Yearly Archives: 2015

It won't mean much to anyone who didn't grow up in Los Angeles but it was just announced that Stan Chambers has died at the age of 91. Stan Chambers was a newsman on KTLA Channel 5 for just short of forever. He was rarely used in an anchor capacity. He was the guy they sent out on location with the truck to cover the fires, the shootouts, the riots, the floods…whatever it was. He had an uncanny ability to always be there and to report in a calm, professional manner. The reporters on CNN who sometimes put hysterical speculation and unconfirmed reports on the air could learn from the example of Stan Chambers. He covered the important stories and never got them wrong.

I got to meet him a few times. The last was not that long ago when he was making the rounds, signing copies of his autobiography. I quoted to him a line I'd use on this blog — "When we had the famous police shootout with the Symbionese Liberation Front, the joke was that every other reporter was covering it from outside while Chambers was in the house with the suspects." He laughed but it was not that far from the truth.

People who've worked on Saturday Night Live tell stories about being there.

This is going to cost some of you some time. My favorite current stand-up, Lewis Black, is on a tour at the moment. Onstage in each city, he devotes 15-30 minutes to doing a special webcast they call "The Rant is Due." It's just Lewis with an iPad, reading questions submitted over the 'net and responding to them. They're quite wonderful and they're free to watch over on this page.

In one, Black explains that this is his way of having a TV show when the networks won't give him one. I dunno why no network will give this guy a show. Granted, he tried that Root of All Evil show for Comedy Central but that had a contrived premise and didn't have Lewis Black doing what he does so well on stage. I'd watch a regular series of The Rant is Due, especially if someone gave it a better title. See if you wouldn't, too.

The National Weather Service forecast for Los Angeles currently includes this paragraph in the long-range forecast. "Long-range" in this case is from next Sunday to next Wednesday. They're talking about a ridge of high pressure that will be keeping us dry through the weekend…

The ridge pushes back westward over the east Pacific Sunday as a weak inside slider moves through Nevada, at the same time a weak retrograding cut off low rumbles through northern Mexico just to the south of California. The upper low may spin some high clouds over L.A. County Sunday and Monday so partly cloudy skies are likely there. Skies should clear by Tuesday and then remain clear. Maximum temperatures will cool each day Sunday through Tuesday as heights slowly fall and offshore flow slowly relaxes. A return to ridging Wednesday (remember 4 days ago when the models showed a large rain storm for this time period? This morning's lesson…never trust a day 9 forecast) along with offshore flow will kick off a warming trend.

I'll translate: The ridge will leave us on Sunday but any storms will miss us, though we may get some high (and therefore, rainless) clouds Sunday and Monday. By Wednesday, another ridge of high pressure should build in, keeping us dry.

A few days ago, the nine-day forecast had a different and wet scenario and the meteorologist who wrote this forecast is reminding us how unreliable a forecast that far ahead can be. Back when I was involved with that industry/science (that's a long story), I spoke to guys at the N.W.S. who were not happy that they were expected to always issue a ten-day forecast. Sometimes, they could predict with great confidence. Other times, they could not but it was still demanded of them, to some extent for competitive reasons. Almost all the commercial weather services offer 15-day and even 30-day forecasts that almost never have any value…but people still pay for them.

I often quote the great journalist Jack Germond who said, "The trouble with the news business is that we're not paid to say 'I don't know' even when we don't know." That applies to the weatherfolks, as well.

Fred Kaplan on the War Powers Act and why few (if any) in Congress will ever stop any president from waging war whenever he or she so chooses.

In the early days of talking pictures, they hadn't quite perfected the technique of dubbing movies for foreign release. So as not to lose that lucrative overseas market, some studios took to shooting their movies in English, then going back with (usually) a slightly different cast and refilming the same material in Spanish and/or French and/or some other tongue.

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy made several movies this way. Stan and Ollie only spoke English but they worked with a tutor who taught them their dialogue in other languages and they had a big blackboard just off-camera with the words spelled out phonetically. They could get away with this because, first of all, their films didn't have that much dialogue and also because given the nature of their characters, audiences didn't expect perfect diction.

This is La Vida Nocturna, the Spanish remake of their 1930 short, Blotto. In America, Blotto starred Anita Garvin as Mrs. Laurel. For the Spanish version, they brought in an actress named Linda Loredo. The scenes in the nightclub feature different entertainers than were in the U.S. version and the film runs a bit longer.

After a while, they stopped doing multiple versions of their films because dubbing became more practical but a few of these remain. If you don't understand Spanish, you might not want to watch the whole short…but you could. Their humor was so visual that you can still follow the story. At least, you might want to watch a little of The Boys performing in this odd way, reading dialogue they didn't really understand…

Here's a piece about what James Corden is planning (or not planning) for The Late Late Show. I'm encouraged by the roster of writers he's hired so far, especially David Javerbaum.

I've been spectacularly disappointed by the guest hosts they've had filling in. I had this silly idea that someone would try to do something different with the opportunity but it's more like they've been told to make it boring and non-innovative so that Corden will look better when he shows up. Wayne Brady's hosting this week and he's a little better than some of the others but we're getting very generic talk shows. Sean Hayes actually managed to make Dame Edna boring when he/she was in his guest chair.

Dick Cavett is a guest on the show Wayne Brady is hosting this Friday night/Saturday morning. Wish they'd give him a week as host so he could show them all how it's done.

If you've followed this blog, you know my life has been full of incredible coincidences. I told you about this one here on September 15, 2002…

Here's another one of those "incredible coincidence" stories you won't believe. But I have witnesses to this one, and am quite prepared to take a polygraph that it happened just the way I say it happened.

For much of a decade, I wrote and voice-directed a cartoon show called Garfield and Friends. This was great fun because the Powers That Be (aka Jim Davis, creator of the lasagna-loving feline) allowed me to write pretty much whatever I wanted, and to cast whomever I felt suitable to do the guest voices.

One week, I penned an episode entitled, Lifestyles of the Fat and Furry, which burlesqued the then-popular TV series, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, hosted by Robin Leach. The program chronicled the indulgent creature comforts of folks with vast amounts of fame and/or cash, usually both. Teetering tenuously on the ledge of self-parody, the show drew much of its charm from the fustian, hyperkinetic narration of Mr. Leach.

Having written my parody of their parody, I set about to secure Robin Leach himself to do the voice of Robin Leach. I figured he could handle the role. About a week before we would be recording the voice track, I phoned his office in Los Angeles. They told me to call his office in New York.

I called his office in New York. They told me to call his office in Connecticut.

I called his office in Connecticut. They told me to call his office in London.

I called his office in London. They told me that Robin was on a six-week expedition down the Brahmaputra River, or somewhere equally remote. Wherever it was, he wouldn't be back 'til long after our tape date. So I shrugged and booked Frank Welker.

Frank Welker is the most gifted, amazing voice magician who has ever stood before a microphone in Hollywood. Frank can sound like anyone or anything. He is heard constantly in animated cartoons but also logs many hours doing voice matches and dubbing in live-action motion pictures. You hear him often in movies without knowing you're hearing him.

I knew he did a mean Robin Leach so I arranged with his agent for Frank to come in and play the part. I gave him a call time of 2:00.

Nine AM that morning, I walked into Buzzy's Recording Studio on Melrose Avenue for a full day of Garfield recording. I asked Marie at the desk, as I always did, if we were in Studio A or Studio B. She said — and I swear, I'm not making this up — "You're in Studio A. Robin Leach is in B."

Robin Leach???

That was what the lady said. I walked directly into Studio B and there — standing at a microphone, wearing a shirt imprinted with images of hundred dollar bills — was Robin Leach. In person.

I explained to him what we were doing over in A, and how I'd attempted to contact him, and how I'd given up and hired an impressionist, and he couldn't have been nicer. "Well, if the offer's still open, I'd be delighted to play me," he said. About an hour later, after he finished the spots he was recording, he came over to our studio and played Robin Leach like he'd been doing it all his life.

In fact, he played himself with enormous good-humor and that same sense of show biz and self-mocking that had made his show a hit. He exaggerated the vocal quirkiness of the Leach style more than I'd probably have allowed a mimic to do.

Robin was long gone by 2:00 when Frank Welker showed up. "Well, I'm here to do that Robin Leach bit," Frank announced. "I was warming up in the car on the way over."

"Uh, Frank," I said sheepishly. "I'm sorry but there's been a change of plans. I have a different role for you to play…not Robin Leach…"

Frank was puzzled. "What happened to the Robin Leach role?"

"Well, I don't know how to tell you this but, uh, we found someone who does a better Robin Leach than you do…"

Frank is a wonderful, cooperative person but he seemed a bit affronted — like his honor had been besmirched. He looked hurt so I added, "I'm sorry…I thought this other guy was a little better, Here — you can hear for yourself." And I told Andy the Engineer to run a few seconds of the voice track we'd recorded earlier that morn.

As the mellifluous tones of R. Leach boomed through the speakers, I saw shock upon the face of the best impressionist in the business. There, framed by stark horror, was the realization that someone had bested him in the category of Robin Leach impressions.

(I finally told him the truth. I didn't have the heart…)

I mentioned recently here that I was enjoying the old episodes of The Abbott & Costello Show over on MeTV. I should have made clear that I don't enjoy all of them. They vary a lot. This is one of the better ones and it incorporates their versions of two old burlesque sketches — "Floogle Street" and "The Employment Office." If you watch, you will learn the proper way to get a job and why you should never — no, never — wear a Susquehanna Hat…

I awoke this morning to a flurry of rumors about why Jon Stewart suddenly announced his departure from The Daily Show…

1. He's pissed that he wasn't offered David Letterman's job at CBS and that it instead went to a former employee.
2. He's pissed that another former employee, John Oliver, is doing so well.
3. He's planning to run for public office.

I don't think any of these are true. I have no inside pipeline to Mr. Stewart's noggin…but then, neither do the folks supposing these things. He sure has never struck me as competitive with either gent in the first two rumors. In fact, since they got those gigs, he's done much to promote those former employees. (And do we know for absolute certain that Stewart wasn't offered 11:30 on CBS and turned it down?)

The public office thing seems more credible than the other two and I'm still doubtful. What public office? Stewart lives in New York and if he moved now, might be able to qualify in New Jersey, where he spent most of his childhood. Neither of those states is electing a governor in 2016 and the only Senate election in either next year would pit Stewart against incumbent Chuck Schumer in New York. That doesn't sound like an unseating that would interest the outgoing Daily Show host. I suppose the guy could run for the House of Representatives but he'd probably have more influence on public policy by continuing to be the nation's most-watched purveyor of political satire.

So I don't think Stewart has anything concrete in mind right now. There doesn't seem to be any firm notion of when he's stepping down and I think if he had another job lined up, he'd have an exit date to go with it. And if he was still dickering for that next job and it wasn't set yet, he'd wait to announce his abdication until it was. Quitting the way he has is the way you alert the industry that you're open to offers.

In other rumor news, we have stories out claiming that Brian Williams "lobbied hard" to replace Jay Leno on The Tonight Show. I can well believe he wanted it. There aren't many host-type people who've ever gotten in front of a TV camera, especially an NBC TV camera, who haven't fantasized about getting that show. I'm a little puzzled as to when he supposedly did this.

My understanding is not that NBC decided to dump Jay, then went looking for possible hosts. Both times — for Conan and Fallon — they seemed to have decided to replace Jay because they had (they thought) the right person already on deck. They also clearly wanted a younger man and Brian Williams is 55 — younger than Leno but only by nine years — and lacking in the big Internet presence that clearly made O'Brien and Fallon so tempting.

I'm not saying this rumor is wrong. I'm suspecting it's exaggerated. There have been a few exaggerations around Brian Williams in the past few years. If I were him, I don't think my goal would be to replace Jay Leno as the host of The Tonight Show. I think it would be to replace Walter Cronkite as The Most Trusted Man in America. (Come to think of it, if I wanted to be that, I'd probably want to replace Jon Stewart.)

The Arby's folks have been offering work to Jon Stewart…

Okay, so NBC is suspending Brian Williams for six months without pay. This strikes me as a real non-solution. Do they think he is still qualified to anchor the NBC Nightly News? If not, he should be fired or reassigned to some other position. If so, what's the point of the six months?

To punish him for fibbing and teach him not to do it? Geez, if the humiliation and embarrassment he's undergone in the last week doesn't accomplish that, how's sitting home for six months going to do anything?

Williams makes ten million bucks a year so six months without pay is a loss of five million dollars. What if NBC were to spend that five million on hiring more fact-checkers for their news division? I think Jon Stewart got it right last night on his show. There's something screwy when the only person held responsible for lies and misrepresentations relating to the Iraq War is Brian Williams.

Hey, how about this? Take the five million and the six months and have Williams do an investigative reporting special entitled Who Besides Me Misled America About Iraq?

In other news, hearing that Jon Stewart is leaving The Daily Show sure has a lot of people unhappy but I see they're celebrating on some of the right-wing sites. I just did a drive-by on one where most of the folks who post only refer to him as Jon Liebowitz to remind all that HE'S A JEW! Yeah, like he ever concealed that. Since the staff of The Daily Show probably won't change much, I'll be surprised if its politics change. (The only way the writing crew might change is if Stewart makes a deal to do, say, a weekly one-hour show somewhere and hires them all away. But it doesn't feel to me like the he's leaving to do a regular TV program elsewhere.)

So who's it going to be? Jason Jones? Samantha Bee? Jason and Samantha? Jordan Klepper? Jessica Williams? I have the feeling they may go outside the current staff. It also wouldn't surprise me if they found a new host for The Nightly Show and moved Larry Wilmore up. I'm also imagining some exec at Comedy Central asking Stewart in a pissed tone, "Why couldn't you have decided this back when when we could have locked John Oliver into a contract?"

This is all just rampant speculation…all but the part about how I don't think the tone of the show's going to change a lot. It may be a while before we know but I'm sure curious as to who's going to get the big chair there. And what Jon Stewart's going to do next.

Jon Stewart says he's leaving The Daily Show. Well, that's a stunner. We need to hear more…like who'll take it over now that Colbert, Oliver and Wilmore all have their own gigs.

Hey, remember the syndicated show An Evening at the Improv? It was on A&E and other channels forever and darn near everyone who was doing comedy in Los Angeles back then was on it at one time or another. Hulu has a whole mess of episodes available online and if one picks judiciously, as I have done for you here, one can see some pretty good stand-up acts.

Here — with occasional commercial interruption — is a show they say is from August 1, 1981, though I don't guarantee that date. The host is Billy Crystal, who was then known for his role on Soap. The comedians are Bill Kirchenbauer, Richard Lewis, Bill Maher and Fred Willard, plus Dottie Archibald and a musical performance by Amanda McBroom. There was a time when you could go to the Improv and see folks like that…sometimes even a lineup almost that strong. (More realistically, you'd see a Bill Kirchenbauer, then someone you'd never hear of again, then a Richard Lewis, then two guys you'd never hear of again, then a Bill Maher…)

To get the full Improv experience, go outside your home and wait on the street for 20 minutes to be let in, then cram yourself in around a tiny table with no room for your legs and have a disgruntled non-working actress serve you some overpriced drinks. Then watch the video and at some point, pause it, go into a tiny restroom and wait until Vic Dunlop finishes up at the urinal before you pee. Oh — and before you do any of this, either park your car eight blocks away or hand it over to a disgruntled non-working actor in a valet jacket.

But the comedy was almost always worth it…

I have too many sick or ailing friends. Len Wein had triple-bypass heart surgery this morning. Marv Wolfman is (or should be) home from the hospital with a broken hip. I have three close friends battling cancer.

Please stop getting sick. If you're not going to do it for your sake, do it for mine.