"Missed It By THAT Much"

That's a quote from an old, old movie that you haven't seen unless you're as old as I am. It's called THE NUDE BOMB.

MY BABY IMed ME!!! :D

That's the good news.

I missed her by 12 minutes is the bad news.

Worse still... I was just in the kitchen doing dishes, maybe 15 feet away!!!

How cruel can fate be!

Blah.

I'm a bit grumpy because of that. I know she's been working hard and dealing with family things, and I HATE that when she snuck online for a minute to tell me she loved me, I wasn't there to tell her how much I love and miss her back!

I could use a drink. :( (But payday is coming up in a few days so, naturally, I can't afford one, lol.)

In an attempt to make this entry not so down, I noticed something interesting...

I've been on this Jack Benny kick lately, and reading about him, I discovered that he's got an interesting link to David Letterman.

First, understand that both of these men are comedy heroes for me. I discovered Benny back in the '80s when all my favorite heroes cited him as their inspiration. So I went to the library and checked out some OTR tapes of his show, and quickly fell in love with his humor as well.

Benny was this master of absurdity, using the fact that radio was an aural medium to create these whimsical scenes in your imagination.

Letterman's humor has that sort of quality, too. His Top 10 Lists, specifically, often create these impossibly absurd pictures with words.

Now, I don't know if Letterman was influenced by Benny, but I know Johnny Carson was one of his influences. And Carson was sort of an indirect protege of Benny.

But that's not their link.

Jack Benny's show ran from 1932 to 1955. (His radio show. He had a couple of TV shows, also, which were successful, but I'm talking about his radio show.)

HOWEVER...

After 16 years of success on NBC, the head of CBS stepped in and stole him away. From 1949 until 1955, Benny's show was on CBS.

The reason Benny jumped networks?

The head of CBS recognized what an asset his show was to whichever network aired it and treated Benny with the respect his first 16 years on air rightfully earned him.

Jump ahead a few decades in broadcasting history, and we find LATE NIGHT WITH DAVID LETTERMAN debuting in 1982, following Johnny Carson's THE TONIGHT SHOW. Letterman built up a loyal following and legendary status as a comedian over the next 11 years, to be stolen away by CBS, who were willing to give him a show at an earlier time slot (which, to my mind, indicates a show of appreciation and respect for hsi talent).

Now, Benny when on to successfully broadcast for 6 more years.

Letterman has been doing THE LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN for 15 years now, so the comparison begins to fall apart, hehe. Before his broadcasting career, Benny was successful in vaudeville, while Letterman didn't spend much time in stand-up comedy (plus, the two live forms of performance are pretty different, anyway)...

BUT...

I just think it's kind of interesting that history sort of repeated itself -- in an up-dated sort of way -- 45 years later.

We all geek-out about different things, lol.

:)