The Late, Late, Late, Late Show!

Has this ever happened to you? You are laying in bed, ready to watch a movie when suddenly, without you knowing why, the end credits appear rolling before your eyes...and you didn't see anything before that.

Was the movie too short?  Was this some sort of avant garde, experimental auteur kind of thing? Or was this the first time in the history of films that some studio just released the title and end credits without any footage in between?

No, stupid. You just dozed off as the film began!

EARTHQUAKE!

Last September 19, a 7.7 earthquake hit parts of Mexico, including the area where I currently reside.

Since I was drawing a cartoon at the time, I felt slightly distracted from my duties due to the tremors and oscillations which impeded me from achieving any kind of straight lines. Bummer!

(Of course I could've stopped drawing and waited for the quake to stop but that wouldn't be funny, right?)

Would you believe GET SMART premiered 57 Years Ago?

 On September 18, 1965, the celebrated, funny, Emmy Award winning and still famous TV series GET SMART premiered on NBC. Created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, produced by Leonard B. Stern, Arne Sultan, Jay Sandrich, Jess Oppenheimer, Burt Nodella, Chris Hayward and starring Don Adams as Maxwell Smart, Agent 86 of CONTROL, Barbara Feldon as Agent 99 and Edward Platt as the Chief, ran for 5 seasons and 138 episodes until 1970.

The premise of course was simple: a spoof of James Bond films and the entire spy thriller genre, featuring a bumbling secret agent working for an ultra-secret organization known as CONTROL. The series would feature memorable characters sharing the TV screen with Maxwell Smart such as Agent 99, a beautiful female spy who's smarter than Smart; The Chief, head of CONTROL who keeps sending agent 86 on important and delicate missions in spite of Smart's customary bungling; Hymie the Robot, an almost human robotic agent; Larrabee, an agent who is even dumber than Max; Ludwig Von Siegfried, a recurring archvillain who is the vice president in charge of public relations and terror at KAOS, the comedy counterpart of 007's SPECTRE; Stryker, his henchman, among several other equally remarkable characters.

Barbara Feldon (Agent 99) and Don Adams (Agent 86)

The (perennially out-of-order) Cone of Silence

Edward Platt as the Chief, head of CONTROL

Bernie Kopell as KAOS chief operative Ludwig Von Siegfried

The great theme song written by Irving Szathmary:

GET SMART opening credits

Dick Gautier as Hymie The Robot

Robert Karvelas as Larrabee

Many catchphrases from the show became part of American pop culture like:

 "Sorry about that, Chief!"

Maxwell Smart: You see the moment I suspected there was something wrong with this old scow, I immediately telephoned headquarters and I happen to know that at this very minute seven coast guard cutters are converging on this boat. Would you believe it? Seven.

Mr. Big: I find that pretty hard to believe.

Maxwell Smart: Would you believe six?

Mr. Big: I don't think so.

Maxwell Smart: How about two cops in a rowboat?

Beautiful Barbara Feldon in the premiere episode of GET SMART

The TV Show also spanned a series of comic books and paperbacks.

There is an almost infinite list of great bits of dialogue, funny gags, ridiculous gadgets, hilarious characters and bits of business to write about but the best way to remember GET SMART is by watching and rewatching the show which I never get tired of doing!

Deep Thoughts on the Social Networks.

 Ever since the internet was created and people began to post whatever they liked on line, there have been a number of philosophical, motivational, profound and famous quotes by celebrated thinkers, philosophers and celebrities, constantly appearing on every social network.  Well, I am not, by any means, a philosopher or a deep thinker but anyway, I would like to add some deep thoughts of my own to the batch. Ready?

In The Royal Mood

The Second Elizabethan Era has come to an end. Since I was born one year before it began, I consider myself a part of that period. I am not British. I have no British blood in me. None of my ancestors were British (although my grandmother always claimed that her surname, which was Randolph, came from a British relative), and I have never set foot on any of the British Isles or territories. But since we are in the midst of total globalization, it is safe to assume that we are all part of the same earth community.

Anyway, using this flimsy excuse, I celebrate the ending of an era and the beginning of the new Carolean, Windsor or whatever this era will be called.

Before 9/11/2001 - The TWIN TOWERS in 1982.

 

I was there back in 1982, when I just carried a cheap little Kodak pocket camera, hence the poor resolution image.

    

"Any fool can blow something up. Any fool can destroy. But to see these guys, these firefighters, these policemen and people from all over the country, literally, with buckets rebuilding. That’s extraordinary. That’s why we’ve already won." - Jon Stewart 

                                                       One World Trade Center in 2022

Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s Longest-Reigning Monarch, Dies at 96.

Queen Elizabeth II, whose reign took Britain from the age of steam to the era of the smartphone, and who oversaw the largely peaceful breakup of an empire that once spanned the globe, has died. She was 96.

She died peacefully at her estate in Balmoral, Scotland on the afternoon of Sept. 8, according to a statement from Buckingham Palace.

Music in the Cloud!

 

Happy 11th Birthday To My Grandson EMILIANO!

Emiliano - September / 6 / 2022

THE SEVENTY YEAR ITCH