Longtime readers of this site long ago got sick of me plugging my pal Frank Ferrante and his wonderful Groucho show. He does it all over the country but rarely in Los Angeles. But here's some news: Frank will be Grouchoing for one show only on Sunday afternoon, September 29 at the El Portal Theater out in North Hollywood. Details and tix are available on this page. Don't miss this opportunity! The theater only holds 360 people so a sellout is pretty certain.
The Paley Center for Media houses the world's largest collection of old TV shows and stages events to study and celebrate the form. It's probably best known these days for its annual Paley Fests which used to honor programs that had withstood some real test of time but now are devoted mainly to what's hot at the moment. They recently had events for, among other current shows with big, ticket-buying fan followings, Young Sheldon, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Loki, The Morning Show and Family Guy.
Today and tomorrow, I'm posting the videos of two of these programs about programs. Here's the PaleyFest interview of Stephen Colbert and tomorrow, I'll post the one with Seth Meyers…
Here at this blog, we are very interested in the great writer-singer of very clever songs, Tom Lehrer. So Mark Crowther (a reader of this blog) sent me this link to this article about…well, it's not all about Tom Lehrer. It's by and about a fan of his who cobbled up a live show of Lehrer material and who wonders excessively why Mr. Lehrer, instead of writing and performing more, retreated to a life outside the public eye and show biz.
I dunno why either. I doubt we'll ever know. All I know is that whenever Tom Lehrer leaves us, he'll have left us a lot of wonderful songs for which we should be grateful.
A few days ago, Jordan Williams wrote to ask — well, here: I'll let you read it for yourself…
In your blog post today, you mentioned dining at the Russian Tea Room in New York in 1983. What was it like? I ask because for years and years, I heard about that place and how it was the greatest place to eat in the world and all the famous people ate there. I was dying to go but it wasn't until years later that I finally managed it and I was so disappointed. Was it wonderful in 1983?
I'm not the guy to ask, Jordan. Between my food allergies and my very limited palate, I try to avoid fancy restaurants that other folks may love. I was out that evening with a bunch of executives from the Group W Television company and since they were on expense accounts, they wanted to go to someplace expensive and trendy. I will admit it was an interesting outing, though not because of the food.
The maître d' who seated us made a point of telling us he was putting us in the "Tootsie booth," so-dubbed because a key scene in the movie Tootsie was filmed there with Dustin Hoffman and Sydney Pollack sitting where we were seated. In the booth next to us, Walter Cronkite was dining and across from us was one in which Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was eating a very rare, expensive caviar.
I know that because someone in our party pointed to Ms. Onassis and told our server, "I'll have what she's having." That lady in our party was considerably surprised at what she got and further surprised — "horrified" would be a better word — at what it cost. As she ate food she didn't enjoy very much, she told us she was worried that her employers would berate her for spending so much on dinner. (I don't know if they ever did.)
Me? I ordered the chicken kiev and sat there, eating it Famous Person Adjacent…about as close to "classy" as I've ever gotten. My food was…okay. Nothing special. It struck me that the only notable thing about the restaurant was who else was dining there while you did. Perhaps that has changed since 1983.
I couldn't help but overhear a few conversations at Mr. Cronkite's table. He was dining alone but folks kept stopping by to say hello and I guess they just wanted the bragging rights — "I spoke with Walter Cronkite the other night." Two of the tablehoppers I overheard said something complimentary to Mr. Cronkite and then buttoned it with his famous sign-off line, "…and that's the way it is." Mr. Cronkite chuckled politely as if no one had ever thought to say that to him before.
Once, I heard Don Adams, the star of Get Smart, say, "The great thing about having a famous catch phrase is that you get to use the same joke over and over. The bad thing is that every friggin' person you meet think they're so goddamn clever to throw it back at you." Mr. Adams had about eight of them so he knew of what he spoke — and no, he did not use the word "friggin'."
But like I said, I'm not the guy to ask about the cuisine there. I never enjoy the food at fancy, famous places where the alleged Upper Class flocks to chow down. Back at the time of this story, The Russian Tea Room was "the" place to dine in New York but I would have much rather been at the Carnegie Deli. There, I could have had a terrific corned beef on rye and a knish. And if anyone famous was at the next table, it was only Jackie Mason.
If I had to bet money — and I don't — I'd bet that Donald Trump will be found guilty in the Hush Money trial. And the main thing that makes me think that is that he obviously thinks that. He's ramping up his hysterical excuses about why the trial is rigged, unfair, a Witch Hunt, etc. He hasn't started attacking the jury yet because they haven't voted yet.
Cartoonist Russell Myers has been formally recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records for the "Longest running daily cartoon strip by a single author." This is for producing the Broom-Hilda newspaper strip since April 19, 1970 — a feat which I believe was called to the world's attention by this blog back in this message.
It seems unlikely anyone will wrest the title away from him in the few decades. I don't know who the next contender would be but Russell ain't stopping now. And even if he quit or died tomorrow, he still has a year or two of Broom-Hilda strips in inventory.
Speaking of dead cartoonists: The Guinness folks currently recognize Johnny Hart as the "Most syndicated living cartoonist" and their listing says…
Johnny Hart, creator of The Wizard of Id and B.C., is the most syndicated living cartoonist with both these cartoons syndicated in 1,300 newspapers each, giving his work a combined total of 2,600 syndicated outlets.
I don't think this was ever a valid record because, first of all, the way syndicates count newspaper strip placements involves counting daily strips and Sunday strips as two separate sales. If the Picayune Post-Dispatch carries a strip seven days a week, the syndicate counts that as two newspapers, not one. One newspaper that carried B.C. and The Wizard of Id both daily and Sunday would be considered four newspapers. So the total number of papers carrying Hart's two strips has really always been way less than 2,600.
Secondly, I believe Charles Schulz and Jim Davis, creators of Peanuts and Garfield respectively, have both at times appeared in more newspapers with one strip apiece than Johnny Hart has with two. Of course, Charles Schulz no longer qualifies as a "living cartoonist"…
…and since his death in 2007, neither does Johnny Hart.
This is about powerful people preying on powerless people…and I was about to finish this sentence with "for sex" but it applies in some non-sexual ways as well. Back when we were talking here about Harvey Weinstein, I wrote the following…
A large part of the reason Weinstein finally got exposed was that certain of the women he mistreated were or have become Angelina Jolie, Ashley Judd and Mira Sorvino — ladies who have become successful enough that they're not afraid they'll lose everything if they go on the record. Unknowns could and would be accused of lying to get attention and/or money. Gwyneth Paltrow doesn't need either. If he was only abusing unknowns, I bet he'd get away with it forever. I am reminded of how there were a lot of stories around about cartoonist Al Capp exposing himself to women and trying to blackmail them into sex. Many dismissed those accounts as lies until Goldie Hawn went public with the story of her unsavory encounter with Mr. Capp.
Ms. Hawn went public in a 1985 interview in Playboy and I think it kind of nudged open the door a bit — not nearly enough, of course — for later, more effective revelations about what too many powerful men have gotten away with for far too long. I know it did a lot to stop some folks from thinking what Mr. Capp did was in the category of harmless pranks or acceptable conduct. A lot of us wrestle with the problem of how to reconcile our thoughts about people who did things to be admired while also doing things that should have put them in prison. Al Capp was the first person who presented me with that conundrum.
On a recent podcast with Conan O'Brien, Goldie told the story of her — shall we say? — "encounter" with the creator of Li'l Abner and it's not a pleasant story to hear. It can and should make you uncomfy. But if you want to hear it, it's in this video excerpted from a longer conversation. Thanks to Ben Varkentine, a loyal reader of this site, for alerting me to it…
In case you didn't see Jon Stewart last night, here's one of the most important things anyone has had to say about "Cancel Culture"…
From last night's Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff and Lindsay Mendez offer a tune from the current (but closing in July) revival of Merrily We Roll Along. In fact, it's my favorite tune from my next-to-favorite Sondheim show, my first being A Funny Thing…
I said in this post that Maureen Arthur had originated the role of Hedy LaRue on Broadway in How To Succeed In Etc. and that is not so. I found this out because I have this friend, Jim Brochu, who knows so much about Broadway, he could probably tell you the name of the guy who painted the line down the center of that street. He wrote to set the record straight.
Virginia Martin — you can probably figure out which one she is in the above photo — was the first Hedy LaRue. Maureen Arthur was a replacement and she played Hedy in the movie version. The other actors I mentioned having seen in the National Touring Company of the show were also replacements on Broadway. The management on this blog (i.e., m.e.) regrets the error.
Meanwhile, there are now articles online that delve into what really went wrong in the Red Lobster chain and it ain't, as we suspected, that too many people paid too little for too many shrimp. You can read what actually happened here, here, here and probably a dozen other places.
Like many of you, I was sad to hear that the Red Lobster chain is in trouble and is closing locations. So far, they're not closing the one closest to me — which is not close enough for me to visit as often as I might — or the one in the Valley where Harlan Ellison and I used to have dinner. It wasn't that close to his home either but it was worth driving the distance.
I just don't like that so many restaurants that serve simple, basic seafood seem to be closing. The McCormick & Schmick's chain, which used to be all over Southern California, is down to one eatery. Fortunately, it's in Anaheim a few blocks from WonderCon so I can eat there every few years. The one in the San Diego Omni across from Comic-Con closed along with all the others. The Enterprise Fish Company in Santa Monica went outta business. The Blue Plate Oysterette near my house closed. There are a few others.
Yes, there are still places where one can get seafood but they all seem to trick and fancy the fish up. You can't get a plain piece of halibut or tilapia at most of 'em. It comes only in an avocado and jalapeno ceviche with Cajun spices or something. I just want a piece of fish grilled or fried without undue decoration.
What went wrong for Red Lobster? Most of the news reports say that their "Endless Shrimp" offering, which was apparently a loss-leader, led them into too much loss. That explanation sounds — you'll excuse the expression — fishy to me. You don't start closing otherwise viable businesses just because you mispriced one popular menu item. You correct the pricing and keep the doors open. Today, someone posted this on Instagram or X or somewhere…
A hedge fund bought the company, sold off all the land Red Lobster restaurants are located on, leased the land back to Red Lobster, and jacked the rent. Just so you know what is really going on here.
I don't know the gent who posted this or how much he knows about the situation but doesn't it sound like something like that was the cause?
Randy Rainbow's tour is on hiatus so he's back home making new videos…
L. Sikorski wrote to ask…
What was the first Broadway show you saw? I think you may have written about this at some point so if so, what was the second? And what was the last thing you saw back there?
If you mean the first Broadway musical I saw not necessarily on Broadway, that would be the touring company of My Fair Lady, I saw it in 1961 at the Biltmore Theater (a lovely place which exists no longer) here in Los Angeles (an also-lovely place which may exist no longer if Trump wins). I wrote about that experience here.
The next one I remember was, again in Los Angeles, at the outdoor Greek Theater located here in Griffith Park. A national touring company of How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying played there from June 24, 1965 until July 10. For years after, I thought I'd seen Robert Morse and some or all of the original Broadway cast but the only performer in it who'd been in it when it debuted was Maureen Arthur, who originated the role of Hedy LaRue on Broadway. She was playing…well, Hedy LaRue, of course.
Many, many years later at a reunion of folks who'd worked on Your Show of Shows and other shows starring Sid Caesar, my date and I were seated at a table with Ms. Arthur and her husband, Aaron Ruben. They were there because Mr. Ruben was one of the many writers who wrote for Caesar and later went on to other things — in his case, Sgt. Bilko, The Andy Griffith Show and others, including Gomer Pyle, USMC. I told Ms. Arthur I'd seen her as Hedy at the Greek Theater and she was delighted that I remembered here. (How could I not? I was 13, she was gorgeous and in one scene, she was only wearing a towel.)
Before I could say something foolish like, "And it was great seeing Robert Morse in the role," she said something about being the only member of the original cast on that tour so I didn't embarrass myself as much as I could have and usually do. Online research has yielded the info that that tour starred Ronnie Welsh as J. Pierrepont Finch, Jeff DeBenning as J.B. Biggley and Suzanne Menke as Rosemary Pillkington.
I saw a number of other touring companies of shows in Los Angeles, many of them starring performers that you and I have heard of. In 1971 for instance, I saw Jack Weston in Neil Simon's Last of the Red Hot Lovers at the old Huntington Hartford Theater in Hollywood. He was quite wonderful.
That same year, I saw Art Carney and Barbara Barrie in the national touring company of another Simon play, Prisoner of Second Avenue down at the Ahmanson Theater. They were even wonderful-er and I wrote about that evening here.
But the best thing I saw in '71 — maybe the best thing I've ever seen on any stage anywhere — was the pre-Broadway staging of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum starring Phil Silvers and Nancy Walker, also at the Ahmanson. I've written about it many times on this blog but this might be the longest post about it.
The first Broadway show I saw in New York was on or about February 10, 1983 and it was 42nd Street at the Majestic Theater.
The Majestic is kind of a fascinating theater. It opened in 1927 and has housed dozens of shows you've heard of including, for all or part of their original Broadway runs, The Music Man, Camelot, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Funny Girl, Fiddler on the Roof and 1776. 42nd Street opened at the Winter Garden in 1980, then moved to the Majestic in 1981. It played there until 1987 when it had to move again because a new show was coming in. The management of the place was probably sad to lose it because, you know, that new show might be a flop. But as it turned out, that new show was Phantom of the Opera and it played the Majestic from 1988 until 2023 — the longest run in Broadway history.
In 1983, I was in New York on a job. I was hired to develop and write a daytime drama (i.e., "soap opera") for NBC that was somewhat in the vein of Dark Shadows, filled with vampires and romance and things that go to bed together in the night. The project started out as a development for NBC's Saturday morning schedule — live-action, not animated — but someone there said, "This is too adult for kids" and it was reoptioned for afternoon viewing as a possible replacement for I-forget-which daytime drama NBC was then looking to replace.
Eventually, someone else at NBC said, "This is too childish for adults. It belongs on Saturday morning" and that was the end of that. But at the time, that's why I was in Manhattan and, of course, I spent time hanging around comic book company offices and seeing friends. In the unlikely event you're trying to chart my career from these blog posts, this was the visit to New York that I mentioned in this post about working on the Blackhawk comic book for DC.
On what I believe was Thursday night, 2/10/83, my pals Len Wein and Marv Wolfman — then both living in New York — and I went out to dine and see a Broadway show. We went to the TKTS discount ticket booth at 47th and Broadway, scanned the list of available shows and decided on 42nd Street at the Majestic. Tickets in hand, we then went to dinner at a Beefsteak Charlie's — a chain restaurant that was all over New York and adjoining states then and which no longer exists. Then it was off to the show.
I remember enjoying it a lot and that since the original cast had long since moved on, I didn't recognize a single performer's name in the Playbill. And that's all I remember about it. The next night, I was supposed to fly home to Los Angeles but a snowstorm closed the airport and then it turned into a blizzard that kept all the airports closed and me in New York for two more nights.
So Friday evening, when it was still just a snowstorm, the folks I was working with on the soap opera project took me to dinner at the Russian Tea Room. We then trudged through a light snow to the 46th Street Theatre to see the musical Nine — not my choice but then I wasn't paying.
The 46th Street Theatre has since been renamed the Richard Rodgers and it's where I later saw How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (with Matthew Broderick) and Laughter on the 23rd Floor (with Nathan Lane, as recently discussed on this blog). It's currently housing some show called Hamilton which I've never heard of but it sounds like a sure-fire flop to me.
What I remember about Nine is that I didn't particularly like it and that when we exited the theater, the light snowstorm had escalated into that blizzard and we had a helluva time walking back to our hotel. Walking was the only option because the streets were buried in snow and the subway wasn't running. In hindsight, I had a respect for the actors for being there and giving a full-out performance that evening when they probably knew what an ordeal it would be for them to get home after the show.
I decided on that trip that I wanted to see more shows on Broadway instead of waiting to see them in L.A. From that point on, I made it a point to pre-order theater tix for as many shows as I could see each time I went back to New York. It was more fun to take someone so if I was traveling alone, I invited — in some cases, badgered — folks I knew in New York to accompany me. I don't know why I didn't do that on a few previous trips to that city.
The last two trips I took there with Amber, she and I got to see The Play That Goes Wrong, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the "small, immersive" revival of Sweeney Todd, Prince of Broadway, Newsical, the revival of My Fair Lady, one of the infinite revivals of Avenue Q and the revival of Hello Dolly! with Bernadette Peters. I didn't take her to see Hamilton there because I took her to see it in L.A. Yes, I know it was not a flop. That was a joke.
Here's a short clip of Jon Stewart answering the question, "What was the best piece of advice anyone ever gave you?" His answer is a lesson I learned early in my days in the comic book business and I learned it from Jack Kirby. Later, when I started working in television, I learned it again from one of my agents. I have passed a version of it on to readers of this blog from time to time…
As I've suggested here, I'm skeptical of "analysis" of the current trial from folks who have never (a) set foot in that courtroom a lot and/or (b) passed the bar. So be skeptical of this post since I qualify in neither category.
So right now, we're kind of in the middle of the cross-examination of Michael Cohen and the Defense has probably convinced at least some members of the jury — or will soon convince them — that Michael Cohen is a man for whom "The Truth" is whatever statement Michael Cohen thinks will benefit Michael Cohen at the moment. Someone in that jury box might well be thinking, "Okay, that guy lied a lot and often because that was a job requirement of working for Trump, and maybe now he's learned his lesson and is coming clean." But I don't think anyone — juror or not — thinks Mr. Cohen is a pillar of honesty.
That may or may not matter. Most of what he has to say of substance has already been substantiated by others whose credibility is not so fragile. Then again, there was that jury in the first O.J. Simpson trial.
Much of what makes me think Trump will be found guilty is in the writings and interviews of George Conway, who is usually identified as a "conservative lawyer" to remind you that he is not reflexively on Trump's side and used to be a big Trump supporter married to the biggest Trump supporter. He's been putting out a newsletter that could be subtitled "Why Trump Is Heading For The Slammer" and you can read the latest installment of it here and sign up to have future ones sent to your e-mailbox.
And in the interest of hearing another view, here's a link to a column by attorney Stacy Schneider who once thought Trump would be found guilty but has now changed her mind. We link, you decide.