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Your Last update: December 5, 2001. Original material (excluding quoted material) © 1997-2001 Mark Simonson. Mark's Very Large National Lampoon Site is not affiliated with National Lampoon or its parent company, J2 Communications. Click here for the real thing. |
November 2001 |
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When we last left Natty Lamp, J2 board member Daniel Laikin was poised to take over J2 Communications with big plans to restore the humor icon to its former glory and a June 30 deadline to come up with the cash or bust. It is now November and the deadline has long passed, but the deal has not died. The deadline was extended several times, most recently to November 15. I can only guess what state of limbo the current staff finds itself in. For more detailed and up-to-date info, check out J2 Communications news on Yahoo! Finance. Update: According to an announcement on November 19, the deal is dead and J2 is now seeking other buyout offers. Meanwhile, Laikin and his partners have filed a lawsuit against J2 and J2 has filed a counter suit. It's not clear what all of this means to the future of National Lampoon, but it is hard to see how it will help.
Bulgemobile
Fans Rejoice! "The Last Dream-O-Rama: The Cars Detroit Forgot
to Build, 1950-1960" by Bruce McCall has just been published by Crown.
This book picks up where McCall's "Bulgemobile" articles left
off.
If you want to check out the original articles: "The '58 Bulgemobiles" ("So All-fired New, They Make Tomorrow Seem Like Yesterday!") first appeared in the April '72 ("25th" Anniversary) issue. It also appeared in the National Lampoon Best of #1 anthology (1972), and the Tenth Anniversary Anthology (1979). "The 1946 Bulgemobiles" ("New...from the tires down!") in the April '79 (April Fool) issue; "The 1934 Bulgemobiles" ("The new cars that say, 'Get out of my way!'") in the May '74 ("50th" Anniversary) issue; and "The 1906 Bulge-Buggy" ("The Contraption of Merit") in the April '75 (Car Sickness) issue. All the Bulgemobile articles also appear in "Zany Afternoons," an anthology of Bruce McCall's humor published by Knopf (1982) and reprinted in 1999 by Barnes and Noble.
McCall's work is brilliant and, in fact, it was his "'58 Bulgemobiles" article that got me hooked on National Lampoon in the first place. A sampling of his work, including many of his more recent pieces, can be seen on the James Goodman Gallery site from a 1999 exhibit.
National Lampoon Lemmings was recently released for the first time on CD on the Decca Broadway label. This classic cast recording of National Lampoon's best-known off-Broadway show has been out of print since the '70s. The team that produced the CD did a great job of not messing with a good thing and included all the original liner notes and photos unaltered (albeit at less than half their original size). There is a great reminiscence by cast member Alice Playten (Pizza Man, Megadeath groupie) on the iClassics.com site apparently to promote the release.
John Bendel, editor of National Lampoon's popular True Facts section from 1978 to 1992, is alive and well and living in New Jersey. Nowadays, he makes a living as a technology writer. For a while, he maintained a personal web site about life and politics in New Jersey. It's still up, but he hasn't updated it in a while.
Bobby London informed me that there were still more factual errors about him on the Answers page. They are now corrected. (Thanks Bobby, and sorry it's taken so long.) Incidently, there is now an official Dirty Duck website.
Mark's Very Large Plug. You might think, as you wade through this site, that I have no life. Not true. I spend about two days a year working on Mark's Very Large National Lampoon Site. The rest of the time I am a freelance graphic designer specializing in lettering and typography. You can see my real website here.
Be Sure to Check Out the Classifieds Page. Many visitors have placed (free) buy/sell/trade ads on the Classifieds page and more are being added every year or so. (Okay, I'll try to update it more regularly. Hey, what do you expect for free?) Check it out!