Tuesday, December 13, 2016
Monday, December 12, 2016
Forgotten TV Christmas Specials
Here are 3 TV specials from 1969 to 1977 that I don't see listed in the regular holiday line up.
There are a number of Holiday TV specials that I remember that seem to have disappeared. It's hard to believe that any TV show can disappear what with all those cable channels, so please correct me if I'm wrong. I think these specials are pretty much gone from the broadcast and cable spectrum:
THE HOMECOMING - with Patricia Neal, Richard Thomas and Edgar Bergen. This 1971 TV movie was the pilot for the series THE WALTONS. Based on North Carolina TV writer Earl Hamner's book of the same name, he narrates the story of his Father missing on Christmas Eve. The movie has the requisite good and not so good child actors, and there are different actors as some of the Walton adults (with Patricia Neal doing a fine, very fierce Eugene O'Neill take on Mrs. Walton, as opposed to the TV series's star Michael Learned's mellower characterization). I got a kick out of Edgar Bergen, who plays grandpa in the pilot, listening to Fibber McGee in one scene.
Maybe the movie is too much of a downer. These are poor people who can't afford anything and the reason Dad is missing is because he has to commute many miles to where the jobs are. Downtown Walton's Mountain has no industry.
Someone has uploaded the movie, which includes location shots in Jackson, Wyoming, standing in for Walton's Mountain. It will probably disappear soon.
THE LITTLEST ANGEL (1969) - with Johnny Whitaker, Fred Gwynne and E.G. Marshall as God. This was a real star-studded (Cab Calloway, Tony Randall, John McGiver, George Rose, Connie Stevens, James Coco) 90 minute live action program, taped (yes, it's on videotape) at the height of Johnny Whitaker's child star power. This was a major production at the time, even though the money was not spent on film or decent quality effects. (Warning: Heaven is really badly chroma-keyed.) There was even an album released. Yes, Herman Munster sings on it! But I digress ....
SPOILERS for THE LITTLEST ANGEL follow after the program, in its entirety, presented by KPVM.
My opinion: The reason for this special not being aired today (although you can get it on DVD) is for the one scene where Johnny Whitaker, who fell off a cliff chasing a white dove and died, returns home in ghost/angel form and tries to hug his mom. Now, no one knows he is dead yet, and his Mom can't see him. It's all very nightmarish, with little Johnny crying, and Mom not hearing him because, you know, the kid's DEAD and all.
At the end, when greedy God has all of his presents, there's Whitaker, staring happily at the dove; a happy, dead kid whose now-grieving Mom is down on Earth. Not the stuff of cheery TV specials that inspire one to go buy Chinese junk at Walmart.
A COSMIC CHRISTMAS - a 1977 special, inspired in equal parts by the Bible and STAR WARS. With pretty darn gorgeous animation and character design by Canadian animation studio Nelvana, this 22 minute prime time special caught the attention of George Lucas, who worked with the company on several STAR WARS projects, including the now-unseen STAR WARS HOLIDAY SPECIAL (except online and its many bootleg copies).
COSMIC CHRISTMAS has some hammy dialogue. The aliens land and ask, What is Christmas? What is Bethlehem? All of the adults are pretty corrupt and disgusting. Some of the animation and little character moments seem like a nod to Bakshi's best work (this is a good thing). All of this is fine with me. Above is the entire special, which is unavailable on DVD.
Like I said, please feel free to correct me if these are on TV this year. Or if you have your own missing holiday specials to add, like Ed Asner's THE GATHERING or THE SNOW GOOSE or OPUS AND BILL: A WISH FOR WINGS THAT WORK.
-- Edited from an entry from eight years ago today.
There are a number of Holiday TV specials that I remember that seem to have disappeared. It's hard to believe that any TV show can disappear what with all those cable channels, so please correct me if I'm wrong. I think these specials are pretty much gone from the broadcast and cable spectrum:
THE HOMECOMING - with Patricia Neal, Richard Thomas and Edgar Bergen. This 1971 TV movie was the pilot for the series THE WALTONS. Based on North Carolina TV writer Earl Hamner's book of the same name, he narrates the story of his Father missing on Christmas Eve. The movie has the requisite good and not so good child actors, and there are different actors as some of the Walton adults (with Patricia Neal doing a fine, very fierce Eugene O'Neill take on Mrs. Walton, as opposed to the TV series's star Michael Learned's mellower characterization). I got a kick out of Edgar Bergen, who plays grandpa in the pilot, listening to Fibber McGee in one scene.
Maybe the movie is too much of a downer. These are poor people who can't afford anything and the reason Dad is missing is because he has to commute many miles to where the jobs are. Downtown Walton's Mountain has no industry.
Someone has uploaded the movie, which includes location shots in Jackson, Wyoming, standing in for Walton's Mountain. It will probably disappear soon.
THE LITTLEST ANGEL (1969) - with Johnny Whitaker, Fred Gwynne and E.G. Marshall as God. This was a real star-studded (Cab Calloway, Tony Randall, John McGiver, George Rose, Connie Stevens, James Coco) 90 minute live action program, taped (yes, it's on videotape) at the height of Johnny Whitaker's child star power. This was a major production at the time, even though the money was not spent on film or decent quality effects. (Warning: Heaven is really badly chroma-keyed.) There was even an album released. Yes, Herman Munster sings on it! But I digress ....
SPOILERS for THE LITTLEST ANGEL follow after the program, in its entirety, presented by KPVM.
My opinion: The reason for this special not being aired today (although you can get it on DVD) is for the one scene where Johnny Whitaker, who fell off a cliff chasing a white dove and died, returns home in ghost/angel form and tries to hug his mom. Now, no one knows he is dead yet, and his Mom can't see him. It's all very nightmarish, with little Johnny crying, and Mom not hearing him because, you know, the kid's DEAD and all.
At the end, when greedy God has all of his presents, there's Whitaker, staring happily at the dove; a happy, dead kid whose now-grieving Mom is down on Earth. Not the stuff of cheery TV specials that inspire one to go buy Chinese junk at Walmart.
A COSMIC CHRISTMAS - a 1977 special, inspired in equal parts by the Bible and STAR WARS. With pretty darn gorgeous animation and character design by Canadian animation studio Nelvana, this 22 minute prime time special caught the attention of George Lucas, who worked with the company on several STAR WARS projects, including the now-unseen STAR WARS HOLIDAY SPECIAL (except online and its many bootleg copies).
COSMIC CHRISTMAS has some hammy dialogue. The aliens land and ask, What is Christmas? What is Bethlehem? All of the adults are pretty corrupt and disgusting. Some of the animation and little character moments seem like a nod to Bakshi's best work (this is a good thing). All of this is fine with me. Above is the entire special, which is unavailable on DVD.
Like I said, please feel free to correct me if these are on TV this year. Or if you have your own missing holiday specials to add, like Ed Asner's THE GATHERING or THE SNOW GOOSE or OPUS AND BILL: A WISH FOR WINGS THAT WORK.
-- Edited from an entry from eight years ago today.
Friday, December 09, 2016
The National Cartoonists Society's "THE CARTOONIST!" Newsletter Fall 1953
In its entirety: here is THE CARTOONIST!, the in-house publication of the National Cartoonists Society, Annual Photo Issue Fall 1953.
The Cartoonist: a quarterly published by the National Cartoonists Society, 140 West 57th Street, New York 19, N. Y.
If you Google Map this address, you get:
.. a bus zooming in front to the frikkin' Google camera!Oh well, back to the mag:
Mort Walker edited THE CARTOONIST, with Bill Yates as Assistant Editor.
The 1953 NCS Board:
BOARD OF GOVERNORS: Rube Goldberg, Honorary President; Otto Soglow, President; Bob Dunn, First Vice President; Willard Mullin, Second Vice President; John Pierotti, Treasurer; McGowan Miller, Secretary; Carl Rose, General Membership Representative; EXECUTIVE COUNCIL: Martin Banner, Ernie Bushmiller, E. Simms Campbell, Milton Caniff, Past Pres., Fred Cooper, Walt Disney, Albert Dorne, Ham Fisher, Hal Foster, Harold Gray, Jimmy Hatlo, Harry Hershfeld, Bill Holman, Walt Kelly, Frank King, Bill Mauldin, George MacManus, Willard Mullin, Russell Patterson, Past Pres., Alex Raymond, Past Pres., Mischa Richter, C.D. Russell, Frank Willard, George Wunder, Chic Young.
Fred Waring was a great fan and friend of cartoonists.
Above: Fred Waring reads the Sunday funnies in a photo nicked from the Penn State Fred Waring's America site.He had a huge place in Pennsylvania and he would send a bus to Times Square for all the NCSers to get aboard and hang out at his place. Mel Casson helped start the annual visit to Waring's Shawnee Golf Resort. More here, at the Penn State Fred Waring's America site.
Back to the magazine:
Evert cartoonist should wear a hat and smoke a pipe ala Ed Dodd and Walt Kelly!
-- Edited from a March 26, 2009 blog entry.
Thursday, December 08, 2016
Happy Birthday, James Thurber
From THE YEARS WITH ROSS by James Thurber (1894-1961):
"It was [E.B.] White who got the mad impetuous idea that my scrawls should be published, and, what is more, paid for with money. I didn't think he could make it. It is true that, a dozen years earlier, I had filled up a lot of space with dogs and an improbable species of human being in the Ohio State Sun-Dial, but I was its editor-in-chief then (one of my predecessors was Gardner Rea, a New Yorker artist since its first issue), and nothing could be done to stop me. Some of the Sun-Dial drawings were about the same as those I had done when I was seven and the ones I did for the New Yorker, but others were elaborate arrangements of solid black and cross-hatching. When White caught me trying the same style again one day, he spoke a sound word of warning that has gained a small deserved fame: 'Don't do that. If you ever got good, you'd be mediocre.'"
Copyright 2001 by Rosemary Thurber.
Wednesday, December 07, 2016
Tuesday, December 06, 2016
Dick Buchanan: Color Magazine Gag Cartoons 1945 - 1961
Here is friend-of-the-blog Dick Buchanan, straight from his Greenwich Village archives of great gag cartoons. My thanks for finding, scanning and sharing these! Here's Dick:
Here's a neat bunch of gag cartoons in color dating from 1945 to 1961. Some great work by a few of the better gag cartoonists of the era.
MARTHA BLANCHARD. A weak gag but a neat piece of cartooning by Ms Blanchard. The Saturday Evening Post,1950’s
GEORGE CRENSHAW. Crenshaw’s Disney animator past is obvious here. Collier’s. December 23, 1950
GLEN BERNHARDT. Collier’s, February 7, 1953
ROY L. FOX. The Saturday Evening Post, 1960’s
DAVID HUFFINE. American Magazine, April,1955
HANK KETCHAM. Ketcham always delivers. Collier’s, June 17, 1948
JERRY MARCUS. Collier’s. May 13, 1950
KATE OSANN. May 13, 1950
LARRY REYNOLDS. Collier’s December 14, 1946
IRVING ROIR. Roir was the Roth brother whose signature was seldom legible. A fine cartoonist. Esquire. August,1945
BARBARA SHERMUND. In the late 1940’s and early’50’s Ms Shermund’s iconic cartoons were a mainstay of The Pictorial Revue, a weekly newspaper supplement. The Pictorial Revue. July 18, 1948
SALO ROTH. Salo Roth was another of the cartooning Roth brothers. Collier’s. December 10, 1949
FRITZ WILKINSON. Collier’s. December 14, 1946
JOE ZEIS. The Saturday Evening Post. June 17,1961
More from Dick Buchanan's gag cartoon collection:
Dick Buchanan: Winter/Christmas/Holiday Gag Cartoons 1940s-60s
Dick Buchanan: Some PUNCH Magazine Cartoons 1948-1963
Dick Buchanan: Gag Cartoon Clip File 1946-64
Dick Buchanan: Gag Cartoon Clip File 1947-62
Dick Buchanan: Some Favorite Magazine Gag Cartoons 1940-60s
Dick Buchanan: Gag Cartoon Clip File 1931-64
Here's a neat bunch of gag cartoons in color dating from 1945 to 1961. Some great work by a few of the better gag cartoonists of the era.
MARTHA BLANCHARD. A weak gag but a neat piece of cartooning by Ms Blanchard. The Saturday Evening Post,1950’s
GEORGE CRENSHAW. Crenshaw’s Disney animator past is obvious here. Collier’s. December 23, 1950
GLEN BERNHARDT. Collier’s, February 7, 1953
ROY L. FOX. The Saturday Evening Post, 1960’s
DAVID HUFFINE. American Magazine, April,1955
HANK KETCHAM. Ketcham always delivers. Collier’s, June 17, 1948
JERRY MARCUS. Collier’s. May 13, 1950
KATE OSANN. May 13, 1950
LARRY REYNOLDS. Collier’s December 14, 1946
IRVING ROIR. Roir was the Roth brother whose signature was seldom legible. A fine cartoonist. Esquire. August,1945
BARBARA SHERMUND. In the late 1940’s and early’50’s Ms Shermund’s iconic cartoons were a mainstay of The Pictorial Revue, a weekly newspaper supplement. The Pictorial Revue. July 18, 1948
SALO ROTH. Salo Roth was another of the cartooning Roth brothers. Collier’s. December 10, 1949
FRITZ WILKINSON. Collier’s. December 14, 1946
JOE ZEIS. The Saturday Evening Post. June 17,1961
Dick Buchanan: Winter/Christmas/Holiday Gag Cartoons 1940s-60s
Dick Buchanan: Some PUNCH Magazine Cartoons 1948-1963
Dick Buchanan: Gag Cartoon Clip File 1946-64
Dick Buchanan: Gag Cartoon Clip File 1947-62
Dick Buchanan: Some Favorite Magazine Gag Cartoons 1940-60s
Dick Buchanan: Gag Cartoon Clip File 1931-64
Monday, December 05, 2016
True Story: Overheard in a Thrift Shop
Drew this up for you guys today.
True story: I overheard this conversation between a daughter and her mother in a Windham, Maine second-hand shop this weekend.
I have no idea! I left before I saw the outcome. Then, when I went home and Googled that Bambi album for reference in the last panel, I see it's going for $90 on eBay. So ...maybe the kid was on to something!
True story: I overheard this conversation between a daughter and her mother in a Windham, Maine second-hand shop this weekend.
The mom's deadpan responses were great. She could do standup. The daughter was unfazed.
Did she get the record player and records?
Friday, December 02, 2016
"Vermeer of the Borscht Belt" Support This Documentary About Illustrator Drew Friedman
If you know the Internet (and I know you do), then you know that the Kickstarter site is around and it's a great platform for crowsourcing support for worthy projects. Case in point: the proposed "Vermeer of the Borscht Belt" film of Drew Friedman. Please consider giving money to help seed this documentary about the life of this wonderful illustrator and, may I add, very nice fellow. This is a once in a lifetime chance to be able to see Drew working and hear him talk about why he draws what he draws.
Thursday, December 01, 2016
Dick Buchanan: Winter/Christmas/Holiday Gag Cartoons 1940s-60s
Hey, happy December 1st. And here is the first gift of the season: a batch of holiday-themed cartoons from my friend Dick Buchanan. He's found them and scanned them and now, here they are: seventeen little gag cartoon gems that may not have seen the light in decades.
PHIL INTERLANDI. Look Magazine, December 14, 1963
BEN ROTH. Ben was the elder of the four cartooning Roth brothers--Al Ross,
Irv Roir and Salo Roth. American Magazine, January, 1944
CHARLES PEARSON. The Saturday Evening Post, 1950’s.
DICK ERICSON. American Legion Magazine, December, 1952
ROBERT DAY. American Legion. December, 1953.
JAN & STAN BERENSTAIN. The Saturday Evening Post, 1950’s
VIRGIL PARTCH. True Magazine, December 1949
JEFF KEATE. American Magazine, January,1950.
ELDON DEDINI. Look Magazine, December 24, 1959
CHON DAY. The Saturday Evening Post, 1960’s
TOM HENDERSON. Then as Now Dept: Tom Henderson depicts the fate that befalls many a traveling relative during the holidays. American Legion Magazine, March,1953
BARNEY TOBEY. The Saturday Evening Post, 1950’s
FRITZ WILKINSON. The Saturday Evening Post,1950’s
TOM HUDSON. Did Hudson’s artificial snow seller spawn the waif hawking real snow by Charles Addams? (New Yorker, Jan 1, 1974) From Collier’s, December 21,1946
BARNEY TOBEY. Mr. Tobey again, confirming many suspicions. Look Magazine, December 24, 1959
JOSEPH MIRACHI. Look Magazine, December 31, 1963
Thanks so much, Dick!
GEORGE BOOTH. In 1953 Booth did monthly spot illustrations for the American Legion Magazine’s “Parting Shots” humor page. American Legion Magazine, December,1953
PHIL INTERLANDI. Look Magazine, December 14, 1963
BEN ROTH. Ben was the elder of the four cartooning Roth brothers--Al Ross,
Irv Roir and Salo Roth. American Magazine, January, 1944
CHARLES PEARSON. The Saturday Evening Post, 1950’s.
DICK ERICSON. American Legion Magazine, December, 1952
ROBERT DAY. American Legion. December, 1953.
JAN & STAN BERENSTAIN. The Saturday Evening Post, 1950’s
VIRGIL PARTCH. True Magazine, December 1949
JEFF KEATE. American Magazine, January,1950.
ELDON DEDINI. Look Magazine, December 24, 1959
CHON DAY. The Saturday Evening Post, 1960’s
TOM HENDERSON. Then as Now Dept: Tom Henderson depicts the fate that befalls many a traveling relative during the holidays. American Legion Magazine, March,1953
BARNEY TOBEY. The Saturday Evening Post, 1950’s
FRITZ WILKINSON. The Saturday Evening Post,1950’s
TOM HUDSON. Did Hudson’s artificial snow seller spawn the waif hawking real snow by Charles Addams? (New Yorker, Jan 1, 1974) From Collier’s, December 21,1946
BARNEY TOBEY. Mr. Tobey again, confirming many suspicions. Look Magazine, December 24, 1959
JOSEPH MIRACHI. Look Magazine, December 31, 1963
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