My Favorite Website is still the 24/7 live webcam from a watering hole in the Namib Desert where at any hour, you may peek and find…absolutely no wildlife. But sometimes, there's a lot of it — gnus, rabbits, jackals, springboks, deer, warthogs, leopard, cheetahs, hyenas, etc. Lately, I haven't seen many animals there but some months ago, there was a day when every giraffe for miles around seemed to be there. This is a video recorded then of a hundred minutes of so of those giraffes…

So I tried Quaker Oatmeal Squares and didn't care for them. Thanks to all who suggested that product but my current fave cereal is now and will continue to be Cheerios — the basic kind, the one in the yellow box.

I keep getting e-mails asking if Sergio Aragonés and/or I will be at this or that convention. The only one on my calendar is Comic-Con International month after next. Sergio has no conventions on his calendar. He's not travelling these days and I'll only consider travelling to a city which is not in California if they're naming a street in honor of Jack Kirby.

Online sources are saying that tonight's final Late Show with Stephen Colbert will run from 11:35 PM to 12:54 AM. I dunno how they can know that about a show which hasn't even been taped yet and which apparently has the okay to run as long as it takes. If you plan to record it for later viewing or re-viewing and the means by which you do this enables you to pad, it might be a good idea to pad for even longer. And let's all look forward to articles giving the astronomical tune-in for tonight and contrasting those stats to the replacement programming.

I haven't posted anything here in quite a while from Devin "Legal Eagle" Stone. But since his blood is boiling, this seems like a good time…

Among the many shows I could have seen last week in New York and didn't was one called Beaches – The Musical based on the Bette Midler movie.  It opened April 22 and it closes this weekend.  Reviews, from what I could see, were quite mixed.  The folks who loved it really loved it, the ones who didn't hated hard.  There's a theory that when ticket prices seem too high, theatergoers become less willing to gamble on a show about which they've heard even the slightest negative and this may be an instance of that.

As I said, I didn't see it but I really liked this song from it sung by Jessica Vosk and Kelli Barrett.  The tunes for the show were written by Mike Stoller, who's 93 years old and who, with his longtime partner Jerry Leiber, wrote hit records like "Hound Dog," "Jailhouse Rock" and "Yakety Yak."  Nice to see that he's still writing…

I just watched Stephen Colbert's next-to-last Late Show.  While I admire the guy and his series and wish he would inhabit that time slot indefinitely, the episode I just sat through had, in excess, three things I don't like about his program.  One was how they way overtape the show, then hack it down for broadcast.  The bulk of the program tonight was Colbert finally answering the Colbert Questionnaire himself and they brought on a different celebrity of some stature to pose each question to him.

It must have run an hour or two uncut and then they edited it down a lot for the version they put up on YouTube and chopped it even further to get what just aired on CBS.  Add to that the fact that Colbert, of course, knew the questions he'd be asked and couldn't not have known in advance how he'd answer each one and you have a long, long bit devoid of spontaneity.  There was probably a lot in the banter with each guest questioner but it all got tossed.

Second thing I don't/didn't like: Everything anyone (but especially Colbert) said got wild, unreal screams of laughter and applause.  And every guest entrance warranted tons of applause and a standing ovation.

And lastly, I usually watch Colbert via YouTube but tonight, I watched it as broadcast on CBS and, my God, how many commercials were there?  If he was staying on, I would never watch it that way again.  No wonder the audience for late night programming has diminished.

Make no mistake: I love the guy, the show, everything.  But my idea of an hour-long talk show is one that takes around an hour to do and they leave in all the rough spots so you get what really happened, not something constructed in an editing room.

I'll still, of course, tune in tomorrow night for the last show…which, they've announced, will run over its usual length.  Maybe that will cause it to be less processed.

Late tonight — at 3:15 AM according to my schedule — Turner Classic Movies is running W.C. Fields and Me, possibly as some sort of nod to the recent passing of one of its two stars, Valerie Perrine. This was the 1976 film based very loosely on the autobiography of the same name "by" Carlotta Monti, the mistress of the legendary comedian. I put "by" in quotes because Ms. Monti — a charming lady I had the pleasure to meet — had a ghost writer.

But the only positive thing I can think of to say about the film was that it gave her money to live for the rest of her life. It's one of those biographical films that constructs needless fiction when the true story would probably have been more interesting…and Rod Steiger was a pretty unconvincing W.C. Fields. Ms. Perrine, who I loved in just about everything else she ever did, was also pretty unconvincing as a woman of Latin American lineage.

The best performance in the film is probably Jack Cassidy as John Barrymore, and I remember Bernadette Peters played…someone.  It's not a film that resounds in my memory but I remember really, really not liking it.  Maybe you'll like it more than I did.

In a past life of mine, I used to have to get up in the morning at what some would call a "normal" hour, then cleanse my body, eat something and report for work at some building in which television programs were produced. I would then do much of my writing in that building, stopping occasionally for meetings and/or meals…

…and because of the demands of that job, I'd work there in an office until a script was finished, no matter how long it took. One A.M…Two A.M…Four? Didn't matter to the process. For a while, I did this with a partner or co-writers and mostly because of them, I learned this: If you work late enough, there comes an hour in which everything you write is hilarious and brilliant and perfect. It really isn't but it can feel that way at the time unless someone tells you otherwise.

The "everything is funny" hour is closely followed by the "nothing is funny" hour and when you reach the "nothing is funny" hour, that's the time to go home and go to bed. Because the time when something you write can be wonderful — or at least, useable — won't be coming around again until you get some sleep.

I once discussed this with a writer-friend I've mentioned here in the past, Ron Friedman, and he made a good point. Ron had written sitcoms and variety shows all night and he'd learned a good indicator that you were well into the "nothing is funny" hour. It's when you start putting in jokes that will never-in-a-million-years get past the Standards and Practices Censors that we had back then. You were just putting them in to amuse the cast and the staff…

You know: The people who are home in bed at that moment — the folks who'd come in the next morning, refreshed and ready for work. They'd read and maybe chuckle at what you wrote at — what is it right now? 4:28 AM? Ron called such jokes "a desperate cry for help" and a way to remind your co-workers that while they were sleeping, you were up writing.

In this century, not to be confused with the previous century, I've done all my writing at home. I no longer report to offices and because of technological breakthroughs relating to The Internet, I don't think very many writers do. I no longer have to drive home to be in my own bed, as I will be momentarily. Because sometimes, when you reach that hour when nothing is funny, you don't put dirty jokes in the script. You write an essay like this one. Good night.

Here's a nice little interrogation of The Man of the Week, Stephen Colbert…

In May of 2018, my friend Amber and I got a tour of The Ed Sullivan Theater in New York. I'd previously been inside the building when a sitcom called Kate and Allie was taping there and later when Mr. Letterman inhabited the space. It got better each time and it was just dazzling to see it 2018. I hope something moves in there that's worthy of that shrine but I can't imagine what it could be. Stephen Colbert takes us on a tour in this video…

Very sorry to hear of the passing of one of the top voiceover guys in the business, Tom Kane. You heard his voice all the time on commercials, promos, cartoons, everywhere. For a long time, when you walked into Disneyland, the majestic recorded voice that welcomed you to The Happiest Place of Earth was Tom Kane's. He voiced Yoda and others in the Star Wars universe for various radio projects and games and did so much more…up until tragedy struck.

A few years ago, a stroke left him unable to speak and do what he did so well.  We'd been hearing lately that he was recovering somewhat from that sad state and appearing at conventiions…and now this. His fellow voice actor Bob Bergen posted on Facebook…

I don't think I ever saw him in a bad mood or without a smile. Over the years he gave me tons of career advice, from taking audition risks to agent/client relationships. I would watch him welcome newbies to our vo community in studios and agency lobbies and tried to mimic his approach. He was one of those whom I'd chat with outside of Voicecasters on Burbank Blvd. for an hour after we’d auditioned together.

…and Bob's comments were followed by dozens of comments from Tom's friends and co-workers saying much the same. He was on many of our Cartoon Voices panels at Comic-Con and the audiences loved him. We all did.

It's him again…

When people speak of talk show hosts, they usually leave out one of the best — Dr. Z. Here's a full episode of his program recorded last February at the theater in L.A. called, for obvious reasons, Dynasty Typewriter…

This will be The Week of Colbert and I must admit he's doing a pretty classy job of being canceled. I suspect some of his detractors are frustrated that he's not acting like a loser and expressing deep regret for ever mocking their dear leader. I also suspect he's got a helluva surprise planned for his last show and I can't begin to imagine what it might be. Trump, who seems to view everything in the world in terms of who can claim victory — even when those claims are bogus — will probably post or say some form of "See what happens when you mess with me?"

Since I posted my eulogy for Barbara's Morning Oat Crunch under any of its many names, an awful lot of you have written in to suggest Quaker Oatmeal Squares (the Brown Sugar flavor) as a possible replacement. I have a box coming in my next grocery delivery so we'll see.

I'm still recovering from all the walking I did in New York and from a bruise the size of Australia on my knee. And I'm still glad I went.

The show "Puppet Up!," which I have recommended many times on this blog, is doing more performances in its new home, the Ricardo Montalban Theater on Vine Street in Hollywood. If you've never seen it, go see it. It's improvised adult (i.e., naughty) humor performed by Muppet-adjacent players. How could that not be fun?

65 days until Comic-Con International swallows up San Diego for most of a week.  Where does my year go?

Bill Carter, the reporter who covers the Late Night Beat, has much to say about CBS's decision to go financially and politically safe by dumping Stephen Colbert's show. What Mr. Carter says will surely become the prevailing wisdom on the whole sorry exercise.

If you want to read the first, probably more-interesting part of this report, you can find it here.  This is the second and final part.

---

After the speeches and the sign unveiling, I stumbled — I believe that's the correct verb here — down from the stage to find a number of folks thrusting my Jack Kirby book and copies of Groo at me for signatures. Then Paul Levitz and I decided to go get lunch and we invited Karen Green to join us. Karen is the Curator for Comics and Cartoons at Columbia University — a very smart 'n' charming lady. She was was one of the folks who helped make the street renaming happen. The main crusader — and I should have mentioned and praised his heroic efforts in Part 1 of this — was Roy Schwartz.

We decided to walk to the increasingly-legendary Katz's Delicatessen, which was a long half-mile for someone with my malfunctioning knees. Still, we made the journey knowing full well that we might find a long line to get in — a line that would make us decide to go somewhere else. And when we got there, sure enough, there was a long line to get in — a line that made us decide to go somewhere else. Somewhere else turned out to be Little Italy because, hey, if you can't get deli food, Italian's the obvious fallback.

I have known Paul Levitz for a long time, dating back to when none of his friends would have wagered a nickel he'd spend most of his career in the comic book business, let alone wind up co-running DC Comics. I have seen the comic book industry become much wiser and more benevolent in how it treated the folks who write and draw the funnybooks. Paul was a major reason. Over parmesans (he had veal, I had chicken), we talked about the biz, then and now. We share a disbelief at how long we've been around and at all the things that we once thought would never happen that have happened.

It's always a different world out there but sometimes, it's a lot more different than you could have imagined.

Then Paul, Karen and I cabbed our way over to the Center for Jewish History on W. 16th Street for the opening of an exhibit about (who else?) Jack Kirby. Then it was over to the hall of the Society of Illustrators on E. 63rd for a Marvel-sponsored party celebrating Kirby and the redubbed intersection. Among those I talked with there were Larry Lieber, Chris Claremont, Frank Miller, Danny Fingeroth, Dan Buckley, Jim Salicrup, David Bogart, Al Milgrom, Jim and Jesse Simon (son and grandson, respectively, of Joe Simon) and I can't possibly name everyone. Forgive me, everyone else.

All in all, one of the most exhausting — but pleasing — days of my life. Weariness set in though so I left before the soirée was through, Lyfted back to my hotel and happily collapsed.

I spent Tuesday with my friend and favorite editor, Charlie Kochman, talking about upcoming projects I can't yet discuss here. We lunched at Carmine's on W. 44th Street, then marched over to the TKTS booth at 47th Street and 7th Avenue. In case you're not aware, the TKTS booths are places where each day, one can purchase theater tickets — mostly for that evening's performances — at reduced prices.

You're never certain what will be there and for how much. It depends on how many unfilled seats each show is looking at for that night.  But once the booth is open for business, you can see there and on this website what they have for closeout prices. We had many choices but we made two decisions, the first being to go see Hadestown. Charlie had seen it before, loved it, thought I would and wanted to see it again. That was Decision #1.

Decision #2 was to not purchase our tickets at the TKTS booth where the line to buy tix made the one at Katz's Delicatessen seem like the line to get in to see Rob Schneider perform. With my knee problems, I literally could not have waited in that line and, of course, there was the chance that by the time we did reach the window, whatever quantity of tix they had for Hadestown that night would have been gone.

So we hiked — well, Charlie hiked and I limped — over to the Walter Kerr Theater on W. 48th where Hadestown has been playing since it opened on 4/17/19. The tickets we purchased at the box office for that night were for the 2,318th performance. Based on the fullness of the theater and the crowd's love of what transpired on that stage, it looks like it'll be there for a long time going forward.

And true, we paid full price for the tickets but it was worth it not to have to stand in that TKTS line. We also probably got better seats, including an aisle seat for me which was way better for my legs. Charlie and I then repaired to a favorite restaurant of his to talk and snack and talk until showtime.

How to describe Hadestown? It's a reimagining of the Greek legend/myth of Orpheus and Eurydice set to surprising, given the subject matter, music. The score is amazing with some or all of the musicians on stage and even involved a bit in the proceedings. The actors we saw were all, without exception, stellar and the staging was one of the main stars of the show. Online, you'll find many folks saying it's the best thing they ever saw and it did win Best Musical at the Tonys for the season it opened. But most of those online lovers of the show will also caution you that it isn't the same show if you see it anywhere in the U.S. but at the Walter Kerr.

If you take in a national touring production — there was an Equity one and now there's a non-Equity one, I believe — you won't get anything near that awesome set with its magical turntables and elevators.  The hydraulics have the actors literally rising from and descending into the ground, down to Hell, at key story moments, as well as walking on treadmills. Much of the staging has to be altered (and probably diminished) when the play's staged elsewhere. Here's the best clip I could find of the original Broadway cast…

So I highly recommend the show if you can see it on 48th Street in New York. Perhaps in other countries, they have an exact clone of the stage with all its wondrous special effects but I can only speculate on how effective it is without them.

That was Tuesday. On Wednesday morning, I ate The Best Thing That I Ate In New York and then went to an appointment with Tom Brevoort over at Marvel. The Lyft app said they could get me there in fifteen minutes but I decided to allow thirty. It took close to an hour because 42nd Street was, as I and a pissed-off Lyft driver discovered, partially closed for the annual World Falun Dafa Day Parade. I didn't know what that is and neither, most likely, do you.  If you're curious, Google will explain and also tell you that for it, "thousands of practitioners march through Manhattan with colorful banners, floats, and cultural performances like dragons and lion dancers." I'm sure it's wonderful if it doesn't make you criminally late for an appointment.

The parade ended as parades eventually do so on the way back, I reached my hotel in plenty of time for the limo service I'd booked to take me to J.F.K. for the flight home. Unfortunately, that limo service never arrived. What I got was a series of phone calls that he'd be a little late, then he had a flat tire, then they'd dispatched another car, then that guy was stuck in traffic, then there was some emergency…

I finally got a call from a lady at the company who said, "Would you like to cancel?" in a tone that suggested that would be better for everyone concerned, me especially.  So I did. A bellman at the hotel had told me they had an arrangement with another limo service and I asked him to make that call. He came back minutes later and said, "I have good news and I have good news." The first good news was that they could take me. The second good news was that at that very moment, one of their drivers was dropping off a passenger at that hotel…so I had about a thirty second wait before I could hop into his car and be on my way. That bellman had given me a very good tip so I gave him one in cash.

I'd padded the schedule well enough that we still had ample time to get me to J.F.K. and as it turned out, I had even more. My flight was delayed and delayed and delayed so I got back to LAX at 1:30 AM instead of 10:30 PM as planned.  Like you when you travel, I didn't quite feel at home until I was slipping into my own bed.

I was very glad I made that trip.  In life, Jack was frustrated that so many people — particularly those on whom his income depended — did not grasp just what it was he'd done.  But Jack had an uncanny sense of prescience and I'm not for a minute suggesting anything paranormal.  He was just very, very wise.  He knew how the business would change in many of the ways Paul Levitz and I discussed.  Jack's frustration was that they wouldn't change in time for him to reap some just rewards and share them with his family.

I got asked over and over at the corner of Essex and Delancey Jack Kirby Way what Jack would have said about his name on a sign on the corner where he once sold fruit and newspapers. I told everyone who asked, "He'd say, 'I knew this kind of thing would happen someday'" and I sure hope that was the right answer. It makes me feel good to believe that it was.