Eric Hubble: It’s Still Funny as Hell
Tuesday, January 30th, 2007
Twenty years! That’s the only phrase I could think for the first five minutes that I spent with Eric Hubble on January 27, 2007. That is how long it had been since we had last seen each other – or even communicated. Truth be told, Eric and I spent only about a dozen days of our lives in each other’s presence, but also we exchanged many letters and telephone conversations over the course of just over one year. Unfortunately, as we entered high school in our respective hometowns, we headed off into different directions and simply lost touch over time. Read the rest of this entry »
There’s an interesting story of how I first met Chris Demeter. We had just moved to our house on Winterset in April 1978 and I was finishing up my first year of school as a kindergartener. This was the first time I had ever ridden the bus; before I had been close enough to walk to school. Chris rode my bus and it didn’t take long before we began talking. He was older than me, being in first grade. After chatting it up one day, he invited me over to his house and I accepted. He was dropped off before me, so I knew right where his house was. It was just up the street on Birchall, a short bike ride from home. 
During the midst of my autograph collecting spree, there was no question that I was still the biggest Laurel and Hardy and Our Gang fan in the world. So naturally, it was on my agenda to collect not only autographs of world-famous actors and actresses, but also anyone who worked in either of these series. Since I had not yet met Bob at this point, I relied on Carl Ahlm to get me the addresses of such folks. I had been present at Hollywood ’80, the incredible Sons of the Desert convention at which more than twenty Our Gang members had assembled for the biggest reunion in history, and picked up quite a few autographs there. 
As a child, I was raised on Saturday morning cartoons. Back in the day before they were all dreck, I would leap out of bed and rush to the TV where I would spend several hours with the likes of The Monster Squad, Land of the Lost, The Pink Panther, and of course, The Bugs-Bunny/Road Runner Show. While I still enjoy Pink Panther, I watch with campy glee my DVD’s of Land of the Lost, and I would love to see The Monster Squad (but know it would be crap), I am still an absolute fanatic for the Looney Tunes cartoons. 
During the Summer of 1985, I became entranced by a number of shows that were being shown on CBN – the Christian Broadcasting Network. One of them was The George Burns-Gracie Allen Show, a very unique situation comedy in which Burns would often step out of character and address the audience. I enjoyed them so much that I began to record them nightly. He co-starred in this program with his real-life wife Gracie Allen, who protrayed one of the dizziest women ever to grace the screen. Even before this TV series from the 1950’s, Burns and Allen had had an illustrious career in radio and early film.