Bryce Zabel's FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH

Thanksgiving the Saget Way

People who only know Bob Saget for playing clean-freak dad Danny Tanner on the sitcom "Full House" or as the charming host of "America's Funniest Home Videos" really have not experienced the man as he really sees himself.

I got that chance last Friday night in Las Vegas, catching his live comedy act as part of HBO's "Comedy Festival" just wrapping up. We went with friends who work with co-sponsor AEG (Anchutz Entertainment Group) and ended up in the front row. Fortunately, we were just far enough to the side that we didn't end up getting picked from the crowd for some of his material. I'm talking about a running joke that had to do with shaving a certain body part. Other than that close call, it was a good night, starting with Jamie Kennedy opening for his friend and a really funny bit about hitting turbulance on a plane bound for Tokyo. Maybe you've seen their hip-hop video on YouTube, "Rollin' with Saget." I'm not gonna lie to you -- I thought his contribution to "The Aristocrats" documentary about the dirtiest joke ever was just gross -- I mean the First Amendment certainly gives a comic the right to talk about whatever he wants, but it doesn't compel me to like it or to like him for doing it. I just wondered "Why?"

So I guess this means that Bob Saget's a complicated man, working on the dirty side of stand-up comedy, starring in the clean side of TV sit-comedy, telling jokes that would offend practically everybody, now developing an HBO series which will fuse the two worlds. The thing is -- with the exception of "The Aristocrats" joke -- I find him enormously likeable no matter what he does and, he'll probably hate hearing this, but I really, really liked his TV persona, even if he wasn't so wild about it. His comedy act seems carefully constructed to seem like stream-of-consciousness, delivered fast, a lot of sex jokes (a LOT), plenty of mocking of his public image and more sex jokes. Plus, a healthy lack of respect for Smiegel from "Lord of the Rings" who he repeatedly suggested should be killed.

Besides assassinating literary figures, we were there for another reason. Bob is one of 20 stars in The Hollywood Cookbook (launch party on Sunday, November 19, out in stores and on Amazon for the holidays). The charity he supports in the book is the Scleroderma Research Foundation (his sister Gay died of the disease). Anyway, my wife Jackie wrote that book with her friend Morgan Most and we were able to present Bob with a copy after the show, his first look at the finished product. I honestly think he was really moved by how it all came together. If you're a Saget fan, honestly, you probably do want to buy a copy of this book because A) he's a big part of it and B) you'll be supporting his favorite charity since $5 per book goes to the fund. Here's Saget's own endorsement that is on the back jacket of the book itself:

"This cookbook's a wonderful way to help great non-profits raise money and awareness, and at the same time, feed great recipes to the people we enjoy fattening up."

Bob's literary and culinary contribution is also timely in that he presents an entire Thanksgiving menu. And he talks about a special Thanksgiving where Rodney Dangerfield came to his house shortly before his death and was discovered by Saget's daughter smoking pot. Whatever you think of Saget's stand-up act, he probably could have made a fortune selling tickets to that meal!

Something else I learned while writing this post: he and I share the same birthday, May 17.

Finally, Bob is the November "Spotlight" celebrity on "The Hollywood Cookbook" website. You can check that page out by CLICKING HERE.

The Hollywood Cookbook: A Holiday Win-Win for Charity

The first copies are back from the publishers and it will be in the major bookstores and Amazon.com will start shipping within the next week. I'm  talking about "The Hollywood Cookbook." It's the best win-win I've seen in a long-time. Really... think of it as Good Cooking, Great Causes...

Pre-Order Now for 2006 Holidays
Available Mid-November
$5 Per Book to Charity

To paraphrase Martin Landau's Bob Evans character from HBO's "Entourage" -- "If I told you there was a way to give somebody a modest gift for the holidays that they might actually like and, at the same time, give money to charities that help make the world a better place, would that be of interest to you?"

Regular readers of "For What It's Worth" know that I've never asked you to buy anything in all the time this blog has existed. This one just seems like such a great idea that I want to help.

The whole concept started a couple of years ago when my wife, Jackie, got this idea. She would find twenty celebrities, each one with a favorite charity, then ask them to supply their favorite recipes for a cookbook. Five bucks from each book would go into a pot to be distributed to the charities. She'd get the Entertainment Industry Foundation -- a group that has an outstanding reputation -- to divvy up the money. She'd sell the book, starting at the holidays, so that people could give it instead of a card saying "A donation has been made in your name." I mean, let's be honest, I'm always glad that a charity has gotten money in my name but it's a little disappointing. We'd like something tangible to go with it. Well, now you have the perfect compromise!

It's been a snowball effect of support. She's partnered with her good friend, Morgan Most, and together the two of them have practically willed this into existence. Celebrities like Ron Howard, Michael J. Fox, Jane Kaczmarek and Bradley Whitford immediately wanted to help. Charities were supportive and appreciative and put some of their key supporters in touch with the women of "Good Looking Cooking" (that's the name they came up with in order to publish the book). Later, as an added bonus, some very, very famous celebrity chefs also came aboard to offer some of their own special recipes. People like Wolfgang Puck and Mario Batali (plus Mark Dacascos from "Iron Chef.")

The book is literally at the printer now, pre-orders are being taken, and it can end up in your hands before Thanksgiving, in plenty of time to wrap it, mail it and give it to friends and co-workers for the holidays.

Listen, I could go on and on about this idea. I work in Hollywood where so often everything is a problem and it's great to salute an idea where everything is a solution. You want to know what was the most significant problem to overcome? Figuring out how to get $5 guaranteed to charity, given all the costs that go into books these days. But Jackie and Morgan have been unyielding. $5 to charity. Not a penny less.

They have a superior web-site that explains the whole thing better than I can do in this blog. Check it out. Feel good this year about at least one of the gifts you give. Make a difference. You can see all the charities there and check out the links to their sites for yourself.

Let me put one other thought out there. After you've checked out http://www.thehollywoodcookbook.com, you'll probably agree it's a great idea, too. Now, let's do some math...

Say they sell 10-thousand books before Christmas. That means charities will get $50,000 to split. But if we can push that number up to 100-thousand books that would mean a $500,000 check going to charity in early 2007.

So, check out the site and if you catch "The Hollywood Cookbook" fever like I have, stick a link to it on your blog or website, write about it in your own words, send the URL to your local newspapers with a personal note of endorsement and send one of those e-mails to all your friends asking them to send it to all their friends. Even better, buy a book for everybody on your shopping list and be a force multiplier. Think of it this way: buy 10 books; give $50 to charity.

Let's go viral in support of a great cause! We're the Internet, dammit, this is easy!

Creative Arts Emmy Awards

Yep, it's a few minutes 'til midnight, and I've just gotten back from the 2006 Creative Arts Emmys with a buzz that is half the heavy-duty Cosmopolitan from the vodka bar and half the espresso I had when I was waiting for valet parking.

Penn and Teller were the nominal "hosts" and when they were on (which wasn't often) they were as amusing as they always are. I met Penn back when I was working on "Lois & Clark" and he's always been in-your-face fun. The best "presenters" for me were the married Jane Kaczmarek and Bradley Whitford, both coming off seven-year-runs of hit shows, and going on to new shows. Just using bemused facial expressions, Bradley Whitford brought comedy to their bit.

If you want to read the trades, here's what the "Hollywood Reporter" had to say about the evening. You'll read about how "Elizabeth" on HBO won the most awards even though almost nobody in regular America saw it, how "Baghdad ER" won plenty of awards because it was both hard-to-watch and important-to-watch, and how Cloris Leachman won as "guest actress in a comedy series" again making the 80-year-old's run to the stage the closest thing to a tradition the Emmy has.

It was a long night... a nearly four-hour awards show with no commercial breaks... sleep calls... at least I won't have to sit anymore...

Diet Coke(s) Explained

Although I drink (too much) Diet Coke and even Diet Pepsi, I find the amount of choice out now a little bewildering.  I stumbled across an explanation on a blog today that seems worth repeating. If you're wondering how a Diet Coke is different from a Coca-Cola Zero from a C2 from a Coca Cola Light, check it out. 

What this post inexplicably fails to mention is Tab, the drink introduced in 1963.  Found a page about that.  And one more.  I guess they still make Tab but you have to really want it to find it.  Screw it.  Probably the best place to go for info on Diet Coke and its ilk is Wikipedia.

Whether you will go blind or sterile from drinking these products, I'm not prepared to say.  I hope not.  I've already had three Diet Cokes today and could top out even higher.  Going back to that first Tab I ever had, the amount of diet soda I've consumed has to be on the order of, oh, say three swimming pools.

And, for the record, I allow myself about six real Cokes every year and so far none of the diet versions comes anywhere in this universe to tasting like the real thing.  They're substitutes, nothing more.

Based on my taste tests anyway, Pepsi's no closer than Coke to making a diet version that really works.  Dr. Pepper and 7-Up have had more luck.

Cheers!