Monthly Archives: July 2016

Did you see Bill Maher's discussion with Republican pollster Frank Luntz on this week's edition of Real Time? If you didn't and you wanna, here it is…

Usually on the Internet, when you see a headline that says "X Destroys Y" or "X Owns Y," it means X made one decent point against Y. But this discussion went so badly for Luntz that when he came back on for Maher's Overtime segment later, he said, "No more. You killed me already!"

Personally, I thought Maher let Luntz get off easy. When Maher did his usual riff about how American voters are stupid, Luntz started to defend them and Maher didn't say something like…

That's disingenuous, Frank. Your entire business is built on the assumption that American voters are so stupid and shallow that you can do focus groups with the dumber ones, then politicians pay you big bucks to suggest words and phrasing that change voters' perception of things. You can suggest referring to the Inheritance Tax as a "Death Tax" and a lot of these low-information voters will turn against it or even think it's an entirely different thing. Your livelihood comes from inventing cute little phrases that distract people who either aren't paying close attention or who can be distracted by bright, shiny things. If voters were smarter and looked deeper, you'd have no career.

I sense Maher operates on the principle that you can say anything to a guest as long as it wouldn't make them refuse to ever come on the show again, so maybe he thought that would have crossed the line. Maybe not though. Guys like Luntz build their businesses on their fame and figure that what matters is not what people think of them but that people do think of them. That Trump guy is of much the same mind, figuring he's winning on at least some level any time people are talking about him, good or bad. He probably thinks that even if he loses the election, he will make a profit in terms of fame, which in his case has usually meant fortune.

What really set Maher off against Luntz was when Luntz tried to spin what the FBI director said about Hillary C. as "nearly criminal activity." Guys like Luntz are all about spin. No matter what your opponent says or does, you look at it and think, "Hmmm…how can I rephrase that to make it look bad or worse for them?" That's what Luntz gets paid to do and it only works with voters who aren't too well-informed or who have an existing hate of a candidate or party and welcome anything, true or not, that validates their views.

As we approach November, more and more of this election will not be about convincing voters that one candidate is better than another but in stoking the hate/fear some already have of that candidate to make sure their haters get to the polls. Dr. Luntz has a lucrative few months ahead of him.

My readers are nothing if not persistent. Someone who signs his e-mails "Smiler Grogan" (probably not his real name) was sure that was Eddie "Rochester" Anderson in that video I posted. "Smiler" did a lot of Internet searching and found an article about the commercial in the December 25, 1969 of Jet, which was (and still is) a magazine for the black community. And sure enough, right there on page eight, there's this…

So Eddie Anderson was there for the shoot. Okay, I'm convinced that was him. Now, what I want to know is: Was Ed Sullivan really in it? I don't see him and he's not mentioned in any of the other articles folks have found. If he was asked, I'll bet he was there because Ed Sullivan would have robbed a 7-Eleven if it meant he'd be on camera. So where the heck is he?

Forgot to mention: If you're going to Comic-Con International this week in San Diego, two downloads may help you a lot. The Comic-Con App is free and packed with loads of info. You should also download or at least read the Comic-Con International Quick Guide, which will tell you what's where and when and why and who's on first and what's on second and answer many of your questions.

The Quick Guide will also give you a piece of information you might want to know: The 2017 Comic-Con will be July 20-23 with Preview Night on July 19. If you're going to need a parking space down there, now would be a good time to start looking. (Hey, I haven't used that joke in years…)

Also, there's a lot of info on the con over at a site I've recommended here before called The San Diego Comic-Con Unofficial Blog. It has no affiliation with the con itself but still manages to gather a lot of good info and tips. I probably shouldn't like this site because they show a pretty blatant disinterest in any event that doesn't feature big movie stars or big TV stars…or worse, is only about comic books. But they're enthusiastic and they work hard and they really provide a useful service. Plus, I have hopes that after I host my 500th panel and/or am a Special Guest of the convention for the thirtieth time, someone on their podcasts will learn how to pronounce my name.

Still on the topic of that National Urban Coalition commercial: Half a dozen different people have written me to say they think that's Eddie "Rochester" Anderson at the 24 second mark, right after the shot of Chet Huntley. Maybe. The list of who's in it — which does not include Jack Benny's famous sidekick — came from an article at the time in New York magazine and it said that was a partial list. Personally, I don't think it's him but I wouldn't debate anyone who thought it was.

Here at newsfromme.com, we'll link to almost any odd interpretation of "Bohemian Rhapsody" and we also love great impressionists. So here's the great impressionist Jim Meskimen doing guess-what-song.

Jim also lends his gifted vocal cords to animated cartoons. After years of trying to get him — and finding out he was working or otherwise unavailable that weekend — we have him on one of this year's Cartoon Voices Panels at Comic-Con. He'll be on the one that commences at 1 PM on Saturday in Room 6BCF, along with Gregg Berger, Phil LaMarr, George Kidder, Julianne Buescher and Brian T. Delaney. Oughta be a good one. And now, here's Jim as a whole buncha people…

My enthusiasm for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert has plunged in the last few weeks. I still think he's one of the most talented and well-equipped human beings to ever have a talk show but his program is not as wonderful as it ought to be. Too much of it has that same "infomercial" feel as most talk shows these days. The guest is there to sell a product and the host's questions have been worked out in advance to allow them to talk about how much fun the movie was to make or how great the director or other players were. His conversation with Bryan Cranston the other day could have been read verbatim off TelePrompters…and then it segued into the two of them in a sketch that was.

Do you know what I mean by "infomercial" discussion? It's like when the lady in the infomercial says to Ron Popeil, "You mean this one machine of yours can make five different kinds of fresh pasta in under three minutes?" and Ron Popeil, who's selling the devices, tells her "Oh, you can make thousands of different varieties" which he then proceeds to name. The question is just a set-up for the pre-scripted sales pitch. Johnny let guests plug their wares too but the spots didn't sound like they'd been written by the product's publicists.

There's also a lot of obvious editing on Colbert's show. Everyone who does talk shows pays homage to the wonderfulness of men like Steve Allen and Johnny Carson. But none of them will do their own shows by the same ground rules, which involved no editing for creative reasons…and standing ovations only on the rarest of occasions, not for every entrance.

I have high hopes for the coming weeks, though. During the political conventions, Colbert is doing his shows live. Not only that but he's being joined every night in some capacity by Jon Stewart. This almost makes me want to watch all of the Republican Convention just so I'll better understand whatever it is they have to say about it. Note the "almost."

• So far, I've found that anyone who refers to "Hitlery" or "Rump" has nothing intelligent (or usually, accurate) to say about this election.

Earlier today, I posted a video from a commercial for The National Urban Coalition — a bunch of celebrities singing "Let the Sunshine In." A lot of you have researched this spot and written to tell me things about it. It was filmed in the latter portion of 1969 and aired on TV in 1970. Josh Logan directed the spot with Mitch Miller (who was also part of the chorus) conducting the group…though I suspect another, non-celeb group of singers had already recorded the vocal and the stars just lip-synced.

Among those who participated were, in alphabetical order: Cannonball Adderley, Robert Alda, Joseph Allen, Cleveland Amory, Jim Backus, Orson Bean, Texas State Senator Joseph Bernal, Dan Blocker, Ralph Bunche, David Canary, Bobby Capo, Topper Carew, Johnny Carson, Lisle Carter, Peggy Cass, Ray Charles, Roberto Clemente, Frederick Close, Miriam Colon, Carlos Conde, Robert Contreras, Congressman John Conyers, Bob Cousy, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Fernando del Rio, Jack Dempsey, Mildred Dunnock, Pamela Eldred, Jerry Enomoto, James Farmer, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Henry Fonda, Arlene Francis, Herman Gallegos, John Gardner, Will Geer, Arthur Goldberg, Harry Golden, Joel Grey, Merv Griffin, Fannie Lou Hamer, Richard Hatcher, Andrew Heiskell, Gustav Heningburg, Bill Hosokawa, Chet Huntley, Senator Daniel K. Inouye, Anne Jackson, John Johnson, Stacy Keach, Harry Kitano, Jack Klugman, Joshua Logan, Myrna Loy, Earl Lucas, Keye Luke, Ray Martel, Doug McClure, Ali MacGraw, Butterfly McQueen, Dina Merrill, Mitch Miller, Joseph Monserrat, Greg Morris, Leonard Nimoy, Jerry Orbach, Gordon Parks, Jacob Potofsky, Leontyne Price, Carl Reiner, John D. Rockefeller III, John Russell, Bayard Rustin, William Seneca, James Shigeta, David Susskind, Abe Tapia, Franklin Thomas, Gwen Verdon, Danny Villanueva, Rev. C.T. Vivian, Eli Wallach, Roy Wilkins, Flip Wilson and Whitney Young.

It's interesting who they chose to show on-screen and who you'd never know were there. I easily spotted Johnny Carson, David Susskind, Peggy Cass, Merv Griffin, Joel Grey, Ray Charles, Chet Huntley, Henry Fonda, Dina Merrill, Gwen Verdon, Arlene Francis, Leonard Nimoy and a few others. I'll bet a lot of folks were ticked off that they didn't get a smidgen of screen time. Anyone spot Carl Reiner in there?

The message, as stated in publicity materials for the spot, was merely the tagline: "Love: It Comes in All Colors." I don't mean to disparage what was obviously a good faith effort to spread a benevolent thought but I wonder if this had even the slightest impact on even one human being's racial sensitivity. The worst bigot I ever knew personally would have looked at this and said something like, "Hey, I know there are people of different colors and that they love each other. I just don't want any stuck-up TV stars telling me I have to love them."

Still, it's a mesmerizing bit of video. Thanks to all those who wrote me with additional info, including Steve Thompson, B. Baker and Phil Kanton.

If you're heading for Comic-Con International in San Diego, do yourself a favor. Do a little advance planning. There's a great time to be had there but it helps if you know where to look for it. The convention website is loaded with info, including a map of the hall and a guide to where the exhibitors are. You might want to make a little list of which parts of the room you want to visit…and the ones you want to avoid.

You'll especially want to notate the programming items you want to take in…and have some alternates in mind in case you can't get into your first (and second) choices. If you want to see anything in Hall H, you should already be in line.

Here are links to the schedules for programming on Preview Night, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday — in that order. And more importantly, here's the list of the panels I'm hosting…

Thursday, July 21 – 3:30 PM to 4:30 PM in Room 8
THE MARK, SERGIO, STAN AND TOM SHOW
This used to be the annual "Sergio and Mark Show" but we've changed the name to note that the adventures of Groo the Wanderer are brought to you not just by the award-winning team of Sergio Aragonés and Mark Evanier but also by Stan Sakai (the creator of Usagi Yojimbo) and the hardest-working man in comics, Tom Luth. They'll be discussing the new Groo mini-series – the first issue of which is debuting at the convention – and many upcoming projects. Some feature their silly barbarian, some don't. But it's always a treat to hear these brilliant guys, especially the tall one who wrote this panel description.

Thursday, July 22 – 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM in Room 9
CAPTAIN AMERICA 75th ANNIVERSARY
Created by cartoonists Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, Captain America has been wielding his shield, donning red, white, and blue, and fighting the good fight for 75 years. From Captain America Comics #1 to Captain America: Civil War, Steve Rogers has had a pretty decent 75 years, to say the least. Come celebrate "Cap" with Jim Simon (Son of Joe Simon) and Allen Bellman (artist, Captain America) all while being interviewed and questioned by former Kirby assistant, moderator Mark Evanier (author, Kirby: King of Comics).

Friday, July 22 – 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM in Room 8
WALT KELLY AND POGO
The greatest newspaper strip of all time? Some would call you that and even if you aren't one of them, you've gotta love the wit and whimsy of Walt Kelly's magnum opus, Pogo, now receiving its first ever complete reprinting in an Eisner-winning series from Fantagraphics Books. Let's remember this great artist with comic historian Maggie Thompson (Comic Buyer's Guide), film critic Leonard Maltin, historian Michael Barrier, cartoonist Scott Shaw!, Eric Reynolds (co-editor of the Complete Pogo series) and Moderator Mark Evanier (Groo the Wanderer).

Friday, July 22 – 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM in Room 4
SPOTLIGHT ON ALLEN BELLMAN
Before there was Marvel Comics, there was Timely Comics. Artist Allen Bellman was there, and now you can not only listen to his amazing stories and the history of Timely Comics but also participate in a fantastic Q&A. A short signing will follow. I'm moderating this.

Saturday, July 23 – 11:45 AM to 1 PM in Room 6BCF
QUICK DRAW!
It's still the fastest, funniest panel in the whole convention! Once again, your Quick Draw! Quizmaster Mark Evanier pits three super-speedy cartoonists against one another as they go mano a mano and Sharpie to Sharpie to create great cartoon art right before your very eyes. Competing this year are (as usual) Sergio Aragonés (MAD Magazine, Groo the Wanderer) and Scott Shaw! (The Simpsons) and they're joined this year by Keith Knight (The K Chronicles) plus a couple of surprising surprises!

Saturday, July 23 – 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM in Room 6BCF
CARTOON VOICES I
Each year, Moderator Mark Evanier gathers together a bevy of the most talented cartoon voice actors working today and invites them to explain and demonstrate their artistry! This year's lineup includes Phil LaMarr (Samurai Jack, Futurama), Brian T. Delaney (MAD, Halo 5: Guardians), Georgie Kidder (Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Goldie and Bear), Gregg Berger (The Garfield Show, Transformers), Julianne Buescher (The Muppets, Sid the Science Kid) and Jim Meskimen (Avengers Assemble, MAD).

Saturday, July 23 – 4:30 PM to 6:00 PM in Room 5AB
THAT 70'S PANEL
It was a time of change in comics with a new generation intermingling with the old and taking command. Hear what it was like from Howard Chaykin (American Flagg, Black Kiss), Paul Gulacy (Master of Kung Fu, Sabre), Elliott S! Maggin (Superman, Green Arrow), Marv Wolfman (Tomb of Dracula, The New Teen Titans), probably one other person and Moderator Mark Evanier (Groo the Wanderer, Blackhawk).

Sunday, July 24 – 10:00 AM to 11:15 PM in Room 5AB
THE ANNUAL JACK KIRBY TRIBUTE PANEL
Each year, we set aside time to talk about Comic-Con's first superstar guest and the man they call The King of the Comics, Jack Kirby. Jack left us in 1994 but his influence on comics, film and this convention has never been greater. Discussing the man and his work this year are Kevin Eastman (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Kirby biographer Ray Wyman, Jr., Scott Dunbier, (Director of Special Projects for IDW Publishing) and attorney Paul S. Levine. Naturally, it's moderated by former Kirby assistant Mark Evanier.

Sunday, July 24 – 11:30 AM to 12:45 PM in Room 6A
CARTOON VOICES II
Yesterday's Cartoon Voices Panel will have been such a hit that we'll have to do another one with different but equally talented actors from the world of animation voicing. Once again, Moderator Mark Evanier has assembled an all-star dais that will include Dee Bradley Baker (Phineas and Ferb, Family Guy) Vicki Lewis (Rugrats, Finding Nemo), Fred Tatasciore (The Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H., Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness), Trevor Devall (Guardians of the Galaxy, Kid vs. Kat) and Debi Derryberry (Monster High, F is for Family) and maybe someone else.

Sunday, July 24 – 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM in Room 25ABC
COVER STORY: THE ART OF THE COVER
What does it take to make a great cover for a comic book? Let's ask four of the top artists…all folks who've created some of the best. Come hear the "shop talk" of Jonathan Case (Batman '66, The New Deal), Howard Chaykin (American Flagg, Black Kiss), Babs Tarr (Batgirl, Sailor Moon), Paul Gulacy (Sabre, Master of Kung Fu) and Scott Shaw! (Captain Carrot, The Simpsons). Moderated by Mark Evanier.

Sunday, July 24 – 3:00 PM to 4:30 PM in Room 25ABC
THE BUSINESS OF CARTOON VOICES
Interested in a career doing voices for animation and videogames? There are plenty of people around who'll take your money and tell you how to go about it…but here's 90 minutes of absolutely free advice from folks who work in the field. Come hear cartoon voice actors Dee Bradley Baker and Debi Derryberry, talent agent Paul Doherty (Cunningham-Escott-Slevin-Doherty) and your moderator, voice director Mark Evanier (The Garfield Show).

As always: Times, room assignments and panel participants are subject to change. Get to the rooms early because many of them "sell out."

I'm not sure of the year this commercial was done — late-sixties, early-seventies I suspect — but if you're around my age (64), you should be able to recognize a lot of the people in it. The National Urban Coalition got a whole mess o' stars together to sing "Let the Sunshine In."

I remember not being altogether sure of the message that was being "sold" here and I'm still not. But it's an impressive turnout…

Okay, I read this and now I'll ask The Obvious Question…

Late Thursday night, Donald Trump asked aides if it was too late for him to back out of his decision to make Indiana Gov. Mike Pence his vice presidential running mate, according to reporters at CNN and NBC News.

Did Donald Trump really have someone with him late Thursday night who was trusted enough to be in that meeting but who later turned around and told reporters — at networks Trump doesn't like, no less — that Trump had second thoughts about maybe the most important decision of his campaign? It does make a guy who wants to the most important "decider" in the world look bad that he waffled on this. Who leaked this and why?

What would be bold and decisive action to combat terrorism? Fred Kaplan reviews what our country is actually doing about it…or trying to do about it.

When there's a terrible tragedy — and especially if it's man-made, like a terrorist attack — most politicians and pundits go through a two-stage process. Step One is to express sympathy and regrets…some variation on "Let us pray for the victims and their loved ones and not politicize this horrible thing." Step Two is to politicize the horrible thing. Somewhere out there, there's a guy who has been campaigning to lower the cost of dog licenses who is now trying to figure out how to explain that lowering the cost of dog licenses would have prevented the terrorist attack in Nice, France.

It's always kinda been like this but every time we have one of these lately, the time between Step One and Step Two gets a little shorter. People now are able to do them in the same 140-character Tweet.

I have no idea what to do about terrorist attacks…but you wouldn't expect me to since that's not even remotely close to my line of work and alleged expertise. What's scary is that it seems like a lot of folks who should have some idea don't have any more of a clue than I do. A lot of them are running around today saying things like "We must take bold and decisive action." That's the kind of thing you say when you have no friggin' idea what to do.

Hell, I can do that. We must take bold and decisive action!

Here, I can even do better than that. I'll put it in boldface and italics and add a few more exclamation points: We must take bold and decisive action!!!!

See? Strident but meaningless. In fact, it may be less than meaningless because it sounds like I'm saying something and I'm not. A fake solution is worse than no solution because it distracts people from finding a real one. It also corrodes the language. Action cannot be "decisive" is you haven't decided what it is.

One of my big peeves in life is people who Talk Tough. Most of them don't do anything more than Talk Tough. They don't actually do anything tough and when they do feel the need to back up their talk with actual actions, they're usually more interested in appearing tough than in, say, being smart. Sending others off to die in battle is usually neither. But sounding like you're ready to do that sure sounds like bold, decisive action.

I plug a lot of stuff on this blog, very little of it things from which I profit. But that's fine. If I come across something that I like, I want to share it with anyone who happens to click their way to this page.

For some reason though, a lot of folks have gotten the idea that this blog is like a bulletin board where you can post whatever you like — or more accurately, they act like they can just send it to me, ask me to post it and I will. The fact that I may or may not endorse the project, book, Kickstarter campaign, event or whatever is irrelevant. They just send me an announcement or a press release and say "Please post this on your blog." A few of them forget the "please."

I used to get one or two of these a week. Lately though, I get two or three a day — sometimes from people I kinda know, sometimes from total strangers. And I've started to get follow-up e-mails from people who sent me items they wanted posted and since I haven't done that yet, they send me another copy (in case I didn't get the first one) and ask how soon their item will appear.

Please stop doing this. I don't think you should be doing this with regard to anyone's non-commercial, private blog but at least don't do it to mine. I will continue to recommend and promote things I come across which I think the readers of this blog might want to know about. But from now on, if you ask me to post something because you want to see it publicized, and you ask me like I'm your intern, I won't do it…ever. And if you're as rude as the last guy was, I might just post about your project to tell the world it's a sucky scam.

The late great cartoonist Mell Lazarus had a white piano in his living room…or at least it was white when he got it. At some point, cartoonists began drawing on it and since darn near every great cartoonist of a decade or two visited Mell, the piano came to be the ultimate sketchbook.

I consider myself partly responsible for its greatness. On one visit there, Mell pointed to a cup of markers and asked me to add a drawing to the array. I don't draw much and even if I was in practice, I wouldn't output anything worthy of being seen alongside those other piano-defacers' contributions. So I told Mell I'd do it before I left…and didn't do it. It would be a much less impressive artifact if it had one of my scrawls on it. See how impressive it is without me…