David P starts us off.
Of all the comic actors you've worked with, who do you think would be best as a President rallying their nation under attack?
That’s easy. Alan Alda.
When Alan was running for president on THE WEST WING I would’ve voted for him. And his character was a Republican. (Of course that was when the Republican Party believed in Democracy and not destroying the country.)
Jeff wonders:
How uncomfortable is it to have to hire an actor to play a person the script describes as homely, unattractive, etc. I am thinking of Coach's daughter for one.
It is a little awkward, but you try in the casting breakdown to be somewhat delicate in your description. “Large” not “Obese,” etc.
Also, there is the understanding that hair, make-up, and wardrobe can make you less attractive than you are. (In features that’s how beautiful actors get their Oscar nominations.)
So the actress knows that she’s not unattractive but the character she is playing is.
And then there are actors who don’t care. Jackie Gleason encouraged fat jokes. He knew he was fat and he knew he could get laughs out of that.
Of course, nowadays everyone is so sensitive that in casting breakdowns you also can’t say someone IS attractive.
From Rhonda Aghamalian:
What do you think would have happened to Sam and Diane if Shelley had stayed on the show?
I think they would have killed each other.
But seriously, I don’t know. We pretty much exhausted the Sam-Diane relationship by the end of season 5.
During that fifth season, when David and I wrote episodes of CHEERS we asked for Carla stories. We had done numerous Sam & Diane episodes by that point and were happy to explore the other characters.
And finally, a longer question than an answer from Frank Adkisson:
I took a long weekend and had time to binge "Inventing Anna" on Netflix.
The main character is in the midst of a pregnancy at the beginning so there is a bit of a timeline for the 9 episodes. Early portion is probably second trimester. Then comes the birth. And later episodes, it is revealed the baby is now 3+ months old.
The series is set in NYC.
I'm no meteorologist but I'm fairly certain NYC has an actual SUMMER! And a pretty hideous one at that Jun/Jul/Aug.
Yet people are wearing lengthy overcoats and gloves in pretty much every scene. Even in episode 9 where two characters are on a park bench and the grass surrounding them is lush ballpark-groundskeeper-aided-green and there is no snow on the ground whatsoever. Overcoats.
Is it for continuity reasons like where Hoss and Little Joe always wore the same clothes? Is it because everyone expects a lawyer or Wall Street businessman to always be wearing a heavy overcoat?
As the months progressed, from episode to episode, I was (mentally) screaming, is it NYC or is it the North Pole? (Which coincidentally now is also having summer temps due to climate change.)
The short answer is that certain productions are lazy and others are cheap.
Good wardrobe people at the production meeting are always asking what time of year and what time of day and how dressy should they be? They take great pride in having the right clothes. If the director says the scene is in the fall they’ll ask when in the fall? In September the weather is much different than November.
Shooting New York in the winter doesn’t require snow — just winter wear. And maybe the Naked Cowboy stays out of the shot.
As for characters always wearing the same thing that’s so they could use the same stock shots over and over. DRAGNET did that. Webb & Morgan wore the same suits in every episode so whenever they got out of the car, or they entered the precinct their wardrobe always matched. Producer Jack Webb was just flat out cheap.
Maybe that was the case too with BONANZA. To be honest, I haven’t seen an episode of BONANZA since it left NBC. And at the time I didn’t notice the wardrobe. I was too busy wondering whether Lorne Greene wore a toupee.
What’s your Friday Question?
59 comments :
Are we just skipping Alda playing the president in Canadian Bacon?
I've seen The Naked Cowboy in Times Square in the winter. He's an all season performer :)
Last week Fox News via Tucker Carlson was telling us to love Putin while he was doing his dirty work.
This week Fox News via Sean Hannity wants him assassinated.
At this rate, it won't be too long before they'll be more Democratic than the Democrats -
for a week at any rate.
Perhaps "Inventing Anna" should've been set (and filmed) in Syracuse.
"As for characters always wearing the same thing that’s so they could use the same stock shots over and over. DRAGNET did that."
Or... for "My Three Sons," Fred MacMurray's contract stated that all of his scenes for the *entire season* would be shot within a one or two month period. The rest of the cast would then fill in the blanks for the rest of the year. All 30 or so episodes had to be written and ready to shoot at the beginning of the season.
"Both sides" are not being assholes. The owners have refused to negotiate in good faith. They've been manipulating service time, cheating young players, and treating the CBT as a cap. Revenues and team valuations are sky-high. The owners refuse to fix the system so that the money can go to the players who are contributing to the excellence of the game and the owners' profits. They would rather risk the long-term health and popularity of the game to maximize short-term profits and try to break the union.
If you feel the need to fret over employee compensation, start with teachers and nurses and spend the next few years working up to professional athletes.
How about John Ritter as president in AMERICATHON? To say nothing of Zane Buzby as the horny singer from a Vietnamese rock band.
Like SERIAL, AMERICATHON was an uncomfortable comedy that seemed to say "the country's been overrun with gay wheat-germ hippies and orgy masters! If only some burly he-man, perhaps a former actor, would save us!" These movies came out in 1979.
Let's not forget Alan Alda as the nefarious, utterly traitorous, national security advisor in Murder at 1600 who tries to pin a murder on the president (Ronny Cox) in order to collude with the vice president and take over.
"Both sidesing" a dispute in which one side won't even negotiate is...quaint. To be expected of one who was paid by the owners, though.
"As for characters always wearing the same thing that’s so they could use the same stock shots over and over..."
Or, I imagine, to facilitate editing components into the final shows. The current show PENN & TELLER FOOL US show has various magicians perform in front of the famous magician duo. The various performances are surely filmed over several sessions, but Penn and Teller and host
Alyson Hannigan always wear the same outfits. I presume that's to give the producers more options in putting together the individual episodes ("Let's take Performer A that we filmed on Monday and Performer B that we filmed on Tuesday and Performer C that we filmed last week and mmake that the episode.") without the regulars' changing wardrobes breaking the illusion of a continuous performance.
Commenting on the Sam/Diane question...While at the time it broke my heart to see Shelly Long leave, it probably did allow the show to run longer (if it did change the nature of the show). That's one of the problems with series....it's hard to find endings. Even with Cheers over, you couldn't count on an "ending" for the characters. On Frasier we learned that Rebecca's marriage didn't last, and we saw that Diane still hadn't moved on. It's funny within the show, but it is a bit sad. (one argument against a Frasier reboot, since I thought that show had an almost perfect ending)
Here, There, and/or Everywhere:
- Alan Alda as Leader of the Free World:
Anybody here remember a movie called Murder At 1600 (1997)?
That was the one where Alan Alda plays a Presidential Chief Of Staff who (SPOILER WARNING) commits multiple murders in order to bring down POTUS Ronny Cox, whom he considers weak and ineffectual; DC cops Wesley Snipes and Dennis Miller join forces with SSA Diane Lane to solve the crime (I really gotta look at this DVD again ...).
As I'm writing this, I'm recalling bits and pieces of 1600's super-complicated plot (it's a whodunit, so you don't know that AA is The Bad Guy until near the finish), and I'm remembering that during the Clinton presidency, the picture was panned for its over-the-top portrayal of Capitol Hill intrigue (what a difference 25 years can make).
- I'd toss in a mention of What's Happening Now, but I'd only make my headache worse ...
- Fun With Hair!
When Bonanza kicked off in 1958, Lorne Greene wore the worst wig ever seen; over time he had to get it reduced to make it look something like human hair.
Even here Greene had a problem, because they didn't use human hair to make white toupees - they had to use yak hair, as I recall, and that was hard to come by then.
Toupees were Topic A on the Bonanza production:
- Pernell Roberts had to be persuaded (read compensated) to wear a rug as Adam; he drove the NBC brass nuts by appearing topless on talk and game shows, with see-through har on top.
- Dan Blocker's hairline was in full retreat when he got the part of Hoss; he fooled around with combover variations until late in the Bonanza run, when he finally gave in and got a toup all his own.
- Michael Landon's luxurious mop was all his own, until his later-in-life cancer led him to get reinforcements at the end (but that's another story ...).
- When last I had the nerve to check FOX News, Mr. Carlson was starting to waver in his support of the current Russian government, while Mr. Hannity is now advocating going Capone on Mr. Putin.
Interestingly enough, both of these beings are trying their best to ignore the continuing presence of Mr. Trump (you know, like they never heard of the guy); I'd call it a crisis of conscience, except that none of these people have ever shown evidence of having any ...
- By the bye ...
By any chance, have any of you seen Dennis Prager's latest column on his website?
He hasn't forgotten Mr. Trump; Mr. Prager is now saying that if #45 were still in office, this Ukraine business wouldn't have happened ... because Mr. Putin was - and is - afraid of Mr. Trump.
Frankly, I lack the stomach to check back and see if I read that correctly; should any of you out there decide to follow up on this, I promise to take any corrections you might make with a becoming graciousness (I think).
I might be cheap, but it's not a problem for me to wear a good pair of under ware for a week
Don't forget Alan Alda as a deeply corrupt senator in THE AVIATOR. And he was already walking a thin ethical line in THE SEDUCTION OF JOE TYNAN. Maybe not the best choice to lead the free world.
I'm always troubled by scenes that take place in cold, snowy weather but you never see the actors' breath. That and people badly pretending to play musical instruments can ruin a movie for me.
They always wore the same outfits on COMBAT!, too.
@Tommy Raiko
Yes, Fool Us was the example that I was going to use. I'm sure Alyson would love to show off her wardrobe, but for continuity reasons she and the stars must dress the same every episode.
@Ken
The Office did a good job of making sure their actors were dressed appropriately for whatever season was happening in Pennsylvania at that particular time. They also used snow as a plot point!
> the Republican Party believed in Democracy and not destroying the country
The problem was at the time Democrats didn't believe this. They would have said that Mitt Romney was evil and wanted to destroy the country because he mentioned binders! The Democrats and the media cried wolf one too many times, so when an actual wolf appeared in 2016 no one believed them and he won.
Political opposition is always going to be considered evil and a threat to democracy. As I said last Wednesday, politics is like professional wrestling. There are [baby]faces (good guys) and heels (bad guys). There are face-heel turns and heel-face turns, depending on which side you're on (bothsidesing, ew!). The key difference between politics and pro wrestling is that the hatred between sides is legit (real), not kayfabe (fake). That goes for voters, commentators, and the politicians themselves. "You're either with us or against us." To that end, not taking a position (at least, not publicly) is considered "against us." "Silence is complicity/violence."
I believe that even if Trump wasn't an impulsive, braggadocious a-hole (I say that as someone who nonetheless voted for him), he'd still be hated like all Republican presidents, and presidential candidates, before him.
I've been vacillating on whether to say anymore or post this comment at all, but here I go, checking that I'm not a robot and then publishing.
What makes me laugh about Bonanza is how they need to be colorful since color TV is still a new thing, so you have cowboys wearing freakin' lavender shirts and stuff
Putin probably was afraid of Trump. Any somewhat sane person would have been afraid of Trump with the power to launch our nuclear arsenal. I know I was.
Alan Alda as Arnold Vinick. I always remember that storyline on The West Wing. He was a decent man, and, over the course of the last episodes on the series, I was really impressed with Alda's work. He won an Emmy as Best Supporting Actor that year.
Martin Sheen in The Dead Zone would have been an improvement over recent choices.
I feel I need to elaborate, lest I get lumped in with ardent Trump supporters:
1) Biden won fair and square, which I told Ken in an e-mail when requesting a copy of the "Rat Girl" (Cheers) script.
2) The January 6 Capitol riot was all the synonyms for bad you can think of, even when put up against the destructively violent riots that occurred after George Floyd was killed or after similar injustices. I had trouble sleeping that night, regretting my decision to have voted for Trump, but I am not at the level of wanting him jailed for life or wishing him dead.
It's interesting to contemplate how long "Cheers" would have lasted had Shelley Long stayed. Eleven seasons? Doubtful. I agree that that the Sam-and-Diane plot had reached the saturation point by the fifth year.
Same with "M*A*S*H." I can't envision it going the 11-year distance with Rogers/Stevenson/Linville, as good as they were. Farrell/Morgan/Stiers were not as funny, but they helped take the show in new directions and gave it increasing depth. So, in nearly a dozen seasons, you got the best of both worlds--the absurdity of war and the tragedy.
If you're lucky, new characters--assuming they're accepted by the audience--can breathe new life in an established show.
Incidentally, in the recent New York Times obituary for Sally Kellerman, the film version of "MASH" was spelled sans asterisks, while a brief reference to Loretta Swit and the TV show included the "M*A*S*H" spelling.
I'm sure that's what Dennis Prager said, Mike. He's a longtime seditionist. In a civilized country, he and the entirety of Fux Noise would be in prison.
By the way, there's a story, which I believe Michael Landon told, of the time on Bonanza that Pa had to fall into the water. Lorne Greene went under and then his hair floated to the top ... and then he came up, grabbed it, put it back on, walked out of the water, went to his trailer, closed the door, and didn't come out for the rest of the day.
As for Alda, Woody Allen saw what a magnificent villain he'd make, and used his talent to full advantage, I say (whatever one thinks of Allen).
Ken, any thoughts about Farrah Forke?
I know that thievery of actual material is a very serious subject for creators of comedy... but what do you think about the many cases over the years of a comic performer feeling that another stole his persona or attitude? Or technique? Bert Lahr thought Joe E. Brown took a lot from what Bert was doing onstage. Shelly Berman resented Bob Newhart using the whole one-sided phone conversation structure. I have heard that Richard Lewis thought Paul Reiser took his whole being for his onstage persona
Alan Alda also played a senator in THE SEDUCTION OF JOE TYNAN, and was very believable. I remember liking this movie a lot in 1979, as it seemed to show some of the behind-the-scenes workings of politics. But I haven't seen it in many years, and I wonder if it would seem hopelessly naive now. Other politically-based comedies such as THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT and DAVE are almost unwatchable now, after the four-year political nightmare that we barely managed to survive.
Another Bonanza hairpiece story involved Dan Blocker. Blocker didn't mind having a hairpiece, and he would occasionally fake a really big sneeze, which threw his hairpiece down over his face. He then started frantically flailing his arms as if he just gone blind.
Mike
If you don't think Trump deserves prison or death after everything he and his junta did, then you still haven't understood the damage that obese depends wearer has wrought upon the fabric of American society. Like I said earlier in the week, Charles Manson had more morals than today's Republican party.
Michael's response to my comments do not make me wish I didn't post them. However, now that you all know where I stand, I will no longer reply to any political commentary by Ken or my fellow commenters.
Not even Darwin's Ghost comment posted while I was writing the comment before this makes me regret going on the record. I still choose not to get involved in future political commentary. None of us are going to change our minds. All I ask is that people not hate me and roll your eyes when I comment on other things, thinking to themselves: "Oh, God, it's him. Does he really think he can get away with posting inane comments on TV shows or music when he's an accomplice to..." Etc.
Hey E! Welcome back. Haven't heard from you in a while.
M.B.
Actors are at the mercy of the weather. One time as an extra on the Mark Harmon show, "Charlie Grace" we had to pretend it was summer in the dead of winter. We were shooting at Venice Beach. Everyone was in shorts, t-shirts, bikinis, etc. despite the fact that it was freezing. (At least by California standards.) I understand that "Baywatch" had to deal with a similar situation. I've also done the overcoat in August thing. The commentary track from "Halloween" said that they shot in the summer. The set dressers had to bring in orange leaves and other decorations to make it appear like autumn. Meanwhile, all the trees still had their leaves and the lawns were green and lush.
I'll keep my politics to myself. Except to say that Ronald Reagan played the president pretty well.
M.B.
I'd be interested to know how they plan and produce Penn & Teller's Fool Us. A friend of mine has performed four times on the show and I think he fooled them twice (he's a major celebrity in the close-up magic community). But it didn't occur to me that they might use B-roll of P&T reaction shots, etc. until someone mentioned it here.
As for politics, if you want to see a really funny, nonpartisan take on the state of politics from a few years ago, check out the late Richard Jeni's TV special, A Big Steaming Pile of Me.
Recall Roy Rogers and Dale Evans doing an intro to one of their old movies. Roy proudly pointed out the fancy cowboy shirt he was wearing was vintage, and it still fit. He went on to say that he had to save all his wardrobe back in the day, so he could match old stunts and stock footage.
For this kid, it was disillusioning to realize how much of "Batman" was stock each week. To some extent that was part of the joke: From the Batcave to City Hall was the exact same footage every time, and upon grasping it I felt cheated rather than amused. In the show's second season they actively promoted the arrival of the Batboat, Batcycle and Batcopter. In fact they just used footage from the movie, adding (intentionally?) unpersuasive inserts of West and Ward doing dialogue.
Now I watch old stuff and delight in catching recycling. Binge the Weissmuller Tarzans sometime. The croc sliding into the river in nearly every movie is just the beginning.
While I knew Jackie Gleason was a Republican who supported Richard Nixon, I really can't imagine him doing the same for The Donald especially after Jan. 6...
Here's a Friday Question: What happens when readers start attacking each other?
STOP IT.
DBenson: Yes, its fun to watch old TV shows just to see all the recycled footage and old stock footage. I remember an episode of Lou Grant from the early 80's where the plot had a major storm hitting Los Angeles. Included was old storm footage which judging from the cars was about 20 years old.
Re: "Homely female characters": On "Three's Company" the Chrissy character was the bombshell and Janet the plain Jane type. Which I never quite understood.
Also I just read that Anna Karen, who played Olive on "On The Buses" died in a house fire last week. Anna Karen was a model- in order to play Olive she wore a wig, glasses, and padding in order to look fat (plus she wore no makeup). What's funny about this is that the lead character Stan played by middle-aged Reg Varney- was supposed to be very popular with the ladies.
Speaking of "Bonanza", it seems like the entire Western genre has almost disappeared. "Unforgiven" was three decades ago, the Coens' well-regarded "True Grit" was still a remake, and for the life of me I can't remember a network TV western since "Gunsmoke" ("Best of the West" was more a sitcom than Western). Other than stricter animal welfare laws or today's actors all being allergic to horses, I wonder why Westerns have fallen out of favor as much as variety shows have.
As for actors playing presidents? You've likely heard that Volodimyr Zelensky, currently rousing the free world for supporting Ukraine against Putin, was an actor/comedian, and that in one sitcom he played a teacher who somehow became Ukraine's president. Here's a clip from that show, "Servant of the People", which is now ratcheting up zillions of views on YouTube: https://youtu.be/pmMCYFKjWaQ
I recently went to see Uncharted. Man, that Mark Wahlberg is a magical actor. You can put him in any genre, time period and location, and have him play everything from a cop and an engineer to a treasure hunter and solider, and using his incredible acting skills, he can make all those different characters in all those different settings exactly the same. What a talent. Only Dwayne Johnson can match him for that special gift.
Temp difference could mean different things to different people. Went on a business trip to Florida. Car rental lady was dressed to the nines in winter gear. She made a comment about me wearing t-shirt and shorts, that she would be freezing to death. It was 53 degrees when I got there. I left Cleveland when it was four degrees. I laughed and told her the what the temp was when we left and the absolute look of horror on her face was priceless. I'm a transplanted Floridian by birth and as a teenager for the first two winters in Ohio in junior high I sat on a steam pipe wearing a heavy winter coat and still was freezing, temp dropped to 60 and we all were bitching about how cold we were. Ohioans looked at us like we were insane. At home, we all sat in front of a roaring fire and probably burned enough wood to denude half the Amazon rainforest. So when it drops to -45 degrees with a wind chill temp so low that polar bears complain about it in North Dakota or other upper midwest states, I'm like "How the hell can they stand it?" and people in Florida or Hawaii see the temp in Ohio drop into the 20s/30s they're probably thinking "How they hell can they stand it?" By the way, I still can't stand the cold [or snow] but I've learned to tolerate it....barely.
"Frank Adkisson:
I'm no meteorologist but I'm fairly certain NYC has an actual SUMMER! And a pretty hideous one at that Jun/Jul/Aug."
Dynasty ran for like 9 years in a Denver where it never snowed, because they never had winter. (But they did have palm trees.) One season had a storyline revolving around a skiing accident, and the characters had to go out of state to go skiing.
The first season of Dallas, which was only 5 episodes, was shot in the winter, and JR and the rest of the characters are all bundled up for cold weather throughout, their breath visible in outdoor scenes.
It was the last we ever saw of cold weather on Dallas. The remaining 14 years all took place in spring/summer/early fall. Never another winter. We never saw those heavy coats and layered-look wool outfits on it again.
I have long noticed that MASH, probably more than any show, drew attention and made jokes about cast members' physical appearance. Winchester was bald. Colonel Potter was short and had false teeth. BJ had a goofy mustache. Frank Burns had a ferret face. Henry Blake was shaped like a pear. Margaret Houlihan had an ample ass (ok, I admit to not objecting to that one). Radar was short and myopic, and many others.
One episode that really stands out to me is one from season four where Frank Burns is ranting about Asians and how "they don't all look alike by accident", and then you see Nurse Kelleye look up, and you only see her eyes behind her mask. She says nothing, but of course it says everything. I found that very profound when first seeing it when I was young, and I still do now.
My Friday question: How would you make fun of your own appearance, either now or back then?
I enjoy westerns and am sorry to see that it is a genre rarely done these days in film or television.
At one time there was something like over thirty westerns on TV in one year.
Roy Rogers was asked in an interview when he was much older why did he think the westerns had ridden off into the sunset.
He grinned when he replied :"Western movies and TV shows once dominated the landscape, but after a while just how many ways can you do a western that's fresh and new?"
I dunno, but I don't see any decline in law enforcement film and series. Are they really doing anything original that hasn't been seen before?
Variety reports that Tim Considine, who played the eldest sibling on "My Three Sons" during the black-and-white, ABC years, died Thursday, March 3 at 81.
Considine's co-star William Frawley died on Thursday, March 3, 1966.
A photographer, Considine shot the cover portrait of Joni Mitchell's 1971 "Blue" album.
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Friday Questions:
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With the recent passing of actors Farrah Forke and Mitchell Ryan, I'm wondering if you have ever been personally affected by the loss of anyone connected to the entertainment (or sports) world that you had worked with in the past?
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Re: Sam and Diane
This is something I've long wondered about. Was the Sam/Diane engagement storyline written with the knowledge that Shelley was leaving so the wedding was never going to happen? Because if it was written before she decided to leave, what was the endgame for that plot? Would the two of them have actually gotten married, or was there a plan for some complication that would prevent it?
Baseball owners staging a lock out is the equivalent of shooting a patient in the ICU unit. Baseball's relevance has diminished so much over the years. But hey, they have built some beautiful field with the taxpayer's dime.
>> I can't remember a network TV western since "Gunsmoke"
Bret Maverick, in 1981
The Yellow Rose, in 1983
The Adventures of Briscoe County, in 1993
Liggie, I love Westerns too, but where have you been? The genre hasn't disappeared. Yellowstone, 1883, Hatfields & McCoys, Hell on Wheels and Godless are recent Western shows.
Western movies in recent years have been Django Unchained, The Hateful Eight, The Homesman, The Kid, The Sisters Brothers, Brimstone, Slow West, Jane Got a Gun, The Revenant, and Hostiles.
The 'Secret Army' Chef Mystery
You may know of the BBC's WWII series 'Secret Army' (1977-1979, 8.2/10 IMDB), centered in a Belgian restaurant which is secretly running an escape line for downed Allied airmen (spoofed in 1982 by 'Allo, 'Allo! a comedy show which ran for ten years).
Thing is, through three seasons of high-class wining and dining of high-ranking Germans, this restaurant has absolutely zero kitchen staff, let alone a chef. Nor is any ever referred to, even once. 'Le Candide' has a Maitre'D, waitresses, barmaids, pianists, singers, vegetable delivery men, but no chef or KP; Perhaps they had an Edison microwave, or the food was just that bad. Deliveroo, even.
I wonder what your take on that is, Ken. Why would you deliberately just leave out a basic function of your show's premise - like having M*A*S*H without an operating theater, or something? The show works and is a classic, but - in spite of having a menu and food, the restaurant never had a chef!
My all-time favorite TV show is the somewhat-recent Western, DEADWOOD.
Friday question: I was watching the Frasier episode "Chess Pains," where Martin keeps beating Frasier at chess. I've seen the episode many times, but this was the first time I noticed the painting in the hall outside Martin's bedroom. It's of a bare-breasted woman. It's not a small painting, either, and it's not a fleeting shot---Frasier stands next to it for several seconds debating whether to wake his dad up, and then sets a fire under the smoke alarm across from the painting. This rerun was on Hallmark, where they mute "ass," "bitch," "hooker," etc., so my first thought was why the boobs weren't pixilated, but then I started wondering about NBC. Did you have trouble getting that by them?
By the way, there's a story, which I believe Michael Landon told, of the time on Bonanza that Pa had to fall into the water. Lorne Greene went under and then his hair floated to the top ... and then he came up, grabbed it, put it back on, walked out of the water, went to his trailer, closed the door, and didn't come out for the rest of the day.
stories like this are why I always read the comments on this blog
I can totally see Alan Alda playing a President in a nation under attack. And yet, I remember him as a great villain in Murder at 1600.
Friday question:
Did you work with Wendie Malick on Frasier? She's so wonderful in Hot in Cleveland, and earlier in her career was brilliant as Brian Benben's wife in Dream On (which doesn't seem available streaming anywhere). Hot in Cleveland has done a couple behind-the-scenes shows and Malick seems joyful about her character and being part of that great ensemble.
@Jeff Boice
Janet dated Johnny Carson's lawyer Bombastic Bushkin for many years.
@John
If you want to see shameless use of B roll, watch The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast. Since everyone is wearing tuxes, it is difficult to tell which reaction shots are live and which have been inserted. The laughter seems off sometimes as well.
@Spike de Beauvoir
Wendie is currently playing the university president on Young Sheldon, in case you don't normally watch that show.
Frank Adkisson: You watched the entire Inventing Anna? You realize you're never going to get those hours back, right? First, the accent. Then who give a s--t about this grifter with no redeeming qualities. Then, how did that script ever leave the waste basket? I know, someone pulled it out of the waste basket, smoothed out the pages, wiped off the coffee stains and sent it upstairs. I was stunned. It was unbearable. I skipped to the final episode but I was gagging so I turned it off.
Secret Army Chef Mystery Pt II.
My mind is blown.
Who should turn up in the final episode (of 39) of 'Secret Army' as a Canadian sergeant, in charge of POWs? Only John Ratzenberger, that's who. Stole the scene, too. There on IMDB, IYDBM.
Btw, they did mention the restaurant's kitchen staff, once - as the Germans left Belgium, in the face of the 1944 British advance, the manager told the waitress to 'tell the kitchen staff they could go home'. Presumably they'd been hiding there for four years.
But John Ratzenberger? CLIFF?! :)
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