Let's watch a clip from The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson for 5/5/92. His guest is Mel Brooks who reflects on being a guest on Johnny's first broadcast, then Mel tells The Cary Grant Story. Don't miss The Cary Grant Story…

From Daniel Klos…

Random question if you're ever looking for a quick blog post: When sitcoms are filmed before a live studio audience, do they play the theme song for the audience prior to filming in order to get them in the proper mood?

Quick answer: Occasionally. I haven't been to any sitcom tapings (or filmings) for a few decades but when I did go, they sometimes played the theme. They sometimes had a little video reel they'd show the audience featuring great moments from earlier episodes and it might include the theme song. They sometimes had live musicians playing music as part of the warm-up and they'd often play between scenes and somewhere in there, they'd perform the theme song — without the lyrics if the theme song had lyrics.

Before a taping of All in the Family, they'd roll out a little piano and Carroll O'Connor and Jean Stapleton would perform the theme song, "Those Were the Days," live just for the live audience. I haven't heard of a show doing anything like that in years but it wouldn't surprise me if one did.

This came to me from John Parkinson…

I've tried to ask this question before but maybe it didn't get to you or you're not interested, but I'm dumb enough to keep trying.

When Jack Kirby returned to Marvel he didn't pick up books (with the exception of Captain America) he was once most identified with. He did do covers for those books though. So was he never offered say Fantastic Four or was he simply not interested in revisiting those characters?

If Jack had been allowed to do whatever he wanted then — this is when he came back in 1975 — he would have written, penciled and edited all-new books which did not crossover into other comics and he would have avoided characters that were under the creative control of others. He basically wanted to be left alone. A lot of this had to do with his experiences doing Jimmy Olsen for DC. The editorial office there was constantly criticizing the way he handled the established characters…and even one he created (Morgan Edge) once that character began appearing in other books.

Jack understood the power of the "Marvel Universe" concept having been a key architect of it. He just felt that he could make his strongest contribution at that moment by going to new places with new players, plus he also felt a lack of respect from some of the people he had to deal with on the Marvel editorial crew at the time. The less he had to engage with them, the better off he felt he would be.

Mostly to be a good sport/team player, he agreed to take on Captain America and, later on, The Black Panther. Those were not his choices but that's where Marvel — mainly Stan in this case — wanted him. Also, Jack did not want to displace anyone from their regular assignments. At the time, Captain America had no regular creative team assigned and later when he took on Black Panther, it was because Stan wanted to launch a new series in a new direction. So Jack wasn't bumping anyone off a job there either. He would have had he taken on Fantastic Four or Thor…and as I said, he really wanted to be left alone to do new books.

Here's the Legal Eagle guy to explain what's going on with Trump down in Georgia. Seems to me Mr. Trump is in a lot of legal trouble — here, there and just about everywhere — and it ain't going away soon. He may be going away soon but his problems with the law won't…

The Fine Arts Theater on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills is running my favorite movie, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World at 2 PM on Sunday, April 14. I mention this because folks keep writing me to let me know. I know, I know. I doubt I'll be attending. The Fine Arts is a lovely place to see most movies but I'm spoiled. I need my favorite movie on a bigger screen and will probably wait for the reopening of the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood even if, as it now appears, that ain't happening in '24.

I also don't think my ankle will be up to going by then. It's getting steadily better and I'd know that even if the surgeon who reassembled it hadn't said as much in a post-op visit last Wednesday. But it's still going to take a while…

This is the "Tiny Desk Concert" of the show Company — specifically, the genders-reversed production that played Broadway and out here a few years ago. Having not seen it — and after realizing I've always liked parts of the show but not the whole thing — I have no opinion on whether the sex changes made it worse or better. I am curious though about one line change in the song "You Could Drive a Person Crazy."

It used to go "When a person's personality is personable / He shouldn't oughta sit like a lump / It's harder than a matador coercin' a bull / To try to get you off of your rump." Now, it goes "When a person's personality is personable / She shouldn't oughta sit on her butt / It's harder than a matador coercin' a bull / To try to get you out of your rut." Did Mr. Sondheim change that and if so, why?

Here are four songs from the show including that one…

To have a career in an entertainment-based industry — and I suppose in many others — they say you have to either be very talented, very reliable or very nice. And some further say you can get by with any two out of three…though I can think of a few folks I've known who've had decent careers with only one. We won't talk about them now because I want to talk about a great friend and a great collaborator who, lucky me, excelled in all three. His name is Will Meugniot and that's pronounced "Mineo." The comics we've done together might not have been the greatest comics ever done but no one else's had a creative team whose names were so often mispronounced.

I started working with Will back in 1976 — on Tarzan and Korak comics I was writing and editing for the Edgar Rice Burroughs Estate. They were for the overseas market and I recall that the foreign publishers were quite delighted with Will's work. I know I always was. We did a lot of different things but the one you're most likely to know of was a comic we created called The DNAgents with also led to a couple of spin-off books. Will was the perfect collaborator, meaning that we agreed on most things but not everything. He had ideas of his own and a lot of them were way better than mine.

We would have done the comic longer but it turned out Will was not only terrific at comics but also at all the creative skills necessary to work in TV animation. It was not long after he got his foot in that door that all the studios were throwing money at him to work on their shows and, eventually, produce them. For a couple of decades, a lot of the best action/adventure cartoon shows on TV were the best because Will made them that way.

This morning on Facebook, he went public with a secret that I've known about for just a little while and it depresses me, as it will depress you if you've ever known the man or even his work. He's battling two forms of cancer — prostate and pancreatic — and is soon to undergo some industrial-strength surgery. I could quote his statement here but instead, I'm giving you this link so you can go read it yourself.

And while you're over there, maybe you can take a moment and post something to Will. If you know him personally, tell him what a great guy he is because I'm sure you feel that way about him. If you never had the pleasure of knowing him but you know his output, write about that. The important thing is to let him know we're wishing him only the best of all possible outcomes and many more years with us and his incredible spouse and partner-in-life, Jo.

I have occasionally been accused of only seeing the good in people and maybe I am sometimes too oblivious or eager to not see the bad. But in this case, I see only the good because there just plain isn't anything else.

I have a ton o' things to do today — appointments, phone conferences, things to write, etc. Don't expect to see much here before nightfall, if then. As always, I will make it up to you, dear websurfers.

Here's something I thought I'd never see. In 1975, KCOP — Channel 13 here in Los Angeles — had a series called Both Sides Now, the premise of which was to have George Putnam and Mort Sahl debate the news each evening. Mr. Putnam was a local newsman who was known for his blustery style and right-wing slant on things. It was said that Ted Knight's character on The Mary Tyler Moore Show was based a bit on Putnam and a bit on another local L.A. newsguy, Jerry Dunphy.

Mort Sahl was, of course, Mort Sahl — very witty at times, very iconoclastic, often quite obsessed about certain issues, especially those involving people named Kennedy. Among the many criticisms of the show were that Sahl was not as far to the left as Putnam was to the right and both men were faulted for presenting "facts" of questionable accuracy. I didn't find anything on the show particularly enlightening and I thought a lot of it was just wrestling. People tuned in to watch the fight, not whatever exchange of ideas may have been presented…and I think some were just waiting for one of the hosts to take a swing at the other host.

Finally one night, they came close. They began insulting each other and six minutes into the taping, taping was halted. That episode never aired but someone kept a copy of the tape and it's our Video Link below. As I recall, Putnam exited the show after this, Sahl did a few episodes solo and then they brought in a series of guests to face off with Sahl starting with, I believe, Hugh Downs. Then a few weeks later, the show simply disappeared. Sahl went back to performing and trying to solve the Kennedy Assassination. Putnam bounced around local TV and radio stations for years after.

Here's the video that never aired in '75. I suspect if you could see the episodes that immediately preceded it, you could see this coming…

Here's a real good one. Since 2008, NPR has hosted these things called Tiny Desk Concerts — performances done in their offices for a small live audience and a much wider one on the radio. This one, done just before Christmas last year, features five performers from the recent Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd performing four numbers from the show…rearranged for a small orchestra.

The performers include Josh Groban and Annaleigh Ashford, who toplined this revival when it opened. They left that production in mid-January of this year and were replaced by Aaron Tveit and Sutton Foster — two fine performers but it's been announced that the show will close May 5. I'd hoped to get back there to see it but 'twas not to be…so unless the whole thing got recorded on video, I may have to settle for this. So let's enjoy this teeny Sweeney…

A friend of mine who was pro-Trump an election or two ago told me that Donald's popularity came from people admiring him and wishing they could be as successful as he seemed to be. One wonders what any such people think now when Trump is out admitting that he can't pay the almost-$500 million bucks he owes nor can he find anyone to loan it to him in any form. You may have money woes but I doubt you have that problem at the moment. And he sure doesn't look like a man who's happy about…well, anything.

Speaking of Trump, as I will stop doing for today after this paragraph: Some folks wrote to ask me what I thought of his "bloodbath" remarks the other day. I think I'm appalled (yet generally unsurprised) by just about all his remarks but there seems to be a debate about just what he meant. Kevin Drum thinks Trump was talking just about the auto industry. Amanda Marcotte has a different view of it. I think the guy just wants to be inflammatory and it's just a matter of which of his rantings are more inflammatory than others.

My wanderings 'round the Internet keep showing me Wayne Brady talking about being a pansexual. It's all well and good when people are brave enough to "come out" and explain what a lot of folks just plain don't understand but personally, I am long past the point of caring who other consenting adults want to consent with. (When I hear about pansexuals, I always think of a joke that the comedian Ed Bluestone used to do. He'd say, "I'm a quadrasexual. I'll do anything with anyone for a quarter.")

Anyway, good for Wayne Brady…but I think his messaging might be more effective if he delivered it as a hoedown. Or revealed it as being behind Door Number Three.

Lastly for now: The other day, I had a delivery dropped-off of someone else's dinner — all items that I shouldn't even have in my home, given my food allergies, let alone eat. Before I could complain to the company, the delivery gent phoned me and in a panicky tone, said he realized his mistake, would soon be back at my house with the right order and — please, please, please — "Don't report me to the company." Ten minutes later, he was back with the right supper and yet another plea to not tell the company. Okay. I didn't. But now do I tip the guy well for catching and correcting his mistake? Or do I tip him low for making it in the first place?

Marc Ribler wrote and stars in this music video about Dick Cavett which also stars Dick Cavett. I won't pretend I fully understand it but Steve Stoliar sent me the link so…

Fred Kaplan explains how much Donald Trump doesn't know about war.  Fred's probably right but I don't think Trump's even trying to have a coherent plan at this moment, if ever.  I think he's just saying whatever he thinks will excite the people he needs to vote for him and maybe give him money.

Marty Golia has a question about Western Publishing…

I have a question about Western Publishing, but realize it concerns a section of their business that you may not have had much/any contact with.

During the 50s and 60s, Dell and Gold Key put out a lot — a lot — of comics based on TV shows and movies, either as their own title or as part of the "Four-Color" series, and many of these seem short-lived. Some were based on shows that had some "kid-appeal" (The Danny Thomas Show, any number of Westerns), but others were based on more adult fare (Burke's Law, The Gale Storm Show).

So, my question is: To arrange licenses for so many titles at a pretty rapid pace, did Western have contacts at the networks or studios who were able to set up a "standard" deal as shows were announced? And was this part of a strategy to keep the pipeline filled, whether there seemed to be an audience for things or not?

I think I can answer this…and also point out that the Burke's Law comic book was published by Dell after it had severed ties with Western. And to respond to the last question first: They put out what they thought would sell and a lot of that was based on knowing what had sold for them in the past.

When it came to landing licenses for comics based on movies and TV shows, Western had at least three tremendous advantages over companies like DC, Marvel and Archie…four if you count the fact that some companies simply weren't interested in publishing characters and properties they didn't own. But here are the other three that come to mind…

1. Western had an office in Los Angeles. Actually, for most of the fifties and sixties, it was located in Beverly Hills on the same prestigious block as the local branch of the Friars Club, hangout of a lot of folks in show business. DC and Marvel had no such offices. Representatives of the movie and TV studios could visit those offices and Western staffers could visit the studios. That made for closer relationships.

Before Alex Toth (based in Los Angeles) drew that comic of The Danny Thomas Show, he visited the set of The Danny Thomas Show. Before Dan Spiegle (based in Santa Barbara, an easy drive) drew the Maverick comic book, he visited the set of Maverick. DC was not going to pay to send an artist to Hollywood.

2. Western did more than comic books. Let's say you were working for a TV show or movie and it was your job to arrange for merchandise and promotional marketing for that movie or TV show. If you went to DC or Marvel or any of several other comic book publishers, they might make you an offer to a do a comic book. If you went to Western, they might make you an offer to do a comic book, a coloring book, some activity books, some hard or softcover kids' books, a "color by number" book, a "paint with water" book, a jigsaw puzzle, a paper doll kit, a Big Little Book, etc. Comic book companies that published only comic books didn't make all those deals.

At one point, Western even did "scratch-and-sniff" books.  Winnie the Pooh could sit down to eat some honey on a page of the book and you could scratch a little patch on that page and smell the honey.

3. Western was with Disney. And if you were in that line o' work, you were constantly studying what the Disney organization did because they were the undisputed masters of merchandising a movie or TV show. Nobody did it better and the core of much of that was their close relationship with Western Publishing, aka Western Printing and Lithography. If the guys at Disney trusted 'em, so would you.

And I suppose there were other reasons. If you had a property that appealed to kids, it made sense to deal with the company that handled that kind of thing not only with Disney but with Warner Brothers, Walter Lantz, Jay Ward, Hanna-Barbera and others. Those animation firms were pretty happy with their relationships with Western.

The company had a good rep. In the seventies, though Western was on the downslide, the Edgar Rice Burroughs Estate very much regretted moving their licenses from Western to DC and then to Marvel. The Hanna-Barbera folks very much regretted moving their licenses from Western to Charlton and then to Marvel. (I was involved in recovery efforts from both of those disasters.)

Western was an amazing company. I used to say — and I guess I still say — they did a lot of things right that other comic book companies did wrong but eventually, they were done in by doing a lot of things wrong that other comic book companies did right. I'll probably be elaborating on those right and wrong moves in future posts on this blog.

Did you know that Western, alone among the major comic book publishers, was as far as I know alone in having pension plans for some of their freelance writers and artists as well as incentive plans that paid bonuses to such people…and they did this at a time when DC or Marvel would have laughed in your face if you suggested such a thing?

Okay, we're done with Unsold Pilots for now. The description on this clip says it's from The Danny Thomas Show from 1964 and that it features along with Danny, "Frank Sinatra, Carl Reiner, Jim Nabors, Don Knotts, Andy Griffith, and Morey Amsterdam." Actually, it's from a 1965 special called Danny Thomas' Wonderful World of Burlesque and the guy they apparently think is Morey Amsterdam is actually Sid Melton…