Monthly Archives: April 2007

When I was eight or so, my favorite non-cartoon TV program was a game show on CBS called Video Village, hosted (at first) by a man named Jack Narz. Later, he was the host of — this is by no means a complete list — Seven Keys, Beat the Clock, Concentration and Now You See It. And before he hosted Video Village, he was the emcee of Dotto, which was one of the first game shows to be axed in The Great Quiz Show Scandals of the fifties. Mr. Narz was in no way responsible for the fact that certain outcomes on that show were occasionally manipulated.

I could never stand Beat the Clock…not with him hosting it, not with anyone hosting it. But the other Narz shows were all pretty good and he was a key reason. Unlike a lot of hosts, he hit that perfect note of respect for the game and its contestants, never taking things too seriously but never acting as if his own show was beneath him. He also seemed like a witty, nice man and the few times I've encountered him here and there would seem to bear out that evaluation.

I'll be tuning it tomorrow when he's a live guest on Stu's Show, which is heard from 4 PM to 6 PM Pacific Time on Shokus Internet Radio. Another fine host, Stuart Shostak, will be quizzing the quizmaster about his career — which, by the way, included a brief stint as an announcer on the George Reeves Superman show. Tune in and listen by clicking on this link and selecting an audio browser. You may even hear me calling in to ask a question or three.

Several years before they began producing the Popeye cartoons we're talking about here lately, the Max Fleischer studio made this little educational film that explained to movie audiences how the "talking" part of talking pictures was accomplished. I'm not sure audiences of the day understood it but they probably enjoyed the odd characters and odder animation of them. This runs a little less than eleven minutes…

Mort Sahl turns eighty next month. A number of celebrations and tributes are planned, and I'm going to try to mention them here…but if you just want to see Mort in more-or-less his natural habitat, he'll be doing a stand-up performance next week. It's the evening of April 12 at the Comedy and Magic Club in Hermosa Beach. If you live in Los Angeles, you might want to head on down there. It's not as far from L.A. as it sounds.

The Comedy and Magic Club is a pretty nice room and a great place to take friends, especially friends from outta town. Most Sunday evenings, you can see Jay Leno there doing essentially the same act he does for $90.00 a head in Las Vegas. I'm not sure what tickets cost in Hermosa Beach but they're a lot cheaper, plus he has Jimmy Brogan opening for him. Jimmy is a very funny man.

Fred Kaplan on the game of "Chicken" that Bush is playing with Congress over the Iraq War funding. I don't think Bush can win this one with the majority of the American people but he may be able to "win it" in the sense that his ever-dwindling base will become even more convinced that everything that hasn't worked or won't work can be blamed on Bush's enemies.

That's the forthcoming Popeye DVD release that excites us so. It also, judging from my e-mail, upsets a few folks on account of its announced price tag of $64.92. Even though the set includes sixty great cartoons, lovingly restored and joined by commentary tracks and documentaries and other extras, that sounds steep to some people. One person wrote me, "You don't care about what it costs since you're on the DVD and you're getting paid, plus you'll get a case of them free."

This person is wrong about the last part. There's a little coterie of animation and TV buffs, of which I am a part, who get called upon to help out with these things and who do so out of fannish devotion to the material. I probably have about three dozen friends who have assisted DVD companies in finding footage, researching history, locating interviewees and doing commentary tracks and interviews. Sometimes, one of us is paid for our services. I've never been but sometimes, people are paid…a little. We always get promised free DVDs — one or two, never a case — and I'd say that promise gets honored about half the time. By that time, they don't need us.

This is kind of a sore spot with some of us — make that, "with all of us." You feel stupid buying a DVD you're on, especially because if you do, the free one will arrive the next day. On the other hand, if you don't buy it, the free copy never arrives. I don't know why it works like this but it does.

Back to Popeye. Yeah, $64.92 is kinda steep but keep in mind that's the official price, the one nobody pays. It'll probably be $55 or so when it first comes out, then drop down to around fifty bucks. Secondly, there's a ton of material on this and it all went through a painstaking (I'm sure) restoration process. By comparison, some of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection sets list for the same price and contain 320 minutes of material as opposed to the 550 minutes of content you'll get with the spinach-eater's collection.

While you're at it, save some cash for three more releases which have just been announced in the Walt Disney Treasures series. When I think about how difficult it was to see — forget about "to own copies of" — just to see this stuff years ago, I have to conclude it's the best time ever for animation buffs. The collecting can get expensive…but hey, the work is available and it's not only being restored for us but for all posterity. Very happy news.

Back in this message, I mentioned that friends of mine in Los Angeles were happy to hear that Vito's Pizza, which was once down on Vermont across from L.A. City College, has reopened on La Cienega in West Hollywood. I also said I was going to try it after April 1 and the disappearance of Creamy Tomato Soup at the Souplantation.

Well, yesterday I took Carolyn by for a couple of slices…my second visit, to be honest with you. I went once in March. The verdict? As good as ever. Vito has a little hole in the wall restaurant with fast food ambience…but he also has the best pizza in town. The pasta bologonese is pretty darn good, too. If you're looking for "New York style," here it is…Vito's Pizza.

Note: Vito makes great Italian food but he's not all that great on websites. His may not open in some browsers. If it doesn't open in yours, know that the address is 846 N. La Cienega Boulevard, situated between Melrose and Santa Monica Boulevard. It's in a little strip mall and it doesn't look like much. Here's a PDF file of his menu. By the way, if you do get the website to open, that's a picture of Vito himself in the apron.

I'm going to bed. Good night, Internet. I'll see you in the morning.

And another pal, Jerry Beck, has posted the info that Warner Home Video is bringing out a DVD set of the first sixty Popeye cartoons produced by the Max Fleischer Studio. They have been, we hear, lovingly restored so this is going to be quite a treasure. The DVD will also include commentary tracks and interviews with knowledgeable animation experts…or at least, that's what I'm telling people since I'm one of them. The whole thing comes out on July 31 and you'll want it, you'll want it. I'll post an Amazon link as soon as that's doable, since this is wonderful material. Congrats and thanks to Jerry and all those who made this possible.

Rick Rogers referred me to this video of the smartest dog in the world. I know people who graduated college who couldn't have figured out how to do what this pooch does…

The original, Jay Ward-produced George of the Jungle cartoons on DVD? My pal Earl Kress has the scoop.

And I'll quickly add this: There were 17 half-hours produced of the show in 1967, each featuring one cartoon of George, one of Super Chicken and one of Tom Slick. This new DVD release is purportedly coming from Classic Media, which not long ago put out a complete DVD set of The Mr. Magoo Show containing 26 half hours. So I'd guess they're thinking of just putting the 17 half-hours of G.O.T.J. out as one complete set. That's what I'd guess.

It's been over a year since we played this game so some of you may be new to it while others may have forgotten how it works. How it works is that I describe six websites and post links to them. Five of them are real websites. One, I made up. Your mission — should you decide to accept it, Mr. Phelps — is to figure out which website is the phony one. When you click on its link, you'll be taken not to the described site but to a page that will tell you you're right, the one you picked is bogus.

Pretty simple concept? Yep. Just keep in mind that when I've done this in the past, all the sites seem to get a ton of extra hits and one or two have been known to crash so you can't get to them. A non-connect doesn't mean it's the phony website. If you click on the phony website, you'll know for sure. Got it? Here we go…

• The Burger Museum – What can you do with a McDonald's hamburger if you don't want to eat it? Well, you can just put it on display for many years. Apparently, they don't change that much.
• My Cat Hates You – A collection of photos of pussycats who don't seem to like you (or anyone) very much.
• Jell-o Star Shots – Hey, doesn't that dish of America's favorite gelatin dessert look a lot like Tony Soprano? Or is that Tom Arnold?
• Gum Wrapper – Gary Duschl has created the world's longest gum wrapper chain, currently at 50,905 feet…and still growing!
• Rate My Cow – So, uh, what do you think of this one? Surely you have an opinion of this fine cow, don't you?

If you come across a website on the Internet that is real but sounds like I made it up, drop me a note with the link. If enough of you do, maybe we'll play this game more often than annually.

This other category is musical acts. These are a little harder to compare to each other because some of them are one singer with a small band and some of them are production shows which have huge orchestras and also involve dancers and special effects. Still, it might be of interest…

• Elton John — $100.00 – $250.00
• Barry Manilow — $95.00 – $225.00
• Celine Dion — $87.50 – $225.00
• Toni Braxton — $65.00 – $100.00
• Paul Anka — $71.01 – $98.51
• Liza Minnelli — $50.00 – $95.00
• Tony Bennett — $70.00 – $90.00
• LeAnn Rimes — $59.00 – $88.00
• Johnny Mathis — $60.00 – $75.00
• Tom Jones — All seats $75.00
• Tony Orlando — $22.00 – $44.00

In fairness, I should add that some of the pricing variations may have something to do with where the performers are working. Elton John is at Caesars Palace, whereas Tony Orlando is at the Suncoast, which is a beautiful hotel but it's way off the Strip. On the other hand, if Tony could sell $250 tickets, he'd still be at Caesars.

I mentioned the prices of Vegas shows a minute ago here. I think it's interesting to see what they're charging these days to go see various headliners. Generally speaking, shows in Las Vegas are priced intelligently from the hotel's viewpoint. They get as much money as they can but that's the secondary consideration. The main one is to get bodies into the seats so they'll gamble on the way out. Ergo, none of these shows are probably overpriced to the extent that they can't sell all or most tickets for each performance.

These are headliners who are currently scheduled to perform in that town some time during the remainder of this year. Some are there more or less full time…like Louie Anderson is a near-permanent fixture at the Excalibur. Some are there for a few nights here and there. Of these performers, Mr. Seinfeld is the only one I'd guess whose ticket prices have something to do with how often he performs. He's only doing two nights. The rest of these folks are there often enough that it's not that special to be able to go see them. There are probably people scheduling Vegas trips just to see Seinfeld.

I've divided the list into two categories. Although a few of the ones in the first category may sing and even have a small band there, these acts are basically one person standing on a stage with a microphone and talking…

• Jerry Seinfeld — $75.00 – $150.00
• George Lopez — $45.00 – $125.00
• Jay Leno — All seats $90.00
• Ray Romano — All seats $90.00
• Wayne Brady — $69.00 – $89.00
• Rita Rudner — $49.00 – $85.00
• Bill Maher — $42.50 – $72.50
• David Spade — All seats $70.00
• Howie Mandel — All seats $65.00
• Jon Lovitz — $39.95 – $59.95
• Don Rickles — All seats $55.00
• George Wallace — $45.00 – $55.00
• Paul Rodriguez — $29.95 – $54.95
• Craig Ferguson — $29.95 – $54.95
• Carrot Top — All seats $52.50
• Roseanne Barr — All seats $49.95
• Louie Anderson — All seats $45.00
• Steven Wright — $24.95 – $44.95
• Dennis Miller — All seats $39.95

The one pricing anomaly that leaps out at me is this: When I saw Dennis Miller there about ten years ago, I think tickets were more than they are now…and back then, he had Rita Rudner opening for him. Now she gets more than he does. I'll cover musical acts in the next message here.

What was Walt Disney's secret? Why was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs such a wonderful movie? Well, the secret would seem to be divulged in this eight-and-a-half minute infomercial for the film. It's that he hired pretty girls to paint the cels.

The Las Vegas production of Monty Python's Spamalot opened this evening at the Wynn Hotel. Here's the first review I've seen, which is of a preview performance. According to this piece, only one song — "All for One" — is cut in its entirety. They must have hacked large chunks out of other songs and lost a lot of dialogue to bring the show down to ninety minutes. The version on Broadway runs two hours and 20 minutes, including one fifteen-minute intermission.

Perhaps of interest is that tickets to the New York version run $36.25 to $111.25, whereas tickets to the shortened Vegas version are from $49.00 to $99.00. This is a bit different from The Producers. The full New York version of that show, which closes April 22, charges $31.25 to $111.25, whereas the Vegas incarnation, which was also sliced down to 90 minutes, asks $75.50 for the cheapest seats, going up to a top price of $143.50.

A friend of mine who saw the Vegas Spamalot in previews raved about it and particularly about John O'Herlihy in the role of Arthur. Unfortunately, my friend wasn't there one night when there was a technical snafu. Reportedly, there was a mechanical problem with one of the sets and it was necessary to stop the show for about twenty minutes to fix it. Eric Idle was there and he grabbed a guitar and went out to entertain the audience while repairs were done. I'll bet those playgoers had a good time that evening.

John McCain says that the press is not giving us an accurate picture of conditions in Iraq. He says that "there are neighborhoods in Baghdad where you and I could walk through those neighborhoods, today."

To prove this, he spent a little time today strolling through an open-air market in Baghdad. And apparently, he's right. It is a safe place to walk, just as long as you're accompanied by a hundred armed soldiers, you have three Blackhawk helicopters and two Apache gunships nearby, and you're wearing a bulletproof vest.

Do we think this proves anything? About Iraq, I mean. I know it proves something about John McCain. I guess what it proves about Iraq is that we need to commit to staying there forever and sending enough troops and equipment so that anyone who needs to go buy a basket of strawberries is escorted by a hundred armed soldiers, three Blackhawk helicopters and two Apache gunships. Oh — and they'll need that bulletproof vest, too.

I seem to recall that back in the sixties when John Lindsay was Mayor of New York, he decided to try and dispel the "myth" that a person couldn't walk through Central Park at night without getting mugged. So he took a well-publicized stroll through that piece of real estate one evening, accompanied by about half the city's police force and a hundred reporters and camera crews. Amazingly, no one mugged him.

Less clearly, I remember that reports of crime elsewhere in town took a noticeable upswing that evening…which makes sense since all the cops were in the park, making sure no one tried to grab His Honor's billfold. It was also pointed out that the Honorable Mayor Lindsay was something like 6'4" tall and in great physical shape. Even had he been alone, he was not exactly most criminals' first choice when it comes to picking victims.

This was not the main reason that Lindsay's popularity in New York fell to what we now and forever will think of as George W. Bush levels, but it was a factor. Bet John McCain's little charade lowers his esteem a tad…though maybe not with the crowd he now seems to be trying desperately to win over.

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are both off this week, which is a shame. What either of them could do with that news footage.