tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post6786226251676206651..comments2023-11-03T06:02:02.128-07:00Comments on By Ken Levine: Good Friday QuestionsBy Ken Levinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17305293821975250420noreply@blogger.comBlogger37125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-58580701065455271072015-04-09T19:57:25.714-07:002015-04-09T19:57:25.714-07:00FRIDAY QUESTION: I notice that beginning in season...FRIDAY QUESTION: I notice that beginning in season six of MASH, two chopper shots were changed in the opening credit sequence (the one under the main title, and the quick one before the chorus). The shots that were replaced had clearly shown bloody soldiers with their arms dangling...were those eliminated due to a complaint?Bob Gasselhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04748728107349857332noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-72057257481867503932015-04-07T20:12:19.540-07:002015-04-07T20:12:19.540-07:00Friday question - I've read on here where ther...Friday question - I've read on here where there have been complaints/comments about the color on MASH. Now that all the episodes save the finale are on Netflix, have you seen the quality presented there? I think the color is very good on Netflix. The episode where everyone dyes their hair and wear red for Hawkeye really stands out compared to syndication. <br /><br />On a side note, have you ever had MASH scripts rejected, and if so, what were they about?Eric E. Durnanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08430737316158704092noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-83841350219093572582015-04-07T19:37:16.709-07:002015-04-07T19:37:16.709-07:00While not quite related, here is a way to catch up...While not quite related, here is a way to catch up on M*A*S*H https://youtu.be/GaWlGIvgJ6wNevin ":-)"https://www.blogger.com/profile/17771619215069657979noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-30872602581287735212015-04-06T13:08:46.595-07:002015-04-06T13:08:46.595-07:00Hey Ken, this article talks about sitcoms that sho...Hey Ken, this article talks about sitcoms that should be revived and Cheers is the top one mentioned. Do you agree? And if it were going to be revived - what would the format have to be for you to sign on to be the writer? <br /><br />http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/sitcom-revivals-that-should-actually-happen/<br />Adamnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-81119052158517749132015-04-06T07:12:52.021-07:002015-04-06T07:12:52.021-07:00Candice Bergen was interviewed on NPR Sunday April...Candice Bergen was interviewed on NPR Sunday April 5th and talked about how initially the network didn't want the Murphy Brown show to be about a 40 year old woman, but rather a 30 year old woman. They also didn't like that in the first episode she had just completed a stint at Betty Ford. "Couldn't she just be returning from a spa?" they asked. But Diane English refused to change it, and the show was a hit which ran for years. Today the show would be about a nice 30 year old returning from a spa, and it would crash and burn in the first season and no one would have any idea why.James Van Hisehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06658381884799398658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-29044748991836922232015-04-06T04:45:08.452-07:002015-04-06T04:45:08.452-07:00Beverly Hillbillies and Green Acres may not have b...Beverly Hillbillies and Green Acres may not have been sophisticated, but they were funny and exceptionally well cast. Though come to think of it, they <i>were</i> sophisticated compared to a lot of sitcoms on today.orwellnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-10678428057055787572015-04-05T22:09:51.313-07:002015-04-05T22:09:51.313-07:00MCP, eff you regarding "Green Acres."
I ...MCP, eff you regarding "Green Acres."<br />I guess it must suck for you to wake up every morning, look in the mirror, and realize you're not Arnold.<br />And you never will be. You never will be.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-68073233790959608892015-04-05T19:29:57.240-07:002015-04-05T19:29:57.240-07:00I agree that it becomes difficult for shows to gro...I agree that it becomes difficult for shows to grow. However, if it follows a similar pattern to the dramas, there will eventually be season orders. If Netflix releases 15, 20 episodes at once, it will have time to grow because they are already bought and shot before anybody starts watching.Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-85745671514125471992015-04-04T20:29:41.539-07:002015-04-04T20:29:41.539-07:00"When William Paley owned CBS it was called &..."When William Paley owned CBS it was called 'the Tiffany Network.<br /><br />Yeah, but...<br /><br />1. During "The Judy Garland Show," James Aubrey, Jr., president of CBS TV thought Judy Garland was too glamorous for TV and wanted Jerry Van Dyke to insult her. <br />2. "Gomer Pyle"<br />3. "The Real McCoys"<br />4. CBS had an advantage over NBC and ABC because they had more affiliates and could afford to be "The Tiffany Network."<br />5. "Amos 'n' Andy"<br />6. The "Hooterville" Trilogy: "Petticoat Junction," "Green Acres," and "The Beverly Hillbillies."<br />7. Gilligan's Island<br /><br />Note: I'm not a robot. Would a robot care about such things?<br /> MCPnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-70376459602504027132015-04-04T14:17:09.297-07:002015-04-04T14:17:09.297-07:00F.Q. On the theme of "(insert genre/medium) i...F.Q. On the theme of "(insert genre/medium) is dead": TV was supposed to kill off radio and cinemas, then VCRs/DVDs were supposed to kill off cinemas. Instead, radio and movie theaters adapted their offerings and models and are still relevant today. Now on-demand and computer-streamed video is supposed to kill off cable TV. Will cable find a way to adjust to the new landscape and still stick around for a while, or is the doomsday crowd right thins time?Liggienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-65808760507474621002015-04-04T12:41:08.711-07:002015-04-04T12:41:08.711-07:00On Taxi, "Memories of Cab 804" from the ...On Taxi, "Memories of Cab 804" from the first season was also a two-parter done as a series of unconnected scenes that were shot in pickup through the year. In fact, one of them (with Tony Danza and Ed. Weinberger) was filmed on location in New York before studio production even started, because they had that vignette in mind at the very beginning. It was the same trip where they filmed Danza driving on the Queensboro Bridge, which ended up becoming the title sequence.Andy Rosenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-87209051098061089582015-04-04T09:03:18.444-07:002015-04-04T09:03:18.444-07:00Thanks, Ken! Good to know you're upbeat about ...Thanks, Ken! Good to know you're upbeat about the future of the craft. <br /><br />It'd be weird to find out that a foreign country is just now experiencing their own sitcom renaissance because they're doing their versions of our shows from our last renaissance all while we're here in the doldrums again.Dan Ballhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06865180000909831517noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-11468436910559495322015-04-04T06:17:20.896-07:002015-04-04T06:17:20.896-07:00Johnny: music hasn't gone backwards (although ...Johnny: music hasn't gone backwards (although it's amusing to watch musicians in other fields adopt business models folksingers have used for decades), but think about radio. When podcasts began, a lot of them were some guy sitting in front of a microphone and rambling until he got bored. Now there's some amazingly well-produced things out there. <br /><br />Access to distribution before the Internet was generally limited, but music as an art form has always been far more accessible to a wider range of practitioners than TV, film, etc. Live performance is universally accessible if you're willing to play on street corners; and even in 1980 you could make an LP to sell at gigs for $3000. It's a lot cheaper now, of course, but in the 1970s when the folksinger Kate Wolf wanted to finance her first album she pre-sold copies to fans at concerts to raise the money. Not so different from Kickstarter now. I said folksingers were pioneers. :)<br /><br />wgWendy M. Grossmanhttp://www.pelicancrossing.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-27169305041387086272015-04-04T04:30:15.920-07:002015-04-04T04:30:15.920-07:00Pat Reeder, that's a fascinating observation. ...Pat Reeder, that's a fascinating observation. I wonder if it's true -- I don't see music going backwards, though :-/Johnny Walkerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13302545167970532080noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-11010344659347432762015-04-04T04:27:07.301-07:002015-04-04T04:27:07.301-07:00John in Ohio: Although that works in theory, it do...John in Ohio: Although that works in theory, it does mean that shows aren't allowed to "grow" like Seinfeld or Cheers (both of which were not successful at the beginning). Johnny Walkerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13302545167970532080noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-56498846282062768452015-04-04T01:08:06.359-07:002015-04-04T01:08:06.359-07:00Nothing against Loretta Swit, who was terrific, bu...<i> Nothing against Loretta Swit, who was terrific, but you could find other nurses. Personally, I think the show sacrificed a lot of the fun of the character once she slept with Hawkeye. But that’s me. </i><br /><br />OK, this brings up another question -- "Comrades In Arms" was the two-part episode from Season 6, when the executive story editors where David Isaacs and Ken Levine. Is your opinion that having Hawkeye sleep with Hot Lips something you've come to feel in hindsight, or was is something you felt was wrong as the story was being done, but were overruled by others involved with the show? (I've see stories of people involved in shows and theatrical continuing series lament in looking back on things done with the characters that may have seemed like a good idea at the time, but turned out to be less so on a long-term basis. Was that the case here?)Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-40690910734806546572015-04-03T23:37:53.698-07:002015-04-03T23:37:53.698-07:00Ken- Friday question: You've mentioned a few t...Ken- Friday question: You've mentioned a few times the records that drove you crazy when DJing especially because you had to play them repeatedly. I'm curious if there were also records you played with the same frequency but yet still enjoyed.<br /><br />Bert from PetalumaBertnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-75224640975028933942015-04-03T23:02:21.261-07:002015-04-03T23:02:21.261-07:00If these are the good Friday Questions, I shudder ...If these are the good Friday Questions, I shudder to think what the bad Friday Questions were like.Albert Giesbrechthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17742338183833125104noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-9614582466681240262015-04-03T20:37:31.592-07:002015-04-03T20:37:31.592-07:00Hi Ken, a possible Friday question: do the produce...Hi Ken, a possible Friday question: do the producers/writers/show runners have any input into what gets cut when a show goes into syndication? Sometimes the cuts are so jarring, especially to someone who watched and loved the show in its original iteration. I just watched an episode of M.A.S.H. On ME TV and the scenes they cut were obvious, especially when they left in a callback joke to a deleted scene at the top of the episode. Dramas don't fare any better judging by the recent Colombo marathon on Hallmark. They excised several memorable scenes including one of my favorite bits of business where Colombo shows how he planted the "evidence" that induced a confession in the episode set in London by flicking a pearl into a cup with his thumb. I imagine this must be particularly painful to the writers.<br /><br />Don't you think it's time that TV shows get the same respect that movies get? Shouldn't they have to put a disclaimer up front like they do with movies when they have altered them from their original version for broadcast?Ulysses411noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-4825490669850820042015-04-03T15:31:37.424-07:002015-04-03T15:31:37.424-07:00Friday question:
Thank you for answering my last ...Friday question:<br /><br />Thank you for answering my last Friday question, hope you find this one interesting...<br /><br />How do payments/residuals work for a writer when a sitcom character written for a single episode becomes a regular character. My favorite example is Larry, Darryl & Darryl on NEWHART. They first appeared in the second episode to air written by Katherine Green (who I assume you know since she also wrote a season 1 episode of CHEERS) who only contributed the two episodes to the series, yet those characters appeared in 91 episodes. Additionally, in Emmy archive interviews, the show creator Barry Kemp spoke in detail about how he came up with these characters so I'm assuming as a freelance writer she was given the overall story and similar to how you've described giving out MASH assignments, she was assigned to do the script and therefore received sole credit. As the writer of the episode, I'd like to think she raked in a lot on residuals for use of the characters. My other favorite example is Lilith on CHEERS starting off in a single scene of an episode written by prominent show writer/producers only to become an extremely popular regular and multiple Emmy's for Bebe Neuwirth. Matt from Los Angelesnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-11289393159485352052015-04-03T15:29:37.017-07:002015-04-03T15:29:37.017-07:00VincentS said...
As far as how times have changed...<i>VincentS said...<br /><br />As far as how times have changed, Ken, I'm still in shock over your previous posting about how Grant Tinker never gave a single note. God, that must have been paradise!</i><br /><br />Well, on at least one of the series he never needed to give notes, since he (then) slept with the leading lady.<br /><br />And to A.L. Crivaro: There indeed <i>is</i> a deftly-produced sitcom on TV today. It's called "Mom," and while it occasionally delivers lackluster episodes, at its best it has the bite of Norman Lear's '70s stable of sitcoms (without the dated politics) and is easily Chuck Lorre's best series in years. <br /><br />Netflix probably doesn't want to do an original multi-camera sitcom because that format is deemed out of fashion, not chic for the twentysomethings it seeks. (Ironic, that, because that's the core audience that keeps "Friends" popular in reruns.)VP81955https://www.blogger.com/profile/11792390726196611188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-39331681878333850032015-04-03T13:59:09.149-07:002015-04-03T13:59:09.149-07:00The question about Hot Lips reminded me of the dif...The question about Hot Lips reminded me of the difference between character and "function." A great character can wind up growing out of the vital function her or she served. Watching the first three seasons of M*A*S*H and Margaret is an antagonist. Once that changes, the character's function has gone, so as Ken says, you could have replaced her with another Head Nurse.<br /><br />Tangentially, I think CHEERS realized this once it was clear that Rebecca had become a hilarious slapstick character, she was no longer a strong antagonist like she was in her first two seasons. Hill served that function well.SERnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-62673888748083892032015-04-03T13:47:39.857-07:002015-04-03T13:47:39.857-07:00I agree that Hawkeye and Margaret sleeping togethe...I agree that Hawkeye and Margaret sleeping together was a mistake. It was great in the moment, but ruined the relationship for the duration of the series.Roger Owen Greenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05298172138307632062noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-52381170693941995542015-04-03T12:50:12.709-07:002015-04-03T12:50:12.709-07:00What's so good about them? Ray.What's so good about them? Ray.AlaskaRaynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-10053727549143681262015-04-03T11:55:21.974-07:002015-04-03T11:55:21.974-07:00As far as how times have changed, Ken, I'm sti...As far as how times have changed, Ken, I'm still in shock over your previous posting about how Grant Tinker never gave a single note. God, that must have been paradise! And I think the two-part TAXI episode you mention was one of the funnies things ever put on TV, especially Jim's "new job" scene. I hope you show that clip on a future posting.VincentSnoreply@blogger.com