Saturday, February 24, 2007

More Oscar Buzz

Several folks have written to inform me, like I got it wrong, that if An Inconvenient Truth wins for Best Documentary, Al Gore does not receive the Oscar. It goes to the film's director, Davis Guggenheim. One could also go to one of its three producers, none of whom is Gore.

I didn't say Gore would get the statuette. The rule is that two people get to go up on stage and "win." I put that in quotes because, of course, if the film wins, all the producers win in a very real sense. But only one would get to go up and get a statuette at the ceremony and if Gore's appearance weren't an issue — say, if he'd decided not to attend — then they would have designated one of the three producers for the other slot. But they haven't. They've left it open, which is their way of making Gore eligible to go up on stage. Since he's in town and attending the festivities, everyone assumes he'll go up there. That's assuming the film wins. As I understand the rules, they have a certain number of seconds to speak (45, I think) and can apportion it however they like.

But I also didn't say that Gore would make a speech. He could just stand there looking respectful and saying nothing, or just saying, "Thank you." Some might think that was very classy of him. My point was that I suspect there were some votes for the film because people thought it would lead to Al Gore making a memorable speech. He could well disappoint them. Goodness knows, it's not like he never disappointed anyone who cast a vote for him.

And no, I don't think he will take the opportunity to announce he's running for President. First off, he may never announce that. Secondly, if he is thinking of getting in, he could easily pick a time 'n' place where he wouldn't launch his candidacy by being accused of exploiting the Oscars (and the campaign against Global Warming) for personal reasons.

My guess as to what's on Gore's mind with regard to '08 is no better than anyone else's, maybe a bit worse. But if he is open to the idea of running, he may be figuring to wait a while. Let the other contenders duke it out. Let it become clearer what the key issues will be in that election. If and when he does get in, we're going to hear very little from the Press Corps about his positions and policies. It's all going to be about how he doesn't know who he is and what his wardrobe selections tell us about the man...and by the way, he needs to lose twenty pounds. Something about Al Gore always seems to turn the reporters who cover him into Joan Rivers. If he waits eight more months to enter the race, that's eight months of that crap we don't have to endure.

In fact, as long as he doesn't announce for President, people might actually listen to what he has to say. True, they'd only be listening because they want to hear if he's going to run or not. But at least they'd be listening.

Also: A couple of folks have written to ask who I think will be honored in the "In Memoriam" montage. This weblog has had too much about death on it lately so I don't think I want to ponder that one for long. But we'll certainly see Glenn Ford, Maureen Stapleton, Don Knotts, Robert Altman, Peter Boyle, Jack Warden, Red Buttons, Joe Barbera, Carlo Ponti, Jane Wyatt, June Allyson, Betty Comden, Yvonne DeCarlo, Gordon Parks and Vincent Sherman, plus others. And I'll predict they'll either open or close with Jack Palance doing one-armed push-ups.

• Posted at 7:35 PM · LINK

Along Went Bialy

It's official. The Broadway run of The Producers will close on April 22 after a run of 33 previews and 2,502 regular performances. That's a lot, of course...more than South Pacific, Oklahoma!, Man of La Mancha or Annie. Still, I think a lot of people in the theatrical community are surprised it wasn't more.

The original Hello, Dolly! ran a little longer — 2,844 performances — by continually bringing in new stars. After Carol Channing left, producer David Merrick hired some pretty big names to fill the role of Dolly Levi: Ginger Rogers, Martha Raye, Betty Grable, Dorothy Lamour, Ethel Merman, etc. Ethel Merman was a huge star then, at least on Broadway. At one point, he had the whole thing restaged with a black cast toplined by Pearl Bailey and that added another year or two to its New York run.

By contrast, after Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick left The Producers, the only big names brought in to replace them were...Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick. They came back for a reported $100,000 each per week for a return engagement. You'd think that if it was cost-efficient to pay them that, the show could have afforded some other huge stars...but that never happened. There were rumors of John Goodman and others being wooed. Jason Alexander and Martin Short starred in a West Coast production and everyone assumed one or both would go to New York. Never happened. Tony Danza is currently in the version at the St. James Theater in Manhattan and he's as close to a "big name" as was ever engaged.

I guess I'm curious why more wasn't done to sell tickets and keep the show running. Was it just that there weren't any stars available they thought would make a difference? Did they think the show was destined to run out at a certain point regardless of who was on the stage? Or are they just so in need of an empty theater — in which to open the forthcoming Young Frankenstein musical — that they decided to let The Producers expire prematurely? Just wondering.

And wouldn't it be neat if without advance fanfare, just to surprise and delight those who buy tix to the last performance, Nathan and Matthew suddenly reappeared in the roles? It won't happen but wouldn't that be neat?

• Posted at 2:12 PM · LINK

Boo!

I seem to have just gotten a new, unexpected channel on my DirecTV satellite dish. In fact, it's so new, it doesn't even have any shows on it yet.

Something called "Chiller" is now on channel 257. Looking ahead, I see it starts early Thursday morning with episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, followed by Night Gallery, then the Friday the 13th TV show, then more Alfred Hitchcock Presents, then Tales from the Crypt, then more Hitchcock, then more Tales from the Crypt. Then at some point Thursday, they run the movie, The Shining, followed by more Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Further down the line, I see episodes of Twin Peaks, plus they're running other scary movies including all the ones in which Abbott and Costello met monsters.

Sounds like Universal to me. I think I'll do a Google search and see if I can find out more about this channel. Here — you watch this video clip of one of my favorite moments from David Letterman's old NBC show. While you do, I'll have me a look around and then I'll report back.

Okay, I'm back. I found the Chiller TV website but there's nothing much on it yet except to say the new channel launches on March 1 and they dare us to watch. Also found this article from last month telling about the new channel and, yes, it's from Universal. Interesting to know. I may even TiVo a few of those Alfred Hitchcock shows.

All right...so we have Sleuth rerunning old detective shows and Chiller rerunning old spooky shows. Don't we need a couple more old sitcom channels? No one's rerunning Bilko or Car 54 or McHale's Navy or Dobie Gillis. Wouldn't it be great to have a network that ran those and even lesser-known shows like He and She or The Good Guys or Good Morning, World or The Bill Dana Show or I'm Dickens, He's Fenster or The Danny Thomas Show or Hennessey or —

Well, you get the idea. You could probably add to that list, too. I don't think anyone's planning such a channel...but then, I didn't know about Chiller until about twenty minutes ago. Maybe one of these days...

• Posted at 1:22 PM · LINK

Correction

B. Baker corrects me. Tales of Manhattan wasn't the final screen appearance of W.C. Fields. He had cameos as himself in Follow the Boys, Song of the Open Road and Sensations of 1945, all of which came out in 1944. I knew that but made the mistake of cross-checking my memory with his listing at The Internet Movie Database, saw they had Tales of Manhattan listed as his final film, and assumed I was confused.

I should have known better. The I.M.D.B. has recently been reformatted and now they credit someone's appearances as an actor (where they played characters) separately from appearances where they played themselves. Fields played himself in the last three films.

I don't know why they're making this distinction and certainly many of these assignments are arguable. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were apparently actors in their films even though they played Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Jerry Lewis is listed as an actor in Mr. Saturday Night even though he played the great screen comedian, Jerry Lewis. But in Defending Your Life, Shirley MacLaine played herself.

Anyway, B. Baker also disagrees with me that the Fields chapter in Tales of Manhattan is the best one in the film and favors the Edward G. Robinson vignette. I don't think so but I wouldn't argue the point. It's a pretty good piece of film.

• Posted at 2:12 AM · LINK

The Host With The Most

The folks who bring you The Price is Right are still looking for someone to take over when Bob Barker retires in June. We told you here that they were doing a non-broadcast taping to try out three potential replacements — Doug Davidson, Todd Newton and John O'Hurley.

Apparently, none of those three nailed the job. On March 12, they're doing another non-broadcast taping to try three hosts. One is Mario Lopez from Dancing with the Stars. One is Mike Richards, former host of the reality show, Beauty and the Geek. And one is George Hamilton. That's right. George Hamilton. The guy with the tan.

Hamilton is a surprising choice even for an audition. He's 68 years old and you'd think CBS would want someone much younger for two reasons. One is so there's a chance that the new host might do the show for a long time. The other is that advertisers — even daytime advertisers — are supposed to yearn for younger viewers, the kind who might be attracted by a younger host. (Bob Barker was 49 when he took over The Price is Right, and the trend for younger demographics has only gotten worse since 1972.)

But good for him, good for them. I still think The Price is Right in its present form won't survive the loss of Barker but it's nice to see they're at least considering someone older than the show.

• Posted at 1:52 AM · LINK

Go Read It

Rolling Stone has a gushy profile up of Keith Olbermann. They also have a page that has video clips of five of Olbermann's hairier "Special Comments."

• Posted at 1:05 AM · LINK

Today's Video Link

In 1942, Twentieth-Century Fox released an anthology film called Tales of Manhattan featuring four or five stories, all about the same black tuxedo as it passes through different lives.

The discrepancy between four and five is because five vignettes were filmed but one was trimmed from most prints for reasons of time. Oddly, the sometimes-missing one was easily the best and it starred W.C. Fields in his final screen appearance. [Correction.] It was absent when the film was released in America but turns up on most home video versions. Our clip today is a little less than three minutes from it.

It's not particularly funny but it's worth seeing just to witness the on-screen meeting of two of the all-time great comic actors of film. Cast as the clothing salesman who sells Fields a coat was a then-new comedian named Phil Silvers. That's him with the bad wig on.

Phil Silvers and W.C. Fields in the same scene. How great is that?

When I interviewed Silvers, he told me a story about working with Fields. Though he was quite ill at the time, Fields kept drinking. The film's producers pleaded with him not to and offered to take him on the drunk of his life after shooting was completed. Fields swore he wasn't drinking but they caught him taking nips from a thermos bottle he'd brought to the set. "We thought you said you weren't drinking," they scolded him.

Fields pointed to the thermos and said it didn't contain booze. "It's just a little lemonade to soothe a stomach condition that's been ailing me." Then he turned to Silvers, handed him the thermos and said, "Sir, if you please. Take a sip of this and tell these gentlemen what it is."

Silvers took a sip and tasted straight gin. "It's lemonade," he told the producers. "I'm as surprised as you are but it's lemonade." The producers shrugged and walked off.

According to Silvers, he and Fields were the best of friends after that. Here they are in the scene. Forgive the foreign subtitles.

• Posted at 12:32 AM · LINK