I’m reminded this morning of why the Internet is so important.
We saw The Producers last night and I am considering reviewing it. In doing my research, I was looking back at some of the things Mel Brooks had done before. I was looking for some information about a television program with which I thought he was involved. It turns out I was wrong about his having any involvement, but I was able to find some information about the program. I found it under some other virtual junk, tucked away in a virtual nook, beside a virtual cranny, but it was out there for the finding.
I find that sometimes the mind plays tricks on us. Sometimes the things we remember turn out not to be exactly as we thought. For example, when I was nineteen years old, I remember I was 5’ 11-3/4” tall. Sometimes when they asked my height, I’d just say six feet. I remember that on the basketball court I could jump up and touch a finger or two on the rim. I can still remember how the rim felt to the touch, and it felt good. Today, I can touch the net, but there is a large distance from the bottom of the net to the rim, and last time I measured myself, I was closer to 5’ 10.” Did I imagine touching cold, hard steel? What the hell? I’m sticking with my story. All of which leads me to my next question.
Where were you between late February and mid-April, 1978? If you were alive and in front of the television, you may remember Quark. In space, someone has to pick up the trash, and Quark was about a spaceship and its crew that went around picking up the garbage. Richard Benjamin played Commander Quark (sounds like “Captain Kirk” doesn’t it)? The “Spock” character was a guy named Ficus, who was the science officer and, if memory serves, a plant. No, I don’t mean that some evil villain secretly planted him inside the ship with diabolic intent—I mean he was botanic rather than biologic. He was vegetable rather than animal; he was full of chlorophyll instead of blood. There was Gene/Jean, who was all man, or all woman, or at least 50% of each. They received their orders from Otto Palindrome. I had forgotten that his first name was Otto, which is, in itself, a palindrome. That character was played by Conrad Janis, who played Mindy’s father on Mork and Mindy.
Quark was a clever satire, but if you blinked your eyes you missed it, because it was only on for six episodes.
At this point, many of you are probably saying, “Jimbo, we could have gotten through this day without knowing about this. What about The Producers? Weren’t you going to tell us about that?”
Well, The Producers was good, funny and entertaining, but I’m not recommending it. I thought the original was better. There was too much singing and dancing for my tastes. Plus, they could have used Dick Shawn. Unfortunately, he is dead. Did I mention Dick Shawn was a frigging nut? Oh, yeah. I told you that a couple of days ago, didn’t I? I suppose when it seems to us that a failed television series of almost thirty years ago is more interesting that a hit movie, it tells us all we need to know.
At least that’s what we think here in Jimbo’s world.
No comments:
Post a Comment