Polly Holliday: Not Just Flo

Like her Alice co-star Linda Lavin, Polly Holliday, who passed away yesterday, was best known for her role--and an annoying catch phrase--on the long-running sitcom. She is remembered by most consumers of pop culture as the sassy Southern waitress Flo who would erupt with "Kiss My Grits!" whenever Vic Tayback as Mel, the diner's owner, would give her any lip. But, like Lavin, she was much more than a stock sitcom stereotype. She gave Flo dimension and depth on Alice and the short-lived spin-off series Flo. There was one episode with Forrest Tucker guest starring as her long-absent, estranged father. She registered anger, disappointment, and finally understanding and forgiveness. What few fans realize is that she was an accomplished stage actress (like Lavin). I saw her on Broadway twice (in two classic American plays Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Picnic) playing mothers of the protagonist. She was not just a supporting character, but conveyed her own objectives and convictions. Off-Broadway she was memorable in a revival of The Time of the Cuckoo as a dithery tourist and in two plays by John Guare--Chaucer in Rome and A Few Stout Individuals, playing Julia Grant, the troubled wife of retired president US Grant, in the latter fascinating historical drama. She was heartbreaking as Rose's newly blind sister on The Golden Girls (but was never mentioned again on subsequent episodes.) I also remember her in The Shady Hill Kidnapping on PBS's cherished American Playhouse series. Gone are the days when PBS presented original American dramas by major authors (this one was by John Cheever.) Hopefully, PBS will continue despite Trump's efforts to destroy it.

Saturday Morning Super-Heroes, Part 4: Superfriends

 

"You have reached the Superfriends. Please listen carefully as our options have changed. Press 1 for Superman. Press 2 for Wonder Woman. Press 3 for Batman and Robin. Press 4 for Aquaman. Press 5 for the Wonder Twins. If you wish to speak with Wendy or Marvin, they have gone back to school. If this is a criminal matter, please hold and a hero will be with you shortly. If this is an Earth-shattering life extinction crisis, please hang up and kiss your ass goodbye." I used to imagine that would be the automated response you would get if you called the Hall of Justice, the headquarters of the Superfriends.

This animated hour-long series began on ABC in 1973 and ran under various titles until 1985. The Justice League had been adapted in animated form as part of the 1967 Superman-Aquaman Adventure Hour on CBS with Superman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, and the Atom as featured members. For some reason, Aquaman was not a part of this combo even though he had his own series produced by the same company, and Aqualad was a team member of the Teen Titans which rotated in the guest spot of the show. 

This series, produced by Hanna-Barbera, took a decidedly different tone at first. Instead of interplanetary mayhem and supervillains, the superheroes dealt with "timely" issues such as pollution and overpopulation and their antagonists were not evil but well-intentioned and just a bit mixed up. Instead of battles, the episodes always ended with a civilized discussion on the proper way to deal with the problem at hand. (Yawn!) The Superfriends were accompanied by "junior" superfriends--sort of summer interns--Wendy, Marvin and the canine Wonder Dog who spoke like other Hanna-Barbera mutts Astro and Scooby Doo with an R in front of every word.

Wonder Twin Powers Activate!

The New Super-Friends Hour saw the departure of Wendy, Marvin and Wonder Dog--I guess their internship was up and they had to go back to school--to be replaced by the Wonder-Twins, a pair humanoid aliens with actual superpowers, and their useless pet monkey, Gleek. (Even more annoying than Blip on Space Ghost.) The girl Jayna had a legitimately cool ability to transform herself into any animal she chose, but the boy Zan had the lame power of changing into different forms of water. How much times can you make yourself into an ice-bridge?

Challenge of the Super-Friends moved away from Afterschool Special territory and back into comic-book land. Less learning and more bashing. Gone were the Wonder Twins and that obnoxious monkey. The core five--Superman, Batman and Robin, Aquaman and Wonder Woman--were joined by JLA members from the comic books Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman and Hanna-Barbera created DEI hires Apache Chief, Samurai, Black Vulcan, and El Dorado (Note: I am in favor of DEI.) Their conflicts now centered on the Legion of Doom, 13 supervillains, mostly from the DC comics headed by Lex Luthor and including the Riddler, Scarecrow, Bizarro, Cheetah, Black Mantis, Solomon Grundy, Giganta, and Toy Man, not to be confused with the Toyman who appeared in the Filmation Superman cartoon in 1966-7. The Legion holed up in a spaceship in a swamp and always managed to get away at the last minute.

All this time Olan Soule and Casey Kasem did Batman and Robin's voices, but for the final iteration Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians, Adam West returned to his role after the cancellation of CBS' The New Adventures of Batman. Kasem continued to voice Robin. I wonder how Soule felt having to relinquish a role they had played for almost a decade. The Wonder Twins rejoined the group who were now mainly occupied with Jack Kirby's Darkseid, his nephew Kalibak and henchman De Sade (voiced by Tony winner Rene Auberjonois, later of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Benson. Side note: In the 1986 Tony Awards salute to all the Best Play winners, Auberjonois read the excerpt from the 1966 winner, Marat/De Sade.) An interesting sexual twist was provided in this series of episodes. Darkseid was obsessed with Wonder Woman and wanted to abduct and marry her. Oh, and Firestorm and Cyborg were slipped in here as teen Super Friends to add to the youth appeal. (Olan Soule switched from Batman to voicing Prof. Stein, half of Firestorm's secret identity.)

Saturday Morning Super-Heroes, Pt. 3: Spider-Man

DC's Superman, Batman, Aquaman and other members of the Justice League found their way onto Saturday morning TV screens in the late 1960s and so did Marvel's Spider-Man. Before that in the earlier 60s, there was a syndicated series of Marvel-based shorts starring the Mighty Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, Sub-Mariner and the Hulk, which I recall used to be broadcast on Sunday afternoons on our local Philadelphia NBC affiliate. These were poorly animated shorts resembling the comic book pages they were based on with little movement. The ABC Spider-Man series was a vast improvement, telling two stories per episode and employing more sophisticated animation. The music helped providing exciting background to Spidey's adventures as he battled villains such as Electro, Dr. Octopus, Mysterio, the Green Goblin, and the Rhino while working as Peter Parker, freelance photographer for tyrannical publisher J. Jonah Jameson's Daily Bugle. In this series, he had graduating high school and there was no sign of Aunt May. 

Speaking of music, the theme song was certainly catchy, but the singers should have articulated more. There was one lyric which made no sense to me: "Welcome, friends, he's a yourd/Action is his reward" What the hell's a yourd, I thought. It wasn't until decades later that I finally heard the correct words. Patrick Page who was playing the Green Goblin in Julie Taymor's misbegotten Broadway musical version of the web-slinger's exploits, was singing the theme song in a night club and he pronounced the words correctly: "Wealth and fame, he's ignored/Action is his reward." 

The second season of the ABC Spider-Man was taken over by Ralph Bakshi, future director of Fritz the Cat and Heavy Traffic, and the series went downhill. Everything turned dark and the storylines were much weaker. The backgrounds and most of the action shots were repetitive and the characterization fell flat. This ideration of Spidey disappeared after that.

Firestar, Iceman and Spider-Man

Spider-Man re-emerged in 1981 with an NBC cartoon series title Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, narrated by Stan Lee himself. This version relies heavily on the Marvel comics universe and in addition to Spidey's new crimefighting friends, Iceman and Firestar, there were regular appearances by other Marvel characters such as Capt. America, Dr. Strange, Thor, and the X-Men. The premise was Peter Parker, now in college, is rooming with two other super-powered young people Bobby Drake (Iceman) and Angelic Jones (Firestar) in the home of Peter's Aunt May (voiced by June Foray of Rocky and Bullwinkle fame). There's also an annoying little dog called Ms. Lion. (Never mind that Iceman was previously a member of the X-Men in the 1960s and should be much older by now.) They called their team the Spider-Friends, presumably to compete with ABC's Super-Friends based on the DC heroes. As with Batman, there were several other Spider-Man cartoon shows, but this one caught my attention. There was lots of fun action and Lee's hyperbolic narration lent a comic-book aura. Watching the episodes felt like reading old comics. 

Unlike Batman and the DC heroes, Spider-Man was conflicted about his status as a super-hero and he was not seen by the authorities as a legitimate agent of the law, but as a dangerous outsider. That's what made him more complex and interesting. There have been other Spider-Man cartoons, but I never got into them. I've also seen many of the movie adaptations, but not the most recent ones.

Book Review: Angels and Insects

(Borrowed from a friend's house in Mexico) While visiting friends in Mexico, I borrowed this volume when I finished all the books I had brought along. I had seen the beginning of the 1995 film based on the first of the two novellas set in the Victorian era and was intrigued. A.S. Byatt's pair of shorter novels is elegantly written and thought-provoking, but I enjoyed the first one, Morpho Eugenia, far more than the second, The Conjungial Angel. Morpho formed the basis of the film starring Mark Rylance and Kristin Scott Thomas, and concerns a natural scientist who specializes in insects marrying into an aristocratic family with deep, dark secrets. I hadn't gotten to the end of the film, so fortunately I didn't know the surprise ending. The plot was fascinating as Adamson, the scientist, delves deeper into the lives of insects and parallels are drawn between insect society and the Alabasters, his wife's family. Debates on evolution, religion, class and morality come into play. The Conjungial Angel was not as satisfying for me. A group of mediums and spiritualism enthusiasts meets on a weekly basis to contact their dear departed. Byatt goes deep inside each of the characters but I got confused as to who was related to whom, who was dead and who was related to the poet Alfred Lord Tennyson. The whole work is beautifully written, but I had a hard time relating to the second piece.

Saturday Morning Super-Heroes, Part 2: Batman Cartoons

In 1968, there were many national tragedies such as student riots, Vietnam and political assassinations. Not as momentous, but devastating to me at the time--when I was nine--was ABC's cancellation of the Batman series after three seasons. Granted the show was running out of steam with Batgirl being brought in to bolster the ratings. Plus the number of episodes per week was cut down from two to one with the cliffhanger element eliminated. Sharp viewers might have noticed that interior scenes not taking place on existing sets such as Stately Wayne Manor, Commissioner Gordon's office or the Batcave, took place in black voids with no walls to save building costs. To add insult to injury, NBC was ready to pick the show up for a fourth season, but ABC had destroyed the expensive Batcave set. The Peacock Network balked at spending $100K to build a new set and passed, thus condemning the campy adventure series to oblivion. I read somewhere that they planned to send Robin/Dick Grayson to college and eliminate Chief O'Hara to save on expenses, leaving only Batman, Batgirl, Alfred, and Commissioner Gordon as the regular cast. Aunt Harriet (Madge Blake) was cut after the second season. Part of the appeal of the series was Bruce and Dick were grown-up boys living in an adolescent fantasy club house (Wayne Manor/the Batcave) with Aunt Harriet as a sort of dithering house mother. Batgirl's introduction in the third season introduced a weird dynamic with the dynamic Daredoll as a possible female mate for Batman. She was unlike the threatening villainesses of previous seasons such as Catwoman and Marsha, Queen of Diamonds. Batgirl was a "nice" girl and not a dangerous vamp. But anyway, I digress.

Fortunately, the Caped Crusaders continued in animated series. Since these shows took on the format and general tone of the Batman 66-8 series, we can regard them as unofficial fourth and fifth seasons. The Adventures of Batman premiered on CBS in September 1968 on Saturday mornings after the ABC live action series was cancelled. These seven-minute segments, often in two parts with a cliffhanger like the ABC series, were part of the Superman/Batman Hour. Olan Soule provided Batman's voice (the veteran character actor had appeared on ABC's Batman as a newscaster during a King Tut episode) and disc jockey Casey Kasem was Robin. Thirty-four segments were produced by Filmation Studios. In addition to Batman, Robin, Alfred the butler, Commissioner Gordon, Chief O'Hara and Batgirl, recurring characters included the hold-over supervillains Joker, Penguin, Riddler, Catwoman, Mr. Freeze and the Mad Hatter. Ted Knight, later of the Mary Tyler Moore Show, supplied most of the villains' voices as well as that of the narrator. Larry Storch of F Troop did the Joker. Jane Webb was Batgirl and Catwoman. There were more team-ups with super-villains since they had to pay fewer actors. Penguin, Joker, Ridder and Catwoman often joined forces and in one memorable episode, the Joker was elected (unfairly) Mayor of Gotham City and Penguin and Riddler joined him in the city's new crime-first administration. Donald Trump took a leaf from the Joker's book, if you catch my drift.

Should US Citizens Be Fleeing the Country?

The Marseillaise scene from Casablanca.

Nine months into Trump's second term and the big question is should sane, liberal people be planning to leave the US or would that be an overreaction? This has been a source of controversy and conflict between me and close friends. I don't believe my safety and freedom are in danger, that we're headed for a Third Reich or that becoming an expat is our only means of survival. But those close to me who disagree think we are in the equivalent of the Weimar Republic or the early days of Hitler's dark reign. They say it's only a matter of time before all our rights will be taken away and those who publicly disagree with the Orange Fascist will be rounded up and sent to El Salvador, South Sudan or Uganda. 

An American friend who lives in a foreign country recently received a call from a friend of his in a panic, expressing desperation about the need to leave the US as soon as possible. He knows of another couple who are planning to move to Panama from the US. We had a debate on whether these people are legitimately concerned or being hysterical. My expat pal pointed out people were being snatched off the street by masked ICE agents and John Bolton, a former high-ranking official, had his home raided by the FBI. Jews in 1930s Germany were having the same conversation we were and look what happened to them. I said yes, undocumented immigrants with no criminal records were being harassed and detained and the former National Security Advisor who had criticized Trump was the subject of unfair investigation. But I said that doesn't mean US citizens are going to be disappeared just because they are Jewish. The conclusion both parties reached was that there was not going to be a Nazi-like Holocaust. But that Trump is a threat to our democracy.

If you wanted to leave the country as a protest because you don't like the way Trump is running the government, that's an understandable, if somewhat extreme action, but I don't think we're not going to turn into 1930s Germany. Yes, undocumented aliens and people with visas are in trouble whether they have a criminal record or not (in the supermarket recently I heard a radio commercial with Kristi Noem, dog-murderer and Secy, of Homeland Security, touting the harsh immigration policy and urging all undocumented residents to turn themselves in for deportation and MAYBE they could return some day. It sent chills down my spine.)  But I don't think white, well-off US citizens should be panicking and packing their bags.

On a related note: On a recent airplane flight, I watched Casablanca for the 100th time and my eyes actually started to tear up during the singing of the Marseillaise. I started thinking about what's happening in our country and how Trump is trying to take over not just the government, but our cultural, medical and social life. While we are not in danger of winding up like the refugees fleeing the Nazis and waiting for a precious exit visa in Rick's Cafe, we must keep on singing our equivalent of the Marseillaise in defiance. His reign will end and we will still be here.

B'way Review: Jeff Ross: Take a Banana for the Ride

Jeff Ross in his one-man show
Take a Banana for the Ride.
Credit: Emilio Madrid

You might expect a lot more snark from comedian Jeff Ross in his one-man show Take a Banana for the Ride at the Nederlander. After all, he is nicknamed the Roastmaster General due to his frequent inflammatory appearances on TV celebrity roasts where profanity and irreverence are the order of the day. In fact, the show starts out with video clips of his sharpest gags, the first being his most famous in which he references the genitalia of Beatrice Arthur, along with the beloved Golden Girl herself wagging a finger at him. There follows snippets of Ross being unmerciful to Alec Baldwin and Tom Brady. Stefania Bulbarella created the expansive video design which employs clips and photos from Ross’s personal and professional life, displayed across a gallery of homey picture frames, provided by set designer Beowulf Boritt. The effect, aided by Adam Honore’s warm lighting and Stephen Kessler’s smooth direction, is like being treated to a series of home movies by a funny and welcoming friend.

What we get after those clips is not the second coming of Don Rickles, but a bittersweet memoir of Ross’ history on and offstage, laced with his trademark barbs and the occasional specialty material, such as a song devoted to his cultural heritage with the blunt title, “Don’t F**k with the Jews.” (His real name is Lifschultz, “which means ‘You’d better change that.’”) Music director-pianist Asher Denburg and violinist Felix Herbst provide the expert music accompaniment. Ross even hauls out his dog to tug—successfully—at our collective heartstrings. The evening is, as expected, riotously funny, but also moving and uplifting.

Jeff Ross with his dog Nipsey in
Jeff Ross: Take a Banana for the Ride.
Credit: Emilio Madrid

After the clips, Ross enters through the audience, clad by costume designer Toni-Leslie James in an appropriate banana-yellow suit. (The title comes from the parting gesture his beloved grandfather would give him every time he took the bus trip from their New Jersey home into the big city to pursue his dreams of performing.) Ross gently lobs some introductory insults at the audience (at the performance attended, he advised the gentleman wearing shorts in the front row to close his legs since too much of him was showing), the comedian relates his family history and unlikely path to becoming a stand-up. 

After both his parents died relatively young—his mother had leukemia and his dad passed away from a brain aneurysm brought on by drug use—Ross roomed with his grandpa and auditioned for comedy clubs until an appearance on the Dave Letterman Show put him on the map. 

Ross doesn’t spare himself in his acidic commentary. His loss of hair due to alopecia comes in for a ribbing as skewers his appearance (“I look like Bruce Willis’ trainer if he also had dementia.”) His bout with colon cancer is also fair game. There’s also a tender tribute to his three favorite comic friends—Bob Saget, Norm MacDonald, and Gilbert Gottfried—all unconventional funnymen, like Ross.

The most effective extended bit is his tribute to his two dogs—a pair of German shepherds named Nana and Nipsey. Using a Teutonic accent to imitate his two rescue canines, he creates a hilarious image—“Jew, vhere are ze treats! Ve know you are hiding zem!”—goose-stepping and barking around the stage.

The evening concludes with Ross roasting select members of the audience, reeling off ad-libs as he roams the aisles followed by a video cameraperson, but leaving them with an uplifting message after the insults. It’s a perfect capper to an unexpectedly moving show.

Aug. 18—Sept. 28. Nederlander Theater, 208 W. 41st St., NYC. Running time: 90 mins. with no intermission. broadwaydirect.com.