Monthly Archives: December 2012

Just watch it…

The Poynter Institute offers a list of press errors and corrections and other low points of the year.

Back when the station now known as GSN was Game Show Network, we loved its "Black-and-White Overnight" bloc that ran antique game shows in the wee morning hours and were sad to see it go away. Well, starting next Monday night (or Tuesday morning depending on which time zone you're in), it's back…for two weeks. Check your listings for the precise times you can see or record old episodes of What's My Line? and I've Got a Secret.

They did this last year, as I recall…and maybe the year before, too. I'm guessing that even though they don't want to run those shows on their regular schedule, they want to hold onto them and for some contractual reason, they have to run them for two weeks each year or lose them. Something like that.

Each year around this time, the good folks at Turner Classic Movies release a long, stylish video noting those in the movie business who've passed away since January 1. I'm not sure why they do this with more than two weeks remaining in the year. In 2011, they went back and edited in those who'd died after the video debuted and they'll presumably have to do that this year. So here's the 2012 one as it now stands…

The folks who bring us Comic-Con International, WonderCon and the Alternative Press Expo have unveiled a new website. Looks real sharp and like the old one, it's full of useful info if you're attending any of those great events. Check it out often.

The secret origin of Cheese Dip.

David Frum on the course of action that some on the extreme right are urging on the Republicans in Congress. He calls it "tactical radicalism, strategic nihilism" and further states that "there is no real plan, only a high-hormone demand to do something, anything, to defy and reject the results of the 2012 election."

I have often sent you to read the Huffington Post columns of my buddy Robert J. Elisberg — or "Bob," as his closest friends have come to call him. His columns are perceptive and I don't just say that because he usually agrees with me…though that would be reason enough. I think he just sees the world in a wise, pragmatic way. One of the reasons we are in agreeance is because he causes me to say, "Hey, Bob's right about that." I also like his writing when we don't agree.

Bob writes things other than Huffington Post columns. He writes screenplays and now he's written a book that would make a dandy holiday gift for someone you kinda like but don't want to spend a lot of money on. You can also give it to people you like but give them something else, as well.

What is this book? Why, it's the long-awaited sequel to A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. In it, Ol' Ebenezer Scrooge has finally decreased the surplus population (i.e., died) and left his business to Bob Cratchit who runs it promptly into the ground. This leads to a return by Scrooge in ghost form and…well, get a copy and read what Bob (Elisberg, not Cratchit) has done. You can buy a Kindle edition or you can buy a printed-on-that-paper-stuff edition but get one soon. Elisberg has done a great job here and there are only so many shopping days 'til Christmas!

I rarely talk here about what I'm working on but it might be appropriate to mention this. Yesterday, we recorded the voice tracks for the last episode of Season Four of The Garfield Show. The series is seen all over the world though its U.S. home — Cartoon Network — tends to put it on a for a while, then take it off for a while, then put it back on for a while. It's off right now but will return. During its last "on," they ran some but not all of the episodes we produced for Season Three. I assume it'll come back on one of these days and they'll debut the rest of 'em amidst reruns aplenty. Some other countries have already run them all ten times.

I wear many hats on this show. I am the supervising producer. I am the main writer. I am the voice director. When asked what I do on it, I'm inclined to just mention the middle one, believing as I do that any title with the word "writer" in it is vastly more important than any title with the words "producer" or "director" in it. It is to me, anyway. For those of you scoring at home, I provided similar duties on 121 half-hours of the original Garfield and Friends, and now have completed my end of 104 half-hours of The Garfield Show. That's a lot of lasagna jokes with more to come.

We had a wonderful cast this season and I'm going to mention their names because the way Cartoon Network shows the credits, they're impossible to read. Frank Welker plays Garfield, Gregg Berger plays Odie, Wally Wingert plays Jon, Jason Marsden plays Nermal, Julie Payne plays Liz, Laura Summer plays Drusilla and Minerva, Audrey Wasilewski plays Arlene and all of those folks juggle several other roles. They were joined on different episodes throughout Season Four by the following folks in no particular order…

Stan Freberg, June Foray, Laraine Newman, Fred Tatasciore, Joe Alaskey, Rose Marie, Grey DeLisle, Corey Burton, Frank Buxton, Bob Bergen, Candi Milo, Jewel Shepard, Neil Ross, Bill Farmer, Misty Lee, Susan Silo, Mark Hamill, Phil LaMarr, Brooks Gardner, Diane Michelle and Scott Whyte. As I keep telling people, the secret to voice-directing a cartoon show is to hire good people and get out of their way. You'd be amazed how little acting direction you have to give performers like these.

I'm really happy with this series, which is not something I say about everything I work on. I removed my name (or at least tried-to and partially succeeded) on another cartoon series I did, plus I yanked it off three or four shows where I wrote the pilot episodes. They don't always come out the way you want them to, especially when others are trying to be the Giant Ape on whom all eyes must be focused. But you put up with those jobs not because they pay — although there is that — but you have to slog through those on occasion to get to the good ones. This for me is one of the good ones, especially because of the brilliant direction and animation being done by our director Philippe Vidal and his amazing crew.

I have no idea when Season Four will air in America. I don't even know when the rest of Season Three will air in America. But when it does, I hope you'll enjoy those episodes even a tenth as much as I enjoyed working with the people I get to work with.

In 1990, the great Larry Gelbart wrote a play called Mastergate which spoofed the Iran-Contra hearings…and made about as much sense as they did. It ran a brief time (69 performances) in New York but I don't think it was intended to run a long time. Two years later, my pal David Jablin produced an all-star production of it for Showtime and it received great critical acclaim. It's really quite funny and quite clever and I recommend it to you.

You might not want to watch it now or on this site. It runs 86 minutes. But do try to see it sometime, someplace…

Here's a report on a recent on-stage conversation between Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. If anyone hears of an online video or anything, let me know.

…of baby pandas.

Garrie Burr writes with a question that's got me wondering, too…

A student (and practitioner) of comedy like yourself might know the answer to this puzzler.

Jack Benny's radio shows played part in perpetuating catch-phrases of the day, often ones from songs on the hit parade. Although it's generally not hard to know the provenance of things like "Mairzy-doats" and "My mama done told me," they occasionally throw in one that remains a mystery to our modern minds.

The 1944 shows keep throwing in versions of the following line: "That's what the man said, he said that, that's what he said..!"

I remember something like this being used by Tweety Bird and another time by Bugs, but haven't been able to find who started it. Any ideas? Friends and the Internet both come up empty on this one. Not sure if it's related to one of Dennis Day's favorite lines at the time, "Ooh, what he said!" Whatever the case, have a great holiday! I look forward to reading more of your stuff in the new year.

I should know this one. I have the feeling I did and just can't summon it up now. It was a catch-phrase of someone on radio back then. Anyone?

South Carolina governor Nikki Haley has to pick someone to replace Jim DeMint as a senator from that state. A lot of people want it to be Stephen Colbert…

Nikki Haley is one of the most unpopular Governors in the country. Only 42% of voters approve of the job she's doing to 49% who disapprove. Out of 43 sitting Governors PPP has polled on, that ranks her 35th in popularity.

Haley has pretty solid numbers within her own party. 70% of Republicans approve of the job she's doing to 22% who disapprove. But with Democrats (15/78 approval) and independents (28/57) her numbers are pretty woeful.

There is a path back to popularity for Haley though: appointing Stephen Colbert to replace Jim DeMint in the Senate. Colbert tops the wish list of who South Carolina voters would like to see join that body at 20%, followed by Tim Scott at 15%, Trey Gowdy at 14%, Jenny Sanford at 11%, Henry McMaster and Mark Sanford at 8%, Jeff Duncan and Joe Wilson at 5%, and Mick Mulvaney at 4%.

Of course, Haley probably wouldn't still have a 70% approval rating within her own party if she handed the seat over to someone of a different political persuasion. I don't know if Dr. Colbert is a Democrat or an Independent but I'm guessing he's not a Republican and he sure wouldn't vote like DeMint. Still, it would be a lot of fun…