Well, I think I can give up on Deal or No Deal again…and after last night's show, it wouldn't surprise me if much of America did, as well. As you may recall, they've never had a million dollar winner in this game, the whole point of which is to see if someone can win a million dollars. To coincide with sweeps, they launched the "Million Dollar Mission" during which more and more of those cute little briefcases contained the yearned-for amount…the idea being to weigh the odds to make a million buck win likely. Didn't happen, as we all knew going into last night's show. (How did we know it? Because if it had, the producers and network would have made darned sure we knew in advance so more folks would tune in to watch.) Even with half the cases on the board containing $1,000,000.00, the contestant wound up with less than half that.

Still, you could tell the producers thought it would all end with the Big Win. The show has gotten way too manipulative for its own good, trotting out deserving contestants and reminding us over and over how deserving they are, bringing on their friends and family members to say it every three minutes. They even had the prize models saying "You're my favorite contestant ever" and getting emotional about it. Last night's contestant — the one who was picked to play in a game calculated to make her a millionaire — needed the loot in order to have more children and to continue all her fine charity work, and you certainly wanted her to succeed. The producers sure expected it.

They started this running theme with The Banker (the show's unseen Bad Guy, who's somehow regarded as evil for offering players a guaranteed, often huge amount if they elect not to gamble) proclaiming that he was going to beat her and that he'd consider anything less than a million dollar win for her as a loss for her. The lady kept saying, "I always win," which was clearly untrue. A person who always wins would not be poor enough to be an appropriate contestant on Deal or No Deal. Anyway, it came down to this silly dramatic undercurrent: If she won the million, it would prove that she was, indeed, one who always wins. If she went home with anything less — say, a measly $800,000 — she was a loser. That was the premise the producers felt they had to lay in there to ratchet up the suspense…since it seemed so obvious going in that she'd win the mill.

Plus, they added this out of left field: Her husband was afraid of heights..so The Banker added a new, one-time rule to the game. Hubby was strapped onto a platform and incrementally raised into the air on wires. Each time she opened a case containing a million, thereby dropping the odds of her winning that amount, he'd be hoisted another level. Why? Just to add more drama to a show that seemed to have a foregone conclusion.

But at some point in the taping, the producers must have realized it wasn't going as expected; that they'd configured the game around an expected finale that might not be achieved. With no explanation, they called off the stunt with the husband and started back-pedalling on this lame insistence that she was a loser if she didn't head homeward with all the marbles. And indeed, it finally came down to this: She had two cases left. One contained a million smackers. The other held $200. There was an offer on the table of a little less than half a million.

Therein lies the problem with this game. To be interesting, it has to be played by contestants who are somewhat needy and for whom a million dollar win is life-changing, allowing them to buy that new house they need, send their kids to college, help out those less fortunate than even themselves, etc. That kind of person should not and (if they have a lick of sense) will not turn down half a million on a 50-50 chance of either winning twice that amount or going home with bupkiss. You'd hate them if they did. You'd hate them and you'd hate the show and you'd even hate yourself for watching the show for an entire hour, rooting for that person. Even if they won, the player would have won after being foolish and reckless with their family's future.

The lady last night didn't, of course, do that. She went home with a nice piece of change. It turned out she did have the million dollar amount in her case so even though she won big, the conventions of the show treated her as a bit of a loser. I sure felt like one for investing any of my time in the whole enterprise. Even recording the show on TiVo and fast-forwarding through all the padding, I still felt like I'd listened to a long, long joke without a punchline…and not because the lady didn't win a million dollars. But because of all the contrived dramatics it took to get there.

Earlier this evening, I attended a terrific surprise birthday party for the great comic actor, Larry Storch. That's Larry at right in the above photo, posing with his F Troop co-star, Ken Berry, who was among the friends of Larry's in attendance. There were a lot of great comic actors present, including Chuck McCann, Jackie Joseph, Marty Ingels, Hank Garrett, Warren Berlinger and Ron Masak. There were also top cartoon voice actors like Wally Wingert (who threw the shindig) and Katie Leigh, plus I got a hug from Stella Stevens. That alone was worth the drive out to the valley.

Among many others who were present was Lou Scheimer, who used to co-own and run Filmation Studios. Lou often hired Larry as a voice actor (The Groovie Ghoolies, for instance) and for on-camera live-action (The Ghostbusters). And I got to meet one of my favorite composers, Neal Hefti, who expressed disbelief that I knew the obscure lyrics to the title song from a movie he scored, How to Murder Your Wife. He quickly learned otherwise, and the look on his face was almost as good as a hug from Stella Stevens.

Larry Storch has, of course, been doing wonderful work for most of his 85 years on this planet. I probably first knew him as a recurring character on Car 54, Where Are You?, one of my favorite shows. (Hank Garrett was a regular on that series. He may be the last person alive who was.) I always thought Larry was screamingly funny as Corporal Agarn on F Troop, which is one of those rare shows that looks better with each passing year. He was also on a short-lived, unjustly-forgotten series called The Queen and I, which I would love to see again.

Not much else to report except to again wish Larry a happy birthday last month. One reason he was so surprised by the surprise party is that his birthday was in January. But no one cared. It was just nice to see him and to get all those people together in one room.

You may remember a few years ago, a big deal was made in the Blondie newspaper strip about Mr. and Mrs. Bumstead celebrating their 75th wedding anniversary, complete with guest stars from other strips.

That was all well and good…but over in an Internet newsgroup, historian D.D. Degg has pointed out that today is actually their 75th anniversary. Blondie and Dagwood were married in the strip that ran on February 17, 1933. Here's a link to the original art for that historic strip so you can see for yourself.

We're less than a week from Wondercon, an always-fun comic/media convention held annually in San Francisco. I'll be packing an umbrella because it looks like I'll need it but otherwise, a good time should be had by all, especially if they attend any of the panels I'll be hosting. Click here for a full list of them…and you should be able to find the full schedule over at the convention website, along with details on where the con is, how to get yourself in, etc.

Hey, someone reading this can do me a favor. On Sunday afternoon, I'm moderating a panel called The Art of the Cover, which we've done before with different people and which is always interesting. What we do on it is to bring in a number of artists who've created great covers for comic books and then we project some of those covers on a big screen and everyone discusses what's so great about them. The last couple times we've done it, attendees have called it one of the most educational panels they've ever seen for folks who care about drawing and about how comics come to be.

This year, we have Jim Lee, Tim Sale, Darwyn Cooke and Terry Dodson on the dais, and I need to pick out seven great covers by each and find good-sized JPEGs of them. If you are a fan of one of these fine artists, how about sending me a couple? You can just send the issue numbers but if you really want to help, send one or more clear JPEGs (at least 500 pixels high) to this special address: (That's an encoded address. If it doesn't work in your browser, just send to covers "at sign" newsfromme.com.) You'll save me the task of searching and you probably have better taste than I do, anyway.

I'll be around the con all three days, sometimes doing panels, sometimes signing my new book on Jack Kirby in the autograph area or at the booth for a fine retailer, Comic Relief, and I think they have me at the Dark Horse booth for an hour or two at some point. Say hello if you see me. I'm not nearly as busy as I try to pretend I am.

My pal Anthony Tollin reminds me that today is the 75th "birthday" of Doc Savage, it being that many years since the publication of the character's first issue. It was on February 17, 1933 that the great pulp hero debuted, the creation of writer Lester Dent. Hiding under the pen name of Kenneth Robeson, Dent wrote most of the 181 Doc Savage novels that appeared in the original run.

I recognize the importance of the character in the development of the "super hero" (some call him the first) and I also note that a lot of my friends love to read and re-read Doc Savage novels. That's a nice way of easing into the fact that I somehow never managed to warm to the Good Doctor. I tried…lord, how I tried. I read a Doc Savage novel and didn't like it, and when I told a friend who loved the books, he told me, "You picked the wrong one. That's the one nobody likes" and he recommended another of the books.

I got that one, read it, didn't like it either…and when I told another friend who was a Doc Savage fan, he said, "Oh, I wish you'd asked me. You picked the rotten one." He designated another of the books as the one I should read and…well, I guess you see where this is going. I think I read five or six of the books and each one was the wrong one. (Don't bother writing to tell me which one I should read. It's like Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown by now. I have too many non-Doc Savage books that I might like and haven't the time to read.)

All that said, I will recommend Anthony's reprint series of Doc Savage and Shadow pulps. They're handsomely assembled with the perfect art direction and historical material…and so many people love this work, there's a good chance you will, too. Click here for more info.

This afternoon, I was up at U.C.L.A., giving that speech I told you about. On my way in, I happened to notice a pay phone that was seriously out of order — someone had actually cracked the handset into two pieces — and I snapped a pic with the ol' cameraphone. Somehow, the image amused me.

As I was leaving, I passed the pay phone again and a young lady was standing there, staring at it as if she expected it to soon heal to the point where she could use it to phone her mother or something. I said to her, "This is just a hunch but I don't think it's working."

"I know," she said. "I was just remembering a conversation with my boy friend that felt like that."

I received my ballot today to vote on the new Writers Guild contract. Members had the opportunity to support "pro" and "con" statements to urge ratification or rejection of the offer and no one submitted a "con." So that should give you some idea of the chance of this thing not passing. I'll guess 93%.

My chum Earl Kress and I went out to the Hollywood Collectors Show yesterday. In case you've never been to one of these, it's a large ballroom where celebrities of various celebrity sit behind tables and sell autographed photos, signed books and other items that their fans might crave. There are also dealers selling movie and TV memorabilia.

The big lines were for Ernest Borgnine, Carol Channing, Jonathan Winters, George Kennedy and especially for Peter Falk. Earl and I had a nice time talking with, among others, Bill Mumy, Gary Owens, Michael Hoey, Beverly Washburn, Bernie Kopell, Bruce Kimmel and Mackenzie Phillips. Mike Hoey gave me a copy of his new book, a bit of which I read last night and enjoyed tremendously. You'll be reading more about it here when I find the time to finish.

We went to lunch with Chuck McCann, who had as many fans around as anyone. A lady was sitting at the table next to us in the restaurant and she kept saying over and over out loud, "I can't believe I'm having lunch with Chuck McCann!" Chuck went over and kissed her hand…and you've never seen a happier woman.

The show continues today out in Burbank. If you get out there, take cash. You'll probably find a lot of fun things you want to purchase…and people you've always wanted to meet.