Mark Evanier's Blog, page 100

A Quick ASK me: Alan Sacks

I have a whole bunch of messages like this one from Jim Graves…

I'm probably not the first to send you this, but in case I am, here is an article in the Hollywood Reporter website regarding the death of Welcome Back, Kotter co-creator Alan Sacks. I assume you knew him from your time working on the show, perhaps you even knew him well. If you counted him as a friend, my condolences on your loss.

Thanks but I'm afraid I never met Alan Sacks. He had — and I'm sure, still has — a fine reputation as both a writer and a human being. But I don't think he ever came around when I was working on that show… or if he did, no one bothered to introduce him to me. My loss, I guess.

But I got a number of e-mails about Mr. Sacks and every day or two, I get a message asking "Why didn't you write an obit for So-and-So?" referring to someone else. Sometimes, they presume I had a grudge or something against the person. No. I either never knew the deceased or couldn't think of anything to say about them that had not already been said elsewhere. Please…don't assume I'm snubbing someone who just died. The reason I'm not posting about them is almost certainly not that. It might even be that I hadn't heard about their passing.

Comic-Con News

Just to remind you: Open Registration for Comic-Con 2025 is this coming Saturday, November 23. The online portal to obtain badges didn't work last time they tried this but it should work this time — "should" being the operative word.

If you're going to leap into this mosh pit, make sure you read this page before Saturday and act accordingly if necessary. The convention will sell out and it'll sell out quickly. It always does…and before they even announce a single special guest or event.

This will be the 54th multi-day summer assemblage of the annual event now known as Comic-Con International. And it will be my 54th…unless I can't make it, in which case I'm insisting they call the whole thing off.

Today's Video Link

A few months ago here, I posted a lot of videos of different folks performing the "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat" number from the musical Guys and Dolls. Most of you concluded that the best rendition was the one performed by Stubby Kaye in the movie based on the show…and he (of course) was the first performer to sing that song on Broadway.

I'm not going to post any other versions of "Jubilation T. Cornpone" from the show, Li'l Abner. Let's just agree that the best performance of it was in the movie based on that show, a performance by the man who first performed the number on Broadway — Stubby Kaye…

The Big Question

Back in this post, I discussed a cartoon special I wrote back in 1982 called Yogi Bear's All-Star Comedy Christmas Caper. Among the scandalous facts I revealed about it was that I had Snagglepuss wish everyone a Happy Hanukkah and then someone at CBS had "Hanukkah" cut out of the show before it aired. The special was aired recently on MeTV Toons and some of you tuned in just to see if that forbidden word would miraculously reappear even though I offered to bet big that it wouldn't. Just for the record…it didn't.

Clydene Nee, R.I.P.

Sad to have to report the passing of Clydene Nee, one of the indispensable workers — I think she was a volunteer — at Comic-Con International in San Diego since 1979. Since '89, she was in charge of the Artists' Alley area, a thankless job because there are always way more people who want those table spaces than there are table spaces. She was a huge fan and champion of artists of all kinds and tried to give those precious spots to new artists who needed the exposure and the revenue they might generate.

She did other things at the con — running a projector, coordinating art auctions and seminars. She also worked as a comic book colorist for several companies including Dark Horse and Image. She had recently been having several medical problems, most of them of a renal nature. Her friend Mark Brooks set up a Go Fund Me page for her in the hope of raising $3,000. It very quickly exceeded that goal and currently stands at $27,100. I'm sure a lot of that money came from artists who recognized how much Clydene had done for them. A very nice, giving lady.

Many, Many Years Ago…

Beginning in late 1979, I had about five or six of the most interesting and fatiguing months of my life. I was the Head Writer of a variety show on NBC that starred a very good comedian and two Japanese ladies who were ultra-mega-superstars in their own country but unknown in this one. The program was called either Pink Lady or Pink Lady and Jeff and I'm not fibbing when I say that neither I nor anyone associated with it was ever sure which was the official title. It was on and off the air before we could figure that out.

I've actually been working for about fifteen years on a book about those months — every year or so, I write another chapter — and if/when I finish it and if/when it's published, you will not believe what we, the folks who worked on that short-lived series, went through. It was all day/all night seven days a week with every possible thing that could go wrong going wrong. And in hindsight, it was one of those experiences I wouldn't have traded for the world or a mint condition copy of Batman #1 — whichever's worth more these days.

The photo above is me with Mie and Kei, two very sweet and talented ladies who were collectively known as Pink Lady. We all seem happy in this picture because it was taken at the wrap party when the show was over. I went off to another TV series that people actually watched. They went back to Japan where they were still stars. Every so often, someone asks me about it and recently, it was a gent named Evan Chung who does a podcast that is now online over at Slate.

Evan interviewed Sid Krofft (one of our Exec Producers), Jeff Altman (the aforementioned very good comedian), myself and a few other folks who worked on the show but didn't make the final cut of this podcast. More interestingly, he interviewed Mie and Kei, who I haven't seen since the night of that wrap party. I was delighted to hear that they did not have some of the bad feelings about the whole experience that I could certainly understand them having. They were thrust into an impossible situation just in terms of the hours of work that were demanded of them.

I have other books I need to finish before I finish the Pink Lady book but it's the story of a TV network thrashing about and doing all sorts of crazy things, us having to produce a show under impossible conditions, Sid Caesar, Jerry Lewis, Hugh Hefner and a bevy of Playmates, guest stars who never showed up, guest stars we wished had never shown up, a director who hated the show and was doing it under duress, Roy Orbison, Standards and Practices battles, some wonderful comedy players, crooked agents and managers, Red Buttons, Lorne Greene, an elephant with diarrhea, dancers, balloon drops…and me, a Show Biz Junkie, in the eye of the tornado. I was having what may not have seemed at the time a wonderful experience but in retrospect, to crib the title of a movie that my ex-partner wrote, it just might have been My Favorite (Half a) Year.

You can listen to the podcast here.

Even Stephen

Here's a nice roundup of all the shows written by Mr. Stephen Sondheim with some good musical excerpts.

A Quick ASK me: Garfield Quickies

From Adam Kennedy…

Hey Mark, here's a question that you may have answered on your blog before. On Garfield & Friends (which I love) I remember the slightly uncomfortably titled, "Quickies" were often (always?) direct adaptations of Garfield comic strips straight from the rag to the tube — rather like many latter day Peanuts "specials."

My question is, who was in charge of picking the strips to adapt? Did you yourself browse through the latest "fat cat 3-pack" and choose one that seemed appropriate? Was it someone else's job, or did Jim Davis ever paw a few your way?

Jim and his staff recommended a few. I picked out most of 'em from piles and piles of Garfield comic strips I had here in many forms while working on that show. I think one or two were original but most were from the newspaper strips.

Today's Video Links

Here is the third and final installment in Alton Brown's video crusade to convince people who want to cook a turkey a dangerous way to not use nuclear power or rockets or lava or anything like that but instead to use his invention, the Turkey Derrick. This is somewhat selfless of Mr. Brown since he is not selling Turkey Derricks and makes no money whatsoever if you assemble one.

But even his brainstorm seems a little dangerous to me. Open flame…open canister of peanut oil bubbling away at 350°…seems to me someone out there is clumsy enough to turn that into a disaster even if I never attempt it.

First, here's his third installment as a cautionary note…

Then, here's a video in which Mr. Brown demonstrates his invention and provides a link to more detailed instructions…

And finally, if I was going to cook a turkey for Thanksgiving or any time, I think I'd try roasting it the way Brian Lagerstrom does it. He's my current favorite YouTube Chef to watch and think, "Gee, I wish I could do that." Don't even try to tell me "Anyone can learn to cook" because it always reminds me of Jim Backus in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World saying "Anybody can fly a plane" and then turning the controls in-flight over to Buddy Hackett. We all saw how well that worked.

But really, I do not have the patience, the coordination, the knowledge or the kitchen to cook the way Brian Lagerstrom does. If everyone could do that, there would be no DoorDash, no Grubhub, no Postmates, no Uber Eats…

Today's Single Feature

Did you ever see Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb? You should because Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb is one of the greatest, darkest comedy films ever made. It's currently watchable without commercial interruption on YouTube (and therefore in the window below) so here's your chance.

However, there may be no window below because the folks who put Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb up there will probably stop making Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb available without commercials and will begin inserting ads or maybe even asking you to pay, in which case I will take down the window and replace it with a little box that will say "VIDEO EMBED REMOVED," in which case you can still watch and enjoy Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb but you may have to go somewhere else and pay money and/or watch ads to do this. It will still be a great film…