Monthly Archives: September 2011

This week is the 20th anniversary of the passing of Theodore Geisel, better known to you as Dr. Seuss. Here are ten stories behind his stories.

I recently received my copy of the new book by my buddy Vince Waldron, The Official Dick Van Dyke Show Book: The Definitive History of Television's Most Enduring Comedy. I am enjoying it tremendously. I thought I knew everything there was to know about my favorite TV sitcom but there's stuff in there that has me going, a la Dick Martin, "I didn't know that." Since I am all too aware how fastidious Vince was about fact-checking every apostrophe, I have no doubt it is all true. He had access to just about everyone involved in the series and he no doubt made a fine nuisance of himself pestering them with questions. The result is a definitive volume on its subject that no one could improve upon.

Then again, I thought that about the previous version of this book and Vince managed to improve upon that so maybe he'll surprise me a few decades from now. Don't wait for that possible revision. Grab up this one even if you have the earlier book. Here's an Amazon link.

Want to know more right away? Vince will be the guest tomorrow on Stu's Show, the best talk program on Internet Radio. Your enthusiastic host Stu Shostak will welcome Vince and grill him mercilessly on the contents of this book…to be followed the week after by another episode of Stu's Show on The Dick Van Dyke Show. But tune in tomorrow to hear Vince. That show can be heard live (and for free) at 4 PM Pacific, which means 7 PM Eastern and other times in other time zones, at www.stusshow.com. After that, the whole two-hour extravaganza can be downloaded from that site for a paltry 99 cents. Such a deal.

As I've mentioned, we have a number of celebrations of The Dick Van Dyke Show and its participants coming up. On October 1, the American Cinematheque will be running three episodes at the Egyptian Theater and there'll be a Q-and-A of Carl Reiner and Dick Van Dyke hosted by Garry Marshall. (Vince will be there selling 'n' signing). This event is sold out but there may be a stand-by line in case any ticket holders die and cannot attend.

On October 13, the TV Academy will be honoring Carl Reiner and the dais will include Mel Brooks, Jon Cryer, Ann Morgan Guilbert, Bonnie Hunt, Rose Marie, Larry Matthews, Bill Persky, Rob Reiner, Paul Reiser, Eva Marie Saint, Garry Shandling and more. This event is also sold out and I'm told there's already a wait list that will more than cover any cancellations or dead ticket holders. There will, however, be a live webcast and I'll try and get info on that. (I won't be watching it on the 'net. I have tickets, he said in a gloating manner.)

Lastly, this is related: When The Dick Van Dyke Show came to a close, several of its stars conspired to make one of the oddest, scant-on-humor comedy films ever made…and they actually shot a lot of it on the same stage that had been used for The Dick Van Dyke Show. Morey Amsterdam produced and co-starred in Don't Worry, We'll Think of a Title, a movie I wrote about here. This is not a good movie but it's filled with fun cameos and silly moments, and I think what always intrigued me about it was how utterly impossible it was to see. It never played Los Angeles. I don't think they even printed up posters for it. (The theater where I saw it in Pismo Beach had a hand-painted poster outside.)

Well, that has changed. Turner Classic Movies has run it a few times…and someone there was nice enough to run me off a DVD from their copy which I shared with Rose Marie and with Morey Amsterdam's son. And now you too can have your own DVD of Don't Worry, We'll Think of a Title. It's a "DVD on Demand" from the MGM Archives collection…meaning that for $20, they'll run you off a DVD, doubtlessly using the same source material as the copy I got. Note that I am not recommending this movie…just telling you it's available for pre-orders. In a way, I'm disappointed. For years, the one notable thing about this movie was its unavailability…and now it's lost that.

Michael Brady went to see our pal Frank Ferrante in An Evening with Groucho in Cary, North Carolina. He files this report…

The show was fabulous. I kidnapped a friend, a fellow actor and Groucho fan and kept him completely in the dark until we got to the space. When he saw the poster, he thought someone local was doing the Arthur Marx-penned show. That made him happy enough, but when he learned it was Frank he just beamed. And what a reward we got for our three hour drive. We loved every minute of it and couldn't believe it was over so soon; two hours translated into an eyeblink. Frank was flawless, and no one could call this an imitation or an impression. He inhabits the role and wears it like it's his favorite suit…and it probably is. We have other Marx Brothers fans in our social and professional coterie, and there's another North Carolina date coming up in April of 2012. My friend and I agreed that we should go again and bring friends. It was that good. What an evening.

It was like a Master's Class, sitting in the audience. I have no doubt that there was nothing that could happen that Frank could not deal with, and that like all great theatre, this show was a perfectly running machine which never runs the same way twice. Everything felt organic and even though I knew 25 years and 2500 performances means that some ad-libs aren't expressly off the cuff (and we both know Groucho wasn't just a great ad-libber, his memory was great: a fireman on You Bet Your Life yields umpteen years of fireman quips out of his back pocket, and that's without resorting to a glance away at a cue card), and like the best theatre it felt like this had never happened before, and it was just for us. Frank was in complete control the entire time.

It was inspiring. As an actor, I've seen the toolbox Frank dips into, and on rare occasions I've held a tool or two — I did David Sedaris's The Santaland Diaries last year for 12 or 15 nights as a one-man show — but we were clearly in the hands of a master craftsman.

And absolutely, he shook our hands, we got pictures and he signed our DVDs we bought. We waited till last so we could share a little with him; I don't know about my friend Anthony but I know I blurt out that I'm an actor to other creative types not so that they can know, but as a reminder to myself, and that whatever I just saw is one of the reasons I do what I do. Anthony showed the pic of himself as Groucho from A Day In Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine and I mentioned Santaland. We just wanted to Frank to know that we appreciated what he does on another level, and we didn't belabor the point.

I mentioned you and the website saying that Mark Evanier is who I want to be when I grow up, and we both agreed that you weren't grown up to begin with.

He asked me to mail you back, saying hello from him, and that the range of your website astounds him. No matter where he tours, there's one person in each audience that name-checks you, and he's grateful for it. In Cary, North Carolina, it was me, and I'm grateful as well.

Actually, it was you and my pal Jim Amash. He was apparently at the same performance…his second time seeing Frank as he Hackenbushes all over the place.

I printed this just to remind folks that it isn't just my opinion that Frank does a great show. It seems to be the view of darn near everyone who's seen him do his one-Marx show. I get a lot of messages like this from folks who go see Frank on my recommendation. I'll probably be getting some soon from Auburn, Washington because that's where he'll be this weekend. To check and see if and when he'll be coming your way, consult his schedule. It's a great theatrical experience.

The late Shel Dorf devoted his life to comics — strips more than books but he was a great lover and supporter of the form and of the folks who created great comics in both forms. He certainly deserves great recognition and remembrance for his contributions to the form and fandom, particularly for his role in launching the institution we now know as San Diego's annual Comic-Con International.

I'm not sure how he would have reacted to the new industry awards that have been established in his name — the Shel Dorf Awards, recently presented at (and planned as an annual event of) The Detroit Fanfare. Shel was a mercurial soul. He might have felt honored by the concept, especially since he had an important role in a thing called the Detroit Triple Fan-Fare that took place back there in the sixties. The con there is named after the old one, the one Shel worked on. On the other hand, Shel was not a particular fan of most of the "new" comic books of the nineties and later. He didn't read most of them and didn't seem to like most of the ones he did read. (Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo, which won a big award this year, was a notable exception. That one, I know he liked because he told me so. I think at the time he said it and Groo were the only two current comics he read at all.)

So I don't know how Shel would have felt about this award bearing his name. I do know that I'm a little bothered by the publicity surrounding it, and some other things that have been written about Shel since his passing, that seem to give him all the credit for that yearly con down in San Diego. His friends and co-contributors did give him the title of "Founder" but they never called him the "Sole Founder," perhaps because he wasn't. A gentleman named Ken Krueger was as responsible as anyone for the existence of that convention and many other folks made massive contributions, usually doing hundreds of hours of unpaid labor. To mention only Shel as the guy responsible for the con is to do an injustice to Ken and people like Mike Towry and Richard Alf and Barry Alfonso and Scott Shaw! and so many others. It does not insult Shel's memory in any way to acknowledge the efforts of these people.

When Shel passed away in 2009, I wrote a lot of pieces about my friend and did many interviews. I hope I have not contributed to any perceptions that he single-handedly conceived and staged the first convention down in San Diego. Because that is simply not true.

Why don't other countries use ice in their drinks? Here are a number of possible answers.

My pal Bob Claster sent me this link to the greatest Amazon listing ever. Make sure you read the reviews.

An obit for Earl Kress in the Burbank Leader.

If a funeral for a good friend can be called "lovely," the one for Earl Kress this afternoon sure qualifies. The place was packed with a Who's Who of the animation business, much of it standing in the back because there weren't enough seats. One charming aspect of the event was that it was held in the same chapel where Stan Laurel's funeral took place…and it was on what would have been Jim Henson's 75th birthday. I don't think either was intentional but Laurel and Henson were two of the six or so people Earl admired most in the world.

Earl's family did something wise: They kept it short. There was a chaplain, speeches by Earl's three best friends (I was one), a couple of speeches from family members and the Mourner's Kaddish. I think we were out in about an hour. There were many in the hall who could have given eloquent, passionate speeches but…well, I've been to funerals where they offered the microphone to anyone who wanted to speak. That usually winds up being long and uncomfortable with people saying the same things over and over…and eventually you get to someone who wants to talk at length about himself. If and when you have to program a memorial service, remember this: Shorter is always better and Much Shorter is even better than Shorter.

Actually, I did say one thing about myself from the podium when I related the following. Earl passed away early Monday morn. Monday evening, I executed a hostile takeover of www.earlkress.com, a domain he had registered but had never used. It's mine now and I've set up the beginnings of a site all about Earl, collecting things he wrote and things that were written about him. In the months to come, it will be expanded but it's online now and you can go there and learn more about our pal. He was quite a guy…as you'll see.