Monthly Archives: April 2014

Anthony Culotta writes to ask…

A quick question re: Mickey Rooney: I pointed out to some friends a couple of years ago his IMDB entry, and the fact that his movies span 1926-(now) 2014. Do you know of any other actor with a career in film that matches (or exceeds) this? Quite remarkable, in any event!

Hmm. Not offhand. (By the way, I confirmed it: Rooney did shoot a scene recently for a new film in the Night at the Museum series. The film is slated for release this Christmas…so assuming his scene stays in, his career will span to 2014. That's 88 years.)

How about it? Can anyone come up with an actor who managed to be on movie screens for more than 88 years? It would have to be someone who started as a child performer in silent films.

And speaking of long careers: The Guinness people have certified Ken Bald as the Oldest Comic Book Artist and they've run this interview with him. Mr. Bald was reportedly born on August 1, 1920.

No disrespect to Mr. Bald's achievements but I have to point this out: Irwin Hasen, who drew an awful lot of comic books in his day, is still alive and he was born July 8, 1918.

Also, Mr. Bald started in comics in 1942 and retired in 1984. There are a number of artists who even if they aren't older, have had longer careers. Sam Glanzman, for instance, drew his first comic books in 1939 and he drew a story for publication as recently as 2012. Mr. Glanzman was born in 1924 and is still, happily, with us. Al Jaffee also has Bald beat in that category.

I don't know what to write about Mickey Rooney. The man obviously had an impressive body of work at various ages…and of course, we lament the passing of another cast member — the last of the really major players — from It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. The few times I spoke with him, he was unpleasant and not very coherent. Remember the impression that Dana Carvey used to do of him rambling on and on, talking about himself as "The Number One Box Office Star in the World"? Well, he was that but he was also just what the impression said he was.

He was at one point much-loved by his contemporaries but eventually, most of his contemporaries left us and the ones who remained tended to either humor his eccentric jabbering or, more often, avoid him as much as possible. You can forgive a certain amount of that from an aged screen legend and even be amused by some of it. But at some point, it just makes you cringe. He made me cringe a number of times, especially when he started lecturing younger performers about how to run their lives and careers. If ever there was a person unqualified to give such advice…

I was not a fan of his Andy Hardy movies or of those Mickey-and-Judy musicals he made for M.G.M., though you had to admire how hard he worked in them. I did think he was great in Boys Town and some of his later serious roles, like the TV drama, The Comedian. Too often, he was the poster boy for the old adage about how actors need to learn they're allowed to turn things down. It's also not necessary to marry every single woman you meet.

But still, he was Mickey Rooney. He started in films when he was six or seven (historians argue the actual date) and he was on stage before that. He just died at the age of 93 and I believe he'd recently completed a cameo in the currently-filming sequel to the sequel to Night at the Museum. Gotta respect the longevity…and Turner Classic Movies should have no trouble assembling an evening of really good movies he was in. Maybe that's the nicest way to remember the man.

Emily Nussbaum writes about Norman Lear and a man he unleashed on America…a man named Archie Bunker. I remember how electric All in the Family was when it first debuted. Later on, as others caught up and perhaps surpassed it, it became just another well-written situation comedy of its time and a lot that seemed controversial then became boring in syndicated reruns. But it was a real important show.

Friday night, a packed house at the Silent Movie Theater saw a (mostly) non-silent movie — the 1973 compilation Ten From Your Show of Shows, which was shown in tribute to Sid Caesar. It was preceded by an interview. Our pal Kliph Nesteroff did a splendid job conversing with Mel Brooks, who spoke for almost an hour, much of it about his friend and one-time employer, Sid. It was a pretty funny conversation and I was wrong: He did not tell the story about Sid and the cab driver. He did, however, make fun of Kliph's pants.

Mel began by telling the audience, "I wish it was a pleasure to be here," then he sure proceeded to act like it was, telling how he met Sid, heaping praise on the man. He told a story he told when he was on with Conan O'Brien recently — one I'd never heard before and I've heard about a hundred Mel Brooks interviews, several of them long and in person. During the run of either Your Show of Shows or Caesar's Hour, Mel spent some time in Hollywood working on screenplays at Columbia. He has no known screen credits from that period but apparently he was out here for a while.

In this anecdote, he suggests to an exec that Sid Caesar, instead of making TV shows that are aired once and never seen again, should be making movies…written by Mel Brooks. Sid, at this point, is making about $5000 a week in television. The exec agrees that Mr. Caesar would make a terrific movie star and tells Mel the studio will meet or beat what Sid makes in TV. Mel rushes back to New York and tells Sid, pointing out how disposable it is to work in live television. Guys like Harold Lloyd and Danny Kaye will never be forgotten, he says, because their work is being preserved on film.

Sid is interested and for a brief time, it looks like he's going to forsake television for movies…but then the network offers to quadruple or quintuple his salary and in television, he stays. A great missed opportunity, thinks Mel.

It was a perfect story to tell in that setting Friday night. Mel didn't make this point but it's why he's there to introduce a bunch of grainy kinescopes of selected moments from Your Show of Shows instead of a great Sid Caesar movie from the fifties. I have the feeling there's more to the story than that but it's still a good story.

And it led into a great bunch of grainy kinescopes of selected moments from Your Show of Shows. The audience laughed a lot — less so at the closing take-off on This Is Your Life than at some of the less-familiar moments. All we could all think of was: Boy, those people — the writers and other cast members in addition to Sid — were sure good. And isn't it a shame there's no one today doing sketch comedy in quite that tradition?

The presentation was by the Cinefamily group that runs that venerated theater. There are some other great programs coming up, including another Kliph is hosting. I'll tell you about it shortly.

A week ago if you'd asked me, "What's the best TV show that isn't available in a complete DVD set?", I'd have had an easy answer: "The one that went under the titles, You'll Never Get Rich, The Phil Silvers Show and — most commonly — Sgt. Bilko. Phil Silvers was brilliant as Master Sergeant (and Master Conman) Ernie Bilko. Add in a great supporting cast and the superb writing and producing of Nat Hiken and you had one of the best TV programs ever done. And unlike some shows of its day, it still holds up. It's real funny.

Okay, so it's Good News/Bad News time. The Good News is it's finally coming out in a boxed set of 20 discs. The Bad News? It's being released in Great Britain and those 20 discs are Region 2, not playable on most U.S. players.

I have heard nada about a U.S. release. Back in 2006, Paramount brought out a 3-disc sampler with eighteen episodes and a lot of special features. Then in 2010, they brought out a 5-disc set collecting Season 1. Four years later, there is no trace of Seasons 2-4, leading one to suspect that Season 1 didn't sell well.

And you have to wonder — I do, anyway — if some of that could be because folks who love that show saw Season 1 on sale and thought, "Great! But I'll wait until four seasons are out and they're in one boxed set I can buy." As we've noted here many times, it is not uncommon for the collectors of old TV shows to feel burned. They buy individual seasons and then the boxed set comes out with special features or episodes that are only available in the complete set…so they have to buy that, meaning that they buy episodes they already have. We wrote about this here recently with regard to The Bob Newhart Show.

Heck, I love Bilko and I didn't buy Season 1 for that reason. I'll bet I'm not alone. Here's a link if you can play Region 2 DVDs and want to order this new set…

Sgt. Bilko – The Phil Silvers Show – Complete Collection (20 disc set) [DVD]

I'll let you know if I hear anything about it coming out in this country as a Region 1 release. Or if you hear anything first, you let me know.

Here's a new video from the folks at Monty Python. This is apparently part of a new CD they're assembling in connection with their forthcoming reunion shows…

Matt Kuhns writes…

If CBS has a replacement lined up, is that something that can effectively remain secret in this day and age? I know nothing about such deals; do they only need to involve a small number of people?

Sure. When the deal was made for Conan to take over for Jay, that was kept secret for a while. It was even kept secret from Jay for a few weeks. Then once Jay was told, it was kept secret for several months. Leno and NBC would have preferred for it to be kept secret for a few years but as a condition of signing on, O'Brien's team insisted that it be announced earlier than that.

I'm getting a lot of messages from people asking, "What about Chelsea Handler?" Or "What about Jerry Seinfeld?" or other names. I suspect it won't be someone over the age of 50. (Seinfeld is 59. Stephen Colbert at 49 would just make the cut.) This is not just because they want someone who can appeal to younger viewers but because they want someone who could conceivably be there for twenty years.

I also suspect that if CBS made up a list of contenders, now or months ago, it would include a lot of people who'd never done a talk show before. Most of the speculation is centering around folks who have — Handler, O'Brien, DeGeneres, etc. — but getting someone who's proven they can do it is only one way a network approaches something like this. They can also go the other way. When they needed someone to replace Letterman on NBC at 12:35, they picked a comedy writer with almost no on-camera experience…someone no one could have predicted. And when they needed a host to replace that guy, they went with a Saturday Night Live cast member…someone few would have predicted. (When they needed someone to replace that SNL cast member, they went with another SNL cast member but by that time, that was a precedent.) Craig Ferguson came out of left field, too. So did Jimmy Kimmel in a way.

11:35 might require a little more experience than 12:35 but there's also the drawback to someone who had their own talk show before. If they're available, that show ended for a reason.

In the meantime, this whole discussion of who'll replace Letterman is starting to sound like CNN taking five minutes of actual news on that missing plane and turning it into 24/7 coverage with silly speculation. It's not going to be Ellen DeGeneres. She already has a hit talk show that reaches more people and pays her more than Dave. It's not going to be Jimmy Kimmel. He also has a good job. It's not going to be Conan. Think how stupid CBS would look if they took on a guy NBC paid $40 million to get rid of and then failed with him. It's not going to be Howard Stern. He's 60 and he's Howard Stern. It's not going to be Leno and I'd be real surprised — "shocked" would be the word — if it's Chelsea.

My prediction: If they can make a deal with Colbert, it'll be Colbert. If they can't make a deal with Colbert, it'll be someone who isn't being mentioned at all at the moment.

But hey, what about Jon Stewart? I dunno. Maybe it's because I'm so perfectly happy to have him right where he is, I don't want to think it might be him. I'm guessing that if they can't make deal with Colbert, they can't make a deal with Stewart. Jon would do a great job but that would mean dismantling his whole little empire over at Comedy Central. My sense is it would not be a step up for him. It would take him sideways and, if he succeeded at CBS in that slightly-later time slot, that would lock him in to do only that for the next ten years. He couldn't take time off to direct a movie or do much of anything else.

I'm going to stop thinking and writing about this until something actually happens. I'm starting to sound like CNN treating speculation as more newsworthy than it is…

The Comic Art Professional Society is still running one of the greatest auctions ever of comic art…and it's all to benefit cartoonist Stan Sakai and his wonderful wife, Sharon. For those who came in late: Sharon is suffering from a horrendous medical condition that has to do with a brain tumor. Though the Sakais have health insurance, the costs of the necessary 24/7 care Sharon requires far exceed what the insurance covers. Stan is a great guy who has always been there to help others. Now, others are rallying to help him and Sharon. There's a fancy must-have art book coming soon from Dark Horse featuring drawings that the world's best cartoonists and comic artists have donated to the cause. Now, you can bid on and purchase the original artwork for those drawings, as well as many others that have been donated. Go here to take a look at the latest round of offerings. It's a chance to do a real two-fer: Help out some good people and get yourself a treasure at the same time.

• Latest rumor: CBS offering Letterman's job to Stephen Colbert providing he changes his name to Jimmy Colbert.

What would Alfred E. Neuman look like if he was a real person? Go see.

Lots of stuff around about Letterman. Here's a relic — his 1984 interview with Playboy. Note that Dave said he felt the show should be steering away from the kind of guests Ted Koppel booked — i.e., figures in the news, politicans and such. And of course, now he books presidents and people who were president and want to be president. Leno said the same thing and didn't stick with it when he started on The Tonight Show. I suppose most talk show hosts do.

And here's a segment Keith Olbermann did on whatever sports show he now hosts. It goes a little far trying to make a baseball analogy but on the rare occasions when I've watched ESPN or any sports programming, I always seem to see someone going too far trying to view the world in sporting terms. It's as if they figure if you're watching their program, you can't possibly process information that cannot be discussed this way…

The Programming Schedule is up for this year's WonderCon in Anaheim! If you're attending the convention, I suggest you take the time to go over the offerings and make a little list of what you want to see and where it is and what else you might want to get into if your first choice is full. WonderCon panels tend not to get as full as Comic-Con panels but you never know. They even have a handy online tool that will aid you in making up a personal schedule and transferring it to your iPhone or Android or Etch-a-Sketch. I will be on these panels…

Friday, April 18

THE SERGIO AND MARK SHOW
Sergio Aragonés, Mark Evanier, and maybe others who bring you the award-winning, ship-sinking Groo the Wanderer have actual news of actual, for-real upcoming Groo comics as well as other exciting projects. Come hear Sergio explain what's up and then hear Mark translate it into English!
12:30pm – 1:30pm / Room 213

THE MEN WHO MADE BATMAN
2014 marks the 100th birthday of Batman's uncredited co-creator Bill Finger, the 75th anniversary of Batman's first appearance, the 50th anniversary of the "New Look" Batman, and the 25th anniversary of the Tim Burton motion picture that proved the world would welcome a serious Dark Knight. Celebrate by looking back at how Bob Kane and Bill Finger created the character and how ghost creators Jerry Robinson and Gardner Fox helped them shape the Caped Crusader's first year in print. Dr. Travis Langley (Batman and Psychology: A Dark and Stormy Knight), Mark Evanier (Bill Finger Award), Alan Kistler (The Ultimate Batman Trivia Challenge), Robert O'Nale (The Cape Creator documentary), Jens Robinson (son of Jerry Robinson), and the rest of their super team of bat-experts unite to answer the question, "Who built the bat?"
2:00pm – 3:00pm / Room 210A

Saturday, April 19

THAT 70'S PANEL
What was it about comics in the seventies that made them so different from the ones that had gone before and the ones since? Witness a lively discussion on the topic among four folks who brought you comics then: Marty Pasko (Superman), Len Wein (Swamp Thing), Marv Wolfman (Tomb of Dracula), and your moderator, Mark Evanier (Scooby Doo).
10:30am – 11:30am / Room 203

CARTOON VOICES
It's one of the most popular panels at any convention! Five masters of speaking for animated superstars demonstrate their talents. The dais will consist of Greg Berg (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Gregg Berger (The Transformers), Candi Milo (Dexter's Laboratory), Wally Wingert (The Avengers), Debi Derryberry (Jimmy Neutron), and Fred Tatasciore (The Hulk). And it's all moderated by animation voice director Mark Evanier (The Garfield Show).
12:30pm – 1:30pm / Room 300DE

HANNA-BARBERA HISTORY
Learn the history of the world's most prolific cartoon studio and meet some of the men who brought you shows like The Flintstones, Yogi Bear, Scooby Doo, and even the Wacky Races! Your host Mark Evanier (who worked there in the eighties) interrogates men who were there in the sixties and before: Tony Benedict, Jerry Eisenberg, Wally Burr, and maybe a few others.
1:30pm – 2:30pm / Room 300DE

Sunday, April 20

COVER STORY: THE ART OF THE COVER
What's a good cover on a comic book? How are the best ones created? Be there for this "shop talk" discussion with artists who've been responsible for some of the best: Paul Gulacy (Star Wars), Cliff Chiang (Wonder Woman), and Tony Daniel (Superman/Wonder Woman). Presiding will be moderator Mark Evanier and co-moderator Len Wein.
12:00pm – 1:00pm / Room 207

WRITING FOR ANIMATION
Mark Evanier has written hundreds of hours of cartoons for television, including Scooby Doo, Richie Rich, Dungeons & Dragons, Superman: The Animated Series, and many more. He is currently head writer and supervising producer of The Garfield Show, and now he's offering a reprise/sequel to this topic he spoke on last year and knows better than anyone!
1:30pm – 2:30pm / Room 300DE

IDW PUBLISHING: KIDS COMICS! PONIES, TURTLES AND MORE!
Editor Sarah Gaydos and a host of amazing creators discuss the growing slate of all-ages titles at IDW-including My Little Pony, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles New Animated Adventures, Samurai Jack, Powerpuff Girls, Ben 10, Ghostbusters, Popeye, KISS Kids, and more! Plus, free comics!
2:30pm – 3:30pm / Room 213

Need I add that times and rooms and plans are subject to change? No, you know that. Hope to see you at some or all of these.

I'm getting a lot of questions in my e-mailbox…

How do you think Leno's departure impacted Letterman's decision to retire?

Well, before Fallon replaced Leno, there was a theory around that a certain percentage of Jay's audience would be dissatisfied with Jimmy and would flock to good ol' reliable Dave. Now, it's evident that did not happen…so there's no event looming that might change the dynamic of late night. Letterman has been finishing a bit ahead of Jimmy Kimmel in total viewers but it's more than likely that he won't be able to do that for long; that he'll wake up one morning in third place.

He's announcing his retirement before that can happen…before people start saying, "Hey, CBS has been good to this man. Why doesn't he step aside and let them bring in someone who has a chance of being Number One? The Leno/Fallon hand-off proved that can be done." It may even have caused CBS to increase the nudging.

Some articles I'm reading say Craig Ferguson has a "Prince of Wales" clause in his contract that guarantees him 11:35 if Dave retires. Some say he doesn't. Which is it? And if he does, don't they have to give it to him?

I seriously doubt anyone who says Ferguson does or does not have such a guarantee has actually seen the contract. He may well have such a clause and it may well be similar to one Letterman had in his NBC deal back when his show followed Carson's. It said that if Johnny left and Dave didn't get 11:35, Letterman would be paid a penalty fee of one million dollars. That, of course, was not going to prevent NBC from going with whoever they wanted.

For reasons I stated earlier, I don't think Ferguson is a serious candidate for the job. I don't think he's ever had the clout to get the kind of deal that would force CBS to give it to him if they'd prefer someone else.

The author of this article suggests that Ellen DeGeneres would be a great replacement for Letterman. What do you think?

I think Ellen has a great, successful gig that reaches more viewers than Letterman and almost as many as Fallon and which probably pays her more than she'd make taking over Dave's time slot. She can probably do that show for another decade or two and I can't imagine why she'd give it up to gamble on a more volatile situation. Would she be good at 11:35? Maybe…but why? Finally…

Is it possible CBS won't replace Dave with Late Night Hosted By Someone Else? What about another kind of program?

Possible but it would be a big gamble. Remember that before Dave went on in that slot, CBS tried all sorts of shows at 11:30 or 11:35 and Dave's was the first to succeed. The runner-up was The Pat Sajak Show and its early ratings (and some in-house research) suggested that viewers liked the idea of a talk show there; that CBS had just picked the wrong host. If they put someone else on with a similar show and it doesn't click, they might well try a different kind of program. But for now, it's more likely that they'll stick with what's worked there, hoping that the gravitas of sitting in Dave's chair can enhance another guy.

Like I said, I dunno who they'll get. A couple of folks have mentioned Neil Patrick Harris to me and that sounds like a good choice. So does Tina Fey. So does Chris Rock. So does Louis C.K. But I can't shake the feeling that it's going to be like one of those murder mysteries where they reveal the killer and it's someone you never thought of because there were no clues.

My pal Alan Shearman sent me this. It's some feats of spectacular juggling by Russian juggler Alexander Koblikov. So how long do we think this guy had to practice to be able to do all this?

My pal Marvin Silbermintz, who used to write for Jay, posted that "Letterman & Leno will cohost the new internet series, Comedians in Cars Getting Unemployment.