Oh, no. Gary Owens had been ill for some time and I guess we all knew we were close to losing him…but it's still a kick in the tummy. He died yesterday at his home in Encino. He was 80 years old and didn't have an enemy in the world…or a person who'd met him who didn't love him. Gary hailed from South Dakota and once upon a time, wanted to be a cartoonist. He drew quite well actually but with that voice, how could a person not get into radio? He was truly a witty gentleman and I mean gentleman.

I guess I knew of him first on KFWB radio in Los Angeles and then at KMPC where for a long time, he did the afternoon "drive-time" broadcast, chatting with guests, talking trivia and often doing very funny comedy bits between the occasional records he played. He had no need of them but he employed writers, giving important breaks to a great many folks who went on to become top comedians and comedy writers…and even to people like me. That career alone would have much of Los Angeles mourning him today but Gary had three other aspects to his performing life…

One was as an voiceover actor for animation. He was Space Ghost and the Blue Falcon and Roger Ramjet and Powdered Toast Man and the announcer on Garfield and Friends and so many more. He did an amazing number of cartoons when you consider that the guy really only had one voice. When it's a voice that good, all you need is one.

He was also very much in-demand as a commercial and promo announcer, doing network and radio spots. He was so good at this that he became an archetype. In the v.o. industry, it is not uncommon to hear bookers say they're looking for a "Gary Owens" type voice, especially in the last few years when poor health sometimes made it difficult to hire Gary Owens. I have even heard directors tell an actor to "give it a little Gary Owens." That meant that while you should sound very announcer-like and macho and intense, there should also be a big smile and friendliness in your delivery. He did that better than anybody.

And then there was his on-camera work which pretty much started in the men's room at a great Burbank restaurant called The Smoke House. One day, Gary was in there washing his hands (or something) and so was producer George Schlatter, who was casting his new TV gig, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. Gary started playing with the acoustics in the lavatory there, saying silly things in his serious announcer tone and allowing the reverb to make them sound even more serious and therefore sillier. Schlatter instantly decided to make him a part of Laugh-In…which made the face famous along with the voice.

Gary worked all the time both on and off camera. People wanted to hire him for two reasons, one being that he was a thorough professional. He was always on-time. He was always good. He took direction. If a director asked Gary to do a line fifty times — and yes, I saw this happen — Gary uncomplainingly did it fifty times even though the first one was probably perfect. It is the fear of just about everyone who books talent for commercials or cartoons that you'll hire someone and then your superiors (the folks at the network, the client for the commercial, whoever) will bawl you out yelling, "Why did you hire that untalented jerk?" Gary was an absolutely safe hire. No one ever got in trouble for having booked him.

But like I said, there were two reasons and the other was that everyone liked him. It was fun being around Gary. He was so funny and so polite and so humble and so supportive of those around him. There were moments you could tell that a little of that was an act…the kind of politicking you have to learn to survive in radio where kissing up to the advertisers is part of the job description. But only a little. Most of it was genuine.

I hired Gary several times for voiceovers and once for an on-camera job. He always acted like I was doing him a favor but honestly, it was the other way around. He made the voiceover jobs better, delivering the lines as well as humanly possible. The on-camera job was for a show I co-produced that was a nightmare of logistic and schedule and talent problems. I was so glad we'd thought to hire Gary because he caused absolutely zero problems. Amidst much chaos, he was the one element of the show I didn't have to worry about.

The last time I saw him — I think — was at a CAPS Banquet when I was asked to present an award to him. He was with his wonderful wife Arleta and she was taking such good care of him…but you could tell he was failing and it was an effort for him to make his acceptance speech and sound (pretty much) like the old, classic Gary Owens. Still, it was also obvious that it was good for him to get out of the house and have to do that…and the audience loved everything he said and did.

I may have seen him one more time after that. There's a group of comedy writers and comedians that meets Saturday mornings for breakfast — a group Gary helped organize. I sometimes go when I'm up early enough and he was showing up less and less frequently. But he made it to one and he sat there, listening and laughing at the others, unable to make much of a contribution besides being a great audience.

On his way out, some people recognized him and thanked him for all the wonderful entertainment he'd provided and he instantly turned it around. He was thanking them for listening and watching and allowing him to do what he loved for so long. I think he convinced that couple that he was more grateful to them than they were to him and that it was a bigger thrill for him to meet them than it was for them to meet him. I also think he meant it all. He was really a wonderful man.

There's an old superstition that I just made up: It's bad luck to do a lot of blog-posting on Friday the Thirteenth. Actually, it's bad luck to do a lot of blog-posting when you have pressing deadlines but I like the first excuse better. Either way, I won't be around much here today.

I keep reading all sorts of different conspiracy-type theories why Jon Stewart has decided he wants to do something else with his life besides The Daily Show. He's furious that everyone agrees John Oliver's show is better. He's sure the show's going down in flames and he wants to bail before that's evident. He has an offer to replace Brian Williams. Stuff of that sort. Has it really come to this, people? We no longer take anything a public figure says at face value?

I see odd names being mentioned as possible replacements for Stewart…names like Craig Ferguson or Chris Rock. I can't imagine Comedy Central wanting someone who is so well-established in what they do that they'd alter The Daily Show to fit that. The network must want someone who'd come in and continue the program that's been so successful for them. I mean, I love Craig Ferguson but he'd turn it into The Craig Ferguson Show.

If I were in charge: Well, let's assume John Oliver is lost to HBO. My next thought would be to see if any former correspondents, like Ed Helms or Rob Corddry, were tired of being well-paid movie stars. Assuming none were, I think I'd give some consideration to not beknighting one new host but to instead let the Daily Show "news team" rotate: Jason Jones, Samantha Bee, Jordan Klepper, Jessica Williams, Assif Mandvi, etc. If one of them becomes so adept that you want him or her to have the host's chair full-time, great. If not, I think the show could do fine with this approach. I am not suggesting though that Comedy Central will think that way.

Good luck to those in storm territory. If there were a way we could redirect some of that precipitation our way, I'm sure the population of Southern California would gladly take it off your hands. And roofs. And streets.

It won't mean much to anyone who didn't grow up in Los Angeles but it was just announced that Stan Chambers has died at the age of 91. Stan Chambers was a newsman on KTLA Channel 5 for just short of forever. He was rarely used in an anchor capacity. He was the guy they sent out on location with the truck to cover the fires, the shootouts, the riots, the floods…whatever it was. He had an uncanny ability to always be there and to report in a calm, professional manner. The reporters on CNN who sometimes put hysterical speculation and unconfirmed reports on the air could learn from the example of Stan Chambers. He covered the important stories and never got them wrong.

I got to meet him a few times. The last was not that long ago when he was making the rounds, signing copies of his autobiography. I quoted to him a line I'd use on this blog — "When we had the famous police shootout with the Symbionese Liberation Front, the joke was that every other reporter was covering it from outside while Chambers was in the house with the suspects." He laughed but it was not that far from the truth.

People who've worked on Saturday Night Live tell stories about being there.

This is going to cost some of you some time. My favorite current stand-up, Lewis Black, is on a tour at the moment. Onstage in each city, he devotes 15-30 minutes to doing a special webcast they call "The Rant is Due." It's just Lewis with an iPad, reading questions submitted over the 'net and responding to them. They're quite wonderful and they're free to watch over on this page.

In one, Black explains that this is his way of having a TV show when the networks won't give him one. I dunno why no network will give this guy a show. Granted, he tried that Root of All Evil show for Comedy Central but that had a contrived premise and didn't have Lewis Black doing what he does so well on stage. I'd watch a regular series of The Rant is Due, especially if someone gave it a better title. See if you wouldn't, too.

The National Weather Service forecast for Los Angeles currently includes this paragraph in the long-range forecast. "Long-range" in this case is from next Sunday to next Wednesday. They're talking about a ridge of high pressure that will be keeping us dry through the weekend…

The ridge pushes back westward over the east Pacific Sunday as a weak inside slider moves through Nevada, at the same time a weak retrograding cut off low rumbles through northern Mexico just to the south of California. The upper low may spin some high clouds over L.A. County Sunday and Monday so partly cloudy skies are likely there. Skies should clear by Tuesday and then remain clear. Maximum temperatures will cool each day Sunday through Tuesday as heights slowly fall and offshore flow slowly relaxes. A return to ridging Wednesday (remember 4 days ago when the models showed a large rain storm for this time period? This morning's lesson…never trust a day 9 forecast) along with offshore flow will kick off a warming trend.

I'll translate: The ridge will leave us on Sunday but any storms will miss us, though we may get some high (and therefore, rainless) clouds Sunday and Monday. By Wednesday, another ridge of high pressure should build in, keeping us dry.

A few days ago, the nine-day forecast had a different and wet scenario and the meteorologist who wrote this forecast is reminding us how unreliable a forecast that far ahead can be. Back when I was involved with that industry/science (that's a long story), I spoke to guys at the N.W.S. who were not happy that they were expected to always issue a ten-day forecast. Sometimes, they could predict with great confidence. Other times, they could not but it was still demanded of them, to some extent for competitive reasons. Almost all the commercial weather services offer 15-day and even 30-day forecasts that almost never have any value…but people still pay for them.

I often quote the great journalist Jack Germond who said, "The trouble with the news business is that we're not paid to say 'I don't know' even when we don't know." That applies to the weatherfolks, as well.

Fred Kaplan on the War Powers Act and why few (if any) in Congress will ever stop any president from waging war whenever he or she so chooses.

In the early days of talking pictures, they hadn't quite perfected the technique of dubbing movies for foreign release. So as not to lose that lucrative overseas market, some studios took to shooting their movies in English, then going back with (usually) a slightly different cast and refilming the same material in Spanish and/or French and/or some other tongue.

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy made several movies this way. Stan and Ollie only spoke English but they worked with a tutor who taught them their dialogue in other languages and they had a big blackboard just off-camera with the words spelled out phonetically. They could get away with this because, first of all, their films didn't have that much dialogue and also because given the nature of their characters, audiences didn't expect perfect diction.

This is La Vida Nocturna, the Spanish remake of their 1930 short, Blotto. In America, Blotto starred Anita Garvin as Mrs. Laurel. For the Spanish version, they brought in an actress named Linda Loredo. The scenes in the nightclub feature different entertainers than were in the U.S. version and the film runs a bit longer.

After a while, they stopped doing multiple versions of their films because dubbing became more practical but a few of these remain. If you don't understand Spanish, you might not want to watch the whole short…but you could. Their humor was so visual that you can still follow the story. At least, you might want to watch a little of The Boys performing in this odd way, reading dialogue they didn't really understand…

Here's a piece about what James Corden is planning (or not planning) for The Late Late Show. I'm encouraged by the roster of writers he's hired so far, especially David Javerbaum.

I've been spectacularly disappointed by the guest hosts they've had filling in. I had this silly idea that someone would try to do something different with the opportunity but it's more like they've been told to make it boring and non-innovative so that Corden will look better when he shows up. Wayne Brady's hosting this week and he's a little better than some of the others but we're getting very generic talk shows. Sean Hayes actually managed to make Dame Edna boring when he/she was in his guest chair.

Dick Cavett is a guest on the show Wayne Brady is hosting this Friday night/Saturday morning. Wish they'd give him a week as host so he could show them all how it's done.

If you've followed this blog, you know my life has been full of incredible coincidences. I told you about this one here on September 15, 2002…

Here's another one of those "incredible coincidence" stories you won't believe. But I have witnesses to this one, and am quite prepared to take a polygraph that it happened just the way I say it happened.

For much of a decade, I wrote and voice-directed a cartoon show called Garfield and Friends. This was great fun because the Powers That Be (aka Jim Davis, creator of the lasagna-loving feline) allowed me to write pretty much whatever I wanted, and to cast whomever I felt suitable to do the guest voices.

One week, I penned an episode entitled, Lifestyles of the Fat and Furry, which burlesqued the then-popular TV series, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, hosted by Robin Leach. The program chronicled the indulgent creature comforts of folks with vast amounts of fame and/or cash, usually both. Teetering tenuously on the ledge of self-parody, the show drew much of its charm from the fustian, hyperkinetic narration of Mr. Leach.

Having written my parody of their parody, I set about to secure Robin Leach himself to do the voice of Robin Leach. I figured he could handle the role. About a week before we would be recording the voice track, I phoned his office in Los Angeles. They told me to call his office in New York.

I called his office in New York. They told me to call his office in Connecticut.

I called his office in Connecticut. They told me to call his office in London.

I called his office in London. They told me that Robin was on a six-week expedition down the Brahmaputra River, or somewhere equally remote. Wherever it was, he wouldn't be back 'til long after our tape date. So I shrugged and booked Frank Welker.

Frank Welker is the most gifted, amazing voice magician who has ever stood before a microphone in Hollywood. Frank can sound like anyone or anything. He is heard constantly in animated cartoons but also logs many hours doing voice matches and dubbing in live-action motion pictures. You hear him often in movies without knowing you're hearing him.

I knew he did a mean Robin Leach so I arranged with his agent for Frank to come in and play the part. I gave him a call time of 2:00.

Nine AM that morning, I walked into Buzzy's Recording Studio on Melrose Avenue for a full day of Garfield recording. I asked Marie at the desk, as I always did, if we were in Studio A or Studio B. She said — and I swear, I'm not making this up — "You're in Studio A. Robin Leach is in B."

Robin Leach???

That was what the lady said. I walked directly into Studio B and there — standing at a microphone, wearing a shirt imprinted with images of hundred dollar bills — was Robin Leach. In person.

I explained to him what we were doing over in A, and how I'd attempted to contact him, and how I'd given up and hired an impressionist, and he couldn't have been nicer. "Well, if the offer's still open, I'd be delighted to play me," he said. About an hour later, after he finished the spots he was recording, he came over to our studio and played Robin Leach like he'd been doing it all his life.

In fact, he played himself with enormous good-humor and that same sense of show biz and self-mocking that had made his show a hit. He exaggerated the vocal quirkiness of the Leach style more than I'd probably have allowed a mimic to do.

Robin was long gone by 2:00 when Frank Welker showed up. "Well, I'm here to do that Robin Leach bit," Frank announced. "I was warming up in the car on the way over."

"Uh, Frank," I said sheepishly. "I'm sorry but there's been a change of plans. I have a different role for you to play…not Robin Leach…"

Frank was puzzled. "What happened to the Robin Leach role?"

"Well, I don't know how to tell you this but, uh, we found someone who does a better Robin Leach than you do…"

Frank is a wonderful, cooperative person but he seemed a bit affronted — like his honor had been besmirched. He looked hurt so I added, "I'm sorry…I thought this other guy was a little better, Here — you can hear for yourself." And I told Andy the Engineer to run a few seconds of the voice track we'd recorded earlier that morn.

As the mellifluous tones of R. Leach boomed through the speakers, I saw shock upon the face of the best impressionist in the business. There, framed by stark horror, was the realization that someone had bested him in the category of Robin Leach impressions.

(I finally told him the truth. I didn't have the heart…)

I mentioned recently here that I was enjoying the old episodes of The Abbott & Costello Show over on MeTV. I should have made clear that I don't enjoy all of them. They vary a lot. This is one of the better ones and it incorporates their versions of two old burlesque sketches — "Floogle Street" and "The Employment Office." If you watch, you will learn the proper way to get a job and why you should never — no, never — wear a Susquehanna Hat…

I awoke this morning to a flurry of rumors about why Jon Stewart suddenly announced his departure from The Daily Show…

1. He's pissed that he wasn't offered David Letterman's job at CBS and that it instead went to a former employee.
2. He's pissed that another former employee, John Oliver, is doing so well.
3. He's planning to run for public office.

I don't think any of these are true. I have no inside pipeline to Mr. Stewart's noggin…but then, neither do the folks supposing these things. He sure has never struck me as competitive with either gent in the first two rumors. In fact, since they got those gigs, he's done much to promote those former employees. (And do we know for absolute certain that Stewart wasn't offered 11:30 on CBS and turned it down?)

The public office thing seems more credible than the other two and I'm still doubtful. What public office? Stewart lives in New York and if he moved now, might be able to qualify in New Jersey, where he spent most of his childhood. Neither of those states is electing a governor in 2016 and the only Senate election in either next year would pit Stewart against incumbent Chuck Schumer in New York. That doesn't sound like an unseating that would interest the outgoing Daily Show host. I suppose the guy could run for the House of Representatives but he'd probably have more influence on public policy by continuing to be the nation's most-watched purveyor of political satire.

So I don't think Stewart has anything concrete in mind right now. There doesn't seem to be any firm notion of when he's stepping down and I think if he had another job lined up, he'd have an exit date to go with it. And if he was still dickering for that next job and it wasn't set yet, he'd wait to announce his abdication until it was. Quitting the way he has is the way you alert the industry that you're open to offers.

In other rumor news, we have stories out claiming that Brian Williams "lobbied hard" to replace Jay Leno on The Tonight Show. I can well believe he wanted it. There aren't many host-type people who've ever gotten in front of a TV camera, especially an NBC TV camera, who haven't fantasized about getting that show. I'm a little puzzled as to when he supposedly did this.

My understanding is not that NBC decided to dump Jay, then went looking for possible hosts. Both times — for Conan and Fallon — they seemed to have decided to replace Jay because they had (they thought) the right person already on deck. They also clearly wanted a younger man and Brian Williams is 55 — younger than Leno but only by nine years — and lacking in the big Internet presence that clearly made O'Brien and Fallon so tempting.

I'm not saying this rumor is wrong. I'm suspecting it's exaggerated. There have been a few exaggerations around Brian Williams in the past few years. If I were him, I don't think my goal would be to replace Jay Leno as the host of The Tonight Show. I think it would be to replace Walter Cronkite as The Most Trusted Man in America. (Come to think of it, if I wanted to be that, I'd probably want to replace Jon Stewart.)

The Arby's folks have been offering work to Jon Stewart…

Okay, so NBC is suspending Brian Williams for six months without pay. This strikes me as a real non-solution. Do they think he is still qualified to anchor the NBC Nightly News? If not, he should be fired or reassigned to some other position. If so, what's the point of the six months?

To punish him for fibbing and teach him not to do it? Geez, if the humiliation and embarrassment he's undergone in the last week doesn't accomplish that, how's sitting home for six months going to do anything?

Williams makes ten million bucks a year so six months without pay is a loss of five million dollars. What if NBC were to spend that five million on hiring more fact-checkers for their news division? I think Jon Stewart got it right last night on his show. There's something screwy when the only person held responsible for lies and misrepresentations relating to the Iraq War is Brian Williams.

Hey, how about this? Take the five million and the six months and have Williams do an investigative reporting special entitled Who Besides Me Misled America About Iraq?

In other news, hearing that Jon Stewart is leaving The Daily Show sure has a lot of people unhappy but I see they're celebrating on some of the right-wing sites. I just did a drive-by on one where most of the folks who post only refer to him as Jon Liebowitz to remind all that HE'S A JEW! Yeah, like he ever concealed that. Since the staff of The Daily Show probably won't change much, I'll be surprised if its politics change. (The only way the writing crew might change is if Stewart makes a deal to do, say, a weekly one-hour show somewhere and hires them all away. But it doesn't feel to me like the he's leaving to do a regular TV program elsewhere.)

So who's it going to be? Jason Jones? Samantha Bee? Jason and Samantha? Jordan Klepper? Jessica Williams? I have the feeling they may go outside the current staff. It also wouldn't surprise me if they found a new host for The Nightly Show and moved Larry Wilmore up. I'm also imagining some exec at Comedy Central asking Stewart in a pissed tone, "Why couldn't you have decided this back when when we could have locked John Oliver into a contract?"

This is all just rampant speculation…all but the part about how I don't think the tone of the show's going to change a lot. It may be a while before we know but I'm sure curious as to who's going to get the big chair there. And what Jon Stewart's going to do next.

Jon Stewart says he's leaving The Daily Show. Well, that's a stunner. We need to hear more…like who'll take it over now that Colbert, Oliver and Wilmore all have their own gigs.