Monthly Archives: March 2013

Fred Kaplan thinks things in the Middle East are soon to worsen…thanks to a Bush administration that just plain didn't know the region it was out to reform.

So Billy Joel is doing a Q-and-A at Vanderbilt University with a little bit of performing thrown in. A young man in the audience asks if he can accompany his hero on a song — and Billy Joel says "Okay." Here's what happened…

Did you try to book a hotel room for Comic-Con in San Diego and fail? Try again now. There are rooms available.

Andy Marx, grandson of some guy named Groucho, tells the story of how hundreds of episodes of You Bet Your Life could have been lost forever…but weren't.

In a similar Marxian vein, my pal Steve Stoliar has recorded an audio version of his fine book about his days working for Groucho. You can order one here and if it's anything like hearing Steve tell these stories over lunch, it's very entertaining…and somewhat less fattening.

I was fascinated — not necessarily in a good way — by Bob Woodward's biography of John Belushi many years ago. It was called Wired and it was done at the behest of Belushi's widow…and she and all or most of the performer's friends were pretty unhappy with the final product. They felt Woodward had been such an outsider to their world that he'd not really understood what he was writing about and that he'd sensationalized the truth to the point of oblivion. Woodward countered by suggesting that, well, the truth sometimes hurts and that's what he'd reported. As an old Watergate junkie with mixed feelings about Woodward's role in that episode, I came to be more interested in the controversy around Wired than I ever was in John Belushi.

A writer named Tanner Colby worked on another Belushi bio years later, which meant covering the same ground, interviewing the same people. Granted, as the co-author of a less famous book about the Saturday Night Live star, he could well have an underlying resentment of Woodward's…but I tend to think not. As he states in the linked article, the consensus among the folks in Belushi's world was that even where they'd been quoted directly, Wired did not depict the guy they knew or the incidents they related to its author. Colby didn't make that part up…and it makes you wonder about other things Woodward has written.

This runs a little under an hour but I think it's worth it. It's the entirety of the recently-broadcast episode of Live at Lincoln Center entitled Ring Them Bells! A Kander & Ebb Celebration. If you're a fan of the tunes of John Kander and Fred Ebb, you're already getting ready to click…

I mentioned Victoria Jackson in the previous message. Here's a pretty good profile of the lady with whom I worked on two separate TV shows. She's posted some corrections and comments over on her website.

I haven't spoken to her for a while but I'll echo what others said about her being utterly honest and sincere in everything she says. I just think she's as wrong in her worldview as she seems to think people with mine are. Nevertheless, I liked her and we got along well. I hope that I'll still be able to say that after the next time we cross paths.

By the way, it's been pointed out to me that the Saturday Night Live "Five-Timers" club is kind of a scam. It's supposed to be for people who've hosted the show five times but Paul Simon, who is always identified as a member of that elite society, has only hosted four times. He's been on the program many more times than that but not as host.

The performers who've actually hosted the show five times are Alec Baldwin, Steve Martin, John Goodman, Buck Henry, Tom Hanks, Chevy Chase, Christopher Walken, Elliott Gould, Danny DeVito, Drew Barrymore, Justin Timberlake, Candice Bergen and Bill Murray. And I'm told — I haven't checked this — that Timberlake was actually admitted to the Five-Timers Club on his sixth hosting but they pretended it was his fifth.

Wonder if they tried to get all the previous five-time hosts for last Saturday's sketch. Elliott Gould's sheer presence — still hanging around the club after all these years — could have been funny but it also could have been so close to the truth as to be painful. Buck Henry hosted ten times and was one of the most valuable contributors to that show's early success…but he is, alas, not a big, recognizable star these days so SNL has forgotten him. I can't imagine why they wouldn't have tried for the others though.

Years ago when I was friendly with Victoria Jackson and she didn't think I was out to serve Satan and destroy America by not hating Barack Obama, she asked if I had any ideas as to how she could get back on Saturday Night Live at least once. This was some time after she'd left the cast and thought that another appearance on the program would have boosted her visibility and therefore, job offers. I suggested she submit a sketch idea where the host and some members of the then-current cast wander into a corridor of long-unused dressing rooms and find her in one, like she's been there all along, waiting for someone to put her in a sketch and wondering where Phil Hartman was. It would have been like one of those supposed Japanese soldiers who was on an island for years after World War II because no one had told them the war was over.

She liked the premise but I don't know if she ever presented it to anyone there. A year or two later, I was at a party with some current SNL writers and I mentioned it to them. They all laughed and said it was funny but that it was the second-least-likely thing they could imagine Lorne Michaels allowing on the show.

Naturally, I asked what the least-likely thing Michaels would ever allow on the series was. They said, almost in unison, "A current cast member who has grey or no hair."

The original Saturday Night Live "Five-Timers" sketch…

You may have seen this sketch the other evening on Saturday Night Live. I didn't think it was that great, nor was what I saw of the rest of the episode…but I confess. I get a cheap thrill out of Surprise Walk-Ons. I love that whoop! you get from a live audience when an unanticipated celeb makes an entrance. It's one of the things SNL is still good at.

So I'm curious about something. This was a sequel to the "Five-Timers" sketch that was on the show back in 1990 when Tom Hanks hosted for his fifth time. In that one — which does not seem to be online at the moment, at least not where I can embed it — they did "reveals." For instance, there was a person reading a newspaper and then when he dropped it down, you saw it was Steve Martin. This time, Steve Martin was just standing there…and the live audience reacted at the precise moment when he was on-camera. Same with Dan Aykroyd, same with Chevy Chase.

Martin Short, Candice Bergen, Tom Hanks and Alec Baldwin all made entrances so the audience didn't see them before it was time to react. Paul Simon might not have been that recognizable to most and he could have had his back to the cameras until an instant before he was spotted. But Martin, Aykroyd and Chase all had to be on the set a few seconds before we, the home viewers, saw them…and the live audience only reacted when we saw them.

So what was the deal here? Did they do this sketch on a set that all or most of the live audience couldn't see and they were only watching it on monitors? Did they tell the live audience, "If you see someone famous in this next sketch, don't react until we flash the APPLAUSE sign"? Anyone have an idea?

Three other thoughts about it…

One: It was nice to see those folks again but in a few cases, bittersweet in that Jerry Lewis way. I couldn't help but think that there was a time when Chevy Chase would have mocked an old-timer who came across as past-his-prime the way Chevy Chase came across.

Two: What? They couldn't get Elliott Gould and/or Ralph Nader again?

And Three: It's a shame Conan O'Brien is on the outs with NBC. In the original sketch, the door to the Five-Timers Club was opened by "Sean," a club employee played by O'Brien, who was then a writer for SNL. It would have been so funny if they had shown a snippet of the original sketch first so we saw him, then — live — Justin Timberlake arrives and is admitted by "Sean." He reacts: "Conan O'Brien???" O'Brien asks him to keep it to himself. "After what's happened with my career, I had to go back to my real name and beg for my old job back." Timberlake says, "But…but don't you have a series on WTBS?" O'Brien says, "That's on weekdays and the way it pays, I have to come here on weekends and pick up a few extra bucks."

Here's the sketch as it ran last Saturday night. See if you can figure out why the studio audience isn't reacting to some of these stars before we, the home audience, see them. And my apologies if Hulu makes you sit through an annoying commercial…

David Frum on why he thinks Republicans are wrong to line up alongside Rand Paul. Not that I wish that party would become wiser about how to win elections but I think Paul is not the guy via whom you convince America that you care about poor folks and minorities.

I try to post something here every day…usually, many somethings. Once in a while, I miss a day. If I think that's likely to happen, I put up a soup can picture. In over twelve years of doing this, I don't think I've ever gone three days without a post. In May of '06 when I was in the hospital for surgery, I only missed one day.

If you come to this page and the most recent post is two or three days old, the most likely explanation is that your browser is not refreshing the page. Try refreshing it manually once or twice. You may just see a lot of new posts pop up on your screen. Sometimes, it may also be necessary to flush the temporary internet files cache on your computer. This especially applies if you're using Mozilla Firefox to surf the web but it can happen with any browser. Thank you.

I just watched the PBS Jerry Lewis special. Part of me thinks it's great that at his age, he can still go out there and make audiences somewhat happy. The other part wishes someone would lovingly tap this man on the shoulder and say, "Time to get off the stage, Jerry." The special is filled with vintage Jerry (or Dean and Jerry) clips that only serve as contrast and make him seem even older than he is.

He rambles on, does the typewriter bit and sings about as well as he ever did. The hour contains only a small part of the stage act he did in Vegas (looking very much like the telethon) and a lot of clips and other interviews. He talks a lot about his "partner" (i.e., Dean) and about the love they had for each other and he compares them rather flatteringly to Laurel and Hardy. He also tells us that at one point, he was "making it" with Marilyn Monroe. (Jerry was one of several people I've met who claimed unconvincingly to have had sex with Ms. Monroe. Others included Milton Berle and Bob Kane.)

And of course, what would a Jerry Lewis appearance be without an anecdote that in no way corresponds to known facts? This time, he tells a story that — well, here's the first part of it…

When Johnny Carson called me in 1983, he asked me to take over The Tonight Show. I said, "Yeah, I'd love to do it." So I went to New York for six weeks and did The Tonight Show.

Didn't happen. Jerry did host the Tonight Show occasionally in the sixties, including the infamous week in which he told a joke about how great it was to be in an airplane and be able to go to the bathroom over Mississippi. There was much protest and he wound up delivering one of those awkward apologies that was probably worse than the original joke. But I don't think he hosted at all after that and certainly not for six weeks. Also, of course, the Tonight Show was done in Los Angeles by 1983.

But he's Jerry. The show is still running on PBS…though not so far in Los Angeles. I picked it up on a satellite channel.

A fine gallery of Animators at Work.

Many of you have probably read this article that says that the Disney Studio has no current projects involving hand-drawn animation and no plans to do more of it in the future. I am not one of those folks who finds something aesthetically wrong with animation via computer. At first, it bothered me but I'm coming to accept it as something that in the right hands can be just as wonderful in its own way. The main problem I have with Disney's abandonment of the process is that there are so many people who are around and are good at it. Those people need a place to do that and also to teach their craft to others. It's an art form unto itself and it largely has to be learned by working with those who do it well. If they don't make any hand-drawn films for five years and then suddenly they do, they can't presume the talent and expertise will be there.

The working premise of Airline Deregulation was that it would stimulate competition and that that would be good for us, the consumers. Airlines would lower rates, improve service, fly to more locations at more times, etc. There was a brief period in there when it sure felt like that was happening. Then again, any airline can lower rates and give you more if they're operating at a loss. They just can't do it forever.

Here's an article with charts to show how competition has declined. If you presume more competitors in the field equals better values and service, you have to admit we're not getting it as more and more airlines either close down or merge into others.