Back in the early seventies, a company named Aniforms (I'm not sure if it was hyphenated) introduced a TV character named Elliot Nootrac, his last name of course being "cartoon" spelled backwards. Elliot was described as a living cartoon, meaning from his home on a TV monitor, he could interact and ad-lib with others in real time. A lot of folks were mystified as to how what looked like an animated character could do that.

The secret was that he wasn't animated the way Mickey Mouse or Bugs Bunny were. Elliot was a two-dimensional puppet operated on a flat surface over which a TV camera was suspended. The puppeteer did the voice and made Elliot move…and for a while, he was popping up on different shows, including Laugh-In, Sesame Street and The Dick Cavett Show. Somewhere — I don't recall where — I saw a program that revealed the whole process and showed what the "puppet" looked like backstage and it really was ingenious. There wasn't a lot of call for it but it was ingenious.

Here we have the episode of To Tell the Truth for November 7, 1973. The second segment will probably be of little interest to most of you but the first segment is all about Elliot, who more or less takes over as host from Garry Moore. And at the end of the segment, you meet the fellow who was operating Elliot and supplying the voice. His name seems to be David Doren or Doran or something like that and I would love to know what became of him. He was pretty good at what he did…

Here we have a long interview with Larry Wilmore, a writer/performer I really like. Unmentioned in it is that along with all the other things he does well, he's also a really good magician. Every so often, he does a week in the Close-Up Gallery — which is mostly a showcase for card tricks — at the Magic Castle in Hollywood.

I've seen him there twice and the second time was last week. He's funny and he's obviously spent an awful lot of time practicing and perfecting sleight-o'-hand moves. Where he finds the time, with all else he does, I have no idea.

Preview Night of Comic-Con International is two weeks from tomorrow evening and the rest of the convention follows on July 21-24. If you're attending, keep your eye on the Comic-Con website as they will be posting the programming schedule. The way it usually works is that the schedule for Thursday of the con will be posted there two weeks before on Thursday, the Friday programming schedule will be posted two weeks before on Friday…so this week. I urge you to study the schedule and make notes on what you want to see…and what you'll take as your alternate picks if you can't get into your first choices.

I'm involved with ten panels and I'll post that list once the con has all the days up online. People keep writing to ask me if I'm doing Cartoon Voices panels, a Jack Kirby panel and Quick Draw and if so, when. The answer is yes and they're in the same time slots in the same rooms they've been in for the last 10+ years.

There do seem to still be some hotel rooms available in town, though most are not close to the convention center. There are no membership badges available through the convention except for a pricey few being auctioned on eBay with the proceeds going to benefit the Comic-Con Museum.

AND VERY IMPORTANT: Read the guidelines and rules involving masking, proof of vaccination and such. It can only slow up or prevent your entry into the convention if you don't.

I'll post some more tips over the next two weeks but for now, remember these: Comfortable footwear, plan ahead, don't expect to see and do everything, and — because this cannot be stated too many times — read those COVID guidelines.

The late Howard Morris was rightly hailed as one of the best character actors, comedians and voice performers in the business. He was also a very good director. He directed episodes of many of the great situation comedies of the sixties including The Dick Van Dyke Show, the pilot for Get Smart and a helluva lot of episodes of Hogan's Heroes.

I don't know if I've told this story before and I'm too lazy to search my own blog…but Howie's involvement with Hogan's Heroes started with its producers wanting to have him play Colonel Klink. It was a somewhat different role at the time and Howie — who did one of the best German accents in the business — seemed perfect for what they had in mind. Then when they were auditioning actors to play Sgt. Schultz, Werner Klemperer came in to read and someone started thinking of him as Klink instead. Ultimately, John Banner played Schultz, Klemperer played a somewhat different Klink and Howie got a contract to direct…which pleased him a lot.

Every so often, I catch an episode he directed. I think I've heard Howie's coaching in some of the German accents of day players in the show…as if he read the lines to them and they imitated his readings. I also heard at least one off-camera German-accented voice that I'm pretty sure was Howie himself. (It was very nice of the Germans in that prison camp to speak English to each other when no English-speaking people were present and to speak English on radios and phone calls.)

Howie was directing a lot then, including tons of commercials, many of them for McDonald's, where you also heard him voice some of the characters in McDonaldland. He directed several TV Movies and four theatricals — Who's Minding the Mint? (1967), With Six You Get Eggroll (1968), Don't Drink the Water (1969) and Goin' Coconuts (1978). The gap in dates there is notable. He was very unhappy with how Don't Drink the Water came out, feeling that others involved in the film overruled and altered his work so he didn't get to make the movie he wanted the way he wanted. But he still took much of the blame for its failure and so he had a hard time getting another directing job.

Who's Minding the Mint? was easily the best of the four and since it was his first movie that was going to be shown in theaters, he was very much afraid of…well, of what he felt later happened to him with Don't Drink the Water.

This happens a lot in businesses: You're given the responsibility to do something without always being given the power to do it the way you think is proper…oh, the stories I could tell. But what follows is what Howie told me — his version and there may be others — of what happened with Who's Minding the Mint? To him, it was a situation where he had the responsibility to deliver a good finished film on time and on budget…and others at the studio were making decisions that made that more difficult.

A lot of it had to do with simple scheduling — where a given scene would be shot (at the studio or on location) or how much time would be allotted to shoot it. Another director on another project once told me what to him was the most frustrating part of directing: "A guy in an office makes a schedule that presumes the crew can tear down one scene and set the next one up in twenty minutes….and then for unforeseen reasons, it takes the crew two hours. But it's getting dark and no one can reschedule the sun going down."

That kind of thing.

Anyway, I promised to tell the Milton Berle story here so let me get to it…and remember, I'm telling you what Howie told me. I wasn't there for any of this. But he said that without consulting him, the studio had signed Joey Bishop for a key role in the film. Howie thought that was a mistake. Then when they couldn't get Phil Silvers for the role of the pawn shop owner, no one talked to Howie. They went ahead and signed Berle.

He thought Bishop was wrong for the part and (Howie said) Joey had a reputation for arguing over every line of every script. When Howie was on or was directing The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Joey Bishop Show was on the same lot and stories got around. But, Howie decided, there was nothing he could do about Mr. Bishop. Mr. Berle might be persuadable. He took him to lunch and laid out his concern. I am here now paraphrasing what Howie told me — and he was paraphrasing what had been said at that long-ago lunch…

Howie said he'd buttered up Milton a lot, then said, "Milton, this is the biggest break I've ever had and I'm stuck with that S.O.B. Joey Bishop. The budget on this film is very tight and it's getting tighter every time I turn around. If you and I start arguing over every line in every scene, the film will never get done. My directing career will end and you'll be in a flop picture which won't do you any good. I'm asking you to please help me, not fight me."

According to Howie, Berle said something like, "I'll tell you what we can do. I've been in this business all my life. And I've directed so I understand what you have to do and the kind of pressure you're under. But I'll tell you what I hate. I hate directors telling me how to play a scene and how to read lines in front of the crew and the rest of the cast. I've been doing this too long to put up with that from anybody…

"So here's what we can do. If we're doing a scene and I'm not giving you enough energy and you want me to ramp it up a bit, give me this signal…" And here, Howie gestured as if someone was trying to say, "Come this way more."

Berle continued: "If you want me to tone it down for the next take, do this…" And here, Howie gestured as if to say, "Back off a little."

Berle then added, "If it's anything more complicated than that, you say, 'Milton, I need to ask your advice on something here…' and you take me to one side where the cast and crew can't hear and you tell me what you need. I swear to you, I'll take that direction, whatever it is, as long as no one heard you trying to tell me how to act."

Finally Berle added, according to Howie, "But if at any point, you try to tell me how to read lines in front of everyone else, I will take your fucking head off."

Howie said he thought for a second, then said "It's a deal" and they shook on it.

And Howie said that throughout the shooting — which was even rougher than he'd feared — Berle was almost perfect — good behavior, good performance, helping and not hurting. Except once. I'll try to re-create what Howie told me about the once…

We were on location. It was the last shot of the day and we had to get it. It was vital to the scene and if we didn't get it before the sun set, we'd have to come back the next day which would have cost a ton of money and I would have had to cut stuff that hadn't been shot yet, most of which was also vital. Plus, if we'd had to come back the next day, it would have thrown that day's schedule off and, God, it would have been a disaster. So the crew is hurrying to get set up for it and it's taking longer than it should have. I'm rehearsing the actors and in my panic, I corrected Berle in front of everyone else. I told him how to read a line and he got pissed and stormed off.

I was devastated. I saw the whole movie dying right in front of me and my career with it. Fortunately, he came back and did it right and we got the take at the last possible second.

Many in the movie business have written about how while directors often get way more credit than they might deserve, they also get way more pressures and headaches than they deserve.  It isn't all about a creative vision.  A lot of it is about budgets and schedules and sets and props and lighting and casting and special effects and wardrobe and a zillion and one other things.  In every area lies the possibility of some problem impacting the way the movie comes out.

When Howie told me this story, his directing career was largely behind him and he was telling me about the part of it that he didn't miss.  He called it "The Crap" and he had examples from every movie and TV show he'd directed.  He said, "They hire you to make the movie that they think is going to make them a lot of money…and then they conspire to make things difficult for you."  He was very proud of some of what he'd done, especially Who's Minding the Mint? and he did miss directing.  But he didn't miss The Crap.

The other day here, I showed you a sketch from an Easter Bonnet Competition where the folks in one Broadway show spoofed other Broadway shows.  Here's another sketch from another year, this one by the company of Hamilton.  Lin-Manuel Miranda shows you what it might have been like if he'd written Sweeney Todd and played the title role…

I've come to really dislike Independence Day. The premise behind it is dandy but it isn't about that anymore. Lately, it seems to be about idiots setting off fireworks where they shouldn't…and just not on the evening of 7/4 but all damned three-day weekend. Way up in the night sky, when placed there by trained professionals, fireworks can be beautiful and inspiring but down here on the ground, they serve no purpose but to start fires and to scare the bejeesus (I hope I spelled that correctly) out of half the people and all the dogs.

And this Independence Day starts as noted above — with some nut shooting at people at a parade in Highland Park, Illinois. I don't know why anyone does something like this…and on a significantly less important note, I don't know why CNN is referring to this person as an "alleged shooter." If they had a suspect in custody, it would be proper to label that person as such since they haven't been convicted and might not have dunnit. But are they now suggesting that whoever shot those people might not have been a shooter?

John Oliver with his most disturbing video ever…

Tom Michael wrote to ask…

Reading your repost of your article on actors who get fixated on people not knowing what they've done, I was reminded that you're also a fan of one of my favorite films, Who's Minding the Mint? I saw it in a theater (possibly a drive-in) when I was 6 or 7, and watched it a few more times over the years. It still holds up, and, as you've noted elsewhere, what a cast! Even at my young age I knew who a lot of them were — Victor Buono from Batman was a personal favorite — and in later years when I saw Jamie Farr on M*A*S*H and Jim Hutton as Ellery Queen, I recognized them from the film.

You've told a couple of stories about the film in other posts — how Jack Gilford got the deaf safecracker part, that Joey Bishop and Howie Morris did not get along (minus details), and a few mentions of actors having been in it; but given that you've worked with or known many of the cast, and had a long association with Mr. Morris, you've got to have more! Please share more about this film that, at about the age of six, had me considering a career with the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.

I don't want to oversell this movie because it's a modest little low-budget "caper" comedy but I liked it a lot…and I did get to know its producer (Norman Maurer), its director (Howie Morris) and several of its cast members. Norman, of course, was a former comic book artist and the manager for the Three Stooges. He was also a clever, nice gentleman and I worked with him on the Richie Rich cartoon show.

Before I forget: I am not providing an Amazon link to the DVD because it's not a good DVD — poor transfer, no extras, etc. I hope someday someone will do it right. If you want to buy it anyway, go ahead but I'm not going to help.

Howie Morris was a very good director when it came to getting the actors to say and do the right things.  By his own admission, he had a little trouble dealing with the aspects of his job like schedules and budgets and dealing with studio or network interference.  To hear him tell it, this film was woefully underfunded by a studio that expected him to film X number of pages per day like clockwork, regardless of whatever technical problems they encountered.  A lot of his stories about its making were about fighting to have enough time to do things right.

He was very proud of the film but wished, for example, he'd gotten certain cast members he wanted.  He thought Jim Hutton was very good in the lead but the person Howie really wanted for the part was a TV star who'd never been in a movie…and the studio said no.  The actor's name — maybe you've heard of him — was Bill Cosby.

The role of Luther (the pawn shop owner) was written for Phil Silvers but this was during a period when Silvers was having on again/off again medical problems — it's all in his autobiography — and they couldn't get him. Howie had other actors in mind but the studio went behind his back and hired Milton Berle for the part. Berle got a number of roles on TV and movie that way…intended for Phil but Phil was unavailable. That was, for example, how Berle got into Anthony Newley's very strange 1969 film with a very strange title, Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?. They wanted Silvers. He wasn't available.

Mssrs. Berle and Silvers had a very strong but odd relationship which I got to observe firsthand one day at Nate 'n' Al's Delicatessen in Beverly Hills. I've mentioned it from time to time on this blog and should someday write a whole post about it.

Howie did not want Berle in his picture. As with Joey Bishop and a few others, the studio just hired the person and told the director, "You're using him," end of discussion. This is getting kinda long so I think I'll cut it off here and tell that story here tomorrow…or the next day. In fact, I'll do a few posts about this movie. Thanks, Tom.

Here, not quite following the script at the 1968 Tony Awards, is the one, the only…Groucho!

In case you're curious: This ceremony was telecast on April 21, 1968 from the Shubert Theatre on 44th Street in New York. Minnie's Boys, the musical about the Marx Brothers, didn't open until late March of 1970 so Groucho wasn't in Manhattan to work on it. Thanks to Shelly Goldstein for suggesting this clip to me…

IF you send me a friend request on Facebook and I don't accept your request, it doesn't mean I don't like you. I currently have 4,818 "friends" on the system. 5,000 is the limit and while you and I know I should have 182 slots open, Facebook doesn't know that and usually thinks I'm maxxed out. This may have something to do with the fact that I have something like 1200 requests for Facebook Friendship. So nothing personal. And…

IF someone in the comic book field dies and I don't write about them, it does not mean I disliked them or thought they were insignificant or anything of the sort. It probably means I didn't know them and/or their work — which may well have been my loss — and that I think their passing is being sufficiently covered elsewhere by people more qualified to write about them than I am.

In 2019, Fiddler on the Roof was revived on Broadway for about the nine millionth time…but this production was different. This production was in Yiddish. And it was directed by the great Broadway star, Joel Grey.

Each year, a group called Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS puts on various fund-raising events in New York and one of them is the annual Easter Bonnet Competition in which almost every show puts on a little skit or sketch. This is what the cast and crew of that production of Fiddler offered up that year — with a well-received appearance by Mr. Grey himself…

Rob Rose read this post here and then sent the following my way…

I had to watch a few minutes of the video you linked just because that was one hell of a cast.

When you mentioned that June Foray was unavailable, my first thought was "Well, if you can't get her, Tress MacNeille is the obvious next choice." But I hadn't taken the dates into account until I saw someone asking in the YouTube comments if it was her first voice acting role, and someone else answered "Yes." I quickly checked IMDB, and if it is to be believed, while it was not her very first voice acting job, it is the first for which she is credited as something besides "Additional voices." Since she has gone on to become such a giant in the field, I wouldn't mind hearing anything about how you came to pick her and whether it was clear from the start that her name would one day seem perfectly at home next to those of folks like Daws Butler and Frank Welker.

(I also had no idea she was the lady who played Lucy in Weird Al Yankovic's "Hey Ricky!" video…)

When you add in the rest of the cast, you have a list that really spans several generations of voice-acting greats.

If I had a specific question, it would probably be to wonder how intimidating that would be, to have such talent in front of you on your first voice directing job. On the one hand, as you say, it surely makes your job easier; you wouldn't have to push anyone to get great performances. On the other hand, if you *did* find yourself in a place where you needed to give some direction, I can imagine you might feel like you really had no place telling some of these people how to do their jobs. (I am reminded of your story of having to ask Mel Blanc to read the line "What's up, Doc?" again more slowly…) I don't know if that kind of thing would get easier over time. At least I suspect that, whatever the actors you worked with may have thought of your directing (or writing) talent, they couldn't really get the "This kid doesn't even know who I am!" feeling for very long.

Anyway, fun story, and it gave me an excuse to send this email instead of doing some other things I probably ought to be doing.

I first met Tress via The Groundlings, the great L.A. based improv company from which came Phil Hartman, Laraine Newman, Paul Reubens, Jon Lovitz and a whole lot of other folks you know and have enjoyed. You would often see someone on the Groundlings stage and instantly think, "Hey, that person's going to have a great career!" So it was with Tress…and it didn't take any experience at talent-scouting to think that. Pretty damned obvious if you ask me.

Before I made my voice-directing debut with that Wall Walkers special, I asked Gordon Hunt at Hanna-Barbera if I could sit in on some recording sessions and observe. There was briefly a policy at the studio that writers and story editors could not attend recording sessions because they had a tendency to slow things down by asking to change lines or to usurp the director's authority. Also, I think Bill Hanna wanted us in our offices writing and editing as much as possible.

This was not Gordon's decree but he had to follow it…but he said I could sit in on recordings of shows I didn't write. That was fine with me and I think the first one I attended was a Scooby Doo in which Tress did guest star voices. My recollection is that by the time I cast her in the Wall Walkers show, she'd done a fair amount of animation even if she hadn't done lead characters…and I'm not sure she hadn't.

I didn't give a moment's thought to whether "her name would one day seem perfectly at home next to those of folks like Daws Butler and Frank Welker." I just knew she'd do a good job in the show…and she did.

I was not intimidated by having such a stellar cast on my first directing job. On the contrary, I thought they were so good that I couldn't possibly botch things up…and that is not false modesty or any other kind. I actually thought that. As I quickly learned, the secret to voice-directing was to hire actors who were so good, they didn't need much directing…if any.

If I could get to New York right now, do you know where I'd go? Well, yes, I'd go see The Music Man with Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster, just on the chance they'd both be in it that night. But I'd also go to the Society of Illustrators Museum of Illustration on East 63rd Street to see the first major showing of the work of the great Angelo Torres. You can read here about him and this exhibit of his fabulous artwork. It's there until September 3 and a catalog for the showing can be purchased here.

We somehow never discussed the amazing five-minute number that Ariana DeBose and friends performed to kick off this year's Tony Awards ceremony. I watched it and thought, "Gee, I've got to watch this a few more times" and then I didn't get around to watching it again until a day or so ago. Let's watch it now to refresh the memories of those who did see it and to inform those who didn't…

Wow, there was a lot to unpack in that song…all the references to different past shows. And I didn't appreciate how much work went into it until I watched this fourteen-minute deconstruction of the five-minutes number. Watch it, then watch the whole number again. You'll be even more impressed…

Variety is reporting that the Arclight Cinerama Dome Theater in Hollywood is reopening. They don't know when or what it'll be showing and no formal announcement has been made. But the news is that the owners of the theater have obtained a license "to operate a restaurant and two bars on the premises." We have had false alerts in the past about this so I'm not assuming it's so until the Decurion Corporation — they own the place — announces an actual reopening date.

And I may not even totally believe that until they run the movie that this theater was (almost literally) built to show, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. In the meantime though, the Aero Theater in Santa Monica is running my favorite film on Saturday, July 30. Tickets seem to still be available.