Saturday, May 27, 2017

A long lost Levine & Isaacs episode

This is one of my favorite episodes. It's from THE TONY RANDALL SHOW. David Isaacs and I wrote it in 1977. The premise stems from an article I saw in the paper. The scenario we present actually happened.

In case you're one of the two or three people in the entire world not familiar with THE TONY RANDALL SHOW, he played a judge in Philadelphia. The series was produced by MTM and created by Tom Patchett & Jay Tarses, who were the driving force behind THE BOB NEWHART SHOW and later BUFFALO BILL.

The episode features Zane Lasky as Mario Lanza and David Ogden Stiers just before he got a gig on another show you might have heard of.

So here, from the Pleistocene Era is our TONY RANDALL SHOW. Thanks to friend-of-the-blog, Jamie Weinman for unearthing it.

Case- The People Speak by carpalton

17 comments :

VincentS said...

Hm. A radio call-in show and an English maid. Reminds me of another Levine-Isaacs show.

I'm Outraged! said...

Good seeing David Ogden Stiers not long after his brief stint as one of Charlie's Angels.

Brad Apling said...

Snappy dialogue. Is a fast pace standard for comedy or just for certain eras? One other question: When Stiers introduced Randall on the radio show, he made a slip on the name "Tonight my guest is Judge Walter Frankel Franklin." Assuming that was written into the script, is the slip-of-the-tongue / mispronunciation a vehicle that is best used infrequently for most characters or can it become a reliable standard in developing a particular character for a show?

Anonymous said...

It always cracked me up when he would say: "Judge Franklin, Mario Lanza".

RLP said...

I clicked it intending only to have a peek, not to watch the whole thing, but that was really funny. It was nice to see something so well-structured, where the humor came from well-defined characters.

Andy Rose said...

A technical question: I noticed they did a couple of freeze-frame credits on a punchline just before concluding the final scene.
Obviously, freezing the video was done in post-production, but it seems like the director would still need the cast to hold their positions for a couple of extra beats to keep the audience laughter from getting cut off. Am I right about that, or was there some other editing trick used to allow the performance to continue apace? And did you have to take that quirk of pacing into account in writing the final scene?

VP81955 said...

Oh, that jacket. Shades of Norm Sloan ('70s N.C. State basketball coach).

Jeff Edwards said...

David Ogden Stiers played radio guy Robert W. Cleaver,,,, combination of two of your favorite radio guys names ?

Jeff Edwards said...

naming the radio host after two of your favorite radio people Robert W. Cleaver

ScottyB said...

The one thing I remember about that show was the intro, where Tony Randall is wheeling around a building rooftop inside that rolly ball whatchamacallit, all dressed in white I think. I have no idea why I remember that to this day, but I do.

Y. Knott said...

I remember this show! Bounced around in the schedule, as I recall, and was hard to find. Sure has the MTM aura, though, doesn't it?

Ken, any idea who the two phone voices are? (The woman who calls in for a movie review, and the suicidal man.) Producers? Writers?

Mark Murphy said...

Thanks, Ken. I always enjoyed that program. I especially remember one episode featuring a then unknown (I think) Michael Keaton, playing a night school student of Franklin's, named Zeke. His later popularity came as no surprise to me; he was hilarious from the get-go.

A possible Friday question: I always especially enjoyed Allyn Ann McLerie as Miss Reubner. Did you know her? Thanks again.

Brian said...

Thanks for sharing that! I enjoyed the show in its initial run. After getting over the shock of the car dealer's name in the bit of commercial in this clip (Tom Raper!!) I did have a question:

The credits list Hugh Wilson as a "Story Consultant". What is a story consultant, or what was Wilson's role in this instance?

SharoneRosen said...

Ahhhh... I remember the show well!

Robert W. Cleaver... excellent!

Damian T. Lloyd, Esq. said...

I assume the sentence "In case you're one of the two or three people in the entire world not familiar with The Tony Randall Show is a joke of some kind. I suspect it would be more accurate to speak of the two or three people in the world who are familiar with The Tony Randall Show ... or, these days, with Tony Randall.

-- Damian

Brian said...

"How about I check your drawers?". Didn't see that one coming.

DyHrdMET said...

The opening credits tell me right away that it's an MTM production, even before any logos come up. And the plot is classic Levine-Isaacs. Very funny. I recognized a lot of names and faces from the end credits.