This weblog has included frequent mentions of a friend of mine named Frank Buxton…and I still can't quite wrap my brain around the fact that I am friends with the guy who hosted the TV show Discovery when I was ten. Discovery was one of the few truly entertaining "educational" programs ever done…like another, a decade later, called Hot Dog. Frank was also responsible for Hot Dog.
I wasn't sure if Hot Dog was by the same Frank Buxton because there was also the Frank Buxton who wrote, directed and produced shows for Garry Marshall's company like Happy Days and Mork & Mindy. And one of them, I guessed, was the guy who with Woody Allen created the movie, What's Up, Tiger Lily? Since Woody was involved in Hot Dog, I assumed the Frank Buxton who produced that show was also the Frank Buxton from Tiger Lily but then there was also the Frank Buxton who voiced cartoon shows like Batfink and I wasn't sure if that was the Frank Buxton who wrote the definitive book on old radio. (It's called Big Broadcast, 1920-1950: A New, Revised, and Greatly Expanded Edition of Radio's Golden Age, the Complete Reference Work and it's currently out of print but well worth tracking down.)
So I was confused about all these different Frank Buxtons. That's before I found out that they were all the same guy.
Amazingly, I haven't fully described the length and breadth of this man's accomplishments and expertise. He covers a few more of them — and offers video clips of many — over on his new website. When you click your way over to www.frankbuxton.com, as you will if you have a lick of sense, make sure you catch them all, especially his appearance on The Tonight Show with that Carson guy and the clips from Discovery and Hot Dog.
I know a lot of brilliant people. Frank is about eight of them. Go visit his site and see why I'm so impressed.