Monday, June 21, 2004

Writers on Parade

I know lots of terrific writers. Two good writers (and good friends I don't see nearly enough of) are Bill and Cheri Steinkellner, who at various times have been responsible or semi-responsible for Cheers and The Jeffersons and most recently the excellent cartoon series, Teacher's Pet. They just answered questions — most of which were variations on "How do I get your job?" — in this online chat.

• Posted at 2:30 PM · LINK

Amazing Tales

Over on Salon, which requires you to either subscribe or watch commercials, there's an article that's worth doing one of those two things to read...that is, if you want to be amazed that this kind of thing goes on in our Congress. Here's an excerpt...

On March 23, the Dirksen Senate Office Building was the scene of a coronation ceremony for Rev. Sun Myung Moon, owner of the conservative Washington Times newspaper and UPI wire service, who was given a bejeweled crown by Rep. Danny K. Davis, D-Ill. Afterward, Moon told his bipartisan audience of Washington power players he would save everyone on Earth as he had saved the souls of Hitler and Stalin — the murderous dictators had been born again through him, he said. In a vision, Moon said the reformed Hitler and Stalin vouched for him, calling him "none other than humanity's Savior, Messiah, Returning Lord and True Parent."

Somewhere between 12 and 81 U.S. Congressfolks (from both parties) attended this ceremony to honor a man who, though a convicted felon with rabidly anti-gay and anti-Jewish views, claims to be the Second Coming and to be destined to bring about world peace.

To repeat: This took place in the halls of Congress. With many of our elected representatives in attendance. And as far as I can tell, though some of those Congresspeople deny they were there or claim they didn't realize the nature of the event, it is not in dispute that this occurred.

If you have enough money, you can get away with just about anything in this world. But you knew that already.

• Posted at 9:48 AM · LINK

The Devil Made Me Write This

I never thought Flip Wilson was that wonderful a comedian. He struck me as a guy with about three good bits and four good catch phrases, plus his Geraldine identity, which was fun in limited doses until he started getting into drag to play her. In interviews, he used to talk about his various characters like the Reverend Leroy and Freddie the Swinger, and I wondered if anyone ever told him that, Geraldine aside, they were all the same person: Same voice, same look, same attitude, etc. But I will say this for the guy: He knew how to work an audience and make them love him, which is sometimes better than actually being funny.

So why am I mentioning this now, years after this death? It's because TV Land is about to start rerunning the 1970-1974 Flip Wilson Show, starting with an all-day, all-night marathon the weekend of July 3-4. I remember not liking Flip but liking his show, which usually had good writing and a fabulous array of guest stars. What TV Land is airing are cut-down versions which trim the hour shows to 30 minutes, presumably dumping the lesser moments. Here's the schedule and as you'll see, there aren't many people who were big in show business in the early seventies who didn't put in an appearance. Which is why I'm setting the TiVo to grab a bunch of episodes.

• Posted at 12:09 AM · LINK

June 22, 2004 • Current • June 20, 2004