Monthly Archives: November 2020

I'm trying to decide — not that anyone will ever really know for sure — if Donald Trump really thinks he won the election or if he just thinks protesting it has its advantages. He seems to be raking in money from Trump supporters who want to help prove the election was stolen and don't realize that a majority of what they're giving is actually going to pay down Trump's enormous campaign debts. So there's an advantage to not conceding. Another may be to position himself as true-president-in-exile in the minds of his supporters, the better to exploit them for whatever he sees as his future.

I dunno. Kevin Drum says "[Republicans] want to enter the Biden presidency with their base riled up about a stolen election. Maybe Lindsey Graham will start up an endless Senate investigation to keep it fresh in everyone's mind. This provides Republicans with a great excuse to obstruct everything Biden tries to do, and two years from now it gives them a great foundation to turn out their base and win back the House." And he may be right.

In other news, the drug maker Pfizer has announced that "an early analysis" of its coronavirus vaccine suggests it could be more than 90% effective against COVID-19. It strikes me that if you read the full announcement — or even the sentence before this one — there's a lot of optimism there about something that isn't proven yet. Further down in the New York Times story is stuff like…

The data released by Pfizer Monday was delivered in a news release, not a peer-reviewed medical journal. It is not conclusive evidence that the vaccine is safe and effective, and the initial finding of more than 90 percent efficacy could change as the trial goes on.

A cure? Maybe. I'm taking the wait-'n'-see approach before unfurling any optimism. Actually, my plan is to not to think anything about this or any other vaccine until my wise physician says, "I think you ought to take this." That's when I'll start considering taking whatever he recommends.

Lastly: In an opposite-of-slow news day, it's amazing that the press found as much room as it did for this headline…

McDonald's to launch its fried chicken sandwich in the U.S. next year

That was on every news site I went near this morning and while they all wrote about the threat to McDonald's posed by the chicken sandwiches of Chick-Fil-A and Popeye's, no one noted that McDonald's came out with a chicken sandwich a few years ago, reacting just to competition from Chick-Fil-A. I reviewed it here back in 2008…

Lately, McDonald's has introduced its Southern-Style Chicken Sandwich — a breaded filet served on a (sorta) buttered bun with dill pickle chips. In other words, it's precise imitation of the Chick Fil-A specialty. It's not as pretty good as the original but it ain't bad at all. It also, by the way, is nowhere near as thick as the above photo and advertising promos would indicate. But if size doesn't matter to you, you might be happy with one.

I guess it didn't go because it quietly disappeared from menus. I believe that one had the chicken deep-fried in the same vat as McDonald's french fries, whereas for the new one they're installing pressure cookers in their restaurants. I find it hard to believe that McDonald's could improve on anything cooked in the vat with their french fries. Even those paper hats the employees all wear would taste mighty good fried alongside those fries.

Last August, we lost Joe Ruby, who was half of the writing/producing team of Ruby and Spears, who created and/or supervised some of the most popular animated characters ever on television including Scooby Doo. Now, we must say goodbye to his long-time partner, Ken Spears. Ken died last Friday following a long illness.

Ken Spears was born March 12, 1938 and grew up in the Los Angeles area where one of his friends was the son of Bill Hanna of the Hanna-Barbera Studio. That led to a close personal relationship between Ken and Bill that lasted until Hanna died in 2001. It also led to Ken getting a job as a sound editor at the studio in 1959. There, he worked alongside Joe Ruby and forged another lifelong friendship.

From there on, most of what I wrote about Joe professionally is equally applicable to Ken so the following is a slight rewrite of what appeared on this blog when Joe passed…

H-B needed writers so Ken and Joe submitted some story and gag ideas…and I'm pretty sure Joe said they started with interstitial gags for the Huckleberry Hound show. Eventually, they were writing (not cutting film on) many Hanna-Barbera shows and their work found great favor with the networks. This was at a time when the studio was selling shows to CBS, NBC and ABC and there were many instances when the execs at one of those networks would say, "We'll buy this show if you put Joe and Ken on it."

At one point, Fred Silverman at CBS reportedly told H-B that they would buy nothing from the studio unless Ruby and Spears were employed exclusively on what CBS bought. Fred did the same when he moved over to ABC and finally, ABC just hired them…which is why Joe and Ken created and supervised, for example, segments like Electra-Woman and Dynagirl or Wonderbug on The Krofft Superstar Hour…on ABC.

They worked on many shows but their biggest hit, of course, was Scooby Doo. I don't know if Hanna-Barbera and its various owners ever formally acknowledged Joe and Ken as the creators of TV animation's longest-running character but almost everyone in the industry seemed to. They were also responsible for a dozen or more shows at H-B including Dynomutt and Jabberjaw, for The Barkleys and The Houndcats for DePatie-Freleng and on both the live-action and animated TV versions of Planet of the Apes. I am leaving out an awful lot of credits here.

In 1977 with the financial backing of Filmways and a commitment from ABC to buy programming from them, Joe and Ken founded their own studio, Ruby-Spears Productions. Their output included dozens of shows including Fangface, The Plastic Man Comedy-Adventure Hour, Thundarr the Barbarian, Saturday Supercade, Mister T, Alvin and the Chipmunks and the 1988 Superman series.

I worked for them there and so did a long, long list of writers, animators, designers and all the folks who go into making an animated cartoon. Most, I daresay, were there because they felt Joe and Ken treated them better than other studios for which they could have worked then. One of those was writer Buzz Dixon. I called Buzz eight minutes ago to tell him about Ken and he just sent me this…

Ken was a true gentleman in every sense of the word, kind and soft spoken, brilliant and insightful. He and Joe Ruby made a great creative and producing team, seemingly diametrically opposite personalities yet 100% complimentary to each other's abilities. It was always a treat when Ken could break free from his daily business responsibilities and come back to hang with the creative staff. He had a quick wit and a warm heart and more than once supplied the breakthrough on a creative log jam we had.

I'm going to miss him and Joe. They were quite the pair and it's hard to imagine anyone filling their shoes.

What Buzz meant about Ken's "daily business responsibilities" is this: Most animation studios of the time followed the model of Hanna-Barbera where one guy (like Bill Hanna) took primary responsibility of the production/business end of things — making sure the shows were produced on time, for instance — and the other guy (like Joe Barbera) was mainly in charge of the creative end and the sale of shows to networks.

There was great overlap and Ken — who took on the Hanna role — was as creative as anyone in the building. As a writer for their studio, I dealt a lot more with Joe than with Ken but I never for a second thought Ken wasn't roughly half-responsible for the successes of that team wherever they worked. And Joe would have told you the same thing. They were both clever, creative men and a joy to work with.

This post is the first public announcement anywhere of Ken's passing. Please spread word of it throughout the animation community, and I'm sure it will lead to obituaries in the mainstream media where they, like I did, can reference their recent obits for Joe. Ken and Joe were two of the most important figures in television animation and their lives and careers should be noted and celebrated. And I hope everyone also mentions that they were two really great guys. Like Buzz said.

• I'm getting 10 e-mails a day from the Trump organization asking me to donate to fight the "steal" and give Donald his win. I dunno if he will ever concede but I bet he won't as long as those appeals are bringing in cash. With Trump, everything's a racket.

Alex Trebek was the host of The Wizard of Odds, High Rollers, Double Dare, The $128,000 Question, Wall $treet, Pitfall, Battlestars, Classic Concentration, To Tell the Truth, Game Changers, a half-dozen game shows in his native Canada and a whole bunch of non-quiz shows and specials.

Oh, yeah. And Jeopardy! For a long, long time.

I wonder if there's anyone anywhere who didn't like him or Jeopardy! I know many folks who don't like Pat Sajak and Wheel of Fortune but Trebek and that show always seemed kind of in a category all its own…though I'm sure I"m not the only person who was disappointed in him once. It was when he started selling his credibility to the company that paid him — quite well, I'm sure — to sell reverse mortgages.

As I think I've discussed here, I think hosting a game show competently is sometimes an overrated skill in show business. Bob Barker helmed The Price is Right for 35 years and Johnny Carson presided over The Tonight Show for 30 — both great accomplishments but I think what Mr. Carson did was about a thousand times as difficult as what Mr. Barker did. Mr. Trebek from all accounts did a lot more on Jeopardy! than host. On a scale, I'd place his achievement somewhere between Bob and Johnny.

He did something that everyone in show business aspires to do but few manage. He became a rock-solid part of our lives for a long time. Like most of you, I never met him but I feel like I did.

Two men with real high voices sing many  of the songs from Wicked.  I give you Peter Hollens and Nick Pitera…

Boy, isn't it nice to have a president who can talk about something other than himself and who isn't filled with hatred for anyone who doesn't kiss his buttocks?

(Okay, president-elect.)

I never met the man but he always made me laugh.  So let's honor the mammary of Norm Crosby…a very funny chameleon who truly reached the pinochle of success!

As readers of this blog know, the Trump organization has been bombarding my e-mail box with mail lately — up to a dozen messages a day. They're under the misconception that (a) I'm a loyal supporter of Donald Trump and (b) that there's a chance in hell of me donating even one penny to his campaign.

I just got a link to a survey they'd like me to fill out. It says, "Because of your strong dedication to our President, he chose YOU to participate in our Official Election Integrity Survey." I didn't fill it out but here are the questions…

• Do you believe the Democrats are trying to STEAL the Election?
• Do you agree the Fake News media is working OVERTIME to make it seem like Joe Biden is in the lead?
• Do you agree Fox News should recall their Arizona projection for Joe Biden?
• Do you agree Fox News should apologize for projecting Arizona for Joe Biden when over a MILLION ballots were still outstanding?
• Do you agree media outlets, such as Fox News, should be held accountable for misleading the public?
• Do you agree that ballots postmarked AFTER Election Day should NOT be counted?
• Do you agree it's suspicious that states like Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Michigan are "mysteriously" finding ballots for Joe Biden?
• Do you agree with President Trump that mail-in ballots lead to FRAUD and chaos?
• Do you agree with President Trump calling for a recount in Wisconsin?
• Who do you believe will win?

I thought the emphasis on Fox News was interesting.  Suddenly, they're the bad guys and we have to hold them "accountable," which I guess means throwing Chris Wallace in prison.

To quote the eminent philosopher Craig Ferguson, "It's a great day for America."

But we're all well aware that there are many who think the opposite. I hope some of them are willing to recognize that it will not be good for this country if more people die, the economy gets worse, the U.S. winds up in wars, etc. An "I told you so" is not worth that.

I'm happy but probably not as happy as some readers of this blog think. We're more acutely divided than ever and the vote totals for Trump/Pence make than undeniable. At this moment, Mitch McConnell is probably making plans to see that President Biden can't accomplish anything more significant than pardoning the Thanksgiving turkey.

A lot of voters probably bought into the bullshit that Biden-Harris were going to institute a Socialist agenda dictated by Karl Marx and A.O.C. But a lot of them simply thought the past four years were pretty good for them. Let's not forget that. There's a lot of healing to do and it won't be helped if we treat everyone who voted for Trump like one of those clueless clowns that Jordan Klepper always seemed to be able to find and interview at Trump rallies. There are idiots in every political movement and it isn't constructive — or accurate — to always characterize the opposition by its worst members.

Got this about an hour ago and just noticed it…

Mark,

President Trump needs your help.

The Democrats are trying to STEAL this Election and the Fake News can't be bothered to report on it. It's madness. The Left knows the American People want FOUR MORE YEARS of President Trump, and they just can't handle it.

We're emailing you now with a very urgent request. We need YOU to step up and publicly stand with your President. With your help, we'll send a RESOUNDING message to the Liberal MOB that REAL Patriots support President Trump 100%.

President Trump needs you right now, Mark. We're going to send him a list of EVERY supporter who adds their name in the NEXT HOUR.

Please add your name IMMEDIATELY to stand with your President and to DEFEND the Election from the Radical Left. >>

Hey, if the American People wanted FOUR MORE YEARS of Trump, he would have won the popular vote…something he didn't do last time, either. And maybe nobody's reporting on the plot to STEAL this election because even Trump can't seem to say where the stealing is, which votes have been stolen, who's arranging all this stealing, how they're doing all this stealing, anything. I once heard Bob Woodward speak and he said something like…

I always have people coming to me and saying such-and-such a politician is involved in some crime and I ask them, "Who told you this? What information do you have? What evidence do you have?" And they reply, "Hey, you're the investigative reporter! It's your job to find all that stuff out." In other words, I have this fantasy and I want you to prove it's true.

I assume they'll find some sort of irregularity somewhere. Trump is probably screaming at his lawyers to come up with something and they'll find some poll worker in Scranton who recalls seeing suspicious-looking men outside the polling place and that will be the proof of a massive conspiracy in every state Trump lost. But so far, even that ain't happening.

This past week, my work/sleep patterns have been wildly askew. Last night, I turned in just after Biden pulled into the lead in Georgia. This morning when I awoke, he also had the lead in Pennsylvania. I'm not sleeping or waking because of things like that. That's just when my body felt like snoozing and stopping. Since I got up, both leads have grown as has his lead in Arizona, which was looking fragile last night.

They're saying Trump will never concede. I don't really care if he does just as long as he gets his ass out of the White House and lets the country get on with repairing as much of the damage he's done as is possible. There's a whole lotta fixin' there to do.

I doubt there's a lot of peace of mind in this country today. Trump supporters can't believe he didn't win in a huge, incontestable landslide. Non-Trump supporters can't believe there are Trump supporters. And once more, there are way more reported cases of COVID-19 than ever.

Every so often on this blog, I've asked whatever became of Ed Bluestone. He was a very funny stand-up comic (in my opinion) and he was all over TV in the mid-to-late seventies and early eighties. Before that, he was a writer for National Lampoon during its best period and was credited with conceiving their most famous cover — the one with the dog with a gun to his doggy head and the ominous threat, "If you don't buy this magazine, we'll kill this dog."

For a while, Bluestone was everywhere and then suddenly, you didn't see him. I've asked at least three times on this blog and no one has written in to give me any information on his whereabouts, current doings, health, anything. Well, I finally spotted him. He was in that documentary about The Comedy Store. He was interviewed and identified very, very briefly in what appeared to be a recent clip shot at the club…so I guess he's still around. Good to know. Here he is on Norm Crosby's Comedy Shop, a series which ran from 1978 to 1983 and featured stand-ups performing on a stage with awkward cutaways to Norm and the audience, probably to mask edits…

Showtime recently ran a five-part documentary-type series on The Comedy Store, a place where I logged many hours during its earlier — and more interesting than it is now — days. The five parts do not seem to be scheduled for more runs right now but will surely be back and they're available for online streaming and such. I had a very mixed reaction to it…which may be entirely appropriate since I had a very mixed reaction to The Comedy Store and how it was run during its days of glory.

The place made a lot of great careers; no doubt about that. It also made a lot of low-level ones possible. I said this on several occasions and I'm not sure if I said it first or was repeating what someone else said…but to succeed in that environment, you had to be either (a) really, really good on stage or (b) adequate on stage and really, really good at kissing butt.

And of course, The Store ended at least a thousand times as many careers as it helped. There's no way of accurately gauging the number but I'd be fascinated to know how many wanna-be comedy stars were in roughly this position: They wanted to be George Carlin or Richard Pryor or someone like that. They may or may not have done some performing in way-outta-the-way places that made them think their goal was not unreachable. They rearranged their lives so they could move out to Los Angeles, get a cheap apartment and start competing for stage time at The Store…

…and before long, they were heading back to Louisville to take that job at their uncle's store and to figure out what to say to all those folks they'd told, "Next time you see me, I'll be on The Tonight Show."

You could look at that as Natural Selection, Survival of the Fittest, "they weren't funny enough," whatever…and you'd be right most of the time. But it did strike me in my days 'round The Store as a rare didn't-wanna-be-on-stage observer that a certain amount of regulars there weren't funny enough but they were good at kissing butt. Or painting Mitzi's porch.

Mitzi Shore, who owned and ran The Comedy Store, was a fascinating figure and I'll bet someday we see a movie or mini-series with someone playing her. Her family's name is all over the credits of this five-parter and it was produced and directed by Mike Binder, a real nice guy who owed much to Mitzi. So you'd expect it to be slanted in her direction and much of it was, especially the segment on The Comedy Store Strike.

But there were a few surprising exceptions. And of course, the focus was on the guys who made it really big elsewhere. (I don't think a couple of the guys — Richard Pryor for one — owed as much of his success to The Store as the documentary made out. If anything, I think The Store owed much of its success to guys like Pryor.)

I didn't get along with Mitzi but I also didn't not get along with Mitzi. We were introduced a half-dozen times and she never remembered my name. That never bothers me and I only mention it because I believe it was for an interesting reason. With her, everything seemed transactional: It was all about what she could do for you in exchange for what you could do for her. I didn't want anything from her and she didn't seem to relate to people like that.

She did a great job running The Store and exploiting the fact that for a while, it truly was The Road to Stardom for some people. That's "some." Not "all," not even "most." If the subject interests you, I suggest you watch all five parts or none of them because the whole thing paints a more accurate picture than any one part. But I think it's also a much bigger story than could be told in five hours.

Good morning. I've been up since six trying to write but I peek occasionally at the ballot-counting. An interesting situation seems to be developing.

All the news sources agree that Biden has reached 253 electoral votes and two biggies — Associated Press and Fox News — have also awarded him Arizona, which has 11 electoral votes. So on A.P. and Fox, he's at 264 and has been for some time. The other networks and scorekeepers have him at 253 because they don't think Arizona is settled yet. Polling analyst Nate Silver has said, essentially, that while Biden may win Arizona, it's too soon to make the call that A.P. and Fox have made.

Now, it's looking like Biden is about to take Nevada, which has six electoral votes. If you're A.P. or Fox, you might be reticent to add that to his total because that would mean he'd be at 270 and victorious…which would make it especially embarrassing if he turns out not to have won Arizona. Saying "We were wrong about Arizona" would be way less a screw-up than having to say "We were wrong about who won the presidency."

So we may be about to see the situation where the A.P. and Fox are saying Biden is at 264 since he's won Arizona but hasn't won Nevada while everyone else is saying he's at 259 because he has won Nevada but hasn't won Arizona. Aren't you glad you aren't in that line of work?

To get all our minds off…well, I forget what. But here's my pal Jason Graae singing to us and his dog…