Category: Humor

George Perez on Svengoolie!

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Most every week at 10pm on Saturday my wife and I check out whatever monster movie that horror host Svengoolie is serving up on ME-TV.  Last week we were pleasantly surprised to see George Perez and his lovely bride featured.

Seems George and his better half also regularly tune in to Svengoolie.  They were shown wearing their Sven t-shirts along with the very cool art that George created for Svengoolie.  You can see a larger version here.

I wonder what surprises Svengoolie will offer up tomorrow night with Captive Wild Woman.

Source: Greg Litchfield.

Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955) / Z-View

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Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955)

Director:  Charles Lamont

Screenplay:  John Grant from a story by Lee Leob

Stars:  Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Marie Windsor, Michael Ansara and Richard Deacon.

The Pitch: “Hey, Abbott and Costello Haven’t Met the Mummy yet!”

Tagline: “It has been said that a man’s best friend is his mummy…”

 

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Abbott and Costello are in Egypt… and they meet The Mummy.  Hilarity [ok, a fair amount of laughs] follow.

Rating:

Tell (2014) / Z-View

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Tell (2014)

Director:  J.M.R. Luna

Screenplay: Timothy Williams

Stars: Milo Ventimiglia, Katee Sackhoff, Jason Lee and Robert Patrick.

The Pitch: “Let’s make a crime movie with supporting players!”

No Tagline.

 

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Ethan Tell [Ventimiglia] reluctantly joins in on a big heist and ends up in possession of a million dollars.  Now that he has the money, how will he keep his crime partner, his wife [Sackhoff], his parole officer and a couple of corrupt cops from killing him and taking the money.

I was expecting more.

Rating:

Abbott & Costello Buy a Computer

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I’m a huge Abbott & Costello fan.  (Who isn’t?)

I’ve seen / listened to Abbott & Costello’s classic Who’s on First routine hundreds of times and it always gets a chuckle.

Did you ever wonder how Abbott & Costello might deal with buying a new computer…

ABBOTT: Super Duper Computer Store. Can I help you?

COSTELLO: Thanks I’m setting up an office in my den and I’m thinking about buying a computer.

ABBOTT: Mac?

COSTELLO: No, the name’s Lou.

ABBOTT: Your computer?

COSTELLO: I don’t own a computer. I want to buy one.

ABBOTT: Mac?

COSTELLO: I told you, my name’s Lou.

ABBOTT: What about Windows?

COSTELLO: Why? Will it get stuffy in here?

ABBOTT: Do you want a computer with Windows?

COSTELLO: I don’t know. What will I see when I look at the windows?

ABBOTT: Wallpaper.

COSTELLO: Never mind the windows. I need a computer and software.

ABBOTT: Software for Windows?

COSTELLO: No. On the computer! I need something I can use to write proposals, track expenses and run my business. What do you have?

ABBOTT: Office.

COSTELLO: Yeah, for my office. Can you recommend anything?

ABBOTT: I just did.

COSTELLO: You just did what?

ABBOTT: Recommend something.

COSTELLO: You recommended something?

ABBOTT: Yes.

COSTELLO: For my office?

ABBOTT: Yes.

COSTELLO: OK, what did you recommend for my office?

ABBOTT: Office.

COSTELLO: Yes, for my office!

ABBOTT: I recommend Office with Windows.

COSTELLO: I already have an office with windows! OK, let’s just say I’m sitting at my computer and I want to type a proposal. What do I need?

ABBOTT: Word.

COSTELLO: What word?

ABBOTT: Word in Office.

COSTELLO: The only word in office is office.

ABBOTT: The Word in Office for Windows.

COSTELLO: Which word in office for windows?

ABBOTT: The Word you get when you click the blue ‘W’.

COSTELLO: I’m going to click your blue ‘W’ if you don’t start with some straight answers. What about financial bookkeeping? Do you have anything I can track my money with?

ABBOTT: Money.

COSTELLO: That’s right. What do you have?

ABBOTT: Money.

COSTELLO: I need money to track my money?

ABBOTT: It comes bundled with your computer.

COSTELLO: What’s bundled with my computer?

ABBOTT: Money.

COSTELLO: Money comes with my computer?

ABBOTT: Yes. At no extra charge.

COSTELLO: I get a bundle of money with my computer? How much?

ABBOTT: One copy.

COSTELLO: Isn’t it illegal to copy money?

ABBOTT: Microsoft gave us a license to copy Money.

COSTELLO: They can give you a license to copy money?

ABBOTT: Why not? THEY OWN IT !

(A few days later)

ABBOTT: Super Duper Computer Store. Can I help you?

COSTELLO: How do I turn my computer off?

ABBOTT: Click on ‘START.’

 

Source: Bits & Pieces.

13 Kooky Facts About “The Addams Family”

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Stacy Conradt and Mental_Floss present 13 Kooky Facts About The Addams Family.  Here are three of my favorites…

3. JOHN ASTIN WAS ORIGINALLY CONSIDERED FOR LURCH.
Though John Astin auditioned for the role of the butler, it’s no wonder casting directors assigned him to Gomez, instead—the actor and the character apparently share a lot of similarities. “My brother said that Gomez is the clearest extension of my personality than anything else I’ve done,” Astin said. “That’s really who I am.”

5. LURCH WAS INTENDED TO BE MUTE.
But then actor Ted Cassidy ad-libbed the line, “You rang?” and Lurch was given a voice. He still wasn’t one for much conversation, but he did spit out a few words here and there—and even had a brief side career as a rock star.

12. THE NEW YORKER REFUSED TO RUN THE CARTOON WHEN THE SHOW CAME OUT.
Despite the fact that Charles Addams had been illustrating the creepy characters for The New Yorker since 1938, the esteemed publication didn’t want to be associated with the television show. Still, Addams was occasionally able to sneak them into other cartoons he drew for the magazine.

 

11 Facts About “History of the World, Part I”

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Mark Mancini and Mental_Floss present 11 Facts About History of the World, Part I.  Here are three of my favorites…

2. THE LEAD CAVEMAN WAS PLAYED BY MEL BROOKS’S FORMER BOSS.
In 1949, the late, great Sid Caesar hired Brooks as a joke writer for The Admiral Broadway Revue, a short-lived NBC variety show. After the series ended, Brooks joined the staff of Caesar’s next program, Your Show of Shows. Working for a living legend was something the younger man would never forget. Even today, when Brooks is asked about his mentor, he often says “No Sid Caesar, no Mel Brooks.”

Twenty-two years after Your Show of Shows ended its run, Brooks expressed his gratitude to Caesar by giving him a major role in 1976’s Silent Movie. Brooks would cast the comic again in History of the World, this time as Chief Caveman, who has a zeal for music (and slapstick).

4. ORIGINALLY, JOSEPHUS WAS GOING TO BE PLAYED BY RICHARD PRYOR.
Josephus, a quick-witted Ethiopian slave, is a principal character in the film’s Roman Empire segment. Richard Pryor seemed perfect for the part and, to Brooks’s delight, he accepted the role. Unfortunately, though, a terrible accident kept him out of the movie. On June 9, 1980, less than a month after History of the World began production, the comic lit himself ablaze while freebasing cocaine and had to be hospitalized. At the suggestion of Madeline Kahn (who played Empress Nympho), Brooks handed the role to tap dancer Gregory Hines.

11. BROOKS NEVER INTENDED TO MAKE A SEQUEL.
With a title like History of the World, Part 1, you’d assume that a Part 2 would be hot on its heels. But Brooks has stated that he never intended to make a sequel. On June 7, 1981—just four days before the movie opened in theaters, the director weighed in on this subject in The New York Times. “Will there be a History of the World, Part 2?” he asked, rhetorically. “No. Maybe a Part 4, never a Part 2.”

The misleading title—as he later put it—was meant as “a joke,” one he now regrets. “I’m sorry I did that, the kids keep writing me letters asking when we are going to see part two,” he explained while promoting his DVD box set, The Incredible Mel Brooks: An Irresistible Collection of Unhinged Comedy. Still, he’s definitely thought about what new topics he might spoof in a potential follow-up—as he states in the below clip. “There’s a lot of things I haven’t covered in history. Things like the Civil War.”

11 Fun Facts About “My Three Sons”

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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).

13 Fast Facts About “Smokey and the Bandit”

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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.

10 Surprising Facts About George Carlin

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Roger Cormier and Mental_Floss present 10 Surprising Facts About George Carlin.  Here are three of my favorites…

5. HE HAD A LIFELONG INTEREST IN CURSE WORDS.
He wrote down the “most colorful” profanities he heard in his neighborhood and put them in his pocket. When he was 13, his mother found them in the wallet. Carlin claimed he overheard her saying to his uncle that she believed George needed a psychiatrist.

7. HE WAS THE FIRST-EVER HOST OF SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, BUT DIDN’T REMEMBER THE EXPERIENCE.
He was “loaded on cocaine all week long” leading up to October 11, 1975, when he performed stand-up and introduced the inaugural episode’s musical guests, Billy Preston and Janis Ian. Carlin and the longtime SNL director Dave Wilson had gone to summer camp together as kids. For the Saturday night talent shows, a young George would do monologues. After years of Wilson winning the contests, Carlin finally beat him. (George eventually got kicked out of camp for stealing film from the owner’s camera to take his own photographs.) When Lorne Michaels interviewed Carlin about performing the hosting duties, he said, “Well, I know the director.”

Carlin was also the first-ever host of Fridays (1980-1982), ABC’s attempted version of SNL.

10. THE IRS HELPED HIM BECOME A BETTER COMIC.

About the Internal Revenue Service taking a large percentage of his money after years of owing taxes, Carlin saw the bright side of it all:

“It made me a way better comedian, because I had to stay out on the road, and I couldn’t pursue a movie career—which would have gone nowhere—and I became a really good comic and writer eventually, saving all my files and thoughts and things. I had to be prepared for that, because HBO was coming along, and about every two years—at my choice—I had to have another hour ready. So my having to stay on the road turned me into a g**damn good comedian. So there’s a bright part of everything.”

Twilight Zone: “From Agnes with Love” [Season 5, Episode 20] / Z-View

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Twilight Zone: “From Agnes with Love” [Season 5, Episode 20]
Original Air Date: February 14, 1964

Director: Richard Donner

Writer: Bernard C. Schoenfeld

Starring: Wally Cox, Ralph Taeger and Sue Randall.

The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…

James Ellwod [Cox] a meek computer programmer begins taking advice from Agnes, a super computer, on how to get a co-worker’s affection.  Agnes advice turns out to be for her own secret agenda.

Rating:

10 Slapstick Facts About the First Three Stooges Short

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Stacy Conradt and Mental_Floss present 10 Slapstick Facts About the First Three Stooges Short.  Here are three of my favorites…

2.THEIR SALARY FOR STARRING WAS $1000 PER WEEK—SPLIT THREE WAYS.
After their third short, Men in Black, was nominated for an Oscar, the comedians’ pay was increased to $7500 weekly. But they still had to split it amongst themselves.

3. THEY DON’T PLAY LARRY, CURLY, AND MOE.
Woman Haters marks one of the few times the Stooges play characters other than themselves. Larry plays “Jim,” Moe is “Tom,” and Curly is “Jack.”

8. IT FEATURED A COUPLE OF FAMOUS CURLY FIRSTS.
Curly’s first “nyuk-nyuk-nyuk” was in this film, as well as his first “woo-woo-woo-woo,” but they’re not quite the refined versions we’re used to now. Curly borrowed the latter catchphrase from comedian Hugh Herbert, though Herbert’s version was a little softer and more subdued.

30 Things We Learned from the “Planet Terror” Commentary

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Rob Hunter and Film School Rejects present 30 Things We Learned from the Planet Terror Commentary.  Here are three of my favorites…

7. Bruce Willis enjoyed his time on Sin City so much that he told Rodriguez “any time, any where, I’ll come make anything with you.” The director called his bluff and convinced him to play the bad guy here knowing it would only be two days work. Tarantino visited the set — both to say hi and because he shot some 2nd unit for the film — and was surprised to Willis in costume.

17. Michael Biehn, who plays Sheriff Hague, approached Rodriguez at one point to say he had fired six shots from his revolver and his character would need to reload before firing more. “Don’t worry about it,” replied the director, “it’s not that kind of movie.”
23. The “missing reel” gag was inspired by the time Tarantino screened an Oliver Reed film at an Alamo Drafthouse that was in fact missing a reel. The idea of not knowing what scenes you’re missing appealed to Rodriguez and used it here both as a gag and because his script was already growing too long.

10 Things You Might Not Know About John Carpenter’s Cult Classic “They Live”

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Cheryl Eddy and io9 present 10 Things You Might Not Know About John Carpenter’s Cult Classic They Live.  Here are three of my favorites…

1) Before they met, Carpenter was a Piper fan, but Piper had never heard of the director, even though his filmography at the time included such high-profile works as Halloween, Escape From New York, The Thing, and Big Trouble in Little China.

2) The greatest fight scene in movie history runs five minutes and 20 seconds long. It took three days to film, but a month and a half of rehearsing in the backyard behind Carpenter’s office in the San Fernando Valley. According to interviews on the They Live Blu-ray, Carpenter drew inspiration for the clash from a similarly memorable brawl in The Quiet Man, a 1952 John Ford film in which John Wayne plays a retired boxer.

10) “Frank Armitage,” credited as They Live’s screenwriter, is actually a Carpenter pseudonym. It’s a shout-out to H.P. Lovecraft creation Henry Armitage; Carpenter would later pay further tribute to the author with the filmIn the Mouth of Madness. (“Frank Armitage” is also the name of David’s character in the film.)

10 Out-of-This-World Facts About “Plan 9 From Outer Space”

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Mark Mancini and Mental_Floss present 10 Out-of-This-World Facts About Plan 9 From Outer Space.  Here are three of my favorites…

1. IT WAS BELA LUGOSI’S LAST MOVIE.
A lifelong Bela Lugosi fan, Ed Wood was able to cast his idol in 1953’s Glen or Glenda. Two years later, the director gave him a Dr. Frankenstein-like role in Bride of the Monster. For his next film, Wood once again wanted Lugosi to take center stage. At the California home of Swedish wrestler Tor Johnson—who’d also appeared in Bride of the Monster—Wood shot a handful of very brief scenes, all starring Lugosi. Depending on who’s telling the story, this footage was either intended for Plan 9 or for an unmade movie called The Vampire’s Tomb. Regardless, Lugosi sadly didn’t live to see any of it reach the silver screen. The horror icon died of a heart attack in August 16, 1956. Endlessly resourceful, Wood threw all of his existing Lugosi shots into Plan 9 from Outer Space.

2. A CHIROPRACTOR PLAYED LUGOSI’S DOUBLE.
Production on Plan 9 from Outer Space began in earnest after Lugosi’s death. Since he was no longer around to film certain scenes, Wood recruited chiropractor Tom Mason as a substitute. Physically, he wasn’t a perfect stand-in; Mason was noticeably taller than Lugosi (a fact that Wood tried to disguise by having him hunch over). But the good doctor made sure to mask his face under a cape at all times.

4. IN SOME VERSIONS OF THE FILM, YOU CAN SEE THE SHADOW OF A BOOM MIKE IN THE BACKGROUND.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Plan 9 has numerous bloopers. For example, the grave scenes use plywood tombstones, which wobble throughout the movie. But Wood’s team wasn’t responsible for every error. Early on, we see our hero—pilot Jeff Trent—flying a plane when a huge burst of light almost blinds him. Viewers may also notice that, as he recoils, a boom microphone shadow appears on the back wall of the cockpit. Look carefully, and you’ll also observe that Trent’s co-pilot is holding a copy of the script in his lap. Both of these gaffes were created when Plan 9 was converted to a film and TV-friendly format. Neither the script nor the boom mike shadow appeared in the original theatrical version. Unfortunately, the aspect ratio changes made to Plan 9 for its video and TV releases suddenly rendered both of these things visible.