Tomorrow on Stu's Show! A return visit by the greatest storyteller I know, the legendary Chuck McCann! Chuck is an actor, a writer, a director, a producer, voiceover artist, a puppeteer, an Oliver Hardy impersonator, a kid show host, a suitcase, a banana cream pie, a picture of Whistler's Mother, a flagpole, a…all right, I'm getting carried away here. He's just one of the funniest creatures on this planet and I'll sure be listening as Stu Shostak interviews the guy. And what's more, Stu has promised to ask him to tell the tale of his role on Turn-On, a legendary TV series of the sixties that was cancelled after its one and only telecast. Best show biz anecdote I ever heard.

We love Mr. Chuckles and you will too if you listen. And this is where I remind you that this is not a podcast you can listen to any old time you please. This is "Appointment Radio." You tune in when it's on…which is from 4 PM to 6 PM Pacific Time, 7 PM to 9 PM Eastern. Hear it live on your very own computer by going to the website of Shokus Internet Radio then and clicking where you're told to click. The show reruns on other days, usually in the same time slot, but it's more fun to listen live…and you can even call in and participate. Check out the site for a full schedule…and while you're there, take note of some of the other fine, free programming.

Mark is back from Calgary and the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo, a huge and highly successful (it seemed to me) affair. I did some panels, signed some books, talked to some friends, watched it snow outside my hotel room balcony and saw a lot of people enjoy themselves. Not a lot to report beyond that. As is too often the case with these convention jaunts, I was in a city but didn't see enough of the town to form much of an opinion on it. If someone says to me, "Have you ever been to Detroit?," I'm never sure how to answer them. The accurate answer is, "Yes, twice…but all I saw of it was the airport, the road between the airport and one hotel, a convention center and a couple of restaurants near the hotel. It could have been almost anywhere."

Carolyn and I saw a little more of Calgary than that but not a lot more. We managed to find a number of restaurants where I thought the food was terrible…but that's just luck o' the draw, no reflection on Calgary. You can find bad places to eat anywhere. I was impressed with the airport up there, as well as the lovely scenery…and the people sure seemed friendly. Just wish there'd been more time to do and see more. The convention organizers offered to spirit us off to a post-con holiday at a nearby ski resort but I couldn't spare the time from my work schedule.

Nor can I spare much time for blogging the next day or so. As you can see, I've posted a picture of a can of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup, which of course means that new items here will be sparse to non-existent for the next 36 hours or so. I know other bloggers go away and just don't say anything but when I'm absent here for any great length of time, I get concerned e-mails asking, "Are you okay? Did you injure yourself?" I'm not hurt…just busy.

The other day, I posted a video link for a Philips Carousel commercial by Adam Berg — a tableau (I guess you'd call it) of a police shoot-out. I said I had no idea how they'd done it. Lee Aronsohn sent me this link to an article that sorta kinda explains some of it.

A group on the Republican National Committee is pushing for a resolution that they will henceforth refer to their opposition as "The Democratic Socialist Party." Naturally, Liberal blogs and even middle-o'-the-road ones are erupting with suggestions of names that could be bestowed upon the Republican Party in reprisal. The worst one I can think of is The George W. Bush-Dick Cheney Party. But I wouldn't wish that on anyone…not even The George W. Bush-Dick Cheney Party.

Word around the convention today was that there was no fire at the hotel last night; that a couple of unnamed lunkheads (that was the politest thing I heard them called) started playing around with a fire extinguisher, unaware that it was connected to the fire alarm system. The "smoke" some of us heard or saw was, I was told, fire extinguisher output. Do we believe this? I dunno. But at least it got us all outside at one in the morning, which is always nice, especially when it's one entire degree Centigrade and many folks are in pajamas or bare feet.

The con was a little less crowded today. Then again, it would have to be.

And I'd like to add that this is the first time I've ever blogged while it was snowing outside my window.

Well, actually it was more like one or two alarms. About three minutes after I posted the previous dispatch, a buzzer began to go off out in the hallway, signifying that the hotel we're in — Carolyn and I are here for the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo, remember — might be on fire or something of the sort. I grabbed up the tangible necessity of my life (this computer) and with Carolyn following, joined the throng of hotel guests walking down the stairwell. We're on the eighth floor so it wasn't that bad a jaunt. There were folks in their jammies and there were dealers from the con lugging down boxes of what I assume were their rarest comics.

At the ground floor, we were directed to wait across the street, which meant dodging and weaving around about a half-dozen fire trucks which had by then arrived. Immediately, people began to ask me, "You're gonna blog about this, right?" So I'm writing this in part so I don't disappoint anyone.

Word on the street was that there was a fire on the second floor. That's where I thought I smelled smoke in passing, and Sergio says he saw smoke there as he made his way down the steps. After about twenty minutes, the firemen emerged and signalled we could go back in. A mob crushed back into the lobby where we were informed that the elevators hadn't yet been reset so we had to either wait a bit to use them or take to the stairwells again. We elected to hike…and that's all I know about it. We're back in the room, everything's fine and it looks like a dandy time to go beddy-bye. Good night.

Sorry…no personal anecdotes about Bea Arthur. Never met the lady, though I liked her in everything I ever saw her in. She had a devastating way of delivering a line…and the instance I recall at the moment was in a salute to Jerry Herman done at the Hollywood Bowl. Ms. Arthur was there to perform a number she'd introduced on Broadway in Mr. Herman's show, Mame. But in introducing it, she referred to it as being from the show, Vera.

Big laugh from the audience. Vera was the name of the character she played in Mame…so of course, the joke was that she was acting as if her supporting role has been the starring part. And as I typed the previous sentence, it has suddenly dawned on me to check YouTube to see if the clip was there. Better you should see and hear it for yourself than make do with my telling you about it. I'll be back in a moment.

Okay, I'm back. And sure enough, there it was so here it is. I don't think much of the song but I love the joke she did about the show's name…or more accurately, I love the way she sold it. If you want to know what they mean when they talk about "timing" in connection with a funny line, here's a perfect example…one of so many in the grand career of Bea Arthur…

Howdy from the 2009 Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo, which is (it says right here in the program book) "The largest annual pop-culture event in Western Canada." Given the crowds today in the hall, I can believe it. I must have spent ten minutes just fighting my way through a line of folks queued up to buy autographs from Margot Kidder, who played Lois Lane in some of the Superman movies. Many other media celebs are present, along with a stellar list of comic book creators, artists, writers, sculptors, animators…

…oh, yes. And me. I'm here, doing — you may find this hard to believe — panels. Had three good ones today. Expect to do two more tomorrow.

If you aren't already planning to be here tomorrow, it's probably too late to arrange a trip. But if you are here, you're probably going to have a great time. Everyone I saw in the hall today seemed to be having one.

The blog of Ger Apeldoorn offers up some nice examples of the Flintstones newspaper strip of the sixties. By way of clarity, it should be noted that while Gene Hazelton was the primary artist and supervisor of this and the Yogi Bear strip, they weren't all drawn by Gene. Just about everyone good who worked at Hanna-Barbera at the time worked from time to time on them, including Pete Alvarado, Willie Ito, Bob Singer and Harvey Eisenberg. Several of the samples Ger offers were drawn by Eisenberg. Also, for much of their runs, both strips were lettered and inked by Lee Hooper.

In case anyone asks you what constitutes "torture," here's the definition that most nations accept. The United States did too before George W. Bush and his mob decided they could redefine it to exclude whatever they wanted to do.

Offers of comics continue to arrive hourly to restore the comic book collection that Len Wein lost in his recent house fire. And actual, physical donated comics have started to arrive at my mailing address, which is a friendly little mail drop.

I am, however, way behind in responding to e-mail and in updating the checklist over at the official site of The "Let's Restore Len Wein's Comic Book Collection" Project website. So if you haven't heard back from me, please be patient. And be aware that we've had at least another 200 offers that are not reflected on the current list. I'll let you know here when I can update it again…might not be for about a week. The generosity is running so strong that I'm having a hard time keeping up with it.

As you may have heard, Jay Leno checked himself into a hospital yesterday afternoon for a condition that remains the subject of rumor and speculation. The main rumor on the Internet is food poisoning. I heard that the staff was told it was dehydration, which could be the same thing, right? True, it sounds like the kind of thing you say when there's something more serious and you're trying to keep the lid on it. But it's also the same thing you'd say if the person was hospitalized from dehydration and/or food poisoning. I suppose we'll know soon enough.

NBC ran a rerun last night and will be running one tonight. David Carroll, a reader of this site, writes to ask…

On the topic of Jay Leno's illness…it's day one May sweeps, Jay's in the hospital, and NBC is running a Tonight Show repeat. Hopefully his stay in the hospital will be brief, and he'll be back on his feet in a day or two.

But…what if it's an extended illness? How long will NBC (or whoever has final say) go on with repeats? At what point would they give in and let someone guest host?

I admire Leno's work ethic, truly remarkable. But even Letterman, a fellow workaholic, allowed some guest hosts during recent illnesses, both lengthy and brief.

And frankly, during Carson's heyday, some of the guest hosts did great jobs; Leno himself, Shandling, Rivers, Bishop, Brenner, Jerry Lewis etc. Obviously for many, like Leno it opened the doors for greater things.

I particularly enjoyed it when "short notice" hosts like Burt Reynolds, Steve Allen, Steve Lawrence, Rich Little or Bob Newhart filled in when Carson suddenly took ill (or was holding out for more cash, or both). I thought Steve Allen in particular was excellent during the 70's when he would be called upon in a pinch.

Anyway, I'd like to read your thoughts on whether the "no guest hosts" policy would hold up if Leno is laid up now, or later for a week, two weeks or more. And is his apparent refusal to have guest hosts now during his rare vacation days really a "work ethic pride" thing, or one of Leno's quirks: "I worked damn hard to get this gig, and no one is upstaging me."

My understanding is that Leno's reticence to use guest hosts comes from the same place as Letterman's: A feeling along the lines of "I'm supposed to be the star of the show so I oughta show up for work and do it." I suppose there have been times when each was reluctant to let the network use their programs to audition potential replacements…but I don't think that's been a major concern. They both enjoy doing their shows. Leno especially has long been a workaholic. Back in the seventies when I was hanging around the Comedy Store in Hollywood, it was not uncommon for him to do a spot at the Store there, then drive up to Westwood and do a spot at the Comedy Store there, then zoom back to Hollywood to do stand-up in the other room there…and somewhere along the way, he might cruise by the Improv or the Comedy and Magic Club in Hermosa Beach and do a set.

That's all in one night. The guy has always seemed to delight in working longer and harder than anyone might believe possible. If he doesn't feel like he needs a night off, why should be take one?

Mr. Carson used a lot of guest hosts but I gather that flowed from his belief that if he did the show every night, he'd get weary and sloppy, and audiences would get sick of him. He had NBC pull the weekend Tonight Show reruns off at one point because he feared overexposure and also because he was going to cut back his weekday appearances and wanted to save the best reruns for that slot. (It might also be noted that when Johnny started on Tonight, it was an hour and 45 minutes and then it went down to ninety. He went to an hour format in 1980 but before that, his show was more work than the shows Dave or Jay do, and there was probably more concern about oversaturation.)

My guess is that Jay will be back Monday and this will not be an issue. If he did have to stay out longer, then it would be a question of how long…and how well the reruns do in the overnight ratings. At this point, NBC probably wants him there for the same reason he has a greater-than-usual incentive to be there. It's his "send-off" month and the network is planning on a lot of publicity built around the end of the Jay Leno Tonight Show. The only way they'll bring in a guest host is if the ratings are plunging, Jay's out of commission for a while, and they're worried about losing too much audience share before the arrival of Conan. I don't see that happening.