In an interview today, NBC entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt says his network is looking at three possible musicals to do live for Christmas of 2014, the way they did The Sound of Music. He didn't name them but did say, "We're looking for another show, a well-known title, something that people already know and love that can interest kids and adults and can be produced live, which is no small feat." I'm guessing it'll be something like The King and I, Oliver!, Annie, Guys and Dolls, Camelot, My Fair Lady, The Music Man, Grease, Fiddler on the Roof, Mame or Hello, Dolly.

Grease and The Music Man have probably been performed too recently on television. Fiddler on the Roof might evoke some charge of trying to crowd Christianity out of a month that belongs to Christmas. One thing seems likely: Whatever show they pick is probably going to involve a lot more dancing than The Sound of Music.

Mame would be an interesting choice. It's not as well known as the others but it does have a kid in it, a strong "family" theme and some of it's about Christmas. Best of all, it has a couple of songs in it that are rather well-known. Greenblatt does note that there may be rights problems with some of the shows they want to do.

By the way: I wasn't that serious about A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. It's not really for kids, it doesn't have songs the whole world knows and loves and it isn't a family/Christmas thing. And I forgot to mention the biggest argument against doing it on TV like that: It would be harmed a lot by commercial breaks. The whole show plays pretty much in real time with no change of setting, no dissolves to later the same day or the following weeks, etc. There's no room for a word or ten from our sponsor.

Meanwhile, Mr. Greenblatt was also asked about the situation with Jay Leno and he said…

I've made it clear to him and all of his reps that we'd love him to stay. He's been very focused on the final months of the show and has said he's not going to make any decisions about his post-Tonight Show life until after the show. But nothing would make me happier than to find ways to keep him involved with this network. That's really up to him.

I would translate that as follows: There's nothing we can offer him that he really wants. If there were, we'd have made a deal by now. Jay's going to wait until his contract with us permits him to accept offers from other seekers of his services and see where he is then. If and only if he can't find a deal he wants to take elsewhere will he come back and accept some sort of contract with us.

Or at least, it means something like that. I have heard that the buzz about The Tonight Show is that Jay has received if not other offers then at least communications from parties that have said the equivalent of, "Don't sign with anyone else until you hear what we have in mind for you!" He is saying nothing. Two interesting aspects of this are…

1. Not only is Leno being paid by NBC through September but much of his staff is, as well. So a lot of them are not rushing off to line up other jobs. They can afford to wait a bit and see if Jay comes up with something that they can work on.
2. Since the days he guest-hosted for Johnny, Leno has been on the NBC Burbank lot. He was in Stage 1 (Johnny's stage) for a while. Then he moved to Stage 3, across the hall. Since he started his 10 PM show, he's been in another, newer stage on the other side of the lot…but it's no longer NBC Burbank there. NBC sold the facility off and now it's a private rental lot. If he made a deal to do a new talk show — say, for Fox — when his current contract is up, they might be able to rent the same studio and offices for him so he wouldn't have to move.

In other words, he could work in the same place with a lot of the same folks. In Bill Carter's last book on the Late Night skirmishes, he said that one of the reasons Leno opted for that 10 PM deal on NBC over, say, going to ABC at 11:30 was that he liked the idea of staying on the NBC lot and keeping the same crew and the same offices and the same parking space. Just a point of interest for the folks following this story.

I'm not sure how much of this piece by Amanda Marcotte I agree with. She says that the current positions of the extreme right are driven by a belief that if America doesn't function the way they want it to, then it isn't America and might as well be destroyed. I'm sure that's true of some. It's even true of some people I know and they don't deny it. I'm not sure it's as widespread though as Ms. Marcotte makes it to be.

Bob Kahan is a good guy who, like many good guys these days, has fallen on hard times. He's bright and talented and a nice person, and I know this because I worked with him when he was editing terrific reprint collections for DC Comics. Unable to find work for way too long, he is now facing eviction from his apartment and has had to ask for donations. I'm sure this was not easy for him to do. Why not help him out? If everyone who bought and enjoyed books he worked on gave him 5% of what they spent on them, it would probably keep him in his home until he finds employment…which can't be too far in the future.

Here's where you donate. It only takes a moment and you'll feel better if you help out. Try it and see.

Dick Van Dyke is 88 years old today. Ordinarily, when someone you like hits a number like that, you politely don't mention how old they are but in Dick's case…well, the guy doesn't look 88 and he sure doesn't act 88. I'd say "I hope I'm that fit when I'm 88" but the truth is I'd like to be that fit today.

He's been my favorite performer for an awfully long time. I've written here before about how attending a filming of The Dick Van Dyke Show when I was 13 changed my life an awful lot. I'd already decided I wanted to be a writer if and when I grew up but it was that evening I decided I wanted to be, at least some of the time, a comedy writer.

And part of me wanted to be Rob Petrie because he got to sleep with Laura, while part of me wanted to be Dick Van Dyke because he was just so cool and likeable. He just lit up the set when he appeared and it was like that every moment he was there, even when he wasn't in character. During one lull in the filming, he entertained the audience by palming a business card. The next day, thanks to a magic book from the library, I learned how to palm a business card.

It's darn near the only thing I can do almost as well as Dick Van Dyke. I sure can't sing or dance or act or trip over an ottoman…and my English accent makes his sound like Rex Harrison's.

In the last few years, I've gotten to know Dick a little…a lovely man. He has a lovely wife, too…someone who knows how to take real good care of a National Treasure.

Meeting an idol can sometimes be a major letdown but that has not been the case here. He's funny and charming and just as nice as you'd want the guy to be. There's also a very nice aura of happiness about him. He's usually happy — a mutual friend says, "Well, since he married Arlene" — but unlike some happy people, he has a way of spreading his happiness to others around him.

I suspect that's a lot of the reason he doesn't look 88 or act 88. I also suspect it's a better thing to learn from him than how to palm a business card. Happy Today, Dick!

My amigo Bob Elisberg goes into greater, more informed detail on what I was saying yesterday about the Golden Globe Awards. Everyone in Hollywood who cares knows all this stuff but it doesn't matter. An award is an award, a good party is a good party and a good advertising line is a good advertising line.

Here's an even better performance of "Climb Every Mountain" by Audra McDonald. Gee, she's good…

If you're going to discuss gun violence — or even have any sort of opinion on it — you oughta take a look at a couple of charts.

This is from Gary Emenitove…

Since you've had a bit of an ongoing discussion about The Sound of Music Live!. I thought I'd throw out a question that I haven't seen answered…or even addressed…elsewhere.

What about the orchestra?

After much Internet searching, I finally found one reference that the orchestra was, indeed, pre-recorded. I presume that was done largely for cost purposes, but surely added an extra layer of complexity as the singers had to keep up with the recorded instrumentation. Do you know, is there a conductor present in such cases? Or do singers wear an earpiece with a click track?

Also, I saw no mention of the orchestra anywhere. No credit at all. What did they do, hire the Uzbekistan Symphony? Any idea?

They ballyhooed that this was the first live musical on TV in 50 years, but they left out the part about where the music was coming from!

I was wondering the same thing. Does anyone know?

• Fox News now insisting that Santa Claus is not only white but he's Republican, pro-gun and committed to the repeal of Obamacare.

Hollywood — or at least what passes for it on the Internet — is buzzing this morning with news of the Golden Globe Award nominations. This always amuses me no end because there is not one person in the industry who really, deep down, thinks these awards are meaningful except for this: If there's an award out there, it's better to win it than to not win it. Not winning it means you lost something, never mind that no one thinks the selection process is at all functional. Winning means you get to go to the big awards ceremony (they do put on a good party) and you get lots of attention and applause and your movie gets to say "X Golden Globe Awards" in its ads, which might trick someone somewhere into seeing it. More important, it might — and it's a big "might" there — create some momentum which will translate into Academy Award consideration and even wins. Maybe.

There's some question as to who votes for the Oscars and whose opinions they reflect…but the Golden Globes? Nobody really knows who picks them or who gives them or what the process is. When winners get up there and thank the voters and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, they have no idea who the voters are or how many there are or even WTF the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is. It's some sort of group that has promoted their award into a real attention-getter…and like I said, they do put on a good party. For all anyone knows, they pick their nominees out of a hat and then someone goes eenie-meenie-minie-moe to decide which one gets the trophy.

Still, there's a real Royal Nonesuch quality to it all. If you win one, you have to get up there and talk about what a great honor it is because…well, you've got one. It's up to you to sell people on the idea that it's a great honor. I get the feeling that most winners don't manage to ever sell themselves; that they get home, put the trophy on their mantle and then think, "Wow! One or more people somewhere thought I was the Best Actor of last year!"

• A bi-partisan deal? No, no! Don't they understand the goal in politics is to pass stuff that makes the opposition's heads explode?

For the last few weeks, I've been distracted and concerned about my friend, Jeanine Kasun. I've mentioned Jeanine here before, usually in connection with Stu Shostak, host of the great online radio program, Stu's Show. Jeanine is the lady in his life and she does her own show, Baby Boomer Favorites, which Stu distributes along with his own weekly podcast.

On November 19, Jeanine suffered a Subarachnoid Hemorrhage. Just from the name, you can tell this is a bad thing to have. Basically, it's a brain aneurysm that also causes Hydrocephalus, better known as "water on the brain." She was been largely unconscious since then as doctors (she seems to have good ones) have performed various procedures and closely monitored her condition. They appear to be confident that she will soon be awake…and then they'll be able to assess and treat any damage that has occurred. Many months of therapy will be necessary but at the moment, a full recovery appears not only possible but likely. Needless to say, Stu has been about as busy as a person can be…but he's somehow found the time to do his weekly radiocasts.

If you're a friend of Stu and/or Jeanine, you can make things a little better by not pestering Stu with phone calls and e-mails. You can post on Jeanine's Facebook page and there's a postal address somewhere there (scroll down) to send cards and good wishes.

I've known about this since the day it happened but it was only yesterday on his show that Stu decided to tell the world what was going on…so I can share it with you here. There will be updates on the Facebook page. Needless to say, we are hopeful and optimistic. She's a great lady and I'm not sure if anyone deserves this but she sure as hell doesn't.

One of our favorite holiday animations is a promo that CBS did in 1966. It was designed by illustrator R.O. Blechman and animated by Willis Pyle. As you can see, it's part of The War on Christmas because it wishes everyone Season's Greetings…

So was that Dick Cavett doing the voiceover on that trailer for The Producers? My pal Steve Stoliar, who knows Mr. Cavett well and has worked for him, went to the source to get the answer for us. Here's the word from the man himself…

The "character" voice part fooled even me for a moment. The rest is, I'd think, unmistakable. How very odd. Wonder what I made.

Frankly, I think that in lieu of pay, they should have given him 50% of Springtime for Hitler. But at least this is settled.

Thanks, Steve. And if the rest of you want to thank Steve — and read one of the best books on Groucho Marx there is — here's a link to order a copy of Raised Eyebrows: My Years Inside Groucho's House. In it, Steve even tells the tale of how he became friends with Dick Cavett.

I just corrected a date in something I posted yesterday. NBC's rebroadcast of The Sound of Music Live is Saturday, December 14, not the date I gave. This one wasn't my fault. The site I got it from had it wrong. Thanks to all who wrote to let me know.