Alongside writing “there’s a snake in my boot”, Tom Hanks just revealed he came up with the name “Combat Carl” for the original Toy Story on the spot after being told they couldn’t get the rights for G.I. Joe: www.instagram.com/reel/DZNc2-I...
RIP Gene Shalit
Ron Howard claims Jim Henson would have loved GenAI: “Jim Henson just wanted to be busy making things.”
Henson was pro-tech, but in a manner that always enhanced human talent. Letting a machine do everything is the opposite of “making things”.
We got Muppet Animal Crossing before GTA6 youtu.be/k-dFFv6YO2A
Primetime Emmy ballots are out for those interested www.televisionacademy.com/ballots
The most interesting thing in them to me so far is that Eric Jacobson and Matt Vogel have been placed in the category of character voiceover performance for the Muppet Show special for no other reason than unlike the Children’s Emmys there isn’t a lot of puppetry in primetime
“Weird Al” Yankovic officially enters the DC Universe as one-shot “Batman/Superman/Weird Al: World’s Weirdest” by Mark Waid and Dan Schoening (with additional “vibes” by Yankovic) drops September 2. Al must help return weirdness to Mr. Mxyzptlk’s dimension www.dc.com/blog/2026-06...
Not too shortly after the release the only known speaking performance of Harpo Marx, another film star famous for being silent is about to “speak” as Wallace & Gromit creator Nick Park has “assisted” Gromit in his autobiography to be published October: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/852245...
On June 17, 1994, the first ever World Cup held in the U.S. started as Germany faced Bolivia in Chicago.
TV audiences were glued…to the simultaneous car chase in LA involving a white Bronco and former NFL star-turned-alleged murderer O.J. Simpson. www.nytimes.com/athletic/684...
Ryan W. Mead
“[According to a 1994 poll], 71% of the respondents had no idea the tournament was taking place in the U.S. 62% did not even know what the World Cup was. [That day’s NYT cover story on the World Cup was 22 words long;] three of those words were ‘amid American indifference’.”
