Today’s Video Link
PBS debuted that documentary about Johnny Carson this week. In case you didn't see it (or can't in your area), I've embedded a window below which, at least for a while, should show you the entire two-hour presentation.
I thought it was generally very good...a bit too fawning in some areas. I think there actually are areas where Carson gets too little credit — his wisdom about how to manage his show, for instance. Or his role model for stand-up comedians of a couple of generations. But there were points in the doc where it got a bit repetitive hearing what he meant to those who advanced their careers on his show. I'm also a bit skeptical about the psychological deductions, especially trying to explain Johnny in terms of his mother. Was this analysis of the Carson psyche a view held by those close to him? Or was it the construction of someone who barely if ever knew or talked with Johnny? It sounded like the latter.
The other thing I'll kvetch about is that documentaries about comedians seem to always cut the clips too tight. It's like they have a piece of video with a straight line set-up and then the funny reply...and they just use the funny reply because, well, we've got a lot to cover and that's the part people laugh at. The video of Johnny's last appearance — the cameo on Letterman's show — would have been so much more meaningful if they'd showed the set-up with Calvert DeForest so you could see what a surprise Johnny's entrance was and that he didn't just walk out onto the stage as a star appearance but as the punch-line to a nicely-constructed joke. In fact, here's the whole clip of that spot with Dave...
They always seem to do this with documentaries about comedians. You get the feeling someone is saying, "This is going on PBS. We can't leave a lot of jokes in!"
But there was a lot in there. I'll probably watch it again this weekend and may write more about it. I may also write something about why I think Ken Tucker misses the whole point of Carson in his Entertainment Weekly review. It isn't that Johnny did this or that better or worse than Steve Allen or other talk show providers. It's that Johnny connected with America in a way that none of the other guys ever did...or probably ever will. Even if we thought they were funnier, they never mattered to us as human beings the way Carson did.
Anyway, here's the special in case you need to watch it here...
Go See It!
Hey, check out this slide show of photos from the earlier days of Las Vegas. I wish I'd been around in those days.
My Tweets from Yesterday
- Yes, I worked with John Travolta. No, he never asked me for a massage. 13:37:40
Great Photos of Stan Laurel and/or Oliver Hardy
Number two hundred and thirty-five in a series...
Recommended Reading
Mitt Romney's plan for Medicare is vague, probably deliberately so. The less you divulge of a plan some people won't like, the less likely you are to lose the votes of those people.
Patrick Caldwell summarizes what we know of it. It pretty much comes down to privatizing the system so that the government-run system loses strength and the funding it would get goes to privately-owned, for-profit insurance plans. And the elderly would have to pay a lot more out of their own pockets to get comparable care and coverage. Okay, so Grandma might not be able to afford all her prescriptions but we do have to help the insurance companies make more money and keep taxes low for the wealthy.
Today’s Video Link
James Lipton gives Mitt Romney advice on how to come across as a more "authentic" human being. This is a little like Newt Gingrich counselling couples on how to have a long, faithful marriage but here you are...
Ellen Twain
I didn't think to mention one nice thing about Ellen DeGeneres getting that Mark Twain Award: It reminds us that groups like that so-called "One Million Moms" can stomp their considerably-less-than-two-million feet and denounce someone as a bad person...and fail spectacularly to hurt that person. They demanded J.C. Penney fire her as spokesperson. J.C. Penney said no. J.C. Penney sales went up. One Million Moms crawled away from a confrontation that proved how little power they had. And now Ellen's receiving one of the biggest honors she could possibly receive. I still think they should be honoring folks who have a larger body of work but it never hurts to point out that groups like that are all bark and no bite...unless someone panics at the barking.
My Tweets from Yesterday
- TSA agents did a complete pat-down of Henry Kissinger at the airport. Found six harbor mines, three nukes and Jill St. John. 13:43:45
The Three-Minute Rule
One memory here leads to another. I was writing here the other day about a "crush" I had back around '71 on the actress Paula Prentiss...
I was hardly alone in this and hadn't been since certain of my friends discovered that the cute lady on He and She (a sitcom in desperate need of a DVD release) was undraped in Playboy. In 1970, she appeared with clothing off in the movie version of Catch-22 and the following conversation occurred in a group that included me and some male friends...
"Hey, that movie they made of that book — you know, Catch-22 — opens on Wednesday. We have to go see it."
"Oh, I hated that book. All that war crap and the story jumping around every which way..."
"The movie has Alan Arkin in it. And Bob Newhart and Orson Welles and Jack Gilford..."
"A team of wild horses couldn't drag me into that theater..."
"And Paula Prentiss is in it and I've heard she's naked..."
"What time is the first show?"
"Do you think we oughta go get in line now?"
I remember the conversation but I don't remember who said what. Any of those remarks could have come from any of us, even the friend whose current marriage is not recognized in Southern states. We all hated the book but not nearly as much as we liked the thought of Paula Prentiss ungarmented. About six of us went to the very first screening on the very first day at the National Theater in Westwood.
Ms. Prentiss removes her duds for about thirty seconds about ten minutes into the movie. It would be tacky of me to provide a link to view those sacred moments so for those of you who don't have the twenty seconds it would take to find those thirty seconds via Google, let's just say they did not disappoint. The rest of the film actually was too but, you know, it's not like they were going to top those thirty seconds.
So the film ended...and none of us left the theater. We all just sat there with the same idea, waiting for one of the other guys to suggest it. Finally, someone (not me) said it out loud: "Hey, let's stay for the next showing and see the first ten minutes again." This was back before home video, back before the Internet, back when no one had heard the term "frame grab." At that moment, we couldn't conceive of any way to ever see those thirty seconds again after we exited except to buy another ticket to see this movie...which would soon disappear from theaters, presumably forever. I mean, they might show Catch-22 on TV some day we figured...but probably not with those thirty seconds.
We decided by unanimous vote to stay for a second look. Then one of us (again, not me) said it would look wrong to sit there, wait until Paula Prentiss got naked again and then get up and walk out. Everyone else in the theater would say, "Wow, look at those horny guys...sitting through the first part of the movie again just to see the nude scene." Which is, of course, exactly what we were planning to do but we were somehow embarrassed to make it so obvious.
Finally, one of us (might have been me) said, "Here's what we'll do. We'll stay and then we'll wait three minutes after Paula's big scene before we leave. Then it won't be so obvious what we're doing." Everyone concurred. Three minutes.
Before long, the next showing began. Before long, Ms. Prentiss was naked again. After the last shot of her like that, we all looked at our watches. Precisely three minutes later, we all got up to leave...
...and so did about forty other males in the theater. We all had the same idea...including the three minutes.
I finally met Paula Prentiss in 2005 at the Memorial Service for her He and She co-star, Hamilton Camp. Despite the fact that at that moment she was 67 years old, mourning the loss of a dear friend and standing right next to her husband of 44 years, I still for about two seconds considered asking her to run off with me. Fortunately, the woman in my life then and now is even cuter so I kept my tongue and as much of my dignity as I ever have.
I can however report that she was quite charming and quite lovely and she did laugh (and "get it") when I told her that I sat through Catch-22 one and one-seventh times.
Great Photos of Stan Laurel and/or Oliver Hardy
Number two hundred and thirty-four in a series...
Street Smarts
Okay: At the advice of dozens, I have reported the Google Map problem to the Google folks, along with the suggestion that they consult Mapquest, which has it right. I hope they don't take that as a personal attack. Let's see how long it takes to get this corrected. Thanks to all who told me how to file my report.
Street of Dreams
Here's an interesting "Should I do anything?" question. Google Maps has just decided there's a street in my neighborhood that doesn't really exist. There's an unnamed alley that I guess kinda looks like a street on their aerial satellite views. But it's an alley with no name and you can't really travel down it very far, in part because it hasn't been repaved since the Crimean War. Google's computers have, I guess, not only decided it's a street but that it's a continuation of a legitimate avenue that is situated roughly on the same longitudinal line but which terminates many blocks to the north.
So on Google Maps, the alley is now named with that avenue name and if you're searching for directions around here, Google Maps wants you to drive on that street...which like I say isn't a street and doesn't even have street signs. Folks who go looking for a street by that name in this area will never find it. They'll see an old, unpaved alley and think, "Well, that can't be it." I think I should report this but I have no idea who to report it to.
