The first question comes from DwWashburn (which was a long-forgotten Monkees song):
It seems like Wendie Malick pops up on every show. Always working. And what a voice. How was it working with her?
An absolute dream. Wendie is fun, ultra professional, and super smart. And a director’s dream because if she would nail a line in rehearsal, you could tell her and she’d lock it in.
It also helped that she has extraordinary comic timing. And never ages. I don’t know how she pulls that off.
I worked with her on several shows and she was nice enough to do a couple of play readings of mine. One paired her and Jason Alexander. You can imagine how great they were together.
Mike Bloodworth asks:
Did you and David write practice scripts before you got into the business?
I'd like to know.
You bet. Like all writers trying to break in we wrote spec scripts. We were incredibly lucky. We wrote a spec MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW, RHODA, and two pilots before getting our big break. Only four scripts (although we were outlining our fifth).
We gave ourselves two years. The plan was to just keep writing as many specs as we could hoping that someone somewhere would recognize our talent.
JS queries:
I live in Baltimore - I'm used to the Orioles losing, what is the best movie to watch about a losing team (Hoosiers Excluded).
That's an easy one. BAD NEWS BEARS. Most of the others losing-sports-team movies are just pale imitations of BAD NEWS BEARS.
And finally, from Bob Paris:
What is your opinion of openings of shows such as Andy Griffith or Dick Van Dyke where the announcer exclaims, "The Andy Griffith Show, starring Andy Griffith." Did they really think the audience would not know who the star of a self-titled show is?
On YouTube I recently watched a montage of opening titles from 1961 and I was surprised by how many of them had announcers introducing the show and starring cast.
My guess (based on nothing) is that it was a holdover from radio. When radio shows transferred to TV they kept the vocal introductions to provide some continuity.
But of course they weren’t needed. As late as 1969 some shows still had them.
The one that used to drive me nuts was FATHER KNOWS BEST. The announcer started by introducing the stars, so he began by saying “Here are Robert Young…”
51 comments :
I've heard the FATHER KNOWS BEST intro, and it's grammatically correct, if you consider that the announcer's delivering a long sentence: "Here are Robert Young, Jane Wyatt, etc., in FATHER KNOWS BEST". It would be wrong if he said "Here are Robert Young. Here are Jane Wyatt. etc.".
In my opinion , the worst offender was the syndicated I Married Joan opening:
“The Joan Davis Show, I Married Joan, starring America’s queen of comedy Joan Davis as Mrs. Joan Stevens and featuring Jim Backus as Judge Bradley Stevens”. Slides that said her name twice and that inane Joan theme song! I never heard the name Joan so often in a 50 second time span! Ego check, please!
You don't have to imagine Alexander and Malick together. They're in a great Seinfeld episode together.
Regarding the last of these questions: Hank Simms announced all the stars (and the series title and episode title) of the various Quinn Martin series all the way through the 1970s - series like Cannon and Barnaby Jones - and then was hired to do the same for Police Squad! in 1982.
>>That's an easy one. BAD NEWS BEARS. Most of the other losing-sports-team movies are just pale imitations of BAD NEWS BEARS.
They lose, but they're all winners anyway. In a 1970s way; Walter Matthau didn't give out participation trophies.
One of the Bears went to my high school (he was two years behind me). Good guy. He's now a minister.
Colin Male, a former Cincinnati broadcaster, was the announcer during the black-and-white seasons of "The Andy Griffith Show." He had a brief on-camera role in a 1964 episode. Male was dropped when the show went to color.
"Bewitched" added an announcer in its fifth season ("Elizabeth Montgomery in...'Bewitched.'").
And there was dependable Hank Simms announcing the Quinn Martin shows. Simms later parodied himself on "Police Squad"--IN COLOR.
And I hated that FBK intro, too.
I attended a "Hot In Cleveland" episode filming in December 2014 on the night of Wendie's birthday; we received commemorative cookies with her photo baked inside. They wouldn't say how old she was until they played the intro to "When I'm Sixty-Four"...which means later this year, she'll turn 70. You'd never know it. She's still remarkable -- Wendie appeared on a few eps of "Mom" as the ex of Adam (William Fichtner), and watching her go head-to-head with Allison Janney as Bonnie was sublime.
I remember Malick from DREAM ON and recently ran into her as Adam's ex on MOM.
Of course, "Saturday Night Live" still has an announcer, continuing the tradition of variety shows to always announce the stars and guests to alert the studio audience of who to expect. Don Pardo, long the NBC house announcer, had that role from 1975 until his passing-exception being the 7th season when he was briefly replaced by Mel Brandt-doing it live until the last two or three seasons of his life. He was never gonna be easy to replace as one can tell when one hears Brandt or currently Darrell Hammond doing the duties...
" and Jerry Mathers as the Beaver."
Sorry..."Bewitched" added the announcer in the sixth year--Dick Sargent's first season, although the announcer mentioned only Elizabeth Montgomery.
I absolutely loved watching Wendie Malick as Ronee on Frasier. I never get tired of watching the episode in which Martin keeps calling her Lil' Cupid. The way she delivers her reaction, "Why are you calling me that?", is perfect.
I was flipping around the channels one day and came across this cartoon where Wendie Malick was voicing one of the characters. She really is ubiquitous.
I think you missed the direction of Bob Paris' question. The way I read it, he's not asking about why they still read the actors' names. He was wondering why they would repeat the name of the celebrity whose name is in the title. E.G. "The Dick Van Dyke Show starring Dick Van Dyke". Who should it star? Sonny Tuffs?
VP81955
I think Wendie Malick, Paul Rudd, Keanu Reeves and Susanna Hoffs have found the fountain of youth. Paul Rudd in particular looks unbelievable at 50.
Here's my Friday question, since you mentioned the old-time radio announcers ...
A lot of the scripted network radio shows from the '40s or '50s don't hold up, either because the stories are hokey or the racial stereotyping is awful.
But some of it does. And some of your plays that you've presented on your podcast sounded, to my ear, like old-time radio.
Are there any shows that, for you, hold up well? And can aspiring writers learn anything from them?
(For me, comedy-wise, "The Jack Benny Program" and "Fibber McGee & Molly" from about 1948-1955 both sound reasonably contemporary, and "Dragnet" and "Suspense" remain decently compelling as drama.)
Don't let him lie to you, DW - We Remember!
@Doug Donahue* - Am i the only person who looks at Keanu Reeves and sees an old dude?
*(We remember!)
If you love old radio sitcoms, check out VIC & SADE. It's very low key but it grows on you.
For anyone interested, Carl Reiner's "Head of the Family" pilot can be seen 9:30 ET tonight (Friday) followed tomorrow noon (Saturday) by a weekends-long DVD marathon starting with the actual DVD pilot "The Sick Boy and the Sitter," ending with "The Gunslinger" (appears most of S4/5 will be shown, select eps from S1-3).
Enjoy, everyone!
WB Jax. On what station?
"I do beeleeeeeeve I've got it made." - D.W. Washburn
Elizabeth Montgomery got her name above the title in those last seasons because she had gained, as lead actors do, more control and ownership of the series (this was before everyone including craft services was listed as "producer") and she was anticipating her post-Bewitched career. (Did you know that her last big-screen appearance was the cameo in "How to Stuff a Wild Bikini?")
Daws Butler based his Elroy Jetson/Augie Doggie voice loosely on Rush, the son on Vic and Sade, which was one of Stan Freberg's favorite radio shows. Rush was played by actor/writer Bill Idelson, Sally Roger's boyfriend Herman Glimscher on The Dick Van Dyke Show.
If the announcer had not told me that Joan Davis played Mrs. Joan Stevens and Jim Backus played Judge Bradley Stevens, I would never have been able to pick them out of the massive crowd of characters on that show ("Hah! By George Joan, you've done it again!"
Is it just me, or did the first few notes of the Father Knows Best theme, which the dark view of the house, make you think it was a Hitchcock movie, like Shadow of a Doubt?
My favorite part of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was the mock opening to the Quinn Martin show, The FBI. It was indeed a carryover from radio (I Love Lucy used the announcer over the closing credits at first), but it also allowed the home audience to know the key players without looking at the screen. That's not necessarily a bad thing because as Garry Marshall once said, people don't stare at the screen, they might discuss buying new drapery while a show is on.
Wendie Malick made Disney history as the first animated character to appear pregnant on-screen as Chicha in the very underappreciated and very funny Emperor's New Groove which is worth seeing if only for Eartha Kitt's performance as Yzma, the best villain since Cruella de Vil. Wilma Flintstone holds the first-ever honors, though I'm sure Bugs Bunny may have pretended to be at some point to fool Elmer Fudd.
Sorry, hollphoto. Decades.
As always, thank you for answering my F.Q. Although, I wish you had included the part about which type of practice scripts are best to write.
You probably left this out of your description of Wendie Malick because you were being politically correct, but she's also very HOT! I find her slightly crooked smile and slim, model's body to be very sexy. She's the primary reason I watched "Just Shoot Me." It was a C+ show at best. Not that Laura San Giacomo isn't also attractive, but Wendie is more my type.
I love "BNB," but "Slap Shot" with Paul Newman is also a great movie. And I'm not even a hockey fan. In fact, it's one of my favorite "sports" movies of all time.
Speaking of announcers, that's how you should open your podcast. "It's the KEN LEVINE podcast, 'Hollywood and LEVINE' starring KEN LEVINE. I'm KEN LEVINE. And now here's KEN LEVINE!" "Hi everybody. I'm KEN LEVINE..." That should kill some time.
M.B.
the original.
I hope I got the coding right. In any event, the Coasters' "D.W. Washburn" is on YouTube.
Joan Davis did get her name into the opening title voiceover enough that along with the "Queen of Comedy" puffery, the announcer almost comes across as an obsessed stalker.
The first decade of Jack Benny's TV show had such a short opening (prior to the sponsored by pitch for Luckies), you'd think some 21st Century TV exec came up with it -- 20 notes and then Don Wilson's intro tag (where as a radio holdover, Wilson's voiceover was more understandable, because he was also part of the cast as well as the announcer).
Interesting that Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea announced its stars (despite Basehart’s and Hedison’s name being in the main title) whereas Irwin Allen’s other series for Fox: Lost in Space, The Time Tunnel, Land of the Giants, didn’t. The only other example of this I remember (where credits are both displayed and announced) is the 1975 Saturday morning series “The Lost Saucer,” which starred Jim Nabors and Ruth Buzzi.
Friday question: The commercials for the TBS show "The Misery Index" have me hating the show sight unseen. I know one of the issues the broadcast networks face today is to get people to even see commercials for their shows, but in the past do you think they made much of a difference in the success or lack of success of some of the shows you worked on?
No question, but this is a lovely coda to a wonderful career.
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/07/carl-reiner-final-performance-the-princess-bride?fbclid=IwAR3Ay-Ke-wgsO7D4DeAr7g22uusDKacq4pthBlhoRN1dc1bulbMgotCzYmE
Maybe I'm an outlier here, but as far as 'losing sports teams' movies, I'm a big fan of "Major League." It's very funny, introduced me to Dennis Haysbert and Wesley Snipes, and it becomes unexpectedly touching as it goes along. And everyone contributes to the finish. Plus the late Margaret Whitton was spot on as the evil owner (a riff, I think, on Georgia Frontiere).
"I hate that f#@ing song," is a line of hers that I will always cherish.
I suppose that since they needed someone to do the sponsor tag, they might as well have the guy also announce the show title and cast. Or maybe the theory was that the home audience were busy chatting or checking the thermostat and not paying attention to the screen so they needed to be verbally reminded the show was starting.
Your comment about the FATHER KNOWS BEST intro reminds me of the famous line Dick Cavett penned for Jack Paar when he was hosting THE TONIGHT SHOW: “Ladies and gentlemen, here they are, Jayne Mansfield.”
Reply to Tudor Queen: Yeah that's a surprisingly good movie. I really like baseball movies...The Natural, Bull Durham, A League of Their Own...but I really don't like baseball.
Friday question....
You mentioned in the past having attended the filming of one or more RHODA episodes back in the day. What episodes did you see and do you have any fun stories of the experience? Also, any plans on posting your spec scripts for MTM and RHODA/
The gold standard of long intros was "What's My Line?" The announcer introduced Dorothy Kilgallen. Kilgallen introduced Fred Allen. Allen introduced Arlene Francis. Francis introduced Bennett Cerf. Cert introduced John Daly. And these weren't just pro forma introductions. They'd mention upcoming books or appearances. They would make reference to funny things from previous shows. If one of them was missing, the reason for the absence was mentioned in introducing the replacements.
And then they did good nights like that at the end of the show. I think some sitcoms run shorter than those intros did.
Introducing Dick Van Dyke on his show when it first started was a good idea. I'd never heard of him; he was a New York star, not West Coast.
Hello @kenlevine. There has been talk every now and then about TV theme sings, and how back in our day they were actually important in the sense that they also — intersperced with the video — told the backstory. And how the theme songs is basically gone today or given maybe 5 seconds. Here’s something I found in my travels that made me think of that. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YA0SRx9NfaM&list=PLQMOgYYmTgo8E7EqxJ2CUnMVxz_Sb0HRO
The Wendie Malick question reminds me of one I’ve been meaning to ask for a while. For years I hated Malick, she was the epitome of the humorless disapproving girlfriend/wife/ex-girlfriend type, someone to cast when you couldn’t get Paula Marshall. Then someone let Malick act and ever since Just Shoot Me, she’s been great in everything she’s done.
Here’s my question. Do you have a Malick? Someone who you or people around you dismissed as stiff and boring only to realize the actor was a major talent but had never been allowed to show his or her stuff?
And as a followup to my earlier post, do you think the shows would have been what they were without their opening-credit theme songs? Heck, just listen to the actual “Mission Impossible” theme song. Or heck, even the full “Cheers” theme song :)
Say what we will about the studios and suits and such, but people appreciated content back then.
And the original songs that got snipped down or reworked to be TV show theme songs (listen Andrew Gold’s “Thank You For Being A Friend” for The Golden Girls. OTOTH, hear Andy Griffith singing the lyrics to his show’s theme song.)
Still, Earle Hagen was a genius, as was, as was Sam Denoff (“That Girl” theme).
Ok, @kenlevine, this may be a complicated question ... or maybe not, given your background and history.
You’re not that much older than me, when records were how we discovered some of the legends (Bob & Ray, Bob Newhart, etcetc). So, here’s a FQ for you: How many really good acts can you think of that were really good on record but never made the transition to TV? I keep thinking The Bickersons, who were a scream on record, but beyond that, not so much.
Response to @My 15 Minute: First person I thought of was Richard Pryor. Of course, TV programming was much more conservative back then re Standards and Practices. But I don't think his comic skills could ever really be captured on TV, even if HBO/Netflix were possible options.
Response to @My 15 Minute (again): A memorable theme song/credits sequence really gets you in the mood for a show and aclimates you to the characters even if you have never seen it before. One of the best examples was "Hill Street Blues"; watching and listening to that theme once or twice gives you a pretty good idea of who's who in that universe.
My favorite was the opening to the Topper tv show staring Leo G. Carroll where Anne Jeffreys was "The Ghostess With The Mostess."
@Douglas Trapasso The ironic thing about Richard was that Redd Foxx was able to strive on tv with Sanford and Son yet before it came out nobody thought you could put Redd on tv because his act and style was triple x type stuff.
FQ: You and David were on Cheers for the bulk of its run so you both have written for the dynamics of Sam and Diane and Sam and Rebecca. Which relationship did you prefer to write for? While I do like Sam and Diane a lot and enjoy it overall but it did run its course and personally I find Sam and Rebecca more unique and indepth because their relationship actually could evolve unlike Sam\Diane.
Mark: I guess you never saw Malick in that episode of CYBILL, where she played a 1-episode girlfriend of one of Cybill's ex-husbands. Her character went loony tunes every time someone turned the water on. She was hysterically funny. Who knows, maybe that was the job that got her JUST SHOOT ME.
wg
For years I hated Malick, she was the epitome of the humorless disapproving girlfriend/wife/ex-girlfriend type, someone to cast when you couldn’t get Paula Marshall
like the trophy wife of Jane Curtain's ex-husband on Kate & Allie. Like Kirstie Alley, a beautiful woman who proved she had great comedy chops
My favorite scene from her character on Just Shoot Me
"Have you taken any drugs today?"
"Of course"
"What?"
"I'll need a pen, paper and an Spanish-English dictionary."
This interview with a star of "Palm Springs" devolves into the reporter asking several times what parts of the film were improv. I find it disrepectful of the scriptwriter and the many months of hard work they did to create/structure/polish etc., the movie. I'm curious as to what your take is.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/07/trump-warns-biden-presidency-cable-news-ratings-msnbc-cnn.html
"Judith"
Loved Dream On!
Why did the star get the billing twice? A good agent.
Future Friday Question question: I just read that Brandis Kemp died on July 4. Not counting Rosalind Chao, who was a carry-over from the last 2 episodes of "M*A*S*H", Brandis was the only "new" main performer from the first episode of "AfterMASH" who was continued into the 2nd season of that show. What remembrances do you have about Brandis' work on that program? And -- with all the other cast changes that occurred on that series, to what degree did her skills as a performer play into the fact that she was kept as a part of that show (even to the point of changing her character's position in the series)?
I'm curious what your thoughts are about this article on "prestige tv" and the current world of "comfort" television shows.
https://www.vulture.com/2020/07/peak-comfort-tv.html
Post a Comment