Pete Best has retired from public appearances.
The Beatles’ Best First Drummer
Category: Beatles
Alakabrodax, Wham Wham Wham
Let’s return to the subject of Beatles cartoons. I most recently talked about them in this post, which has one of my best punniest titles.
All of the Beatles cartoons were produced by Al Brodax. As a kid I watched his syndicated King Features Syndicate cartoons. Brodax cleverly embedded his name into the Snuffy Smith cartoon, ‘Jughaid the Magician’.
Andrew at Parlogram Auctions has this comprehensive history of the Beatles cartoon series on ABC-TV.
Brodax went on the produce the vastly superior and well-received Yellow Submarine animation feature; which, until yesterday, I had thought was the last of the Beatles Toons. But no, Brodax took one more swing at the Beatles. His never completed Strawberry Fields project has a strong Ralph Bakshi vibe.
I learned about this extremely curious artifact from a member of the Cartoon Research group on Facebook. There’s more information on the Cinema Crazed site.
Badfinger’s Final Exit
Joey Molland, the last surviving member of Badfinger, has died. ‘Lost & Found’ on MIT’s WMBR has this in-depth 2018 interview with Molland.
Tom is a Doug, Paul is a Sir
I’ve been picking through some of the clips from the 50th anniversary SNL show. Yeah, I know they include a Lawrence Welk parody with “three of the four” singing sisters. That was why I posted a pure, perfect hit of the real thing, from after Dee Dee’s return to the show. Nobody disses Dee Dee!
A tip o’ the Dog Rat toupee to Tom Hanks for reprising his unforgettable Black Jeopardy! character.
Paul’s voice is sounding its age, but who would want to not hear Paul?
Feeling Fabulous or Fantastic?
Here’s something I didn’t catch right away in the promotion for the Fantastic Four movie.
Noteworthy Passings
Twin Peaks pushed the limits of network television beyond anything ever seen before. Co-created by David Lynch, who directed a half-dozen episodes, the series’ premise was shocking and it would never have aired if the subject matter hadn’t been presented in the surreal way that it was.
Jules Feiffer started in Will Eisner’s cartooning studio. His essay “The Great Comic Book Heroes” for Playboy in 1965 was well-timed for the Pop Art era. It was expanded into a popular and groundbreaking book.
Feiffer wrote the screenplay for the Mike Nichols movie Carnal Knowledge. Nichols talked Prue’s bestie friend, Cynthia O’Neal, into accepting a role.
