Stay Tuned To Something

All those who, in search of a reference to the idea for Conan O'Brien that I presented in my May 30th blog, turned their eyes June 1st to Conan O'Brien's first night hosting "The Tonight Show" - you may have been on the wrong channel:



I do not know whether Tom Hanks was making an inside-reference for my benefit on Conan's second "Tonight Show". I do know a conversation I had in 1978 with someone I knew from CalArts led to the premise of his 1980 weekly sitcom, "Bosom Buddies". In fact, well before that conversation, the woman with whom I had the conversation went through a period of designating everyone her buddy - she had her "pool buddy", her "clothes buddy" - I once gave her a Sudafed sinus tablet, for which I received the short-lived designation of being her "Sudafed Buddy". I could provide more details about that conversation's proximity to people connected with Hanks' show, but - some other time. As for Hanks' potential reference on Conan for my benefit: well, firstly he talked a lot about giving Conan a nickname that might stick. This made me think of the Marx Bros., because a right-hand assistant to Groucho Marx whom I knew at CalArts, Henry Golas (star of my video, "How Did The Future Learn To Play Monopoly?"), once gave me the nickname, "Stingray", because it was my answer to the question, "What do you think of as the ideal car to drive?" (the night before Conan did a segment on his super-cool car that makes him super-cool, a 1992 Ford Taurus). And who epitomizes nicknames more than the Marx Bros. (I reject the theory that their mother named them Chico, Harpo, Groucho and Zeppo)? Sure enough, Hanks later got in the name Chico Marx somewhere along the way. This also related to the titles of my previous two blogs, "Swordfish" and "Haddock". Then again, couldn't it easily be said that I was looking too hard for an inside-reference from Hanks, owing to his having provided me a few on the season finale of SNL? So, T. Hanks but no T. Hanks.