Monthly Archives: December 2012

A lot of folks have sent me links to articles that they hope will convince me that it is possible (or even likely) that Congress will pass meaningful Gun Control legislation. I remain unconvinced…but really, folks. If there really is a chance, my skepticism won't stop it. Convincing me won't make it any more likely.

And I never doubted it was possible. I doubt they'll do it.

Hey, here's another prediction on this: The N.R.A. will say all sorts of things about responsible gun use and how they certainly want to stop incidents like the one in Newtown. And then they'll throw every possible roadblock in front of anything that might make a difference. Anyone want to argue that one?

I mentioned a moment ago that people at CBS seem absolutely terrified of doing anything to displease David Letterman. It's another thing he has in common with Johnny Carson who scared the hell out of everyone at NBC. He scared people outside NBC, too. The best example I can give you is back from 2005 when he passed away. An article moved by the Associated Press included the following…

Carson often had a cigarette in hand in the early years of "Tonight," eventually dropping the on-air habit when smoking on TV became frowned on. But he remained a heavy smoker for some years afterward, said a former associate who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Get that. Johnny is dead and yet someone who once worked for him is still afraid to be quoted directly saying that Johnny didn't quit smoking when his viewers thought he had. This is not atypical. There are lots of stories you hear about Carson that have somehow never made it to print. A new book that's coming out soon may change that.

Henry Bushkin was Johnny's lawyer and business partner for many years. You may recall Mr. Carson making reference to his business manager, "Bombastic Bushkin," who got him into some odd business deals like a Big Man's Shop in Tokyo or a tanning salon for albinos. Jokes like that. In reality, Mr. Bushkin was involved in some very good deals with Johnny…although I seem to recall that the relationship did not end well and that they parted company at some point. Since then, Bushkin has been one of the few real Carson associates willing to be quoted about him in less than glowing terms.

Around the time of Carson's passing, Bushkin was shopping around a "warts and all" book about his one-time client. The book seems to be emerging via the Carson360 website. (Quick explanation: The license plate on Carson's BMW was 360 GUY, i.e., "all-around guy." And it was not a personalized, made-to-order plate. It was just the one the state randomly assigned to him.)

The site appears to be operated by Bushkin's co-author to herald and take pre-orders for the forthcoming book, A Hard Act to Follow. I couldn't find anything there that told me how forthcoming it might be but there are some excerpts there you can read right now. As soon as it looks like it's about to come out, I'm going to order one and I'll let you know how it is.

Here's a CBS interview of a CBS star that everyone at CBS is terrified of pissing off. Still, Mr. Letterman does say some interesting things about his stature and deals briefly with comparisons between him and Johnny Carson. One key difference is that during most of Carson's tenure, his show held a near-monopoly on the making of young comedians' careers, whereas there are now many routes. So you can make a long list of comedians who became stars after a few good appearances with Johnny, whereas very few have soared because Dave or Jay had them on. Even Carson didn't (or couldn't) do that for very many during his final years.

I used to be a huge fan of both Letterman and Leno, and both were TiVoed every night. At some point, Dave's crankiness got to me and I now only record him when he has on a guest (like Albert Brooks, recently) I especially want to see. Nothing on those episodes causes me to want to retake my Season Pass. I still record Leno every night but I fast forward through any bit built on the foundation of people being willing to look foolish on camera — there are a lot of them — and I usually don't stick around for the second guest interview and sometimes not for the first.

I still like the monologues and Jay's general attitude. The guy likes his work and he likes his guests and he likes performing. I assume some or all of that is true of Dave but he sure tries to hide it. As I get older, I find myself less inclined to view a snide, sardonic attitude as cool or sophisticated. I like people who are unafraid to like things.

You may have heard the rumor that it's been decided that when Leno's current contract runs out in 2014, he'll step aside for Jimmy Fallon. It's not impossible this has been set but I'm more inclined to believe it's something that's currently under discussion, to perhaps be activated if the ratings continue on their current trajectory. And why before deciding that, wouldn't they wait to see how Jimmy Kimmel's relocation to 11:35 impacts everything in that time slot? NBC got in trouble once before by deciding (wrongly) that Jay's ratings would be going down so they'd better commit now to replacing him later. Are they really prepared to make that same mistake again? Maybe.

Anyway, here's Dave. You may have to watch a 30 second spot to get to the interview…

Here's a good profile of Jerry Seinfeld, among other things a man who owns "a few dozen" Porsches.

Seinfeld and Jay Leno are among the few comedians I've ever read about who seem to genuinely enjoy the stand-up life, jetting from town to town to do their acts. A great many comics enjoy it in the short-run but see it as a means to an end: A way of showcasing one's self to get a movie deal, a sitcom, a role on a series, etc. They don't do it much if at all once the other things kick in and start paying off. Leno is big on the "use it or lose it" philosophy and doesn't count his nightly Tonight Show monologues as batting practice. He has to get out and perform his well-honed stand-up act several times a week. So, apparently does the guy with all the Porsches.

Up in the Hollywood & Highland complex in Hollywood, there's this great theater that used to be called the Kodak but is now called the Dolby. It's where they do the Academy Awards and lately, the only other thing in the place has been a Cirque du Soleil show called Iris. For some reason, that seems to be pronounced "ear-reese."

The show cost a fortune to open there, some of which came in the form of a loan from the city. We'll be hearing more about that. it was supposed to stay there 'til just past forever but recently announced a closing date of January 19. Why the disappointing run? Most folks seem to be blaming high ticket prices and I think that's likely it. Cirque du Soleil shows, as wonderful as they can be, do have a way of making you feel someone is picking your pocket. Atop steep costs to buy tix often come pushy V.I.P. upgrade offers, expensive refreshments, more expensive souvenirs and sometimes parking prices that are higher than any Cirque acrobat. In a fragile economy, it's gotta be tough for many families to justify the expense.

Carolyn got tickets for last night as a bonus for making a donation to Public Radio. Obviously, since biz is bad, the Cirque folks are making deals to sell them in bulk. We had pretty good seats and the place was not packed.

Price tag aside, there's nothing wrong with Iris except that it's a lot of the usual physical feats woven awkwardly into some sort of vague salute to moviemaking. People fly on trapeze-like contraptions and fabric ropes over your heads. Others do impossible leaps and flips. There is music by Danny Elfman. There are great sets and costumes that truly do range from the sublime to the ridiculous. There are clowns. Some of this has something to do with movies.

I could have done with less of the clowns and more of the amazing women who literally bend over backwards to please us, doing impossible balancing feats with impossible postures. I also really liked a troupe of men, some of whom balanced others on their feet.

But in terms of physical wonders, there didn't seem to be anything I hadn't seen before, making me wonder (again) if the Cirque folks just aren't spreading themselves wafer-thin. They still have the ability to dazzle me but they've lost that wonderful capability they once had to surprise. If you're in L.A. before it stops, look around and see if you can score some great discount tickets. If you can, it's a great show.

[P.S., added hours later: Yes, I know Cirque Du Soleil is French-Canadian, based in Quebec, not French as in "French surrender monkeys."  The headline was just a joke.]

Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without this, maybe my favorite short piece of holiday animation ever…

My main computer is running again. It was doing all sorts of odd things, flickering and crashing and opening programs I didn't open. I thought maybe a cable was loose or there was a mound of dust on some vital component but when I took the thing apart, there was no sign of any of that. Then I finally figured it out…

It wasn't the computer. It was the keyboard. The "Enter" key was stuck in the down position so it was sending an avalanche of commands every second and the computer was overloading. I replaced the keyboard with one of the many in my closet and suddenly, all was fine.

And lucky I figured it out when I did. If I'd gone to the hassle of taking it in to my tech expert, the following would have happened. I'd have lugged it downstairs to my car. I'd have driven 20-30 minutes to my tech expert…but I wouldn't have taken the keyboard along. I would have carried the CPU into his workroom, he would have hooked it up with one of his keyboards and the thing would have worked fine. I would then have hauled it out to my car, brought it home, carried it upstairs to my office, hooked it up again…and it wouldn't have worked. You can imagine how much fun that would have been.

So I'm back but I'm not back because I have a load of stuff to do. I'll post something here before long…

For those of you unfamiliar with this ancient custom I invented, I put up a picture of a can of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup when I figure on being too busy to post much here for a while. In this case, it's busy plus dealing with a computer crash. I'm coming to you from my backup computer while I deal with repairing my main one. I'll be back when I'm back, which I trust will not be long.

Bill Boggs has been interviewing people all over television for decades, often without proper notice. This video is a rather serious conversation he had with Neil Simon just before Simon's Chapter Two opened on Broadway. That would place this chat in late 1977.

If you watch it, you might keep in mind that Simon's marriage to actress Marsha Mason, which was the subtext of Chapter Two, had about three years left in it before they divorced. He also makes reference to the efforts for peace between Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin which at the time of this interview looked like they were going to work out, too.

Here's Gene Autry with one of my favorite Christmas songs…

I'm not going to post a lot more about Gun Control because like I said, I don't think this is going anywhere. But Alan Jacobs makes two good points over at The American Conservative. If we do institute any sort of Gun Control in this country, the problem we should be trying to solve is not the Newtown tragedies so much as it is the many shootings that happen on an individual basis every day.

And before I leave this topic — and leave it, I will — the dumbest idea I've heard is the notion that we should arm teachers. If an Adam Lanza had burst into any of my classrooms with guns blazing…well, I can't think of a single teacher I ever had who would instantly turn into the Clint Eastwood of the movies and be able to expertly pick him off without shooting more of the pupils than he did. I'll admit I don't know as much about guns as some people but I do know they ain't as easy to grab, ready and fire as the cop shows make them out to be. It's hard enough to find good teachers these days and if we add into the requirements that they have to learn how to shoot and also be ready to serve as armed security guards…

One of the best teachers I had in high school was a man named Mr. Miller who taught Science the way every teacher should teach Science…but that was all he could do. On rainy days, he had to put on a slicker and go out to the parking lot and direct traffic, and this invariably led to him directing one car to back into another. He could teach you Newton's Third Law of Motion but not understand how it might apply to a Buick. Put a pistol in his hands and you'd have dead students everywhere without even the need for a crazed loner with assault weapons.

Jonathan Chait is just as pessimistic as I am about meaningful Gun Control and does a better job of explaining why.