We Hardly Knew Ye: Marcia Wallace

Carol Kester from The Bob Newhart Show and Edna Krabappel from The Simpsons is dead at 70.
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Happy 74th, Fred!

Fred Willard hits the big seven-four today.

He's been in a countless movies and TV shows over the last 40 years, including personal faves King of the Hill, Anchorman, The Simpsons, This Is Spinal Tap and The Bob Newhart Show. However, he's never been funnier than in Christopher Guest's trilogy of mockumentaries: Waiting for Guffman (1996), Best in Show and A Mighty Wind (2003), from which the above clip comes.

Then there was this unexpected bit of unpleasantness last year.
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Bob Newhart Spoiler Alert!

One of my favorite comedians has a surprise cameo at the end of this so-so comedy.
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Cool Connections #3: Iggy and Evel

In Robert Matheu's new book, The Stooges: The Authorized and Illustrated Story, Iggy Pop describes the above image, taken from a 1969 photo shoot for the band's first album cover...

I didn't want to just be posed there, because we were a band that moved. So I got the other guys on the floor all huddled together, and I decided that I'd jump up over them like Evel Knievel going over the fountain at Caesars -- and just like Evel, I crashed down on Scottie [drummer Scott Asheton, the guy in the middle] and went face first into the cement floor. Scottie was always cool about those things, 'cause I crashed into him a lot over the years. So I went to the hospital to get stitched up and came back the next day.

On a similar Evel/Iggy note, I wrote in Evel Incarnate...

In the 1993 book, Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana, Michael Azerrad wrote that Evel was Kurt Cobain’s “childhood hero,” and that “two of Kurt’s favorite stuntmen” were Evel and Iggy Pop... The Stooges may not have had any direct connection to Evel, yet Cobain’s admiration of both Evel and Iggy Pop was rather astute. In the early 1970s, Iggy was rock 'n' roll's closest equivalent to Evel, as their respective pioneering acts and reckless, search-and-destroy nihilism curiously paralleled one another.

Also from the Stooges book is this cool mini- connection: guitarist Ron Asheton vandalized Bob Newhart's face on the cover of a 1983 TV Guide.















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Rainout!

Son of a bitch.

This morning I took the subway out to Wrigley Field and met my old pal Bill (former Seattleite/current Chicagoan of Lamestain fame) for today's Cubs-Pirates tilt. But, after the National Anthem was sung, it was delayed by intermittent thunderstorms for three-and-a-half hours before it was officially declared a rainout. So we went back to Bill's South Loop condo and ate Lou Malnati's Chicago-style pizza with his family. Yum.

I won't have another chance to catch the Cubs on this trip, but Chicago has so much cool stuff that I'll have to come back anyway. So far I've checked out many of the major buildings: the Sears Tower, the Hancock Center, the Tribune Tower, the Wrigley Building, the Water Tower, and Marina City. I also found the Realtor Building, whose exterior served as Dr. Robert Hartley's office on The Bob Newhart Show. Below it is the Billy Goat Tavern, where I had a shitty "cheezborger." I also walked the lengths of the Magnificent Mile and Navy Pier, where there supposedly is a Bob Newhart statue. I couldn't find it, but I did find the Picasso sculpture. Whatever.

Sox-Royals tomorrow, weather permitting.
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We Hardly Knew Ye: Suzanne Pleshette

Suzanne Pleshette died yesterday at age 70.

In her role as Emily Hartley, the sassy Pleshette played the perfect foil to her button-down husband on The Bob Newhart Show, their differences giving the classic '70s sitcom some of its funniest moments.

She also starred in Hitchcock's The Birds.
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Happy 78th, Bob!

Bob Newhart hits the big seven-eight today.

I'll never forget the time I met Bob Newhart.
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We Hardly Knew Ye: Edo Vanni & Tom Poston

Edo Vanni died Monday at age 89. Vanni was long considered the embodiment of Seattle's baseball history (as well as its dean, its face, its heart and soul, etc.). Born in Black Diamond and attending both Queen Anne High School and the UW, the speedy Vanni played right field as a rookie on the first Seattle Rainiers team in 1938. Until his death, he remained its last surviving member. Vanni's fiery presence helped the Pacific Coast League Rainiers win three consecutive pennants between 1939 and 1941, turning Seattle into a baseball-mad city. After managing the final Rainiers team in 1964, he was employed by every subsequent pro Seattle ballclub in various capacities -- coach, manager, general manager -- except by the Mariners, who honored him with a lifetime pass. He called the Seattle Pilots "the biggest farce I ever saw," but remained a big M's fan (his favorite player was Ichiro). He lived the rest of his life in Queen Anne, where he ascribed his longevity to daily constitutionals and lots of wine, and his marriage of 58 years. See him in action in this great Rainiers video, and read Larry Stone's 2005 profile.

Tom Poston died Monday at age 85. Poston was a comedic actor who mostly appeared on TV in his 56-year career, usually playing slow-witted, bewildered characters. He often worked alongside Bob Newhart: his best-known regular role was simpleton handyman George Utley on Newhart (1982-1990). He also played Bob's old college roommate in five episodes of The Bob Newhart Show between 1975 and 1977, along with appearances on Bob (two episodes in 1993), George & Leo (one 1997 episode), and the 1971 theatrical movie Cold Turkey. Besides being a frequent game-show panelist, he's had guest appearances on seemingly every sitcom of the last 20 years, and also voiced animated characters on King of the Hill (as Mr. Popper, the old vaudevillian who turns Bobby on to ventriloquism) and the The Simpsons (as the Capital City Goofball).

Tenuous link: Suzanne Pleshette played Bob's wife Emily on The Bob Newhart Show. Emily grew up in Seattle during the '40s and '50s, where there's a good chance she saw Edo Vanni in action at Sick's Stadium. In real life, Pleshette married Tom Poston in 2001.
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Crossword Report: March '07

Bunny bunny!

This month I started doing the crosswords in the New York Sun, which rival the New York Times puzzles in terms of difficulty, cleverness, and overall quality. Best of all, they're free to download and print, provided it's done on the actual day each puzzle appears (the paper only publishes on weekdays, and there doesn't seem to be a crossword archive). Likewise, I've become a regular solver of the USA Today puzzle. Their online puzzles are also free, and they have a free two-week archive, and I like how each puzzle can be printed directly from the screen -- no downloading or special software necessary. Among crosswords I solved from various other sources last month were nine puzzles in my Wordplay tie-in book.

Crosswords in Pop Culture:

The Bob Newhart Show (November 3, 1973).
After discovering wife Emily scored higher on an IQ test than he did, a frustrated Bob begins to notice her various “smart” traits, such as doing crosswords in pen rather than pencil... In real life, Time magazine reported that “Ginnie [Newhart's longtime wife] and Bob share a passion for crossword puzzles and spectator sports, and they have a deep mutual empathy.”

Late Night with David Letterman (February 1, 1986).
During a show filmed aboard an airborne 747, Dave offered his solution to the problem of finding the airline magazine's crossword already solved: “How many times have you picked up a copy of the in-flight magazine only to find that someone else has already done the crossword puzzle? What are you gonna do? You can throw up your hands and give up, or do what I do -- bring along a sheet of 'Blank Stick-on Squares.' After a few painstaking hours, the crossword will look like new." Letterman then asks his pal, the recently deceased Larry “Bud” Melman, who has just filled a crossword with the blank squares, how it worked for him: "I like it even better than doing the puzzle!"

King of the Hill (April 16, 2000).
In "Meet the Propaniacs," we see Bobby and Connie sitting on the sofa, Bobby polishing Connie’s toenails as she reads the New York Times Magazine. She asks, "Hey, do you wanna do the New York Times crossword puzzle? It’s what New York couples do every Sunday." Bobby replies, "Like Tony Randall and his wife!"

Well, it's the first of the month, time to clean Captain Bananas' tank.

Bonus Captain Bananas Fun Fact™:

· His favorite TV show is Sabado Gigante.

See you in the funny pages.

Crossword Report: February '07
Crossword Report: January '07
Total crosswords solved in March 2007: 90
Total crosswords solved in 2007: 237
On pace to solve in 2007: 961
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