On the Pluto TV “Johnny Carson Channel” they air a rotation of vintage “Tonight Show” broadcasts. One late evening I was watching an episode from December 14, 1972. Johnny’s final guest was author Terry Galanoy, who–of all things–had just written a book called “Tonight!: An Anecdotal History Of America’s Favorite Talk Show.” And here’s that … Continue reading Book Review: “Tonight!” (Or Whenever You Get Around To Reading It.)
Hey! Our hometown is getting a Runza! Isn’t that great? What’s a Runza, you ask? It’s a delightful Nebraska restaurant chain with amazing burgers, chicken, fries, onion rings, desserts and Runzas, which some call cabbage burgers. I’m not crazy about cabbage burgers but I like literally everything else you can get at Runza. The Facebook … Continue reading Dear Facebook Commenters, Don’t Take This The Wrong Way But You Suck And Should Jump Off The Overpass
When Bob S. Bestos and I chat on the morning program, I am George Fenneman. Bob is Groucho. For every Groucho there must be a George Fenneman–or a Margaret Dumont. George Fenneman was born in China; his parents were importer-exporters–in fierce competition, one assumes, with Vandelay Industries. The Fenneman family moved to San Francisco 9 … Continue reading FORGOTTEN ICONS OF BROADCASTING: George Fenneman
I am hesitant to write a personal post on this blog now that I have spent a tiny parcel of my own semi-hard-earned money on promoting it. I feel like some of the writing here, such as the posts on broadcasting history and other retro pop culture, is worthy of a slightly wider audience. Like, … Continue reading Side Effects May Include End Of Week Musings
ILLUSTRATING THE ARTICLE: Screenshots from “Behind The Iron Curtain”, which aired live on CBS February 16,1957. In the early 1950’s Jackie Gleason hosted a variety show on the DuMont network, which ain’t here no more. It was called “Cavalcade Of Stars” and Gleason introduced several popular characters during its run including Ralph and Alice Kramden … Continue reading And Away They Go…To Europe!
Hey, did you know that “Scooby-Doo” was inspired by “Dobie Gillis”? Putting aside the semi-coherent dog for a moment, you’ve got Fred (Dobie), Velma (Zelda Gilroy), Daphne (Thalia Menninger) and Shaggy (Maynard G. Krebs of course). Now that inspiration was only a starting point–of the four main characters, only Shaggy bears any resemblance to his … Continue reading We’re Goin’ To A Jubilee
I first saw the 1941 film “Look Who’s Laughing” in the early 90’s on AMC, back when it was called American Movie Classics. It was part of a double feature with the Damon Runyon drama “The Big Street”. Both films starred Lucille Ball but neither featured her doing anything particularly funny. “Look Who’s Laughing” casts … Continue reading Look Who’s Laughing! Look Who’s Apparently Sentient!
I hate about 95% of the memes I see. There are a multitude of reasons just as there are a multitude of individual senses of humor. The most common gripes I have are repetition and laziness. Laziness rears its ugly head in the way somebody takes an already-created meme and sloppily edits it to change … Continue reading You’re A Crappy Meme, Charlie Brown
All performance photos in this article were taken by the late, great Lyle Fodnes. He really was everywhere. Say, did I ever tell you that I played fussy-photographer-with-sinus-condition Felix Ungar on the off-off-off-off-Broadway stage? Well, you probably need to add about 306 more “off”s in there. But I co-starred with my pal Dangerous Dave Kuskie … Continue reading The Odd Couple
I’ve been watching a lot of “The Muppet Show” lately. I just finished season 2, which means 48 episodes down and 60-some to go. I have watched the series completely in order thus far with two exceptions: I watched the Spike Milligan episode to see why Disney gave it one of its disclaimers, and I … Continue reading The Sophie’s Choice of TV Theme Song Battles
