Mark Evanier's Blog, page 67

ASK me: Len Cella

Dana S. wrote to ask…

What was the name of the bit that Carson would do on The Tonight Show? Some guy would send him an 8 or 16mm reel of film that had a bunch of little skits on them. They'd have a title, then the guy would act out what the title was about. Example: "How to annoy Your Neighbors." Then there would be a movie of a guy I don't think he ever showed his face) sitting on a sawhorse with his legs dangling in two metal trash cans, swing them around making a lot of noise. There'd be several of these per reel. I can't remember what he called them.

The guy was a filmmaker named Len Cella and he called his little films "Moron Movies." Carson ran them on his show for a while and then they wound up on TV's Bloopers & Practical Jokes, a series Carson's company did in partnership with Dick Clark's company. They were called "Silly Cinemas" over there. Here's an example from when they had the former name…

Today's Video Link

Our friend Gary Sassaman is back with another installment of Tales From My Spinner Rack…another penetrating look at comics of his (and my) youth. This time, he takes a look at a short-lived line of romance comics that Marvel tried in the late sixties.

They had great artwork but — and this is me giving my opinion, not necessarily Gary's — they also had the same kind of sappy, shallow scripts that had pretty much destroyed the genre by then. Marvel — actually, a handful of people who wrote and drew their comics — had once revolutionized super-hero comics to great success, injecting more action and personality. But they didn't apply that approach to love comics…as proven by the fact that the books sold poorly.

Worse, their response to the weak sales was not to make the comics more modern but less. They, like DC when their romance line was dying, took old stories from the fifties and early sixties and reprinted them with sloppily-retouched hair styles and wardrobe. It's like someone said, "Gee, this stuff isn't selling because it's out-of-date. Let's try making it more out-of-date!"

I'm not sure the Comics Code, which was then in antiquated force, would have permitted really modern, realistic romance stories but I can't imagine a worse approach than what both companies did. And I'm thinking I shouldn't hijack this intro for Gary's fine video with my views.

Speaking of Gary: On Saturday afternoon at WonderCon next monthj, he'll be presenting a live edition of Tales From My Spinner Rack focusing on The Fantastic Four and I'll be his guest discussing what Stan Lee and Jack Kirby did with that trend-setting comic in the sixties. I'll be doing other panels at WonderCon but again, this is an intro to Gary's video so I'll just shut up and embed…

A Little More on SNL50

Gary Kroeger, who was a cast member on Saturday Night Live in the Ebersol years, reports on his experiences at the big anniversary special/party.

Some "MAGA" folks are outraged at how Tom Hanks portrayed one of their kind on the show. It did strike me that the moment was a little gratuitous and unfair to some…but so is the way MAGA members usually caricature Liberals or other folks they see as The Enemy. Seems like kind of a wash to me.

What I find interesting about it is that so many of the complaints about it included the usual Trump dismissal that the magazine that criticizes him is so unpopular, it's going out of business or the TV show that mocks him is failing in the ratings. That insult is usually just plain wrong. That magazine's doing fine, the TV show's ratings are up, etc. I must have seen a half-dozen people saying something like, "This is why Saturday Night Live's ratings are abysmal"…and they aren't. The show does fine and that 50th Anniversary Special was NBC's most-watched prime-time entertainment telecast in five years.

James Silke, R.I.P.

Photo by Bruce Guthrie

We're hearing that a fine artist and a fine gentleman, Jim Silke, has passed. No cause is yet known but he was 93. Jim's long career moved from trying to draw comics to work as a graphic designer, then back to comics, particularly of the "glamour" variety. Much of his graphic design work was on record albums for Capitol Records and he was a multiple Grammy Award nominee and one-time winner in the category of "Best Recording Package." The time he won, it was for this record…

I took Stan Freberg to a WonderCon in San Francisco one year and Jim asked me if I'd introduce him to Stan. Jim had worked on several of Stan's records for Capitol and they'd never met. It was a very pleasant meeting for both men with lots of compliments exchanged.

Later in life, Jim pursued his personal muse and drew many comics — that's why he was at WonderCon — and became a close and treasured friend to many in the field. Dave Stevens never felt his work was complete until he'd shown it to Jim and received a thumbs-up, and once I saw them spent twenty minutes discussing the way Dave had drawn Bettie Page's foot. The two of them were the experts at drawing the lovely Ms. Page.

Jim was liked and respected by everyone who knew him. Here are a few of the comics he did…

SNL50 – Further Thoughts

I put up that video earlier of all the folks who'd been cast members on Saturday Night Live and I plumb forgot the point I was going to make: It would have been nice if they'd run something like that during the show. It was only two minutes.

I also forgot to say that I think it's inexcusable that in a show that long, they couldn't find more than — what was it? Thirty seconds? — to salute the writers. And yes, I know there have been a lot of them. I'm not saying they should all have been named but they could have acknowledged that there were a lot of them…and that a lot of what you laughed at on the show came from them.

I also should have mentioned the classiest moment in the whole show…

Egg-Citing News

Hey, you remember earlier today, I showed you a photo taken by the guy fulfilling my Costco order? The one who told me they were all out of eggs? Well, when he delivered the order an hour or so later, it contained two dozen Kirkland Signature Free Range Large Eggs (USDA Grade A) for which he charged me $8.41. The Ralphs Market near me — which is usually the cheapest full-service market in the area — wants $7.99 for one dozen of those. That's if they even have them. Another reason we love Costco.

Today's Bonus Video Link

HBO has resumed releasing to YouTube each episode of — or at least the main story of — Last Week Tonight with John Oliver right when it debuts. Last year, they were delaying them for a few days but Mr. Oliver reportedly objected…so here it is. This is his first show back after a hiatus and it's all, beginning to end, about what the Trump Administration is doing. I find myself torn between wanting to watch John Oliver (because I think he's hilarious and usually on-target) and not wanting to watch a lot about Trump (because he continually distracts me from problems I can actually do something about).

I elected to watch this and it's pretty solid and pretty aggravating and you can decide for yourself how much of your life you want to devote to thinking about the runaway incompetence, greed and cruelty now emanating from the White House…

Today's Third Video Link

HBO has resumed releasing to YouTube each episode of — or at least the main story of — Last Week Tonight with John Oliver right when it debuts. Last year, they were delaying them for a few days but Mr. Oliver reportedly objected…so here it is. This is his first show back after a hiatus and it's all, beginning to end, about what the Trump Administration is doing. I find myself torn between wanting to watch John Oliver (because I think he's hilarious and usually on-target) and not wanting to watch a lot about Trump (because he continually distracts me from problems I can actually do something about).

I elected to watch this and it's pretty solid and pretty aggravating and you can decide for yourself how much of your life you want to devote to thinking about the runaway incompetence, greed and cruelty now emanating from the White House…

This Just In…

I placed a delivery order this morning with Costco and my designated shopper just sent me this…

If I understand this Bird Flu thing correctly, this would have happened no matter who we elected last November. If it had been Kamala Harris, Donald Trump would now be leading his supporters in blaming it wholly on the President and maybe the previous one…and saying it would never have happened under his administration.

Today's Video Link

Here's another one of these. Every cast member from Saturday Night Live in two minutes…