As reported in my second entry ever, TV Shows On DVD today revealed the back cover to The Flintstones, Season 6 DVD set. Here is a close-up of the extras:

Well, it’s not surprising that Stephen Baldwin is considered a bigger draw than me, but it’s still disappointing that they left my name off the box, since I host The Great Gazoo piece. The copy, as most of you know, is misleading. Stephen Baldwin is only one of the voices of Barney Rubble in that he played him in the second live-action movie. He never actually provided Barney’s voice in any animation.

And by the way, Gazoo’s home planet is pronounced “Zay-tox”, but every reference I’ve found to it, it’s spelled “Zetox”. It’s possible that this is another of those mistakes that was printed in a book somewhere and now gets spread all over the internet as gospel, but until I see something from the Hanna-Barbera archives where it’s spelled differently, I’m going along with the currently accepted spelling.

While I’m talking about beginnings, I’m going to go back in time, although not quite as far back as What’s Up? With Doctor K. This was a pilot for another show that I worked on called Open A Door. It was an educational comedy show in the mold of Sesame Street and The Electric Company, with the subject matter being the arts and sciences. I think we were ahead of our time. Here is a sample of one of the bits:

This was a commercial done in the style of a “Greatest Hits” ad. The copy went, “Rama-Rama Industries, the company that brought you Rug-A-Rama, Clam-A-Rama and Pots and Pan-A-Rama, now brings you Art-A-Rama, with the greatest hits of art of all time.” It then went on to list some of the works of art you would receive like “The Thinker” by Augie Rodin and His All-Star Cast and “Untitled” by The Jackson Pollack 5.

There are lots of stories to tell about making this show and actually getting it on the air, like the fact that I got to play all three Marx Bros. in it (yes, we left out Zeppo, but then, so did the real Marx Bros. after they left Paramount). And besides this being part of the “How I Broke Into Show Business” series of posts, the real reason I started here is I wanted to talk about the guy in the pictures above.

His name is Mike Bailey and between him, me and Liz Matt, we were the Three Musketeers behind Open A Door. I met Liz and Mike during college at Temple University in Philadelphia, alma mater to Bill Cosby and Bob Saget, as if that has any bearing on this story. Our senses of humor (sense of humors?) were very much aligned. It was Mike that first introduced me to Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Another of our college friends, Clay Heery, had been to England in 1970 or ‘71, while Python was still in production and brought back Another Monty Python Record and A Previous Monty Python Record. It would be a couple more years before I finally saw what any of them looked like when there was an unauthorized screening of the film And Now For Something Completely Different.

Mike and I have kind of our own language, some of it based on testing we did for Open A Door with 6th, 7th and 8th graders. It’s still amazing to me how certain words can be universally misspelled. We got many responses where they described a character as “guffy” (goofy). Some of their favorite shows were “Littel Racks” (Little Rascals), “3 Shustes” (Three Stooges), and my favorite, “Fried Fliostone” (I’ll let you figure that one out).

Anyway, after college and after Open A Door didn’t sell, Mike became a filmmaker. He was the first one I knew to have a computer editing system in his home. Now, we all have them, but at the time, his system was big and impressive. He’s been working for NFL Films since 1995 and recently began full time with them, producing footage for the Total Access show.

So, here’s to you, Milk, may your Littel Racks always be as guffy as the 3 Shustes. Now, I’m feeling a bit peckish, so it’s off to the kitchen for some Fried Fliostone.

After hearing the agents talk about getting referrals as the best way to get an appointment with them, it made me realize that most of my career has been about “who you know”. But, as they say, there’s more than one way to skin a cat, which is a pretty disgusting metaphor now that I think about it. And I never metaphor I didn’t like. (Sorry about that, I’ve just been watching Groucho on You Bet Your Life and he’s rubbing off on me.)

My very first writing job I got the old fashioned way — deceit. Actually, it was very innocent, but wound up working in my favor. I looked up all the animation studios in the trades and got names out of it. One of the places I called was DePatie-Freleng, the studio put together by David DePatie and Warner Bros. legend Friz Freleng. (Yes, it’s “Friz”, not “Fritz” as is often erroneously written. It’s basically his first and last names put together backwards, Isadore, or Iz and Freleng… ergo, Friz).

I called Lew Marshall, who was listed as Supervising Director on a show that was in production called The Oddball Couple. Yes, it was based on Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple, which was still in production on TV, and was actually licensed from Paramount. In the animated version, there was a neat cat and a sloppy dog.

The cat’s voice, Spiffy, was provided by the great character actor, Frank Nelson, although for some strange reason, they sped up his voice. If you’d like to see Frank squeeze all his familiar shtick into one commercial, Mark Evanier has a link to a McDonald’s spot that he appeared in. The dog’s voice, Fleabag, was ventriloquist and voice man Paul Winchell.

Anyway, back to the story… I called Lew Marshall and he said he was the wrong person to talk to. He said I needed to speak with Bob Ogle, the story editor. I called Bob and told him that Lew Marshall had told me to call him, which was absolutely true. Well, I didn’t realize this until later, but Bob thought I knew Lew Marshall and that he was actually recommending me. Of course, I still had to come up with the goods after that, but it sure got me in the door and got me my first Hollywood screen credit.

Next, how one slightly dishonest turn deserves another, which is much better than skinning any more cats.

One of the things I like finding is the sheet music to songs that were used in cartoons. It’s amazing how much music I know from watching cartoons. Back in the early days, Warner Bros. would make whole shorts based around a song, just to promote it. The title of the song would even be the title of the cartoon, like Smile, Darn Ya, Smile; Freddie the Freshman or I Haven’t Got a Hat.

The book on the left, titled The Great Looney Tunes Collection, was published in 1990 and Jeff Sultanof did an extremely thorough research job, presenting a cross-section of music used in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, going all the way from Singing in the Bathtub to This Is It! (The theme from The Bugs Bunny Show). Unfortunately, it seems to be out of print now.

There are too many songs to list here, but a few of the highlights are: Hello! Ma Baby (Words and Music by Joe E. Howard and Ida Emerson), the song made famous by Michigan J. Frog in One Froggy Evening; The Latin Quarter (Words by Al Dubin, Music by Harry Warren), a song that Carl Stalling would use any time there was a hint of something French; and even a smattering of Raymond Scott, The Toy Trumpet (Words by Sidney D. Mitchell and Lew Pollack). It also has both Merrily We Roll Along (By Eddie Cantor, Charlie Tobias and Murray Mencher) and The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down (Words and Music by Cliff Friend and Dave Franklin), the Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes theme songs, respectively.

In the coming months, I’ll periodically post the covers to some original sheets of some songs that, save for cartoons, you would have never heard of.

Wednesday night, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (better known as those people that hand out the Emmys) held a panel discussion entitled “How Good Is Your Representation?” The panel consisted of one entertainment attorney, Barbara Rubin, one guy who represented people in the reality arena, Chris Newman, one manager who specialized in dramatic writers, Ken Gross, one actor’s theatrical agent whose clients included Jerry Lewis and Lewis Black, Jeff Wijtas, one literary agent, Jack Dytman and one actor’s commercial agent, Joan Messinger.

Covering the topic, they seemed to agree that you needed to have a representative who has passion for you. That was the root word of the evening… passion and passionate. But more of the evening was spent on how to get one of those. It came down to contacts. Cold calls and unsolicited submissions will pretty much get you nowhere today. A referral from a current client will get you in the door and then you must sell yourself.

For writers, they said if you were good in the room and could talk to people, that was a plus, but the spec script is your calling card. They also stressed that, different from the past, a spec pilot is now acceptable. Desperate Housewives was sold from a spec script as was my namesake, My Name Is Earl.

The story for actors is much more grim. These days, almost all casting is done off the internet, either by e-mailed submissions from agents or through online directories. The problem is that the personal touch is gone. Agents used to meet with casting directors on a regular basis so they had relationships with them. Then, when they’d call up and say “You’ve got to see this person,” the casting director would most likely oblige. Now, not only do they not meet with the casting directors, even the agents can’t get them on the phone to sell their clients. The panel didn’t seem to have an answer for this one.

The event was held on the CBS Radford lot, which was fun for me because that’s the lot where we shot The Muppet Movie. But it was also disappointing because they’ve recently torn down a Brooklyn-type neighborhood set that was used for the series Grounded For Life, among other shows. I hate seeing the backlots destroyed. The stage where they shot Seinfeld stands where Gilligan’s lagoon once lived. To end this post completely off-topic, one of these days I’ll post some old pictures I have of various backlots. That is, as soon as I get an agent that’s passionate about me. There… back on topic.

In the “it’s about time” category, comes some great news about one of our heroes. Here are the words of Mitch Waldow:

Just thought I’d give you an update on Stan Freberg’s nomination for the TV Academy’s Governors Award. Word came out this morning (Thursday) that he won it.

The award will be presented at the L.A. Area Emmys on August 12. Stan is being recognized for his contributions as an L.A. television pioneer — though of course, his career has included many more accomplishments.

Stan is the last surviving founding member of the Academy. He received three Emmys for the Time for Beany show, which was produced locally by KTLA and later, KTTV.

Not that he hasn’t received many other accolades in his illustrious career, including the Emmys mentioned above, he has. It’s just nice to see that he hasn’t been forgotten, either. Here’s a link to the official press release from the Academy.  I’ve mentioned this before on this blog, so excuse my indulgence, but I have to say once again that I wrote Stan a letter when I was thirteen and he wrote back to me. It came in his official envelope, complete with an embossed cartoon seal on it and the legend, “The Great Seal of Freberg Limited, But Not Very”.

So, cheers to Stan Freberg and in his honor this week, take an Indian to lunch!

Big news for Animaniacs fans. Today, the writers of the legendary series taped interviews that will appear on Volume 2, which will most likely be released before the end of the year. I’m not sure how these will be edited together, but we were shot in three groups of four, with Maurice LaMarche acting as host for all three. The first group was Sherri Stoner, Paul Rugg, John McCann and Peter Hastings. Group two was myself, Tom Minton, Charlie Howell and Gordon Bressack. The last group was Randy Rogel, Nick Hollander, Tom Ruegger and Deanna Oliver. It was great to see everyone again, although it was too bad we couldn’t have been in one big group like the staff writer’s meetings from the time we were doing the show. I can only go by what was said in my portion, but I’m sure the other discussions were just as lively. This should make a great addition to the next set.

Animaniacs Writers, from left: Gordon Bressack, Sherri Stoner, Paul Rugg, John McCann and Peter Hastings More Writers, seated from left: Randy Rogel, Nick Hollander, Tom Ruegger, Deanna Oliver; standing: Charlie Howell and Gordon Bressack (he’s everywhere!), not pictured, Tom Minton

And more news:

Here is the official description for the Comic-Con panel, along with the panelists:

Thursday, July 20

4:00-5:00 PM Pinky & The Brain/Animaniacs – Screening of a special feature from Animaniacs Volume 1 DVD and Pinky & the Brain Volume 1 DVD. Panel and Q&A featuring Maurice La Marche (voice of Brain and Squit), Rob Paulsen (voice of Pinky and Yakko), Jess Harnell (voice of Wakko), Andrea Romano (voice director/casting director for both shows), Earl Kress (writer for both shows), Peter Hastings (writer for both shows) and Gordon Bressack (writer for both shows). Room 6B

Remember, as with all Comic-Con events, panelists are subject to change based on availability.

So, we’ve now established that I should stop promising things on this blog that I’m not sure I can deliver. Breaking my promise again seems appropriate, though, for two reasons. The title of the last post was a play on another one of an old comedian’s catch phrases, “Oh, you nasty man!” Yes, you guessed it, it was Joe Penner. But the other reason I bring him up again (he’s getting more attention here than he got in his own lifetime) is that reader B. Baker sent me a scan of a really beautiful one-sheet for College Rhythm and I wanted to share it with all of you.

Consider it shared.

The first shot of the first pilot of “What’s Up?” With Doctor K.

You remember about 20 years ago, I started to tell the saga of how Frank Nastasi, Soupy Sales’ puppeteer and sidekick, ended up co-starring on a show with me. Well, here’s the rest of it.

After the Soupy Show folded in New York, I stayed in touch with Frank, first by writing and then he gave me his phone number. My friend Ralph and I even went up to visit him. I forget exactly where he lived, but it was north of the George Washington Bridge. I’m sure there’s a New Yorker who reads this who will know what that neighborhood is called. Frank’s wife cooked us dinner — Coney Island dogs. It was a very nice gesture and we had a wonderful time talking to him.

Not long after this, we did the three black & white pilots that aired on the local Cablevision. Ralph was a student at Bucks County Community College and got us access to their TV studio on a weekend. As I recall, we borrowed the door from the Bucks County Playhouse in New Hope, Pennsylvania. Both Ralph and I had worked on the stage crew there and knew practically everyone that was running it at the time.

After completing Community College, Ralph transferred to Temple University in Philadelphia, where I was already going. I was a sophmore and Ralph was a junior, but we were in the same TV production class. When it came time to do our project, we decided we wanted to resurrect What’s Up? This time, we used a few of our friends, Marty Molitz and Denny Cahill, who at least both had performing experience, but we thought we ought to class it up a bit.

I had a 3/4″ U-Matic Videocassette deck when they were very new. My machine was a player only and I got a very reasonable price on it. I always suspected it was one of those items that “fell off the back of a truck”, but I needed the deck and didn’t ask questions. I had that machine for about 20 years. It finally broke in the Northridge earthquake of 1994.

Anyway, we hauled it up to New York and ran the three pilots for Frank. One thing I learned early on, you can’t show someone a program and then apologize for the things that you would have done better if you had more time. It has to stand on its own. But Frank could see through the amateurish nature and saw potential in our idea. He said he would be happy to be part of it. What’s more amazing is that he played second fiddle to me. But we were very careful in the writing to give Frank the funny lines.

We decided that to make it a little less like Soupy’s show, we would cut the pie-in-the-face, but we still had slapstick. In the final bit, it rains on me inside the house.

Frank came down and stayed at my house. We rehearsed the day before. This version was a bit more tightly scripted, but we still did the science experiment without trying it out ahead of time. Tape day came and because this was a class project, the show was only supposed to be fifteen minutes long. Well, I guess we got carried away, or overwrote, because the fifteen minutes went by so fast that we didn’t get everything we had planned into it. But then something else happened. We had requested that the show be recorded on the school’s professional quad videotape recorder, which uses really large rolls of 2″ tape, because we wanted to use this as a pilot for the show. Normally, they’d record on what were called helical scan decks, which is actually what your home VCR is, only these were more primitive and unreliable. Unfortunately, the school’s quad deck was also unreliable. At the end of taping, someone came into the studio and said that the tape didn’t come out. I actually laughed. I thought they were kidding. When I finally realized they weren’t and we were going to have to do it again, I blew a gasket. Now, I have to tell you, I’ve only been this angry two times in my life and this was the second one. You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry. I don’t exactly turn green, but I did storm into the corridor and literally rip a bulletin board off the wall. Ralph told me later that when they went to get me, they walked into the hall and all they saw were papers fluttering to the floor.

You have to remember, in the last bit in the show, I got soaked to the skin and we only had one costume. While my friends calmed me down, and dried me off, the teacher decided that since this was their fault, they would let us do the second show without the time limit. The clogged tape heads were actually a blessing in disguise because the pace of the new version was much better. It came out to about 20 minutes, which would have basically been a half-hour show with commercials.

But Frank really saved the second show. We did this in the first take, but we were so short on time, that we had to stop him. During the science experiment and history book segments, the cast was instructed to throw ad-libs at me from off camera. In the re-tape, Frank just went wild and made the show. It won’t read as well on the page as hearing Frank’s delivery, but one line was where I said, “Now I’m going to burn a candle underwater.” And without missing a beat, Frank said, “Are you going under with it?” I came back with, “Yeah, this whole show’s going under!” It was in the moment and very funny.

Obviously, we never sold the show or you would have heard of it, but working with Frank Nastasi was a joy. After I moved to California, I lost contact with Frank. I feel bad, because I was a lousy correspondent. Now he’s gone and after telling this whole story, I really miss him. Thanks for everything you did, Frank. I’ll never forget you.

Well, maybe you can’t see the cartoon anywhere, but now you can own a piece of it. Thanks once again to Mark Evanier for pointing this out to me.