Second, thanks to everyone who checked in yesterday. I greatly appreciate your support and input.
And now, for today and the weekend, here are FRIDAY QUESTIONS.
James starts us off:
An FQ: you've told the story a few times of submitting a spec Mary Tyler Moore script and getting it shot down by David Lloyd. When you look back at it now, do you see where the faults are and what you would correct now that you're experienced writers, or were the MTM producers just wrong and passed on a perfectly good script?
They actually did a similar story later that season (coincidentally) and told it way better. It proved to be a good learning experience for us. But there were some good jokes in our spec and the characters did sound like the real characters so for what it was and where we were in our career, it was a pretty good spec. If David Isaacs and I wrote it today it would be leagues better and there probably wouldn’t be a word of that spec in the draft, but again, it served its purpose well.
And bottom line: That was the script that impressed THE JEFFERSONS enough to hire us, which started our career. So you can’t ask for much more.
From MikeKPa.:
Would you ever consider being a "consultant" to punch up jokes on a series like Ronny Graham did on MASH and Sam Simon did on numerous shows?
The big problem is those positions don’t exist anymore. I mean, why have money in the budget for writers who actually help a script when you can use that money for non-writing pod producers who basically do nothing?
That said, depending on the show and show runner, I’d be happy to do a night a week. Not full-time however. I can only eat off of Styrofoam once a week.
Johnny Walker asks:
I've seen this a million times in sitcoms: One characters says to another, "My god! You look terrible! White as a sheet! Are you OK?" CUT TO: Actor looking perfectly tan and healthy, groaning, "Yeah, I think it's that fish from last night" (or whatever).
Why don't they ever make up the actors to, you know, ACTUALLY LOOK ILL?
For multi-camera shows shot in front of an audience – the simple answer is it takes too much time to do the make-up.
But there are things you can do – muss up their hair, maybe light them harshly.
It’s not a problem that comes up often. I directed an episode of EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND where he was in bed for most of the show but everyone thought he was being a hypochondriac when in fact he was really sick. So we couldn’t make him look too ill otherwise no one would accuse him of imagining he was sick.
And finally, from Jerry Krull:
To give the actual credit for the dialogue I have to reference the episode's writer "David Adler". David Adler in reality was the blacklisted writer Frank Tarloff, who had to write under different names after being blacklisted during the McCarthy hearings. Carl Reiner has spoken strongly about that time and how he would not cave in to the committee's baiting. Reiner remained good friends with Tarloff and you'll see David Adler as writer of several Dick Van Dyke episodes.
Ken - did you ever meet Tarloff or talk with other writers of that era who worked under other names?
I never met Frank Tarloff but I do know his son, Erik, who is also a terrific writer. We hired Erik to write a freelance MASH and it was one of the best episodes of the season.
I’ve stayed friends with Erik all these years. He now lives in Berkeley and in addition to scripts and plays he also is a well-respected novelist.
Frank Tarloff, by the way, won an Academy Award for the screenplay of FATHER GOOSE. Ironically, he ended his career where we began – writing for THE JEFFERSONS.
What’s your Friday Question? And again, if you’re wondering why there are no new posts this weekend, check out yesterday’s post.
from By Ken Levine
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