Steve Hulett is the Business Rep for Local 839, the Animation Guild. Gordon was very active in the guild and Steve has posted a piece about him.
As Steve notes, there will be a memorial service for his friends and family. I'm one of the folks organizing it. We've already selected the venue but we haven't selected the date. It will, however, be several weeks from now.
Oh, how I hate that I have to write an obit here for my friend, Gordon Kent. I hate that I can no longer pick up the phone and call my friend and swap stories and jokes and that we can't plan to get together because we always had a great time. I hate that cancer has taken him away, not just from me but from his family members and friends.
I do not believe Gordon had any enemies. I can't think of one reason why anyone should not have liked the guy. He was one of those people who, if you met him and didn't love him, there was something seriously wrong with you.
Gordon was a writer and a cartoonist and an animation director and a cartoon producer. He got into the animation business in 1976 and at one time or another did all those jobs and more…and he was rarely out of work. He was versatile. He was good at all the many things he did. And he was Gordon. Everyone liked Gordon. Even our fiercer right-wing friends liked him despite his staunch left-wingedness.
Gordon hailed from McKeesport, PA. He was born there in 1954 and his family moved out here when he was seven. While he was studying art at Cal State Northridge, a classmate told him of a new training program that Hanna-Barbera was starting and Gordon applied. The program quickly led to work at H-B and then at a then-new studio, Ruby-Spears Productions, which is where I met him. They had him writing and fixing storyboards and generally being a troubleshooter all across the assembly line. He was really good at catching and fixing mistakes, of which there were many.
In 1982, our mutual friend Steve Gerber (also a Ruby-Spears staffer) was locked in a lawsuit with Marvel Comics over the ownership of his creation, Howard the Duck. The legal costs were enormous and to help Steve out, a bunch of us got together and put out a benefit comic book called Destroyer Duck to raise bucks. Gordon immediately volunteered to pitch in and wound up coloring several stories in the book including the first-ever appearance of Sergio Aragonés' creation, Groo the Wanderer.
People always ask us why Groo's costume is orange. Here is the absolutely true answer: It's orange because Gordon decided to color it orange and he decided that because he knew orange was my favorite color and he figured I'd like it. He colored all the early Groo comics until he decided he should be devoting that time to his animation career, which is when Tom Luth took over that harried position.
Here is a very partial list of cartoon shows Gordon worked on. This is in no particular order: Bob's Burgers, Brickleberry, Ultimate Spider-Man, Phineas and Ferb, Gravity Falls, The Avengers, Fangface, Plastic Man, Saturday Supercade, Life With Louie, 101 Dalmatians, Hercules, Buzz Lightyear, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Family Guy, Teen Wolf, Bonkers, The Berenstain Bears, Adventure Time, Thundarr the Barbarian, ABC Weekend Special, CBS Storybreak and Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. The creators of the Attack of the Killer Tomatoes cartoon show based one of its characters on Gordon.
In 2011, he was diagnosed with what turned out to be an extremely rare kind of cancer. After that, he was in and out of hospitals and while there were hopeful periods for him and his terrific wife Donna, the news just got worse and worse. Through it all though, he never stopped working. His employers — especially the folks on Bob's Burgers — were willing (and nice enough) to accommodate his needs. He was that valuable to them.
He was valuable to everyone around him: Valuable as a friend, valuable as an ally, valuable as a person with a strong sense of right and wrong and compassion. He died this morning around 2 AM.
Some of you may recall that in 2011, I lost another very close friend, Earl Kress, to cancer. Earl and Gordon were friends and when Gordon showed up at the memorial service for Earl, it had to have been especially emotional for him. The day before, Gordon had learned that he had cancer.
He didn't tell any of his friends at the time. He knew it would sadden them and while some in his position might have enjoyed the sympathy, Gordon was all about making people happy. When we finally heard, he downplayed it and did his best to soldier on and remain cheery and whenever we spoke, he seemed more concerned with the burden it was placing on Donna than on his own uncertain future. He was well enough for the two of them to attend the Stan Freberg Tribute last November but I don't think he got out much, except for medical reasons, after that.
At moments like this, you get conflicted. I do, anyway. On the one hand, I'm glad it's over because Gordon was past any realistic hope of getting better and I know how he felt about lingering. On the other, I'm just so sorry to lose a guy like that. If you knew him, you know exactly how I feel.
Every few months, the KFC chain introduces a new menu item loaded with calories and fat and sodium and there's great outrage that such an unhealthy item is available for purchase. Birthed not long ago in Korea (but coming our way) is the Zinger Double Down King sandwich: Two pieces of fried chicken (functioning as the "bread" of the sandwich) with a grilled hamburger patty, bacon, pepper jack cheese and an unidentified white sauce.
Google it and you'll find many people horrified that this concoction has 750 calories and 50 grams of fat and 3,000 mg of sodium. I don't get why they're so upset. At KFC, everything has 750 calories, 50 grams of fat and 3,000 mg of sodium.
For years now, you've been able to march into any of the 18,875 KFC outlets in 118 countries and order a drumstick and a breast (original recipe) plus a side of mashed potatoes and gravy plus a biscuit and that's 750 calories, 50 grams of fat and 3,000 mg of sodium. So are three pieces of their grilled (non-fried) chicken plus a side of (choke!) cole slaw and a biscuit. Hell, if you went into one of those places and ordered a small Diet Coke, it would probably have 750 calories, 50 grams of fat and 3,000 mg of sodium…
…or as they'd call it at Cheesecake Factory, a Skinnylicious® platter. The Cheesecake Factory menu has 166 items that are over 1,000 calories. An order of their Southern Fried Chicken Sliders has 1,320 calories and there are many entrees where one serving gives you the equivalent of around three Zinger Double Down Kings. One order of their Bruleed French Toast has 2,780 calories and 93 grams of fat — but only 2,230 mg of sodium so I guess that makes up for it.
I am not suggesting you eat any of these things; just that we stop acting like KFC is the only restaurant chain doing this. Applebee's serves a chocolate chip cookie sundae with 1,660 calories and 51 grams of saturated fat. IHOP has a Country Fried Steak and Eggs with 1,760 calories. If you go to a Chili's and order a full rack Baby Back Ribs with Homestyle Fries and Cinnamon Apples, you're ordering 2,330 calories. Compared to a lot of stuff out there, the Zinger Double Down King is health food.
Catie Lazarus does a popular monthly video podcast in New York and it's probably just a matter of time before some network gives her a wider stage. Right after Jon Stewart announced he'd be departing The Daily Show, she had him on for a very interesting conversation…
I have mixed feelings about Whole Foods Market. Most of what they sell looks so good in the store and is so disappointing when you get it home. Often, the ambiance of the place makes you feel like you're getting healthier just by shopping there but when I read labels…well, a lot of it doesn't seem any better for me than the corresponding, cheaper item at Ralphs.
Apparently, I missed the news that Whole Foods' sales were down and that they were lowering prices to try and get shoppers back. This article says it's working. So now I guess my big complaint is that when I drive there, I always have trouble finding an organic parking spot.
The Supreme Court heard arguments this morning on a lawsuit that could cripple Obamacare. A lot of reporters are now out predicting how the High Court will decide based on the questions that were asked and not asked, and on certain remarks by certain of the justices. I remind you, as I remind myself, that reporters who've tried to predict the outcome based on things like this have a pretty bad track record for being correct. It's roughly the same as if they flipped a coin. Maybe a little worse…
Today on Stu's Show, your genial host Stu Shostak welcomes…me! Oh, and also the world's most honored cartoonist, Sergio Aragonés. On this, the 400th episode of Stu's Show, the topics will be Sergio's career (working for MAD magazine, appearing on TV shows and in movies, etc.) and his work with me (Groo the Wanderer, etc.) We have loads of silly stories about our silly work, together and apart, and we'll be befouling the Internet with them, as well as answering questions you send in. It may not be the best show Stu has done but at least for a week, it will certainly be the most recent.
Stu's Show can be heard live (almost) every Wednesday at the Stu's Show website and you can listen for free there. Webcasts start at 4 PM Pacific Time, 7 PM Eastern and other times in other climes. They run a minimum of two hours and sometimes go way, way longer. Whenever a show ends, it's available soon after for downloading from the Archives on that site. Downloads are a measly 99 cents each and you can get four shows for the price of three. Or you can get all 400 shows for the price of 300!
If you're interesting in a career in voiceover work, take an hour and watch this panel. It's our pal Bob Bergen talking about his profession with David Lyerly, Lisa Marber-Rich, Collette Sunderman and Tim Walsh…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke before Congress this morning about what he believes the U.S. should do with regard to Iran. I'm no expert of this kind of stuff but I am an expert on Popeye and Netanyahu sure sounded like Popeye's friend Wimpy saying, as he often did to other parties, "Let's you and him fight." Fred Kaplan, who is an expert at this kind of stuff, explains it in a more realistic manner.
We're a few weeks from WonderCon, which will be held April 3-5 at the Anaheim Convention Center. Three-day badges are sold out. Saturday badges are sold out. You can still buy a badge for Friday or Sunday but I doubt that will be possible for very long. All the info is over here. Some of the programming looks quite exciting and I'll be telling you about my panels there shortly.
I want to thank all those who sent or posted or otherwise conveyed birthday greetings yesterday. I tend not to pay much attention to any of my birthdays except when they get me to an age divisible by five but I am not unappreciative. I'd write to thank each of you individually but that would take me until my next birthday.
I'm watching the whole Bill O'Reilly scandal under the assumption that it will all blow over before long with O'Reilly suffering no damage except maybe lower sales on the "historical" books that bear his name. As many have noted, his audience does not watch him for truth. He's had pretty good luck for years deflecting criticism by merely charging that the critic is a left-wing smear merchant so whatever they say can and should be presumed false and/or ignored. That's about all the rebuttal he's ever needed and it seems to be working here.
I caught — well actually, my TiVo caught Jon Stewart last night on that WWE Wrestling show. It's so odd to see wit in that setting.
I seem to be the only person on the entire Internet with the slightest interest in The Late Late Show on CBS as it features guest hosts in the run-up to James Corden's debut on March 23. This week, Drew Carey is back as host in programs taped several weeks ago, then there will be two weeks of reruns…and neither TiVo nor the CBS website seems to know what they are. That's how little anyone cares about this. Some very good people have appeared on the program during this stopgap period both as hosts and guests, and no one has done anything interesting. Most did not seem to even be trying, like the premise was to make Corden look good by preceding him with the most generic, bland talk show possible. The best host was probably Thomas Lennon and even he seemed to have a leash holding him back.
Stuff to do today. Back later.
Over on YouTube, there are dozens and dozens of regular programs in which someone teaches you how to cook. An amazing number of them are devoted to replicating popular fast food items in your own kitchen. After all, it saves so much time and money to make a McDonald's cheeseburger as opposed to the difficult and expensive practice of somehow finding a McDonald's and buying one. I also love that every single cooking video ends with the chef sampling his or her own creation and telling you how utterly and incredible wonderful it smells and tastes and how he or she wishes you could be there to experience it for yourself.
My favorite of all these shows is Greg's Kitchen. I'm not quite certain who Greg is or where he is or even why he grins like that. But he's very entertaining and he sure loves to cook. He posts two of these a week…
David Copperfield on The Power of Magical Thinking
You know, I have no idea how to defeat ISIL, nor am I spending any time trying to figure one out. If it comes down to our nation needing my thoughts about this, the terrorists will already have won.
But a lot of the arguments I'm reading remind me of a trait some people have which annoys me. It's "talking tough without doing anything." Back during the '88 Writers Guild strike — actually, during all the many Writers Guild strikes through which I've lived — I kept finding myself in this conversation with some writer who was sure he had the key to victory…
HIM: We have to be tough.
ME: Okay, fine. We'll be tough. What are you suggesting we do?
HIM: I just told you. Be tough. Let them know we won't give in. They're tough. We have to be tougher.
ME: I get that. How would you suggest we express this toughness? What should we do that we aren't doing yet?
HIM: Win. Get in there and fight and battle and be tough. They'll give in, trust me. All we have to do is be tough.
I could never get any of these tough-minded people to suggest an action on our part…or if they did, it was something we were already doing. I guess it made them feel vital and powerful to think they'd actually come up with a solution. There's a saying that "hope is not a plan." Well, neither is an attitude.
Politicians like to talk tough, especially when we seem to be in a war situation. It's easy to talk tough. Hey, my dad can beat up your dad. But it's kind of meaningless without any workable idea how to apply all that alleged toughness. Check out almost any speech lately about how to defeat ISIL, especially those from folks who want to be the next President of the United States. Talking tough may have its place but it's not the same thing as being tough. Or even being smart.
I just ordered Richard Zoglin's new, exhaustive biography of Bob Hope…and you can, too. You can also read Frank Rich's review of the book which suggests that while the Hope estate cooperated in its writing in order to burnish Bob's legacy, they may not be happy with the resultant portrait.
I am surprised that they apparently sanctioned mention of Rapid Robert's womanizing, which was one of those things everyone in Hollywood knew about and no one dared mention. One time on Larry King Live, Bill Maher mentioned it as an example of how the press loves to dump on certain people and protect others. Mr. King hurriedly changed the subject. He couldn't deny what Maher said about Hope but he couldn't not deny it, either.
Rich's review says Zoglin credits Hope as the first prominent comedian to acknowledge he had a writing staff. I'd be curious to hear more about that because I've always heard that was Jack Benny. In fact, I seem to recall reading somewhere that when Benny started crediting his writers, Hope was among those who asked him to stop because, just like the public didn't really want to know that Douglas Fairbanks had a stuntman, they didn't want to know their favorite comedians didn't think of all that funny stuff themselves. But who knows? Maybe Hope was first.
I've written here about my few brief encounters with Mr. Hope. I certainly never saw anything that went against the image of him as a joke hustler who didn't think too deeply about anything except pleasing the next audience. Once upon a time, that was all a comedian had to be. It's not his fault that he lived into an era where that was not enough.