First Five

Do you remember what the first five things you ever searched for on The Internet were, or can you at least guess? It's kind of fun!

I remember it well(ish)... I was using the "Webcrawler" search engine.

1) Cousin Oliver
2) Bruce Campbell
3) Weird Al
4) Mystery Science Theater 3000
5) Dawn Of The Dead

I can remember it well, and I can remember the results. I can also remember printing out everything to read, because reading it all off of that computer screen was just too eye-straining. Cousin Oliver was a bit of a bust, but at least I found out the name of the actor who played him. Bruce Campbell was a jackpot, I found a SHRINE dedicated to the actor and discovered his entire film catalogue. Weird Al was kind of a bust as there were just too many fan pages. Mystery Science Theater 3000 was a goldmine that connected me with tape traders across the country. And Dawn Of The Dead lead me in to the world of FAN FICTION.

It's fun to think back like that and see who I was back then... not that I'm much different now, but still fun :)

Charles Fleischer

Charles Fleisher. Y'know... Actor, Comedian, Voice-Over Actor (best known as the voice of Roger Rabbit), World Renown Gamma Radiation Scientist...

Charles Fleisher is my newest pop-cultural White Whale.

Here is my personal remembrance/recollection of events, which may be corrected as new actual information is unearthed (aka "This is what I think happened, did it really happen that way?")

Starting with the 1988 Disney/Warner Brothers collaboration on the film "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", after the film was a success Disney finally decided that they *really* wanted to own the character and the idea and everything, so they bought it. They built "Toon Town" in Disneyland, and most importantly, bought Charles Fleischer.

Coming off as a slightly creepier version of Robin Williams, Disney felt that they could groom him to be a sort of New Wally Boag for the Eisener-era Disney Corporation.

(Wally Boag, btw, for you non-Dinserds, "The Clown Prince Of Disneyland" was THE comedic face of the Disney Corporation for DECADES. Known best for performing "Pecos Bill" at the Golden Horseshoe Review in Disneyland, he was on pretty much every major television special they put on TV).

From 1988 till some time in the early 90's, Charles Fleisher starred in about a dozen made-for-TV specials produced by the Disney Company, including the 1990 "Disneyland's 35th Anniversary Special" (embeded here for your approval).

He did MC duties for several Disney events as well - stockholder meetings, awards banquets, that type of stuff. And then, at around 1993, he... he just wasn't doing it any more. Done.

Why?

Why would Disney invest that much time and energy in to grooming a person like that, only to abruptly dump the whole plan?

I had heard rumors about a drunken, off-color tirade against Disney in front of a somewhat large audience that may have been what spelled his doom, but... well, that's my new White Wale quest. Did it actually happen?