Stop Me If You've Seen This One
Turns out that "Desperate Housewives" creator Marc Cherry is a big Stephen Sondheim fan. Cherry created a video tribute involving the show's cast naming their favorite Sondheim tunes for the composer's seventy-fifth birthday, celebrated with a concert at Los Angeles's Hollywood Bowl on July 8, 2005. [via Blogway Baby]
In 1960, the great American experimental composer John Cage (of "4'33" of silence fame) appeared on the TV game show "I've Got a Secret." They skip the game, alas, but Cage performed a whimsical composition titled "Water Walk" using a water pitcher, bottle of wine, ice cubes, mechanical fish, rubber duck, and tape recorder, among other utensils. "Inevitably, Mr. Cage," warns host Gary Moore, "these are nice people, but some of them are going to laugh. Is that alright?" "Of course," Cage replies. "I consider laughter preferable to tears."
Three years later, a twenty-two-year-old, mustache-less Frank Zappa played a bicycle on "The Steve Allen Show." "How long have you been playing bike, Frank?" Allen asks him. "About two weeks," Zappa replies. Allen devotes about fifteen minutes of airtime to Zappa's cacophonous shenanigans, which can be seen in two parts, and seems to be having a blast.