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August 22, 2002 · 7:00 PM PDT · link

MOST (not all) NBC affiliates run a "classic" episode of Saturday Night Live early on Sunday morning around 3:00 AM.  As per usual for the teevee business the term "classic episode" refers to any episode they have on the shelf...though whoever's programming this slot has generally avoided shows from the years when Executive Producer Lorne Michaels was in absentia.  (Apropos of nothing, I recently heard a former SNL cast member say that the three most unlikely events that could happen in this world were an invasion from another planet, the discovery that Hitler and Elvis were both alive, and Lorne Michaels hiring a cast member who was losing his hair.)

Anyway, for the rerun scheduled for this coming Saturday night or Sunday morn, they're reaching back to 1982 and the Ebersol/Eddie Murphy years .  It's the episode hosted by Drew Barrymore during which viewers were asked to call in — at fifty cents a call — and vote whether Andy Kaufman should be banned from the program.  Kaufman had been wrestling women on the show and being generally obnoxious and that led to this phone-in poll, which A.K. expected to win.  And if he didn't win, he expected to return to SNL in his Tony Clifton identity.  Neither of these occurred and he was reportedly quite upset at losing that outlet for his performing.  Kaufman did not appear live on the episode, by the way.

The Saturday PM/Sunday AM SNL reruns are sometimes worth catching because they run the full, as-broadcast 90-minute episodes, as opposed to the hour-long cutdowns that turn up on Comedy Central and E!.  Generally, chopping a Saturday Night Live to an hour improves things by excising a couple of misfire sketches.  But every so often, a treasure gets lost and it's nice to see the shows in their full length.

August 22, 2002 · 12:30 AM PDT · link

I USED TO HAVE an article on this site about "The Mysterious Cube," an episode of the old George Reeves Adventures of Superman show.  The piece was removed from here because it's included in my new book, Comic Books and Other Necessities of Life (see below) and I figured you were less likely to spring for a copy if I was giving most of it away here.  Anyway, if you recall, I pointed out how gloriously inane and illogical the episode was.

If you want to check it out for yourself, TV Land is rerunning that episode early Saturday morning.  Their website says 3:30 AM Eastern and Pacific time but some cable companies time-shift a bit so you might want to consult your listings.  In honor of this airing, I will repost the article just for this coming weekend.

Also this weekend, I'll be setting my TiVo for the annual Chabad Telethon.  I don't think it runs in every city but it's on in Los Angeles and New York.  It runs Sunday from late afternoon into the evening and it's one of the most entertaining shows of the year, what with great guests, dancing Jews, good Israeli musical performers and the charismatic, energetic Rabbi Kunin.  It's also a very worthy charity.

August 21, 2002 · 12:30 AM PDT · link

BEGINNING September 4th, Comedy Central will begin rerunning each episode of Late Night With Conan O'Brien the day after it first airs on NBC.  Matter of fact, the announced schedule calls for them to run an episode each day Monday-Friday at 7:00 PM and then to rerun that episode the following weekday at 1:00 in the afternoon.  The press release also says two episodes will air yet again on Saturday and one on Sunday.

No word if NBC is going to stop airing a week-old Conan rerun early every morning as part of their "Late Night Overnight" block but if they do, they'll be running episodes that Comedy Central aired two or three times the previous week.  It would also mean that every week, Conan and his crew produce four new episodes but between the two networks, viewers can watch 23 airings of five episodes of Late Night, most of them less than one week old.

I love the program but in an era where most people own video tape recorders, do we really need that many opportunities to see the Masturbating Bear and Preparation "H" Raymond?

Fresh Content: We've added an article I wrote earlier this year about how I had to procure a passport for a TV project that then went kablooey.  Here's the link to that piece.  Also, more photogenic creatures have been lurking in My Backyard.

August 20, 2002 · 7:30 PM PDT · link

YOU PROBABLY can't see it well but this picture, which appears in the current issue of the National Enquirer, clearly shows my good friend Paul Dini between the thighs of superstar actress Catherine Zeta-Jones.  Well, actually, it's just his screen credit as story editor of Tiny Toon Adventures, but his name was scrolling by on the TV set at the precise moment that this photo was taken.  And, hey, her legs are spread and Paul's name is more or less between them.  I know guys who've never had anything even remotely as erotic occur in their sex lives.  If you're waiting in line at the supermarket the next few days, you can get a clearer look at this photo.  Way to go, Paul!

I SPOKE TODAY to a friend of mine who was involved in the now-cancelled game show, Win Ben Stein's Money.  So why does he think it was cancelled?  "Three reasons.  "One was that it was getting repetitive.  No matter how much we tried to wring variations on the format, every episode felt like you'd seen it before.  The second reason was that we never found a sidekick who provided the chemistry that Ben had with Jimmy Kimmel.  And the third reason and, for me, the biggest one was that Ben was winning too much.  People tuned in to see the wealthy, snotty guy get topped by the guy off the street and that wasn't happening often enough."

Then my friend adds a fourth reason: "Actually, the main reason Comedy Central bailed was that they simply figure they've got enough of them.  If the show has any ongoing rerun value, it won't matter if they more than they presently have.  They'd rather put their 'new programming' money into building a library of something else."

HERE'S a link to a website that's right up our alley.  Peter Muldavin bills himself as "The Kiddie Rekord King."  He collects and catalogues records made for tots, primarily those old, theoretically-unbreakable 78 RPM treasures that don't play on most current turntables.  His domain, which features some wonderful images of record jackets, is well worth a visit if only so you can say, "Hey, I used to own that record."  (By the way: It was my experience as a lad that, if you wanted to see that a phonograph record was broken, the surest way was to print the word "unbreakable" on the label.  My friends never could resist a direct challenge.)

August 20, 2002 · 11:30 AM PDT · link

The New York Times has an obit today for Doris Wishman.  (Thanks to Charles Kuffner for calling my attention to it.)  Here's the link.

Also there is an obit for Peter Matz, the terrific arranger and composer.  The Times doesn't mention this but for the last few years, he had been the main musical director for the Reprise! musical series in Los Angeles.  Those of you who attended these shows up at the Freud Playhouse at U.C.L.A. saw him conduct the orchestra and heard him pull together some amazing feats of musicianship with scant rehearsal time.

August 20, 2002 · 2:30 AM PDT · link

Thrilling announcement: I will be a guest at the Victoria Comic, Movie & VideoFest 2002, being held in Victoria, British Columbia on October 5 and 6.  Those interested in attending can obtain more info by clicking here.

August 19, 2002 · 8:00 PM PDT · link

THESE TWO CHILDREN were members of Hal Roach's immortal comedy series, "Our Gang."  You know who wasn't a member of that troupe?  Jack "Freckles" Bothwell, that's who.  We have the whole, sordid story of this shameless impersonator over in the section we call NOTES from me.

IF YOU'RE SEARCHING for comics from the last decade or two from the smaller publishers (i.e., not DC or Marvel), have I got a dealer for you!  His name's Frank Plowright and he operates www.obscurecomics.com, which seems to be well-stocked with off-brand goods.

RUMOR HAS IT we will soon have the chance to purchase a DVD set of the complete Dick Van Dyke Show.  The first release, which I assume will offer the first season, is supposed to occur in time for the Christmas.  If true, this is great news...though I have to admit that, thanks to TiVo and TV Land, I've lately overdosed on the reruns.  Still, though I haven't seen any dealer list this new DVD set yet, the minute I do, I'm ordering.  I can't name another situation comedy that I enjoyed as much as this one...and it wasn't just because of Mary Tyler Moore's capri pants.  Here's a link to the article I have posted here about my visit to a filming of my favorite series.

FILMMAKER Doris Wishman was sort of the female Russ Meyer, cranking out low-budget films featuring ladies with gargantuan, oft-exposed breasts.  The main difference was that her films — like Deadly Weapons and Double Agent 73 — were less well known and a lot grimier.  (The title of the latter refers to its star, secret agent Chesty Morgan and her bust measurement.)  I made it through about half of two Wishman films back in my teen years and for a teenage boy to walk out on movies that feature naked women...well, those had to be pretty crummy movies.  They were...but I still admired her tenacity, banging out bad movies on a shoestring for more than a quarter-century.  Matter of fact, I find the details of her career more interesting than anything she committed to film.

I haven't seen it hit the wire services anywhere but Ms. Wishman passed away August 10 at the age of...well, she never told anyone how old she was but 85 is a good guess.  An episode of Late Night with Conan O'Brien on which she guested is scheduled for a rerun on August 23.

FEW OF THEM are visible but many changes have been made to this website.  They're mostly of a tech nature, enabling me to maintain things more efficiently here.  If anything looks weird or illegible to you, please heed the following steps...

If you have a very old browser — some antique version of Microsoft Explorer you've had since childhood — then upgrade your browser.  Don't do this for me.  Do it because the language of websites is evolving and, any day now, there will be plenty of sites that your passé software will be unable to parse.  So you might as well upgrade now.

If you have a relatively-new browser and something still looks odd, do us a favor and drop an e-mail to our demon webmaster.  He can be reached at this address.

Thank you, as always, for your support.  We've been busy with some deadlines lately so this site has not been updated as often as we like.  We're still busy with those deadlines but several of you have donated via the PayPal button lately and we're feeling guilty about not putting anything new up here.  However, we're not too guilty to resist plugging our new book.  (Speaking of which, here's a link to a nice review we got...)

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