Matt gets us started.
I noticed David Ogden Stiers did three episodes in "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" final season (as station manager) around the same time he was brought onto MASH. Was he doing both shows at the same time? Or was it a matter of MTM ending in the spring and then joining MASH in the summer/fall? If it's the latter, was he on the radar for MASH because of his appearance in MTM?
David did the MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW the year before he began on MASH. In fact, it was his appearance on MTM that got him the job on MASH. Producer Burt Metcalfe saw him on that show and thought he’d be perfect for the new character of Charles we were preparing.
David Isaacs and I were on staff of THE TONY RANDALL SHOW at MTM at the time David was on MARY TYLER MOORE, and we used him in an episode of TR we wrote. In ours he was a talk show host — Robert W. Cleaver.
Jason V asks:
How does it affect an actor to be the punchline character in a show? I'm thinking Cliff in Cheers, and of course, Screech in Saved By the Bell.
They cry all the way to the bank.
From Jeff:
Ken, I believe you mentioned you were in the audience for All in the Family one time. Being that it's my favorite sitcom ever, would love if you would write about that sometime.
I was in the audience for the episode where Archie and Michael were stuck together in the cellar. We were out of there in less than an hour. Both actors knew their lines and as I recall, they went straight through as if it were a half-hour one act play.
One the one hand, I didn’t see a typical episode with all the characters in the living room, but on the other I saw a special episode.
And I was very impressed.
I only attended two Norman Lear tapings — that one and THE JEFFERSONS we “wrote.” In both cases, the actors knew all their lines and the level of professionalism was unmatched.
And finally, from Brian:
Have you continued to watch Brockmire and what do you think of it?
I watched every episode of BROCKMIRE. Absolutely loved it at the beginning, liked it in the middle, and hated the last season.
I give them credit for taking a big swing at the plate, but going into the future and making him the commissioner stretched all credibility and reality.
The first season was magic. By the end they went off the rails. That said, I loved Hank Azaria in the role.
What’s your Friday Question?
29 comments :
Winchester was the perfect character (and performance) to add to MASH at the time he did. How many other characters can you envision just from hearing one word? Gentleman . . .
—— FRIDAY QUESTION ——
Cheers was set in a basement bar, but the stage is obviously at ground level. Did the actors need to walk up and down a set of stairs for every entrance to the bar? Or was there a staircase that was moved in and out?
That "Cellar" episode of "All in the Family" is one of the best of the series. Also, I saw a documentary with Norman Lear and they showed him watching it. It brought him to tears.
“Call Me Kat” closes each episode with the cast waving to the cameras. Clever device? Any past shows routinely televise curtain calls?
I have heard that AitF pretty much ran straight through like a play. For some reason they stopped taping in front of a live studio audience and always wondered why.
Being the punchline character can be super fun. A couple years ago I played Nathan Detroit in GUYS AND DOLLS, and despite him being a lead, he's also an eternal punchline, spending pretty much the entire show doing and saying whatever thing will get him into no trouble, and earning the sympathy of pretty much no one. And let me tell you:
It was a blast.
First, with many characters like this (maybe not so much Screech) it can be really easy to play them as utter scum. Finding the right balance between abject stupidity and earnest innocence to make your performance sympathetic can be really rewarding as an actor. But more than that, these characters get a lot of the best laughs; it's pretty much built into the character type. And there's little, as an actor, quite like getting a good laugh from the audience.
Very much in agreement with your opinion on Brockmire, Ken. I have zero interest in baseball (or any sport for that matter), yet I loved the first season of Brockmire. The second was still interesting, but it seemed like they were starting to flounder, and by the third season my primary reaction was "WTF happened to this show?". It's always a disappointment watching a show that started off with such promise get derailed like that; it's akin to watching a formerly rational friend wander down the conspiracy theory path. That first season, though...I can give it my highest praise by saying I loved it almost as much as I love the movie Slap Shot.
Call Me Kat is based on the much funnier and better written BBC comedy Miranda which did do a curtain call when the actor break character at the end of the last scene and wave good bye.
In Screech's case...he laughed all the way to the grave.
The thing about Screech was, he really had some of the funniest lines. I know he was made to seem the weird nerd (and in later seasons he'd warble out lines in a goofy voice), but he had some great jokes that Gosselar and Lopez never got to say because they were the cool ones. I'm sure for adult actors it's easier to laugh all the way to the bank, but I bet it's harder playing the weird one as a teen. Sad.
Brockmire, So good, then bad, then godawful and unwatchable. I assume when a show has this path that the writers/creators had no idea what would happen if a 2nd season was approved, much less a 3rd one.
The "cellar" episode--titled "Two's a Crowd"--aired on Feb. 12, 1978 during "All in the Family"'s eighth and very best season--some powerful and superbly executed stories that year. The season also marked Sally Struthers's and Rob Reiner's departure from the show, and if only--if only--AITF had wrapped up its run then, as Norman Lear had wanted to do, it would have been the the absolute perfect ending.
Supposedly, the real possibility of being confused with Ted Baxter and perceived as a buffoon tormented Ted Knight, and he seriously considered leaving "Mary Tyler Moore" at one point. The recently departed Allan Burns talked him out of it.
How much an actor is affected by being the brunt of jokes depends on the mental state of the actor going in.
On "Growing Pains" Tracy Gold's character, Carol became the recipient of a lot of fat jokes. Apparently at the time the producers/writers didn't know that Gold was battling anorexia. The repeated jokes didn't cause her eating disorder, but they did trigger a worsening of her condition. Which eventually caused her to be written out of several episodes.
Maybe when the jokes become personal it can take a toll on a person. As opposed to just playing a character with faults or quirks unusual characteristics such as a Cliff Clavin.
M.B.
In this topsy turvy, chaotic world we live in, we should all try and relax. There's no Rush.
Friday question...
Similar to ALL IN THE FAMILY, I believe you’ve mentioned having attended RHODA on more than one occasion. Can you share some details on that experience as well and perhaps how it compared to attending MARY TYLER MOORE?
Douglas Trapasso All I can manage is Frank Nelson of The Jack Benny Show and his "Yeee-eeesss?"
and answering Don G, I think a few of the 50's shows used to do that.
lastly following up on Chris in Cowtown's comments, can you put your finger on what went wrong with Call Me Kat? The talent is great. I loved Miranda. but "Kat" just leaves me cold.
The filmed Beverly Hillbillies weekly
waved goodbye
Re. tapings of All in the Family and The Jeffersons, all episodes were run as plays in front of a live audience, stopping only for a brief costume or set change, with all actors expected to know their lines. Occasional line or camera fixes that needed to be addressed, would be done as "pickups" after the audience was released. AITF stopped taping in front of an audience only when the show became "Archie Bunker's Place" and Carroll O'Connor initiated a shorter work week. Norman Lear was not involved in those episodes.
In his book "Golden Girls Forever," author Jim Colucci relates how the show frequently did jokes at the expense of Dorothy, played by Bea Arthur, and her perceived unattractiveness and lack of sex appeal. One of the show's writers is quoted talking about how they had to stop doing those kinds of lines after Bea Arthur broke down in tears at a script reading, upset over the steady stream of "Dorothy is big and ugly" jokes her character had been subjected to.
I always thought Bea Arthur was very attractive. And she had the best lines!
I don't know if Dustin Diamond laughed to any bank. He always seemed to have to be bustling for money after his Screech days were over. Plus I can imagine in his case it was harder because he was so young when he started playing the fool. It's not like John Ratzenberger who was already a seasoned actor and had enough of a world view to know what he was in for and how to separate his personal and professional personas.
"All in the Family" actually stopped taping in front of a live audience after Rob and Sally left and they then brought Danielle Brisbois in (She was cute but the last thing the show needed was a pre-teen). Norman Lear was no longer involved so Carroll used his authority to tape not only sans people watching in studio but also out of sequence and also for possible double roles like Jean's playing a relative in one while she also played Edith in the same scene...
I believe ALL IN THE FAMILY dropped the studio audience a few years before Rob Reiner and Sally Struthers left the show, despite what internet sources say. (Perhaps it was the year the Stivics moved next door to the Bunkers.) The change is obvious because the show started using a much wider variety of camera angles, which likely wouldn't have been possible with an audience there.
Mentioning All in the Family. . .are you at all surprised that a generation of people that lionized Archie Bunker and the show then ended up enthusiastically supporting the president that held those exact despicable qualities? Archie Bunker IS Trump.
Re: ALL IN THE FAMILY and when it began taping without an audience. The episode Ken was in the audience for, "Two's a Crowd," was taped and aired late in season eight, the last season with Rob Reiner and Sally Struthers, indicating that it had to have been season nine, the series' last, when it began taping without an audience.
I'm aware that what I'm about to say may violate Ken's policy on being polite and considerate of everyone making comments, but at risk of having my own comment deleted, Mike H., that's one of the dumbest things I've ever heard.
Yep - season 8 of AITF is done in front of a studio audience. Season 9 isn’t. Rob Reiner’s voiceover at the end of every episode states that “All in the Family was recorded on tape before a live audience.” Starting in season 9, it’s Carroll O’Connor who does the voiceover, after Reiner’s departure, and he says, “All in the Family was played to studio audience for live responses.”
“Two’s a Crowd” is an excellent episode and really shows off the underrating acting skills of Reiner. Mike has this heartbroken look at the end when he finally realizes why Archie is the way he is. It’s appropriate that this one one of the last times Archie and Mike spend significant time together. After that, it would have been difficult for Mike to fight with him the same way as he had before.
Here's another Friday question: What happened to Chopper Dave on Frasier? He appeared in two early first season episodes but was never seen again. His poster was hanging up in other episodes and he was mentioned a few other times. Was it a matter of Richard Poe's availability or lack of ideas for the character?
Agree with you completely about Brockmire.
Holy crap! You were at the "Shoe-Booty" taping? That might be the best Archie episode of all time as it completely explains the character.
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