Mickey Rooney.

If you have a chance and you want to see Mickey Rooney and early American television at its best, see if you can find the 1957 Playhouse 90 production of "The Comedian." Criterion re-released the show about five years ago in a collection called "The Golden Age of Television."

Mickey Rooney plays a mind-fucking comic, Sammy Hogarth, who tortures his weak-willed brother played by the great (but under-rated as an actor) Mel Torme. Rod Serling wrote the screenplay and John Frankenheimer directed.

I was never a big Mickey Rooney fan. I always found his acting over-wrought and his optimism face-punchable. But his performance in "The Comedian," shows you a side of him that his Andy Hardy and 'Let's Put on a Show" flicks never did.

It's also great and admirable to see a guy with 340 film credits, running from 1926-2014--88 years. There's something I respect about a guy who takes a lunch pail approach to work. You show up everyday, you do your job, you go home.

I'm in a bit of a commenting on advertising slump lately. I see crap on TV and crap everywhere else and I don't find it interesting enough to type about.

I'll get back to the plot soon.