The Mark and Earl Show

Two of the funniest and media-savvy guys to ever write for TV and cartoons have been Mark Evanier and Earl Kress. They've both been working steadily in TV and comics since the early 1970's. (Kress even wrote a few episodes of "The Oddball Couple" - unbeknownst to me, I thought he was a grizzled old vet up there with all those other guys like Dave Detiege and Bob Ogle, but in fact it was his first TV writing credit.)

They will be commandeering Stu's Show on Shokus Internet Radio this Wednesday at 7 p.m. Eastern, 4 p.m. Pacific. Mark and Earl are scheduled to address many topics, including some that are actually addressed by this website. Be sure to tune in if you're anywhere near the Internet tomorrow.

Rest In Peace, Charles Nelson Reilly

Some News

Well, I don't have to cancel PC World Magazine now! Everything is back the way it was!

Happy Birthday, Duke

John Wayne . . . doesn’t represent The American Man only because he was tall, rugged, straight-talking, confident and impatient. Or because the only person you could imagine having a beer with him might be General Patton. No, his real qualification, often overlooked, is that he understood that life is one long to-do list. That’s what American Men do. They live and die figuring out ways to cross items off. It’s their quintessential trait.

New York Daily News columnist David Hinckley has got it right on target as usual. Happy 100th birthday, John Wayne.

Things To Read Between Innings

Mike Bauman on why the Mets are so much better than the Yankees these days.

From a recent issue of Newsweek, the transformation of Barry Bonds as recounted by George Will.

Maybe I'll Turn Off My TV Earlier Than This Summer

With Melinda Doolittle gone from "American Idol" - who I had picked from the start, and Cheryl Burke and that guy she was dancing with from "Dancing With The Stars" - who I had picked from the start - I better stay away from the races this summer.

Cut To The Chase

Someone at DePatie-Freleng must have thought spy films were good fodder for cartoon plots, and this forms the basis of the final theatrical Road Runner cartoon, "Sugar And Spies" (1966). Still not even close to the finesse of the Jones efforts, this is better than the Rudy Larriva cartoons talked about earlier on this blog. Directed by Robert McKimson and actually made on the DePatie-Freleng lot by the regular DePatie-Freleng crew, it's one of the few DFE cartoons to have an actual score (as opposed to stock cues) by Walter Greene, whose composing skills were given more of a workout over at Walter Lantz. I apologize for the Spanish soundtrack... don't quite know how to get that off. But the intrusions are blissfully few. Here it is. (Thanks to Harry for helping me fix the autoplay problem)

I'm Turning Off My TV This Summer. Here's Why.

Today is the beginning of what we call in the TV biz the "Fall upfronts", which are advertiser presentations which double as the networks' announcements of their Fall schedules. NBC goes first today, ABC goes Tuesday, CBS goes Wednesday (and at that time, CBS would be wise to let the cat out of the bag as to who's hosting "The Price Is Right" in the fall), and The CW and Fox go Thursday.

It's a safe bet, then, that the networks are going to begin peppering us as to which of their fall shows will be the big hits. [ABC has started already flogging its new sitcom "Cavemen". STOP IT NOW.] Sometimes the ruse works ("My Name Is Earl" was flogged by NBC all summer in 2005 and once it got on the air it became a big hit), sometimes it doesn't (CBS' "Smith" which ran, what, two episodes?), but it's always annoying, especially to those of us (e.g. teachers) who don't like to have the start of Fall any sooner than it already is. Therefore, once the final new episode airs this Spring, the TV goes off. I'm probably even cancelling my cable too. So there.

And ditto to you retailers who similarly want us to buy our back to school things in early July.

LET ME ENJOY MY SUMMER!

The End Of The Gilmore Girls

John Ford, an old radio colleague of mine from the bad old days at Y107, called it a mile away.

Yeah, But Throwing Money At The Problem Never Works

Listen to this audio package that hearalded Roger Clemens' return to the Yankees. You'll probably think when you listen to this, "When did Rosie O'Donnell start broadcasting Yankees games?"

(Well, okay, it's actually Suzyn Waldman. Suz, honey, lay the heck off the caffeine, okay? And John Sterling, we can do without your "Thuhuhuhuhuhuh Yankees Win" call. Shut up.)

RANT

As the release of "The Simpsons" movie draws closer, I often wonder how much of that promotional artwork signed by Matt Groening is actually drawn by him. I'm thinking zero.

/RANT

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