Greetings From The Road!

The davemackey.com traveling road show is underway. I am writing this from a fairly decent guest room at the Courtyard by Marriott in Portland, Oregon. I was actually given a choice to stay in Vancouver, Washington, but passed that one up, not realizing that Washington is right across the river from Portland. Maybe we'll just drive by tomorrow.

I picked up a shiny new Chevrolet Impala as a rental and having driven and ridden in Impalas of various vintages, this is a nice one and it carries on the bowtie tradition quite nicely.

Other than a snag with the takeoff time of the flight (originally scheduled for 5:45 but we left sometime after 7:00 p.m.), the flight was uneventful. We did get two movies, "Spider-Man 3" and "Are We Done Yet" (the latter of which had an honest-to-God Wilhelm Scream in it, and I said to those sitting next to me "THAT WAS A WILHELM SCREAM!" Also some news features AND an episode of "The King Of Queens" to round out the entertainment portion of the flight. Plus, I did Nucky's crossword in the inflight magazine before the plane even left the tarmac. (The only xword book I brought with me was a book of Shortz Saturdays. You think I wanna do well in Brooklyn, or what?)

Tomorrow, Crater Lake, and maybe some pictures thereof. See you all tomorrow!

-30-

We're frankly in awe of the Texas Rangers' performance last night in the first game of their doubleheader in Baltimore. They put up 30 runs in the first game, and miraculously, they did it all in four innings. Five in the fourth, nine in the sixth, 10 in the eighth, and another 6 in the ninth. And in the second game they scored another 9 runs. The 39 runs is thought to be the most ever scored by one team in a doubleheader.

Did You Miss Me On "Millionaire"?

See what I looked like some 25 pounds ago when I sat in Meredith's hot seat in a repeat of my appearance last spring on "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire". The show airs tomorrow (Thursday) in syndication.

The Merv Griffin Show

One of those great Merv moments... RIP, Mr. Griffin.

O Rare Bayn Johnson!

Here's a cute sketch from "The Electric Company" which gives Short Circus player Bayn Johnson a bit of a chance to stretch out. In this Fargo North bit, Fargo (Skip Hinnant) goes on vacation and Kelly (Johnson) gets to take over. Crank (Jim Boyd) comes in and then asks Kelly to decode a message.

Johnson (born 1959) was only on "Electric Company" for two years (1973-1975) and was the replacement for Denise Nickerson. She had previously appeared on television on "What's It All About, World?" (a 1969 ripoff of "Laugh-In") and on Broadway in "Curley McDimple" (playing the title role). Almost the entire Short Circus (except for June Angela) was replaced for the 1975-1976 season and another blonde, tall, willowy Janina Mathews, was her replacement. After TEC, Bayn had a few small parts on TV series (I remember her being on "Switch") and pretty much faded from view after 1978.

Unfortunately, this clip comes from a kinescope, but I'd like to think there are nicer copies in Sesame Workshop's vault... buried under all of Elmo's fan mail.

Miss America On The Move Again

The Miss America Organization has announced today a new multiple-year deal with TLC to broadcast the pageant over the next few years, beginning with the 2008 pageant on January 26.

CMT opted not to continue broadcasting the pageant after horrible ratings the last two years, which not coincidentally were the first two the pageant originated from Las Vegas.

TLC has been a network desperately in search of an identity. Once known as "The Learning Channel", the network then went through a few phases. One was the "let's rip apart our house and redo it" phase, spearheaded by the show "Trading Spaces", a few years of which we actually chronicled here at davemackey.com, until the show got too big and too full of itself. "Trading Spaces" is now dead, killed partly by its former carpenter, Ty Pennington, who added mawkishness to the mix with his "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition"; suddenly, it, "While You Were Out", "In A Fix", "Town Haul" and the like were all off the air.

TLC seems now populated by a weird mix of Teutuls, Roloffs and tattoo artists, plus the occasional appearances by grotesquely obese people and Clinton and Stacy. Now, we add Miss America to the mix - and TLC is going to hop on that one big time with a planned reality show about the pageant.

Ugh! I remember when Miss America only required three hours of our time once a year - and came to you live from the sun and fun capital of New Jersey, Atlantic City! Now it's out in Vegas and people don't seem to care. Even the Miss America Walk near the new outlet shops stops somewhere around the time Ron Ely started hosting the pageant, sidestepping that whole Vanessa Williams thing (oddly, losing that crown kicked her career in high gear).

TLC, how's this? MOVE THE FREAKING PAGEANT BACK TO ATLANTIC CITY! That's the only thing that can save it. And you.

Late Addition to the Music Calendar

Tomorrow, at the Holmdel Community United Church of Christ, I will be duetting on "How Great Thou Art" with my partner in all things, Ms. Tracy Meyer. Service starts at 10:00 a.m.

756*

The Record Book

Home Runs, Lifetime
Barry Bonds................ 756 *
Hank Aaron................. 755
Babe Ruth.................. 714

* Record achieved with the use of steroids.

"It's Madison Time! HIT IT!"

So happens that ABC Family aired the original "Hairspray" film last night, complete with the "Madison Time" sequence that does not appear in the new movie. (A version is in the Broadway musical, with Corny calling the dance moves.)

Here's a clip from the 1988 movie, cut off during Eddie Morrison's call of the Wilt Chamberlain basketball step. That's a younger and portlier Ricki Lake playing Tracy. If you can read choreography notation, here's how you can do The Madison at home, complete with all the steps for all the custom moves, from the Cleveland Box to the big strong Jackie Gleason.

It's interesting to note that The Madison did not originate in Baltimore, but rather in Columbus, Ohio.

7264: Unravelin' Glavine

Well, all Milwaukee was abuzz as to whether Tom Glavine would get his 300th win last night, but when the Brew Crew tied up the game, the point became sadly moot.

Note to Bill Webb: Cool it with the reaction shots of Mrs. Glavine.

Tom Terrific II tries again Sunday in Chicago to join the 300 club.

7263: Only Four Words

Bite Me, Ronnie Belliard.

The Cult Of The "Wilhelm Scream"

I didn't know such a thing existed until I saw this clip... it's kind of a secret joke among sound editors in Hollywood. I'll be listening to movies a little more closely for it, now that I know what it is.

Tssss! More "Hairspray"

As a music arranger, I find articles about the process quite fascinating, so here is an interview with Marc Shaiman and how he created the score and those incredible orchestrations for "Hairspray" I talked about in yesterday's post. (A couple of nasty words should not stop you from reading this.) Shaiman, of course, wrote the songs for the musical with his partner Scott Wittman.

BTW, if you recognize the name, Marc Shaiman was sort of an adjunct member of the SNL Band in the late 80's, playing piano and arranging medleys for the Sweeney Sisters sketches featuring Jan Hooks and Nora Dunn.

"Hairspray": Some More Thoughts

I went to a matinee of "Hairspray", the new musical film, with the girls yesterday (as alluded to in the previous post). Part of the fun of these movies is trying to find things that don't quite mesh chronologically. In the first five minutes of the film, I found the first one as a 1963 Chevrolet Bel-Air whizzed by, a car that would not have been made yet in the spring of 1962. And then, later on, in Motormouth Maybelle's record store, there's a copy of Junior Walker's "Road Runner" album, which the sax great didn't record until 1966. Robair thinks some of the songs on Corny Collins' countdown board came out after the events of the movie transpired, and may not ever have charted together as a group... we'll have to wait until the DVD comes out to break that down.

Whose performances was I impressed with? Well, I always get a kick out of Christopher Walken, who's playing Tracy's dad in this film (and taking over from Jerry Stiller, who's moved over into another role in the new movie). Michelle Pfeiffer is great as well as the TV station manager and she and Walken have a great number together. Allison Janney was very funny as the mom of Penny Pingleton (Amanda Bynes). Some of the young performers were good too such as Jason Marsden (who played Corny Collins), Brittany Snow, and star Nicole Blonsky. Bynes, as Penny, got off some good lines and did some of her trademark pratfalls. Elijah Kelley played the guy Penny falls for, driving a lot of the plot of this film.

But John Travolta? My goodness, 30-some years after "Moment by Moment", he STILL looks like Lily Tomlin! And in drag and a fat suit, he looks like a bloated Lily Tomlin! I'm sorry, I just couldn't get that image out of my head. But he did dance pretty well, shaking his prosthetic ass for the camera. (And that's probably the only time you'll ever see that phrase on this blog. Bottle this moment in time.)

The songs by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman were great. These songs have worked on Broadway for several years and they sound much bolder on the big screen (and have the benefit of some great orchestrations). (Shaiman, Wittman, director Adam Shankman, and original "Hairspray" star Ricki Lake - not looking anything like the chunky Tracy of '88 - all had cameos in the film as talent agents.)

The one thing I miss about this new version? "It's Madison Time! HIT IT!"

Cleveland Rocks, Cleveland Rocks, Cleveland Rocks.... Ohio! (hio, hio, hio)

As I'm sure you've heard by now (because you're surfing legit news sites rather than going blogging), Drew Carey has accepted the hosting vacancy at "The Price is Right", after an extensive search that saw many legitimate contenders (and Rosie O'Donnell) vie to tread the sacred ground of the Bob Barker Studio at CBS, long corded mike in hand, presiding over pricing games and Showcases.

How does this corner feel about it? Great! We've been watching Drew in action for years both as sitcom actor and as host of "Whose Line Is It Anyway", but now he gets to interact with real people trying to win prizes. The deal was literally finalized as Drew was preparing to go on air with David Letterman earlier this evening, so the Letterman crowd was the first to hear the announcement that Drew is now the Plinko Master.

How's poor ol' Nikki Blonsky, so wonderful in "Hairspray" (which I saw today), gonna follow that? Perhaps signing on as one of Carey's Cuties?

Another All-Star Perpsective

...from one who was there. Our longtime pal Harry McCracken, whose offices at PC World are just three blocks from AT&T Park, was at the All-Star Game and got some nice pictures. It's whetting my appetite for visiting the ballpark, which I will do in late August as part of my West Coast trip.

WSOP In A Bit Of A Decline...

Where did all the players go? There are some 2400 less players involved in this year's Main Event at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. Fittingly, this year's first prize has been reduced, too, from the record-breaking $12,000,000 of last year to this year's relatively measly $8,250,000.

Possibly because of the prohibitively high buy in ($10,000) without even the guarantee of making the money. Or perhaps because online poker is in decline because of questions of its legality, and there are correspondingly less Chris Moneymaker rags-to-riches stories.

I used to play online poker, never for money, just for fun. But I stopped, because I knew that eventually it would lead to me playing for money. And that's a little sick - gambling from home, without the social element.

OTOH, Tracy and I really cleaned up a few weeks ago at the 3-Card Poker tables.... at a casino, with live dealers and people watching. Lots more fun than winning at home.

Please note: if you are one of my impressionable younger readers, please realize that gambling is an ADULT ACTIVITY.

All Star Game Recap

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JACK FM is The New New Coke

It's such a good analogy, I wish I'd thought of it. But Phlash Phelps, morning guy at XM 6, came up with it out of the clear blue this morning on his show. And he's right.

In case you don't know what I'm talking about, CBS Radio has decided to return WCBS-FM New York to its classic oldies format that it had for 33 years before making the JACK FM switch in June 2005.

The format is going to be a little more strictly defined, starting with The Beatles Invasion and ending with songs from the late 80's. No early Elvis, no early 50's R&B. But there should be plenty of Motown.

Dan Taylor has signed on as morning man (supported by two other station veterans, newsman Al Meredith and weather forecaster Irv "Mr. G" Gikofsky) while station mainstay Bob Shannon has signed back on board to do Bill Brown's old midday shift. Broadway Bill Lee will do PM drive. CBS will flip the switch on the restored station on Thursday at 1:01 p.m.

WHAT? You want me to explain New Coke, too? (These kids today...)

The Summer Of Woody

In a busy summer with lots of good cartoon releases out there (starting with today's release of the complete Batfink series), Woody Woodpecker is not to be denied. Universal is going to be presenting a DVD set of the first several years of Woody Woodpecker cartoons, including all of his 1940's cartoons and some from the early 1950's, after producer Walter Lantz' brief sojourn at United Artists and subsequent temporary closure of the studio. (Many of Woody's friends will be onboard as well.) This will be released on Tuesday, July 24. (Universal, of course, previously released many of these cartoons on 8mm film through its Castle Films subsidiary - remember those? If you do, you're probably my age or older!)

In honor of said release, StoryMakers Studio is going to be mounting a special tribute to Woody and Walter on Wednesday, July 11, 2007. It is a free event at Mann's Chinese Theater. Please visit this site for more information about this special event, which will include the participation of June Foray, Leonard Maltin, Billy West, Maurice LaMarche, and animator Phil Roman. If you can't make the event you'll be able to see it online. More details at that site.