August 22

Why write about Ron Dante on his birthday? Because he sang the biggest song of 1969, but nobody knew his name.
He left his behind birth name, Carmine Granito, when he joined his first band in the early 60's. Eventually, he was working with producer Don Kirschner, songwriting and singing demos.
In 1965, he was the lead singer of a comedy band, The Detergents: they hit the Top 10 with the parody "Leader of the Laundromat" (they got hit with a lawsuit, too; that was settled out of court.) They hit the Hot 100 one more time with "Double-0 Seven" (not a parody, just a comedy song about dating a James Bond fan) before they called it a day:


"Leader of the Laundromat" was written by the team of Paul Vance and Lee Pockriss, who wrote some successful original hits ("Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini", "Catch a Falling Star".) They recruited Dante to sing vocals for a demo(all the vocals: lead, and all harmonies.) The agreement was, if the song was a hit, Dante would record an entire album for them; the song became a Top 10 hit by the end of 1969.

After the success of "Tracy", Dante recorded all the songs for The Cuff-Links' first album in two days (at the boards, up-and-coming music producer Rupert Holmes...)

The reason for all the rush was that one of Dante's singing sessions was becoming the biggest hit of 1969. Don Kirschner, having just washed his hands of The Monkees, was hired to create music for a TV series based on the comic book character Archie Andrews; Kirschner hired Dante to sing vocals for their songs (and "Leader of the Pack" composer Jeff Barry as lead songwriter; small world...) "Sugar Sugar" was the Archies' monster hit, a global sensation that set the bar for cartoon rock for decades.
The Archies would hit the Top 40 four times; here's their other million-selling single, "Jingle Jangle", taken from the Ed Sullivan archives:

(Trivia: which member of the Archies is singing lead on "Jingle Jangle"? Betty? Veronica? It's Ron Dante, falsetto!)

So, Dante recorded hit songs for the Archies and the Cuff-Links in 1969, without having to tour for either of them. Instead, Dante accepted a solo recording contract with Don Kirschner, which excluded any outside work (except, of course, Don Kirschner projects...)

"Let Me Bring You Up", the lead-up single from his 1970 solo album, was written by the "Sugar Sugar" songwriters. Despite this, they couldn't strike lightning twice. By 1972, Dante was the lead singer in another cartoon band...

It wasn't the end of his music career; he made it through the 70's producing some of Barry Manilow's greatest hits ('Copacabana', 'Mandy'), before parlaying into Broadway production (Ain't Misbehavin, Children of a Lesser God). Today, he raises dalmations and tours for the festival crowd; he resumed his solo career in 1999, and released his most recent in 2010.

August 16

Today, we're talking about Reginald VelJohnson, veteran actor and go-to guy when you want a friendly cop in your movie or TV show. There's plenty of tough, no-nonsense cops on TV, and they come in two flavors: deadpan (CSI) and trigger-happy (NCIS). As Carl Winslow, Reginald was the happy, not-quite-bumbling (at least, compared to Urkel) policeman that was more than his badge. He was a decent cop with good values (because Family Matters, y'know?...) And the dude could dance...

No wonder his walk-on character from Perfect Strangers became the anchor of a TV series that lasted 215 episodes.

Before he patrolled the streets of the TGIF lineup, he was most famous as the cop on the other end of John McClaine's walkie-talkie in the original Die Hard. He also played a cop in Turner & Hooch (playing neither, just a colleague). Heck, he played a jailer in Ghostbusters.

He doesn't just play cops:

Time Upon a Once from Zach Lipovsky on Vimeo.

That was a short film produced for the reality series for moviemakers, "On the Lot." After ten years 'on the force', he concentrated on the stage, which allowed him more diverse roles, as well as the chance to write and develop his own material. However, he didn't disappear from TV screens, making guest appearences on everything from Crossing Jordan and CSI to Will & Grace. In 2010, he returned to series television, accepting a role on the Disney sitcom I'm in the Band, as a different type of authority figure: a high school principal.

This last clip is to make the point that although the subjects in this Birthday Blog may be unappreciated in a general sense, it doesn't mean that they're not somebody's hero:

August 15

Today, we feature Jim Dale: an actor/songwriter that's a near icon in his native Great Britain, but might seem comparatively invisible in the US. But even if you haven't heard of him, you've probably heard him.
As a singer/songwriter under the guidance of Beatles producer George Martin, he made several trips up the UK charts in the late 50's.

His biggest songwriting success, the theme to 1966's "Georgy Girl", went to #2 in the US for the Seekers; as for himself, he was nominated for an Academy Award.

During the 60's, he appeared in 11 films of the "Carry On..." series, a series of bawdy satirical comedies.
The 70's brought him to the US, most prominently to Broadway (receiving his first of five Tony nominations in 1974, and winning a Best Actor in 1980.) He also played some hissably funny villains in such Disney comedies as Hot Lead Cold Feet and Pete's Dragon


In the last decade, Jim Dale's voice has gained a magical quality for millions of listeners. He is the narrator of all seven US releases of the Harry Potter book series, as well as for the Harry Potter video games. His work for the Harry Potter won him two Grammys, got him an MBE from Queen Elizabeth II, and earned him a spot in the Guiness Book of World Records (for voicing 146 characters for the Deathly Hallows recordings.)
His voice also narrated such fairytale worlds as those "Perfect" Walgreens commercials and the cult TV series Pushing Dasies...

Of all the good things and great actors I associate with that show, I've gotta say that Jim Dale's narration's the best thing about it...

August 9

Happy Birthday to Amy Stiller, a girl in the family business of making people laugh (Her parents are Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, and Ben's her baby brother.) Her highest-profile gigs have been on TV (including three different characters on 'The King of Queens') but she's appeared in movies with her family as well (my favorite character of hers is the film studies teacher in The Independent.)

Chasing the fame game feels even tougher when it's a family thing, but her response was co-writing and starring in the award-winning short, Amy Stiller's Breast (her aspiring actress character discovers there's an image of the Madonna on her left boob.)

Amy just got married a few years ago. Considering her upbringing, it makes sense that she would have to find someone funny, and someone comfortable with show business. So she married this guy:

No, she's not Mrs. Amy Tentacles. She married voice actor Roger Bumpass; she's Mrs. Bumpass now.

Oh, well... at least, she doesn't have to seduce Spanish furniture movers anymore...

August 7

Happy Birthday to veteran actor David Rasche, the That Guy that found, for a moment and a half, the perfect leading role.

He first made his reputation on the Chicago stage; he's particulary received acclaim for his Mamet performances. He also developed his comedic chops in Chicago, assuming John Belushi's spot when Belushi was called up to Saturday Night Live. Perhaps it was the same combination of machismo and buffoonery that made Sledge Hammer such a perfect role.

Sledge Hammer!, a parody of Dirty Harry and NBC's "Hunter" series, lasted two seasons.

"Sledge Hammer" was only one high point of a long TV and movie career. (His longest running series, by five episodes, was the NBC sitcom "Nurses.") He tends to play bunglers or smarmy weasels of the corporate (LA Law, Ugly Betty) or political (West Wing, In the Loop, Burn After Reading.)

But he's so under the radar that he was the most recognizable face in the movie United 93, a movie they wanted to film without any actors that would take the audience out of the story.

Still there are plenty of fans who would recognize him in any role, even if they only see him in one. And they're all going to be in one building!

August 4

Sometimes, these blog posts generate themselves:


Good to fit in two birthday wishes, but this post is for Helen Thomas, who has sat in White House press conferences since the Kennedy Adminstration. Plus, she was born in Winchester, Kentucky (down the holler from me), so she gets some hometown love.
Here's a great encapsulation about her career, and its recent (and controversial) ending:

However you interpret her statement, she conceded the insensitivity of her remarks. (But that's kind of common for folks her age; that's why we retire them [See what I did there? Just to be clear, that's an attempt by me to offer humor through a sarcastic ageist statement... unless I'm really prejudiced against old people... or I'm trying to boost blog hits by making incendiary remarks... some of my best friends are old people...]) And because she considers herself a journalist (and not a Fox News correspondent [see what I did there? Just to- never mind.]), she retired.

I don't know if anyone is poised to pick up the torch, regarding her relentless equal-opportunity questioning of every administration of the last 50 years. And her record for crushing press secretaries' souls will likely remain unchallenged for centuries to come. (I think I might be ageist. Forgive me.)
Look at what she did to Stephen Colbert (fast forward to 04:20)

August 2

Today's the birthday of Wes Craven, and if you pay attention to movies, you probably know his name already: as a film director and writer, he's shaped the American horror film for decades, from 1972's The Last House on the Left, to the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise and the Scream series. Today, we're going to take a look at his excursions beyond the horror genre.

1982's "Swamp Thing" was his comic book movie, his attempt to show that he could handle action films, big stunts, and big-name actors (the film starred Adrienne Barbeau, Louis Jordan, and Ray Wise. The film garnered enough of a cult reputation to inspire a sequel and a popular TV series.

At one point, Craven was signed to direct "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace". Those legendary "creative differences" (with star - and eventual director - Christopher Reeve) got Craven replaced.

How did Wes Craven end up directing the Meryl Streep movie "Music of the Heart"? He demanded it. In fact, he only agreed to direct a third Scream movie if he got to direct "Music". At the time, Madonna was attached to the biopic about a music teacher in New York that was saving the world one violin at a time. Madonna and Craven had "creative differences", but Craven got to stay in his chair this time.

The film would end up nominated for two Oscars. Critics spoke well of Craven's directing, surprised by his understated handling of the film's melodrama.

"Vampire in Brooklyn" should have worked. Craven and Eddie Murphy wanted to work together; Murphy wanted something darker than his typical urban comedies, and Craven knew how to inject humor into his macabre movies. And "Brooklyn" has real-deal horror fx, plus Eddie Murphy in multiple roles; it's got the two great tastes...

...that taste kind of off. Was Murphy trying too hard to be a leading man(is it a coincidence that he got the gothic mullet look, ala Tom Cruise's Lestat one year prior?) or was he leaning too much on his comedic timing? Was Craven trying too hard to make a comedy, or did he just lose control of the film? "Brooklyn" has its fans, but most people call it an Eddie Murphy film...

Finally, we feature Craven's contribution to the motion picture menagerie known as 'Paris Je T'aime'. As befitting the theme, it's a short romantic comedy about love in Paris, and the most supernatural element is Oscar Wilde.

Apparently, this was Craven's concession to his reputation as a horrormeister. (BTW, "Paris Je T'aime" is a warm and fuzzy film, but the chapter before Craven's has a hot and savage vampiress versus Elijah Wood... so everybody's happy!)

July 17

Director Alex Winter fulfills so many purposes for this blog. He's a successful writer/director who's been unfairly eclipsed by timing and one particular acting role.
See, if you went looking for Alex Winter in the video, you'd probably grab one of the Bill and Ted movies. If you wanted to show off, you might grab "The Lost Boys"


But it's the works you can't find so easily that make me an Alex Winter fan. Collaborating with Tom Stern and Tim Burns, Winter started working in the director's chair, making music videos for bands like Extreme and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, lensing the cult classic Freaked, and creating the psychotic MTV sketch comedy show The Idiot Box:

BTW, that's Tom Stern playing Lockjaw. Burns would become a head writer on 'Crank Yankers', while Stern would be a director on such TV comedies as 'The Man Show', 'The Andy Milonakis Show', and 'The Chimp Channel'. As for 'The Idiot Box', the show only made it to six episodes; not even enough for a DVD release, apparently...

For the rest of the 90's, he got married and directed music videos and commercials. His next movie - and his first solo directing effort - was 'Fever'; it was invited to the Director's Fortnight at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival that year.
But his directing breakthrough seems to have become the Ben 10 live-action movies.
The two movies are currently the highest rated programs ever on Cartoon Network (and unfortunately, might be why the 'CN' stopped making cartoons for a while...), and has made Alex Winter a director in demand.

As of 2010, he's working on a remake of the cult horror film The Gate (in 3-D!) and recently directed test footage for a proposed TV series based on the underappreciated comic book hero The Blue Beetle. (You can keep up with his future endeavors on his website for Trouper Productions.)

I'll end this post with a musical note, with a video he and his posse made for the Red Hot Chili Peppers' 'Knock Me Down':

June 20

Tress MacNeille is one of the most prolific character actors today, having been in more than 200 TV shows over 30 years. You know her voice: Babs Bunny [Tiny Toons], Agnes Skinner [Simpsons], Chip [when he was a Rescue Ranger], Mom [Futurama], Daisy Duck [since 1999...] every other cranky woman in an English dub of a Studio Ghibli film...
One of her most popular characters is Dot Warner, one of the Animaniacs. It's a good starting point, if you want to figure out what characters she's done in your favorite cartoons. I know it's probably the least wacky scene Animaniacs ever did, but it's a good spotlight.

Voice-over artists tend to be invisible to the audience, so let's rectify that. Here she is, in a Designing Women parody (sorry it's more clever than funny.) She's the one in the glasses, for people who don't know the show.


Of course, if there's any kind of Weird Al connection, I'll exploit it. So here's Tress MacNeille's assist on Weird Al's "Ricky":


Happy Birthday, Ms MacNeille. Can't wait to hear what's next...

June 2

Happy Birthday to the perennially underestimated Wayne Brady. Dude has more skills than he knows what to do with. That's probably why he first got the world's attention on "Whose Line is it Anyway?" It could change from episode to episode whether Ryan Styles or Colin Mochrie was funnier, but nobody could keep up with Wayne Brady on on sheer talent.


Since the show ended, he's been everywhere, seeing what sticks. The powers that be tried to give him his own show, which started as a variety show (like all those 70's celebrity specials) then became a Regis-style talk show. He kept winning Emmys, but the show got cancelled, anyway.
He's started and stopped enough projects for a dozen stars. He's had his share of TV pilots, TV movies, and guest appearances in practically every genre on TV. He's recorded several albums, plus a weekly Vegas show. He's on his third (or fourth, I've lost count) game show hosting gig, doing the relaunch of "Let's Make a Deal."
One I didn't know was him: he wrote and song the theme to one of the better cartoons of the last few years, "the Weekenders."


So why isn't Wayne Brady taking over the world? Is it because everybody's expecting him to sing, dance, and be funny every time they see him? Or is he so cool to everybody that it's not cool to like him? Does he just seem too, well, nice?
Maybe he's holding back...

May 25

Happy Birthday, Sir Ian McKellen; your Shakespearean pedigree has elevated two of the geekiest cults into the pop culture stratosphere. You make everything sound sophisticated and haughty.

Observe these tributes:

May 12

Happy Birthday to one of the Kids: comedian Bruce McCulloch, of the Canadian sketch comedy group Kids in the Hall. If your memory's short on which member was who, Bruce was the short one. He was also the most musical one, writing several songs for the show and the subsequent movie "Brain Candy".

Besides KITH, Bruce has recorded two albums of his funny songs. He's worked more behind the camera than his fellow Kids (writing and directing SNL episodes, plus feature films Dog Park, Stealing Harvard, and Superstar). Most recently, he created the ABC sitcom "Carpoolers", and if I'd have known, I'd have given the show a chance. Especially if they had more scenes like this:

The boys got back together this year for "Kids in the Hall: Death Comes to Town". It debuted on Canadian TV (and their website has episodes on tap), and comes to US cable this summer. If you're wondering if Canada's answer to Monty Python still has it, here's the trailer:

May 3

This one's for my daughter/sidekick. Today's the birthday of Dule Hill, who plays one of her favorite sidekicks, Burton "Gus" Guster. I joined the 'Psych' party late, but by my second episode, I got hooked; it's a great redux of the action-comedies that made 80's TV fun. I grew up with "Hardcastle and McCormick"; she's got "Psych".

Dule left the cast of "The West Wing" to join 'Psych'. He's also in a couple of movies you might have seen: She's All That, Holes, Sugar Hill...
Okay, that's enough biography. Here's the pilot episode of 'Psych', which sets up the whole shebang:

April 30

Today's birthday is a cautionary tale. Glenn Humplik was the co-host on many of Tom Green's shows, from his Canadian public access show in the 90's to his ground-breaking MTV series. The signature comedy of Tom Green combined the absurdity of Ernie Kovacs with the lowest common denominator of the America's Funniest HomeVideos standard that is a baseball bat to the groin. And when Tom didn't have his parents or unsuspecting civilians to bamboozle, Glenn served as Tom's patsy.

By the time Tom Green relaunched his eponymous show on the web, Glenn was nowhere to be found. What happened between them is, publically, a mystery. Glenn doesn't speak about it, and Tom Green says that, legally, he isn't allowed to talk about it. Glenn returned to a career in IT and has a personal blog he posts about work, raising his kid, and random videos he finds on the Internet.
He's relatively gracious to fans, but not extremely forthcoming about why that chapter closed. Was Glenn tired of being treated like a sidekick instead of a co-host? Did Tom go one joke too far? Does Glenn not want to make any more humiliating videos his daughter will eventually find on the Internet? Is the money just better in the tech industry?
There's always the memories. Here's a rap that Tom composed about his old friend:

April 16

Sometimes, for an actor, it's about that one role. 1984 saw the release of the first Police Academy movie, yet another wacky/sexy R-rated 80's comedy. Among the comedy tropes thrown in the mix, the role of dim-witted, gun-toting patriot (a common character in Reagan-era comedies) Eugene Tackleberry was played by David Graf. In other films and TV shows, this character would have been a humourless idiot, if not an outright psychopath. But Graf's performance made Tackleberry into a naive and patriotic man-child: part Marine seargent, part puppy dog.
It worked so well, the character appeared in all six movies, surviving (or spearheading) their devolution to PG-rated theatrical sitcoms, and he was the only one with a character arc: he started as a bumbling NRA-loving virgin, found the locked-and-loaded woman of his dreams, got married, and eventually became instructor to the next generation of people who probably shouldn't have guns...

Michael Winslow was the human beatbox, Bubba Smith was cool, Leslie Easterbrook was stacked, but David Graf's Tackleberry was the funniest reason to watch the Police Academy movies. He's gone now, and the character he played has to be represented in the inevitable remake, but can anybody else give Tackleberry that heart?

April 8

Yesterday was a great day for me: day off from work, got back on the commonwealth's good side, hung with the kids, did some spring cleaning, got something off the ice cream van, and discovered an old, awesome movie ("Following" by Christopher Nolan, if you'll accept a suggestion).
Even my messups were blessings; I couldn't run videoclips for my original choice for today (let me save it for another year), but discovered two birthdays that made me change my mind. Today's Buddha's birthday, a big deal in several Asian countries. Today also happens to be an old friend's birthday, whose family I haven't seen in a long time. Given that this may be the first time in a while they'll hear from me, I found a better artist to feature...

The Biz Markiealbum I Need a Haircut is a collector's item, for historical reasons. The album itself is so-so by Markie standards, but its significance stems from the track Alone Again, which sampled Gilbert O'Sullivan's "Alone Again (Naturally)". Nobody asked Gilbert O'Sullivan, and he took Biz to court. The court found in favor of Sullivan, and all copies were pulled from shelves. Now, music with samples (75% of today's music, it seems) pay the original artist a share of the proceeds. Unless it's leaked to the internet for free. Like that ever happens...
We still love this Buddha-built MC, anyway. In the interest of karma, let's feature a special version of his biggest hit, "Just a Friend." Have you seen those 'literal video' versions? Somebody resings the lyrics of a music video classic to serve as commentary on said video? Here's a 'literal' version of the "Just a Friend" video:

April 7

Here's a question: how can ABBA be in the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, while Hall and Oates are still out? Eligible since 2000, their sound has a direct line from the original rock and soul sound of the 50's and 60's, they straddled the rock, R&B, and dance genres in the 80's, and are certified the most successful duo in recording history.
And of course, we have to give props to John Oates just as much as Daryl Hall. Just look at Hall's solo career. Meanwhile, Hall & Oates are just as embraced by hip-hop and neo-soul heads as indie hipsters and professional wrestlers.

Besides his half of H20, Oates wrote a hit song for Australian exports Icehouse ("Electric Blue") and released two solo albums since the new millenium. There's also an animated series currently in development about the world-spanning adventures of John Oates and his enchanted mustache:

J-Stache - Official Trailer - watch more funny videos

Not sure when that comes out. But you can find the iPhone game app.
Meanwhile Hall and Oates are back on the road this year, and Oates is still making sure Hall doesn't get too mellow.
I'm going to end this super-sized entry with two Hall & Oates songs: something for the fans, and "Possession Obsession," a top 30 hit with the distinction of putting Oates in the lead vocal spot.


and here's the encore:

March 26

Even the Internet has limitations. I discovered that while researching today's birthday boy, Martin Short. Now, if you've watched comedies in the last 30-odd years, you've probably seen Martin Short: on SCTV or SNL, as the wedding planner in the Father of the Bride movies, as entertainment reporter Jimmy Glick, maybe as the villain in the last Santa Clause movie... He's done a lot of work, won plenty of awards, even has a couple of stars on a couple of walks of fame. But I wasn't simply wanting to talk about Martin Short today; I wanted to talk about Ed Grimley.

You see, Ed Grimley was one of those oddball characters that was either annoying to you, or 'made you completely mental, I must say.' A savant man-child in the Pee-Wee Herman mold (but less suggestive), the Ed Grimley character first gained his fame on SCTV, Canada's version of SNL. When Martin Short made the move to the US, Ed Grimley would end up on SNL, as well. In the wake of Pee Wee Herman's success, NBC greenlit a 13-episode run for Ed Grimley's Saturday morning show in 1988.
At this point, I would have normally posted an episode of the show. But all I've found at this point is the opening credits and a couple of screencaps. The show got re-run a few times in the early Cartoon Network years and hasn't returned to TV since. And it's never made the home video market either, so it seems my search is 'doomed as doomed can be, don'tcha know?'

I realize that by writing this column, I'm admitting that I'm publicly obsessing over a Saturday morning cartoon that I watched in high school. Heck, the talking Ed Grimley doll was one of the last cool Christmas presents I ever got as a kid (15 qualifies, right?)
But one great thing about the Internet is it helps me find a virtual community of people who feel a similar adoration, in varying degrees. One Ed Grimley fan set up EdGrimley.com, a photo album of Ed (in doll form) touring the world, ala the traveling lawn gnome. You can see him comparing his coif with the Washington Monument, hanging with movie stars at Sundance, watching a kickboxing tournament in Thailand, or wandering among Mayan ruins in the Yucatan. It's a beautiful site, particularly if you're a Grimley fan.
Meanwhile, today's an excuse to post a classic scene from The Three Amigos:

March 21

Two for two on the treasure clips; Vivian Stanhall was born today, so I have an excuse to talk about the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, along with a classic video in my mind, from my years watching Night Flight until dawn:

March 19th

Some people might find this tasteless, but I can't help writing about Tommy Cooper, considered one of Britain's all-time favorite comedians. His primary schtick was bad puns between failed magic tricks, which went over huge with post-WWII audiences all over the UK.

What fascinates me is Tommy Cooper's final show, at Her Majesty's Theatre, for a 1984 broadcast TV special. He was performing his 'magic cloak' bit, an old standard where random objects of increasing ludicrousness emerge from his tunic and such, when, in a twist, he collapsed onstage.

He tumbles behind the curtain, with only his feet in view; the audience, still laughing. Meanwhile, the crew backstage realize it's not an act. As the story goes, the broadcasters cut to commercial, while his crawler (secret assistant) pulls him in from behind the curtain; when his feet disappear, the audience starts roaring again. The show must go on, so it did, while the ambulance arrived and medics attempted to revive him. He never made it to the hospital.
Some people find his death a tragic moment, as tragic as any death can be. But I also think it's a compelling story (and I'm not the only one; someone's looking to make a movie about the last week of his life.) A comedian who left them laughing: how many lives have that kind of poetry?