Mark Evanier's Blog, page 175

Today’s Video Link

Readers of this site know well of my oft-mentioned loathing of cole slaw. Truth be known, there are a lot of foods I will not eat — some because of my many food allergies; others because I simply don’t like them. And on my “Will Not Eat” list, there are some where I’m not sure. I just know they fall into at least one of those categories if not both.

I can though say with some certainty that my body loathes spicy or “hot” (in the sense of being spicy) foods. There are folks, including seemingly-sane people, who love such foods. I do not and my tummy does not.

So you will never find me in a situation like the show Hot Ones where guests are peppered with questions while gnawing on increasingly-lethal hot wings. I don’t know why anyone would do such a thing but if John Oliver is going to subject himself to such torturous interrogation, I’m going to watch…

Recommended Reading

Vanity Fair has an oral history of the early days of Late Night with Conan O’Brien. I was an instant fan of the program, mainly because of the surprising quantity of solid and ingenious comedy writing. As the years rolled on, the quantity and ingenuity of the writing declined and it seemed like someone decided that the “gold” of the show was Conan ad-libbing and, often, trying too hard to top his guests. But I sure liked the early years that this piece is about.

José Delbo, R.I.P.

Comic book fans and pros alike are mourning the reported passing of José Delbo, the prolific Argentine artist who was probably best known for his long runs on the Wonder Woman comic book. We have no word on a cause of death but he was born in 1933 which would make him 90.

José was a comic artist in Argentina until 1963 when political unrest forced him to flee to Brazil. Two years later, he migrated to the United States where he secured work from Charlton, Dell and Western Publishing’s Gold Key line. Among the many comics he illustrated were Billy the Kid, The Monkees, Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, The Brady Bunch, Hogan's Heroes, Twilight Zone, The Mod Squad and Gold Key’s adaptation of the movie Yellow Submarine. He began drawing for DC in 1969 and his first of many issues of Wonder Woman was in 1976.

He also taught. On Facebook, artist Steve Lieber wrote, “I met him in my first year at the Kubert school. A great teacher- funny, smart, and unwilling to accept any less than our best effort. ‘Mr. Lieber, your horse looks like a dog. Go home and work.’ I will, José. Thank you.”

José was a charming gentleman and a dedicated craftsman. We could use more like him.

Today’s Video Links

0ne of the best things I’ve seen on Broadway was the 1998 revival of the musical 1776. In fact, I saw it twice, once near the beginning of its run and once near the end. The two videos below are from early as indicated by the presence of Brent Spiner as John Adams.

The evening of my first visit, they had a small (but loud) Revolutionary-era marching band outside the theater, celebrating that it had been named some sort of “1776 Week” in New York and there was a pre-show speech by then-Mayor, then-Liked-by-Somebody Rudy Giuliani. Then came the play and it was just perfect. Here’s how it opened…

And here’s the Press Roll featuring excerpts from the show. See why I liked it?

They’re Droppin’ the Trop!

After years of rumors and even announcements that proved to be premature, it’s finally happening: The Tropicana — one of the oldest mega-resorts in Las Vegas — will close April 2 and will soon after be torn down and asunder to build a big, huge, colossal baseball stadium to house the A’s.

The word is that this is not the end of that hotel; that they’ll tear it down, build the new stadium and then at some point build something that will be called The Tropicana on whatever remaining ground there is to build upon. But it’s certainly the end of what’s there now.

Which doesn’t bother me one bit. It has long been a place that seemed likely to fall down on its own if urban renewal didn’t beat gravity to the punch. It was an unremarkable place offering nothing that twelve dozen other casinos aren’t offering and offering better.

No, my regret (if you can call it that) is that another vestige of Old Vegas is biting the felt. Old Vegas, like New Vegas, existed so you could lose oodles of loot at the slots, the tables, the wheels and every other kind of gaming they could offer

The difference was that your losses in Old Vegas could be mitigated a bit by cheap food, cheap shows, cheap rooms and cheap tourist-trappers. New Vegas does away with all that unprofitable mitigation. Oh, you can sometimes score a cheap hotel room but it’s only cheap until they tack on the Mandatory Resort Fee.

And there’s plenty to look at but eventually you’re going to need to eat. Or do something besides sight-see. Anyone want to guess what they’ll charge for a seat to see a game or anything at the [Whatever Corporation Buys The Naming Rights] stadium?

I used to love going to Old Vegas. All I can do now is hope maybe they’re hiding it in Reno or Laughlin.

Greatest Blogkeeping

As I said, the lost posting on this site has been located and restored — and in record time. I posted my request for it at 11:17 AM and helpful responses began arriving at 11:27, starting with one from Corey Klemow. You people are amazing.

The restored post can be viewed here for those who missed it. The video link may now be only watchable on YouTube and the bookmark may be off a few seconds but you can figure that out. Thanks, Corey!

Great Blogkeeping

Thanks to many of you, the missing post has been found. It will reappear in its rightful place shortly.

Good Blogkeeping

A few weeks ago here, we were discussing the Python/Marty Feldman skit I was calling “The Bookshop Sketch.”  Remember that?  Of course you do.

The last posting I did about that had as its subject line, “More About The Bookshop Sketch” and it seems to have disappeared. Some tech glitch in the software or something.

I know that among those who read this site, there are those who use readers that capture the postings here or otherwise retain copies for offline reading. If you have a copy of the post called “More About The Bookshop Sketch,” please help me to its proper place on this blog’s chronology. Thank you.

ASK me: Non-Disclosures

Anthony Escartin sent this one in…

Good day, Mark! I become one of your many fans when Groo was at Epic. When I found your blog, I realized I’d been a fan of yours for even longer, starting from when I was reading Bugs Bunny comics as a child and watching The Wuzzles.

I have a question for you regarding some of the projects you’ve worked on, and some projects you didn’t end up working on. How do you decide which projects you can (or can’t) disclose on the blog?

I mean, aside from the legal stuff like non-disclosure agreements. I ask because in a recent post, you talked about meeting for a job on Barbie and the Oscars, but I’m dying to know about other projects that you don’t mention by name. For example, what was that one show that you worked on for Lou Scheimer and Filmation? Thank you for your time!

In the 52-or-so years I’ve been writing for a living, I’ve had literally thousands of what some would call “offers” but a fairly small percentage of them had any real possibility of turning into real projects. Even if I’d said an enthusiastic “Yes, yes, yes” to that Barbie movie or the chance to write on The Oscars, I’m not sure either of them would ever have turned into anything more than talk.

So a lot of the things I don’t mention here or anywhere are things I never allow myself to think were going to happen or had even a 20% chance. I have friends who get wildly optimistic about every opportunity that’s so much as lightly dangled and that, of course, can only lead to cyclonic disappointment.

I did work on one show for Filmation — a bible and pilot script for a series. A network bought it, I received my series sale bonus…and then the crew at the studio began monkeying around with it, mostly to add elements that could be merchandised. I didn’t like what it turned into so I removed my name from it and am not going to reattach it here. I’ve done that a few times and I think it was the right move. Just in case it was, I’d like to keep it that way.

Today’s Video Link

This is a partial rerun of a post that ran here on November 11, 2019…

In 1977, the film The Goodbye Girl was a surprise smash hit. It had a screenplay by Neil Simon and its two leads — Marsha Mason and Richard Dreyfuss — were nominated for Academy Awards, as was the film itself. Dreyfuss won his category, becoming at the time the youngest Best Actor in Oscar history. Very much a successful film.

In 1992, it was announced that Mr. Simon was transforming his screenplay into a Broadway musical of the same name. If ever an upcoming show looked like a guaranteed smash, this was it. Just the fact that it was Neil Simon and a beloved storyline sold a lot of tickets. When it was announced that David Zippel and Marvin Hamlisch were doing the music and Michael Kidd was directing, they sold more. And they probably couldn't have found two bigger stars to star than Bernadette Peters and Martin Short.

The advance sale was huge. So were the problems during rehearsals and tryouts. So was the disappointment of many when the show finally opened on March 4, 1993. The previous Neil Simon musical, They're Playing Our Song, ran for 1,082 performances. The Goodbye Girl closed after 188.

How could "the show that couldn't fail" fail? There were many factors and in his autobiography, Mr. Simon blamed everyone but Mr. Simon, implying he thought it was a terrible idea to try to make that movie into a stage musical. He didn't really explain though why he agreed to do it. I mean, it wasn't like he needed the money or the credit.

I saw one of the 188 performances and we somehow got tickets at the last minute…in the front row! I liked parts of it, especially David Zippel's lyrics which I thought were often funnier than what was coming out of the actors' mouths when they weren't singing. Before I explain what I didn't like, give me a sec to put up one of these…

There. Read on at your own risk. Like most musicals, the plot was about two people who shouldn't be together and maybe don't even like each other for most of Act One winding up very much in love. Anna never imagined she'd fall for the King of Siam. Marian the Librarian was repulsed at first by the traveling salesman, Harold Hill. Eliza Doolittle never dreamed she'd care about Henry Higgins…and in The Goodbye Girl, Paula McFadden (Bernadette on stage) never thought she'd have anything but disdain for Martin Short's character, Elliot Garfield.

You know how it's going to end before they even start the overture but you're going to pretend you don't, just as you pretend you don't see the wires that fly Peter Pan around, just as you pretend you don't know the ending of any play you've seen before. Well, with The Goodbye Girl, it was hard to pretend. From the moment he set foot on that stage, Martin Short was so funny and so adorable that you got angry with Bernadette's character for not falling in love with him ten minutes into the play. After fifteen, I wanted to marry him. That she kept treating this hilarious, wondrous guy like crap was more frustrating than amusing.

I also thought the set was confusing and that Short snuck in too many Ed Grimley gestures along with the occasional taste of Jerry Lewis. He made you laugh but as Martin Short, not as Elliot Garfield. I liked him better (but laughed at him less) a few years later in a revival of Little Me.

But you can see a little of the show for yourself here. This is the Press Reel offering video excerpts for TV reviewers to use in their reviews…