Here's a long but good article on Conan O'Brien by Vanessa Grigoriadis. The main bullet points are that (a) Conan doesn't seem to know what he's going to do when he takes over The Tonight Show in 2009 but he's pretty sure he's going to do it from Hollywood and (b) he and his staff don't like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

As noted earlier here, O.J. Simpson is appearing at a horror film convention this weekend in Northridge, California. As if Northridge doesn't have enough problems with fires all around and the smoke from them forcing school closures.

Most of the press coverage is headlined something like "Comics Show Plans Rare O.J. Simpson Appearance" (for example) but despite its name, NecroComicon really isn't a comic book convention. The other 30 or so announced guests are all people with credits in horror and slasher films and I only count two with a tenuous connection to comics.

The above-linked article includes the following…

Simpson agreed to show up at the NecroComicon show in Los Angeles for three days, starting on Friday night, as a favor to an unspecified friend who was paid in advance to arrange for the weekend appearance, according to the promoter, Tom Riccio.

Riccio said Simpson, who now lives in Florida, was "not getting a penny" for his visit, but was using the event as a possible trial run for future public appearances that he would make "in exchange for donations to his kids' college fund."

"A lot of promoters are watching this to see how it goes, and we're going to take it from there," Riccio said. Riccio said he would charge $95 for photos and T-shirts signed by Simpson, and $125 for autographed football jerseys and helmets. Riccio said he would keep whatever is left of the proceeds after paying for various expenses, including Simpson's travel costs.

So just as a favor to a friend, Simpson is going to get on a plane, fly 3000+ miles to Los Angeles, sign autographs for three days and let the convention promoter keep all the money. Do we believe this for a minute? His friend is getting paid. Al Cowlings, who'll be signing with him on Sunday is being paid. But Simpson, who needs money and wants to send his kids to college, is "not getting a penny?"

This whole thing smells, above and beyond the mere fact that a murderer is being treated like a Big Star. I mean, let's assume for a moment that O.J. Simpson has only the best possible motives; that he's turned into a benevolent soul who cares only about using his one remaining asset in the world — his fame, such as it is — for his kids. Does it make sense that he would give away all proceeds from his first public appearance? Why not have it go towards the college fund? For that matter, if this is a "test" appearance to see if he can raise money for that fund, wouldn't it be better to make it at a bigger convention, preferably one with better publicity and an emphasis on sports instead of death and murder? If O.J. wants to convince promoters to bring him to other events, he's sure going about it the hard way.

Here's the L.A. Times obit for John McCabe, the man who invented Laurel & Hardy Fandom. I think the L.A. Times makes you register to read these.

Tomorrow night is the season premiere of Saturday Night Live. Here's a simple question: What time does it start in most time zones?

If you said 11:30 PM, which is what all the printed TV listings say, you're wrong. The official NBC press information says the show starts at 11:29 PM. I'm told it actually starts at 11:29:30 and that it often has in weeks past. TiVo thinks it starts at 11:30 so if you're going to record it, you might want to pad the start time. I have no idea why they're doing this. Does someone think that there's been so little happening in the world lately that the local stations can't fill a whole half-hour of news and need to lose thirty seconds?

In the meantime, the "All Night" rerun is from 9/30/95. It's hosted by Mariel Hemingway and wasn't, as I recall, one of the better ones. Next week's is the 10/24/98 broadcast hosted by Ben Stiller and I won't be recording that one, either.

The Broadway.Com website is featuring an interesting columnist these days…but I have no idea who he is. In this section, an anonymous Broadway actor is writing about what goes on backstage, what it's like to audition, etc. The essays are a nice look at a world that is not always visible from the front of the house. Take a peek.

Last March, a bunch of us attended the unveiling of a wall sculpture at the TV Academy commemorating the work of Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera. As I mentioned here, there was another new wall sculpture that had been installed at the same time but it was covered with a tarp. A quick peek under it (when no one was looking) revealed the likeness of Jim Henson with many a Muppet.

On Wednesday of this week, it was finally unveiled. They were apparently waiting for the day when the U.S. Postal Service would unveil its new release of Muppet postage stamps — ten different ones of various Muppet characters plus one of The Man himself. And a nice-looking batch of stamps they are. I'll probably buy a batch…though I get an odd sensation when I use stamps like that on my car insurance payment. It always feels like I'm wasting something nice on someone undeserving.

I'm told it was a lovely ceremony (I couldn't get out there for it) marred only by the news of Jerry Juhl's passing. That kind of thing could put a damper on any event.

I used to have a friend whose job was to lie for a big movie studio. Actually, there are a lot of people in that field but his fibbing was confined to producing movie trailers. When the studio found itself stuck with a movie it thought wouldn't draw an audience, my friend took over. He would design a marketing campaign that would make it look like a very different movie. He sometimes referred to himself as the Executive In Charge of Misleading Advertising.

I thought of him when someone sent me a link to this video. It's…well, you'll figure out what it is. Go take a look.

A last second war between two bidders got it up to $505,100.00. Not bad but pretty far short of the million dollars Jay kept saying they were hoping it would bring. Ah, well.

Still at $285,100.

I'm monitoring the eBay auction of the Jay Leno signed Harley-Davidson. They were hoping it would go for a million but if it does, there's going to have to some incredible bidding in the next few minutes. It has five minutes to go and it's at $285,100.

Here's a link to a fine article on the late Jerry Juhl, as remembered by Ken Plume. Go read.

Less than 17 hours remain in the eBay auction of the motorcycle stars have been signing on Jay Leno's show and it's only at $125,100. The first time they did this, the chopper went for $360,000 and the second grossed $800,100. Jay keeps saying they're hoping for a million so the bidding's going to have to be hot and heavy between now and 5 PM, Pacific Time for that to happen. It'll probably go a lot higher on its own but if I were NBC and looking to avoid embarrassment to my late night franchise, I'd be arranging for someone to swoop in and bid big if necessary.

Okay, let's imagine you're staging a horror movie convention this weekend out in Northridge, California. Let's imagine that you line up as guests, the usual array of fright film actors who'll sell and sign photos of themselves. Let's also imagine that this kind of convention hasn't been doing so well lately and some are anticipating a very low attendance. What can you do to really boost attendance?

Hmm…let me think for a second…

I know! Bring in a real, live murderer to sell autographs for $100 each!