Monthly Archives: August 2021

So…how many of you had today in the "When will Andrew Cuomo resign?" pool? I thought he'd hang in there for another humiliating week or two but I guess the accusations were escalating to a point where he finally "got it." You'd like to think that somewhere in that decision, there was a smidgen of "I think it'll be better for the people of my state if I turn the job over to someone else" but I'm skeptical any politician ever thinks that way. It feels to me like most of them never budge from the concept of "what's best for the citizens of my city/state/country is that I be in office!"

I'm watching all the virus/vaccination news the way my father used to watch a local TV station in L.A. that ran stock market prices all morning. He'd be reading a book or doing something else with one eye on the set, ignoring 98% of what they said because it wasn't relevant to his life…waiting for something that was, like his stock going down another half-point. Next week, I'm scheduled for a routine physical with my main doctor and I'll ask him if/when my Moderna might need a booster jab and I'll probably go with what he says. I could read every last word on the Internet on this topic and I wouldn't know as much about it as he does.

If I were following the Corona News more closely, I'd probably inaugurate a daily feature on this blog. It would be called something like "Today's Right-Wing Figure Who Called The Virus A Hoax and Told People To Not Wear Masks Or Get Vaccinated But Now He Has COVID And He's Changed His Message." There would sure be enough material to fill it.

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There's a line I occasionally find myself uttering when someone insists I make a decision about something where I don't feel I have all the facts I need. It goes, "If you have to have an answer now, the answer is No. If I have more time to decide, it might become a Yes."

As you know, Comic-Con Special Edition is being held Thanksgiving Weekend down in San Diego. The above response applies to the questions of whether I'm going to be there and if so, will I be hosting a batch of panels? The convention starts 107 days from today.

107 days from now, the Virus may be under such control — and the precautions the convention will be taking may be so reassuring — that I'll feel safe to attend. I may even feel that way far enough ahead of that date to organize some panels and arrange with certain folks to be there and be on them. But I certainly don't want to promise panels and recruit panelists and then decide it's not safe for me to be there.

If we've learned anything during This Pandemic, it's how unpredictable This Pandemic is. Not that long ago, people were stowing their masks away along with the Christmas and/or Hanukkah decorations they don't expect to need for quite a while. Now, we've gone ten steps forward and about three back.

It feels like things are going in the right direction where I live…which is not Florida or Arkansas or anywhere the problem has gotten seriously outta control. But "it feels like" is not a good basis for deciding on something important. And "it feels like" can change quickly as we've all seen. So I really don't know what to do except to wait and see how things change between now and whenever I absolutely have to commit or not…and I don't even know when that is.

When I do have to decide, I'll be fascinated to hear what my decision will be. Right this minute, I truly do not know.

We seem to be taking a tour of Broadway by way of Korea. Here's eight-and-a-half minutes of Mamma Mia! I think I like it better in this language…

On this blog, we talk a lot about one of my favorite movies…It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. I wrote a post about it that I'll be putting up here tomorrow but I realized I had something I should say first, especially to anyone who's been thinking of buying a copy of it or watching it via home video.

What I have to say to them is: Don't do that. Not unless you've seen this movie the right way.

Don't, I implore you, watch it for the first time on home video. Don't watch it on TCM or stream it or see it in any way on a small screen at home. Do not watch it alone. Do not watch it with just a few friends over. Wait until some theater near you shows it (a) on a big screen and (b) with a packed, hip audience. It's a very different film that way. You may not love it in that situation but you will love it a lot less on a small screen with a small group…and it will probably cause you to not ever go see it the way it was meant to be seen.

Once you have seen it that way then your small (or smaller) screen at home without a big audience is okay. I watch it that way all the time…but I fell in love with it on a big screen with a big audience.

Several companies have put it out on DVD and Blu-ray…and I even have copies of it on LaserDisc, VHS and Beta. By far, the best version anyone has released — and it might be the best we will ever have — is the version put out by the Criterion Collection. And actually, I should make that plural: versions.

Originally, they put it out as a multi-format set that contained both DVDs and Blu-rays. The set contained two different copies of the movie and all sorts of extras and you got all of that in both formats. You can buy that set from Amazon here and as I write this, the price is $40.81. I have plugged this multi-format set here before.

But what I haven't plugged is that they have since issued a set with all the material only on DVDs and another set with it only on Blu-rays. At the moment, you can order the DVD set here for $15.87 and you can order the Blu-ray set here for $39.99.

These prices may fluctuate from time to time but the point is that if you only need it in DVD format, you can save a lot of money. And if you only need it on Blu-ray, you can save — at the moment — less than a buck. Again, these prices may fluctuate.

So I call your attention to that and I call your attention to the fact that Amazon also offers a cheaper DVD version and a cheaper Blu-ray version, both from other companies, but the transfers aren't nearly as good and you don't get all those nifty bonus features. One of them is a commentary track by three Mad World experts, one of whom writes this blog. Be careful you order the version you want.

As I said, the Criterion version includes two copies of the movie. Let me explain why there are two. When this film was first released, it was very long. Four to six weeks later, various folks decided to trim it a lot and they created what we usually refer to as the "General Release Version." It was later trimmed further for some exhibitors but when you see it today, what you generally see is that General Release Version and it's fine. In fact, it's more than fine. It's wonderful. The producer-director of the film, Stanley Kramer, often said he preferred it. I think most lovers of this movie do.

The original, uncut version no longer exists. There are film buffs who insist there are copies around and some of them claim they know someone who has one…but they're starting to sound like Mike Lindell, claiming he has proof he never seems to be able to produce. Folks working with Criterion did an exhaustive search and found as many of the cut scenes as possible. Some of that footage was not in pristine condition and they did as much reconstruction and enhancement as was technically possible. The "extras" on all the Criterion sets include a documentary about this restoration and as you'll see in it, what they were able to do was amazing.

But this longer version is not perfect. Some of the video could not be brought up to the standard of the rest and in a few spots, there's audio but no picture or picture but not audio. It's fun because some of that restored footage is delightful and it's interesting to see what they chose to cut, and also our commentary track can only be heard on an alternate audio track of this version of the movie. But Criterion's restoration of the General Release Version is a better viewing experience.

(The one thing that is not on the Criterion set which some people wish it included is a documentary on the making of the film that was done back in 1999 for the LaserDisc release. A lot of the cast and crew members were still alive to be interviewed and you just might be able to find it on YouTube.)

Obviously, I love this movie. Obviously, not everyone does. There are some people in this world who have chosen this as the hill they're willing to die on: The premise that the movie is not funny and that all of us who laugh at it, even the umpteen-millionth time we see it, are wrong. I don't think there's anything more pointless than arguing that something isn't funny, especially when you're arguing with someone who's laughing. Nowhere here am I saying you'll love it as much as I do or even one bit. I'm just telling you what I think is the best way to watch it if you do watch it.

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World debuted at the Cinerama Dome here in Hollywood in November of 1963. That's where and when I first saw it — the longer version! — in a theater that was more or less built to run it. I have since seen it several times in that building which was recently the subject of many news items saying it was closing down, going away, never showing movies again. Rumors abound lately that that's not true. We're hearing — though not yet officially — that it will reopen and resume showing mostly classic films.

I hope that's so…and I hope that if it is, they show Mad World soon, like maybe in November for its anniversary. If they do, I'll go and it might just be the first time I've ventured inside a theater for more than a year and a half. That would be a nice way to break my fast. More on It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World tomorrow.

I know what you've been waiting for. You've been waiting for me to post three numbers from the musical Guys and Dolls in (mostly) Korean. Well, your wait is over…

One odd thing about revisiting the songs on my old mixtape is that I sometimes find myself thinking, "Why did I include that?" I guess because it didn't cost anything but twenty seconds of tape-splicing time, I threw in a number of tunes that I later fast-forwarded through or would have if the tape player had been within easy reach.

Case in point: "To Sir With Love," the title song from the 1967 movie starring Sidney Poitier and Judy Geeson. I had no affection for the film because I never saw it. I had no affection for the song sung by Lulu, who was also in the film. But it got played a lot on KHJ radio back then and I had it so I stuck it in.

I see on Wikipedia where "it made Lulu only the second British female artist to top the U.S. charts during the listing's Rock era after Petula Clark's 'Downtown.'" I remember at the time thinking that Lulu was being sold to American audiences as the next Petula Clark…which was fine. We then had eighty-seven thousand groups being marketed as the new Beatles so an extra Petula Clark didn't seem like too much duplication. Here's the song because it was on my mixtape, not because I loved it…

I was and am a big fan of a musical that came out a few years ago called Something Rotten. I never got to see it on Broadway but I saw two different national companies of it — one in Los Angeles and one in San Jose — and I enjoyed it a lot both times.

The best number in it by far was "A Musical," a slightly-cut version of which was performed as the opening of the Tony Awards in 2015. Here's a video of that number as performed by a touring company that was, at the time this video was made, in Korea. Don't worry. It's in English. But if you know Korean, you can sing along with the subtitles.

I don't know who anyone is in this clip and it could have benefited a lot from being recorded in front of a live audience, which would have loved it as every audience loves it. This is the actual staging from the U.S. version and it's probably the same sets and costumes from one of those touring companies…

• I wonder how many people who have been insisting they will never get vaccinated would go do it if those of us who got vaccinated right away would all promise not to say, "Told you so, told you so!"

Did you know that Arby's got rid of their potato cakes? They were a menu option for as long as I've been going (occasionally) to Arby's, which is maybe twice per non-Pandemic year. I assume it was not my lack of patronage that caused them to ditch this long-standing menu item. We live in a world where almost everyone loves french fries and if you ask them if they'd prefer an order of potato cakes with their roast beef sandwich, most would tell you, "I don't know what the hell potato cakes are but they couldn't possibly be better than french fries!"

And you know something? They weren't. But as I recall back in the Pleistocene Epoch when I began going to Arby's, they didn't have french fries. They had potato cakes so I ordered potato cakes. Later on, they offered your choice of potato cakes, seasoned curly fries or regular french fries and I kinda went eenie-meenie-minie-mo and then got the seasoned curly fries. But sometimes I'd opt for the potato cakes, which tasted a lot like what some other fast food places serve at Breakfast and call "hash browns."

Apart from when Scott Shaw! and I produced some giveaway comics for Burger King, I've never been employed by a fast food restaurant…although I did work for Hanna-Barbera for a number of years. If I was ever in charge of the menu at one of those chains, I think I'd pay me a lot of money and acquire my mother's recipe for potato latkes. They might turn out to be too labor-intensive for the industry…although that industry did manage to dumb-down Eggs Benedict into the Egg McMuffin. But if you could find a way to mass produce Mom's Potato Pancakes in a drive-thru environment and price them modestly, no one would ever order fries or hash browns ever again. And certainly not potato cakes…the side dish no one will ever miss.

A lady named Marina Coates does something interesting with architectural renderings on her computer. She watches old TV shows and attempts to map out the floorplans of the homes in which those shows were set. This involves great detective work and a certain amount of speculation about what was on those "fourth walls" that weren't there so there'd be a place to put the cameras.

This video is of 148 Bonnie Meadow Road in New Rochelle, New York — home of Rob and Laura Petrie and their son Ritchie. The rooms, as reconstructed by Ms. Coates, feel bigger to me on her video tour but it feels like she got just about everything in the right place. One of many details to note: Remember the episode where the British singing sensations The Redcoats (Chad & Jeremy) stayed in the Petries' guest room? Well, apparently they had to share a bathroom with Ritchie.

As you may know, I attended one filming of The Dick Van Dyke Show. It was a flashback to before they moved into the house we saw most weeks in the series. In fact, it was the episode in which the Petries bought that house but the only part of it in that episode was the infamous basement with the rock in it. Because of the rock, Rob said, he wouldn't have room for a pool table down there.

But then in another episode, as you'll see, we are in the basement again and it now has a pool table and no rock. This is the kind of continuity error that would have brought tons of angry mail if it had been made in a post-1961 Marvel Comic. Ignore that kind of thing and enjoy the tour…

• I wonder where some of those anti-vaxx crusaders are getting their "science." My policy is I don't listen to medical advice from anyone I wouldn't trust to take out my appendix.

Scott Marinoff is the fifth or sixth person to send me some version of this question…

We're both old enough to remember the original You Bet Your Life with Groucho Marx, as well as at least two re-boots, with Buddy Hackett and Bill Cosby. Neither of those fared well, as I recall. I think there may have also been one (or possibly two) additional planned or piloted versions somewhere along the way.

So, do you have any thoughts about this latest You Bet Your Life or predictions about how well it might do?

You know, as much a fan as I was of Groucho, it was never because of the game show. I thought Groucho was wonderful when he was able to show irreverence to some authority figure…but as the host of that program, he was the authority figure. And he was also an authority figure who had a staff of writers coming up with his ad-libs…and an editing crew that cut the show to make him funnier.

I didn't care for the Cosby or Hackett versions but I don't think they did much or any of that. The working premise of those revivals seemed to involve relying on the host's ability to improvise…and the contestants won what little they won because they were willing to come on and be compliant stooges for the star's banter. It was honest but not particularly interesting.

I think the format is stale. Game shows today have to feel important…like there's Life-Changing Money riding on the outcome. If you're offering that kind of dough, you kind of have to have tough questions. That means screening contestants to find ones who were smart enough or good enough game players that they had a real shot at winning. But on past incarnations of You Bet Your Life, including Groucho's, they were always more interested in booking contestants who'd give the host lots of opportunities to be funny.

I generally like Jay Leno but I didn't like when he used to do those Jaywalking segments where he showed you how clueless the Man (or Woman) on the Street could be when you shoved a microphone in their face and were expecting/hoping for dumb answers.

Then again: I haven't seen the show. I'm not sure anyone has. Do we know if they've even recorded any? The show's website doesn't say when it debuts or where and a lot of the online images say "Available Fall 2021," which is what you say when you're trying to find a station that will buy your program. Has anyone yet? I'm as clueless about this as a Jaywalking contestant.

I don't like judging a show before I've seen it. I don't even see the point of forming an opinion based on how you think it might be so I won't say if it'll be good or bad. At this point, I'm not even sure if it will be. I just think it's going to take a lot to make that show work today with any host.

The Criterion Company, which puts out quality DVDs and Blu Rays of great movies — and a few not-so-great ones — lets certain privileged people go in and help themselves to freebees from a big closet in their office. Back here, we saw what Nathan Lane took. Here's what Barry Levinson selected…

We were speaking of public places that will not admit you unless you have proof of vaccination or (maybe) proof of a recent negative test for you-know-what. I suddenly have a flurry of e-mails asking me if comic (and similar) conventions are requiring that or will require it…and how about that convention the San Diego Comic-Con people have announced for Thanksgiving Weekend. Here is my reply…

I don't know anything about any conventions. I would guess some are requiring such proofs or will. I would imagine a lot of advertised guests — especially the kind that people come to shake hands with or get a picture with — won't show if that isn't required. But on this as with so many other matters, my speculation is worth no more and perhaps no less than your speculation.

As for Comic-Con Special Edition, my answer (again) is I Don't Know. That's an absolutely correct answer to most questions you could ask me these days. Very little is known about that event other than it seems to still be planned for either November 26 and 27 or November 26-28 or maybe November 27 and 28, depending on which source you consult. I would imagine the convention planners are still having trouble determining things like how much of the convention center will be available to them, how many hotels and restaurants in the area will be open, what kind of transit problems they'll have, what labor problems they'll face doing it on that weekend, etc.

Sections of the convention center were modified to house homeless folks and various groups of stranded immigrants. How many of those modifications are being unmodified?

That said, it is worth noting that even as I post this, the San Diego Convention Center is hosting its first convention since March of 2020. Approximately 150 events of various sizes were canceled or postponed and now a lot of them are being rescheduled. Someone told me that's why Comic-Con got stuck with Thanksgiving Weekend — because of many other, smaller conventions that had claims on portions of the building for other dates.

Today is the last day there of a convention for SPIE Optics + Photonics, a society of engineers, scientists, and academics in the field of photonics, lasers, optics, cameras. I can't understand why they didn't ask me there to run a rousing game of Quick Draw!

According to this article, "…masks are required for all unvaccinated attendees at convention center events and recommended for those fully vaccinated. For mega-events with 5,000 people or more, attendees must show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test." We don't yet know the expected size of the Comic-Con Special Edition but it will surely be many times that number. 5,000 is the average number of people at any comic convention who are dressed as Batman.

Those appear to be the convention center's rules, not the convention's. What will the rules be like there for the weekend after Thanksgiving? I'm going to fall back on my simple, always-accurate-about-stuff-I-don't-know-and-there's-a-lot-of-it answer: I Don't Know.

Gotta get back to that script but I thought I'd let you know I haven't forgotten that my primary purpose in life is to put stuff on this blog…

My pal Paul Harris cares a lot more about who hosts Jeopardy! than I do. He is dismayed by reports that it's going to be Mike Richards, the executive producer of the show. I doubt Mr. Richards had the final word on selecting himself but from what I've seen, the difference between the best auditioner and the worst didn't make the game any more or less fun. And I still think Alton Brown would have been the best if he'd had the chance.

I didn't mean to suggest that Simone Biles coming back and winning bronze was not also a thrilling moment at The Olympics. I continue to believe that those who were faulting her for "quitting" had/have no idea what she's going through and probably don't care. Sometimes, people dump on someone just because they want to dump on someone. For one thing, it's always good clickbait.

Not paying much attention to Donald Trump is working out rather well for me. I'm not saying it's good for the country but right now, it's good for me.

And I'm getting the feeling that next year at this time, Mike Lindell will still be saying that we will soon see incontrovertible proof that Trump won in 2020 and Mr. Lindell still won't understand what The Constitution says about The Line of Succession. Nowhere in it is Donald mentioned.

I dunno if it's made the papers yet but the famed Magic Castle, of which I am a member, has announced that no one will be admitted to its premises without vaxx-proof or a recent test. That kind of rule is spreading as fast as…well, as fast as The Delta Variant. And some of the folks who are objecting to it do not seem to grasp that this is private enterprise dictating it. It is not Your Government being Nazis.

It is also not the same thing as discriminating against someone because they're black or gay or female…or anything else that really is not a choice. In this case, it's more like the rule the Castle has that I can't go there in the evenings without a jacket and tie. And yes, I know gender is becoming a bit more of a choice but it's still a lot less arbitrary than putting on a tie.

And now, this is me going back to a script. I hope by the time I get to the end, it has an ending.

I haven't seen much of the Olympics — I rarely do — but I happened to catch one moment that I thought was pretty wonderful. I'd embed the video here but NBC Sports is not allowing it to be shared that way. If you want to see it, you'll have to watch it over on YouTube via this link. It runs a bit over five minutes and it involves the men's high jump competition.