It’s nice to be back in The Toronto Sun again, thanks to my old pal Jim Slotek, who reviews my book Truth and Rumors: The Reality Behind TV’s Most Famous Myths today across the Sun Media chain. (I missed the front page, knocked out of the Sun again by a Tory. Damn!)You can read Jim’s review here. He calls it a “bathroom book worthy of the great Lamparski,” a reference to Richard Lamparski, the author of a series of fascinating and addictive “Whatever Happened to…” books. I’ll take the compliment and swear I didn’t write the review myself.
There’s proof of that at the end when Jim corrects one detail in my book. Back when he was The Sun’s TV columnist, Slotek worked the Television Critics Association press tour and was there that day when TV’s Lone Ranger, Clayton Moore, roared into a TCA press conference with guns blazing. The crazy old coot nearly blew Slotek’s head off, firing blanks up in the air at the Beverly Hilton hotel.
I wrote in the book that Moore was forbidden to wear his old Lone Ranger black mask at the time; Jim points out that the actor had just won the right in court to wear it again and, in fact, took it to his grave (he died in 1999). Damn! Wish that little nugget was in my book!I stand corrected and also bow to Slo’s knowledge of all things Star Trek. I say in Truth and Rumors that Kirk and Uhura never really shared TV’s first interracial kiss. Slo says he “always considered it a specious claim anyway, since they were on a planet of telekinetic Greeks (would take too long to explain) who were forcing Kirk, Spock, Uhura et al to perform for their amusement. It would have qualified as a racial milestone if they’d got busy voluntarily after several pints of Romulan ale.”
There you boldly go. Thanks Kemo Sabe, see you at the lake.
