Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Danny Simon, R.I.P.

There are two great stories about Danny Simon, the veteran comedy writer who just passed away. Well, actually, there are probably a lot more than two. Danny was a major force on TV variety shows of the fifties and sixties, and I even worked on one with him in the late seventies. He was also a director and a teacher of comedy writing, and the inspiration for the Felix Unger character in The Odd Couple, and a frantic, little man who was always hustling and selling. So there are probably a lot more than two, but I always loved these...

Danny Simon Story #1: Danny is going to visit his mother. This is some time in the sixties after another of the Simon kids has made a pretty big name for himself on Broadway. Danny walks in and finds his mother entertaining some of her friends. His mother says, "Girls...I want you to meet Neil's brother."

Danny Simon Story #2: Danny is working on some TV show. This is also some time in the sixties, long after he and Neil are no longer working as a team. The producer of the show decides to fire Danny, telling him his work is no good. Danny protests the decision, arguing that his work is very good. He says, "I'm the funniest writer in the business." The producer looks at him and says, "You aren't even the funniest writer in your family."

You might be interested to know where I heard those stories. I heard them from Danny. I'm sure he didn't like being the butt of a joke but he had a great appreciation for a funny story. Early in my career, I worked for him for a few days before he got fired as Head Writer and his replacement made a clean sweep of the staff, ousting me. I found him intractable, dominating and intent on lecturing everyone about the way to do things, which in his case meant only the way they'd done things in the fifties. Still, I liked him very much. He liked the fact that I'd seen and loved a then-recent production he'd directed of Plaza Suite starring Carol Burnett and George Kennedy, and that I'd noted how many gags he'd added with his staging. He also liked that I'd read and enjoyed a little-known play of his called The Convertible Girl, and he gave me a Xerox copy of an early draft so I could see how diligently he had tweaked and refined every line in it over the course of several "tryout" productions.

Danny was said to be the master of the evolving pitch. That's when you try to sell someone on a storyline or idea and, based on a lack of approving recognition, you start modifying the idea on-the-fly. It goes something like this: "So this is a western...well, it's not really a western. It's set on the west coast...or I guess it could be set on the east coast if you prefer. Anyway, the hero is six feet tall...but of course, he could be five feet tall...he could even be a woman..." The idea is that you keep changing until the buyer smiles at something. I even saw Danny do this once at lunch, trying to come up with an order that the waitress would think was a good choice. He went from a corned beef sandwich to a Chinese chicken salad in about 80 seconds.

He knew comedy. He taught comedy. For years, all the local trade journals carried ads for his workshops, with quotes from Woody Allen and brother Neil attesting to Danny's ability to instill great comedy writing talent in anyone. I never took his classes but I knew people who did and they found them valuable, if only for the anecdotes. Danny had worked with everyone. I think the main reason he got fired off that show we worked on was that some of us were too appreciative an audience for his stories so he entertained us instead of putting that energy into the script.

I suspect that, now that he doesn't have to worry about upsetting Danny, Neil is going to pull some half-finished play out of a drawer and finish it. Danny turns up in many of Neil's plays, not just as Felix but as every older brother, starting with Come Blow Your Horn, which was Neil's first. But I'm sure there were aspects of Danny that were too sensitive and perhaps too painful to address. It can't be easy to mentor your little brother and watch him pass you to become the most successful playwright of the century. No one ever lost a bout of sibling rivalry so decisively but with such good humor.

• Posted at 11:22 AM · LINK

A Valuable Lesson

Hack two people to death with a knife if you want to...but don't you dare steal cable TV!

• Posted at 9:56 AM · LINK

Stuff 2 Buy

Warner Home Video has formally announced the upcoming DVD sets we've been mentioning here for months. The Yogi Bear Show comes out on November 15, as does the first collection of The Huckleberry Hound Show, as does the fourth season of The Flintstones. Those links go to articles that list the contents. I'll provide Amazon ordering links as soon as they're available.

One cautionary note: My voice and/or face appear on a couple of these in my capacity as a Hanna-Barbera expert. I'm also going to be on the second volume of The Adventures of Superman, part of Warner's ongoing releases of the classic series starring George Reeves. I don't much like appearing on camera but I do like the fact that all those years of watching this stuff has turned me into an authority.

More Hanna-Barbera shows will be emerging on DVD in the months to come. Why, it wouldn't surprise me if we see an announcement any day now about Quick Draw McGraw...

• Posted at 9:49 AM · LINK

EC For Me, See?

Here's a quick bit of Comic Book History: In 1954, EC Comics were being driven from the newsstand. Various parents' groups and factions within our government were pressuring distributors and retailers not to carry "nasty books" like the company's Tales From the Crypt and Shock SuspenStories. Publisher Bill Gaines was forced to kill off his horror and crime comics so he replaced them with more wholesome titles, approved by the newly-formed Comics Code Authority...and you know what? They didn't sell, either. Two problems: The new books weren't all that good, and they said "EC" on their covers. The wholesalers and newsstands still wanted nothing to do with that imprint, and Gaines's "New Direction" line (as he called it) died a rapid death.

Fortunately, Gaines was publishing something else: Mad Magazine. Mad had been a ten-cent comic book for its first two dozen issues but had recently been changed into a twenty-five-cent magazine. A lot of folks seem to think Gaines did the conversion to escape the politics of comic book publishing and the Comics Code...and while that was a happy result, it wasn't the immediate reason for the upgrade. The reason was that Mad's founder-editor, Harvey Kurtzman, didn't want the shame and chintziness of being in comics any longer and was threatening to quit and go work for a slick magazine. Gaines regarded Kurtzman as indispensable to Mad so to keep him on board, Mad became a magazine, which proved to be a workable, successful format.

It prompted Gaines to try re-establishing his old horror and crime material that way...with a romance title thrown in, as well. He and his other main editor-writer, Al Feldstein, launched the Picto-Fiction line: Adult Tales of Terror Illustrated, Shock Illustrated, Crime Illiustrated and Confessions Illustrated. They were, like Mad, black-and-white inside. They were, unlike Mad, spectacular failures...and probably for the same two reasons that the "New Direction" line flopped: They weren't all that good, and they said "EC" on their covers. (I once asked Gaines why he put the logo on these books but not on Mad. He shrugged and said, "I don't know...never gave it any thought.")

Inside, the Picto-Fiction books featured clever stories, many of which were adapted from earlier EC Comics. Inside, the Picto-Fiction books featured superior illustration work by the same artists: Jack Davis, Johnny Craig, "Ghastly" Graham Ingels, et al. Alas, it was all in a text and pictures format that just didn't work. They weren't comic books and they weren't fiction magazines. Instead, they combined the worst of both worlds, and it didn't help that newsstands had no idea where to rack them. Sales were disastrous.

For years now, the nine published Picto-Fiction issues have been among the rarest EC collectibles, especially Shock Illustrated #3. It was just coming off the press when Gaines gave up on the line, and he elected to save money and destroy the press run of that final issue, rather than distribute it. So all but 100-200 copies were pulped, and those few went to the staff and a few devoted fans. I've only seen copies from afar, sealed snugly in mylar, and I've never read the issue.

But I will, soon. Russ Cochran, who has republished all the other EC material in quality, hardcover volumes the last few decades, has finally reached the final body of work in the pantheon. Later this year, he and Gemstone Publishing will bring us The Complete Picto-Fiction, reprinting all nine issues plus 17 never-before-published stories that were left homeless when the Picto-Fiction line crashed and burned. Like Cochran's previous sets, this will be a quality, slipcased edition that will sell for a hefty pricetag. We don't yet know what that pricetag will be but it will be worth it. It always is.

• Posted at 1:52 AM · LINK

Bleeped Again!

I assume by now, everyone knows that a number of newspapers dropped yesterday's Doonesbury strip while others did some editing on it. The whole tale is here (and the strip in question is here) but basically, Garry Trudeau had George W. Bush using his reported nickname for Karl Rove, "Turd Blossom." One suspects that such excisions do wonders for Mr. Trudeau's notoriety and call extra attention to the term in question. I'll bet there are some people who only read Doonesbury when someone doesn't want them to.

• Posted at 12:01 AM · LINK