Yearly Archives: 2015

I noted in this piece when it first ran here on April 19, 2002, we are nearing the day when a great industry will draw to a close…people claiming falsely that they were kid actors in "Our Gang." I think we're there. I haven't heard of one this century. Obviously, the passing of time ended that field of chicanery, as did the publication of couple of books that documented all the real members of that famed troupe and made it harder for frauds to get by…

A few nights ago, Game Show Network ran a 1957 episode of To Tell the Truth in which one of the contestants was Jack Bothwell, a New Jersey restaurant host who said that, in his younger days, he'd played Freckles in the famous "Our Gang" comedies produced by Hal Roach.  As per usual for the program, Bothwell and two impostors answered questions from the panel whose mission was to identify the real Jack Bothwell.  In this case, their problem was a little more difficult because — as the show's producers obviously were unaware — all three men answering the questions were impostors.  You see, there was no character named Freckles in the "Our Gang" films and Jack Bothwell never appeared in any of them.

We are nearing the day when a great industry will draw to a close…people claiming falsely that they were kid actors in "Our Gang."  There have been a staggering number of them, some claiming to have played Spanky or Alfalfa or some other actual character; others bragging of a non-existent role like Freckles.  Not that long ago, the ABC news show, 20/20, did a whole profile of an older black man who, they said, played Buckwheat.  Some of these folks have published books or sold autographs.  Others just seem to want the stardom.

There are other explanations for some of the fakes.  There were several "Our Gang" imitations offered up by Roach's competitors and in later years, some of the grown-up kid actors who'd been in those knock-offs either got confused or, more likely, decided there was more prestige in saying they'd been in "Our Gang" than in, say, "The Kiddie Troupers."  There were also kids who played bit parts or extra roles in "Our Gang" who later decided they'd been regular featured players.

And there's one other interesting source of fake Our Gangers.  At the peak of the series' popularity, there was a gent touring the mid-west, working a "Harold Hill" style scam.  He'd breeze into some small town and give an interview to the local paper as Robert MacGowan, director of the famous "Our Gang" series.  That was the name of the actual director but this wasn't him.  The fake MacGowan would announce that he was interested in getting some rural, small town values into the shorts and that he was scouting for kids who could act.  Naturally, hundreds of parents would drag their offspring down to meet him and he would suggest to each that Junior would be a natural; that he could go directly to Hollywood and earn thousands a week if only he had a little more polish and seasoning.  The phony director — and there may have been more than one con artist working this line — would introduce an acting teacher (actually, his wife) who had just arrived to help his talent search and who, for a nice fee, could make the child camera-ready.  There were a number of variations on the scam, including some that involved actually using locals to film what the bogus director said was a genuine "Our Gang" comedy.  One can easily imagine a kid who was in one of them later believing (or choosing to believe) he was actually in an "Our Gang" movie.

None of this, by the way, seems to explain Jack Bothwell.  He appears to simply have been a fraud.

The other interesting thing about that spot on To Tell the Truth was that one of the fake Bothwells was a former police officer who had recently joined the staff of another game show.  His name was Barney Martin and he later became quite a successful actor.  Oddly enough, he got more answers correct than the "real" Jack Bothwell.  Asked where in Hollywood the Hal Roach Studio was located, Martin said it was in Culver City (correct) whereas Bothwell said he didn't know because his "Our Gang" movies had been shot on the East Coast.  In truth, no "Our Gang" films were made there.

Mr. Bothwell made the rounds of talk shows and did personal appearances before he passed away around 1967, complete with newspaper obits about his career in "Our Gang."  I don't know if anyone ever called him on his little fib but I do know he wasn't telling the truth on To Tell the Truth.

Gosh.  If you can't believe a 40+ year old game show, what can you believe?

I have been laughing for much of the day over the concept of a TV crew taking Don Rickles to the zoo to insult the animals. Whether anyone ever does it or not, it's still funny.

Keith Olbermann was not overly fond of the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight last Saturday…

Abstinence Education — the idea that you can curb teen pregnancy just by lecturing kids to not have sex — continues to prove utterly ineffective. And those who advocate it continue to deny it doesn't work. They have to. The alternative would be to admit that kids are just plain going to have sex and we need to deal with that reality. Here's the latest from Texas, a state that could use a good dose of martial law.

The article also mentions a new law that would prohibit private insurers from covering abortion in all cases except for medical emergencies. Where does the government come off telling a private industry that they can't support a completely legal activity?

Hey, here's a great slideshow of locations in Southern California that have appeared in movies.

Motown: The Musical, which is now playing at the Pantages in Hollywood, is one of those shows where you walk in humming the score. It's the story of Berry Gordy and Motown Records, and it stars a huge, indecently-talented cast and more hit songs than have ever before inhabited a Broadway presentation. The sheer number of hits will overpower you, as will the skillful way in which the cast and orchestra replicate well-known records.

If you're around my age (b., 1952), many of those songs connect with important, often emotional moments in your past…and as presented live in this show, some of them are very powerful and moving. Which ones you'll think are very powerful and moving will vary depending on your past but if you're in the proper age range, I'll bet you some of them register that way.

So: Great songs, great performances, great orchestra and great memories. That's all wonderful but I didn't think the storyline was. Berry Gordy, in founding the world's most successful independent record label, did not really have a "rags to riches" story, at least as presented here. It's more like "riches to more riches and then more riches." The show starts at the rehearsals for the 25th Anniversary Celebration of Motown…so he's rich and famous when the curtain goes up. Then we flashback to his childhood and he's not rich and famous for about ten minutes. Then he is for the rest of the show.

Oh, there are struggles to be overcome when you're a wildly prosperous record producer. It can get messy sleeping with your biggest star. Some of those you discovered and nurtured may prove to be ingrates by leaving you when others offer them more money. You can even get sued once in a while and criticized for your business practices. I admire all that Mr. Gordy accomplished but it's hard to feel his pain when every ninety seconds, the cast breaks into another million-selling hit record that he helped birth and which brought him megabucks.

Gordy himself authored the book of this musical and probably oversaw every note and syllable of it. The Berry Gordy character is not only a great and heroic figure who only did right by the folks he had under contract, he's also — as depicted on stage — as talented a singer and dancer as anyone who ever appeared on the Motown label. His greatest failing, at least in this musical, is that one time when he went to bed with Diana Ross, he couldn't get it up. She responds lovingly by getting up, tearing off her nightie to reveal a Supremes-style sequined gown and singing, "I Hear a Symphony." Other than that, the man wrote a very fine tribute to himself.

But, you know, the plot doesn't matter a whole lot. The gent we saw last night as Berry Gordy, Julius Thomas III, was outstanding. The lady playing Diana Ross (Allison Semmes) was about as close a carbon as you could imagine. They have three very young men who rotate in the "child" roles. Each performance, one of them plays The Young Berry Gordy, The Young Stevie Wonder and The Young Michael Jackson. The one we got last night — Leon Outlaw, Jr. — was absolutely electric as The Young Michael. And even these three superb performances were upstaged by the repertoire and the sheer versatility of the cast as a whole.

I liked that just about everyone in the ensemble got their moment to shine as they quadrupled and quintupled in so many roles. There was something democratic (and perhaps telling about the caprices of stardom) that one guy plays The Adult Stevie Wonder and Jr. Walker Allstar, plus one of the Pips, one of the Miracles and also Levi Stubbs of the Four Tops. And one gal plays Mary Wells, Cindy Birdsong of the Supremes, one of Martha's Vandellas…and Berry Gordy's sister. Many of the mimics are so good, it's frustrating when a favorite song is truncated, as most are.

I should also complain that the show is too loud. It was too loud where Carolyn and I were sitting. I ran into the great writer Carl Gottlieb there and he said it was too loud where he was, sitting on the other side of the theater. I suspect it was too loud if you were just hanging around across the street in the parking lot. But I still enjoyed myself very much.

Waiting in the men's room after, a gent was complaining to me that it was too loud and too long. I agreed with him about the loud part but asked, "Okay…which ten terrific songs should they have left out?" He said, "Well, okay." Then he added, "I think I have to come back. There was just too much there to absorb in one viewing."

Like I said, I enjoyed it tremendously. I doubt I'll be back but there were sure parts of it I'd like to see again. Maybe what I'll just do is play some Motown records…in full and with my hand on the volume knob. The real Marvin Gaye was almost as good as the guy who played him in Motown: The Musical.

Folks who've written for David Letterman recall their favorite rejections. I'm sorry they didn't do the one where Don Rickles goes to the zoo and just insults animals.

Around this time each week, I tell you about some great guest Stu Shostak has lined up for his podcast talk show, Stu's Show, and I recommend you tune in. Today, he has a truly great guest and if you're interested in the history of TV (or in someday writing some of it), I highly recommend you listen in as Stu interviews my buddy, Ron Friedman. Stu can fill the 2+ hours just listing shows Ron has written for Here's a very partial list: The Danny Kaye Show, Get Smart, I Dream of Jeannie, The Odd Couple, Starsky & Hutch, Fantasy Island, All in the Family, Chico and the Man, Vega$, Bewitched, Happy Days, Gilligan's Island, The Andy Griffith Show, The Fall Guy, The Dukes of Hazzard and many, many more. He's also been very prolific in writing cartoons. He was one of the key writers for The Transformers and G.I. Joe and also worked on The Bionic Six, Iron Man, The Fantastic Four and quite a few others. On top of all this, he's a very nice, funny gentleman who comes close to having as many great anecdotes as I do. Do not miss this one.

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. For your free one, select one of the episodes where I'm the guest because it'll be priced what it's worth.

• Listening to Texas leaders like Louie Gohmert stoking the paranoia of their followers. That military takeover is looking like a good idea.

Don't get envious, dear readers, when I forsake blogging for paying work. A very, very stupid barbarian needs my attention today as does a very, very stupid TV script for a very, very stupid brilliant producer. Barring any breaking news, I'll be back with you later tonight or tomorrow.

Before I go: Hey, my pal Vinnie and his crew did a great job with that David Letterman special last night…lots of great clips, artfully edited.

Tom Shales has another one of those "Farewell to Dave" essays that says how wonderful he is, citing stuff from long ago and far away, and making out like that's how the show still is to this day. Also, Shales makes a few errors like confusing Crispin Glover with Keanu Reeves…and I'm not sure if the reference to Ayn Rand as a "neo-Nazi" was earnestly meant or a failed joke.

Dr. Ben Carson has thrown his hat into the presidential race. I usually jest that these guys are going to get the exact same number of electoral votes as me (i.e., zero) but I have a hunch Carson is going to do worse than that and wind up owing some. He might, however, crush Carly Fiorina.

This year's recipients of the Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing have been selected. They will be announced shortly. As you know, there is one award for a living writer and one for a deceased writer. I have removed myself from consideration for the first award because if I won, I would immediately qualify for the second.

See you shortly.

For the last few years, the musical version of The Producers has been available to just about any group that wanted to pay the license fee and stage a production. I wouldn't have thought it would have spawned as many high school productions as it has but YouTube is loaded with videos from them.

Why wouldn't I have thought this? Well, the license fee ain't cheap and the financial requirements for sets and costumes aren't cheap, either. Also, even if one cleans up the language a bit (as most do), there are an awful lot of gay jokes and sex jokes and most of all, Nazi jokes, plus it also requires some real good performers. Still, it's been produced often at the high school level…with varying degrees of success.

Here's the "Springtime for Hitler" number from the best production I've sampled on YouTube. This is Summit High School in New Jersey and they did a pretty good job. The whole thing's on YouTube in chapters if you want to seek out other parts of it…

So I'm wondering how many people out there still think Bill Cosby is being framed or lied-about by all these women who've come forth with variations on the same story. He recently finished his current "Far From Finished" tour. Some dates were heckled. Many were canceled. Many apparently had a lot more empty seats than the norm and some venues that stamp "No Refunds" on their tickets apparently felt the need to issue refunds to those who'd bought tix before all this rapey stuff came out.

Cosby seems to have no appearances scheduled — I say "seems" because the page that listed where he'll be has been removed from his website — and I'm thinking he may opt to keep it that way…just disappear for a while.

People keep asking me what he'll do or whether he'll ever try aggressively to defend his name. I dunno. There have to be lawyers calling a lot of the shots now and they know a lot more than we do about where he might be legally vulnerable and who else they fear might come forward. I don't think we've seen the last of him…but I wouldn't be surprised.

In my long post on Letterman, I mentioned my buddy Vinnie Favale, who's currently a high muck-a-muck at CBS — V.P. of late night, I think. He's held a number of jobs in entertainment and once upon a time, he was not an exec on the Letterman show but a guest.

The photo above is from October of 1982 — Dave's first year on NBC at 12:30, having replaced Tom Snyder. He was on Monday through Thursday back then but they gave him a 90 minute special on Friday night. Snyder had done an annual talent show for NBC so Dave did a goofier version and Vinnie, who was then working in the building on Howard Stern's radio show, was recruited. Vinnie also has a background as a comedian (and more recently, a playwright) but back then he went on with Dave as part of that broadcast.

Flash forward to today, 33 years later. Dave's going off, Vinnie is his liaison with CBS…and Vinnie exec-produced the special that's on tonight, recapping Dave's amazing TV career. Here's a little banner to remind you to watch. I'm sure it'll be one of those things I retain on my TiVo to watch over and over.

I've been watching David Letterman's final shows. Some of them, like when Michael Keaton was on, make it sound like Dave has some terminal illness and we have to tell him now how much we love him because we'll never see him again. I've been waiting for some guest to say, "You know, Dave, I'm really looking forward to seeing what you do next."

He's been running clips of memorable moments from the past. They're funny but they also remind you of the kind of thing he used to do and hasn't even attempted for way too long. An awful lot of the tributes to Dave — like this one by Conan O'Brien — seem like they're trying to ignore everything since around the year 2001. I saw one that mentioned the suit of Velcro (that was 1984) and dropping stuff off a building.

He started dropping things off buildings (or as a witty variation, crushing them with a steamroller) in 1985. It wasn't the cleverest idea — Hey, remember when ABC tried a prime-time game show based on that premise? — but it was funny a few times. Well, Dave's still doing it except he long ago started having someone else do it for him. Talk about minimal effort.

Want to remember Dave at his best? Tomorrow night, Ray Romano is hosting a 90-minute special of clips, including some from the NBC days. My pal Vinnie Favale put it together, probably without ample time, and at least one person I know who's seen it says it's excellent. I have my TiVo primed to grab it and you should do as I do. Here's a preview…

On his recent shows, Dave has made a few remarks about how announcing his retirement was a colossal mistake…as if he really had the option of staying much longer. As I see it, he has several problems now in terms of doing something else, performing-wise, once the show is out of his life. The biggie, of course, is what to do.

If you're in Letterman's position, you don't want to do just anything. It would be pretty embarrassing to follow a 30+ year run on broadcast television with a low-budget cable series…especially a low-budget cable series that didn't do well. Having been in a position where the top box office stars and political figures fought to get in your guest chair, you don't want to sully the memory of your old show by doing a version of it which has a fraction of the budget and the biggest guest you can get is Abe Vigoda.

So you want to do something that won't be a direct comparison to the old show…and the problem with that is that Dave has never really shown any aptitude (or interest) for anything but that old show and that format. He doesn't act. He doesn't host game shows or reality shows or shows that are not basically about David Letterman.

Jerry Seinfeld and Jay Leno have come up with successful Internet/cable programs but Jerry and Jay are guys who've been out doing stand-up and other things all these years. Their current shows are their secondary gigs — the things they do on the side when they aren't making towering piles of money doing stand-up dates. They have active, successful careers without their car shows.

Dave hasn't done real stand-up since it was an ordeal he suffered through to become a talk show host. The closest he's come is those short monologues he does, often without apparent joy, to an audience that loves him so much, they laugh when all he does is to repeat jokes from the previous night's monologue. I think he could do what Seinfeld and Leno do but it would involve traveling and strange audiences and unfamiliar surroundings…and a lot more effort than he's shown doing his own program for a long time. I doubt he even wants to do that.

Further complicating the problem of Letterman finding a new vehicle is that for many decades now, he's operated in an environment of almost total control. He's had a staff he's comfortable with, a staff that's 100% loyal. He's had darn near absolute say on everything. His show settled into its routine because that's the way Dave wanted it.

Could he function in a new environment? You need a new environment if you want to do a new show. Even if you bring a lot of your old crew along, you need new people for a new show (some of whom might suggest things you don't want to do) and new challenges and new decisions and new locations and new problems. I'll bet that's the biggest obstacle of all to a new David Letterman show somewhere. That doesn't mean there can't be one…but if there can't, that's probably why. It would probably even involve new employers since he and CBS don't seem to have come up with anything.

If I were at HBO or one of those channels, I'd go to Dave and offer him a weekly, well-funded and promoted hour on one condition: That the show be full of things he hasn't been doing on CBS since 1993. It couldn't be the same show unbleeped…and if he's as out of ideas as he jokes he is, then they bring in clever writers and producers and Dave has to do some of the things they want him to do. Steve Allen was willing to let his staff stick him in unplanned situations with guests he didn't okay in advance, and force him to ad-lib. Steve Allen wasn't more talented a talk show host than David Letterman, even Dave at his current age.

The odds of Letterman doing something like this? I'm guessing about the same as the odds of us seeing President Carly Fiorina.

The one thing I do like about the last shows I'm watching is that since it's a procession of Dave's Favorite Guests, we're getting a slightly more interested host who doesn't look totally bored with those he has to interview. A few weeks ago, CBS released this list of stars who'd be guesting with D.L. before he left the air on May 20…

Oprah Winfrey, Bruce Willis, John Travolta, Howard Stern, Martin Short, Jerry Seinfeld, Paul Rudd, Ray Romano, Julia Roberts, Don Rickles, Steve Martin, Michael Keaton, Scarlett Johansson, Jack Hanna, Tom Hanks, Tina Fey, Will Ferrell, Robert Downey Jr, George Clooney, and Bill Murray.

Since that list was released, he's had visits from Travolta, Willis, Seinfeld, Rudd, Martin, Keaton, Johannson, Hanna and Downey. We can also cross off Ferrell, Short, Fey and Romano because they're on next week's schedule…

Mo 5/4: President Barack Obama, Will Ferrell, the Avett Brothers, Brandi Carlile
Tu 5/5: Reese Witherspoon, Nathan Lane, Mumford & Sons
We 5/6: Martin Short, Norah Jones
Th 5/7: Tina Fey
Fr 5/8: Ray Romano, Brian Regan, Dave Matthews Band

Another name on the list could appear on Thursday but there will more likely be a musical guest in that slot. So that leaves Oprah, Stern, Roberts, Rickles, Hanks, Clooney and Murray — seven guests…and Dave has eight more shows. It's hard to believe that Regis Philbin won't put in an appearance so that would be eight guests, plus Dave has reportedly invited Jay Leno and Brian Williams to drop by. I'm curious to see how they schedule them and who else they bring on in the "secondary" guest category like Marv Albert or Jeff Altman. They could "double-up" a few of those "special" guests and have two a night, though I believe some of them wouldn't appear with Howard Stern. (We have one bit of info: Don Rickles' website says he's appearing with Dave on May 11.)

I really hope Dave's last show is wonderful. And I really hope he says or does something to indicate that he's not going to spend the rest of his life in Montana, far from a television camera. He's too talented and he has too many years left when he could be doing something. I'd settle for almost anything but the show he's been doing over and over again for this entire century.

I see all these people online complaining that the Mayweather-Pacquiao "Fight of the Century" wasn't anywhere near as good as Ali vs. Frazier or Hagler vs. Hearns or Basinger vs. Baldwin or Joe Louis vs. Anyone. Uh, one of those may have been the Fight of the Last Century but this is a new century.

Hey, I haven't updated anyone on my little physical problems lately. The "machetes" (the agonizing shoulder/neck pains) have mysteriously disappeared. We don't know what made them disappear but they did. The knee problems come and go but aren't too bad most of the time. So all in all, I'm doing okay.

As soon as I finish it any day now, there will be a rave review here of Bill Schelly's new book about Harvey Kurtzman. It's really, really good. You can order your copy here now or wait for my longer recommendation. If I were you, I wouldn't wait for me.

So how do I feel about the Muscular Dystrophy Association discontinuing their annual televised fund-raiser? Well, there are two ways to look at that. If you think it was all about campy entertainment and putting on a show for us, it's disappointing…though frankly, it had almost stopped fulfilling that goal in the latter days of Lewis. If you think of it as a means of raising money for a worthwhile cause…well, when they say it's no longer cost-effective, I see no reason to assume that's not so. I think the second perspective trumps the first.

A little over two months from today, Comic-Con International 2015 convenes in San Diego. I am actually planning out my panels at the moment. My desk is still strewn with notes about last year that I haven't gotten around to throwing away yet. So much is wrong about the passage of time these days.