Monthly Archives: January 2003

My friend animation/comic book writer Paul Dini has started a page on his Jingle Belle website where he posts thoughts and personal reflections. Here's a direct link to that page. While you're there, order some Jingle Belle books or the snazzy figurine or the lunch box or the Wacky Wobbler. I'm having dinner with Paul next week and it's his turn to pay.

Photo of the Beany and Cecil Rose Parade float at this site.  (Don't thank me.  Thank Gertler…)

Comedy Central has quietly snuck Beat the Geeks back onto its schedule.  (How quiet?  Is 5:30 AM PST quiet enough for you?)  Still, if you're any sort of geek, you know how to set your VCR or TiVo, which is what I've done.  I didn't care for this game show the first few times I saw it but last year, when we did a panel with some of its putative "geeks" at the San Diego Con, I started watching again so I could get up to speed…and I really enjoyed what I saw.  The show had a new host but, more important, its squadron of trivia experts had developed a certain sparkle.  I don't like the robes, I don't like the mocking attitude towards expertise in a subject, I don't even like the use of the word "geek" — but I like watching the three guys depicted above ("Movie Geek" Marc Edward Heuck, "Music Geek" Andy Zax, and "TV Geek" Paul Goebel) and certain "Guest Geeks."

This is not just because, having some capacity to retain similar data, I identify with these gents.  Lord, I could name dozens of fans who know as much about TV, comics, movies, whatever as any of us — but who you wouldn't watch for ten seconds.  The thing of it is, the "Geeks" really aren't geeks; not in the sense that a geek has no perspective on the info he amasses in lieu of having a life.  They're just smart, sharp guys and I think what drove me from the show in the first place was that it seemed to treat them not as geeks but as freaks.

There was also the matter of how limp the game itself seemed.  Win Ben Stein's Money worked…well, it worked mostly because of the banter between Jimmy Kimmel and Ben.  But to the extent it worked as a game, it worked because the contestants were very intelligent guys competing against another intelligent guy — a very basic, primal kind of competition.  Beat the Geeks is more a matter of, "Can a non-expert answer more non-expert questions than our experts can answer of expert questions?"  Not as basic, not as interesting.  Would you watch Jeopardy! if some contestants were handicapped with easier or more difficult questions than their competition?  Well, trivia questions are what Jeopardy! is all about.  They just cover a wider range of categories.

I suspect there's a wonderful show implied that no one is doing, which is to pit guys like Heuck, Zax and Goebel against folks who stand a chance of beating them at their own game.  But it would have to involve giving both sides their dignity — i.e., no robes left over from Trekkie masquerades, no trying to make a joke out of the very knowledge on which the show is based.  Someone's going to produce that show someday and if done right, it could be a monster hit.  In the meantime, given its time slot, one does assume that Beat the Geeks does not figure into Comedy Central's future, especially since they have to make room for more of those wonderful Chevy Chase Roasts.  So you might want to catch the current airings while you still can.

It's almost not enough to say, "Let's hope this year is better than the last one."  Let's hope this year isn't any worse.  None of the indicators that have to do with peace and prosperity are inspiring much optimism today, and the TV pundits seem to have their fingers crossed — maybe for luck, maybe because they think they're fibbing — when they say, "2003 will be a whole lot better."  I'll be delighted to have my cynicism prove unfounded.  It may be that if we can get through '03 without going to war, that will make the year look pretty good.

If you're up in time to catch the Rose Parade, watch for the float from the city of West Covina, California.  A fellow named Raul Rodriguez designed a display that will feature Bob Clampett's immortal cartoon show, Beany and Cecil.  The float will depict the sea-sick sea serpent swimming alongside Beany's ship.  If anyone spots any photos I can link to, please let me know.

If you've ever thought of purchasing any of the wonderful comic book fonts from Comicraft, today's the day.  For 24 hours, every font in the place is $20.03.  But hurry.  The clock is ticking.

Fred Hembeck's clever cartoons have been gracing fanzines and various comic-related magazines for years.  He has a sincere sense of humor and a distinctive art style that more than does it justice.  As of this new year, he is despoiling gracing the Internet with his personal brand of silliness.  You'll want to drop by his newly-erected site at www.hembeck.com now and also later as he gets more and more of his drawings up there.  I don't believe Fred and I have ever been in the same room together but we're interested in so many of the same things that I feel like an old friend.  Go visit my old friend's new website.

Two fine folks — Nat Gertler and Elayne Riggs — independently of one another — sent me this link to a page with photos of the building of the Beany and Cecil float.  We're still on the lookout for pics of the finished product.

Another fine folk — and a masterful voiceover talent — is Bob Bergen.  As a youth, Bob dreamed of growing up to be Porky Pig and, following the passing of the great Mel Blanc, achieved his dream.  He also does tons of other characters and jobs, and teaches one of the most-respected v.o. workshops in the business.  Why am I telling you this now?  Because he just launched his own website where you can read more about him and hear him in action.  It is, of course, www.bobbergen.com.  Start the year right with a visit.

Tonight's installment of Up Close (the Ted Koppel-hosted interview show that follows Nightline on ABC) features inventor Dean Kamen.  Perhaps some mention will be made of his father, Jack Kamen, one of the great EC comic book artists.  And perhaps not.

A reader of this site named Jamie writes to ask, "I noticed that Jay Leno did a live show last night with a remote from Times Square, whereas Letterman (who's in NEW YORK, for God's sake) had on a rerun.  Why is this?"  Answer: It's precisely because Dave is in New York, only blocks from Times Square.  He elects not to subject his staff, his audience, and himself to having to fight the crowd and drunken revelers that turn out there on the last night of the year.

In the past, they tried taping a show earlier in the day.  Then, they would insert live cut-ins to Times Square around the midnight hour.  One year, they had stage manager Biff Henderson atop one of the big buildings down there.  Another year, they just had cameras.  Either way, cutting between tape and live seemed awkward, and it meant that some of Dave's crew had to be in the midst of it all and work that late.  So they finally decided it wasn't worth it, and they were probably right.

This reminds me of a story I didn't tell relating to this article I posted here about a time when I was in Las Vegas for New Year's Eve, watching (among other marvels) the demolition of the Hacienda Hotel.  A few weeks later, back in Vegas, I was introduced to a gent who worked for some committee that had been involved with the event.  I asked him why, even though the sheer fact that it was New Year's Eve already packed the Strip to capacity, they had chosen that evening to stage a big, crowd-attracting spectacle.  He explained to me that it was part of a five-year-plan they'd formulated to do something spectacular each New Year's Eve — something TV cameras would want to capture live.

He went on: "People associate New Year's Eve with Times Square.  Times Square gets all that publicity and attention.  Well, when we're done, people will associate New Year's Eve with Las Vegas.  Everyone around the world will want to tune in and see how we're ringing in the new year here on the Strip.  We're going to take that away from New York."

Interesting, I thought.  But I had to ask: "How are you going to deal with the fact that the new year arrives three hours earlier on the East Coast?  By the time it's the new year here in Vegas, two-thirds of the country has already celebrated and gone to bed."

The man didn't answer me.  He just stood there, as if no one had raised that point before.  And I got the idea that he was thinking, "There has to be a way to get that changed…"