Monthly Archives: October 2019

I think Rip Taylor would have been very happy to see or know all the attention his passing has gotten in the media. It was hard to tell what would make Rip happy. The New York Times has an obit but unfortunately it includes this…

Mr. Taylor's voice proved to be a bankable commodity. In the 1960s, he did voice work as the son, Elroy, on The Jetsons. He was nominated for an Emmy for playing the voice of Uncle Fester in the television adaptation of The Addams Family.

I could have told you when I was ten years old that the voice of Elroy on The Jetsons was Daws Butler. Rip did a guest voice on the revival of that series in the mid-eighties. He actually didn't do that much voice work, at least in cartoons. When I worked with him, I sure got the impression that he wasn't even all that interested in performing when there wasn't a live audience present to laugh and applaud.

Speaking of which, I got an e-mail from someone named Jillian asking, "With Rip Taylor's recent death, I'd like to know how he came about to be in Garfield and Friends. Did he have a grandkid who watched the show?" Nope. I don't think Rip had any kids or grandkids but he was on the show because I wrote a part that I thought was right for him and I called his agent and booked him. And that day, I came to the above impression.

At the time, he was enjoying a bit of increased attention on TV. Various shows (Mr. Leno's, especially) were hiring him for cameos where he'd come on and do his great entrance — marching through the audience to the tune of "Happy Days Are Here Again" and throwing confetti — and that was all he'd do. We talked about it and he was not about to turn down a chance to be on television but he was frustrated that none of the folks hiring him seemed to want him to do any of his actual act. I didn't say this out loud but I kinda thought he was one of those comedians who was funnier than his own act.

Here's my pal John Fugelsang talking about the enemies of Christianity. To John, it has nothing to do with them self-identifying as Christian and everything to do with them following the teachings of You-Know-Who…

My friend Christine Pedi was a close friend of Rip Taylor's. She just posted a wonderful remembrance of the guy on her Facebook page and I think this link will take you to it.

Donald Trump Jr. claims to be outraged that Hunter Biden may have profited from being related to someone in the White House. This is a little like Jeff Bezos saying it's wrong to make money online. Russ Choma lists some of the conflicts of interest of the Trump clan.

I'm not sure what to write about comedian Charles Elmer "Rip" Taylor Jr., who died today at the age of 84. He made a lot of people laugh including, at times, me…but that was on TV. Our paths crossed often, including one time when I directed him doing voices in a cartoon. The Rip Taylor I met in person was sad, suspicious of people, shy, withdrawn and I probably should throw the word "brooding" in here somewhere.

A mutual friend of ours said, "When Rip's not working, he's miserable because he figures no one wants him, no one loves him, no one will ever want him again. And when he is working, he's miserable because he knows that sooner or later, that job will end and he'll be back to not working."

He wasn't the crazy, loud, confetti-throwing extrovert off-stage and at least around me, people were sometimes noticeably disappointed that he wasn't That Guy. I may be dead wrong about this but my theory is that he couldn't be That Guy because he was so depressed…and he was depressed because people he met were so disappointed in him not being That Guy. (There's a logic in this theory somewhere but you may have to study it carefully to understand what I'm getting at.)

But he was wonderful to his friends. He really loved the people who didn't expect him to be his manic on-screen self and he cared very, very deeply about the people who cared about him. He could go on and on endlessly about how wonderful this friend of his was on her TV show or that friend of his was in that new play — and he really meant it. The man loved show business. He loved people in show business. He loved entertaining people when he had that opportunity. And he was very, very humble and genuinely moved when people appreciated him.  An awful lot of people did.

So last night, I took my great friend Jewel Shepard to the Writers Guild Theater to see Renée Zellweger do about as good a job as humanly possible playing Judy Garland in the closing years of her life. They're already talking Oscar for her and it'll be a hard performance to beat…but there oughta be a little bit of Oscar Buzz (at least a hum) for Darci Shaw who plays Young Judy in flashback sequences. I think I know the answer to this and it's "no" but has there ever been a case where the Best Acting award and the Supporting award went to two people playing the same person in the same movie?

Judy is the story of Ms. Garland struggling to make a living and keep custody of her two children in the late sixties (she died in '69). I sensed a lot of factual fiddling. In an early scene that couldn't have been earlier than '67, she and her kids make a stage appearance for which she is paid a measly $150. True Fact: In July of '67, Judy did a two-week stint at the Palace Theater on Broadway and sold out every performance with scalpers charging top dollar for their scalpings. How do you go to or from that to playing a joint so small they can only pay you $150?

I don't know a lot about Judy's finances but I have a read a number of books about her life and I don't think this film told me one thing I didn't already know about her so very little in the movie particularly surprised me. I suspect what little did were all the contrivances of the screenwriter Tom Edge, or Peter Quilter, who wrote the play on which this film is based. This made a lot of the film tedious for me but we hung in there, knowing there'd be a great end scene and there was. I think I would have enjoyed the picture a lot more if I'd known less about Judy Garland going in.

One thing I liked: In the movie Stan & Ollie (which I seriously disliked), the famed British impresario Bernard Delfont was portrayed as kind of a boob. He pops up in Judy Garland's life too and here, he is more of a wise businessman, which from all I've read is much closer to the truth.

And of course, I liked Ms. Zellweger's performance, which is really the only reason to see the film and perhaps the only reason it was made. She lacks the magic of Garland's singing voice but I'm glad they let her sing instead of lip-sync to Judy because that always distracts. I'm usually not comfy with actors portraying well-known people on the screen but there are exceptions and this one of them.

We love watching this lady…

The Judy movie started on time. A reason to see it is the amazing performance by Renée Zellweger. A reason not to see it is if you're already very familiar with the life of Judy Garland, especially the last few years. I was. I'll explain in a longer review tomorrow.

• At the Writers Guild Theater waiting for the movie Judy to start. If they're true to the spirit of Garland, they'll keep us waiting for at least 45 minutes past the scheduled start time.

Last December, you may recall, I went into an outlet of the Boston Market chain. I used to love those places but this visit was a disaster. The place was not very clean and I waited 22 minutes for a plate of roast turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, and a side of corn, took one or two bites and walked out. Terrible food, terrible service. I complained to the company website and in this post.

The next day — which was a Sunday — I was surprised to receive a phone call from a senior exec with the Boston Market chain. He apologized, said he'd send me coupons for free meals, look into my complaints and call me back when he can tell me something concrete that might get me to give Boston Market another try. As I said in this post, I was impressed.

I shouldn't have been. He never sent the coupons, never called me back…and the Boston Market in question closed its doors forever. Gee, I can't imagine why…

In the fifteen minutes a day I allow myself to talk and/or think about Trump, I had this thought: You know how furious and incoherent he's been this last week? Well for the rest of his days in office and a long time after, he will never be less furious or more coherent. That's just the nature of this guy and I doubt many of his supporters would even praise him for any ability to be calm and rational when under attack. The Ukraine matter will only go away or recede into the background if/when it is displaced by a bigger scandal and an even more impeachment-worthy crime.

Here's Frank Rich on Trump's increasingly-worse skills at Crisis Management.

Here from a 1969 episode of The Hollywood Palace, we have a performance by my favorite pantomime artist, the incomparable George Carl…

In 1942, America rounded up tens of thousands of people of Japanese ancestry and hurled them into internment camps. One of them was my pal Willie Ito, who was then all of eight years old and obviously a great threat to the security of the United States. His family was released almost three years later and at age 19, Willie got a job animating at the Walt Disney Studio. He tells his amazing story in an N.P.R. interview you can hear at this website.

Apparently, the pending/possible impeachment is not just the major issue on Donald Trump's mind, it's the only thing in the world that matters. Fred Kaplan takes us through some of the worldwide crisis situations that our small-p president is ignoring.

It was my extraordinary good fortune and pleasure to work for a few decades with a delightful man named Dan Spiegle. I don't know what percentage of the comic book scripts I've written were illustrated by Dan but I'll bet it's high and I wish it was higher. Here's a note from Joe Cabrera…

If you haven't answered this already, how did you get involved with Dan Spiegle? Your work with him on Blackhawk and Crossfire has to be some of my favorite book runs ever.

I was a fan of Dan Spiegle's work for…well, almost from the age I started reading comic books, which was in the womb. As I've related many times in many places, the first movie I remember seeing in a theater was Don't Give Up The Ship starring Jerry Lewis, and the next day I happened to be reading the Dell comic book adaptation of it when I met Jerry Lewis. It was 1959, I was seven years old and that comic was drawn by Dan Spiegle.

Flash ahead to the early seventies. Western Publishing (AKA Gold Key Comics) was producing a Scooby Doo comic book based on the then-sorta-new Saturday morning TV show from Hanna-Barbera. The first issue of it was drawn by Phil DeLara. #2 thru #5 were drawn by Jack Manning. 6 thru 13 were drawn by Warren Tufts and then Warren asked off the assignment so someone else was needed. The editor, Chase Craig, assigned the book to Dan Spiegle.

There were many reasons why Dan was a great choice. For one thing, he was one of the best artists Chase had ever had in his stable…and easily the most reliable. As I would learn, if you told Dan the assignment was due on Wednesday at 3:30 PM, it was there Wednesday at 3:30 PM — and usually before. He never cut corners. If you'd told him to draw the 3rd Marine Division in every panel, he'd have drawn the 3rd Marine Division in every panel and all of their uniforms would have been precisely accurate.

But Dan was not that adept (yet) in the kind of semi-cartoony style necessary for Scooby Doo. He drew more realistic comics. Trouble was, Chase didn't have very many of those on his schedule just then. Dan needed work…Chase needed someone to draw Scooby…so he took a chance. The results were passable but they could have been better.

So now it's 1972 and I'm writing scripts for Chase…scripts for the Disney comics and I think I'd just done a few for the Road Runner and Bugs Bunny comics. I'm in one day and he asks me if I'd like to take a crack at Scooby Doo. My first thought is no; I'd seen the TV show and wasn't a particular fan. But before I can decline, Chase says, "Dan Spiegle is drawing the book now and I think the two of you would work well together."

I thought, "Dan Spiegle?" I said, "Sure." Like I said, I'd always loved his work.

I wrote one. Dan drew it. I happened to be at the office the day the package came in and everyone who'd thought Dan didn't quite have a feel for this kind of material was looking in the pages and sounding like Henry Higgins singing "The Rain in Spain!"

It was like, "He's got it! By george, he's got it!"

I got more credit for the change than I deserved but I loved the art so much, I said yes immediately when Chase said, "I'd like you to write this book from now on."

We also became good friends through another artist friend named Dan — this one a then-young gent named Dan Gheno, who may have been the first person to ever send me any kind of fan letter about my work. Gheno was a beginning artist then and has since become one of top portrait painters and art instructors in this country.

Gheno lived near Spiegle and they'd met with the older Dan coaching the younger Dan. Shortly after that first Scooby Doo job, I drove up to Carpinteria for a day and met both of them. Here's a photo that Mr. Gheno took that day with my camera. It's me and Spiegle in his studio…

We did Scooby Doo for Western until the company lost the rights. There was one inventory story by another writer but aside from that, I wrote the rest of the run until Western dropped or lost the rights to Scooby. The divorce was one of those "You can't fire me, I quit" arguments. Thereafter, whenever I had a comic book job that was even remotely in Dan's wheelhouse, I tried to get him on board as artist. When he was offered something and there was no writer attached yet, he asked them to get me.

We did lots of comics for different publishers — including more Scooby Doo for two other publishers…or was it three? — and never had an argument of any sort. He was never late. I was never unhappy with anything he drew. He was one of my favorite people on the planet and the fact that he drew so well was just a happy bonus. Thank you for asking about him, Joe, because I really enjoyed writing this and remembering Dan.