Monthly Archives: February 2003

Jim Hill is a very smart, perceptive guy…and as regular visitors to this site know, I don't throw around such compliments easily.  No, you have to write a real positive review of something I wrote in order to warrant such reciprocity.  But as it happens, Jim's website proves my point.  He has a lot of savvy, informative essays there, primarily about various aspects of the monolith known as Disney.  There are some good pieces about the politics of managing the theme parks.  There's a great article about Walt's relationship with Richard Nixon.  Oh, yeah — and there's a rave about this site and my much-touted book, Comic Books and Other Necessities of Life.  But don't dwell on that.  Browse all over jimhillmedia.com — a fun place to be.

An article that used to be posted on this site detailed my lustings for the barbecue served in the once-vast chain of Love's Barbecue Restaurants.  It caused many fans of their cuisine to write me, if only to seek out a soulmate and share recollections of the great beans.

A mere handful of Love's Restaurants remain, none of them convenient to me.  The one in Indonesia is especially hard to get to.  So for a time, a nice gent at the Love's company has been selling me cases of their sauce, which I use in my feeble attempts at cooking.  Better than nothing.

I must not have been the only person interested in this because they are now selling bottles of Love's Barbecue Sauce on their website.  A nice U.P.S. man brought me my latest crate of twelve this afternoon.  Knowing that some folks are militant about barbecue sauces, I am only recommending this to those of you already familiar with the taste of Love's.  Their sauce is sweet and mild, and may not titillate your senses the way it delights mine.

Their site also proclaims that they will soon be selling Love's Beans mail order.  The minute they do, I'll buy a supply and let you know if they're as good as they were in the restaurants.  I almost hope they aren't, because this could get expensive.

Just spent an hour browsing a spectacular website called Yesterland, which amasses photos and facts about things that used to be at Disneyland but ain't there no more.  If that kind of thing sounds interesting to you, you'll spend at least an hour of your life there.  It's as much fun as a trip to Disneyland, and you don't have to wait in very long lines, spend nineteen bucks for a cheeseburger or risk getting trampled by a dwarf.

I thought the first episode of Bill Maher's new HBO show was terrific.  It was funny, some genuine issues were discussed, and it held my attention for the entire hour, which neither Jay nor Dave have done for a long time.  I am, however, skeptical that it will do well.  There's always been something dislikeable about Maher.  He's very smart and he makes me laugh but I wouldn't want to hang around the guy.  That side of him was held somewhat in check on Politically Incorrect but now that he's free to ratchet up his mean side, I can't imagine America wanting to spend a lot of time with him, either.  You have to really work to have Ann Coulter on your show and still come off as the angriest person on the premises.  I hope I'm wrong, and that Real Time With Bill Maher will be on for a real long time.  I don't like him but I like watching him.

What has Sergio Aragonés been doing lately?  Well, today he had lunch at the Magic Castle with Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, Geoff Johns, and me.  Then he went to the art supply shop to buy some erasers.  Then he stopped at a market to get some cheese.  Oh — and with a little help from his demon Webmaster (m.e.) he finally got some content on his website, www.sergioaragones.com.  Go visit the world's fastest (and probably most-honored) cartoonist in his new Internet habitat.  If nothing else, check out the "Ask Sergio" page where he'll be answering important queries.  In the months to come, there'll be even more goodies there.

There have been many books on how to animate, most of which aren't all that helpful.  For the basics of the kind of animation that involves pencils and a lot of paper, no one has ever beaten the Preston Blair books — a couple of slim, low-priced volumes prepared many decades ago for a series sold in art stores.  Mr. Blair was a great animator who worked for Disney (on Fantasia) and for Tex Avery at MGM.  Here's a link to a website that lets you study some of his lessons on-line — including viewable animations.

Those selfless folks at Disney are giving away a free download of a vintage Mickey Mouse cartoon for the PC.  The catch?  You have to register for their site, and the cartoon will only play until March 7.  If you want to do this anyway, here's the link.

The episode of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? with the call to Bob Ingersoll got bumped.  Seems the producers decided to rearrange the airdates so that they could get a million-dollar win on during an important ratings period.  The one where Bob's friend called him is now scheduled to air March 4.  Final answer.

Here's a plug for my new book.  It won't be out for a few more months but I figured I might as well start hectoring you now.  Consider yourself hectored to purchase…

My friend Vince Waldron (whose website on classic situation comedies you should also visit) suggests I tell you that the Preston Blair books on animation are still in print.

How to Animate Film Cartoons and Cartoon Animation are the two main ones.  They feature wonderful artwork which you'll recognize, not only because some of it appeared in classic cartoons, but because beginning cartoonists are always copying from these books.  I can't tell you how many times I've seen the drawing of the cute pig in ads, murals, amateur comic strips, etc.  The books also explain the principles of animation in clear, easy-to-understand language.

Cartoon Animation (The Collector's Series) is a fancier compilation of material from both books.  I'm not sure if it contains anything that isn't in the other two, but it may.  The Blair books have been packaged and repackaged so many times that I've lost track of what's in what edition, and my copies of the first two are very old, anyway.

Among animators and cartoonists of a certain generation, these volumes are sacred.  Very few folks who got into the business — or just messed around with the art form — weren't inspired by what Mr. Blair committed to paper.  Even in the era of computer animation, there's still much to be learned from him.

We have a winner! Thanks to several folks — especially Tom Alger — we seem to have pieced together the answer to the most pressing question in America today: Where the hell did that silly music video with Leonard Nimoy first appear?  Here's the answer…

Malibu U was a music series which ran from 7/21/67 to 9/1/67 on Friday nights on ABC.  It was hosted by singer Rick Nelson and featured Australian vocalist Robie Porter, but the main attraction was a group of beautiful bikini-clad ladies.  They were officially called the Bob Banas Dancers but were also known as "The Malibuettes."  Various singers and celebs appeared as "guest professors" to deliver "lectures," which meant singing their numbers, usually on the beach.  The segments on the show were more or less in the form we now call music videos.

Here, obtained by Mr. Alger, is a database listing for one episode in the UCLA film archive…

Malibu U. [1967-07-28] – A Robert E. Petersen production in association with Teen-Age Fair, Inc. and ABC; executive producer, Gene McCabe; producer, Al Burton; director, Jack Shea; writers, Milt Larsen, Bob Lauher. Summary:  Host Rick Nelson's singing guests are Leonard Nimoy of Star Trek, Bobby Rydell, the Buffalo Springfield, Mrs. Miller and Englebert Humperdinck.  Location sequences filmed at Griffith Park in Los Angeles and the harbor at Balboa, California.

Highlights:  "Bilbo Baggins" — Leonard; "Volare," "Dansero" — Bobby;  "Bluebird" — Buffalo Springfield; "Let's Hang On" — Mrs. Miller; "Release Me" — Englebert; "Balboa's Wet Set" — dancers.

As you'll recall, we thought it was 1968-1969.  But further investigation reveals that the various Nimoy-oriented websites do not agree just when he recorded "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins," and Alger came across info that the man who is not Spock also performed it in '67 on American Bandstand.  Perhaps the single came out in '67 and the album came out in '68.  Or perhaps the fan sites are just wrong. (A few of them list Nimoy as guesting on Malibu U, but the date they all give was a Thursday.)

Turns out, my friend Sam Tomaino has a pretty decent memory.  He recalled it being on a short-lived summer series that aired on Friday nights, and he was correct.  He thought it was NBC but said in his e-mail to me that it might have been ABC.  And he was right about Mrs. Miller being on the show, though she seems to have performed a different number than he recalled.  I'll bet he was also correct that the dancers did "Come On Down to My Boat" on the series, if not in that episode (as their number) then on another installment.  That song was recorded by those one-hit wonders, Every Mother's Son, and was on the charts in 1967.

One other note of trivia: One of the Malibuettes on Malibu U was Erin Gray, making her TV debut, years before she appeared on Buck Rogers, Silver Spoons, and other shows.  I'm afraid I can't tell if she's one of the ladies in the clip but perhaps someone else can recognize her or not.

In any case, I think this the mystery is solved of where the musical number appeared.  Now we just have to figure out why…

We're still working on the Leonard Nimoy mystery.  My e-mail buddy Sam Tomaino remembers seeing the thing when it first aired — on a show, he says, that also featured the infamous Mrs. Miller singing "Lover's Concerto" and another segment where bikini-clad ladies danced to the tune, "Come On Down to My Boat."  He thinks the show was on NBC on a Friday night — possibly some short-lived summer replacement series.  If true, I can't figure out what it might have been.  In the meantime, some sources say that Nimoy's record came out in '68, not '69.  That broadens our search but it's still too late for Where the Action Is.  The hunt continues…

Who's out there fighting for the First Amendment these days?  According to this article, many of the surprisingly-potent combatants are librarians.  Yay, librarians!

Starting the day after tomorrow, the always-generous folks at Disney will let you download a complete Mickey Mouse cartoon (an early one) from their website.  See how valuable it is to come to this one?

Joseph Heller reportedly once said, "It's better to eat a large, mediocre meal than a small, good meal."  And if he didn't say that, he should have — especially if he ever ate at a Hometown Buffet.

I did, yesterday.  For reasons too boring to waste bandwidth on, I found myself lunching at one of them.  For 7 and a half bucks, I had all I could eat of what would probably pass for adequate food in a high school cafeteria.  And to be honest, I've had worst buffets in Las Vegas.  It was better than the Imperial Palace but not as good as Harrah's; kind of like the Excalibur but without the tasteful decor.

Actually, what made my Hometown Buffet experience rather pleasant was not the food but one of the gents who busses tables and gets you mustard when you need it.  He was a young black guy with a shaved head and he was awfully funny.  As people carrying dishes of fried chicken and pizza walked past him on their way back to their tables, he would point as if they'd made a grievous error and say, "Hey, you need more food on that plate."  (I saw one man, almost apologetically, go back and get more mashed potatoes in response.)  The fellow was telling little old ladies they needed their parents there — that is, they looked too young to be admitted without parental supervision — and as people exited, he'd yell after them, "You're not giving up now!?  There's chocolate pudding!  There's brownies!"

At one point, he spotted my dish of baked whitefish and rice and told me I needed more food on my plate.  I told him, "Don't worry.  By the time I'm finished, this place will be bankrupt."  With flawless comic timing, the guy did a perfect take and began running around to the other service folks yelling, "We have to go look for work!  We're going out of business!"

It might not sound like much here…but folks who went to that Hometown Buffet were just expecting a lot of heavily-breaded entrees; they didn't figure on a floor show.  If I owned a restaurant that served unspectacular meals, I'd try to find employees like that guy.  Because of him, everyone there had a pretty good time.  In spite of the food.

I've received a few theories about the origin of the Leonard Nimoy video but no final answer.  Whoever introduced the clip to the Internet apparently got it out of a BBC special on celebrity embarrassments, but we still don't know where they got it.  Some have guessed it was produced for an ABC series called Where the Action Is, which was on from June of '65 to March of '67.  It looks like the kind of thing that was done for that show but "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins" wasn't released until 1969 — on an album called "The Two Sides of Leonard Nimoy" and the accompanying single.  Several folks who know more about this kind of thing than I do say that based on Mr. Nimoy's hair, this must have been done either while he was still doing Star Trek or just after production ceased, because he soon changed his "look."  Star Trek ended in '69, about the time the record was coming out.  So the mystery continues.

I've also received my fourth TiVo, which is the first of their "Series 2" models, incorporating a faster processor and new features.  I sold my first TiVo to a local friend and will soon be doing the same with my second.  If you are a local friend of mine and are TiVoless and interested, let me know.  (I say "local" not to discriminate against non-Angelenos but because I don't want to deal with shipping one of these things.)

Programming notes: Bill Maher's new HBO show starts this Friday night.  The Game Show Network special on the guy who beat Press Your Luck for over a hundred grand airs March 16.

Go read Paul Krugman.  And let's look at how not everyone is viewing the Iraq issue the way you'd expect.  Here's a column by a conservative who thinks Bush is wrong.  And here's a column by a liberal who thinks Bush is right.

It's not quite as splendid as the legendary William Shatner performance of "Rocket Man" at that award show, but Leonard Nimoy did himself proud with a recording of "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins," which hauls Mr. Tolkien's characters into the world of 70's pop tunes.  Here's a video of the song as Nimoy performed it on…

…on…uh, I don't know.  This file has been ricocheting around the Internet for some time.  It seems to be available on at least three dozen websites, yet no one seems to know what TV show it's from.  The ladies dancing with him do not seem to be The Golddiggers, as some have guessed.  They look more to me like the female members of the Doodletown Pipers…or perhaps it's from the ABC series, Music Scene.  That show was on in '69, the same year Nimoy's record was first released.  (My other thought was Johnny Mann's Stand Up and Cheer, but that was 1971-1973 and I don't recall it ever doing location shoots.)  Does anyone know for sure?

[NOTE ADDED IN JULY, 2012: The original video link in this spot was to a clip with no identifying info attached. That link is defunct but here's a link to the same clip as posted years later on YouTube…]

The magazine Entertainment Weekly is now regularly covering the comic book scene.  It's a nice gesture but I have to wonder when I read this in an overview of Daredevil material…

"Essential Daredevil Vol. 1" collects his first 25 issues in cheap black and white, all of them snappily written by Lee but with distinctive art only thrice — No. 1, featuring Bill Everett's hard-boiled figurations, and Nos. 12 and 13, sinewy collaborations between Jack Kirby and John Romita.

Wally Wood and Gene Colan didn't provide distinctive art?  O-kaaaay…

I can absolutely understand how some Broadway buffs were unable to tolerate the new TV-Movie of The Music Man starring Matthew Broderick as Professor Harold Hill.  Robert Preston's mesmerizing performance was captured in a fine motion picture, and it can be tough to wrap your brain around another interpretation.  And though you want to be open to new interpretations, some versions are so embedded in our souls that…well, I found myself physically unable to listen to the new version of My Fair Lady with arrangements that sounded quite unlike the original.  Better or worse, it makes no never mind; it's just that some things comfort with their familiarity, and even an improvement can be jarring.  Just because it's different.  That isn't what went wrong here.

I've seen The Music Man many times on stage and long since stopped saying, "Well, he's no Robert Preston" about each new Professor Hill.  I figure, if that's going to be the criteria, we might as well stop doing this show altogether.  But I've liked other renditions and I was prepared to like Matthew Broderick, at least in a different way.  I tried — but ultimately, he lacked the charismatic charm and the devilish con-man twinkle that the part seems to demand.  He didn't even seem to have much going on behind his eyes.  I never got the feeling that his Harold Hill was up to anything beyond what came out of his mouth, or that he changed one bit when he decided to go straight.

Still, you have Broderick's likeability with that bulletproof script and those wonderful songs, many of them nicely staged.  Then add in the rest of the cast, especially Kristen Chenoweth, who played Marian the Librarian with a lot more ice and spunk than usual, and Molly Shannon as the mayor's wife, and I didn't have such a bad time.  If it does well and prompts more musicals on TV, it will have been well worth doing.  Maybe they can even do some where Matthew Broderick is a bit more appropriately cast — because he really is wonderful.  Just not in this.