David Isaacs and I first met Jimmy (as we all call him, even at 80) in the mid 70’s when we were working together on THE TONY RANDALL SHOW for MTM. Flash forward to early 1982 and I get a call out of the blue from Jimmy saying he and the Charles Brothers were going to be doing this new show on NBC called CHEERS and would we like to produce it with them? We read the pilot script (so early a draft that Sam was still a former Patriots football player), loved it, met with the brothers, and thus began a nine-year relationship with CHEERS.
Jimmy, quite simply, is the best sitcom director of all-time. He has eleven Emmys and countless DGA awards (I say “countless” because I don’t know how many, but it’s a lot). He’s currently making the rounds promoting the book, sharing a lot of the funny stories he’s experienced along the way.
However, a couple of years ago Jimmy did my podcast and we got into a lot more detail on the process of directing. It’s a fascinating interview well worth hearing or re-visiting.
Part one is here.
Part two is here.
You can order the book here. I recommend it (and not just because I’m mentioned).
It’s been an honor to work with Jimmy Burrows. Of those thousand shows he's directed, probably 50 are ones David and I wrote. Each one is 10-25% better because he directed them.
I am planning on downloading it this week. Just have another book to finish and then I'm on my way to it. I can't wait.
ReplyDeleteHe directed EVERY episode of "Will & Grace" (original & reboot), correct? Unbelievable. I've been watching the original often, this week, and the direction is impeccable.
ReplyDeleteKen, I read that a supposedly beloved institution has returned to West Hollywood, Irv's Burgers. Are you a fan? I neither live in LA or eat meat, but I read that it's popular with celebrities.
ReplyDeleteHe played himself in several episodes on Lisa Kudrow's THE COMEBACK. A very droll but great role for him. Ken, what did you think of THE COMEBACK?
ReplyDeleteFriday Question: In your opinion, which sitcoms improved the most during their runs, and which declined the most during their runs?
ReplyDeleteI was wondering whether you'd comment on this book. I bought it the other day and have been enjoying it.
ReplyDeleteI saw him on Jimmy Kimmel last week. Unfortunately, I only caught the tail end of the interview. I will probably buy his book and put it on the shelf with all the other books I've never read. Or I'll keep it in the bathroom to read during... well, you know.
ReplyDeleteM.B.
I'm an audiobook guy, so when I went to your Amazon link for the hardcover, I clicked on "audiobook" (Audible). I listened to the preview, which came in during the Charles Brothers' foreword read by a voice actor that sounded like a Canadian Mel Brooks. Two minutes in, I finally heard Jim's voice. Thus, I will definitely buy his memoir on Audible once I finish the one I'm listening to now, by Jennifer Grey.
ReplyDelete@ Philly,
ReplyDeleteAlthough MTM has some good episodes in the final season, I always felt that it should have stopped at about five years, not seven. I agree that Betty White softened the loss of "Rhoda," and "Phyllis," but there are some very awkward episodes in seasons 6 & 7...
I enjoyed "Frasier" throughout its entire run. "The Nanny" exhausted itself by the final season. Drescher admits that many plot decisions were made against her will. Just end with the marriage, and call it a day.
"Anonymous Leighton said...
ReplyDelete"The Nanny" exhausted itself by the final season. Drescher admits that many plot decisions were made against her will. Just end with the marriage, and call it a day.
That show was awful from the start. And Drescher claimed something was done in the "plot" "against her will"? Absolute bullshit! Deep, DEEP bullshit!
One of my closest lifelong friends was a staff writer and eventually a producer on The Nanny for five years. Nothing went on The Nanny without Fran's total approval. I sat in a studio audience there (As my friend's guest for an episode she'd written) waiting for a taping to begin that was delayed because Fran had the writers rewriting the episode while the audience was in its seats.
At read-throughs, if another character got a big laugh, Fran would say, "Rewrite that so I get that laugh." "But it makes no sense for Nanny Fine to say that, the scene would need to be rewritten from the top and altered to a different story to give you this line." Fran gives her dead-eyed-shark stare, "And your point is.....?" ""We'll rewrite it." The actor who played the butler took to intentionally tanking all his gags at all read-throughs and rehearsals, only giving a comic performance during the shoot, because it was the only way to keep Fran from taking away his laugh-lines for herself.
My favorite Fran act was when she stopped having real studio audiences, who only laughed when they thought it was funny, and replaced them with PAID professional audiences. She did this for two reasons:
1. They could be ORDERED to laugh.
2. She could fire them. She hated that she could not fire a real audience.
For her to say that ANYTHING in that show's writing was "against her will" is Fran LYING! CONSCIOUSLY LYING!!! (How did this psycho-bitch become SAG president? What a horror!)
Thanks for the book plug. I just ordered it.
ReplyDeleteFran Drescher is SAG president? That's kinda like making the CEO of Jack in the Box the chairman of the Michelin Guide.
ReplyDelete"Fries with that said...
ReplyDeleteFran Drescher is SAG president? That's kinda like making the CEO of Jack in the Box the chairman of the Michelin Guide."
Yup. It's like hiring an Amish auto mechanic.
Re 'The Nanny':
ReplyDeleteIt says something about that show when the most fond memory everyone seems to have of it, is...
all the pantyhose, tights and leggings Fran Drescher wore on each and every episode.
(And Fran was no Catherine Bach.)
;-)
Friday Question: In your opinion, which sitcoms improved the most during their runs, and which declined the most during their runs?
ReplyDeleteare we counting The Simpsons as a sitcom? it's been in steep decline for a decade or so. I keep waiting to see they're giving it up, but it must still make money.
Barney Miller got better and stayed strong, IMHO. The addition of Dietrich was a big improvement. And Inspector Lugar.
I was an irregular watcher of Modern Family, but it seems like it just got really bad in its last couple of seasons.
And I, of course, maintain that Cheers stayed strong even as it evolved from the Diane years to the Rebecca years (after, I'll admit, a rocky half-season. Even I can't defend the episode where Norm carries Evan Drake around the lawn)
What about "Taxi"? It improved when the John Burns character disappeared, but seemed partway lost when Bobby Wheeler was no longer around (at least they did an ep where he left despite not getting that sitcom role), but was made up by having Latka and Simka get married. But then Tony got his girlfriend pregnant so I don't know if that was a good creative decision but then also Elaine seemed to be warming to the Wallace Shawn character and Louie seemed to love that blind girl and after she got her sight back, maybe she'll warm to him (if he doesn't botch it up they way he did with Zena...) Oh, and what if the show lasted past Andy Kaufman's death in '84... Things to make you go "hmmmm" (with apologies to Arsenio Hall).
ReplyDeleteCan any show have declined more during its run than HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER? The show whose finale was so widely hated that many people won't watch earlier episodes? (Plus, after season 4 it really was pretty awful, even without that.)
ReplyDeleteI thought MOM kept improving. The late-series addition of Kristen Johnson was excellent.
wg
@ D,
ReplyDeleteI enjoy "The Nanny." Not sure about your "friend." Sounds like some real bitterness going on, for whatever reason. Not of concern to me, of course. Whatever the case, the earlier shows are preferable to the later episodes. And no, Steve, my fondest memories are not of "leggings." I loved the interplay between Daniel Davis and Lauren Lane.
I hope that this thread doesn't turn into a Fran Drescher trashing. Kinda speaks to what this comments section is becoming.
I thought MOM kept improving. The late-series addition of Kristen Johnson was excellent.
ReplyDeleteThe title made less and less sense as time went on...
I'm curious is anyone else shares my opinion that Anna Farris was the weak link in that cast, or if I am being wrong about something on the internet
@ Jim,
ReplyDeleteI didn't watch "Mom" until the last season, and enjoyed it. I've gone back to earlier episodes with Farris, and it definitely comes across as a different show. I prefer the final season.
Whatever anyone thinks of Fran Drescher, George Burns told a great story about Danny Kaye's radio show. They finished the script reading, and Danny glared at the writing staff and said, "This script makes me the highest-paid straight man in radio." They were quiet and then his head writer, the brilliant Goodman Ace, said, quietly, "Jack Benny makes three times as much as you do."
ReplyDeleteThat brings me to a Friday question. Ken, did you ever have to deal with a star insisting that they should get the funny line instead of a supporting player, and what did you do about it?
"Leighton said...
ReplyDelete@ D,
I enjoy "The Nanny." Not sure about your "friend." Sounds like some real bitterness going on, for whatever reason"
Why did you put "Friend" in quotes? The person in question and I have been close friends for 56 years, and we've worked together extensively. There's no irony. And also no bitterness. Fran is a horror and a monster to work for, as are numerous other sitcom stars: Roseanne, Brett Butler, Cybil Shepherd, I'm sure many of you can supply names of other psychos who have top-lined sit-coms and made work miserable for everyone employed with them.
But my friend isn't bitter. She works all she wants, and has a lovely writing Emmy that she did NOT win for The Nanny, but for something else and better more recently, and, of course, deeply glad not to have had to work for Fran again now for over 20 years. Working for Fran is like hitting yourself in the head repeatedly with a hammer; it feels soooo gooooooood when you stop!
Daniel Davis did good work on that show, but as I pointed out above, he had to tank his all laughs at all read-throughs and rehearsals to still be doing good work when it shot. Lauren Lane was excellent, and would have been so much better and funnier if only every laugh she ever got at a read-through or a rehearsal didn't get taken from her and given to Fran. Lauren never learned to tank her rehearsal performances.
Trashing is all Fran is good for.
"Michael said...
ReplyDeleteWhatever anyone thinks of Fran Drescher, George Burns told a great story about Danny Kaye's radio show. They finished the script reading, and Danny glared at the writing staff and said, "This script makes me the highest-paid straight man in radio." They were quiet and then his head writer, the brilliant Goodman Ace, said, quietly, "Jack Benny makes three times as much as you do."
GREAT story! I laughed out loud. Danny was another performer known for stealing laughs. If you were acting in a stage production with Danny Kaye and you got a laugh, the next performance whatever you did or said that got that laugh would be said or done by Danny just before you could do it. Danny was awful to work with, and was also the worst Captain Hook I ever saw, and I saw Christopher Walken's terrible Captain Hook.
Jack Benny is the perfect tonic to performers like Fran and Danny. Jack was a dream to work with, kind, generous, and rather than taking laughs from others, he gave the laughs to his cast. He loved being "Straight Man to the World," and made the show work by being a mensch. And Benny was funnier than Danny, Fran and Roseanne rolled together.
James Burrows directed the first two seasons of Mike & Molly, which are so entertaining (though I like the later seasons too). I see his father worked with Nat Hiken, and I think the cop characters Mike and Carl seem like an homage to Car 54, Where Are You, with bickering between blabbermouth Carl and uptight Mike and even the framing of their scenes in the patrol car
ReplyDeleteI love, honor, and revere The Nanny and love all the hilarious characters, including Val, Yetta, Sylvia, Tante Frieda, Nettie, Cousin Ira, and the kids. I don't have any insider info on what it was like on the show (although I did intern on a production with pre-Nanny Daniel Davis and he was nice, respectful, and brought his own coffee). But all the co-stars and guest stars on The Nanny shine and the production values are wonderful. Fran and her husband conceived of and pitched the show, and as producer why wouldn't she be a boss on her own show?
But now I have a new idea for my bucket list, getting rich enough someday to hire an audience to laugh at my material. Why didn't Jerry and Marge think of that?
@ Michael
ReplyDeletehey finished the script reading, and Danny glared at the writing staff and said, "This script makes me the highest-paid straight man in radio." They were quiet and then his head writer, the brilliant Goodman Ace, said, quietly, "Jack Benny makes three times as much as you do."
That is freakin' hilarious! I've said it before, I'll say it again: stories like this are why I always, always read the comments on this blog.