By Sylvia Gurinsky
Long ago, Rob Reiner became a successful film director; his latest release is "Flipped," a film about pre-teen crushes.
But he's never abandoned his television roots. The son of legendary comedian Carl Reiner, Rob Reiner began his small screen success as a writer on CBS' "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour." As a young actor, he had a number of guest-starring roles (including a memorable role as Snake on "The Partridge Family"). But he shot to stardom with:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XNLOGrnmIw
He played Michael Stivic, a character close to his own political leanings and a constant foil for father-in-law Archie Bunker, who gave him the unceremonial nickname of "Meathead," in CBS' long-running "All In the Family," a show just as relevant today as when it went on the air 40 years ago.
The role gave Reiner two Emmy awards and a springboard to a long directing career.
Other television credits include the 1978 ABC television movie "More Than Friends," done with then-wife Penny Marshall, and "Free Country," a 1978 sitcom about Lithuanians coming to American at the start of the 20th century. He's continued to do voice-over roles on television shows such as NBC's "Frasier."
It's possible to access a comprehensive interview with Reiner about his career from the Archive of American Television at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFEBeMFuL_M
See you next week. Until then, Happy Viewing!
Friday, August 27, 2010
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Week of August 20: A Sense of Places
By Sylvia Gurinsky
The Christian Science Monitor has an article about how communities become characters in television series where they're supposed to be set:
http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/TV/2010/0811/A-character-not-listed-in-TV-dramas-The-city-itself
From time to time, that can happen even when a television program isn't shot where it's set.
YesterTube takes a look at settings this week - the five best on-location shows and the five best shows at setting a location:
First, let's go travelling, in no particular order:
*Hawaii: "Hawaii Five-O," CBS, 1968-80: There's nothing the new production can do to make Hawaii look any better than the original series made it look for 12 years, and still makes it look in the DVDs. Series creator Leonard Freeman and the equally talented directors he hired (including Charles Dubin, Michael O'Herlihy and Leo Penn (father of Sean)) were able to get Hawaii's seamy and glamorous sides.
*New York City: "Law & Order," NBC, 1990-2010: New York has a sense of loss for this show, which let The Big Apple be itself, warts and all.
*Los Angeles: "Adam-12," NBC, 1969-75: Producer Jack Webb was terrific at realism, through "Dragnet" and many of his other shows - including this one, which featured two patrol officers in their often less-than-routine days.
*Miami: "Miami Vice," NBC, 1984-89: When NBC programming head Brandon Tartikoff suggested "MTV Cops" to Michael Mann and Anthony Yerkovich, the pair came up with a city on its way back from race riots and refugee resettlement. Miami during the 1980s was, indeed, a city on the verge, and the show featured its architecture and colors like nothing else.
*Everywhere: "Route 66," CBS, 1960-64: It's been forgotten just how gutsy this series was. It's still the only fictional series in television history that used all of the United States as its backlot.
Now for five series that made the California backlot look like home:
*Korea, "M*A*S*H," CBS, 1972-83: It was shot at the 20th Century Fox ranch in the mountains of Southern California, but the cast and crew really did make this look like the Korean War - complete with similar unpredictable weather and creepy-crawly creatures.
*Walnut Grove, Minnesota, "Little House On the Prairie," NBC, 1974-83: Michael Landon and Ed Friendly and company were able to take their California set back a century, to Laura Ingalls Wilder's time.
*Walton's Mountain, Virginia, "The Waltons," CBS, 1972-82: Like "Little House," this series touched hearts with its realistic portrayal of a past time - in this case, series creator Earl Hamner's youth in Depression-era Virginia.
*Washington, D.C., "The West Wing," NBC, 1999-2006: From time to time, the cast and crew would use the real Washington as their back lot. But they took a lot of Eastern influence for their genuine-looking White House set in sunny Cal. Of course, the show's West Wing had a lot more corridors than the real White House reportedly has!
*Mayberry, "The Andy Griffith Show," CBS, 1960-68: Was there ever really such a place? Perhaps just in the imagination of series creator Sheldon Leonard.
See you next week. Until then, Happy Viewing!
The Christian Science Monitor has an article about how communities become characters in television series where they're supposed to be set:
http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/TV/2010/0811/A-character-not-listed-in-TV-dramas-The-city-itself
From time to time, that can happen even when a television program isn't shot where it's set.
YesterTube takes a look at settings this week - the five best on-location shows and the five best shows at setting a location:
First, let's go travelling, in no particular order:
*Hawaii: "Hawaii Five-O," CBS, 1968-80: There's nothing the new production can do to make Hawaii look any better than the original series made it look for 12 years, and still makes it look in the DVDs. Series creator Leonard Freeman and the equally talented directors he hired (including Charles Dubin, Michael O'Herlihy and Leo Penn (father of Sean)) were able to get Hawaii's seamy and glamorous sides.
*New York City: "Law & Order," NBC, 1990-2010: New York has a sense of loss for this show, which let The Big Apple be itself, warts and all.
*Los Angeles: "Adam-12," NBC, 1969-75: Producer Jack Webb was terrific at realism, through "Dragnet" and many of his other shows - including this one, which featured two patrol officers in their often less-than-routine days.
*Miami: "Miami Vice," NBC, 1984-89: When NBC programming head Brandon Tartikoff suggested "MTV Cops" to Michael Mann and Anthony Yerkovich, the pair came up with a city on its way back from race riots and refugee resettlement. Miami during the 1980s was, indeed, a city on the verge, and the show featured its architecture and colors like nothing else.
*Everywhere: "Route 66," CBS, 1960-64: It's been forgotten just how gutsy this series was. It's still the only fictional series in television history that used all of the United States as its backlot.
Now for five series that made the California backlot look like home:
*Korea, "M*A*S*H," CBS, 1972-83: It was shot at the 20th Century Fox ranch in the mountains of Southern California, but the cast and crew really did make this look like the Korean War - complete with similar unpredictable weather and creepy-crawly creatures.
*Walnut Grove, Minnesota, "Little House On the Prairie," NBC, 1974-83: Michael Landon and Ed Friendly and company were able to take their California set back a century, to Laura Ingalls Wilder's time.
*Walton's Mountain, Virginia, "The Waltons," CBS, 1972-82: Like "Little House," this series touched hearts with its realistic portrayal of a past time - in this case, series creator Earl Hamner's youth in Depression-era Virginia.
*Washington, D.C., "The West Wing," NBC, 1999-2006: From time to time, the cast and crew would use the real Washington as their back lot. But they took a lot of Eastern influence for their genuine-looking White House set in sunny Cal. Of course, the show's West Wing had a lot more corridors than the real White House reportedly has!
*Mayberry, "The Andy Griffith Show," CBS, 1960-68: Was there ever really such a place? Perhaps just in the imagination of series creator Sheldon Leonard.
See you next week. Until then, Happy Viewing!
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Week of August 13: David L. Wolper, Patricia Neal and More
By Sylvia Gurinsky
From the 1960s onward, David L. Wolper was the first name that came to mind when thoughts turned to television's biggest events.
Wolper, who died this week, produced the opening ceremonies for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles - complete with 84 grand pianos playing George Gershwin's "Rhapsody In Blue." He also produced the 1986 Liberty Weekend, which included some of the world's biggest entertainers (back when there were many big entertainers) and President Ronald Reagan re-lighting the restored Statue of Liberty during its 100th birthday celebration.
As a television producer, Wolper shot to fame creating documentaries such as "The Making of the President: 1960," followed by a series of National Geographic specials and "The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau."
He was a champion of diversity, producing the NBC sitcom "Chico and the Man," the ABC comedy "Welcome Back, Kotter" and his crowning glory, the 1977 miniseries "Roots" - still the most-watched miniseries in television history.
The David Wolper Center at the University of Southern California features the entire collection of his work. Much of the most successful work is available on DVD. That work will remain as a lasting tribute to him.
****************************************************************************
From the 1960s onward, David L. Wolper was the first name that came to mind when thoughts turned to television's biggest events.
Wolper, who died this week, produced the opening ceremonies for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles - complete with 84 grand pianos playing George Gershwin's "Rhapsody In Blue." He also produced the 1986 Liberty Weekend, which included some of the world's biggest entertainers (back when there were many big entertainers) and President Ronald Reagan re-lighting the restored Statue of Liberty during its 100th birthday celebration.
As a television producer, Wolper shot to fame creating documentaries such as "The Making of the President: 1960," followed by a series of National Geographic specials and "The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau."
He was a champion of diversity, producing the NBC sitcom "Chico and the Man," the ABC comedy "Welcome Back, Kotter" and his crowning glory, the 1977 miniseries "Roots" - still the most-watched miniseries in television history.
The David Wolper Center at the University of Southern California features the entire collection of his work. Much of the most successful work is available on DVD. That work will remain as a lasting tribute to him.
****************************************************************************
Given her great success in film, it sometimes comes as a surprise to know that Patricia Neal, who also died this week, had a large television resume as well. During the 1950s, she was featured in such programs as CBS' "Playhouse 90" and "Omnibus." Through the years, she had guest-starring roles in such shows as "The Untouchables," "Little House On the Prairie" and "Murder, She Wrote."
Unquestionably, her crowning glory on the small screen came during the holiday season of 1971, when she starred as Olivia Walton in "The Homecoming: A Christmas Story," the predecessor to the long-running series "The Waltons."
In the series, Michael Learned, as Olivia, would successfully share the screen with Ralph Waite, as John Walton, as well as Ellen Corby (Grandma), Will Geer (Grandpa), and Richard Thomas (John-Boy). But given the plot of the pilot film (Olivia and the entire Walton family wait all day Christmas Eve for John (Andrew Duggan) to come home), the script required a dominant actress. Neal was perfect, especially in her scenes with then-18-year-old Thomas. Here's an example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3LaDngGBoE
Neal was nominated for an Emmy, and the film was a hit that CBS would repeat for years during the holiday season. Thomas, Corby and the remaining cast of Walton children would go on to the series, and more ratings and Emmy glory.
***************************************************************************
Fans of classic TV are also mourning the death of Lorene Yarnell, once part of the mime team Shields and Yarnell.
Yarnell was a dancer on variety shows when she met Robert Shields in 1972. The two married, were originally street performers as mimes and later went onto success, again on variety shows. CBS gave them their own show in 1977. While that show didn't last long and Shields and Yarnell would later divorce, the team created memorable characters that fans still enjoy.
Here are two of them, the Clinkers, saying "Good Morning."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=km1QRnzIKpI
*************************************************************************
Finally, "At the Movies" is coming to an end after 35 years.
It's a quiet end, but its peak years, of course, were when film critics Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times and Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune were doing the weekly reviews. After Siskel died of cancer in 1999, Ebert teamed with Sun-Times columnist Richard Roeper until Ebert got sick. They had a falling-out with producing company Disney, and the show went through assorted hosts after that.
Here's a Siskel and Ebert review from 1989, of a certain Kevin Costner film about a farmer plowing his corn to build a baseball field. Yep, they disagreed about the classic "Field of Dreams":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1gLX2t5GEc
But like "Field of Dreams," Siskel and Ebert were magic together on "At the Movies." So sorry the balcony is closed.
See you next week. Until then, Happy Viewing!
Friday, August 6, 2010
Week of Aug. 6: Presidential Themes
By Sylvia Gurinsky
This week included President Barack Obama's 49th birthday and the summer session for the Television Critics Association to hear about - and write about - new television shows for fall.
One has nothing to do with the other, but it's fun to combine the two purposes and recall past television series with presidential themes. Here are four, from least successful to most successful:
*"Nancy": This should have been successful, because it was a good idea: A small-town veterinarian from Iowa, played by John Fink, meets the president's daughter, played by Renne Jarrett. Courtship and marriage ensue. Good ratings didn't, however. The most famous alumnus of the show is Academy Award winner Celeste Holm, who played Abby Townsend, the First Lady's press secretary. Holm would later be featured on the CBS show "Promised Land."
"Nancy," which ran on NBC in 1970-71, lasted just 17 episodes, not even long enough to introduce actors as the First Couple. Curiously, it produced a book, which is a collector's item.
Interestingly, "Nancy" was cancelled just as the public started hearing about the upcoming real-life wedding of Tricia Nixon, the oldest daughter of President Richard Nixon, to Harvard law student Edward Cox.
*"Hail To the Chief": This show, which ran on ABC in 1985, was disgraceful, wasting the talents of Patty Duke as President Julia Mansfield and Ted Bessell ("That Girl") as her philandering husband, as well as character actors like Richard Paul ("Carter Country"), Pat Hingle ("Murphy Brown"), Rose Marie ("The Dick Van Dyke Show") and Herschel Bernardi. Mercifully, it lasted just seven episodes. It was created by the same folks who were responsible for "Soap," "Benson," "The Golden Girls" and "Empty Nest," but there was no magic to this one.
*"Commander In Chief": What a lost opportunity this one was. This show, which starred Academy Award winner Geena Davis as President Mackenzie Allen and Donald Sutherland as House Speaker Nathan Templeton, started so well in 2005; it was created by Rod Lurie, who had successfully explored the presidential theme in the film "The Contender."
But an impatient ABC pushed out Lurie because he was having trouble adjusting to the television schedule. Rather than getting him some help, they replaced him with Steven Bochco, who is much better at police shows than presidential shows. That move effectively ruined the series, as Bochco changed the tone.
Though Davis won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Emmy, the show's ratings sagged with all the changes, and it lasted just one season. It is available on DVD.
*"The West Wing": The absolute gold standard, and one of the finest dramas in commercial television history.
Aaron Sorkin, John Wells and Thomas Schlamme were the creators of this show, which ran on NBC from 1999-2006, and the original intent was to look simply behind the scenes at the White House staff - including John Spencer as Chief of Staff Leo McGarry; Bradley Whitford as Assistant Chief of Staff Josh Lyman; Richard Schiff as Communications Director Toby Ziegler; Rob Lowe as his deputy, Sam Seaborn; Allison Janney as Press Secretary C.J. Cregg and at the beginning, Moira Kelly as strategist Mandy Hampton.
But then President Josiah Bartlet, played by Martin Sheen, entered during the last scene of the first episode, and the dynamic was altered; Sheen was so good (and should have won an Emmy, which he never did) that he got a much bigger role.
The show sagged somewhat after Sorkin's departure at the end of Season 4, but picked up a bit during its seventh, and last season, as Congressman Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits) and Senator Arnold Vinick (Alan Alda) ran for the chance to succeed Bartlet. Vinick was modeled after Sen. John McCain, and Santos was reportedly modeled after a new United States senator named Barack Obama.
"The West Wing" wound up with 26 Emmys - not to mention a lot of miles walked around those fictional White House corridors.
I'll end with some classic West Wing, when Josh pinch-hit at a press conference for C.J., who had a root canal:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG5AwvS5WFQ&feature=related
See you next week. Until then, Happy Viewing!
This week included President Barack Obama's 49th birthday and the summer session for the Television Critics Association to hear about - and write about - new television shows for fall.
One has nothing to do with the other, but it's fun to combine the two purposes and recall past television series with presidential themes. Here are four, from least successful to most successful:
*"Nancy": This should have been successful, because it was a good idea: A small-town veterinarian from Iowa, played by John Fink, meets the president's daughter, played by Renne Jarrett. Courtship and marriage ensue. Good ratings didn't, however. The most famous alumnus of the show is Academy Award winner Celeste Holm, who played Abby Townsend, the First Lady's press secretary. Holm would later be featured on the CBS show "Promised Land."
"Nancy," which ran on NBC in 1970-71, lasted just 17 episodes, not even long enough to introduce actors as the First Couple. Curiously, it produced a book, which is a collector's item.
Interestingly, "Nancy" was cancelled just as the public started hearing about the upcoming real-life wedding of Tricia Nixon, the oldest daughter of President Richard Nixon, to Harvard law student Edward Cox.
*"Hail To the Chief": This show, which ran on ABC in 1985, was disgraceful, wasting the talents of Patty Duke as President Julia Mansfield and Ted Bessell ("That Girl") as her philandering husband, as well as character actors like Richard Paul ("Carter Country"), Pat Hingle ("Murphy Brown"), Rose Marie ("The Dick Van Dyke Show") and Herschel Bernardi. Mercifully, it lasted just seven episodes. It was created by the same folks who were responsible for "Soap," "Benson," "The Golden Girls" and "Empty Nest," but there was no magic to this one.
*"Commander In Chief": What a lost opportunity this one was. This show, which starred Academy Award winner Geena Davis as President Mackenzie Allen and Donald Sutherland as House Speaker Nathan Templeton, started so well in 2005; it was created by Rod Lurie, who had successfully explored the presidential theme in the film "The Contender."
But an impatient ABC pushed out Lurie because he was having trouble adjusting to the television schedule. Rather than getting him some help, they replaced him with Steven Bochco, who is much better at police shows than presidential shows. That move effectively ruined the series, as Bochco changed the tone.
Though Davis won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Emmy, the show's ratings sagged with all the changes, and it lasted just one season. It is available on DVD.
*"The West Wing": The absolute gold standard, and one of the finest dramas in commercial television history.
Aaron Sorkin, John Wells and Thomas Schlamme were the creators of this show, which ran on NBC from 1999-2006, and the original intent was to look simply behind the scenes at the White House staff - including John Spencer as Chief of Staff Leo McGarry; Bradley Whitford as Assistant Chief of Staff Josh Lyman; Richard Schiff as Communications Director Toby Ziegler; Rob Lowe as his deputy, Sam Seaborn; Allison Janney as Press Secretary C.J. Cregg and at the beginning, Moira Kelly as strategist Mandy Hampton.
But then President Josiah Bartlet, played by Martin Sheen, entered during the last scene of the first episode, and the dynamic was altered; Sheen was so good (and should have won an Emmy, which he never did) that he got a much bigger role.
The show sagged somewhat after Sorkin's departure at the end of Season 4, but picked up a bit during its seventh, and last season, as Congressman Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits) and Senator Arnold Vinick (Alan Alda) ran for the chance to succeed Bartlet. Vinick was modeled after Sen. John McCain, and Santos was reportedly modeled after a new United States senator named Barack Obama.
"The West Wing" wound up with 26 Emmys - not to mention a lot of miles walked around those fictional White House corridors.
I'll end with some classic West Wing, when Josh pinch-hit at a press conference for C.J., who had a root canal:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG5AwvS5WFQ&feature=related
See you next week. Until then, Happy Viewing!
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