This is just to remind you about my favorite thing to watch on my computer — the live feed from a watering hole a waterhole in the Gondwana Namib Park in Namibia. Sometimes, there's absolute nothing happening there for a long stretch of time but every so often, you see animals wandering by for a drink. It helps to keep the time difference in mind. There's less activity when it's the middle of the night here…although even then, there's a stunning visual when a band of zebras stop by for an H2O nightcap.

And here's a tip: If you do click over there at any hour and there's nothing happening, you can move the slider back over several hours and find something interesting to spy upon.

The folks who set up the live camera there sometimes post recorded moments. Here's a few minutes of giraffes, including a very young one, and some oryx…

Here's what the opening titles of Love American Style would have looked like if they included everyone who starred in a segment in Season 1…

Yesterday here, we asked you, "What do all these people have in common?"

Desi Arnaz Jr., Jan Berry (of Jan & Dean), Jeff Bridges, James Brolin, David Cassidy, Sandra Dee, Annette Funicello, Judy Garland, Jack Jones, Werner Klemperer, Gary Lewis (son of Jerry), Lorna Luft, Betty Lynn, Roddy McDowall, Marilyn Monroe, Randy Newman, Frank Sinatra Jr., Nancy Sinatra and Elizabeth Taylor.

The answer is that they are all listed, as are many others, as graduates of University High School — a school in West Los Angeles from which I graduated in 1969.

The only one of the folks whose names appear above who I know was there when I was was David Cassidy, who I knew ever-so-slightly. As I understand it, he was expelled from Uni — as everyone called it — for missing too many classes, then at some point a year or two later, he was back at Uni for a while, during which he auditioned for a talent show and wasn't selected. I was on the committee that rejected him.

That was our only contact. I never saw him again after that audition, not even a few years later when in one of my earliest writing jobs, I ghost-wrote a "David Cassidy Gives Advice to Teenagers" column for a teen fan magazine. I wrote the column, the publisher printed what I wrote, Cassidy — though he was a pretty big star by then — neither had nor wanted to approve what the magazine printed under his name.

The rest of the folks on that alumni list were either at Uni before I was there or they were never actually at Uni at all. Many of them were working at local movie studios and going to classes with tutors on campus. When it came time for them to graduate, their diplomas had to come from a real, full-fledged, run-by-the-L.A.-Board-of-Education high school so they were officially graduated from University High without, in most cases, ever once setting foot on its campus.

For years, I always assumed Marilyn Monroe was a Uni grad on that basis but every so often, someone on eBay or at some auction house sells a copy of the University High School yearbook for 1942 and her photo, as Norma Jean Baker, is in it. (Here's a link to one such sale.) By contrast, Betty Lynn, who as you may know was my neighbor when I was a kid, had a diploma from Uni but only attended classes on the lot of Fox Studios when she was a contract player there.

Anyway, I thought you might find this interesting. And tomorrow, I'll have another interesting (I think) story about Uni Hi.

Sad to hear of the passing of Tony Benedict, a great animation writer especially in the early days of Hanna-Barbera. Tony never talked much about his early life but we know that after he got out of the Marine Corps, he drove his 1948 Studebaker out to Hollywood to get into the animation business. He started at Disney in 1956 and worked as an in-betweener (assistant animator) on Sleeping Beauty and on some of the animation done for the Disneyland TV show. In 1959, he moved over to the U.P.A. cartoon studio and worked on several Mr. Magoo cartoons.

Then in 1959, he sold a script to Hanna-Barbera for a new show they had going on the air — The Flintstones. They brought him in on staff and he worked as a storyman and sketch artist on that show and pretty much everything they produced after that for several years including The Jetsons, Top Cat, Yakky Doodle, Magilla Gorilla, Secret Squirrel and many more. Later, he worked for other studios (including DePatie-Freleng) and produced and wrote several animated features.

He was just one of those guys who worked everywhere in town and was liked by everyone. Those of us who got to know him found him to be a talented and very clever gentleman. He'd been ill for some time and we think he was 88 years old. The animation community has lost a beloved figure indeed.

47 years ago tonight, The Brady Bunch Variety Hour (a Sid and Marty Krofft Production) debuted on ABC. Descriptions of that first episode usually go something like this…

The Bradys return to television with their very own variety show and realize that their father Mike Brady (Robert Reed) is "stinking up the act." Starring Florence Henderson, Barry Williams, Chris Knight, Maureen McCormick, Mike Lookinland, Susan Olsen and Geri Reischel as "Fake Jan." Also seen on that first episode were Guest Stars: Donny and Marie Osmond, Tony Randall, Ann B. Davis, along with the Krofftetts and Water Follies.

That first episode aired as a special but the ratings were so impressive that more episodes were hurriedly produced. Eight more aired under the name The Brady Bunch Hour but not every week. It shared its time slot with The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries and as the weeks went on, both shows lost viewer share. Fred Silverman at ABC finally decided The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries would do better if it appeared every week and they pulled the plug on The Brady Bunch Hour.

A lot of people loved The Brady Bunch Hour and the reason I know that is that every now and then at a convention or somewhere, someone tells me that under the mistaken impression that I was on its writing staff. Apparently, it said that in some articles and/or on some websites but the last episode aired in May of 1977 and I didn't go to work for the Kroffts until March of 1978. I did however then work with a lot of the same folks both in front of and behind the camera. (In the opening number of the first episode, one of the Krofftetts — that's what they called the synchronized swimmers/dancers — is dropped from the rafters into the pool. That was my wonderful friend Susan Buckner.)

You can see that opening number and all of the first episode below. Bruce Vilanch, who was a writer on the show, writes about that experience in his new book, It Seemed Like a Bad Idea at the Time: The Worst TV Shows in History and Other Things I Wrote. I'm working on a book that kinda picks up where Bruce's book leaves off.

When the day comes that Donald Trump is outta power and maybe outta sight, half the folks who were part of his administration will try to cash in and maybe rehabilitate their images by writing books about their time with him. I probably won't buy any of 'em but there are a few things I'm curious about. One is that when Trump claims his approval ratings have never been higher, does he know that even Fox News says they've never been lower? Does he know he's lying or did one of this flunkies tell him his polls are glorious and he's simply never heard otherwise?

Can't be that, can it? He trashes so many reporters and talk show hosts that he must be watching some public news source — and if he watches any outside media, he can't help but hear how bad the numbers are for him. So does he not know that claiming the opposite shreds his credibility with so many of his on-the-fence followers and/or makes him seem, at best, uninformed and out of touch? Or is it this genetic trait he has to never admit bad news could be genuine? Every time a vote doesn't go his way, it was rigged. Every time a reporter writes something that if not flattering to him, it's Fake News.

I understand the principle behind lying but all the good liars I've ever known have had enough sense to not lie about things that could be so easily disproven. If I had to guess, I'd guess Trump has gotten away with so many lies during his professional career that he just figures he's invincible in that area. And in a sense, he has been: He's very rich and very powerful. If an aide said to him, "Sir, with all due respect, maybe you should issue a correction for that thing you tweeted that isn't true," he'd say or maybe just think, "I didn't get where I am today by admitting I was wrong."

But that's just a guess on my part…just like I'm guessing that a future book by some Trump friend or employee will tell me what I'm curious about. It may well be that none of them know, either.

What do all these people have in common?

Desi Arnaz Jr., Jan Berry (of Jan & Dean), Jeff Bridges, James Brolin, David Cassidy, Sandra Dee, Annette Funicello, Judy Garland, Jack Jones, Werner Klemperer, Gary Lewis (son of Jerry), Lorna Luft, Betty Lynn, Roddy McDowall, Marilyn Monroe, Randy Newman, Frank Sinatra Jr., Nancy Sinatra and Elizabeth Taylor.

I'll tell you tomorrow.

Jonathan Groff and the cast of Just In Time on Broadway perform in the street at the big Macy's Parade. Looks to me like the band was miming the whole thing to a prerecorded track and Mr. Groff was lip-syncing any time he wasn't holding a microphone and sometimes even when he was…

The best Thanksgiving Day cartoon I can think of is this one, directed by Tex Avery in 1945 and — for some reason — released not in November but in April of that year.

Hey, you wanna know about the voice credits? Well, they're a bit of a mystery. A lot of folks think the main pilgrim was voiced by Bill Thompson, better known for voicing Droopy…but Bill Thompson was away doing military service when this cartoon was made. It's really someone imitating him and the question is who? Tex always claimed that he did Droopy's voice when Thompson was unavailable and maybe that's him playing the pilgrim guy. Or maybe not. Meanwhile, most experts have identified the turkey who sounds like Jimmy Durante as having been voiced by Wally Maher, better known as the voice of Screwy Squirrel — and perhaps it is. But I think it might be Frank Graham, who is clearly heard as the "half breed" character.

If these names mean nothing to you, just ignore the above paragraph and enjoy the cartoon…

I posted this here on Thanksgiving Day of 2017, reflecting on Thanksgiving Day of 2016. I've rerun it before and I'll probably rerun it again…

I spent Thanksgiving of last year with my dear friend Carolyn, well aware that it would be her last Thanksgiving. Suffering with Stage 4 cancer, she knew it too but she was still hoping for a miracle of indeterminate origin. It was like a game we all play in some form: Once you admit bad news out loud or even to yourself, you feel like you're closing off all possibility of that miracle.

She spent the last ten months of her life in a building that was part Skilled Nursing Facility and part Assisted Living Home. It was very nice for what it was but the meals were not good and they were not in alignment with the diet Carolyn felt she should eat. Either I or my assistant John would bring her food, or sometimes I could arrange to have a restaurant deliver. I bought her a little refrigerator for her room so she could store leftovers and food which did not require heating.

Now and then, she felt well enough that I could take her out to a restaurant. Last Thanksgiving Day, we planned to do just that. I made a reservation at a very nice cafe for 4 PM but by 1:30 or so in the afternoon, it was obvious Carolyn was in no shape to leave the place where she was living. I made a dozen phone calls and finally found a restaurant that was willing to make up two turkey dinners "to go" that were configured for her dietary requirements and my food allergies. When I got to the Assisted Living Home with them, the nurses were clearing away the last of the meal they'd served the residents and patients there. It was obviously better chow than what I'd brought and it would have been fine for both Carolyn and me.

Most of the residents there were effectively alone in the world. They had each other, sort of, but there weren't a lot of relatives around. More than a few of them told Carolyn that they envied her having me visiting her several times a week and seeing how John would bring her whatever she needed. She was probably the youngest resident in her part of the complex and when she was well enough to leave her room and walk (or be wheelchaired) around, the sunniest and cheeriest.

Carolyn was simply the kind of person it was impossible not to love, even if all she'd done to deserve it was to smile in your direction. During her final weeks when she never left her bed, let alone her room, the others there would stop me in the hall and ask with true concern, "Is she any better?" The answer was always no. In her last week or so, it got around the building that the wonderful lady in room 305 wouldn't be living there or anywhere much longer. When they saw me in the halls then, they didn't inquire. They just nodded in sympathy.

I was lying in bed this morning thinking how last Thanksgiving was, to use an overused phrase, the Beginning of the End. It was around then that Carolyn dying became something that could happen shortly instead of off in some indeterminate and fuzzy future. Her very wise Palliative Care Doctor told me she would probably be unable to walk by the beginning of February and unable to talk by the beginning of March. The end, he said, would come in mid-March. If you added two weeks to every projection, he was right on target.

Every time he told me something like that, I couldn't help but think of the joke about the doctor who told a man he had six months to live and then, when the man couldn't pay his bill, the doctor gave him another six months. My thoughts shifted, as I'm told thoughts usually do in these situations, from "I don't want to lose her" to "I hope for her sake it's over soon." I was not unaware that her passing, sooner rather than later, would be for my sake, as well. You try not to connect your comparatively-mild problem with what the sick person is going through but since you suffer together over the same thing, it's silly to deny the link.

From Thanksgiving of 2016 until it was over are easily the saddest four months of my life. I hope they always will be because I'd hate to think I have four sadder months in my future.

Today, I am thankful that I had her in my life for almost twenty years. I am also thankful that her death was not much, much worse for her because it certainly could have been — and again, for me as well as her. But overwhelmingly, of course, for her.

Johnny Carson and Doc Severinsen discuss their plans for Thanksgiving…

The other day, Trump tweeted — or whatever the verb is for posting on social media these days — "UKRAINE 'LEADERSHIP' HAS EXPRESSED ZERO GRATITUDE FOR OUR EFFORTS!" Daniel Dale, the fact-check guy at CNN, looked and found 78 times that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the U.S. and otherwise expressed his gratitude for this country's support of his country…and there are probably a lot more examples.

Trump's way of dealing with diminishing job numbers is just to lie that his administration is creating more jobs and the Biden administration created less.

Trump claims that Trump since he deployed National Guard troops to Washington D.C. to curb violent crime, there has not been a single murder there. The Metropolitan Police Department there said he was exaggerating the crime rate in the first place and, yes, there have been homicides since then.

And in the same vein, Trump continues to claim that his poll numbers have never been better. Everyone who actually looks at the numbers says that that is not true.

The folks at factcheck.org sort through some of the claims that are being made about Jeffrey Epstein and his infamous files.

And finally: Just in time for Thanksgiving, Snopes debunks the claim that eating turkey will make you sleepy.

Someone who signs their messages "Gary From Buffalo" sent me this…

Over the past several weeks you've described three criticisms of Mickey Rooney performances. This included his role in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, again in Everything's Ducky and also a guest spot on The Red Skelton Show. The one that really surprised me was Mad World as I thought he was brilliant in that film (along with everyone else).

Considering Mickey's status as a Hollywood icon, can you articulate what you don't like about his performances? Is it a professional nuance or just a case of someone rubbing you the wrong way? Or perhaps you once had a negative personal experience with him? Inquiring minds would love to know!

As it turns out, I did have a slightly negative personal experience with Mr. Rooney but it didn't reflect on him as an actor. I just kinda thought he was outta his mind and reasonable control in his later years. I saw him on panels and giving speeches a few times and he usually reported Show Business History that was clearly not true — but which he seemed to fervently believe. He'd also announce all sorts of forthcoming projects that were never forthcoming and on those panels, he wouldn't let anyone else talk.

But none of that had anything to do with an opinion I had before I ever saw him misbehave that way. I just thought he was one of those "Hollywood icons" (to use your term) who didn't deserve to be so labeled. He did a few outstanding dramatic roles but most of the time — and especially in comedies — I thought he wasn't all that wonderful. In the case of Mad World, I didn't think he was a great comedian on the level of Sid Caesar, Phil Silvers, Jonathan Winters or the rest of his co-stars. If you liked him in that film, fine. I thought he was a weak link.

So here's the story of my slightly negative personal encounter with Mr. Rooney…and I should say that I absolutely respect his years of service. I can respect a performer I don't think is funny. The encounter occurred at one of those Hollywood Collector Shows out in Burbank. This one was in April of 2007 and Mr. Rooney was there to sell and autograph his then-recent autobiography — not to be confused with his first autobiography. He was around long enough to write two — and here, I'll show you their covers…

I had a copy of the first one and I decided to take it along and see if I could have him sign it instead of signing the new book. Rooney had a little table piled high with the new one and he was accompanied by his eighth and final wife. That's right: I said eighth. The man was married eight times. He and Wife #8 got hitched n 1978 and at the time of his death in 2014, they were still legally wed although they had separated in 2012 and he was probably on the hunt for #9.

#8 was named Jan and based on what I saw that afternoon, she was very nice and she was taking very good care of a man she clearly loved. The way their booth was set up, you got in line, she'd talk with you and sell you the book and take your money…then she'd pass the book over to Mickey and tell him the name, if any, to inscribe along with his signature. I had a very nice chat with her and then after I paid for the new book, I pulled out my copy of his old book and said, "Since he's going to sign a book to me, would it be okay if he signed this one?"

Jan was amazed. She'd never seen that book before and she flipped through it and said, "Oh, you must be a real fan of his! He'll be so happy that you brought this!" Then she turned to her hubby, showed him the book and said, "This gentleman's name is Mark and he'd like you to sign this book instead!" Mickey was not so happy. He stared in horror at his first book and he yelled, "I'M NOT SIGNING THAT BOOK! I'M ONLY SIGNING MY NEW BOOK!"

I jumped in and said, "That's fine. He can just sign the new book" but Jan started explaining to him that I'd paid for a book and an autograph…

Mickey cut her off and said, "I'm only signing books that people buy from me!" She said, "But he paid for an autograph. He's obviously a huge fan of yours and he just wants the autograph in this book!"

Mickey yelled, "THE PRICE TO SIGN THAT BOOK IS ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS! NO, TWO HUNDRED!" I again tried to say it would be fine if he just signed the new one but Jan was determined to get me my autograph where I wanted it. She must have explained it to Mickey five or six times.

Finally, he got it and he signed the first book and he said to me, "You must be a real fan to have this one." Then he told me he was working on his third autobiography which would be out for Christmas — and of course, it never materialized. He also told me about a documentary about his life which never was made and about a new acting school he was about to open but never did. I never got to ask him anything about Mad World before he turned his attention to the next buyer of his book.

About ten minutes later, I was a few yards about from Mickey Rooney's table, talking with a friend of mine. Suddenly — and I have no idea what it was about — Mr. Rooney began screaming. It was largely unintelligible but clearly he was furious about something concerning the show, something concerning the person at the head of the line to have a book signed, something about the way everyone was treating him and something about Wife #8. He stormed out of the hall and I'm not sure he ever came back. He hadn't by the time I left a half-hour later.

Watching him make his screaming exit, my friend said to me, "Well, there goes the shortest and oldest person at this show." Whereupon I pointed to another table there where Jerry Maren — whose credits included playing a Munchkin in The Wizard of Oz — was selling and signing photos. I said, "Wrong on both counts."

American Masters on PBS will be saluting Dick Van Dyke in an episode that debuts December 12 — the day before Dick turns 100. Here's a preview…

Hey, do you remember Mr. Six, the dancing senior citizen who appeared for several years in the commercials for the Six Flags amusement parks? He was played by the much-younger Danny Teeson, a fact this blog helped verify back in 2006. I kinda miss the guy so here's a compilation of some of his commercials…