Joe starts us off.
I am a big fan of John Candy. You said you loved him and he loved your script and told you not to change a word. Did you ever think of writing a script specifically for him? John Hughes wrote great parts for Candy, but otherwise it seemed like he was saddled with a lot of mediocre scripts. I would have loved to see him in another Levine-Isaacs script.
We would have loved to. The closest was when David Isaacs and I tried to get the rights to option the book CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES. We wanted John to play the lead, Ignatius J.Reilly.
But it turned out seventeen other people wanted the rights and they were a lot higher up on the show business food chain than us. So it never happened.
(Note that none of them have been able to crack the adaptation. We probably saved ourselves a lot of serious aggravation.)
Kevin Lauderdale asks:
Have we heard you on CHEERS as the announcer when the gang is watching sports on TV?
No. That was before I ventured into sportscasting. You will hear Jon Miller occasionally along with Larry McKay.
On the other hand, you will hear me on FRASIER, BECKER, MODERN FAMILY, MAJOR DAD, THE SIMPSONS, a bunch of other shows that probably will never be shown again. Also a couple of indie movies when people are watching ballgames.
Those one cent residuals really come in handy during holiday season.
PolyWogg queries:
I have a question along the lines of "The Show Must Go On!" and what you do if/when your deadline is looming and it's really "not there"?
You still have to tough it out. It might take a lot longer but you do the best you can.
Look, not every episode can be a classic. Some turn out better than others. You just have to resist the temptation to say, “that’s good enough, let’s move on.”
You go into each episode hoping it will be great, and sometimes you wind up putting lipstick on a pig. My feeling was always “even if it’s not a great episode at least there will be five or more solid laughs.”
The truth is you’re not just being paid for your talent. You’re being paid for your ability to create on demand. Plenty of times you’re not “feeling it.” You have a cold, you’re pissed at the notes, you had a fight with your spouse, rainy days & Mondays always get you down. But you still have to crank out the material at a consistently high level. In some ways that’s the hardest part of the job.
From Mitchell Hundred:
So when are you going to go on Alan Alda’s new podcast?
When he asks me. Actually, I’d rather he go on mine.
I’ve listened to Alan’s podcast and it’s terrific. He’s such an ingratiating guy.
And finally, VincentS wonders:
Since "I" comes before "K" how did you and David Isaacs decide on billing when you first partnered up?
Neither of us can alphabetize.
Actually, initially my name came first because I called David and asked if he wanted to write with me.
Some writing teams have an arrangement where every year they switch billing. I offered that to David and he said, “No, let’s leave it. My relatives know exactly where to look to see my name.”
But on ALMOST PERFECT, which we produced with Robin Schiff, when the three of us did a script together we rotated the names all over the place.
What’s your Friday Question?
from By Ken Levine
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