viewfromaloft

Flip Mark Looks Familiar

 

'The Devil Made Them Do It': If that's too obscure a reference in your internal TV memory bank, then you may see not how the logo for the latest thing, Flip, the pocket camcorder, is a close relative to the graphic for "The Flip Wilson Show" that ran from 1970 to 1974.  For you not versed in comedy lore, the late Clerow "Flip" Wilson coined a number of catchphrases in the pre-disco 70s.

Ya wonder if some suit was asked for a few more tweaks during the final stages of the logo design, and declined while thinking to him/herself "what you see is what you get."

Then again, if Fred Astaire can sell Dirt Devils, or Audrey Hepburn push Gap   maybe Flip's most remembered character, Geraldine Jones, can pitch Flip and its HD capabilities.  It could remind everyone just where the geek term WYSIWYG came from.

Above: Flip, "Flip" and Flip.

Below: Flip and Jones

TV night

The Emmys are underway and if you are still trying find your way to the Shrine Auditorium in your oversized limo, go south on Figueroa and turn right when you see the big neon Felix the Cat sign. The Emmy's will be on FOX at 8pm. Winners can be previewed with Tom O'Neil's blog at the LAT's The Envelope.  As of now, he writes:  " 'Late Night with Conan O'Brien' staves off a dire fate. With two noms tonight, it could've tied "Newhart's" record of 25 if it got skunked again."

ADD 8:08pm: Emmy telecast gets underway, and an opening joke (about Frazier we think) gets censored and the camera uses distant crowd filler. The LATimes blog thinks Ray Romano was bleeped. Take a look at O'Neils blog and he reports about Sally Field getting cut-off later in the broadcast. First time host Ryan Seacrest is already doing a better job at the new gig than FOX is.

Making it past the hot days

During a heat wave,  someone will always declare  "It's Earthquake Weather!!" Let's make a nod to the quake Gods that we made it past the last few weeks without a shaker by looking back at the David Letterman clip from October, 1987. Some of you will remember the quick reflexes of the KNBC morning news team, who were on the air covering the earthquake, when an aftershock shook the studio. As Letterman said later that night  "In the tradition of Edward R. Murrow!"

I'm not stalking the host of California's Gold-- really.

The Nerd must know all to link a one year old post about Huell Howser after a weekend Huell and I ran into each other three times.  First was at the El Vez Concert where Huell got a shout-out before I actually saw him. Then later that evening he was mingling at the closing night reception for osseus labyrint at the Rosslyn.  The next day, there he was in Little Tokyo riding in the Grand Parade. Eerie timing there, Nerd.

Huell's "Downtown" has been running for a year now so its no surprise I see him doing field research, visiting the Arts District,  or just taking in Downtown. It's good with me. Now I get to post some pics of Huell in action over the weekend of August 19, 2007. Above is Huell Howser in Little Tokyo. After the jump, Howser jumps into a crowd of fans to say hello, then with performance artists of  osseuslabyrint.


Downtown with Huell Howser with YouTube of the Eastern Columbia Building [ Huell Howser Productions]

Speaking of Story

KCET brought out 1995's Things That Are Not Here Anymore, hosted by Ralph Story, as part of their pledge drive Sunday evening that included a look at Christine Sterling's "China City,"  Gilmore Field,  Central Ave, The Coconut Grove in the "World Famous Ambassador Hotel",  NBC Radio on Sunset Blvd, and Bullocks Wilshire.

The sequel, More Things That Aren’t Here Anymore. will be shown Sunday, August 19, 7PM .

Hal Fishman, 75

"When I think of the hundreds of anchors who have come and gone over the last 30 years — many of them better-looking and better-coifed than I ever was ... there was one area that they were not better, and that is in being dedicated to being informed. And I think the audience perceives that,"
Hal Fishman, KTLA broadcaster, pilot, and former CSULA professor passed away early this morning. KTLA is on the air talking about Hal, showing clips, reading emails from viewers.  He was L.A. LAT  KTLA

Creator of Cat is Fuzzy

Before we list all the players behind the Felix Chevrolet Sign, let's give a nod to someone not mentioned in the application sent to the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission.

Pat Sullivan––generally considered the creator of Felix the Cat–– is the man who gave car salesman Winslow Felix permission to use the image to sell Chevrolets at the Figueroa and Jefferson dealership. Sullivan did own the rights to the image through his studios, a legal matter going back to a March 3, 1917 filing with the Library of Congress. Legalities aside, however, animation historians consider Otto Messmer to be the creator and “push behind the personality” of Felix.

Messmer was 24 at the time, and while working for Sullivan, debuted an early version of Felix in "Feline Follies" on November 9, 1919.  He went on animate numerious Felix the Cat shorts while under contract to Sullivan, then went on to author and ink Felix the Cat comic strips, distributed by King Features. Upon his retirement in 1954, Messmer passed the strip over to his assistant Joe Oriolo.

Messmer never got any screen credits for Felix the Cat until the 1953 animated television series that was produced by his then former assistant, Joe Oriolo. In 1977 a documentary about Messmer, by animation historian John Canemaker, brought to the attention what many old time animators knew. Otto created the cat.  Even today, Messmer as the sole creator is disputed, but enough is there to consider Felix the Cat, at the very least, one of the most successful collaborations in animation. 

First TV Comeback: Because of the image recognition of Felix the Cat popularity, and a design that transmitted well Felix was selected as the first image to be transmitted by the 1929 RCA and NBC's experimental television broadcasts. Photo: FelixtheCat.com

After Hours Token Links

Local Does Good. The South Central L.A. raised and USC theater Alumus Forest Whitaker will now have "Best Actor" or "Oscar"  next to his name on all future key art.  Ready for Downtown Closeup: The front of the Los Angeles Theater looked stately as it opened the Barbara Walters Oscar Special.  So did the lobby.  ". . . not quite your local megaplex." said Walters at the end of the broadcast with the camera pulling back showing the majestic staircase and chandelier. She's not going, Simon: The interview with Jennifer Hudson was held in the Palace Theater where portions of Dreamgirls was filmed. For real coverage, go to: Oscar Telecast review via Variety  . . .Hollywood Reporter's Ray Richmond does play by play . . .Noticed the "paparazzi" backstage as presenters went on stage and winner off stage? Here's a few shots from the LATimes Next Year: Here's a trailer for something filmed Downtown that will voted "highest profile of filming done downtown that caused biggest fear of traffic" . Look for the helicopter in the Historic Core Live Free or Die Hard

Game Over, man.

As you watched the quarterback fling and fumble away chances for a win in a big game, you can hear the boos being pounded on Tribune owned keyboards.
A few years ago the cheering and frustration was all about the commercials when I used to watch the Super Bowl with ad creatives on Super Bowl Sunday where, of course, the spots were watched just as closely as the game. And always, the commentary from copywriters had the same disdain as indie filmmakers at a Jerry Bruckheimer Film Festival. So as you read reviews of the Super Bowl spots ads in print and blogs keep in mind that the deeper the critic is still in the ad game, these points will come up.

1: Nothing worked. It was the worse year for advertising ever. Last year was better (although nothing worked then either).

2: And there has been no great Super Bowl ad since Apple’s “1984” Macintosh spot.

Token Ad Mention 'Cause it was Downtown: The Olympic Theater on Hill Street made an appearance for the American Heart Association as the location where characters "High Cholesterol", "Overweight", and "Diabetes" mugged and kidnapped "Mr. Heart."

Token Game Mention: The game was good. Prince was better.

Downtown's Gold*

 

Huell Howser has started his new series focusing on Downtown LA and begins at the Chop Suey Cafe.  Andrew Moyle at LA Downtown News finds him in a dark brown noir cubicle:

"If you depend on local news to get some idea of where we live and what we're all about, there's your first big problem right there," Howser said as he sat at a table in the restaurant at the site of the former Far East Cafe. "I think most people are somewhat hesitant to come Downtown because they have this stereotypical view that this is where so many problems are that they just don't want to come into contact with that. So they just stay away."  Instead, Howser said he'll try to root out real-life stories of Downtown and get people excited about what he sees as an area swirling with history and potential. He expects to do 20 to 30 episodes on the community.