Cy? Si! Mel Blanc and Jack Benny

May 22, 2009

One of my favorite comedy routines from the Master of Voices, Mel Blanc, and his accomplice Jack Benny:

We were talking about this old routine today, and sure enough, we could find it on YouTube.

In 1974, they repeated it for old times’ sake, on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson:

Note:  May 22 is the anniversary of the last time Johnny Carson hosted the Tonight Show, in 1992. George Bush the elder was president then; the Soviet Union had been out of existence only five months.  Osama bin Laden was a little-known, former ally of the U.S. in the Russo-Afghanistan war.  E-mail was just coming on, cell-phones were rare and expensive, as well as analog, wireless broadband hadn’t been invented.  Apple was still making computers far, far behind the IBM-compatible PCs — new chips like the 486 promised a revolution in computing.  A lifetime ago.

Why is this post tagged “animation?”  You remember, don’t you? Blanc was the guy who did almost every voice in the Warner Bros. cartoons from the classic era.  Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Foghorn Leghorn . . . as someone noted, remarkable to think Yosemite Sam and Tweety Bird are the same guy.

Update, 2014:  Mel Blanc’s birthday was May 30, as Richard Daybell reminded us; sweet, short tribute to Blanc at ‘Tis Pity He’s a Writer.

1 Comment | animation, Cartoons, History, Humor, Television | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Tom Chapin, “It’s Not on the Test”

October 18, 2008

A couple of recent studies show the moral, intellectual and educational bankruptcy of the so-called No Child Left Behind Act.  The groundswell necessary to scrap the thing has not caught up to the urgency of doing so, alas.

Tom Chapin, the youngest of the musical Chapin Brothers who once included Harry Chapin, worked in advanced childhood education before we knew what it was.  As host of ABC Television’s “Make A Wish,” Chapin significantly contributed to one of the finest education programs ever broadcast.  It’s a sin that it’s not on DVD for kids now.  “Make A Wish” demonstrated what television could do, in that era before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) turned its back on the public interest requirements of the Communications Act of 1934, and before commercial television pulled the plug on dreams that commercial television might be a great engine of education and cultural enrichment.

Chapin is back, with a modest poke at the NCLB balloon, and a more powerful vote for arts education in public schools:  “It’s Not on the Test”:

I ponder the research I’ve seen over the years, both inside the Department of Education and out, and the statistical and anecdotal stories that show art training and education (not the same thing) improve academic performance, and I wonder what squirrels have eaten the brains of “reformers” who kill arts programs for the stated purposes of “improving test performance.”  Einstein played the violin.  Feynman drummed.  Churchill painted, as did Eisenhower.  Edison and his team had a band, and jammed when they were stuck on particular problems, or just for fun.  When will education decision makers see the light?

May this little spark ignite a prairie fire of protest.

Where are you protesting this week?

7 Comments | Art, Brain development, Brain learning, Education, History, Learning, Learning styles, Music, No Child Left Behind Act, Teaching, Technology, Technology in the classroom, Television | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Don’t look at the moonwalking bear

March 27, 2008

If I had a perception problem or a new optical illusion for every class day in psychology, we’d start every day happy.

This is a great ad. It gently pokes your pride in your ability to see what’s going on — from a bicycle safety campaign in Britain urging motorists to look out for bicyclists:

1 Comment | psychology, Television, Video and film | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Squashed squawking heads

February 29, 2008

Getting snowed out of Springfield, Illinois last week gave me an extra 8 or 10 hours to sit around airports and find things to gripe about.

Is anyone else bothered by the tendency to use high-definition television monitors with a regular TV signal, and then spread the picture out to cover the screen, which makes the victims on the television look as if they’d been modified for a guest appearance on South Park?

Lou Dobbs on CNN, squashed
Has Lou Dobbs really gained that much weight?
(This image is for illustration of the phenomenon only.)

Am I the only person who prefers that people look like people, even if there is a blank area on the television screen? In the past year I’ve been in a couple dozen classrooms where the projectors were set to distort every image transmitted. For a presentation on, say, Emmitt Till, or the death of Rosa Parks, I thought the settings disrespectful at best.

How can they call it “high definition” if it distorts everyones’ faces?

I was relieved late Sunday to get back home to our old, analog televisions and normal human proportions on the screen.

6 Comments | Technology, Television, Transportation, Travel | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

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