Frank Salerno gets it started.
MASH is credited with the first on screen usage of “the smallest violin in the world”.
I know it’s a silent film/melodrama reference.
Whose idea was it to use?
All mine.
That was an expression often used in my family growing up.
“This is the world’s smallest violin and it’s playing just for you.”
I don’t remember the script or circumstance but I do recall it was Hot Lips who had the line.
Dave H has another MASH question.
Ken, when did Mash start filming for a new season (July or August?) and what month did you wrap for the season? Sorry if this has been asked before. And I am saying sorry because I am Canadian. A TV report said it's a Canadian thing. ;)
We started filming right after the 4th of July and finished right before Christmas. 25 episodes. Each episode received one day of rehearsal and three days of shooting. After every three episodes there was a built-in “pick up” day to reshoot or get a scene not yet filmed. There were hiatus weeks every seven or eight episodes, but those shrunk if we needed more “pick up” days.
In contrast, today half-hour single camera shows require five to six days to shoot. They’ll start in the summer and wrap in March… and do fewer than 25 episodes.
In the case of MASH, it sure helped to have a fantastic cast, crew, and stable of top notch directors.
Someone who calls himself Dr. Rosen Rosen turns to a CHEERS question.
I just have to know more about the "Sinatra" line spoken amazingly by Al Rosen. Do you have any additional information about that line, who wrote it, was it scripted, was it scripted that he said it twice, where the writer's trying to find the right line for Al since he was background up until this point. I love this joke, performance, and the way the cast reacted to it so much that I just had to ask.
I don’t know which writer came up with it. It was definitely scripted exactly as it aired. I believe season two. Al Rosen, who was a regular extra, just had a great look and voice.
His official character name became “Man Who Said Sinatra.” David Isaacs and I first used him in a season three episode we wrote.
Al Rosen was a very interesting guy. A former wrestler.
And finally, from BG:
I know reboots are kinda passé now, but if you and David Isaacs were offered the chance to head a revival of a past sitcom you worked on, which would it be?
ALMOST PERFECT, the CBS show we did starring Nancy Travis. Then BIG WAVE DAVE’S.
It might be hard to reboot MARY since the star, Mary Tyler Moore, is no longer with us. Or the co-star, James Farentino. (But happily, John Astin is still going strong. He’s 90, God bless him.)
What’s your Friday Question. May this be “Christmas the way it ought to be.”
My Zoom play reading for GUILTY PLEASURES: AN UNAPOLOGETIC COMEDY continues through Sunday. Sail away for some sex and laughs.
33 comments :
I'm pretty sure Margaret's "world's smallest violin" line was spoken during Season 6's "Your Hit Parade" to Charles, when he was begging her to move into her tent since The Swamp was taken over by casualties. I remember this is the same conversation when Charles tells her "Let me be frank about this" then has to clarify "That's frank with a little 'f'.
i have fond memories of John Astin from Night Gallery episodes, not to mention his duel role in Candy.
Agreed that "Your Hit Parade" was the episode with Margaret's "world's smallest violin" remark. That was also the episode where Radar plays DJ by playing records over the PA system to keep up morale. Did a bit of your radio experience inform Radar's DJ lingo?
Speaking of John Astin, there were reports yesterday of a Night Court sequel in the works. I wonder how Buddy's feeling...
Coincidentally, I've been going through a rewatch of all the DVDs. I'm up to season 7, and for some reason I've become somewhat obsessed with the two bailiffs who stand at the back of the courtroom. They've been there from the beginning and are in every episode except maybe those that take place predominantly outside the courtroom. Even in the background in hallway and cafeteria shots, and one even gets a line once or twice. But they're never credited as far as I can tell.
So who are they? Were they under contract? Did they do any other work? Why have I become so fascinated by them? Does anyone know?
I've been using that "world's smallest violin" line for decades. Thanks very much for putting it into the vernacular!
Neil D as Buddy would say https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAUIOCGftNU I also saw that The premise is Harry's daughter is the judge. Larroquette is supposedly going to be back. He is much too old for that role now. So is Richard Moll. The show was not critically acclaimed, but some one was watching as the show had a good run I catch Buit once in a while and I still think it was funny. Plus it is interesting to see actors and actresses that weren't that quite well known until later. Michael J Fox, Pamela Adlon, Don Cheadle, Michael Richard, Robert Pastorelli, Stephen Root. All of them had been on other shows previously usually as a one time shot. But they weren't well known until they were on a long running show.
Cheers, Season 2, Episode 17 (per IMDB): Fortune and Men's Weight. Heidi Perlman is the credited episode writer.
https://youtu.be/z2B0lRTSLM4
Sinatra!
Was MASH exceptional in filming so quickly? Did the fact that the wardrobe was mostly uniforms and there were rarely new settings help keep production times that short?
Have you ever done product placement in one of your shows? Been asked to? How about dropping in a name of a business you like as a free plug?
"And I am saying sorry because I am Canadian..."
Canadian, eh? You're saying soory.
My grandfather was friends with a once-well-known character actor, who was friends with John Astin. So when my family took a trip to L.A. when I was a kid, we had the privilege of meeting Gomez Addams himself. He couldn't have been nicer or more friendly.
I just saw that coach from cheers was a TV director! Nick Colasanto directing an episode of Hawaii Five-0 with Jack Lord. Who knew? Not me. Did you?
Reading the Q&A about when filming for M*A*S*H started and wrapped, you mentioned having a "stable of top notch directors" and it got me wondering: How were/are directors assigned to helm episodes? Is it more or less a rotation depending on availability and specific needs for an episode?
Blinky: yes, Colasanto was quite a prolific director on a number of series. He directed the episode of COLUMBO with Johnny Cash as the murderer, and there's a cute in-joke where Cash's character mentions the name of his musical arranger, Nick Solacanto.
I confess, the line that really stuck to my ribs from "Your Hit Parade" was not the violin, but Radar announcing there would be more music after he put "a new fang on the old tone-arm cobra." Of course, Colonel Potter stole it with his story about Doris Day because Harry Morgan was a god.
I hope they find a role for John Astin as the grandfather of the new judge.
@Neil D
Buddy's feeling much better now! I pointed out elsewhere the irony of John Astin marrying a woman who was 16 years his junior and he outlived her, and for his most iconic role he was replaced in the movie by an actor 10 years his junior and he outlived him as well.
John Astin was in the cast of THREEPENNY OPERA in New York in 1954. Also Beatrice Arthur, Charlotte Rae and Paul Dooley. You can hear all of them on the cast album, which is incredibly still available.
https://www.amazon.com/Threepenny-Opera-1954-Blitzstein-Adaptation/dp/B00004X09T/ref=sr_1_1?crid=143C7UIQF3H7A&dchild=1&keywords=threepenny+opera+cd&qid=1608320591&sprefix=threepenny+%2Caps%2C247&sr=8-1
There was a column about in-jokes a while back. Just happened to watch an episode of NCIS where someone asks what Ducky looked like as a young man, and the answer was Illya Kuryakin.
Morgan's predecessor on "M*A*S*H," McLean Stevenson, was a cast member on "The Doris Day Show" from 1969-1971.
I'm Dickens, He's Fenster.
Just watched "Guilty Pleasures" - what fun! Thanks for sharing!
My father used to do the "world's smallest violin playing the world's saddest song" thing when I was a kid (in the 1960s). I had the impression -- given the Depression/World War II-era references and phrases he was always using -- that it came from those days.
Always loved the line, "Sinatra!" It holds up well in repeated watchings.
Al may have been the reason Woody was allowed to keep working at the bar, even though his parents insisted he return to Indiana.
This was the episode titled CHEERS: The Motion Picture.
The last line of the episode, I think, is when Al is leaving the bar and turns back to say, "Don't mention it, kid!"
Given the context, it seems Al did something which softened the hearts of Mr. and Mrs. Boyd.
ALMOST PERFECT was a gem. I loved loved loved that show. I wish one of the classic TV channels would rerun it.
Friday question: I've often noticed that people on TV shows clearly have no idea how to work with food. I'm obsessing over CHEERS these days and noticed that, when working with lemons, Ted Danson appears to be hollowing them out, rather than slicing, wedging, or zesting them. Eric McCormack on WILL & GRACE was often shown preparing food, but he clearly had no idea how to use a cheese grater or a Pyrex measuring cup. (I'm surprised that no one took a moment to teach him how to pick up the cup by the handle...) Do directors usually leave actors to their own devices when they work with food? Do shows ever use consultants to teach actors the correct way to work with it?
Philly Cinephile,
There are several episodes of ALMOST PERFECT on YouTube. Search "Almost Perfect Nancy Travis."
Thanks for the kind words. I'm very proud of that show.
1. The deal when I was growing up was to trace circles over your thumb with your index finger, saying, "This is the worlds' smallest record player, playing "My heart bleeds for you."
2. Years ago, my brother-in-law went to see John Astin in "Lend Me a Tenor" in Chicago. The audience was completely dead, except for my brother-in-law, who has a loud, cackling laugh. So Astin started playing the show directly to my brother-in-law, which (of course) set him off even more.
Hello @kenlevine. I have a FQ for you, since I've seen you talk about this a bit. Especially in the opening credits of movies, I've forever been enamored with the casting director (and the ACE designation). Casting directors, Foley directors (except now they're called sound directors), people like that whose work makes a production sing. How might someone who understands the importance of people like that get a start in films or TV?
Hey Ken
This is going to sound like a weird question
I know you liked some English comedy's like Blackadder (my personal favourite) and The Office etc
Do you think as an american writer you could have slipped into that type of script for UK viewers as a writer, or is the style too different?
There are some Mash episodes that could stand up to Blackadder go forth as an example, and some probably better, but it still seems like a different style you would have to get your head around.
Hi, @kenlevine. I've seen you mention in a number of your posts about those TV actors who seem to always be *everywhere*. I grew up in the 1960s-70s, and I remember several child actors who seemed to be *everywhere* all the time, too -- often in character roles on Starsky & Hutch or Emergency. Lisa Gerritsen and Michael Link are two that I remember well. Who are some of those child actors that you remember well because we ended up seeing them in a shit-ton of TV shows thruout the 1970s? I imagine a lot of them smartly got out of acting when their star burned out because they ended up growing up and weren't cute and precocious anymore, or transitioned to more-enduring careers behind the camera, or just gave it up altogether, got college degrees or just moved to Michigan to buy a successful apple orchard and still live happily ever after.
Hi, @kenlevine. I always welcome your posts when you start off with a pic or post about Natalie Wood. However, I've never seen you make mention of This Property Is Condemned, which IMO is her best performance, and a very raw film/story (Tennessee Williams' stories often were) with an incredible supporting cast. Methinks it ranks as perhaps her finest work. What say you?
Hi, @kenlevine. One last FQ. Altho it's been clear for many,many years and manymny blog posts that getting a film screenplay accepted by anyone is pretty remote (especially if you're in the 40+ age group), there's an even bigger chance -- especially if your basic premise and writing is strong -- that instead of knocking yourself out trying to schlep a script, you'd be better off turning,your script/story into a short story or short novel and self-publish it. It's really easy to do, and there are plenty of people out there making modest incomes doing it on the side simply because their basic premise and writing is top-notch and despite that, they wouldn't have a snowball's chance in hell getting a stint in a writer's room. Not because they suck, but just ... because. So what's your opinion on this route being a decent one and an argument for altho your skills/ideas/style/etc isn't a fit somehow for a Hollywood writer's room, that isn't the be-all and end-all. (And who knows? Maybe if your story is incredible, it'll get optioned out of obscurity and you'll end up making a shitload of money and maybe keep making good stories afterward (i.e. Diablo Cody, Cameron Crowe). Or maybe all you have is one incredible story in you and that's good enough (i.e. Harper Lee). Sorry for prattling on, but maybe that's a better route to go for writers of all ages while they're keeping their dream alive, no?
You're welcome, and thanks for the tip about the ALMOST PERFECT episodes on YouTube. Looking forward to revisiting it.
OMG, Al cracked me up and I wondered the exact same thing--if the "Sinatra" line was scripted or not, because everyone was so great at acting like they'd never heard it before. I believe it was the episode about the spooky scale that gave out fortunes? After Al was gone, I like how Phil was kind of shifted to be the old guy at the bar. I just watched the Bar Wars episode the other day when someone asked who Tecumseh was and the one barfly said, "Isn't that Phil?"
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