Several Internet message boards have erupted today with debates on whether Osama bin Laden is alive or dead. I think he's alive but disguised as Tony Clifton.
The Writers Guild has posted a press release about the rally/picketing of last Wednesday. It'll tell you a few things I didn't cover in my reports, either here or here. There's also a link (WARNING: PDF File!!!) to the text of the speeches that were given that day. They were pretty good speeches, especially the one by Phil Robinson. Take a look if you're interested.
Donny Osmond has joined the New York cast of Beauty and the Beast, which is now entering its 700th year on Broadway. He's playing Gaston, and I imagine he's pretty good in the role...though not enough to make me go see him. But he'll sell some tickets to someone, which is what it's all about. I thought it was a pretty good show the three times I saw it...which were all, of course, sans Donny.
In the meantime, a rumor is circulating that The Producers will soon close...and the reported grosses would seem to bear that out. For the week ending September 17, the show played at 54.5% capacity, which was the lowest of all the Broadway houses. By contrast, Mamma Mia — which has been around almost as long — is filling 96.7% of its seats. I'm guessing The Producers is moving the bulk of its tickets via the TKTS half-price booth so its grosses are even worse than they might appear. This is a far cry from not-so-long-ago when Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick were in the show and people were paying hundreds of dollars over face value for tix.
But I find it hard to believe that The Producers will just give up without a fight. It's been quite some time since they had anyone in the cast with any sort of "name" beyond West 44th Street. I would think that before they closed the thing, they'd try bringing in a Jason Alexander or a John Goodman or any of a few dozen other stars who might make it into an event again. That's the idea behind Donny Osmond in Beauty and the Beast, after all. The only reason I can think of why the producers of The Producers might not try some stunt booking is because there's a huge deal in place to open the show soon at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas. That production still doesn't have an announced cast or opening date. Perhaps they'll try to make it happen by using performers from New York...but that seems unlikely to me.
In the meantime, the Disney-backed stage musical of Mary Poppins, which is doing so well in London, will open in New York on October 14. I don't know anyone who saw it who didn't dislike it, in part because it strayed so much (and so fruitlessly) from the film. Over at the show's official website, you can watch a video preview that I guess is made up of scenes from the U.K. production. It seems calculated to look like they just brought the movie to life...so either the show has changed or they're engaging in some misleading advertising. Look on the left menu for the link to the video.
And while you're over there, you might want to visit the Beauty and the Beastwebsite and see a peppy 30 second video ad for that show. Without Donny.
Earlier this year, I got semi-hooked on the NBC game show, Deal or No Deal. My interest went up and down but I generally enjoyed the show and managed to TiVo and watch every episode. I was struck by how its simple premise created such interesting scenarios, by the expert hosting of Howie Mandel and by the skill with which the producers made the thing work.
And — oh, yeah — there were also those 26 beautiful models. They mattered.
Yesterday was the close of Deal or No Deal's season premiere week. It aired multiple times with the top prize cranked up incrementally to six million clams. They gave away a lot of money on these shows and there were some genuine moments of tension...and once again, I found my interest coming and going...but mostly going. I think some of it's the repetition and some of it's the time-wasting moments. Early in each game, you have the contestant struggling with an offer in the low-to-mid five figures...and we all know they aren't going to take it. You can pretty safely fast-forward from the first Banker Offer to around the fourth or fifth without missing anything except some agony that is either bogus or needless.
I also find my interest impaired by my having attended a taping of the show, as reported here. Reading back over that post, I think I was too nice about how long they kept us there, how uncomfortable it all was, etc. The experience probably made me even more conscious of how "pasted together" (edited) the show is and I find myself looking at allegedly spontaneous moments, noticing edits and wondering, "Gee, wonder what actually happened there."
I still have the TiVo set to record each edition and for the time being, I'll still be watching. But unless something new starts happening, I think the ol' "skip ahead" button will be getting a good workout.
Lastly, a question: My understanding is that the offers from "The Banker" are calculated via a formula. The silhouetted gent you see on screen actually does nothing. Instead, as each case is opened and its amount is revealed, that number is entered into a computer program. When it comes time for a Banker Offer, one of the producers consults a screen which gives him a limited range and he can decide on any amount within those parameters. What he decides is relayed to Mr. Mandel on the phone and that's how the offers arise. My question is whether anyone has figured out the formula. There are a number of computer games that let you play Deal or No Deal on your computer or Gameboy or PlayStation3 or Waring Blender or whatever you have. Has anyone formulated a program that lets you calculate banker offers the same way the producers have them calculated? Just wondering.
Speaking of money, it's been a while since I posted one of these...
Today, we have three Captain Crunch commercials, one of which you saw here the other day. All feature the voice work of Daws Butler, June Foray and Bill Scott, and the first one has Shepard Menken doing the voice of Robinson Crusoe. If he sounds familiar to you, it may be because he used essentially the same voice (a near-impression of actor Richard "Edwin Carp" Haydn) for the character of Clyde Crashcup, the genius inventor on The Alvin Show.
Shep was one of those prolific on-camera actors who pretty much gave it up when he began making a fortune in voiceover. He had done movies and TV shows, including several appearances on I Love Lucy, but he began to devote himself to announcing and animation. At one point, he had dozens of national commercials running, including most of the Jack-in-the-Box spots, but was best known for a long series of ads that ran only on this coast. They were for Western Airlines and in them, a rich bird was seated on the tail of a plane where he was served caviar and champagne. To close each spot, he would intone — in the dulcet tones of Shep Menken — "Western Airlines...the oooonly way to fly!" Shep was also in the cast of the historic comedy album, Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America, Part One, which he called, "the high point of my career." That's an actual quote, uttered to me when I hired him to do a Crashcup-style voice on a show in 1989.
Anyway, he's in the first commercial, no one special is in the second...and I linked to the third one the other day but it's good so you might want to sit through it again. Here's the Captain...
September 24, 2006
