Monthly Archives: January 2013

In 1950, one of the world's great comedians starred in a TV series, The Buster Keaton Show. The show was live so reruns were not possible. Last I heard, a mediocre kinescope of one episode was all that had survived.

Keaton knew at the time that his live show had limited commercial possibilities so the following year, he did another series — this time, on film. The show seems to have been marketed with two sets of opening titles, one set calling it The Buster Keaton Show; the other named Life With Buster Keaton. I've heard that only thirteen were made but I don't guarantee that number.

It was on that filmed show that I first discovered one of my favorite performers. As I would later learn, many of the gags and situations in them were ones that Buster had done in earlier films…and done better. The main writer was Clyde Bruckman, who'd written for Keaton and most of the other major comedians back in the twenties. In later years, Bruckman took to "borrowing" routines from films he'd written earlier…and a few he hadn't. So he'd be hired to write something and then its producer would be sued (usually by Harold Lloyd) and Bruckman would be fired. Keaton hired him to steal from earlier Buster Keaton films.

Nevertheless, I loved these shows. I saw them when KNXT Channel 2 ran one every Saturday morning around 8 AM. This would have been around 1960, give or take a year. One of the reasons I'm not sure how many episodes there were is that they seemed to run this one every other week. It's far from Keaton at his best but if you'd never seen him anywhere else, you might think it was pretty good…

In fairness to the folks at the Logitech company, what I went through with their Tech Support folks is fairly typical these days. In way too many companies, they now look on the need to provide Customer Service as a burdensome expense. I don't know how many times lately, I've found myself talking to someone who clearly is not on the same continent as the company or me…and there'd be nothing wrong with that if they were well-trained and had the power to do more than read answers off computer screens. In most cases, they don't have the knowledge. They have extensive FAQs on their computers and they look up what I'm calling about and parrot what's there. That is, if it's there.

I blame Ray Kroc for this trend. One of the things he pushed when he was establishing the McDonald's empire was the notion of utterly interchangeable, don't-have-to-know-a-lot employees. I heard him speak once and he bragged about how he'd designed his restaurants so they could take any kid off the street and train him a few hours to output burgers and fries exactly like the burgers and fries in every other McDonald's. It's hard work, I'm sure…but it's all paint-by-the-numbers. And it's why they can get away with not paying very well. It's hard to get decent wages in this world if there's an endless stream of people out there who can and will do your job just as well for bad money.

And now we see so many companies trying to do the same thing with Customer Service personnel. A few years ago, I had a horrendous experience with United Airlines where I couldn't reach anyone who knew anything or had the power to do anything. Dialing Customer Service got me a guy in India who didn't have the answer to my problem on his screen and wasn't empowered to refer me to anyone who could help me. At least the Logitech folks have this Level Two department of wiser technicians who can take over when the lower level fails. The problems I had with them, apart from being on hold for a long time and getting dumped off the line a few times, were that their Lower Level people spent a long time with me to not solve my problem and it was hard to get Level Two on the line. But at least when I did, they solved my dilemma.

All of this is a trend I don't like and one I think is bad for business. As I've written here before, I've seen a lot of technogically-oriented businesses go under in the last few years — Good Guys, CompUSA, Egghead Software, others — and all I think for the same reason. This may just be anecdotal but in every case, I found that they had salesfolks who didn't have the foggiest understanding of what they sold or how most of it worked. I'd ask questions and get back tabula rasa stares.

I don't get why companies do this. I understand that the employees that know more cost more…or can cost more. But if I'm going to be buying computers or TVs or anything from employees who don't know anything, I might as well order on the Internet and save money. The one advantage a brick-and-mortar store might have is if they have staffers there you could talk to and get personal attention and info. But the last time I was in a Best Buy, none of their salesfolks could tell me which of their external hard drivers had eSATA ports. None of them knew what eSATA ports were. That can't be good for sales. It may be that companies can get away with this because everyone's doing it and they figure you won't be able to get better service anywhere else.

Once upon a time, there were comedy records that weren't just one person standing on stage, talking to a bunch of semi-drunk people at a club with a name like Yuk-Yuk's. Concept albums, folks called them. They were like little sketch comedies on a common theme, often with songs. The best-selling of these was The First Family, the 1962 album that satirized President Kennedy and his clan. It was produced by Bob Booker and Earle Doud, and was at the time the fastest-selling record of any kind the industry had ever seen.

Thereafter, Mssrs. Booker and Doud produced many other popular comedy albums, sometimes alone and sometimes together. In '65, Booker and his then-partner George Foster gave us You Don't Have to Be Jewish, starring Lou Jacobi, Betty Walker, Jack Gilford, and Frank Gallop. It was a tremendous hit and it received a Grammy nomination. The following year, Booker and Foster brought forth a sequel called When You're In Love, The Whole World Is Jewish featuring most of the same people plus a then-unknown actress named Valerie Harper. This too was a success and many disc jockeys played a cut from it that you may remember if you were ever a Dr. Demento listener. It was the song, "The Ballad of Irving."

Here, I'll let you listen to "The Ballad of Irving." The folks at archive.org have it up, credited wrongly to Allan Sherman, who seems to get credited or blamed for every funny song ever written with Jewish overtones. This is Frank Gallop performing…

So why am I telling you all this? Because some clever folks are turning this wonderful material into a stage show. Producers Danny Gold and Billy Riback have taken the best of both albums and on February 1, they debut When You're In Love, The Whole World Is Jewish at the Greenway Court Theatre in Los Angeles. It's located appropriately enough on Fairfax Avenue (or as I call it, The Borscht Beltway) within easy walking distance of my favorite delicatessen, Canter's.

The director is Jason Alexander — yes, that Jason Alexander — and I'll review it when I see it the week after it opens…but don't wait for me. Go check out their website and if you're within easy schlepping distance, order tickets. Sounds to me like a great evening.

For my friends in Los Angeles: We mourn the loss of Junior's Delicatessen over at Pico and Westwood but here's what's going into that building in its place: Lenny's Delicatessen. The webpage acts like the place is already open for business but it isn't yet. No word on when.

I don't have a good feeling about this. This is reportedly the same Lenny's Deli that used to be out in Pacific Palisades. It opened, got a bad reputation, then closed in a short span of time. Assuming they do a better job at the new address, they have some high hurdles. The landlords there gave Junior's a series of rent cuts to keep the place open but finally reached the point where they couldn't or wouldn't lower the amount further…and Junior's couldn't keep the doors open without another cut.

A new tenant will presumably be paying a higher rate. How might Lenny's succeed where Junior's couldn't, offering what is essentially the same menu? Junior's, in spite of declining quality and inclining prices, still had a good reputation with most folks and a history as part of the neighborhood. A new delicatessen there is going to have to live up to that rep even after Junior's couldn't. I hope they succeed but I have the mental image of Sisyphus trying to roll an immense matzo ball up the side of a mountain.

A few minutes from the premiere of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World…

My pal Paul Harris is my favorite interviewer in the broadcasting biz these days. Here's a good conversation he had recently with one of my favorite funny people, Paula Poundstone. And you can find more of Paul's fine interviews and other goodies over on his blog.

Ben fixed it.

Still on with the guy. But we're making progress. My remote almost does everything it's supposed to…

Still on with the Logitech folks. I've got a technician who seems to know his stuff but so far, the problem ain't fixed.

Ben called at 10:06. He seems to know stuff.

Okay: I'm supposed to get a call at 10 AM from someone at the Logitech company who actually knows how to get my Harmony One remote control device to remotely control what it's supposed to remotely control. I'll be happy if such a person phones me within the hour and even happier if they can fix the problem. For now, I'm going to sit here and write Groo pages. I'll let you know if the person calls and if he's smarter than Groo.

Here's 48 minutes of Bill Boggs interviewing Jerry Lewis. This was done when Jerry was promoting Hardly Working, which came out in 1981. At the time, Jerry hadn't had a film released since Which Way to the Front? in 1970. He shot the never-released The Day the Clown Cried in 1972.

Jerry tells the story which he's often told about how he stopped making films for that long time after seeing one of his movies sharing a theater marquee with Deep Throat. As we discussed here, I don't believe any movie theater ever double-billed a Jerry Lewis movie (or anything not X-rated) with Deep Throat and I also don't believe that's a reason to stop making films. I think you stop because your films are losing money and no studio wants to invest much in you any longer.

If you're a fan of odd Jerry Lewis interviews, this one's for you. He rambles on through many topics, gets occasionally peeved at the host, blames himself for the breakup with Dean and flat-out refuses to answer a number of questions. It's got it all…

Slightly less than a month ago, I attempted to program my new Harmony One remote control that, they swear, will control all the components in my office video setup. That consists of a Philips TV, a TiVo, a Sony DVD player and a Toshiba Blu-ray player. There's also an RCA satellite dish controller in there but I don't need the remote to control it.

The remote refused to program properly, the main problem being that it doesn't want to switch input sources on the Philips TV, though there are smaller problems, as well. I called the Logitech Tech Support line and spent — I am not exaggerating — a couple of hours on the phone with a gent in the Philippines who didn't seem to have any idea how to make my remote work. Then I spent more time with another gent who said all the same things as the first one. He finally admitted it was beyond him so he'd have someone from Level Two Tech Support call me, though he couldn't say when they might get around to that.

No one called but I did receive an e-mail from Charlie, who is with Level Two support, asking when would be a good time for him to call me. I gave him a time but he never called.

I feel like tackling this again tonight. Their Customer Service number is open until 7 PM my time. It's 5:10 now. Let's see what happens when I call…

5:10 PM — I call up and enter my "incident number" from my previous call. The Logitech phone system immediately hangs up on me.

5:11 PM — I call up and try it again. This time, a voice tells me that my incident number is no longer eligible for support and I should try and fix the problem using their website.

5:12 PM — I call up again and push the number I'd push for a new case. I am placed on hold and I listen to jazzy music, interrupted occasionally by a male voice that tells me either (a) how my Harmony Remote can control any component in the world or (b) how I can get loads of support on their website.

5:38 PM — I am still on hold.

5:39 PM — The hold music stops, I hear a phone ring once. Then I hear a dead line. Then their system hangs up on me again. I think their tech support needs tech support.

5:40 PM — I call back again. More jazzy hold music plus that guy. It has now been a half-hour since I started this and I haven't made contact with a human being yet.

5:42 PM — Oh, wait. A person! I talk to someone named Dmitri and explain my history to him. He places me on hold.

5:49 PM — Dmitri returns to me and says that he's sent my case to the Level Two technicians and they can't take my call now and want to call me tomorrow. I argue a bit about this: Isn't there a chance one of those guys could talk to me now? Dmitri goes off to check and I'm on hold for a minute or two before he returns and tells me no, it'll have to be tomorrow. I try to arrange a time for this but Dmitri, who is obviously not on the same continent with me, doesn't grasp the concept of North American time zones. I keep telling him I'd like that call at 10 AM Pacific Time. He keeps telling me they don't open until 10 AM Eastern Time. I finally convince him that 1 PM Eastern Time is 10 AM Pacific Time and he says that Ben will phone me at 10 AM.

By the time this call ends, it is 5:54 PM. I spent 44 minutes and didn't get to speak to anyone with a clue how to solve my problem here. Let's see if Ben calls tomorrow and if Level Two is any better than whatever Level I was on before.