It's the video that was made for the White House Correspondents Dinner in Washington during Bill Clinton's final year in office. The short was directed by Phil Rosenthal, who was behind Everybody Loves Raymond, and it was intended to answer the question of what the outgoing president was doing all day. As such, it generally pleased both those who liked Clinton and those who enjoyed seeing him go. You probably fall into one of those two categories so you might enjoy it. Runs about six minutes.
The conversation was a bit more interesting on this week's installment of Real Time With Bill Maher — the episode that debuted last Friday night and repeats throughout the week — but I'm still not enjoying it as much as I did last season.
There's a curious exchange with Maher, Larry Miller, Gloria Steinem and Ramesh Ponnuru. Miller, who is more or less pro-Bush, is making the argument that wiretaps are necessary because, you know, we might hear someone planning another terrorist attack and be able to stop it. This is a reasonable point but it's also, insofar as I can tell, not in dispute.
Miller further insists that time might be of the essence and that there might not be time to go before a judge and get a warrant. And for some reason, no one else on the show says, "Larry, haven't you read anything about this? There's a provision in the law that says they don't have to wait for a warrant if there's insufficient time for that. They can wiretap and then apply for the warrant up to 72 hours later." Maher is usually sharp about this kind of thing but he doesn't point that out. He's not the only person muddying the issue, which is not about whether wiretaps might be a useful tool in protecting America. The point of actual contention is whether the president can or should be able to order wiretaps without any supervision by the F.I.S.A. court, either before or after the fact. How about if someone tries debating that?
The New York Times has an article up about Alan Moore and his various battles with DC Comics and with the folks who have made (or tried to make) motion pictures out of his graphic novels.
We were talking here recently about product placement in TV shows and movies. This got me to thinking about the first time I was ever conscious of this in a program I watched. Kids' shows of the fifties and sixties were filled with commercials that merged almost seamlessly with content but there were the more blatant crossings of that imaginary dividing line. One occurred a couple times on Quick Draw McGraw. Quick Draw occasionally employed the services of a bloodhound named Snuffles who had a "thing" for dog biscuits. Give him one and he'd hug himself in delight, then literally float up in the air and down to earth, breathing a sigh of ecstatic fulfillment.
And what kind of dog biscuits evoked this reaction from Quick Draw's pooch? Why, Gro-Pup T-Bone Dog Biscuits, of course. Above, you see Snuffles holding a box of them in a Quick Draw McGraw cartoon — and this is not a commercial. This is a frame-grab from a cartoon. Anyone here think it was probably just a coincidence that Gro-Pups were manufactured by the Kellogg's cereal people, and Kellogg's was the sponsor of Quick Draw McGraw? Didn't think so. In fact, in at least one cartoon, the box wasn't a hand-drawn abstract like the above but an actual, pasted-in photo of the real Gro-Pup box. This was shortly before Augie Doggie, another character on the Quick Draw show, began turning up on the Gro-Pup boxes in stores.
I actually noticed this shameless bit of payola when I saw the show at age eight. It did not make me want to run out and buy that brand of dog biscuits, possibly because we didn't have a dog. But I did think it was cheating and I still do.
As you may have heard, CBS is suing Howard Stern, who is retaliating with some pretty scathing comments about CBS head honcho Les Moonves. A lot of folks were wondering what Howard, who was scheduled to be a guest with David Letterman on Monday night, would say there…and how Dave, who is said to be a close friend of Moonves, would respond.
If they're ever to find out, it won't be on Monday. The name of Howard Stern has suddenly disappeared from Letterman's guest list and that of Vin Diesel has mysteriously appeared in its stead.
We will hear more about this. Whether we want to or not.
Sometimes, I don't link to something because everyone else on the 'net seems to be doing so, and I figure that by the time you get to this site, you've seen it. But then, dozens and dozens of people send me the link as if I'm unaware of it. That's happening with this video that re-creates the opening of The Simpsons in live-action…though with a lot of CGI in there. So I'm posting it just to save you all the time of writing me to tell me about it. In case you're wondering who made it and why, here's that explanation. And here's the video link…
There's a quote making the rounds from Graydon Carter of Vanity Fair. It seeks to answer the question of why George W. Bush always sounds like he's talking to an audience of very small children…
He speaks to the audience as if they're idiots. I think the reason he does that is because that's the way these issues were explained to him.
There may be some truth to that but I'd like to throw out another thought. I think powerful, successful people cling to certain management styles and techniques that have worked for them in the past. When Michael Dukakis was defeated in his presidential bid, someone asked him why, when it was obvious the last week or so that he was not going to win, he didn't try something different. His answer, and I think this is more typical than not, is that when you're in a crunch is not the time to abandon all the things that got you as far as they did. Especially in crisis situations, most folks' tendency is to retreat to the methods of past successes, even though what worked then and there might not apply here and now.
I saw some old footage on C-Span a week or two ago of Bush in his Texas governor days. I can see why this guy got elected. He had a skill for simplifying issues down to the point where they sounded like his position was the only moral or intelligent option. It may not have been an intellectually honest approach, painting the opposing path as something it was not, but there was always an edge of humility to it. He laid out his case as if the choice was more important than he was, and it didn't sound condescending, didn't make him sound like a Kindergarten teacher. Maybe it's just that as he's gotten more powerful (and in his mind, I'm sure, more successful), the humble part of that has gotten harder and harder to retain.
There are still some people out there who admire the man's tenacity and cocksuredness. Having occasionally suffered at the hands of people who were absolutely sure of their direction, long after open minds would have realized they were going the wrong way, I don't find that as admirable as some do. A lot of people say Bush doesn't care about the polls and that he's sure history will vindicate him as having done the right thing in Iraq. I don't think there's ever been a politician who didn't care about the polls, if only because bad polling numbers make it more difficult to accomplish one's objectives. I'm more inclined to view Bush as a gambler who got lucky for a time with a system…and now that he's losing, all he knows how to do is bet more on that system.
In our never-ending quest to spend all your money, we're going to recommend two new DVDs of less famous Buster Keaton material. Both have been assembled with uncommon care and consideration, and both give you a chance to see Buster when he wasn't at the top of his form (or budgets) but still with flashes of the grand Keaton style.
Buster Keaton – 65th Anniversary Collection gives you the ten short comedies he made from Columbia between 1939 and 1941. Buster's career had fallen to the point where the man who'd once made The General now had the same job (and directors) as the Three Stooges. Compared to Keaton at his peak, the shorts are disappointing. Then again, compared to Keaton at his peak, almost every comedy film is disappointing. In these shorts, you can see Buster often rise above his material and production values, and the DVD is a first-rate package with good transfers and plenty of historical extras.
Industrial Strength Keaton is a collection of Buster's oddments and leftovers — a few of his shorts, some promotional films, a number of his appearances on early television and a load of the commercials he made in the late fifties and early sixties. Some devoted Keaton fans dug all this stuff up and wrapped it in informative commentaries, and while it's no substitute for Buster's best work (this stuff), it's a nice add-on for the devotee of the man's talents.
The above titles link to Amazon pages where you can buy the two DVDs for (at the moment) $19.86 and $18.99 respectively. Note that each page currently has one of those great Amazon package deals. This one lets you buy them both at the same time for $38.85, a savings of…well, let me call up my little on-screen calculator and do the complicated math on this for you. Aha! Yes, as I expected, it's a terrific savings of absolutely nothing. Well, I guess it saves you a couple of mouse clicks. In any case, Buster is worth it.
The L.A. Times has a nice article on pin-up queen Bettie Page…though for some reason, the name of the artist most responsible for her "rediscovery" — Dave Stevens — is unmentioned.
Mitchell Anthony produces and hosts Creating Success, a widely heard podcast that interviews successful creative people about how they do what they do. The guest on his latest installment belies the premise…which is a coy way of saying it's me. If you're an iTunes person, you can hear this show (it runs about ten minutes) at this link. If you're not, here's a link to a plain ol' MP3 download. We mainly discuss what it's like these days to try to break into writing or drawing comic books…
Woody Allen's years as a stand-up comedian are covered in a BBC radio special you can listen to by clicking here. It's about 23 minutes and includes comments from Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, Dom DeLuise and others. BBC radio shows often do not remain on the website for long so if you want to listen, don't dawdle. And if you enjoy it, don't thank me. Thank Shelly Goldstein, who sent me the link.
Continuing with our extravaganza of video links, here's thirteen minutes of Tom Lehrer performing…
If you've been thinking of buying a TiVo, their lifetime service deal is about to go away. No firm cut-off date has been announced but TiVo dealers are saying that the rumored date is March 15, which is next week. After that, you won't be able to buy lifetime service for any amount of money and certainly not for the current price of $299.
To make sure we're clear on this: When you get lifetime service, it's one machine's lifetime, not your lifetime. When TiVo originally started, they didn't make this clear so they allowed a lot of us early subscribers to transfer our lifetime subscriptions to another machine…once. It can no longer be transferred.
$299 is a great deal if you're going to keep your TiVo twenty-four months or more. I've had two of mine for more than four years and will surely be using at least one for another year or two. If I'd been paying by the month for those two machines, I'd have spent around $700 on each for the service.
A few years ago, there was little question that you would keep a TiVo for more than two years. Today, it's a bit more arguable. The current Series 2 TiVo machines do not handle Hi-Def. The Series 3 machines, which will allegedly be out at the end of the year, will have that capability, as well as the capacity to record two shows at once and there'll be other nifty features, as well. The grapevine suggests, however, that the Series 3 TiVos will lack certain existing features like multi-room viewing, which is the ability to transfer shows from a TiVo in one room to a TiVo in another, assuming you have two TiVos and that you have them networked. If you're thinking you might dump your Series 2 TiVo for a Series 3, lifetime service might not be such a peachy idea. On the other hand, it might be very easy to sell that Series 2 TiVo with lifetime service to someone who doesn't care about High Def.
So the decision's yours. All I'm saying is that if you're going to get lifetime service, you'd better get it now. You have to have the serial number for your TiVo and then order the service from the TiVo website.
You know, for all the touting I do of their products here, you'd think I owned stock in TiVo…but I don't. Maybe I should because one of these days — who knows? — the company might even start showing a profit.
I seem to be on a Google Video kick all of a sudden. Here's a video clip of a high-speed freeway pursuit from Oklahoma that I always thought was remarkable — one of those things that if you saw it in a movie, you'd think was hokey. Click on the little arrow to watch it. It's about two and a half minutes.
In 1972, there was a summer replacement TV series on ABC called The Ken Berry "Wow" Show. I don't understand the name either but that's not important right now. What is important is that someone (not me) is looking for video of this forgotten series to include in an upcoming TV special. If you have any episodes, drop me a line and I'll forward it to the appropriate party.