In case anyone's interested, I'm not at home as I write this. My house is filled with deadly poison gas.
Today's Person I'm Glad I'm Not should probably be anyone who can be described by the term, "Donald Trump's attorney." They all seem to have to sign their names to motions that get tossed out of court faster than a Sovereign Citizen's argument that operating a motor vehicle is not technically "driving." They all seem to become "Donald Trump's former attorney" even faster. And they all seem to lose every phase of every trial, every bit of his respect and maybe even their licenses to practice law.
Next Topic: A few months ago, the operator/promoter/guy-in-charge of an upcoming comic convention in the mid-west wrote and asked me to come be a Guest of Honor, which was nice but I politely declined. Apparently, this gentleman jumped the proverbial gun and announced or advertised me before I'd said no and once I said no, he put out the word that I had to cancel due to some kind of unspecified conflict. No, no. That is not the same thing as not agreeing in the first place.
And I continue to receive many an e-mail from fans of Frank Robbins and will perhaps soon whip up another page of them for this blog.
Speaking of e-mail, I just this minute received this from Craig Wiener…
In the previous compilations you posted, you remarked on shows that didn't work or failed to catch on with the public for one reason or the other. However, your latest posted video includes the credits for one glaring exception, namely, Bridget Loves Bernie.
This was a top 10 rated show with a prime slot on CBS's Saturday night schedule, yet was canceled after one season due to outside pressure over the fact that it portrayed an inter-religious marriage. Can you think of any similarly high-rated shows that were summarily canceled after such a brief run?
I don't think that's why the show was canceled. I think that was a reason given but I believe Bridget Loves Bernie was canceled because the folks at CBS decided that it had no substantive following; that the people who were watching it were watching it because it followed All in the Family and they were waiting through a show they didn't mucn care for so they could then watch The Mary Tyler Moore Show which followed. This was known as "The Hammock Effect." CBS felt that the time slot would be better served by a show people liked and would watch if it were moved out of that time slot…as M*A*S*H, (its replacement) was.
Yes, some groups did object to inter-religious wedlock and loudly claimed credit for the demise of Bridget Loves Bernie but I don't think that kind of union offended many viewers in the seventies. The Jeffersons routinely featured an inter-racial marriage and it was on the air for thousands of years…it seemed. I also don't think the original Star Trek was saved from cancelation after its second season by fan petitions. I just think that was a reason that the network allowed folks to believe because it served their purpose. Sometimes, you deal with loud pressure campaigns by letting them think they won when in fact you were doing what you wanted to do for other reasons.
Oh — perhaps I should explain about the deadly poison gas. My home is filled with it because I engaged an extermination company to fill the place with it for the purpose of killing termites. It's just something you have to do every once in a while…at least in my neighborhood, probably in every neighborhood. They tented it on Tuesday and did such a nice job of wrapping my house that I'm tempted to take it down to the UPS Store to see how much it would cost to ship it and me to Canada if Trump gets back into office. Which I'm pretty confident he won't.
And I just got a call: The tent comes off in 90 minutes and the house will be inhabitable soon after. I hope to come to you next over my own private WI-FI network.