Monthly Archives: March 2005

I can't make a whole lot of sense out of Rosie O'Donnell's weblog but perhaps you can. This woman is well-paid. Can't she afford a Shift key?

Nice article by Bill Zehme on the soon-to-open Monty Python musical, Spamalot. A half-dozen different folks I know have seen in it in previews and all predict it will make The Producers look like a one-night flop.

Isn't it interesting that the jury has now been deliberating for a whole week in the Robert Blake case? I have no idea whether they'll deadlock or vote to convict or what. But all the commentators covering this trial thought it was one of those cases where the jury would be unanimous for conviction on the first ballot and would only stay out for a token interval to make it seem like they'd really, really considered every nuance of the case. I didn't follow all the details but it seems to me that a week is more than enough time to really, really consider every nuance.

As I understand it, they have to decide on one count of murder with a special circumstance of lying in wait, and two counts of solicitation of murder. Several different men testified that Blake talked to them about killing his wife so I'm guessing the jurors aren't re-enacting Twelve Angry Men over the solicitation charges. But there does not seem to have been any forensic evidence — i.e., no identifiable prints on the murder weapon — that the actor actually pulled the trigger. The jury requested a read-back of testimony from the owner of Vitello's Restaurant about how the Blakes were acting just before the shooting. So one might assume that the jurors are debating just what happened that night, which goes to the first count…and maybe on that, one or more isn't convinced beyond that reasonable doubt.

But maybe not. Perhaps it's just that the jurors are taking their mission very seriously and are reviewing every syllable of every bit of the testimony several times over. That would not be a bad thing, even if they eventually vote Guilty, right down the line. It would also not be a bad thing if this triggered a moment of reflection in everyone who decided early-on that Blake was guilty as a body could be. Maybe it's not quite as open-'n'-shut as a lot of people figured.

Then again, maybe one of the jurors brought in a deck of cards and they've got a Bridge Tournament going. You never know.

Jay Mohr is a pretty funny stand-up comedian and a not-unsuccessful movie actor. It may surprise some folks to learn that he did two years on Saturday Night Live as a "featured player," an unusual job classification. It means you're in the cast but you're not a cast member. You're kind of on probation, auditioning in front of America to move up to full cast member status. Neither position means you automatically appear in sketches and neither guarantees you won't get fired at the end of the season. Full status just confers a bit more prestige and the presumption that you deserve to be on the show. Mohr did his two years without graduating to the senior class.

He sometimes went for weeks without getting into a sketch and when he did, it was often a one-line part or something that required so much make-up, you didn't realize it was him. His struggles are recounted in a book that I just read, Gasping for Airtime.

It's a disarmingly candid account of his life during that period, much of it focusing on a series of horrendous panic attacks that occasionally prompted him to bolt from the office, run the 42 blocks to his home and dive into bed. Eventually, medication ended these, though he had panic attacks that he would be caught without the pills to prevent his panic attacks. He also confesses to other matters that someone else might have omitted…like the time he was so desperate for a sketch to submit that he ripped-off an entire routine from a fellow stand-up comic. The bit went on the air, the other comedian sued, Mohr lied and swore he hadn't seen the other guy's act, and NBC settled the suit by paying money and cutting the sketch from reruns. It's not amazing that this happened; only that the perpetrator would admit to it in print.

There are anecdotes about others who worked on SNL at the time — Farley, Hartman, Franken, Lorne Michaels, et al. Some are flattering. Others are anything but, and some of those stories do not speak well of Mohr, either. The most interesting part of the book to me was following the dilemma of a guy who'd been handed this great opportunity and was never quite able to capitalize on it. Mohr's career later took off, to some extent in spite of his SNL gig, not because of it. You wonder if he'd have written this book if things had gone any of several other ways. In any case, it's a good, short read and a nice reminder of how difficult comedy can be, particularly in a high-pressure, competitive environment like Saturday Night Live. It ain't as easy as it looks.

If you're a fan of the Match Game TV show — the second version with Gene Rayburn, the one where celebrity panelists had to fill in the blanks with semi-naughty words — have we got a website for you!

I'm watching a little of the news coverage of the arrest of Brian Nichols, the Atlanta courtroom shooting suspect. It's another one of those situations, so familiar in the age of 24/7 reporting, where everything the reporters know could be summarized in about three minutes…but they have to keep stretching and repeating and wringing variations out of the information. I'm surprised no cable news channel has tried selling itself the way a lot of all-news radio stations promise to give you the whole world in 20 or 22 minutes. There are times you don't want in-depth coverage. You want the three-minute version.

I am amused by the occasional appearances of the words "alleged" and "suspect." Everyone is unhesitatingly discussing how Nichols grabbed a gun and shot this person or that person. Every ten or twenty mentions of his brutal crimes, someone — usually a law enforcement official — feels they're being responsible to toss in an "allegedly." On CNN, and I guess this is some sort of style guide thing, they also keep referring to him as "Mr. Nichols." Glad to see they're protecting the man's dignity and, every once in a while, the pretense that there is any presumption of innocence anywhere.

That's what a lot of us enjoyed last night, courtesy of the Museum of TV and Radio: An evening with a member of Monty Python. The museum is having its annual William S. Paley Festival which, once upon a time, was all about classic TV shows of the past. Now, it almost exclusively honors current shows (Lost, Boston Legal, Desperate Housewives, etc.) with Mr. Palin's appearance being a notable exception. That's the bad news for some of us. The good news is that after years of poor interviewers from the museum's staff, this year's seminars have more qualified, usually famous moderators. Palin was interviewed by Harry Shearer, who did a fine job of it.

Clips were run, not just of Palin's days with Python (The Argument Sketch, the Spanish Inquisition, et al) but of his work before and after. The excerpts from his travelogues for the B.B.C., to which I paid not enough attention when they first aired, looked especially wonderful.

Palin did not offer much encouragement to those yearning for a Python reunion of some sort. There has intermittently been talk of a new stage tour but Palin is against it because, says he, it wouldn't be the same without Graham Chapman. He also thinks the probable success of the new Broadway musical, Spamalot, will fill any possible need there might be to see Monty Python on stage. He said he had been interested in a movie idea that Eric Idle proposed — a sequel to Monty Python and the Holy Grail with them all playing the same knights several decades later — but the idea has never gone anywhere.

Mostly, he told wonderful stories and to the delight of the audience, kept lapsing into characters from Python routines — although when one lady asked, "What's your favorite color?", he and Shearer both seemed to miss the reference to a key scene in Holy Grail. He impressed most of us as very humble and very, very nice. When we left, he was still there signing program books for people and he looked like he was going to stay until he'd signed for everyone who wanted an autograph. For all I know, he may still be there.

Before you take any more prescription medicines, you might want to watch this nice bit o' animation. (If that doesn't play, try this link.)

This morning, a man on trial in Atlanta grabbed a gun from a deputy and shot his way out of the courthouse, killing several people, including the judge. Obviously, a great tragedy.

However, I have to share this with you. I hadn't heard about it when I turned on CNN and the first words out of my TV were: "…and he seized a weapon in the courtroom and shot at least three people, including the judge, before getting away."

My immediate thought, for about three seconds, was: Oh, no! Was this Michael Jackson or Robert Blake?

I've pretty much given up linking to articles on the future of TiVo. There are hundreds of them out there, many employing the phrase "death watch," which is never a good sign. There seems to be no doubt that TiVo has suffered from the kind of technological lag that doomed the Betamax. For whatever reason, its makers simply have not advanced the product at a sufficient rate to remain competitive, and TiVo is taking body blows from the many breeds of Personal Video Recorder now being offered by local cable companies.

I remain mildly skeptical of claims that TiVo's demise is a foregone conclusion. We've heard that about too many things that are still around, including the Democratic party, and if TiVo is acquired or comes through with a breakthrough upgrade, it could be a brand new ballgame. Even as matters stand, the company's fourth quarter earnings report (this one) contains a fair amount of encouraging news. Hidden in there though are details of the vast amounts of cash that have been spent to buy much of that good news via rebates and giveaways. You can get long lines outside your restaurant if you're giving the food away…but only for so long.

Many futures are possible, including TiVo merging into some other computer-based product. There's talk of acquisition by Apple, which could make TiVo an adjunct to its iPod line, the two devices interfacing and morphing into one another. At some point soon, we're all going to be buying or upgrading to some sort of omnipotent Media Machine that will reside in our homes, connected to all sources of entertainment: Satellite TV and/or radio, cable, the Internet, maybe a DVD library, etc. Such devices will capture everything we wish to listen to or view and output it to DVDs or CDs or MP3 players or route it to various players around our home network. It remains to be seen whether TiVo will be a component of a leading brand of one.

Worst case scenario, of course, is that TiVo goes under, which it well might. What that will mean to those of us who own one (or in my case, three) is probably a brief period of chaos as it goes Open Source, releasing the necessary codes so that new companies can sell us the programming information guides that we now download from TiVo. Then we can all continue to use our TiVos until we give up and switch to those fancy-shmancy Home Media Machines. Or maybe someone will be wise enough to market one that will interface with your old TiVo and allow you to continue to use it. I just hope they keep that cute little TiVo logo guy around. I've grown accustomed to that fellow. He's on my TV more often than Regis Philbin…and he's a lot funnier.

In his current column, which I linked to yesterday, Frank Rich makes mention of a roast for Hugh Hefner that was taped not long after 9/11. I see that Comedy Central is rerunning the TV version of it on Monday night or Tuesday morning, depending on which time zone you're in.

It's an odd show, indeed. At one point, Sarah Silverman is roasting Hef and she makes a comment about how he has no idea where he is. At times, it sure looked that way. For most of the show, he sits there quietly and acts like he's enjoying a steady stream of jokes about his age, his declining sexual abilities, his use of Viagra and the low I.Q. and morals of a bevy of blonde lady friends who escort him about. Some of the jokes will make you cringe but there are moments of brilliance, and an occasional oblique reference to the tragedy that was still hanging over New York on the night they taped the thing. You'll get frustrated at all the bleeps and at a number of bad edits that hint that much material (probably dirtier and funnier) has been excised.

If you want to really enjoy it, do this: TiVo the show and watch it with remote in hand. Catch a little of Sarah Silverman, then skip ahead to watch Ice-T, not because he's any good but because what he does is the set-up to Gilbert Gottfried. Then leap to the end and watch Gilbert, who is absolutely hilarious. (On second thought, you might want to miss the part where Ms. Silverman says to Alan King that a nursing home in Florida just called to say, "The last person who thought you were funny just died." It kind of loses something since Mr. King's passing.)

As I'm sure we all agree, there should be a whole series of books in print of Walt Kelly's classic newspaper strip, Pogo. One of these days, there will be…because Pogo was maybe the wittiest, liveliest comic of all time. And you know what? It hasn't dated. Even though it was at times political, everything old is new again and its commentaries are frighteningly relevant today. Plus, it's funny and filled with some of the best-drawn comic characters ever. The good people of Italy found out some or all of this recently when one of their leading newspapers sponsored a new paperback reprinting material from two of the American paperbacks of yore.

Okay, so it's not the kind of Pogo book we crave. But it is a new Pogo book, and Pogo completists have been eager to get their mitts on a copy of what may turn out to be the rarest Pogo item in this country.

The management of the Official Pogo Website (which includes me) has managed to get hold of, and is now selling copies of this book. We don't have many, and they're in Italian. But we know some folks who'll have to have one, and they can order them over on that webpage. If you've seen the way prices skyrocket on Pogo collectibles, you know what a big-deal bargain this is. If you want to hold out for something in English, we certainly understand…but it may be a while.

I turned on the news this morning just in time to watch it erupt with reports that Michael Jackson was not showing up in court and that the judge had issued a warrant for his arrest and a time limit. One could hear the newsfolks practically salivating at visions of helicopters tracking him as per the infamous O.J. Simpson freeway chase. Unfortunately for that dream, Jackson did show up…but as a consolation prize to the media, he arrived in pajamas, thereby providing them with plenty to talk about, at least for a while. For some ungodly reason, I'm watching Court TV, where people who've never met Michael Jackson are constructing a psychiatric profile of him based on this morning's actions.

This whole thing is like a traffic accident: You hate it but it's hard not to look.

Hold it. This just in: The jury deliberating in the Robert Blake case is having lunch. They're in a private lunchroom at the Van Nuys courthouse and they're having pizza and lasagna.

I'm not going to wait around for someone to try and connect this information to the fact that the murder occurred outside an Italian restaurant. Someone will. But I'm turning off the TV before they do.

June Foray got a warm reception last evening when she appeared at a Barnes & Noble to sign her new book, Perverse, Adverse and Rottenverse. A lot of her fans turned out to hear her talk about her career and read from the book, and it was just a very nice time. I even learned something I hadn't previously known about June. When director Arthur Hiller was assembling the movie, The Hospital, he needed some dialogue looped by co-star Diana Rigg. Unfortunately, Ms. Rigg was back in England and the release date was drawing near…so June was brought in to do an imitation. I'm going to dig up the DVD and see if I can figure out which lines are June.