Monthly Archives: October 2003

Seymour Hersh reports on what went wrong with the intelligence that the Bush administration received or acted upon with regard to Iraq.

Avedon Carol, who is an expert commentator on politics and slinky underwear, posts the following in response to an earlier post of mine…

What Al Gore said was that he'd read in a newspaper article that Eric Segal had based the lead characters in Love Story on Tipper and Al. That is, in fact, what the newspaper article said. However, Segal said that the article was only partly correct, and that the character Oliver in LS was based on Al Gore and Tommy Lee Jones, his pals from college. But journalists and talk show hosts made fun of him for "pretending" Oliver was based on him when, in fact, Oliver was based on him.

Yeah, I knew that but apparently didn't make that clear. Gore said nothing that was inaccurate but somehow, his foes managed to spread all sorts of misquotes, including the spurious claim that Segal had denounced Gore. No matter how many times and ways that one was debunked, the Sean Hannitys of the world kept insisting it was so. I find it amazing that Gore could get characterized by something that was so obviously a bum rap — and even if true, pretty trivial. But it's okay if the President of the United States says eighteen untrue words in the State of the Union address that help to lead us towards war.

One thing I find interesting is that in politics lately, there seems to be no worse charge you can make against an opponent than that he or she is a liar. Being utterly incompetent or outright crooked do not seem to be anywhere near as bad as being caught uttering some statement, however inconsequential, that can perhaps be disproven. A lot of the statements that G.W. Bush and his crew made in support of the Iraq invasion are now being denounced as lies when I suspect the more correct charge would be that someone simply looked at or ignored the evidence and was simply wrong, often dead wrong. That is apparently now insufficient reason to kick someone out of public office. We now have to sell the notion that they knew when they said it that it was wrong and consciously decided to fib.

In any case, I thought Gore was wronged in things like that and the "Love Canal" misquote. You almost expect that of the folks running against him (though you shouldn't) but you don't expect the press corps to go along with the misrepresentation. I'd like to think no one — Democrat or Republican — will get away with that kind of thing again. But they probably will.

Most TV shows and movies that feature real human beings on-camera are written by members of the Writers Guild of America. Up until recently however, writers of animated cartoons were not represented by the WGA but by either (a) The Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists Union, (b) a smaller union that was affiliated with scenic painters or (c) no one. There were years there when being represented by no one was pretty much the same thing as being represented by either of the unions except that you didn't have to pay dues and there was a slight chance you might qualify for a Health Plan. The fellow who ran the M.P.S.C. (local 839 of I.A.T.S.E.) not only did not want to do anything for the writers, he sometimes expressed the opinion that we were overpaid and could stand to lose a few benefits.

Naturally, there was a certain antagonism between the writers and their union. In the late-seventies, there was a concerted legal attempt at what is called "craft severance." This basically means that a unit of workers carves itself out of one union and is then free to affiliate with another. Though more than 95% of all cartoon writers supported the move, it did not happen. The union wanted to keep us (we paid the highest dues rates and are the first ones who can halt production in the event of a strike) and the animation studios — for obvious reasons — wanted to keep us in the union that would never ask for more money on our behalf. Our employers and our union joined forces against us and we spent a few weeks in an airless hearing room at the National Labor Relations Board, thrashing out the finer points of labor law and trying to relate it all to the unique set of conditions involved in the writing of Scooby Doo cartoons. The statutes are all written to cover things like coal mining and fruit picking, and we had to apply that terminology to what we did. I guess we didn't do a good enough job because in a decision that showed all the wisdom of the first O.J. jury, we lost. We got a verdict that even our opponents admitted didn't quite make sense, though they liked the part that said cartoon writers had to remain with the union they wanted to leave.

As the pronouns in the above paragraph suggest, I was deeply immersed in the battle both as witness and as advisor to the WGA legal team. I was also involved a few years later when we tried again, attacking the problem from a different legal angle. This time, we won the first decision on a unanimous vote and then got reversed on appeal. Fifteen years later, the reversal was effectively reversed but by then, other complications prevented the original plan from being reinstated.

By then, I had long since decided my Norma Rae days were over and left the battle to others. I'm happy to report that changing times have enabled them to accomplish some (alas, not all) of the things we were unable to achieve in the eighties. A lot of new animation studios entered the field and they were not signed to Local 839 and were therefore open to a contract with the WGA, especially on prime-time cartoon shows like The Simpsons. Also, the guy at 839 who was indifferent to writers was booted out and his replacement is much saner and in touch with the industry. Today, The Animation Guild (which is the new name of 839) represents everyone at some studios but the WGA bargains for writers on a number of shows, and you can read more about all this in this section of the WGA website.

Over there, you'll see mention of the Animation Writers Caucus, which is a subset of the WGA catering to those who write cartoons. They're having their annual meeting this Thursday evening and among the items on the agenda is the presentation of the annual A.W.C. Award to the member who…

Hmm. You know, I just read the press release that says I'm getting this thing and I'm not sure what it's for. But the legendary announcer and cartoon voice actor Gary Owens is presenting it to me so it must be important. Guess I'd better shave.

Here's a statement by the Libertarian Party on the Rush Limbaugh matter. I shun all drugs including tobacco and alcohol but I agree with this view.

All this week, as a Halloween stunt I guess, the comic strip Dilbert is being drawn not by Scott Adams but by mystery artists. The idea is that you have to guess who the famous cartoonist is who's illustrating each day's strip. If you go to this page, you can see each strip and find out the answer.

Thanks to Mark Thorson for letting me know about this. And I should further thank Mark who, along with Rephah Berg, is quick to alert me when I make a typo here. If there's one in this message, I'll hear from Mark or Rephah before 10:00.

It always interests me to see the way political arguments drift and how certain questionable "facts" get established in some minds. Critics of George W. Bush have lately been saying that he lied to America that there was an imminent threat to us from Iraq. Ergo, we had to go to war promptly and not wait for those weapons inspectors to inspect further for weapons. If true, that would be a pretty serious charge, so Bush defenders are arguing back that their president never said the threat was "imminent" and they haul out quotes where his precise words seem to say the opposite.

In a strict sense, they're probably right. And in another sense, it may not matter. Al Gore never said he found Love Canal or that he was the model for Love Story, but his detractors did a good job of convincing a lot of "swing" voters that he did, and therefore nothing he said could be believed. If Bush's foes can work the same full court press on him, the "liar" portrait will stick. In political discourse, we are well past the stage where what someone says really matters. Of much greater importance is how their opponents can spin it, and the Democrats haven't been that good at taking an ambiguous statement or gaffe and running with it. Then again, the Bush administration has given them so much raw material, they may just pull it off.

Our pal Peter David posts this report on going to see Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks, a new Broadway play with Polly Bergen and Mark Hamill. I echo all the comments on what a nice, professional guy Mark is.

Someone just wrote to ask me a question about 3-D comic books. I referred them to Ray Zone's website. Ray knows more about 3-D comic books than any man alive…and has made more of them happen.

There's a supermarket strike on in L.A. In truth, only one chain — Von's — is being struck but the other two large chains (Ralph's and Albertson's) have locked out all union employees in a gesture of solidarity and/or retaliation. So we have picket lines up at most of the major markets. I would never cross a picket line in any case but in this one, the union seems uncommonly in the right. Either way, it doesn't affect me that much. I do a lot of my shopping at Gelson's, which signed an interim agreement with the union, and at the Whole Foods Market and sometimes at Trader Joe's.

Based on my experience this afternoon at Trader Joe's, I may be going there more often. I usually regard marketing as an annoying chore but today, it was unusually fun. The Trader Joe's (at Sepulveda and Palms) was crowded but not uncomfortably so. In almost every aisle, they were passing out free samples of something yummy, plus every shopper got a free half-gallon container of organic orange juice. This, we heard, was because a screw-up in distribution had left them hopelessly overstocked with the stuff, so they decided to give it away. The lady in charge of handing it out was actually chasing down shoppers who didn't have o.j. in their baskets and forcing free juice on them.

Because of the strike elsewhere, a lot of new customers were venturing into Trader Joe's. There were posters up to welcome the newbies and to explain to them about how Trader Joe's doesn't stock most of the brand names they're used to seeing at Ralph's. Nevertheless, there were many sales in progress along with all the freebees. Everything I wanted to purchase was in-stock and reasonably priced.

But the main thing you couldn't help but notice — and it certainly qualifies as a positive for some shoppers — was that the place was full of great-looking women wearing almost no clothing. It was as if they'd advertised deep discounts for anyone who could pass for a super-model and was willing to shop near-naked. I saw about as much of the young lady ahead of me in the checkout line as I did of my first three girl friends, combined. Appropriately, at the exit, there was a man collecting signatures on a petition to get the City Council to reverse its ban on lap-dancing, only he wasn't selling it as that. I actually witnessed the following exchange…

PETITIONER: Excuse me, would you like to sign —

WOMAN SHOPPER: (eagerly) Is this to recall Arnold? Where do I sign?

PETITIONER: No, it's to reverse a City Council action that places undue restrictions on night clubs. It's harming the income of a lot of single mothers.

WOMAN SHOPPER: (as she signs) Okay, but are you sure you don't have one to recall the governor?

The main thing that struck me about the store was the friendly atmosphere I encountered. Free food and scantily-clad women will do that. It even dawned on me that the guy with the petition might be wasting his time. If Trader Joe's is always going to be like that, who needs lap-dancing?

Versatility is a great thing. I always like (and, truth be known, envy) people who can do at least a little of a lot of different things. I guess I first knew Frank Buxton as a TV host. He presided over a game show for ABC called Get The Message and, even better, hosted an afternoon kids' show called Discovery, which managed to be both educational and entertaining at the same time…no easy feat. He was a frequent guest on a number of New York-based talk and game shows and even did cartoon voices now and then. He was, for example, the voice of Batfink, star of a wonderfully silly animated show of the same name. That's a picture of Batfink above at right, posing in all his heroic glory.

And Frank Buxton was even one of the writer-performers who worked with Woody Allen to redub the legendary What's Up, Tiger Lily? with highly amusing new dialogue. So all that made for a pretty impressive list of achievements right there. All of these things were done out of New York.

Later on, I became aware of another guy named Frank Buxton. This one was based in Los Angeles and he was a writer, producer and director of TV shows, including many done for Paramount. He worked on Love, American Style and The Odd Couple, to name two. Later on, he directed Mork and Mindy during the years that Jonathan Winters and Robin Williams were co-starring and, according to the rumor mill, occasionally actually doing lines from the script.

I kept seeing the name "Frank Buxton" turning up on TV shows that I liked. One was a Saturday morning show called Hot Dog which ran on NBC from 1970 to 1971. It was the most entertaining "educational" show I'd seen since…well, since Discovery. The premise was that they'd ask a question about how something was made or manufactured — like, "How is spaghetti made?" or "How is money printed?" and then three "experts" would each give their theories. The experts were Jo Anne Worley, Jonathan Winters and — incredibly — Woody Allen. That's right: Woody Allen was a regular on a Saturday morning kids' show. He, Jo Anne and Jonathan would give their funny answers and then the show would present the right answer, with film shot in a spaghetti company or at the Mint or wherever.

I was a little puzzled as to whether the Frank Buxton who did this show was the West Coast producer-writer who also did The Odd Couple or the East Coast performer who'd hosted Discovery and played Batfink. It could have been the former, since I knew he was a producer, or the latter since he had the connection to Woody Allen. And to really make it baffling, there was also a wonderful, almost definitive book on old-time radio called The Big Broadcast (published in '73 and still in-print) co-authored by one of those Frank Buxtons…or maybe it was a third guy. I wasn't sure.

As I eventually learned, these were all the same Frank Buxton: Author, actor, producer, writer, director, historian, voiceover specialist, etc. I just had lunch with him today at my favorite Chinese restaurant and I was half-expecting him to go in the back, cook our meals, then go out to the parking lot and replace the spark plugs in my car. Talk about your multi-talented individuals. We met briefly when he did a voice on the Garfield and Friends cartoon show, but I didn't get to tell him how much I admired Discovery and Hot Dog, among his other achievements. And we didn't get to swap anecdotes and discover the rather stunning list of mutual acquaintances we share. A lot of you who read this website got mentioned this afternoon over the Cashew Chicken.

What's he working on these days? Well, he just finished a run playing Sheridan Whiteside in a production I wish I'd seen of The Man Who Came to Dinner. And among other activities, he's working to get the old episodes of Hot Dog released on DVD, which I think would do very well. I'd sure like to see that happen and if you remember the show, so do you. I'll report here on any progress he makes but I wanted to mention what a great time I had lunching with all those Frank Buxtons today. Even though he didn't tune-up my engine.

A week ago, I made a small wager with a friend that seven days hence, Donald Rumsfeld would be changing jobs. As of today, Secretary Rumsfeld is still Secretary Rumsfeld…and we've decided to go double-or-nothing for another week.

My friend Peter Sanderson is doing an extended review of the new book on Stan Lee by Jordan Raphael and Tom Spurgeon. Here's the first part of his essay. I agree with some of it and disagree with some of it, and may write something later to explain which is which.

Another sector of the work force that's taking a hit these days is in political cartooning. You can read all about it here. And thank my pal Dan Gheno for calling my attention to the piece.