Mark Evanier's Blog, page 165

More About Mark's Bad Break #3

It's been 55 days since a wrong move on the tile floor of my bathroom busted my left ankle into a jigsaw puzzle and 53 days since a surgeon whose last name I can't pronounce put it back together. It must have been tough because there were no edge pieces to start with.

I'm still hobbling about my home, still not going anywhere except (a) my bedroom, (b) that bathroom, (c) my office and (d) the hallways that connect those rooms. Each day, pain and clumsiness decline ever so slightly. Each day, I manage to feel a little closer to the day when I'll be back to my old mobility.

When might that day be? One thing I've learned these past 55 days is that the absolutely-true answer to that kind of question is "I don't know." But it's out there…somewhere.

Has any good come of it? Some nice visits from friends and I've lost…well, the scale says about eighteen pounds since before the fracture. But it's probably more than that because I don't know the precise weight of all the metal added to my lower left limb. It's a decent weight loss, all the more impressive when you consider how much less active I am than my norm.

I'd like to thank all of you who sent well wishes, especially the 90% of you who heeded my wish to not hear about that time you broke something like an ankle or your utterly non-professional, you-never-went-to-med-school medical advice. I truly believe that not having to wade through all that has contributed to my recovery.

Today's First Video Link

Two You-Tubers from Great Britain pranked Tucker Carlson, convincing him and his staff that one of them was the Photoshop artist who doctored that photo of Kate Middleton and her children that got to much attention in the past week. I'm not a fan of pranks and I think most of them are just a matter of being a dick to someone…but if one points out how hoaxable so many self-proclaimed "journalists" are, it's for a good cause. Mr. Carlson will not be airing the interview which turned out to be about as legit as the one he did with Putin…

Today's Video Link

In 1966, Desi Arnaz was still trying to reclaim a foothold in the TV sitcom biz, mostly with pilots written by Madelyn Davis and Bob Carroll, Jr., who had served him well on I Love Lucy and The Lucy Show among other programs. This pilot is for The Carol Channing Show, which also starred Richard Deacon (fresh off The Dick Van Dyke Show) and Jane Dulo. Also present in the cast was Jimmy Garrett, who had been on The Lucy Show and there's a moment in there where Richard Deacon impersonates Channing and sounds like he's dubbed by June Foray.

Arnaz produced and directed and one presumes it was Ms. Channing who persuaded Jerry Herman to write the theme song. I have no idea when this pilot was filmed but she left Hello, Dolly! on Broadway in August of 1965. I also have no idea if or when it aired but this film runs 37 minutes without commercials so if it was broadcast, it was probably chopped down a lot. It was not unprecedented for producers to deliver an overlong pilot as a selling tool.

This one didn't go but the next year, Desi, Madelyn and Bob got luckier with The Mothers-In-Law, which ran two seasons, the second of which featured Richard Deacon. Mr. Deacon was not out of work a lot…

Today's Political Comment

Kevin Drum may be the best list-maker on the Internet. He just posted this list of people who worked for Donald Trump in high-capacity jobs — meaning they had a lot of contact with the man — but who now oppose (sometimes vehemently) him getting another four years in the Oval Office.

It includes one Vice-President, two Chiefs of Staff, two Secretaries of State, two Secretaries of Defense, one Attorney General, two National Security Advisers, etc. I guess Mike Pence is no surprise. In a recent interview, he said…

As I have watched his candidacy unfold, I have seen him walking away from our commitment to confront the national debt. I've seen him start to shy away from a commitment to the sanctity of human life. And this last week his reversal on getting tough on China and supporting our administration's effort to force a sale of ByteDance TikTok…Donald Trump is pursuing and articulating an agenda that is at odds with the conservative agenda that we governed on during our four years. That is why I cannot in good conscience endorse Donald Trump in this campaign.

Those are all good reasons from Mr. Pence's viewpoint but I can't help but think there's another good one…something having to do with rope…

Stuff I Might Have Mentioned (But Didn't)

My mention of the comedy team of Johnny Wayne and Frank Shuster brought any number of e-mails that said I should have mentioned that Frank Shuster was a cousin to Superman co-creator Joe Shuster. I knew that, just as I knew that Frank had a daughter, Rosie Shuster, who was an important writer for Saturday Night Live in its early days. I'm just not sure why I should have mentioned this.

I also received a couple of messages from Canadian folks who took issue with me saying that to those of a certain age, Wayne and Shuster were "best known for appearing incessantly on The Ed Sullivan Show." Here, to quote one, is what Doug Cuff had to say…

Unless you're Canadian and "of a certain age," in which case they are best known for having 3-4 comedy specials a year on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Those CBC specials were a seriously big deal. They were a big deal in the schoolyard the next day. They were a big deal in the media. Even my father loved them and he rarely had time for TV.

I get it. People who read the blog aren’t likely Canadian. But at least some of them qualify as "of a certain age." (You and my eldest brother are about the same age.)

Okay, you're right. I should have said it differently. I also received a number of messages about the Fantastic Four radio show with links to this interview with Peter B. Lewis, its producer. Lots of interesting stuff there including the fact that the shows were recorded in the same studios as The National Lampoon Radio Hour, which ran from November of 1973 to December of 1974, but not always as an hour. That was a pretty impressive show and it's often cited as a breeding ground for the kind of material (and many writers and performers) on Saturday Night Live when it debuted in 1975.

The National Lampoon had its offices (and recording studio) at 635 Madison Avenue in New York. That was the same building where the Marvel Comics editorial office was located at the time and this confuses people. The address printed usually in the comics was the official company address, which was then 625 Madison Avenue, a few doors away. The comic books were done out of a surprisingly-small office at 635. Later in the seventies, the whole operation was consolidated at 575 Madison Avenue and it later relocated to Park Avenue South and elsewhere. At times, I felt like they were hiding from me.

All stuff I might have mentioned (but didn't).

Today's Video Link

It's 1959 and someone thinks — not for the last time and maybe not even for the first time — it would be a good idea to adapt Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe series into a weekly TV show. So they cast Kurt Kasznar (not a bad choice) as Nero Wolfe and William Shatner as his sidekick, Archie Goodwin. Not a bad attempt if you ask me…

Today's Political Comment

G. Elliott Morris, who's in the business of analyzing polls, explains why it's way too early to tell. Your guy is not necessarily doomed and his opponent doesn't necessarily have the race in the bag…or vice-versa. Not today. Not 236 days before the election.

Above and beyond the fact that there's plenty o' time for voters to change their minds or merely learn a lot more about who and what they'll be voting for, there are also countless things that could happen that would shake up the race. How much cognitive decline will each candidate demonstrate? What new scandals or indictments will appear out of thin air? What really, really stupid statement will one candidate say? Which way will the economy go and who'll get the blame or credit?

Just too many variables.

Junior's Delicatessen, R.I.P.

I've written here before about Junior's Delicatessen, an important gathering place in West Los Angeles — a restaurant with so many happy memories for me. I wrote about some of them here when the deli that replaced it went out of business.

Well, there will be no more restaurants in that building. It burned down last night. Very sad.

Today's Audio Link

In 1975, Marvel made a deal to adapt the early issues of Fantastic Four by Lee and Kirby into a radio show. I don't know who did the script adaptations but the cast consisted of Bob Maxwell as Mr. Fantastic, Cynthia Adler as The Invisible Girl, Jim Pappas as The Thing, Bill Murray as The Human Torch and Jerry Terheyden as Doctor Doom. Mr. Terheyden also played other villains as did, apparently, other actors. And yes, that Bill Murray was the Bill Murray we all know from Saturday Night Live and so many movies.

Stan Lee functioned as narrator and there were thirteen episodes released. Many years ago, I obtained them all on one LP record plus a couple of tape cassettes and I must admit: I found the first one so tedious and overacted that I never made it to the second one. In fact, I'm not even sure I made it all the way through Episode #1. See if you can…

If you love it and want to hear 'em all, you can find the first ten episodes at this link and the last three at this link. Let me know if any of them get any better than that first one.

Today's Other Video Link

The comedy team of Johnny Wayne and Frank Shuster — best known for appearing incessantly on The Ed Sullivan Show — created and wrote this pilot that starred the comedy team of Jack Burns and Avery Schreiber. One suspects that Wayne and Shuster wrote it for themselves and couldn't get it produced with themselves in the lead roles. (Wayne and Shuster once starred in a short-lived sitcom called Holiday Lodge which was a summer replacement for Jack Benny. I recall it being kinda funny but I was nine at the time and haven't seen it since.)

(One other parenthetical aside: The year before, Burns and Schreiber starred in a summer-replacement series for CBS called Our Place that was produced by Ed Sullivan's company.)

This one — Operation Greasepaint — was directed by Bud Yorkin and at first glance, you might think they were going for the look and feel of M*A*S*H but the movie of M*A*S*H wasn't made until 1970 and the TV show didn't go on until 1972 and Operation Greasepaint was made in 1968. It also stars among other people, a very young Fred Willard and the character actor Johnny Haymer who we talked about back here and who did wind up with a recurring role on the M*A*S*H sitcom. I kinda like this pilot…or at least, I like it more than a lot of pilots that did sell…