tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post7397822547079991697..comments2023-11-03T06:02:02.128-07:00Comments on By Ken Levine: The ODD COUPLE DVDBy Ken Levinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17305293821975250420noreply@blogger.comBlogger38125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-82482062150634574782007-06-13T13:57:00.000-07:002007-06-13T13:57:00.000-07:00Is it just me, or did the series ruin the play for...Is it just me, or did the series ruin the play for anyone else? After the rapid-fire comedy of the series, Simon's play seems dull, unfunny and takes far too long to do anything interesting with the characters. I can't sit through the thing any more and it seldom elicits a laugh either on stage or on film.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-91994803946537180912007-06-11T12:50:00.000-07:002007-06-11T12:50:00.000-07:00Speaking of terrible single-camera comedies, I hap...Speaking of terrible single-camera comedies, I happened to catch the first 10 minutes or so of "The Loop" last night. Wow. Stunning in its lack of anything approaching funny. (Yes, it's already cancelled, but I can't understand why Fox brought this back to burn off episodes. A test pattern would have more laugh lines, and might even get better ratings.)<BR/><BR/>On laugh tracks: I know that the DVDs of "MASH" have a no-laugh-track option, but I wish they'd run the episodes that way on FX. I remember hating the track on the first season of "Odd Couple," and I was just a kid. Still, it was plainly phony. There would sometimes be laughs when there was no joke--I think whoever manned the laugh knob was humor-impaired. Yes, the show got much, much funnier in its second season.<BR/><BR/>Oh, and put me in the "Scrubs"-is-funny camp, and at 45 I'm a bit out of the show's presumed demographic. <BR/><BR/>>>talent that extends beyond being a young, female, African-American gay minority <BR/><BR/>Funny, I never noticed that the current crop of comedies are being micromanaged by young black lesbians with connections. Who knew?Jim Donahuehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04140325442403671800noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-43183018586178056762007-06-10T23:55:00.000-07:002007-06-10T23:55:00.000-07:00Actually, I LOVE LUCY wasn't the first series to b...Actually, I LOVE LUCY wasn't the first series to be filmed with multiple cameras. The show's innovation was that it was the first series filmed with multiple cameras that were mobile. Prior to LUCY, the cameras on multi-camera series never moved, due to lighting requirements. Karl Freund worked out a system of flat lighting for LUCY that freed up the cameras, allowing them to shoot anywhere on the set without having to stop and adjust the lighting for each setup, as is done with single camera shoots.<BR/><BR/>While credit for the modern crab dolly is generally attributed to director Vincente Minnelli--at least as the guy who said "Build me something so I can film these shots the way I want to film them," James Wong Howe was experimenting with crab dollys in the 1920s.<BR/><BR/>Take Desi's bio with a grain of salt. In later years, both he and Ball tended to wildly exaggerate his role in the launching of I LOVE LUCY, almost invariably at the expense of LUCY creator-producer-head writer Jess Oppenheimer.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-24817897839186113732007-06-09T10:31:00.000-07:002007-06-09T10:31:00.000-07:00As someone who has done both single-camera (MASH) ...As someone who has done both single-camera (MASH) and multi-camera shows, I completely agree there's a place for both. I'm just saying choose the format that's best for the comedy you're trying to do. Don't dismiss multi-camera because it's not in vogue. <BR/><BR/>But this is a message more for the buyers than the sellers.By Ken Levinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17305293821975250420noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-43429867452037551532007-06-09T10:23:00.000-07:002007-06-09T10:23:00.000-07:00I respect the experience of you TV folks, and enjo...I respect the experience of you TV folks, and enjoy the heck out of Ken's blog, but it seems to me that suggesting live-audience, multi-camera is the only -- or even "the best" -- way to film a sitcom is reductive. It suggests that there's only one kind of sitcom. Which is patently absurd.<BR/><BR/>"M*A*S*H" is not the same as "The Bob Newhart Show" is not the same as "The Dick Van Dyke Show" is not the same as "Ned & Stacy." Surely there's room for some variety.<BR/><BR/>And maybe you need to work in a hospital to find "Scrubs" hilarious and smart, but I don't think so. I was lukewarm on Bill Lawrence's "Spin City," and it's true Zach Braff can be a little much at times, but "Scrubs" (particularly the first three seasons) is pure top-notch sitcom, pure and simple. They bring the funny in a big way.<BR/><BR/>Hey, some people don't care for "Frasier," y'know? Funny is universal, especially when people disagree about it.Febrifugehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11390183224653926238noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-54221596205798613672007-06-08T22:26:00.000-07:002007-06-08T22:26:00.000-07:00Well I'm 57, and I love THE SIMPSONS and THE COLBE...Well I'm 57, and I love THE SIMPSONS and THE COLBERT REPORT and never miss either. Still hate SCRUBS though. (Oh WHEN will The Simpsons go to multi-camera?)<BR/><BR/>Nylouoc, you shame me. I certainly SHOULD have mentioned Marc Daniels' very important contributions to the creation of multi-camera. My omission is even more embarassing because I worked as an actor in the very last work Daniels ever directed, a dreadful religious afterschool special-type of program called MAGIC BOY'S EASTER. Check it out on the IMDb, you'll find it as the last item on Marc's resume, and you'll find me in the cast as the Apostle Peter. (It also credits STAR TREK's John Meredyth Lucas as co-director, though I never set eyes on him on the set.)<BR/><BR/>I say it was dreadful based on what I saw when we shot it. I've never seen the finished product. Bernie Kopell starred in it. When I met him again last year, he could barely recall it to mind.<BR/><BR/>And we shot it single-camera.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-78881346379814067692007-06-08T20:43:00.000-07:002007-06-08T20:43:00.000-07:00It might be hard to imagine if you're in your fort...It might be hard to imagine if you're in your forties, fifties, or sixties, but there appears to be a significant generation gap for some shows like Scrubs. <BR/><BR/>I've listened to teens, twenty-somethings, and thirty-somethings absolutely rave about Scrubs, The Simpsons, and The Colbert Report - and it sure seems like advertisers love those demographics, don't they?<BR/><BR/>At some point, the Odd Couple crowd (I loved that show, too!) became irrelevant and invisible to network executives.Richard Cooperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04094016831874148306noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-11977578212497388832007-06-08T19:12:00.000-07:002007-06-08T19:12:00.000-07:00The Craig Ferguson audience often sounds "sweetene...The Craig Ferguson audience often sounds "sweetened" to me. And I'm evidently not the only one to notice it* -- a couple of weeks ago, he swore on the air that there was no laugh track, without crediting whoever was saying that there is.<BR/><BR/>Of course, he also swears that his shows are taped on the day they run.<BR/><BR/><BR/>* nor is estivAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-76537440799055666632007-06-08T19:02:00.000-07:002007-06-08T19:02:00.000-07:00..and speaking of Lucy...let us not forget directo.....and speaking of Lucy...let us not forget director Marc Daniels, whose experience in live television drama helped formulate the way these multi-cam shows are rehearsed and shot. Daniels is another forgotten man in TV history - he managed the feat of directing the first episodes telecast of TV's two biggest 'cult' shows ever - I LOVE LUCY and STAR TREK!LouOCNYhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16151395857835632917noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-67086772451911405832007-06-08T18:56:00.000-07:002007-06-08T18:56:00.000-07:00OK...so where is Season 2 of BARNEY MILLER??? has ...OK...so where is Season 2 of BARNEY MILLER??? has there ever been a classic classy show so neglected? BM did the reverse of Odd Couple - it went from audience to laugh track - and got better! No audience for Abe Vigoda to ham up to...<BR/><BR/>For a show that was nominated for 'Best Comedy' Emmys just about every year it was on, whose actors got nominated for Best Supporting Actor quite often, the boys from the ol' 1-2 sure have been allowed to slip through the cracks...LouOCNYhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16151395857835632917noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-65231383443668344542007-06-08T16:32:00.000-07:002007-06-08T16:32:00.000-07:00Multi-camera was indeed invented and designed by D...Multi-camera was indeed invented and designed by Desi Arnaz AND genius cinematographer Karl Freund. One suspects that Desi saw the need, and Freund worked out how to do it.<BR/><BR/>Freund photographed METROPOLIS and DRACULA, and directed THE MUMMY with Karloff and MAD LOVE, Peter Lorre's American film debut (And a film both brilliant and unintentionally hilarious.) He wound up his career shooting I LOVE LUCY and inventing multi-camera with Desi.<BR/><BR/>And I am SO GLAD that I'm not the only person who hates SCRUBS. I watched the entire first season and never laughed. Haven't seen an episode since. Terrible show, lavished with incomprehensible praise. I watched the FRASIER last night with Rita Wilson as Frasier's date and mother. Now THAT was COMEDY!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-19296167649516552322007-06-08T15:36:00.000-07:002007-06-08T15:36:00.000-07:00To the rant by anonymous on the idiot execs & Scru...To the rant by anonymous on the idiot execs & Scrubs, etc... this anonymous poster salutes you.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-21257158592246012662007-06-08T14:41:00.000-07:002007-06-08T14:41:00.000-07:00Speaking of laugh tracks--can any of you insiders ...Speaking of laugh tracks--can any of you insiders speak to my suspicion that about six months ago CBS started hiring a professional laugher or two to sit in Craig Ferguson's studio audience? He's about my fave talk-show host these days, but sometimes I think I'm hearing chuckles on steroids. And they don't sound overdubbed, just too hearty to be quite real.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-62484146312169999942007-06-08T13:43:00.000-07:002007-06-08T13:43:00.000-07:00I work for a TV web site, so I get the fall pilots...I work for a TV web site, so I get the fall pilots right after the upfronts. I was shocked to see that the new Amy Sherman-Palladino show, <I>The Return of Jezebel James</I>, is a multi-camera show shot in front of an audience. It was interesting to see how the rapid-fire dialogue she perfected on <I>Gilmore Girls</I> meshed with the rhythm of having a studio audience. My thinking was that AS-P is going to need to write a little differently to get those rhythms down; the pilot felt a bit out of synch.<BR/><BR/>Just illustrating that as great a format as multi-camera is, even the best writers have a hard time writing for it. That's why we see so few good "traditional" sitcoms these days.<BR/><BR/>By the way, how odd was it that Garry Marshall was involved in <I>two</I> classic sitcoms that went from single- to multi-camera early in their runs? You'd think that by the time <I>Happy Days</I> came around he would have taken his <I>Odd Couple</I> lesson to heart and just start it as a multi-camera show.Joelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05271095412998848104noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-28851907836426785502007-06-08T13:19:00.000-07:002007-06-08T13:19:00.000-07:00One of my favorites lines is when Felix in on some...One of my favorites lines is when Felix in on some TV show, possibly "Lets Make A Deal" or "Password" and looks into the camera and says, "Murray! Use a coaster!" and the camera then cuts to their apartment and we see Murray scrambing to put a coaster under his drink. Brilliant!Brian Scullyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12986230690604754706noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-8655709429125801472007-06-08T12:10:00.000-07:002007-06-08T12:10:00.000-07:00Henry Winkler appears on stage with a Brooklyn acc...Henry Winkler appears on stage with a Brooklyn accent, thumps the juke box with his fist and the record of his choice plays, and benson thinks the audience reaction ruined the reality of the show?<BR/><BR/>I loved Happy Days, but come on.Dana Kinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01350344882342624735noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-66916869569766486122007-06-08T12:08:00.000-07:002007-06-08T12:08:00.000-07:00Longtime reader, first time caller. Is it true th...Longtime reader, first time caller. Is it true that portions of the 'Odd Couple' dialogue was improvised? I read on IMDB that: "Randall and Klugman were also involved in the creative process of the TV show. They improvised on occasion, and sometimes they would receive scripts that simply said something like 'Jack teaches Tony football' and nothing else written on the next four pages."<BR/><BR/>Sounds suspect but if any team could have pulled it off it would have been those two geniuses.<BR/><BR/>Question, is this true and, if so, is this phenomenon known to exist now in today's ultra-controlled, non-spontaneous sitcom environment?<BR/><BR/>CraigAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-45164233324749216582007-06-08T11:43:00.000-07:002007-06-08T11:43:00.000-07:00Aristophanes....Ridiculous!Also, I appreciate what...Aristophanes....<BR/><BR/>Ridiculous!<BR/><BR/><BR/>Also, I appreciate what the fans of three camera shows are saying, but I guess, where my reservations are, to use Happy Days as an example, when Henry Winkler would come into a scene. The audience reacted like apes and hyenas. It just seems to ruin the reality of the scene.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-4588997855221023772007-06-08T11:16:00.000-07:002007-06-08T11:16:00.000-07:00Some great lines came out of The Odd Couple, most ...Some great lines came out of The Odd Couple, most notably: <BR/>1) ASSUME When you assume, you make and ASS out of U and ME!<BR/>2) Happy and peppy and bursting with love?<BR/>3) Linguine? Now it's garbage...<BR/>4) I feel like I'm sitting in Deacon Jones' hand.<BR/><BR/>They may not be word for word, but darn close. Randall and Klugman were great actors that worked well together, much like Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, the original Odd Couple!Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15430424294981546834noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-75150678332565308702007-06-08T11:12:00.000-07:002007-06-08T11:12:00.000-07:00I have Tony Randall stories too. What a hoot! An i...I have Tony Randall stories too. What a hoot! An inappropriate hoot. I directed him reading an audiobook.TheMusehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14998915480907756078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-35209252438060835882007-06-08T11:11:00.000-07:002007-06-08T11:11:00.000-07:00Oh...one more thing.Neil Simon is recognized on th...Oh...one more thing.<BR/><BR/>Neil Simon is recognized on the TV version as the originator of THE ODD COUPLE.By Ken Levinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17305293821975250420noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-20755203029390316432007-06-08T10:58:00.000-07:002007-06-08T10:58:00.000-07:00Believe me, if I said the "negatives" line I would...Believe me, if I said the "negatives" line I would take credit for it. Nope. Wasn't me. But wish it were. <BR/><BR/>My first staff job was on THE TONY RANDALL SHOW. I have a number of Tony Randall stories. Fodder for future posts.By Ken Levinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17305293821975250420noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-2857169984634075882007-06-08T07:52:00.000-07:002007-06-08T07:52:00.000-07:00Love The Odd Couple. Always wanted to see Jack Klu...Love The Odd Couple. Always wanted to see Jack Klugmann and Tony Randall spot Walter Matthau and Jack Lemon tussling in public.<BR/>"Look at those two. How embarrasing." ...or maybe they did work that into the series at some point. Though it seems like more of a Hope and Crosby type of thing.Todd Muellerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04841213952526711599noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-504066724462930612007-06-08T07:46:00.000-07:002007-06-08T07:46:00.000-07:00I had the pleasure of sitting in on many episodes ...I had the pleasure of sitting in on many episodes of THE ODD COUPLE (and contributing to some) and what a joy it was to watch Randall and Klugman spin their acting magic every week. A magnificent creation by Neil Simon superbly transferred to the TV screen by Marshall and Belson. God knows, TV needs more of this today.<BR/>P.S. - Ken, I HATE laugh tracks!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-1565195340749370742007-06-08T07:17:00.000-07:002007-06-08T07:17:00.000-07:00Sorry anonymous, gotta disagree about Scrubs with ...Sorry anonymous, gotta disagree about Scrubs with you there. I find it one of the funniest comedies around. <BR/><BR/>Now, if you were bagging According to Jim/George Lopez Show/Hope & Faith......I'd understand and be buying you beers. <BR/><BR/>cheers<BR/>DaveGrubberhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10435524784373114313noreply@blogger.com