Monthly Archives: May 2010

Michael Cieply of the New York Times examines the future for movies based on "dark" graphic novels. And even quotes me.

Odd to see so many people who thought George Bush did all the right things during Hurricane Katrina now saying that the oil spill is "Obama's Katrina" and therefore the end of his presidency. These folks would say that if Obama ate a hot dog and got mustard on his suit. I have my criticisms of things our prez is doing but aside from making louder, more outraged speeches, I don't see anything wrong with his approach to the Gulf disaster. Clive Crook says it more eloquently than I can.

Back when "Grandpa" Al Lewis passed away, we noted that his date of birth varied wildly from interview to interview. It seemed that at one point, he actually added about fourteen years to his age, which is an odd thing to do. Kliph Nesteroff, who did that nice interview with Woody Woodbury, has looked into some of Grandpa's more colorful tales. Even if you discount all the tales which seem tall, Al seems to have had quite a life.

"Don't ask, don't tell" is history. Kaput. Gone. Dead parrot time. Heck, by some polls, 80% of the country thinks it oughta go. All we have to get through is the little show where right-wing politicians try to wring votes and campaign contributions out of the 20% by telling them, "We can stop this!"

In other, related news: Yet another closeted, gay-bashing Republican legislator has now been outed as gay. To his credit, Roy Ashburn has the decency to admit his lie and to change his tune.

Congrats to our pal Tom Richmond (and all the others) who won NCS Awards last night at the annual banquet of the National Cartoonists Society. Tom has all the winners over on this page of his blog.

Dick Cavett recalls what it was like to have to write jokes for the late Art Linkletter back when Art hosted The Tonight Show.

Just to be historical: There was a six-month gap between the last Jack Paar Tonight and Johnny Carson's first. Paar exited on March 29, 1962 and Carson started on October 1. This was not, as Cavett theorizes, because Johnny didn't want to follow Paar immediately, though that may have been fortunate. Carson had several months left on a current contract to host the afternoon game show called Who Do You Trust, spelled with no question mark. Johnny asked for his early release and reportedly, ABC was willing to grant this in exchange for some unknown quid pro quo they wanted from NBC. But the producer of the game show, Don Fedderson, was not. He reasoned that the departure of Johnny would hasten the demise of series…so why let him out?

Since Fedderson refused, Carson did Who Do You Trust for the balance of his contract, sprinkling the broadcasts with occasional jokes about performing under duress or being held hostage. NBC filled Paar's old slot with a rotating array of guest hosts, the first of whom was Art Linkletter. If you want to harp on technicalities, this made Art Linkletter the first host of The Tonight Show.

The series Steve Allen hosted in that time slot was called simply Tonight. He occasionally referred to it as "The Tonight Show" but that was an informal reference. Allen was followed by a short-lived series called Tonight: America After Dark. When that flopped, they brought in Paar and again, the show was called Tonight. They seem to have changed it at some point to Jack Paar Tonight, and then for a year or more, they just called it The Jack Paar Show. Around the time it became official that Paar was soon to depart, they quietly changed it back to Jack Paar Tonight…and then when the guest hosts started, it was The Tonight Show, commencing with Mr. Linkletter.

Eventually, Carson's contract ran out and he took over The Tonight Show. That worked.

His replacement on Who Do You Trust, by the way, was Woody Woodbury, who I wrote about here the other day. Mr. Woodbury kept the ship afloat for a little while. Carson's last episode was September 7, 1962 and with Woody Woodbury at the helm, the show stuck around until December 27, 1963 — not an especially swift demise but Fedderson was probably right that the show needed Johnny.

Somewhere here, I have a scan of a ticket from the Woodbury version of Who Do You Trust but I can't seem to find it. I did come across this — a ticket from Woodbury's talk show of the late sixties. I remember the show as a light, fun affair that its syndicators offered to stations for any conceivable time slot. Some ran it in the morning, some in the afternoon, some in prime time and some in late night. I think its Los Angeles station had it in several dayparts.

Roger Ebert writes about Dennis Hopper.

As Joe Conason reminds us, there are prominent Republicans who think that the phrase "impeachable offense" applies to a Democratic president who commits the unpardonable sin of getting elected. We're going to hear a lot of it no matter what Obama does.

When it was announced that Gary Coleman had left us, a number of folks e-mailed me with the same thought: What would the musical Avenue Q, which includes a character based on him, do? The answer, it says in this article, turns out to be to make minor adjustments and continue on.

Kliph Nesteroff is a writer/blogger who appreciates a lot of the same stuff I do…and since you come to this site, you may be of the same odd bent as us. Kliph and I share an interest in old comedians and back in '04, he did (and has now posted) an interview with Woody Woodbury. Mr. Woodbury was a bawdy comedian who went legit…and of course, by "bawdy," I mean he told jokes that you could now feature on Nick Jr. But back in the late fifties and early sixties, what he did was deemed a teensy bit naughty or racy so he played clubs and made "party" records.

There were a lot of comics who did that and Woodbury was one of the few to break out of that ghetto. He got himself into television is what he did, plus he also had a showy role in the legendary beach party movie (which was actually more of an infomercial for Pepsi-Cola), For Those Who Think Young. In TV, he's the guy who replaced Johnny Carson on Who Do You Trust when Johnny left that quiz program to host The Tonight Show. Later, Woodbury had a syndicated talk show of his own for a time.

I have several of his albums and they're pretty funny. Most of those "adult" records weren't that funny…and weren't even that "adult." But Mr. Woodbury, unlike so many of his peers, came across as likeable and rascally. I'm glad Kliph tracked him down and got him to talk and I wanted to link to the interview so you could get a look at it. Woody Woodbury also has his own website which sells CDs of those old albums, offers some online audio clips and tells you more about his history.