Mitchell Hundred leads off.
I've been thinking a lot lately about bottle episodes. Is there any significant difference between the way a writer approaches them and the way they might approach a more conventional script?
Very much so.
A bottle episode is one that is pretty much confined to an existing set. A show will have an annual budget and if they know there will be episodes with helicopters or big crowd scenes or explosions, to offset the cost they’ll plan a simple episode that all takes place in one set and can be produced under-budget.
Best bottle show I ever saw was the BREAKING BAD episode with just Walter and Jesse and a pesky fly in the meth lab.
But you have to consider them almost like one act plays. The dialogue becomes much more important. You can’t rely on action to give you your story turns. Bottle shows are much more character-based.
If I’m a showrunner I assign my bottle show to my best writer.
Scottmc is next.
I just read that movie theaters in August will show five colorized episodes of 'I Love Lucy's as part of a Lucille Ball birthday tribute. Initially, I couldn't see an audience that would pay current movie ticket prices for this. Then I saw that they are going to release them on DVD.(The theatrical showing is a promotion for the DVD.)
Do you think episodes of shows that you worked on could be shown effectively on a big screen? Can you think of any classic situation comedy that could have episodes shown?
I’ve seen episodes of CHEERS and FRASIER I’ve co-written on the big screen and the audience reaction was terrific. But they don’t take advantage of the scope that cinema provides.
Single-camera shows have a better shot, in my opinion. MASH certainly (which started out as a movie). Except for one episode.
“Point of View.”
That’s the episode David Isaacs and I wrote that was seen through the eyes of a patient. On a big screen when you’re seeing giant heads staring down at you it’s very disconcerting. On TV though, on normal sized screens it totally works.
But since MASH was shot on film, every week before we’d release an episode to CBS we would screen it one more time to make sure everything was okay, so I’m very used to seeing pristine 35mm cuts on large movie screens. And they were glorious.
slgc asks:
When you were working in radio, were there any songs about disc jockeys that were memorable or meaningful to you?
You bet.
“W.O.L.D.” by Harry Chapin. It tells of an aging disc jockey, sacrificing his marriage to bounce around the country playing the hits. It’s a great cautionary tale.
And finally, from Anthony:
Ken, I've always wondered why ESPN's production of Sunday Night Baseball is almost exclusively made of up National League matchups, or at least contains one NL team. With few exceptions such as Red Sox vs Yankees (obviously), a game featuring the reining AL pennant winner, or a recent World Series rematch, if you look at the pre-determined SNB schedule for the entire season, it's usually a NL matchup. Is there a business reason for it?
First off, I hadn’t noticed that. But I’m sure ESPN does research on which teams have a national following and programs accordingly. In the National League I’d say the Dodgers, Cubs, Cardinals, Braves, and maybe the Giants have large national following. But unless they’re winning like crazy you’re rarely going to see the Padres on SNB.
In the American League the Yankees and Red Sox both have national followings and maybe the Tigers and Angels, but who else? The Blue Jays? (Yes, in Canada) The Rangers? The Mariners?
When I wrote my book about my year broadcasting for Baltimore a number of publishers said they would have snapped it up if it had been about the Cubs or Cardinals, but there was not enough national interest in the Orioles. Judging by book sales they were right.
So to answer your question, that would be my guess. And please understand the examples I gave were not personal. Don’t write that you were hurt because I didn’t say the Pirates had a fan base. Every team has a fan base. Pittsburgh transplants are everywhere as are Cleveland transplants. But when you go to a Dodger-Diamondback game in Arizona and see that half the crowd is wearing Dodger blue you know THAT is a following.
39 comments :
When you were working in radio, were there any songs about disc jockeys that were memorable or meaningful to you?
For me, "Pilot of the Airwaves" by Charlie Dore. A great reminder that the next person on the request line might really need to hear that song---or to have some contact with another human being.
I still have a copy of "W.O.L.D." that I got when I was a kid. So it was only after hearing that song a hundred times that I went into radio. I think Harry meant it as a cautionary tale, but I took it as a how-to manual.
The cartoon equivilent of a bottle episode was Chuck Jones' Road Runner cartoons. Since they were plotless and driven by a rigid formula that they'd already established, his team could produce one in much less time than a more complex endeavor like WHAT'S OPERA DOC? or ONE FROGGY EVENING. Making a RR or two gave Jones and his collaborators the extra space to really put attention into their epics.
Of course, between the two formats this seriously cut down the number of Pepe le Pew vehicles.
I think ESPN shows more NL games because the NL is a more competitive league. Because of out of control spending on the top and cheap owners on the bottom there are only about four or five competitive teams in the AL. However at the first of the season there were only about 3 or 4 teams in the NL that you could look at and say "They don't have a chance." If it wasn't for the wet dream that ESPN and MLB get every time the Yanks and Red Sox play, you might never see an AL game on national television.
If you had to sit down now and write an original episode of any of the shows you've worked on, (your actors are frozen in time, so no nursing home requirements for the characters) which do you think would be the easiest to write fresh content for?
Robert Christgau:
"He wanted to set the song in Boise, Idaho, not because he had anything to say about Boise, but because "Idaho" rhymed with "late night talk show." Unfortunately, call letters that far west start with K rather than W, which messed up his rhythm. Akron, Ohio? Wrong rhythm again. Denver, Colorado? Nope. So he called it "WOLD" and hoped no one would notice."
Ken is right- the NL has more teams with a national/regional following. The NL whipped the AL's butt when it came to dominating markets. They got to California first. Then the NL placed teams in Denver and Phoenix, while the AL settled for Seattle. So the NL dominates the West. Then you have the legacy built on decades of broadcasting on clear-channel 50,000 watt stations and cable super-stations (Cards, Reds, Cubs, and Braves). That leaves the northeast, but even there the NL is competitive with the Phillies and Mets. And since Canada doesn't count in the ratings, the Blue Jays might as well be the A's.
Shows shot 35mm scale up quite nicely in terms of sharpness to today's 4K TVs (though obviously the black bars on the sides constantly remind you that you are watching a show made for 480i sets), though it will be interesting to see how 65-year-old efforts like 'I Love Lucy' look when 8K becomes goes mainstream and becomes the standard.
It was interesting that MLB essentially ceded the Texas market to the American League when they opted to shift Houston to the AL to balance out the number of teams per league. The state produces lots of baseball players, but it still regarded more as a football hotbed, so it didn't have the same impact, say, as if MLB had opted to move the other 1962 expansion team from the NL to the AL to create a new divisional rivalry in the New York area.
(And some teams do have fan bases outside of their normal areas' which makes broadcasters happy. In baseball the Cards, Cubs and Dodgers all have wide fan bases, while the Yankees probably have the widest fan base of all. But in football, none of the cities those teams are in have the top traveling fan bases -- it's the Cowboys, Packers, Steelers and Raiders who have the most fans spread across the country).
Another great bottle episode: “Pine Barrens” from the Sopranos.
First, you brute! How can you eschew the Boston Doves?
ACTUAL FRIDAY QUESTION: You mentioned that Jerry Belson was a great writer, as well as a good person to have for adding jokes to someone else's script. Do you recall some of your jokes/lines that you added to someone else's script of which you were fond?
Hmmm... Maybe that's because more fans get to heir NFL through TV. And when the NFL was growing in the 60s and 70s, those were the hot teams, each with an image. Cowboys were glitzy, Packers small towners made good, Steelers working class and Raiders outlaws.
To further E. Yarber's point, another example of an animated bottle episode would be Chuck Jones' Inki and the Mynah Bird, but with a name like Inki, you can both imagine what he looked like and why it is no longer shown, but the cartoons are set up roughly like the Road Runners, except the prey not only moves rather slowly, to the tune of Mendelsohn's "Fingal's Cave", although Inki is every bit as competent in catching the Mynah as Wile E. Coyote is in catching the Road Runner.
Paul Driessen's "Killing of an Egg" is a sort of "Russian Doll"-bottle episode.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qTAHp_ERF4
- Brian Philllips
In Canada, we get quite a bit of baseball available without even subscribing to MLB Extra Innings. We do get every Blue Jays rammed down our throats from Coast to Coast on the Rogers owned SportsNet (Rogers also owns the Jays and 50% MLSE (Leafs, Raptors, Argos Toronto FC). However, the competing sports channel, TSN (Which owns the other 50% of MLSE) does carry the ESPN national games. On the nights that the Jays aren't playing (due to off-night, afternoon games or rain outs) we normally will get another AL East team (usually Yankees or Red Sox) on SportsNet. Most TV providers also offer both a USA West Coast and a East Coast feed of FOX (Usually Seattle or Spokane for the West and Boston, Buffalo, Detroit or Rochester NY for the East feed). In addition, if you pay for the "SuperStation" package we also get to see CUBS/ ChiSOX on WGN 9 Chicago, the odd Dodgers game on KTLA 5 LA, Mets/ Yankees games on WPIX 11 New York.
There was some media outlets yesterday reporting that Tampa Bay might start playing some games in Montreal. What are the chances they rename the team to the Ex-Rays? I will wait for that story to develop.
As far as Radio is concerned, the ultimate Bottle SERIES may be "Vic and Sade" (not Shar-day, folks, just "sayd"). Very few sound effects, almost all the episodes took place in one location, many featured just the two title characters and all of the episodes were written by one man, Paul Rhymer for its 14-year run.
By the way it ran for 15 minutes and it was a DAILY show. THAT'S a lot of writing.
If I’m a showrunner I assign my bottle show to my best writer.
Obviously, the other writer's would know it's a bottle episode and they ain't writing it. So, wouldn't that cause dissension, rancor, etc. among the rest of the writers? Maybe one thinks "Well, if he doesn't think I'm good enough to write a bottle episode, I'll do just enough writing to get by." Or they quit in a snit, leaving you up Schitt Creek?
When COMMUNITY did a bottle episode, it was mostly about bottle episodes. In fact, that was the first time I recall ever hearing the term.
The M*A*S*H episode "A Night at Rosie's" (as it happens, a Levine-Isaacs script) is one of my favorite M*A*S*Hs from that period, and a great example of a bottle episode. It does show the back room when Klinger's gambling and the immediate outdoors when Potter finally shows up, but I assume that counts since it is all, technically, at Rosie's.
I wonder if a huge amount of CHEERS episodes qualify, the ones where the entire show takes place at the bar? And maybe more than a few ALL IN THE FAMILYs as well.
Friday Question
The Max Landis scandal has created renewed discussion online about the Twilight Zone tragedy and the role of his father, John Landis. There are many who think it was a travesty of justice that he and the other defendants were found not guilty. What's your opinion on it?
Although I'm a fan of some Landis films, the fact that he and his associates illegally hired two child actors for a dangerous scene filmed at 2 in the morning is shocking. I also read that he invited the jurors who acquitted him to a private screening of Coming to America, which is in really poor taste, considering three people lost their lives.
I thought the Breaking Bad bottle episode was terrible. Give me the ol' locked in a cabin during a snow storm over that fly episode.
When it comes to records about disc jockeys, this is pretty hard to beat.
Ralph Emery, of course, used to be a very big deal in Nashville.
Best animated bottle episode - Archer "Vision Querst" episode. Fight me.
"All in the Family" was a bottle series. Just about every scene was in the living room, dining room or kitchen. According to Rob Reiner, the cast, led by veteran stage actors, knew their lines, shot the scenes and were finished with taping in no time at all. I'm sure Norman Lear's finance dept. appreciated that.
I think the contrast between 'Fly' (S-3 E-10) and the other 61 episodes is what makes it so great. Twilight Zone, 'Nervous Man In A Four Dollar Room' (S-2 E-3) is a good bottle episode.
Of course the acquittal of John Landis was a travesty. In the late 1980s there was a well-written and very detailed book about the trial and surrounding events, Outrageous Conduct: Art, Ego, and the Twilight Zone Case. I'd recommend it although it seems to be hard to find today.
The best bottle episodes really help us get to know the character. There was a superb "M*A*S*H" episode where Hawkeye gets a concussion in a Jeep crash and wanders to the home of a Korean family. He's not sure if the family is hostile, so he does an endless monologue to keep himself from passing out.
"All in the Family" had a terrific one (among many, I'm sure) where Archie and Mike get locked in the storage room of Archie's bar and end up getting to know each other a little better.
Bottle episodes are among my favorites. No coincidence that the best writers created them.
Loved when Bob and Emily Hartley were locked in the basement. Basement episodes are sometimes great character opportunities (remember "Shoe-Bootie?") Even when That Girl was locked in the basement it was superb.
My favorite episode of The NEW Dick Van Dyke Show was near solo of Van Dyke alone in a cabin. A master of physical comedy and timing, he tried to used a rattlesnake to open a can but quickly threw it away -- just long enough for it to be funny.
Classic comic fans like to kid me because I like it when Uncle Scrooge and his friends "stay home." Instead of traveling to far off lands and searching for square eggs, I want to see the characters be themselves without stuff to distract them.
Dark Shadows became less character driven as its success added more characters and more wild storylines. As a results, the dialogue had to have more exposition and reaction and not so much interaction and reflection.
Even the great Carl Reiner admitted that doing those musical Dick Van Dyke shows, delightful as they are, were a relief to the writers. I wouldn't put The Twizzle episode in the hall of fame, but I loved the one where Laura and Millie were worried about burglars, offering Ann Morgan Guilbert and MTM a chance to brilliantly play off each other. I'll bet the Twizzle episode cost more. Thank goodness there was no Twazzle follow up (but somehow CBS will find a way to make one anyway).
gottacook
Yeah, I'd love to read that but the only copies available on Amazon are ridiculously overpriced. I'm hoping for more luck either with eBay or a library.
One comment I read online is that if this had happened today in the age of social media, there's no way Landis would have continued getting work. But after the accident and even before the trial, he did several movies throughout the 80s, including Trading Places.
His career these days is in the doldrums though. He hasn't made anything for 7 years and hasn't had a hit in over 30 years. The controversy over his son's horrific behaviour won't exactly help his reputation.
My sympathy lies with the women assaulted by his son, the parents of the two children who died, and Jennifer Jason Leigh, whose father, Vic Morrow, died.
Another D.J. record, not as salty as the Don Bowman number I posted above.
By the great Eddie Lawrence.
Way back in 1973 -- good grief, I was in college -- there was a compilation of sketches called TEN FROM YOUR SHOW OF SHOWS released in theaters. The technical quality was Fifties TV but I was laughing too hard to care. There are plenty of shows from that period endlessly running on cable (Roy Rogers, Perry Mason, Jack Benny, Burns & Allen, etc.) so where has Sid Caesar gone? Most people under sixty don't know he was the model for King Kaiser in MY FAVORITE YEAR. Is there some legal snafu keeping them from their comedy heritage?
Ken, you worked for the Padres, you should know better...the Padres will never be on ESPN, even if they are winning. Thank God for MLB.TV's single team option!
@ Buttermilk Sky:
An attempt was made back in the 1980s to syndicate a package of sketches from YOUR SHOW OF SHOWS and CAESAR'S HOUR, edited into half-hours ala CAROL BURNETT AND FRIENDS, and featuring new introductions by Sid Caesar. The series was not successful, the reason most commonly cited being that audiences were turned off by the poor visual quality of the surviving material. Both YOUR SHOW OF SHOWS and CAESAR'S HOUR were live shows and survive only as low-quality kinescopes. Kinescopes were produced, basically, by filming the image off a TV monitor with a 16mm camera. The Jack Benny and Burns and Allen episodes you see in syndication were shot, motion-picture style, on 35mm film, as were shows like I LOVE LUCY and PERRY MASON.
Baseball has become a regional, not a national, sport. By catering to television (mainly Fox, but ESPN as well) in terms of programming, we are left with just a few teams with national interest. In the 70s, the Kansas City Royals were on national TV because they were good. The 2001 Mariners, who merely won 116 games, played their playoff games at 3:30 pm because the Yankees had to be in prime time.
Yet the 2000 World Series, New York Yankees versus New York Mets, had had terrible ratings. If you simply show the same teams over and over, you are basically eating your seed corn. The NBA has had teams develop national followings in San Antonio and Cleveland and now Milwaukee. Interest in the league is at an all-time high even though the Knicks and Lakers have stunk for ages. They're doing something right that MLB and its broadcasters are doing wrong.
Hi Ken (sorry if this post is doubled. My internet crashed last time I sent)
I saw that the comedy dept of ITV in the UK has announced a policy of banning "all male" writing teams.
I have read on the blog that you have worked with some brilliant women comedy writers.
Just wondered what your thoughts were on "quotas" in writing teams, be they by sex, ethnicity etc, and whether you could see a time when this would ever happen with a US network?
Personally I have always been a pick people on merit person, rather than by quota, but can sort of see how given the "networking" and "who knows who" side of the entertainment industry, it could (even subconsciously) turn into a bit of a "jobs for the boys club" type thing.
Cheers
Sorry
Forgot to post link to story!
https://www.vulture.com/2019/06/itv-bans-all-male-comedy-writing-teams.html
Friday question:
A Zen koan, if you will. When does a spinoff cease to be a spinoff? That is, when and how do networks, producers, audiences see the series as an original show in itself?
Classic examples like LAVERNE & SHIRLEY and FRASIER come to mind, just to name some of the most popular ones. How do they establish an identity outside of the show where their characters were created?
Sorry to be annoying with another question that kind of links to my other.
I was wondering how much impact to a successful series relies on the writing teams style/humour type of writing to style of show in relation to the actors being the right fit.
IE I would imagine you could have a highly successful show like Cheers being crapper with the wrong writers and the whole quota thing could potentially mess it up if you had to turn down a bloke writer who would be perfect, to fit in a women writer who while great may not "get the vibe" of the thing.
I was interested in what Danny wrote above about the unsuccessful attempt back in the '80s to syndicate the old YOUR SHOW OF SHOWS and CAESAR'S HOUR sketches. As many broadcast outlets as there are on cable and satellite, surely there would be one somewhere that would be interested in showing this series. Of course I think the same thing about shows like Ken's sitcom ALMOST PERFECT. Hundreds of stations and not one of them can find room in their schedule for shows like these.
"The Best of Your Show of Shows" appears to have been out of circulation for over twenty-five years. Getting it shown again would involve tracking down the rights holder for it. "Almost Perfect" has similarly been out of circulation for many years. "Almost Perfect" was a Paramount series and would be handled today by CBS Television Distribution. CBS doesn't have it in its catalog of shows available to the syndication market, though. If I had to venture a guess, I would say that CBS probably doesn't think there are enough episodes to make it salable. There were less than forty episodes filmed, weren't there? That wouldn't go very far, particularly in an era when broadcasters like to run multiple episodes of series back to back. Wish it would get a revival, though. It was a good show, though the second season sort of went off the tracks by getting rid of the relationship aspect that was a key part of the show's premise.
When you were making Volunteers, did you have any idea of what kind of star potential Tom Hanks had? Was there anything during his time on set that gave you an inkling that he was a truly talented actor?
I'm interested in your opinion of whether Major League Baseball is really limiting it's future fanbase..
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20190622/01382142450/major-league-baseballs-obsession-with-cashing-everything-has-harmed-games-popularity-online.shtml says that by claiming ownership over nearly everything baseball related it's making it so fans can't easily share much of anything except through the approved portal.
As a non-fan I enjoy an occasional game, but have never really liked watching it on TV. I find your stories of baseball more interesting than most games.
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