Vincent Saia gets us going.
I know this is a highly controversial issue, but I think your views on this are important. How would you feel about a black James Bond? Or a bi-sexual James T. Kirk (I'm sure you know William Shatner has already voiced his opinion)? Personally, I agree with Stan Lee - Once the race, gender, and/or sexual orientation of a character is established it should not be changed.
I don't think I'm being bigoted or narrow-minded. I think I'm respecting the conception of the author(s). Of course, if the author says it's okay as Sam Shepard did when he gave his (belatted) blessings to a female version of TRUE WEST, that's a different matter. I'm sure you remember THE NEW ODD COUPLE. lol
I guess my big question is why is the character’s ethnicity or gender changed? If it’s just to add diversity then it seems patronizing. But if you plan on going in a different direction with the character then the change may be a huge plus.
James Bond has always been portrayed as a proper English gentleman. Were there African-American secret agents with Bond’s background? If so then great. If not, it’s just a distortion of the character. Create a new character. Start a new franchise that hopefully can go for fifty years.
I never saw the all-female version of THE ODD COUPLE. Quite honestly, it felt like a stunt and a money grab.
I would however, pay to see a Caucasian version of SHAFT.
Ben asks:
Do you update your blog yourself? What about the podcast? Did you set it up originally or have someone else consult? Just wondering how those old jock tech skills translate to the Internet.
Everything associated with the blog I do myself. As for the podcast, I have a host company, WAVE, that drops it weekly on its various platforms. But I do all the production and any necessary editing. Each week I upload a fully completed episode.
Brandon in Virginia wonders:
About a week or two ago, I was telling someone about a series of memos Robert Reed wrote to Sherwood Schwartz criticizing "The Brady Bunch"'s writing, and how silly the show was getting. While Reed wasn't necessarily wrong - one memo talked about a hair tonic turning Greg's hair orange in 1970-something - if you had a star constantly doing this, do you give in or tell them where to stick their memos?
Footnote: I believe the plan was to kill off the Mike Brady character, but ABC canceled the show.
It depends on the actor — whether he’s worth it, and just how far apart creatively you are with him. Also, how respectful he expresses his dissatisfaction.
On the one hand, Robert Reed was probably right and the show often did flirt with implausibility. On the other, it was a Sherwood Schwartz production — the guy who did GILLIGAN’S ISLAND. So Reed had to know going in what he was in for. It’s not like he was promised FRASIER and it turned into SILVER SPOONS.
That said, if I were the showrunner Carol Brady would have been a widow after season one.
And finally, from Bill Kelliher:
Ken, what are your thoughts on the Frasier reboot now that it's official? Will you be working on the new show?
I have not been asked to participate and know none of the particulars. I don’t know the premise, don’t know the writers, the cast, or whether any of the original cast members will be involved.
I wish them the very best. They have some gargantuan shoes to fill. But I think the world needs a FRASIER-esque quality sitcom again.
What’s your Friday Question? Get vaccinated!!!!
Ken, I'm with you on a Caucasian version of SHAFT---but honestly, since Wally Cox died, who'd play the lead role?
ReplyDeleteFriday-ish question: were there ever any talks regarding a foreign version of FRASIER?
ReplyDeleteBy that I mean, did the BBC, say, ever inquire about producing a British version of FRASIER, set in a similar-to-Seattle location (but in the U.K.) ? There were a few American versions of FAWLTY TOWERS, that were all abysmal. John Cleese and Connie Booth also did a theatrical version of FAWLTY TOWERS. I think a Hindi version of FRASIER with singing and dancing would be terrific !
A white version of Shaft? I shudder to imagine the opening theme.
ReplyDeleteI HAVE seen the distaff version of "The Odd Couple" with Sally Struthers and Rita Moreno on Broadway. I enjoy the work of both women, but this was miscast. Neither actor was bad, but I didn't buy Struthers as a neurotic neat freak and Moreno, who channeled Walter Matthau's cadence in her rants, was as much of a slob as I am Ken Levine and/or David Isaacs.
ReplyDeleteOn the plus side, I got a chance to see Tony Shalhoub live, before I saw him in "Wings" or "Stark Raving Mad".
An anecdote that Harlan Ellison recalled in one of his books of criticism (and I will use the old cliché, "...and he SWEARS this is true"):
A film studio executive said that a fellow executive came into his office with a surefire project that had legacy buy-in, big numbers written all over it, etc...
"Let's remake "The Wiz"...
...WHITE!"
In researching "Hollywood Hi-Fi," I read several books about the Brady Bunch, the best of which was Barry Williams' witty "Growing Up Brady." I also read some of those Robert Reed memos. Apparently, he wrote more memos than David O. Selznick. He would go on at great length about the painful stupidity or implausibility of one thing or another, causing the higher-ups to gripe that he seemed to think he was appearing in a BBC production of Shakespeare, not the freakin' Brady Bunch. In short, he was probably correct, but man, was he missing the point.
ReplyDelete“if I were the showrunner Carol Brady would have been a widow after season one.”
ReplyDeleteThis could be an ongoing bit Ken for the blog or podcast: “If I were the show runner”
You look back at shows we all know and discuss what changes you would’ve made, not to be critical of the original, just maybe to show us a different angle that was unexplored.
One thing about the female Odd Couple was that making the two men Spanish enabled Neil Simon to go back and rewrite the original to "Oscar & Felix", where he switched the women from English to Spanish. Made those two roles 10x more funny.
ReplyDeleteThanks for answering another one of my questions, Ken.
ReplyDeleteI know some have suggested making James Bond a Black man or a woman after Daniel Craig leaves. I have nothing against this, but I do think they're missing an opportunity to have both in a spinoff. I mean, they already have the actor and the character right there: Naomie Harris as Moneypenny.
ReplyDeleteShe's pretty great in the role. Smart, sexy, knows how to handle a gun (when not accidentally shooting Bond). What more do you need?
I think this was the intention of Halle Berry's character some number of years ago.
DeleteAlan Christensen:
ReplyDeleteThe white SHAFT theme would be performed by Ray Stevens, with the Ray Conniff Singers:
Ray: "They say that cat Shaft is a....."
Singers: "Shut your mouth."
Ray: "Help! I'm being cancelled!"
"Make a new character" is great advice, and yes, we should be doing that. However, SO MUCH of our cultural bandwidth is spent revisiting, remaking, rebooting old properties, and like it or not, most if not all of those properties originated in eras when the default human (for storytelling purposes) was the straight, white man. So, if we are going to spend that much bandwidth resurrecting older IP (and I see no sign that we're going to stop doing this), I think we HAVE to be open to mixing things up a bit, deviating at times from the original creators' intent. Otherwise, we'll be forever mired in all of those outdated sensibilities, defaulting to the straight, while, male character because... well, that's the way it's always been. So, a black James Bond? Sure, why not? A gay Captain Kirk? Yes, please. A female Doctor Who? Wait, they did that already, and what do you know, the world didn't end.
ReplyDeleteIn making "The New Odd Couple"s leading players' race Black-all they did was change some expressions to what the vernacular was at the time. Since there was a writers strike, many of the eps were direct remakes of when Tony and Jack were doing the show...
ReplyDeleteI'd love to see a Black James Bond set in 1960s West Africa. Pick a former British colony and have a few ex-colonials still around, both good guys and villains. It would open up a lot of great stories in great locations, a big appeal of the Bond series. Play on Bond's English boarding school upbringing and his local connections in Africa. One could have a lot of fun with this. (You could update it. Keep the English old school connection. Have him working out of Lagos. If you moved him to the US, you could play on Ellison's Invisible Man and contrast his invisibility in a blue collar get up as opposed to his high visibility in white tie.)
ReplyDeleteNational Lampoon did it first with its White-ploitation movie posters: Schraft's Big Score.
With Bond, the one non-negotiable point is that he's British. He's quaint little post-empire England saving America and the other big boys, needing only one tough but civilized policeman to do it. Race and even gender can be different so long as you keep that defining national identity.
ReplyDeleteI've been out of touch with Doctor Who for some decades, but the format is designed to allow the casting of absolutely anybody as The Doctor. What matters there is the style and tone of the science fiction.
Presenting Nancy Drew and/or the Hardy Boys as adults would only work if you really focused on their having that history of teenage sleuthing, and how it shaped them. Just slapping their names on grown-up detectives, no matter how well done, won't work.
The genius of "Sherlock" was that they identified what was essential in Doyle's original and hewed to it, which freed them to dispense with and/or mock a lot of the traditional folderol.
For a long time I thought of reimagining "Annie" on an age basis: The title character is a modern-day senior from a dire old ladies' home, and Warbucks is a ruthless, Rand-quoting young millionaire humanized by her maternal presence. Instead of the daughter she's the mother he never had, someone whose love and happiness mattered to him. Of course you'd have a chorus of sweet old ladies under the dubious care of Miss Hannigan. Would probably lose the president as a character.
I definitely agree that the answer is to come up with a new character/characters who are black to be similar to the white originals. Probably in a surface way (not doing the ODD COUPLE/ Felix and Oscar bit making one neat and one sloppy wouldn't be original enough. Other conflicting qualities would be better). Why not an African-American superspy? Just not James Bond. And that goes for any change in race/gender/etc., including from black to white.
ReplyDeleteAlthough another country doing their own version of a show, like with THE OFFICE, or Britain's TILL DEATH US DO PART being adapted into ALL IN THE FAMILY, where we didn't get to even see the British show here - until YouTube, that is, and changing the race, gender, etc. in that context is okay in my view. Enough difference already in a major way. Note that the character names on those shows - and even the title in one case - are still different.
Even the most well-known American James Bond was named Matt Helm.
An African-American version of The Brady Bunch could work. As someone who has all four Brady Bunch albums on vinyl as well as CD for crystalline clarity (and who doesn't), I'm in if only for the possibility of a new album with an updated version of the groovy "It's a Sunshine Day" and "Keep On."
ReplyDeleteAs the Bradys warbled in their prescient wisdom, "It's time to change, time to rearrange."
By the time of "The Brady Bunch Hour" (Sid & Marty Krofft) Robert Reed had fully embraced the insanity. He got to sing and dance, which I guess turned the tide. Schwartz gave approval, but was not involved. "The Brady Bunch Variety Hour" pilot/special, led to eight more episodes of "The Brady Bunch Hour." If you haven't seen it, treat yourself to a cringe-worthy hoot. Liquor helps.
ReplyDeleteFriday question. On occasion you—justifiably—criticize the writing on some contemporary sitcoms. Any of those writers ever contact you in anger over the criticism?
ReplyDeleteJames Bond was not American. He was also not a proper English gentleman. He was a killer polished by British Intelligence to pass as a gentleman. Africans have been part and parcel of England since Roman times. Don't tell me Idris Elba can't/shouldn't play Bond.
ReplyDeleteI think that Bond 007 has been established as a title assigned to numerous individuals so there's no reason for one of them not to be black or anything else.
DeleteMichael Hagerty, my alternative to Wally Cox would have been his Hollywood Squares colleague, Paul Lynde.
ReplyDeleteMy problem with rebooting Frasier is that the comparisons are so inevitable (kind of like comparing MASH with what I thought was a good show spun off from it, but there was no way it could match up). ABC was trying to reboot NYPD Blue and use a couple of the old cast, but do you mean to tell me you can't do a show about the New York police without a Sipowicz (notwithstanding that Dennis Franz is one of the most brilliant actors in TV history, and--ahem--a tremendous comic actor to boot).
In THE LOVED ONE from 1965 Jonathan Winters pitched an American James Bond with "human warmth" and set a cowboy actor to learn a refined English accent. The accent didn't take and Winters was fired, as well as John Gielgud hanging himself.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason the Shaft discussion reminded me of an on-air comment by the legendary DJ Larry Lujack when "Shaft in Africa" came out in 1973. (Do not ask me why I remember this; I have no idea.) Uncle Lar said something like "I don't care about Shaft in Africa, but I would pay to see "Shaft in Winnetka."
ReplyDelete“Bond” has always (in the official films, at least) been English, but the actors have been Scottish, Irish, English, Welsh and Australian.
ReplyDeleteIdris Elba would make a good Bond and he's English
ReplyDeleteFrom what I understand, Robert Reed expected The Brady Bunch to deal with stories concerning the concept of a newly-blended step-family, a part of the concept the show pretty much entirely ignored. Whether it was unrealistic of him to expect that... well, that's a matter of opinion, I guess, although, yeah, when it's a show from the creator of Gilligan's Island, you really should go in with low expectations.
ReplyDeleteBut there was never a plan to kill off Mike Brady. After the fifth season finished production, Reed's agent was informed that, should the show get renewed for a sixth season, they were going to simply recast the role (figuring that if audiences could accept a new Darren on Bewitched, they'd accept a new Mike Brady just as easily). So Robert Reed would be off the show, but the character of Mike Brady would still be there. (All of which was rendered moot when the show was cancelled.)
And then came The Brady Bunch Variety Hour; that, Robert Reed was apparently more excited for than anyone else in the cast. He loved the idea of being able to do music and dance numbers. That he had, like, NO talent for singing or dancing whatsoever - and had no delusions about his lack of talent, either - didn't dampen his enthusiasm one bit. He was terrible, he knew he was terrible, and he loved every minute of it. Go figure.
The cowboy Bond in the LOVED ONE movie was a switch from Evelyn Waugh's story, which involved a faux-Spanish actress being transformed into an Irish colleen (possibly based on the painful hair treatments Harry Cohn put Rita Cansino through to turn her into Rita Hayworth).
ReplyDeleteThe irony of the change is that the yokel being trained to sound British was played by Robert Easton, who was actually one of the greatest dialect coaches in Hollywood, asked to help actors like Laurence Olivier and Ben Kingsley LOSE their native accents for various roles. He taught Al Pacino how to sound Cuban for SCARFACE.
FRIDAY QUESTION: Do you think it's just the tiniest bit elitist that so many actors, directors and producers are now making shows for streaming services instead of the networks? Or am I just a dinosaur who doesn't realize that broadcast TV is dead?
ReplyDeleteI felt the same way several years ago when movie stars that normally wouldn't go near television started doing series on HBO or Showtime, etc. Today it almost seems to be a badge of honor to be in a streaming show. Of course, Hollywood being as trendy as it is this could be yet another fad that will pass over time.
I would love to hear your opinion.
M.B.
Not to drift too far off topic, but the main redeeming quality in THE BRADY BUNCH is Weird Al's parody song:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WW65Ontdcis
Worst casting decision of the year. Cobie Smulders to play Ann Coulter in the Clinton impeachment series. Not because she's a bad actress. She's a very good actress. But because she's beautiful, while Ann Coulter looks like a female Skeletor. And Smulders is so likeable and nice, it'll feel weird watching her play a morally bankrupt, puke faced goblin.
ReplyDeleteSmulders is also replacing Betty Gilpin, another beautiful actress who also happens to have the opposite body type of Coulter.
Delete@Tom,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the Uncle Lar story. He was the best.
Just like we could use a Frasier like sitcom right about now, we could sure use an Uncle Lar, too.
(Though, I can't remember looking forward to the release of a new episode of a series more than I am now with Ted Lasso. Not since Cheers and Frasier, but maybe more so now, because there's virtually nothing as brilliant out there now.)
I have crazy idea for a reboot of THE WIZ: Make it an all-white cast. Instead of funky soul music, go with 1930s-style MGM movie music. Star a teenage actress from the midwest as Dorothy, and make the Wicked Witch of the West an outdated crone stereotype.
ReplyDeleteCome on Hollywood, don't you have any original ideas?
The CW has no qualms of changing the ethnicity of its characters. In "Riverdale", Veronica is Latina, Josie is Black, Reggie is Asian; in "Nancy Drew", Nick Nickerson and Tom Swift are Black, George is Asian (and had her last name changed from "Fayne" to "Fan"); and then there's the all-Latina reboot of "Charmed". That's likely due to its youthful, diverse audience demanding casts that look like them, even if the source material characters were all white; especially in the case of "Nancy Drew", whose early 1930s novels came under fire for broad racial stereotypes.
ReplyDeleteOf course, The CW did keep some key visuals. Betty is a ponytailed blonde, Jughead has his pointy hat, the brunet Archie actor dyes his hair red, and Nancy Drew is played by a natural redhead / strawberry blonde, like in the books.
Concerning James Bond,He was created by Ian Fleming for a novel in 1953. It's worth remembering the roots of the character.
ReplyDeleteAlthough he is frequently described as an English character he had a Scottish father and a Swiss mother. His back story in the books state that for part of his education he went to the very exclusive Fettes School in Edinburgh (some years ahead of another famous, but non fictional, former pupil Tony Blair), Fleming himself was of Scottish descent, but apparently added these qualities in the later novels having being impressed by Sean Connery's portrayal on the screen.
Bond is from a very traditional background, and as far as I know, not moving in such exalted circles myself, not one that would have a large influx from minority groups.
This "Establishment background" still exists in the UK. This includes the last two male British Prime Ministers, who also share the distinction of being old boys at another of Bond's old schools,this time in England: Eton.
In fact, it is often commented on the amount of people with such histories who still have so much power and status in the British Government.
So, just because there are many other people from more diverse backgrounds in the UK now, it does not mean the sort of background that created Bond has died out.
Would it not be more interesting to keep Bond with the history and attitudes he has,and see how he reacts to the changing world around him? The trailers for No Time to Die would seem to suggest there may be some of this in the forthcoming film. He has been called a Misogynist Dinosaur in the past; and that was by his boss! Room for a lot of conflict and humour there, I would have thought.
I would argue the nearest that the United States has come to James Bond is Napoleon Solo; the character was originally created and named by Ian Fleming, and he was due to be involved with the tv series, but dropped out when a deal was done elsewhere to start the Bond films. This was also the reason the proposed title of the series was changed from Solo to the Man From Uncle.
For Doctor Who, since he had been established as a male character for over 50 years and had been consistently played by a twelve different men, and we were told originally that he travelled with his granddaughter, the only reason to change the character's identity was virtue signalling.
I saw this as the reason at the time and everything I have heard since suggests that to
be the case: constant wokeness in the programme has followed. While it is true that the world did not end, I think the world of Doctor Who might. The very sharp decline in UK ratings, (high 10.5 Million; low: 4.5 Million; over 2 short seasons), the commissioning of shorter and shorter seasons, the dropping of the Christmas day specials, (the biggest day of the year for British television), the fact the showrunner has quit with no firm plans in beyond 2022,and very modest ones up to then, suggests a long rest can be expected after this debacle.
It also meant the end of a male role model character who did not go around carrying a gun, especially notable after the 2005 revival. Is this a good thing?
With more television being made for more outlets that ever before, I cannot believe there isn't somebody out there, who can't create an original science fiction heroine or a black British secret agent. This would be much better than just sticking a new past on an existing hero and failing to appreciate the unique characteristics that have moulded the success of what has gone before.
Too bad Gene Wilder is no longer with us, after his performance in Silver Streak I'm confident he'd have made a great Shaft.
ReplyDeleteIdris Elba would make a great Bond. Changing race doesn't have to change the essence of a character. Making Bond gay, however, would alter the core of who he is. Making Cpt.Kirk gay, on the other hand, would hardly be noticed.
ReplyDeleteWell, personally, I'd like to see Phoebe Waller-Bridge as 007, but that's maybe just me.
ReplyDeleteGeorge Gordon Milne: a friend who wrote for DR WHO in the 1980s pitched the idea of a female Doctor all the way back then. These things aren't always virtue signaling.
ReplyDeletewg
That is interesting, the idea was clearly rejected at the time. And the question would be why, and what has changed? I would argue the virtual signalling began in the tail end of the Moffat era, and it was clear to any viewer that a female Doctor was the next step in that process
Delete"Let's remake "The Wiz"...
ReplyDelete...WHITE!"
This is similar to my thought about a European SHAFT. Roundtree was a rule-breaking anti-hero much like the rule-breaking Eastwood as Callahan. A white SHAFT would wrap back around to Callahan.
My problem is that, for me, James Bond is Sean Connery. Lazenby was OK and I could tolerate Roger Moore in the role...but just barely. I don't watch anymore. I have no problem with a Black 007, but it's difficult to imagine me warming to anyone else, no matter the race.
ReplyDeleteBrady Bunch scenario: Taking the entire family to Hawaii, Mike Brady is tragically killed when Greg's surfboard slams into his head. Greg feels bad but is secretly delighted because it gives him free range to boink Marcia. Carol, feeling lonely, confides in Alice and listening to her spouting witticisms slowly realizes that she is a late-blooming lesbian and falls in love with her. They both tell the kids that they're on their own and run off to Greece to live happily ever after. Sam the Butcher, despondent over being dumped by Alice who was just using him as a "beard", takes over raising the kids and keeps them entertained by doing Magilla the Gorilla impressions.
ReplyDeleteDuring the course of your career what actor/actress that you worked with surprised you the most by their performance? Who far exceeded your expectations? On a similar note, who do you think grew and developed the most over the course of time that you worked with them?
ReplyDeleteOf course you can have a black James Bond. Many black or Asian people in Britain are second or third generation British. There are many black people who work in MI6 and MI5. Since Bond is set in current day Britain, there would be no reason not to cast a non-white actor if they are the best fit for the role (handsome, fit, 35 -40 and a good actor). Of course, if you were to set Bond in the 50's or 60's then it may be unrealistic.
ReplyDeleteDoctor Who was on it's way out long before they introduced a female Doctor. By the end of the Moffat years it was running on fumes creatively and they haven't been able to reverse the slide. Quite simply at this point when trying to come up with new plots it's all been done. Whitaker has done as well as anyone could with poor material. Which is big part of why gender/race swaps typically don't work. They are usually Hail Mary plays trying to save properties that are otherwise dead in the water. That doesn't mean that they can't be done well, but it is rare for shows in their prime to make drastic changes.
ReplyDeleteWell, the first adaptation of 007 was that 1954 episode of "Climax" which starred Barry Nelson as the American "Jimmy Bond".
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't call James Bond the perfect gentleman. Patrick Macnee found Bond (in the books) to be repulsive, and he developed the John Steed character in response. Same with Patrick McGoohan and the John Drake character in Danger Man.
To those who raised this: "007" is a code number for an operative. There are other 00s. Unless you're suggesting they never replace a number (which is absurd -- imagine it: "007, meet 00413"). So there may be a black female 007, but that doesn't mean there's a black female James Bond.
ReplyDeleteBut saying that, I really don't see the issue in changing the gender, race or sexuality of an existing character like Bond anyway. Why? Because the character is constantly changing. Every new actor changes the role. Bond's defining characteristics are: Charming, capable, promiscuous international spy. Not: Straight white man.
Surely Hamilton showed us all that a good performer is a good performer, and you forget their ethnicity as soon as you get sucked into their character.
And there's no reason "a proper English gentleman" couldn't be black.
Something is called "virtue signalling" only when someone sees something they don't agree with, but they can't criticise it in polite conversation without seeming bigoted.
ReplyDeleteThere's a great 1965 record album upon which Super Snooper in mistaken for "James Bomb" by Doctor Oh No and Gold Pinky. Ken, they probably sold this at Wallich's Music City when you worked there. Check out the cool cover art:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCxbwwx4S6g
I have read that the concept of the new Frasier is that he has some sort of financial windfall and becomes super wealthy so able to circulate in the uppermost elite circles of his dreams. Also the show will no longer take place primarily in Seattle.
ReplyDeleteI actually think this could be a good premise, but could also be pretty bad if the writers don't know that 'world'. I can't stand Succession because it seems fake to me.
I love Idris Elba and he's a great actor. But it makes no sense to cast him as Bond, since he's pushing 60 and the producers want at least 4 Films from a Bond. 007 should be sipping martinis, not Ensure.
ReplyDelete@ Johnny Walker
ReplyDeleteYes, "virtue signaling" (not "virtual") has been grasped by the Far Right, to criticize people with whom they disagree. A variation of "woke," to them.
Had a discussion, on a design site, as to why it was necessary to rename "Aunt Jemima" and "Uncle Ben." The regular conservatives immediately started using the term. I don't CARE about who "Aunt Jemima" WAS...it's about perception in 2021. History. The uses of stereotypes for decades. I grew up in the South.
And I don't care if characters change race, sex, sexual orientation, etc. It's just another version of the "remake," which has been around for 100 years. It's merely that now, we have reached the point that these factors can be a part of the equation.
In the 1950s, "young" TV was remaking a ton of old movies, on the various "drama anthologies." Then, in the 1970s, the "MOW" (Movie of the Week), regurgitated the process. "Reboots" are NOTHING new. "Re-imagining." It's an industry standard. Why remake the wheel?
ReplyDeleteIn the 1930s/40s - movie remakes could be only a few years apart!
Technically, "A Star is Born" has been filmed FIVE times, if you include "What Price Hollywood?" (Lawsuit involved there.)
In ten years, three variations of "The Maltese Falcon" were filmed...
Actually, "Bridgerton's" lead black actor, Regé-Jean Page, appears to be a major contender for Bond. He's 31. I lust after Elba, but yes, I think he's too old, at this point (48).
ReplyDeleteI have to admit, my favorite comedies..."Frasier"..."The Golden Girls"..."The Mary Tyler Moore Show"..."The Bob Newhart Show"... are VERY white. I see nothing wrong with injecting variety. The new "Wonder Years" is black. The reboot of "Sex AND the City," "And Just Like That," is injecting several diverse characters.
Listen, I grew up on Norman Lear...it's just that the following 20 years, somewhat "lost touch."
OK, one more post. I spent my late 1970s high school years in a Southern, Bible-Belt, small town. My PUBLIC high school taught evolution, birth control, civil rights, etc. Our homecoming queen was black. Last year, I witnessed the VERY limited attempt at a 40th reunion. I was HORRIFIED. I was Valedictorian, by the way, and I had to just step back. Unfortunately, my "Humanities" teacher (an expert on the Kennedy Assassination, which we studied for several weeks), died from Alzheimer's this year. HELL, that man taught us EVERYTHING. He EVEN covered film and TV. AMAZING. He took our class to a prison, Graceland, and a Civil War battlefield. We discussed EVERYTHING.
ReplyDeleteWasn’t The Brady Brides an unauthorized remake of The Odd Couple? The plot: the two older Brady sisters get married and the couples buy a house together because neither can afford a house alone. Marcia married an easy-going slob and Jan married an extremely uptight neat freak. Hilarity ensued.
ReplyDeleteOnly seven episodes were broadcast, so I was apparently the only person in America who liked the show. I mainly liked it because Eve Plumb, who had portrayed awkward middle sister Jan, had turned into a total babe.
Late to the party this week; MLB.com is running a clip of Wilson Alvarez's second start in the majors, White Sox v Orioles. You're very mellifluous talent is part of the calls -- altho there's a lot of horrible Hawk too -- and I was wondering do you remember that game? Where does calling a no-hitter, for your team or the other team, fit among all your play-by-play highlites?
ReplyDelete@ Unknown
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Hawk Harrison call was a 2011 or so call of a Jim Thome home run. It was great because it was against the good guys (White Sox) and it was a walk-off for the Twins.
As for the Brady Bunch Variety Hour, while Robert Reed embraced the show, Eve Plumb did not as she was replaced by Geri Reischi.
Ken, I remember you told a hilarious story on your podcast about a radio DJ who attempted to prevent his firing by playing a specific song... (trying not to spoil it for your blog audience). Is it possible for you to share it on this blog? I couldn't find the story again.
ReplyDelete