One of our all-time favorites, the great Dick Van Dyke, has beat all the odds and lived to celebrate his 100th birthday today.
Can a person still dance well into his/her nineties? Yes.
Loved seeing Mr. Van Dyke with Chris Martin of Coldplay on The Jimmy Kimmel Show last year.
Dick Van Dyke's appearance on the Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson was a hoot!
Many of us 1950's kids enjoyed a thrilling experience of big screen fun back in 1964 when Disney's Mary Poppins, featuring Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke (in multiple roles) and painterly special effects/animation and live-action combos by the super-talented likes of Ub Iwerks and Peter Ellenshaw, hit movie theatres.
Before Mary Poppins, Dick Van Dyke made his silver screen debut in the Bye-Bye Birdie, the movie version of the 1960 Broadway hit he starred in. As amazing as Ann-Margret and as hilarious as Paul Lynde is in the movie, can't say this writer likes it anywhere near as much as Dick Van Dyke's other films, starring sitcoms, and TV appearances on such programs as The Carol Burnett Show.
After Mary Poppins, Dick went on to star in a series of enjoyable movies.
There's something about his physical comedy that gets this slapstick fan thinking of Charley Parrott Chase.
Dick starred in Carl Reiner's The Comic, a tragicomedy about an egocentric silent screen comedian. While the mannerisms appear to be based on Stan Laurel, who Dick knew quite well, this silent movie buff is convinced that it's all about Larry Semon (1889-1928), the otherworldly little comic whose frequent co-stars included Babe Hardy . . . and sometimes Stan Laurel.
After these movies, there was a second Dick Van Dyke show, co-starring Hope Lange from TV's take on The Ghost & Mrs. Muir and Broadway musical star Nancy Dussault, in the early 1970's.
Produced by Carl Reiner, The New Dick Van Dyke Show has its moments, but does not feature as deep and exceptional a supporting cast as Mary Tyler Moore, Morey Amsterdam, Rose Marie, Richard Deacon, Jerry Paris and Ann Morgan Guilbert in the 1961-1966 show.
Dick first made his name on TV hosting CBS Cartoon Theatre. That's right - Dick Van Dyke, who could resemble a super-rubbery cartoon character animated by Jim Tyer, introduced Terrytoons. Thanks, Barry Siegel Film Archives, for the following!
The Dick Van Dyke Show remains my favorite of all sitcoms, along with The Addams Family, Bob Newhart's first show and the first season or two of Get Smart!
The episode in which Rob Petrie the deejay does a 100 hour marathon cracks me up.
The "walnut" episode is another favorite.
Decades later in the 1990's, Dick Van Dyke would co-star with his son Barry in a medical whodunit show, Diagnosis: Murder. My father, an avid fan of mysteries and whodunits, loved it.
Strikes this writer as appropriate that tonight, the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum will be screening Buster Keaton's THE GENERAL on Dick's 100th birthday. Mr. Van Dyke knew Buster and Stan Laurel; all three brought countless laughs to a weary, hurting, troubled world.
The KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival shall ring in the holiday season at Room 5015 on Foothill College in the Los Altos Hills.
The Psychotronix gang - my friends/co-producers Robert Emmett, Sci Fi Bob Ekman, Scott Moon, KFJC sound board aces Austin Space and Grawer - did our first Foothill College show back in December 1992. You gotta be there to see the continuity, flow, rhythm, audience response and sounds of a beautiful Kodak Pageant 250S - and the cool display of 1950's 1-sheets courtesy of Gary Hascall, movie poster king and devotee of 1960's muscle cars, especially Ford Mustangs.
There will be four hours of movie fun, all projected on 16mm film, "The Vinyl Of Visuals."
The KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival means there shall be SOUNDIES!
And SCOPITONES! The sprightly singing-dancing Kessler Sisters passed recently, so we MUST show their Scopitone. The Kessler Sisters always look and sound great - R.I.P.
AND. . . of course, there shall be B-movie TRAILERS!
And classic commercials!
The KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival, without a doubt, means classic cartoons!
That means animation from Fleischer Studios, Warner Brothers Animation and Walter Lantz.
As always, the gang at the KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival love instructionals from Coronet films!
Our cornucopia of clips will rock Room 5015!
The KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival
When: Saturday, December 6, 2025 - 7:00 PM to 11:30 PM
Where: Room 5015, Foothill College campus 12345 El Monte Road, Los Altos Hills (El Monte exit off 280) Why: We like cheesy movies.
How Much? $5 Donation Benefits KFJC.
Parking: Lot #5
Public Transit: Cal Train and VTA Info:
Foothill College Transportation & Parking.
Arrive early, as the shows often sell out. Doors open at 6:00 p.m.
A day early, we wish our readers a Happy Thanksgiving!
And also seek advice for turkeys. . .
On Thanksgiving, are we super thankful for numerous blessings, including Swanson TV Dinners? YEAH, BABY!
And the fact the silent movies from 100 years ago still exist!
And that those Three Stooges comedies involving Thanksgiving themes are still around, too.
Ever the avid Jay Ward Productions fan, I am ever-thankful for giant Bullwinkle and Rocky balloons at Macy's Thanksgiving Parades.
Rather oddly, am also thankful for the many mishaps that have transpired at Macy's Thanksgiving Parades. As these epic balloon blunders were the cornerstones of our 2022 Thanksgiving blog post, we'll bring 'em back for an encore.
Do I take some measure of guilty pleasure in the unfortunate impalings of gargantuan and not terribly well thought-out parade inflatables? Absolutely, provided I was definitely NOT there in person to witness the balloon-bursting disasters and get clobbered with flying debris!
Thankful for first responders and others with the task of dealing with the aftermath of parade disasters? YES - more than can be expressed!
As always, the gang at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog remains thankful for classic cartoons!
The great Hugh Harman made a bunch of terrific cartoons for WB and MGM in the 1930's and 1940's.
Have posted the following, Tom Turkey & His Harmonica Humdingers, a homage to Borrah Minnevitch & The Harmonica Rascals, on several Thanksgiving posts - and shall do it again now!
Thanksgiving cartoons starring Daffy Duck (and Porky Pig) are always the right call.
This Sunday, November 23rd, Matthew Ross and our film buff friends from The Lost Laugh are presenting the Kennington Bioscope Silent Laughter show at London’s Cinema Museum. The press release elaborates:
We’ve got a full programme featuring some brilliant silent comedies that you won’t see on the big screen anywhere else, including some being shown for the first time in almost a century! As regular attendees will know, we’re all about telling the forgotten stories of silent comedy: the overlooked performers, the forgotten gems and the long-lost.
So, among the highlights this year are a rediscovered adaptation of the P.G. Wodehouse novel The Small Bachelor (1927), an unlikely pairing of W.C. Fields and Louise Brooks, and a celebration of some of the brilliant funny women often neglected in the male-centred narratives of the silent comedy genre: Wanda Wiley, Mabel Normand, Colleen Moore and Marion Byron.
We’ll also be featuring some familiar favourites, too: Chaplin, Laurel & Hardy and Charley Chase all feature in the programme.
The gang at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog respectfully tip a battered top hat worn by Charlie Chaplin in Making A Living to our fellow film buffs across the pond attending Silent Laughter Day at the Cinema Museum. Tickets are available here.
Is there anyone in the animation business not named Charley Bowers, Tex Avery, Bob Clampett or Frank Tashlin who has crushed a wider range of genres than Bill Melendez (November 15, 1916 - September 2, 2008)?
Don't think so. Did any other artist or filmmaker excel in more avenues of storytelling than Bill Melendez? Nope.
Over a seven decade career, Bill Melendez was an ace animator, filmmaker and ultimately a producer/director supreme. His work was all over the map, including everything from WB and UPA cartoons to the Peanuts adaptations to a 1982 Stan Freberg PBS special to George Schlatter Productions' experimental and blackout-filled TV show Turn-On (1969) to a successful animated adaptation of C.S. Lewis.
After beginning his career at Walt Disney Productions, Bill Melendez worked on cartoons by Warner Brothers and UPA, before directing and producing numerous Peanuts specials. Matt Zoller Seitz from Roger Ebert.com elaborates here:
Here's documentary footage of Bill Melendez Productions.
Fortunately, as Bill lived to be 92, there are lots of interviews with him. Here, Jerry Beck of Cartoon Research and numerous books about animation interviews Mr. Melendez and fellow brilliant animator Bill Littlejohn.
While Bill Melendez is primarily remembered for the Peanuts specials he directed and produced, he was a key animator at Warner Brothers and worked on a slew of outstanding cartoons, including some spectacular ones directed by Bob Clampett.
In the intrepid crews helmed by the aforementioned Bob Clampett, Arthur Davis and Bob McKimson, Bill worked, credited as "J.C. Melendez," on quite a few of the greatest cartoons ever produced by Warner Brothers.
Bill Melendez was among the few to animate for both Warner Brothers Animation and UPA (United Productions of America), the creators of Mr. Magoo and the 1950's animation style known as "Cartoon Modern."
The gang here has a soft spot for Gerald McBoing-Boing.
Especially love the cool graphic design of Gerald McBoing-Boing's Symphony.
One of the lesser known but marvelous movies from the 1970's is the Melendez adaptation of C.S. Lewis' The Lion The Witch & The Wardrobe.
Bill Melendez Productions captured the essence of Charles M. Schulz' comic strip and successfully brought it to animation.
SFSFF's Festival 2025 begins with Chaplin's The Gold Rush on Wednesday evening and closes with Buster Keaton in Go West.
In between, there will be, among numerous cool classic movies, the 1926 version of Beau Geste, starring Ronald Colman and (as a bad guy) William Powell, three Sherlock Holmes adaptations, The Unknown (1927), co-starring the ridiculously talented "man of 1000 faces" Lon Chaney Sr. with a very young Joan Crawford (that's right, Joanie was young once, way back in the halcyon days of silent pictures and her 1928 box-office smash OUR DANCING DAUGHTERS) and the always excellent Amazing Tales From The Archives.
There will also be a morning Fleischer Studio cartoon show featuring Ko-Ko the Clown in Jumping Beans, It’s the Cats, KoKo at the Circus, KoKo in 1999, KoKo’s Kane, KoKo’s Klock, KoKo’s Kink and KoKo’s Earth Control.
While it will be more than a bit odd to not go to San Francisco's Castro Theatre to see silent movies on the big screen, the Orinda Theater is a very cool venue. Shows by both the San Francisco Silent Film Festival and the Psychotronix Film Festival have been presented there.
This shall be
the 33rd anniversary KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival and grace the hallowed halls of Room 5015 of Foothill College in the lovely Los Altos Hills.
No doubt the show shall feature the great Joi Lansing and Scopitones will be ready to roll to entertain audiences once again!
Will have more about the KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival when December begins and hope hope hope there will be NO problems forthcoming with my passport or the NY-SF flight that will get yours truly to his former stomping grounds, the San Francisco Bay Area.
Halloween means the annual viewing of Alexandre Alexeieff's Night On Bald Mountain (1933)!
Halloween means. . . it's time for Frankie!
The Late Night with Conan O’Brien show created a very funny bit involving Frankenstein, in this case played by Brian Stack - and also featuring Tom Hanks.
Love the idea of Bill Hader as a snarky Frankenstein.
Here's our all-time favorite Frankenstein tune, performed by The Edgar Winter Group with Rick Derringer.
Did Frankie appear in any animated cartoons? Yes, he did! The 1935 Looney Tune HOLLYWOOD CAPERS, directed by Jack King, ran on one of our local television stations in the San Francisco Bay Area all the time back in the early-to-mid 1960’s. It featured the “Our Gang” inspired cast from Friz Freleng’s Merrie Melodie cartoon I Haven't Got A Hat (1935).
HOLLYWOOD CAPERS starred Beans the cat, ersatz but somewhat livelier substitute for Looney Tunes headliner Buddy, otherwise known in Cartoonland as "Mr. Excitement." One would assume that Porky Pig, clearly the standout from the cast of I Haven't Got A Hat, was already renegotiating his contract with Leon Schlesinger.
Most noteworthy, along with the Hollywood star caricatures (Charlie Chaplin, W.C. Fields, Oliver Hardy): the appearance by none other than Frankenstein, starting at 4:05.
Among the transitional cartoons between "Buddy" and the beginnings of Termite Terrace sparked by Leon Schlesinger hiring former Lantz animator Tex Avery, is the Jack King Looney Tune A CARTOONISTS NIGHTMARE. Have a hunch the hard-working animator at the drawing board who experiences the nightmare of getting brutalized by multiple bad guys from Warner Bros. cartoons is Robert McKimson!
Before Jack King was hired by Leon Schlesinger to make Looney Tunes, he worked for Walt Disney Productions, who subsequently re-hired Jack to direct Donald Duck cartoons. Taking nothing away from the Silly Symphony The Skeleton Dance, two particularly clever and spooky Mickey Mouse cartoons are The Haunted House (1929) and The Mad Doctor (1933).
Next up: Old Manor House (1948), a terrific and eccentric haunted house cartoon by George Moreno and British Animated Productions, creators of the Bubble & Squeek series.
Finishing this Happy Halloween post: Jay Ward's Tom Slick and a Monte Karloff monster rally straight from Transylvania!
