Near the end of Bill Brioux’s podcast interview with legendary TV writer Ken Levine, Bill asks his guest what TV he’s watching these days. Levine – whose writing credits include M*A*S*H, Frasier, The Simpsons, Everybody Loves Raymond and many others – could only come up with baseball and Jeopardy! I feel your pain, Ken. The
In Part Two of my conversation with Ken Levine, more evidence that the Emmy-winner is one of TV’s top storytellers. One of my favourite episodes from his excellent podcast, Hollywood & Levine, is the one where he told listeners exactly what he thought of the recent reboot of Frasier. Some might see this as sour
What hasn’t Ken Levine done? He’s an Emmy-winning screenwriter who has — with writing partner David Issacs — written for some of television’s best comedies. You may have heard of M*A*S*H, Cheers and Frasier. In his spare time (!) he has also been a disc jockey, a major league baseball play-by-play announcer, a cartoonist, a playwright, a director,
I always resented the series M*A*S*H. This had nothing to do with the merits of the multiple Emmy Award-winning series, or the fact that, when my career began at TV Guide Canada shortly before the series ended, it was a pain having to shift keys and type an asterisk every time in between capitalizing the
I really wish I had met Earl Pomerantz, especially after reading Ken Levine’s wonderful tribute to his friend and fellow television writer. Pomerantz, a Canadian whose writing credits read like a Paley Centre tribute to the Golden Age of American sitcoms, died Saturday at 75. The Emmy award winner got his first TV writing gig
It seems to me there is a great movie in the Sam Simon story. I never met the man–one of the three credited creators of The Simpsons–but he appears to evoke a passionate response with people who did know him (including comedy writer Ken Levine; check his terrific blog in the coming days for a promised
PASADENA, Calif.–At 8:30 on the dot, the ABC-hired security personnel formed a line and started sweeping reporters and TV stars out of the ballroom. Party’s over. We’d seen this last year–but 8:30? “Don’t they know we’re talent?” said one of the ABC stars. The beefy ex-cops in the dark blue jackets were just following orders from ABC/Disney.
Second in a series of Mad Men character sketches by mydaughter Katie–collect them all A friend–let’s call her the Media Mistress of Mill Street–suggested recently that it was time to warm up Don Draper’s jet ski: Mad Men had jumped the shark.Sacrilege, I thought. This is a show I’d watch in German or Mandarin Chinese