Monthly Archives: December 2006

Two articles in Slate you might want to give a look-see…

John Dickerson assesses how George W. Bush answers the repeated question about what he's learned. When we get around to tallying lists of why the country turned against the Iraq War, a biggie will have to be the truly awful job Bush has done of instilling confidence in people…and I don't even mean in Democrats and others predisposed to oppose him. I mean people who voted for him and believed in him and his word.

And Fred Kaplan explains in pretty good detail why the latest "surge" proposal is doomed to failure. The whole thing looks like an attempt to postpone the losing until it can occur on the next president's watch.

Jack Burnley spent his last years in Charlottesville, Virginia…not in Charlottesville, North Carolina as I said. We regret the error. We regret all errors. We especially regret ordering the creamed corn last night at dinner.

It is the sad but frequent duty of this weblog to report the passing of another veteran comic book creator. Jack Burnley died Tuesday at the age of 95. He was only active in comics from 1940 until 1947 but during that time, he drew some of the most memorable covers and co-created the popular super-hero, Starman. His renditions of Superman and Batman were among the first, if not the first, to be done outside the control of those characters' creators and his slick, professional approach did much to shape the image of those classic heroes.

Hardin "Jack" Burnley was born in 1911 and unlike many of the early illustrators of comic books, came to the field as an established professional. During the thirties, he worked as a sports cartoonist and illustrator in newspapers, and in the area of advertising specialties. In 1940, he was hired to do material for the World's Fair comic book that DC Comics was producing that year. The cover he drew (seen above) was the first time Superman and Batman ever appeared together in print. He soon began drawing covers for all the DC books, as well as frequent Superman stories to supplement the material being prepared by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. For a time, he penciled both the Batman and Superman syndicated newspaper strips, and he and writer Gardner Fox also launched their own feature, Starman, who appeared in Adventure Comics.

In 1947, Burnley decided a better living could be made back in newspapers and he returned to that field, working for The Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph and subsequently for The San Francisco News. He retired from that job in 1976 and moved with his wife Dolores, a former dancer, to Charlottesville, North Carolina Virginia [Correction] in 1981. Jack and Dolores were said to be inseparable in life and their passings showed a similar sense of togetherness. Dolores died in 2003 from complications relating to a broken hip and Jack just died in the same retirement home from the same thing.

I'm afraid I have no personal anecdotes or insights into Mr. Burnley as I never met the man. Always admired his work, though. The guy could really draw and it's a shame that comics lost his talents when they did.

You missed it! But don't worry…Stu's Show, featuring Stu Shostak and Yours Truly discussing Hanna-Barbera and the late Joe Barbera, reruns throughout the next week. Consult this schedule to get the time in your zone when you can listen in.

At this very moment, I'm on Shokus Internet Radio discussing Joe Barbera with my pal, Stu Shostak. If you read this in the next hour, click here to come over and listen in on our conversation.

I'm going to take my life into my hands now and attempt to embed a video from last night's Daily Show With Jon Stewart. This is dangerous because the Comedy Central website was designed by someone who apparently thought it would be hilarious to configure the most confusingly-designed website on the 'net and to include all sorts of complex animations and scripts to muck up our browsers. I always have the feeling when I'm there that I could click on the wrong thing and take the entire network completely off the air.

But it's worth the gamble to make sure you've seen Jon Stewart's interview with William Kristol, perhaps the punditry's leading advocate of the following Foreign Policy: Whenever something's wrong somewhere in the world, we should go in, show everyone that we possess awesome power, reduce them to subservience, make them have free elections ("free" in the sense that they have to elect only the leaders we want them to elect) and then allow American business to go in and exploit the situation. This actually may not be a bad strategy for some nations but Kristol and his crew seem to think it's a universal solution for everything and everywhere…and the fact that it keeps failing and creating more problems for us is a minor quibble.

Somehow, he reminds me of a guy I encountered years ago who thought he was a doctor (the A.M.A. did not) and that there was no ailment in the world that couldn't be cured by eating fish. Some who heeded his advice got better but most got worse and some died. And of course, if they got worse or died, the explanation always was that they simply hadn't eaten enough fish.

You almost have to admire Bill Kristol. If I'd been as utterly wrong as he's been — if I had people on my own side saying we'd screwed up big time — I don't think I'd be rushing onto every TV show that would have me to try and shore up my position. I certainly wouldn't go on with Jon Stewart, in front of his studio audience. I mean, even if there is a defense possible of the Bush plan, that's not the place to make your argument. Still, Kristol shows up on programs like this, smiling the same frozen smile, no matter how he gets slapped around. As you'll see, Stewart slaps him pretty hard. Or at least, you'll see it if the video link works…

My friends Jim Brochu and Steve Schalchlin are currently in New York, appearing in their musical play, The Big Voice: God or Merman? It's at the Actors' Temple Theatre and it's probably quite wonderful. I haven't seen it but it's won a lot of awards and Jim and Steve are brilliant and I even got an e-mail from a reader of this weblog who went to see it strictly because he recognized Jim's name from previous mentions on this weblog. This reader is a self-admitted homophobe and didn't realize until he got there that the play was about two gay men who sing a lot about their relationship. But he stayed for it and enjoyed it, and that's probably the best review Jim and Steve will ever get.

While in Manhattan, they're keeping a running video diary, excerpts of which are posted on Steve's weblog. They're all interesting and worth your attention but I'll direct you especially to this installment, which finds them taking a tour of Al Hirschfeld's studio. Jim gets overcome by emotion, which is not all that unusual. I mean, Jim cries if you tell him the swallows will be a little late getting back to Capistrano. But it's all quite honest and fascinating and I kinda know how he feels. I had the honor of sitting for a caricature by Mr. Hirschfeld back in 1992 and spent a thrilling afternoon with him in that studio. There's something invigorating about just being in a room where so much great creativity has taken place. You also leave with little NINAs all over your clothes and in your hair.

Len Wein is blogging.

Nate Stewart is the latest of about ten people who've written, asking me to comment on a new "experiment" in the Archie Comics line…drawing the adventures of Betty and Veronica in a slightly more realistic style. Nate's message says, "Maybe you mentioned this already (if so, please point me toward the correct entry on your blog), but I am curious as to your thoughts on the change. I find it strangely unsettling."

I'm not sure what basis I should use for this judgment. Is it sacrilegious? No…this is Archie Comics, not The Bible. The characters have been changed a hundred different ways over the years to make them more merchandisable. They've long since passed out of the realm of creations with any sort of unified vision or concept.

Is it a good idea from the standpoint of moving product? Probably. The line of comics has gotten so generic and easy to overlook that almost anything that generates some interest is likely not a bad idea. Moreover, the revamp — and I'm going just off the one cover drawing above right that's been released so far — may partially correct a certain problem that the comics have long have, which is that they've become unstuck in time. They're not set in today, as the wardrobe and haircuts of certain characters establish, as well as the fifties approach to dating and male-female relationships. But to try and make the stories relevant to a current audience, the writers keep dropping in references to current celebrities and trends…which means the stories don't take place in the fifties, either. At least with this "new look," we have an Archie-line comic that looks like it was drawn in the year 2006. Perhaps some day, they'll let one good writer take the scripts into into this century, too.

It's the opening of one of my favorite Hanna-Barbera shows, Top Cat. I'll point out two things for those of you who love to fixate on minute, trivial details. In the beginning, when the limousine turns around, you can briefly see that the insignia on the front is "HB." Then near the end, the folks in the camera department got the cel levels screwed up. The fancy-dressed waiter manages to walk between the lunch box and the table on which it has been placed. This mistake not only got on the air but no one ever fixed it.

Still, I thought this was a great series. Obviously, it drew inspiration from the Phil Silvers Bilko show. Some of us have a theory that the original notion was to build the show around Daws Butler's conman voice, which had otherwise found its way into the mouth of Hokey Wolf. It wasn't exactly an impression of Mr. Silvers but it did bring him to mind. And the way the theory goes, at some point in the development process, they chickened out, just as they had with The Flintstones. Daws did the voices of both Fred and Barney in the original presentation that led to that series…and what he did, at the request of Mssrs. Hanna and Barbera, was essentially the same dead-on Gleason/Carney impressions that he'd done for the Warner Brothers "Honeymousers" cartoons.

In the case of the Modern Stone Age Family, the lawyers seem to have gotten too worried about a lawsuit from Gleason and/or the producers of The Honeymooners. Daws's impressions were good enough to sell the series but when it came time to go on the air with it, they replaced his voices with ones that sounded a bit less like Gleason and Carney. The same thing may have happened with Top Cat. They feared litigation so they dumped the Daws impression and brought in someone who didn't sound quite as close to the original.

They did retain Maurice Gosfield, who'd played Doberman on the Bilko show, to play Top Cat's not-dissimilar cohort, Benny the Ball, but no one else from the Phil Silvers program was in evidence. Not long after, Allan Melvin — who'd played Bilko's sidekick, Henshaw — became a mainstay of the H-B voice pool…and Harvey Lembeck, who played Bilko's other sidekick, was heard in a couple of uncredited roles in other Hanna-Barbera cartoons soon after that. Makes you wonder if they first came to the studio's attention because someone was thinking of casting more voices from the Bilko series.

Meanwhile, I should mention one other possible source of inspiration for Top Cat: Joe Barbera, himself. There was a fair amount of Joe in Top Cat, always charming the ladies and buttering people up when he wanted something out of them. Both did it with such style and grace that it usually succeeded. After I started working with Mr. B. and seeing him in action, I decided that at least some of the writers of Top Cat must have had him in mind as a model, at least as much as they thought of Bilko. And it was only after I formulated this observation that I learned that in the original presentation, the name of the series was Top Cats (plural, referring to the whole gang) and their leader was named "J.B." A surviving storyboard for the pilot episode clearly has the name "J.B." written in throughout and replaced with "T.C."

Make of that what you will. And now it's time to click and watch the clip…

The latest in a series.

Not to take away from tomorrow's extravaganza on Shokus Internet Radio but I did a short interview this afternoon about Joe Barbera with my pal Paul Harris, who's heard on KMOX, the voice of St. Louis. You can hear it over on this page at Paul's site — and while you're there, look around a little. Paul's one of the best interviewers I've found and he has a knack for getting guests who are…well, let's just say they're generally more important and/or interesting than I am. And yes, I know that doesn't exactly thin out the herd much. Anyway, we chatted about the late 'n' great Joe B. for a bit.

I also did two separate interviews for BBC Radio and a couple of others…and I'll tell you how stupid I can be at times. When you do these by-phone interviews, they call you and as you wait to go on, you're usually listening to the station. Waiting for Paul to introduce me, I'm hearing a traffic report that the 270 Southbound is jammed due to heavy holiday traffic and an overturned vehicle…and I think, "Ooh…better stay off the 270 Southbound." Of course, two seconds later, I realize that I'm not likely to be travelling the 270 Southbound in the next hour or so since it's in St. Louis and I'm in Los Angeles. I don't know why I keep falling for this…only that I do.

I will be back on Shokus Internet Radio tomorrow (Wednesday) from 4 PM to 6 PM Pacific — that's 7 PM to 9 PM for you Right-Coasters — and the topic will be Joe Barbera! Stu Shostak and I will spend two hours talking about J.B. and taking phone calls and I think Stuart will even be playing some rare Hanna-Barbera records. You can call in and ask a question or just listen. Either way, I assure you you'll get to know more about the extraordinary world of H-B than you ever did before. I may even let Stuart goad me into telling the tale of the birth of Scrappy Doo.

You can listen to Shokus Internet Radio from the comfort of the chair you're sitting in, tuning in via the computer upon which you're reading these words. Just click here to go to the Shokus site and pick an audio browser. And you don't have to do that only when I'm on there. You can listen 24/7. Here's a link to their schedule.

Here are some more remembrances of Joe Barbera, who died yesterday at an alleged 95 years of age. (At least one animation historian is certain Joe was two years older than his official bios claimed.) I suppose we're engaged in two channels of mourning here…one for the man himself and another for the last real "relic" — I don't mean that word in a bad way — of a studio that meant so much to so many cartoon watchers as well as cartoon makers. And maybe we're also mourning the end of an era, as I can't name another living person who was as much a presence in theatrical animation. either. We lost a lot when we lost Joe, as these folks are noting…

• Paul Dini likens J.B. to Sinatra…and if you knew how much Paul loves Sinatra, you'd know what a nice, apt comparison that is.
• Voice guy Howard Hoffman talks about the honor of meeting and working with Mr. B.
• Brent McKee is a child of television and he has a good assessment of Joe's contribution to the medium.
• Peter Farnsworth, one of the talents behind Wallace and Gromit, speaks of how Joe Barbera influenced his work.
• And Tom Sito, an animator and Past President of The Animation Guild, has his own memories of Joe.

And today's video link comes equipped with another Joe Barbera anecdote. This one is a story that has been told a couple of times in various venues and occasionally mauled or distorted in the process. I've even told it once before on this blog but unlike some others, I got it right. So I'm going to tell it again…

There are two participants in this story, one being — of course — Joe Barbera. The other is Howard Morris, the brilliant comedy actor who is probably best known today for his many years as a sidekick on various Sid Caesar TV shows and for playing the irrepressible Ernest T. Bass on The Andy Griffith Show. Howie also had quite a career doing voices for cartoon characters including Jughead and several others on the Archie cartoons, Wade Duck on Garfield and Friends, Gopher in the Winnie the Pooh shorts and Beetle Bailey in the cartoon series of the same name. For Hanna-Barbera, he voiced — among many I could name — Atom Ant, Mr. Peebles on Magilla Gorilla, and Breezly Bruin in the "Breezly and Sneezly" cartoons.

Howie's career at H-B ended in 1966 when he had an argument with Joe. What it was about is immaterial now but if you absolutely have to know, I explained it here the last time I told this anecdote. All you need to know is that it ended with Howie telling Joe, "Go f*** yourself!" Once that instruction was delivered, Howard Morris walked out of the building…and forever out of the employment of Hanna-Barbera. Or so he thought at the time.

Around ten years later, to his utter amazement, Howie got hired to do some voices for another H-B project. Given the number of ex-wives he was supporting, he could not afford to turn it down, so he timidly reported for work at the Hanna-Barbera Studio. All through the session, he was nervous about what might happen if he ran into Joe Barbera. He was afraid Joe would slug him or have him removed bodily from the premises…or maybe it would just be a lot of ugly yelling and screaming. He managed to get through the recording without encountering J.B. but as he headed out of the building, he found himself walking down a hallway…with Guess Who coming his way. "Howie," he heard Barbera call out. Howie froze in fear…but Barbera came up to him, gave him a big hug and told him how happy he was to see him again after too long an absence.

"You're not going to throw me out?" he asked Joe.

"Of course not, Howie," Barbera replied. "Why would I throw you out?"

Howie stammered, "Well…the last time I was here, I told you to go f*** yourself."

Barbera grinned and said, "I took your advice."

And now you know one of the reasons that so many people, including those who fought with him and quit and got fired, loved Joe Barbera.

Which brings us to the video clip, which is from the second episode of The Jetsons. It first aired on Sunday evening, September 30 of 1962 and it features the first thing that Howie did for the studio. They cast him as the teen idol of the future, Jet Screamer, and had him introduce the immortal rock 'n' roll classic, "Eep Opp Ork Ah-Ah." According to Howie, J.B. personally selected him and directed him, the selection being because Barbera always liked Howie's performances as one of the Haircuts, the singing group on various Sid Caesar programs. (One of those numbers was our video link earlier this year.) Here's Jet…