Here we have three minutes from "All American Co-Ed," a 1941 college comedy and I call your attention to the young actor doing the impression of Gary Cooper and, later, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. That's Kent Rogers and if you've watched a lot of old cartoons, you've heard his voice, especially in old Warner Brothers cartoons like Hollywood Steps Out that featured a lot of celebrity imitations.

He was the first voice of Henery Hawk, Junior Bear and Beaky Buzzard, among many other roles. He was also one of the many actors who spoke for Woody Woodpecker for a time. And the other day here, I mentioned the little pig in Tex Avery's cartoon, One Ham's Family. If I remember correctly, Rogers did the Red Skelton impression as the pig.

He was very good and what could have been a great career — both on-camera and off — was cut short in 1943 when he went into the Navy and was killed in a plane crash during training exercises. Thereafter, Mel Blanc spoke for Henery, Stan Freberg took over as Junyer Bear and they took turns playing Beaky. Thanks to whoever found this clip and uploaded it to YouTube…

• Every day, Matt Gaetz does something to undermine his own defense. If he really wants to go to prison, wouldn't it be faster to just hire Rudy Giuliani?

We're all well aware — maybe too aware — of the divides in this country over race and gender and whether you love or loathe Donald Trump. Another one that I'm surprised we don't hear more about is covered in this article by Eric Levitz. The divide is between people who attend church and people who do not attend church…and according to Levitz, the latter are now the majority.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that if you've been vaccinated, you not only probably can't get COVID-19 but you probably can't spread it. I wish they'd say those "probablies" louder because we don't need more people thinking The Pandemic is over and no more precautions need to be taken. New cases are still turning up and people are still dying.

I have no idea if Rep. Matt Gaetz is guilty of sex trafficking or anything else he's being accused of…but I do know that if the same allegations were made about a Democratic Congressman, Gaetz would be on every channel saying they're true, demanding the Democrat resign immediately and chanting "Lock him up! Lock him up!"

David Marron ASKS me…

I've been watching Toon In With ME on MeTV in the mornings, and I've noticed that M.G.M. had about three "cartoon stars": Tom & Jerry, Droopy, and Barney Bear. How come they didn't create as many characters for their "stable" as Warner Bros.?

Well, they did try…a little. Tex Avery made several cartoons that introduced characters who would have been in more cartoons if their first appearances had aroused more interest. "One Ham's Family" (pictured below) was one of them. The little pig who talked like Red Skelton's "mean widdle kid" character was one of 'em.

Tex made five cartoons with Screwy Squirrel (aka Screwball Squirrel) before they got feedback that audiences found him more annoying than adorable. And he did a few with variations on George and Junior, who also didn't become stars.

But it didn't matter as much then as it might today in an animation industry when licensing drives so many decisions about what shows are produced and films are made. Back in the forties, the primary goal was to keep theater owners happy…and theater owners were generally happy with films that audiences liked, recurring characters or not.

Even over at Warners', "One Froggy Evening" went over big and no one (then) thought to give the frog a name, bring him back again and again, and slap his froggy face on t-shirts and toys. The cartoon had served its purpose because theaters kept booking Warner Brothers cartoons…until a few years later when they didn't.

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.