Nat Hiken was the creator-producer-head writer and sometimes director of You'll Never Get Rich, which was later retitled everyone refers to as Sgt. Bilko.  A few years later, he followed it with the short-lived (two seasons) Car 54, Where Are You? and before either of those, he was one of radio's top writers.  That's an amazing one-two punch of terrific comedy programs.  So it's about time someone wrote a biography of one of the all-time great comedy writers, and an author named David Everitt has.  It's called King of the Half Hour : Nat Hiken and the Golden Age of TV Comedy and I enjoyed it tremendously.  It's really amazing how much material Mr. Everitt was able to dig up on someone whose life has gone sadly unchronicled until now.  Since it's probably the only book anyone will ever write on Hiken, I'm glad it's so thorough.

You can score a copy of the Hiken book via all the usual on-line sources (Amazon,
Barnes & Noble, Borders, etc.) but you may have to hunt if you want a copy of another new book — one that's only about the Bilko program.  It's called Bilko: Behind The Lines With Phil Silvers and it's by Mickey Freeman, who played Private Zimmerman on the series.  It's a small hardback of anecdotes — not too penetrating or exhaustive but pleasant — from a minor publisher.  Between the two books, one gets a pretty unflattering portrait of Joe E. Ross, who played Rupert Ritzik on Bilko and Gunther Toody on Car 54.  Freeman's book talks about Ross's constant patronage of hookers.  Everitt's discusses that, plus his unprofessional behavior on Car 54 which almost got him fired.  Maurice "Doberman" Gosfield doesn't come off too well, either…

Mark highly recommends (and — full disclosure — has an article in) the new, 31st issue of John and Pam Morrow's splendid Jack Kirby Collector.  The Morrows have gone to a larger, 10" by 14" page format which will be a bitch to store but which shows off Jack's art to great advantage and which he would have loved.  (If Jack had had his way, the average comic book would have been around the size of the Jumbotron in Times Square.  He was excited when the industry started experimenting with "tabloid" sized comics in the seventies but disappointed that they used them primarily to reprint material drawn for the conventional page size.)  Anyway, if you're at all interested in Jack's work, it's a must-have.  Here's a link to the TwoMorrows' site, which also handles other fine publications of comic book history, such as Comic Book Artist and Alter Ego.

One of the things that always fascinated me about Bill Clinton is that he's always been willing to voice respect for certain critics and pundits who, at times, rake him over the briquets.  If you don't think this is rare, show me where any other public political figure of the last decade — Democrat or Republican — has had a kind word for anyone who wasn't 100% supportive of them.  But Clinton has and one of the columnists he has praised is Ronald Brownstein of the Los Angeles Times.  A look back at Brownstein's archived columns showed me that (a) he has been deeply critical of many, including Clinton, but always with good reason, and (b) he may have the best track record of anyone in his field insofar as predictions are concerned.  These things set him apart from so many columnists who exist to tell some group what they want to hear, and how to spin the latest news accordingly.  He just published a news analysis about George W. Bush and partisanship which probably describes the "Big Picture" of American politics for the next few years.  Read it here if you want a preview of Coming Attractions.

And while you're at it, you might also want to read Doris Kearns Goodwin's piece about how a bogus "news item" instantly spread via the Internet — and Matt Drudge, especially — saying that she and Steven Spielberg were planning a movie that would depict Abraham Lincoln as a racist.  It wasn't true, and the original source has since retracted…but somehow, the retraction has not circled the globe quite as extensively.  (You have to hurry if you want to read this for free.  The L.A. Times charges to read articles more than two weeks old and this was one was published on April Fool's Day.  Here's the link.)

Also, The Standard, which covers the biz end of the Internet, has an article about my buddy Harlan Ellison and his legal battle against America On-Line and certain other nefarious parties.  Here's the link to that.

For some reason, I've recently been receiving three or four e-mails a day from folks asking me where they can purchase all the episodes of the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon show on VHS or DVD.  The answer is a little awkward but it goes like this: Only one episode — In Search of the Dungeon Master, which I had nothing to do with — has ever been officially released for home video, and only on VHS.  It's out-of-print but is probably still findable if one searches far and wide.  (When it was discontinued, the Sam Goody chain apparently bought up the remaining stock.)  Nothing else has been issued and, if the show's current owners are planning to put them out, they haven't told me.  In the meantime though, an awful lot of bootleggers are openly hawking videocassettes of dubious quality, sometimes even pirating one another's copies.  I don't like to encourage copyright infringement, especially on a show where, if it's released on tape, I'm supposed to get money.  But if you don't care about such matters and you do a little Internet searching or go to almost any comic convention, you oughta be able to find someone selling unauthorized copies.  Just don't ask me where they are since I'm among those getting ripped-off by this practice.

The picture above is of Bob Newhart.  Because of his success in situation comedies, we forget that this man was once one of the all-time great stand-up comedians.  As a refresher, let's all purchase Something Like This…, a 2-CD collection from Rhino Records which includes darn near every great Newhart monologue that ever made it onto records including my favorite — the one about Sir Walter Raleigh trying to explain to his employers what he has found in The New World.  And while you're at it, Rhino has just released a DVD of The Rutles: All You Need is Cash, complete with commentary by Eric Idle, alternate scenes, photos, the works.  Good stuff.

Anyone here see David Copperfield's special last Tuesday evening? The "sexy," much-advertised feat — and the only part of the show done live — involved Mr. Copperfield standing in the center of a tornado of fire. It was, to me, the least-interesting segment of what was otherwise a superb hour of magic. (In some other countries, the show ran two hours. I'm hoping that's the version they'll put out on tape and DVD here.) Copperfield is a terrific showman. Some of his routines are, at heart, fairly elementary magic…but he dresses them up with new contexts, state-of-the-art misdirection and a superb command of the stage, and makes them seem fresh and exciting.

At the same time, many of his tricks are essentially new inventions, the result of an ingenuity (and budget) that few other magicians have. I'm a bit uncomfy with a few things he does…like, there's no trick photography, they tell us, but there are a number of moments where it looks to me like judicious tape editing made a good trick even more spectacular than it was in person. And, while almost all purveyors of "big" stage magic employ an audience plant or two, I think Copperfield's exceeded his lifetime quota. But these quibbles did not prevent me from loving his show, and I hope you saw it. (You probably didn't. Apparently, the tornado of fire didn't entice the kind of audience a show like this deserves.)

Speaking of low ratings: Last Saturday's XFL broadcast got a 1.5, which was even lower than their previous all-time low. My friend at NBC — the guy who, when they had a 2.9, said they couldn't get any lower — e-mails me that it's "common knowledge" around the building that the network is getting out as soon as humanly possible. Anyone surprised? I didn't think so.

One thing you can say for World War II: A lot of great comics came out of it.  One was Blackhawk and, after I update my website, I have to finish the foreword for DC Comics' upcoming Blackhawk Archives, which will reprint the first 17 episodes of that superb strip from Military Comics.  Another great strip — this one, appearing first in army papers but later in comic books — was George Baker's Sad Sack, who managed to worm his way into the national consciousness and stay there, long after the war was over.  If you're not familiar with its heritage, my pal Alan Harvey, who now owns said Sack, has set up a website which includes samples of Baker's whimsical work.  It's at www.sadsack.net and it's well worth a visit.

Congress is currently discussing abolishing — or, at least, reducing — the so-called "Death Tax."  It's actually an Estate Tax but its foes find it's easier to drum up opposition if they call it a "Death Tax."  They also argue, apparently wrongly, that it amounts to double-taxation.  If you've been led to believe it does, you need to read this piece by Michael Kinsley…which I suspect will be largely ignored by folks who don't want to deal with what it says and don't want to forego the "double-taxation" argument against the Death/Estate Tax.

While you're over at Slate, Jacob Weisberg — who shares with Mickey Kaus the record for the most correct predictions about what the Florida recounts would yield — has a nice "what we know, as of now" piece.  Since all parties are determined to spin every bit of data to their purpose, it's vital for us to keep track of what we really know, as opposed to what we want to know and — more importantly, what we don't.  Here's a link to that article.

Yesterday marked one year since my longtime chum, Scott Shaw!, began his Oddball Comics page over at Comic Book Resources.  For 52 weeks, Monday through Friday, he has favored us with examples of some of the most bizarre comics ever published — like that Rifleman one above — accompanied by witty and informative annotation, which in turn has sparked interesting chatter on the allied Message Board.

In celebration of this grand achievement, he's invited a batch of friends, commencing with the proprietor of this here website, to pen guest entries.  If you'd like to read what I handed in — a discussion of the funnybook seen above right, which was drawn by the great Curt Swan, perhaps under duress, and which is as oddball as any comic ever published — click on this link.  And the latest edition of Oddball Comics (which, today only, is the same page) can be accessed by clicking here.  Go there even when I don't have a guest column up.

On the political front, I have come to enjoy my daily visit to www.kausfiles.com, a site operated by Mickey Kaus. His longer pieces usually run over on Slate but, almost every day, he updates his "Hit Parade" column with links to articles currently available on-line, along with his comments on those articles. I don't agree with him on everything…maybe not even on most things. But even when I disagree, I respect his logic, his ability to get to the core of an issue, and his willingness to criticize folks all across the political spectrum. In these days when pundits insist that everyone on their side is without flaws and everyone on the other side is without brains or morals, it's nice to follow a guy who can fire in all directions. Read him for a week or two and see if he doesn't cause you to reassess at least one thing you believe. (He's changed my mind about the McCain-Feingold bill, though not necessarily to his precise position…)

I do, however, recommend clicking here and reading Michael Kinsley's article on the McCain-Feingold campaign reform movement.

I've always loved my TiVo but, now that they've upgraded the software, I love it even more.  The new version lets you "prioritize" Season Passes, meaning that you can tell it to record your favorite shows every time they're on but if one is opposite another, the higher-priority one gets recorded.  You can also search its database by actor, director or keyword, and you can tell it to start recording a show 1-10 minutes early (for shows that don't start precisely on the hour).  It's wonderful and, two years from now, it will seem as primitive as a 300 baud modem.  More details at www.tivo.com.

My favorite play and I'm working on a column that will explain why — is A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.  I've seen at least 30 productions of it over the years, ranging from the superb (Phil Silvers as Pseudolus) to the ghastly (a Vegas incarnation that cut songs and added Liberace jokes; it was almost as awful as the movie, which was pretty awful).  This evening, I saw one of the oddest — a presentation of the East West Players, a company of Asian actors who have a lovely theater in Downtown Los Angeles, not far from Little Tokyo.  The program book and dialogue say it's Ancient Rome but the sets, costume and some of the staging are pure Polynesian.  Amazingly, the book by Burt Shevelove & Larry Gelbart, and the songs by Stephen Sondheim all survive the relocation effort.  That is to say, none of what's wrong with it is because all the Roman citizens look like they're about to go and sacrifice someone to a volcano.

The problem is that the cast is wildly variable — some great, some not — and they never come together and capture the proper pace and vaudevillian delivery.  (In fairness, some of this may have been because the star, Gedde Watanabe, best known for E.R., was out and his stand-by was in.)  It's playing at the David Henry Hwang Theater — around the corner from Little Tokyo — through April 15.  If you want more details, here's a link to the website.

I don't necessarily recommend this, especially if you haven't seen a traditional mounting.  But if you know and love the show and can tolerate a weird variation, you might find it, as I did, fascinating.

Ratings for Week 8 of the XFL: They got a 1.8, which was up a hair from the previous week's 1.6.  Given that it was still the lowest rate prime-time show of the week — even below everything on the WB network — I doubt anyone is uncorking the bubbly.  To the surprise of no one, NBC execs seem now to be floating the idea that they will soon bail.

Turner Classic Movies has been running It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World lately, in part as a tribute to its director, the recently deceased Stanley Kramer.  Unfortunately, the version they persist in running is what is often passed off as the "restored" version, but it really isn't.  The original release ran 192 minutes, not counting overture, entr'acte and exit music.  It was then cut to 162 minutes and then 154 minutes.  For years, it was the shortest of these that was shown on TV and released on videotape.  Then, a few years ago, a 186 minute edition was released, first on Laserdisc, then on VHS.

This incarnation incorporates some lost footage that was found…but it is not footage that was in the original release.  It's scenes and trims that Kramer threw away before the film opened…in Los Angeles, at the Pacific Cinerama Dome, which is itself being restored at the moment.  The result is that we now have this "restored" version which includes a lot of scenes that Kramer rightly discarded as boring and needless.  I'm all for restoring lost footage and I love what was done for the Laserdisc of 1776, putting back vital material.

But longer is not always better and, in the case of Mad4 World, it's certainly not more faithful to what the filmmakers had in mind.  The lost footage remains lost and is, sadly, likely to remain that way.  Until and unless it is found, I think they oughta go back to the longest available version which actually ran in a theater.  (You can read an article I have here about my fondness for this film by clicking here.)

In the photo above, the guy on the right is Jackie Kahane.  I assume you recognize the guy on the left.  The last five years of Mr. Presley's life, his opening act was Mr. Kahane, a comedian who also, in his day, opened for the likes of Wayne Newton, Tony Bennett and just about every other singing headliner.

Amazingly, this was a side job for Jackie, whose main income then came from managing comedy writers.  A lot of them were, like Jackie, Canadians…but he also managed American writers and was often urging me to join his stable.  I never did, but I enjoyed lunching with Jackie and hearing colorful (often, unquotable) tales of Elvis and Wayne and Tony and Show Biz in general.  He seemed to do well for his clients…and he also performed a special service for some.  He was a "front."  You see, TV shows produced in Canada like to hire Canadian writers because it qualifies them for special investment credits from the government which can make it a lot easier to produce something.

Sometimes, they'd hire one of Jackie's American writers but Jackie, who retained Canadian citizenship, would be the official writer of record.  As a result, he got screen credit on an awful lot of shows that were actually written by other folks.  (Bizarre, which starred John Byner, was one)  I thought that was kinda sleazy but otherwise, Jackie — who died Monday at the age of 79 — was a class act all the way.

One of the best voice actors working today — cartoons, announcing, and he even does on-camera at times — is Gregg Berger, not to be confused (though he often is) with Greg Berg or Greg Burson.  One of my goals in cartoon voice-directing is to someday do a session with those three guys, plus Bob Bergen and Corey Burton, just to confuse the hell outta whoever has to make out the SAG contracts. In the meantime, Gregg BERGER has set up a wonderful website with on-line samples of his exquisite voice work.  It's at www.greggberger.com.  If, like many visitors to this site, you're wondering about a career making funny and not-so-funny voices before a microphone, you may want to visit and hear what a top-grade voice demo sounds like.