Monthly Archives: June 2023

A friend of mine told me today that what convinced him that Donald Trump is in a heap o' trouble is that Bill Barr is making the rounds of the newschat shows saying that Trump is "toast." That's not a good sign but I think a worse one for Trump is that Alan Dershowitz thinks Donald isn't in very much trouble.

And no, I don't trust either man. But Bill Barr was Trump's attorney general and was in the bag for him so much that it's tough to tar him as a Trump-hating Liberal.

Yes, I'm paying more attention to this stuff than I wanted to pay. A lot of that comes from the same impulse I have to watch televised police pursuits.

I just realized the Tony Awards are on tonight.  I saw some fleeting mention of them somewhere on the Internet as I surfed by and, sure enough, tonight's the night.  I guess I have too many other things to think about lately to have looked forward to the telecast as I usually do.

Not having left my state this past year (or even the last few years), I have seen none of the nominated shows and I'm still in no mood to get on a plane.  Let's see if tonight's telecast makes me think I should.  My TiVo is set to welcome it…and by the way, I still have a TiVo.  I had one of the first ones and I'll have one of the last ones.  My cable provider has changed three or four times in the last decade or two and every time, they try to get me to switch to their proprietary Digital Video Recorder even to the point of (a) telling me they can no longer support my Tivo and/or (b) sending me their DVR against my wishes.

When they've sent me one of theirs — which Spectrum has now done three times — I usually try the thing out, decide it's not as good as what I have and stick with TiVo. (Over twenty years ago, a salesguy for DirecTV told me that he had learned TiVo was going out of business and I had no choice but to switch to their device. I think the guy is now one of Trump's lawyers.)

Anyway, mine still works and it'll be recording the Tonys tonight. It'll be happy to do that since it can't record John Oliver these days.

I have piles of boxes like this in my home. But mine differ from the former president's in two important respects…

1. Mine do not contain classified documents, the contents of which could jeopardize National Security.  Mine are full of old comic books.
2. Mine are not in a bathroom.  I care too much about what's in my boxes to keep them in a bathroom.

His sister is reporting the passing of cartoonist Joshua Quagmire (real name: Richard Lester) at the age of 71. "Joshua" was the creator of the underground comic Cutey Bunny and a frequent presence at comic conventions since — I'm guessing here — the early eighties. He published six issues of Cutey Bunny around that time and seemed to always have copies for sale after that along with posters and prints and artwork of his character.

And that's almost all I know about him other than that he was firmly devoted to being a cartoonist his way, doing his work his way, only occasionally allowing his lady rabbit to appear in someone else's publication. I once recommended him for a cartooning job but it wouldn't have been him drawing his characters and it would have meant having someone as editor/boss over him so he politely passed. Oh — and I know I found his work quite entertaining, as did many others.

I assume someone knew him well but to most of us, he was a man of mystery. I couldn't even find a photo of him to run with this obit. I have no idea how well his cartooning supported him and what else he might have been doing if/when it didn't. He seemed proud of his work and proud of his independence. Sorry to hear we won't be seeing him at Comic-Con this year…or anywhere anyplace. Condolences to his friends and family and bunnies.

Back in 2004 on his CBS show, David Letterman got himself into a little scuffle with CNN and the White House of George W. Bush. I admired the hell out of Dave when he was on NBC, in particular for his skill at connecting with his audience and finding humor in places where no one else could. In one interview once, he said something about how it was an exciting challenge on his program when something went wrong and he had to figure out a way to build something out of the wreckage. When you're doing five shows a week for decades, that's a wonderful survival skill to have.

Later, I lost a certain amount of respect for the guy due to his bad sportsmanship at (a) not getting The Tonight Show and (b) later getting soundly beaten in the ratings by The Tonight Show. And I felt he stayed on his CBS series long after he should have shut it down and found something else to do. But this video, I think, shows Dave at his best, building something not so much out of wreckage as of a situation that no one else could have made that funny…

So how secret were those secret documents Donald Trump was hoarding? Fred Kaplan, who knows all about this kind of thing, is just the man to answer that question.

Comic-Con International convenes in San Diego in 40 days. The Writers Guild (the WGA) is on strike. The Actors' union may go on strike. How might these strikes affect the con? The show biz news site Deadline has an article up that says, among other things…

The most immediate place where a possible SAG-AFTRA strike will be felt is at San Diego Comic-Con, which runs July 19-23. Already, the WGA strike is preventing TV creators from heading there and sitting on panels. The prospect of a starless geek fest would gut a conference that annually attracts 135,000 attendees and which fully returned to an in-person event only last year after a two-year Covid hiatus. Many studios and networks are in a wait-and-see-mode as to how they'll trumpet shows and movies. Some such as HBO are skipping because there aren't any immediate fanboy series on the horizon. At the bare minimum, a filmmaker or producer can venture down to Hall H with footage in hand to show off.

A Comic-Con spokesperson tells Deadline: "With regard to the strike and its possible effects on Comic-Con, we tend to refrain from speculation or forecasting. I will say, our hope is for a speedy resolution that will prove beneficial to all parties and allow everyone to continue the work they love. Until then, we continue to diligently work on our summer event in the hopes of making it as fun, educational, and celebratory as in years past."

Okay, first off: SAG-AFTRA may not strike or a strike could easily be settled by July 19. I'm not sure if a strike matters if the studios are opting out of presenting at Comic-Con for the promotional value. So maybe there could be very few appearances at the con by superstars of TV and the movies. So what? The badges are sold. They'll be used. Some of the folks who camp out in Hall H for most of the con might just wander over to other parts of the building and discover other things that merit their attention. A few of them might even go into the Exhibit Hall and buy stuff.

And no one who is disappointed that their favorite celebs aren't there this time is going to hold it against the convention. Nor will they hesitate to buy badges next year when all this will (presumably) be long-settled.

Remember: 135,000+ people flock to Comic-Con each year. Hall H only holds 6,000 of them and the other big rooms wherein Hollywood panels take place hold less. That may be the only part of the whole shebang that interests Deadline but the sheer numbers tell you that most people who go to Comic-Con don't go to those presentations. The star-fueled promotions make headlines but the con is and always has been about so much more than just the hyping of new movies and new TV shows.

I know it doesn't feel that way because that's all the press cares about. But we shouldn't let that spoil our fun.

Remember too that if there is a SAG-AFTRA strike, it will be about the contract that doesn't cover animation or videogames. There will be no strike this summer in those areas. There may be some WGA-covered projects that won't have actors at the con to promote the product but there will be plenty of cartoons 'n' games that are unaffected. I may be missing something but I don't see the problem with maybe not having stellar media celebrities on the premises this one time. I even think the con would remain at capacity if they left and never came back.

I've linked you several times in the past to videos of William Shatner's deathless interpretation of "Rocket Man" at the 1978 Science Film Awards but those videos kept disappearing off YouTube and, anyway, it's been a while and a better video is now available. Here then is the much parodied performance of that Elton John classic. The gent introducing it is Bernie Taupin, who wrote the lyrics…

And here's what's probably the best of the parodies…

Since the news came out that You-Know-Who has been indicted (again!), I've been trying to think of something to say about it that others aren't saying. It does seem to me that an awful lot of people who haven't seen the actual charges are commenting on their validity. Come on, people! At least wait until you read them before you announce that they amount to nothing or everything.

Obviously, since I think Trump is a terrible human being who was a terrible president and a terribly divisive force in this country, I'm pleased he may be held accountable for at least one more deed of his terribleness. He certainly acts and looks like a guy who knows the jig is up and that his Teflon® coating has worn off, leaving him exposed to all sorts of Justice. It couldn't happen to a nicer guy…and compared to Trump, everyone else on this planet is a nicer guy.

I recently stumbled across the photo below on the Internet and it triggered some nice memories. It's Art Carney and Barbara Barrie in the national touring company of Neil Simon's play, The Prisoner of Second Avenue.

The play, directed by Mike Nichols, opened on Broadway in November of 1971 with Peter Falk and Lee Grant in the leading roles. In June of the following year, Mr. Carney and Ms. Barrie replaced them and did the show there until the end of September when Hector Elizondo and Phyllis Newman stepped in. Carney and Barrie came out here to Los Angeles and performed the play at the Ahmanson Theater, which is where I saw it in, I believe, early November.

This would have been November of 1972. I was 20 and I was still living at home with my parents. I took Karen, who was my then-current lady friend and we both got somewhat dressed-up, which is what seemed appropriate for going to "The Theater" in 1972. Over the next decade or so, it became a lot less appropriate…and now when I go to a play, I wear the same thing I wear when I go to a Ralphs Market.

I took Karen to dinner at my then-fave Chinese restaurant, a place called Wan-Q that was down on Pico Boulevard one block east of Robertson. The building is still there and it houses my current favorite Chinese restaurant, which is a completely different Chinese restaurant called Fu's Palace. Eleven years ago, I bought the place out for an evening and we held my 60th birthday party there.

Wan-Q was the first place I ever had Chinese Food and to this day, my concept of the right way to prepare certain dishes is rooted in how they were prepared there. It was where my family went when we wanted that style of cuisine. The waiters at Wan-Q were great and they really did fit the Great Chinese Waiter Stereotype of all looking alike…but you could tell them apart by the loud Hawaiian-style shirts they wore. There was one who thought the funniest thing in the world was to ask, when a family ordered something with pork in it, "Are you Joosh? Are you Joosh?" That was how he pronounced "Jewish."

For some reason that evening, Karen and I drastically over-ordered. We stuffed ourselves to capacity with Moo Goo Gai Everything and there was still enough food on our table to feed a family of four. The waiter offered to box it all up but we decided it wouldn't keep in the car 'til after the play. We were sitting there, feeling it was a shame to toss out all that grub when I noticed my parents walking in with my Aunt Dot.

They were seated on the other side of the restaurant and didn't see us, which was fine with me. My folks and Aunt would have thought it was "cute" to see me there with my date…and if you're 20 and out on a date, the last thing you want is to be "cute" the way you're "cute" to your parents. I figured out how we could get out of Wan-Q without being spotted but before we left, I told the waiter, "Box all this food up and after we're gone, give it to the people at that table and ask them to take it home for Mark."

We slipped out and headed down to the Music Center for the play…which was a complete delight. Art Carney was wonderful and I'll bet not one person reading this who knows who Art Carney was would doubt me. You know he was wonderful in just about everything he did.  In a supporting role was an actor named Jack Somack, who I knew from one of those commercials that ran incessantly on television.

As I later learned, Mr. Somack was relatively new to the acting game, having started at a much later age than most do.  It was that commercial that got him the kind of attention that got him steady work as an actor.  You can see that commercial here and I'll bet most of you remember it.

After the show, I took Karen to a Wil Wright's Ice Cream Parlor in Beverly Hills. I parked on a residential street nearby, we went and got ice cream and then we got back in my car and had as much bodily contact as was possible in a 1966 Buick Skylark…which, believe me, was not much. Then I took her home and I went home. When I got in, it was after Midnight but my parents were both still up.

Neither one of them said anything about seeing us in Wan-Q but my mother smiled and said, "If you're hungry, I could heat up some Chinese food for you! We have plenty!"

Death has claimed Pasquale Vito Caputo, better known as Pat Cooper, better known as "that angry comedian who was always complaining about how badly the business treated him." He made it to 93 and I guess that proves something about how constant fury may not be bad for the heart. There was a period I remember when you never saw him on television actually being funny. When you did see him, it was because some talk show — especially, Tom Snyder's — thought it was good TV to have him on and let him vent and bash folks who'd hired him, folks who'd never hired him, stars for whom he'd opened, stars for whom he'd never opened, etc.

Personally, I never thought letting someone come on your show and destroy their own careers was good TV but what do I know?

I think I first became aware of him in 1966 when, haunting the Comedy bins at record stores as I did, I spotted the above album with him covered in spaghetti. It was, of course, a parody of the cover of Herb Alpert's Whipped Cream & Other Delights, an album that sold three-quarters of a zillion copies, in no small part due to its cover with model Dolores Erickson covered in whipped cream and (obviously) other materials that were supposed to look like whipped cream. It came out in 1965 when I was 13…the perfect age to have a crush on a record cover like that.

I have Cooper's record, though I waited until I found it in the "three for a dollar" bin at a used record shop. I actually listened to it, which is more than everyone who bought the Herb Alpert record did. Mr. Cooper's was worth about what I paid for it…pretty standard Opening Act stuff. If you'd paid to see Frank or Dino or Sammy and you had to sit through 20 minutes of Pat Cooper first, you wouldn't have been too unhappy. You might have been happier with 20 more minutes with Frank, Dino or Sammy but Mr. Cooper was good in a Vegas showroom.

The problem with being an Opening Act, back when there were a lot of Opening Acts, was that it was tough to break out of that classification. A comic could do it for years and never have any proof that anybody was willing to pay to see him. It seemed to me that Pat Cooper had more or less the career his on-stage skill set deserved. I saw him once in Vegas playing a little dive, not as an Opening Act (but not as a Headliner) and it was a solid 30 minutes of funny…but that was all it was. The next day, I couldn't repeat or even steal one funny thing he said…and I usually have a real good memory for comedians' acts. I can quote you large hunks of George Carlin.

And Cooper was reportedly not the easiest guy to work with. Headliners would hire him or not hire him. Either way, he'd soon be on with Tom Snyder or Mike Douglas bitching about being hired or not hired or billed properly or not being billed properly…or something. Always something.

Here's a video of him on with Snyder in 1981. His rant doesn't make a lot of sense, especially when he's insisting that certain Vegas headliners aren't "bringing in the business." If you don't "bring in the business" in Vegas, they don't book you again…and the folks Cooper tears into got hired again and again. He didn't…which was probably the real cause of a lot of his complaints. I doubt he got a lot more bookings after taking to the talk show circuit to air his grievances.

Study this video carefully in case you ever have a career you want to sabotage…

Still waiting for more mainstream press to report the Mark Meadows story.

This is the problem with following the news in this "social media" era: It's harder than ever to separate the news you should trust from the news you shouldn't.

See? This is kind of what I've been talking about on this blog. I'm trying to put Donald Trump out of my mind and focus on work — paying work, no less — and then I spy this on Twitter…

Andrew Feinberg reports that Mark Meadows has agreed to PLEAD GUILTY to several lesser federal crimes in exchange for his testimony under a limited grant of immunity. Prosecutors reportedly are ready to ask grand jurors to vote on a Trump indictment as early as TOMORROW on charges of Obstruction of Justice and Espionage Act violations.

Wow. Just wow.

Some other TV shows have probably done this but I've never seen it before. Stephen Colbert's program has made a "For Your Consideration" video asking for Emmy votes. It shows a lot of wonderful moments from a pretty good series but…

Aw, come on. I don't take awards that seriously but when they're meaningful, it's when the voting public actually decides you deserve some honoring, not when you mount a successful ad campaign. It used to just be the shows taking ads out in the trade papers. Then it was fancy advertising mailers to all the voters. Then they started buying billboards all over Los Angeles asking for Emmy and Oscar votes. This just seems like another step too far — although it is a rather entertaining montage…

I get way too many spam calls. Way too many. For a time, they were mainly from human beings affiliated with contracting companies — i.e., firms that wanted me to hire them to do work on my home. The grand flurry of those calls has lessened to a trickle if you don't count the ones that want me to sign up for some new energy-saving/solar deal underwritten by the state. I still get plenty of those.

The new flurry is from outfits that have the word "Medicare" in their names and are trying to sound like they are representatives of the real Medicare service. They want to send me "free" medical equipment, usually either COVID tests or some sort of brace or belt to help me with some physical condition they've heard I have. The call I just got included this exchange…

GUY ON PHONE: I see here that you've been suffering from back pain.

ME: No, I haven't. Could you tell me what you're reading from?

GUY ON PHONE: It's on my computer screen here. It says you've been suffering from back pain.

ME: Where did this information come from? Why do you have access not only to medical information about me but to inaccurate medical information?

And at this point, the line went dead. Guy on Phone hung up and, I suppose, called someone else. And then someone else and someone else and someone else and so on. Eventually, he surely found people who were suffering from back pain and didn't understand that he was not calling from the actual, accept-no-substitutes Medicare…and then I'm curious where the scam goes from there.

Would they get me to give them enough information so that they can send me some worthless piece o' junk and then bill Medicare for having sent it to me? Or would they try to get me to give them a credit card they could charge and tell me I could apply to Medicare for reimbursement? Or is there some other angle here I'm missing? And didn't that same guy call me last week telling me the state would pay for solar panels on my house?