Monday, March 08, 2021

The Meghan & Harry Interview

It’s always hard for TV writers to write about how hard it is being a TV writer.  Long grueling hours, endless notes, enormous pressure, pushback from actors, etc.  The reason it’s hard is because most people would see this and go “boo hoo.”   They see that TV writers are well compensated, are in a glamorous business, and most people would trade places with them in a second.  So it’s hard to generate any real sympathy for the plight of a TV writer who drives a BMW and lives in Bel Air.  

I was reminded of that last night while watching the Oprah interview with Prince Harry and princess/SUITS’ star, Meghan Markle.   They both seemed lovely enough, and their life in a fishbowl, trapped in an oppressive lifestyle with tabloids ripping you on a daily basis sounds like hell.  Clearly, it’s taken a heavy toll, especially on Meghan.   And now they’ve given up the royal life to live as simple folks on a giant estate in Montecito, California, one of the most exclusive conclaves in the country.   When Oprah Winfrey is your neighbor you’re not living in row houses.  

So of the millions who watched last night (and I sheepishly admit to being one of them), how many were saying, “I’ll trade ya and when can I be trapped in that castle?”  

I suspect a large number.  

But I also imagine an even larger portion of the audience did care.  There’s something so intriguing about royalty, and privilege, and palace dish.   They’re the real-life Ewings and Carirngtons.   It’s a living soap opera.  Fairy tale weddings and family in-fighting, tragedy, scandals, old world protocol, ceremony, and mini-series.

I’m not sure why I watched.  I mean, I liked her on SUITS, but after weathering four years of Trump trauma on a daily basis, whether Meaghan actually once made Kate cry is of zero importance to me.  Theirs was not a story I followed closely, being more concerned that that deranged psychopath didn’t destroy our country.  

Perhaps what drew me was knowing this was one of the few remaining shared experiences we as a country would have.   This was an event.  As such, people felt compelled to watch it live.  And I bet there’s a lot of talk today about it.  If the CDC would let us gather around the water cooler this is what the topic of discussion would be.   So I wanted to be a part of that.   The reality is — for me and you — Harry and Meghan’s lives do not effect me one iota.   They can be in California or England, have two kids or six kids, feed chickens or go over to Oprah’s for a BBQ.  I don’t give a shit.

And yet I watched.  And I’m offering opinions.   But hey, it was just nice to take a break from Mitch McConnell, COVID variants, QAnon, anti-vaxers, moron governors in Texas and Mississippi and hear about squabbles over flower girl dresses.   And as always, Oprah was a master interviewer.  I devoted a lot of my focus to the questions she asked, how she framed them, how she followed up, how she made Meg & Har feel comfortable enough to be truly candid, and how impeccably prepared she was.   No one does it better.  

And if after watching (because I bet you did), your heart can go out to the royal couple for the ordeal “the firm” put them through, we TV writers really do put in insane hours often doing soul-crushing work.  And the BMW is in the shop half the time.  Show us some love. 

46 comments :

  1. Troy McClure3/08/2021 6:05 AM

    Talking of QAnon, they now say the real inauguration will be on March 20th. LOL x billion.

    Let's take a moment to recognize the outstanding contribution to comedy by Republicans.

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  2. Hey Ken Levine,
    I was so sad yesterday watching it.Really, there was racism discussed. Will this have any ramification in England and its people ? How will they react?
    How will Joe Biden react? How will the black community react?
    Why did they discuss the color of the baby?
    Why?
    How is this important in 2021 ?
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8BdMK4JjH4

    Thank you,
    Terry

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  3. I rarely disagree, but I don't think of Oprah as a master interviewer after her "kid gloves" interview with Lance Armstrong several years ago.

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  4. Their live seems like a sitcom premise.

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  5. Here in Louisiana, we have more important things to discuss like the allegations of a former LSU Tigers football team coach propositioning female students he wanted "attrative, fit, blonde" during the years his team won massive number of games, only to be fired after losing a massive amount of games several years later...

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  6. Just back from a quick stop at YouTube:

    Watched a couple of clips from Ozzie Nelson's days leading a "sweet" dance band.

    One of them was a plaintive refrain called "I'm Looking For A Guy Who Plays Alto And Baritone, And Doubles On Clarinet, And Wears A Size 37 Suit."

    The other was an old Soundie, with real production behind it:
    "I've Got Those 'Oh What An Easy Job You've Got, All You Do Is Wave A Stick' Blues."

    Given today's topic, something to think about ...
    (Maybe even a Friday Question?)

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  7. I'll take that bet!

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  8. The big thing that struck me was how much Meghan's story paralleled that of Harry's mom, Diana. I'm sure he was all about getting out of the palace because he didn't want a repeat.

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  9. Can’t think of anything I care less about.

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  10. Fed by the muse3/08/2021 8:18 AM

    I can empathize somewhat with you Ken as I worked in film music for about twenty years (so, about a third of my life). While there were some wonderful fringe benefits (e.g., working with some of the most accomplished musicians in the world, excellent health insurance, travel to foreign locales to record scores) no one outside of my "circle" could appreciate the sheer work it took to fulfill "product on a schedule": 18/7 weeks, postponed/canceled vacations (not good when you're in a relationship with someone who works a M-F job), missed family holiday gatherings, little acknowledgement for work well done (despite the consecutive weeks of 18, sometimes 20+ hour days). What looks like a "fun job" from the outsider's perspective is, I suppose, another part of the "magic of Hollywood" illusion. In the past, before the advent of notation programs, when people said to me that I must have it easy (because I do music) I would simply hand them a pad of forty-line score paper and tell them to fill fifteen of the fifty pages (deciding to let them off easy) with notes by the end of the day. To my recollection no one ever took up the challenge.

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  11. I love the internet. I never knew what anyone was talking about at the water cooler, but now I can go online and find out.

    I've always had a lot of sympathy for writers, especially the ones where the stakes are high enough so that dozens of massive egos collide. It must be soul destroying to be a row boat among the supertankers and suezmax container ships, especially when the most important cargo is in the rowboat.

    BTW, Didn't they make a movie about the rough life of the royals? I think it had Audrey Hepburn as the princess. Harry and Meaghan have nothing to brag about when compared to the lives of the Japanese royals or, worse, those late and lamented to some extent in Nepal.

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  12. I did not watch it, and frankly any kind of reporting on it, or even seeing it mentioned, annoys the living daylights out of me. This is yellow press celebrity crap, so thanks but no thanks. And there is tremendous irony in the fact that they try to escape their tabloid-stoked soap opera lives by continuing the overblown soap opera in the form of putting up this ridiculous blamefest spectacle with Oprah of all people (who, by the way, is a lot of things but NOT a good interviewer).

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  13. Those prized chicken tails were so long even Steadman tried to ride on them.

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  14. Yeah, clearly that family learned NOTHING from the Diana situation. Literally nothing.

    Really, it's a story about how his family/employer sucks donkey balls, and we all kind of relate to that.

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  15. Tony Hendra RIP

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  16. Too Busy for This3/08/2021 9:49 AM

    Count me among those who could not care less.
    I accidentally saw a couple of minutes while flipping channels. Meaghan (sp?) was relating how she never even considered what it would mean to be part of the "royal" family. Never looked it up. Never even crossed her mind. My immediate reaction was "she's a moron", followed by "what a self-serving piece of crap." click.

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  17. "Clearly, it’s taken a heavy toll, especially on Meghan."

    As it would on any woman who has been vilified by the media, and who cannot do a damn thing about it. (Just. Ask. Britney.) For Meghan, however, the toll has been especially heavy, because her race has played another (and perhaps, even bigger) part in the press' vilification of her since she first became associated with Harry. And *that*, and not whether they continue to live in financial splendor after leaving behind a monarchy that obviously has never fully embraced her ethnic and racial heritage or their union, is precisely Harry and Meghan's point (which you apparently missed, Ken).

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  18. The best part about being a successful writer and baseball announcer, it would seem to me, is that you get a lot of the perks such as good money and the ability to be around, and be friends with, a lot of really interesting people. And yet there is really no downside. You can go to the store or restaurant without people staring and pointing at you. And who the hell stalks a comedy writer?
    Many years ago I was taking to a woman and mentioned that one of the richest people in the country would be Charles M Schulz. She thought I was nuts. How could a person who just draws cartoons be rich? We had a bit of an argument about it with me pointing out all the merchandise and TV shows and the fact that Peanuts was in 3 thousand newspapers. She still didn’t believe it. A few months later there was an article in the paper about the best paid celebrities and he was near the top, just below Oprah. Shortly after that some idiots tried to kidnap his wife. Best to be anonymous I think.

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  19. We fought a war to get away from these people. I'm just saying...

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  20. Sounds like Harry is whipped.

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  21. Bradford Exchange3/08/2021 12:04 PM

    Didn't watch. Zero percent interest. In the United States we just spent a whole year discussing and trying to correct systemic racism and outdated ideas - and then we drop everything to watch a couple talk about their life in an outdated monarchy that's rooted in racism. It's ridiculous to me that Americans give it the time of day. But as the last year also demonstrated, a lot of Americans are out of their damn minds.

    In short: Who gives a shit and it's time to get rid of the monarchy that basically exists strictly for tourists to bring money to the country.

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  22. I didn't watch it; or rather, this is the sort of thing I only "watch" through Twitter reactions. I saw a lot of compliments for Oprah's interviewing skill, but gotta say: they chose the interviewer who would give them the treatment they wanted. (That said, although I've watched very little of Oprah's output, I have always admired the way she hosts civil discussions about race.)

    wg

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  23. I think you meant to describe Montecito as an enclave. Unless that's where they meet to elect a pope.

    Wow, racism in the British upper classes. How brave of Oprah to bring us this astonishing news. Has she met their prime minister, who used to write about "piccaninnies" with "watermelon smiles"? No American politician would say that out loud, even at CPAC.

    Unless March is now sweep month, I really don't see why this deserved two hours of prime time.

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  24. Somehow, somewhere in my genealogy, I am related to "The Royals" and, even further back, one of the first kings of Ireland. I'm glad that my ancestors bolted from over there and came to America way back in the distant past. But for me to become King of the British Empire I think there's 4 billion people in front of me that have to die first. But I didn't watch one iota of this show and generally don't give a rat's ass about what they or any of my "relatives" do.

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  25. Oprah proved again that she is a master interviewer - and her secret is apparent - SHE LISTENS. All too often, television interviewers talk too much.

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  26. There wasn't one component of that spectacle that held any interest for me whatsoever. Not the inbred Eurotrash royal, his wife, or the oh-so-sensitive interviewer. I'll take an Adam-12 rerun any day.

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  27. I find it impossible to give a fuck about the Royal Family and their endless soap opera. I've seen exactly one episode of The Crown, and couldn't get myself to bother watching a second one because I just don't care about these useless people. The Brits should have ended the monarchy a century ago.

    So no, I did not watch. They'd have had to pay me to watch it, and paid a lot. Not only do I not give a crap about the Royals, but Oprah herself is more than enough to keep me away also. I avoid the egomaniacal woman all I can. "Master Interviewer"? Did you write that line or did Oprah ghost-write it? I have not forgotten how, when Mary Tyler Moore died, Oprah made it all about herself, about how deeply Saint Oprah was affected by the death of Mary Tyler Moore.

    The subject of the royals came up once when I was talking with Patrick MacNee. He hated them, and called them, "The same German bastards who were murdering our boys in 1916." If you've ever wondered why MacNee was never knighted, there it is.

    So boo-hoo for the royals. At my water-cooler, all anyone seems to want to talk about is Allen v Farrow. And frankly, the death of Tony Hendra, whom I never met other than on Facebook, affects me more than everything all the royals have done throughout my entire life added together. They're boring.

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    Replies
    1. Kevin FitzMaurice3/08/2021 6:03 PM

      Sorry, but I've long held the same views about Ms. Winfrey--long before the MTM "tribute, which, as Mr. McEwan correctly points out, quickly turned into "An Evening with Oprah."

      Anyone who puts herself on nearly every cover of her own magazine has real problems.

      Delete
  28. I looked at the ratings. 17 million people watched Oprah's giving Harry & Meghan a Royal Audience. (Why bother escaping The Queen only to end up with Oprah, who thinks she's the Queen?) So that still leaves 311,200,000 of us that had something better to do, like take a nap.

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  29. As D. McEwan said >> So that still leaves 311,200,000 of us that had something better to do, like take a nap.

    That's exactly what I did. I made it through 25 minutes, left the den and went to bed.

    Happy to be among the 311mm (at least after 8:25pm ET).

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  30. Not even vaguely interested in McMegHarry. I watched series 3 of the terrific Brit police procedural UNFORGOTTEN.

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  31. Todd Everett3/08/2021 4:22 PM

    Just wanted to add my name to the list of people who are too smart and sophisticated to have watched the Oprah interview, and think the rest of the world would be impressed by knowing.

    Instead, I watched the Critics Choice Awards, making me one of a very select group.

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  32. Chances are very good that Harry will never ascend to the throne as William and his 3 (so far) kids stand in line behind Charles. Why stick around only to endure harrassment of you and your wife for the rest of your lives. More power to them for seeing the writing on the wall and having the good sense to leave in order to seek a more private and safe life together.

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  33. Friday question: Have you gotten a Covid vaccination shot? If so, how did you feel afterwards? I've heard the second one can be rough, but worse for younger people. Please encourage those who haven't had the shot to hang in there and not start going out. Its tough when all your friends are posting pictures from breweries, but stay home until you have the shot(s).

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  34. also, the 17 million viewers SOUNDS big til you realize that's also about what the NFL does on any given week during the regular sesson

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  35. Fun Fact

    Meghan's father, Thomas Markle, was a director of photography and lighting director on General Hospital and Married with Children.

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  36. Perfectly said, D. McEwen.

    As an aside, I saw QEII circa 1959, when I was in the 7th grade. She visited Williamsburg, VA, and my class took a field trip to gawk at her. My mother, impressed by titles, came along. I saw her get out of a limo and quickly walk into a building, only able to view her from the shoulders up. She never once looked left or right to acknowledge her audience.(Which was several hundred people.)

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  37. Royalty is all about the bloodlines and the perks that comes with the bloodlines (such as owning a nation-state.) That there should be racism among the royals should come as no surprise to anybody.

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  38. Alan Sepinwall's take. https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/tv-features/harry-meghan-oprah-interview-recap-1138184/

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  39. @Buttermilk Sky...

    Johnston (I refuse to use his cuddly nickname) isn't really part of the upper classes over here. He is, however, a dangerous weapons grade imbecile. Funnily enough , he was born in NYC, though I'm jot claiming the two are connected. If you really want to see that upper class toxicity to fill effect, look no further than Jacob Rees Mogg. But he's only a racist in the sense that he despises anyone who isn't part of his inbred social strata. Be they white, black, Asian.

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  40. I didn't watch it. I empathize with the racial issue, but we once fought a war so we didn't have to care about these people, and we won. What happens in and around the royal family is not worth a second's thought to me.

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  41. England has had a figurehead monarchy since before World War Two. No idea why they still live in palaces when they are royalty in name only but not in authority. The Queen has no impact on the nation's laws or military. The press makes a big deal out of them for reasons I'll never understand. I liked that Monty Python used to make fun of them which annoyed some people. I found it disturbing that the British press was clearly bothered by the fact that Meghan is black (but has one white parent) even though she doesn't look black, like she was somehow tainting the royal gene pool. The undisguised racism was astonishing and she was right to complain that the royal family ignored the vile press reports for fear they'd turn their negative attention to the Queen.

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  42. Piers Morgan identified early on to Brits that Meghan Markle would be trouble, and he has been shown to be correct. For having this foresight and refusing to take everything Markle says as gospel truth, he has now been fired.

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    1. Troy McClure3/11/2021 1:41 PM

      No, Mike, he wasn't fired, he quit because his bosses told him to apologize on air for saying he didn't believe her when she said she'd felt suicidal and he refused to do so.

      Morgan didn't identify early on that Markle would be trouble. If you look up the history, Morgan spoke glowingly about her, tweeting incessantly about his admiration. It was when they had one dinner and she didn't contact him again that he began what has amounted to a five year cyber stalking campaign attacking her. He is an example of what happens when a woman rejects a man with a fragile ego. Some men still haven't accepted the notion that women have a right to decline someone's attention. Morgan couldn't cope with her stopping contact, so he has waged a relentless smear campaign. His behavior is sociopathic and misogynistic.

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  43. "cd1515 said...
    also, the 17 million viewers SOUNDS big til you realize that's also about what the NFL does on any given week during the regular sesson
    "

    Tuesday those ratings were downgraded to only 11 million viewers.

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  44. RANT WARNING:
    If the world’s population was not in such agony from 1) their lives being threatened by an invisible bug, 2) losing their family members to a horrible death, 3) losing their business and/or life savings, 4) knowing there are thousands of deaths everyday from a lethal pandemic, perhaps Meghan's revelation that a bunch of old white folks may have said something archaic and stupid, or that her feelings may have been hurt by not being heard, or that she was stunned by the loss of a security detail, perhaps, just perhaps, that interview would not have made me quite as nauseous or angry for those who are truly suffering everyday, as of this writing, and who may never recover.

    Few people will ever come close to the extravagant riches, opportunities and power Meghan now has at her fingertips. Racism is an ugly, disgusting symptom of our human condition, moronically sick history and mental weakness. That interview was not designed to raise awareness about the evils of racism or how to end it. It was a slick, self-absorbed promotion of their brand. And Oprah was a more than willing enabler.

    Harry seemed to be genuinely struggling to figure out who the hell he is. If and when he does, the marriage may be in trouble.

    Whew. Sorry. Thanks for letting me get that off my chest.

    Cheers!

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