Monthly Archives: February 2016

Several of the online sources that had previously reported the passing of actor Jerry Maren have withdrawn their postings. Very pleased to hear that. And I'm a little mad at myself for not checking as thoroughly as I usually try to do. My apologies to all, especially Mr. Maren, who is a delightful gentleman.

An hour ago, I posted an obit here for Jerry Maren, the veteran Hollywood actor. His passing has been reported a dozen different places on the Internet but I'm now hearing that it may be a hoax. In the hope that it is, I've taken the post down. Jerry was — and I'd like to think still is — the last of the surviving Munchkins from The Wizard of Oz…and boy, did he do a lot of great stuff after that.

A fine actor named George Kennedy has died at the age of 91. I never had what I'm sure would have been the pleasure of meeting Mr. Kennedy but I came close. When I was working on Welcome Back, Kotter, its star Gabe Kaplan met him at some Hollywood function and Kennedy told him he always watched the show because his kids loved it. Gabe, figuring our show could do worse than secure an Oscar-winning actor as a guest star, invited Kennedy to appear in an episode. Kennedy agreed.

The staff quickly whipped up a script for him. Earlier in the season, a story had been developed about a gym teacher who engages in corporal punishment, hitting and slapping students in violation of the rules. The script was worked and reworked but no one was happy with it and it was abandoned. Then someone suggested that George Kennedy sure looked like a gym teacher so why not take just that premise — a gym coach into striking his students — and see what the newer writers on the show could do with it?

Everyone pitched in and the script was totally rewritten. In the new version, Coach Caruso (that was his name because that was the name of a gym coach Gabe had had in high school) slaps John Travolta's character in front of other students. He screams, "This is what you deserve for that performance you're going to give in a mini-series about O.J. Simpson forty years from now!" Okay, that's not true. I forget the real reason.

Anyway, the script came out pretty good. It was scheduled and sent over to George Kennedy who immediately decided he wouldn't do it. His stated reason was that his children would never forgive him he played a guy who slapped Vinnie Barbarino…but when our producer suggested we could write something else for another week, Kennedy said he was kinda busy or something that indicated he just plain didn't want to do the show. So someone else — an old-time western actor named Scott Brady — played Caruso.

We were all disappointed. I always thought George Kennedy was a superb actor — and for comedy as well as drama. I forget if it was before or after the Kotter near-booking but I saw him once in a production of Plaza Suite directed by Danny "Neil's Brother" Simon and co-starring Carol Burnett. I don't think it's humanly possible for a play to be funnier than that one was that night.

There was a time in his life when all George Kennedy wanted to be was a senior officer in the military. Some of the obits allude to him having made the shift from that to acting when he got some work as a stand-in on the Phil Silvers show, You'll Never Get Rich, more commonly known as Sgt. Bilko. Mr. Silvers once told me his version of it, which was that the Army had assigned Kennedy to their program as a kind of technical adviser on Army procedures. When the crew heard how little Kennedy's pay was in the Army, they decided to throw him some extra bucks by giving him extra work, usually as an M.P. Eventually, he got a few lines and then came the acting bug. He sure did well for himself.

Today is Leap Year Day. Back in 1952 when my mother was seriously preggo with me, I was expected to be born on 2/29/52. I somehow missed my entrance cue and a few days later, they went in and got me…but when I was eight and old enough to understand a concept I couldn't have grasped at age four, I was told, "If you'd been born when you were supposed to be, this would be your second birthday." Somehow, my relatives joked, that would have made me two years old instead of eight.

I understood of course that this was a joke but it was an intriguing concept with which to play. If it worked like that, when all my friends were eighty and close to passing on, I would be twenty and in my prime of life. Of course, think of all the birthday presents I would have missed over the years…and how about that long, frustrating wait for puberty? Or to be old enough to drive a car?

Speaking of driving a car, my knee has healed to the point where I've been doing some limited driving, mainly at times when traffic is likely to be at a minimum. It's now been four months since the second of my two operations and I'm doing that plus walking some decent distances. There's still the occasional time when I can't and it's still painful to get up from a chair…especially a low chair. But I'm pretty happy with the recovery process and fairly certain my mobility is better than it would be by now if I hadn't had the knee replacement.

I have stuff to do today more pressing than blogging but before I return to it…

Josh Marshall has a good article up on why the portions of the Republican party who want to stop Trump are unable to stop Trump. Sez Marshall, it's because most of what he's selling is the same stuff they've been selling to their constituents for years. I think that's basically correct. Trump's claim that the I.R.S. is auditing him because he's a "good Christian" is as clear a lie as we've ever heard from a politician — unless it's topped by Trump's claim of yesterday that he didn't denounce the Ku Klux Klan in that interview because he had a "bad earpiece." But the G.O.P. leaders can't denounce him for the Christian hooey at least because they've spent years telling Christians that everyone's out to get them and take away their religion.

Nate Silver says not to presume that everyone who calls themselves a Conservative will eventually back Mr. Trump. This election, it might be wise to presume nothing. I'm even skeptical it'll happen in November.

If you love Sondheim and do Spotify, this is the page for you.

The big "left out of the In Memoriam reel" controversy today seems to be about Abe Vigoda, though there are also complaints about the omission of Geoffrey Lewis, Martin Milner, Joan Leslie and a few more. I was glad to see they included Stan Freberg.

All right. I'll be back later…maybe. I dunno. Lots to get done today.

Here's John Oliver last night. How come he and his staff did more opposition research on Donald Trump than all the candidates running against Trump combined?

Donald Trump, the man with the Best Memory in the World, doesn't seem to recall David Duke. He described Duke in the past as "not company I wish to keep" but has apparently forgotten both Duke and the Ku Klux Klan. Jonathan Chait has more as does the video I'm about to post.

This isn't really a review of the Academy Awards since I watched the whole show in about an hour thanks to the magic of Fast Forward. Basically, I skip the awards themselves and most of the thank-you speeches. But I thought Chris Rock's opening monologue was dead-on to the point where it made most of the later talk about racism in Hollywood seem hollow and repetitive. As causes go, it was eclipsed in the latter half of the program by Joe Biden's awkward speech and Lady Gaga's powerful song about sexual victimhood. (I'm not suggesting a contest. They're both important issues and not inappropriate to the Oscar ceremony.)

Funniest speech I saw all night not counting Rock's monologue was Louis C.K. talking about the financial non-rewards for the Documentary Shorts makers. The most disappointing speech went with the most surprising win — to great audience delight — of Mark Rylance over the expected Sylvester Stallone. Rylance gave two of the most wonderful, non-traditional acceptance speeches when he won his two Tony Awards. How odd to see him give a conventional "thank you" at the Oscars. (Actually, the oddest thing in the whole telecast was hearing them play "Fight the Power" at length over the interminable closing credits. That was when it really felt like pandering.)

As these ceremonies go, it seemed fine to me…and I would suggest that anyone who calls it the worst Academy Awards show ever, as some always do, is expecting the Oscars to be something they cannot be and probably never were. I hope they have Rock back but he might not be as effective next year when, no matter what, they're gonna nominate some black people. For the wrong reason.

Our friend Chip Kidd designs books that are often so pretty the design overshadows the text. Here he is discussing his art 'n' craft…

Three separate Bernie Sanders supporters wrote me yesterday, apparently having figured out that his path to the White House involves convincing the guy who works on Groo the Wanderer that Hillary doesn't have a lock on it. Not that I've said she does — though Nate Silver, who actually counts votes as opposed to assessing "momentum," seems to think it's just about over. I just don't have a lot of emotion invested in that race. I'll be voting for whichever one gets the nomination and it won't matter because I live in a state that's going to go overwhemingly Democratic with or without my ballot.

I'm also getting e-mails from folks linking me to articles saying Hillary is certain to beat Donald or that Donald is certain to beat Hillary. Most of the latter seem to have been written by pundits who, 48 hours before the polls closed in 2012 were confidently predicting a Romney landslide. It seems that though they got that wrong two days before that election, they've become infallible 253 days ahead of Election Day. And that's without knowing who the running mates will be, who'll win the debates, what additional stances and promises we'll hear from the nominees, what new scandals will emerge, what stupid things each of them will say, etc.

I'm unimpressed by predictions that are unaccompanied by maps or lists that break down each candidate's chances in each state and how many electoral votes each could win. In fact, I think those are the only forecasts that have any value at all. You want to convince me your guy or gal will be sworn in next Inauguration Day? Break out the electoral map and tell me which states he or she will win…and don't kid yourself or me. The G.O.P. nominee ain't gonna lose Texas or Utah and the Democratic candidate has New York and California for sure.

But you can't do that now with any real data. There simply hasn't been enough polling of most of the arguable states and even where there's been some, it's testing the match-up of Clinton and Somebody versus Trump and Somebody in an election that will have many twists 'n' turns in those 253 days. Obviously, the Democrat starts with a big electoral advantage. He or she just has to replicate the 2012 Obama win and not lose more than 126 of the electoral votes he won. The Republican has to win all the states Romney got plus flip around ten additional ones. It can be done but there's insufficient data to prove it at this time.

Until there is, all of it is wishful thinking as far as I'm concerned. Plus, don't you just get the feeling that this is going to be the kind of election where every even-numbered day, one of the candidates is going to say something really, really outrageous and possibly game-changing? And that every odd-numbered day, we're going to hear a possibly-true story of something really, really scandalous and possibly illegal (but not clearly disprovable) that one of them did? Those 253 days are going to feel like 253 years.

Watch this. Just watch this. (Thanks, Shelly Goldstein…)

Here's a summary of Oscar predictions. I don't really have many, other than that Chris Rock will do a lot of jokes about the absence of black nominees and a few solid slams at Donald Trump. Maybe Rock will come out in whiteface or something.

At some point, there will be some stunt that is designed to drive traffic to the Internet in a measurable way. And I'd give 50-50 odds of someone on stage getting attacked by a guy in a bear suit.

Someone will probably give some wildly-exaggerated estimate of how many people watch the Academy Awards. The number constantly grows and will soon be greater than the number of people on Earth.

Several people will be outraged at the omission of several people from the "In Memoriam" reel.

A few winners will thank their agents and maybe Jesus Christ (surely in that order) and at least one will take a shot at Trump and/or give a shout-out to Bernie Sanders.

Following the ceremony, many people will write articles about why certain votes went the way they did. These articles will be based on the assumption that (a) everyone in Hollywood votes and (b) they all vote the way they did for the same reasons. Be especially wary of any statement that begins, "This is Hollywood's way of sending a message that…" Most people in Hollywood don't vote and there's no way of knowing why the ones who do vote make the choices they make.

I'll TiVo it and start watching at least an hour after it starts with my finger on the Skip Ahead button. And no matter how good it is, everyone will say the next day that it was The Worst Oscar Telecast ever. Which it won't be but everyone always says that.

17 favorite movies before and after visual effects.

Never mind that silly presidential election. Someone at Nate Silver's site has finally done a survey on a matter of true importance: Guests on late night talk shows. The occasion that triggered this was the 100th episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

It shows that Colbert is not booking quite the same kinds of guests as either Jimmy on a competing channel…and good for him. I happen to like Colbert's show a lot. I think he's a much better interviewer than anyone else currently doing that kind of program and his comedy spots are strong enough that I don't miss his old show on Comedy Central too much. He also seems to be enjoying himself…which you might think is a silly quality but I think it's one of the main reasons that Jimmy Fallon is doing so well and why Mr. Leno bested Mr. Letterman for such a long time.

Not that I like everything about Colbert's show. It may not be his fault that studio audiences now believe their job is to overcheer everything and chant the host's name and give everyone and everything a standing ovation…but I'll bet he could do more to dial that back. I also expected him to do more to monkey with talk show conventions and format, and the physical bits he does — like a guest teaching him to dance or cook — all have that well-rehearsed air that all talk shows now have.

The Legendary Carson used to at least partially wing those and trust in his own ability to ad-lib if things went wrong. Then it became S.O.P. in the Letterman-Leno years that the host must never be surprised in any way, even though both Dave and Jay could probably have handled anything that did not go as planned. I'll bet Colbert could too but his show doesn't take enough of a chance in those directions.

The ratings are OK. CBS is probably quite happy with what they're getting, which is roughly a neck-and-neck finish with Jimmy Kimmel. They'd be happier, as would ABC, if their guy was more competitive with Fallon, who is out-and-away in the lead…but that doesn't seem to changing any time soon. CBS has got to be pretty pleased with James Corden as well so we have some long-range stability in late night. I guess for some, that makes it less fun.

Ring Lardner Jr. was the blacklisted writer who won an Academy Award for the 1942 Tracy-Hepburn film Woman of the Year, then had to work largely sans credit until the 1970 movie of M*A*S*H, for which he won another Oscar. A bio-pic of another blacklisted writer, Dalton Trumbo, is up for some Oscars on Sunday and James Lardner (son of Ring Jr.) has some notes on what is right and wrong with Trumbo.

I admired Trumbo but — and I know this is a minority viewpoint — felt bored by a lot of it. I thought The Front covered much of the same ground more effectively and that Trumbo was a little too foreseeable, going as it did exactly where you knew it would go. That's a problem with any historical drama but in the best of them, you get insights along the way and many opportunities to say, "I didn't know that" and you see analogies to larger issues. I'm afraid I didn't get enough of that from Trumbo. Bryan Cranston was sure perfect, though. I doubt he'll win Sunday night but it would not be wrong if he did.

Why am I working all night on a script for something the producer doesn't really need for months? We don't have the answer to that but we do know how rubber bands are made…