Monet Sabel performs one of Mr. Sondheim's less well-known tunes with the Charlie Rosen Big Band…

• NBC announces new format for Meet the Press: No host…just John McCain each week announcing a new country we have to bomb.

Excerpts from a message I received about Joan Rivers…

I've always wondered how different her career might've been had she turned down Fox's offer for her own talk show in the 80s, had she stayed Johnny Carson's permanent guest host. Might Johnny have retired earlier and Joan would've eventually become the star of The Tonight Show?

My understanding is that the reason Joan grabbed the offer from Fox was that she'd come to realize she didn't have much of a future on The Tonight Show. Ms. Rivers had lost Johnny's seal of approval. Ratings on the nights she filled in for him were down but someone on her behalf was leaking cherry-picked numbers to the press that made it sound like she had more viewers than Johnny. (A rumor made the rounds that execs at Fox had been fooled by those releases and that's why they made their offer to her. I don't think I believe that.)

Johnny, I heard, was not happy with how Joan was doing his show, getting some guests upset with things she said or asked, and refusing to limit the amount of time she spent plugging her other enterprises. Given that and descending ratings, I don't think she was destined to remain as guest host for long. And I can't imagine that getting the permanent job — or impacting when Johnny decided to pack it in — were at all in the cards.

I should probably skip this one but if I do, followers of this site will infer all sorts of reasons I don't write about the passing of Joan Rivers. If she'd had a different style of humor, I probably wouldn't write anything about her because it will come off negative…but Ms. Rivers never spared anyone's feelings.

Groping for nice things to say about her, I'll say that, first of all, no one ever worked harder. She started in stand-up at a time when a woman had to hustle and fight to get on stage and to overcome all manner of presumptions that a female just shouldn't be doing that. So good for her for getting past all that crap to become a successful, in-demand performer. She also had to get past the belief that if a woman did for some reason insist on doing comedy, there was really only one appropriate topic for her. Like Phyllis Diller and Totie Fields, she had to get on stage and insult her own appearance and sexuality. And get past that, she did.

I will also say that many people loved her and respected her and are saddened by her passing. In fact, many people I respect a lot are saddened and I don't discount that. The fact that I stopped finding her funny about half-past her time in Johnny Carson's guest chair doesn't mean she didn't succeed admirably in her occupation.

As she got older and angrier, it made me more and more uncomfortable to see her on television. I just wrote three more paragraphs explaining why and thought, "No, this is not the time for that." So I deleted it all, including the part where I called her the Westboro Baptist Church of comedy. I'll just close by saying that I followed her career as long as I could and I admire how long it lasted and what she went through to get there. She was a very important and accomplished performer and she was really, really good at being Joan Rivers and I hope that when I go, no one writes an obit about me with as many mixed feelings as this one.

Stephen Sondheim and Bernadette Peters. Doesn't get much better than this…

When you have a moment, read this article by Dahlia Lithwick about Henry Lee McCollum and Leon Brown. They're two mentally challenged adults who as teenagers in the early eighties were convicted of the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl. McCollum especially has been cited again and again as a poster boy — as example of someone so loathesome that we need to have the death penalty so animals like him can be put to sleep forever. Justice Antonin Scalia often mentions him in that capacity…

…and now it turns out that McCollum and his friend Leon are almost certainly innocent. This is not to say that those who long ago made up their minds of the two gents' guilt will ever admit this. Also, Lithwick notes…

It never fails to astonish me that the same conservatives who argue that every last aspect of big government is irreparably broken and corrupt inevitably see a capital punishment system that is perfect and just. If you genuinely believe that the state can't even fix a pothole without self-dealing and corruption, how is it possible to imagine that police departments and prosecutors' offices are beyond suspicion, even though they are subject to immeasurable political pressure to wrap up cases, even when the evidence is shaky and ill-gotten, and even as there are other avenues that have gone unexplored?

Yeah. I really don't see how anyone can look at the justice system and have utter confidence in its conclusions. And I don't see how anyone can believe the government should be putting people to death because they might be guilty. Whether they should be doing this with people who are inarguably guilty is another topic of discussion.

I wrote this to post yesterday but because of the tech problems we've been having here, I didn't post it when I thought I did. Yesterday was the birthday of one of my favorite people, Chuck McCann.

Actually, Chuck was one of my favorite performers before I ever met him…and I'm sure I'd have liked him even more if I'd grown up in New York when he had his legendary kids' show. But I knew him as a performer from so many movies and TV programs and cartoon shows…and then when be became pals, I started to realize he was the epicenter of the Entertainment Industry. People think I know everyone. Ha! Chuck's the guy who knows everyone. He's worked with them all and done just about everything.

He's an enormously funny, clever man with a heart large enough to have its own zip code. Here's wishing him many more birthdays. I promise to not be a day late on the next one.

We've been having a little trouble with computer issues here…issues that took this site offline for about 90 minutes. This kind of thing will stop soon.

I've received a few messages about the seat-reclining issue. They range from utter agreement to one guy who said basically, "I pay for a reclining seat and I'm going to recline my seat and I don't give a crap about whoever's sitting behind me and if he even dares ask me not to recline my reclining seat, I'll probably punch his lights out." Remind me never to sit behind that person.

I am reminded of a flight I was on a few years ago. We were running way late and just before we were to land in Memphis, a flight attendant got on the P.A. system and explained to everyone that we had aboard a delegation of Italian educators who were touring America as part of a cultural program. They were seated in the back of the plane and when we landed, they'd have about six minutes to make a connecting flight on another airline that would take them to New York where they were to be honored at some sort of United Nations event.

"Could we please ask everyone when we land to remain in their seats for a few moments and allow our guests from Italy to exit the craft first?" There was general head-nodding and agreement throughout the cabin.

We landed, the seat belt light went off — and suddenly, a family of three leaped up and clogged the aisle as they struggled into jackets and took their own sweet time about getting luggage down from the overhead compartments. The folks from Italy were unable to pass.

The flight attendant scurried up to the family of three and asked, "Are you rushing to make a connecting flight?" The father said no. The flight attendant reminded him about the Italian educators. The man loudly announced, "I don't give a shit" and continued not giving a shit as he purposely slowed down his actions. I almost said something but figured an argument in the aisle wouldn't help get the Italian folks to their flight.

Finally, having made whatever point they thought they were making, the family of three cleared out and the Italian visitors sprinted for Gate Whatever. I never heard if they made it.

You encounter people like those aisle-cloggers from time to time…angry people who are always looking for a way to assert their right to not care about anybody else but themselves. You have to remind yourself that most human beings are not like that.

Leonard Maltin is bidding farewell to his wonderful Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide. The 2015 edition, which goes on sale this week, is supposed to be the last. I have a feeling it won't be but he doesn't seem to feel that way so we'll go with his view of it. I do understand though that in the age of computers, it's a lot easier to look things up online than to page through a 73,000 page paperback. Here, Leonard has some remarks about the end of what has been a 45 year labor o' love for him, his spouse and his crew.

We should weep not so much for the end of that book in book form as for the end of what Leonard calls "curated information," which refers to someone actually doing the legwork to confirm facts before releasing them to the public. Every single human being who has a page at the Internet Movie Database can tell you more than a dozen things that are missing or just plain wrong on their page. I have witnessed first-hand (and occasionally aided) Leonard's mania to get things right.

I received a paperback copy free last week but have paid for the Kindle edition because I think it will be handy to have in that format…and frequently consulted.

(P.S. If you're in the Los Angeles area, Leonard is signing printed copies this Saturday at 5 PM up at Book Soup on Sunset. If you see his wife Alice there, get her to sign your copy, too. She's really the brains of that operation.)

The two guys who wrote "New York, New York" perform "New York, New York." Ladies and gentlemen — John Kander and Fred Ebb…

The other day, my buddy Paul Harris wrote about seat-reclining problems on airplanes. The airlines are squeezing more and more seats into their planes now and it's becoming a problem for us tall people when the seat in front of ours reclines. Actually, I've always had a problem with this and I'm only 6'3". I have no idea how people taller than that cope.

For whatever it's worth, I never recline my seat intentionally. I sometimes hit the button by accident but I've never found it makes me any more comfortable. Because of that, I'm in agreement with Paul's suggestion that this capability be eliminated.

And maybe we'll get our wish. As this news story notes, there's been an increasing number of fights on planes because of seat-reclining. They sometimes even lead to flights having to make emergency stops due to brawlers. Something's gotta change.

In 1952, comedian Johnny Standley had one of the best-selling records of all time in this country…and it was a comedy record at a time when it was unprecedented for a comedy record to get anywhere near the top of the charts. Soon after, Stan Freberg matched his feat with "St. George and the Dragonet."

Mr. Standley's record was called "It's in the Book" and what we have here is a video of him performing it. I first heard a truncated version of it on the Soupy Sales TV show when I was a wee lad. Every week or three, Soupy would have one of his puppet performers, Pookie the Lion, mime to it…and it took me a long time to figure out what the record was and who'd performed it.

The fellow who introduces him is the famed bandleader, Horace Heidt, who also sold a lot of records…

Lately, I've been making my way through the Blu-ray set of The Dick Van Dyke Show, watching almost every episode in sequence. I've skipped over a few like the Walnut episode because I've just seen 'em too many times. And I've skipped over 3-4 per season because I just thought those were misfires. I might go back later and watch the weaker ones individually. I feel like I might enjoy them more when they're not viewed in the middle of a string of great episodes.

I continue to be impressed with how good the good ones are…and how many of them were good ones. The writing is strong. The cast is great. Just watching Mr. Van Dyke move and react, even in scenes where he is not the focal point, is a joy. I can't think of another TV performer who can match him for always knowing exactly what he was doing and doing it in an interesting but still natural manner.

You may be wondering which episodes I don't like and which are my favorites. Generally, I never bought the premise that the Rob-Laura marriage was so precarious that it was threatened by a chorus girl kissing Rob…or Laura seeing an old beau. So most of the ones about jealousy don't do it for me. I find most of the "Sally can't find a fella" ones unsatisfying since they all pretty much have to end with Sally still not having a fella. And I can't explain why but the ones where Rob gets conned into directing the school play don't interest me.

My favorites are most of the others. Out of 158 episodes, there are maybe 15-20 that are shy of snuff to me. That's a very good batting average. I don't think any of the other classic sitcoms I like — Bilko, Car 54, Bob Newhart, a few others — scored so well. There's a complete set of Sgt. Bilko on the horizon and I'm sure I'll get it and I'm sure I'll watch every one and I'm sure Phil Silvers will be terrific in every one…

…but I don't think I'll come away as satisfied. For all its wonders, Bilko episodes basically had two endings: (1) Bilko's scheme doesn't work to make him rich and (2) Bilko's scheme does work to help someone in need of help. The Dick Van Dyke Show was about a lot of different things.

One thing I like about it is how a lot of the problems were resolved. At the time The Dick Van Dyke Show went on, the standard sitcom resolved its problem with a trick or a scheme. Lucy gets Ricky to demand a raise and that gets him fired so to get him unfired, Lucy and Fred and Ethel dress up in various costumes, go to the nightclub where Ricky worked and then walked out when they learned Ricky Ricardo was no longer playing there. (The plots of a lot of episodes of I Love Lucy hinge on the premise that when Lucy puts on a wig, no one — not even her husband — can recognize her.)

On the Van Dyke program, the problems were usually solved by someone deciding to stop being a jerk. Jerry the Neighbor realizes he was wrong to insult Rob's work on The Alan Brady Show. Alan Brady decides to stop being furious about Laura going on national TV and blabbing about his toupee. Rob decides he was wrong to be worried about Laura wanting to have a career.

I don't know about your life but in mine, problems are more often resolved by someone realizing they were wrong than by someone disguising themselves. (The Dick Van Dyke Show even did the "raise" storyline. Buddy and Sally were quitting because they didn't get a raise. Rob finally got them one not with a charade but by convincing Alan's Business Manager that he was wrong not to give them one.)

As I wrote here, my life changed a lot — and only for the better — when I attended the filming of an episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show. It was the episode entitled "Your Home Sweet Home is My Home Sweet Home" — the one about Rob and Laura thinking about buying a home with a big rock in the basement. It wasn't one of the best ones but that didn't matter. It did the trick. I'd already decided I wanted to be a writer. After that evening, I had a better idea of what kind of writer I wanted to be and what it meant to be one.

I watched that episode the other evening. I think I can hear myself laughing in the audience but maybe not. I remember being mesmerized by those people on stage…including Carl Reiner, who wasn't in the episode but did do the audience warm-up and hosting duties. On my TV now, it all looks so effortless and apart from a few screw-ups and filming halts, it did that evening at the studio, too.

In the episode, a realtor hands Rob a business card. Later, there's a scene where Laura is in the kitchen of the house they're trying to move out of and she opens a closet and brooms and mops fall out. The brooms and mops didn't fall properly on the first take so the director yelled "Cut!" and they stopped and there was a wait of maybe five minutes while the crew re-rigged the closet for another take.

Mr. Reiner and Mr. Van Dyke both began talking to us in the audience, trying to keep our mood up so our energy (i.e., laughing ability) wouldn't dissipate during the downtime. Dick had that business card and he began doing magic with it, palming it and making it appear and disappear.

I was real impressed by a lot of things I saw that night that were beyond my ability…but I thought I could probably learn how to do that. The next day, I went to the library, checked out a magic book and taught myself the card trick. I got to be pretty good at it…and of course, every friend and family member I had had to watch me do it again and again and again. I could never act like Dick Van Dyke and I could never sing like him or dance like him (or anyone) or even fall down like him…but I was just as good — if not better — at making a business card appear and disappear. At least I was until I got older and my hands got bigger.  Now the only thing I have on him is that I do an even worse British accent.

I have two more discs of the Blu-ray set to watch…two-thirds of the last season.  I think I'll take my time on those instead of watching them all back-to-back in a day or two.  I'll savor them…and then I'll go back and watch the ones I skipped.  It really was a great series.

Nice obit in Newsday for Stan Goldberg.

We are, like you, taking Labor Day off but only from blogging…and not even from that since I'm writing this. I have deadlines on other writing. Today's involves a very stupid barbarian who loves cheese dip and who'll be wreaking havoc in a twelve-issue series you can read, one issue per month, throughout the year 2015. Formal announcement to come.

The death of Stan Goldberg was not, of course, unexpected to those of you who noticed the word "hospice" in my earlier mention of his stroke. Still, it was jarring because Stan was such a good, sweet person who in terms of his approach to work was everything a cartoonist should be. He worked very hard and even into his eighties, loved what he was doing and was frustrated when he had no assigned work on the board. He and I had once talked of doing a graphic novel together that he'd draw, more or less in the Archie style — stories of dating and relationships in the real world. I'm sorry we never went forward with it.

I'm also sorry Stan didn't make it out to Comic-Con one more time. The National Cartoonists Society gathering last May was held at the Omni in San Diego, one of the hotels that houses people when they attend Comic-Con. Stan was so happy to be there and at one point, he pointed across the street to the big San Diego Convention Center and said, "And I want to go back there for Comic-Con in 2016."

I immediately thought but did not say that his health would not allow it…but then I remembered that not so long ago, it seemed inconceivable that Stan and his wife Pauline would have been well enough to come out to San Diego for the N.C.S. affair — and here he was, standing outside the Omni with me. Sadly, I was right the first time.