tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post668110724508417779..comments2023-11-03T06:02:02.128-07:00Comments on By Ken Levine: Andrea Martin and Toni Tennille vie for the same roleBy Ken Levinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17305293821975250420noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-35151612589588657732009-12-08T22:18:13.839-08:002009-12-08T22:18:13.839-08:00Very pleased to see SOMETHING WONDERFUL was read b...Very pleased to see SOMETHING WONDERFUL was read by a few people outside my immediate family. Going to Chicago this weekend for the 50th birthday of Second City. Might write a piece about that. Very hard to write a scripted show in which the improvisations actually feel like improvisations. But yes, I would prefer to see real Second City people like Andrea Martin and Dan Aykroyd playing a contemporary version of older Second City people than somebody who doesn't know thing one about improvisation. -- Jeff SweetJeffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02260327293744384679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-15122436519758824662009-12-07T11:49:06.018-08:002009-12-07T11:49:06.018-08:00Guess the "Matriarch" couldn't see l...Guess the "Matriarch" couldn't see lasting talent, just the latest "it" thing - Andrea Martin's still working and doing great stuff, while Tennille appears to have done only one show a year in Prescott, AZ recently, according to her official site...John Hudgenshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03203753931643807838noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-54241716617892083452009-12-07T04:12:59.975-08:002009-12-07T04:12:59.975-08:00I'm surprised that executive would want to add...I'm surprised that executive would want to add the SEMI-TOUGH angle, as by that time ABC had flopped with a TV series version of the film.Paul Ducanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-8208009466081236262009-12-06T23:56:51.677-08:002009-12-06T23:56:51.677-08:00Andrea Martin - WHAT? She was top league already w...Andrea Martin - WHAT? She was top league already with SCTV, incredible impersonations able to do improv - for me SCTV was the better SNL. They didn't want her after she was arleady proven on another program as a multi-threat? <br /><br />Why are networks always fulfilling the cliches?<br /><br />In retrospect, Andrea Martin never really got the star position she could easily have held, and certainly in todays moment of female-friendly fare (or at least Tina Fey and friends). She would be a natural reoccuring character in 30 rock. <br /><br /><br />I have to say, a show about an improv group demands that we see good improv occurs. THAT would be tough to do each week. Even Seinfeld started with a stand-up riff, for a while at least. And if it were doing ironically "bad" improv that would be hard to keep funny.A_Homernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-68109847072772547652009-12-06T23:03:19.819-08:002009-12-06T23:03:19.819-08:00I remember reading SOMETHING WONDERFUL RIGHT AWAY ...I remember reading SOMETHING WONDERFUL RIGHT AWAY back then, and finding it fascinating. And I was, for a while, half of a comedy team where I'd met my partner doing an improv review together. Plus, in 1974, I was in a musical review for which Toni Tennielle wrote the music for the songs, back when she was Toni Shearer of Newport Beach, CA, four years earlier. Her first husband, photographer Ken Shearer, took all the pictures used as projections in the show. Ken was a tad bitter, as Toni had given interviews in which she claimed "The Captain" was her first and only husband, and Ken was rightly miffed to have been revised out of existence by Toni.<br /><br />Obviously any exec who would prefer Toni Tennielle over Andrea Martin for a comedy role, even if the role was "Toni Tennielle," (Perhaps a sitcom about trying to erase the existence of your pre-fame life and pre-fame husband after achieving fame via a mediocre music career) is too incompetant even for firing. She needed euthanizing.<br /><br />In YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, Andrea proved she could sing, I'll bet better than Toni does comedy.D. McEwannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-59989000053875932222009-12-06T22:10:58.739-08:002009-12-06T22:10:58.739-08:00Sholud have told the old battleax...oops., "M...Sholud have told the old battleax...oops., "Matriarch" that in this case "Love. Love WON'T keep us together".Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-13931215449848647662009-12-06T21:01:10.485-08:002009-12-06T21:01:10.485-08:00I don't think there's any argument that SC...I don't think there's any argument that <i>SCTV</i> would have been so much better with Toni Tennielle instead of Andrea Martin.rob!https://www.blogger.com/profile/17556471244882205031noreply@blogger.com