Oxford Blues

 

Maggie Smith (1934-2024) in 1952, a member of the Oxford University Dramatic Society.  

Rhodes Scholar Kris Kristofferson (1936-2024), circa 1958.

Keep this institution in your thoughts and prayers. It's been a rough week.

Graphic Grandeur (Hub Bub Edition)

 

Ah, yes, who doesn't like going off to distant lands and viewing all those famous landmarks up close? However, as you do so, Norman Rockwell wants you to give some thought to those working stiffs who make such travel possible:

In 1937 anyway. By now it's all been digitalized. 

Quips and Quotations (Of Course, You Realize, This Means Warners Edition)

 

Bugs Bunny is who we want to be. Daffy Duck is who we are.

--Chuck Jones

Humiliation and indifference, these are conditions every one of us finds unbearable–this is why the Coyote when falling is more concerned with the audience's opinion of him than he is with the inevitable result of too much gravity.

--Chuck Jones

Vital Viewing (Fall Guy Edition)

 

 

Actor John Ritter was born on this day in 1948 (and died at the all-too-young age of 54 in 2003.) He's best known for the late 1970s-early '80s sex farce sitcom Three's Company, on which he played culinary school student Jack Tripper, who shares an apartment with two attractive young women while having to pretend he's gay so the landlord won't think any hanky-panky is going on. The funny thing--literally so, as it was the primary source of the show's humor--is no hanky-panky ever did go on, though the main characters often thought otherwise. 3C may have been the sexiest network series of its time, but it was all talk, no action, much innuendo about nothing:

 

Real sex wouldn't have been nearly as funny (though arguably still attention-getting.)

Ritter talks about the sitcom that made him a star and other things in this 1997 interview with Conan O'Brien:

So what was that Don Ohlmeier "in-joke" all about anyway? Ohlmeier was the head of NBC Entertainment, the network O'Brien was on at the time, and the highest rated network throughout the 1990s. The lying-in-the-snow wisecrack could have been a reference to Ohlmeier's alcoholism. Perhaps not a nice thing to joke about, but Ohlmeier was arguably fair game. He had been accused of sexual harassment shortly before going into rehab, and a cynical attitude toward the man was beginning to take shape. The cynical attitude wasn't lessened any by Ohlmeier's friendship with O.J. Simpson, who had recently been found not guilty of murder, though few people outside the jury box believed he was innocent. In fact, a battle of sorts was brewing between Ohlmeier and Saturday Night Live Weekend Update anchor Norm McDonald over anti-O.J. jokes the latter was making on the air, a battle McDonald would eventually lose when he was fired from SNL--WAIT A SECOND! This post is supposed to be about John Ritter, not Don Ohlmeier.

Conan mentioned that John Ritter fell down quite a bit on Three's Company. Though I didn't want the man to hurt himself, I would say that was a good thing, as Ritter was one of the great physical comedy actors of his generation. See for yourself:

  

Watching Ritter comically stumble and bumble his way around Joyce DeWitt and Suzanne Somers, you might not guess that this man was in actuallity a classically-trained actor, would you? Well, here's the proof as Ritter takes a dramatic turn opposite Billy Bob Thornton in 1997's Sling Blade:

No slapstick, though Ritter's character may have put his foot in his mouth.

Graphic Grandeur (Bested Man Edition)

 

 

So don't have time to read all those wordy online news articles? Don't worry. As an alternative, cartoonist Ann Telnaes offers this more...

...condensed version.

Quips and Quotations (Bass Player Edition)

 

1931-2024

Speech is a very important aspect of being human. A whisper doesn't cut it.

--James Earl Jones

 The Great White Hope (1970, based on a 1968 Broadway play, also starring Jones, for which he won a Tony--Kirk)

Claudine (1974. No great shakes as a movie, but I've always liked Jones in it--Kirk)

The Empire Strikes Back (1980. Yes, I know he voiced the same character in a movie before and a movie after, but you only get one clip out of me as I refuse to hand this blog over to the Force, no matter how tempting--Kirk)

Fences (1987 Broadway play for which Jones won his second Tony--Kirk)

CNN promo (1994. Made me want to watch the news--Kirk)

 

 

--

 

Mood Swinging on a Star

 

Lights...Camera...

...Action!

Artificial Incongruence

 

 

 

Deepfake before deepfake was cool.