Yearly Archives: 2015

The pic above is a still from It's About Time, a silly but fun sitcom of the sixties about cave people…and by the way, I think this photo was taken on Wilshire Boulevard, just west of the old Ambassador Hotel. Anyway, I call your attention to the young man on the right. That's Pat Cardi, who had an amazing career as a child actor and who's gone on to have an even more amazing career as a producer and director and entrepreneur and…well, he's done all sorts of things he'll be describing today as he pays his second visit to Stu's Show. The first time he was on, they barely got through half of what the man's done. Let's see if they can bring us up to present day with this afternoon's edition, which will include Pat's story about how he created Moviefone and somehow managed to not share in the millions it proved to be worth.

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. After you hear Pat today, maybe you'll want to go download his first appearance.

Kermit the Frog and Grover on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1970…

Here's another one of those articles arguing that one should never put two spaces after a period when one is writing. I not only don't think that's right, I don't recognize that those who claim this have any sort of authority to declare it wrong. You don't like the way it looks with two spaces? Fine. I don't like the way it looks with one space. You have nothing on your side except a couple of Manuals of Style that put forth all sorts of "rules" that most of us don't follow all the time. Stop lecturing me like some governing body has made a law I'm not following.

Typographers say we should have one space instead of two? Well, that's lovely but I'm not a typographer. 98% of the time, I'm not setting type and designing printed pages. I write manuscripts that are intended for people to read. Typographers are usually out to make it pretty and legible — and I think some these days prefer pretty over legible. But all I really care about is legible.

Also, almost no typographers these days work in Courier and their "rules" presume that you're working in proportional fonts. My screenplays and teleplays are in Courier, a non-proportional font. When I write in prose form, what matters is that my script can be read. No one's intake of these pieces has even been harmed or encumbered in any way by two spaces after a period.

I also write this blog, of course. The spacing between sentences is governed by the software so I have no control over that. It doesn't matter how many spaces I put between sentences. I type two, it puts in one. I can live with that. My point is that when I do have a choice, I like two.

I think two spaces makes text easier to read. And as near as I can tell, the argument against two is not that one space makes it easier but that two aren't necessary. Listen, as far as I'm concerned, nothing I write is necessary so that's not an argument to me.

You know what's really not necessary? This "rule" about one space. I'm sorry…I have a natural tendency to question "rules" for writers and I think one of the key things to being a creative writer (as opposed to, say, a technical writer) is to decide which rules to ignore. It's kinda like the way they tell us there's no such word as "kinda." Or when they tell us we're not allowed to start a sentence with a coordinating conjunction like I just did. I want my writing to read the way I want it to read which most of the time is a friendly, informal tone not unlike the way I talk. Too many of the rules that are made for writers are designed to make us all sound bland and identical.

If I'm writing for a magazine that wants all its writers to have much the same voice, that's a different matter. I don't do a lot of that…and when I do, nobody has ever complained about how many spaces I have between the sentences. They may not like the sentences but they never care about how much air comes between them.

The idea here is communication. One person writes something. Someone else reads it. If the reader's ability to get what the writer wrote is impaired by that second space after a period then the reader is probably too stupid or distracted to understand anything. I get the feeling that those who scold you for two spaces have no real case unless it's a case of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

A.J. Delgado on why the Iraq War was a colossal mistake. And why even saying, "Well, the world is a better place without Saddam in power" is not accurate.

Here's a theory that will never be proven or disproven: If you polled every person in this country who makes his or her living drawing funny pictures and asked them whose talent, of all the others still alive and sketching, they most admired…the winner would be Mort Drucker. I have seen some of the world's most admired cartoonists look at Mort's work, shake their heads and mutter, "How does he do that?"

And I have seen artists, when called upon to render a caricature of some famous person, rush to see what Mort did when he had to draw that person. Even if their eventual drawing will not be in the Drucker style, seeing how Mort handled them is educational. His eye always catches the salient points to exaggerate, the basic personality and key features of the face. A celebrity never looks so much like themselves as when Mort draws them.

Last week at the National Cartoonists Society's annual gathering — held this year in Washington, D.C. — Mort was honored with the group's Medal of Honor. This is the first time it's been given out and as Tom Richmond explains, they seem to have invented the honor just so they could bestow it on Mort. Who better?

Sepp Blatter says he will step down as FIFA's leader.

Lydia and Sylvia, the two feral cats I feed in my backyard, spent today sleeping on an old lounge chair I have back there.

Tune in next time for more exciting Adventures of Lydia and Sylvia!

Here's an episode of CBS Summer Playhouse, which was a series back in 1987 that played off unsold pilots. There are two here, hosted by Tim Reid and Daphne Maxwell Reid, who were about to star in a new series (i.e., a sold pilot) called Frank's Place.

The first of the two unsold ones is Puppetman, a situation comedy from Jim Henson's company, all about backstage at a TV show not unlike Sesame Street. Fred Newman stars as the lead puppeteer. Fred specializes in odd voices and sounds and had done some work with Henson at the time, I believe. The other puppeteer is played by Richard Hunt, who was one of the key Muppeteers, handling — among others — Scooter, Beaker, Janice and Statler. Also in the cast were Julie Payne and Jack Burns. Burns had worked with Henson as a writer on The Muppet Show.

I've worked with Julie Payne for years on Garfield cartoons — she plays Jon's girlfriend Liz among other roles — so I called her and asked her to write down what she recalled of it. Here's what she sent me…

My being cast may have been thanks to Jeremy Stevens, one of the writer-producers. He was a childhood friend of my husband, in Brooklyn. The idea of working with Jim Henson and doing scenes with his puppets was a bit of heaven. I looked forward to working with him and getting to know him, but that didn't really happen; he was busy with the puppeting aspects, and we actors were working on scenes. Very friendly cast. But the week was a bit of a blur. I got the flu and sat through the rehearsal days with my head on the table, getting up only to run through my scenes. Someone on the crew told me to take two of her favorite antihistamines — big mistake. I remember driving home on the freeway at about 30 miles per hour.

The other pilot in the half-hour is called Sawdust and it was created and written by Gary Markowitz, who worked on a lot of good shows (like Larry Gelbart's United States) in the seventies and eighties. It's a fun, interesting show about circus performers and while it seems a bit too unusual for CBS at the time, I enjoyed it…and hey, it even had a small role in it played by the unofficial Stooge, Mousie Garner…

Bernie Sanders is currently polling higher in Iowa than anyone seeking the Republican nomination.

I don't think that means he has a real shot at the presidency. I mean, being one of two or three candidates is a lot more advantageous position than being one of around ninety. It may just be a function of how many people in Iowa are leery of Hillary Clinton. I do think though it means that Sanders deserves a lot more press coverage and attention than he's gotten.

Of course, today no one who's running for president is getting anywhere near as much press coverage and attention than Caitlyn Jenner. You know, I admire Mr./Ms. Jenner's courage in some ways but I recall when someone else who had a gender conversion said something like, "My goal in going public with this is to help move America to the day when no one will care about this kind of thing." Well, just speaking for myself, I'm already there.

This is a little hard to watch but Tracy Morgan was on the Today Show this morning, giving his first interview since the ghastly freeway accident that injured him severely and took the life of fellow comedian James "Jimmy Mack" McNair. I suspect this appearance had a lot to do with the surely-huge monetary settlement that he just accepted from the Walmart company. Morgan had his attorney with him to prompt him on things he wanted to or had to say. It sure sounds like that as a condition of the settlement, he had to make this public appearance — and maybe others — and say what he said about Walmart. One assumes it's sincere.

It's just sad to see a funny man like that suffering…though comforting in a way that he's mended enough to make even this appearance. But everyone's rooting for this guy and I'm imagining one of the biggest ovations in the history of television when he's well enough to make even a tiny cameo appearance on Saturday Night Live.

I met Betsy Palmer briefly at a thing called the Game Show Congress which was out in Burbank in 2006. Since she just passed away at the age of 88, that would mean she was 79 then. She sure didn't look it. She looked maybe fifteen years older than the last episode of the original I've Got a Secret instead of 39 years older. That was probably my favorite game show and she was an integral part of it.

She's known for that and her roles in the Friday the 13th horror movies. She should also be remembered for all the acting she did on stage and screen, including stints on Broadway shows like Same Time, Next Year and Cactus Flower. She also did a lot of regional productions of South Pacific and Annie, Get Your Gun and a few other shows that required a strong, forceful female lead who could sing. I never saw her in any of those but the reviews said she was pretty darn good in them.

I really don't have anything to say about her except that she was charming when I met her and charming on the screen. With the passing of Bess Myerson last year, Jayne Meadows not long ago and now Betsy, it means everyone who was ever a regular panelist on the original I've Got a Secret is gone. How sad.

Daniel Larison states what we all know: That newly-announced Republican candidates Santorum, Graham, Perry and Pataki have zero chance of getting their party's nomination.

He discusses, as many do, these folks' reasons for entering a contest which they can't possibly win…but I never see anyone discussing one reason that always occurs to me. It's the same reason Max Bialystock wanted to produce Springtime for Hitler. Has anyone ever really followed the money on all these going-nowhere presidential campaigns? Has anyone investigated how often the candidates profit in financial ways?  I mean, above and beyond getting Fox News contracts, book deals and higher speaking fees.

I remember one article back when Pat Buchanan was mounting his unsuccessful presidential bids that claimed he had found perfectly-legal ways to pocket a lot of the money that citizens were donating for his candidacy…like having his advertising handled by a company that his sister owned and which claimed a large percentage of the money for its services. Was that true? I dunno. I think it would be interesting to find out if any of the cash that people donate to support Rick Santorum's efforts winds up buying groceries and goodies for Rick Santorum's family.

Larison's piece is over on that well-known left-wing commie website, The American Conservative. While you're over there, you might want to read Kelley Vlahos on how John McCain and Lindsey Graham are trying to rewrite history to blame the Iraq war and ISIS on Obama.

And Rob Dreher has a piece on how some on the Fox News comment board have been enjoying the death of Joe Biden's son and the breaking of John Kerry's leg. I point this out for the benefit of my friend Roger who thinks this kind of assholishness is only on display on Liberal message boards. No, I'm afraid, all sides have some really, really swinish members.

Last night, I was stopped at one of those "pop-up" screening points that local law enforcement sets up to look for inebriated drivers. Everyone driving south on Fairfax was herded into two lanes where men who I believe were from the Sheriff's Office give us a quick check for tipsiness.

I've been through these before and they usually go like this: The officer asks me if I've had anything to drink that evening. I say no. He says, "Well, good evening to you, sir" and off I go. It always seemed to me like it would be pretty easy for someone who was a wee bit intoxicated to get through but I figured it had to do some good. I have seen them ask drivers to step out of their cars and submit to a field sobriety test of some kind.

Anyway, last night when I was stopped, it took a few minutes, not because of me but because of the driver in the car ahead of me. That person was engaged in a long discussion with an officer and I couldn't drive onward until they'd completed it. So when another officer came up to talk to me, we had a long discussion of our own. It went roughly like this…

HIM: Sir, thank you for stopping. We just want to ask you if you've had any alcoholic beverages this evening.

ME: No, I haven't had a drop in forty years.

HIM: Fine, fine. Well, as soon as the car ahead of you is done, you can be on your way. Forty years, huh? What made you stop?

ME: Well, to be honest with you, I never stopped because I never started. I've never had an alcoholic drink in my life but I've learned that some people don't believe that. They will, however, believe "I haven't had a drop in forty years."

HIM (good-naturedly:) So…you lied to me!

ME: Oh, no. What I said was absolutely true. I haven't had a drop in forty years. I also haven't had a drop in fifty years. If you want the absolute truth, I'm 63 years old and I haven't had a drop in sixty-three years. Hey, now you answer a question for me. When you stop cars and ask them what you asked me, does anyone ever say, "Yeah, I just had nineteen martinis and a couple of bourbons on the rocks"?

HIM: Not exactly like that but they do sometimes give it away that they've been drinking. If they say "Oh, I only had one glass of wine," that probably means they had more than that. If they're slurring their speech or they're acting too cute, we give them the once-over.

ME: Caught anybody tonight?

HIM: Oh, yeah. About twenty minutes ago…a whole SUV full of teenagers. We just took them away. They were all drunk, including the driver. He tried to play it cool but the others in his vehicle were so obviously plastered that we checked him out. He kept saying, "I'm not drunk. I'm the designated drinker." Not driver…drinker. He was way over the limit. Usually though, we can tell just looking at them and asking what I asked you. I asked you and you gave me a straight answer without hesitation. I knew you were fine.

Then the officer interrogating the driver ahead of me came over to him for a brief consultation. From what I could gather, the problem was not that the driver ahead of me was drunk but that she did not have one of those things called a driver's license. He had not asked her for her license but the sign telling us we had to stop said "Prepare to show license" and she had immediately started explaining to him that she'd accidentally left hers home. I had not been asked for mine and if she hadn't started explaining why she didn't have hers, the officer might never have known.

He had gotten on the radio and run her name and (I suppose) other information and he found out that there was no record of her ever having had a driver's license. He had also run the license plate number of the car she was driving and while it had not been reported as stolen, it was registered to someone else. It was a friend's car, she said, but she couldn't come up with the alleged friend's name.

Since this was obviously going to take a while, they were pulling her car out of the lane so I and others stacked up behind me could press on. Just before I was able to depart, the officer who'd spoken with me said, "See? These things do some good." I guess they do.

I am going to steal and quote the entirety of an article by Orin Kerr in The Washington Post…

If I understand the history correctly, in the late 1990s, the President was impeached for lying about a sexual affair by a House of Representatives led by a man who was also then hiding a sexual affair, who was supposed to be replaced by another Congressman who stepped down when forced to reveal that he too was having a sexual affair, which led to the election of a new Speaker of the House who now has been indicted for lying about payments covering up his sexual contact with a boy.

Yikes.

Yeah, that's pretty much what happened.