Shatner? Captain Kirk? 80?

Missed your birthday last Wednesday, Bill. That's OK - wanted to let the hubbub die down a bit so you and I could enjoy the moment alone.

I love William Shatner. I may even put him right up there as my 2nd favorite all-around entertainer (2nd to Dean Martin). Loved him in Star Trek, on The Twilight Zone, Boston Legal, (never watched T.J. Hooker), like his Priceline commercials, love his "singing" renditions of popular songs. But what I like best about the man is he doesn't take life too seriously and has an innate ability to poke fun at himself. That's a rare quality. I don't know anyone else who transferred the Shakespearean acting technique to places it should not go - like television and movies. And Shatner has spawned a whole generation of impersonators, jokesters - all at his expense.

And does Shatner care? Fuck no. Here are a few clips you should watch if you're not familiar with the Man called Shatner:

1.) Worst fight scene ever. Capt. Kirk v. Gorn.
2.) Shatner singing "Rocket Man" on television.
3.) Shatner singing "Mr. Tambourine Man" - audio only.
4.) Shatner on the original Twilight Zone in episode, "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet". Inarguably in the top 10 of all Twilight Zone episodes. Notice I said, "inarguably".
5.) Shatner doing his verison of the Cee Lo Green song, "Fuck You".
6.) Denny Crane meets the Chinese on Boston Legal.

Come on...all those clips beat the pants off Leonard Nimoy's (Shatner's close friend) song, "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins". If that's not enough for you, check out William Shatner's website here.

Live long and prosper, Mr. Shatner.

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A TV Land Merry Christmas!

These are my favorite shows of all-time. And they wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Archie, Edith, Meathead and Gloria from "All in the Family".

Rod Serling's "The Twilight Zone".

Felix (right) and Oscar from "The Odd Couple".

Andy, Barnie, Opie, Aunt Bea and Andy's girlfriend (?) from "The Andy Griffith Show".

And last but not least, the Walton clan from "The Waltons".

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it.

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"I bought Earl Hamner, Jr., lunch".

Above: Earl Hamner, Jr. and I in his office in Studio City.

Or, "Earl thinks I look like Rod Serling" or "One of the most fulfilling lunches I've ever had". Any of the three will do.

Earl is the creator of the hit television series, The Waltons, the retelling of his life growing up in the town of Schuyler, Virginia. It spawned from the television movie he wrote, The Homecoming - which was a book, then a play. Earl has been a mentor, of sorts, to me. The character John Boy (in The Waltons, and the real Earl Hamner) was the inspiration for me to become a writer (and major in Journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater).

Earl also wrote 8 episodes for the classic TV series, The Twilight Zone, among them "Black Leather Jackets", "The Bewitching Pool" and "The Hunt". Matter of face, it was Rod Serling who gave Earl his first break in writing here in LA. Funny - Earl mentioned to me that I reminded him of Rod Serling - he's never said that before and we've talked on several occasions. Funny - when I was performing in the musical "Blood Brothers" as The Narrator here in LA, many people said my character reminded them of Rod Serling's "narrator" in The Twilight Zone.

So we had lunch last Friday and we talked about writing and Earl regaled me with his own stories growing up on "Walton's Mountain", and he asked about my writing and my plans to move back to Wisconsin. At 86, Earl could pass for a man in his 60's. As we chit chatted in his office - an office he's had in Studio City since 1960, mind you, he mentioned he's found a market for some short stories that he's working on and what a treat it was that he can still write at his age. I watched Earl at his desk and I thought, "that's me, Earl is me". Writers have to write, it's that simple.

Earl showed me some of the things he'd written on his blog (see website here) - we writers love to talk about the ideas we're working on.

As I readied myself to leave, I told Earl that I'm not saying "goodbye" to him...more like "see you later". I will see him when I visit California. " 'Night, Earl".

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