tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post337690711539559078..comments2023-11-03T06:02:02.128-07:00Comments on By Ken Levine: Will the real Ken Levine please stand upBy Ken Levinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17305293821975250420noreply@blogger.comBlogger50125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-56748131437625164362013-10-15T11:52:37.096-07:002013-10-15T11:52:37.096-07:00This weekend The Walking Dead premiered its fourth...This weekend The Walking Dead premiered its fourth season with its third showrunner. Is this as uncommon as it seems? How does this big of a change affect the success and continuity of a show? Is it a more or less difficult adjustment on a drama vs. a comedy? Most of my favorite dramas seem to have one vision from day one. What should we expect to see from the newest version of The Walking Dead?Karlihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14068742711208336252noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-39256447097782564322013-10-14T08:15:47.367-07:002013-10-14T08:15:47.367-07:00I think the problem with Kirstie was that she crie...I think the problem with Kirstie was that she cried too much on Cheers. I've been watching the later episodes with her and her transformation into a blubbering idiot is painful to watch.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-65230881092604348932013-10-13T13:27:43.250-07:002013-10-13T13:27:43.250-07:00Douglas - your description of your mom bitching fr...Douglas - your description of your mom bitching from her chair had me laughing out loud. I guess having two televisions in the house to keep the peace wasn't an option.<br /><br />YEKIMI - I remember Ernest Angely -could that possibly be his real surname?RCPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04251247613686669877noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-25798846884154228852013-10-12T16:00:42.075-07:002013-10-12T16:00:42.075-07:00Please tell me you did not dis Charlie Callas. I l...Please tell me you did not dis Charlie Callas. I loved Captain Weird growing up. <br /><br />Vvvvtt.<br /><br />sam in portland mainenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-76222153021972105432013-10-12T15:52:51.812-07:002013-10-12T15:52:51.812-07:00"Frank Grier said...
What is FOX thinking abo...<i>"Frank Grier said...<br />What is FOX thinking about ordering more Dads scripts?"</i><br /><br />Really! Just what I was wondering. I notice they ordered six more scripts, but did not actually order them produced.<br /><br />Poor Martin Mull, once one of my favorite comedians. Some years back I went to see a taping of an Ellen DeGeneris sitcom with Martin Mull and Cloris Leachman. Only time I've gotten to see him work live. That show was cancelled so fast that the episode I saw shot has never aired.D. McEwannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-53650357313794914512013-10-12T09:45:46.747-07:002013-10-12T09:45:46.747-07:00Professional Wrestling is a borderline variety-sho...Professional Wrestling is a borderline variety-show. There is always ladies sexing it up, comedy-skits, action (obviously), storyline and often musical acts, special guest appearances from other genres (The Muppets and Bob Barker) springs to mind. Very often, it will also have the disjointed feeling of a variety-show as most segments are self-contained stories with little or no influence on other segments. <br /><br />I realize it is not a variety-show, but probably the closest thing to it on Prime Time TV.Williamnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-64251327267127988032013-10-12T08:19:09.423-07:002013-10-12T08:19:09.423-07:00"Daisy Mae, I want to (bleep) you!"
The..."Daisy Mae, I want to (bleep) you!"<br /><br />The 1969 film Women in Love was most famous for a nude wrestling scene between Alan Bates and Oliver Reed. But in Japan that scene wasn't allowed to be shown, so instead they let them strip off then cut away to and held a shot of the door. While leaving the soundtrack complete with thumps, grunts and wheezes going in full. Jimnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-35760773084296116792013-10-12T07:38:40.134-07:002013-10-12T07:38:40.134-07:00Smitty--Yes, there is a place on television for an...Smitty--Yes, there is a place on television for anthology shows with different stars every week. That place is Cinemax, which runs a steady stream of erotic anthologies. The format neatly solves the problem of how to have a regularly scheduled series without baring the same bodies week after week.Jim Linzernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-2920380574564484282013-10-12T07:29:06.302-07:002013-10-12T07:29:06.302-07:00My favorite example of a movie being bowdlerized f...My favorite example of a movie being bowdlerized for television: There was, fifteen or so years ago, a Christian channel that ran old public domain movies at noon (nothing is more Christian than filling your schedule with shows you are not paying for). I got into the habit of watching these during my lunch break. One day, the movie was the 1940 adaptation of the comic strip "Li'l Abner." The plot of this is driven by Abner's reluctance to admit his feelings for Daisy Mae; in the dialogue resulting from this, the phrase "making love" is repeatedly used, in the old-fashioned sense of "wooing" or "declaring one's affection." This station bleeped every example of this. The result was lines like "When are you gonna (bleep) her?" and "Daisy Mae, I want to (bleep) you!" I suspect that most of the people watching did NOT fill in those blanks with something so mild as "making love."Jim Linzernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-44265456678276984532013-10-12T05:17:17.395-07:002013-10-12T05:17:17.395-07:00Thanks for bioshock
Thanks for bioshock<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-62758825479384130632013-10-11T20:38:38.170-07:002013-10-11T20:38:38.170-07:00Question: is there any place on television today f...Question: is there any place on television today for a Twilight Zone-style anthology, which relies on weekly guest stars and tells a self-contained story?Smittynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-11070346019958105082013-10-11T19:59:48.559-07:002013-10-11T19:59:48.559-07:00
What is FOX thinking about ordering more Dads scr...<br />What is FOX thinking about ordering more Dads scripts?<br /><br />What a train wreck!<br /><br />http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2013/10/11/dads-gets-order-for-six-more-scripts/208531/Frank Griernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-57465396734825652902013-10-11T19:27:28.960-07:002013-10-11T19:27:28.960-07:00If a studio was lucky enough to have cast members ...If a studio was lucky enough to have cast members who were multilingual in the early sound era, they could appear in multiple versions without a hitch. Maurice Chevalier and Claudette Colbert starred in both English and French versions of "The Big Pond" in 1930. (They teamed up the following year in "The Smiling Lieutenant," but I have no idea if a French-language version of that Ernst Lubitsch game was made or if it has survived.)<br /><br />Dubbing from silent to sound -- or should I say, the refusal to do it -- doomed the career of late-silent star Louise Brooks. She had a role in "The Canary Murder Case," a Philo Vance film with William Powell that initially was filmed as a silent. She went to Europe for a film, and meanwhile, Paramount decided to redo the movie as a talkie; Brooks was called back to voice her character, but refused to return and her part was dubbed by another actress (Margaret Livingston, IIRC). Louise's career soon plummeted, and by early 1931, she was reduced to small parts in the Carole Lombard film "It Pays To Advertise" (Brooks is seen in one segment of the movie filmed separately from the others, and it's conceivable she and Carole never met). VP81955https://www.blogger.com/profile/11792390726196611188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-72055923694500184732013-10-11T18:31:38.964-07:002013-10-11T18:31:38.964-07:00Eden Sher had a hilarious crying scene on the late...Eden Sher had a hilarious crying scene on the latest episode of "The Middle".Robnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-83331827824306802592013-10-11T16:39:19.168-07:002013-10-11T16:39:19.168-07:00Regarding The Ed Sullivan Show and similar vareity...Regarding <i>The Ed Sullivan Show</i> and similar vareity shows: it's concept was "Something for everyone in the family." Problem was, at least in my family, that it, and shows like it, had something to annoy everyone. Believe me, you did not want to be watching <i>The Hollywood Palace</i> with my mother if, say, Nelson Eddy and, say, The <br />Supremes, were on the same show. Mother would watch for Nelson, her lifelong idol, who, of course, no one born after 1940 could stand the sight nor sound of, but when The Supremes came on, one couldn't enjoy them becuase there was Mother bitching from her chair: "I hate this! They're awful! You call that singing? What are they doing with their arms?" And just to show she wasn't era-specific in her loathings, she also bitched like crazy whenever Cab Calloway was on anything. I loved Cab Calloway. And she would bitch all through Jackie Gleason's shwos , which I loved. (She'd also go ballistic whenever dad and I would laugh at Abbott & Costello: "How grown men can laugh at that puerile idiocy is beyond me!" she'd rave as "Who's On First?" had us belly-laughing.) In my teen years, I decided to see how Mother liked it. I would bitch all through Nelson Eddy: "Good lord! You think that block of wood is sexy? You think that baritone squalling is music? Man, he lacks any trace of charisma! When does the torture stop?"<br /><br />"Do you mind? I'm trying to enjoy Nelson Eddy!"<br /><br />"That does take work. And I do mind. You wouldn't shut up during Cab Calloway, so I won't be shutting up during the act you want to see."<br /><br />Variety shows bascially turned into war zones at our house, and I can't believe there weren't many others for whom the same "Something for everyone to hate" phenomena prevailed. They were safer to avoid altogether.D. McEwannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-2342693762878773542013-10-11T16:38:35.345-07:002013-10-11T16:38:35.345-07:00"You think someone would have invented 'd...<i>"You think someone would have invented 'dubbing.'” </i><br /><br />Well, eventually someone did. The alternative foreign-language versions of American movies were only made from 1929 to about 1932. The Laurel & Hardy films cited above are interesting viewing, though the fact that the French langauge version of <i>Pardon Us</i> has Boris Karloff for the villain whereas the English language version used Walter Long in the role makes for very frustrated Karloff fans like myself, since the Karloff French-version is a missing movie. Maybe it will be found one day, like the 9 missing <i>Doctor Who</i> episodes that were just found in Nigeria. (100 more missing episdoes to go.)<br /><br />When I was growing up, the Spanish-language <i>Dracula</i> was incomplete. The third reel was missing. Finally that reel was found in Cuba. It took the state Department getting involved to allow the footage out of Cuba and back into America so that we now have the full movie.<br /><br />What's interesting about the movie is that the two <i>Dracula</i>s allow us to see two movies, using the exact same script and same sets, but different casts and, more importantly, different directors. (They didn't have any cast-overlap, unlike the Laurel & Hardy films - it ain't a Laurel & Hardy film without Laurel & Hardy - because the Spanish-language version was shot at night and the Lugosi version was shot by day. The sets were in use 24 hours a day.) Watching the Lugosi and the Spanish-language <i>Dracula</i>s back-to-back (Easily accomplished; they're on the same DVD) one can see that the Spanish-language version is a considerably better movie, a lot better. It ain't the acting. The Spanish Count Dracula, Carlos Villarias, is just bloody awful. He makes <i><b>Bela Lugosi</b></i> seem like a subtle actor. (Lugosi, like Laurel & Hardy in their foreign-language films, learned his <i>Dracula</i> lines phonetically off chalkboards. He didn't master English - to even the small extent that he did eventually learn it - until after <i>Dracula</i>, despite having been acting in America for almost a decade by then, and having played <i>Dracula</i> on Broadway. For Lugosi, <i>Dracula</i> <b>was</b> a foreign-language movie.) The Spanish-speaking Van Helsing was pretty bloody bad also.<br /><br />And it wasn't "pacing," as the Spanish-language <i>Dracula</i> is fully half an hour longer than the English version, though it seems much shorter. The heroine, Lupita Tovar, explained it on the DVD (She's still alive): "We saw the rushes of the Lugosi film as it was shot. We decided to prove we could do it better." They did. Tod Browning was definitely off his feed when he directed <i>Dracula</i>, creating an amazingly slow and boring movie. (The first 15 minutes are great, the remaining hour seems like three hours.) George Melford, directing the Spanish-language film, directed rings around him.D. McEwannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-43137666582476250172013-10-11T14:06:16.729-07:002013-10-11T14:06:16.729-07:00Ken, here's a Friday Question, out of left fie...Ken, here's a Friday Question, out of left field:<br /><br />I've always wondered about the posed publicity photos of actors when they're on-set and dressed in character. Are these photos shot before the actual scenes are filmed, or after? Are the photos taken every day, or only at designated times during the week? Are the photographers employed by the network, or the production company? How much time is allowed for the photos?<br /><br />I've always thought that this must be a great nuisance to the actors, who are trying to stay in character. Any "still photo" stories to share?Garynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-91942095266029184912013-10-11T13:59:50.762-07:002013-10-11T13:59:50.762-07:00Liggie: It's not an issue with digital project...Liggie: It's <i>not</i> an issue with digital projection. You were watching film.cadavranoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-32964703904447290372013-10-11T13:43:23.000-07:002013-10-11T13:43:23.000-07:00Elizabeth Montgomery once said that the hardest th...Elizabeth Montgomery once said that the hardest thing she ever had to do in an episode of "Bewitched" was to 'cry funny' in one episode, something she felt she did badly. She said she never had more respect for Lucille Ball.Mikenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-11084061332895554522013-10-11T13:32:29.350-07:002013-10-11T13:32:29.350-07:00Thanks, Ken. I look forward to reading it!Thanks, Ken. I look forward to reading it!Hamidnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-89125984574766711502013-10-11T13:25:54.860-07:002013-10-11T13:25:54.860-07:00Now, my unrelated FQ. My last few times in the mul...Now, my unrelated FQ. My last few times in the multiplexes, the films have been marred with occasional specks, vertical lines going down the screen for minutes, and other imperfections. This happened with both low-budget indies ("In a World ...") and big-budget features ("We're The Millers", "The Silver Lining Playbook"). I thought that with digital filming and projection equipment, or even improved film stock, this wouldn't be an issue in 2013. What would be causing this?Liggienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-46694311779838479682013-10-11T13:16:33.481-07:002013-10-11T13:16:33.481-07:00Variety shows: I've been watching half-hour v...Variety shows: I've been watching half-hour versions of "The Flip Wilson Show" on the Aspire cable channel. Other than the occasional sketch running long, it was very funny and innovative. A variety show today, however, would be problematic if they had guest musicians; I can see "WKRP in Cincinnati"-like music rights issues screwing up syndication.<br /><br />Comments: In newspapers, there's only so much space they have for letters, so only the best of the best correspondence got in there. On the Interwebz, comment sections can go on indefinitely, so any bozo who typed in something and successfully hit "enter" will be printed.<br /><br />Alternate versions: I saw a few minutes of "Slap Shot" in syndication. I expected them to fuzz out Melinda Dillon's topless scene and dub the myriad cussing, but the actors doing the dubbing sounded nothing like the onscreen performers. The guy replacing Paul Newman's cussing sounded like Bowser from Sha Na Na.<br /><br />I also watch subtitled European action-mystery shows on PBS' MHz Worldwide digital channel. They fuzz out not only nude scenes, but also nude <i>artwork</i> characters happen to pass by (if characters are in the Uffizi, David's groin would be fuzzed). On the other hand, verbal cussing in the original language is kept while the subtitles are tidied; Mafia members rarely say "Jerks!", I'm sure. It helps to know the original language; I understand French, and I know that the characters are not saying "Crap!"<br /><br />Crying: Michael Caine, on a British talk show, said when his character needs to cry, he thinks of a tragic event in his past. In fact, when he said that, his eyes immediately turned red, and he told the host, "See, there you go!" I even remember reading that porn queen Marilyn Chambers was cast in a mainstream movie where her character had to cry. She asked a co-star what to do, who replied with the sad-event trick. Chambers then recalled a childhood pet who died tragically, and boom, instant waterworks. Wouldn't be surprised if she needed a while after the scene to compose herself.Liggienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-10331315364528139492013-10-11T12:01:11.744-07:002013-10-11T12:01:11.744-07:00To follow up on unkystan, there are some films of ...To follow up on unkystan, there are some films of Laurel and Hardy speaking Spanish and French on the Essential Laurel and Hardy DVD set (it actually IS essential). <br /><br />Further interest: Most or all of the other actors are replaced by new casts fluent in those languages. There's a still of Stan and Ollie in the French "Pardon Me" with a pre-monster Boris Karloff. And because L&H were insanely big abroad, the foreign editions of their shorts were padded with additional scenes (sometimes variety acts) or spliced together into ersatz features. <br /><br />Then there are cases where studios did foreign versions with COMPLETELY new casts, having a whole second company come in and use the sets after the English-speaking cast had left for the day. Universal did a Spanish "Dracula" without Bela Lugosi, compensating with more ambitious camerawork and sexier wardrobe for the female lead. Fox did "Eran Trace," a Charlie Chan mystery without Werner Oland, compensating with . . . something. Those are also on DVD.DBensonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-78951609474234315192013-10-11T11:58:58.438-07:002013-10-11T11:58:58.438-07:00MUST KILL TV comes out early next month.MUST KILL TV comes out early next month.By Ken Levinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17305293821975250420noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-2653946390507905112013-10-11T11:45:41.971-07:002013-10-11T11:45:41.971-07:00By the way, Ken, any update on when Must Kill TV w...By the way, Ken, any update on when Must Kill TV will be available?Hamidnoreply@blogger.com