From some sort of entertainment news show of the past comes this little segment on how cartoons are/were made at Hanna-Barbera. It's most interesting for the glimpse of Jean Vander Pyl and Henry Corden recording voices for a Flintstones cartoon. (Actually, this is almost certainly a "pretend" session staged just for the news crew's camera.) Henry was the second voice of Fred and Jean was the only voice of Wilma during her lifetime. Nice to see them again for a moment. I could never talk to either of them without feeling like Barney Rubble.

Thanks to Paul Belanger for letting me know about this.

Fred Kaplan on the cost of the Iraq War and how no one seems to care how we spend the money, just so long as we spent it. I'm always amazed that to some people who favor high defense spending, the issue of how the money is used is a minor point. The fact that the contractors deliver a shoddy, unusable product — or that they don't deliver at all — is picky, picky, picky. You'd think we could all at least be on the same page that whatever we spend, we oughta demand the best possible equipment and service for it. Yeah, you'd think that, wouldn't you?

In which I finally, after all these years, become a cartoon character…

This is fifteen seconds that a talented gentleman named Alexandre Ramos Mastrella did of a scene from a comic book I did with Sergio. The week we did it, we couldn't think of any interesting characters so we used ourselves.

Bill Clinton was on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart the other night. As we've noted here before, interviews on that show are often edited. This version of their conversation is six minutes longer than what was aired. Even if you don't like Clinton's politics — and I don't like all of them, myself — isn't it nice to remember a time when presidents could speak in complete sentences? The second half of this chat is more interesting than the first.

We haven't done one of these for a while but I thought I'd note (and provide ordering links) for three upcoming DVD collections of the work of very amusing men.

I've always loved Robert Klein and I sure wish he'd do standup again on a more regular basis. He was the guy who showed everyone else how to "perform" on a stage, keeping your oft-repeated lines sounding fresh and making the audience just plain enjoy being with you. With his HBO specials, of which this new release is a collection, he pretty much invented the idea of doing one's standup act on cable TV. So I've ordered Robert Klein: The HBO Specials 1975-2005 and you might want to, as well.

And then, coming out in a week or so, we have a complete collection of the cable specials by the other great standup guy, George Carlin. It's called George Carlin: All My Stuff and it's also, one can be certain, great stuff. At $170.99, however, it seems a bit pricey even though you get fourteen specials on fourteen discs. That's $12.21 per special, whereas the Robert Klein collection gives you eight specials on four discs for $29.99, which works out to $3.74 each. (Both collections feature extras. The Klein one has an interview of him by Alan Colmes. The Carlin one has two long interviews, one of which is 75 minutes.)

The other notable thing about the Robert Klein collection is that it's all pretty much material that hasn't been available on home video…or hasn't been available for quite some time. (I have two of these specials on Beta.) Most of the Carlin material is available on DVD…so if you're a fan of George's specials and have been buying them in that format, you have to buy those specials again to get the full collection plus the extras. We always get annoyed when they do this to us.

Lastly, I know nothing about The Best of Jack Benny, other than that it promises us 41 episodes of his TV show on four discs and that it sells at Amazon for $13.49. One assumes these are old, public domain prints mastered at a very slow speed. Then again, Jack Benny operated at a very slow speed…and it's hard to imagine that in 1,260 minutes of Jack Benny, you won't find thirteen and a half bucks worth of goodies. I've ordered a copy and I'll let you know if there's a catch. There's something poetic about a Jack Benny collection being cheap.

Hey, you think you know the lyrics to the song, "God Bless America"? Apparently not. At the "Values Voters" candidates' debate the other night — a gathering of super-right-wing folks — a choir sang a rewritten version. I don't know if Mr. Berlin would have been outraged at the message inserted into his song but I have a hunch he'd have been apoplectic that it was put there by someone who has no concept of meter or rhyme and who couldn't even do the amateur lyricist's trick of just counting syllables.

One can just imagine the outrage that this same group would have mustered if anyone else had changed so much as a note of that song. Here's a link to the lyrics and a video.

And let us have a moment of noise in memory of the great artist of pantomime, Marcel Marceau, who has left us at the age of 84. (Better get used to that joke…you'll be hearing it a lot in the days to come. In fact, we're probably also in for a lot of jokes about him dying because he called for help and no one heard him.) He taught or inspired countless other actors and also folks in related creative fields such as dance, painting and even cartooning. He was, as a friend of mine used to put it, the one mime people loved, not to be confused with all the rest, whom they hated.

Ordinarily here in one of my R.I.P. postings, I would insert some anecdote about meeting the deceased but I never had the pleasure — I assume it would have been a pleasure — of meeting Marceau. I did (I thought) harm one of his performances once as I recounted in an article elsewhere on this site. Here — I'll quote it to you. This occurred around 1965 or so…

…someone gave us tickets to The Red Skelton Show and we went over to CBS Television City, an austere black-and-white building not far from where I now live. We waited in line for what seemed like several weeks before being admitted to the stage and seated in the third row of the studio where they now do The Price is Right and where, decades later, I got to meet and work with Bob "Captain Kangaroo" Keeshan when I wrote for and he hosted CBS Storybreak.

That week's Skelton show was "A Concert in Pantomime" starring Red and his guest, the great French mime, Marcel Marceau. The taping began with a twenty-second sequence that merely called for Skelton and Marceau to walk to center stage and shake hands. They walked to center stage, shook hands, the Stage Manager yelled "Cut" and Skelton turned to the audience and said, "Wasn't that good?"

That may not sound like much here but, at the moment, it was hysterical. In fact, the audience was still chuckling as Mssr. Marceau took stage to begin taping several pantomime spots. He was in the middle of the fifth when my mind suddenly decided to be mean to me and replay Skelton's line.

Now, you have to imagine the scene: There is absolute silence in the room. On stage, one of the great artists of the world — the legendary Marcel Marceau — is miming some topic of dread seriousness and unbounded pathos. It was the moment of a baby duckling finding his mother dead from a hunter's rifle or something equally cheery. Not one person in the room is making a sound, but for the few fighting back tears at this moving, dramatic moment…

And I suddenly laughed. Out loud.

I tried not to. I held it in until it was leaking out my nostrils and ears but it escaped. I kept remembering Red Skelton going, "Wasn't that good?" and, finally, I couldn't hold it in any longer. I laughed right in the middle of Marcel Marceau's most dramatic, tragic stage moment.

As laughs go, it wasn't a loud one, actually…but it was loud enough for the illustrious Frenchman to hear. Ever the professional, he did not react to it with his body — but I could see the his eyes nail the third row with the slightest, tiniest gleam of "Who the hell is the idiot laughing at this?"

I looked around, as if I too was wondering who'd laughed. But I know I didn't fool him.

The look was so microscopic, I was the only one who saw it…but see it, I did. I saw it again, weeks later, when the show aired. My laugh wasn't heard and no one else in America saw Marceau throw that look, now past the third row and all the way to my home Zenith, just for me. But I saw it again. And every time since then — when I've seen Marceau on a movie screen or on TV — I've seen him subtly but carefully scanning the third row. Just in case I'm back.

Here's a link to an online obit. The man's achievement is perhaps best measured by the fact that everyone referred to him as "the world's greatest mime"…and almost no one could name a single other contender for that honor.

Here's a clip from Johnny Carson's 1973 anniversary show, which marked eleven whole years of him hosting The Tonight Show. If that seemed impressive at the time, one has to wonder how you describe the fact that he did it for another nineteen or so years after this.

What you'll see when you click is a surprise walk-on by Dean Martin. I suspect that in the entire history of talk shows, there have been less than five cases where a walk-on wasn't planned well in advance and the host didn't know about it. I only recalling it happening once with Johnny. The surprise walker-oner was Danny Thomas, and Mr. Carson did not seem pleased about it. Another time, a minor celeb got out of an audience seat, walked up onto stage and attempted to be a guest. Johnny (understandably) had them stop tape, remove the gent from the premises and then redo the segment to remove all trace of him.

In the following obviously-arranged surprise, note the fine bit of acting by Mr. Carson, making like the guy operating the boom microphone wasn't prepared to have it where Dean would be standing and making planned dialogue, like the "Welcome to the club" line seem ad-lib. (Odd how the band just happened to have Martin's theme song at the ready, isn't it?) Dino made a number of appearances on The Tonight Show — some billed in advance, some not — but after about 1970, his rule was that he would not sit. He figured that if he sat, he'd have to stay longer and he wanted to just come in, make the appearance and get the hell out.

You will also notice one of Johnny Carson's great skills failing him. He was usually very good about ending segments, knowing just when to cut things off so they could go out on a big laugh. Unfortunately, Dino was trying to get off the stage from about thirty seconds after his entrance so Carson had to pay more attention to keeping him there then getting him off, and the ending of spot is sloppy and not the high point. Johnny seems annoyed that Buddy Hackett (who was a billed guest on that episode, scheduled to appear later) walks in. One wonders if one of the producers, realizing Johnny was having trouble ending the spot, signaled Hackett to enter in the hope that it would trigger a big laugh…or if Hackett took it upon himself. No matter. It's still great to see the three of them.

Do you get the feeling that Rudy Giuliani and John McCain both wish they'd switched to the Democratic Party long enough ago to be able to now be running for that party's presidential nomination? It sure would be easier than moonwalking away from every position you have that differs from the G.O.P. base.

Thanks to the half-a-hundred people who volunteered scans of Silver Star #1 and Captain Glory #1. I have what I need there. Still need Fantastic Four #1 and Young Romance #1. And please write before you scan. Thanks.

You people are sometimes very helpful. Not long ago, I mentioned here that I'd bought a Blackberry. A total stranger — I don't even know his or her name, only a handle — wrote and told me the following…

If you bought it through A.T.& T., you probably want to take advantage of their rebate offer. I work in rebate fulfillment for a sister company and I should warn you about a trick. They don't do this with everyone but they do it with some people. The rebate offer requires that you send in the bar code on the box that your Blackberry came in. A certain amount of rebate applications get returned with a form letter that says you did not include the bar code even though you did. By the time they get this letter, a lot of people have already thrown away the box and they no longer have a copy of the bar code to send it. So save a copy of the bar code until you receive the rebate.

I didn't think it would be necessary but because of the e-mail, I saved a copy of the bar code. Guess what I got in the mail today…

We thank you for your interest in the A.T.& T. Los Angeles/Bakersfield VISA Rebate offer. We regret that we are unable to process because your request did not meet the following requirements:

No IMEI bar-code was submitted. Please submit an original or copy of the IMEI bar-code. The bar-code is located on the end of the wireless device box or can be found on the back of the wireless device by removing the battery.

If I hadn't saved the copy, I wouldn't be completely outta luck since I could open the device and take out the battery…and I'm not sure how the code inside would copy. But they sure don't make it easy to get your rebate, do they? Now, I just have to allow another ten weeks for processing.

Thanks to whoever sent me that good advice.

This is a remarkable clip. It's four minutes and you need to know the following. Jerry Sanders is the Mayor of San Diego. He's a Republican and in the last election, his platform included opposition to gay marriage. He was about to come down to the moment when he would be vetoing a city council resolution in support of same-sex wedlock. Then, as happens an amazing percentage of the time when a prominent Conservative takes a stance against homosexual rights, he found out a little something about his own family and friends…

George W. Bush wants another $200 billion for the Iraq War…and of course, he'll get it because Democrats are terrified of the 25% of America that still ostensibly backs this war and will blame Democrats for losing it.

Back when some members of the Bush Administration were saying how the war would pay for itself, I heard a caller on a talk radio show say, "This war is going to cost twice as much as the most pessimistic estimates." The host, who was for the war, called the guy an idiot and said it would be "chump change." As it turns out, it's going to be more like twenty times the highest estimates…so now we know who the chumps are.

Oh, well. Guess it's better than spending it on stupid things like health care for children. Hey, maybe we can pay more Blackwater contractors to fire indiscriminately and without provocation into crowds of civilians. That sure helps things.

I like Blackjack and I used to like watching Blackjack tournaments on TV. The new season of The Ultimate Blackjack Tour has just begun airing on CBS and I think it'll be airing without me watching. What we have here is almost a textbook example of how to gimmick a show up with fancy lights, music and editing to the point of making it unwatchable.

In any kind of sporting event, you need at least a reasonable sensation of a live game; like you're witnessing something actually occurring before your eyes and anything can happen. Blackjack tourneys on TV do away with that. On the UBT, a single match consists of thirty hands of Blackjack and to get that all in to an hour, they have to skip over a lot of hands, summarizing them in fast forward. Imagine a baseball game where you come back from commercial and the announcer says, "While you were gone, they played the third, fourth and fifth innings and here's what happened."

Of course, they wouldn't do that. They wouldn't even air a baseball game that had been taped weeks earlier. But if you're going to do that, you need to at least try to preserve the sense that it's a real contest with an outcome that's in doubt. The shows they're airing are so tricked up with music and lights and computer graphics and breakneck cutting that they lose all sense of a real event. At times, I can't even follow who's playing who's ahead…or care.

The one nice thing about the UBT broadcasts on CBS is that they're almost wholly sponsored by ClubUBT, an online gaming site. In fact, the shows are like a glorified infomercial for ClubUBT, which I like because one of their spokespersons is my old pal, Carl "The Amazing" Ballantine. It's always nice to see Carl, even when he isn't doing his legendary magic act.

Veteran comic actress Alice Ghostley is dead at the age of 81. Her film and television credits include just about everything.

That's almost not an exaggeration. Here's a link to her page at the Internet Movie Database and I doubt it's a tenth complete. She appeared in dozens of movies including The Graduate, Grease and To Kill a Mockingbird. She was a regular or semi-regular on more than two dozen TV series and guested on hundreds of others. Quite often, she was someone who was brought in when a show wasn't doing so well. One of my former writing partners used to refer to something he called The Alice Ghostley Rule. It was that you know a series is in trouble when they add Alice Ghostley to the cast.

That was no slam at her; quite the opposite. She was called in because she was guaranteed laughs and, they hoped, money in the bank. It usually didn't save the show but that was never her fault. She was always terrific.

And the I.M.D.B. listing doesn't even include her work on the stage. She won a Tony in 1965 and had been nominated before that. But somewhere in the I.M.D.B., they do mention a cartoon series where I directed her. Let me tell you — not that it'll do you any good now — how you "direct" Alice Ghostley. You hand Alice Ghostley the script and then you let her just be Alice Ghostley. It was always fine.

Alice was much-loved by her peers…and imitated. Paul Lynde used to freely admit that he copped much (sometimes, he said all) of his comic delivery from the lovely Ghostley. They both got famous appearing in the legendary revue, Leonard Sillman's New Faces of 1952. I had the best and easiest time working with her. She was just so good at being Alice Ghostley.

Here's a link to the L.A. Times obit and here's a link to the N.Y. Times obit.