Yearly Archives: 2015

I just fixed an error in the previous listing. Last night in my drug-induced stupor, I typed that Act One was the story of how Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman wrote their first play together, You Can't Take It With You. That was actually their third play. The first, as it now says below, was Once In A Lifetime. That's the one that Act One is all about. Forgive me. I'm weaning myself off my heavier medications and transitioning to more natural things…like biting on a bullet or moaning. My thanks to the bazillions of you who let me know I typed the wrong title.

By the way: My knee is getting better but that is small consolation in a way. I didn't mention this before because it wasn't definite but it's now about a 95% certainty that in 6-10 weeks, I have to go in for a third and hopefully final operation on it. You can just imagine how we love that prospect. If a fourth proves necessary, I may just do it myself at home with a roll of duct tape and a ball peen hammer.

Tonight on most PBS stations, Live From Lincoln Center is presenting James Lapine's stage adaptation of Moss Hart's Act One, which is one of those "must-read" books for anyone interested in the theater. I have not seen this production but I will be seeing it on TV along with, perhaps, you.

The first half of the book can be almost skimmed but the second half, which I presume is all the play derives from, is the story of how young, inexperienced Hart teamed up with older, experienced George S. Kaufman to write the play, Once In A Lifetime, which struggled its way to New York, almost closing several times on the way. Books written after Act One have suggested that Mr. Hart omitted certain of his earlier attempts as a playwright so as to make himself seem more the beginner that he actually was. No matter. It's still a grand rags-to-rubies story…and we're all curious to see how Tony Shalhoub comes off as Kaufman.

Live From Lincoln Center shows are not always rerun as many times as a lot of things on PBS. This one seems to be getting a few airings at least on KOCE in Los Angeles but if I were you, I'd watch or record the first showing. You never know.

Daniel Larison on how nuts Ben Carson is. The stuff about the pyramids is small 'taters. The frightening things are when Carson shows how little he knows about foreign policy. He suggests actions that might get us into an armed conflict with Russia and when asked about that, Carson replies, "Whatever happens next, we deal with it." How would you feel if that was your doctor's plan for your surgery?

If you think your opinion of Dick Cheney couldn't sink any lower, I offer you Nicholas Lemann and his piece on the relationship between Cheney and the Bush family.

Video artist Fernando Livschitz created this long (2:25) film for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and the program's opening titles were made using moments from it. I don't particularly like it as the opening of a talk show but the video itself is quite lovely.

By the way: Some folks in the TV biz have sent me data suggesting that Mr. Colbert's ratings may not be as wonderful as a recently-linked item here suggests, especially since he now must do without NFL Football as a lead-in. That may be but I stand by my prediction that he'll overtake all competition.

And in case you haven't seen it's, here's the webpage where you can search for your name and probably locate a video, furnished by the Late Show, of Darlene Love singing "Happy Birthday to You"…

I love Cheerios — but only the plain, original kind. I therefore have not and will not try its latest variation, Cheerios Protein. Tom Philpott says it's a scam, advertised as containing a lot more protein but actually containing only a tiny bit more…and a load more sugar.

Ben Casselman asks the musical question, "The economy is better — why don't voters believe it?"

All the stuff I need to do for my knee plus all the work I have to make up because I was unexpectedly hospitalized leaves me too busy for the next few days to blog the way I'd like. I'm also waaaay behind on e-mail so please understand if you don't get the reply you think yours warrants or don't get it for a while. (The Catch-22 of Blogging: The more you post, the more people want to engage in private correspondence with you…)

For those who asked: Yes, I can walk. No, I can't walk well but it gets a tad better each day. I'm pretty much living upstairs in my house, not going out and making as few trips as possible down and up the steps. In the hospital, social workers and occupational therapists kept coming by to see me and we'd always have this exchange…

THEM: How long is your commute to work each day?

ME: From my bed to my office, about fifteen seconds.

Most of the other questions on their little forms didn't apply to me, either. One woman looked at me like I was daft when she asked me what kind of hours I work and I told her, "Whenever I can or have to." Don't more and more people these days work freelance from home? Why is this so startling?

I won't be posting soup cans for a while but I also won't be posting as much here as I usually post. All will return to normal as my knee does.

This will probably only be meaningful to fans of Allan Sherman…but a few days ago as I was being transported from hospital to hospital, I glanced out the ambulance window and I thought, "Ah! I finally found out where the Drapes of Roth are stored!"

Wanna see the scorecard of how everyone's doing? Here it is. For those of you too busy to click: Fallon has a comfy lead, Colbert's doing better than Letterman, Corden's numbers are fine, Noah is down from Jon Stewart's numbers and more people are watching Andy Cohen on Bravo than are watching Conan O'Brien on TBS.

I'm in a frisky mood so I'll make a prediction: By April Fool's Day, The Daily Show will be close to where it was with Stewart, and Colbert will be ahead of Fallon. Let's see if I'm right.

I didn't catch all of the debate infomercial last night but it seemed like the candidates got their demands and that their demands were that moderators not correct them on bogus info or point out when they've dodged a question. Neil Cavuto, who always struck me as incapable of finding fault with anything uttered by any Republican, actually did a little of it when the conversation swung to what to do about banks that are Too Big to Fail but which fail.

Most of all, it went like Kevin Drum notes with Carly Fiorina: She was asked a question that pointed out that Democratic presidents have lately done much better at job creation than Republicans…and she answered it as if the question assumed the opposite. That's kind of how this whole election seems to be going. Unemployment is down, gas prices are down, the deficit is down, etc., but we're going to deny all that to make the case that Obama has been a disaster.

I can't be the only person who recalls the 1976 presidential debate when Gerald Ford practically lost the election with one stupid statement. He said that that Poland, Romania and Yugoslavia were free from Soviet interference. His opponent, Jimmy Carter, pointed out that was not so and Ford thereafter looked like a man unfit to handle U.S. foreign policy. Today, a Ben Carson can say that the Chinese are in Syria or a Mike Huckabee can say that most of the Syrian refugees are not really from Syria and nobody blinks. Some people may even give them credit for independent thinking.

Years ago when Stu Shostak started his fine weekly podcast about TV history, he ticked off a list for me of folks he wanted to land as guests…and since then, he's bagged an amazing percentage of celebs from that list including Dick Van Dyke, Carl Reiner, Jonathan Winters, Shelley Berman, Bob Barker and Rose Marie. One I recall him mentioning several times was Angela Cartwright, who of course was so outstanding on Lost in Space and before that on Danny Thomas's sitcom. She did lots of other fine work in TV and movies before leaving those fields largely behind and she'll be discussing all of that on Stu's Show tomorrow because she is, at long last, his guest.

Stu's Show can be heard live (almost) every Wednesday at the Stu's Show website and you can listen for free there. Webcasts start at 4 PM Pacific Time, 7 PM Eastern and other times in other climes. They run a minimum of two hours and sometimes go to three or beyond.  Shortly after a show ends, it's available for downloading from the Archives on that site. Downloads are a paltry 99 cents each and you can get four for the price of three. It's a deal not to be missed.

I have knee-related issues to tend to today so blogging may be sparse. Remind me one of these days to tell you why during my recuperation, I've had the constant urge to go on live TV and perform the Boss Hijack sketch.

Often on this site, I mention the multi-talented writer-performer Shelly Goldstein. I am far from the only person impressed with her abilities. She was just nominated for a 2015 BroadwayWorld Los Angeles Award for Best Cabaret Artist in the Female category. She deserves to win, especially since Audra McDonald has way too many trophies and would surely appreciate not having to find a place for another. (I saw both shows and preferred Shelly's.) Click here to track the voting or, better still, to vote for Shelly.

I agree a lot with my friend Paul Harris about shoddy reporting these days…and about how no one is called out for bad predictions. If a doctor was wrong about medicine half as often as William Kristol as been about the economy or foreign affairs, that doctor would no longer be a doctor. But Kristol is most welcome on any political talk show and people treat him like his forecasts have meaning.

I am starting to really see why Trevor Noah was picked to replace Jon Stewart and it's looking more and more like a good decision to me. I'm also kinda glad John Oliver wasn't still around to get the job. I like him right where he is. This week's episode of Last Week Tonight was outstanding.

Glad to see that the national debate is finally getting away from boring topics like the economy and terrorism and we're finally focusing in on the real important issues. Like why the pyramids were built.

Don't know when I'll be back but I'll be back — alive and hopefully kicking.

Most of the major fast food chains are switching over to food sources that are healthier and/or more humane — like cage-free eggs and pork that isn't raised in gestation crates. Here's an article about how this isn't as easy as one might think, and how the folks who own Taco Bell aren't even making the attempt to meet the standards of McDonald's and Burger King.

The knee continues to improve and I thank all of you who wrote to wish that and to share similar experiences. I have a pretty simple approach to being ill or injured: I always expect to get better but I expect that there will probably be pains before I get there. I know people who — when they get the flu, for example — go into some form of Denial; like if they act like they don't have the flu, they won't have the symptoms and problems. Almost invariably, the denial fails, the flu has its way with them and it seems as if the effort to will it away makes things three times as uncomfortable.

Years ago I worked on a TV show where our 1st Production Assistant came down with the flu. Through some combination of denial, fearing for her job and wanting to show everyone how dedicated she was, she insisted on coming to work anyway. She was successful in making everyone uncomfortable and in passing germs on to others…but that was about all she accomplished.

When I get the flu — and it's been a long, long time since I have — I find it better to just accept that I'm going to feel like crap for X days. I don't fight it. I just try to figure out how to get through it with as little discomfort as possible, both to myself and those around me. I isolate myself and just chant some personal mantra about how good I'll feel a week from Tuesday or whenever. It's my way of minimizing the damage.

As I get older, I'm sure that someday I'll encounter an ailment that doesn't have a visible expiration date but I don't see the point in presuming that for any given ailment. Worry is not good for one's health. So when you folks write to tell me not to worry about my knee…well, I appreciate the friendliness but I'm not worried. I'm just looking forward to having a little bit more of the problem go away each day. This is very fixable even if it takes longer to fix than I might like.