One of the most popular columns posted here seems to be the one about me going to see Barry Manilow.  In it, I decided my friends who like to think of themselves as "hip" (whatever that means, these days) would mock his show as corny and square, but that I had to recognize how much sheer pleasure he was dispensing to his audience including, ultimately, me.  We often prove — or strain to prove some sort of sophistication by disdaining entertainment: It may please the unwashed masses but I have higher standards.  That kind of thing.  If something's bad, then fine.  Say it's bad.  Or ignore it and go look for something good, which is what I increasingly do as I get older.  But don't ridicule it just because it appeals to people you'd like to believe you're better than…and don't close yourself off to the possibility that you might enjoy it, too.  At least on some level.

I have just come from a show that reminded me of what I might call my Manilow Epiphany.  I'm here in Las Vegas at the Orleans Hotel, where Tony Orlando is starring in "Santa and Me," a Christmas revue which he wrote.  Basically, it's the story of Tony Orlando meeting up with Santa, and they talk about what Christmas means, and sing "Jingle Bell Rock" and "White Christmas" and "O, Come All Ye Faithful."  There's an Elvis impersonator in the show, and a singing Christmas tree, and elves who join in a hip-hop version of "Tie A Yellow Ribbon 'Round the Old Oak Tree," and Tony spends a goodly amount of time out in the audience, leading them in sing-alongs.  If it sounds schmaltzy and syrupy…well, it is.  But most of a showroom full of people had a very good time.

What makes it work is that Mr. Orlando is a delightful, sincere man who works his butt off.  He's also a touchy-feely kind of guy.  I met him Sunday night and thanked him for a long-forgotten favor he did for me…and all of a sudden, I'm getting hugged.  By Tony Orlando.  I have friends I've had for thirty years and we don't hug.  But that's just the kind of guy he is and I decided — this is going to be an awkward phrase but it's the only way to say it — that I wouldn't like myself if I were the kind of person who ridiculed a guy just for being passionate and emotional and loving.

Did I like his show?  I don't think I did, but I liked him.  I liked the fact that he cares so much, and that he sent most of the audience out feeling not only entertained but that they'd spent a lovely hour with a lovely man.  Most Vegas-style entertainment is like fast food that's prepared by assembly line and utterly unmemorable.  This particular Vegas-style entertainment gave some people something they'll be talking about for years to come, and in a good way.

One person in particular.  In the front row, there was a gentleman in a wheelchair.  He obviously had dystrophy or some other neurological disorder.  As Tony was scurrying up and down the aisles with the wireless mike, leading us in "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town," he stopped at the wheelchair.  He made a fast check to make sure its occupant was singing along and wouldn't be embarrassed, then held out the mike so the man could sing a few bars for everyone.  The audience cheered, Tony hugged the guy and kissed him on the forehead, and I saw that the fellow was crying with joy, as were the people with him.

As I describe it here, you might think it was corny and mushy and everything we don't like about the Jerry Lewis Telethon.  But Tony Orlando gave a guy in a wheelchair one of the happiest moments in what has probably not been much of a life.  I'll bet you can't do that.

Jawohl!  Here's part of an item that ran the other day in Daily Variety…

German helmer Doris Dorrie ("Naked") has reteamed with veteran thesps Heiner Lauterbach and Uwe Ochsenknecht for a Teutonic take on Neil Simon's "The Odd Couple."  Produced for pubcaster ZDF, "Ein seltsames Paar" is shooting in Munich, where Lauterbach and Ochsenknecht also can be seen on stage at the Bayerischer Hof as, respectively, Oscar Madison and Felix Unger. It's the second time Simon's play has been adapted by ZDF.  The pubcaster produced the short-lived "Felix und Oskar" in 1980 with Heinz Baumann as Oskar and Horst Bollmann as Felix.

The notion conjures up all sorts of jokes about a German Oscar ordering a German Felix out of the house mach schnell, and about brown knackwurst and green knackwurst, and of the both of them attempting to occupy The Pigeon Sisters.  But here's my big question:  The longest laugh in the play is when Oscar says to Felix…

You leave little notes on my pillow.  I've told you a thousand times, I cannot stand little notes on my pillow.  "We are all out of corn flakes — F.U."  It took me three hours to figure out that "F.U." was Felix Unger.

Since they've apparently kept the names the same, does this joke work in German?  That is, does the German language have a comparable vulgar slang term that suggests the initials, "F.U.?"  And if not, why didn't they change Felix's name?

Over at Salon, the online magazine, they have a terrific interview up today with Bill Maher.  You have to be a subscriber to read it, so I'll just offer you this one quote from the gent, which I think summarizes what makes him different from most other comedians these days.  It's self-serving but I think it's valid…

There's a big difference between the way most comedians handle George Bush, going after that obvious "dumb" line of humor and what I did, which was mentioning things like how he jumps on the bandwagon of something like the recent financial CEO scandals and stages a big photo-op and says things like, "We will hold corporate America to high ethical standards" when the reason corporate America is behaving unethically is because of politicians like Mr. Bush.  [Corporations] give him millions in campaign contributions so he can print up a sign saying he's demanding the highest ethical standards, and fools the people into thinking that when in fact he's doing the opposite.  That's what I want Jay Leno and the others to make fun of.  But they won't.  They make fun of him for mispronouncing a word.

The late, lovely Billy Barty is the subject of a much-deserved Biography profile, this Thursday (12/12) on the Arts and Entertainment Network.  He is also the subject of an about-to-be-released book, Within Reach, which includes loads of biographical material on him, plus reminiscences by friends and colleagues, including this column which I wrote about him.  You can order a copy at www.billybarty.com and, while you're there, read all the wonderful things there about Billy, some of which are left over from when he was with us and actively pursuing to right some of the injustices that folks have to endure when they are shorter than the average person.

• Republicans Can Lie, Dems Can't. Why? by Richard Cohen, New York Daily News
• Delay Tax Cut to Aid U.S. by Mario Cuomo, New York Daily News
• The Return of Cover-Up Kissinger by Molly Ivins, Creators Syndicate

Present at the creation is a feature over at National Public Radio, discussing the origins of various icons.  They have a page up right now about Batman that includes video clips, an audio interview with Bob Kane, and links to various sites, including this one.  Click here to go there.

Anyone here interested in fancy network press kits?  If you have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed, you can read NBC's press handout to cover all their holiday programming for the month of December.  Click here to do so and notice the total lack of Magoo.  Looks to me like they knew a long time ago they weren't running it.

Anyone here miss the Up Close interview with Garry Trudeau?  Here's an article about it.

Tomorrow night, Late Night With Conan O'Brien features Al Gore and Bruce Springsteen.  And it isn't even sweeps.

The Washington Post couldn't find much room to report on Trent Lott's stupid/racist (pick one or both) remarks until after everyone else had jumped on the story.  They have, however, fearlessly tackled the vital issue of comic books discontinuing their letter columns.  Here's that breaking news.

The all-knowing, all-seeing Jerry Beck calls my (and therefore, your) attention to a wonderful new website that is attempting to catalog all the available info on the many cartoons produced by the Walter Lantz Studio.  That's Walter up above and the site is here. The folks responsible for it are Jack Tatay, Thad Komorowski, Pietro Shakarian and Jon Cooke, and they're providing an invaluable public service to the oft-neglected field of animation history.  I say that as someone who, after he reached around age ten, had trouble generating much interest in all but about a handful of Mr. Lantz's cartoons.  One can certainly respect the achievement and the craft even if one never thought Woody was all that funny…

Over at The Corner, which is a group weblog for the Conservative National Review, a reader is quoted as making what the editor there calls a good point…

How can a fictional character be anything but "openly" gay?  When they describe Barney Frank as the first openly gay congressman, they mean that there may have been others, but they kept it to themselves.  Fictional characters don't have lives outside of what their audiences can see.  We, the audience, know everything they do and everything they think (via those little bubbles).  It's only a comic book for crying out loud!

The easy answer, I suppose, is that the character can be "non-openly" gay in the continuity of his or her stories.  The readers, may know he or she is gay via "those little bubbles" — we in the know call them thought balloons — but the other characters don't.  So the character is "openly" gay in the sense that the plots deal overtly with that.

But a more useful answer is that, as company-owned characters get handed about from writer to writer, each of us creates our own version of the hero — one that we usually hope does not conflict with the ongoing continuity.  (I say "usually" because some writers consciously wish to leave their stamp on a classic character, which can be a good idea if they have good ideas and are there for a while; a bad idea when the writer is especially transient or just trying to grab attention.)

And in doing our versions, we project some aspects of ourselves and/or our acquaintances into the character and supply our own subtexts and motivations which may not be evident.  Certainly, when I've written Superman or some other iconic character, I have thoughts about him that never make it onto the printed page.  It's the same way an actor, called upon to display a certain emotion, may reference a personal memory in order to evoke that emotion.  You have to weep over your dead mother but since your real mother is still alive and sitting out in the third row, you privately think about that goldfish that died when you were eight.  In the same way, writers are always secretly drawing upon experiences and personal feelings, or basing some facet of a character on themselves or a friend or relative.

There have been comic book writers — openly gay or closeted — who have written classic characters over the years.  Just as gay songwriters write about loving "her" when they really mean "him," some comic book scribes have probably penned scenes of Superman loving Lois Lane when they really meant Jimmy Olsen.  They don't put it overtly into the script because they know it won't be accepted…but it's there and, once in a while, some readers pick up on it.  And it isn't just gay writers who can impose a gay subtext.  It wouldn't surprise me at all if some heterosexual writers had written Batman and decided to base their Robin on a homosexual they knew.  We've certainly seen a lot of cardboard, unconvincing lesbian tendencies imposed on female characters in lieu of more realistic characterizations.

The critic above is right that fictional characters don't have lives outside of what's on the paper.  But we don't always know everything they do and think.  At least with the more ambitious writers, there's always that which is implied between the word balloons.  And it could just be that the villain would rather kiss the hero than kill him…and is attempting the latter because he can't do the former.

• All These Problems by Paul Krugman, The New York Times
• Ashcroft Vs. Civil Liberties by Nat Hentoff, Washington Times
• G.O.P.: Civil Liability Reform a Priority by Anne Q. Hoy, Newsday

Twelve of you have now sent me links (like this one) to obituaries for William "Tex" Henson, an animator who worked for Disney and on the Bullwinkle show. I didn't post anything about him because, frankly, I've barely heard of Mr. Henson, and wasn't even sure why his passing was getting so much coverage. More important figures in animation history have left us with nary a mention in the press. I hope this signals a new trend.

I am told that the remodel of the Cinerama Dome theater up on Sunset has been finished for some time, and that the place is open and running movies. I guess I was fooled by all the construction work that still seems to be in progress on the adjoining shopping center.

Marvel Comics is bringing out a new mini-series of their old western comic, The Rawhide Kid…only in this version, the Kid is depicted as a gay gunslinger.  This revelation seems to come out of left field, and surely comes as a surprise to anyone who read (or even wrote) the character's earlier exploits.  In fact, it sounds like someone knew there was zero interest in the property and figured they'd have to come up with something really outrageous in order to get any attention for a revival.  This is not to say it's impossible that the writer has come up with an interesting, worthwhile "take" on the premise; only that it's being marketed as a gimmick, the point of which is to generate publicity like this story.

Some longtime Marvel fans appear to be outraged, not at the notion of a gay cowboy but at the fact that they didn't just create a new character, instead of hijacking the heritage of The Rawhide Kid.  Frankly, I don't care much.  I have long since resigned myself to the notion that, in search of sales and/or some way to "modernize" that which seems out-of-date, comic book companies will do just about anything to a character I liked when I was a kid — kill him, cut off a limb, have him go crazy, whatever.  Making a hero gay is probably one of the gentler things they've done in search of a hook.  And besides, very few of us cared about the Rawhide Kid when his comic was being published, anyway.

In any case, someone seems to have the history wrong.  The above-linked news story says that, "The new series pairs the original artist, John Severin, now 86, with Ron Zimmerman, a writer for The Howard Stern Show."  Actually, the first issue of The Rawhide Kid was drawn by Bob Brown, with a cover by Joe Maneely.  Severin did a handful of covers later on but in no way could he be considered the strip's "original artist."  Also, every bit of biographical material I've seen on John Severin says he was born in 1921, which would make him 81 now, not 86.  Either way, I think it's great that Marvel is bucking the tide of rampant ageism in the industry and employing an 80+ year old artist on a high-profile project.

Various channels (including Cartoon Network and StarZ) are running Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas this week and next.  It, A Charlie Brown Christmas, Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer are my four favorite bits of holiday animation and the only four that really developed into perennials.  For many of us, the holidays are not complete without a viewing of one or more of these, and I have to note: Magoo was produced in '62, Rudolph in '64, Charlie Brown in '65 and Grinch in '66…and that was it.  The Golden Age of Animated Television Christmas Specials was over.  Many have been done since but not one has had anywhere near the staying power or affection of those four.

I have no idea why this is, so I'll just mention this link to an article about the Grinch, complete with quotes from the lovely June Foray, who did the voice of Cindy Lou Who.  Her role was uncredited and less than a dozen words in duration…but even if I hadn't seen the special repeatedly since '63, I'd still remember her letter-perfect performance.

My piece on old movie houses seems to have touched some nerves, with many of you e-mailing me your own memories of theaters from your pasts. Two folks also informed me that I prematurely closed the Aero Theater in Santa Monica, which is still up and operating.

What fooled me is that its closing was announced a few years ago (here's a 1999 news story, complete with photo) but protests were mounted, and the place is still hanging in there, albeit barely. Over at its website, one can read a bevy of recent news articles about the battle to keep its doors open.

Here's a silly trivia item. In 1961, not long after George Reeves died, DC Comics decided to try to sell a Superboy series and produced a pilot with Johnny Rockwell in the title role. It was a pretty awful pilot and it never went anywhere. You can view it online at this site if you have QuickTime installed and a half-hour to waste.

So what does this have to do with the Aero Theater? Well, the pilot is about a doorman who works at…the Aero Theater. It was shot outside the place back in '61. The last time I drove by the Aero, it hadn't changed much.

Jack Paar was a nervous, superstitious gent and when he was working at NBC, he usually declined to ride the elevators at Rockefeller Center. Instead, he would reach his office each morning by an intricate series of stairwells and shortcuts. His route took him through the usually-deserted Studio 6B where later that evening, he would do The Tonight Show.

One day, Paar arrived at the studio much earlier than usual and, when he walked into 6B, he found himself walking onto a live (live!) broadcast of the game show, Play Your Hunch.

The studio audience went berserk and Paar, finding himself unexpectedly on live TV, attempted to flee. But the show's host, Merv Griffin, ran over and got a vise-grip on the bewildered star's arm to keep him there so he could conduct a brief, funny interview. Paar swore he had no idea that his studio was being used by another program each morning. "So this is what you do in the daytime," Paar quipped to Griffin, who had occasionally sung on The Tonight Show.

Later, Paar admitted he was impressed with how Griffin had "milked" the accident for its maximum entertainment value by keeping him there. He gave Merv a shot guest-hosting The Tonight Show and when that went well, it led to Griffin becoming a candidate to succeed Paar. When Johnny Carson got the job instead, NBC signed Griffin to do an afternoon talk show which debuted the same day. It was their way of keeping Merv "on deck" in case Johnny bombed — which, of course, didn't happen. Griffin went on to host his own long-running talk show in syndication and also became a producer of hit game shows.

Around the peak of his success, Griffin was asked to reflect. He said, "If Jack Paar hadn't been afraid of elevators, I'd be hosting shows like Wheel of Fortune or Jeopardy! instead of owning them."