Eric Idle has been on a book tour around the United States, including appearances at halls where a famous friend interviews him. He did one in Los Angeles last week and I had tickets but was unable to get there. This is the video of the one before it — in Seattle with Ryan Stiles as his questioner. I love watching two smart people just talking with no script and no real agenda. Idle wasn't even trying to sell his "sortabiography" since everyone in the place got one as part of the ticket price. Just two funny guys talking…

I posted earlier today that the old NBC Studios in Burbank were largely empty, at least the last time I visited there…and so were likely to be demolished soon.  I am embarrassed but also somewhat happy to say I was wrong.  Our pal Rich Fogel informs me that the videogame giant, Blizzard Entertainment, has moved in there and done extensive fixing-up…and the place is now very much active and unlikely to be replaced by a Costco.  That's good to hear…

…but I'm a bit ashamed to admit I didn't know that.  Why?  Because I'm working now for Blizzard.  In fact, I was I in the midst of a script for them ten minutes ago when I got Rich's message.  I should know these things.

Anyway, that's another thing that could become of CBS Television City: Some big company could move in and make it theirs.  But CBS is more in the area where you might want to build a big condo/retailer complex than NBC is.

Carroll Spinney is stepping down from his roles as Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch on Sesame Street.  What an amazing run the man had, playing not one but two beloved characters for close to half a century.  Here's an article about the peaceful transition of power.

I just read a couple of online posts about the possibility that CBS Television City may be torn down and replaced by condos and retail outlets. Folks were saying things like, "Los Angeles doesn't care about its heritage." I love that studio but let's remember…

• It's not definite that it's going away, merely likely.
• If it does, it's not "Los Angeles" deciding to tear it down.  It's CBS deciding they'd rather have the $700 million than that building.
• And you can care deeply about something but decide you care more about $700 million. I care an awful lot about my house but, hell, I'd let it go for half that amount.
• Making TV shows is the kind of business where you have to keep upgrading your facilities, bringing in new equipment and technology.  There can come a time when a new building would just plain be more practical.
• And if it does make more sense to do shows somewhere else, what are you going to do with that building and that parking lot and all that real estate? Just have it sit empty because it represents history to some of us? That wouldn't be very respectful of the facility.

Somewhere in this discussion, we oughta remember that TV production has changed a lot since Television City was built. It was basically erected to do variety shows and game shows — two forms that don't exist much these days. I don't know how it is currently but when I was over there a few years ago, there were several whole stages that were inactive. Bill Maher has been able to do Real Time for HBO there — and before that, Politically Incorrect for ABC — for many years now because CBS Television City has not been filled to capacity with CBS shows.

I've worked and/or poached in all the major network studios in this town and seen many of them go away.  The most magical for me was NBC Burbank back in the seventies.  I could wander around and slip into where they were taping or rehearsing Bob Hope specials, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, The Dean Martin Show, The Flip Wilson Show, Hollywood Squares and a half-dozen other game shows, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and many others.  Obviously, none of those are there anymore but the point is they weren't replaced by anything comparable.

NBC sold the place off and now it's a private rental facility…a largely vacant rental facility, I believe.  The last time I was over there, the huge department where they once built sets was empty and being used for storage.  I would say a good two-thirds of the studio was empty.  Stage 1, where Mssrs. Hope and Carson taped, was being used to shoot an infomercial.  Eventually, the right offer will come along and they'll tear that building down to build condos and/or a mall and by then, no one will care much.  If that is to be the future of CBS Television City, you might as well bring in the wrecking ball now.

That would not be my first choice.  My first choice would be to see revitalized TV production flourish there and my second would be to see it continue as some sort of TV museum or something relating to the entertainment industry.  I'm just skeptical that anything of that sort can happen and I suspect Bob Barker may outlive The Bob Barker Studio there.

You and I may both miss that studio but if we owned it, I don't think we'd miss it enough to turn down the $700 million.  Why, with your half of it, you could buy my house!

On sale today is a new Blu-ray set called the Rankin-Bass Original Christmas Specials Collection. It contains sparkling (I'm told) prints of five TV specials produced by Arthur Rankin Jr and Jules Bass. They are Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town, The Little Drummer Boy and Cricket on the Hearth, along with a documentary on Rankin-Bass plus a number of special features.

I had almost nothing to do with the assembly of this product. I'm somewhere in the documentary and I recorded a commentary track for my favorite of these, Frosty the Snowman. You can order a copy of it at this link.

Just so no one's misled: This is not the first time these specials have been available on home video and I'd wager serious money it will not be the last. When your company owns timeless films like these, Standard Operating Procedure seems to be to put them out…and then a year or three later, you put out a deluxe edition…and a few years later, a gold anniversary edition…and then a few years later, a platinum super-deluxe edition and so on. Each time, you add in more special features and maybe strive for even sharper prints so lovers of the material will feel compelled to upgrade and purchase again what they already own. Also, the mere fact that it's a ***NEW RELEASE!*** seems to get attention and sales and I would imagine better display in retail stores and some online sites.

As I've been quoted as saying elsewhere, the whole working goal of the entire Home Video market seems to be to see how many times they can force me to buy Goldfinger. I have the sneaking suspicion that somewhere at this moment, someone is remaking it in a Lego version just so I'll have to spring for that.

So don't complain to me if you buy this set of Rankin-Bass Christmas Specials and then a few years from now, there's a better set out of Rankin-Bass Christmas Specials. Just be happy you had this one to watch and/or show your kids until a few years from now when the better one is issued. Or the better one a few years after that. Or the better one a few years after that…

I've been oddly fascinated by the joint train wreck of two businesses that were once among America's top retailers — Sears and Kmart. In 2008, Sears CEO Eddie Lampert decided to rearrange the two companies with a plan, supposedly based on principles stated by Ayn Rand which would lead to new successes and huge profits. Had this worked, we'd be hearing how every business should be run that way but it has not worked. In fact, it's hard to see how it could have worked worse.

If you'd put a Magic 8 Ball in charge of those two companies and just asked it questions and did whatever it told you, Sears and Kmart would probably not be in much worse shape than they are today. I'll go a step further: If they'd put me in charge and I'd made decisions by flipping a coin, the companies might be in better shape. I'd have been right around 50% of the time and that would have been way ahead of the alleged experts here. According to CNBC…

Sears Holdings has contacted banks in recent days to arrange the financing necessary to file for bankruptcy after 125 years in business, people familiar with the situation told CNBC.  The stock plummeted 32 percent, to 40 cents a share, in Wednesday's premarket trading after the report.

The so-called "debtor-in-possession" loan, which companies need to have enough liquidity to keep running the business during bankruptcy, is the clearest sign yet that the department store chain may finally file after years of losses. Sears has a $134 million debt payment due Monday that it previously said it may not be able to cover.

And they just announced the closure of 142 more stores. I could have done that. I could run any company so poorly that its retail outlets would keep going out of business. Piece o' cake.

This is not an "I told you so" and I hope there's no trace of glee in this news even though I am having a bit of fun at their expense. I think it's horrible that all these stores are closing and taking the jobs of thousands of workers with them. And of course underscoring this is my ever-growing amazement at how much damage is done in this world by folks applying (or in many cases, misapplying) the teachings of Ayn Rand.

CBS Television City "in Hollywood" (actually, the corner of Beverly Blvd. and Fairfax) is being sold. Shows that are done there like The Price is Right and James Corden's and Bill Maher's will continue there for now…but smart money seems to be on those programs and others being quietly relocated over the next year or two so the building can come down and retail space and upscale housing can be erected on the land. That's not definite and let's hope it never will be.

I have many fond memories of that complex as both a kid (going there to watch Red Skelton tape) and as an adult working in the industry. There was something very magical about being in a place where so many talented people were present. You'd get in an elevator or turn a corner and there'd be someone who was at least a little part of TV history and/or your childhood. I hope they don't tear it down. I hope, I hope, I hope.

It's Randy Rainbow Time! It's Randy Rainbow Time!

A lot of you were intrigued by the video I embedded here about Igor Vovkovinskiy, the tallest man in this country. I received the following message from my pal Terry Beatty, who's currently handling the Rex Morgan, M.D. newspaper strip among his many endeavors…

Some years ago, as the Twin Cities Comic Convention was winding down and a bunch of cartoonist guests were making plans to go out to dinner afterward, we ended up also bringing along a group of gamers (somebody was a friend of somebody or whatever). The gamers picked up and brought along a few friends who had spent the day gaming at The Source comic shop — one of whom was Igor Vovkovinskiy. Nice guy, quiet and unassuming — and startlingly tall. We dined at The Big Bowl and when Igor sat down, his knees were higher than the table top.

A couple years later, I told this story to the young woman I was dating (now my wife) and she seemed surprisingly unimpressed that I'd met the tallest man in America. Why was that, you ask? 'Cause she'd gone to school with him in her hometown of Rochester, MN.

And Terry suggests that I note that the video I embedded is not current. In it, they say Igor is 29. Wikipedia says he just turned 36. Wikipedia also gives his height as 7 feet, 8.33 inches — the same as it was in the video. Does this mean that medical treatment has succeeded in stopping his growth? Or is that info on Wikipedia just way out o' date?

My lovely friend Amber is crazy about the chicken fried rice they make at Benihana Steakhouses. If you have a joke about how that corresponds to her taste in men, keep it to yourself.

We go to those places often but probably not often enough to suit her.  By that, I mean we may not be at one whenever you're reading this. Alas and alack, the one nearest to my home closed and now the closest one is 10.2 miles away in Santa Monica and the next-closest, which for the love of God is in Encino, is 13.8. Both are reachable at most hours by highways and by-ways that can make it feel like double or even triple the actual distance.

For a delusional hour or so, I toyed with the notion of learning to replicate Benihana Chicken Fried Rice in my own kitchen. There are dozens of recipes online that essentially say, "Do as we tell you and you won't be able to tell the difference." I do not believe anything that ever comes out of my kitchen will ever hit that standard. I don't think I could replicate putting peanut butter on Ritz crackers to match the way the professionals do it.

Then I looked at all the ingredients necessary to make Benihana Chicken Fried Rice on these premises. I also noted how much time it would take to buy them all then chop what has to be chopped, sauté what has to be sautéed, etc. I decided it might be easier and faster — to say nothing of safer — to make a round trip to Santa Monica, even if I go on one of those little Bird scooters, than to do it at home.

It might even be cheaper, plus I know what I get out there will at least taste like Benihana Chicken Fried Rice. Given my dubious culinary skills, I could follow the directions down to the last abbreviation and wind up with candy corn or banana pudding or even (shudder!) cole slaw. I sure don't wanna make no cole slaw by accident.

So my eyebrows recently shot up — clear over my head, just like Dennis the Menace's — when I heard that Benihana now has a line of frozen foods. It includes Yakisoba Chicken, Yakisoba Beef and — wait for it! — Benihana Hibachi Chicken Rice!!! I don't care about anything with Yakisoba in its name but I did think, "Wow…maybe I could make something that even vaguely resembles Benihana Fried Rice at home! And in the microwave, no less." And yes, I did notice the absence of the word "fried" anywhere on the product. And yes, I did know that "fried" is the key element in what they make at Benihana. And yes, I did know that there was a real good chance that it was going to suck…

…but I had to try it anyway.

Trying it was harder than I expected because buying it was harder than I expected. I found out that the Benihana frozen chow line is being sold in Los Angeles at Ralphs markets and at Von's — but not every outlet of each. Over a period of approximately three weeks, I went to ten different outlets of those two chains. Four didn't carry the Benihana line at all. Of the ones that did, in every single instance — and I am not exaggerating — the display cases had plenty of the Benihana Yakisoba Chicken, plenty of the Benihana Yakisoba Beef and zero boxes of the Benihana Hibachi Chicken Rice. Empty spaces on every shelf in every freezer compartment!

Immediate Deduction: That's a powerful bit of branding power there…but only for the rice. Like me, no one cared about anything with "Yakisoba" in its name but many were mesmerized by the chance to have something close to Benihana's fried rice in their home freezers. I asked one Ralphs employee and she said, "No, we're out. They just flew off the shelves!"

Finally, I found one in a Von's…by accident. The shelf where they were supposed to be had been cleaned-out…but there, misfiled about fifteen feet away, there was one lonely package of it nestled among the Steak-Umms. Bought it, took it home and I decided to pre-test it before I told Amber about it so as not to get her hopes up. It turned out this was a very good idea. I thought it was awful.

A two-biter, it was. Took it out of the microwave, let it sit for a bit so the flavors could infuse (a term I learned watching Alton Brown) and it could cool to just below "scalding." Took a bite. Couldn't believe how bad it was. Took another bite to verify…and into the sink it all went. Even my garbage disposal sounded disappointed.

But I read some online reviews and a couple of folks seemed pleased. They said it wasn't anywhere near as splendid as what your chef whips up before your beady little eyes just before he sculpts it into a heart on the grill and then makes the volcano. But they said it was an acceptable substitute..and I suppose it is if your only other choice of a side dish is gravel.

Don't not try it because of me. I dislike many foods that you love. Amber's asked me to find another package of it so she can try it herself…and she might like it. I mean, she likes me so she's pretty unpredictable with her liking. I just wanted to tell you it's out, it's hard to find (at least around here) and you shouldn't expect The Real Thing. That's usually good advice, not just for frozen foods but for most things in this world. Especially if you vote.

Apart from the fact that he's dead, it's looking like a good year for Hervé Villechaize, the diminutive actor known for his role in the movie, The Man With the Golden Gun, his role in the TV series, Fantasy Island, and just about nothing else. He is the unlikely subject of an HBO movie, My Dinner With Hervé, which debuts October 20 and which stars Peter Dinklage. Would this film even have been made if we didn't have a major star who was roughly the proper height?

This is another one of those "someone famous playing someone famous" movies which as I mentioned here, usually don't work for me. I worked with Hervé once. It's a story I told when I appeared earlier this year on Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast. In fact, it was the second thing Gilbert asked me about. I don't feel like telling the story again here right now but if you subscribe to Stitcher Premium, you can hear it there. If you don't subscribe to Stitcher Premium, you should have listened to it back before it disappeared behind their paywall.

Anyway, here's how I intend to judge Peter Dinklage's performance: If I can understand more than about 25% of what he says, I will feel he has not captured the true Hervé.

I have conflicted feelings about Mr. Villechaize. His life had a very sad ending when his career got ice-cold. On the other hand, it's kind of amazing that he ever had any sort of career at all.

Please don't think I'm trying to ridicule him or mock his later years because I'm not. But in show business, there just aren't a lot of job openings for a 3'11" man with a thick French accent and not a lot of acting ability. Imagine you were living in your car, as he was at one point, and you knew that there was almost no chance of any sort of stardom, fame or riches in your future. Then The Devil or a C.A.A. agent appeared and told you you could have all that. You'd probably be wise enough to ask, "What's the catch?" and he'd tell you it was only for ten years and then it will all go away forever.

Would you take that deal? A lot of people would with zero hesitation. A lot of them would think that as sad as the post-stardom period might be, it would still be preferable to no stardom period at all. I'd like to think Hervé thought it that way but he probably didn't.

Anyway, I want to give him an additional credit here. As you may know, he started out as a painter and had a fair amount of success in France. I'll let Wikipedia pick up the story…

In 1964 he left France for the United States. He settled in a Bohemian section of New York City, taught himself English by watching television. Villechaize initially worked as an artist, painter and photographer. He began acting in Off Broadway productions, including The Young Master Dante by Werner Liepolt and a play by Sam Shepard, and he also modeled for photos for National Lampoon before moving on to film.

During that artist period, he somehow made contact with an artist named Jacqueline Roettcher. When I met Jacqueline, she was working quite successfully in animation in Los Angeles while also continuing a long career as an inker of comic books, mainly for the Harvey company. She inked many of their books but mainly the Casper and Richie Rich titles, particularly the ones penciled by Warren Kremer. She told me she'd often hire assistants to help her out and one of the assistants she had for a few years was Hervé Villechaize.

This was back when Hervé was still able to grip a pen or brush. As I mentioned on Mr. Gottfried's podcast, by the time I worked with him, some complication of his physical condition had made it impossible for him to use his hands for much more than gesturing. On our show when he had a costume change, he was unable to zip up his own fly. That show was in 1985. Mark Arnold, who is the world's foremost authority on Harvey Comics, estimates that Hervé worked on the comics between 1971 and 1973. (The Casper cover I selected above is from that period and it almost certainly has inking by Jacqueline Roettcher somewhere in it. We have no way of knowing if Hervé assisted on anything in that issue but he could have.)

I suppose he'd be happy to know he has not been forgotten and that people are still talking about him. Just in case he'd be annoyed that they don't know he once worked on Richie Rich, I thought I oughta put that information on the Internet. Spread it around…for Hervé.

The wonderful Kelli O'Hara performs a rousing tune at "From Broadway with Love: A Benefit Concert for Orlando" at the Disney Theatre in July of 2016. The conductor is Michael J Moritz Jr…

Moneywise lists two dozen restaurant chains that are still "hanging on," despite most of their outlets closing. I've never heard of some of them and the only ones there I've patronized in the last decade or two are Big Boy and Hometown Buffet.

I wonder which ones decreased in popularity due to not responding to changing tastes in the marketplace and which ones were mismanaged in other ways. I suspect in many cases, a new CEO and various cronies made out very well for themselves despite making all the wrong decisions.

A YouTube series I sometimes enjoy watching is Hellthy Junk Food, which stars the married couple of J.P. Lambiase and Julia Goolia.  They were not married when they started doing this and their website still refers to Julia as J.P.'s girl friend.  In each episode, they do one of two things…

They try to make something bizarre in their home kitchen…like a giant devilled egg or a KitKat bar the size of a Mazda.  Or they go to some fast food joint, order everything off the menu and critique each item.  In the first category, they're very big on putting one kind of food inside another — like a hamburger inside a giant French Fry inside a pizza inside another hamburger. Or something like that. A lot of what they deal in is what some would call "junk food" and none of it seems particularly healthy or even hellthy but I guess it's a success if they can knock 20 calories off something that has 2000+ of them.

So, uh, what's the point of making a Skittle the size of Hervé Villechaize? Just to see if they can do it and to entertain those of us who watch. I find them funny and if I ran the Food Network, they'd be on in prime time.

Today is apparently National M&Ms Day, at least around the M&Ms factory. In recognition of this, they decided to see if they could make the world's largest M&M. It turned out to be a lot more difficult than you might imagine…

The power came back on here at 3:05 AM and my life resumed. How come my computer can stay on for a while when the electricity goes out, thanks to my Uninterruptible Power Supply, but traffic lights don't?

Yesterday, I got a call from a gent who's running a comic convention in a faraway town, says he's a huge fan of my work and wants to fly me in to be a guest and he'll give me a nice monetary guarantee. I asked him, "Guarantee against what?" He said, "Well, you know…you sit there and sell sketches to your fans and if your gross doesn't hit the guarantee amount, we'll buy sketches from you to make up the difference so you're guaranteed to go home with that amount."

It's not that difficult to spot the people who are "a big fan of your work" but have no friggin' idea what you do. One tip-off: They use the words "legend" and "icon" a lot, as he did in every third sentence. Everything you've ever done or will ever do is "legendary" and/or "iconic." This morning, for example, I took a legendary shower and then ate an iconic bowl of cereal. I told the guy…

1. I don't do sketches.  I really don't draw much anymore and even when I did, what resulted was not the kind of thing discerning folks would shell out actual cash to acquire.  Long ago, I decided I had a future in writing and enjoyed it way more.  Also, lack of ability had something to do with it.  Had I stayed with drawing and practiced and practiced, I would now be about one-fourteenth as good as most of my artist friends (one twenty-eighth as good as Sergio) and I'd probably be homeless and sleeping on the back stairs of a Chipotle.
2. At conventions, I don't sit behind a table.  Been there, done that, bored silly by it.  Maybe when I get older, the "sitting down" part will matter more to me but right now, nope.  I can manage it for an hour or two here and there but not three whole days.

His reaction to these revelations was along the lines of "Then what the hell am I doing talking to you?"  He didn't say those words but it was there in his accusatory tone.  Ergo, I will not be a guest at this convention which, I see from its website, thinks anyone who works in comics is an Artist, including folks who don't even draw as much as I once did, which was not a lot.

Come to think of it though, I have a reason for wanting to go to Chicago some time between mid-April of 2019 and mid-October.  I'll tell you the reason shortly but for now, if any convention operator reading this would like to pay expenses to the Windy City (or anywhere near it) during those months for me and my lady friend, I will be a guest at your convention.  I'll even sit behind a table and sell sketches…but I warn you that if you give me a guarantee of anything over around twenty bucks, you're going to lose money on the deal.