Raise a glass in memory of Vic Mizzy, the self-taught accordion player who wrote a lot of music in his 93 years but will be remembered by those of us weaned on the glass teat for two of them: this finger-snapping 1964 classic that I wish the Cramps had covered—

—(does John Astin rule or what?), and this one from two years later, from a show that I probably should be ashamed to admit that I always loved:

Wanna hear more? Check out Mizzy’s website. He may not have been another Raymond Scott or Esquivel, but I’ll bet they’re all hanging out at the same tiki bar in the sky.

Mizzy (center) with "Green Acres" stars Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor.

If you’re one of those people who watches Seinfeld on cable while you’re eating dinner, look closely at the episode airing on WTBS tonight at 6pm. (It’s the one where Kramer decides that butter makes a good shaving cream.) The old guy playing “McMaines” is Everett Greenbaum, a native of Buffalo who became a successful comedy writer. He created the hit 1950s series “Mr. Peepers,” starring Wally Cox and Tony Randall, and wrote numerous scripts for “M*A*S*H,” “The Real McCoys,” “”The Andy Griffith Show,” and “Sanford and Son.” He was a creative consultant on “Matlock,” and wrote a number of films for Andy Griffith and Don Knotts. In the decade prior to his death in 1997 he also appeared as an actor on sitcoms like “3rd Rock from the Sun,” “Grace Under Fire,” and “Ellen.” You can check out the rest of his career at imdb.com

Everett Greenbaum will be one of the recipients of the first Al Boasberg Comedy Awards, named after the Buffalo native who was one of the most influential comedy writers of the 20th century, having had a hand in steering the careers of the Marx Brothers, Burns and Allen, the Three Stooges, Bob Hope, Jack Benny and many others. The Awards will be presented as part of the Buffalo International Film Festival this month; you can read more about them in this week’s ArtVoice.

You can also watch this interview with Everett Greenbaum:

Unusually for such a successful performer, Michael Jackson seems to have harbored no ambition to become a movie star. Maybe making videos gave him more than he cared for of being in front of the camera; maybe they spoiled him for a working experience that would not be entirely under his control. Or maybe he learned from the example of fellow 80s superstar Madonna, whose desperation to be a movie star was evident in each increasingly ill-chosen film project she accepted.
Then again, maybe it was the troubled production and poor box office of The Wiz, Sidney Lumet’s 1978 adaptation of the Broadway hit that reset The Wizard of Oz into a soul milieu, that made him determined to wrest control of his musical career. (The film was where he met producer Quincy Jones.)
Jackson did make two non-musical appearances in films that you’re not likely to see in any of the obituaries that will consume the world media this weekend. The first was an amusing cameo in the generally woeful Men in Black II:

The second, unfortunately, was in Miss Cast Away & The Island Girls (2005), which may well rank at the bottom of the barrel of lousy spoof movies that have proliferated in the wake of Scary Movie. Jackson apparently was a friend of director Bryan Michael Stoller, and let him shoot the movie on his Neverland Ranch. The movie does all it can to capitalize on Jackson’s brief appearance, and the DVD features a “Making of” short that may stand as the singer’s final filmed appearance. (Thanks to Ed of MediaFunhouse for uncovering this.)