Monthly Archives: March 2021

I like these videos where you see the whole orchestra on your screen, even in tiny boxes, playing a lusty piece of theatrical music. Here's the overture for 42nd Street, which was the first Broadway show I ever saw in the geographic area they call "Broadway"…

• So far this evening in Los Angeles, we've had a huge fire in Compton, a shooting spree in the City of Orange and four televised car chases. I'm thinking they were all arranged by Matt Gaetz so the news wouldn't all be about him.

• I don't understand all these chefs on YouTube who try to replicate McDonald's food at home. Seems to me that if you succeed, you spend several dollars and a half hour or more to save yourself a ten-minute drive and three bucks.

There are a lot of obits up for the famous Watergate burglar G. Gordon Liddy, who died the other day at the age of 90. A lot of them make him out to be a colorful figure…and I suppose he was. Liddy obviously relished being a celebrity and he often displayed a great sense of humor about his image.

But I don't think we should forget that he was a ruthless political operative who was quite willing to murder opponents of Richard Nixon, who kept up a relentless hate/revenge campaign against John Dean for testifying against Nixon and who constantly urged political violence and spread insane conspiracy theories. The nicest thing you can say about the guy is that he was so inept in his service of President Nixon that he helped bring down President Nixon.

Kevin Drum points out a mistake that this country seems to be making over and over with regard to COVID-19…

…time after time, we ignore it. We see that the case count is declining and start opening things up well before the count is even in the general neighborhood of zero. When the case count begins to plateau, we look the other way and hope that it's just a blip. When it becomes clear that it's not a blip, we shrug because, hey, there's nothing we can do about it now.

People who are in a rush to say, "The Pandemic is over! Open everything back up! Stop wearing masks and let's party!" will keep it going way longer than necessary.

If you have ever wanted to write songs or plays — or really anything — you will enjoy this conversation between Adam Guettel and Stephen Sondheim. It's just two guys who write great stuff for the Broadway stage sitting around and yakking…

• No matter where I am, every time I tune in to the all-Sinatra channel on SiriusXM Radio, I'm seized by the urge to order Chicken Parmesan, a side of pasta and a half-order of garlic bread.

My buddy Paul Harris thinks that TV shows that used to be done in front of a live audience and haven't been for a while should think twice before going back to the old way. He is, of course, right. I do think The Price is Right doesn't work well without that and probably most game shows need it but John Oliver has been fine and I think I prefer Stephen Colbert talking to his guests without playing to a front row.

Like Paul and many people I know, I'm giving Jeopardy! a pass during the weeks Dr. Oz is hosting it. Dr. Oz is a doctor the way Harold Hill was a Music Professor, only Oz would have taken the life savings of everyone in River City and skipped town. But since I only watch Jeopardy! occasionally, mine is not a crippling, bring-them-to-their-knees boycott.

If I didn't mention it before, I think Alton Brown would be a terrific host for that show, though he may be too committed to other projects…and they probably have all the auditioners they need. When the thought first occurred to me, I figured they'd want a younger man in the job…but Brown is two years younger than Dr. Oz and six years younger than Katie Couric.

I've been experimenting in the kitchen with these…Folios Cheese Wraps.  What the F is a Folios Cheese Wrap?  It's a disc of cheese which comes in three varieties — Parmesan, Cheddar or Jarlsburg — that functions like a tortilla. You can pile ingredients onto one, then roll it up and have a no-carb, Keto-friendly wrap.

You can heat it until it melts and you can sculpt it in a shape like a bowl — I've had zero success doing this — or heat it some more until it becomes a firm, albeit brittle disc of cheese. You more or less have to figure out what to do with them and there are a lot of YouTube videos in which folks show you what they've devised.

They're not cheap. The markets near me that carry them — not all do — sell a package of four for eight dollars. Amazon sells the same package for $6.23 and I got a package of ten for eight bucks from Costco. I can pretty much guarantee you'll ruin a few as you experiment and figure out what to do with them.

So far, I've just played with the Parmesan variety, which is the only one Costco carries, which leads me to suspect it's the most popular. And I guess they are popular because similar products are popping up from other companies.

I'm using them mainly for make-'em-yourself Hot Pockets. I heat one in the Microwave for sixty seconds. That makes it firm but malleable. Then I pile some finely-chopped cooked chicken or some tuna salad on it, then fold it over before it hardens further. Pretty good.

Last night, I tried defrosting a couple of frozen meatballs, chopping them up and putting the pieces and a spoonful of Rao's Marinara Sauce on one.  It was a little messy but tasty enough that the experiments will continue.  I'll report back if I master it or invent a new one-shot COVID-19 vaccine or anything.  Actually, I'll probably consider it a huge success if I can make one that I can eat and still have a clean shirt.

This post here about the original opening of The Flintstones prompted a lot of e-mails and online chatter. A number of folks noted similarities between the first Flintstones theme ("Rise and Shine") and the opening tune for The Bugs Bunny Show ("This is it!"), which was also on ABC.

Someone wondered on Facebook if one was copied from the other and someone else pointed out that that wasn't possible since The Flintstones debuted on September 30, 1960 and The Bugs Bunny Show debuted less than two weeks later…on October 11, 1960.
That doesn't prove anything since both songs were written months before so there was time to animate to them. I just think it's ridiculous to think that the composer of the song that was written second heard the other song and said, "Hey! I'm going to steal those opening notes!"

This video from the meTV folks features the original Flintstones opening again and it also has the closing, complete with Wilma Flintstone's missing mouth which I noticed when I was eight.

Those are not the original credits. When video of the closing was located in the vault, it was without the credits, which changed from week to week — especially writer credits and voice credits. When the restoration was done, they made up one set of end credits, featuring the names of lots of people (but not all) who worked on the first two seasons.

Some of those folks worked on every episode but some didn't. For instance, Jerry Mann who's listed among the voice actors, was heard on ten episodes during the first two seasons and one in the third. So any time you see these end credits, you're seeing credits that are not specific to that particular episode.

And I was told that when they did this restoration, there was some discussion of drawing in Wilma's missing mouth but they ultimately decided to leave it the way it was. Good.

Starting early in the morning of April 1 with Adam's Rib (1949) and continuing through the 1969 movie Z, Turner Classic Movies is doing its "31 Days of Oscar," running an awful lot of the best movies ever made…and in alphabetical order! Here's the entire list and I defy you to not find a lot of films on there you've never seen but have always wanted to see.

These films aren't all Oscar winners. There are many on the roster that lost and some which only got one nomination and it was for Best Sound Effects or something like that. But who cares? It's a great lineup of movies.

Several friends have written to tell me about other comic book conventions that have been held over the Thanksgiving Weekend…and I can't believe I forgot about the many years when I was a Special-Type Guest at Mid-Ohio Con in Columbus, Ohio…a very fine, well-attended gathering that usually gathered on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday after Turkey Day.

And yes, I understand that this Thanksgiving Weekend may be special to some because everyone was masking 'n' isolating on the last Thanksgiving Weekend.  And yes, I don't have kids or much family at all so it may mean less to me than it does to some other folks.  I still don't think the choice of dates is that huge an affront to humanity.

A couple of those criticizing the choice of dates have said things like, "Do they really think they're going to get A-List movie stars and celebrities to attend on that weekend?"  I read that and I couldn't help but think, "Wow…if it will, that's a terrific reason to hold it that weekend."

Another sign of Las Vegas opening up: Penn & Teller will resume doing live shows at the Rio on April 22. They're eliminating all the bits where they bring audience members up on stage…and the article doesn't address it but I assume they won't be hanging out in the lobby after the show for autographs and photos.

I still have no desire to go to Vegas. Or to travel at all.

Since the announcement of Comic-Con Special Edition the other day, I've been receiving e-mails that ask one or both of two questions. I shall do my level best to answer each of those questions…

Question #1: Are you, Mark Evanier, willing to attend an event like this in November? My answer to this is a firm "I dunno." I have found it helpful during the Pandemic to regard all predictions involving time to be wild guesses. The predictions of a few folks — like, say, actual experts on epidemics and immunization — are probably worth a little more than the ones from non-specialists and anyone on cable news or in government…but they're all still guesses about a situation with almost zero precedents.

Sometimes, they've been too optimistic; sometimes, too pessimistic. In the latter category, we seem to have most predictions about how many people would get vaccinations and how long it would take to jab 'em all.

But when will it be safe to gather and with what caveats? Again, a firm "I dunno." It would not surprise me if it seemed reasonably safe by Thanksgiving or even Labor Day. Then again, with all the folks who think mask-wearing is over and it's time to gather in what could turn out to be super-spreader events, it wouldn't surprise me if we were in for another surge of hospitalizations and deaths. So ask me in a few months when I might have a somewhat less-firm "I dunno." I gather that the folks staging this Special Edition still aren't 100% certain they won't have to call it off due to some as-yet-unpredictable worse case scenario.  Which brings us to the other question…

Question #2: Are they outta their minds having this thing on Thanksgiving Weekend? I don't think so but I certainly understand why that's a bad time for a lot of people. They want to spend that holiday time with family, especially since they probably couldn't do that last year. It's an expensive time to travel and it might be especially so in a post-Pandemic America.

The convention proprietors have responded to some immediate objections by issuing the following announcement…

Our decision to hold an in-person event in 2021 was driven by a number of factors. Our primary hope was to be able to gather in-person as a community, something we have not been able to do since early last year. Another was to try to determine how best to effectively and safely produce events in light of current health concerns with the least negative impact on attendees.

As conventions and events have had to cancel their in-person shows or have converted to virtual formats during the pandemic, some have been postponed to later years while others have been rescheduled to the later part of 2021, resulting in a very packed Convention Center calendar. When reviewing dates for an in-person event, it was clear that available meeting and exhibit space would limit our options. Of the dates presented with the fewest restrictions, Friday through Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend seemed to be the best balance of available space and our envisioned event. As longtime fans ourselves, we have attended many conventions over that holiday weekend, opting to spend Thanksgiving day with family and the rest of the weekend with friends and our families of choice. While this is not unusual in the convention trade, we understand this choice is not optimal for everyone.

Comic-Con Special Edition was never intended to be the large gathering reflective of the summer event. As a shorter event, it was our attempt to start slowly and cautiously while at the same time addressing the desire from fans to have an in-person show. There are still many factors that are unknown to us at this time, including space accommodations, travel restrictions, capacity restrictions, and required safety protocols. While open to all and with the hope that we will be able to accommodate fans from all over, we understand that due to potential travel-based restrictions and challenges, Comic-Con Special Edition may be an event attended mostly by fans more easily able to travel to San Diego.

Currently we do not know whether having this event in November is even feasible as we are still in the midst of the pandemic and while we are optimistic about Q4, we have not been privy to any specific information on large gatherings. However, it was our desire to have something in place for our fans who have longed for an in-person event. We truly hope that you will join us for this entry back into the world of in-person celebrations of the community we so love.

Reading between the lines, I think they're saying these were the best dates they could get. That wouldn't surprise me. Groups that want to convene at the San Diego Convention Center have been canceling and postponing events for more than a year now. With the announcement that they expect to begin welcoming such events in August, they're probably deluged with bookings, many of which may be contractual.

It's clear that the Comic-Con folks still don't know how large a convention they'll be able to have there in November. The line about how it "may be an event attended mostly by fans more easily able to travel to San Diego" should not be overlooked. It may indeed be relatively small and may even serve as a kind of test kitchen for how cons will have to adapt for the foreseeable future.

I think some of those complaining that they may not be able to attend are imagining one of those big 130,000-people-and-every-big-superstar festivals that you don't want to miss…and that ain't what this is going to be. It may not even be at all. Wait and see if it's something you would even want to attend before you get angry that you might not be able to attend.

And by the way, there have been big comic conventions on Thanksgiving Weekends. The Creation people used to do a hugely successful one that weekend in Manhattan every year, which I believe was attended mostly by people who could take the subway in for a day, spend money and take the subway home. This may be more like one of those conventions…if it even happens at all.

When The Flintstones debuted on ABC — which it did on September 30, 1960 — it had a different theme song than the one we all know. It was an instrumental called "Rise and Shine." Commencing with Season Three, the whole opening was changed and there was a new song — "Meet the Flintstones" complete with lyrics performed by the Randy Van Horne Singers. When the first two seasons were later rerun anywhere, the old opening was replaced with the new one.

In fact, there was a time when the video of the old one was lost. No one at Hanna-Barbera (or, later on, the Time-Warner beast that had consumed H-B) could locate a decent copy of that video. My old buddy Earl Kress — a guy I miss a lot — finally found one when he was working on a project for the studio. It was on a reel of tape or film that was labeled as containing something else.

The video on which you're about to click will show you that opening followed by a restored audio version of the song sung for a kids' record by the original cast — Alan Reed, Jean Vander Pyl, Mel Blanc and Bea Benaderet.  And then there's a look at some of the original designs for the show by Ed Benedict and — well, it all makes me feel about eight years old again, especially that original opening…

• I like the feeling that the virus is slowing going away and that the end of that tunnel is in sight…but is there any way we can get there but keep the level of traffic that we had in Los Angeles before businesses started reopening?