Jim, Cheers Fan is up first with a FRASIER question.
Was the whole "Daphne's a psychic" thing just a set up for the first Lilith appearance where Daphne has an unexplained headache when Lilith comes to the apartment, and walks away from meeting Lillth and says under her breath, "I shook that woman's hand and lost all feeling in my right arm!”
No, that was established in the pilot. What we all realized however, was that it was a limited character trait and soon after this it was phased out.
However, I will say it worked well in our Lilith episode. And while we’re on that subject:
From Dave:
Further to you and David writing four of the Lillith episodes, did you both enjoy writing for her character? She seems a fantastic actor and the stories I saw with her in them seemed even better than normal (which is a high standard) especially the Room Service one.
Thanks, Dave. We LOVED writing for Bebe. Lilith was a great character and Bebe was pitch perfect. What does it say about me and David Isaacs that we identify with Lilith Sternin Crane?
And for you trivia buffs: We wrote for Lilith in three series. CHEERS, FRASIER, and the episode she guested on WINGS.
Kyle Burress wonders:
I just finished watching CNN's The Movies on HBO Max in which you are shown a number of times talking about different films of the different eras. I've also seen you on their decades series. I'm curious about how that comes about. Do they contact you and ask you speak about specific movies, or is generalized and you just end up talking about whatever they happen to ask? Are you there at the same time as other people doing the same, or is it strictly one on one?
I was first contacted by CNN for the ‘70s because of my association with MASH. I guess they were happy with my answers because I was invited back for the ‘80s to talk about CHEERS. After about 45 minutes of CHEERS questions the producer called out to the interview: “Ask him something else.”
So he started asking me about other shows and to my surprise, used a lot of those responses.
Again, I think they appreciated that I answered in short sound bytes so I was invited back for the ‘90s, ‘00s, and Movies.
For the TV ones I felt I belonged. But I’d watch a Movie episode and they’d interview Spielberg and Scorsese and then me, and I’m thinking “What the hell am I doing there?”
Each interview was one-on-one and scheduled so there was someone before me and someone after. In my case that meant Mike Farrell, Bob Newhart, Michael Mann, and Steven Bochco among others.
And finally, Jahn Ghalt queries:
What are the particular reasons you got a screener for WEST SIDE STORY?
More generally who gets screeners these days?
I received it because I’m a DGA member and Spielberg is looking to win another DGA Award.
Motion Picture Academy members get all the screeners. WGA members and SAG members also receive them most of the time.
There’s a warning that if I pirate the disc I will be fined $250,000 and sentenced to five years in prison. Right. And insurrectionists get one month in jail.
39 comments :
Friday question: Did you get paid for your work on the CNN series? Do the talking heads on all these documentaries get paid normally?
Are they still doing screeners in LA? BAFTA went completely onto streamed screeners this year. Not a single physical DVD or Blu Ray. I think my postman was quite pleased...
The note about Lilith being on "Wings" makes me wonder -- what TV character (not actor) has appeared on the most separate series (spin-offs, crossovers, etc)?
Oh, heck -- I googled it and the answers are kind of obvious: Sherlock Holmes, Superman, Batman.
Don't worry if you get thrown in prison -
For your fine work on this blog just mentioning his name, you will also be pardoned on his first day in 2024.
And you won't have to go on The Masked Singer.
Psychic? NANNY AND THE PROFESSOR built a whole sitcom based on that premise. I would guess Juliet Mills is the only surviving actor from that program.
Friday Question: On Frasier, Glen and Les Charles received credit at the end of every episode for creating the character of Dr. Crane, as he debuted on their show. However, what if a character not developed by the original creators were to receive a spinoff? I know you and David created Eddie LeBec, and I know he was killed off, but hypothetically speaking…had Eddie received his own show, would you and David have received the creator credit, or would it have gone to the Charles Bros. since he originated on their show? Or would all four of you perhaps have received credit?
The late Patrice Oneal once talked about his experience being interviewed for I Love the '80s, a nostalgia miniseries that aired on VH1 in 2002.
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> What we all realized however, was that it was a limited character trait and soon after this it was phased out
I found Daphne in the pilot so off-putting that I didn't watch Frasier when it originally aired on NBC. I waited until WPIX aired the re-runs until I tried it again and loved it.
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As for screeners, from what I have heard on Howard Stern back in the day, metadata is added to each of the screeners so they can be identified in case of unauthorized copying.
@Total
John Munch, as portrayed by Richard Belzer, has appeared on 10 series. That may not necessarily be a record, but it's something.
"There’s a warning that if I pirate the disc I will be fined $250,000 and sentenced to five years in prison."
Now that's funny right there.
You should announce on your blog that you did this, and then see what the consequences are.
If the experiment goes poorly, I'll visit you.
On fading traits:
-- The Bob Newhart Show originally had a neighbor whose schtick was pathological lying. The lying fell away and the neighbor developed into a straightforward, self-centered pest.
-- Mork and Mindy went through a phase where they wrote out Mindy's father and grandmother and brought in a bunch of young friends and relatives. One began as a would-be local politician who evolved (devolved?) into a trendy self-actualization type.
-- On the 60s Batman, Julie Newmar's Catwoman was originally all feline sex appeal. On her return she combined that with a comic, almost Damon Runyon gangster thing.
-- Patrick Warburton as The Tick was originally written as a sort of madman, but quickly leaned into doofusity.
-- In the old Charlie Chan movies, Lee Chan (Number One Son) was introduced as a businessman who happened to connect with his father abroad. Within a few films he was a hyper college-age kid ... and still played by Keye Luke.
Byron, well when "Laverne & Shirley" was spun-off from "Happy Days" the credit went "Created by Lowell Ganz, Mark Rothman, and Garry Marshall" since the first two created them in the "HP" ep and Garry created "HP". Then on "Mork & Mindy" it went "Created by Garry Marshall, Joe Budai (not sure if that surname was spelled right), and Dale McRaven" since the first one was that "HP" creator that Mork originally appeared on, the second was the one who wrote that particular ep and the last one created the original premise of that particular series spin-off.
Correction, the second name in the "Mork & Mindy" created by credit is Joe Glauberg.
I did a brief search and found an article in the Hollywood Reporter about the late actor Carmine Caridi being expelled from the Motion Picture Academy for sharing screeners (in the VHS era). When was this outrage criminalized? Would you volunteer to be the test case, like John Scopes teaching evolution in Tennessee in 1925 (or was it last week)?
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/an-actors-personal-tale-i-was-thrown-academy-sharing-screeners-976778/
The film version of Howard Michael Gould's LAST LOOKS opens today, it's also available On Demand. I was introduced to the book when you spoke with him on your podcast. The third book in the series was just published.
I guess that TV screeners aren't that big a deal because I used to buy them on eBay back in the days before one was able to binge *any* TV series online.
Lemuel - "Psychic? NANNY AND THE PROFESSOR built a whole sitcom based on that premise. I would guess Juliet Mills is the only surviving actor from that program."
Just as she predicted.
4th cause of climate change, screeners. Think of all the landfills with DVDs/VHS/BLuerays. Too bad they can't recycle them and make a prison....
I think a big target of the piracy rule is aimed at overseas targets, both small (those hucksters who sell cut-rate DVDs of pirated movies on street corners) and large (China's government disregards international patent and copyright law, for one). When I finished watching all of the episodes on one of my "Big Bang Theory" DVD sets, I saw that Interpol "WARNING" message about piracy in English, Spanish, French ... and then Japanese, Mandarin/Cantonese, Lao, Thai, Arabic, and possibly Esperanto.
Friday question: I noticed the name "Chito" pop up in the background of several Cheers episodes - a couple of times on th scoring chalkboard in the poolroom and again on a wall during a cold opened scene where Sam is scrubbing Norm's graffiti off the front entrance. Who was Chito?
The psychic bit worked perfectly later when Daphne had a 'vision of the man who was the love of her life' in Donny's proposal episode, ending up with Niles holding a dragon
You beat me. I was going to say that.
M.B.
Friday Question: This is about opening sequences. Some shows had more-or-less the same opening sequence for their whole run. CHEERS is an example, although I heard it was shortened as the show went on. Growing up watching CHEERS on syndication, it seems like I only ever saw the shortened version, but when I watched CHEERS on Netflix, it seems like they used the long version for the entire run of the series.
Rewatching EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND for the first time since I watched reruns on cable, I am noticing opening sequences that I thought were rare were used for several seasons at a stretch, including episodes whose plots I remember fairly well. Was it common to swap out, edit, or omit opening sequences for syndication?
For the George Clooney film, "The Descendants" the letter accompanying the screener said that the DVD should be destroyed after viewing so that it "...does not fall into the wrong hands." I'm sure we all did that, right? I mean no one is foolish enough to have stashed it away among his/her/its DVD collection, are they? After all you don't want to cross George Clooney.
Maybe someday they will come up with a "Mission Impossible" type of technology where the DVD, blu-ray or other media will self destruct after viewing. And if you try to watch it again your DVD player blows up.
Of course the best incentive to destroy "The Descendants" screener is that it wasn't that great of a movie.
M.B.
This article in the Hollywood Reporter about TV image laundering encapsulates my comment yesterday regarding the Masked Singer and that human turd Giuliani.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/rudy-giuliani-masked-singer-1235086734/
Here Ken, my free gift to you:
https://tinyurl.com/2s49pe4w
Lemuel - "Psychic? NANNY AND THE PROFESSOR built a whole sitcom based on that premise. I would guess Juliet Mills is the only surviving actor from that program."
David Doremus is still alive and kicking and Kim Richards is (sadly) a reality star, a long way from her days as a Disney child actor.
Friday question: Why do you think classic shows like Andy Griffith and MASH play endlessly in syndication and had strong DVD sales and classic shows like The Mary Tyler Moore Show And The Bob Newhart Show struggle to find an audience?
Irony of ironies...CBS sent its rural shows packing in the early seventies in favor of "Mary Tyler Moore," "All in the Family," and similar shows with greater urban appeal. Yet,50 years later, it's "The Andy Griffith Show" that has stood the test of time.
Here in Central Kentucky, syndicated reruns of "The Andy Griffith Show" have been popular for decades, while "Mary Tyler Moore" and "Frasier," although my personal favorites, have fared less well.
This is a conservative area, and I guess people find comfort in what the Griffith show and the like represent.
Lilith was the only “Cheers” character (ok, maybe Diane too) who fit in on “Frasier”. When the others guest starred, it seemed gimmicky and contrived.
"Mike Bloodworth said...
Maybe someday they will come up with a "Mission Impossible" type of technology where the DVD, blu-ray or other media will self destruct after viewing. And if you try to watch it again your DVD player blows up."
There was a time when Disney (among others?) was working on a DVD that would become unplayable a fairly short time after being unwrapped. The idea was for it to be a convenient no-return rental. When it made the news, public reaction was such that Disney promptly dropped the project.
Speaking of non-copying stuff, from 2006: Sony recalls copy-protected CDs https://iaisnd.com/news/sony-recalls-copy-protected-cds/
Sony BMG is recalling music CDs that use controversial anti-piracy software.
The software was widely criticised because it used virus-like techniques to stop illegal copies being made.
Widespread pressure has made the music giant remove CDs bearing the software from stores. It will also swap bought CDs for copies free of the XCP anti-piracy software.
Sony is also providing software to make it easy to remove the controversial program from Windows computers.
One of the discs, Neil Diamond’s 12 Songs, was the top seller on Amazon.com for several days.
I own 12 Songs but couldn't play it on my computer at work because of the silly technology.
Paramount came out with a VHS screener back in the early 90s that would erase the tape after, if I remember correctly, 3 playings. They only did it for 3 titles.
@Kevin FitzMaurice
You aren't making the point you think you're making. The reason CBS made the rural purge is that shows like The Andy Griffith Show were popular in places like Kentucky and CBS no longer wanted those audiences.
@Mark
A memorable episode of Frasier was when Diane came back to produce her screenplay, which of course was an ersatz Cheers. John Carroll Lynch, who went on to play Drew Carey's brother, plays "Franklin".
For those who haven't seen it, it's called "The Show Where Diane Comes Back" and is the 14th episode of season 3.
A question I don't know if you would have an answer, but has been bugging me for awhile. A popular network that has been showing repeats of "The Flintstones" has for some reason erased the credit for voice actress Bea Benaderet who was the original voice of Betty Rubble. My question is why would the network stop giving her credit and would her estate have any legal options? I am a firm believer in giving credit when credit is due.
You’d think that they’d issue one use-only links for streaming screeners. That would be pretty easy to set up. They’ve stopped including DVD drives in some computers and laptops.
@Colin
Bea Benederet's contract would have no impact on whether the credits changed or not by now. Since it was a primetime show, her residuals were likely the same as other actors of the day and the payments ran out after about six broadcasts. Even if small checks are due to her heirs, it's still in a contract filed with Warner Bros who now owns the library. The absence in the credits should have no impact as the shows and their sequence are proof enough.
The credits on Hanna-Barbera primetime shows were standardized by Screen Gems when they went into syndication. Almost all The Flintstones list John Stephenson and Hal Smith as the voices and Warren Foster as writers even though Paul Frees, June Foray, Sandra Gould, Verna Felton and others did voices as well, and writers like Joanna Lee also contributed. They did not do this consistently, however, and some end credits are accurate.
Few realized that the original "Rise and Shine" instrumental even existed until H-B expert and scriptwriter Earl Kress restored the original openings to the episodes that aired on ABC with it before "Meet the Flintstones" (which originated on a Golden LP record) replaced it. However, not all the end credits could be completely restored.
@Greg
Thank you for the information you provided. It is certainly appreciated. I do, however, have a problem with your explanation. Bea was part of the main cast. The others are still listed on the end credits. She is not.
This lady had a prolific career and it is a shame she is being screwd over in death as she was in life at Warner Brothers due to Mel Blanc's contract. But thanks once again for the information.
There was the question about "Daphne's a psychic" here. Would it ever work (or has it ever worked) where there is basically a setup to a good punchline that occurs over multiple episodes until the payoff. Like having that character trait established in the pilot solely to setup a big payoff a few episodes down the road? Intentional or not in that particular case, it really worked well (heck, the other part of the setup for that payoff came over several years from another series).
FQ: Have you had the chance to check out Abbott Elementary yet? If not I highly recommend it! Definitely has the traditional classic sitcom feel yet still feels fresh. In my opinion it's the best comedy I've seen on television period since The Middle. It definitely has Middle quality vibes to me.
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