Come BlogRolling With Me

BlogRolling is now powering a links list living below the Mackey Brothers links on the left sidebar. It may move to a more prominent place, as we are thinking of some sort of redesign for this page within the next few months.

If I've championed your site in the past and the link's not there yet... patience, my friends.

Rudy Lapick dies

Death notice for comics inker Rudy Lapick, who was one of the mainstays of the Archie Comics bullpen for many years, inking the work of Dan DeCarlo, Stan Goldberg, Bob Bolling, and the other Archie pencillers.

Happy Birthday To ME

Happy Birthday... to my fellow blogger and gent I've mentioned at least several times on this blog, Mark Evanier, who's 52 today. Mark was born on the same day as Laraine Newman of SNL fame.

Happy Leap Day!

Who is probably the most famous person celebrating a once-in-four-years Leap Day birthday today? Well, here are but a few... Dennis Farina, Antonio Sabato Jr., Phyllis Frelich, Dinah Shore, dancer and soap star James "Palmer Cortlandt" Mitchell, motivational speaker Anthony Robbins, rapper Ja Rule, stripper Tempest Storm, bandleader Jimmy Dorsey, composer Giaocchino Rossini, and serial killer Aileen Wuornos.

Speaking of, ahead of tonight's Oscar ceremony, which I believe is the first-ever held on Leap Day, we observe the following. Why is it that the Motion Picture Academy only seems to take notice of women's acting performances when they get overemotional and screaming? Whatever happened to subtlety? Why must the women bring it up to an obnoxiously high decibel level, while the men can sail in with a low-key performance (witness Bill Murray, who my money is squarely on for an Oscar win tonight, and his terrific job in "Lost In Translation"). That probably helps explain why Scarlett Johansson didn't get nominated for her matching work in that film. Part of which explains why the Motion Picture Academy is so out of touch.

Blog On Oscar Night

It's always entertaining to read blogs as the Oscar telecast is going on. Last year, I made my destination Box Office Prophets, which had a panel of its best writers, and the added load of all the Oscar blog readers crashed that site into oblivion for about a week.

This year, my Blog destination for Oscar night is going to be Mark Evanier's News From Me. Mark and I have crossed paths many times over the years, though we have never met. I was a reader 20 years ago of his fine comic books "DNAgents" and "Crossfire", the latter of which included not letters from readers, but very interesting essays on show business. When I was Fearless Leader of APATOONS, Mark was one of our honorary members and was thus entitled to mailings without contributions. Now Mark's running this newsfeed, and it's really a treat to read his opinions on matters big and small, covering both showbiz and politics in equal doses. Professionally, Mark is probably most renowned for writing and voice directing every single episode of the "Garfield And Friends" cartoon series, one of the best Saturday Morning shows when cartoons still ruled that daypart. So go hear with Mark has to say on Oscar night! And hopefully it won't crash!

De-Evolution Of Late Night Television

As exhibited by the NBC late night show announcers

Gene Rayburn
Bill Wendell
Hugh Downs
Ed McMahon
Edd Hall
Stuttering John Melendez

Great. We've got an announcer now with "stuttering" in his name.

Z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-Rod

Fox Sports has random sampling of the A-Rod to Yankees deal. The commissioner should have squashed this one in the bud, because you will now probably not want to care about baseball.

Steinbrenner is fielding a team of overpriced benchwarmers acquired for the express purpose of keeping them off other teams (i.e. The Red Sox). And Channel 11 News was saying this morning that he's not done, he's trying to get Greg Maddux.

And who did the Mets get this off-season that's even name-worthy? Oh yes. They BLEW getting Vladmir Guerrero!

I might be done with baseball if the Yanks take it all... because Steinbrenner will have BOUGHT himself a championship.

Eagle Soars

Check out this op-ed piece from today's Washington Post by musician Don Henley, who paints a pretty sorry picture of today's music industry. (Registration may be required.)

Quite telling is his comment that the music industry may eventually boil down to three major labels - I would assume these to be Sony, Warner and Universal.

Who Will Replace Rod?

Who says no electioneering outside polling places? You are outside the door of the polling place for CBS.COM's
"The Price Is Right" web page. They are soliciting opinions on who would be the best announcer to continue in the footsteps of Johnny Olson and Rod Roddy.

Your choices are the four who have already had on-air auditions: Burton Richardson, Randy West, Art Sanders, and Daniel Rosen.

I'm sure Messrs. Richardson, Sanders and Rosen are nice enough guys, but I implore you: if you have any respect for the tradition of the program and the natural order of progression, your vote must go to Mr. Randy West. Follow the links below to read Randy's tribute to Johnny O, the original "Come On Down!" man from 1972-1985, and then go to CBS and vote Randy. Thank you.

Randy tells the story of Johnny Olson's life and career on his website
CBS - TPIR Announcer Poll

Ooh, "The Chase"

For one brief moment, I thought I was living in Los Angeles... or reliving an old Charlie Sheen movie.

At approximately 5:03 p.m. today, Channels 2 and 7 in New York featured helicopter footage of a police car chase that began in Hunterdon County and ended in a driveway in Bayonne. Such chases are an almost daily event in the Number Two TV market, but in New York they are almost unheard of. Channels 4 and 5 had the editorial good taste not to join their competitiors in the high-skies fray.

The old Charlie Sheen movie I was alluding to was "The Chase", in which Sheen (with Kristy Swanson riding shotgun) eludes cops in a high-speed, high-stakes gamble that is covered by two rival news teams. It frequently shows up on cable to this day. The film doesn't know if it wants to be a serious chase drama, or a goofy sendup of local TV news coverage, but it's one of those movies that has its moments. Mostly when Swanson is on screen.

And speaking of Sheen, how delicious was it seeing Jenna Elfman the other night on "Two And A Half Men"? Hey Chuck Lorre... sign that kid up, she's good! (Yeah, I know Mrs. Elfman and Lorre have a past together...)

NJT and PSCT Mailboxes Closed

Due to problems with spam, I have decided to close the njtbus and psct mailboxes. Please see below for the correct address for pertinent comments.

Also, we had a brief interruption in service this morning due to problems at Webmasters.

Here's The Real Tragedy of The Super Bowl Halftime Show

It isn't Janet Jackson's breast... this is what REALLY hacked me off (because, like the President, I dozed off and missed it)...

http://www.vfw.org/index.cfm?fa=news.newsDtl&did=1579

In total agreement with the VFW on this one.

"MYDOOM" NOTICE

EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY, I AM NOT ACCEPTING E-MAIL WITH ATTACHMENTS. PLEASE ADVISE ME VIA ATTACHMENT-FREE E-MAIL IF YOU WANT TO SEND ME SOMETHING, EVEN IF YOU ARE A "TRUSTED CONTACT". THIS IS BECAUSE OF THE PROLIFERATION OF THE "MYDOOM" E-MAIL VIRUS DISGUISING ITSELF AS FAILED E-MAIL MESSAGES. I GOT 36 OF THESE MOFOS TODAY. THANK YOU,

Mere Alcohol, It Doesn't Move Me At All

I don't know how this escaped my notice, but there is now a Sinatra Wine available in your local liquor store.

BILLY MAY DEAD AT 87

The last standing of the great big band arrangers, Billy May, has died at the age of 87. Billy May was most closely associated with Capitol Records, producing the soundtracks to records for both adults and children (including those featuring Bozo and the Warner Bros. characters). He was a trumpeter and arranger for Charlie Barnet and Glenn Miller. His first work with Frank Sinatra was the album "Come Fly With Me", later migrating to him with Reprise for some great sides including his great arrangement of the Frank Loesser song "Luck Be A Lady", and he worked with many other great singers. He also scored television shows to magnificent effect, including "Batman" and "Emergency". He even supervised the music for Stan Freberg's comedy records. As Freberg's co-star Daws Butler once attested to, he imbued his sessions with much alcohol-induced jocularity, but he got the job done and delivered some great tunes.

Boy, did he get it done. And now, sadly, Billy May is done.

She Had Legs And She Knew How To Use Them

That description suited Ann Miller to a T, right up until her passing this week. Although she made lots of film musicals (and literally had million dollar legs, the value of RKO's insurance policy), Ann Miller will probably be best remembered for a Heinz Soup commercial. That genius of the black art known as advertising, Stan Freberg, engineered a commercial in which a husband (played by Dave Willock) comes home and asks his wife what's for dinner. (So PI!) Ann Miller breaks into a choreographed dance routine and the kitchen splits apart to reveal a dance stage worthy of Busby Berkeley himself. Once she's sang and danced and spread the message about Heinz' soups, Willock deadpans, "Honey, why do you always have to make dinner into a big production?"

Classic Freberg... and the dancing wasn't bad either. Ann Miller kept active in films until last year; her last film role was in "Mulholland Drive" a few years ago. Ann Miller's status as retired dance queen was the parodic source for a mid-90's SNL sketch called "Leg Up!", featuring Molly Shannon as Ann Miller and Cheri Oteri as Debbie Reynolds.

Bennifer: It Is Over, Part Deux

And ET, Extra, Access Hollywood are all wondering, "Why couldn't you have waited a week until the beginning of the Sweeps?"

I still say it was because "Gigli" was such a bomb, and their romance was created just to hype this movie.

The End Of Walt Disney's Florida Studio...

Not since Max Fleischer was left out in the cold (warm?) in Miami and his studio pulled back to New York by Paramount Pictures has Florida experienced such a sad day in animation history as this past Monday, when Walt Disney Feature Animation closed its Orlando, Florida unit, part working facility, part tourist attraction. The studio started small in the early 90's with a couple of Roger Rabbit (remember him?) shorts, then about a reel or two of "The Lion King", then eventually complete features, up to and including the just-completed "Home On The Range". On Monday, the studio employees were given their pink slips and severance, some being shipped out to Burbank to continue their work, others wondering if they can get a job wearing a Mickey suit around Epcot. Anyway, Jim Hill Media has a great series of articles about the studio and its closure, including this one which includes a charming little anecdote about Frisbees being launched onto Sunset Boulevard from the fourth floor of the animation studio, when who should happen by but Mr. Eisner.... read it for yourself to find out what happens next!

Tug McGraw Dead At 59

Just heard the news (confirmed by two Philadelphia TV stations, WCAU and KYW) that former Met and Phillie great Tug McGraw has passed away. He had been fighting cancer, and was apparently stricken while visiting his son and daughter-in-law, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, in Tennessee over the weekend. He was one of the great relief pitchers for both those teams and coined the rallying cry - "Ya gotta believe!" during the 1973 season that saw the Mets win a National League championship for the second time in four years. Tug was 59.

368

No, Sesame Street is not brought to you by the number 368.

Well, let's backtrack. Remember Dave and Robair's Blood Sugar Challenge? Well, we discontinued it a few months back. Not coincidentally, I was getting a little lax in my blood sugar readings and thought I was doing fine until this number was quoted to me by a nurse at the emergency unit at Florida Hospital in Celebration, FL, in the early morning hours of December 31, 2003.

I had a buffet steak dinner and was shopping for souvenirs when I began feeling funny. I went outside for some air, and then went back to my hotel, where I didn't feel any better. After about a half hour of feeling this way I was convinced I was having something... a heart attack, a stroke, a diabetic coma, who knows what.... I had my wife call the paramedics.

It turns out that when I was at the hospital, my heart and lungs checked out fine, but my blood sugar had been an impossible 368. Any higher and I would have checked out for a while. The ER doc gave me a saline IV and I was home within hours, and the following morning my sugars checked out normal, where they have been since.

I don't know if it was the cumulative effect of the various foods I had eaten since on vacation, or perhaps one cookie too many for dessert - but I am now going to be ever more vigilant about the blood sugar readings, and this time I won't have to put them on public display to do it.

I want to thank the paramedics of the Osceola County Rescue department and the staff of Florida Hospital in Celebration for their care. And hopefully my appetite won't get me into more trouble in the future.

Dave On Vacation

Tomorrow morning, I am leaving on a 10-day vacation to the Southland. I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and I will be back with you sometime in 2004, the Good Lord willing. So don't look for e-mail. Don't even SEND me e-mail when I'm away. That means you too, spammers.

Happy Birthday Susan Lucci

Susan Lucci is 56 today.

Somewhere in her house there's gotta be a picture of her with wrinkles, saggy skin and shock white hair.

All of which she certainly doesn't have!

Pushing Prom

I want it recorded to the world that on December 19, 2003, I saw a PROM magazine at the supermarket checkout. Sweet Jesus! I'm sure even the most airheaded and vacuous teenage girls know that it's too damn early to be thinking about "Prom" (as it's now called, somewhere during the last generation, the "the" was dropped), and all the extracurricular activity that goes with it.

Were I still teaching high school students, I would have taken a poll of the teenage girls in my classes to see if they are of the same mind as me - that it's TOO EARLY to be thinking about the Prom in December.

We're Back

Congratulations if you can read this. The Christmas elves reminded us in the (St.) Nick of time that our domain name was up for renewal, and we have done so. You should be able to read this again in a day or so. Meantime, you may want to resend that e-mail... but only if you're not selling me something I don't need or you're not one of my long lost friends from Uganda wanting to siphon money through my bank account.

In Case You Missed It Last Night..

Hope you saw this Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" rerun on Game Show Network... you never know who may show up at the game!

New Horns For Asbury Park HS Band, Courtesy Of...

...The Boss.

As one of the beneficiaries of this weekend's concert performances by Bruce Springsteen and The Max Weinberg 7, the Asbury Park High School Marching Band will step out on its next performance with an entirely new set of band instruments and drums, as well as a nice monetary donation to the program. APHS Band members will attend this weekend's performances and solicit further donations in the hopes of purchasing new uniforms.

The APHS band actually disbanded in the early 1990's when its longtime director Dorian Parreott Sr. retired. I've known Dorian for years and more recently as a member of AFM 399, and remember the glory years of the band program back when I was a high school student. However, the program had been in decline for several years prior to Dorian's retirement. Two years ago, James Dinella was hired and charged with resurrecting the marching band, and this just-ended football season marked the first time APHS fielded a halftime show since the Parreott days.

As an elementary band teacher, I feel it's critical that the students who take the time to learn instruments have a decent place to go when their time is up at their current school. Thanks to Bruce Springsteen and his friends, the kids in Asbury will have greater pride and a better sound playing on their brand new instruments, and hopefully down the road, new uniforms. Who knows? One of them could be the next Clarence Clemons or Max Weinberg!

HELP

Okay, here's the deal. I wrote back on USENET on January 1, 1995...

How did Vanna White's singing debut on last night's pre-taped "Merv Griffin's New Year's Eve" go? To me, it was underwhelming. She sang "You Do Something To Me" from the roof of some hotel in Beverly Hills, then we found out who she was singing about: her son Nicholas.

More exciting than Vanna's singing was what came before it: Mort Lindsey and the band played the new version of the "Wheel Of Fortune" theme, "Changing Keys". It was the exact same arrangement used on the TV show beginning this season.

I have this show on tape somewhere. Only thing is, I have to look through ten years of tape to find it. I sounded a clarion call for this show sometime before, but if anyone out there in the tape-trading subculture has it, I'd like to talk. I have dozens of episodes of Trading Spaces, rare cartoons, all kinds of stuff available for trade... anything out of the Robair Collection of rare game show episodes.... who's got the Merv Griffin ringing in 1995?

"It's an O.J. world again..."

We couldn't agree more with the opinion of veteran writer Mark Evanier on this blog item, but I sure wish Mark and the rest of the news media would not strip Michael Jackson of the last bit of dignity he has - his NAME. The five-letter nickname that appears in most of these reports make it appear that his middle initial should be "T", standing of course for "The".

Random thought

I wish I had a nickel for every clown who had a middle initial "T" and claimed it stood for "The".

New lyric

Spotlight on Arthur Conley (yeah, yeah)
He's our one and only (yeah, yeah)
Singin' "Sweet Soul Music" (yeah, yeah)
Oh yeah (yeah, yeah)

MR. SMITH GOES TO TOMS RIVER

I truly apologize for the late notice on this. G.E. Smith, the former bandleader of Saturday Night Live, will be appearing TONIGHT (Wednesday, November 12) at the Ocean County Library on Washington Street in Toms River, at 8:00 p.m. G.E. will be performing during the awarding of a $19,000 100th anniversary Harley Davidson V-Rod motorcycle, to benefit the library's expansion.

And how's this for a cruel twist of fate! Because of parent conferences at one of my schools, I'm unable to attend.

Damn.

Ocean County Library Press Release
SNL Band Pages

Taps

...But it's the deaths that are a little closer to home that are a little harder to take. I just found out from a fellow union brother that we've lost one of the better reed men in the county, Jerry Walther. Jerry was also a member of AFM 399. I played with Jerry in a few ensembles and what I am most reminded of is his perseverance in learning oboe so he could play that instead of clarinet in the Ocean County College Band.

Visiting hours are Thursday at the Anderson & Campbell funeral home in Manchester.

Gerhard Walther obituary

THE BEST GOLF TEACHER I EVER HAD

Because he taught me how to properly address the ball. You just walk up to it and say....

HELLO BALL!

R.I.P. Art Carney.

BRILLIANT

Wow. This oughta make you buy the Golden Collection. We're going to be reworking a lot of title cards and bullseye graphics over the next few days. They are just so much nicer on the DVD. By comparison...

Okay, not really a fair comparison, because they're from slightly different eras... but hey, the DVD one looks SO DAMN MUCH BETTER.

Rod Roddy 1937-2003

Robert Ray "Rod" Roddy, announcer on "The Price Is Right", died this morning in a hospital in Los Angeles, at the age of 66. He had been hospitalized for the past two months with breast and colon cancer.

Besides "Price", other game shows with Roddy as announcer included "Press Your Luck", "Love Connection", and "Hit Man". He also provided the voice of Mike the microphone on "Disney's House Of Mouse". He had also been a disk jockey, working in the early days of Top 40 radio with such legends of the genre as Todd Storz and Gordon McLendon, and also branched out into radio talk, including one particularly memorable stint at KLIF in Dallas.

A week ago, I appealed to you to send cards and letters into Rod as soon as possible. Nobody would say as much, but we knew that we were going to lose this much beloved member of the Price family.

Looney Tunes DVD's Coming Tomorrow!

We repeat our earlier recommendation of the Looney Tunes DVD's, which are being released tomorrow.

I strongly recommend you lay out the bucks for the Golden Collection, the four-disc set loaded with extras. If you click on the handy link, you can get it from amazon.com at a discount and make your obedient humble webmaster a few cents in the process. I once again suggest this collection rather than the lower-grade Premiere Collection.

All Sitcoms Should Take This Pledge

With the debut of "Two And A Half Men", Chuck Lorre is back in the sitcom business. If you will recall, the 107 episodes of his previous effort, "Dharma And Greg", each had a different message scrawled in very tiny print on the producer's "vanity card" at the end of each episode (basically his production company logo). Lorre has continued the tradition with "Two And A Half Men" but this time he has a halfway decent show to go with them. Check out the show on CBS and read the text of his latest manifesto here, a pledge every sitcom should heed. We'll check back with you, Chuck.

Maybe Rush Limbaugh IS A Big Fat Idiot After All...

With a little more fanfare than he perhaps wanted, Rush Limbaugh has recused himself from his commentator slot on "ESPN NFL Sunday Countdown", or whatever they're calling it these days.

Limbaugh now joins the likes of the late Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder and Al Campanis in the Foot-In-Mouth Hall Of Fame, for controversial comments that the media wants a black NFL quarterback such as Donovan McNabb of the Philadelphia Eagles to succeed.

Don't these guys ever learn? I'm not the biggest Eagles fan, but don't you think that a quarterback like McNabb has succeeded on talent, not because of media expectations? Even a casual football viewer like myself can see that.

Is it too late to bring Dennis Miller back?

Show Us Your Shoes...

The Miss America Parade is on for tonight on the Boardwalk. Winds should be diminishing through the day making it a safe experience for all. The parade was originally to have been broadcast by CN8, but they pulled out. (Not too late to pull back in, guys.)

Tomorrow night is the Miss America show, hosted as previously noted on this blog by Tom Bergeron. If he can handle a tic-tac-toe grid with nine stars, then certainly he can handle 51 beautiful women competing for scholarship and other awards.

SNL Band In Vegas, Baby!

The Saturday Night Live Band has a Vegas gig to warm up before kicking off the show's 29th season. They, along with vocalist Christine Ohlman, will be at Bally's on Wednesday, September 17. Contact Bally's for more information.

In other SNL Band News, happy belated 55th birthday to trombonist Steve Turre, and a shout out to Katreese Barnes (and yes, we will fix your spelling!) for the nice e-mail and pointer to her website, www.katreese.com. The site is currently in the lab for an overhaul to be rolled out on Season Premiere night!

"BENNIFER": IT IS OVER

Why I take particular glee in the apparent end of Ben and Jen, I don't know. But I do. I've seen these sort of things before. Relationships that look like they're more designed to promote movies than true romance. Once "Gigli" failed, that was the final nail in the coffin.

9/11

This pic by Trevor Logan says all that needs be said today.

Warren Zevon dead

I saw Lon Chaney walking with the queen, doing the Werewolves of London.

I saw Lon Chaney Jr. walking with the queen, doing the Werewolves of London.

I saw a werewolf drinking a pina colada down at Trader Vic's.

His hair was perfect.


Thanks, Warren.

48 Hours... 2 Designers... 1 Carpenter... $1,000... 4 Friends... And Your Ol' Pal Dave!

Yes, that's a davemackey.com navigation flag with Paige Davis' picture on it. That can only mean one thing... Trading Spaces is coming to davemackey.com!

In the true spirit of Trading Spaces, our Trading Post is presently under construction. Amy Wynn is out in Carpentry World building me some bookshelves and a love seat. Some designer bios and other graphics are missing from the pages, and we're working on cleaning it up (without benefit of that nifty speed up music, unfortunately). But what we hope will be the true meat of the site will be our Episode Recaps of all Season 4 episodes. Season 4 begins tomorrow and you can expect to see the recaps - some authored by me, some authored by Robair - on the Monday after new episodes air. We will also have episode galleries so you can see what we're talking about.

Why is davemackey.com doing this? Because televisionwithoutpity.com doesn't want to any more. For them to discontinue coverage of this show at the height of its ratings popularity can't possibly help their credibility. (I'm waiting for tvtome.com to recap the "What's My Line?" that aired the other night where Groucho Marx literally hijacked the show and made it into something a plane more zanier than your garden variety episode of "You Bet Your Life". But I digress.)

So join me, Robair, Gen, Hildi, Doug, Ty, Amy Wynn, Paige, Rick, Barry, Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds and the entire crew as we do Trading Spaces... MACKEY style!

New Contact INFO

Psst... look down below for new contact INFO.... many of you who have been in regular contact have gotten my new private address... if not, send a line to INFO and I will make sure you get it. (It's not clickable for security reasons.)

UPDATE: I have already started receiving SPAM at this address. Please be advised that all SPAM sent to the INFO address will be reported!

Fox News Is A Big Fat Idiot

Fox News has dropped its lawsuit against Al Franken, over his new book that includes the words "Fair And Balanced" on the cover. "Fair And Balanced" is ostensibly a trademark of Fox, but they don't really use it too much. (It got a workout a few Fridays ago in weblogs around the country on Fair And Balanced Day.)

The Fox spokeswoman, announcing the dropping of the case, said (paraphrasing) that it's time to return Al Franken to the obscurity to which he is accustomed.

Excuse me? A charter writer and featured player for "Saturday Night Live"? A political pundit? The man who wrote "Rush Limbaugh Is A Big Fat Idiot"? Obscure? Lady, they don't even know your name, so I wouldn't talk if I were you.

(By the way, scroll down to the August 13 blog entry if you want to order Franken's book and support further davemackey.com projects.)

IMPORTANT NOTICE

Effective IMMEDIATELY, I will NO LONGER BE ACCEPTING E-MAIL AT dave@davemackey.com DUE TO PROBLEMS WITH THE SOBIG VIRUS. Please give me some time to set up a new secure e-mail box and we will be in touch again soon.

Fair And Balanced - What Have We Learned?

Well, we have come to the end of Fair And Balanced Day. What have we learned?

• I wasn't alone in this endeavor. Neal Pollack led the way, along with Noam Alaska's "Demagogue" blog, the-hamster.com, Brian Plank's Helmethead Journal, Andy Ihnatko's Colossal Waste Of Bandwidth "Yellowtext" (the Bear and Valance version), and Mark Evanier's News From Me; if you know of others, pass them along and I'll update this entry.
  
• Dotto was cancelled in spite of the fine job Jack Narz did
  
• A butcher still won't give you a quarter pound of rump roast in New York City - you can't get there until the subways start running again
  
• Frank Buxton is still the man
  
• The Brits kick our ass when it comes to Batfink sites
  
• No matter how small you make Dakota Fanning's picture, her movie still sucks

One interesting sidelight to Fair And Balanced Day and the man whose bacon we are trying to save: I was flipping channels yesterday afternoon, and on Encore was the movie "Trading Places", and there, as an Amtrak baggage handler, was the man himself, Al Franken (super: "AL FRANKEN"). He was there along with his writing partner of those years, Tom Davis.

And Idi Amin is dead! My, how the once-mighty have fallen.

Batfink Rocks The UK

We continue our quest to be Fair and Balanced by bringing you news of a relatively new Batfink website, an official effort from the show's UK distributor. The URL is www.batfinkuk.com. (Just be fair and balanced and remember who was first on the web with a Batfink site!)

FRANK BUXTON SPEAKS

In our ongoing attempts to be Fair And Balanced (and make sure the "And" is capitalized), I wish to acknowledge this blog entry by Mark Evanier, who is also observing Fair And Balanced day. It includes a quote from the extremely fair and balanced Frank Buxton, who was half of the regular voice cast of "Batfink" and happens to mention the other half, Len Maxwell, in his quote. It seems that both Maxwell and Buxton, as well as actresses Julie Bennett and Louise Lasser, comprised the voice cast (and all took writing credits as well, to make a fair and balanced point) on the Woody Allen dub-fest, "What's Up, Tiger Lily?" (Buxton also hosted a game show, a kids show called "Discovery" and was the writer of the famous "Password" episode of "The Odd Couple".)

Power Outage Creates Unfair, Unbalanced Situation

How can butchers in New York give customers a fair and balanced quarter pound of rump roast when the scales are down due to the power outage? Mercifully, davemackey.com headquarters were spared the carnage (we did have a little brownout at the time the power went out - 4:11 p.m.), so we can continue to observe Fair And Balanced Day, on which we tell Fox's lawyers to stick it and support the work of Al Franken.

Al Franken would probably tell you so himself in as many words: "So I used 'fair and balanced' in the title of this new book, written by me... Al Franken. So what?"

Beverly Offers Fair And Balanced Account Of Dotto Cancellation

So was the fix in? CBS seemed to think so as it broadcast the final episode of "Dotto" on this date 45 years ago. The following Monday, people saw "Top Dollar", a more fair and balanced quiz with Warren Hull, instead. Read the account of "Dotto"'s cancellation here.

Happy Fair And Balanced Day!

Friday is Fair And Balanced Day at www.davemackey.com. This article reveals why. Of course, this is a side result of Fox News Channel suing Al Franken (former "Saturday Night Live" writer/cast member) over the use of the phrase in the title of his book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right, available from our partner amazon.com by clicking the book's little ol' title.

Okay, so I'll never get on Pat Sajak's show this way, but who cares.

Incidentally, we have now put permanent links up leading out to our General Store. We have some of the forthcoming "Trading Spaces" merchandise (specifically the new episode guide and trivia books coming out in November), but we have some big news coming soon regarding this series, a website that has decided not to recap the show any more starting with the fourth season premiere on September 6, and a website that is planning to take up the mantle on that date in that same snarky, catty manner. Anyone we know? Why don't you come back here on September 8 and find out?

"Chicago"

You have it coming yet? If not, click the pic and pre-order the great movie adaptation of the musical Chicago from our partner, amazon.com!

WB Cartoons On DVD Soon

As mentioned earlier, Warner Bros. is releasing its Looney Tunes animated films on the DVD format for the first time in late October.

I strongly recommend you lay out the bucks for the Golden Collection, the four-disc set loaded with extras. If you click on the handy link, you can get it from amazon.com at a discount and make your obedient humble webmaster a few cents in the process. I once again suggest this collection rather than the lower-grade Premiere Collection.

Watch The Haskell On ESPN2

Be sure to watch the live coverage of the Haskell Invitational today on ESPN2, live from Monmouth Park in Oceanport, NJ (5:00 p.m. Eastern, post time approx. 5:40 p.m.). I'd love to go in person, but I am wrapped up with a major home improvement project that has to get done ASAP.

The race is sure to be the best in years, with a field headed by Funny Cide, but listen closely for the Call to Post. Frank Hughes, who also conducts the Dover Township Municipal Band every Friday night in the summer months (come on out and see us!), and has a long list of other musical accomplishments, has been the resident Monmouth Park bugler for 30 years. Frank explained that you'll likely not see him on camera because that's not ESPN's style of coverage, and also because some buglers like to ham it up for the camera (which Frank is certainly not guilty of). And he's the guy who was honored a few weeks back with the Speed Limit 55 sign, for obvious reasons.

Dear Robert G. Allen,

I don't know you from Adam. I don't want to know you. Would you PLEASE stop sending me your e-mails? I would like to receive some correspondence just one day without having to wade through other crud. I don't know if it's you, but I am now getting as many as five copies of the same e-mail.

Best regards,
Dave Mackey

Bob Hope 1903-2003

Bob Hope has died.

Now may seem like an appropriate time to say "thanks for the memory", but recently, the memories are all we had of the illustrious Mr. Hope, as old age finally caught up to the man and he retreated into seclusion sometime in his 90's.

Which Bob Hope will I remember? Possibly the 1940's-1950's era model, when he gained his greatest fame to that point in motion pictures. Sure he was a comedian, but for a funny guy he made a terrific leading man! And you know, those "Road" romps weren't too bad either, paired with perennial nemesis/pal Bing Crosby.

But he encompassed the world of entertainment. He did it all. Music hall, radio, theatre, film, television, live performance. Millions of soldiers' tenuous existence was buoyed by a holiday visit by Hope and his USO troupe, with the Les Brown Band Of Renown in tow, from all theatres of war from the Second World War through to the Persian Gulf War.

Kobe's Accuser Named

This column from Chicago Sun-Times columnist and sometimes movie reviewer Richard Roeper, published on Tuesday, made note of the fact that the name of Kobe Bryant's accuser of sexual misdeeds will be brought public in a hurry.

SO, a nationally syndicated radio talk show host, whom I shall not name, indeed divulged the identity of the woman allegedly sexually assaulted by Kobe Bryant.

Hey, at least the Blue Dot Lady got her fifteen minutes of anonymity. But, as Roeper correctly admits, that was before people began living their lives in the hyper-public glare of the Internet.

Tom Bergeron Taking Over "Miss America"

It's with a twinge of moroseness (morosity? mority?) that I announce that ABC has let Wayne Brady out of his commitment to host the Miss America pageant (which is a word that ABC prefers not to use).

The replacement, Tom Bergeron, has proven his talent over the years as host of "Fox After Breakfast" and "Hollywood Squares" - but it seems to me that the real reason ABC replaced Bergeron is that Brady is no longer a network personality, with "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" no longer on the schedule, and his "Wayne Brady Show" showing up on stations other than ABC's. Bergeron, however, is an ABC company man for purposes of hosting the pageant, by virtue of his hosting "America's Funniest Home Videos" (on which he has become the best of the procession of hosts the show has had, going all the way back to Bob Saget).

In the old days, Bert Parks, Ron Ely and those who came after him weren't hired for network promotional value. But as the network exerts increasing control over the pageant and its contents, the network seems now to have final approval of hosts, which explains the decreasing calibre of hosts: we regress from Regis Philbin and Kathie Lee Gifford (their talk show is from another Disney division), to the likes of John and Eva Callahan ("All My Children"), and Meredith Vieira ("The View"). (Hey, Meredith, I'm still waiting for my date in the Hot Seat.) Pretty soon ABC may get its secret wish and move the pageant out of its 83-year standing Atlantic City home base to Orlando - making it yet another disposable Disney dream-come-true ending.

Revised Link for "Mets By The Numbers"

Mets By the Numbers had a bad link down below - use this one!

Production No. 1291... hit it

Nicholas Schager's review of "Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over" begins with the words "In the grand tradition of 'Lumber Jack-Rabbit'....'Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over', the 3-D finale of Robert Rodriguez’s cutesy children’s franchise that now stands as frontrunner for 2003’s most mindless and physically offensive moviegoing experience."

I dunno... this look offensive to you?



Some may think so. Happy 50th birthday, 3-D!

Happy Birthday Frank Hughes

Happy Birthday, Frank! (Yeah, I know it was yesterday...)

Neat Site

Neat Site of the day is Mets By The Numbers, a neat listing of which Mets wore which uniform numbers over the 41 years the team has been in existence. Neat Fact: until Mark Clark changed from No. 00 to No. 52 on June 5 of this season, no Mets player had ever worn the number 52 in a game (as 52 had been issued primarily to coaches over the years). You long-suffering Mets fans like myself can scan the listings of each number and reacquaint yourself with the names players of the past. (It's like listening to a variation on Dave Frishberg's song "Van Lingle Mungo" at warp speed.)

BB4 Participant Out The House - And It Hasn't Even Been A Week Yet!

CBS needs to get its crap together on the Big Brother 4 website and admit that a contestant has been expelled from the game already for throwing chairs and having hissy fits because his ex-girlfriend is playing the game too. CBS got its money shots out of that one, for sure.

On the other hand, anyone see that mess on Fox last night called "Banzai"? What pushed you over the edge enough to turn the channel? The chicken levitated by a fleet of helium-filled party balloons? The one-legged striker facing off against the one-armed goalie in a battle of soccer amputees? Or the game of "chicken" played by two old ladies in wheelchairs? I think it was the cumulative effect of it all that eventually made me leave the room in disgust.

LOONEY TUNES DVDS ANNOUNCED

It is official. Warner Bros. has announced a release date of October 28, 2003 for the "Golden Collection" of Looney Tunes on DVD. A 4-DVD box set, it will include 56 classic cartoons plus voluminous bonus material. As soon as it is available from amazon.com, I will make a link available so you may purchase it through this site.

Buy Elizabeth McCracken Books

We now have the books of Elizabeth McCracken in our General Store. While not a personal acquaintance, I have known of Ms. McCracken's work for quite some time through a longtime friendship with her brother, PC World Editor Harry McCracken. Both McCrackens are outstanding writers, but Elizabeth's work is quite thought provoking.

Big Brother: Why Bother?

I could give a flip about CBS's sneaky-peeky hidden camera show this time around. I think the problem with these shows is that the novelty wears off after the first couple. I definitely don't like the ex-SO factor, and someone needs to do something about that Julie Chen. I will pass this season and have more fun this summer.

"Chief Halftown" Dead

The city of Philadelphia embraces its local television personalities like no other, especially its kids show hosts. Philadelphia was the home of such luminaries as Gene London, Sally Starr, Captain Noah, and one of the originals in the market, Chief Halftown. A full-blooded Seneca born Traynor Ora Halftown, the Chief was a fixture on Channel 6 (variously known over the years as WFIL-TV or WPVI) from 1951 to 1999. He had been seen for the last several decades in a Saturday morning time slot, usually featuring the young talent of the region. The Chief died yesterday near his retirement home in Brigantine, NJ, at the age of 86. Funeral services will be held Tuesday morning at St. Thomas Church in Brigantine. (Image courtesy WPVI)

Or Not

Look to the right for the Blood Sugar Challenge.

Bus Gallery

Whole buncha new stuff in the Bus Gallery tonight!

Address Correction - Hal Seeger Productions

Send your cards and letters of support to Hal Seeger Productions, Inc., P.O. Box 231117, Great Neck, NY 11024. And tell em Dave sent you!

SPAM ALERT

Be ware of ANY e-mail message that purports to be from "Pepsi Contest" or other entity. It is a WORM called "So Big". Body of email message says "Please see attached zip file for details". Inside that ZIP is a .PIF which is usually BAD NEWS.

We are soon going to be making a major policy statement on e-mail to this website. Please watch for it, particularly if you are a regular correspondent.

Found The Icons

We apologize if you noticed missing icons from this page yesterday. We had to do a quick change on the page and had no access to Blogger. We tried to do it via FTP but the Index page was looking for all the graphics in a different directory (if you ever save pages in Internet Explorer, you will understand what I am talking about).

Now It's Your Turn To Come To Batfink's Rescue!

There's a reason this icon is at the top of the stack you see at the left. We have always been staunch supporters of the plutonium-infused bat with the wings of steel and the supersonic sonar radar. After what seemed like an eternity (I think we went online with it in 1996), my little Batfink site has finally attracted the attention of the Seeger family, who couldn't be more pleased that we are keepers of the flame.

I am pleased to announce that Batfink's snail mailbox is now open! Hal Seeger Productions wants to hear from Batfink fans! What are your memories? How would you like to see Batfink as he prepares for his big comeback? Revival of the classic cartoons? New cartoons? Maybe even a feature film? The possibilities are endless.

Send your cards and letters of support to Hal Seeger Productions, Inc., P.O. Box 231117, Great Neck, NY 11024. And tell em Dave sent you!

Still Teaching in Toms River Next Year

Tomorrow is my final day with full classes at the three Toms River high schools as Orchestra Director. As I pass the baton back to my predecessor who will be returning from maternity, I receive another baton from a retiring elementary teacher and will be teaching in two of the Toms River elementary schools next year, specifically North Dover and West Dover. I look forward to be giving lessons and running the bands for the Pirates and Blue Jays.

Don Pardo Hanging In There!

You get a gold watch for retiring after 30 years. Assuming at some point Don Pardo retires, what does he get? Today was his 59th anniversary of his hire by NBC Radio Network. He still carries his original ID card, noting his date of hire as June 15, 1944. Keep em flying, Pardo!

BTW, has anyone else beside me who tracks voiceover activity notice that Jackson Beck has pretty much disappeared from the scene? Up until a few years ago Jackson, who turns 91 in June, was still doing commercials and film roles by the score. I think the last thing he ever did was a commercial for Infusium hair care products. Maybe he retired at 90? Hope he's still well. Jackson Beck, of course, was in a ton of Paramount cartoons and was the narrator of the Superman radio show. (How does this tie into the item above? Jackson Beck once did a voice over for a SNL skit. What it was I can't remember. They didn't totally rely on Pardo in the show's formative years. Dan Ingram narrated a skit about a kid addicted to video games, and Bill Wendell was the narrator on the "Spud Beer" fake commercial.)

More "Trading Spaces" Books

Now available for purchase in the General Store are some new Trading Spaces items. Three soon-to-be released books and a calendar you can order now. (You can literally order them now by clicking on each which will take you to our partner, amazon.com.

Chicago Rolls Into Town

I saw Chicago last night. Not the movie, silly, the GROUP that's now on the road in its 37th consecutive year. Jimmy Pankow is still THE MAN.

Big Seeger News

Oh, and there is some exciting news coming soon to the Animation pages, specifically, the Hal Seeger pages... more to come on that.

Answer: The Violin

I was watching "Millionaire" and one of the questions yesterday was "The concertmaster of a symphony orchestra plays which instrument?" The idiot contestant had to use two lifelines, his 50/50 and his Phone-A-Friend (or, to make a pun that only those close to me will appreciate, perhaps his Phone-A-Freund?)

Happy 100th!

Bob Hope made it to 100. Next...

99.99999 years old!

At this writing, Bob Hope has one day and a little less than four hours, West Coast Time, to go to make it to 100.

Whatever you do, Bob, don't sneeze.

Buy Iraq Cards

Forget about the offers your e-mail spam is filled with. You want the
Iraq's Most Wanted Playing Cards, you gotta go through me. Only $6.99 through amazon.com and I get a little spiff on each deck you buy.

Bus Shop

The Bus Shop is now open. We offer Jim Lehrer's memoir "A Bus Of My Own", and the Iconografix series of bus history albums, everything from Yellow to Mack to Flxible to Prevost to MCI. Visit, and more importantly, buy!

Dave Mackey and Amazon Team Up To Bring You Stuff

Years ago the slogan was "I wanna be Like Mike." Now, you can be like Dave and shop like Dave, thanks to Dave's partnership with amazon.com. Your purchases will help defray the costs of this website. First up is the Cartoon Shop. There are only a handful of items available, but please visit. We will be adding more as events warrant, and hopefully something new from Warner Bros.?????????

We will also be featuring a Music Shop and a Bus Shop. Also, a General Store, for things I recommend that don't fit into one of the three main areas of the site; right now, we have a selection of "Trading Spaces" books and videos. One other thing: unless otherwise noted, all videos are in DVD format.

Take This Class Trip

I don't know if I will be updating the Music page this weekend, but I have a couple of dates this weekend. Tonight (Friday), I will be part of a hastily-thrown-together horn section that will be accompanying Class Trip (see Blog item below) at their appearance at the Hub, on Hooper Avenue, in Toms River. We start playing about 10:00 p.m. Come on out and say hi to Jesse, Mary, and all the rest of the Class Trip crew.

On Sunday, I will be appearing with the Holy Spirit Ringers of the Manahawkin United Methodist Church at their Handbell and Choir Concert. The church is on Stafford Avenue in Manahawkin, and a free will offering will be taken during the performance to help buy equipment and music for the ringers. I will be conducting one of the joint choir and handbell selections, "Let All The Church Rise Up With Praise", by Forest Green.

"Toon Heads" Tribute to Norm McCabe

This is more a reminder to myself than anything else. Cartoon Network's "Toon Heads" will be repeating their much-heralded one-hour tribute to the 1940s cartoons of Norm McCabe on Sunday, May 18 at 8:00 p.m. McCabe, who is now 92, is the sole surviving WB Cartoon director of the classic era.

Class Trip Band

I know two-fifths of this band. They're the guy and gal at the flanks of the top row. Jesse Frack and his wife Mary Buck have been colleagues of mine in a little band I play with once in a while called The Brass Tacks, and they have been playing out for ages. Check out their site then go and see them sometime!

Blanche The Singing Bartender

As regular readers of this blog doubtless know, my father-in-law died rather suddenly a few months ago. One of his great joys, and one which he has passed down to at least one of his children, was frequent visits to Atlantic City, and Al regarded the Tropicana Casino and Resort as one of his favorite haunts.

While in A.C. on other business, I visited the Tropicana for the first time in several years and was pleasantly surprised at some of the changes - and some things that have stayed blissfully the same.

When the Mackeys were regulars at the Tropicana, the management discovered a young vocalist who was singing while tending the bar at a local nightclub, so the wisdom was that this was a good thing and Blanche Travis Morro began her run as Atlantic City's Singing Bartender at a small bar built for her at the Tiffany Lounge in the Trop. She gained great fame doing this culminating in a national TV appearance on "The Rosie O'Donnell Show". About a year or so into her run, Blanche was taken out of the bar and onto a little stage. It wasn't the same. By the time we switched alliances to Caesar's, we had written off Blanche as a failed noble experiment. Apparently there was some sort of contretemps with a labor union over what she was doing, but that seems to have been settled in Blanche's favor.

Happily, my recent visit to the Trop found Blanche back where she belonged, behind the bar, serving beers and singing as she has for the past five years. You can visit Blanche at her official website, or better still, catch her at the Tropicana.

While some newer slots have been added, the Trop's video poker offerings remain as they have been, using mostly older-model IGT and Sigma machines (part of the place's charm is that they still hang on to these older machines - which still work quite well). The progressives remain where they have always been, but one bank of poker progressives seems to have disappeared for good. New areas have been added with a new hotel tower on the way.

Al would have loved it.

New Home For Coolest Showbiz News

Now this IS cool news!

Mark Evanier, a veteran comedy/comics writer and showbiz observer, has relaunched his newspage (now a blog) features that previously appeared under a variety of other web addresses, at the new address newsfromme.com (News From M.E.). He usually updates several times a day when fancy strikes, but look for the can of Campbell's Cream Of Mushroom Soup that indicates that Evanier is on deadline for one of his many projects and won't be updating the site. One day he had 3-1/2 of them in a row. He must have really been working that day.

NEWS ITEM: The National Network (TNN) To Change Its Name To Spike TV

No word yet if Lifetime is going to change its name to Muffy TV.

Get A Horse! Or A House! Whatever!

I get the weirdest spam. I got one today that said I could get a loan for my HOURSE or car.

My house or my horse?

At least I have a new word I can pop into my Spam Filter. (I do have one. I'm not bothered by those pesky e-mail attachments that are actually spyware or worse - I just don't accept E-mail with those type attachments any more.)

Y107 Bloc Is No More

Once upon a time, there was a quartet of radio stations in the New York City area all calling themselves Y-107, first simulcasting a country format, then, at the failure of the country format, a Spanish language format. All broadcast on 107.1 FM.

Those days are now gone.

The Y-107 group has been officially broken up by new owner Nassau Broadcasting (former owner of several Jersey Shore stations including WJLK, WADB-AM, WOBM, etc. now part of Millennium Radio Group). Two of the stations are carrying the signal of other existing stations - the one in the Hamptons is featuring WLIR and the one in Westchester is featuring WSPK-FM Poughkeepsie - but for now the Long Branch Y-107 and the one in northwest NJ are silent. Nassau may be selling the two New York stations and holding on to whatever stations it still has in NJ.

Whatever format the Long Branch Y-107 takes, they may need to look for new office and studio space. Their old headquarters at 156 Broadway are currently being renovated into more modern office space. (The station originally occupied the second floor of a building that also housed a luncheonette and a thrift store on the first level, both of which went out of business during my four-year tenure at Y-107 in the late 1980's.)

Ass Kickin' Salsa

Unabashed Plug of the Day to originaljuan.com and their line of aptly titled "Pain Is Good" salsas. Right now I am tasting their Batch #37 Habanero Salsa. (I actually ate my last cracker of it about ten minutes ago, but the flavor really stays with you.)

Caution: this is HOT STUFF. Your gums will ache and probably bleed, but it's worth it. I got an almost one-pound jar, and you don't wanna go too crazy with it.

I am dying to try their Batch #37 Jalapeno Chile Con Queso.

Happy Birthday, Bob Elliott

Today is the 80th birthday of Bob Elliott. You young uns may know him as Chris Elliott's father, but he's one half of the great radio comedy teams of the 50's and 60's, Bob and Ray. Together with the late Ray Goulding, Bob and Ray fabricated a very subtle, literate brand of radio humor, with such fixtures as Wally Ballou and Mary Backstayge, Noble Wife delighting listeners of many New York stations, including WOR, WINS, WCBS, WHN, etc., influencing along the way the likes of Johnny Carson and Garrison Keillor

David Hinckley, writing in today's New York Daily News, notes that Larry Josephson, who is the official archivist of all things Bob and Ray, notes that the comedy routines are being preserved on compact disc and are available for purchase at bobandray.com.

Unfortunately, although listed in their catalogue, no longer available for purchase is a 90-minute comedy special they did in the late 1970's called "Bob And Ray, Jane, Laraine And Gilda" which featured B&R with the ladies of "Saturday Night Live" as a fictitous offering of the "Finley Quality Network". It was produced by Lorne Michaels and used a lot of the same framework as SNL, complete with musical guest (Willie Nelson) and live band (here under the direction of Tom Malone).

And always remember...

"Write if you get work!" "Hang by your thumbs!"

Beverly Arnold Has Died

We'll sure be getting more info on this, but I've just been informed that Beverly Arnold, wife of cartoonist Hal Seeger and voice actress in many of his cartoons, has died at the age of 73.

Settlement In B'way Musicians' Strike

The settlement, announced this morning, allows for a slight reduction in the number of musicians required for a production, but still enough to ensure that live orchestration will continue to be a part of the Broadway experience. All the affected shows are reopening tonight. Some may even be over by now due to Tuesday's earlier curtain times.

802 On Strike Against Broadway

Broadway is mostly dark this Friday evening due to a strike by members of the American Federation of Musicians, Local 802. At issue is the minimum number of musicians that a theatre must employ. The musicians' union fears that if those minimums are reduced further, live music will disappear on Broadway. The actors (Equity) and stagehands (IATSE) refuse to cross the AFM picket lines, so the shows are shuttered.

This weekend I am playing my first pit job in several years, the Toms River High School North production of "State Fair", a show which I saw on Broadway in its short run at the tiny Music Box Theatre. I am again reminded of the power of people acting and singing on a stage with a sizeable orchestra full of capable musicians in front of and slightly below them. We had our share of showstopping moments in our show. Particularly tonight. Several times, I thought, "what if we tried to do this show with only three musicians, since this is only a high school auditorium, and filled in the rest of the parts electronically?" I don't even want to consider that inevitability.

But it doesn't have to be that way. As a member of Local 399, I wholeheartedly support my Union brothers of Local 802, and hopefully the theatre industry will take note and realize that our position is the right way... the only way.

Notice

Due to another passing in my family (more details), it may be a few days before I get back to my e-mails, so please be patient.