Saturday morning, September 17, 1988: The first episode of Garfield and Friends makes its debut on CBS.  I was the writer of the show — and this confuses some people. I was not the Story Editor of the show. Most cartoon shows have a Story Editor and he or she will hire the writers, supervise their work and, when necessary, rewrite their scripts. There was no such person on this program. I was just hired to write all the episodes and later, they also made me Voice Director and Co-Producer. plus I even wrote lyrics for some of the songs — and there was one whole song I wrote all by myself. That ain't easy when you can't read music or play any musical instrument. They also eventually let me hire a friend of mine to help with some of the scripts for a while.

The initial deal was for two seasons of thirteen half-hour episodes each but before we got anywhere near Season Two, CBS was so happy with the ratings that they wanted to up the show to an hour.  So for Seasons 2-7, it was an hour.  Ultimately, we did 121 half-hours and that's a lot of lasagna jokes.

Around 73 of those half-hours went into syndication and did real, real well. We were in the midst of negotiating the fees for an eighth year on CBS when the Biz Affairs guys there decided that since we were making so many bucks off the syndication, we should charge them a lot less for further Saturday morning episodes. We decided not to do that, the show ceased to be — and before long, so did cartoon shows on CBS Saturday mornings. I am not suggesting we caused that to happen but I'd think twice before I messed with that cat.

All 121 half-hours were issued on DVD and rerun in many venues and recently, a lotta bucks were spent to remaster them all in hi-def and they'll be appearing somewhere. We redid the closings of every episode and fixed a number of errors in the voice credits.

It was the most fun I'd ever had working in animation. You hear a lot about nitwitted network interference and insane Standards and Practices demands…and goodness knows, I had plenty of both when I worked for other studios. There was none of that on Garfield and Friends. None.

We had some wonderful artists and directors working on this show and this is far from a complete list: Mitch Schauer, Karl Toerge, Scott Shaw!, Gary Conrad, Floyd Norman, John Sparey, Bill Riling, Ron Myrick, Art Roman, Dave Brain, Lin Larsen, Norman Quebedeau, Tom Tataranowicz, Bob Givens, Cliff Voorhees…and boy, am I leaving a lot of people out.

We had some wonderful producers: George Singer, Bob Curtis, Bob Nesler, Vince Davis and — running the whole Film Roman animation studio — Phil Roman.

We had a wonderful regular cast: Lorenzo Music, Thom Huge, Gregg Berger, Frank Welker, Howie Morris, Julie Payne, Desiree Goyette and Gary Owens.

We had wonderful guest voices: Stan Freberg, Neil Ross, June Foray, Chuck McCann, Don Knotts, Paul Winchell, Don Messick, Carl Ballantine, Lennie Weinrib, Julie Bennett, Marvin Kaplan, Will Ryan, James Earl Jones, Victoria Jackson, Larry Storch, Robin Leach, Jeff Altman, Bill Kirchenbauer, Thom Sharp, Tress MacNeille, Greg Burson, Pat Buttram, Greg Berg, George Foreman (yes, the George Foreman), Chick Hearn, Buddy Hackett, John Moschitta, Louise DuArt, Jewel Shepard, Charles Aidman, Susan Silo, Dick Gautier, Bill Saluga, Eddie Lawrence, Imogene Coca, Kevin Meaney and the list goes on and on.

It was a joy — not that the subsequent series, The Garfield Show — hasn't been. But this was Garfield and Friends and I want to especially acknowledge the trust, wisdom and creative contributions of the creator of Garfield, Jim Davis, and of the best and most honest producer I ever worked for in animation, Lee Mendelson. And perhaps most of all, I should acknowledge Judy Price, who was running the Saturday morn schedule for CBS then and who said to me after I moonwalked off a proposed Michael Jackson Saturday morn cartoon, "Would you like to work on Garfield instead?"

I believe all those people and many unnamed ones deserve great thanks and recognition. What I don't believe is that we went on the air thirty years ago. It's not possible, I tell ya. It's just not possible.

On its way to San Francisco now…or so says the USPS Tracking App. I hope it's getting Frequent Flyer mileage.

This has been Where in the World is Mark's Package?, a public service of this blog.  Check back often for the latest update on where the hell Mark's Package is at any given moment.

Like you and all but two or three people in this world, I have no idea how much truth there is to the claims of Christine Blasey Ford that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh tried to violate her many years ago. I do have an idea that if all we have here is "He Said/She Said," it won't matter. Heck, some right-wingers want that fifth seat on the Supreme Court so badly that it might not stop Kavanaugh's confirmation if he admits it and shows home movies of the attempted rape.

We have reached the stage in this country where some partisans are convinced The Other Side is out to destroy mankind so anything done to stop them is for The Greater Good. Political assassins do not generally think murder is a moral action. They just think it's a lesser and necessary evil than allowing whoever they kill to remain alive and in power.

Apparently, Ms. Ford will testify as will Judge Kavanaugh. It will not be pleasant for either but especially not for Ms. Ford. My cynical side suspects that at least one of her interrogators will feel he has to make it so rough on her that no one else will come forth to corroborate her tale or to tell of a matching encounter with the nominee. For that matter, there are some men out there who feel any woman who comes forth to tell such a story about any man needs to be punished as an example for others.

I absolutely believe there are false claims of sexual impropriety. There are proven, confessed instances of false rape charges and false witnessing in murder cases. Why would there not be false accusations of attempted rape or lesser forms of abuse? Still, it is important that all such charges be investigated and that there not be a climate where women — or even men who have been similarly mistreated by people of greater power — are afraid to say so.

I absolutely do not believe that not coming forward at the time means that a claim is bogus. As I've mentioned, I've had lady friends in the acting profession who suffered close encounters; who found themselves in a room with men of great wealth and power and lawyerly support who had their dicks out, figuratively or literally. One came over here one time in near-hysterics to tell of being in a limo an hour earlier with a very, very, very big star who unzipped and pulled out his very, very, very small member.

She rejected any suggestion of calling in the law. It would be her word against his and he had zillions of bucks, lawyers who could and would probe her past, major studios who would reflexively side with him…and all she had was a story that would be dismissed as her pulling some sort of blackmail or publicity-seeking scheme. She also had a certainty that if she reported such a thing, she'd never get another audition in this town. She was sure it would be way more damaging and painful to her to report the crime than to not report it. The whole point of the #MeToo movement is to make it not as painful.

That particular lady is not around anymore and neither is that very, very, very big star. But we can all certainly imagine a later time when she felt she had to say something…like if other women were telling similar tales to confirm a pattern of such misbehavior a la Cosby or the man was about to get a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court. I'm not saying Ms. Ford is surely telling the truth; just that the fact that she didn't tell it then doesn't mean it didn't happen.

When last we heard from Mark's Package, it had gone from Winter Garden, Florida to Jacksonville, Florida to Los Angeles, California (where Mark lives) to Kansas City, Kansas to Des Moines, Iowa.  Our latest information is that it has spent the weekend in Des Moines, Iowa.

This has been Where in the World is Mark's Package?, a public service of this blog.  Check back often for the latest update on where the hell Mark's Package is at any given moment.

• A woman has accused Trump's Supreme Court nominee of attempted sexual assault. We haven't heard the president weigh in yet on this but I just know he will be dignified, mature and respectful of a woman's right to be heard on a matter of such a sensitive nature.

Here's a half-hour interview with Dick Van Dyke at last year's Salt Lake City Comic-Con. With all the anger and hatred in the world today, isn't it nice to see someone who is disliked by absolutely no one on this planet?

Stony Brook University is located in New York. Its School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences has worked up a computer model that suggests that without Climate Change, Hurricane Florence would have dumped a lot less water on folks who now find themselves living in lakes and rivers. You can read the details here.

Bending over way more than backwards, I am willing to accept that maybe there is an argument that Climate Change is not happening and that it is not taking lives, destroying property and causing great human misery with the worst yet to come. That would sure be great, wouldn't? If that was not so? Alas, I've yet to see anyone credible taking that position. It mostly seems to be, like, high school science teachers who have found cash and fame by saying such things. But let's say there is someone out there who has that position with some science behind it.

I keep thinking back to the Iraq War and guys like Dick Cheney saying things like, "Even if there's only a 2% chance that Saddam Hussein has Weapons of Mass Destruction, we can't take the chance and must respond like the threat is 100%." Would even the Climate Change Deniers argue the chance of them being wrong is below 2%? How many Wilmington, North Carolinas do we have to have to get them to admit it might be as high as 3% or even 4%?

What really bothers me is the amount of Denial that seems to be wholly political these days. Left-wingers think we have to do something about it now. A small but vocal percentage of right-wingers seem to think that the world will end if left-wingers get their way about anything. I get the feeling there are still people out there who would rather die than admit Al Gore might have been right.

As a guy who sometimes directs the voices for animated cartoons, I often speak to wanna-be voice actors.  One thing I always suggest is that they go to the website of Neil Ross, listen to demos of his work and really, really understand that that level of performer is their competition.  Neil has had a glorious career as a radio personality, promo announcer, cartoon voice actor, videogame thespian, awards show announcer, voiceover guy for commercials, etc.

Like anyone who directs anything, I have a little stable of performers I know I can always count on.  They'll be there on time, they'll take direction, they'll do it as many times as I feel necessary, they won't complain if we have technical downtime…and they can do just about anything.  Neil is not the only person I know who checks all those boxes but in twenty-or-so years, he has never let me down.  Spend a little time over at his site playing demos and you'll understand why I consider him one of my not-so-secret secret weapons.

Or take a look at his IMDB page. They have 257 credits and that doesn't include radio, promos, commercials…it doesn't even include all the TV jobs he's done just for me. It might be about 2% of his career.

He has just published a book about his long, busy career.  It's called Vocal Recall and it's invaluable for anyone who wants to understand what it's like to work in all the kinds of jobs to which Neil lends his expertise.  It will also be of interest to animation fans who'd like to hear how a voice actor does what he or she does.

I could send you to Amazon to order a copy but I'm going to suggest going to this page where you can order a paperback copy, a Kindle copy, a PDF copy or — most intriguing — an audio MP3 where Neil reads the book and performs many of his voices. Or if you pick up a copy somewhere else, you can order a signed bookplate.  Anyway, that's my recommendation.  Do with it as you will.

This is from a recent (a few years ago) stage production of Anything Goes in Australia. Musical comedy star Caroline O'Connor, who bounces back and forth between stages in this country and stages in that country, is playing Reno Sweeney and this is the show's title song. Some of the commenters on this video didn't like it but I think it's pretty nifty…

On Wednesday, September 5, I ordered an item via Amazon and it hasn't shown up yet. Here's the latest USPS tracking info which you have to read by starting at the bottom and reading up…

Saturday, September 15

9:24 AM – Package has left the carrier facility
Des Moines Ia Network Distribution Center, US

2:47 AM – Package arrived at a carrier facility
Des Moines Ia Network Distribution Center, US

Thursday, September 13

3:43 PM – Package arrived at a carrier facility
Kansas City Ks Network Distribution Center, US

Sunday, September 9

11:54 PM – Package arrived at a carrier facility
Los Angeles Ca Network Distribution Center, US

Friday, September 7

11:18 AM – Package has left the carrier facility
Jacksonville Fl Network Distribution Center, US

8:47 AM – Package arrived at a carrier facility
Jacksonville Fl Network Distribution Center, US

Thursday, September 6

3:08 PM – Package has left the carrier facility
Winter Garden, FL US

Package has left seller facility and is in transit to carrier

So they mailed it in Florida, it got here to Los Angeles and then instead of bringing it to me, someone sent it to Kansas and now it's in Des Moines…which is fine.  I hear Des Moines is lovely this time of year.  Tune in Monday and we'll see where it goes next.  I'm wondering if my package has ever seen the Grand Canyon.

Can someone out there who knows how to edit Wikipedia give us a hand with this? It's on their page about the animated series Thundarr the Barbarian, which I worked on. There, it presently says — but won't for long because one of you will correct this —

Twenty-one half-hour episodes were produced by Ruby-Spears Productions, an animation house formed by former Hanna-Barbera head writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears, from October 1980 to September 1982. Despite high ratings, the show was cancelled, possibly due to the violent content.

Here, as I explained in this post some time ago here, is the correct explanation…

The ratings would have justified another but that was the period when someone at Paramount decided they wanted cartoons on Saturday AM based on Garry Marshall's hit prime-time sitcoms. This was back when if Mr. Marshall had said, "I want all the ABC executives dancing naked on my lawn and I want them there in ten minutes," they'd have all been there and nude in five. Thundarr had to be yanked to make room for one of them.

Also, I would say it had "decent ratings," not "high ratings" and I don't think Gerry Conway worked on the series.  Thank you.

UPDATE, A BIT LATER: I screwed up the explanation above. It has been corrected. Sorry.

Here's a find. Before they did the live broadcast of Peter Pan on NBC in 1956, cameraman Sid Chomsky shot some 8mm home movies of Mary Martin, Cyril Ritchard and the rest of the cast in rehearsals. There's also some footage in there from a rehearsal for a Kraft Hall of Fame, also with Cyril Ritchard. The film is silent but also priceless…

• Has Trump given himself an A-plus yet for his administration's response to Hurricane Florence?

Sad about Marin Mazzie and feeling bad for folks in and around the Carolinas who are being deluged. We get paralyzed here in Southern California if we get three inches over a couple of days and there are parts of North Carolina getting that much per hour with no end in sight. As I will forever say about such situations, the government should spend on this kind of thing — which does happen — like it spends on prepping for wars that don't.

"More bad news for Donald Trump." That's in the first paragraph of a news item about three times a week and that's not going to change. If anything, it will get worse. If the man fantasized about being hailed as a Great and Trusted Leader by a majority of the country and being free of scandals and investigations, that is never going to happen. It will be like it is now until whenever he leaves office and for some time after.

Today's bad news is the apparent flipping of Paul Manafort. The White House is furiously telling people that what Mr. Manafort's pleading guilty to is not about Trump. That may be true but what he can testify to in other matters sure does involve Trump. Lesson to be learned: When you surround yourself with crooks, some of them are going to sing…and they'll sing about you. The next election's turning into this…

If you believe Donald Trump and his associates should be investigated and held accountable for any criminal actions, CLICK HERE to vote Democratic.

If you believe they should not, CLICK HERE to vote Republican.

Other issues may arise for local and statewide races. But on the national level, that's really all that's going to matter.