Monthly Archives: December 2015

Jonathan Chait believes that Donald Trump has "won" in the sense that he's redefined the Republican party on his terms. Even those who oppose him cannot oppose him that much.

Jon Stewart guests on The Daily Show tonight.

There's a tiny place out in Altadena called the Coffee Gallery Backstage and before this month is out, it will feature two different musical groups that we like a lot on this blog…

Monday, December 14 at 8 PM, it's Will Ryan and the Cactus County Cowboys. Will is a good pal of mine, an expert cartoon voice actor and a gifted performer who's become America's Greatest Singing Cowboy, if only by default. His troupe plays clever and fun western tunes you never heard before and for this Christmas engagement, he and his band will be joined by the Saguaro Sisters…the Sweetest Singing West of the Great Divide! I've seen Will and his boys and they always put on a fine show.

Here's a quick clip from a past show of theirs. Will's the guy on the guitar playing what was probably the only song in that performance he didn't write. He's accompanying two guest stars who I don't imagine will be in the 12/14 show, though he'll have other surprises. It's Tony Anselmo, who's the current voice of Donald Duck, and Bill Farmer, who's the current voice of Goofy. (Will himself has been heard in many Disney cartoons including The Little Mermaid and Mickey's Christmas Carol)…

Okay, that's them. Then on Sunday, December 20 at 7 PM, the Coffee Gallery Backstage will welcome a wonderful musical group called Big Daddy. Basically, what these guys do is to take some current hit song — or even an older one not rendered in the style of the fifties — and rearrange it so it's in the style of the fifties. That usually makes it very funny but in an amazing percentage of the time, it also makes it a much better song. The gents who make up Big Daddy are superior musicians and their records, which were expertly arranged and produced, are wonderful.

For a long time, they were inactive but not long ago, aided by a lot of crowdfunding from readers of this site, they produced their first album in fifteen years — Smashing Songs of Screen and Stage. We liked it a lot and recommend it. This will be their first live gig since the mid-nineties! I have no idea what they'll be doing on that stage except that it'll be funny and wonderful and I hope to be there to hear it. Here's a little sample of what they do…

The Coffee Gallery Backstage is located at 2029 N. Lake, Altadena, CA. 91001. Reservations are only available by phone so call (626) 798-6236 between 10 AM and 10 PM and you don't need to give them a credit card number. In fact, they don't take credit cards at all so bring cash…but it won't cost you much of it to go, have some coffee or a snack and hear some fine, silly music. More info is available here.

If I were to make up a list of catastrophes that I most worry about affecting me — and it's not my style to do so — I suspect being killed by a terrorist of any kind would be way, way down the list, down around perishing in a cattle stampede. I'm not trivializing any death by terrorism — they're all horrible — but let's not obsess about that as if it's a likely fate. Andrew Shaver explains why it isn't.

Jonathan Chait on Marco Rubio's odd position on "No-Fly Lists." It's perfectly fine to use them to restrict someone's right to get on an airplane but not to restrict someone's right to buy automatic weapons and explosives with which to commit mass murder.

If you live anywhere near Los Angeles, you have a chance this Saturday night to see the best damned improv comedy troupe I've ever seen. Every so often — not often enough to suit me — they get together and put on an Instaplay, which is their name for an entire musical comedy created on the spot, based on a suggestion from someone in the audience — maybe even you! Yes, they have a live audience — unlike some one-performance musical comedies we could mention! They are also funny and brilliant.

It's Saturday night at the Fanatic Salon Theater in Culver City and tickets are only $11.50 plus a small service fee. The director is Bill Steinkellner. The cast is George McGrath, Deanna Oliver, Jonathan Stark, Phyllis Katz and Navaris Darson with Mari Falcone at the keyboard. The theater is small and intimate (and about as non-fancy as any place you'll ever see brilliant comedy) but tickets are still available for what will probably be a great Christmas story. Here's the link you want to click on. If my knee can handle it, I may see you there.

Just watch it. Just watch it.

Fred Kaplan watched President Obama's speech to the nation and has this to say about it. My gut tells me Obama is taking the sane approach to the situation and that the Donald Trumps don't have a clue what they'd do; only what sounds good in their speeches. By the time we get to the Iowa Caucuses, I expect Trump will be vowing to strangle every Muslim in the world to death with his own bare hands. And then force them to build a wall around Syria at their expense.

While I was digging out those panels from The Wiz comic book to scan the other day, I found a mis-filed file folder in my filing cabinet. It was full of rough sketches I did in the early seventies for covers of Gold Key comic books I was writing. I did mine tighter and more like finished art than the other folks who were designing these, even though I had no thought that they might ever ask me to draw the final covers…and indeed, they did not. Here are two examples with my pencil rough on the left and the finished comic on the right.

On the Daffy Duck one, I committed what was then considered a mortal sin: I merged Daffy's eyes together. This was the early seventies and there was no active Warner Brothers Cartoon Department. The folks who decided what those characters looked like — whether they were drawn properly — were in some sort of Licensing Division at the Warner company and they were furious if Daffy's eyes merged. There had to be black between them.

Fortunately, they never saw my rough or I might have been forbidden to ever draw (or even imagine) Daffy ever again. They didn't approve roughs; just the finished art which in this case was done by Joe Messerli.

My editor there, Chase Craig, told me horror stories of having to deal with those folks. Many of the artists he employed were former Warner Brothers animators. Tom McKimson was drawing the Bugs Bunny comic books I and others were writing. Phil DeLara was drawing Porky Pig or sometimes, it was Pete Alvarado. These were all guys who didn't take well to having someone tell them they were getting the characters wrong. At one point, someone at Warner's reportedly complained that Tom McKimson's Bugs didn't look right and they sent over some Xeroxes of old drawings that they wanted him to study to see the proper way to draw the wabbit.  Tom replied, "Tell those idiots that I did those old drawings!"

At one point, Chase informed me the company had decided to revive the old Looney Tunes comic book, though they wanted to retitle it Looney Toons. Warner okayed the new title, then changed their minds at the last minute, forcing it to be pulled off the presses so it could be changed to Looney Tunes.  Something about trademarks.

I wrote the first issue and worked up the cover sketch. Before I did, I asked Chase who was going to design the title logo for the new book. He said — with some annoyance because there had apparently been problems over this recently — that his company had recently hired an "overpaid graphics designer" (that was the term he used) to do all their logos. He thought this person, who worked for their New York office, was not very good.

Chase had been fighting to get them to not redesign a lot of the logos on his books that he thought were in no need of improvement. He told me, "It doesn't matter what you do. This fellow will come up with something we'll all dislike." So when I did my cover rough, I didn't even try to suggest a logo idea. I just wrote "Looney Toons" on it in block letters without much thought.

Chase okayed the sketch but decided to add other characters' heads onto the cover so he had the final artists do a little rearranging. (I believe the final art was penciled by Pete Alvarado and I think that was Larry Mayer's inking.) My rough and Chase's amended rough accompanied the finished art when it was sent back to New York…

…where the "Overpaid Graphics Designer" followed what I'd penciled in. If I'd known he was going to do that, I would have tried to come up with an actual idea. And that, folks, is how creative decisions have often been made in the comic book industry.

• Just read a lot of right-wing punditry. Apparently, we're doomed because Obama uses the term "act of terror" instead of "terrorism."

Lots of e-mails about NBC's live telecast of The Wiz. My pal Peter David wrote to say…

I think I may have been the first person to say that: that what was wrong with it was that it needed a live audience. I put that up on my Twitter feed 45 minutes into it. I'm pleased to see that not only did you say it as well, but so did several other articles about it. Maybe NBC will get the hint.

Apparently not. Playbill just ran this interview with Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, who produced The Wiz Live! telecast. Here's the relevant paragraph…

With increasing talk among viewers about the need for a live studio audience, the duo said that they stand by their decision not to have one. "We still would like to honor the tradition where this genre was given birth and that's in the '50's," commented Meron. "We know that it's taken a while for the audience to get used to it, but in the three years we've been doing it, there's always a cry for live audience but that's not [that] special. What's special is [to] do these on a soundstage and live in the moment without that audience and to allow cameras to come in and get up close and personal and have the audience at home be the live audience."

I'm not sure what tradition they think they're honoring. Back in the fifties, there were live musicals on TV. Often, those live musicals had live audiences. Sometimes, they didn't…and when they didn't, I believe it was only because (a) the show was an intense drama or (b) it had technical considerations that made it impossible to have a live audience. To not have one for a musical, comedy or musical comedy was not a creative decision. It was because, for example, the show required so many sets that they couldn't fit it into the kind of studio that could hold a live audience.

That's not many of them.  After all, these shows were all written to be performed in buildings with a live audience watching.  When they couldn't be, it probably meant the producers were doing more elaborate sets and staging than had been seen on the stage, and had decided to trade off having an audience to achieve that.

One of the more acclaimed musicals done for television in the fifties was the 1954 adaptation of Cole Porter's Anything Goes, starring Ethel Merman, Frank Sinatra and Bert Lahr. Here's Merman and Lahr performing the song "Friendship" on it.  As you can hear, they're playing to a live audience…

By the way, in case you care: "Friendship" was not in Anything Goes when the show debuted on Broadway in 1934, nor was it in the 1936 movie version. That was because the song hadn't been written yet. It was created by the same composer (Cole Porter) for his 1939 musical, DuBarry Was a Lady.

In later years, lots of people wanted to revive certain Porter musicals and not others and it was not uncommon to steal the best songs from the non-revived shows and stick them into the revived shows. When Merman was asked to do Anything Goes for TV, she reportedly said, "I'll do it if you interpolate 'Friendship' into it and I can do it with Bert Lahr." And then when Lahr was asked to be part of the production, he said, "On one condition. I want you to stick in 'Friendship' and let me do it with Ethel!"

I'm not sure if they started the trend but nowadays, every revival of Anything Goes includes "Friendship" as well as a couple of tunes from other Porter shows.

Getting back to The Wiz: One of the problems with not having a live audience for these televised musicals is that it limits them to shows that aren't particularly comedic. You could do The Sound of Music and Peter Pan that way because those shows aren't big on laughs — although I did note in my review of their Peter Pan that laughter and applause could have helped certain sections. But think how truly hollow a show like A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum or The Producers would be without an audience giggling every line or two.  That sound is almost part of the score.  The Wiz had a lot of lines that could have profited from audience response and to me, some of the musical numbers cried out for it, especially at the end.

Then again, Mssrs. Zadan and Meron are very successful doing it the way they're doing it, so I suppose they'll keep on doing it the way they're doing it. The Wiz Live! reruns (not live) on December 19 and as the above-linked article notes, some version of the TV production is heading for Broadway shortly. I assume they'll want a live audience there for it.

This is an entry to Mark Evanier's list of the twenty top voice actors in American animated cartoons between 1928 and 1968. For more on this list, read this. To see all the listings posted to date, click here.

Most Famous Role: Rocky the Flying Squirrel.

Other Notable Roles: Natasha Fatale, Nell Fenwick, almost any other female or little boy voice on a Jay Ward or Walter Lantz cartoon, Granny (owner of Tweety), Jokey Smurf and Mother Nature on The Smurfs, Magica De Spell and Ma Beagle on DuckTales, Grammi Gummi on Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears, Grandmother Fa in the 1998 Disney film Mulan, about 80% of all cartoon witches and hundreds of others.

What She Did Besides Cartoon Voices: June was another superstar of radio shows back when we had comedy and drama radio shows, plus she has done hundreds (make that thousands) of commercials and promos and she's often heard dubbing on-camera actresses and children in movies and television.  Her on-camera jobs have been limited but she did play a Mexican telephone operator in several episodes of the TV series, Green Acres, and a serious on-camera romantic lead in a forgettable movie called Sabaka.  And then there was her work with Stan Freberg on his records, radio shows and commercials, and her dozens of childrens records and her founding of the animation society ASIFA-Hollywood and so many other things.

Why She's On This List: She's June Foray, the most prolific and in-demand voice actress who ever lived.

Fun Fact: June did the voice of the popular doll, Chatty Cathy.  And then when the TV series The Twilight Zone (the first version) decided to do an episode about an evil version of such a doll called Talking Tina, June did the voice of Talking Tina.  Who else?

Additional Fun Fact: In 2012, June received an Emmy Award in the category of Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program for her role as Mrs. Cauldron on The Garfield Show, making her the oldest entertainer to ever be nominated for and to win an Emmy.  The following year, she was honored with the Governors Award at the 65th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards.

Watch this if you have ten minutes. It's a video of a fascinating conversation that took place recently in a Congressional hallway. On one side is Republican Senator Rob Portman from Ohio. On the other, we have Jon Stewart and a number of 9/11 First Responders who are fighting to extend health care and compensation to 9/11 First Responders, many of whom need it dearly.

As is pointed out in the discussion, politicians are not shy about saying we should honor and respect those who worked so selflessly on that awful day…but then they do a one-eighty and don't back that up by taking care of those people. It keeps coming down to the last minute and cries of "We can't find the money for that" when they seem to be able to find the money for special interest needs or lots of things that are of less urgency.

Some on the Responders' side would deal with this by threats and anger and vows to destroy those who withhold the funds…and I can't argue that that might not be necessary in some instances. But watch as Stewart and the Responders engage Portman in a firm but civil conversation, being at least outwardly respectful of his position…and it worked. Portman later signed on to be the 67th senator to back the bill, thereby ensuring its passage.

For those of you who think our government is deadlocked and dysfunctional, it might be refreshing. Then again, it might be infuriating to you that this hallway conversation is even necessary.

As I'm sure I've said here many a time, my favorite entertainers in the whole wide world have been and probably always will be Mr. Stanley Laurel and Mr. Oliver Hardy…and I'll tell you how much I love them. I'll even watch them in the late features they made for M.G.M. At their worst, I still love them.

Naturally, I want to know everything I can about them and many years ago, a devout Laurel and Hardy scholar named Randy Skretvedt put everything there was to know about their movies into a superb book called Laurel and Hardy: The Magic Behind the Movies.

I didn't think a better book about them would ever be written and I was wrong. A few years later, a much better book about them appeared. It was the updated version of Laurel and Hardy: The Magic Behind the Movies. Whereas most "updated" editions merely give you a new chapter or two and some corrections, this really was an updated edition with loads of new information. Almost everything in the first edition had been revised and improved.

So then I was sure that a better book about Stan and Ollie would never be written…and once more, I was wrong. Randy's about to bring out The Ultimate Edition, which is bigger and contains 50% more text and quadruple the number of photos as were in previous editions. It also has generous chunks of script excerpts including deleted or never-filmed scenes and there's new data on all their past movies and…well, if you're a Laurel and Hardy buff you've got to get this, even if you have previous Skretvedt volumes.

The book will be out next June but it's being offered right now on Kickstarter. They're already close enough to meeting their goal that it's surely going to happen so if you're as excited about this as I am, you'll want to scurry over there and get your order in. I did. Here's a little promotional video…

Daniel Larison doesn't think there's much foreign policy experience or even knowledge among the Republican candidates for President. He especially winces when someone like Chris Christie, citing advice from Henry Kissinger, says "Foreign policy is all about courage and character. Everything else can be learned!" And then they don't even try to learn.