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Bruce Vilanch is a Good Guy, I Think.

26 Oct

October 26, 2010

Recently I wrote a blog entitled In Search of… Sasquatch in which I speculated that perhaps some of the Bigfoot sightings could be attributed to Bruce Vilanch, and illustrated my point with this picture:

I remember him mostly from Hollywood Squares, where he was very funny. I have nothing against the guy, but look at that picture- you can see how he would be confused for a big hairy hominid if he were seen walking through some dense woods.

And then a few days later I received this in my email:

so many people forwarded your blog to me….i am humbled.  this almost makes up for florence henderson being booted off dancing with the stars.

The return address was bvilanch. I can only assume that the man himself sent this to me. (And if he didn’t and this is some other guy, I’m going ahead like it is him anyway.) Frankly, I am humbled that A- he would reply to a lowly blogger like me and B- we would totally agree about Florence Henderson’s shabby treatment on Dancing with the Stars.

At any rate, I appreciate it that he didn’t sic a team of high powered libel attorneys on me, and that he took it in the spirit in which it was meant.

I do, however, have a bone to pick with him.

According to the always correct and can’t possibly be wrong Wikipedia, Bruce Vilanch co-wrote the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special.

I don’t know whether to hug him or hit him.

Bruce Vilanch has had an amazing writing career, winning multiple Emmy Awards and has done wonderful charity work for AIDS and other causes. Certainly, however, his biggest accolade is yet to come, as he becomes a member of

MR. BLOG’S CELEBRITY HALL OF FAME

We thank you, Bruce Vilanch, for your tireless support.

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Andy Rooney: Original Blogger

28 Sep

September 28, 2010

The Urban Dictionary defines “blogger” as a term used to describe anyone with enough time or narcissism to document every tedious bit of minutia filling their uneventful lives.

It does not, however, speculate on who the first blogger was. For that honor, I nominate CBS 60 Minutes contributor Andy Rooney.

Since 1978, every week near the end of the show, they give Andy a few minutes to talk about whatever is on his mind. Typically, there doesn’t seem to be much going on up there. One week he blathered on about all the plastic bags he has laying around. He didn’t talk about recycling them, he didn’t suggest uses for them, he merely pulled them out of his desk drawers and from various places around his office and showed them to the camera.

“This one is from Waldbaum’s.”
“This bag says ‘I Love New York’ on it. Good thing I do.”
“I seem to have gotten this bag at a Waldenbooks, but I can’t seem to recall when I ever shopped there.”

It went on and on like that.

Here is a typical example of his segments.

ANDY ROONEY ON CARRYING THINGS:

I hope you caught this bit of insight: “When they left the house that morning they planned to drink water, I guess…”

I think that Andy Rooney clearly inspired a whole generation of observational comedians. Listen to Andy Rooney and you can plainly hear the genesis of Jerry Seinfeld: “What’s the deal with carrying things? What’s the deal with plastic bags?”

And “What’s the deal with modern music”?

ANDY ROONEY LOSSES TOUCH WITH MODERN MUSIC:

I suspect that the real reason he has lost touch with modern music is that he is 91 years old!

According to CBS News’s biography of him, “Rooney wrote his first television essay, a longer-length precursor of the type he does on 60 Minutes, in 1964, ‘An Essay on Doors.’ From 1962 to 1968, he collaborated with another close friend, the late CBS News correspondent Harry Reasoner – Rooney writing and producing, Reasoner narrating -on such notable CBS News specials as ‘An Essay on Bridges’ (1965), ‘An Essay on Hotels’ (1966), ‘An Essay on Women’ (1967), and ‘The Strange Case of the English Language’ (1968).

Give the man credit for consistency- he hasn’t changed a bit in over 40 years. As the man himself wrote in a letter, “Let’s face it, even on the nights when I’m good, I’m not that good.”

I’ll end now with a question I’m sure we all want answered:

WHAT’S IN ANDY’S DRAWERS?

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