the eighties and others took over the parts…and they were never as good.

Earlier today, I embedded (sent you to, actually) a video of Matt Harding dancing all around the world. Here are some outtakes…

I'm embedding this but you really need to see it in high-def, which you can do at this page. So don't click on the embedded version below. Go watch it in HD. (Thanks to someone named Tom who sent me the link.)

Something I told you about the other day in my life is now up on YouTube.

You may recall that last Thursday night, I participated in something called The Cereal Mascot Smackdown at CONvergence in Minnesota. It was a panel with me, Len Wein (you'll see him on the far right in this video), Kelvin Hatle, Kenneth Hite, Christopher Jones, Joe Scrimshaw and Tim Uren. The host was Tim Wick, who was — for obvious reasons — dressed as Austin Powers and he was assisted by Melissa Kaercher. The premise was that we were supposed to argue whether various mascots from cereal boxes could beat the tar (or the high corn fructose) out of each other.

Also, we and most of the few hundred folks in the audience had to eat a lot of cereal. Did I mention when I first wrote about this that I'd eat arsenic-laced packing material before I'd taste another handful of Boo Berry? Ye Gods, what an awful substance. I've given up all food items with high sugar content but if I hadn't, that stuff would have driven me to that decision…even though it does turn the milk a lovely shade of aquamarine.

Anyway, we have excerpts from the panel. The video is shaky and the audio isn't great but maybe you can make out enough of it to be amused. In this first part, we're ad-libbing arguments about whether Boo Berry (the character) could defeat Captain Crunch in some sort of mano a mano competition…

And now, here's another hunk of this epic contest. In it, we're debating the merits of Toucan Sam (from the Froot Loops package) and Sonny, the bird from the Cocoa Puffs box. This is where I decided to cheat and phone a friend…

From 2002, a feature on the 50th anniversary of MAD Magazine.

If you haven't read MAD in a long time, you oughta pick up a copy and take a look at what they're doing. You might be surprised…and in a good way.

This one's only 23 seconds but it brings a smile to my face. In 1993, Bob Newhart starred in a short-lived sitcom (short-lived perhaps because I was one of its writers) called Bob, in which he played a comic book artist. In one episode, a bunch of real ones made cameo appearances…and among them was Jack Kirby. Here's pretty much his whole performance. That's Mell Lazarus (who does the comic strip, Momma) introducing him and then you see Jack seated at a table with his wife, Roz. At the bottom right of the screen in the last shot, you see the top of the head of Sergio Aragonés.

The artists only had a line or two each but were required to be on the set for a few days of rehearsal and such. Sergio had deadlines (when does Sergio not have deadlines?) so he brought along work and a light bulb. One of the sets for the show was the office of a comic book company, complete with drawing boards. When he wasn't needed and when it wouldn't interfere with rehearsals, Sergio would sit on the set and draw pages of Groo the Wanderer. He needed to bring a light bulb because the lamps on the prop drawing tables were of very low wattage…so he'd swap out the bulb when he was drawing.

I wasn't on the set that week — I didn't write this episode — but I did get a call from one of the producers telling me, "All the artists are doing great except for Bob Kane. He thinks he's the director." Mr. Kane always did.

Here's a few seconds of Jack Kirby, Actor…