Monthly Archives: May 2003

When it comes to comics, there's the Right Way, the Wrong Way, and the Ordway! I have no idea what that means but it seems to be the slogan over at Jerry Ordway's Website. Jerry is one of the most talented illustrators in our business today and, damn him, a pretty good writer, too. That bothers me because I enjoyed our few collaborations and it's dispiriting to know he doesn't need me. He's currently drawing Wonder Woman and doing a fine job of it. As you'd expect.

My pal Andy Ihnatko raises an interesting point. I'll meet you on the other side of it to give my response…

The suit brings up an issue that I've been pondering for much of my life: was it OK for animation studios to swipe/steal/homage/tribute comedians by creating cartoon characters that incorporated their famous mannerisms? I've no doubt that Jerry Colonna (for instance) was flattered when a character used his vocal mannerisms and bits of his signature "look." If anything, it served to underscore his fame and popularity, and gives the man a little immortality. But in a broader sense, Phil Silvers spent years developing and perfecting his signature character; was it OK for Hanna-Barbera to just help themselves to it? Why would they have based a character on Bilko's mannerisms, unless the company considered them commercially valuable?

Obviously, this is more of a philosophical question. The Winters case is more about the nitty-gritty technical issues. But I try to put myself in that situation. I'd be flattered if someone put me in a DC comic but I don't know how I'd feel if this "Andrei Ivanetko" started to appear as a major regular character. I'd probably be fine with it (so long as Andrei wasn't depicted murdering babies or attending alternative-dance performances) but then again, my standard of living doesn't rely on my maintaining a marketable and uniquely-identifiable public image.

My response: I think there's a line that is sometimes crossed. And while we might argue where it is, I think most would agree that it isn't crossed with a one-shot throwaway, or when it's done often and the person depicted doesn't object. Jerry Colonna wasn't portrayed in that many Warner Brothers cartoons, and I'm sure they'd have stopped if he'd indicated any displeasure. Some of the stars who did animated cameos in WB cartoons were also under contract to Warner Brothers, so that was a little different situation.

A lot of people thought The Flintstones crossed the line in aping The Honeymooners, and I believe many who worked on or around the show thought that. In at least one interview, Jackie Gleason said something like, "Yeah, we thought of suing but why bother?" I don't think the several H-B characters inspired by Phil Silvers crossed the line. The voice Daws Butler did for some of them was interesting in that it reminds you of Silvers but if you heard them back-to-back, you'd see they were quite different. It was almost like he was doing what Phil Silvers should have sounded like. Same thing with the voice Daws did for Snagglepuss, which was based loosely on Bert Lahr. Lahr actually took legal action…though not when the cartoons came out. He sued when Snagglepuss became the spokes-lion for Kellogg's Cocoa Krispies. Lahr was then making the best money of his life doing commercials for Lay's Potato Chips, and he understandably saw the cereal commercials as a way of getting a Bert Lahr voiceover and implied endorsement without paying Bert Lahr. The parties involved settled out of court, and Daws got a credit out of the deal. On the rest of the commercials that were made, they superimposed "Snagglepuss voice by Daws Butler" on the screen briefly in order to tell the world that it wasn't Bert Lahr they were hearing.

If the Lahr case had gone to trial, the key issue would probably have been to what extent his name and reputation were being exploited. If he could have convinced a jury that kids were rushing to buy Cocoa Krispies because they thought Bert Lahr had endorsed them, he might have had a good case. As I understand it, the Winters boys are claiming not so much defamation as exploitation of their images; like someone had put out a piece of Winters Brothers merchandise without making a deal with them. The assertion sounds shaky to me. Then again, so did O.J.'s alibi.

Ultimately, I do think parody (and its less justifiable companion, "homage") are sometimes employed as a means of ripping-off someone's name or property. But I think the folks who least have the right to complain when they are depicted are comedians. One of Phil Silvers' first professional acts was imitating Maurice Chevalier. I'll bet you Jerry Colonna did someone else at some point. Those guys knew the drill.

Johnny and Edgar Winter are Texas rock musicians. A few years ago, a DC comic book depicted two characters who looked not unlike them in what everyone took as a parody…everyone except the Winter brothers, that is. The history of their lawsuit — which could have one of those famous "chilling effects" on Free Expression — is recounted here.

scottmccloud.com is the home of Scott McCloud, author of Understanding Comics and Reinventing Comics and a number of fine applications of the form, such as Zot! and Destroy! He's an extraordinarily clever fellow who not only does fine cartooning but knows what's fine about fine cartooning. Go peek.

One of the nicest comedy clubs in Southern California is The Comedy and Magic Club, which is located in Hermosa Beach. That is not as far from Los Angeles as it sounds — about ten minutes south of LAX. The parking sometimes sucks but otherwise, it's a very nice room that often has top comedians in it. Most Sunday nights, Jay Leno — who obviously needs the work — is the headliner. He does maybe ten minutes of testing jokes he may or may not use on upcoming Tonight Shows but the rest of the hour-or-so is basically the same show he does in Vegas or in other top venues for around $75 a ticket. At The Comedy and Magic Club, it's around $20 and a more intimate, family-friendly setting. A lot of comedians like the place because unlike The Comedy Store, Improv or Laugh Factory, it doesn't draw an "industry crowd." The audiences are a little more typical of Real America.

If you live near enough to go there, you might want to visit their website and sign up for e-mail alerts. Every so often, when business seems slow, they send out last-minute invites to come see that evening's show for free if you just pay the two-drink minimum. I got one yesterday and didn't go. Turns out, they had a surprise guest: Jerry Seinfeld, rehearsing the set he's going to do on The Tonight Show tonight. How often can one see Jerry Seinfeld at those prices?

Tom Stewart — a real person who once suffered the great indignity of being dismissed as a pseudonym for me — sends the following note…

Turner Classic Movies is showing a real rarity at 1:30 AM EST on Thursday. It's James Cagney's first film, Sinners' Holiday (also Joan Blondell's first). It's from 1930, an adaptation of the play, Penny Arcade. Al Jolson saw the play on Broadway (he must have hurried, it only ran 24 performances), bought the rights, and sold it to Warners, with the stipulation that Cagney and Blondell repeat their roles. Both play the secondary roles of the weak son and his girlfriend (Grant Withers stars, a competent actor, but without Cagneys spark). I've been waiting years to see this one. Should be fun (better be, or I'd be very disappointed).

Wow. Sounds well worth catching. And early Friday morning, they're running I Dream Too Much, which was one of Henry Fonda's first pictures — and amazingly, not one of Lucille Ball's. (You forget how long Lucy was around before anyone paid much attention to her.) I've never seen it but it's supposed to be a good one.

For longer than he'd probably like me to mention, Gene Colan has been producing magnificent comic art — for years in the pages of DC, Marvel and other comics; more recently in commissions. You can see a lot of both, as well as wonderful interviews and history over at The Gene Colan Website. Spend some time browsing the gallery of drawings he's done for his many fans lately…and make sure you see his recent drawing of Captain America, the Sub-Mariner and the Human Torch beating the crap out of Saddam Hussein. (Also, take a peek at the drawing of Dr. Doom where Gene, God love him, forgot to draw one of the villain's legs.) Wonderful work.

Congrats to Daniel Frank on one solid year of weblogging over at his site. When you get done here each day, that's a good place to go next.

My pal Paul Harris, who soars on radio station KTRS in St. Louis and on his website agrees with me that the story of NBC being fined for Sinead O'Connor's protest is so much hooey…

There is no way the FCC fined NBC $2.5mil for the Sinead O'Connor incident. The only time the FCC fines a broadcaster over content is when it is deemed to have violated the obscenity standard — vague as that is, Sinead's ripping up the Pope's picture doesn't come close to qualifying. Hey, they weren't even fined when Charles Rocket dropped the F-bomb!

Also, the network wouldn't have been fined, the affiliates would, since they're the ones licensed and regulated for content by the Commission. While NBC does have a division full of owned-and-operated stations, I (like you) am positive this fine was never levied against them or any other NBC affiliated station.

One more thing that I'm sure you know but your readers may need to be reminded of: the FCC does not monitor all broadcasts in this country for content or anything else. They have neither the staff nor the desire to do so (although they do have field agents checking technical requirements on an infrequent basis). The only way the Commission takes action is if there is a verifiable complaint from a viewer/listener, which must include an accurate transcript or recording of the supposedly offending segment. Then there's an investigation, the station is offered a chance to rebut, etc. etc. etc. I know that there are many Americans who believe the FCC should revoke licenses or fine stations because they didn't like what they themselves saw or heard, but it's rarely done, and absolutely never without details from a complainant.

Even then, tearing up the Pope's picture wouldn't even get mentioned in the FCC coffee break room, because instead they're busy dealing with an AM daytimer somewhere in Alabama that refuses to sign off at sunset and is overmodulating its carrier and interfering with another station's signal. Now that's a problem the Commission can and does sink its teeth into!

Indeed. I have also been told by a few folks that contrary to all accounts — including the recollections of both myself and my friend who was working on the show at the time, Nora Dunn did appear on the episode following the Andrew Dice Clay appearance. That would have been the last show of that season and her last show as a cast member of Saturday Night Live. One of those who wrote — David Goehner — says that she had almost nothing to do in it, and that in the "curtain calls" at the end, Jan Hooks held her hand in an emotional way. I don't remember that but we can check. That episode (hosted by Candice Bergen) reruns in the NBC Up All Night slot this coming Saturday night/Sunday morning.

Speaking of the confusion over which day a late night show is on — an issue that seems to matter to me and no one else — David asks when the clay animation episode of Late Night with Conan O'Brien airs. NBC is saying Thursday…but of course, in most time zones, the episode we think of as the "Thursday night" episode actually airs at 12:35 AM Friday morning. That's the case here: It's the episode of Conan's program that airs right after Thursday night's Tonight Show. Some day, network promotions will get in sync with how we all program our VCRs and TiVos.

Here's more on the ever-increasing evidence that former deputy counsel Fred Fielding was the famed snitch, Deep Throat. One would think that if he wasn't, he would not only deny it but get Bob Woodward to deny it, as Woodward did with regard to Alexander Haig. Let us see if that occurs.

Disney's lost another battle in the great Winnie the Pooh war. Here are the details.

Talk about a "sweeps" stunt that worked: Katie Couric's turn guest-hosting The Tonight Show last night yielded a 7.1 rating. That's probably way above what even the most optimistic NBC folks expected. Letterman had a 3.9 and Nightline had a 3.1. That's within those shows' normal fluctuation, confirming the theory that the late night shows don't really take audience away from each other. That is to say, when Dave gets a high rating, it doesn't mean he hijacked a lot of Leno viewers but that more people stayed up late that night.

I thought Ms. Couric did an okay job thanks to strong support from guests and written material. I'm still watching (in increments) Leno hosting The Today Show. I'm about halfway through and he seems pleasant enough — but I can't believe anyone not on the Fox Network would interview Colin Powell and not ask, "So…where are all those Weapons of Mass Destruction you told the U.N. we'd definitely pinpointed?"

This amused me. I was reading a recent transcript of an episode of the CNN show, Crossfire, and I spotted this line…

BETSY HART, COLUMNIST: I'm so delighted my liberal friends, Oliver Washington, (ph) are willing to make a value judgment about a consensual adult activity.

I didn't see the show but I have a hunch that what she said was, "…my liberal friends all over Washington…"

Stan Freberg's Manhattan gig — performing at Feinstein's at the Regency — has had to be rescheduled again. I'll let you know here when I hear of a new date. It'll be worth waiting for.

…before I submerge into deadline-meeting mode. This morning's Los Angeles Times features an op-ed piece by, of all people, Monica Lewinsky. And what's more, I agree with it. Basically, she says that parents should enjoy a confidence with their children similar to the lawyer-client or priest-confidante privilege. She's right. Read here for the full piece while I get back to that script. Bye for now.