Another rendition of the "Meet the Flintstones" theme. This one, for which I have Jim Newman to thank, is by Tom Kaufmann playing his limestone lithophone. This is a very appropriate instrument on which to play this song…

Mike Everleth read what I wrote about the show I did for Kroffts with the Bay City Rollers and he has three questions…

1. What was the order of production? Did you do all the season's musical performances in a few days? Then film the Krofft character sequences?

Each show that was produced was made up of about ten different segments — opening musical number, opening monologue, "Horror Hotel" segment, "Lost Island" segment, comedy blackouts with the Rollers, etc. We wrote thirteen of each segment in advance, working out of the offices the Kroffts then had out in the Valley. Then the whole operation moved into offices on the KTLA lot in Hollywood and we began taping and filming.

I don't remember the order these were done but we shot thirteen opening numbers over a day or three, then thirteen monologues over a day or three, then thirteen of this and thirteen of that. Finally, someone — happily, not I — went into an editing room for a couple of weeks and assembled thirteen hour shows which were later cut into thirteen half-hour shows.

2. Was the concert audience there all the time? The opening scene feels like there's no audience, but we do see them later. And why are they seated so far away from the band?

The live audience was brought in for one or two days when we were shooting some of the musical numbers. Footage of the audience was then edited into other musical numbers or material where we wanted the sense of it being done in front of an audience. But a lot of it wasn't. That was pretty standard practice for variety shows then.

Want to hear about one of the easiest jobs I've ever had in show business? The other two writers — Rowby Goren and Lorne Frohman — and I took turns doing the audience hosting for those tapings. Doing "warm-up" for bleachers full of fourteen-year-old girls who were about to see The Bay City Rollers perform was like throwing medium-rare filet mignon out to a band of starving coyotes. At one point, the Stage Manager came over and told me the director had asked me to change the "warm-up" into a "cool-down."

I don't know why the audience wasn't closer. Maybe the guy who designed the set-up was afraid the young ladies there would storm the stage and devour our stars. But I don't think there was as much distance as it appeared on the TV screen.

3. Where was this filmed? On just one set, i.e., was the same spot used for the concert and "Horror Hotel," just dressed differently? Or was there a big soundstage with different sets?

The film stuff with the Rollers running around an amusement park was shot one day at Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, not far from Disneyland. There was another day of filming visual gags at a park in Burbank. Everything else was taped on Stage 6 at KTLA where hundreds if not thousands of network and syndicated TV shows were taped.

They set the whole thing up for the musical numbers and we did those. Then over a weekend, they took every bit of that scenery out and installed the sets for "Horror Hotel" and after we shot thirteen of those, those sets disappeared and were replaced by the sets for "Lost Island" and so on.

I worked on several TV shows on Stage 6 there and it was amazing how it could be a dense jungle in there on Tuesday and on Wednesday, they were taping Solid Gold or a game show in there. A lot of the "magic" of television is made by set designers, the tech crew and super-heroes who are referred to as "grips."

I should mention: On Stage 6, we also taped a prime-time special for NBC with the Bay City Rollers and also a syndicated special. These were done after the Saturday morning series so the stage crew had to bring back parts of the concert set and bring back parts of the "Horror Hotel" set and others, and we brought in another live(ly) audience one evening for the music portions of that show.

The NBC one was a done-at-the-last-minute quickie to promote that year's new Saturday morning series and I think we wrote it in three days, taped it in two and delivered it to the network about an hour before it had to air on the East Coast. I did a number of those Saturday morn preview specials — at least one for each of the three major networks then — and they were included in a recent series by the fine writer Andy Mangels, who wrote a multi-part history of such programs for RetroFan magazine.

Have you ever tried cooking with clarified butter, aka ghee? I haven't but it seems popular with some of the online chefs whose videos I watch in a usually-fruitless search for a recipe I feel like I could prepare. Usually, that's limited to egg dishes but only the part where I crack the eggs into a bowl and then spend some time fishing out pieces of shell.

But Friday morning, I was in a Trader Joe's and I spotted a jar of ghee and thought, "Why not?" I have no specific cooking adventure in mind for it but according to the date stamped on the jar, I have 186 years, 9 months and 10 days to use it…and then on 2/4/2208, it won't even be inedible. It just won't be at its best. I probably have at least half a century after that before it might taste rancid or stale.

I should be able to figure out a use for it by then. And just in case I can't and it survives me, I've got that all figured out. I'm going to put a clause in my will leaving what's left in the jar then to Elroy Jetson. Maybe he can share it with Astro.

Yesterday, I linked you to a video of the "Springtime For Hitler" number from the musical of The Producers as it was performed in Germany. We discussed how it contained the "dance challenge" segment that was in the number when it was trying-out in Chicago but cut when it moved to Broadway.

Here's a clip of the same number from that Chicago try-out with the "dance challenge" still a part of it. And it's in English. Thanks to someone named Brian who apparently has no last name…

Another rendition of the "Meet the Flintstones" theme. This one is by the Bow-Tie Bigband…

This kind of thing amazes me. As you may know, there's a recall drive in California to remove Gavin Newsom from the governorship. Polls and common sense tell us it's not likely to pass. Newsom's approval ratings is about the same as the percentage of the vote he won in the last election. But crusaders like Caitlyn Jenner have been urging Newsom's ouster and Jenner has announced a run for his seat.

A little while ago, Jenner tweeted this…

This person who wants to the governor of California does not know that the governor of California has no District Attorneys.  District Attorneys in this state are elected at the county level by a vote of The People and are in no way commanded by the governor.

Shouldn't you understand what a job involves before you apply for it?

In 1978, I was the Head Writer on The Krofft Superstar Hour, a live-action variety and adventure series on NBC's Saturday morning schedule. It featured the Bay City Rollers, a once-popular Scottish rock group, mixed in with a bevy of other characters left over from other Saturday morn shows from the world of Sid and Marty Krofft. The program didn't perform well in the ratings as an hour but after they cut it to a half-hour and renamed it The Bay City Rollers Show, it did well enough that NBC reran the thirteen episodes for several years.

Like I said, it starred the Bay City Rollers and at the time, the Bay City Rollers starred Les McKeown, their lead singer. The Rollers were all great guys but not all of them were happy to be in Los Angeles doing a kids' show instead of in Europe or elsewhere, touring and performing for older audiences. They were also not all that happy to be called upon to speak and act and serve as hosts, which was not what they did best.

Furthermore, their thick Scottish accents caused a lot of problems — for us because most of them simply could not deliver some lines in a manner that American audiences might understand; for them because even getting them close to intelligible meant long, long hours with a dialogue coach. (Actually, it was a good warm-up for us folks behind the cameras. The next show most of us worked on for the Kroffts starred two Japanese ladies who could not speak English. Compared to them, the Rollers were all professional announcers.)

And then there was the fact that the Rollers were fighting — mostly Leslie against the other four. Derek, Alan, Woody and Eric lived somewhat happily together while in L.A. in a big house in the Valley that Marty Krofft owned. Les had to be housed elsewhere, lest someone kill someone.

What was the battle about? I honestly never found out, though it seemed to have something to do with four of them thinking they were a five-man band and one of them (guess which one) thinking they were one star with four back-up singer/musicians. Fortunately for us, they were professional enough to keep most of that out of the studio and to fully honor their contractual commitments. In fact, all five were often apologetic about the frictions and speaking limitations they brought to the program.

In the photo above, Les is the guy on the top with his hands on the shoulders of Alan (left) and Eric (right).  Woody is below Alan, Derek is below Eric and the lady in the center is the wonderful Billie Hayes in her role as Witchiepoo.

As you've figured out by now, this is an obit for Les, who died last Tuesday at the age of 65.  To quote the New York Times, "His family announced the death in a statement on social media. The statement said he died at his home, but did not say where that was or specify the cause."

I got along fine with all of them.  They were all good musicians and Les was great at exuding all the charm and sex appeal it took to be the lead singer in a Boy Band…and probably still does.  Given that I still get occasional questions about what it was like to work with them (or just him), it would seem he and they made a lasting impression on a lot of people.

This is eighteen minutes from the stage version of the musical version of The Producers…and what's interesting about it is that, first of all, it's the "Springtime For Hitler" number and what led up to it. And secondly, it's in German. This is from the Berlin production which was from all reports a huge hit. It's one thing for us in this country to laugh at Hitler and the Nazis. It's another thing — and arguably a good thing — for them to be howling over there.

Also, this version includes a chunk of the number that was in the show when it tried-out in Chicago but cut once they got to New York. In this section, the guy playing Roger DeBris playing Hitler is strutting about on stage and a chorus lady — the actress playing Ulla playing a Nazi — announces, "Clear the way for the challenge dance." Then one by one, actors playing Stalin, Churchill and then F.D.R. come out and try to out-dance Hitler but the Führer defeats them all.

The sequence got a lot of laughs in Chicago but not enough. At one point, they tried changing Roosevelt — who of course had to do his part of the tap-dancing contest from a wheelchair — to Uncle Sam who was free to dance upright. The actor, Jeffrey Denman, was wearing a Nazi outfit in the first part of the number with most of the Uncle Sam costume on under it. So he would dance as a Nazi, then run offstage and strip his Kraut garb off to dance as Uncle Sam, then rush offstage to become a Nazi again.

Anyway, it didn't work so they went back to Roosevelt before cutting the whole challenge dance sequence. But if you watch this video, you'll see Stalin, Churchill and F.D.R. are back in. One wonders if it was funnier to a German audience than to an American one and if so, why. One also wonders how the music score for the excised portions were obtainable…

• Some days, I feel like I'm Mel Cooley and everyone in the world is either Buddy Sorrell or Alan Brady.

Another rendition of the "Meet the Flintstones" theme. This one is by the John Moawad All-Star Big Band and it's one of those jazz versions where they play the beginning of the song, they they play a lot of stuff that has nothing to do with the song, then they play the end of the song…

Hey, if you like reading political-type articles to which I link — and some of you do — read Jonathan Chait on the Republican attitude about Climate Change.

One thing that bothers my Republican friends — and I'm not claiming they're representative of all in their party; just pointing out that I do have some — is that they want to see the Conservative agenda prevail but not the parts of it that do not deal with reality. I saw Ben Carson on TV the other day acting like Hydroxychloroquine is a proven cure for COVID-19. And you have Mike Lindell going on with Jimmy Kimmel next week to explain why Donald Trump won the election in a landslide.

Those friends don't like their party dealing with Climate Change by denying it's real, just as they don't like pretending the coronavirus was nothing more than a bad cold or that there's that mountain of evidence that Trump won. Reasonable adults can disagree on how to solve a given problem but not when they get stuck on debating whether the problem even exists.

Every time I browse Amazon, I come across at least one of these. Let's say you have the occasional jones for Campbell's SpaghettiOs with meatballs.  Don't snicker.  There are worse things you put in your body.  I usually have a few cans around because it's one of the better meals I can scarf down when I need warm chow in me and can't spare the six minutes to prepare something better.  Let's say you want to order some from Amazon.

I found these two listings side-by-side.  The photos are identical.  The contents of what you'd receive may not be because the one on the left can't decide if it contains ten cans or twelve…and you'll never know because you're smart enough to spot that the one on the right, which definitely contains twelve cans, is a buck cheaper.

And if you use Amazon Fresh, you won't order either because they sell however many cans you choose to order for 99 cents each.  A dozen there will run you $11.88.

All of these contain, let me remind you, the exact same…we'll call it "food"…in the same can from (probably) the same assembly line.  All 15.6 ounce cans of SpaghettiOs are created equal.

The great thing about Amazon is the utter convenience.  You search, you click, you buy, you get.  You don't have to rise up from your chair, put on a pair of those clean pants you aren't wearing much during The Pandemic, get in your car and spend time and gas money driving to a store that may be out of what you need and if they do have it, it probably costs more than buying it on Amazon.  There are downsides to Amazon but it does save me time 'n' money.

Ah, but if you want the absolute best price — and you do, you know you do — you have to do some comparison-shopping. Amazon may have it listed three dozen ways for a myriad of prices. Every time I order a new package of my favorite protein powder, I could just click "Buy Again" but instead, I search anew for it and often find it for a buck less, sometimes on the same page. I also once found a better price for it by misspelling its name in the search window.

I don't have a huge point to make here. I just find it odd and I wonder how much of it is intentional. Mr. Bezos is no dummy and Amazon knows a lot about my buying habits. I wonder if they track how often I don't find the best price for myself…and if they show me the same options they show someone who always does or never does. Because almost everything I purchase there, I can find there for a dollar more or a dollar less if I take some of that time they're otherwise saving me.

Another rendition of the "Meet the Flintstones" theme. This one is a heavy metal version by Nick Protonotarios…

Oh. Before I get to that, I should mention that after I posted this saying that two people objected to these posts, I got close to a hundred e-mails from folks who love them so don't worry. They shall continue. And now, here's Nick…

• They're doing COVID vaccinations at some Costcos. Only problem is you have to get twelve of them at a time.

There's no Comic-Con International in San Diego this July but there'll be one in a four-issue mini-series that comes out this July…Groo Meets Tarzan. Much of it is set at that con so you will be able to see a frighteningly-accurate vision of what would happen at that convention if they had it.

You'll also be able to see two great warriors — Edgar Rice Burroughs' majestic Tarzan and Sergio Aragonés' moronic Groo the Wanderer — come together in a story so unbelievable that I don't even believe it and I was actually there when it happened. Sergio and I appear in the story along with our title stars. The fine illustrator Tom Yeates drew Tarzan and the scenes in that hero's world. Sergio drew the rest and there was lettering by Stan Sakai and coloring by Tom Luth. More details can be found here.