RIP

RIP Tim Conway

This is just gold

HT: Kurt- Thanks for sending this to me.

The New Version of School House Rock

Via the funny people at SNL.

And now for some comic relief

Stuff like this is all the more hilarious when you know that, incredibly, it is not satire.

Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Resigns in Spy Scandal

BRUSSELS — The longest-serving government leader in the European Union, Jean-Claude Juncker of Luxembourg, resigned as prime minister on Thursday amid a ballooning intelligence service scandal that began with revelations that the duchy’s former spy chief taped official meetings with a recorder disguised as a wristwatch. 

Read the rest here.

OK. I normally don't regard minor political news from the EU's smallest member state as blog worthy. (No offense to any readers from the Grand Duchy.) But... Luxembourg has a secret spy service? Really? This sounds like the plot of a Peter Sellers comedy.

Maybe we need to keep a closer eye on Rhode Island.

Memory Eternal

It is with sadness that I learned of the recent passing of Frank Thornton, better known to millions of fans as Capt. Peacock from the British television comedy series "Are you being served?" One of the last surviving members of the cast he reposed Saturday at the age of 92.

RIP: Comedy Legend Phyllis Diller

Her famous long cigarette holder was actually a stage prop. She never smoked. Memory eternal.

'Honeymooners' creator dies

Producer, writer and director Leonard Stern, who created with Jackie Gleason the iconic TV series "The Honeymooners" as well as almost two dozen other series and 12 films and was also a leader of the Producers Guild of America, died Tuesday, June 7, in Los Angeles. He was 88.

Stern, who also partnered with Roger Price and Larry Sloan in the Price/Stern/Sloan literary publishing company, authored several books, including "Dear Attila the Hun" and "A Martian Wouldn't Say That!" Jay Leno has regularly dipped into the latter, a collection of memos from TV executives that they wish they hadn't written, on "The Tonight Show." The firm was launched with the popular Mad Libs, the word game created by Stern and Price and published since 1958.

Stern quickly grew to become one of the busiest creative forces in television, writing a season of "The Phil Silvers Show" (aka "Sergeant Bilko") and drawing a shared Emmy in the process, followed by 150 episodes as head writer of "The Steve Allen Show," for which he was also Emmy nommed. He also produced "Get Smart" for five years, earning an Emmy nomination for best comedy series and winning one, together with Buck Henry, for comedy writing.

Read the rest here.

RIP: Steve Landesberg

I never have much cared for TV and so called sit-coms are usually about as appealing to me as nails on a chalkboard. One of the very few that I ever really enjoyed was Barney Miller. (Yes I am old enough to remember the show.) So it was with some melancholy that I read of the passing of Steve Landesberg, one of the few surviving stars of the show.

When Abe Vigoda finally dies I think I will go into mourning.

45 Years Ago: The birth of an iconic TV program

The opening scene from the pilot episode of Get Smart. Don Adams was one of the funniest men on TV at the time and his character produced a slew of one liners that became catch phrases for a generation such as... "Sorry about that chief." " Would you believe..." and "Missed by that much." The spy spoof series was an instant hit when it debuted in 1965 and it ran for five seasons.

New York... Making Californians feel good about their government

ALBANY —Republicans and Democrats attempted to hold separate Senate sessions at the same time on Tuesday, leaving the Capitol in confusion and bickering as members of both parties shouted over each other on the Senate floor, and each party claimed it was in control.

Though Democrats had entered the Senate chamber through a back hallway just before 12:30 p.m. and locked the doors — much to the surprise of Republicans — Republicans moved ahead with plans for their own session and began calling for votes on bills as Democrats sat silent in protest.

Exactly who was in control of the Senate — or whether any of the procedural action the Republicans had taken was legally valid — was unclear. Democrats were successful in blocking Republicans from taking control of the Senate gavel, which remained firmly in the hands of Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins of Westchester County, who was guarded by sergeants-at-arms on both sides.

Read the rest.

You just can't make this stuff up.

The state Senate is split down the middle with the defection of at least one Democrat to the Republicans and there is no Lieutenant Governor to break ties. He became Governor after Elliot (Mr. Clean) Spitzer was caught renting high priced entertainment of the sort most men would not want their wives discovering. And of course this being New York there is no constitutional provision for filling the office of Lt. Governor between elections.

The Democrats and Republicans are both behaving like children in this matter, though I fault the Democrats mostly. They gained a majority in the Senate for the first time in decades in last year's election. But the Republicans pulled a fast one and managed to persuade two Democrats to defect to their side giving them a one seat majority. To be honest, I was pretty impressed by that one.

One of them has since re-defected leaving the Senate split with no tie breaking vote. Even during their brief (it was days) tenure in their one seat majority the Republicans were hampered when Democrats locked the doors to the Senate Chamber, refusing to surrender the keys rather than admit the Republicans. Then they hid all off the pending bills and legislative materials. Again they refused to hand any of them over. "If I'm not in charge then I'm taking all of the marbles and no one is playing anymore."

Sadly I am cursed twice over. I live in California, but am a native of New York. Sigh.

How about them Mets?