You were probaby expecting me to post a review of the new AppleTV+ documentary about Steve Martin before it premiered. Well excuuuuse me! It took me a few extra days to get around to it, but I have seen both parts of STEVE! (martin) a documentary in 2 pieces. Part One, “Then,” features his rise
The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour had a profound effect on this 10 to 12-year-old. You watched TV as a family back then, in front of the one screen in the house, in our case, a 25-inch Clairtone. “From Television City in Hollywood,” said announcer Roger Carroll. “Ladies and gentlemen, The Smothers Brothers.” Shot from above,
When I interviewed him in 2014, Hugh Wilson, the creator of WKRP in Cincinnati (1978-82), admitted many of the episodes of the series were a tad underwritten. “In the beginning, he said, “the scripts were pretty tight. By the third year, we almost had blank pages, we were so far behind.” Fortunately, Wilson had cast
You can draw a straight line from Mort Sahl to Dave Chappelle. Fearless, contentious, uncompromising and sometimes his own worst enemy. The Montreal native died Oct 26 at his home near San Francisco. He was 94. His rise in the mid- to late- ’50s was so pronounced it seems as if he should be older.
Bob Einstein was one original character. That character was “Super” Dave Osborne, a parody of ’70s daredevil Evel Knievel. The real life stunt artist nearly killed himself leaping across school buses and the Snake River Canyon. The fake daredevil made an equally impossible leap — from Los Angeles to Toronto, where he spun Super Dave
On Monday, CBS Corporation made it official: their Los Angeles TV temple at the corner of Fairfax and Beverly has been sold. CBS Television City, a post-modern, multi-studio facility that sits on a 25-acre site right next to LA’s historic Farmers Market, has been sold to Hackman Capital Partners for $750 million. The place The
If you’re looking for a great book about television to give as a last minute Christmas gift, look no further than David Bianculli’s Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.The Smothers Brothers were heroes of mine as I grew up in front of the TV in the ’60s. Their 1967-69 variety