I haven't seen the movie Wicked yet. I'm still largely confined to my home and even if they send me a link to watch it online (so I might vote for it to receive some award), this feels like a film that oughta be seen in a big screen with a big audience in a big theater.

It does seem to be — to use the name of one of its songs — popular — with some bad reviews but not many. And I see people singing its tunes everywhere online, even in synagogues…

Donald Trump has announced he wants to end Daylight Saving Time. That's not a bad idea. I'll set my clocks back to half-past the Obama administration.

In 1976, Dick Van Dyke had a weekly variety show on NBC that not nearly enough people watched. It went on the air on September 20 and the last of its eleven episodes aired on December 30. I wrote about it in this post earlier this year but I'll save you the trouble of clicking your way to that page. Here's the relevant part of it…

It was produced by the team of Bob Einstein and Allan Blye and it got generally good reviews but I don't think the network gave it much of a chance, plus it was in a rough time slot. It aired at 8 PM on Thursday evenings opposite The Waltons on CBS and Welcome Back, Kotter on ABC at the peak of those two shows' popularity.

I was working on Kotter at the time and everyone on our show liked Van Dyke and Company. We'd sometimes take a break during Thursday night rewrite meetings — which could last into the wee hours of the morning — to watch not our show but Mr. Van Dyke's. His show won the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy-Variety or Music Series that year…unfortunately, after it was yanked off the air. It's only barely remembered and when it is, that's usually because Andy Kaufman was a semi-regular — his first real presence in prime-time.

A few years later with its ratings at a disastrous low, NBC hired the famed programmer Fred Silverman away from ABC to try and reprogram the network and raise its viewership. A month or three into his command, I was in a meeting with Silverman and he was rattling off some of the reasons why NBC had dug itself into such a deep hole. There were quite a few reasons but a big one was, he felt, that his predecessors had been too quick to cancel certain shows. These were good shows, he said…and if they'd been given more time, he believed they'd have found viewers (or vice-versa). I remember him saying, "They certainly would have done better than whatever the guys before me replaced them with."

He named four shows which, he said, should not have been canceled. I remember the names of three of them: Baa Baa Black Sheep, Sirota's Court…and Van Dyke and Company. His predecessors, he insisted, were too cowardly — the descriptor he used was "chickenshit" — and panicked. And there was some talk about shows which networks almost canceled when the early ratings were disappointing — M*A*S*H being the textbook example — but which turned out to be huge hits.

I should also mention one other thing that I thought hurt Mr. Van Dyke's show. It was mostly or wholly taped without a live audience and then they dubbed in the worst "canned laughter" I've ever heard on a TV program. I honestly believe that if they'd given the series a better time slot, stuck with it for a while and it had had more of a "live" feel, it would have run a long time. Much of the material was very clever and Dick was superb on it.

Here's a little less than a half-hour of clips from the show featuring Dick dancing a lot and interacting with guest stars like Mary Tyler Moore, John Denver and Tom Smothers. There are also bits in there with Andy Kaufman and Bob Einstein, and that's Chuck McCann playing Oliver Hardy…

And here's another of my favorite episodes of my favorite TV show…

Thanks to all the folks who wrote but I've decided to just forget about watching David Letterman on the Samsung TV Plus channel. I am less enthused than I was before I learned that they're running selected excerpts, not whole shows. There are oodles of old Letterman clips on YouTube that I haven't gotten around to watching. It also seems difficult — not impossible but not worth the hassle — to access this channel unless you own a Samsung Smart TV made after 2023, a Galaxy phone or tablet, one of their Family Hub refrigerators and so forth. I own none of those items and I'm not about to go out and buy one just so I can see Dave having his stage crew throw things off the roof.

Here's one those "How dumb can I be?" moments: I've been discussing this with friends on the phone and on the 'net for a few days now and I kept telling them, "I don't own any Samsung products." Then I finally realized I do. My computer monitor — the one I stare at all day and am staring at as I write this — is a Samsung. In fact, it's a great monitor that has served me well for at least fifteen years now so I'm not about to chuck it even though it's too old to get Samsung Plus TV.

It turns out that there were ways to just access the Samsung channel on a PC — which is why I read on the 'net that there were. But Samsung has closed them off — which is why I couldn't find one. It does seem possible to do it but the methods folks sent me involve some hacking and downloading software of dubious pedigree so I've decided to just give up on this. Maybe one of these days they'll come out with an app for my iPad or I'll be able to add it on my Roku TV. For now, I'll just watch some of the YouTube Letterman clips like this recently-posted one…

I do not want to suggest even in the slightest way that it was a good thing that someone — presumably, the guy they've arrested and have a ton of evidence against including some near-confessions — gunned down that health care CEO. Awful, wrong, illegal, prosecute him to the max. But I do think it's about time that someone began talking about how much money insurance companies are making for not providing some of the services that people think they're getting when they sign up.

Many interesting articles suddenly abound. Kevin Drum has an important post about it here and another one here. This is a very important matter that has to be solved and it's comforting to know that our president-elect has some vague ideas that may at some point turn into a concept as to how to fix this kind of thing one of these days.

For the record: Being well into Medicare age, I have Medicare and it pays for almost everything I need. The few things it doesn't cover are almost all handled by my supplemental health insurance from the Writers Guild. This would be a much better world to live in if everyone had something like that.

Here's a bunch of people at a small dinner gathering to celebrate Rose Marie's ninety-somethingth birthday back in 2013. The lady at the lower left is Arlene Silver, otherwise known as Mrs. Dick Van Dyke. The gent next to her is Mr. Dick Van Dyke. The lady next to him is Rose Marie. The two folks at the end of the table are Jeanine Kasun and Stu Shostak (another married couple) and then you have me and at lower right is Laraine Newman. But this post is about Mr. Van Dyke and maybe Arlene, too. Arlene has taken such good care of this man that today, he is 99 years old…and in darn good shape for 99.

Dick Van Dyke has been my favorite performer since…well, since I first saw The Dick Van Dyke Show, I suppose. This post isn't about me so I won't go into detail as to how important that show and he were to my life and the career (if you can call it that) I now have. He is also one of those too-rare exceptions to the rule that you should never meet your heroes. He has never disappointed me in any way if you don't count the fact that I wish there had been a sixth season of The Dick Van Dyke Show. And a seventh and an eighth and so on…

The whole world is wishing him a Happy 99 today and very relieved that after his recent brush with those fires in Malibu, he and Arlene and their pets and home are all marked safe. He is just a wonderful man and they're a wonderful couple and lemme tell you what happened at the end of that dinner for Rose.

Dick and I went out to give our parking tickets to the valet to get his car and Laraine's (she drove us) and as we were waiting, two women who were also waiting for a car were suddenly staring at Dick with one of those "Oh, he's someone famous" look. It took a moment for them to recognize who he was and, I think, also to accept the concept that he really and truly was who they thought he was. One said, "Oh, if you're who I think you are, I've always loved you." The other one agreed and Dick gave them both that great smile of his and said, "Well then, I hope I am who you're thinking of because I could use all the love I can get."

Their car arrived and as she tipped the valet, the first one told Dick, "I think you've already got more than anyone else." The other lady said, "Everyone adores you…everyone" and I just stood there thinking, "They're both right." Then as they drove off, clearly delighted with that little exchange, I asked Dick, "How often do you get that?" He replied, "I get it a lot and I'm always very grateful. Hell, I'm grateful when people recognize me and don't tell me how much they didn't like my accent in Mary Poppins."

I had a few "golden oldies" on my 1972 mixtape and a few novelty songs. This entry qualifies in both categories. In 1962, the Los Angeles Dodgers — who had not been in Los Angeles for long — had a rousing, grudge-filled battle for the pennant with the San Francisco Giants. It aroused a lot of emotion in L.A. Dodgers fans in part because while most Dodgers games were not then televised, Channel 11 (I think it was) did televise the games whenever the Dodgers were up in S.F. playing the Giants. It created the feeling like those were the only two teams in the league.

Into the middle of this rivalry came Danny Kaye with a song that as far as I know was only released as a 45 RPM single. It was called "The D-O-D-G-E-R-S Song" and it was written by Kaye's wife Sylvia Fine and Herbert Baker. Baker was a longtime writer who worked on Danny's radio shows and later his TV shows and he also wrote movies including a couple for Martin and Lewis and later he wrote Don't Give Up the Ship (a solo Jerry movie and one of the first films I remember seeing) and for Dean, some of the Matt Helm movies. And this 45 record may well be the first 45 RPM record I ever bought.

It came out in '62 but one day around '69, there was some reason I don't recall to play it on KHJ radio and I recorded it…so onto my mixtape it went. There are a few things you should know before you listen to it. All the players' names were real players at the time. The umpire mentioned was a real umpire. Walter O'Malley was the owner of the Dodgers, Walt Alston was the manager and Leo Durocher was a coach. And that year, the National League pennant for which the Dodgers and Giants competed maniacally was won by…the Giants.

Here's the record. As I understand it, it sold a zillion copies in Los Angeles and about four anywhere else…

So not only do I not understand how to watch the new David Letterman channel on Samsung TV, this interview shows that David doesn't understand it either. But it's about other things too and I found a lot of it interesting…

A lot of people are informing me that the David Letterman material being aired now on Samsung TV is not (repeat: not) full shows. It's all packages of excerpts, kinda like one might see someone assemble on YouTube. Okay, fine. I guess part of that is someone not wanting to pay to clear music.

No one, however, has told me how to view these packages of excerpts when I do not have a Samsung TV or a Samsung tablet or a Samsung phone or a Samsung Hair Dryer or a Samsung Staple Remover or a Samsung Anything. I keep seeing online info that says there's a way to watch them on one's computer — I have a PC — but they don't tell me how. Can anyone tell me how?

The Comic Art Professional Society was founded in 1977 by Don Rico, Sergio Aragonés and myself and held its first meeting on June 9 of that year. Last night, it held its final meeting so it was around for 47 years, 6 months and 2 days. It was a gathering entity for folks in Southern California — and a few from outlying parts — who were involved with cartooning in print media, comic books and a few allied areas. I have no idea how many people passed through it but I know a lot of them made friendships or helped their careers or both.

I organized the first meeting and there was a moment there that summarized a reason why then — in June of '77 — such a group was needed. We invited everyone we knew who might qualify for membership and two of those who came were Don R. Christensen and Roger Armstrong. Both were men who'd done a lot in the field of cartooning, mainly in work for Western Publishing Company on its Dell and Gold Key comics. Don was a writer-artist but mainly a writer. Roger was a cartoonist who usually worked on scripts by others. He'd drawn hundreds of scripts written by Don over the preceding twenty or so years…

…and at that meeting, I introduced them to each other. They'd never met before.

That would not happen today. For one thing, we're into a way new generation of cartoonists and comic book people and they know how to network. They go to conventions, they congregate at comic book shops, they e-mail and Zoom and there are all sorts of exhibits and groups where they gather. One of the things that prompted the formation of C.A.P.S. in '77 is that at the time, I was getting quite a few calls from the kind of folks who'd become members asking me, "Do you know a good letterer?" or "I need to find some artists for a project I'm working on." The frequency of such calls has dwindled to almost zero in the last few decades.

So if someone wants to know why C.A.P.S. existed or why it's gone outta business, there's a goodly part of the explanation right there. The group did a lot of good but it just ain't as necessary as it once was and it's also suffered from a paucity of members who were willing to do the grunt work of running it.

I withdrew years ago from the organization but last night, since it was the last meeting, I joined in via Zoom. A group of members were in the meeting hall while my co-founder Sergio and I were "there" via computer. Don Rico, sad to say, passed away in 1985 but I know he was proud of what we'd started. There were speeches and there were anecdotes and I think they had pizza there…and when are the Zoom people going to invent a way to transmit a slice along with the conversations?

And now it's over…except that a lot of people who have aspects of their careers in common now know each other. If not for C.A.P.S., they might never have met or been in a position to help each other. I kinda like that.

Starting today, there's a new channel on Samsung TV that runs clips from old David Letterman shows. And like me, you may be thinking, "What the hell is Samsung TV?" Well, apparently — and this is the first I've heard of this — Samsung TVs and certain other Samsung devices have been coming with their own TV network pre-installed. They have oodles of channels there, all ad-supported I think, and you can tune in your Samsung Whatever and watch any of those channels for no additional fee. And now a Letterman channel is joining all the ones already there.

Here's a little announcement that will tell you more about this but not much more.

So now, you may be asking yourself, "But…but…I don't have a Samsung TV! I love David Letterman — especially the old, unbearded David Letterman who didn't complain about everything and acted like he enjoyed doing his show! How can I watch it without going out and buying a brand-new Samsung TV?" And I'm not sure. There are a lot of articles online that tell ways to do this but some of them seem to be outta-date and some suggest that the rules are changing. So if anyone reading this knows for sure, lemme know and I'll post it here. I'd love to watch some of those early Letterman shows.

Stephen Colbert, asking the questions found in the famous Colbert Questionnaire, asks his guests to name the one song they'd pick if they had only had one song they could listen to for the rest of their lives. If I were ever asked this question, I would name The Piano Sonata No. 11 in A Major by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, particularly the movement known as "The Turkish Rondo." Here is it played expertly by Marnie Laird…but don't be impressed by my taste in music. My second choice is the theme from Car 54, Where Are You?

I have written a few times on this blog about the 1996 Broadway revival of my favorite musical, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. I thought it was a great production and here's what a few of the TV critics had to say about it at the time. You'll see a few clips from it which don't do the show justice…

If you think the asking prices on Stubhub for tickets to see Audra in Gypsy this evening were steep, someone is now offering a pair for tomorrow night for $3,215…and that's for each and on top of that, there's a service charge of $889 each. I'll save you the trouble of doing the math: It's $8,208 for two seats in the Orchestra section…and the seller doesn't even specify what row. There are several other offerings exceeding the price of $893 (plus a $248 service charge) that seemed so outrageous a few hours ago.

Meanwhile, seats in the second balcony range from $123 to $158 with service charges of $37 and $46 respectively. So you can see the show for a sorta reasonable price. You just can't see it from the same zip code.

I don't know what to think of this. I've bought tickets to a few events this way and once sold a pair that I'd purchased but couldn't use. I think I made about $35 on that transaction which seemed to be the markup that others were getting on similar tickets for that particular show. But I'm trying to understand this industry where somehow, some person or company grabs up tickets with a face value of $471 and slaps a huge price tag on them.

I kinda thought it was like, "Okay, I'll ask thousands of dollars for them and maybe there's some fabulously rich guy who'll grab 'em up and if that doesn't happen, I'll mark them down at the last minute as far as I have to to get my investment back." But if they're not marking them down on Stubhub, what is happening to those tickets when they don't sell? They're not going for half of face value at the TKTS booth. I doubt someone is standing outside the Majestic Theater trying to sell them in the hour before showtime.

Someone was sitting in those seats when Audra made her entrance tonight. How did they get those seats, how much did they pay for them and did the theater (or Audra) get any of the selling price over face value? I have some guesses but does anybody reading this know?

George Kresge, better known as "The Amazing Kreskin," has died just a few weeks short of his ninetieth birthday. As I explained in this post here not long ago, I don't like it when magicians — and that's what he was — try to pass off their tricks as genuine mentalism because I don't believe there's any such thing as genuine mentalism. There is only a series of tricks and ploys which some use for entertainment and others use to bilk people out of money. Kreskin did mostly the former and in so doing, he attained a fame (and a lot of bookings) that few of the many, many magicians doing that kind of act achieve.

And already, I'm seeing messages on the Internet from people who knew him and had personal interactions with him that they considered very positive help in their lives. That's a very nice thing to hear. I hope he rests in peace and isn't bothered by a lot of phony psychics trying to contact him.