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.

After a long period of finding nothing from the Trump folks in my e-mailbox, I've begun receiving a steady stream of messages like this…

Mark,

President Trump has texted you.

President Trump has emailed you…

We need you to understand how important this is, Mark.

We are concerned about missing our goal.

Our team ensured President Trump that we would do whatever it took to reach our goal. Therefore we knew we had to do something BIG.

We're INCREASING your impact offer from 700% to 800%.

Please contribute ANY AMOUNT IMMEDIATELY to CRUSH our FEC fundraising goal and your gift will be INCREASED by 800%.

The President knows that if we FAIL to hit our goal, the FAKE NEWS media and Radical Democrats in Washington will attack us all like never before. Mark, we are all counting on you.

We expect to hear from the President any minute, so you MUST HURRY. We know he is going to ask about you. AGAIN.

Don't make us tell him that you STILL haven't stepped up.

Please contribute ANY AMOUNT by 11:59 PM TONIGHT for an 800%-IMPACT and get your name on the FEC Deadline Donor List.

And it's signed "Trump Fundraising Director" because whoever wrote this didn't want to put his or her name on it, I guess. I also suspect because of recent revelations about how past donations have not been used the way the solicitations said they'd be used, whoever wrote this was told to not specify just where the money would go.

I still don't get this "impact offer" thing. They seem to be saying that if I gave $100 yesterday, someone (who?) would match it 700%. And now that they're getting desperate, that person or group is willing to match it 800% if only Mark Evanier will kick in. But they won't make that urgently-needed donation if I don't. Or something.

Another message I received that was time-stamped ten minutes earlier said "President Trump keeps asking about you. He knows YOU are a TOP supporter who will ALWAYS have his back NO matter what. We are handing him the FINAL Donor List soon, and we want to make sure YOUR NAME is at the VERY TOP."

I kind of like the idea that every morning, Trump walks into the office and asks his staff, "Any money yet from Mark Evanier?" And when they say no, he hurls his lunch — ketchup and all — at the fireplace.

Brian Dreger wrote me a little while ago…

Just finished watching episode two of Anna "Brizzy" Brisbin's Podcast. It made me think: How does somebody become a voice director…the person who gets to pick who does the voice, the person who tells them "You're not saying it right" (or whatever, etc). How did you get to do that the first time? Did you know what you were doing? Were you scared? Or did you just think "I've been studying this stuff for years — I know I can do this!" When you consider the history of voice acting, and all the different people who've done it, it's puzzling to think that somebody is in charge of all that…and their decisions could possibly make or break a show/movie.

I've told this story several times on panels but I guess I've never told it here. In 1983, I wrote a prime-time cartoon special for NBC which was produced by an in-house producer at NBC. They hired an animation company based in New York to do the animation but they needed to hire someone to direct the voice track in Los Angeles.

Today, there are dozens of professional voice directors around but at the time, there were probably around eight or nine…and the good ones were all under contract to studios not involved with this project. The folks at NBC handed me a list of the three experienced voice directors they could get and I thought all three of them were terrible. On an impulse, I said to the NBC execs, "I can't do a worse job than these guys. If you'll let me voice direct it and pick the actors I want, I'll do it for nothing."

At the time, I think if I or anyone had told NBC, "If you'll fire Johnny Carson and let me host The Tonight Show, I'll do it for nothing," they might have jumped at the chance to save money. Anyway, they agreed on the proviso that I audition at least three people for each part — which I did and then I got most of my picks. The major players were Daws Butler, Frank Welker, Tress MacNeille, Howard Morris, Marvin Kaplan, Bill Scott (in what I think was his first non-Jay Ward voice job in a long time), Peter Cullen and a few others. We needed a young boy so I picked Scott Menville, who grew up to be a very fine adult voice actor.

And before anyone asks: June Foray was in Europe at the time.

I kinda/sorta/somewhat knew what I was doing, mostly from watching Gordon Hunt voice-direct shows at Hanna-Barbera. I'd also studied another voice director who was on that list of three and from him, I learned a lot of what not to do. He seemed to be on what some would call a "power trip," finding fault with perfectly fine performances just because he could.

The late Lennie Weinrib, who had worked for this director and fought with him to the point where they no longer worked together, told me, "He's perpetually mad that he can't do what we can do so he takes it out on us." One of the things I think I've had going for me as a voice director is that I am well aware I can't act as well as the worst person I would ever hire. I'm not saying a good voice actor can't direct — some do and do it well. I'm saying that there's usually trouble when a director resents being only on his or her side of the glass.

The day we recorded that special, I was a little scared but I figured that with the cast I'd selected, even I couldn't muck it up that much. The final show was not exactly what I'd wanted for a number of reasons but I did not think the voice track was one of them.

I did make some mistakes and I got a fair amount of help from Frank Welker, who by now had become a good friend of mine. On two occasions during the recording session, he asked if I could come out of the director booth and speak to him one-on-one so he could ask me some questions about certain lines in the script. That was a fib on his part. When I called a short break and went over to talk with him, he told me — making sure no one else could hear — of a couple of directing errors I'd made. I was grateful that he told me when I could still correct them and especially grateful that he did it the way he did.

Since I've come this far, I might as well link you to the show which, as I said, I wasn't that happy with. It was a prime-time special called Deck the Halls with Wacky Walls. I did not come up with that name, nor did I create the characters, nor did I have anything to do with the songs…

The end credits are mostly missing from this video but the producer was Buzz Potamkin and most of the character designs were done by Phil Mendez. The special was a pilot for a Saturday morning series and it was well-received and almost got on the NBC schedule. Why it didn't is a long, brutal story of how sometimes, a big and powerful studio can crush a small newcomer.

I was just happy that I got to work with such a fine cast, including Howard Morris, who soon became one of my favorite people of all time. And it did get me other offers to voice-direct, though I declined most where I'd only be doing that and not writing the show.

Very hectic day so here are two long videos that might interest you. And they might not…

I occasionally like watching videos by Devin James Stone, the "Legal Eagle" who explains lawyer-type stuff. He sometimes talks at the pace of a tobacco auctioneer but he seems to know his stuff and he debunks an awful lot of false information or impressions. Here he is explaining the alleged logic of the Supreme Court decision kicking Roe v. Wade outta the ring.

The argument doesn't convince me it was a dispassionate, reasoned decision. I think it was a decision made for political and person reasons and then Justice Alito found ways to justify it with questionable interpretations of laws and precedents. But if you want to understand the arguments for and against, you might learn something from the Legal Eagle. Take a look at the length of this video before you click to start watching it…

What's that you say? You're more interested in the January 6 Hearings than you are in the whole abortion battle? Well then, you might enjoy 44 minutes of Jon Stewart and his staff discussing what happened the other day in the hearing room. To the extent I have an opinion on it — I'm still kinda forming it — it's close to Mr. Stewart's…

Lastly: I'm not spending a lot of my life on the hearings and there is much I need to read before my viewpoint solidifies a bit. But when I find myself talking to friends about it, I find myself comparing and contrasting with the Watergate Hearings…and I find myself wishing Barry Goldwater was still around to go tell Trump the jig is up.

Anyway, if you want to flashback to that period, the folks at 60 Minutes have uploaded several interviews with the key players to YouTube. In hindsight, some of these conversations don't seem as hard-hitting as I thought at the time but most provide an excellent tutorial on how to try and weasel out of your own misdeeds when it's obvious you've been caught. You can watch the conversations with Alexander Butterfield, Donald Segretti, John Ehrlichman, Alexander Haig, G. Gordon Liddy and Egil Krogh.  Butterfield and Haig were by and large good guys.

One of the most popular songs in the show Hamilton is "You'll Be Back," which is sung in Act One by the actor portraying King George III. In the song, His Majesty addresses the colonists (not directly) warning them that they will regret their movement for independence from British rule. The role was originated on Broadway by Jonathan Groff and here is how he performed it in the show and on the cast album…

And now, here's the Varsity Choir from "MHS," which I guess is a high school whose name starts with "M." Anyway, this is the way the song should be performed…