Every so often, the last chapter of a story ruins the whole thing. As you know, I was a big supporter of the Souplantation chain, promoting them here often. Their tomato soup even got nice mentions on the TV shows, The Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men because of this blog's relentless plugging.
They've sent an e-mail out to all the folks on their mailing list and also posted a statement on their website. The first paragraph is very nice but the last one makes me sorry I patronized and recommended them so much…
As you may have heard, we are unable to re-open out 97 Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes restaurants due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The outpouring of love on social media has been overwhelming and we are so grateful to all of the sweet memories you have shared with us. We would like to thank our 4,400 team members for their dedication and love they have shown to our local communities. We will miss you tremendously and wish you all the best.
For our gift card inquiries, refund options are limited at this time. You may be able to dispute the purchase with your bank or credit card company. Otherwise, there may be an alternative option available through the court in the future.
In other words: "Yes, we know a lot of you paid us in advance for future meals but since we're shutting down, we're not giving you that money back. If you don't like it, you can go to a lot of trouble to call your bank or your credit card company and see if they'll give you a refund — yeah, like they're really going to do that — but we got your money so we don't really care unless someone takes us to court over this."
I wish I had those sweet memories of the place but this kind of kills any I might have had. And I don't even have an unused gift card.
As you may have noticed, I have combined my expertise at hosting panels at comic conventions (which pays nothing) with my expertise at blogging (which pays nothing) and moved into the new field of webcasting (which pays nothing). I still quite haven't mastered this last skill. So far, the beginning of every webcast I've done has had some screw-up due to operator error, a software glitch or both.
The first minute or so of last night's Conversation with Dick DeBartolo looked like a bloopers special but once we got going, things were okay from my end and Dick was very interesting and funny. People are watching it online in surprising numbers and you may want to follow the trend.
Tomorrow night, I'll be chatting with my longtime friend, Paul Levitz. When I first knew Paul, he was publishing fanzines and saying he didn't want to spend his career in the comic book industry. Next thing I knew, he was either President or Publisher of DC Comics. (He was both at various times but I'm not sure of the order.) What changed? Well, we'll be discussing that and many other things about that company but one thing I know changed was that Paul, once he got into a position of power, he did a lot of things that turned DC into a much better company to work for…which meant he also indirectly turned Marvel into one, as well.
Between us, we know almost everything about DC Comics. If you're interested in almost anything about that company, especially in the last three decades of the previous century, join us live at 7 PM Pacific Time.
And of course on Saturday, we have the second online Cartoon Voices Panel. I have done the job a good voice director does, which is to assemble a great company of voice actors. This one is Rob Paulsen, Kaitlyn Robrock, Gregg Berger, Debra Wilson and Jim Meskimen. In theory, there's no way I can mess this up but, of course, I will…somehow.
Next week, I'll be doing two more one-on-one conversations. On Tuesday, May 19, Scott Shaw! and I will be discussing the early days of what they now call Comic-Con International and at some point, we'll switch over and talk about working for Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera. On Thursday, May 21, the wonderful comedy writer-producer Cheri Steinkellner and I will discuss her work on The Jeffersons, Cheers, Bob, the cartoon show Teacher's Pet, the Broadway show of Sister Act and a whole lotta other things. I have a lot of interesting friends…
So…two months of near-isolation. Thanks to the phone, the Internet, Zoom and other forms of communication, I don't feel as isolated as I might but still…
People keep asking, "When do you think this will end?" and the answer, it seems to me, is increasingly, "Whenever you decide it's safe for you to end it for yourself." The folks out there rallying for legislation to "reopen" do not convince me that (a) they're listening to medical authorities or (b) my best interests matter to them.
Some of them sure want us all out there, bolstering the economy with normal activity even if it kills us. Look at this news item, especially the incredible sentence I've highlighted in my excerpt…
Leading U.S. infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci on Tuesday warned Congress that a premature lifting of lockdowns could lead to additional outbreaks of the deadly coronavirus, which has killed 80,000 Americans and brought the economy to its knees. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told a U.S. Senate panel that the virus epidemic is not yet under control in areas of the nation.
"I think we're going in the right direction, but the right direction does not mean we have by any means total control of this outbreak," Fauci said during hours of testimony. He urged states to follow health experts' recommendations to wait for signs including a declining number of new infections before reopening.
Someone is sitting before a Congressional committee trying to convince them to listen to medical experts about a medical matter instead of just substituting their own hunches and guesses and hopes.
This is not new. We've been through this with Climate Change…elected officials who have to preface their speeches with "I'm not a scientist but…" ignoring scientists on matters of science. This is not much different from "You know, I've never studied surgery but I'm pretty confident I can perform a liver transplant on you."
So I'm staying in. They're going to "open up" whatever they want to "open up" because they think a lot more sick and/or dead people is a reasonable price to pay for immediate economic and/or political gains. I can't do anything about that except to not participate and hope that enough Americans don't participate that it doesn't spike the death toll, which is still going up, like the tote board in the closing hour of a Jerry Lewis Telethon. (If you want to know a good measure of how to tell when it's going down, read Kevin Drum's piece about the R0 metric.)
Also, read Kevin about this simple fact that's being shoved aside: Even among Republicans, the consensus of Americans is that there's a big danger in trying to reopen the economy too soon.
The government can reopen public gathering places but they can't force us to go gather in them. I'm still fine here in the Fortress. I hope you're fine in yours. You probably are if you're in yours.
Many moons ago, I wrote a now-outta-print book called MAD Art, all about the artists who've drawn for MAD magazine. It was one of those dream projects because I got to interview just about everyone who was alive at the time and had drawn for MAD, a publication that has been an important part of my life since I purchased my first copy at the age of ten. I've also had the opportunity to know and talk with a lot of the MAD writers…but not enough. Like, I've known its most prolific writer, Dick DeBartolo, for many years but we never sat down and talked for any great length of time.
That changes tonight. I'm going to talk to Dick about MAD and you can listen in. We'll also talk about his career as a writer for game shows and as the "Giz Wiz" who appears on ABC News and elsewhere…but most of it's going to be about MAD. Dick had his first byline in MAD #69 — one issue before I began reading it — and continued writing for them for more than half a century! At one point, he went 459 consecutive issues without not having a new piece appear!
So we'll be talking, starting at 7 PM tonight Pacific Time…and I don't know how late we'll go but it oughta be fascinating. Like I said, you can listen in by joining us at www.newsfromme.tv then. The show will repeat for all eternity at that address but I promise you a better time if you watch it live…plus, you can send us comments and questions if you watch on the YouTube site as we're doing it. I will also try to stream it on this page but that doesn't work with all browsers and you can't post messages to us here. Don't you want to watch me ruthlessly interrogate MAD's Maddest Writer?
This runs a little over an hour and you may want to play it in the background — over and over and over — as you go about your cleaning or chores or whatever it is you do in your house. It's a history of Disney music that I gather plays or played in a loop at the Disneyland Hotel in Paris. The on-screen notes are rather informative too…
I do not believe there's an afterlife. But if there is, I think my friend Marty Pasko would be very pleased to see that he got an obit in the Hollywood Reporter. And that a lot of people have had very nice things to say about him on social media.
This is one of the tough ones. Longtime comic book and TV writer Marty Pasko has died at the age of 65 and the coroner is saying "natural causes." Marty had not been in the greatest of health the last few years.
Marty broke into comic book writing in 1973 with a few sales to Warren Publishing and then he began a long, mutually-beneficial relationship writing for editor Julius Schwartz at DC Comics, primarily on Superman. But his association with Julie preceded that by any years as Marty — nicknamed "Pesky" Pasko by Schwartz — had been a letter column regular long before that. So was I and he and I shared a number of those letter pages. Thus, when we met at the New York Comic Con in 1970, it was like we were old friends. At the same time, I also met his oldest friend, Alan Brennert, with whom he was then publishing a fanzine called Fantazine. Both would go on to great, successful writing careers and would remain good friends.
Marty wrote many comics for DC (not all for Julie Schwartz) including Doctor Fate, Justice League of America, Wonder Woman, Metal Men and so many more, especially any title that featured Superman. I was especially impressed with a run he authored of The Saga of the Swamp Thing. Preceded by co-creator Len Wein's stint with the character and followed by Alan Moore's, it did not receive the attention I thought it deserved. He also wrote Star Trek, both for DC and Marvel, and occasional jobs (like E-Man for First Comics) for other publishers.
In television, Marty wrote live-actions shows like Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Fantasy Island, Simon & Simon, and Roseanne, and would gladly tell you horror stories about the last of these. His animation credits included Thundarr the Barbarian, G.I. Joe, Batman: The Animated Series, The Tick and quite a few others. He won an Emmy for his work on the Batman show.
If this obit sounds like it was written by someone who's a little stunned, there's a reason. Like I said, I knew Marty since 1970 and though I hadn't seen him much in recent years, we had spent a lot of time together once upon a time and spilled blood jointly on a few projects. I thought he was a very good writer, though I'm not sure he always believed it when I told him that…or when anyone else complimented him. I may write something more about the man when I'm a bit less stunned but I definitely consider him one of the good guys and I'm really, really sorry to not have him around anymore.
Okay, I've decided that for the next few weeks, I'm going to do two one-on-one interviews of folks I know, one on Tuesday evening, one on Thursday evening.
Tomorrow evening at 7 PM (my time), I'll be talking with Dick DeBartolo, the fine writer whose work appeared in MAD magazine for 445 consecutive issues, dating back to 1966. We'll talk about many aspects of that magazine and one will be its publisher, William M. Gaines, who I think was one of the most fascinating, misunderstood people in his field. I also want to talk about Dick's career working on game shows for the Goodson-Todman empire, especially Match Game, which he seems to have saved from a quick demise. He also has yet another career as the "Giz Wiz" seen on ABC News…and he's just a funny, clever guy.
Thursday evening at 7 PM (M.T.), I'll be talking with my longtime friend Paul Levitz, who told me when we were putting out fanzines in his basement that he didn't want to make his career in the comic book industry…and then went on to work his way up to President and Publisher of DC Comics. But that's okay because along the way, he improved the comic book industry a whole lot, which is something I can only say about…oh, maybe six people or so.
These interviews will be done live and we will take some (not all) questions you submit in real time…so please watch live if you can. But they will almost immediately join the eighty jillion things to watch on YouTube so you can catch them there. The link that will take you to where you'll find all this is www.newsfromme.tv.
This coming Saturday, I'll be hosting another Cartoon Voices Panel at 1 PM (M.T.) with five folks who often speak for animated characters. Four of the five have confirmed and when I get the fifth locked in, I will be announcing what I think is a pretty-impressive lineup. Our first online Cartoon Voices Panel went well and again, while this one will also be available for later viewing, I think you'll enjoy it more (and be able to ask questions) if you tune in when we do it. Here's the display ad for tomorrow night. Mentions on other social media will be appreciated…
We could eliminate an awful lot of unemployment in this country if companies would hire enough human beings to man their support phones. When you consistently hear, "We are experiencing a high volume of calls," that means they need more employees or more phones or some combination. Their unwillingness to do this is not an excuse for keeping you or me on hold for — so far for the call I'm currently on, twenty-two minutes.
Every so often, a recorded voice tells me I can push "1" to leave a voice mail or press "2" to schedule a callback. Neither option does anything but tell me they're experiencing a high volume of calls and that an agent will be with me shortly —
Oh! And now it seems to have learned a new trick because it just hung up on me.
I've called back, having been through this enough times to know that if I'm persistent and willing to call back a few times and to sit here and work as I listen to bad hold music and mocking announcements long enough, eventually I will get to someone who had nothing to do with the problem and is powerless to prevent it from happening again and this person will give me a pretty meaningless apology and —
Hold on. Person on the line.
Okay. I got the pretty meaningless apology and a probably-meaningless promise that the replacement item was shipped to me, albeit three weeks later than they promised. Again, the fact that they're understaffed is supposed to be an excuse.
You can't say Jerry Stiller didn't have a long, amazing career. Well, I guess you could say it but you'd be spectacularly wrong. Very few comic actors are still in demand at the age of 92 and the one time I met him, which was October of 2017, the main thing we talked about was that he was being offered good roles in movies and TV shows but his body just wasn't up to the demands for his time.
It was at a party thrown by my friends Jim Brochu and Steve Schalchlin, and Mr. Stiller was helped in by other folks because he just wasn't walking so good. This, of course, was when he was a much younger man of 90. Out of respect, someone vacated a big, comfy easy chair in the living room and Jerry was parked in it. If you wanted to talk to him — and I, of course, did — you had to kneel down next to him…and of course, I did.
When I meet someone like that who is so familiar from film or television, I often find myself thinking, "Hey! He looks and sounds just like himself!" Jerry Stiller looked and sounded just like Jerry Stiller and he was very funny and very gracious…and self-deprecating. I would have been disappointed if he hadn't been. He talked about his physical problems and I remember saying, "God, I'm so sick of hearing actors complain they have more work than they can possibly handle."
He laughed at that and I'm very proud that I made Jerry Stiller laugh. If I could have done it about another 999 times, we might have been close to even.
I'll explain about the above photo in a moment but first, here's a message I received from Brendan Totten…
Your link to the recent Evening with Frank Ferrante was very much appreciated. I was one of the many people who was lucky to see him in person thanks to your recommendations. When I saw his show he got several members of the audience involved, with hilarious results, and a couple of times I saw him look straight in my direction and I thought "He's going to pick on me! He's going to pick on me! He's going to pick on me!"
But the show came to an end without me being picked on and I was left with a curious mixture of relief and disappointment!
Which brings me to my question. Have you ever voluntarily or involuntarily become a sudden participant in someone's show? If so, who was it and how did you feel about it?
I have occasionally been tapped and I never like being in that position. I'm never sure if I should just play dumb, which is what they usually want, or say something that might get a laugh.
It's very awkward for me when magicians yank me out of the audience at the Magic Castle. When I'm there in the evening, I always wear my member lapel pin — I've been a member for forty (!) years — and if the magician spots it, he knows not to pick me since the last thing a magician wants in a "volunteer" is someone who knows how the trick is done.
Once in a while though, I get picked and I do a real bad job at appearing clueless and amazed. Needless to say, I have no trouble being that way when I'm not on a stage as part of a magic routine. There have been a few real awkward experiences but the one that comes to mind was with a magician named Ondřej Pšenička, who you may have seen on Penn & Teller Fool Us.
He selected me for a trick in which he asks the "volunteer" to eat a cricket and I refused. Yes, I know they're harmless for most people but I'm not most people. I'm a guy with many, many food allergies and there are foods that you can eat all day that would put me in the emergency room. I don't know if crickets are one of them but I see no reason to ever find out…and especially not in a public place with an audience watching.
Eating the cricket was not essential to the trick he performed. It was just something he liked to have the volunteer do because I guess with most people it yielded a funny, entertaining moment. He looked annoyed at me and eventually sent me back to my seat and got someone else up there to eat the cricket. I don't think he knew how unfunny and unentertaining the end of his act would have been if I'd had the same reaction to that cricket that I once had to a piece of asparagus.
That was the most unpleasant experience I've ever had with a performer calling on me. A not-unpleasant one came in November of 2007 when Carolyn and I were in Columbus, Ohio for the annual Mid-Ohio Con, which was one of the best outta-state conventions I used to attend. One evening, we went (and took along our friend Maggie Thompson) to see the national touring company of Spamalot.
I wrote about that evening here but for those of you too lazy to click, I shall summarize: As I guess is no secret by now to anyone who cares, a member of the audience who sits in a certain seat is dragged up onto the stage as part of the show. I was in that seat and suddenly, there I was up there.
I managed to not look too awkward and I said something that got a laugh — which prompted a lot of people to ask me on the way out if I was a "plant," which I was not. I was given the above Polaroid photo (it's not out of focus; I was) and a little trophy which they give to everyone in my position. You can see it at the start of this item and in case you can't read the inscription, it says "THE ARTHUR AWARD — Best Peasant — Monty Python's SPAMALOT."
In the hundreds of thousands of times I've seen Frank Ferrante play Groucho, he has never selected me to be part of his act and for that, I am most grateful. In October of 2010, I took a young lady I liked very much to see Frank in his other identity — that of Caesar, the preening host of Teatro ZinZanni. This was in their San Francisco location which has since closed. A new location is being built for them in that city and they are expected to reopen, as most of America is, sometime in the year 2022.
Caesar
Teatro ZinZanni is kind of like what Cirque du Soleil would be if it was in a smaller tent, featured lots of English and more comedy, was slanted a bit more towards adults and involved a gourmet dinner show with courses served between the various acts. It is quite a wonderful experience…or at least it was that evening with Frank as the Master of Ceremonies and his lovely friend Dreya Weber flying over our heads in a beautiful aerial act.
And there were other acts, also quite enjoyable, and a great live band and Frank got us the best seats and comped the whole thing…and the only thing I asked him before was that he not select as us "volunteers." Caesar does a lot of that during the show, getting people up on the center stage to dance or play games or play roles in scenes with him. Frank, who is a man of honor, did not do this.
After the performance, he gave us a tour of the place and mentioned that the musicians had asked him to get the cute lady at Table 1 up on stage and encourage her to dance. But Frank, who is a man of honor, had followed my request and not done this, whereupon the cute lady punched me in the shoulder and said, "Why did you do that? I would have loved it if he'd brought me up there!"
I asked her, "Wouldn't you have been afraid of looking foolish?" And she replied, "Would I be going out with you if I was afraid of looking foolish?" Or at least, that's what I thought I heard her say.
