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From 'TBH Politoons'
Great Site!
Thanks, again, Tim!
Weekly Review
HARPER'S WEEKLY REVIEW
July 30, 2002
Israel used an American-made F-16 to drop a one-ton laser-guided bomb on a
densely populated residential area in Gaza City, killing a prominent Hamas
leader and 14 others, nine of them children.
Bush, who is currently
preparing for his month-long vacation, described the move as
"heavy-handed."
A human-rights group reported that at least 800 Afghan
civilians have been killed so far by U.S. air strikes.
A British company
was offering vacation packages to war zones in Afghanistan.
County officials in Philadelphia launched a "homeland security summer camp" where
at-risk teens are paid minimum wage for participating in an eight-week
program on "terrorism response."
Reports surfaced that "Ground Zero, USA,"
an urban-warfare camp in Alabama, may have unwittingly trained al Qaeda
operatives.
A Secret Service agent admitted writing, "Islam is evil,
Christ is King," on a Muslim prayer calendar while searching the home of a
man accused of entering the country with counterfeit cashier's checks.
Democratic senator Joseph Biden proposed that soldiers should be granted
the right to arrest American civilians.
A Bush-appointed member of the
U.S. Civil Rights Commission predicted that the public would demand
internment camps in the event of another attack by Arab terrorists, and
"you can forget about civil rights."
A British company unveiled a line of
airplane seats equipped with body sensors that monitor passenger-anxiety
levels.
A 36-year-old woman filed suit against Delta Airlines after being
forced to show her fellow passengers the dildo that had been vibrating in
her luggage.
Parents in California were complaining about a middle-school
teacher who duct-taped her students to the floor to show them what it felt
like to be on slave ships.
Two bald eagles with talons entwined fell into
a tree and dangled there upside down for the better part of a day.
Continued at www.harpers.org/weekly-review
-- Elizabeth Giddens
Reader Contribution
from "Mr. G"
''...if you don't know already, I work for a political polling agency.
So, we're polling Michigan tonite - the Attorney General's race. Involved in the race are people with the last names of Cox, Peters, and Posthumous. The 1st name of Mr. Posthumous (of course) being Dick. (Dick Posthumous - now there's a Viagra spokesman for you.)
I mean it's hard to keep a (ahem) straight face asking Upper Michigan people asking if the race were held today, would they prefer Cox or Peters? And is that 'somewhat' or 'very'...
And then, we read a list of names to get subjective reactions to political names. Cox, Peters and, of course, Bush.....
It's a great country!''
Thanks, "Mr. G"! Nearly sprayed the monitor with Pepsi!
Reader Contribution
from Alvin
Since Dubya is going on another month-long {working}
vacation:
MIDILink
HOME ON THE RANCH
{Sung to "Home on the Range"}
by alvin
Oh sing me some tune
In a skeptic-packed room
Where the beers and the arguments play
Where often is heard
How to lie right and left
And the statements are mostly deranged
Home, home on the ranch
Where the overworked pResident's nap
Where seldom is heard
A discouraging word
From the FBI or CIA
Like a comic relief
Our Commander-In-Thief
May his logical powers not stray
If terrorist threats offend
Please let truth prevail
I sniff cover-up in the air
Home, home on the ranch
Where the overworked pResident's nap
Where seldom is heard
A discouraging word
From the FBI or CIA...
Alvin
Reader Queries
A Few Comments?
A few cmts on today (Tues)'s issue
Lessee,
1) the bill that would allow companies to hack P2P? Um, over
the weekend the beloved RIAA, the record industry group
pushing this crap...was hit by a DoS (denial of service)
attack, killing their Internet access. (Can they take
it, as well as dish it out?)
2) the Communist Manifesto has *none* of those items. Go read it
some time, it's not that long (and no, I'm not a
communist, though I am a (non-Marxist) socialist.
Well, hi Mark, nice to meet you, too.
3) my heart bleeds for those losing the Russian Tea Room.
Actually, for the out-of-work employees. For those of
us who can't afford such places, there's a lot of us
who lament the end, more than a decade ago, of the last
Horn & Hardart's Automat (with the best macaroni &
cheese ever made).
It's a real 'show biz' kind of place. Alex is Russian.
Way back when I first moved to LA, damn right I visited every place I'd ever heard/read of....from Doug Weston's Troubador to
the old Whiskey au Go-Go to Filthy McNasty's. Gazzari's hopped and Gary was an art movie house. From the Greek Theatre to the Griffith Observatory to
Tower Records on the Sunset Strip. From Disneyland & Knott's to Magic Mountain. It's part cultural anthropology and
part enjoying where you are, and appeciating the history that has already happened in that location.
If you need a good macaroni & cheese recipe, check out 
Now about tv...how about reviewing *important* things, like:
1) when's the next new episode of Battlebots, as opposed to
the reruns of reruns (and when will they start dating
them, so we know what season, and if we've seen it)?
2) when does Junkyard Wars start its new season?
3) Buffy?
All good questions. I'm running late (as usual), but the kid really likes 'Battlebots' and 'Junkyard Wars'. Will do some digging - check back on Thursday.
'Buffy', being syndicated, will probably start the 2nd or 3rd week of September.
For the soap fans,it seems as though the End Times have come - Days of
Our Lives, which a very close friend tells me that she's been watching
for 35 years (I can *not* imagine why someone would watch a soap that
long, but...), has Breached The Gap...there are currently UFO aliens in
the plotline (who look like sexy teenagers in silver lame), whose UFO
has crashed.
Preferring the lust & greed of game shows over soaps, a pal who uplinks network programming mentioned how 'wacky' some of the plotlines of the soaps were getting...you've
provided another example. Thanks.
Finally...after 25 years, the soap *I've* wanted to watch all the way
through is back: Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman! It's on TVLAND, the station
that shows (arghh!!!) Gilligan's Island reruns, etc., Fri night/Sat morn
and Sat night/Sun morn at midnight Eastern, with two episodes each
night. Louise Lasser is still gorgeous (and needs rescuing), Tom is
still a schmuck, and if anyone thinks that the soaps, including the
stuff in prime time, have gotten odd, this mid-seventies parody is
*still* the strangest (and best) ever made."Soap" was to MH2 what
"Laugh-in" was to the Smothers Brothers - a wimpy knock-off.
Having lived in some really small markets, where there were fewer than 3 tv channels, don't put down
'Gilligan' so lightly. Richard Donner (check out his credentials!),
among some other impressive names directed episodes.
The second episode this past Sat (I'm in Central time, so it's
23:00-midnight for me), they just reshowed the very first episode - so
it seems as though they'll show a month or so's worth, then rerun, so
you can catch what you missed.
I'm old enough to have been paid to watch 'Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman' as a form of employment. Thanks for letting me know
it's back on. Want to write some tv updates & help out around here? Can always use contributors.
The Question of the Monent - (ignore the 5 people, 2 goats, and 6
chickens just murdered a few blocks away), is whether Mary's floor has
yellow waxy buildup....
LOL, I remember that arc...watch out for Grandpa becoming the 'Fernwood Flasher'...oh, and the poor 'Rev. Jimmy Joe Jeter' will
meet with a bathroom accident. His father is played by the always wonderful Dabney Coleman. The young rev's death be-fouls his daddy's
'Condo's For Christ' scam.
mark
--
"...As I got about three steps past, he registered. Long brown
hair like a hippie. Big full beard too. Broad shoulders and
sensative features. Work shirt, jeans, and beat-up boots. A
carpenter's tool belt around his hips. And he was on a crutch."
- Lady Slings the Booze, Spider Robinson
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Weather was nice again today. Hit both CostCo & the library. The library had been broken into, and there were 5 sheets of plywood covering the gaping hole of where the glass should be. It wasn't the first time, but
that doesn't make it any easier.
Talked with dear old dad in PA. Humidity season seems to have started a bit early - maybe he'll finally break down & buy an air conditioner. So what if he only uses it a month (or so) a year. It'll be a much more
pleasant month.
Watching Joan Rivers on Dave. Cheap halloween masks have more range of expression than poor Joan.
Jeez - just saw/heard a commercial for Wrangler jeans with CCR's 'Fortuante Son' as background music. : (
Tonight, Wednesday, CBS starts with '60 Minutes II', then a fresh 'Big Brother 3' followed by '48 Hours'.
Scheduled on a fresh Dave are Joaquin Phoenix and Little Richard.
Scheduled on a fresh Craiggers are David Hyde Pierce and Jewel.
NBC opens with a fresh 'Meet My Folks', then hasa reruns of 'ER' and 'Law & Order'.
Scheduled on a fresh Jay are Mel Gibson and political commentator Jim Cramer.
On a rerun Conan, scheduled guests are Ted Danson, Alex Kingston, and Zach Galifianakis.
On a rerun Carson Daly (from 4/8/02), scheduled guests are Janeane Garofalo and Fat Joe.
ABC starts with 2 reruns of 'My Wife & Kids', then 2 reruns of 'Drew Carey', and wraps with a 'special' - 'The Brain Game: What's Sex Got To Do With It?'.
The WB has the movie 'Portrait Of Murder'.
Faux has a fresh '30 Seconds To Fame', then a fresh 'Meet The Marks', a rerun 'Bernie Mac', and finishes with a fresh 'American Idol: Search For An American Superstar'.
UPN has a rerun 'Enterprise' and a rerun 'WWE Divas'.
Very early this morning TCM seems to be saluting Humphrey Bogart with 'Angels With Dirty Faces', 'Petrified Forest', 'Key Largo', 'Maltese Falcon', and 'The Big Sleep'. Whew. If you
want to find out more, www.imdb.com, and use the little box on the left.
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
Another Reason To Visit Vegas!
'Dance' Done in Las Vegas
"Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dance," the long-running production show that proved a top tourist draw during its four-year run at New York New York, kicked up its heels for the last time Sunday.
The show, which played to nearly 1.3 million people, closed to make way for renovations to its Broadway Theater, which will be the home of a new Cirque du Soleil production scheduled to open in summer 2003.
'Dance' Done in Las Vegas
60 Years As Washington Reporter
Helen Thomas
White House press corps legend Helen Thomas, left, is joined by presidential spokesman Ari Fleischer, right, and fellow journalists in the press offices at the White
House for a casual celebration of her 60-year anniversary as a Washington reporter, Tuesday, July 30, 2002. Thomas, a Hearst newspaper columnist who served most of
those years as a correspondent for United Press International, has covered every American president since John F. Kennedy from her front-row seat at the White House.
Photo by J. Scott Applewhite
Drinking Legal For A Change
Jenna Bush
Jenna Bush may be too young to drink in the States, but France is another story. The President's 20-year-old daughter was spotted at St.-Tropez hotspot Caves du Roy drinking with
two friends for more than four hours, London's Mirror reports. The threesome is said to have finished a $225 bottle of vodka and an equally pricey bottle of tequila at the club.
Jenna will have to stick to overseas bars until her birthday. In May 2001, she was caught using a fake ID to buy a drink. After paying a $100 fine and taking alcohol-awareness
classes, she was nabbed again. Her second offense cost her $500, and the Bush twin's license was suspended.
Jenna Bush
'Guns N' Roses' Top List
Greatest Metal Albums
In the world of heavy metal, the genre that allows fans to blow off steam to deafening, bone-crunching music, honors for the greatest album of all time have gone to Guns N' Roses.
The short-lived U.S. rock band's 1987 debut release, "Appetite For Destruction," took pole position in Spin magazine's top 40 list, ahead of works by pioneering bands such as Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath.
Led Zeppelin's untitled 1971 release, commonly known as "Led Zeppelin IV" or "Zoso" was second, followed by Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" (1971), Metallica's "Master of Puppets" (1986)
and AC/DC's "Back in Black" (1980), Spin's editors decreed in the magazine's upcoming September issue.
"Appetite for Destruction," which includes such hits as "Welcome to the Jungle" and "Sweet Child O' Mine," has sold more than 15 million copies in the United States. Spin said
it "sounds like Hollywood at 2 a.m., only genuine and dangerous and absolutely necessary."
The Led Zeppelin album was "the defining endeavor for the band and the genre it accidentally created," Spin said. The U.K. quartet's "Led Zeppelin II" (1969) took the No. 7 spot.
Fellow Brits Black Sabbath also appeared twice, with 1972's "Vol. 4" at No. 14. Additionally, frontman Ozzy Osbourne's 1980 solo album "Blizzard Of Ozz," recorded after he was fired
from the band, came in at No. 26.
Greatest Metal Albums
Skipper Hits A Bridge
geraldo rivera
Cape Cod marine cops are hot on the trail of FOX-TV investigative reporter Geraldo Rivera after he smashed his 70-foot yacht into a bridge
abutment in oh-so-swish Oyster Harbors over the weekend - then disappeared like the contents of Al Capone's vault!
``You break anything in this town, and you have insurance, we're going to aggressively go after you,'' said Barnstable highway supervisor Neil Andres, who was all
tied up in knots over the mishap at the town's Oyster Harbors drawbridge. ``We've asked the detective for the town's marine police to look into it.''
But a spokesgal for the hard-hitting newsman said he didn't hit the bridge all that hard.
According to one of Andres' bridge tenders, Geraldo was attempting to make his way through the drawbridge, the mini-span that connects Little Island to Grand
Island Friday night, when the boat went off-course and hit the bridge supports.
Although the bridge tender couldn't identify the skipper, a local yachtsman told officials it was the oft-shirtless sailor who once hosted a high-seas show on the
Travel Channel. ``He slid out the next morning with a gash on the side of his boat,'' said the spy.
Andres said the town was inspecting the bridge yesterday to see if it needs repairs. ``Any damage above $500 is supposed to be reported to the marine police,'' he said.
geraldo rivera
Thurgood Marshall Stamp Unveiling
Cecilia Marshall
Cecilia Marshall, right, unveils a new commemorative postage stamp honoring her deceased husband Thurgood Marshall, the first African American to serve as a U.S. Supreme
Court justice, Monday July 29, 2002, in San Francisco. The stamp will be available for sale to the public in January 2003.
Photo by George Nikitin
Show Debuts This Sunday
Anna Nicole Smith
Former playmate Anna Nicole Smith has no problem getting naked on her new show - but E! producers are still trying to figure out if they can show it.
The buxom blonde who's known for her uninhibited and wide-eyed approach to life, stars in a new reality sitcom "The Anna Nicole Show," debuting this Sunday at 10 p.m.
A camera crew from cable's E! channel has been following Smith around for about seven hours a day since last May. They are trying to be the first new reality sitcom since "The Osbournes"
became a hit last spring.
Smith - who originally made a name for herself dancing and posing in the nude - has romped in the raw more than once on camera, producers said.
But they are still trying to find a legitimate way to get the footage into the show.
"There are some risqué moments with Anna that we've shot," says executive producer Jeff Shore.
Nudity aside, Shore says the show's editors are feverishly cutting through the hundreds of hours that've been taped so far to extract the funniest moments.
"I don't think Anna Nicole could tell a joke if her life depended on it," he says. "What's funny about her is how she sort of relates to the world outside of her home.
"She's sort of naive and she speaks anything that comes off the top of her head."
Like "The Osbournes" the new show comprises a cast of wacky real-life characters who are part of the star's life.
Among them are Howard K. Stern, her lawyer ("Not the naughty one," Smith says), her 16-year-old son Daniel, purple-haired personal assistant Kimmie Walther and the
former Guess model's four-year-old, black toy poodle, Sugar Pie, who's so attached to a stuffed teddy bear that he refuses to leave Smith's side without it.
Anna Nicole Smith
Old Is New Again
'The Rerun Show'
Woody Allen famously observed that in Beverly Hills, "they don't throw their garbage away. They make it into television shows."
Come fall, look for a salvaged "Twilight Zone" on UPN and a reconditioned "Family Affair" on the WB. And this Thursday at 9:30 p.m. EDT, check out NBC for the
premiere (if that's the word) of "The Rerun Show" — a recycling program like none before.
Here's how it works: They dust off a script from a long-ago sitcom, then restage it line by line with a versatile, eight-member troupe of impersonators who take it even
less seriously than the original cast did.
This sort of show-biz ecology was successfully employed a decade ago by "The Real Live Brady Bunch," a theatrical spoof.
Now "The Rerun Show" is re-enacting episodes of such "classic" sitcoms as "Facts of Life," "One Day at A Time," "Saved by the Bell," "Bewitched," "The Jeffersons," "What's Happening!!"
and "Married ... with Children."
Every "Rerun" half-hour accommodates two sitcom episodes (each script pruned judiciously but otherwise preserved). On Thursday, catch "Diff'rent Strokes" and "The Partridge Family."
Whatever episode happens to be chosen, "The Rerun Show" is funniest when able to pay backhanded tribute to that source material, while exposing it for what it is:
world-class pap whose staying power defies repeated viewings and the passage of time.
'The Rerun Show'
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
25th Kennedy Honors
Recipients Named
Actors Elizabeth Taylor, James Earl Jones and Chita Rivera will share with musicians Paul McCartney and James Levine the 25th annual honors of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
resident George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush will receive the honorees at the White House on Dec. 8, before attending a gala performance and supper dance at the Kennedy Center.
CBS will air a two-hour special on the ceremonies later in December.
Recipients Named
Sydney's Botany Bay
Kiteboarder
A kiteboarder uses a brisk wind to jump a wave as a rainbow forms behind him in Sydney's Botany Bay, July 29, 2002. The possibilities for tricks and hang time are limitless
in this recently invented sport.
Photo by Rick Rycroft
Hosting Reality TV Show
Erin Brockovich
Erin Brockovich, whose real life battle to expose corporate polluting of drinking water was turned into a hit movie, will host a television show profiling women who battle
the system, the Lifetime cable TV network said.
The network said "Final Justice" was a reality TV show based on true accounts of women who fought "the system," including that of a Louisiana woman who embarks on a crusade
to change the law when she learns that a neighbor's videotaping of her inside her own home was legal.
Brockovich rose to fame after her exploits as a legal assistant who took on a California utility that allegedly contaminated drinking water, and became the subject of the hit
movie "Erin Brockovich," in which she was played by Julia Roberts, who won a best actress Oscar for her performance.
The Lifetime cable TV network is a 50/50 joint venture of the Walt Disney Co. and The Hearst Corp. ABC is wholly owned by Disney.
Erin Brockovich
MSNBC Slow On The Bleep Button
Imus & Traficant
A profanity used by ousted Ohio Rep. James Traficant in an interview with Don Imus was excised from Imus' radio show Monday but slipped past censors during the MSNBC simulcast.
The former congressman, expelled from the House of Representatives last week, was talking to Imus about his case when he suggested the FBI and IRS could "go ... themselves."
Imus' radio audience couldn't hear the profanity because it was bleeped out during a seven-second delay before airing.
"That'll be enough of James Traficant," Imus said. "Clearly, he's been drinking."
MSNBC airs three hours of Imus' show on weekday mornings. When Imus is in the studio, the network has the seven-second delay that is commonly used to prevent such
occurrences. But when Imus is broadcasting from a remote location, as he was Monday, the delay is unavailable, MSNBC spokeswoman Cheryl Daly said.
Despite the outburst, Traficant stayed on the line and Imus returned to him. Imus said he couldn't use such language, and Traficant said, "it's in the dictionary."
Imus & Traficant
BartCop TV!
17 Concerts Cancelled
Mostly Mozart Festival
The Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, famed for its interpretations of the Austrian composer's repertory, on Monday went on strike for the first time in 30 years after it failed
to reach a labor agreement with New York's Lincoln Center.
The strike led to the cancellation of 17 concerts of the Mostly Mozart Festival, the first one of which was scheduled for Monday night at no cost for attendees.
Founded 30 years ago, the 42-member Mostly Mozart Orchestra has had a number of multiyear labor agreements with the Lincoln Center, usually ranging between three and four
years each, with the last one ending in February.
Bill Moriarity, president of the Musician's Union, Local 802, told Reuters the disagreement was on a clause that grants the musical director, which is appointed by the Lincoln
Center, the right to dismiss an orchestra member for artistic reasons with no chance of re-engagement.
"Usually when there is a new musical director ... he dismisses a large group of people," Moriarity said adding that the orchestra has worked under the "peer review" system for
several years without objections.
Members are voted out of the music ensemble for not playing up to the standards of the orchestra.
Mostly Mozart Festival
Sells for Record $6.6 Million
$20 Double Eagle
The so-called Mona Lisa of gold coins was sold for a record $6.6 million on Tuesday night.
Coin experts Stack's handled the sale on behalf of the U.S. Mint, which had to give permission for the coin to be privately owned. The bidding, which started at $2.5
million, lasted about 10 minutes in Sotheby's crowded showroom on Manhattan's East Side.
The previous record auction price for a coin was just over $4.1 million, paid in August 1999 for an 1804 U.S. silver dollar, also often described as the numismatic
equivalent of the famed Leonardo da Vinci portrait.
The 1933 $20 Double Eagle bought by a telephone bidder on Tuesday has a checkered history that spans nearly seven decades.
Minted in 1933, it disappeared after President Franklin D. Roosevelt took the United States off the gold standard and ordered thousands of the coins destroyed to help
the struggling American economy out of the Great Depression.
The elusive coin surfaced in Cairo in 1954 at an auction of deposed Egyptian King Farouk's possessions, only to disappear again for 42 years. In 1996, it was seized at
New York's Waldorf-Astoria hotel as British coin dealer Stephen Fenton tried to sell it to Secret Service agents posing as coin collectors.
$20 Double Eagle
Shanghai Zoo
Thirsty Bears
Bears in a Shanghai zoo have started begging for cola from tourists as a heat wave scorches eastern China, state media have reported.
With temperatures in the past week hovering around 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit), keepers at the Shanghai Wildlife Park have been feeding extra helpings of chilled
watermelon, apples and other snacks to parched animals, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
But the zoo's thirsty bears have taken to rearing up on their hind legs when tourist trolleys pass, posing with paws folded in exchange for cold drinks from visitors.
"The bears drink up every drop of Coca-Cola they get, but kick away a bottle of tasteless mineral water after a few sips," Xinhua reported.
Shanghai's pandas -- the stars of the zoo and a treasured national symbol -- live in an air-conditioned hut and are given blocks of ice to keep cool.
Noontime temperatures in Shanghai reached 36 degrees Celsius on Tuesday, well above the average of 28.3 and just shy of the record of 38.3 degrees set in 1892.
Thirsty Bears
Reruns Top Reality
Ratings
While the major networks fight for summer buzz with reality shows like Meet My Folks, American Idol and Dog Eat Dog, the three most-watched
shows of the week were actually reruns--as CBS squeaked out a first-place ratings victory from CSI, Everybody Loves Raymond and Becker.
All told, CBS averaged 8 million viewers for the week ended Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research, edging out NBC's 7.8 million. The Eye
Network's Monday-night comedies successfully fended off strong competition from NBC's reality newcomers Dog Eat Dog (11.3 million) and the
pimp-like Meet My Folks (11 million), though the Peacock actually scored first place at 8 p.m. with Fear Factor.
Elsewhere, reality programming reaped mixed results. Fox's pop-wannabe hit American Idol pulled in a first-place 10.8 million viewers Tuesday night,
but dropped to second place (9.1 million viewers) against opposition from CBS' motley crew of Big Brother 3 (10.2 million). Meanwhile, Fox's other
reality rookies, 30 Seconds to Fame and Meet the Marks, couldn't quite hold up against CBS' 60 Minutes II (9 million) and NBC's Meet My Folks (7.3 million).
Fox settled for a fourth-place finish for the week, averaging 5.6 million viewers to land behind ABC, which pulled in 6 million. The Disney-owned
network didn't scare up many viewers with a rerun of Stephen King's The Shining miniseries, as Monday night's part two drew just 5 million viewers,
and Wednesday's part three averaged 6.2 million. The Mouse House also nabbed just 4.6 million viewers for its hourlong advertisement...er, special,
M. Night Shyamalan's Signs of Fear.
Here's a rundown of last week's top 10 most watched shows, according to Nielsen:
1. CSI, CBS, 14.2 million viewers
2. Everybody Loves Raymond, CBS, 13.3 million
3. Becker, CBS, 11.4 million
4. Dog Eat Dog, NBC, 11.3 million
5. Law & Order, NBC, 11.1 million
6. Meet My Folks, NBC, 11 million
7. American Idol (Tuesday), Fox, 10.8 million
8. 48 Hours (Monday), CBS, 10.77 million
9. Big Brother 3 (Wednesday), CBS, 10.2 million
10. Law & Order: Criminal Intent, NBC, 10.1 million
Ratings
In Memory
Buddy Baker
Buddy Baker, a Grammy and Oscar-nominated composer of musical scores for almost 200 Disney films, television shows and theme park attractions, has died at his Los Angeles-area home. He was 84.
Baker, who joined the Disney studios in 1954 after serving as musical director for comedian Bob Hope's radio program and World War II shows, wrote music for such popular television shows
as "The Mickey Mouse Club."
He died of natural causes on Friday at his home in Sherman Oaks, California.
Baker composed music for a number of films, including the animated hit "The Fox and the Hound" and now-famous Disneyland attractions "Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln," "It's a Small World"
and "The Haunted Mansion."
He was musical director for Epcot Center at DisneyWorld, overseeing development of all music heard at the park.
"Buddy was a terrific guy and a major contributor to the films, television shows and theme park attractions," Roy E. Disney, vice chairman of the Walt Disney Co. said in a statement.
"Anyone who has ever been to a Disney theme park has enjoyed his music, and his scores are well known to many generations of film fans and TV viewers," Disney said.
Baker, who grew up in Springfield, Illinois, began piano lessons at age four and switched to trumpet at 11. After studying music in college, he moved to Los Angeles in 1938 and joined "The Bob Hope Show."
He was twice nominated for Grammy awards and received an Academy Award nomination for the 1972 comedy "Napoleon and Samantha."
Buddy Baker
Buddy Baker At IMDb
Napoleon and Samantha (1972)
Cast overview:
Michael Douglas .... Danny
Will Geer .... Grandpa
Johnny Whitaker .... Napoleon Wilson
Jodie Foster .... Samantha
Three-week-old baby Indian leopard Ranja, born in the Plaettli-Zoo in Frauenfeld, Switzerland, is presented to the public on Tuesday, July 30, 2002.
Photo by Regina Kuehne
'The Osbournes'
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 3
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 2
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 1
