May 06 – May 12 (2024) – Wally On The Web

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

This cartoon will probably only be understood by a few people, but I got it – and I loved it.

I’ve always liked “Money Changes Everything” by Cyndi Lauper, and for some reason I’ve been humming it all week!

Monday the 6th – 63! – Since my birthday fell on a Monday this year it’s not really conducive to going out or doing a big get-together. So we did a small dinner thingie at the Smoke House the previous Saturday with friends. Besides, when you get to the age I’m at, birthdays become less and less celebrate-able. However, I did text my old pal Chris Malmin to see if he wanted to meet at Paty’s for lunch. We sat outside and it was a gorgeous day. When I got back home I did some work around the house. It’s a good thing I ate a light lunch, because later that night my pal Sara came over to make me some Midwest-style sloppy joes! Delicious! Best part of it is, I had plenty of the sloppy joe meat leftover to be heated up for more sloppy joes later! Now THAT’S a cool birthday present! Later I had a ton of bookkeeping and accounting to do for my corporate bank account. I reconciled receipts with my monthly statement. I went outside for my nightly WOG (walk/jog) and spent some time relaxing afterwards outside in the anti-grav chair. Though I wanted to make a salad and watch an episode of “The High Chaparral,” I found out that all my lettuce had wilted. So I “forced myself” to heat up some sloppy joe meat and I had a few joes while I watched the episode.

Tuesday the 7th – 10 YEARS! – Since I ran out of time the previous night to write Wally’s Week, I set about composing it all afternoon. Later in the day I got ready and headed to Calabasas to a restaurant called the Sagebrush for a fantastic 10 year “Tonight Show” cast and crew reunion. It’s hard to believe, but “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” went off the air in March of 2014; over 10 years ago. My predecessor as “Tonight Show” announcer John Melendez put together a reunion, and it was fabulous. It was great to see a lot of the people I considered “family” for four and a half years while working on the show. Luckily, my pal Officer Mark and Miss Connie were also on-hand to take some amazing photos. It sure was a fun evening recounting fun stories and memories. When the evening was finished I stopped to get some groceries and then headed home. Later I took my nightly WOG and subsequent time in the anti-grav chair relaxing and meditating. I came back inside and finished up Wally’s Week, and scanned some checks for my monthly bank deposit.

Wednesday the 8th – WALKIN’ WEDNESDAY! – Seeing as how it was so beautiful out, I walked over to the post office to mail off some bills, and then walked over to the bank to make a deposit. I went across the street to enjoy a salad at Art’s Deli. It was fun sitting on the patio and enjoying the sights; plenty of cute doggies and lots of pretty girls! On the way home I decided to stop into the cigar store, and I saw my pal and fellow Voice Actor Dave B. Mitchell. Since I hadn’t seen him in a while we sat there enjoying cigars and chatting. I walked home, did some work, showered up, and my pal Emily took me to dinner at Little Toni’s for my birthday. Later I did my auditions, worked around the house, took my nightly WOG, spent time enjoying the cool, quiet overcast night in the anti-grav chair, and called it a night.

Thursday the 9th – MY DIRTY, DIRTY GIRL! – It was time for my follow-up with my ENT to check out my right ear, which was a big plugged last week. He determined that it was a fungal infection. But now, a week later, it was all clear. He checked it out, did some flushing just to make sure, and all was good. Since I was in the area, I went over to my auxiliary parking to get out my Mustang to enjoy the sunny days we were expecting over the weekend. But when I pulled the car cover off the Black Beauty….WOW! It was filthy! It was too late in the day to get her washed, unfortunately. I’ll make sure to get it washed first thing on Friday. I went to my box to pick up my packages and I had received a few of the components I’ll need for my upcoming Frogenstein project – where I turn my Kermit the Frog puppet into Frankenstein! I went over to Paty’s to have a salad on the patio, but as the sun went down it was getting quite cold! BRRR! I drove home and did a little work around the house. Later my gal Angi drove over with her dog Khloe and we had a fun evening hanging out. Later I did my nightly auditions, but I just wasn’t feeling up for a WOG. So I took the night off – which is rare.

Friday the 10th – BATHED BEAUTY! – My maids arrived to clean Planet Wallywood, and the minute they left I hopped in the dirty Mustang and headed to the car wash. It was a beautiful day! Since they were quite busy, I left the car in their care and walked over to a local Mexican restaurant for lunch. The Black Beauty cleaned up very nicely. I put the top down (my main reason for getting the Mustang out of storage for a while) and headed to my box to get my packages. I stopped by the cleaners to drop off and pick up some laundry. I got back home and anticipated a very nice weekend ahead. I was a bit tired so I grabbed a short nap. I got up later to do my nightly WOG, but because it was so overcast I wasn’t able to see any of the Northern Lights that would be prevalent over the weekend. Even if it hadn’t been overcast, I’m not sure how much of them we could have seen in Southern California. First off, we might be too far south. It seemed like the northern states had a better view. Secondly, it’s so light polluted in L.A. that we may not have seen them anyway. But I relaxed in my anti-grav chair after my WOG and enjoyed the cool, quiet, overcast night. I came back inside to do some more work, and then made a salad and watched another “High Chaparral” episode. It was a fantastic one with Ricardo Montalban as the guest star. He was such an amazing actor. I also watched the “Collector’s Call” episode from last Sunday on my DVR. It featured a guy with an amazing collection of stuff from “Star Wars,” including the actual Death Star prop!

Saturday the 11th – SATURDAY NIGHT WITH THE MONSTERS! – There were more packages awaiting me at my box, so after I picked those up I dropped by the cleaners to pick up more laundry. I headed back home and did a little work until it was time to order my Domino’s pizza and watch that evening’s episode of “Svengoolie.” He was running a movie called “House of Frankenstein” that’s a classic. And while the movie is fairly convoluted (many of the characters had two or three different names they used) it’s very entertaining. But it seems like it’s two different movies stitched together. The first part features Dracula, and then he dies, and then the next part features the Wolfman and the Frankenstein monster. It would have been great to have the film constructed in such a way where all the monsters could wreak havoc together, but I guess they finally figured out that formula by the time “Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein” came around. But I always love seeing Glenn Strange as the monster, as I love the brute strength he exhibits in the character. I used to like it when Svengoolie gave all sorts of trivia and background info about the film, but now he’s bringing in all sorts of other characters to do comedy bits. I wish he would go back to the “solo” format and stick with the trivia. I took my nightly WOG and spent some super-quiet time in the anti-grav chair. I was still a little bit tired so I napped on and off. I woke up as the sun was rising and said, “Now what do I do?”

Sunday the 12th – ENERGETIC! – Since I had slept so much Saturday evening, I was super-charged with energy early Sunday morning. I moved a lot of stuff around in my closet, packing up stuff I no longer need and storing it elsewhere in order to make room for the stuff I DO use. I did more random stuff around the house and just around noon I started getting hungry. The pizza from the night before had filled me up pretty well, so by the time I settled down to have some food I realized I hadn’t eaten anything for almost 24 hours! So I made a salad and watched a few episodes of “Honey West” and slept the rest of the afternoon. My schedule was all wackadoodle. Later I got up to do more work around the house, and prepped for a Monday video game session at Studiopolis. I took my nightly WOG and enjoyed some time in the anti-grav chair. It looks like May Gray has set into the L.A. area, as it’s going to be overcast for the foreseeable future. Time to put the Mustang back in storage I guess, and await more sun-filled days in the future.

And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK

It sure was fun to have Angi and Khloe over this past week. I call her Khloestine because of the character from the movie “Ghost of Frankenstein.” I loved having some “doggie energy” in the house again.

As a late birthday gift to myself I bought this Kermit replica on eBay. When Kermit first appeared he wasn’t a frog, and he was fairly unrefined looking (compared to how he looks today). This replica is a faithful recreation of the original Kermit that Jim Henson built back in 1954. I love it and can’t wait to get it!

And speaking of early Kermit, he and the rest of Jim Henson’s creations first went on the air with a show called “Sam & Friends” in the D.C. area on May 9th, 1955. This date is often mistaken as Kermit’s birthday, but in fact it was the date that “Sam & Friends” first aired, which featured Kermit in the cast. Allegedly, Kermit was created during the month of March at some point in history.

As it was Mother’s Day last Sunday, I decided to post some pix of mom doing fun stuff, and being involved in all my creative madness throughout the years. This includes posing with Adam West, shortly after she ironed his wrinkled cape for an appearance. Getting made up as Peter Criss for one of my movie parties. Feeding the monkeys at the Playboy Mansion. Cleaning and grooming the Grover puppet I bought when I was a kid. Sewing my Batman cape. Helping to darken my teenage sideburns to appear as Andy Kaufman in the high school talent show. And posing with my dad for their upcoming 65th anniversary party in a few weeks! What an amazing mom!

Here are some shots from the 10 year “Tonight Show” reunion party…

Art the lighting guy…

Leslie the censor (I used to call her the “Naughty Word Lady” – as she was responsible for making sure all the profanity was cut out of the show before airing.

Walter was one of the producers, and Kenny was a camera guy

Troy (in the center) was one of the writers, who continued to use me as voice talent after the Tonight Show ended and he went to work on the “Ellen” show. Kevin was a camera guy.

John Melendez, who organized the reunion, was the “Tonight Show” announcer for years before I came on board. Dave was the guy who would call me with my call-times and with extra assignments for the show.