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Marilyn Armstrong — Seeking Intelligent Life on Earth

Tag Archives: Television


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The Garner Files: A Memoir

By James Garner and Jon Winokur

Release date: October 23, 2012

garnerfiles

From the first time I saw James Garner on TV as Bret Maverick, I was more than slightly in love. It was one of the television shows that I watched faithfully every time Garner was the star of the episode. They tried adding additional Mavericks, but for me, there was only one.

When I saw him in “The Americanization of Emily,” our relationship was sealed. Till death do us part. I was a fan and  he could do not wrong.  Although I probably have not seen every single movie he ever made, I’ve seen most of them.  I’ve liked some, loved most. Whenever one of his movies shows up on cable, it goes on the DVR. Fortunately Garry  is a fan, too.

Now, about the book. If you had the impression that Jim Garner is a plain-spoken guy with strong opinions, you would be absolutely right. He has a great many opinions and not the slightest reticence about expressing them. He’s an unabashed liberal, egalitarian, man of the people who made good. He thinks acting should come naturally and claims he’s never taken acting lessons.

It’s true. He never took any formal acting lesson. That he spent weeks huddled with Marlon Brando when he was shooting “Sayonara” and learned an incredible amount from the man he considers the best actor ever … I guess that doesn’t count as acting lessons. And lessons or no, this is an actor who’s easy-going, deceptively relaxed acting style makes it look easy. Making it look easy took a lot of hard work. That seems to be the way of many things that look easy … when someone else does it.

Garner is an honest guy. He tells it like he sees it, or at least remembers it. He ruthlessly reviews every television series he made in detail, including his favorite episode of each with lots of great back stories and anecdotes. He reviews and rates every movie he made. I like some of them better than he did, but mostly I agree with his assessments .. We all agree that “The Americanization of Emily” was not only his best movie, but maybe the best movie. Ever. I’m inclined to agree.

For him, is was not merely a movie he made, but a movie — and ideal — he spent the rest of his life trying to live up to.

If “Emily” was his best move, “Grand Prix” was his favorite. Like many other Hollywood stars, he’s in love fast cars and racing and Grand Prix was pure fun for him and apparently the entire cast.

Who he likes and doesn’t like? You won’t have to guess. He tells you exactly how he feels about everyone. And he’s not big on forgiving or forgetting. Given that he shares his birthday with my husband, I’m not at all surprised.

He came from a  poor, rough, abusive childhood. He worked hard and is the only person who seems to have had more surgery than me. That’s a lot of surgery, believe me. It never occurred to me that acting was that physically taxing, but apparently he is by no means the only performer to have broken just about everything at one time or another.

His two famous battles with studios were history-making if for no better reason than he won. The second lawsuit revolved around “The Rockford Files” and the issue was shady bookkeeping practices employed by studios to avoid paying performers. Technically he settled out of court for what was apparently so much money he’s still laughing about it. He wanted to keep fighting because there was a principle involved. His friends told him to shut up and take the money. Eventually, he decided they were right. It must have been a lot of money. My guess is that the studios continue to play fast and loose with bookkeeping and will … as long as they get away with it.

I enjoyed reading the book on Kindle and then enjoyed it a second time as an audiobook. I wish Garner had done the narration himself. Although Audible found a narrator whose voice and intonation resemble Garner’s and it’s good, it’s still not the same as having Garner do it.

This is a must-read for anyone who’s a fan of Jame Garner and his movies … or for anyone who likes knowing what was going on behind the scenes on the set. It’s entertaining, honest, surprising and often funny. I enjoyed it a lot and I’ll probably read it again. I’d give this one a solid 8.5 out of 10.

It’s a fine autobiography. It’s available on Kindle, Audible.com, in paperback and hardcover (large print).

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Born on the Fourth of July — James Cagney as George M. Cohan

Yankee Doodle Dandy

When Garry and I were growing up in New York, the old Channel 11 (WPIX, I think it was) used to have a show called “Million Dollar Movie.” The theme for the show was “Tara’s Theme” from Gone With the Wind. I had never seen GWTW, so when I saw it for the first time, I said “Hey, that’s the theme for Million Dollar Movie.”

I wasn’t allowed to watch TV on school nights and only for a very limited period of time even on weekends. But, if I was home sick, I got to watch all the television I wanted, and better yet, I got to watch upstairs in my parents bedroom. It was black and white, as were all the televisions then. I don’t know if color TVs had been invented yet, but if they had been, no one I knew had one.

Million Dollar Movie played one movie per week, all day, every day, for however long they were on the air. So if I was home sick — usually for tonsilitis — whatever was playing, I saw it a lot. They also didn’t have a very large repertoire so the odds were pretty good if you got sick twice, you’d see the same movie again for another week.

Thus “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” the great James Cagney docu-musical was engraved in my brain. I believe that during at least three occurrences of my nemesis, those nasty tonsils, I watched it over and over again until I knew every word, every move, every song … with frequent commercial interruptions.

Now of course, we own the DVD and we never tire of watching it. No one danced like Cagney. No one had that kind of energy! Believe it or not, I never saw any other of his movies until I saw “One, Two, Three” in the movies when I was older.

We just watched it again and we watched James Cagney dance down the steps in the White House five times. I’ve included it here so you can watch it as many times as you want. What a great movie it is.

I thought he was a song and dance man and comic actor. I was very surprised to discover he used to play gangsters. Million Dollar Movie didn’t play those films.

Only one questions remains unanswered through all these years. How come they didn’t make it in color? Does anyone have a sensible answer to that?


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Daily Prompt: Cringe-Worthy – Funny you should ask!

As long as I can remember, I have hated watching people make fools of themselves. I was probably no more than 6 when I found myself running from the room at one of many episodes of “Lucy” in which she does something humiliating.

Humiliation

Rather than finding it funny, I find myself identifying with the embarrassment. I can’t help but think how awful I would feel if it were me. Humiliation is a horrible feeling, often impossible to forget no matter how many years pass.

Humor that depends on embarrassing or making fun of people does not make me laugh. I love witty dialogue, literary allusion, puns. I love parody and all kinds of cleverness, but with the exception of villainous bad guys who more than deserve whatever they get, I never want to see anyone embarrassed. I hate cruelty, mental or physical and cannot watch it, even when I know it’s fake.

Not surprisingly, I was one of the kids who got teased and bullied. Way too sensitive. It’s 60 years later; I’m still too sensitive.

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Back to the Ponderosa: Pernell Roberts

As a girl, I was an ardent Bonanza fan.and quite smitten with Pernell Roberts (Adam Cartwright). That was way back when he wore something that looked like hair. I found him very was sexy. And he sang.

He sang this song in the episode titled “The Wooing of Abigail Jones” on March 4,1962 (Season 3, Episode 24). The same song was used in two other episodes, but Pernell Roberts didn’t sing it, so I don’t count them.

Cropped screenshot of Pernell Roberts from the...

Pernell Roberts from Bonanza. Episode: “Showdown” (1960). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

For the past 50 years, I’ve been hearing this song in my head. Do you have any idea how annoying that is? Going on the theory that everything is on the Internet,  I Googled it and it popped up. An additional search through YouTube produced the piece of video I wanted. Join me a musical trip down memory lane as we return to the Ponderosa.

Cropped screenshot of Michael Landon, Dan Bloc...

Michael Landon, Dan Blocker, Pernell Roberts  in Bonanza. (1960). (Photo: Wikipedia)

Enjoy.. Maybe it’ll stick in your head  too!

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1 - Early one morning,
Just as the sun was rising,
I heard a young maid sing,
In the valley below.

2 - Chorus:
Oh, don’t deceive me,
Oh, never leave me,
How could you use
A poor maiden so?

3 - Remember the vows,
That you made to your Mary,
Remember the bow’r,
Where you vowed to be true.

Chorus

4 - Oh Gay is the garland,
And fresh are the roses,
I’ve culled from the garden,
To place upon thy brow.

Chorus

5 - Thus sang the poor maiden,
Her sorrows bewailing,
Thus sang the poor maid,
In the valley below.


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... those thrilling days of yesteryear ...

Reblogged from My Favorite Westerns:

  • Click to visit the original post

The Lone Ranger 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=w6Geh0NWiYg#t=17s

A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust and a hearty "Hi Yo Silver!" The Lone Ranger. "Hi Yo Silver, away!" With his faithful Indian companion Tonto, the daring and resourceful masked rider of the plains, led the fight for law and order in the early west. Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear.

Read more… 164 more words

My heroes! And Silver, the best ever horse.


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Laugh In – When Television Was Really Funny!

I blew in my husband’s ear and whispered: “Now, will you follow me anywhere?” He laughed. Then we realized that we couldn’t remember where that line came from.

Turned out it was from “Laugh In.”

Back when this show was on the air, we knew how to laugh. The Pod People hadn’t yet come to steal our sense of humor and turn us into sour, bad-tempered drones.

It was a different time and psychically, in a galaxy far, far away. We had problems. Nixon and the war in Vietnam for starters. That was no picnic. But we found ways to enjoy our world, to have good times. The “era” didn’t last long … just a little bit of time but we had fun.

We guffawed. We giggled. We snickered and chortled. We ate food full of fat and sugar and watched TV on sets that barely got pictures you could see, but we were free and young. When we weren’t working, it was okay to let our hair down, relax, and play.

These days, it seems we have forgotten how to play.

The time is not merely here. It’s overdue. We need to remember things we used to know, to play and laugh. Maybe if we could spend more time laughing, we’d spend less time hating.

With the economy in tatters, our politics polarized beyond recognition, with unemployment out of sight and in a world gone mad with terrorists and war — more than ever, we need to laugh.

By the way, how did they know that 1989 would be when the Berlin Wall would come down? Eerie!

And how did they imagine Reagan would be president? Apparently, they did, but no one else I knew seemed to have considered the possibility.

Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In ran for 140 episodes from January 22, 1968, to May 14, 1973 on the NBC network. Look how the world has changed.

Back then, amidst all our problems we believed the world could be changed for the better. Change it did … but is it better?

And finally … look how much NBC has changed!!

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Back to the Zone

When I was first married, we lived in an apartment on the second floor of a building at the end of a long hallway. It was in one of two identical buildings. We lived in apartment 2Q, a corner apartment. It had better ventilation than the apartments in the middle of the building. It was also quieter being farther away from the elevator.

75-CityLife-HP-3

One day, having taken a bus home from downtown, I went in through the front and walked all the way down the corridor to our apartment. As I started to put my key in the door, I realized that there was a nameplate on the door. It said “2Q, Kincaid.”

My name was not then and is not now Kincaid, but the sign on the door said 2Q. It was the correct unit, but apparently I didn’t live there. I took a deep breath, walked back to the elevator then went back to the flat. It still said “Kincaid.”

I immediately realized what had happened. I had slipped through into a parallel universe. I was in another dimension where I didn’t exist. I’d been replaced by someone named Kincaid.

It took me a while, standing there and staring at the door before it occurred to me that I was in the wrong building. The two buildings were the same and I hadn’t been paying attention.

What’s interesting is not that I went into the wrong building but that I immediately assumed I’d slipped into the Twilight Zone. Would most people, finding themselves in that situation, conclude they’d slipped into a parallel universe? Or would think they had maybe walked into the wrong building? Which would you do?

I  suspect off-center thinking is part of creativity and certainly part of being a writer. A little piece of my brain is always busy recording events as future fodder for writing. Often, even in the middle of what could be a serious — even dangerous — situation, I have a little voice reminding me what a terrific story I’ll get out of it.

The problem with seeing everything as a potential story is that there is a tendency to hold oneself a bit apart, to be more concerned with watching than living. For almost ten years, I stopped taking pictures because I thought taking pictures was preventing me from truly seeing. I felt I was missing the party. Eventually, I went back to taking pictures and photography is the way I deal with the visual elements of life. I can’t stop seeing pictures framed into photographs, so I might as well carry a camera.

Nonetheless, I believe I was partially right. When you see life through a lens or are constantly planning how to write this thing that’s happening, you are not fully engaged in whatever is going on. Is that bad? Perhaps it’s just how I am, who I am. I can’t make myself not see pictures, not hear stories. It’s just how I relate to the world.

What about you?


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Gazing through to the other side: Hollywood and Moral Character

Blitzen Trapper

When I got 1000 hits in about half an hour, I knew that they must be rebroadcasting this season’s premier episode of Criminal Minds. I’ve written close to 1000 posts, but this is the only one that gets that kind of response.

So, it must be the perfect time to re-post this piece. The question is whether or not the plot used in the premier show of season 8 of “Criminal Minds” is based on a song by a group named Blitzen Trapper, whose lead singer/lyricist is Eric Earley. This comes up each time the show airs, which is how come I get all these hits on that post.

To settle the issue once and for all — or until the show airs again — one of my correspondents is a producer on Criminal Minds. He assures me the group is being compensated and nothing underhanded is going on. I’m grateful to discover things are not as bad as they seem. It’s so rare. Usually, whatever is going on, things are worse than I imagined possible.

A screenshot of the BAU Team on the jet.

A screenshot of the BAU Team on the jet. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’ve gotten a bunch of emails from people who seem otherwise intelligent yet against all reason believe big corporations would never take advantage of “little people,” and certainly would never commit (gasp) plagiarism. What makes this belief bizarre is that the corporations under discussion are run for and by people in show business. Unless my correspondents are living on a different planet than me, why would they think this? Have these people displayed such high moral character that they are incapable of illegal or immoral behavior? Could anyone be that naïve?

Apparently yes.

Corporations spend millions of dollars on public relations and advertising campaigns designed to convince us that they have our best interests at heart. They are entitled to give it their best shot, but why would anyone actually believe them? How has any corporation ever shown itself  to be on any side but its own? And show business folks? These are not people famous for moral turpitude. Plagiarism is ridiculously commonplace. I don’t know a writer with hopes of breaking into “the business” who hasn’t had a piece of work stolen. Here’s how it works.

You go for an interview. You bring your story idea, your script, manuscript, lyrics, arrangement, proposal, whatever. You present it to the person to whom you hope to sell it. You make your pitch, praying this is the big score you’ve been waiting for. Alas, it is another rejection. You’re used to rejection. It comes with the territory.

A few months later, a new television series is introduced that has an identical storyline to the one you were trying to sell to that very production studio. A few relatively minor details have been altered, but you recognize it and so do all your friends.

Wathcha gonna do, eh? You’re going to sue the studio? Take the network to court? Bring suit against the record label? You have that kind of money and clout? If you were pitching your material, you are probably broke. They’ve got armies of lawyers. You’ve got your paycheck and tips from waiting on tables while you try to finish your next piece. Only in the Bible does David win. Goliath wins in the real world.

There is a great deal of plagiarism in television and movies, so much that the relevant lawsuits rarely make the news any more.

In the software world, accusations of intellectual property theft have reached the point where, after endless legal battles between Microsoft and Apple, every major manufacturer is suing every other manufacturer for copyright infringement. Who wins? Since everyone steals from everyone else and everyone is guilty to some extent, the winner is the company with the best lawyers or the most political influence. And of course, who paid off who.

Oh no, that doesn’t happen, you cry! Our legal system can’t be bought and sold. Right. And the tooth fairy left you a buck under your pillow last night. No really, she did. Honest! My congressman told me, so it must be true.

Public servants are as honest as the day is long. Corporations care about you and me. Hollywood and television executives are persons of the highest moral character. The moon is made of green cheese. Tomorrow I’m going to sprout wings and fly.

In this case, I believe my source, that Blitzen Trapper is being duly compensated and the worst crime involved is bad scriptwriting, which is not illegal, though it ought to be. The writers assumed the audience would not Google the song lyric within the first 10 seconds after the show’s characters said “there’s no reference to it anywhere.” Obviously they think we the audience are incompetent and stupid. It’s infuriating but it’s not against the law. Yet.

Just when I’m getting on my high horse about how we aren’t as dumb as they think we are, I get letters from readers proving that a lot of people may really be that dumb, or at least that naïve. I find this scary. Hell, these people are allowed to vote!

My signature line on email uses the following quote: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” – Robert Hanlon

In this case, for this show, I may have attributed to malice that which was in fact adequately explained by stupidity. That’s their excuse, but what excuse do you have for believing propaganda paid for by people who would squash you like a bug without a second thought?

I don’t get it. Maybe someone can explain it to me,

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