Monthly Archives: February 2014

• Charlie Sheen to marry for 4th time. She's a porno actress. He's Charlie Sheen. How could this not work out?

Dame Edna (aka Barry Humphries) did her/his Farewell Tour a few years ago and stopped in Los Angeles at the Ahmanson Theater. Dame Edna (aka Barry Humphries) will be doing her/his Final Farewell Tour in selected U.S. cities next year and will be down at the Ahmanson January 25-March 15, 2015.

This morning on Meet the Press, Bill Nye the Science Guy debated Marsha Blackburn the Congressional Hand Puppet of rich folks who don't want to face the overwhelming mountain of evidence for Climate Change. The topic, of course, was Climate Change and while it was a shorter discussion than the one Nye did with the Creationist, it went pretty much the same. The Creationist believed what he believed and nothing was going to change his mind. Nye said that evidence would change his mind.

If you want to watch the debate, here's a link. But I think I just spoiled it for you.

Hey, let's listen to two more of these "Happy Birthday" songs that Mel Blanc recorded. If you were born in July, you were born in the sign of Pepe LePew, which means you're destined to spend your life lusting after a cat with a white stripe on its back. And if you were born in August, you're under the sign of Speedy Gonzales, which means you star in the weakest Warner Brothers cartoons ever done and they don't show them much because of ethnic stereotyping. Sorry…

Shelly Goldstein sent me this link to a 1975 interview with Mel Brooks in Playboy. I don't know how Mel managed to make movies between around 1975 and 1980 because he always seemed to be giving these interviews…and it's not as true of this one — because this one interviewed him for many, many hours and was whittled down — but most seemed to be the same interview. Same questions, same anecdotes.

I got to sit in his office a few times when others were interrogating him. He was even funnier when you heard him.

Note that in this conversation, Mel makes it sound like Larry Gelbart and Woody Allen worked on Your Show of Shows. Even he gets it wrong!

Neil Patrick Harris will not host the Tony Awards this year. He may get one but Hugh Jackman will be the host this time. Mr. Harris is opening on Broadway April 22 in a new production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch that is, at the moment, only slated to run through August 17. Advance word on the show is very strong but even if no one likes it, it'll probably be sold out for that entire run…and since the Tony Awards are June 8, N.P.H. will be a little too busy. He probably won't be too busy to do one number with Jackman about who's the better host but…

Hey, you know why the show is opening April 22? Because the cut-off date for a show to open and be eligible for this year's Tony Awards is April 24. Cutting it close. The nominations come out April 29. The field doesn't look that strong this year so Hedwig has a good chance of copping a lot of Tony Awards.

In 1967, Hanna-Barbera produced for CBS a Saturday morning series called Moby Dick and Mighty Mightor. Someone just called my attention to the Wikipedia page on this series and this paragraph…

Tor is voiced by Paul Stewart, while Mightor is voiced by Robert Duvall. Pondo, Tog, Ork and Bollo are voiced by John Stephenson. Sheera is voiced by Patsy Garrett. Little Rok is voiced by Norma MacMillan.

The reference to Robert Duvall links to the Wikipedia page for the actor who appeared in Tender Mercies, M*A*S*H, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Godfather, Lonesome Dove and many other films. I don't know of him ever doing voices for any animation but he was certainly not the voice of Mightor. Paul Stewart was the voice of Mightor and Bobby Diamond was the voice of Tor. Then we come to this paragraph which is even screwier…

When Hanna Barbera was producing an animated series based on the Marvel Comics super-group the Fantastic Four they were also slated to produce a series based on the Marvel superhero the Mighty Thor (Marvel Comics) as well. However, Marvel had recently made a deal with Grantray-Lawrence Animation to produce several animated series based on some of their other characters called The Marvel Super Heroes. And at the last minute Marvel pulled Thor from Hanna-Barbera slate as part of this new deal. Not wanting to abandon the Thor concept entirely, Hanna-Barbera retooled the designs made for Thor and come up with a show which became "The Mighty Mightor". There are noticeable similarities between the characters: First, their names, "The Mighty Thor" and "Mighty Mightor". Thor carries a hammer-weapon that fires blasts and enables him to fly. Mightor carries a club-weapon that fires blasts and enables him to fly as well. Thor wears a cape and a winged helmet. Mightor wears a cape and a horned helmet. And lastly, both can transform into secret mortal identities initiated by the power of their mighty weapons. In addition, there are similarities between some of the supporting characters as well. Most notably Thor's father Odin and Chief Pondo of Mightor's village.

There aren't many similarities between the two features and the timeline is wrong. The Marvel Super-Heroes cartoon show — which included animated adventures of Thor — was produced for the 1966 season. Then the company that had acquired the animation rights to the Marvel properties made a deal with ABC to do shows of Spider-Man and Fantastic Four for the 1967 season — the same season when Moby Dick and Mightor debuted on CBS.

So Thor couldn't have been pulled "at the last minute" from H-B to put into the Marvel Super-Heroes series since that show was already on the air, and since Thor had been a part of it from its earliest sales presentations.

It also would have been dumb to kill a network sale of a Thor TV series to make the property a part of a low-budget syndicated series. In fact, the opposite happened with Spider-Man. Spider-Man was part of the original sales presentation for the Marvel Super-Heroes series and when Steve Krantz's company (which had acquired all those rights, not Grantray-Lawrence) realized they could sell Spider-Man to ABC, they pulled the character out of that show.

So this "history" doesn't make any sense…and like I said, the characters were quite different. I can't see how anything developed for a Thor cartoon show could have been of any use for the Mightor series.

Lastly, the Wikipedia page says "Moby Dick and Mighty Mightor is a science fiction animated series created by Alex Toth." My late friend Alex routinely gets credit for creating most — sometimes all of the Hanna-Barbera adventure shows from that period. And while it's true he did most of the design work on them and had a lot to do with their successes, there were also producers, writers and even other artists involved. Some of them claimed they created Mightor or Space Ghost or The Herculoids or any of them.

Alex sometimes claimed he'd created some of those…though I'm pretty sure he never claimed Moby Dick. I'm not in a position to judge who should be considered the creator of these shows but it seems to me that those who just reflexively credit Alex are in even less of a position to make that determination. I suspect they're just giving Alex the credit because they don't know the names of the other folks.

Wallace Shawn has some thoughts about the Woody Allen matter.

A first for this blog: Something about a Groucho Marx impersonator who isn't Frank Ferrante…

This is an Aqua Velva commercial from the early seventies that was done with Groucho's blessing and, I assume, compensation. The gent doing the great impression is Lewis J. Stadlen, who did it in the short-lived Broadway show, Minnie's Boys. The show was not a hit but Stadlen got great reviews, including many a compliment from the man he was playing.

Stadlen had impersonations in his blood. His father, Allen Swift, was a leading voice actor in cartoons and commercials made in New York (also the host of a kid's show back there) and was often called upon to mimic voices. Lewis went on to become a top Broadway star. He was seen most recently in The Nance, which starred Nathan Lane. The show has closed but before it did, it was recorded for posterity and for a Live From Lincoln Center broadcast some time this year on PBS. Don't ask me why it's on Live From Lincoln Center if it was recorded last year…probably the same reason Jimmy Kimmel Live is not live.

The lady at the end of this commercial is also of interest. It's Erin Fleming, who was Groucho's controversial lady friend, manager, caregiver and crazy person. Erin was an unsuccessful actress who…well, if you care about this, you know the story. If you don't, my pal Steve Stoliar — who worked in Groucho's house during the Fleming regime — has written a splendid book about his experiences there. If you don't have a copy, click here to get one. There's also a Kindle version and a lot of people like the audio book for which Steve not only reads his words but does impressions of the leading players.

I think it's also safe to assume that Erin got the job in the commercial because Groucho made that a condition of obtaining his permission. Or maybe that the ad agency offered her the role figuring that she wouldn't let Groucho say no. Either way, here 'tis.  By the way, Aqua Velva is a great after-shave if your mustache is painted-on…

Tony Adams writes…

I don't know if it's been mentioned or if it is even worth mentioning, but I've noticed that it was The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and it will now be The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon. Any idea why the change?

Yeah. Leno asked to have it say "with" because he thought it was humbler or quieter or something. Fallon wanted it to say "starring." It's a distinction I don't think a lot of people noticed. In fact, when Johnny was "starring" on the show and later when Jay was "with" the show, NBC sometimes got it wrong in press releases and tickets and such. Conan O'Brien used "with."

Kickstarter has had a security breach. No credit card data was involved but go change your password there anyway.

Here from a few years back is a review that Dick Cavett did of one of Sid Caesar's two autobiographies.

And here, current, is an article about the ever-foldable Al Jaffee.

• Simon Cowell welcomes baby boy; tells the kid he needs to rehearse more and get better material.

Billy Crystal writes about how much Sid Caesar loved Billy Crystal.

And do you all know that next Tuesday night, Conan O'Brien will be devoting his show to a long interview with Mel Brooks all about Sid? Well, you do now.

The very clever Mr. Chris Bliss discusses the intersection between brains and funny. This is worth watching if you're in the comedy business or have a brain in your head. There may even be a few people out there who qualify on both counts…