No writer's strike in the Funhouse: last clips from Johnny's 10th

For media-vultures who devour present-day items while still mainlining nostalgia, a disruption in the entertainment biz means more time can be spent sifting through the joys of yesteryear. And so I finish off my trib to Johnny’s 10th anniversary (in 1972)with these two clips:

Don Rickles making his obligatory appearance and shakin’ things up (although being extremely reverent to Benny, as they all were). I recently saw the Rickles docu by John Landis, which will play on HBO at the end of the year. Interesting portrait of a man and a town (it’s all about Vegas), and it does have some primo clips of the pitbull of comedy, but here's a somewhat laidback bit of "panel":


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And a priceless appearance by Jerry, in which he is basically insulted by nearly everyone on the panel, except Joey Bishop. The sound is very uneven on this, but it’s definitely worth watching, for both those who love and those who hate the Jer:


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Dean Martin, Jack Benny salute Johnny's 10th

Like this blog, the Funhouse cable-access show covers a broad range of topics (high art, low trash, blah blah), and I've noticed that the viewers who prefer one kind of entertainment — be it foreign films, vintage television, old comedians, extremely sleazy exploitation — would prefer that I stick to that topic exclusively. I think certain of these groups are so vocal (hey, I get a few e-mails, more than three, and I've got me a mandate, folks) is because the material in question just isn't represented anywhere, or if it is, it's available exclusively on DVD in a very limited capacity. As the saying goes, nostalgia ain't what it used to be, so I'm happy to provide material here that I was too young to stay up and see, but that I was lucky enough to find on VHS.

First a little Dino saying opening up the Anniversary party:


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And then John's favorite comedian, a guy who not only influenced many other comics, but who was the best possible audience/cheerleader for them, Jack Benny:


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