Vincent Saia, a podcast listener, gets us started:
If you and David Isaacs were to run a show and were allowed a staff of six writers - living or dead - who would those writers be?
An all-time dream team? Okay. But it’s hard to hold it down to just six. I would gladly take even one.
Larry Gelbart, Carl Reiner, Jim Brooks, Nat Hiken, Tina Fey, and Neil Simon.
For fun – let’s say I had to choose six writing teams, living or dead.
Glen Charles & Les Charles, Tom Patchett & Jay Tarses, Bill Persky & Sam Denoff, Garry Marshall & Jerry Belson, Lowell Ganz & Babaloo Mandel, and Annie Levine & Jonathan Emerson.
Steve McLean wonders:
Since the streaming model is based on acquiring new subscribers, it seems like there's little incentive to continue a hit show for many seasons. Platforms are chasing new customers with the 'hot' new show. Do you think we've moved past the days 8, 9, 10 seasons for a successful series?
Basically yes.
Only broadcast networks will want to continue that model because their success revolves around ratings, and those are delivered by stacking their schedules with hit shows.
But who knows if there will even be broadcast networks as we know them in nine or ten years?
Kendall Rivers is up next.
You've mentioned Cheers as one of the best pilots ever made. What are your other 4 in your top 5?
THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW, THE GOOD WIFE, FRASIER, THE COSBY SHOW.
(Don’t hate me for including THE COSBY SHOW. Separating the scumbag from the series, it’s a sensational television pilot. You’ll have to seek it out though since you’re sure not going to see THE COSBY SHOW on TV anytime soon.)
And finally, from Bob Uecker Is A National Treasure (which he is, by the way):
You wrote the post about how some dramatic stars were terrible comedic actors. Obviously part of that is timing -- when to wait a beat on a line, not stepping on another actor's laugh, etc. But is some of it that the dramatic actor is trying too hard to be funny? I've noticed that most great comedic actors (take David Hyde Pierce or Ted Danson) are playing the character seriously with very real motivations/flaws and the character becomes funny based on the situation. But the minute an actor tries to be funny, it absolutely flops. For most of the actors listed, do you think they could have been funny if they had some real coaching?
Actors press when they don’t have confidence — either in themselves or the material. So you can’t always blame the actor. The funniest actor in the world is going to be brought down by a bad script. And if you have a dramatic actor who’s not adept at comedy, the results are even worse.
Comedy is a lot like music. The good ones just feel the rhythm. It’s in their bones. Intuitively they know how to pause, when to pause, how big a reaction should be, how arch to deliver a line, etc.
Yes, these are techniques that can be taught to some degree, but if it’s not in your soul it will come off mechanical.
The ability to play comedy is a gift. And the ones who have it make it look so easy — and it is anything but.
What’s your Friday Question? And if you didn't check in last Wednesday, feel free to say hi today.
Stay safe. Wear a mask. Follow science. VOTE.
from By Ken Levine
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