An Evening With Carol Burnett and Tim Conway
Sunday, June 6th, 2010
For $22, I can’t think of a finer way to spend an evening than with Carol Burnett and Tim Conway. I grew up watching the re-runs of Carol Burnett and Friends and I dare say that it would be difficult to find a television show that yielded more laughs. Mrs. Wiggins and Mr. Tudball, Mama’s Family, the Old Man, the kitchen commercials, and so many re-occurring bits that cracked us up each and every time. And who can forget such classic skits as Went With the Wind and As the Stomach Turns? Words cannot express how much I always loved Carol’s show…and how excited I was to now get the opportunity to see her and her #1 cohort in comedy, Tim Conway, in person. Read the rest of this entry »
Of all of the celebrities whom I met at the April 24, 2010, Hollywood Show in Burbank, I’d have to say that I was most impressed with Tom Lester. As an actor, he portrayed Eb Dawson, backwoods farmhand to Eddie Albert’s Oliver Douglas on the classic sitcom Green Acres. He became mostly disillusioned with the Hollywood scene and, except for a few brief appearances (one in a Green Acres reunion), he retired from the business. As a man, he always professed a strong commitment to God and today acts as an evangelist, often giving away to charity any of the proceeds he makes on selling his autographed photos. 
There aren’t a great number of people walking around today who can say that they starred in an Alfred Hitchcock movie. There are even less who can say that they were in Hitchcock’s last movie. And even fewer who can say that they died in Hitchcock’s last movie. In fact, there’s only one. Yes, Ed Lauter’s character of Joseph P. Maloney in Hitchcock’s last film Family Plot was the last character that Hitchcock ever killed on screen. 
The logical show from which most folks would know actor Mike Connors would be Mannix, which ran for eight season from 1967-1975. Afterall, his performance as title character Joe Mannix garnered him four Golden Globe nominations (he won once) and four Emmy nominations. But no…having never seen a single episode of Mannix, it was the one-season wonder from 1981-82 known as Today’s F.B.I., from which I know the man. Because, what ten year old wouldn’t watch a show called Today’s F.B.I. ? 
You know him and love him…or at least tolerate him…in the classic film Grease and the not-so classic sequel Grease 2, in which he played the ultra-geeky Eugene Felnic. But I remember him even more from one of my childhood staple films Midnight Madness, the crummy all-niter scavenger hunt film that was produced by Walt Disney Pictures and put Michael J. Fox on the map. This film contained Deezen’s oft-quoted (at least by my sister Denise and me) line, “Hug Me!”