My good friend Frank Buxton is telling gullible people that he's hitting the big eight-oh today. Those who know him know what a crock that is. I'm not sure how old he is…but eighty? Not in this world possible.
I guess he's older than me. When I was a lad, I first saw him as the host of a great TV show on ABC called Discovery, which was that rare example of a show for young folks that managed to be both entertaining and educational at the same time. The only other show I can think of that ever accomplished that was a 1970-1971 Saturday morn series on NBC called Hot Dog. By an amazing coincidence, Hot Dog was produced by Frank Buxton.
Frank has also been an actor, a game show host, a musical comedy performer, and cartoon voice actor (Batfink!). He wrote, produced and/or directed situation comedies like The Odd Couple, Mork & Mindy and Happy Days. He's authored books. He and his pal Woody Allen created the movie, What's Up, Tiger Lily? I could probably save a lot of bandwidth here by just listing things he hasn't done. As far as I know, he has never been a hula dancer, a trapeze artist or one of Larry King's wives. But that's about it.
I admire him in every way except for this stupid lie he's spreading about being eighty years old. If he'll just knock it off, I'll wish him a Happy Birthday. I don't know why he's saying it but I do know that I ain't buying it.