Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Dirty Tricks, 2006.

Although I try to avoid putting anything current into my posts, sometimes the present creeps sickeningly into my consciousness and I feel compelled to comment on the latest criminal action Bushie-Bush and his abettors are foisting on America and the world. Then, when I sit down to write it, I'm usually so angry and frustrated that I give up on it completely (which is exactly what that little piggie Karl Rove wants and expects us to do). So in the interest of showing that I do in fact maintain a horrified interest in current events, I'm adding a few links on my sidebar, one for Rachel Maddow's blog at the Air America site, another for Jim Hightower's site, where he regularly skewers our immoral administration, and another for The Nation. At these sites you will find all the news that you may not hear from your major news outlets, such as Rumsfeld's goal of making all Americans subject to super-secret military tribunals, our administration's viewing of the Israel-Lebanon war as a beta test for invading Iran, or the Christian right's vile plan to exacerbate that crisis in order to facilitate the Second Coming. (No, no links--look those up yourself!)

So when you've had your fill of nonsense here, click on one of those links and do your homework...

God, just mentioning Rove and Rummy in one post makes me feel so dirty. As a kind of ablution, I now offer this pic from a 1975 TV Guide of 67-year-old Buddy Ebsen dressed like Mick Ronson.

Oh crap, I feel even dirtier now...

Saturday, August 12, 2006

Goodnight, Funnyman: Tribute to a Man I Vaguely Remember.


Was Mike Douglas funny? Hm. I don't remember. I liked his show as a kid, or portions of it, anyway. I didn't like when he sang, but I enjoyed seeing him interview my favorite TV stars. Strangely, the only person I can specifically recall watching on The Mike Douglas Show is David Brenner.

Here's an ad from TV Guide (eastern New York state edition), published the week of the moon landing, for his show airing on WNBF 12 out of Binghamton:

I guess he's a "man among men" because he could display a number of facial expressions, running the gamut from smiling to not smiling. (No, I'm not mocking the man. This is a tribute. I am mocking the person who created that ad.) Here's another ad from a month later, with the show debuting on WCAX 3 out of Burlington, Vermont:

I think they got his show confused with The Dating Game. I was going to put up some WCBS 2 ads from the seventies, but they usually just have a stock pic of Mike alongside a stock pic of, say, James Darren or Dom Deluise. By 1979 or so the ads might only feature a big photo of Loni Anderson with no Mike to be found. Then he got cancelled and started a new syndicated variety show in 1980 or '81 that was pretty much identical to his old show. That aired in the NYC area on WPIX 11, and debuted with a tiny ad that had no pictures at all. It lasted about a year. And, uh, that's what I remember about Mike Douglas.

Worst tribute ever.

Oh, also, Mike Douglas died on his birthday. Other notables who died on their birthdays include Ingrid Bergman, "Machine Gun" Kelly, Raphael, Betty Friedan, and, reportedly, Moses. ("Reportedly," as opposed to him telling me himself.)

Yes, fine, I know you don't care. This tribute is over! (The Man Out of Time has a better one, anyway...