Monthly Archives: July 2009

Some better (sorta) ratings news for Conan O'Brien. Ultimately, I don't think NBC will be entirely happy for very long if The Tonight Show is in second place, no matter how much money it's making.

Those of you who are sick of me plugging my book on Jack Kirby here are in luck. I'm about to start plugging June Foray's autobiography.

June is, of course, the First Lady of Cartoon Voicing. Rocky the Flying Squirrel, Natasha Fatale, Nell Fenwick, Tweety's Granny, Jokey Smurf and Cindy Lou Who made her immortal but they only represent about 5% of all this woman has done as an actress, voiceover performer and a very successful crusader on behalf of the art of animation. My friend Earl Kress and I found her career remarkable before we started helping her with this book…but even we didn't have a proper sense of how much this woman has done, how much she's accomplished.

Did You Grow Up With Me, Too? is the title and it'll be out in time for the Comic-Con International in San Diego…which amazingly is in the week after next. June is a Guest of Honor there. She'll be appearing in a special "spotlight" interview on Saturday at 2:30. There will be a couple of opportunities at the con for you to procure a copy of the book and get her to sign it. I'll be announcing those opportunities here shortly.

If you can't get one there, fear not. Earl and I are going to set up a special offer that will enable you to buy an autographed copy. That'll be announced here soon, as well.

This is a remarkable book about a remarkable lady and it's profusely illustrated with never-before-seen photos from her personal files. You're going to want a copy. Trust me.

Hope you're having a Safe and Sane Fourth of July. There are three movies that seem to always turn up on TV this weekend and they're all on…

In a couple of hours, Turner Classic Movies is running — as someone always does on July 4 — Yankee Doodle Dandy starring James Cagney. The story has very little to do with the actual life of George M. Cohan and the flag-waving can get to you…but Cagney is so good in the role, it's impossible to resist.

Then TCM is running 1776 this evening — at 7:15 on my satellite dish, perhaps another time on your set. They have it in a three-hour slot, which suggests they're running the full version (which runs that long) as opposed to the 142 minute cut that was originally released to theaters and on videotape. A wonderful movie that closely mirrors the wonderful Broadway musical.

Then early tomorrow morning (i.e., not on the Fourth of July), TV Land is running Born on the Fourth of July. I don't know why this is on TV Land. Maybe they ran out of Cosby Show reruns. But this weekend, they're featuring marathons of Leave It To Beaver, Roseanne and The Andy Griffith Show…and smack dab in the middle of them, there's this serious dramatic movie about a war that tore apart this country and so many lives. And then it goes back to Barney Fife trying to remember which pocket he keeps his bullet in. I don't recommend you watch this powerful film like that, especially since it'll probably be interrupted constantly for Prilosec commercials.

I don't know if it works this way everywhere but here in Southern California, the Bed, Bath and Beyond chain is constantly sending out these coupons that entitle you to 20% of any one item. And I mean they send these out constantly. They arrive every hour on the hour in my mailbox. I will receive at least one more by the time I finish writing and posting this.

Those of us who shop at Bed, Bath and Beyond have learned to save them…to always have a fistful in our cars in case we stop in there. My friend Shelly Goldstein has a car that can seat three people. If she took out the Bed, Bath and Beyond coupons, it could seat four.

Though the coupons have expiration dates printed on them, the store never cares. So if you purchase eight items, you hand the cashier eight of these coupons and you get 20% off each item. This creates some odd buying habits and patterns.

For instance: I go in and I have five coupons. This means, I decide, I can only buy five items. If I see eight things I want, I have to decide which three to get at a later date when I can return with more coupons. I don't even think of paying full price for that little $1.00 item because if I come back another time with a coupon, I can save a big twenty cents on it.

To that end, I have to select in the proper number. Let's say I want six dish towels. A package of eight costs $20 or I can buy six individually for three bucks each. If I have no coupons, I'm better off buying them individually. If I only have one coupon, the package of eight will cost me $16 but to buy six individually will cost $17.40 so I'll buy the package. If I have six coupons or more, I'm better off going back to individual towels. And if I have between two and five coupons, the math gets hard.

It also gets hard when, on occasion, they send out a coupon that just gives you 10% off your entire order. If you have enough 20% coupons, that's a bad deal. If you're short, it might save you some dough…or might not, depending on how many you have.

I've also had this happen: I get to the checkout counter and discover I have miscounted. I have eight items but only seven coupons. As I'm trying to figure out which selection to put back, another customer behind me says, "Need another coupon?" She has like eighty of them sticking out of her purse and she hands me one. At a Bed, Bath and Beyond in Tustin once, I had three items and two coupons. The cashier reached down under the counter and got an extra so she didn't have to charge me full price for one item.

But you can't count on the kindness of strangers or cashiers. So there are times when I might shop at Bed, Bath and Beyond and I don't…because I don't feel like I have enough coupons with me. Right now, I have two in my car. I'm not going in there since I'm bound to see more than two things I want.

When I accumulate a lot of 'em, I start looking for reasons to go to Bed, Bath and Beyond. For one thing, it will help me to get rid of the clutter in my car if I use up my coupons. (I don't want to leave them home for fear I'll be out driving and suddenly think of a reason to stop at one of those stores.) I also feel like I'm getting a bargain even though I suspect that with the 20% discount, that cheese straightener will still cost more than if I bought it at Kmart. I haven't checked because I don't want to know for sure. It just feels like a bargain to use your 20% off coupons at Bed, Bath and Beyond. And like I said, it cleans out your car at the same time.

Whoops. Two more coupons just arrived. I'd better post this and run over to Bed, Bath and Beyond to use them up. If it turns out they're closed for the Fourth of July, I'll just wait outside.

What do we think the deal is with Sarah Palin resigning? A quick tour of political websites of all stripes today tells me that no one really understands the reason(s) she gave and to the extent anyone thinks they get a wee bit of it, they don't believe her.

So let's review some possibilities…

• She's about to be indicted for some kind of crime? Maybe. But usually, you cling to public office in those circumstances so you can trade your resignation for a lighter sentence.
• Some other kind of scandal not involving her indictment? Another, larger maybe.
• She's pregnant again? Don't see why that would get in the way.
• Something else medical? Naw. Then you quit because of health reasons so you can get the sympathy.
• Prepping for a presidential run? Not likely. A sitting governor would have more standing than a former governor who couldn't or wouldn't even finish out one term.
• Fox News has offered her a ton o' money to host a show right after Glenn Beck's? Hmm…

There are other possibilities, I suppose. But they probably all start with Ms. Palin realizing that, as rabid as her little band of supporters may be, it's a little band and she's not able to win over even a majority of Republicans. She's gone as high as she's able to go in elected office…and if you can't go higher, why stick with it?

My math skills were never great. They began to atrophy when I got my first calculator and I lost another chunk after I gained a Business Manager. So there's a large part of the health care debate is that just, as Mr. Obama would say, far above my pay grade.

Still, I can see that something has to be done about all the folks in this country who have no insurance, all the people who do have insurance but discover (usually at the worst-possible moment) that it won't cover what they need it to cover, and the sheer fact that most health care is just too damned expensive. In intolerable numbers, people die and/or go bankrupt because of the system. In the absence of a fix, it'll eventually get so bad that even rabid Republicans will be wishing we'd passed the Hillary Clinton plan.

I follow as much of it as I can…as if anything I might say or do will ever make a difference. Two of the best sources of news and analysis I've found online are Ezra Klein and Jonathan Cohn. These are Liberal voices but so far, I haven't come across a Conservative take on health care that wasn't based on either or both of the following premises: That anything the government touches is invariably going to be a disaster and/or that it would be a shame to see the insurance companies not make every possible nickel off your Grandma's arthritis.

Opponents of revamping health care are losing ground every day. Every poll says that even G.O.P. voters want it fixed and you have entities like Walmart demanding health care reform. I can't believe something won't get done. But then again, I also can't believe we have Senators and Congressfolks acting like the system is fine or, at worst, just needs a little Bactine and a band-aid. Or maybe a loving mother to kiss the boo-boo.

There are two major awards voted each year from work in the field of comic books. One is the Eisners, which are handed out at the Comic-Con International in San Diego. The other is the Harveys, which have lately been given out at the Baltimore Comic Convention. This year, I'm up for two Eisners and the other day, I seem to have been nominated for two Harveys for my book, Kirby: King of Comics.

I say "seem" because one is in the category of "Special Award for Excellence in Presentation" and I'm not sure if that's for me or for the folks who designed the book, one of whom was an uncredited (for that) me. This is not a point that needs clarification; just something I mention to underscore how nebulous these things can be. I am occasionally congratulated because Groo the Wanderer has repeatedly won the Harvey in a category called "Special Award for Humor in Comics" but I don't think that award was for me. It's gone to my collaborator, Sergio Aragonés.

I also don't think the distinction matters because awards, though nice, don't make you any better and the absence of them doesn't make you any worse. They have a slight marketing value and they please certain people in your life. The first time I was up for an Emmy, my father was still alive and the only reason I cared if I won was because I knew how happy it would make him. Oh — and maybe because the statue might (emphasis on the "might") have given me a little more clout on my next project.

I don't mean to disparage anyone's award because winning any such trophy is not at all a negative unless, as a few unfortunates do, you take it as incontrovertible proof you're a genius and needn't listen to others. There's also nothing negative about being nominated unless you overdramatize it to the point where you'll be crushed if you lose. Anyway, I've learned to just say thanks and to otherwise pay no nevermind to awards. The first time I won an Eisner, I carried this to an extreme. I didn't even know I was nominated, didn't attend the ceremony, didn't find out until years later that I'd won and never got the actual trophy, which I think was then a certificate.

Tom Spurgeon and others are making the case that the Harveys are redundant and ill-administered and that they oughta be put to sleep. As a nominee this year (and I believe but am not sure, other years), I'm being asked what I think about this. What I think about this is that I don't think a lot about this. I completely buy any argument that the absolute best work is not being selected but I kinda feel that way about every award in every field. Perhaps given the response to the current list of Harvey nominees — and I hope, not because I'm on it — their process does need some fixing if it's going to retain any credibility.

But really, discussing whether or not to abolish an award is almost treating it with too much seriousness. It's suggesting that the ones you don't want eliminated do a highly efficient job of zeroing in on The Best and the Brightest. Each year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences doles out a lot of Oscars that elevate one film or contributor above others that do not seem directly comparable or often, to me, less deserving. I don't see it as an injustice that demands correction if the Harvey Awards do this. It also wouldn't change all that much if either set of awards went bye-bye.

We all have a chance to vote on this. We cast our votes with whatever amount of attention we pay to a set of awards. If we afford them none, they'll fade away. And if we get excited about them and talk or write a lot about them, then they probably deserve to continue. It's all blue smoke that means as much as you want it to mean…no more, no less. The administrators of the Harvey Awards may have some problems to solve but we don't, except to decide how much, if at all, we care.

Here is my one Karl Malden anecdote. It's about ten, twelve years ago. I'm directing a voice session for the Garfield cartoon show. I'm sitting at the little console and the actors are in another room, visible through a large glass window. When I wish to speak to them, I push a button on the console and they can hear me. One of the actors in there is Howard Morris, beloved character actor better known to some of you as Atom Ant, Ernest T. Bass, Uncle Goopy, Jet Screamer, Jughead Jones, the Qantas Koala, Wade Duck or dozens of other roles he played.

So I'm fumbling through the script and a man in a suit and tie comes in from the hallway and, ever so politely, he says "I'm sorry to intrude but could I just take a moment and say hello to my friend Howie?" It's Karl Malden. He was recording something in the next studio and someone told him Howie Morris was in with us. I tell him he's more than welcome, whereupon he hits the little button and says, over my microphone, "Howie? It's Karl Malden!"

Howie looks through the glass, sees Malden and says, "Karl! Still foolin' 'em?"

Karl grins and says, "Still foolin' 'em!"

Howie, who is about the size of Karl Malden's nose, runs out of the booth. They embrace. They discuss how each has aged since their last encounter. Howie itemizes his marriages and divorces since then. Karl says, "You're working. I don't want to take you away from that." He hugs Howie again and moves towards the door.

Howie yells, "Keep foolin' 'em!"

Malden laughs, promises to keep foolin' 'em and then he leaves and we go back to work.

That's my one Karl Malden anecdote. Sorry it isn't better because a guy with his body of acclaimed acting work deserves better. But it's the only one I've got.