There has never been a show as quotable as #10 on my Top Ten list.
Therefore, I am devoting most of this page to notable quotes from this series, and I'll get to the other nine anon.
#10
The Honeymooners.
Some pertinent quotes:
Pipsqueak in the poolhall: I've got a friend named Harvey who's bigger than me.
Ralph: I've got a friend named Shirley who's bigger than you!
Norton: In the words of the immortal Pierre Francois De La Brioschi, "La Plume......"
Ralph: Aww, shuddup!
Ralph: See? That's the difference between you and me, Alice. You're the kind of person who'd bend way over on April Fools Day to pick up a quarter. I wouldn't.
Alice: You couldn't!
Ralph: Wait a minute! What's goin' on here?
Alice: Ralph, Carlos is teaching us the Mambo.
Ralph: Ohhhhh! Carlos is teachin' you the Mambo. Carlos is teachin' you the Mambo.
For a minute there I didn't know WHAT you were doin'. Carlos is teachin' you the Mambo..........
Everybody out!
Mrs. Manicotti: But Mister Kramden, it's fun!
Ralph: And YOU, at YOUR age, should be ashamed of yourself!
Ralph: (To his Mother-In-Law, after many catty remarks by her)
YOU are a Blah-bermouth!!!
Mother-In-Law: Well I never.......
Ralph: YOU! Blabbermouth! OUT!! OUT!!!
Quizmaster: And what do you do for a living, Mr. Kramden?
Ralph: Homma, homma, homma, I brive a dus.....
Ralph (to Alice): Hoo hoo, are you going to get yours! Bang! Zoom!
Alice (reacting to Ralph's balking at buying a TV set): Well I don't want to look at that sink, that icebox, that stove, and these four walls!
I wanna look at Liberace!!!!
Ralph: (Filling out a questionaire for Norton's job application) "What do you think of the applicant's overall character?"
(As he's writing) The--applicant--is--a BUM!!!!
Ralph: The first thing it says here is to take the club, approach the tee, and address the ball.
Norton: (Following instructions)......Hello ball!
Ralph: How'd you like to go sailin' over the Clubhouse, Alice??!!
Norton (As the Chef of the Past): And who, pray tell, are you?
Ralph (As the petrified-by-the-camera Chef of the Future) Homina homina homina Chef adda Future!!
Norton: So tell me oh Chef of the Future, what does your Handy Housewife Helper do? Can it core a apple?
Ralph: Ooohh, it can core a apple......hah hah!
Ralph: (To Alice) Baby, you're the greatest!
Ralph Kramden was one of the great comedy protagonists of all time.
He was played so realistically by Jackie Gleason that you always felt his pain, which was almost always intense.
Ed Norton, as played by Art Carney, was a perfect comic character.
It would be impossible to capture in quotes all the times that Norton, in attempting to line up a billiard shot, or to write something,
would flail his arms interminably, in front of Ralph, causing Ralph to completely lose it and smack Norton on the back, and yell
"Come on!!!!!!"
The acting was usually better than the writing. Whenever they went for jokes, they more often than not just laid there.
And all of these quotes can be found in the original 39 episodes.
When Gleason unlocked the vault, and exhumed the "Lost Episodes", they proved to be not nearly in the same league as the original 39.
Very little to quote there.
Still......baby, you were one of the greatest!
-------------------------------------------------
My book, "Show Runner" and it's sequel,"Show Runner Two", can be found at the Amazon Kindle Store, You can search by typing in my name, Cindy Williams, Laverne & Shirley, The Odd Couple, or Happy Days.
You might want to check them out.
You don't need a Kindle machine to download them.
Just get the free app from Kindle, and they can be downloaded to an IPhone, IPad, or Blackberry.
The paperback, "Mark Rothman's Essays" is still available for people without Kindle. I have many readings and signings remaining, and the thing about Kindle is you can't sign one.
The website "On Screen & Beyond" has the second hour of a 2 hour interview I did on their podcast. The first hour is in their archives, and the second hour will be next week.
Just Google On Screen & Beyond to find it if you're interested.
******
Friday, September 23, 2011
Thursday, September 22, 2011
The Top Five Honorables.
As we head into the Top Five Honorable Mentions before we get to the actual Top Ten list, you'll see some rather exotic choices.
Without further ado:
#5
It's A Great Life.
This is a show that probably most of you have never heard of.
It was on for two seasons on NBC in 1954 and 1955.
It was wonderfully funny.
I remember seeing it when I was in the fourth and fifth grade, and remember laughing my head off.
I also saw a whole lot of episodes of it on cable on something known as the Nostalgia Channel about ten years ago.
It was as funny as I remember it being in the fifties.
It starred Michael O'Shea, James Dunn, and William Bishop.
For the most part, not exactly household names.
Michael O'Shea made some minor movies, and had minor parts in major movies.
He was probably best known for being married to actress Virginia Mayo.
Michael O'Shea was a GREAT comic actor.
He talked with his hands.
In a most unique fashion.
James Dunn had won an Oscar ten years previously for his role as the father in "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn".
He was wonderful in that.
He was not required to be funny in that.
If not for "It's A Great Life", no one would have had any idea how funny he was.
William Bishop was the handsome straight man who was really just there along for the ride.
O'Shea and Bishop played WWII veterans who sold vacuum cleaners door-to-door.
For whatever reason (I never really knew) they were boarders at Earl and Amy Morgan's house.
James Dunn was Earl, usually called "Uncle Earl", and was the laziest cheapest man on earth.
Amy was Frances Bavier, creating the mold for Aunt Bee some five years later. But much funnier than Aunt Bee ever was.
It was as good as it was because of the writing.
It was run by two of the most unheralded writers ever in the trenches-----
Ray Singer and Dick Chevillat.
They were brilliant storytellers and dialogue writers.
My other primary contact with their work was on the Phil Harris-Alice Faye radio show.
Arguably the funniest radio show ever. Certainly the best written.
I'll make that argument, anyway.
And I'll write about it more extensively at some point.
There's an episode of "It's a Great Life" on YouTube, but for whatever reason, Michael O'Shea isn't in it.
So it's not one of it's best.
But it does capture the flavor of it, and most of all, it's almost breakneck pace.
#4
I'm Dickens, He's Fenster.
John Astin and Marty Ingels teamed up as a pair of carpenters.
Both men are excruciatingly funny in it.
I think it only ran one or two seasons on ABC in the early sixties.
Leonard Stern, also responsible for the writing on "He and She", was in command here.
He did great work.
#3
Extras.
My first real taste of Ricky Gervais.
Very British, very realistic, extremely funny look at show business across the pond, from the point of view of some of it's least successful denizens.
Makes me wish I'd seen the British version of "The Office.
#2
It's Garry Shandling's Show.
Broke the fourth wall in very much the same way they did on "Burns and Allen"
He must have been highly influenced by that show.
It was quite innovative in it's own way.
My favorite episode was one they did with Red Buttons as a guest star.
I will devote an entire post to Red Buttons at some point and describe what he did on this show.
But he was hilarious, as was Shandling with him.
#1
The Larry Sanders Show.
Very much a breakthrough for how sitcoms could be done.
Hilarious on so many levels.
Realistic on so many levels.
Great cast, particularly Rip Torn and Jeffrey Tambor.
Really a borderline Top Ten choice.
Next time, the actual Top Ten begins, with #10 through 6.
-------------------------------------------------
My book, "Show Runner" and it's sequel,"Show Runner Two", can be found at the Amazon Kindle Store, You can search by typing in my name, Cindy Williams, Laverne & Shirley, The Odd Couple, or Happy Days.
You might want to check them out.
You don't need a Kindle machine to download them.
Just get the free app from Kindle, and they can be downloaded to an IPhone, IPad, or Blackberry.
The paperback, "Mark Rothman's Essays" is still available for people without Kindle. I have many readings and signings remaining, and the thing about Kindle is you can't sign one.
The website "On Screen & Beyond" has the second hour of a 2 hour interview I did on their podcast. The first hour is in their archives, and the second hour will be next week.
Just Google On Screen & Beyond to find it if you're interested.
******
Without further ado:
#5
It's A Great Life.
This is a show that probably most of you have never heard of.
It was on for two seasons on NBC in 1954 and 1955.
It was wonderfully funny.
I remember seeing it when I was in the fourth and fifth grade, and remember laughing my head off.
I also saw a whole lot of episodes of it on cable on something known as the Nostalgia Channel about ten years ago.
It was as funny as I remember it being in the fifties.
It starred Michael O'Shea, James Dunn, and William Bishop.
For the most part, not exactly household names.
Michael O'Shea made some minor movies, and had minor parts in major movies.
He was probably best known for being married to actress Virginia Mayo.
Michael O'Shea was a GREAT comic actor.
He talked with his hands.
In a most unique fashion.
James Dunn had won an Oscar ten years previously for his role as the father in "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn".
He was wonderful in that.
He was not required to be funny in that.
If not for "It's A Great Life", no one would have had any idea how funny he was.
William Bishop was the handsome straight man who was really just there along for the ride.
O'Shea and Bishop played WWII veterans who sold vacuum cleaners door-to-door.
For whatever reason (I never really knew) they were boarders at Earl and Amy Morgan's house.
James Dunn was Earl, usually called "Uncle Earl", and was the laziest cheapest man on earth.
Amy was Frances Bavier, creating the mold for Aunt Bee some five years later. But much funnier than Aunt Bee ever was.
It was as good as it was because of the writing.
It was run by two of the most unheralded writers ever in the trenches-----
Ray Singer and Dick Chevillat.
They were brilliant storytellers and dialogue writers.
My other primary contact with their work was on the Phil Harris-Alice Faye radio show.
Arguably the funniest radio show ever. Certainly the best written.
I'll make that argument, anyway.
And I'll write about it more extensively at some point.
There's an episode of "It's a Great Life" on YouTube, but for whatever reason, Michael O'Shea isn't in it.
So it's not one of it's best.
But it does capture the flavor of it, and most of all, it's almost breakneck pace.
#4
I'm Dickens, He's Fenster.
John Astin and Marty Ingels teamed up as a pair of carpenters.
Both men are excruciatingly funny in it.
I think it only ran one or two seasons on ABC in the early sixties.
Leonard Stern, also responsible for the writing on "He and She", was in command here.
He did great work.
#3
Extras.
My first real taste of Ricky Gervais.
Very British, very realistic, extremely funny look at show business across the pond, from the point of view of some of it's least successful denizens.
Makes me wish I'd seen the British version of "The Office.
#2
It's Garry Shandling's Show.
Broke the fourth wall in very much the same way they did on "Burns and Allen"
He must have been highly influenced by that show.
It was quite innovative in it's own way.
My favorite episode was one they did with Red Buttons as a guest star.
I will devote an entire post to Red Buttons at some point and describe what he did on this show.
But he was hilarious, as was Shandling with him.
#1
The Larry Sanders Show.
Very much a breakthrough for how sitcoms could be done.
Hilarious on so many levels.
Realistic on so many levels.
Great cast, particularly Rip Torn and Jeffrey Tambor.
Really a borderline Top Ten choice.
Next time, the actual Top Ten begins, with #10 through 6.
-------------------------------------------------
My book, "Show Runner" and it's sequel,"Show Runner Two", can be found at the Amazon Kindle Store, You can search by typing in my name, Cindy Williams, Laverne & Shirley, The Odd Couple, or Happy Days.
You might want to check them out.
You don't need a Kindle machine to download them.
Just get the free app from Kindle, and they can be downloaded to an IPhone, IPad, or Blackberry.
The paperback, "Mark Rothman's Essays" is still available for people without Kindle. I have many readings and signings remaining, and the thing about Kindle is you can't sign one.
The website "On Screen & Beyond" has the second hour of a 2 hour interview I did on their podcast. The first hour is in their archives, and the second hour will be next week.
Just Google On Screen & Beyond to find it if you're interested.
******
Monday, September 19, 2011
The Next-To-The Last Honorables
I've got 10 Honorable Mention candidates left, and I'm back on numerical track.
So I'll list and describe them over the next two posts as #20 down to #11.
Then, we will get to the actual Top Ten, numbered from #10 to #1.
Here we go:
#20
Lotsa' Luck.
Dom Deluise as bus driver Stanley Belmont, and Kathleen Freeman as his mother.
One of the funniest comic actors ever, and arguably the funniest mother ever.
Stanley is beseiged weekly by his family who lives with him.
Great writing. Simply hilarious.
#19
Dharma and Greg.
More of a salute to Chuck Lorre's brilliance.
And I was and am in love with Jenna Elfman.
It's neck and neck between her and Lisa Kudrow.
Great supporting cast as well.
#18
Mike and Molly.
Yet even more of a salute to Chuck Lorre's brilliance.
Everyone in the cast is quite appealing.
Maybe if there was more of a sampling of it, it would rate even higher.
#17
Mister Peepers.
From the early to mid-fifties.
A very gently performed, witty comedy.
Wally Cox as a shy junior high school science teacher.
He was brilliant.
It also introduced Tony Randall as one of the other teachers, Harvey Weskit, which allowed him to perfect the character he played later on in
all those Doris Day-Rock Hudson movies.
And it had Marion Lorne.
If you'd only known her from "Bewitched" or "The Garry Moore Show", mumbling her way through life, you have no concept of just how funny she was. That's where she did her BEST mumbling. What a hoot!
#16
Friends.
Ostensibly born as a "Seinfeld" ripoff, it had very finely drawn characters.
It was hugely funny.
It had everybody in love with everybody else.
In a good way.
It had Lisa Kudrow.
'Nuff said.
Numbers 15 through 11 next time.
-------------------------------------------------
My book, "Show Runner" and it's sequel,"Show Runner Two", can be found at the Amazon Kindle Store, You can search by typing in my name, Cindy Williams, Laverne & Shirley, The Odd Couple, or Happy Days.
You might want to check them out.
You don't need a Kindle machine to download them.
Just get the free app from Kindle, and they can be downloaded to an IPhone, IPad, or Blackberry.
The paperback, "Mark Rothman's Essays" is still available for people without Kindle. I have many readings and signings remaining, and the thing about Kindle is you can't sign one.
The website "On Screen & Beyond" has the first hour of a 2 hour interview I did on their podcast. It will remain in their archives, and the second hour will be posted this week.
Just Google On Screen & Beyond to find it if you're interested.
******
So I'll list and describe them over the next two posts as #20 down to #11.
Then, we will get to the actual Top Ten, numbered from #10 to #1.
Here we go:
#20
Lotsa' Luck.
Dom Deluise as bus driver Stanley Belmont, and Kathleen Freeman as his mother.
One of the funniest comic actors ever, and arguably the funniest mother ever.
Stanley is beseiged weekly by his family who lives with him.
Great writing. Simply hilarious.
#19
Dharma and Greg.
More of a salute to Chuck Lorre's brilliance.
And I was and am in love with Jenna Elfman.
It's neck and neck between her and Lisa Kudrow.
Great supporting cast as well.
#18
Mike and Molly.
Yet even more of a salute to Chuck Lorre's brilliance.
Everyone in the cast is quite appealing.
Maybe if there was more of a sampling of it, it would rate even higher.
#17
Mister Peepers.
From the early to mid-fifties.
A very gently performed, witty comedy.
Wally Cox as a shy junior high school science teacher.
He was brilliant.
It also introduced Tony Randall as one of the other teachers, Harvey Weskit, which allowed him to perfect the character he played later on in
all those Doris Day-Rock Hudson movies.
And it had Marion Lorne.
If you'd only known her from "Bewitched" or "The Garry Moore Show", mumbling her way through life, you have no concept of just how funny she was. That's where she did her BEST mumbling. What a hoot!
#16
Friends.
Ostensibly born as a "Seinfeld" ripoff, it had very finely drawn characters.
It was hugely funny.
It had everybody in love with everybody else.
In a good way.
It had Lisa Kudrow.
'Nuff said.
Numbers 15 through 11 next time.
-------------------------------------------------
My book, "Show Runner" and it's sequel,"Show Runner Two", can be found at the Amazon Kindle Store, You can search by typing in my name, Cindy Williams, Laverne & Shirley, The Odd Couple, or Happy Days.
You might want to check them out.
You don't need a Kindle machine to download them.
Just get the free app from Kindle, and they can be downloaded to an IPhone, IPad, or Blackberry.
The paperback, "Mark Rothman's Essays" is still available for people without Kindle. I have many readings and signings remaining, and the thing about Kindle is you can't sign one.
The website "On Screen & Beyond" has the first hour of a 2 hour interview I did on their podcast. It will remain in their archives, and the second hour will be posted this week.
Just Google On Screen & Beyond to find it if you're interested.
******
Saturday, September 17, 2011
More Honorables.
These shows, to me, are all more honorable than the previous ones mentioned.
And to me, they are more and more prestigious as we proceed down the page.
Amos N' Andy.
I know I've written about this show before.
Let me reiterate what I feel is significant about it.
It was one of the most offensive shows of it's time. And also one of the funniest. Now that we have passed it's time by almost sixty years, the
offensive element is pretty much gone, and it's still one of the funniest.
It's hard to be much funnier than Tim Moore, who played The Kingfish.
The Bob Newhart Show, and Newhart.
An entry.
Virtually indistinguishable, as Bob essentially played the same character.
Both shows had memorable supporting cast members.
Bob has been one of the great reactive comic actors, and showed off this skill equally well in both extremely well-written shows.
Only one of them started the "Hi Bob" drinking game, so perhaps the nod goes to the Bob Newhart Show.
The Tony Randall Show
The one where he played a judge and was as great as Tony Randall always was.
The one where Allyn Ann McLerie played his tight-assed secretary, Miss Reubner.
I wonder why that one hasn't shown up anywhere?
Hey, Landlord!
The first time Garry Marshall and Jerry Belson were in charge of a sitcom.
It was 3-camera, live audience, free-wheeling, and contained some great dialogue, and some great recurring performances, like Michael Constantine's as Mr. Ellenhorn, one of the tenants in the building.
He was a whole lot funnier here than on "Room 222".
But then, wasn't everybody?
He and She
Richard Benjamin and Paula Prentiss, a real-life husband and wife, playing husband and wife.
It was very sophisticated lunacy, and both Benjamin and Prentiss showed off their major comedy chops.
As did Jack Cassidy, as the egotistical star of "Jet Man" , a Batman ripoff, based on Benjamin's cartoon strip.
It was the first show since Rob and Laura Petrie established the mold that showed a loving married couple that respected each other.
Entourage
Would probably be rated higher, if for the fact that it's not really an out-and-out sitcom.
But it was extremely well done, with extremely well drawn characters, and had a pretty good share of belly laughs.
The Big Bang Theory
My first salute to Chuck Lorre, whom I think is one of the greats.
Extremely intelligent writng about extremely intelligent people.
Even if they are nerds.
Taxi
Great writing.
A great introduction to Danny Devito, Christopher Lloyd, and to many, Andy Kaufman. Rarely fell short of hilarious.
I Love Lucy
An enormous output.
Was somewhat inconsistent in quality, but there was so much that was memorable, and that transcends generations, that attention must be paid.
It was Lucy in her prime, which was tough to beat.
And you had Desi running things and being brilliant on camera.
And Vivian Vance and William Frawley bringing up the rear in grand style.
More next time.
-------------------------------------------------
My book, "Show Runner" and it's sequel,"Show Runner Two", can be found at the Amazon Kindle Store, You can search by typing in my name, Cindy Williams, Laverne & Shirley, The Odd Couple, or Happy Days.
You might want to check them out.
The paperback, "Mark Rothman's Essays" is still available for people without Kindle. I have many readings and signings remaining, and the thing about Kindle is you can't sign one.
You might want to check out the Kindle Store in general. It is the wave of the future, so consider me a surfer.
The website "On Screen & Beyond" has the first hour of a 2 hour interview I did on their podcast. It will remain in their archives, and the second hour will be posted next week.
Just Google On Screen & Beyond to find it if you're interested.
******
And to me, they are more and more prestigious as we proceed down the page.
Amos N' Andy.
I know I've written about this show before.
Let me reiterate what I feel is significant about it.
It was one of the most offensive shows of it's time. And also one of the funniest. Now that we have passed it's time by almost sixty years, the
offensive element is pretty much gone, and it's still one of the funniest.
It's hard to be much funnier than Tim Moore, who played The Kingfish.
The Bob Newhart Show, and Newhart.
An entry.
Virtually indistinguishable, as Bob essentially played the same character.
Both shows had memorable supporting cast members.
Bob has been one of the great reactive comic actors, and showed off this skill equally well in both extremely well-written shows.
Only one of them started the "Hi Bob" drinking game, so perhaps the nod goes to the Bob Newhart Show.
The Tony Randall Show
The one where he played a judge and was as great as Tony Randall always was.
The one where Allyn Ann McLerie played his tight-assed secretary, Miss Reubner.
I wonder why that one hasn't shown up anywhere?
Hey, Landlord!
The first time Garry Marshall and Jerry Belson were in charge of a sitcom.
It was 3-camera, live audience, free-wheeling, and contained some great dialogue, and some great recurring performances, like Michael Constantine's as Mr. Ellenhorn, one of the tenants in the building.
He was a whole lot funnier here than on "Room 222".
But then, wasn't everybody?
He and She
Richard Benjamin and Paula Prentiss, a real-life husband and wife, playing husband and wife.
It was very sophisticated lunacy, and both Benjamin and Prentiss showed off their major comedy chops.
As did Jack Cassidy, as the egotistical star of "Jet Man" , a Batman ripoff, based on Benjamin's cartoon strip.
It was the first show since Rob and Laura Petrie established the mold that showed a loving married couple that respected each other.
Entourage
Would probably be rated higher, if for the fact that it's not really an out-and-out sitcom.
But it was extremely well done, with extremely well drawn characters, and had a pretty good share of belly laughs.
The Big Bang Theory
My first salute to Chuck Lorre, whom I think is one of the greats.
Extremely intelligent writng about extremely intelligent people.
Even if they are nerds.
Taxi
Great writing.
A great introduction to Danny Devito, Christopher Lloyd, and to many, Andy Kaufman. Rarely fell short of hilarious.
I Love Lucy
An enormous output.
Was somewhat inconsistent in quality, but there was so much that was memorable, and that transcends generations, that attention must be paid.
It was Lucy in her prime, which was tough to beat.
And you had Desi running things and being brilliant on camera.
And Vivian Vance and William Frawley bringing up the rear in grand style.
More next time.
-------------------------------------------------
My book, "Show Runner" and it's sequel,"Show Runner Two", can be found at the Amazon Kindle Store, You can search by typing in my name, Cindy Williams, Laverne & Shirley, The Odd Couple, or Happy Days.
You might want to check them out.
The paperback, "Mark Rothman's Essays" is still available for people without Kindle. I have many readings and signings remaining, and the thing about Kindle is you can't sign one.
You might want to check out the Kindle Store in general. It is the wave of the future, so consider me a surfer.
The website "On Screen & Beyond" has the first hour of a 2 hour interview I did on their podcast. It will remain in their archives, and the second hour will be posted next week.
Just Google On Screen & Beyond to find it if you're interested.
******
Thursday, September 15, 2011
More Kindling.
We'll get back to the Top Ten Honorable Mention list next time.
And when we do, I will begin eliminating the numerical factor until we get to the top five Honorable Mentions.
I'll be doing this because I keep thinking of other shows that I've neglected to put on the list.
Shows that rank higher than the ones already discussed.
And I don't want to have to start dealing in fractions.
The main order of business today is to inform you that I have put up another book on Amazon Kindle.
It's called "Show Runner Two. The Sequel".
Again, Cindy Williams has graced me by doing the Foreword to it.
It contains about 570 pages of blog material that will be taken down from the blog momentarily.
I am just simply going to be ravaging the blog.
The price is $12.99 for each of the two books.
And they both contain over 500 pages.
I have been given to understand that you don't need an actual Kindle device to get these books.
You don't have to spring for the hundred bucks or so.
If you get Kindle's free app, you can download the books to your IPhone, or IPad, or Blackberry.
In any case, it's certainly easier than shlepping around a 500 page book.
And now, if you'll excuse me, I have some ravaging to do.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
My paperback book, "Mark Rothman's Essays", ones that were culled from the blog and are no longer there, along with a surprise bonus, is still available for purchase.
Please e-mail me at macchus999@aol.com for more info.
******
And when we do, I will begin eliminating the numerical factor until we get to the top five Honorable Mentions.
I'll be doing this because I keep thinking of other shows that I've neglected to put on the list.
Shows that rank higher than the ones already discussed.
And I don't want to have to start dealing in fractions.
The main order of business today is to inform you that I have put up another book on Amazon Kindle.
It's called "Show Runner Two. The Sequel".
Again, Cindy Williams has graced me by doing the Foreword to it.
It contains about 570 pages of blog material that will be taken down from the blog momentarily.
I am just simply going to be ravaging the blog.
The price is $12.99 for each of the two books.
And they both contain over 500 pages.
I have been given to understand that you don't need an actual Kindle device to get these books.
You don't have to spring for the hundred bucks or so.
If you get Kindle's free app, you can download the books to your IPhone, or IPad, or Blackberry.
In any case, it's certainly easier than shlepping around a 500 page book.
And now, if you'll excuse me, I have some ravaging to do.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
My paperback book, "Mark Rothman's Essays", ones that were culled from the blog and are no longer there, along with a surprise bonus, is still available for purchase.
Please e-mail me at macchus999@aol.com for more info.
******
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Beginning The Honorable Mention Odyssey.
There will be roughly 35 sitcoms covered, including the Top Ten, which we will get to last.
The Honorable Mentions will precede them, and described in descending order, with the higher numbers worth less than the lower numbers.
I will cover as many each session as fills the page.
I may have more to say about some than others.
I will begin with #22, which includes all the shows I worked on intensely:
The Odd Couple, Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, Busting Loose, Makin' It, and She's The Sheriff.
I enjoyed them all, enjoyed working on them all, but would find it self-serving to put any of them in the Top Ten.
And I don't really think any of them have earned it.
But they all deserve Honorable mention.
I don't want to rate them.
That's like trying to pick your favorite children.
So it's placing at #22 is not really reflective of how I feel about them.
It's just my attempt at diplomacy.
#21
Our Miss Brooks.
Eve Arden when her timimg was impeccable.
The writing was funny and intelligent.
The supporting cast was first rate.
Gale Gordon was the perfect foil.
Much better than with Lucy.
If you've never seen Richard Crenna as the teenaged high-pitched voiced Walter Denton, you've missed major comedy.
#20.
Sanford and Son.
Good writing, but it mainly had a major force of comedic nature in Redd Foxx.
I defy anyone to watch that show and not find Redd Foxx hilarious.
#19
The Burns and Allen Show.
Always funny.
Gracie was great.
Burns, particularly in his monologues, which broke the fourth wall, was brilliant.
Bea Benaderet was a major asset.
Another major innovation, particularly back then, was how George would sit in his den with the TV on and his show on the TV.
He'd watch it, and never tell any of the other characters that he was watching.
And he'd use this device to drive the other characters crazy and drive the story.
As imaginative as you could get.
A word of caution:
Don't watch too many episodes back to back.
You'll start to notice that it's essentially the same show every week.
Small doses.
The writing must have been particularly difficult.
The writers kept having to come up with straight-lines for other characters to feed to Gracie that can be taken in two different ways.
Gracie would invariably take the wrong one.
#18
All In The Family.
I thought it was hilarious, revolutionary, controversial when nothing else was, well written, and extremely well-played.
It still is.
But it hasn't dated well.
It was always very topical, and very loud.
It now seems even louder, and it's topicality does not work in it's favor any more.
#17
Web Therapy
A recent find.
Lisa Kudrow as a sham psychiatrist conducting three minute sessions with clients on the internet.
It is primarily about lying.
Lisa Kudrow is a major comedic treasure, and this show (Recently found on Showtime) already has it's shit together.
#16
The Danny Thomas Show.
This was one of my favorite shows when I was a young teenager, before Rusty Hamer got too old to be funny any more.
It was solid hardball comedy.
Very solid scripts.
Thomas was very good.
It had Hans Conreid as Uncle Tonoose.
Nobody else did.
But the last ten minutes of each episode were usually pretty deadly.
It got sentimental to the point of treacle.
And he'd usually be singing, which I myself could always pass up.
I'd usually watch the last five minutes of "M Squad".
Okay.
I think that this has been an auspicious beginning.
More next time.
-------------------------------------------------
My book, "Show Runner" can be found at the Amazon Kindle Store, if you search my name, Cindy Williams, Laverne & Shirley, The Odd Couple, and Happy Days.
You might want to check it out.
The paperback, "Mark Rothman's Essays" is still available for people without Kindle. I have many readings and signings remaining, and the thing about Kindle is you can't sign one.
You might want to check out the Kindle Store in general. It is the wave of the future, so consider me a surfer.
******
The Honorable Mentions will precede them, and described in descending order, with the higher numbers worth less than the lower numbers.
I will cover as many each session as fills the page.
I may have more to say about some than others.
I will begin with #22, which includes all the shows I worked on intensely:
The Odd Couple, Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, Busting Loose, Makin' It, and She's The Sheriff.
I enjoyed them all, enjoyed working on them all, but would find it self-serving to put any of them in the Top Ten.
And I don't really think any of them have earned it.
But they all deserve Honorable mention.
I don't want to rate them.
That's like trying to pick your favorite children.
So it's placing at #22 is not really reflective of how I feel about them.
It's just my attempt at diplomacy.
#21
Our Miss Brooks.
Eve Arden when her timimg was impeccable.
The writing was funny and intelligent.
The supporting cast was first rate.
Gale Gordon was the perfect foil.
Much better than with Lucy.
If you've never seen Richard Crenna as the teenaged high-pitched voiced Walter Denton, you've missed major comedy.
#20.
Sanford and Son.
Good writing, but it mainly had a major force of comedic nature in Redd Foxx.
I defy anyone to watch that show and not find Redd Foxx hilarious.
#19
The Burns and Allen Show.
Always funny.
Gracie was great.
Burns, particularly in his monologues, which broke the fourth wall, was brilliant.
Bea Benaderet was a major asset.
Another major innovation, particularly back then, was how George would sit in his den with the TV on and his show on the TV.
He'd watch it, and never tell any of the other characters that he was watching.
And he'd use this device to drive the other characters crazy and drive the story.
As imaginative as you could get.
A word of caution:
Don't watch too many episodes back to back.
You'll start to notice that it's essentially the same show every week.
Small doses.
The writing must have been particularly difficult.
The writers kept having to come up with straight-lines for other characters to feed to Gracie that can be taken in two different ways.
Gracie would invariably take the wrong one.
#18
All In The Family.
I thought it was hilarious, revolutionary, controversial when nothing else was, well written, and extremely well-played.
It still is.
But it hasn't dated well.
It was always very topical, and very loud.
It now seems even louder, and it's topicality does not work in it's favor any more.
#17
Web Therapy
A recent find.
Lisa Kudrow as a sham psychiatrist conducting three minute sessions with clients on the internet.
It is primarily about lying.
Lisa Kudrow is a major comedic treasure, and this show (Recently found on Showtime) already has it's shit together.
#16
The Danny Thomas Show.
This was one of my favorite shows when I was a young teenager, before Rusty Hamer got too old to be funny any more.
It was solid hardball comedy.
Very solid scripts.
Thomas was very good.
It had Hans Conreid as Uncle Tonoose.
Nobody else did.
But the last ten minutes of each episode were usually pretty deadly.
It got sentimental to the point of treacle.
And he'd usually be singing, which I myself could always pass up.
I'd usually watch the last five minutes of "M Squad".
Okay.
I think that this has been an auspicious beginning.
More next time.
-------------------------------------------------
My book, "Show Runner" can be found at the Amazon Kindle Store, if you search my name, Cindy Williams, Laverne & Shirley, The Odd Couple, and Happy Days.
You might want to check it out.
The paperback, "Mark Rothman's Essays" is still available for people without Kindle. I have many readings and signings remaining, and the thing about Kindle is you can't sign one.
You might want to check out the Kindle Store in general. It is the wave of the future, so consider me a surfer.
******
Friday, September 9, 2011
More Non-Honorables.
Other sitcoms that might be considered to be on some peoples Top Ten
Favorites list, but don't even rate Honorable Mention on mine, for one reason or another:
MASH---- Loved the movie, which was extremely hip. The TV series was extremely square.
It was also badly cast, overacted, preachy, and had a one-joke character (Klinger) whom they tried to sustain
for the entire series.
The Office----Never saw either version.
Ellen----Enjoyed it until she came out of the closet. Then, it became extremely, uncomfortably militant.
Rhoda----Not bad, but her husband was a cipher. And they consistently talked about scenes that would have been much better if they were shown.
The Jeffersons---Just loud and silly.
Topper----Clever, well written, but I'm just not big on fantasies.
Ozzie And Harriet----I enjoyed it a lot, but it just didn't try very hard.
The story lines all smacked of minutia.
WKRP In Cincinnati----Sometimes very funny, like when they dropped the turkeys out of the sky because Mr. Carlson thought they could fly. The supporting cast was very good, and made an indelible impression.
But the lead actor, Gary Sandy, added nothing to it.
I basically took it or left it.
Designing Women---Written by women, about women, for women.
I had no designs on these women. It was not for me.
The Real McCoys----Almost qualifies for Honorable Mention. Many good things about it.
The writing, for one. Walter Brennan was great, as was Richard Crenna.
But Little Luke was a character who had corn coming out of his ears.
And there were soooooo many shows that I enjoyed more.
The Mothers-In-Law----The only reason I'm bringing it up is that it was one of the very few 3-camera sitcoms that went for hard laughs once Van Dyke went off in the 60's.
And Desi Arnaz was in charge, and his fingerprints were all over it.
And Kaye Ballard was a hoot.
But Eve Arden's timing had grown lethargic.
The show in general was a little too broad.
The New Dick Van Dyke Show---The writing was there, but Hope Lange was no Mary Tyler Moore.
The supporting cast in general was completely undistinguished.
The Abbott and Costello Show----They did two seasons in the early 50's.
If the second season was anywhere near as good as the first, it might even crack the Top Ten.
That's how bad the second season was. It was as if it was shot underwater.
Okay. Next time, I'll begin the actual Honorable Mention list.
-------------------------------------------------
My book, "Show Runner" can be found at the Amazon Kindle Store, if you search my name, Cindy Williams, Laverne & Shirley, The Odd Couple, and Happy Days.
You might want to check it out.
The paperback, "Mark Rothman's Essays" is still available for people without Kindle. I have many readings and signings remaining, and the thing about Kindle is you can't sign one.
You might want to check out the Kindle Store in general. It is the wave of the future, so consider me a surfer.
******
Favorites list, but don't even rate Honorable Mention on mine, for one reason or another:
MASH---- Loved the movie, which was extremely hip. The TV series was extremely square.
It was also badly cast, overacted, preachy, and had a one-joke character (Klinger) whom they tried to sustain
for the entire series.
The Office----Never saw either version.
Ellen----Enjoyed it until she came out of the closet. Then, it became extremely, uncomfortably militant.
Rhoda----Not bad, but her husband was a cipher. And they consistently talked about scenes that would have been much better if they were shown.
The Jeffersons---Just loud and silly.
Topper----Clever, well written, but I'm just not big on fantasies.
Ozzie And Harriet----I enjoyed it a lot, but it just didn't try very hard.
The story lines all smacked of minutia.
WKRP In Cincinnati----Sometimes very funny, like when they dropped the turkeys out of the sky because Mr. Carlson thought they could fly. The supporting cast was very good, and made an indelible impression.
But the lead actor, Gary Sandy, added nothing to it.
I basically took it or left it.
Designing Women---Written by women, about women, for women.
I had no designs on these women. It was not for me.
The Real McCoys----Almost qualifies for Honorable Mention. Many good things about it.
The writing, for one. Walter Brennan was great, as was Richard Crenna.
But Little Luke was a character who had corn coming out of his ears.
And there were soooooo many shows that I enjoyed more.
The Mothers-In-Law----The only reason I'm bringing it up is that it was one of the very few 3-camera sitcoms that went for hard laughs once Van Dyke went off in the 60's.
And Desi Arnaz was in charge, and his fingerprints were all over it.
And Kaye Ballard was a hoot.
But Eve Arden's timing had grown lethargic.
The show in general was a little too broad.
The New Dick Van Dyke Show---The writing was there, but Hope Lange was no Mary Tyler Moore.
The supporting cast in general was completely undistinguished.
The Abbott and Costello Show----They did two seasons in the early 50's.
If the second season was anywhere near as good as the first, it might even crack the Top Ten.
That's how bad the second season was. It was as if it was shot underwater.
Okay. Next time, I'll begin the actual Honorable Mention list.
-------------------------------------------------
My book, "Show Runner" can be found at the Amazon Kindle Store, if you search my name, Cindy Williams, Laverne & Shirley, The Odd Couple, and Happy Days.
You might want to check it out.
The paperback, "Mark Rothman's Essays" is still available for people without Kindle. I have many readings and signings remaining, and the thing about Kindle is you can't sign one.
You might want to check out the Kindle Store in general. It is the wave of the future, so consider me a surfer.
******
Thursday, September 8, 2011
My Favorite Sitcoms. The Top Ten.
After everybody's suggestions, I've given this a lot of thought.
I will be discussing far more than ten sitcoms over this upcoming series of articles.
Here are the ground rules I've set for myself as to how I'm going to approach it, and how I'm going to roll with it.
First, this is about my FAVORITE sitcoms.
That's what's been requested.
Some may also be what I consider to be the BEST sitcoms.
And the higher up the list, the more the two concepts will overlap.
The actual top ten favorites are the last thing I'm going to deal with.
What they have in common is the ability to make me laugh long and loud, on a consistent basis, and to enable me to respect the craft that went into it.
This will be preceded with a slew of honorable mentions, any of which I would be proud to put in my top ten if there were shows in the top ten that for whatever reason didn't exist.
The honorable mentions will be presented in a downward sequence on the page, going from least honorable to most.
This will take more than one article, and those appearing on subsequent days represent shows that in my eyes are worth more honorable mention than the shows mentioned previously, once again, gaining in stature in my mind as we navigate our way down the page each article.
This will all be preceded by a slew of "non-honorables".
These consist of shows that might seem to you that I could have conceivably overlooked.
These are not necessarily bad shows.
This is all very subjective.
They are simply shows I couldn't get behind, for one reason or another.
In each case, I will offer a brief explanation as to why they were overlooked.
These "non-honorables" will not be presented in any particular sequence.
To give you a taste, I will now get the ball rolling by offering up some of the "non-honorables":
"Everybody Loves Raymond"----You can always see the acting. And I hated the women.
Doris Roberts makes my flesh crawl.
And Patricia Heaton always seemed to have the rag on.
It was well-written, but I quickly lost interest.
"Cheers"----I hung in with it for about three years, until I realized that Shelley Long was really like that.
And there was an overlying tension on display to get a laugh every eleven seconds.
Very nervous making.
"Frasier"---Watched it three or four times. I never liked Kelsey Grammer on "Cheers", and found the writing on "Frasier" way too arch.
It was almost offensively unfunny.
"The Simpsons"---Watched it a few times, thought it was funny, but never felt the need or the urge to return to it.
"Soap"----Never watched it. This is true of "Benson" as well.
"Cosby"---Respected it. Never felt compelled to make sure I saw it from week to week.
"The Golden Girls"----Great pilot. Quickly deteriorated from there.
"Roseanne"-------Never watched it.
"The Andy Griffith Show"----Very watchable, but I was never bowled over by it.
And I feel that Andy Griffith completely wasted his major gifts by participating in it.
Okay. I think I've given you a taste of how this is going to shake down.
We will continue along these lines next time.
-------------------------------------------------
My book, "Show Runner" can be found at the Amazon Kindle Store, if you search my name, Cindy Williams, Laverne & Shirley, The Odd Couple, and Happy Days.
You might want to check it out.
The paperback, "Mark Rothman's Essays" is still available for people without Kindle. I have many readings and signings remaining, and the thing about Kindle is you can't sign one.
You might want to check out the Kindle Store in general. It is the wave of the future, so consider me a surfer.
******
I will be discussing far more than ten sitcoms over this upcoming series of articles.
Here are the ground rules I've set for myself as to how I'm going to approach it, and how I'm going to roll with it.
First, this is about my FAVORITE sitcoms.
That's what's been requested.
Some may also be what I consider to be the BEST sitcoms.
And the higher up the list, the more the two concepts will overlap.
The actual top ten favorites are the last thing I'm going to deal with.
What they have in common is the ability to make me laugh long and loud, on a consistent basis, and to enable me to respect the craft that went into it.
This will be preceded with a slew of honorable mentions, any of which I would be proud to put in my top ten if there were shows in the top ten that for whatever reason didn't exist.
The honorable mentions will be presented in a downward sequence on the page, going from least honorable to most.
This will take more than one article, and those appearing on subsequent days represent shows that in my eyes are worth more honorable mention than the shows mentioned previously, once again, gaining in stature in my mind as we navigate our way down the page each article.
This will all be preceded by a slew of "non-honorables".
These consist of shows that might seem to you that I could have conceivably overlooked.
These are not necessarily bad shows.
This is all very subjective.
They are simply shows I couldn't get behind, for one reason or another.
In each case, I will offer a brief explanation as to why they were overlooked.
These "non-honorables" will not be presented in any particular sequence.
To give you a taste, I will now get the ball rolling by offering up some of the "non-honorables":
"Everybody Loves Raymond"----You can always see the acting. And I hated the women.
Doris Roberts makes my flesh crawl.
And Patricia Heaton always seemed to have the rag on.
It was well-written, but I quickly lost interest.
"Cheers"----I hung in with it for about three years, until I realized that Shelley Long was really like that.
And there was an overlying tension on display to get a laugh every eleven seconds.
Very nervous making.
"Frasier"---Watched it three or four times. I never liked Kelsey Grammer on "Cheers", and found the writing on "Frasier" way too arch.
It was almost offensively unfunny.
"The Simpsons"---Watched it a few times, thought it was funny, but never felt the need or the urge to return to it.
"Soap"----Never watched it. This is true of "Benson" as well.
"Cosby"---Respected it. Never felt compelled to make sure I saw it from week to week.
"The Golden Girls"----Great pilot. Quickly deteriorated from there.
"Roseanne"-------Never watched it.
"The Andy Griffith Show"----Very watchable, but I was never bowled over by it.
And I feel that Andy Griffith completely wasted his major gifts by participating in it.
Okay. I think I've given you a taste of how this is going to shake down.
We will continue along these lines next time.
-------------------------------------------------
My book, "Show Runner" can be found at the Amazon Kindle Store, if you search my name, Cindy Williams, Laverne & Shirley, The Odd Couple, and Happy Days.
You might want to check it out.
The paperback, "Mark Rothman's Essays" is still available for people without Kindle. I have many readings and signings remaining, and the thing about Kindle is you can't sign one.
You might want to check out the Kindle Store in general. It is the wave of the future, so consider me a surfer.
******
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Kindling.
What will turn into at least an eight part series of articles about my top ten favorite sitcoms wil begin next time.
But I have some hard news:
My book, "Mark Rothman's Essays" has been doubled in size. There are over 500 pages, and it is retitled "Show Runner, my life and opinions in and out of the sitcom trenches" And There is a Foreword by Cindy Williams.
It is available for only $12.99
There is one catch: It's only available as an e-book. And, at the moment, only at Amazon. You can easily find it and sample it at the Amazon Kindle Store.
Yuo will need a Kindle to be able to download it.
If you're paying attention, you might notice that I've removed roughly 250 more pages from the blog. This is the content that I've added to the e-book.
Within the next two weeks, there will be another 500 pages worth of blog essays, which will be called "Show Runner TWO, the Sequel"
The blog will further be ravaged accordingly..
"Show Runner" can be found at Amazon if you search my name, Cindy Williams, Laverne & Shirley, The Odd Couple, and Happy Days.
You might want to check it out.
The paperback, "Mark Rothman's Essays" is still available for people without Kindle. I have many readings and signings remaining, and the thing about Kindle is you can't sign one.
You might want to check out the Kindle Store. It is the wave of the future, so consider me a surfer.
******
But I have some hard news:
My book, "Mark Rothman's Essays" has been doubled in size. There are over 500 pages, and it is retitled "Show Runner, my life and opinions in and out of the sitcom trenches" And There is a Foreword by Cindy Williams.
It is available for only $12.99
There is one catch: It's only available as an e-book. And, at the moment, only at Amazon. You can easily find it and sample it at the Amazon Kindle Store.
Yuo will need a Kindle to be able to download it.
If you're paying attention, you might notice that I've removed roughly 250 more pages from the blog. This is the content that I've added to the e-book.
Within the next two weeks, there will be another 500 pages worth of blog essays, which will be called "Show Runner TWO, the Sequel"
The blog will further be ravaged accordingly..
"Show Runner" can be found at Amazon if you search my name, Cindy Williams, Laverne & Shirley, The Odd Couple, and Happy Days.
You might want to check it out.
The paperback, "Mark Rothman's Essays" is still available for people without Kindle. I have many readings and signings remaining, and the thing about Kindle is you can't sign one.
You might want to check out the Kindle Store. It is the wave of the future, so consider me a surfer.
******
Saturday, September 3, 2011
The Best Of Intentions.
As you might be aware, there has been a clamoring from the Comments section to have me post my Top Five favorite sitcoms of all time.
It has been echoed by e-mails that I have received.
I plan to go this clamoring at least three times better.
I want to post my top ten favorite sitcoms of all time, with a slew of honorable mentions leading up to them
These honorable mentions will help provide a framework for the actual selections, to inform you about what elements help comprise the actual list.
But I'm not quite prepared to begin this undertaking today.
I still have to sort things out about it.
But it will be addressed in short order.
I will begin next week.
It will take the form of my series "The Best Movie Of All Time".
For those of you who are interested, I will be interviewed by Brian Zemrak for his Podcast on Thursday, September 8th for airing the following Sunday.
For more info, go to his website, OnScreenAndBeyond.com
Also, if you happen to be in the Chicago area on the weekend of October 1st and 2nd, I will be appearing at the Hollywood Collectors Show.
I will be selling my book there, and will be surrounded by the "Laverne & Shirley" contingent, including Cindy Williams, Penny Marshall, Henry Winkler, Eddie Mekka and Leslie Easterbrook.
For more info, here is the website:
http://hollywoodcelebrityshow.com/Rose.htm
I hope to see many book-hungry Chicagoans.
Or Chicagoans in general.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
My book, "Mark Rothman's Essays", ones that were culled from the blog and are no longer there, along with a surprise bonus, is available for purchase.
Please e-mail me at macchus999@aol.com for more info.
******
It has been echoed by e-mails that I have received.
I plan to go this clamoring at least three times better.
I want to post my top ten favorite sitcoms of all time, with a slew of honorable mentions leading up to them
These honorable mentions will help provide a framework for the actual selections, to inform you about what elements help comprise the actual list.
But I'm not quite prepared to begin this undertaking today.
I still have to sort things out about it.
But it will be addressed in short order.
I will begin next week.
It will take the form of my series "The Best Movie Of All Time".
For those of you who are interested, I will be interviewed by Brian Zemrak for his Podcast on Thursday, September 8th for airing the following Sunday.
For more info, go to his website, OnScreenAndBeyond.com
Also, if you happen to be in the Chicago area on the weekend of October 1st and 2nd, I will be appearing at the Hollywood Collectors Show.
I will be selling my book there, and will be surrounded by the "Laverne & Shirley" contingent, including Cindy Williams, Penny Marshall, Henry Winkler, Eddie Mekka and Leslie Easterbrook.
For more info, here is the website:
http://hollywoodcelebrityshow.com/Rose.htm
I hope to see many book-hungry Chicagoans.
Or Chicagoans in general.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
My book, "Mark Rothman's Essays", ones that were culled from the blog and are no longer there, along with a surprise bonus, is available for purchase.
Please e-mail me at macchus999@aol.com for more info.
******
Thursday, September 1, 2011
The "Seinfeld" Brouhaha.
I have been taking some hits lately in the comments section and with e-mails about my underwhelming feelings about "Seinfeld".
I'd like to elaborate, and perhaps set the record straight, as it has been a little crooked:
I think "Seinfeld' is at least one of the five greatest sitcoms of all time.
I think it has, in Larry David, one of three greatest Show Runners of all time.
Present company excepted.
It has always made me laugh out loud. Hard. All the time.
It has perhaps the greatest set of supporting characters ever to support anyone.
Some of my favorite actors.
Estelle Harris, who played George Costanza's mother, appeared in a staged reading of one of my plays.
If you've seen me write about my mother and ever wondered what she looks and sounds like, just think of Estelle Harris.
She was a dead ringer for my mother.
This play was autobiographical, and several of my relatives were there.
As soon as Estelle hit the stage, my family freaked out.
Since the play starred Larry Miller, Jerry Seinfeld, a good friend of his, was in attendance.
It was most-likely the first time he laid eyes on Estelle Harris.
"Seinfeld"s main strength was it's story architechture.
They managed to weave four stories into each episode, and build them into a pyramid that paid off all four stories at the top of it.
One of the by-products of this is that you can watch any episode of "Seinfeld' and not remember that it was the one that contained
certain specific story lines.
"Seinfeld" also contained no jokes.
Except when Jerry was doing standup.
All the humor was character and attitude.
I feel that it's a much higher form than set-up punchline.
To me, it's cleverness has only been surpassed by "Curb Your Enthusiasm", which employs many of the same techniques.
And that's a high-wire act because they work without a script.
Again, that's because they don't need jokes.
On "Seinfeld"s downside, Jerry was an embarrasingly bad actor.
You could frequently see him smirking after one of his own punchlines.
I think more judicious editing might have helped.
He needed the best supporting cast ever just to get him through.
That the show was that good in spite of it was a tribute to Larry David.
It reminds me of my favorite movie, "The Miracle Of Morgan's Creek", directed by Preston Sturges in the 1940's.
It starred Betty Hutton, arguably one of the worst actresses who ever became a movie star.
That the movie was that good, and starred her, was a tribute to Sturges.
There's a parallel there.
The argument about "Seinfeld" ensued because somebody tried to make the case that it represented the nineties, was the best show ever, and therefore the nineties were the Golden Age Of Television.
To which I replied and will reply again, "One show does not a Golden Age make."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
My new book, "Mark Rothman's Essays", ones that were culled from the blog and are no longer there, along with a surprise bonus, is available for purchase.
Please e-mail me at macchus999@aol.com for more info.
******
I'd like to elaborate, and perhaps set the record straight, as it has been a little crooked:
I think "Seinfeld' is at least one of the five greatest sitcoms of all time.
I think it has, in Larry David, one of three greatest Show Runners of all time.
Present company excepted.
It has always made me laugh out loud. Hard. All the time.
It has perhaps the greatest set of supporting characters ever to support anyone.
Some of my favorite actors.
Estelle Harris, who played George Costanza's mother, appeared in a staged reading of one of my plays.
If you've seen me write about my mother and ever wondered what she looks and sounds like, just think of Estelle Harris.
She was a dead ringer for my mother.
This play was autobiographical, and several of my relatives were there.
As soon as Estelle hit the stage, my family freaked out.
Since the play starred Larry Miller, Jerry Seinfeld, a good friend of his, was in attendance.
It was most-likely the first time he laid eyes on Estelle Harris.
"Seinfeld"s main strength was it's story architechture.
They managed to weave four stories into each episode, and build them into a pyramid that paid off all four stories at the top of it.
One of the by-products of this is that you can watch any episode of "Seinfeld' and not remember that it was the one that contained
certain specific story lines.
"Seinfeld" also contained no jokes.
Except when Jerry was doing standup.
All the humor was character and attitude.
I feel that it's a much higher form than set-up punchline.
To me, it's cleverness has only been surpassed by "Curb Your Enthusiasm", which employs many of the same techniques.
And that's a high-wire act because they work without a script.
Again, that's because they don't need jokes.
On "Seinfeld"s downside, Jerry was an embarrasingly bad actor.
You could frequently see him smirking after one of his own punchlines.
I think more judicious editing might have helped.
He needed the best supporting cast ever just to get him through.
That the show was that good in spite of it was a tribute to Larry David.
It reminds me of my favorite movie, "The Miracle Of Morgan's Creek", directed by Preston Sturges in the 1940's.
It starred Betty Hutton, arguably one of the worst actresses who ever became a movie star.
That the movie was that good, and starred her, was a tribute to Sturges.
There's a parallel there.
The argument about "Seinfeld" ensued because somebody tried to make the case that it represented the nineties, was the best show ever, and therefore the nineties were the Golden Age Of Television.
To which I replied and will reply again, "One show does not a Golden Age make."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
My new book, "Mark Rothman's Essays", ones that were culled from the blog and are no longer there, along with a surprise bonus, is available for purchase.
Please e-mail me at macchus999@aol.com for more info.
******
Thursday, August 25, 2011
The Golden Age Of Television. 2.
The fifties, as exciting a time as it was for television, was NOT it's Golden Age.
It was just too flawed.
Although he started in the late forties, the fifties essentially turned Milton Berle into Mister Television.
For far too long.
Early on, it was simply a matter of "Look! He's moving!"
This graduated into "Look! He's moving! In a dress!.
Berle was mostly less than funny.
Combine this with his hammy mawkishness, and it was clear that he was not an asset to the Golden Age Legacy.
There were some great game shows in the fifties, like "What's My Line?", where the panelists dressed up in tuxedos, and the women wore evening gowns.
Except maybe when Berle showed up in a dress.
Or "I've Got A Secret", slightly less formal, but far more fun and more charming, primarily because of it's host, Garry Moore.
But then came the Quiz Show Scandals, which almost put a permanent end to all Quiz Shows.
A truly ugly time.
The fifties gave us Pinky Lee.
The fifties gave us fuzzy black-and-white pictures on the TV screens.
The fifties gave us Fuzzy Knight (Remember "Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion"?)
The fifties gave us "Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion"
The fifties introduced the concept of "Least objectionable programming"
And that decision usually fell to the head of the household.
Because most of us only had one set.
It brought us together, but not necessarily in a good way.
The fifties gave us Bert Parks.
The fifties gave us "My Llttle Margie".
But worse than anything, the fifties gave us the Blacklist.
It was pervasive, and certainly lowered the standards of what we were able to see, aside from ruining careers and lives.
Okay.
So I think I've made the case for why the fifties was NOT the Golden Age of Televison.
But I believe that there has been one, and I'll make the case for it next time.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
My new book, "Mark Rothman's Essays", ones that were culled from the blog and are no longer there, along with a surprise bonus, is available for purchase.
Please e-mail me at macchus999@aol.com for more info.
******
It was just too flawed.
Although he started in the late forties, the fifties essentially turned Milton Berle into Mister Television.
For far too long.
Early on, it was simply a matter of "Look! He's moving!"
This graduated into "Look! He's moving! In a dress!.
Berle was mostly less than funny.
Combine this with his hammy mawkishness, and it was clear that he was not an asset to the Golden Age Legacy.
There were some great game shows in the fifties, like "What's My Line?", where the panelists dressed up in tuxedos, and the women wore evening gowns.
Except maybe when Berle showed up in a dress.
Or "I've Got A Secret", slightly less formal, but far more fun and more charming, primarily because of it's host, Garry Moore.
But then came the Quiz Show Scandals, which almost put a permanent end to all Quiz Shows.
A truly ugly time.
The fifties gave us Pinky Lee.
The fifties gave us fuzzy black-and-white pictures on the TV screens.
The fifties gave us Fuzzy Knight (Remember "Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion"?)
The fifties gave us "Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion"
The fifties introduced the concept of "Least objectionable programming"
And that decision usually fell to the head of the household.
Because most of us only had one set.
It brought us together, but not necessarily in a good way.
The fifties gave us Bert Parks.
The fifties gave us "My Llttle Margie".
But worse than anything, the fifties gave us the Blacklist.
It was pervasive, and certainly lowered the standards of what we were able to see, aside from ruining careers and lives.
Okay.
So I think I've made the case for why the fifties was NOT the Golden Age of Televison.
But I believe that there has been one, and I'll make the case for it next time.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
My new book, "Mark Rothman's Essays", ones that were culled from the blog and are no longer there, along with a surprise bonus, is available for purchase.
Please e-mail me at macchus999@aol.com for more info.
******
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
The Golden Age Of Television.
The Fifties.
Also known as "The Fabulous Fifties".
What a time it was!
At least in terms of television.
Oh, I know that TV technichally got started in the late forties, but it really took it's shape,or at least the shape that it had, in the fifties.
We got to see a lot of wonderful things.
Sid Caesar, a true artist and genius, supported by the greatest writing staff for sketch comedy ever.
Jackie Gleason---It wasn't just "The Honeymooners".
He brought his entire repertoire of characters to his variety show.
My favorite was Reggie Van Gleason.
Gleason was another true artist.
Speaking of true artists, Ernie Kovacs was the great innovator.
Steve Allen brought his free-wheeling approach, where he brought some of the best comedy sketch players to his variety show.
Ed Sullivan's main gift was that he brought families together in an America where most families only had one TV set.
If you didn't like the guy spinning the plates, or the juggling unicyclist, just wait a few minutes and there'd be Myron Cohen.
And there'd always be something for "You youngsters out there".
There was Jack Paar.
I maintain that there has never been a talk show host as interesting as Paar.
By sheer force of his personality.
He was an absolutely compelling figure.
Ther were great dramatic anthologies.
Each week, there were the equivalent of at least three new plays on TV.
And they were each an event.
When the theme music swelled for "Playhouse 90", it was spine-tingling.
The common denominator to all this was that it was all LIVE.
As it was happening, you were seeing it.
This meant anything could happen, and often did.
When things went wrong, that was often part of the fun.
That element is for the most part gone, except for sporting events, and talking head news shows.
Aside from live, there was also the incomparable "Sergeant Bilko" and "I Love Lucy".
So it was quite a time.
But I'm here to tell you that the fifties was NOT the Golden Age
of Television.
And next time, I'll be here to tell you why not.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
My new book, "Mark Rothman's Essays", ones that were culled from the blog and are no longer there, along with a surprise bonus, is available for purchase.
Please e-mail me at macchus999@aol.com for more info.
******
Also known as "The Fabulous Fifties".
What a time it was!
At least in terms of television.
Oh, I know that TV technichally got started in the late forties, but it really took it's shape,or at least the shape that it had, in the fifties.
We got to see a lot of wonderful things.
Sid Caesar, a true artist and genius, supported by the greatest writing staff for sketch comedy ever.
Jackie Gleason---It wasn't just "The Honeymooners".
He brought his entire repertoire of characters to his variety show.
My favorite was Reggie Van Gleason.
Gleason was another true artist.
Speaking of true artists, Ernie Kovacs was the great innovator.
Steve Allen brought his free-wheeling approach, where he brought some of the best comedy sketch players to his variety show.
Ed Sullivan's main gift was that he brought families together in an America where most families only had one TV set.
If you didn't like the guy spinning the plates, or the juggling unicyclist, just wait a few minutes and there'd be Myron Cohen.
And there'd always be something for "You youngsters out there".
There was Jack Paar.
I maintain that there has never been a talk show host as interesting as Paar.
By sheer force of his personality.
He was an absolutely compelling figure.
Ther were great dramatic anthologies.
Each week, there were the equivalent of at least three new plays on TV.
And they were each an event.
When the theme music swelled for "Playhouse 90", it was spine-tingling.
The common denominator to all this was that it was all LIVE.
As it was happening, you were seeing it.
This meant anything could happen, and often did.
When things went wrong, that was often part of the fun.
That element is for the most part gone, except for sporting events, and talking head news shows.
Aside from live, there was also the incomparable "Sergeant Bilko" and "I Love Lucy".
So it was quite a time.
But I'm here to tell you that the fifties was NOT the Golden Age
of Television.
And next time, I'll be here to tell you why not.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
My new book, "Mark Rothman's Essays", ones that were culled from the blog and are no longer there, along with a surprise bonus, is available for purchase.
Please e-mail me at macchus999@aol.com for more info.
******
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Progress.
Progress has a way of becoming the great equalizer.
I mentioned a while back about how I used to be the world's foremost authority on death.
When famous people died, how they died, where they died, etc.
I used to impress a lot of people with this bit of morbidity.
No longer.
The Internet has rendered this talent useless.
It's leveled the playing field.
Anyone can push a button on his or her computer and have access to everything that has been rolling around my head for lo these many years.
However, progress has now turned things back in my direction.
Up until recently, I considered myself the worst driver who was ever issued a license.
Actually, my late mother was THE worst driver who was ever issued a license.
I just followed in her footsteps.
We combined the same two major flaws in our driving ability:
An inability to control the vehicle (even more incredible in my mother's case, in that she passed her road test on a stick-shift), and absolutely no sense of direction.
Then, this new invention came out. The GPS.
Ours is called a Garmin.
It allows you to never get lost.
Just by pushing a few buttons.
Yes, you have to listen to an automaton lady give you directions, but I consider that a small price to pay for the thorough humiliation that I used to go through by admitting to strangers that I was lost.
I've heard some men bemoan the Garmin as another threat to their manhood.
As if there is some pride to being able to never get lost, and not have to rely on some female voice to guide you along.
As if there is some sort of triumph in being able to get yourself unlost all by yourself.
Without any help.
Tommyrot!
At least in my case.
Any time I used to get behind the wheel, it was always even money that I would get lost.
And I'd have to rely on another device, my cell phone, to rely on another female's voice, my wife's, to guide me to where I was going.
It's nothing that I've ever attached manhood to.
If I did, I'd be too ashamed to leave the house, much less get behind the wheel.
So I am no more than half the worst driver in the world that I used to be.
Maybe I'm still the worst, but none of it can be blamed on my sense of direction.
I wonder how much this would have improved my mother's status.
Probably not much.
She had her own peccadillos that I had never before witnessed or emulated.
Upon entering a freeway from an off ramp, she would invariably come to a full stop before going onto the highway.
She would never just proceed with caution.
If that had occurred on her road test, I'm sure she'd never have passed.
But in my case, I feel the playing field leveling under me all the time.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
My new book, "Mark Rothman's Essays", ones that were culled from the blog and are no longer there, along with a surprise bonus, is available for purchase.
Please e-mail me at macchus999@aol.com for more info.
******
I mentioned a while back about how I used to be the world's foremost authority on death.
When famous people died, how they died, where they died, etc.
I used to impress a lot of people with this bit of morbidity.
No longer.
The Internet has rendered this talent useless.
It's leveled the playing field.
Anyone can push a button on his or her computer and have access to everything that has been rolling around my head for lo these many years.
However, progress has now turned things back in my direction.
Up until recently, I considered myself the worst driver who was ever issued a license.
Actually, my late mother was THE worst driver who was ever issued a license.
I just followed in her footsteps.
We combined the same two major flaws in our driving ability:
An inability to control the vehicle (even more incredible in my mother's case, in that she passed her road test on a stick-shift), and absolutely no sense of direction.
Then, this new invention came out. The GPS.
Ours is called a Garmin.
It allows you to never get lost.
Just by pushing a few buttons.
Yes, you have to listen to an automaton lady give you directions, but I consider that a small price to pay for the thorough humiliation that I used to go through by admitting to strangers that I was lost.
I've heard some men bemoan the Garmin as another threat to their manhood.
As if there is some pride to being able to never get lost, and not have to rely on some female voice to guide you along.
As if there is some sort of triumph in being able to get yourself unlost all by yourself.
Without any help.
Tommyrot!
At least in my case.
Any time I used to get behind the wheel, it was always even money that I would get lost.
And I'd have to rely on another device, my cell phone, to rely on another female's voice, my wife's, to guide me to where I was going.
It's nothing that I've ever attached manhood to.
If I did, I'd be too ashamed to leave the house, much less get behind the wheel.
So I am no more than half the worst driver in the world that I used to be.
Maybe I'm still the worst, but none of it can be blamed on my sense of direction.
I wonder how much this would have improved my mother's status.
Probably not much.
She had her own peccadillos that I had never before witnessed or emulated.
Upon entering a freeway from an off ramp, she would invariably come to a full stop before going onto the highway.
She would never just proceed with caution.
If that had occurred on her road test, I'm sure she'd never have passed.
But in my case, I feel the playing field leveling under me all the time.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
My new book, "Mark Rothman's Essays", ones that were culled from the blog and are no longer there, along with a surprise bonus, is available for purchase.
Please e-mail me at macchus999@aol.com for more info.
******
Thursday, August 18, 2011
My Aviary Addiction.
Fellow members, my name is Mark Rothman, and I am an addict.
Not to any drug.
Or anything alcoholic.
Or an abusive lifestyle.
Well, perhaps it contains elements of all three.
It is a game.
And there is no athletic benefit to it as there is to Wii Boxing.
Just a game.
A very simple game.
Called Angry Birds.
I while away far too many idle moments of my life playing Angry Birds.
Making those moments even more idle.
Angry Birds is a game that has been embraced by the youth of America.
And as far as I know, the world.
This makes it one of the few things I have in common with the youth of America.
And as far as I know, the world.
Angry Birds is compelling.
I play it on my IPhone.
For the uninformed, what you do is you hurl birds of various sizes and degrees of dexterity with a slingshot towards stationary pigs of various sizes and no dexterity.
When the Angry Bird lands on the pig, or on the piece of construction that lands on the pig firmly enough, the pig is destroyed.
When all of the pigs are destroyed in the same round, you proceed to the next level.
The birds all make very angry sounds, and the pigs all make laughing grunts.
I really don't want to hear the very angry sounds, or the laughing grunts.
This is because it is annoying, and it tips my wife off to the fact that I'm wasting my time playing Angry Birds.
So I turn off the sound.
As the birds are on my side, I never get angry at the birds.
Only the pigs.
You're playing this game in the hope that you get to see pigs die.
Growing up in a semi-kosher home, this is virtually a natural rooting interest.
Each level is a sort of clever geometric puzzle, where you try to figure out how to obliterate all of the pigs with the few birds you have.
The frustration is when you try and try and can't obliterate the pigs.
The fun is when you do, and go on to the next challenge.
You always want to get to the next challenge.
Many times it is easy.
Some times it seems near impossible.
When I had my Blackberry, my addiction was Brickbreaker.
That was a pretty good game.
The main order of business there was to try to beat your personal high score.
But it wasn't really all that creative.
Nor did it make all those angry noises and laughing grunts.
Technology has improved since then.
A free app was offered on my IPhone for Angry Birds, and I downloaded it.
After a length of time during which I became thoroughly addicted, and went through all the levels, I was offered the pay version.
See? That's how they get you.
Just like a Coke dealer.
I had to shell out 99 cents for the upgrade.
I bit the bullet and shelled it out.
I went through all of those levels.
Then I was offered "Angry Birds Rio".
Another 99 cents.
I see more on the horizon.
Eventually, it's going to break me.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
My new book, "Mark Rothman's Essays", ones that were culled from the blog and are no longer there, along with a surprise bonus, is available for purchase.
Please e-mail me at macchus999@aol.com for more info.
******
Not to any drug.
Or anything alcoholic.
Or an abusive lifestyle.
Well, perhaps it contains elements of all three.
It is a game.
And there is no athletic benefit to it as there is to Wii Boxing.
Just a game.
A very simple game.
Called Angry Birds.
I while away far too many idle moments of my life playing Angry Birds.
Making those moments even more idle.
Angry Birds is a game that has been embraced by the youth of America.
And as far as I know, the world.
This makes it one of the few things I have in common with the youth of America.
And as far as I know, the world.
Angry Birds is compelling.
I play it on my IPhone.
For the uninformed, what you do is you hurl birds of various sizes and degrees of dexterity with a slingshot towards stationary pigs of various sizes and no dexterity.
When the Angry Bird lands on the pig, or on the piece of construction that lands on the pig firmly enough, the pig is destroyed.
When all of the pigs are destroyed in the same round, you proceed to the next level.
The birds all make very angry sounds, and the pigs all make laughing grunts.
I really don't want to hear the very angry sounds, or the laughing grunts.
This is because it is annoying, and it tips my wife off to the fact that I'm wasting my time playing Angry Birds.
So I turn off the sound.
As the birds are on my side, I never get angry at the birds.
Only the pigs.
You're playing this game in the hope that you get to see pigs die.
Growing up in a semi-kosher home, this is virtually a natural rooting interest.
Each level is a sort of clever geometric puzzle, where you try to figure out how to obliterate all of the pigs with the few birds you have.
The frustration is when you try and try and can't obliterate the pigs.
The fun is when you do, and go on to the next challenge.
You always want to get to the next challenge.
Many times it is easy.
Some times it seems near impossible.
When I had my Blackberry, my addiction was Brickbreaker.
That was a pretty good game.
The main order of business there was to try to beat your personal high score.
But it wasn't really all that creative.
Nor did it make all those angry noises and laughing grunts.
Technology has improved since then.
A free app was offered on my IPhone for Angry Birds, and I downloaded it.
After a length of time during which I became thoroughly addicted, and went through all the levels, I was offered the pay version.
See? That's how they get you.
Just like a Coke dealer.
I had to shell out 99 cents for the upgrade.
I bit the bullet and shelled it out.
I went through all of those levels.
Then I was offered "Angry Birds Rio".
Another 99 cents.
I see more on the horizon.
Eventually, it's going to break me.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
My new book, "Mark Rothman's Essays", ones that were culled from the blog and are no longer there, along with a surprise bonus, is available for purchase.
Please e-mail me at macchus999@aol.com for more info.
******
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Wii Are Now Amused.
Okay.
So I tried the Wii Sports in my basement.
Golf.
Baseball.
Tennis.
Bowling.
Feh.
They all sucked.
My only hope for salvation was the Boxing.
It looked promising.
For one thing, you actually had to move around.
You actually had to throw punches, just like a boxer.
Exercise was beginning to take place.
Your opponents threw punches back at you, and here's the beauty part, if a punch landed on you, it didn't hurt.
That was always my fear in participating in REAL boxing.
That you could get hurt.
Here, you could get knocked down, you could get knocked out.
And it didn't hurt.
Actually, after a while, it DID start to hurt.
In my knees.
In my ankles.
Places where I've had surgery.
Or arthritis.
And this was caused by all the moving around.
I was almost ready to give it all up when my wife, a person much smarter than me, suggested that maybe I should wear an Ace Bandage on the sore parts.
Whattya know? I did that, and it stopped hurting.
Is it a matter of her being a genius, or me being an idiot?
I started by fighting easy opponents.
There are no options about how you start.
These opponents virtually never throw a punch at you if you are at all aggressive.
I felt like Joe Louis and his "Bum-of-the Month Club"
If you keep winning during the early stages, the opponents get tougher and tougher, to the point where it really gets competitive, and you can just as easily lose and get knocked out as win and knock out your opponent.
A word about the opponents: The graphics are not very sophisticated.
Even though the atmosphere and sound effects are great, the opponents tend to look like kewpie dolls.
They could do a better job there.
You choose a character for yourself.
Male or female.
And you take on all comers.
This presents a minor moral dilemma:
You occasionally face kewpie dolls who are women.
Even though they are kewpie dolls,I was raised to never hit a woman.
However, it also allowed me to act out some fantasies.
There are several women in my past whom I would have liked to have beaten up, but my sense of decorum wouldn't have allowed it.
But it's a great way to let out past aggressions.
You also take on opponents who are wearing eyeglasses.
I don't know what schmendrick thought of this, but it also flies in the face of my upbringing.
You never hit a man wearing glasses.
At least they haven't provided an opponent who is a woman and wears glasses.
That would be a double-whammy.
In any case, I invariably build up a major sweat when I participate in the Boxing.
It is great competition, and great exercise.
I particpate in Wii Boxing all the time.
And has made the purchase of Wii Sports well worth it.
Wii, Wii, Monsieur.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
My new book, "Mark Rothman's Essays", ones that were culled from the blog and are no longer there, along with a surprise bonus, is available for purchase.
Please e-mail me at macchus999@aol.com for more info.
******
So I tried the Wii Sports in my basement.
Golf.
Baseball.
Tennis.
Bowling.
Feh.
They all sucked.
My only hope for salvation was the Boxing.
It looked promising.
For one thing, you actually had to move around.
You actually had to throw punches, just like a boxer.
Exercise was beginning to take place.
Your opponents threw punches back at you, and here's the beauty part, if a punch landed on you, it didn't hurt.
That was always my fear in participating in REAL boxing.
That you could get hurt.
Here, you could get knocked down, you could get knocked out.
And it didn't hurt.
Actually, after a while, it DID start to hurt.
In my knees.
In my ankles.
Places where I've had surgery.
Or arthritis.
And this was caused by all the moving around.
I was almost ready to give it all up when my wife, a person much smarter than me, suggested that maybe I should wear an Ace Bandage on the sore parts.
Whattya know? I did that, and it stopped hurting.
Is it a matter of her being a genius, or me being an idiot?
I started by fighting easy opponents.
There are no options about how you start.
These opponents virtually never throw a punch at you if you are at all aggressive.
I felt like Joe Louis and his "Bum-of-the Month Club"
If you keep winning during the early stages, the opponents get tougher and tougher, to the point where it really gets competitive, and you can just as easily lose and get knocked out as win and knock out your opponent.
A word about the opponents: The graphics are not very sophisticated.
Even though the atmosphere and sound effects are great, the opponents tend to look like kewpie dolls.
They could do a better job there.
You choose a character for yourself.
Male or female.
And you take on all comers.
This presents a minor moral dilemma:
You occasionally face kewpie dolls who are women.
Even though they are kewpie dolls,I was raised to never hit a woman.
However, it also allowed me to act out some fantasies.
There are several women in my past whom I would have liked to have beaten up, but my sense of decorum wouldn't have allowed it.
But it's a great way to let out past aggressions.
You also take on opponents who are wearing eyeglasses.
I don't know what schmendrick thought of this, but it also flies in the face of my upbringing.
You never hit a man wearing glasses.
At least they haven't provided an opponent who is a woman and wears glasses.
That would be a double-whammy.
In any case, I invariably build up a major sweat when I participate in the Boxing.
It is great competition, and great exercise.
I particpate in Wii Boxing all the time.
And has made the purchase of Wii Sports well worth it.
Wii, Wii, Monsieur.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
My new book, "Mark Rothman's Essays", ones that were culled from the blog and are no longer there, along with a surprise bonus, is available for purchase.
Please e-mail me at macchus999@aol.com for more info.
******
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Wii Are (For The Most Part) Not Amused.
My wife has continually been on me to get more exercise.
She is an exponent of this.
Even as I am writing now, she is downstairs in the basement, walking her daily mile on the treadmill.
To no avail, she has been encouraging me to do the same.
Or to at least take an occasional walk around the block.
My attitude about this is the same as it has always been-------
How do you keep score?
How do you win?
It's not that I'm so competitive.
It's just that I need something to make it not boring.
I admit to being one of the most sedentary people I know, but I'm not against the concept of exercise if it can only be made to be INTERESTING.
My wife recently attempted to rise to the challenge.
She purchased, and brought home, something called Wii Sports.
What it is, is simulated sports that you play with remote control devices that you hold in your hands while the sporting events appear magically on your TV screen, once you've hooked up the equipment.
I guess that eliminates some of the magic.
Apparently, this is something that is very popular with kids.
You'd think they would be more likely to engage in the real sports outdoors, or at least outside of their homes.
Because they are young enough to actually do well at these sports in real life.
So I opened the Wii Sports box, tried hooking up the equipment, and after several hours of it confounding me, was able to install it correctly.
I was actually eager for Wii Sports to actually provide me with some interesting exercise.
I was hoping for the best.
Because I consider myself too old to actually participate in most of the sports provided for real.
And I was never that good an athlete to begin with.
I looked at the menu of sports offered by Wii.
They consisted of Tennis, Golf, Baseball, Bowling, and Boxing.
I tried them one at a time.
1) Tennis---I figured that this would be a good one because Tennis always involved a lot of movement to cover the court.
I always used to build up a pretty good sweat playing tennis. It was a game that I used to actually be competitive with good players.
But this was doubles.
You weren't required to move much around the court.
And you weren't required to do much with your arm except make little baby swings.
It was very disappointing to say the least.
2) Golf---I was never very good at golf. But in this version, no matter how bad you were in real life, it was very difficult,if not impossible to hit a bad shot.
I've never hit a 240 yard drive in my life.
I never played a round of golf where I didn't top the ball at least half the time.
I never played a round of golf where my putts always went into the hole once they hit the green.
Here all those things happened consistently.
It was surreal golf, and of course, provided me with very little exercise.
3) Baseball----You only had control of the pitcher and the batter, which meant there was no strategy, very little arm movement and virtually no interest in continuing.
4) Bowling----There might have been some skill involved here, but there is not much exercise involved in REAL bowling.
A game that can be played while you are eating pizza.
It also involved very little exercise.
So that's four out of four disappointments.
My only hope left, before we were going to return the entire unit back to Best Buy, was if the Boxing was spectacular.
It certainly had a lot to live up to.
I was not optimistic.
What happened with the Boxing will be discussed next time.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
My new book, "Mark Rothman's Essays", ones that were culled from the blog and are no longer there, along with a surprise bonus, is available for purchase.
Please e-mail me at macchus999@aol.com for more info.
******
She is an exponent of this.
Even as I am writing now, she is downstairs in the basement, walking her daily mile on the treadmill.
To no avail, she has been encouraging me to do the same.
Or to at least take an occasional walk around the block.
My attitude about this is the same as it has always been-------
How do you keep score?
How do you win?
It's not that I'm so competitive.
It's just that I need something to make it not boring.
I admit to being one of the most sedentary people I know, but I'm not against the concept of exercise if it can only be made to be INTERESTING.
My wife recently attempted to rise to the challenge.
She purchased, and brought home, something called Wii Sports.
What it is, is simulated sports that you play with remote control devices that you hold in your hands while the sporting events appear magically on your TV screen, once you've hooked up the equipment.
I guess that eliminates some of the magic.
Apparently, this is something that is very popular with kids.
You'd think they would be more likely to engage in the real sports outdoors, or at least outside of their homes.
Because they are young enough to actually do well at these sports in real life.
So I opened the Wii Sports box, tried hooking up the equipment, and after several hours of it confounding me, was able to install it correctly.
I was actually eager for Wii Sports to actually provide me with some interesting exercise.
I was hoping for the best.
Because I consider myself too old to actually participate in most of the sports provided for real.
And I was never that good an athlete to begin with.
I looked at the menu of sports offered by Wii.
They consisted of Tennis, Golf, Baseball, Bowling, and Boxing.
I tried them one at a time.
1) Tennis---I figured that this would be a good one because Tennis always involved a lot of movement to cover the court.
I always used to build up a pretty good sweat playing tennis. It was a game that I used to actually be competitive with good players.
But this was doubles.
You weren't required to move much around the court.
And you weren't required to do much with your arm except make little baby swings.
It was very disappointing to say the least.
2) Golf---I was never very good at golf. But in this version, no matter how bad you were in real life, it was very difficult,if not impossible to hit a bad shot.
I've never hit a 240 yard drive in my life.
I never played a round of golf where I didn't top the ball at least half the time.
I never played a round of golf where my putts always went into the hole once they hit the green.
Here all those things happened consistently.
It was surreal golf, and of course, provided me with very little exercise.
3) Baseball----You only had control of the pitcher and the batter, which meant there was no strategy, very little arm movement and virtually no interest in continuing.
4) Bowling----There might have been some skill involved here, but there is not much exercise involved in REAL bowling.
A game that can be played while you are eating pizza.
It also involved very little exercise.
So that's four out of four disappointments.
My only hope left, before we were going to return the entire unit back to Best Buy, was if the Boxing was spectacular.
It certainly had a lot to live up to.
I was not optimistic.
What happened with the Boxing will be discussed next time.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
My new book, "Mark Rothman's Essays", ones that were culled from the blog and are no longer there, along with a surprise bonus, is available for purchase.
Please e-mail me at macchus999@aol.com for more info.
******
Thursday, August 11, 2011
The Half-Pink House.
For much of the time that I worked at Paramount Studios, I had an office that overlooked Gower Street.
Gower Street was usually featured in stock footage of the entrance of RKO Studios in the thirties and forties,with cars to match.
RKO went out of business, and my office, which used to be part of RKO, was now part of Paramount.
I don't know what you'd have seen if the cameras were turned around and you'd have seen the other side of Gower Street in the thirties and forties.
But if you'd looked out of my window in the seventies, what you'd have seen was a very seedy, slum-like neighborhood, populated primarily by Mexicans.
I'm not attempting to be racist here.
I'm just reporting the facts.
You didn't want my office because of the view.
It was a nice, roomy office, but the view was not one of the selling features.
I always tried to avoid driving down Gower Street to go to work.
I usually took Vine Street directly to Melrose Avenue, which at the time was also pretty seedy, but didn't seem as inherently dangerous as
Gower Street.
I did this because I was deathly afraid of finding myself stranded on Gower Steet trying to fix a flat tire.
This was NOT a safe neighborhood.
Even though it was right next to a major movie studio.
I tried very hard to ignore my exterior surroundings as much as possible.
Many days, you'd find me with the window shades pulled down.
But one day, something rather extraordinary happened.
I pulled up the window shades, and noticed that one half, (the left half, from my point of view) of a two-family house was painted bright pink.
I don't mean just pink.
Shocking pink.
The kind of pink you might associate with Pink Elephants.
Or the Pink Panther.
Or Pepto Bismol, but much more intensely bright.
The other half was gray.
This caused interesting things to enter my imagination:
The first, of course, being "Why is anyone doing this?"
The second being, "Why only half the house?"
You'd think that discussions between the two owners would have led to some negotiations and perhaps arguments as to whether this was a good idea.
And some settlement would have been reached to avoid this eyesore.
But maybe the two parties hated each other.
To quote the late, great Fats Waller, "One never knows, do one."
Now, I've never considered myself any kind of architechtural aesthete, but even I knew that this was an atrocity.
Literally two months went by.
I'd look out my window and see a half-pink two family house.
The other half remained gray.
And the owner of the gray half had to have been worried about the loss of property value of his home, being planted directly next to the pink half.
Not that the house could have been worth that much to begin with.
I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Would the owner of the pink half revert back to gray?
Or would the owner of the gray half bite the bullet and go pink?
A month after this, I opened the window shade to my office one morning, and the matter was resolved.
The two-family house was now entirely pink, in the exact same shade as the other half.
The concession was made.
Or perhaps the owner of the gray half found the pink starting to grow on him.
We'll never know.
In any case, it was Peace in Our Time, but the house now looked twice as atrocious.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
My new book, "Mark Rothman's Essays", ones that were culled from the blog and are no longer there, along with a surprise bonus, is available for purchase.
Please e-mail me at macchus999@aol.com for more info.
******
Gower Street was usually featured in stock footage of the entrance of RKO Studios in the thirties and forties,with cars to match.
RKO went out of business, and my office, which used to be part of RKO, was now part of Paramount.
I don't know what you'd have seen if the cameras were turned around and you'd have seen the other side of Gower Street in the thirties and forties.
But if you'd looked out of my window in the seventies, what you'd have seen was a very seedy, slum-like neighborhood, populated primarily by Mexicans.
I'm not attempting to be racist here.
I'm just reporting the facts.
You didn't want my office because of the view.
It was a nice, roomy office, but the view was not one of the selling features.
I always tried to avoid driving down Gower Street to go to work.
I usually took Vine Street directly to Melrose Avenue, which at the time was also pretty seedy, but didn't seem as inherently dangerous as
Gower Street.
I did this because I was deathly afraid of finding myself stranded on Gower Steet trying to fix a flat tire.
This was NOT a safe neighborhood.
Even though it was right next to a major movie studio.
I tried very hard to ignore my exterior surroundings as much as possible.
Many days, you'd find me with the window shades pulled down.
But one day, something rather extraordinary happened.
I pulled up the window shades, and noticed that one half, (the left half, from my point of view) of a two-family house was painted bright pink.
I don't mean just pink.
Shocking pink.
The kind of pink you might associate with Pink Elephants.
Or the Pink Panther.
Or Pepto Bismol, but much more intensely bright.
The other half was gray.
This caused interesting things to enter my imagination:
The first, of course, being "Why is anyone doing this?"
The second being, "Why only half the house?"
You'd think that discussions between the two owners would have led to some negotiations and perhaps arguments as to whether this was a good idea.
And some settlement would have been reached to avoid this eyesore.
But maybe the two parties hated each other.
To quote the late, great Fats Waller, "One never knows, do one."
Now, I've never considered myself any kind of architechtural aesthete, but even I knew that this was an atrocity.
Literally two months went by.
I'd look out my window and see a half-pink two family house.
The other half remained gray.
And the owner of the gray half had to have been worried about the loss of property value of his home, being planted directly next to the pink half.
Not that the house could have been worth that much to begin with.
I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Would the owner of the pink half revert back to gray?
Or would the owner of the gray half bite the bullet and go pink?
A month after this, I opened the window shade to my office one morning, and the matter was resolved.
The two-family house was now entirely pink, in the exact same shade as the other half.
The concession was made.
Or perhaps the owner of the gray half found the pink starting to grow on him.
We'll never know.
In any case, it was Peace in Our Time, but the house now looked twice as atrocious.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
My new book, "Mark Rothman's Essays", ones that were culled from the blog and are no longer there, along with a surprise bonus, is available for purchase.
Please e-mail me at macchus999@aol.com for more info.
******
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
The Nanny Needs Her Louis.
Alas.
That's really all I can say.
Somebody decided to give Fran Drescher another TV series.
It's called "Happily Divorced" and it's on TV Land right after
"Hot In Cleveland", which I watch regularly.
Which doesn't help matters.
I can't stand Fran Drescher. So sue me.
It's not that she can't act. She can.
It's not that she doesn't have really good comedy chops. She does.
It's simply that voice.
And that laugh.
I can't get past either of them.
It's chalk on a blackboard.
It always has been.
I really thought that if anyone was going to be typecast after "The Nanny", it would be her.
Once it had left the airwaves, I had often thought "What the hell is she going to do with the rest of her life?"
I never figured "Another TV series".
And I was actually torn about watching it, at least once.
Rita Moreno was cast as a regular, playing her mother.
I love Rita Moreno.
I did a pilot with her once.
It was a joyous experience.
Mainly because of her. What a pro!
So I was, as Jimmy Durante would put it, "on the horns of a dilemmia".
One the one hand, Rita Moreno. On the other, Fran Drescher.
I Tivoed the first episode.
I started watching it.
Rita Moreno wasn't in the first five minutes.
Fran Drescher was.
So I never got to see Rita Moreno.
Five minutes was all I could take.
And I never went back.
And unfortunately, during "Hot In Cleveland", they do incessant promos for "Happily Divorced".
So I have to make sure that I Tivo "Hot In Cleveland" and only watch it that way and make sure that I'm quick on the fast forward trigger-finger.
Maybe she's a lovely person. I don't know.
I've never met her.
Maybe this is a harsh way to judge a stranger, but it's the only way at my disposal.
When "The Nanny" was in production, my friend Rick, whom I met when he enrolled in one of my writing classes, and has since become an outstanding writer, worked as a mechanic at LAX, working on the Lear Jets usually inhabited by celebrities.
Fran Drescher boarded one of his aircraft, about to fly off to somewhere.
One of Rick's other responsibilities was to help load the luggage into the baggage compartment.
Just as the plane was fully loaded, Fran Drescher's male assistant, described by Rick as overtly gay (he was probably a little more disparaging than that), went over to Rick and announced "The Nanny needs her Louis".
The assistant was referring to her Louis Vuitton travel bag.
Rick knew that this bag was one of the first things that was loaded on to the plane.
He sized up the situation, looked the assistant in the eye, and said
"Go tell the Nanny what she can do with her Louis!"
Imagining the look on her face when her assistant told her whatever he told her is my only pleasant memory of Fran Drescher.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
For those of you in the Tri-State Area, I'm doing a reading and signing of my book, "Mark Rothman's Essays", on Tuesday, August 2nd, at the
Huntington Book Revue, Huntington Long Island, at 7pm.
I look forward to seeing anyone who wants to see me.
******
That's really all I can say.
Somebody decided to give Fran Drescher another TV series.
It's called "Happily Divorced" and it's on TV Land right after
"Hot In Cleveland", which I watch regularly.
Which doesn't help matters.
I can't stand Fran Drescher. So sue me.
It's not that she can't act. She can.
It's not that she doesn't have really good comedy chops. She does.
It's simply that voice.
And that laugh.
I can't get past either of them.
It's chalk on a blackboard.
It always has been.
I really thought that if anyone was going to be typecast after "The Nanny", it would be her.
Once it had left the airwaves, I had often thought "What the hell is she going to do with the rest of her life?"
I never figured "Another TV series".
And I was actually torn about watching it, at least once.
Rita Moreno was cast as a regular, playing her mother.
I love Rita Moreno.
I did a pilot with her once.
It was a joyous experience.
Mainly because of her. What a pro!
So I was, as Jimmy Durante would put it, "on the horns of a dilemmia".
One the one hand, Rita Moreno. On the other, Fran Drescher.
I Tivoed the first episode.
I started watching it.
Rita Moreno wasn't in the first five minutes.
Fran Drescher was.
So I never got to see Rita Moreno.
Five minutes was all I could take.
And I never went back.
And unfortunately, during "Hot In Cleveland", they do incessant promos for "Happily Divorced".
So I have to make sure that I Tivo "Hot In Cleveland" and only watch it that way and make sure that I'm quick on the fast forward trigger-finger.
Maybe she's a lovely person. I don't know.
I've never met her.
Maybe this is a harsh way to judge a stranger, but it's the only way at my disposal.
When "The Nanny" was in production, my friend Rick, whom I met when he enrolled in one of my writing classes, and has since become an outstanding writer, worked as a mechanic at LAX, working on the Lear Jets usually inhabited by celebrities.
Fran Drescher boarded one of his aircraft, about to fly off to somewhere.
One of Rick's other responsibilities was to help load the luggage into the baggage compartment.
Just as the plane was fully loaded, Fran Drescher's male assistant, described by Rick as overtly gay (he was probably a little more disparaging than that), went over to Rick and announced "The Nanny needs her Louis".
The assistant was referring to her Louis Vuitton travel bag.
Rick knew that this bag was one of the first things that was loaded on to the plane.
He sized up the situation, looked the assistant in the eye, and said
"Go tell the Nanny what she can do with her Louis!"
Imagining the look on her face when her assistant told her whatever he told her is my only pleasant memory of Fran Drescher.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
For those of you in the Tri-State Area, I'm doing a reading and signing of my book, "Mark Rothman's Essays", on Tuesday, August 2nd, at the
Huntington Book Revue, Huntington Long Island, at 7pm.
I look forward to seeing anyone who wants to see me.
******
Saturday, July 30, 2011
The Weiner Comps. 7.
The two finalists come from the world of sports.
And neither of them are Tiger Woods.
Tiger Woods finishes third, in my estimation.
Without further ado, the two finalists are Bret Favre and Marv Albert, in how they compare to Anthony Weiner.
As they've both been anointed the semi-finalists, most of the grading here is how the two relate to each other.
How they relate to Weiner is secondary.
And it's neck and neck to the finish line.
1) Seriousness of the scandal--
Favre, although doing almost precisely what Weiner did, seems to have gotten you should pardon the expression a "pass" from the media.
His story has been relatively low profile.
However serious Marv's transgressions were, the media jumped all over him.
Favre, B+. Marv, A.
2) Degree of embarrassment they caused to themselves and others--
Favre--Not a great deal.
Marv, a humongous amount.
Favre, C. Marv, A.
3) Whether or not an actual crime was committed--
Favre--none.
Marv--pled guilty to a misdemeanor.
Favre, A. Marv, C-.
4) Whether or not the scandal caused him to resign from his job--
Favre--no. He's still playing.
Marv--Originally, yes, but he's since made a full comeback.
Favre, D. Marv, B+.
5) Nature of the creepiness of the sexual indiscretion--
Favre--Precisely the same as Weiner's. It just didn't seem as creepy.
Marv--Although in a different category than Weiner's, at least as creepy, with the biting of the woman's back, and the wearing of women's clothes. Particularly with that bad toupee.
That's an image that sticks in my mind overwhelmingly for creepiness.
Favre, A+. Marv, A+.
This is the kind of thing that makes them both finalists.
6) The extent to which lying was involved:
Favre. It's not what I recall significantly.
Marv--did some pretty good lying until the truth came out.
Favre, C-. Marv, B+
7) The likelihood of his recovering from the effects of the scandal:
They both have totally recovered.
That these are the closest comps bode well for Weiner's future by my scientific calculations..
My very subjective Overall Grades comparing them to Weiner:
Marv, A+. Favre, A.
Marv wins. A close call, but I'm giving it to Marv.
Yes!!!!! And it counts!!!!!
It's been a long journey, but now it's over..
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
For those of you in the Tri-State Area, I'm doing a reading and signing of my book, "Mark Rothman's Essays" at the Westport Connecticut Library on
Monday, August 1st, at 7:30pm.
Also,on Tuesday, August 2nd, at the Huntington Book Revue,
Huntington Long Island, at 7pm.
I look forward to seeing anyone who wants to see me.
******
And neither of them are Tiger Woods.
Tiger Woods finishes third, in my estimation.
Without further ado, the two finalists are Bret Favre and Marv Albert, in how they compare to Anthony Weiner.
As they've both been anointed the semi-finalists, most of the grading here is how the two relate to each other.
How they relate to Weiner is secondary.
And it's neck and neck to the finish line.
1) Seriousness of the scandal--
Favre, although doing almost precisely what Weiner did, seems to have gotten you should pardon the expression a "pass" from the media.
His story has been relatively low profile.
However serious Marv's transgressions were, the media jumped all over him.
Favre, B+. Marv, A.
2) Degree of embarrassment they caused to themselves and others--
Favre--Not a great deal.
Marv, a humongous amount.
Favre, C. Marv, A.
3) Whether or not an actual crime was committed--
Favre--none.
Marv--pled guilty to a misdemeanor.
Favre, A. Marv, C-.
4) Whether or not the scandal caused him to resign from his job--
Favre--no. He's still playing.
Marv--Originally, yes, but he's since made a full comeback.
Favre, D. Marv, B+.
5) Nature of the creepiness of the sexual indiscretion--
Favre--Precisely the same as Weiner's. It just didn't seem as creepy.
Marv--Although in a different category than Weiner's, at least as creepy, with the biting of the woman's back, and the wearing of women's clothes. Particularly with that bad toupee.
That's an image that sticks in my mind overwhelmingly for creepiness.
Favre, A+. Marv, A+.
This is the kind of thing that makes them both finalists.
6) The extent to which lying was involved:
Favre. It's not what I recall significantly.
Marv--did some pretty good lying until the truth came out.
Favre, C-. Marv, B+
7) The likelihood of his recovering from the effects of the scandal:
They both have totally recovered.
That these are the closest comps bode well for Weiner's future by my scientific calculations..
My very subjective Overall Grades comparing them to Weiner:
Marv, A+. Favre, A.
Marv wins. A close call, but I'm giving it to Marv.
Yes!!!!! And it counts!!!!!
It's been a long journey, but now it's over..
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
For those of you in the Tri-State Area, I'm doing a reading and signing of my book, "Mark Rothman's Essays" at the Westport Connecticut Library on
Monday, August 1st, at 7:30pm.
Also,on Tuesday, August 2nd, at the Huntington Book Revue,
Huntington Long Island, at 7pm.
I look forward to seeing anyone who wants to see me.
******
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