Monthly Archives: March 2011

Amazon is having a sale — and I think it's for today only — of The Little Rascals: The Complete Collection, an 8-DVD set of Our Gang comedies produced by the Hal Roach Studios. The title would make you think you're getting every film ever produced in that series but that's not so. There were 220 Our Gang comedies. The Roach studio did 88 silent shorts, 80 talkie two-reel shorts and one feature. Then they sold the series to MGM which made 52 more sound shorts, some of them one-reelers. MGM got custody of the name "Our Gang" so when the Roach folks re-released their films, they changed the title cards to "The Little Rascals." Later, both names were used sometimes haphazardly on TV releases and home movies. This collection calls itself "complete" because it includes the 80 Roach talkies (i.e., the best ones) plus a few silents as bonus features.

Despite the advertising, it is not uncut nor are the films fully-restored. There are some edits and a couple of the shorts are transfers not from the negatives but from old 16mm Blackhawk prints. On the other hand, there are some nice special features about Our Gang history and it's cheap — $28.49 and they pay shipping. Here's the link to order but read the next paragraph before you do.

I believe it's being closed-out because new Our Gang collections are on the way from the same company. In fact, the first one (containing ten episodes) was to have been released yesterday but has been delayed until June. The forthcoming releases are supposedly remastered and complete and made from better source material but we've yet to see them so who knows? If you're a serious collector of material like this, you'll probably want to wait and see if they are superior. If you just want to introduce your kids to the wonderment of Our Gang and Spanky and Alfalfa and Darla, this 8-DVD set is probably a great deal. You could easily wear these discs out by the time we finally get the perfect collection.

The 52 MGM shorts are also available on one of those "pressed on demand, no extras included" sets from Warner Home Video. The first MGM shorts are pretty decent. The last ones are pretty awful as the series ran out of gas and all the best members of the troupe got too old and were replaced by newer, less wonderful characters. Here's that link if you're interested in watching a great comedy series decline.

Your TV listing may be lying to you. It may tell you that at 6 AM, they're running a show called Hero 108. This is a shameless lie. What they're now running in that time slot is a half-hour of vintage Warner Brothers cartoons…Bugs, Daffy, Tweety, etc.

And it may further be misinforming you by telling you that at Noon, they're airing two half-hours of Codename: Kids Next Door. Another shameless falsehood. Instead, what they're really running there is a whole hour of vintage Warner Brothers cartoons.

I tell you this, first of all because I believe in Truth…and secondly, in case you have kids who need to be introduced to the loveliness of Looney Tunes and the magnificence of Merrie Melodies but who won't watch anything that isn't on Nick or Cartoon Network. Tell 'em it's a brand-new show. Apart from the occasional catch-phrases from Jerry Colonna and Ralph Kramden, they'll never know the difference except that these cartoons are funny.

Hey, Stu Shostak has a real good show for tomorrow as he welcomes the two gents in the photo below. The fellow on the left is Jerry Eisenberg, who in addition to being a fine fellow and an amazing artist is one of the last veterans of the early days of Hanna-Barbera Studios who's still upright and interviewable. Jerry is a second-generation cartoonist, his father Harvey having been one of the great illustrators of "funny animal" comic books and animation designers, including extensive work with his pal Joe Barbera on the MGM Tom & Jerry cartoons and on the early days of Huckleberry Hound and The Flintstones. Jerry's career overlapped his old man's, starting at MGM, segueing to Warner Brothers and then to Hanna-Barbera where he became one of the key designers of their shows in the mid-sixties and into the seventies. He's also a very clever, funny fellow.

Also clever and funny is my longtime amigo Scott Shaw!, who began designing and doing layout for Hanna-Barbera in the seventies and is also an expert at what came before there. So is another talented guy, Earl Kress, who'll be serving as Stu's co-host helping to interview Jerry and Scott tomorrow on Stu's Show. I'm guessing they'll most be talking about Jerry's work and that Scott will have to come back for another broadcast to do justice to his long, amazing career in cartooning. Currently, Scott's many projects include writing and drawing comic books of The Simpsons.

In other words, Stu has Too Much Show tomorrow. If you'd like to bite off a chunk of it and learn much about the history of Hanna-Barbera, tune in Stu's Show when it comes to you live via the Internet at 4 PM Pacific. That's 7 PM on the East Coast and 5:30 AM in Rangoon, for all of you Rangoonians out there. It runs for two hours and they'll be gone faster than you can say "Ricochet Rabbit." The program repeats all week but you'll enjoy it most if you're listening in as it happens. Just go to Shokus Internet Radio at the appropriate time and click where they tell you to click.

My "take" on the whole matter in Wisconsin is that what the Republicans in the State Senate are doing has (alas) little to do with improving the financial health of the state. It has to do with using that stated goal as an excuse to kick organized labor in the ass and neutralize its power to stand up not just for the workers it represents but for the general interests of the lower and middle class.

I think the whole thing's already boomeranging on them by energizing the opposition to that kind of agenda. It looks like several of the folks who supported this are going to find themselves in recall elections. They may not care since large corporations will probably reward them handsomely once they're out of office…but if any of them do honestly care about serving the people, they oughta be worried, especially Wisconsin State senator Randy Hopper. You need to worry when the signatures on the petition to recall you include those of your maid and your wife.

About once a year, I go to an elementary school classroom somewhere and attempt to recruit innocent, unsuspecting children to the wicked life of creating cartoons. I basically spread two messages. One is that it's at least possible to make a living writing and/or drawing. And the other is that if you want to be able to do these things well, you need to practice, practice and practice some more. Based on past experiences, I think young folks are too quick to say "I can't do that" (whatever it is) if they can't achieve professional standards within the hour.

I'm not particularly out to convert anyone to that occupation but I do think school should expose children to more possibilities…and maybe if they are, they'll find some good probability in there and pursue it to good effect. Besides, I would have loved it back when I was in third grade if a guy who writes cartoons and comic books had come to my classroom, preempted an hour of Arithmetic to show us cartoons and draw my favorite characters on the blackboard. Which is what I did yesterday at a third grade class in West Hollywood.

I dragged my friend Mickey Paraskevas along to assist. Mickey is a fine illustrator of childrens' books…and a big thrill ran through the building (and a smile across Mickey's face) when it was discovered they had several of his books in the school's library. I taught the kids how to draw Charlie Brown and Garfield and Mickey Mouse and Spongebob Squarepants. Mickey taught them how to draw the Ferocious Beast from his books and TV show, Maggie and the Ferocious Beast. Some of the drawings the kids did were pretty darned good and it wouldn't surprise me in the least if twenty years from now, someone comes up to me at a convention or someplace and says, "I'm a professional cartoonist now and it all started when you and Mickey Paraskevas came to my class." Even if that never happens, I think some kids got the idea that you can learn how to develop some sort of skill and then use it to good advantage.

We started with the screening of a Garfield episode I wrote and then I got down to the basics of how cartoons are drawn. I am not a great artist but in a way, that helps in this kind of situation. When my pal Sergio Aragonés draws, I don't think you can learn a damned thing. It goes by so fast and it comes so much out of instinct that the process is largely invisible. When I draw, it looks humanly possible and the wires show. It's like a sleight of hand magician doing it slowly enough that you can see how it's done. Also, what the kids produce doesn't compare that unfavorably to what I do up there at the black or whiteboard.

The thing I've learned doing this — though I can always use the reminder — is how important these characters are to kids that age. They went nuts when I drew Scooby Doo on the blackboard and they oohed and ahhed when I explained that the person who does the voice now of Scooby is also now the voice of Garfield. That's Frank Welker…and Frank, if you're reading this page and you tell me you do: One little girl then asked me, "Isn't he also the voice of Fred?" Some of these kids really know their cartoons.

At one point near the end, as a kind of grand finale, I started drawing cartoon characters and they had to guess who I was drawing. I was halfway through Daffy Duck when all of the young'uns behind me were chanting "Donald Duck! Donald Duck!" I decided that rather than make them all wrong, I'd make it Donald Duck…so I added the sailor hat and rounded out the head and…sure enough: Donald Duck. Sort of. For what it's worth, their two favorite characters in the world seem to be Spongebob and Bugs Bunny, not necessarily in that order. They really know Bugs…although when I drew Yosemite Sam, almost no one knew who that was and my drawing wasn't that bad. I realized later that they probably know Bugs more from the merchandise than the cartoons, and there isn't much Sam merchandise out there.

Anyway, it was a fun day and I thank Mickey again, and I'll go back and do it for another third grade class at this school as soon as there is one. (Note to Self: Before you do, learn how to draw Dora the Explorer…and someone else on the Spongebob show besides Spongebob.)

If you've heard about the "sting" operation that got a couple of NPR execs ousted, you need to read this. It was like the same hoaxster's assault on ACORN, a case where tapes were deceptively edited, a triumphant "Gotcha!" was announced and the truth never caught up with the initial story that wrongdoing had been exposed.

I know why this fellow James O'Keefe does this kind of thing. I don't know why mainstream journalism falls for his con jobs, gives them front page status and then buries the reality of what happened on page B-18. And I really don't know why people are thrown under the proverbial bus just because a lying weasel managed to make them look bad.

By the way: I happen to be in favor of cutting off government funding to NPR, not because it's biased (I don't think it is and neither do a number of Conservatives) but because I think that's just not something that tax dollars should go for. I don't like the idea though that it or any institution can be defeated by fraudulent — and I'll put it in quotes because what these guys do really isn't — "journalism."

Last Friday, I took my mother to lunch. At one point, I was in line to use the men's room and there was one person waiting ahead of me — an employee of the restaurant at which we were dining. Killing time, I glanced around and noticed a hand-chalked sign on the wall next to us. It said at the top, "Celerate the season!"

I sometimes go through life proofreading the world around me. I always try to do it in an amused (as opposed to critical) way. I mean, it's wrong…but what the hell harm does it do? Still, people are usually grateful when you point this kind of thing out so I read it aloud and told the guy ahead of me in line, "Looks like someone owes your customers a "B!"

He chuckled and seemed very, very happy that I'd pointed this out. He whipped out a BlackBerry, took a snapshot of the sign and told me, "The guy who lettered that is my boss. Next time he gets on my case about making a mistake, I'm just going to have to show him that! Thanks!"