EP205: Holiday Extravaganza!

The history of your favorite Christmas songs forms part one of this super-size episode.  Part two is an interview with Jhani Kaye, who launched the “all-Christmas-music” format on KOST radio in Los Angeles, which now has become a mainstay in every radio market.  And a spectacular ratings success.  Find out how and why it works, and whether they’ll play the barking dogs singing “Jingle Bells.”  

Listen to the Hollywood & Levine podcast!

The Frankenstein of Santa Monica

There is no photo today.  My post is about the loathsome Stephen Miller and I can't bring myself to even look at his ghoulish alien-like face.   

This is one of those “parents’ worst nightmares” scenarios.  What if you were the parents of one of the kids that shot all those people in Columbine?  Or any other senseless school shooting?   Or was part of the Manson family?  How would it feel to know your son or daughter was responsible for the death of innocent people?  How do you live that down?  How do you face people?  How do you sleep?  How do you look anyone in the eye?  You can get all the therapy in the world but the blood is still indirectly on your hands.  You brought a certified monster into the world.  Maybe not your intent but that is the result. 

Or how would you like to be the parents of Stephen Miller, the despicable Nazi chief aide to our degenerate president?   White-supremacist Miller, most recently was on Fox News basically inciting violence with his baseless claims that Trump will still win re-election.  There was already pro-Trump violence last weekend in Washington DC where four people were stabbed and one was shot.

Fox News should be ashamed for even giving him airtime, but Fox News is to real news what urine is to fine wine. 

I ask these questions because I know Stephen Miller’s parents.  At one time, over 30 years ago, we were friends with them.  I was at Stephen Miller’s bris.  (If I only knew then, I would have paid the mohel to cut his dick off.)  

We had a falling out with the Millers in the late 80’s and haven’t spoken to them since.  I was flabbergasted to learn a few years ago that the Stephen Miller trying to destroy immigration was “that” Stephen Miller.  I mean, it is a rather common name.  There's a rock band by that name, for God sakes! Stephen’s father was an attorney who got involved in some questionable real estate dealings.  As a result they had to sell their larger home in Santa Monica for a more modest one and poor privileged Stephen had to go to public school at Santa Monica High, which had a very diverse population.  It was probably there where Miller developed his hateful worldview.  I assume he was beaten up a lot (or at least I hope he was).  But his warped take on the world, wrapped in hate, went against everything his Jewish upbringing stood for.   His father was very involved in Jewish affairs at one time.  How does he reconcile that? 

We know how his uncle reconciled it.  He went public denouncing Stephen, calling him an “immigration hypocrite” and a menace. 

As I said, I haven’t spoken to his parents in years.  I don’t know what I’d say to them.  But I wonder, why don’t THEY tell him to stop spreading malicious lies that are only meant to destroy our democracy?  Why don’t THEY implore him to not encourage violence?   For God sakes, his mother used to be a social worker. 

I don’t know.  Maybe they have (or at least his mother has).  Maybe they’ve been trying for years.  Or maybe they too now have consumed the Kool-Aid.  In any event, if you create a monster and don’t try to stop the monster, then you become a monster yourself. 

My heart wants to go out to them.  It really does. As a parent, I can’t imagine the pain and burden they must carry and will never live down.  But then I see that smarmy Stephen Miller get on national television with the express purpose of poisoning minds and tearing apart the very foundation of this nation and I say “Fuck them all.”  

Not watching my own show

For a TV writer I contend the two most exciting events are watching your show being filmed and then watching it live on the air.  

Especially early in your career.  

Most writers I know had big viewing parties for their first episode.  David Isaacs and I did.  Of course, in our case, the script was heavily rewritten and not for the better. So it was awkward for the guests as they tried to politely laugh through lame material. We acknowledged that we had been rewritten, but as I said at the time, “I can’t invite a bunch of people just to see the two seconds our credit is on the screen.”

But as we moved our way up and had shows that did reflect our actual work and were proud of, we occasionally would still have viewing parties.  And in all cases, if a show of ours was scheduled I cleared the decks that night to be sure to watch it live (even with commercials).  

However, once you get on staff things change.  I saw very few of my CHEERS and FRASIER episodes live on the air.  For both shows’ schedules, Thursday night was rewrite night.  So we’d be working through.   Now you could say, why not take a break for a half hour to watch the show?  That was rarely, if ever, done.  No one wanted to stay an extra half hour at 1:00 in the morning to make up that time.  Besides, by then we all had VCR’s.  (Not to mention we’d all seen every episode multiple times in editing).   

So it was not unusual to be in the midst of a rewrite and have someone look at their watch and casually say, “Oh, we’re on right now,” and everyone nods and goes right back to the line they were addressing.  

But looking back, it seems strange to be so blasé when something we wrote was being seen by 30,000,000 people at one time.  No show today gets those kind of numbers. On the face of it, what an extraordinary experience for a writer.   And the irony is, once this pandemic is over, I’m happy to travel across the country to see a production of one of my plays for an audience of 99. 

MANK: My review

I liked MANK, now playing on Netflix.  

But unlike every critic, I didn’t love it.  

I did love a lot of things about it — shot all in black and white, the era, the making of CITIZEN KANE, the process of screenwriting, and there’s a real treat if you’re fans of KHJ radio….

But…

It was too long, if you’re not a real student of Hollywood in the ‘30s and ‘40s, and if you’re under 50 years-old, you will not have any idea who most of these people are and what they’re talking about.  A lot of ideology flies around that deals with things that were topics of the time but don’t directly affect the movie.  

The main story centers around Herman Mankiewicz writing CITIZEN KANE -- Orson Welles' brilliant hatchet job of newspaper emperor, William Randolph Hearst.  The problem is that Mank was friends with Hearst and especially his mistress Marion Davies.  So there's a real conflict of interests.  And the making of the movie is sure to be fraught with controversy.   Does he walk away from the project?   That’s the big dilemma.   It didn’t need 2 hours and 10 minutes to resolve that.  

And now I’m going to really spit on the cross.  I don’t think Gary Oldman is right for the part.  Blasphemy you say (even if you haven’t seen the movie)!  Oldman is a great actor, morphs into any part he takes.  He was brilliant as Churchill, awesome as Commissioner Gordon.  I admire his work greatly.  But the key character trait of Mank was that he was wickedly funny.  His one-liners, his droll zingers, and pithy remarks supposedly put even the premier wits of the day to shame.   And I’m sorry, but Gary Oldman is not funny.  He delivers the lines (which on paper could have been funnier on the whole) with his usual precision, but I just didn’t buy that this guy had the twinkle, the razor-sharp comic mind that made him Hollywood's darling for five minutes, and the hit of any party.  

All the other aspects of Mank’s character — his brashness, intelligence, battle with alcohol, self-destructive tendencies all came through with clarity and finesse.   But research, make-up, accents, and prosthetics can’t make you funny (unless the prosthetics is a chicken suit).  

Now, this may just be me.  In fairness, critics have called MANK (directed by David Fincher) a beautiful textured film, a masterwork study of Old Hollywood, a glowing metaphor for I-don’t-know-what.  Oscars all around!  And I’m glad movies like this are still being made.  Major studios have long abandoned character studies for superheroes and animated sequels.  But if you see MANK, and I still recommend that you do, and you don’t absolutely love it, just know you’re not the only one. 

Weekend Post

What’s the dumbest holiday gift you’ve ever received? Mine was a Fizz-nik. And understand, I really WANTED this thing. In my dumb kid-ness I thought this was the coolest invention EVER.

It was a plastic straw with a big bubble in the middle. This was actually two half spheres that twisted together with straws on either end. You put a scoop of ice cream in the bubble and twisted it shut. Then you jammed one end into a bottle of root beer. That was it. Voila! Instant root beer float!

You would take a swig and (in theory) the root beer would mix with the ice cream and by the time it reached your mouth you were in soda fountain heaven. And the best part – no muss nor fuss.

Except for one thing…

It never worked. To mix the two elements you had to hold the bottle at almost a 90 degree angle and crane your neck way back. Not exactly ideal.

And then there was this tiny flaw – there was no way to stop the rushing ice cream float as it hurtled its way to your mouth. What a mess. Within a week my mother had confiscated my beloved Fizz-Nik.

Let’s just say that as a result of the Fizz-nik I have more empathy for hookers.

Hope you get what YOU want this holiday season.

Friday Questions

Only 14 more days to buy me something expensive for Christmas.  Here are this week’s Friday Questions.

Brian starts us off.

Do you think modern cable shows go too far with their depictions of nudity and sexual content? It just seems that every show produced in recent memory tries to force in as much nudity and sex as possible, regardless of relevance to the plot. Is it merely a cheap ploy to entice viewers or do you feel it can add something to a program?

There’s no question that there's some gratuitous sex and nudity.  Early episodes of GAME OF THRONES seem to have all boring exposition scenes take place in a brothel where there was much to look at while the dry text was being delivered. 

My favorite exploitation cable scene was in one of those women-in-prison movies where all these hot coed inmates were naked in the shower… reading their mail.  

But as long as the viewer is given warnings at the top of the show they can decide for themselves whether the material is right for them.   To censure the artists of the content is wrong.   As long as the viewer is not blindsided I see nothing wrong with it.  There are a billion other viewing options.  Watch one of those if you're offended by the sex and nudity.    Remember:  There's always the Hallmark Channel.

From Tammy:

What is your favorite sitcom setting (family, workplace etc.) as a viewer? And which is your favorite as a writer? Thanks!

Workplace because if you do it well it can be both.  One could certainly argue that the gang at CHEERS is a “family.”  But workplace settings allow for more different types of people to come together.  And you avoid the annoying precocious children who don’t talk like any children in real life.  

Dave-El wonders:

Hi, Ken! Your comment about using a table in the mess tent for re-writes reminds me of a possible Friday question I have: What exactly was Igor serving up in the mess tent chow line? Those pots were usually filled with some form of goop that was supposed to be mashed potatoes or creamed corn or something like that. Was it actually anything edible?

Jeff Maxwell, who played Igor, often checks in to the blog so he might be able to answer directly, but from what I understood it was all very decent food prepared by the Fox commissary.   I never ate it.   One of the unwritten rules of production is you don’t eat “set food.”   It’s prepared for the scene, not you.   There is always a craft-services table nearby with plenty of snacks if you get hungry.  

And finally, from Kevin from VA:

Speaking of "inside" jokes, last year you posted a great story of your meeting with Al Hirschfeld and how he always snuck his daughter's name into his caricatures. I left a very slight "inside" joke in the comments section from that post that may have slipped by you and possibly even some of your loyal readers.

My question is when you've done inside jokes, have you enjoyed it more when others "got" the joke or more when they didn't? 

Working "Nina" into Hirschfeld's drawing did nothing to detract from it.  An inside joke is different because maybe you're going with an inside joke instead of a joke designed for a general audience.  

But if you're going to go that route, first and foremost you hope the “inside  people” you wrote the joke for get it.   And it’s always great when others get it because it gives them the feeling that they'e on the inside as well.

I would only add be very very sparing with inside jokes.   You want the inside jokes to just whiz by.  And you want to surround them with jokes meant for everybody.   There’s certainly a danger in inside jokes.  Once the viewer senses that he’s being excluded he’ll leave.  

I found this to be more the case in radio back “in the day” (and by that I mean, when radio actually existed).  Some disc jockeys would do inside jokes meant for other radio people in the industry.  There would be jokes about the format or station policy or the competition.   Very funny for their peers but not the general public.  

Robert W. Morgan, in the heyday of KHJ in Los Angeles was guilty of that in my opinion.  Morgan could be devastatingly funny, but over time he would sprinkle in a little inside zinger or two.  Eventually inside jokes became 90% of his act.   So radio people listen to tapes of him today and think he’s a genius.   Play the same tape for someone not in the business and they have no idea what all the shouting’s about.   Then have them listen to a tape of Dan Ingram on WABC in New York.  They'll be laughing today, 50 years later.   Beware of inside jokes.

What’s your Friday Question?  I could use a Tesla. 

EP204: The Hollywood & Levine Mini-Play Festival!

Short plays written for the theatre have had to adapt to Zoom. And now podcasts.  Ken presents two of his favorite ten minute comedies adapted for Zoom.  It’s theatre of the mind, or Starmaster, or wherever you listen to podcasts.  

Listen to the Hollywood & Levine podcast!

Congratulations to Al Michaels

It was just announced that Al Michaels will be inducted into Baseball's Hall of Fame this year.   Well deserved.  Al was the voice of the Cincinnati Reds and San Francisco Giants before becoming the lead baseball voice of ABC for the many years when they carried baseball.  He's called numerous World Series and All-Star games.  As great as he is calling football, I always thought he's an even better baseball announcer.  

Al was a guest on my podcast last year.  It's a terrific two-part interview.  If you haven't heard it, I invite you to check out both parts.

Part One

Part Two

And again, congratulations to Al Michaels. 

My favorite show gift

It’s become a time-honored tradition.  TV shows give swag for the holidays.  Usually clothes items, although EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND gave out DVD players, raincoats, scooters, and more.   I still use the raincoat.  

Other gift items from various shows include baseball caps, sweaters, dart boards, bicycles, watches, record albums, jackets, sweatshirts, T-shirts, binders, coffee mugs, embossed glasses, and ties.  

Of all my gifts, the best was the satin jacket I received from CHEERS the first year.  It was very slick looking, but that’s not the reason I loved it.  

At the time, CHEERS was doing horribly in the ratings.  We aired a new episode on Thanksgiving night, 1982 and it finished dead last in the ratings.   We got our pick up for the back nine, but just barely.  And we were told that if things didn’t pick up we’d likely be canceled at the end of the season.   

Needless to say, it was disheartening because we all felt we were doing our best work.  It’s not like we could stay an extra half-hour and the ratings would go up.  

But on the weekends I started wearing that jacket.  And people would stop me to say how much they loved the show.  It was my first indication that people were watching (maybe not enough at that point) and we were connecting with them.  

Despite the ratings, we were on to something.   And could build from that. 

Two follow up points:  I’ve worn show garb from other shows over the years.  Never have I received the reaction I got from that CHEERS jacket.  The few fans we had were passionate about the show. 

And two, in looking online for a photo of that jacket I see that one is selling on eBay for $950.  Pretty good for a last place show.

I’d wear mine again but I’m still on lockdown. 

I no longer find Cliff Clavin funny

At one time I did.  At one time I loved writing for that character. (And John Ratzenberger played him to perfection.) 

Cliff was the fringe nut who had all these ridiculous conspiracy theories.  Everyone else in the bar knew he was full of shit and harmless so were amused by it.   With everyone spouting views it was fun to have a wacky one thrown into the mix. 

Plus, his conspiracy theories were so absurd no one in their right mind could take him seriously.

But today there are 70,000,000 Cliff Clavins and it’s no longer funny; it’s horrifying.   How can there be that many misinformed, gullible people in the United States?     A current documentary on NETFLIX helps explain why.

It’s called THE SOCIAL DILEMMA and it’s both riveting and chilling. 

The crux is that social media is insidiously gathering enormous amounts of information about you and your behavior and subtly manipulating you for the purpose of profit and persuasion.   Every time you log on to Facebook it charts your activity — what photos you look at and for how long, what you like and don’t like, what groups you’re in, what you share, what you post, etc.   And based on that you’re fed more material their complex algorithms think you want to see.  The first goal is retention — how can they better keep you logged on?  But the second is to persuade you — either what to buy, or what to believe. 

So if you’re Cliff Clavin and you like conspiracy posts, you’re gong to be fed more.  When you type something into a search engine, not everybody receives the same results in the same order.  For example, you might type in Climate Change.  Depending on your known beliefs the first things that might come up pertain to controlling it, or if you’re Cliffy, that it’s a hoax.    Now that’s disturbing. 

Social media globally is undermining democracies.  They’re the most vulnerable because they depend on citizen’s choice. 

The experts who spoke on this documentary were all current or former high echelon tech folks.  They looked straight out of SILICON VALLEY.   All super-intelligent, super-articulate, some weirder than others.   In crunching numbers they determined that misinformation travels six times faster than facts.   Cliff Clavin reaches more people than Frasier Crane, and what kind of fucked up world is that? 

What’s so maddening is that the internet is also a miracle and a God send.  Imagine getting through this pandemic if you didn’t have a way to still connect with your friends, and family.  If you couldn’t work from home.  If you were not privy to facts (should you be smart enough to choose reality).  I’m sitting at my computer banging out this rant in Los Angeles and you might be reading it in Rangoon.  Or listening to my podcast in Bhutan.   I’m awed by the app that lets me turn a flashlight on. 

But with all great innovations comes a dark side.  When Facebook created “Likes” the goal was just to add more positives in our life.  They had no idea young people would be basing their entire self worth on them, and that a lack of sufficient “Likes” was viewed as a crushing rejection.  When Russia interfered with our election in 2016, they didn’t hack into Facebook, they just used the tools that were available to them for nefarious purposes. 

I always love when people say big business should not be regulated.  Let them police themself.  They’ll be reputable, they’ll play fair.  Uh huh.  Tell that to Erin Brockovich.  Or Wells Fargo customers.   THIS is the result.  Today big business is cheerfully willing to sacrifice the country and the well-being of the planet for short-term profits.  

So who should watch over the content you’re provided?  Mark Zuckerberg?  Really?   Or perhaps a bipartisan government committee that’s only looking out for the public’s interest, not the shareholders…or the president?   We’re talking about protecting our children who are as addicted to social media as Richard Pryor was to crack.  Look how well THAT turned out.  We’re talking about preserving our democracy.  We’re talking about restoring facts and truth and reality to a lost confused delusional society.   We’re hoping to find Cliff Clavin once again a lovable nut and not a fucking asshole who’s a cancer and a threat to everything we believe in.   And the time to start is now… while we still can.  

Tips for speakers

Here’s a Friday Question that became an entire post.  It’s from Paul. 

Going out on a limb here for your disc jockey work. Combined with podcasting. Combined with writing where you might have a long monologue (less common I suppose in comedy, but still)...do you have tips/tricks for people "presenting" where there is no audience feedback to tell them how they're doing?

Yes, communicate to one person. Especially if you’re on Zoom.  The more you can make a direct connection the better. 

Along those lines, make direct eye contact.

Don’t read. Refer to notes if need be, but talking directly to people commands their attention. 

Know your audience.  Don’t talk over their heads or patronize them. 

Make your points as clear as you can. 

Diction is important.

A little humor never hurts, as long it's appropriate.  Self-deprecating humor in particular is effective.

Don’t talk too fast.  People sometimes have the tendency to talk quickly when they’re nervous.  Your points get lost and it makes the audience uncomfortable. 

Don’t talk in a monotone.  Audiences fall asleep when a speaker drones on.  Mix up your inflections, hit key words.  You’re not just making your point, you’re selling it.

Try to avoid crutches.  We all have them, but the fewer “you knows” and “uhhhhhs” the better. 

A well-timed pause can really hammer home a point.   Obama is a master at this. 

Have a glass of water handy.  Keep the pipes lubricated. 

Rehearse. 

Don’t rely on Powerpoint or other visuals.  They are certainly helpful tools, but when things go wrong with them (which they always do), if you’re spending half your talk trying to pull up the right slide it breaks your momentum.  You should be able to punt and sell your presentation even if the Powerpoint craps out. 

And finally, appear to be comfortable.  Now I know this is difficult, especially since you’re not comfortable; you’re a wreck.  But if you can at least give off the impression that you’re relaxed it will put the audience at ease.  And that can be the single most important factor.   It makes no difference what you say if your listeners aren’t receptive. 

So those are a few tips.  Best of luck.

Weekend Post

 This was my favorite cheesy Christmas special growing up.  I wrote about it in my memoir, THE ME GENERATION...BY ME (the PERFECT holiday gift available in Kindle, paperback, and audiobook formats.  Hint hint.) 

I still can’t fathom why anyone watched the ANDY WILLIAMS variety show on NBC if they didn’t own a color TV. It was so wholesome your teeth ached. Whatever “edge” the show had was provided by the Osmond Family. But it was in color and production numbers always featured grinning All-American yahoos in brightly colored sweaters holding brightly colored balloons. Not having a color TV and not being gay I never watched THE ANDY WILLIAMS SHOW… except…

During their Christmas special.

It was the one time of year Andy had his beautiful family on the show and this became a 60s American tradition. Mom and dad and the Williams kinder would sing Carols, exchange presents, and their message of love and holiday good cheer would absolutely entrance you. That’s not why I watched it, of course. I wanted to screw Andy’s wife.

Claudine Longet (Mrs. Williams) was a willowy brunette with exquisite doe eyes and luscious lips. Laura Petrie but French. She was also a successful recording artist but believe me, if she looked like Charles De Gaulle she couldn’t give away one record. But I found her incredibly sexy, even when she was singing Silent Night in front of a crucifix. She and Andy would divorce in the 70s and two years later she shot her boyfriend, Olympic skier Spider Sabich to death. I still wanted to screw her, but not as much.

So as enjoyable as those holiday shows were in the mid 60s, watching them now on PBS they take on a whole new level of absurdity. Two of their kids are named Noelle and Christian. How much more seriously can you take Christmas? And yet, twelve years later, there’s mom in a different winter wonderland with a loaded revolver. She was ultimately convicted on a lesser charge and married her defense attorney.

I’ll be on parole for Christmas.

Friday Questions

Here we are in December.  I’d say “already” but it’s been the longest year ever.  Let’s have some Friday Questions.

FFS gets us started.

Question from a non-writer. What the hell is a "beat"?

Any new element in the story.

Think of the story as the spine and beats as the vertebrae.  

Examples of beats:  

A couple starts an argument.

A father shows his son how to tie a knot.

Bob takes out the ring and proposes.  

Fred arrives with the Christmas tree.

In an outline you start with the beats.  First this happens, then that, then the next thing.  It gives you an overview of the story.  Are there too many things (beats) happening in this act?  Are there not enough? Is it repetitious?  Is there a step missing?

Once you’re satisfied that all the vertebrae are in the right place, and the story spine holds up then fill out each beat.  

The couple that starts an argument.  Over what?

Father showing son how to tie a knot?   Does the son not want his help?  Is this a bonding experience?  

Bob takes out the ring and proposes.  Is he clumsy?  What is his proposal?  Was she expecting it or surprised?    Does she accept or reject his proposal?  I would say that’s a separate beat.  The story very much turns on whether she accepts or not.  

Hopefully you get the idea.   I write my beats on the computer then move them around.  A lot of writers use index cards.  One beat per card.  You can also use note cards in certain scripture programs.  

Ere I Saw Elba asks:

What would be your personal theme song, if you got to have one?

From an existing TV show?  “Mr. Lucky.”

From Lorimartian:

Have you ever talked about working with Nathan Lane? He is so talented, and I remember that series. Was it a good experience?
 

It was a wonderful experience!

I directed three episodes of his short-lived NBC sitcom, ENCORE ENCORE.  I found him to be a delight.  He’s very inventive and nimble.  

There are two sides to Nathan Lane— “on” when he’s performing, and “off” when he’s very quiet and introspective.  

If I had to tell one story about working with Nathan, it would be this:  Episode 13, our final episode in the series order.  Two days into rehearsal we get the word that ENCORE ENCORE has been canceled. (There would be no “encore” much less two.)   Everyone knew this episode would never air.

Nathan had a choice. He could just pull the plug and not bother or tough it out another three long days.   Nathan chose to complete the episode because he didn’t want the crew to lose out on a week’s pay.  

And not only that, he worked just as hard or harder those final futile three days.  The man is the consummate professional and a mensch.  I would work with him again in a second.

And finally, from Bill Slankard:

I recently read how The Big Bang Theory wrote around Kaley Cuoco's riding accident and it made me wonder what happens when the unexpected happens, and the writing staff has to come up with a fix immediately and some future episodes.  Does this happen a lot?  And what do you do? 

It happens all the time.  You just have to deal with it.  A cast member gets sick and you have to write him out of the episode… or several episodes.  Someone breaks their foot is on crutches.  You have to explain it away.  

During the course of a season I just expect curve balls like that.  You have to film a show after 9-11.  Your star is doing a movie and you have to shoot all his scenes separately for next week’s episode.  One of your stars goes into rehab.  The guest star you had planned cancels on you the night before you go into production.   The possibilities are endless.

Current TV writers have had to readjust their scripts to accommodate shooting during the pandemic.  They’ve had to remove crowd scenes, any scene with extras really.  Even four or five characters in a scene is now two scenes with two or three characters.  

Bottom line: you just gotta roll with it.  You can’t prepare.  Consider it another challenge and why they pay you the big bucks (or bigger bucks than you’d make at Starbucks).

What’s your Friday Question? 

EP203: Mistletoe Miscellaneous & Why I hate making holiday episodes

Ken riffs on the holiday season and gives an insider look on the making of Thanksgiving and Christmas-themed TV episodes.  The tropes and the traps revealed.  

Listen to other podcasts similar to this on iTunes!

Listen to the Hollywood & Levine podcast!

A TV writer with security? Is that even possible?

As you know, I’m a big JEOPARDY fan.  I’m way too dumb to be on it, but I like watching other smart people being rewarded for having intelligence.  So my readers tend to ask numerous JEOPARDY-related Friday Questions.  Here’s one that warranted its own post since I went right to the source to provide the answer.  

Cecil Newson asks:

Can a person make a living writing questions for Jeopardy? Is it a stressful job?

Billy Wisse is the Co-Head Writer of JEOPARDY.  I posed this question and he was gracious enough to respond.

Hi Ken. Yes, you can make a living writing questions for Jeopardy!. It can be a stressful job but you get to learn a lot, exercise your creativity and work with great people. And there is not a lot of turnover, so job insecurity is one stress we are generally free from. Or should that be “from which we are generally free”? As you see, the job does bring out one’s nitpicking side.
 
Hope this is helpful.
 
Billy Wisse
Co-Head Writer, Jeopardy!

Very helpful and greatly appreciated.   Thanks, and I’m ashamed to say I got the Final Jeopardy question wrong on Monday night and the category was “Movie Comedies.”   This is why I’ll never be on that show.

The NFL is a joke

Last weekend the Denver Broncos had no quarterbacks.  All three of their QB’s had tested positive for COVID.  (Why?  Starting quarterback Drew Lock admitted they did not strictly adhere to mask policies.  Hint hint, everyone.)   A wide receiver had to fill in.  They lost to New Orleans 31-3. You sort of need a real quarterback in the National Football League.  

The San Francisco 49’ers can no longer play their games this year in their home stadium.  Santa Clara County has banned contact sports due to spiking levels of the virus.  So now they’re going to play three home games in Arizona.  They still don’t know where they’re going to practice.   If you have a big yard, give 'em a call.

A big Thanksgiving showdown was canceled and rescheduled, then rescheduled again for tonight and now is rescheduled for tomorrow night (Steelers - Ravens) because so many of the players tested positive.   Ten Raven starters are out (assuming the game actually get played at all).  

The White House has a tighter bubble.  

Cancellations and postponements have become commonplace this season.  And it’s not like baseball or basketball.  When you only play a limited number of games a year, missing one or two is huge.  

I get it.  The NFL is merely a television show.   Networks pay insane rights fees so if Rudy Guiliani has to play quarterback for the Denver Broncos they’ll still play (he'd have more success with that than being an attorney).   But players are at risk during a worsening pandemic.  Teams are depleted so they’re not at their competitive best.  You never know when games are scheduled.  Teams aren’t allowed to play at home.  

I look forward to Super Bowl Thursday (rescheduled from Sunday because one team’s entire offensive line is out with COVID), and the game will be moved from Tampa (because, well it’s Florida and by then everyone in the state will test positive) to Dallas (where they don’t care if everyone tests positive) and everybody has their traditional Super Bowl parties for three.  The halftime show with Weeknd should be spectacular -- one guy on the field.  

If the NFL was smart it would just junk the rest of the season and play it out on Playstation. 

To the victor go the spoils

In general, Hollywood stars are not beloved in Hollywood. Why? Because they make so much money AND they now take jobs away from people who don’t make much money.

I think this started with commercials. Young actors could make an okay living picking up commercial work. Then in Japan, companies would pay absurd amounts to American stars to be spokesmen for their commercials. And the actors felt the commercials would never be seen here so no one was going to accuse them of selling out, so what the hell? Think: the plot of LOST IN TRANSLATION. Bill Murray is in Japan to film a whiskey commercial.

Eventually, Madison Avenue came calling and started offering commercials to Hollywood stars. We had moved past the era where selling out was a bad thing. So stars became spokespeople squeezing out the brick and mortar actors who just scraped by as it was.

Similarly, voice over work started going to stars. Why hire a seasoned voice over artist who studied for years when you can get Jon Hamm?

And by the way, I don’t begrudge Jon Hamm or the stars who take these deals. Why not? Someone is offering it to you, it’s a lot of money for just a few days work, and if you pass they’ll just ask another star instead. Might as well take it.

Another area where stars have taken over is animation voice over. Here too, gifted voice over actors who have worked for years perfecting their craft are now being replaced by Ellen DeGeneres and Tim Allen. Does Ellen do a good job? Yeah. Could seventeen voice over artists do just as good or better a job? You bet. Will Ellen’s name in the trailer bring people into the theatre? My guess is of course not. So what’s the big whoop in hiring Ellen DeGeneres?

Cartoon voice over people can do many voices, can shade their voices, add nuance. That’s what they do… or at least, did.

How many extra takes are required by stars because they’re not really used to working in animation? Considering the extra money it costs for stars and the extra production time, is it worth it? It is for the producers or, in the case of advertising, the Mad Men who get to meet and hobnob with the stars.

The latest example I’ve found is game show hosting. Yes, it looks easy but there’s an art to hosting a game show. To move things along, be spontaneous, follow the game, make the contestants feel comfortable, read the questions without stumbling – it takes a certain polish and charm. There’s a reason you see the same guys hosting shows over the years. Very few have the necessary skill.

And I’ll tell you who sure doesn’t have the skill – Anthony Anderson or Elizabeth Banks. (To be fair, Alec Baldwin has a flair and is funny and brings a lot to THE MATCH GAME – and it’s a game not to be taken seriously anyway.) Plus, I'm a fan of Anthony Anderson and Elizabeth Banks -- but in the right role, which is not introducing lightening rounds.

That said, I’m sure if ABC had their way, they’d do JEOPARDY by replacing Alex Trebek with Tracee Ellis Ross.

So you want to come to Hollywood and be an actor?  You better have a day job and hope that Starbucks doesn't offer barista positions to Ellen. 

Weekend Post

Here’s a Friday Question that became an entire weekend post.

It’s from Ben Scripps:

Ken--you're clearly a fan of "Jeopardy!". My question for you is: what would be your six dream categories--your "Clavins", if you will--if you ever made it up to the lectern? And what would be your six nightmare categories? (And you have to stick to "real" categories--no fair listing "The 1991 Baltimore Orioles" or "Little Known Facts About 'Big Wave Dave's'".)

Categories I would not embarrass myself answering:

1960s Top 40 Hits

American Theatre

Los Angeles landmarks

Screwball Comedies

Radio Station call letters (they give the call letters, I have to name the city the station is in)

Baseball Rulebook

Now there are many many categories that I know absolutely nothing about.  These are just the first six that popped into my head.

Anything about Africa

The Bible

The Periodic Table

Roman Numeral Math

Before and After

Opera

The episodes with Alex continue until early January.  No new host has been announced. The plan is to do some on-air auditions.  First interim host will be Ken Jennings.   But if they're still looking -- I’ll tell you my totally-out-of-left-field choice — NBC News’ Hallie Jackson.  

Black Friday Questions

Hope you had a good Thanksgiving even if it was a little weird this year.  Enjoy some leftover Friday Questions. 

Jay starts us off with a little something different.

Hey Ken,
Pointless (and fun?) Friday question/survey for you:

Name a movie you like or love that the rest of the world universally hates:

That’s easy. SHOWGIRLS.  The funniest movie ever that’s not meant to be funny for a second.  Nudity and laughs.  You’d have to go back to RETURN OF THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS to find that combination.  

Name a movie a bad movie that you *know* is bad and yet you'd still sit down to watch it:

AT LONG LAST LOVE.   Peter Bogdonavich’s mangled attempt at a sophisticated throwback musical.  Cybill Shepherd attempting to sing is up there in yucks with YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN.  

Name a movie you absolutely hate and would never watch again:

HATEFUL 8.  

Kendall Rivers asks:

As a writer myself I'm curious about your process with outlines? Do you include dialogue and go into supreme detail or just do beats with no dialogue etc?

It depends on the project.  For television I outline extensively, adding lots of possible dialogue.  You’re under such time constraints that you need to have every beat well worked out in front.

For plays, I want my characters to have room to take me where they want to go.  So I might work off essentially a beat sheet.   

What I normally do is start with the bare bones then keep filling in more detail in each scene.  Eventually I reach the point I think I’m ready to start writing and go from there.  

But I’m very tough on my outlines and change them constantly.  I’m always looking to make the story better.  Story is primary in my estimation.  

From William Adams:

Opening Credits range from excellent (Cheers, Deadwood, etc.) to cookie-cutter (Three's Company, Full House, etc.) to (lately) non-existent. Who is responsible for putting together the opening sequence? Is it a writer, a producer, or maybe the network marketing team? Do you have any favorites?

Usually the show runner.  There are some production companies that specialize in opening titles like Castle-Bryant, who did CHEERS.  But since there are fewer shows with opening titles, these production houses are becoming endangered species.  

My all-time favorite is MASH.  Then maybe CHEERS, MIAMI VICE, THE JEFFERSONS, BONANZA, and MISSION IMPOSSIBLE.  And I’m sure I’m forgetting some other favorites.  

And finally, Unknown (please leave a name) asks:

What was the most political script you ever wrote/episode you directed?  In a sitcom like MASH, Almost Perfect or Big Wave Dave, were there times where you felt, 'I'd like to squeeze a topical political issue into this for the laugh value’?

David Isaacs and I wrote two pilots about the White House Press Corps (first for ABC then for HBO).  I’ve talked about those a few times on the blog and podcast.  

There were certainly politically charged episodes of MASH that we wrote.   Practically all of them.

We wrote an election episode of THE TONY RANDALL SHOW.   Tony’s character runs for Superior Court Justice.  His opponent dies during the campaign and beats Tony anyway.

I directed five episodes of LATELINE, starring Al Franken that was very much a political show.  

On BIG WAVE DAVE’S and ALMOST PERFECT we were way more interested in exploring relationships than politics.  But a number of feminism issues did come up in ALMOST PERFECT.   Nancy played a character who was the boss of an all male writing staff on a male-oriented cop show.  

Stay safe this weekend.  What’s your Friday Question? 

EP202: The Annual Turkey Show

Ken plays some of the worst (and most amusing) songs you will ever hear.  A Thanksgiving tradition.

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