So here are the questions. How did you do?
A rotating joke, a restaurant, and a congressman.
What’s a “Bono?”
William Devane and a former Ram.
Who were the other two finalists for the role of Sam Malone on CHEERS?
VIPness.
What’s a word that Levine & Isaacs tried to slip past the CBS censors?
ALL IS FORGIVEN and THE TORTELLIS.
What are two failed series under the Charles/Burrows/Charles banner?
The dialogue coach on FLIPPER.
What is one of the erroneous jobs IMDB claimed Ken Levine had?
Molly Ringwald and Darryl Hannah.
Who turned down the Julia Roberts role in PRETTY WOMAN? Or… Who are still kicking themselves today?
Would have stayed in Sacramento if they had only given him a small raise.
What would have kept Rush Limbaugh from accepting an offer to go to New York and host a national radio show?
The “Abby Singer Shot.”
What’s the second-to-the-last shot during any one filming day?
55 share, 19 share.
What were AfterMASH’s ratings the first night of the 1983/84 season and the last night?
An “Up and Back.”
What’s a funny joke run that doesn’t advance the plot?
Hope Lange.
Who played Dick Van Dyke’s wife on THE NEW DICK VAN DYKE SHOW?
Starred in a TV movie about herself.
Who is Ann Jillian?
Schmuck bait.
What’s a plot point that only an idiot would buy?
Paper partners.
What is the insidious practice where scumbag showrunners hire two baby writers and force them to become partners, thus cutting each of their salaries in half?
Charlie Haid and Walton Goggins.
Who were two actors who played characters that got killed in pilots but were so good the producers decided to bring them back from the dead and reinstate them?
HAPPY DAYS and THE ODD COUPLE.
What are two sitcoms that started out as single-camera shows and converted to multi-camera shows?
Camelot.
What was the nickname writers had for MTM Enterprises during the golden comedy age of the ‘70s?
Studio 25 at the NBC Burbank Studios is named in his honor.
Who is Art Fleming, the original host of JEOPARDY?
Thanks for playing. WHEEL OF FORTUNE is next.
Jack Benny's filmed episodes started out as single camera (with a couple of exceptions), but switched to three-camera after Mary Livingston retired and they didn't have to work around her mic fright in front of a live audience anymore. The Benny show was something of a hybrid, but the single-camera filmed episodes were more sitcom-ish than the live or videotaped episodes (also the assistant director for Jack's single-camera shows in the late 1950s was Abner E. Singer. Not sure if he did the second to last shot in those episodes, though...)
ReplyDelete"The Joey Bishop Show" (the sitcom, that is, currently rerunning on AntennaTV) is another example. After the first season, Bishop insisted on a live audience for the rest of the run. The second and third seasons are unlike almost anything in that era, with constant ad-libbing and breaking up, and the audience reacting as you would expect--in one episode, someone in the audience yells out something and Bishop actually responds. God bless director James Kern for keeping it all real; when he left, it just wasn't the same.
ReplyDeleteBTW, Ken, I see that your favorite actress, Kim Raver, has not one but two series next year: returning to "Grey's Anatomy" and joining "Ray Donovan."
Perhaps tomorrow you could give us the great Carnac's questions.
ReplyDeleteLooks like I was a little off
ReplyDeleteOf course, some of your answers had more than one right question. Suzanne Somers could have been a perfectly good stand-in for Ann Jillian, and Julianna Margulies could sub for Walton Googins or Charlie Haid.
ReplyDelete"Schmuck bait" is more historically known as "idiot plot", a term coined by the excellent science fiction critic Damon Knight.
Also, we'll never know whether PRETTY WOMAN would have been as big a hit with Molly Ringwald or Darryl Hannah instead of Julia Roberts. And they may not even be kicking themselves if they think it would have. Debra Winger seems perfectly content not to have taken Karen Allen's role in INDIANA JONES.
I don't get the Bono thing *at all*.
wg
wg
Oh well, I didn't do the best on the quiz--but hey, 1 out of 18 isn't bad. Ok, it is bad. Very, very bad.
ReplyDeleteBut I still stand by my question to the answer of "Paper partners": "What are rock and scissors"
So had Daryl Hannah agreed to do "Pretty Woman" (a rare non-fantasy role for her), might the "Attack of the 50-Foot Woman" HBO remake have starred Julia Roberts (or Molly Ringwald?)
ReplyDelete@Wendy M Grossman
ReplyDeleteI partially get the Bono thing. The last reference is to Sonny Bono who eventually became a congressman. Google/Wikipedia tells me there was a longstanding deli called Bono's in Fontana CA (not owned by Sonny) and Sonny did have a restaurant in his name in Palm Springs. Not sure which one applied to Ken's reference since both are pretty obscure to anyone excepting southern Californians. The rotating joke part completely eludes me.
@Lansing: I assumed the reference was to Sonny Bono. The best joke I remember about him, though, was that after he was killed skiing into a tree someone (I don't remember who) observed that, "Reagan was right. Trees really do kill a lot of people." As a Congressman, Bono also had his name on the 1998 copyright term extension bill that Lawrence Lessig eventually took to the Supreme Court.
ReplyDeleteRotating joke...notta clue.
wg
>>Charlie Haid and Walton Goggins. Who were two actors who played characters that got killed in pilots but were so good the producers decided to bring them back from the dead and reinstate them?<< It wasn't in a pilot, but Dennis Franz also got killed off and later brought back in Hill Street Blues. Dead as Sal Benedetto, resurrected as Norman Buntz.
ReplyDeleteI remember watching the Ann Jillian movie. Someone above pointed out Suzanne Somers. Joan and Melissa Rivers also played themselves.
ReplyDeleteCharlie Haid and Walton Goggins.
ReplyDeleteWho are two people who've never been in my kitchen?