Yearly Archives: 2015

Jonathan Chait notes that the Republicans defending the Confederate Flag are forgetting their party line. They're supposed to argue that all that slavery and racial stuff is the Democrat's doing.

Every so often, I come across a couple of episodes of M*A*S*H on some cable channel I receive. I always watch them and I always enjoy them but for some reason, I never take a Season Pass on my TiVo to ensure a steady flow. I think this is because there were 256 episodes and I don't really want to watch 256 episodes of anything.

M*A*S*H feels especially to me like a show I don't want to binge-watch so I've decided to pick up the complete set and commit to one disc of it a month or something. There are 34 discs in this complete set that's currently on sale at Amazon for $67.49 — an astounding bargain considering you get all 256 episodes plus the original movie. This was supposed to be a one-day price ending yesterday but at this moment, it's still available. If you want it, don't delay.

Today on Stu's Show, the topic is late night television. Stu has assembled a panel of experts — TV critics/historians Steve Beverly and Wesley Hyatt, plus the operator of this here blog, Mark Evanier!  We'll be discussing David Letterman's exit and possible future plans, then we'll launch into a complete history of late night talk shows starting with Broadway Open House starring Jerry Lester and Morey Amsterdam.  Among the names that will be mentioned are Steve Allen, Jack Lescoulie, Al "Jazzbeaux" Collins, Ernie Kovacs, Jack Paar, Johnny Carson, Merv Griffin, Dick Cavett, Joey Bishop, Les Crane, Letterman, Jay Leno, Joan Rivers and I'm not sure how far we're going to get with this but there is much to say about all these folks.

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 to three or beyond. Shortly after a show ends, it's available for downloading from the Archives on that site. Downloads are a measly 99 cents each and you can get four for the price of three.  We'll be back right after these messages.

I know you've all been wondering, "What if Frank Loesser, the man who wrote the songs for Guys and Dolls, had instead written the score for Sweeney Todd?" Well, my buddy Bruce Kimmel has the answer. Bruce introduces (and wrote the lyrics for) just such a tune sung by Robert Yacko, with Lloyd Cooper playin' the piano…

P.S. And yes, I know Frank Loesser did not write The King and I. Bruce Kimmel knows it, too. I assume that was some kind of joke that would have made sense if we'd seen earlier portions of that show instead of just the excerpt.

The Walk of Fame Selection Committee of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce has made its 2016 selections. Here's the newest batch of folks who are to receive stars in the Hollywood Walk of Fame…

MOTION PICTURES: Steve Carell, Bradley Cooper, Ashley Judd, Michael Keaton, Kurt Russell, Quentin Tarantino, and Toshiro Mifune (posthumous)

TELEVISION: Barbara Bain, Kathy Bates, Roma Downey, David Duchovny, Allison Janney, Rob Lowe, Debra Messing, Tracy Morgan, Gary Sinise, and William S. Paley (posthumous)

RECORDING: Shirley Caesar, LL Cool J, Cyndi Lauper, Adam Levine, Bruno Mars, Joseph B. "Joe" Smith, Itzhak Perlman, "Mama" Cass Elliot (posthumous)

RADIO: Ralph Lawler

LIVE THEATRE/LIVE PERFORMANCE: Angélica María, Harvey Fierstein, and Kevin Hart

Now, you may recall that last year's list included the credited creator of Batman, Bob Kane. When that honor was announced, there was some talk on the Internet that some of us might just show up for that dedication ceremony with signs that said things like, "WHAT ABOUT BILL FINGER?" I wrote about it here and again here. And you may wonder what happened to that?

So far, nothing. When you're voted a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the installation and unveiling take place on a date that you and the committee agree upon and that date can be up to two years after the voting. In the case of the posthumous selections like Kane, it's agreed-upon with the family and for whatever reason, the Bob Kane family has yet to set the date.

If the honoree is alive, the date may have something to do with the person's availability. More likely though, the scheduling coincides with the opening of something promotable. I'm going to guess that the Time-Warner folks used their clout to get a star for Kane, are paying the installation fee, and want the ceremony to occur when the forthcoming Batman V Superman movie is released in March of next year.

Still, if you want to protest, I wouldn't wait 'til then to paint my sign because it could happen sooner and could be announced with just a week or so notice. The next star unveiling is July 1. It's for Paul Rudd, who was voted in at the same time as Kane.

By the way: You can attend it or any of these ceremonies. You don't need a ticket or anything. You just show up and try to get a good spot in the crowd. More info can be found on this page, which is where they announce — sometimes, not too far in advance — when the events will take place. Depending on who shows up to lend their star power to the unveiling, they can be kinda fun. Quentin Tarantino will probably have a line of guys with automatic weapons come out and mow down the spectators.

General Mills has announced that they will soon be removing artificial flavors and artificial colors from their cereals. Those elements will be replaced with fruit and vegetable juices, natural dyes, and spice blends. This won't affect me because my Cheerios have no artificial flavors or colors. But I'm still glad to hear it.

This, dear friends, is a photo of Lydia — one of the two stray cats I feed in my backyard. I took this picture just a few days ago and last fed her just a few minutes ago.

I've been feeding Lydia for more than ten years now. This may seem long for a feral feline but apparently, there's no such thing as an "average" lifespan for a stray because their living conditions vary so widely, depending on how many other animals (including other cats) are in their vicinity and whether they find steady food supplies and places of shelter in bad weather. Lydia seems to be doing well.

Back in 2008 as some of you may remember, Lydia went and got herself pregnant. As advised by experts on this kind of thing, I trapped her and took her in for a kitty abortion and the surgery that would ensure she never got that way again. That was an adventure which took several days and I posted the whole thing as a running diary on this site. I've had a number of requests to isolate those posts and to format them for easy reading. So on this page, you can read the whole story. You'll also hear how she got her name and how I felt an odd kinship with Steve McGarrett on Hawaii Five-O.

I woke up this morning, noticed it was 8:15 and found myself wondering if the Supreme Court had just announced one of its looming important decisions…say, the one on Same-Sex Marriage or the one on Obamacare. I put on CNN and they were talking about the Confederate Flag so I thought, "I guess not." But they're coming…

I think Obamacare has done an awful lot of good — certainly more than doing nothing or any alternative that's been discussed in vague terms — and I expect it can be made even better once the resistance and the sabotage die down. So I'd like to see them rule that one little bit of clumsy wording is no reason to muck with it. One Obamacare-favoring friend of mine is praying for it to be damaged because, he says, that will rebound in the worst way against Republicans…and a number of Republican officials are acting all scared of that, too. Yeah, but if the Supremes rule agin' it, a lot of people will suffer so right there's a good reason to hope the Justices let it continue as is.

You probably know how I stand on the Same-Sex Wedlock issue. If the decision legalizes Gay Marriage across the land, I hope the outraged would pause and take a look at the cases that have actually been presented to try and block it. I've read a bunch of them and they're pretty lame. As Nathaniel Frank notes, the argument against Same-Sex Marriages that was presented to the Supreme Court was pretty feeble. In all of these, the person arguing against letting members of the same sex wed has trouble explaining how allowing that would in any way harm the institution of straight marriage…and without that, they don't have much of a case.

Unlike Mr. Frank, I am not confident as to how the Supreme Court will rule. The argument to stop the vote count and declare George W. Bush president in 2000 was pretty feeble but look how that turned out…and even the feeblest arguments usually persuade at least a few Justices. But any morning now, we'll know. The Supreme Court has a lot of decisions to release and they're adding dates to the calendar when they might do this. I'll probably wake up at 8:15 on every one of them.

There is no form of music — no style, no instrument — which has not been or will not be used to perform "Bohemian Rhapsody." Here it is on a fairground "player" organ that is more than 100 years old — or about the same age as the guys in Queen…

Floyd Norman began his cartooning career assisting Bill Woggon, artist of the Katy Keene comic books. In 1956, he got a job as an in-betweener (an assistant animator) at the Walt Disney Studio where he started by working on Sleeping Beauty. He was the first black artist to work there and he subsequently applied his talents to other Disney films, including One Hundred and One Dalmatians, The Sword in the Stone and The Jungle Book, moving from animation to the story department in the process.

He has not spent his career exclusively at Disney — though he worked there enough to be named a Disney Legend in 2007. He popped up at almost every animation studio in town — I met him at Hanna-Barbera — and even co-ran a studio for a time. (It was Vignette Films, which among its other projects did a lot of the early animation for Sesame Street and produced the first Fat Albert cartoon for Bill Cosby.) He's one of those guys who's done just about everything in animation. He's also an incredibly nice, clever guy.

And he not only draws well, he draws fast…as you'll be able to see if you attend the Quick Draw! panel on Saturday at this year's Comic-Con International. Floyd has done it before and we're having him back to be one of the rapid-sketching combatants in our little game.

Floyd is 80 years old today, a fact that his friends are having a hard time believing, considering how young and energetic he is. I am pleased to be one of those friends and to wish him the happiest of b'days. If he had some obvious flaws, I could close this with a snide insult but he doesn't so I can't. It's the one thing I don't like about the guy.

Fred Kaplan says there's lots of terrorism around the world but very little of it ever kills Americans. Interesting to note.

Preview Night for Comic-Con International is a mere seventeen days away. If you haven't arranged for a badge, you probably ain't going. If you have one, here are some things someone oughta say to you…

• You can have a great time there if you plan a little. The convention website is full of useful information and it will get fuller as we near the dates. For instance, in a few days, they'll begin posting the Programming Schedule. Take the time before you go to review it and make some notes. Jot down the events you'd like to see. Some of them require long waits in line and taking the chance that you won't get in. Others are wide open and relatively simple. It wouldn't hurt to go there with a list of first choices, second choices, third choices, etc.
• It can also help to study the map of the main hall. Get a sense of where the exhibitors you want to see are located. If you have zero interest in videogames, it's a good idea to know where those exhibitors are so you can avoid that area, which can be very noisy and very hard to get through.
• Wear the most comfortable shoes you own. Consider packing a lunch. Bring as much money as you're willing to spend and hang onto enough to get home without running on empty.
• The building will be packed with people you've always wanted to meet. Don't be afraid to approach them. Just understand that some of them may be swamped or busy, and that you need to be polite about it all.
• There's a colorful, noisy street fair outside the convention center and I always enjoy taking at least one stroll through it. It's big and fun enough that some people don't bother with getting tickets to actually attend the con. They go and enjoy what's going on all around. Check it out.
• If you're attending in costume or eager to take photos of those who do, please remember that aisles are meant for others to walk through. I love cosplayers but dressing up as some fantasy character seems to cause some people to think they have a right to pose wherever they are, no matter who they inconvenience. I have also seen near-accidents from the foot-traffic jams and the swinging of fake weaponry. Last year at Phoenix Con, I had to say to one cosplayer, "You have a lovely costume but the spot where you've chosen to pose is preventing people in wheelchairs from getting where they need to go." She looked at me like I had odd priorities.
• Still need a hotel? Believe it or not, there are still hotel rooms available through the convention. They're five or so miles away but they're on the shuttle route. (And just because they're on the shuttle route doesn't mean you have to use the shuttle buses. I have friends who last year were happier using cabs or Uber to get them close to the Convention Center and then they'd walk the rest of the way.)
• I have no advice about parking except don't drive down there unless you have a pretty good idea where you're going to leave your car.
• I have no other advice about driving except that you need to remember that Comic-Con International is not responsible for how bad the traffic may be at times. If you're coming in on the 5, you have one bonus this year because the convention is earlier in the month than it usually is. You usually have to deal with a huge snarl of autos because Del Mar Race Track is running. But Del Mar doesn't open this year until July 16 and the convention this time is July 9-12. In case you're interested, the San Diego Padres will be away for the entire duration of Comic-Con.
• Those of you who want to take the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner down to San Diego should remember that trains sell out and that some of them already have.

And I close with what may be the most important thing: Pace yourself. Accept the fact that you won't get to see everything you'd like to see and won't get into every event you'd like to attend. Every Disneyland travel guide says it's important to understand that going-in and it's no different with Comic-Con. You can have the greatest time of your life if you do a little planning and don't go in wanting the impossible to happen. Very little in the hall is realistic but your expectations ought to be.