Previews and Reviews that are Z's Views
My guess is that nearly all of you have seen the cover above created by Neal Adams for the Superman vs Muhammad Ali treasury comic.
Seen it. Owned it. Old news, right?
Well, how many of you knew that Joe Kubert created the original cover (see below) Apparently Ali’s folks weren’t happy with The People’s Champ‘s likeness, so Neal Adams was brought in to do the book.
Source: David J. Spurlock.
Kara Kovalchik and Mental_Floss present 11 Fun Facts About My Three Sons. Here are three of my favorites…
1. THE STAR MANAGED TO NEGOTIATE A SWEET SET OF WORKING HOURS FOR HIS SCHEDULE.
Fred MacMurray was a well-established film star when he was approached by executive producer Don Fedderson about starring in a TV series. MacMurray agreed with two conditions: one, that he would own a percentage of the show, and two, that he only would be required to work three months of each year. In reality, MacMurray was a dedicated family man, and after years of being away on movie sets had planned to retire early and spend the majority of his time at home with his wife and four-year-old twin daughters. But the money Fedderson offered him was too tempting to pass up—and would secure his children’s future—so he signed on to play the widowed patriarch on My Three Sons.
MacMurray’s “three month” stipulation meant that the writers had to have each season’s scripts ready in advance so that MacMurray could film all of his scenes in one fell swoop and have them edited into the various episodes of the series after the fact. Years later, several other actors caught on to this concept and agreed to star in a project only if it was filmed in “the MacMurray Method.”
4. BILL FRAWLEY CARRIED A GRUDGE … TO GREAT LENGTHS.
That there was no love lost between former I Love Lucy co-stars William Frawley and Vivian Vance was certainly no secret in Hollywood, but Frawley had been willing to set aside any personal differences when Desilu proposed a spin-off series starring Fred and Ethel Mertz. Vivian Vance absolutely refused, however, and Frawley never forgave her for denying him a steady paycheck.
“On the third season of our show, lo and behold, Lucy decided to do The Lucy Show and they were on the next stage over from ours,” Stanley Livingston recalled. “She probably picked that stage knowing Bill and Vivian would have to pass each other. When Bill saw Vivian, he’d yell some sort of obscenity at her. He got me to participate in a couple of his pranks. When she was doing a scene, he’d get us kids on the show to sneak in and knock over a stack of empty film cans or throw them like a Frisbee to make a big racket and ruin her scene so she’d have to do it again.”
8. THE SERIES CHANGED NETWORKS MIDWAY THROUGH ITS 12-YEAR RUN.
My Three Sons was effectively cancelled by ABC in 1964 because the network was bowing to pressure from rival networks and slowly converting their black-and-white prime time shows to color. All things considered, in their opinion the added expense of filming My Three Sons in color was not worth it, so they axed the show from their schedule. CBS, however, thought the series still had some legs so they picked it up for the fall 1965 season (and continued running it through 1972).
Paul Gulacy sits down (or perhaps stands) for an interview /podcast with Doug Bost and Adam Bernstein.
Kristen Hunt and Mental_Floss presents 15 Chest-Bursting Facts About Alien. Here are three of my favorites…
1. IT WAS ORIGINALLY CALLED STAR BEAST.
When Dan O’Bannon was drafting the screenplay that would become Alien, he had a more unusual title: Star Beast. He didn’t like it, but struggled to find a better replacement until one late-night writing session. As he was typing dialogue in which the crew members discussed the alien, that word jumped out at him. He promptly ditched Star Beast for the more simplistic title, which he loved because it was a noun and an adjective.
5. RIPLEY WASN’T SUPPOSED TO BE A WOMAN.
O’Bannon and Shusett wrote the entire cast as men, but they left a note in the screenplay that “the crew is unisex and all parts are interchangeable for men or women.” Shusett admits they never dreamed of the lead being a woman, though. The producers made that call, believing a female Ripley would be more unique but also more palatable to their bankrollers. As Brandywine producer David Giler remembered, “Looking it over, [producer Walter Hill] and I thought, ‘Here’s this one character who’s not too interesting.’ And this studio—I hate to say this, but for very cynical reasons—this studio [20th Century Fox] is making Julia and Turning Point and they really believe in the return of the woman’s movie. [We’d] probably get a lot of points if we turn this character into a woman.”
12. THE ACTORS WERE GENUINELY SHOCKED BY THE CHESTBURSTER SCENE.
For the iconic scene where a chestburster shoots out of John Hurt’s torso, Scott wanted the best possible reaction from his cast. So he deliberately kept details hidden from all the actors, aside from Hurt. They knew a creature would emerge, they had seen the puppet, and they were more than a little suspicious of the raincoats they’d been given. But they had no idea what kind of gore was in store. Their reaction to the bloody burst is completely genuine. According to The Guardian, Yaphet Kotto (Parker) shut himself in his room right after the scene and wouldn’t talk to anyone.
Roger Cormier and Mental_Floss present 11 Facts About Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Here are three of my favorites…
1. THE TITLE CAME FROM AIRPLANE SALT AND PEPPER PACKETS.
By the time The Beatles took a three-month vacation in the latter part of 1966, they were all tired of being The Beatles. McCartney and tour manager/assistant Mal Evans ruminated on this problem as the two traveled together, ending their international adventures in Kenya. On their flight back to London, McCartney was developing an alter ego for the band for their next record.
“Me and Mal often bantered words about, which led to the rumor that he thought of the name Sergeant Pepper,” McCartney explained to author Barry Miles about how he came up with the name. “But I think it would be much more likely that it was me saying, ‘Think of names.’ We were having our meal and they had those little packets marked ‘S’ and ‘P.’ Mal said, ‘What’s that mean? Oh, salt and pepper.’ We had a joke about that. So I said, ‘Sergeant Pepper,’ just to vary it, ‘Sergeant Pepper, salt and pepper,’ an aural pun, not mishearing him but just playing with the words.” McCartney then added “Lonely Hearts Club” to “Sergeant Pepper,” and figured it would be a “crazy enough” band name, “because why would a Lonely Hearts Club have a band?”
5. RINGO REFUSED TO SING ONE LYRIC.
The song originally began with the hypothetical, “What would you do if I sang out of tune? Would you stand up and throw tomatoes at me?” Starr remembered what happened years earlier when fans constantly threw jelly babies on stage, after Harrison mentioned that he liked them. The drummer worried he would just be asking for it and take tomatoes to the face and other parts of his body for the rest of his life, and informed Lennon and McCartney there was”not a chance in hell” he was going to sing the line as written.
8. “SHE’S LEAVING HOME” WAS WRITTEN ABOUT A TEEN WHO REALLY RAN AWAY FROM HOME, AND HAD MET THE BEATLES YEARS EARLIER.
McCartney wrote “She’s Leaving Home” after reading in the local newspaper about 17-year-old Melanie Coe, who went missing without her car, checkbook, or any spare clothes. It turned out that Coe was shacked up with a croupier she had met at a nightclub, and ended up coming home 10 days later. What McCartney never realized was that he actually met Coe on October 4, 1963, when she won a miming contest on the TV show Ready Steady Go!. McCartney was the judge.
Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson died yesterday from heart complications at the age of 42.
Ferguson rose to fame after a series of videos showing him participating in one-on-one backyard brawls for money became an internet sensation. Because of the popularity of the fight videos and his charismatic personality, Ferguson was able to become a professional MMA fighter (for EliteXC, UFC and Bellator), an undefeated professional boxer and even a movie actor. People tuned in to see Ferguson fight and his bouts were always entertaining.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson’s family, friends and fans.
Stacy Conradt and Mental_Floss present 14 Breathless Facts About Marilyn Monroe. Here are three of my favorites…
2. SHE OFTEN REFERRED TO “MARILYN MONROE” IN THE THIRD PERSON.
Actor Eli Wallach once recalled that Monroe seemed to flip an inner switch and turn “Marilyn” on and off. He had been walking on Broadway with her one evening, totally incognito, and the next minute, she was swarmed with attention. “‘I just felt like being Marilyn for a minute,’” Wallach remembers her saying. Photographer Sam Shaw often heard her critiquing “Marilyn’s” performances in movies or at photo shoots, making comments like, “She wouldn’t do this. Marilyn would say that.”
5. SHE HAD A THING FOR INTELLECTUAL MEN.
Her marriage to writer Arthur Miller probably tells you that, but there’s more evidence. Monroe was once roommates with actress Shelley Winters, who said they made a list of men they wanted to sleep with, just for fun. “There was no one under 50 on hers,” Winters later reported. “I never got to ask her before she died how much of her list she had achieved, but on her list was Albert Einstein, and after her death, I noticed that there was a silver-framed photograph of him on her white piano.”
9. SHE HELPED ELLA FITZGERALD BOOK THE MOCAMBO CLUB.
The rumor has long circulated that Ella Fitzgerald was originally denied due to her race, but according to one biographer, race wasn’t the deterrent for nightclub owner Charlie Morrison; Eartha Kitt and Dorothy Dandridge had already played there. The problem was that Morrison didn’t believe Fitzgerald was glamorous enough for his patrons. A huge Fitzgerald fan, Monroe promised to be in the front row every night if Morrison would book her, guaranteeing massive amounts of press for the club. He agreed, and Monroe was true to her word. “After that, I never had to play a small jazz club again,” Fitzgerald said. “She was an unusual woman—a little ahead of her times. And she didn’t know it.”
MeTV presents 10 Things You May Not Know About The Monkees. Here are three of my favorites…
ONLY PETER TORK AND MICKY DOLENZ APPEAR IN EVERY EPISODE OF THE TV SHOW.
Don’t worry, the other two had good excuses. Davy Jones had to be written out of an episode so he could attend his sister’s wedding. Michael Nesmith missed three shoots due to a tonsillectomy, the birth of his son Jonathan and a family trip to Texas.
PAUL WILLIAMS AND STEPHEN STILLS AUDITIONED TO BE MONKEES.
More than 400 young actors and musicians auditioned for the four roles. Stephen Stills and Paul Williams were among those who did not make the cut, as were Danny Hutton (of Three Dog Night) and Harry Nilsson. The original idea was to cast an existing act, specifically the Lovin’ Spoonful. Both Stills and Spoonful frontman John Sebastian bristled at the idea of turning over their song publishing rights to the studio. Contrary to urban legend, Charles Manson did not audition.
MICKY DOLENZ AND MICHAEL NESMITH BOTH AUDITIONED TO PLAY THE FONZ ON ‘HAPPY DAYS.’
Hey, hey, we’re the Fonzies / People say we Fonzie around… There is no bigger “What If?” surrounding Happy Days than the potential casting of Arthur Fonzarelli. The creators were keen on Dolenz, and even Henry Winkler thought his chances were slim when he spotted this adorable pop star at an audition. But it came down to inches. Six of them. Dolenz was deemed to be too tall, towering over his costars. Nesmith also auditioned and was considered too tall. The 5′ 6″ Winkler fit the frame perfectly. Aaaaaayyyyy!
The extremely talented, extremely nice, Gene Gonzales created his take on Sly from “Rocky II” at the last Heroes Convention. Gene is funny, knowledgeable and really nice.
At every show he attends Gene is constantly signing autographs and sketching for fans, so I was happy to find he could fit me!
You can see more of Gene’s work at his blog. Gene is also available for commissions and his prices are very reasonable.
Thanks again Gene!
Muhammad Ali, Olympic Boxing Gold Medal winner, three time World Heavyweight Boxing Champion and world icon passed away yesterday. Ali had suffered for 32 years with Parkinson’s disease. He was 74.
Before I went to bed Friday night the reports were coming in that Ali was in the hospital on life support. Things didn’t sound good, but Muhammad Ali had overcome great odds before.
I can’t say I was shocked (that would come later) when my wife woke me at about 2am to say that Ali had died. We had fallen asleep with the bedroom tv on and she woke up to the news.
The next morning reports and rememberances of Muhammad Ali were all over the tv and internet. And rightly so. Muhammad Ali was the self-proclaimed “Greatest” who later was ready to give up the braggadocio title, but could not because the world had accepted it as reality. Muhammad Ali transcended boxing. Especially to those of us old enough to remember his start as Cassius Clay.
In 1960, at the young age of 18, Cassius Clay won the Gold Medal in Olympic boxing. He was an American Hero and ready to become a professional boxer. Yet when Clay returned to the states, he was refused service at a diner because he was black. In 1963, Clay became a American Muslim but kept it a secret.
In 1964, the undefeated Clay (19 – 0) got a title shot against the Heavyweight Champ, Sonny Liston. Liston was heavily favored because of his knockout power, his intimidating presence and reputation as a thug. Liston would be a man fighting a boy. Clay taunted Liston prior to the fight and backed up the taunts with a 6th round TKO.
After winning the title, Clay announced his conversion to the Muslim faith and his name change to Muhammad Ali. Although this didn’t sit well with some of his fans, Ali stayed true to his beliefs.
Ali gave Liston a rematch and knocked him out in the first round. Ali then went on to win 8 more title matches before being stripped of his title in 1967 for refusing to comply with the draft due to religious reasons. Ali was convicted of draft evasion and sentenced to five years in prison. Although released on appeal, Ali was not allowed to fight or leave the country, so he took to the lecture circuit to speak out for civil rights. In 1971, Ali won his appeal and could once again box. Still, he had lost 4 years of his prime.
Ali’s comeback fight was against Jerry Quarry. I remember watching the fight on tv with my dad. Ali won in by TKO in 3 rounds. Ali had another fight which he won before challenging Joe Frazier for the title.
The fight against Frazier was the first of their 3 meetings. It went 15 rounds in what some called the “Fight of the Century” and ended with a unanimous decision for Joe Frazier. It was Ali’s first loss.
Between 1971 and 1973, Ali reeled off 10 more wins. Then he fought Ken Norton and lost on a split decision. Ali went through most of the fight with a broken jaw. Seven months later Norton and Ali fought again, but this time Ali won the split decision.
In 1974, Ali and Frazier II took place. I remember listening to the radio for round-by-round updates to learn that Ali won on a split decision. Ali and Frazier were now 1 and 1. Ali’s win put him in line for the title shot against George Foreman.
Foreman was 40 – 0 with most of his wins by KO or TKO. Ali was the underdog, but as we all know won by 8th round KO. Ali defended his title 3 more times and then was ready for the rematch with Frazier.
The fight went 12 brutal rounds before Ali won by a unanimous decision. Ali jumped into another brutal battle when 9 months later he took on George Foreman in a bout Ali won by KO in the 8th.
Ali’s next fight (which he won by TKO in the 15th), against Chuck Wepner, inspired Sylvester Stallone to create Rocky. Ali racked up two more wins and then it was time for the rubber match with Frazier.
Dubbed, by Ali, “The Thrilla in Manila,” the fight went 14 brutal rounds before Ali won by TKO. Ali would fight six more times including wins over Ken Norton and Ernie Shavers before Ali signed to fight Olympic Gold Medalist Leon Spinks.
The fight was televised and I remember watching it. Ali didn’t look to be in the best of shape perhaps taking Spinks too lightly. As the fight went the 15 rounds it became obvious that it would be a close decision… and it was. Spinks won via split decision and became the new Heavyweight Champion.
The Spinks – Ali rematch was set up 7 months later and Ali came back in much better shape winning a unanimous decision. Ali retired after that fight only to come back two years later to lose by TKO in the 10th to Champion, Larry Holmes. The following year Ali lost a 10 round decision to Trevor Berbick and then retired for good.
Most fighters when they finally retire slowly drift away from the public’s consciousness. Not so with Muhammad Ali who over the years had increased his popularity through displays of his wit and charm with appearances on many entertainment programs. So people were shocked to learn just a year after Ali had retired from boxing that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
That didn’t stop Ali from traveling the world to promote humanitarian causes. In 1985 Ali went to Lebanon and in 1990 to Iraq to broker the release of American hostages. When the Olympics were in Atlanta in 1996, Ali was chosen to light the Olympic flame. In 2005, President George W. Bush honored Ali with the Presidential Medal of Freedom which is the highest award a civilian can achieve.
Muhammad Ali was a boxer who transcended boxing. Ali’s popularity wasn’t limited to the United States or people that shared his same faith. Ali was a man of the world, a true people’s champion. And it will be a long time before we ever see another like him.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to Muhammad Ali’s family, friends and fans.
Roger Cormier and Mental_Floss present 15 Facts About Clint Eastwood That Will Make Your Day. Here are three of my favorites…
5. HE HAS JAMES COBURN AND CHARLES BRONSON TO THANK FOR GETTING THE LEAD IN A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS.
James Coburn (The Great Escape) wanted $25,000 to star in the movie, which was more than the producers could afford. Charles Bronson might have taken the role if he didn’t think the script was “just about the worst I’d ever seen.” Eastwood agreed to star for $15,000.
7. THE NAME OF HIS PRODUCTION COMPANY COMES FROM HIS AGENT’S BAD ADVICE.
Eastwood’s agent told him that appearing in Leone’s trilogy would be a “bad step” for his career. “Bad step” in Spanish is Malpaso. Since Malpaso Creek is also a body of water located south of Carmel-of-the-Sea, California, where Eastwood makes his home, he named his company Malpaso Productions.
12. HE TURNED DOWN PLAYING JAMES BOND, SUPERMAN, AND JOHN MCCLANE.
After Sean Connery left the 007 franchise, Eastwood was offered the iconic role, but he declined. The president of Warner Bros. asked him to play Superman, but he declined that, too. “I was like, ‘Superman? Nah, nah, that’s not for me,’” Eastwood explained. “Not that there’s anything wrong with it. It’s for somebody, but not me.” Francis Ford Coppola asked him to play Martin Sheen’s character in Apocalypse Now (1979), but he didn’t want to go the Philippines for 16 weeks. Eastwood owned the movie rights to Nothing Lasts Forever, the bookDie Hard (1988) was based on, with the intent to star in the film version.
What could be better than hearing a 1963 interview with Rod Serling? Why, watching the animated interview!
Jake Rose and Mental_Floss present 12 Facts About The Outsiders That Will Stay Gold. Here are three of my favorites…
1. THE BOOK WAS WRITTEN BY A TEENAGER.
S.E. Hinton was Susan Eloise Hinton, a 15-year-old high school student in Tulsa who had grown bored with the trite plots of books targeted to her demographic. “Mary Jane wants to go to the prom with the football hero … didn’t ring true to my life,” Hinton told The New Yorkerin 2014. So she decided to write a more authentic look at teenage struggles. When she finished, she handed the manuscript to a friend’s mother, who had contacts at a book agent in New York. Editors suggested she go by “S.E.” so readers could infer a male author was responsible for the testosterone-heavy characters. It has sold more than 14 million copies.
4. COPPOLA KEPT THE “GREASERS” AWAY FROM THE “SOCS.”
In The Outsiders, the Curtis boys are part of a clique of “Greasers,” lower-income Tulsa residents in perpetual conflict with the socials, or “Socs,” the sweater-sporting affluent kids. To perpetuate that rift, Coppola divided the actors in Tulsa according to their fictional social status: the Socs got better rooms, more spending money, free room service, and leather-bound scripts.
8. HINTON HAS A CAMEO.
Although Coppola’s production company, Zoetrope, was so low on funds at the time of optioning The Outsiders that they could pay Hinton only $500 of her $5000 rights fee, the author was friendly with the director and agreed to shoot a cameo. Hinton appears in the scene where Dallas (Matt Dillon) is being looked after by a nurse. Hinton also had cameos in other adaptations of her work, including 1983’s Rumble Fish (which Coppola also directed) and 1982’s Tex.
Roger Cormier and Mental_Floss present 13 Fast Facts About Smokey and the Bandit. Here are three of my favorites…
1. IT WAS BASED ON A REAL COORS BANQUET BEER PROBLEM.
While Needham was in Georgia working as Reynolds’ stunt double in Gator (1976), the driver captain on the set brought some Coors beer from California and brought a couple of cases to Needham’s hotel room. After he noticed that the maid kept stealing the beers from the fridge, he remembered a TIME magazine article from 1974 about how Coors was unavailable east of the Mississippi River, because the beer was not pasteurized and needed constant refrigeration, and couldn’t legally be sold outside of 11 western and southwestern U.S. states. Which made him realize that, “bootlegging Coors would make a good plotline for a movie.”
10. GLEASON ENJOYED “HAMBURGERS” ON SET.
Gleason would often ask his assistant Mal for a “hamburger,” which was code for a glass of bourbon.|
13. ALFRED HITCHCOCK WAS A BIG FAN OF THE FILM.
His daughter Patricia revealed that every Wednesday her father would screen films on the lot in his office. The last one he ever screened was Smokey and the Bandit, his favorite film of his last few years.
In the video below Guillermo del Toro ranks his top five horror films aka the films “that actually scare you.”
What’s interesting to me isn’t the films that Guillermo selected, but the fact that a movie that didn’t scare him as a kid (The Exorcist) is terribly frightening to him as an adult… and Guillermo’s one true life ghost experience in a haunted hotel room.
