Monthly Archives: January 2016

Friday night, January 29: The Egyptian Theater is running It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. I mention this because I'm always telling people that though the DVD/Blu-ray of this movie is wonderful, it's a film best experienced on a big screen with a big audience. If you've never seen it that way, here's a chance to see it that way. Tickets can be ordered here.

If you don't live near Hollywood, keep your eye on the schedules of local theaters that show this kind of thing. It's very popular on that circuit so someone near you will probably be running it soon.

Full Disclosure: I am heard on the very, very long commentary track on the Criterion release of this film, which is the one I'm talking about. Order a copy and then after you see the movie on the big screen in its shorter version, go home and watch the longer version with the commentary track turned on so you can hear Mike Schlesinger, Paul Scrabo and Yours Truly tell you more about this picture than you'd imagine any three sentient human beings could possibly know.

And while I'm at it, here's something we couldn't squeeze into the commentary track. The photos above are of the actor Stacy Harris, who had a long career on radio, movies and television usually playing tough guys in crime dramas. If you recognize him from anywhere, it's probably from the sixties incarnation of Dragnet where he turned up about every third week and he was usually very, very guilty.

Anyway, he was another uncredited cast member of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. He did voiceovers for police officers on the radio during the intermission and he was heard during the film about an hour and thirty-one minutes in, reporting that the Krumps got themselves locked in the hardware store. His is the voice about which people keep asking me, "Was that Walter Matthau?" No, it was Stacy Harris. He was also seen on-camera for about a half a second. He's one of the two men outside the hardware store who restrains Edward Everett Horton when he starts yelling at Sid Caesar and Edie Adams. You could not go another minute through your life without knowing this.

The history of Q-Tips and why you should never use them.

I'm watching TV shows on my TiVo. I viewed a Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore from last week and they did one of those "Isn't it amazing Keith Richards is still alive?" jokes.

Then I watched a Johnny Carson Tonight Show and there was Larry Miller doing a monologue with one of those "Isn't it amazing Keith Richards is still alive?" jokes.

The Carson show was from 1988. Twenty-eight years ago.

Today (Wednesday), the subject on Stu's Show is The Carol Burnett Show, one of TV's great variety programs. Discussing it with your host Stu Shostak are Stu's Show's two resident TV critics, Steve Beverly and Wesley Hyatt. Wesley has just written an exhaustive history of the show in question called The Carol Burnett Show Companion: So Glad We Had This Time and I'd post an Amazon link but there doesn't seem to be one yet. But that's not all! They'll be joined by Chris Korman, son of Harvey Korman — who for me was the best thing on that very fine series. Ought to be a great podcast!

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 paltry 99 cents each and you can get four for the price of three.  And now…my Tarzan yell: "AEEEHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAH!"

Sarah Palin came out yesterday and endorsed Donald Trump for president. A few websites are claiming to have info that he has already selected her as his running mate — and I'm sure that's true because we all saw how well it worked when John McCain tried it. (You remember McCain — the soldier who got captured so he shouldn't be considered a war hero. He was asked how he felt about Palin's endorsement and he said she's entitled to take any action she wants to and "we remain good and close friends." Yes, he's that mad about it.)

When I see Palin on the news, I'm sorry. I don't find her funny. I don't even enjoy the way she takes political positions that I oppose and makes them sound like inane, drunken rants. I think the fact that anyone listens to this woman is about the saddest indicator of low I.Q. in this country.

A half dozen items back, I posted a link to a piece by Jonathan Chait on why he doesn't think Bernie Sanders can win the presidency — or accomplish much of his agenda if he does. Here is a piece by Ben Norton that is mostly a rebuttal to Chait.

This is a 1982 interview of Sid Caesar conducted by journalist John Callaway. Much of it is about Caesar's battles with pills and alcohol and how he quit…

Jon Delfin informs me that the National Lampoon documentary which debuts Friday evening on the History Channel debuts at the same time on Showtime — but without commercials. Thanks, Jon.

I have to admit that with each passing week, I am less certain that Donald Trump will not be the G.O.P. nominee. But I won't believe it until Nate Silver over at fivethirtyeight.com says it's possible.

What he and his staff are saying now is that it's down to a three-man race with Trump, Cruz and Rubio. The way the primaries fall, Trump and Rubio will do better in the early primaries and if Rubio's going to win, he will come from behind in the later ones. This article charts how well each man must do (roughly) on each primary date to be on a path to the number of delegates necessary to win the nomination. If you're really interested in this race, read what they say. It'll tell you what to watch for.

Also: If you're really concerned it will be Trump, take a look at this article on the various candidates' favorability. Trump, as the headline says, is really unpopular with general election voters. And while you're at it, read Jonathan Chait on the Trump campaign's estimation of his strengths. Yow.

Rumor has it that today, it will be announced that a major revival of Hello, Dolly! is heading for Broadway with Bette Midler as the matchmaking Mrs. Levi. That could be a great rendition of that musical but you know what? I'd rather see Bette Midler as Bette Midler. To me, Hello, Dolly! is a few great songs, a plot that no one ever cares about and (usually) a lot of staging tricks.

Oh, yeah — and a great female star/legend in the lead. I guess they've got that but couldn't she just come out on a stage, sing "Before the Parade Passes By," have a chorus sing the title song to her and then do her Vegas act?

I also think someone should take Barbra Streisand into a studio with a green screen, have her act out all the scenes from the movie and then digitally insert that video into the film in place of her original performance. She's just about the right age now to play it.

I mentioned yesterday here that I don't get the Decades channel on my local cable and that I didn't want to go to the hassle of putting up a roof antenna. Quite a few of you wrote that I could get Decades with a cheap (< $20) rabbit ears antenna. You're right but I misstated my reason for not wanting to go the antenna route. My DVR won't work with an antenna; only with the one cable source. And I've gotten so spoiled by time-shifting TV programs that I can't imagine myself timing my life such that I can watch any show live.

In any case, I'm also informed that my cable company (Time-Warner) may be about to add Decades to its lineup. That would be nice. Also, several of you wrote to remind me that quite a few episodes of The Dick Cavett Show can be viewed over on the Shout Factory TV website and also accessed via Roku. This may include all the episodes that will be turning up on Decades at first.

I like an awful lot of what Bernie Sanders says and I think he's probably the most sincere, honest candidate running for the office in either party. Admittedly though, that isn't much of a compliment. It's like being the smartest member of the Cliven Bundy clan.

I do though have growing concerns about his electability — and yes, I know that a good candidate can be sabotaged by that kind of thinking. If Sanders doesn't win, we're going to hear, "If everyone who said they wished he could be president had voted for him, he would have made it!" Still, I came across an article by Jonathan Chait who makes a strong case that this just ain't Bernie's year. Part of me would like to believe that isn't so — and I still believe that a lot of things that couldn't possibly happen may happen before we get to Election Day — but I couldn't find much to disagree with in Chait's piece. At least at the moment.

This Friday night (1/22) on the History Channel: Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Story of the National Lampoon — a documentary on the great humor magazine. It airs at 9 PM and again four hours later on my cable channel. Consult, as they say, your local listings.

Hey, let's watch the first sixteen minutes of the 1975 Academy Awards ceremony with your host, Bob Hope. Bob makes his entrance and delivers his monologue about 9 minutes and 40 seconds in…

Here's a real good article in Forbes by Rob Salkowitz about how Jack Kirby, my one-time employer, is finally getting some of his due.

There are some very ugly arguments to be found on the 'net between folks who want to believe Stan Lee was the sole genius behind the Marvel heroes and others who argue that Jack was. It leads to the kind of ugly that causes most rational folks (or informed ones) to steer clear. I know: I've been attacked by both sides — by the Lee partisans (who forget I also worked for Stan) for my relationship with Jack, and by the Jack defenders for not savaging Stan at every opportunity.

But I am certain there is a dispassionate, evidence-based way of looking at the Lee-Kirby body of work and I hope to present it in the big biography of Jack I'm trying to finish in time for the centennial of his birth in 2017. For now though, read Rob's piece. He knows what he's talking about. And there's a show on ABC tomorrow night about Captain America that I assume will properly acknowledge Jack as more than just a guy who drew up other folks' ideas.