I linked to a copy of this animation last Christmas and people loved it. That link's gone dead and several of you have written to ask if I had a new one. I didn't…but this morn, I did a little Googling and found you a new one. This link will take you directly to the animation in case you want to download it or in case the embedded version below doesn't work on your browser. Here are Santa and his Reindeer doing their imitation of Clyde McPhatter and The Drifters…
Here are some responses to my message earlier this morning about fast food and how I don't enjoy it as much as I once did. This first one's from Doug Cuff…
Thanks for asking "Is it me or have these places plunged in quality lately?" It hadn't occurred to me that the Colonel's chicken had declined in quality. I just assumed I wasn't enjoying it as much (nor the burgers from Burger King) because I was getting older. Maybe it's neither me nor my arteries. None of this will stop me from chowing down on In and Out french fries next time I get a chance. And I might as well have a burger and a milkshake after a journey like that…
A tip when you're at In and Out: Try asking for your fries "well done." That won't get you anything different in most places but they know what they're doing at In and Out, and it also makes for a big difference because they use fresh potatoes there. Won't help you at Arby's, though. This next message is from Gary Emenitove…
I used to be a big fan of Arby's, to the point where I'd drive the hour and a half from Dubuque to Madison just to indulge. (I am not kidding and was known for this foolishness.) Then I moved to Omaha where Arby's were plentiful and I could partake whenever I wanted, and did so fairly regularly. Until about a year or two ago, when apparently the company took some new direction in its food. Their standard fare was still there, but seemingly in smaller, less-flavorful portions. They pushed all sorts of new, apparently-more-healthful sandwiches, and frankly I didn't like any of them. Then the final straw — they changed their chicken. And had the audacity to proclaim the new chicken "better" in ads. Sorry, but the previous Arby's chicken was a big reason I visited often. Now, I don't go there at all. I suspect they're aiming for a younger crowd, but they've lost this consumer in the meantime.
When I worked for Sid and Marty Krofft, we were usually on the KTLA lot on Sunset in Hollywood…a facility with no commissary. There was a catering truck there occasionally but it was undependable and awful. The food from that truck destroyed more people in television than all the Tom Arnold sitcoms have since then. So when I needed a fast bite, the only answer was the nearby Arby's, and I recall it being quite acceptable. I mean, the roast beef sandwich is only a roast beef sandwich by a technicality but it was fine for what it was.
A few weeks ago, I was in a time crunch and I drove through that same Arby's for the first time in twenty years. Got a roast beef sandwich that I think had been prepared shortly after my previous visit…with "meat" (I'm being charitable) stamped out of plastic sheeting. It was literally two bites and into the dumpster. I didn't even leave their property with the putative food. As the following message from Ted Frank suggests, some of this could be about my changing taste buds but in the case of that Arby's meal, no. It was just really a decline from what the product used to be. Here's what Ted sent…
I can't speak to the Corn 'n' Cluck, but I know from personal experience of losing 60 pounds that one's tastes change and one becomes less tolerant of the fat+sodium formula that makes fast food so enjoyable if one goes a long time without it: that Burger King chicken sandwich or Papa John's pizza I craved just a few months ago becomes barely edible, and I don't think that the quality dropped so much over a few months.
That's kind of what I was thinking was true in part but I think it's also that these places are going for cheaper ingredients or, more likely, food that is largely prepared elsewhere and then just reheated (sort of) on the premises. I can't find it now but a few months ago, I read an article on the wondrous worldwide web about how Burger King was squeezing their new outlets into smaller and smaller retail spaces and that this had necessitated some changes in how it was prepared. I think in some cases, we're almost to the point where the kids in the fast food stands are just opening cans and dumping the stuff into glorified microwaves.
Anyway, I'm receiving a lot of interesting mail on this topic. I may post some more later today. Thanks to everyone who offered their thoughts.
Since my surgery last May, I've generally been eating healthier…and I've found my tastes evolving in new, non-sugary directions. So I'm not sure how much of what I'm about to discuss here is to me changing and how much is because of the food. But three times since the operation, I've gone to fast food restaurants that I used to occasionally patronize…and all three times, what I got was so awful that I took two bites and chucked the meal into the trash.
The three visits were to an Arby's, where I ordered the basic roast beef sandwich and an order of their potato cakes…to a Jack-in-the-Box where I got a simple hamburger with a side of onion rings…and to a KFC for a small order of chicken strips. These are all things I'd eaten in the past, usually when I was in a desperate rush to get something to eat, and while they were never great, they were at least edible. Not now they aren't. I am not kidding when I say that I ate two bites of each and tossed my purchase. In all three cases, I went to the fast food place because I felt in need of some fast food…that is to say, I had to be somewhere in X minutes, felt I should eat something before I got there, and the Arby's (or whatever) seemed like the only viable option. In all three cases, I decided I'd just be better off not eating the item(s).
Is it me or have these places plunged in quality lately? I'm not suggesting they were ever places that could set a gourmet's taste buds a-tingle, and I never thought Jack-in-the Box was very good…although come to think of it, there was a time when Kentucky Fried Chicken was pretty darned tasty. It was never particularly healthy cuisine but before Colonel Sanders sold out his interest in the chain, the chicken was — as advertised — finger-lickin' good. In the last few years of his life, the Colonel used to bitch about how the new owners had changed his recipe and cooking methods, and say that he was ashamed of the contents of all those buckets his face adorned. He was right…but even then, the chicken wasn't as bad as it is now.
Back in the sixties, my friends and I loved the Corn 'n' Cluck special at Colonel Sanders'. The advertising slogan was "Corn 'n' Cluck for under a buck and what it meant was that for 99 cents, you got two pieces of chicken and a piece of corn. You could chart the rise of inflation by how the make-up of the KFC Corn 'n' Cluck special devolved. At first, you got a breast and a drumstick plus half a cob of corn. I'm guessing that as their costs went up, they decided to lower the content, rather than raise the price and lose that great rhyming slogan. So every time I bought one, it would contain less corn and less cluck. I think the last Corn 'n' Cluck I ever bought consisted of two small wings and a third of an ear of corn. After that, I gave up. I figured that the next one would include a beak and a couple of niblets.
Still, it was good chicken then, what there was of it. It isn't now; not judging by those chicken strips I had a couple weeks ago. They were all breading…and not even particularly good or fresh breading. When you can't even make fat fried in oil taste good, you're really doing something wrong. KFC is reportedly planning to change the look of the Colonel, younging him up and going for a hipper mascot. If they want to get my business back, they ought to try making the chicken the way it was made when the chain originally became successful. There was a reason for that success and it wasn't because ol' Harland Sanders looked like a happening dude.
For now, I'm giving up on all those places — every one except In and Out Burger, which is in a class by itself. And I'm writing this message to remind myself that I'm giving up on Arby's, KFC and Jack-in-the-Box and, while I'm at it, Burger King, Wendy's, Carls Jr and all the rest, up to and including the place with the Golden Arches. I know the food isn't healthy at any of them but I need to remember that's not the reason I'm crossing them all off my list. I'm doing it because what they serve doesn't taste good to me any more. I'm sorry these places have ruined their products…and sorrier still that they didn't do it twenty years earlier. If they had, I might not have needed Weight Reduction Surgery,
I'm not sure I have this story 100% right but here goes: When they made the James Bond film Thunderball in 1965, the opening song was originally going to be a tune called "Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" that was written by John Barry and Leslie Bricusse, and sung by Dionne Warwick. Its title was a popular nickname for Mr. Bond, especially in the foreign press.
The main titles were filmed and edited to that track and then the producers, Albert Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, got to worrying that it was the wrong song. Reportedly, they felt that a vital part of their films' promotion involved having a hit song out there that endlessly repeated the name of the movie…and of course, "Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" didn't reference the title, didn't yell at people to go out and see Thunderball. So Mr. Barry got together with lyricist Don Black and they came up with a song called "Thunderball," which was recorded for them by Tom Jones and it was substituted for the Warwick track. (Also reportedly, Johnny Cash took a crack at writing and recording a song called "Thunderball" but his submission wasn't used, either. It was probably all about 007 riding trains, drinking coffee and being in prison.)
This clip consists of the opening titles of Thunderball with the original track reinstated. I don't think it's a better song but I think it fits better with the visuals. I guess that's only to be expected since they were calibrated to this tune instead of the one recorded by Mr. Jones.
Simon Maloy owns up to the plot to destroy Christmas.
A funny Christmas video. Except that those of you who do voiceovers for a living may not find it all that funny.
Thursday night, they ran the episode of Identity with Stan Lee as one of the "strangers" whose identity a contestant had to guess. It wasn't a toughie. By the time they'd gotten around to him, they'd eliminated Break Dancer, Opera Singer and Sushi Chef as options, and somehow, I can't see Stan doing any of those things. Well, maybe the break dancing. The other choices were that he was the Youngest person up there (nope), an Alligator Wrestler (also nope), a Bouncer (ha), a Fitness Model (double ha), a CSI Investigator (slight maybe), a Kidney Donor (possible), a Vegas Showgirl (well, he does have great legs) or the World's Fastest Man (likewise).
And…oh, yeah: Created Spider-Man. I think I'd go with that. None of the other strangers looked anything like Steve Ditko.
Stan's appearance got me to thinking: The late Harvey Kurtzman used to speak of his "reward" and how the financial and employment situation in comics, back when he launched MAD, did not allow him to claim it. He had created something of enormous value…but in a system that compensated him as if he hadn't. In books, movies, television or practically any other entertainment medium, if you created something lucrative — or even if someone else created it but you were a major contributor — you could share in the gold mine. But not then in comics. Not for most of the great creative talents of comics' first forty years.
Now, in some cases — and Kurtzman was arguably one — the creators may have mishandled the business/contractual side of their working arrangements and made it easier or even quite legal for the publishers to stiff them. And there were folks like Bob Kane who did a lot better than others.
Still, the general dynamic was just what Harvey lamented; that you could create something worth millions…and the next day, they could pay you the same as someone who'd created zip, or even fire you and take your name off your creation. There are some pretty ugly stories of this kind of thing occurring and they're a source of great discomfort and sadness for so many of us who follow the history of the business. There are also, happily, stories of some who got their "rewards" in other ways. These include doing cover re-creations (if they're artists), signing collectors' prints or editions, and getting other, better-paying projects due to the reputations they achieved from their poor-paying comic book creations.
Stan Lee did not do badly at Marvel. He worked his way up to a salary of a million dollars a year from them plus a nice percentage of current film revenues. He is also receiving other "rewards" via other means because he is famous as the creator (or more correctly, co-creator) of Spider-Man, The Hulk, The X-Men and so many more.
It's fascinating how far-famed Stan has become. Last week, GSN ran a 1970 episode of To Tell the Truth. Marvel Comics were pretty popular in '70 but Stan himself was still "unknown" enough that he could appear on that show, along with two impostors, under the presumption that none of the four panelists would know which one was the real Stan Lee. As the kids of that era have become the adults of today, that anonymity has gone away. A few years ago, he appeared in the same capacity on a revival of To Tell the Truth. This time, Stan and the two impostors had to all wear masks or there wouldn't have been any game.
And now, here he was the other night on Identity…and when the live audience realized who he was (a bit ahead of the contestant), there was a decided "ooh" and a murmur of excitement. He's a superstar, as famous as any of his second-string characters. The other day, I had an electrician in here and when he found out I did comic books, he immediately asked me, "Have you ever met Stan Lee?"
There are a number of reasons he's receiving all this when others haven't and one, of course, is that others made the mistake of dying. Someone said to me the other day that if Jack Kirby had lived to see how wealthy and celebrated Stan has become, it would have killed him. I think not…because if Jack were alive today, he'd be getting his share in both categories. Or at least, he'd have the chance to exploit his credits the way Stan has wisely exploited his stature as the co-creator of those properties. (This is another way of saying Jack would not have done what Ditko has done, becoming a near-hermit, refusing all offers and opportunities.)
Stan will be (mumble, mumble) years of age next Thursday. I'll post some more thoughts on this topic then when we wish him a Happy Stan Lee Day. I just think it's interesting that the comic book industry has so rarely made its giants rich or famous…and that the fans have had to assume that responsibility.
Cartoonist Bob Foster is living and working up in Portland for I-don't-know-how-long. He's taken the opportunity to take a lot of great photos which you might enjoy.
Here's a short video with a long explanation. In 1982, Joe Barbera asked me to write a prime-time Yogi Bear Christmas special for CBS. One of these days, I'll have to publish the whole, amazing story of how this one came to be but basically, it was an impossible job for All Concerned. The show had to be written in about four days, storyboarded in about a third of the time these things usually take and animated in less than half the time the animators needed. To further complicate an impossible task, there was (1) a huge negotiation battle with the agent representing Daws Butler, the voice of Yogi and nine other characters, (2) a storyboard artist whose work had to be tossed and redone, thereby wasting three of the four weeks allotted on the schedule for that task…and (3) a strike by the Animation Union.
But somehow, they got it on the air. It was delivered to CBS two days before the broadcast date and the guys at the network found (correctly) all sorts of mistakes in it…animation errors, missing footage, etc. The animation folks in Australia actually did a pretty good job under the circumstances. A couple of editors did a last minute patch job and the show was telecast to all of America with the errors reduced (but not totally eliminated) and with two key scenes absent. I like parts of it, cringe at other sections…and am not unhappy it hasn't been rerun anywhere lately or put out on DVD.
I mentioned it the other day when I appeared on Shokus Internet Radio. In particular, I mentioned that Snagglepuss had been bleeped when he mentioned Chanukah. I was not kidding. I wrote a line where the lion said, "Merry Christmas! Seasons Greetings! Happy Chanukah even!" Everyone who had to approve the script — which was a whole lot of people — approved it and it was recorded that way and the animation was done accordingly.
In December, when the last minute edits were being done, someone at CBS decided that the reference to Chanukah had to go. I do not know precisely why. At the time, and later when I wrote one article about this, I didn't know even if it had been done at CBS or if someone at Hanna-Barbera had been responsible…but then a friend at the network showed me a memo he'd dug out of the files. It merely said that CBS was insisting on the deletion, no explanation given.
In all my years of cartoon watching, this is the only time I've ever heard of a cartoon getting bleeped. Dialogue is often edited out or redone for reasons of taste or "standards" but in every other case, it's done in an undetectable manner. They redub the words or chop out a whole line or something. In this case, presumably because the show was edited (literally) the day before it aired, they just cut the word out and there was an obvious jump where "Chanukah" should have been. The edit was apparently made on the one-inch master tape because it was that way when the show came out a few years ago on VHS.
As I said, I mentioned this on the radio show. Some listener took it upon him- or herself to locate the video, edit a ten-second clip and to upload it to an online video site. So here it is as today's link…and I remain as stunned and mystified as you will probably be as to why this was done. I thought my people were supposed to run Hollywood but I guess I was wrong.
Is this new? My e-mailbox this morning is filled with advertising from almost every merchant with whom I've done business in the last year or two…messages with Subject Lines like "It's not too late" or "Still time to shop." Some say that if I order from them by Noon and pay some huge Saturday FedEx delivery fee, they'll get my last-minute gift to someone tomorrow so the person will have it before Christmas.
Okay, I think I remember a lot of similar e-mails last year. What I don't remember is this offer that a number of them are also making…
Place your order by Midnight on Saturday night and we'll e-mail your recipient and tell them your gift is on the way and that it will arrive shortly after Christmas.
Years ago, Saturday Night Live had a bogus commercial for a FedEx-type company that would take the blame for late packages. If you were two weeks late sending someone something, they'd deliver it and — presumably for a hefty price — swear you'd sent it three weeks earlier. We may be only one Christmas from such a service becoming available to us. You'll be able to order on December 26 and they'll deliver it on December 28 with their apology for delaying an order placed on December 18. Watch for it.
Do you know what Rifftrax are? Well, this page will explain what they are and also give you a chance to get a free one. But basically, what they are are "alternative commentary tracks" for your favorite DVDs. A team of expert riffers record silly comments in the manner of Mystery Science Theater 3000, a classic series for which the same riffers riffed.
So you got the concept? The guys from MST3000 record new commentary tracks…you buy and download them…then you watch the DVD but you listen to their comments. Only in this case, you don't have to buy your first one since they're making one — for Nestor, The Long-Eared Christmas Donkey — available for free. Give it a try. Nothing to lose.
A kindly reader of this site sent me a nice Christmas gift — the PC version of the Deal or No Deal game show. At least, I think it was a kind gesture. It may have been one of the half-dozen folks who routinely send me e-mails explaining how I'm wrong not to think George W. Bush is a great president. I wouldn't put it past one of them to think they could keep me busy with the game so I wouldn't post any more articles that make them grind their molars.
If that was the goal, they figured wrong. The computer version of Deal or No Deal wouldn't keep anyone busy for more than about fifteen minutes. You play it a couple of times, ogle the odd graphics and put it away forever. Gamewise, it's a faithful reproduction of the TV show but all the fancy music and dramatic pauses still cause a very simple game to take a lot longer than it should. There are many online versions (including this one on the NBC website) that let you play the same game a lot faster.
The only reason to spring for the twenty bucks and get the PC version is for the graphics…and I might have gone for it if they had the real models in there and you felt Up Close and Personal with them as you played. But all the people — Howie Mandel, the models, even the audience — are CGI animations and the models are all generic, unsexy types. Howie's pretty generic and unsexy, too…and it's a little creepy to watch the computer-animated representation of him gesturing with odd, mechanical gestures and speaking with almost no lip-sync.
Makes you wonder why they went to the trouble to build a computer-animated Howie Mandel. Why didn't they just videotape the real guy? I'm guessing they did the whole thing in CGI because it would have been too expensive to pay all 26 models to actually appear in the game, Too bad…because it might have made you feel like you were actually playing for real. As it was, I almost wanted to take a bad banker's offer just so I could get out and stop looking at the weird computerized people.
I actually never saw this before I spotted it on YouTube. It's the opening to the 1988 Yogi Bear Show and it's made up of clips from classic Yogi cartoons (many of them from the feature, Hey There, It's Yogi Bear) and a pleasant, newly-recorded rendition of Yogi's theme song.
Joe Barbera always resisted when people asked him to name his favorite character. It was the one they were currently working on, he'd say. But I'm convinced that if you'd strapped him down and pumped him full of sodium pentothal, he'd have told you Yogi was his fave. A couple times, we got to talking about that bear and you could always see the man's face light up. It was the only Hanna-Barbera character I ever heard him imitate. Of course, some of that may have been because Yogi was the studio's first superstar.
J.B. and I had an interesting conversation one day about Yogi. In some of his cartoons, Yogi is a real operator, largely in control of the situation, able to con tourists out of their pic-a-nic baskets and to snow the Ranger and not get punished. In others, he's something of a victim, unable to escape from Jellystone Park or getting repeatedly blasted and mauled by the crew of a movie shooting in the park. I generally preferred the competent con artist Yogi and wrote him that way whenever I wrote him…but I had to ask Mr. B. why the inconsistency.
He was startled by the question and admitted he'd never noticed the change. At the same time though, he acknowledged it was a valid observation and he began puzzling it out. After a pause, he said something like, "I think the problem was that we weren't used to doing cartoons for television then. We'd been doing the Tom and Jerrys and you never worried about that kind of thing because no one ever saw the films again. They ran and then they went away so if you had a funny idea, you just did it. Once we got established in television, we learned that these things would be rerun over and over so you had to be consistent from one to another."
That sounded like a good explanation to me…and as I type it here, it occurs to me that it may also be a partial answer to a question I was asked the other day on Shokus Internet Radio. A caller asked why Barney Rubble's voice changed so much from week to week during the first season of The Flintstones even when it was still Mel Blanc doing it.
Anyway, here's the opening to the '88 Yogi Bear program…
This weekend on C-Span 2: Art Buchwald, Too Soon to Say Goodbye. As we all know, the great columnist checked into a hospice in Washington last year with the expectation that he had 2-3 weeks to live. He's still alive and still writing, and this is a little 25 minute show about him. It airs Sunday at 11 AM and 5:30 PM, and on Monday at 6:30 PM and 9 PM, all times Eastern. My thanks to Gordon Kent for alerting me to this and I hereby forgive him for the lousy creamed corn I ate last night.
Meanwhile, here's a Head's Up! On Wednesday, January 10, there's something on Basic Cable that you're going to want to record, at least if you're a fan of great comic actors in very bad movies. I'll write about it here next week but trust Mark on this one. It's a classic and not in the good sense…and no, it's not Skidoo. It's not that awful…but it's close. Check this space in a few days for all the details.
You've all seen this a thousand times but I don't care. I feel like putting up the opening from The Jetsons because I feel like writing about the first time I saw that show.
It was the first night that show was on: Sunday evening, September 23, 1962…which means I would have been ten years of age. A great age to watch the first episode of The Jetsons.
I wonder if kids today get as excited about a new cartoon show as my friends and I did back then. We all loved what had emerged so far from the Hanna-Barbera studio and this was their new series. What's more, it was announced as the first series to be broadcast in color on ABC. My family and I did not then own a color set but Mrs. Hollingsworth down the street did. She was an elderly widow who was cranky about everything except me because I was so adorable. And if you think I'm adorable now, you should have seen me when I was ten. She invited me to come down and watch the new cartoon show on her set.
(Trivial Aside, of the kind that appears often on this website: We all agree, I'm sure, that H-B TV cartoons never had the visual richness and depth of Disney animation or any good Warner Brothers cartoon…or even the theatrical animation that Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera had produced for MGM. But something to consider is that they may have worked better on television then. The simple graphics, thick outlines and bold colors came across well on the primitive TV screens of the day. We didn't have 50" High Def Plasmas then, remember. My middle-class family watched its shows on a black-and-white 17" Zenith with reception via a cheap roof antenna. Even when new and tuned properly, it wasn't all that clear. Huckleberry Hound looked pretty good on that set, probably better than Fantasia would have fared.)
The Jetsons went on at 7:00 that first, fateful evening. I was at Mrs. Hollingsworth's, parked in front of the set in her den, by 6:30. Didn't want to miss a second. My mother had cooked a brisket for our dinner and as she sometimes did, she served up a plate of it — with potato pancakes and carrots and the works — and had me take it down to Mrs. Hollingsworth. We did that for her on holidays and special occasions, and this seemed like a special occasion. Mrs. Hollingsworth left me with the TV while she went into her dining room to dine.
She was back in time to watch the show with me, and I'm not sure she enjoyed it but she sure enjoyed how much I enjoyed it. I took an instant liking to The Jetsons. I even liked it more than The Flintstones and I liked The Flintstones a lot. The futuristic show seemed to me to have even more likeable characters doing even neater things. I also liked that I recognized the voice of Daws Butler as "his boy, Elroy." It wasn't a Hanna-Barbera cartoon without Daws.
When the story was over, Mrs. Hollingsworth made a move to turn off the TV before the end credits. I probably said something rude when I stopped her. The credits were almost the best part…in two ways. Something funny always happened under them…and I also wanted to read the names to see how many I recognized from other H-B shows I followed. Dutifully, not wanting to be hurt, Mrs. Hollingsworth waited for the show to be utterly and totally over before she snapped off her RCA. I ran back to my home, half a block away, and asked my father why we didn't have a color TV. I think within two or three years, we did.
By that time, of course, The Jetsons was gone from the ABC prime-time lineup, consigned for all eternity to daytime and syndicated reruns. It only lasted one season because, I suspect, the time slot was too competitive and much of America was set in its Sunday night viewing habits. When I first met Mr. Barbera, one of the things we talked about was how that show (and Top Cat) should have lasted a lot longer than they did.
He agreed. Those were two of his favorite shows and he said that in both cases, there were offers to continue production immediately for syndication but they were deficit offers, meaning the studio would have had to go way in the hole to produce them and hope they could recoup and turn a profit by the shows rerunning for a long time. They had not been in a position to take that gamble at the time, he said, but in hindsight, he wished they had.
Years later, his studio produced another batch of Jetsons episodes for syndication with the original voice cast but (largely) a new creative team. It wasn't the same, of course. The momentum was gone, the spirit was gone…and even Mrs. Hollingsworth wasn't around anymore.
Here's the first three minutes of an episode just as you remember it…