Vin Scully is a National Treasure

Vin Scully is in his 63rd season of calling Dodger baseball. The probation period is almost up.But seriously, he is the Mozart of baseball broadcasters and I can’t imagine another announcer ever being as good.And he’s always been there. Night after night, summer after summer.Well, Scully is now 84, and Dodger fans are keenly aware that he won’t always be there. It’s hard to even contemplate Dodger baseball without Vin Scully. So we’re all savoring...

Read More

Oh no! Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are getting divorced

There is no joy today in Hollywood.   The relationship the town thought would last forever..  or at least six years, is apparently ending.  How could this not work?  I mean, the man jumped up and down on Oprah's couch?  What greater show of love has there ever been?Get ready for an onslaught of TMZ/People/National Enquirer/ET/Gawker coverage of this monumental story.   Let the speculation begin!  Was Tom...

Read More

Getting tickets to see TV shows

Wrapping up the week and month with Friday Questions. Unknown starts us off. At least he’s not Anonymous. I have a friend who is taking his wife and teenage kids to L.A. in August and wonder if you have any "insider" suggestions for studio tours and the like. Is it too late to try to get tickets to a filming of show? Or are these something they'll have the opportunity to get same day (assuming they pick the right day)?Call or write the networks...

Read More

Best known for something else

Lots of people have heard of the Tommy John Surgery. Done primarily on baseball pitchers, it’s a procedure where they take a tendon from your knee or hip and use it to replace a ligament in your elbow that’s shot. Today it’s very common, and like I said well known. But how many people know who Tommy John is? My guess is most think he’s the surgeon who invented the procedure. Wrong. He was a major league pitcher who was the very first to...

Read More

More advice for young writers

There was a great exercise in Andy Goldberg's improv class recently. Yes, I still take an improv class. (You'd think I'd be better after all these years, but I take it anyway.) This was the exercise: we had to play a character based on someone we knew. Not a celebrity -- no Al Pacino impersonations -- and not a caricature. We had to pick a real person we knew and really try to become him. Voice cadence, body language, attitude, pet phrases,...

Read More

If Aaron Sorkin wrote THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW

Aaron Sorkin is back!  I loved THE NEWSROOM.  It's the perfect vehicle for his whip-smart dialogue.  (It was also nice to see the wonderful Emily Mortimer finally not in a thankless role.) But essentially THE NEWSROOM was BROADCAST NEWS as written by Aaron Sorkin.  James L. Brooks wrote that terrific movie along with co-creating THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW.  So that got me thinking -- what if Aaron Sorkin wrote THE MARY TYLER...

Read More

What ever became of Kelly Kelly Kelly Kelly?

Here's another reader question where I can go to the source itself. From Bradley:Do you know what became of Jackie Swanson after Cheers? She was terrific as Kelly and I assume the writing staff agreed given all the excellent material she was given.She was and is terrific.  Jackie was nice enough to provide this update.  As you'll see it's been quite a rollercoaster ride.  I must say, in light of everything, I'm struck by what...

Read More

My commencement speech to the Class of '12

It's the same one that I gave last year's graduates but wisdom is worth re-posting.June is the graduation time of year. I guess a hundred years ago those commencement speakers were inspiring and offered thoughts and insights that were new and fresh. But now, Jesus! Be your own person. Never give up. You have a responsibility to society. Success comes from within. Show courage. You can make a difference. Set aside time to smell the roses. Let...

Read More

The Teenage Fair

Here's another excerpt from my new book, THE ME GENERATION... BY ME (GROWING UP IN THE '60s).   You can get yours in Kindle or paperback.   It's a fun read and a great way to support this blog so I'm not forced to sell fruit at freeway offramps.  The Hollywood Palladium was an art deco theater built in the’40s in Hollywood to stage big band concerts. In the ’60s it was the spring break home of the Teenage Fair. The Palladium...

Read More

Friday Questions

As I head down to San Diego for a weekend of broadcasting Mariners games on 710 ESPN Seattle, MLB.COM, and the Mariners Radio Network, here are this week’s Friday Questions.God Shammgod is up first.Do you prefer a compact set or a bigger one? Remember when "I Love Lucy" moved the action from the cramped apartment set to the huge farm set? It didn't seem to work as well. If the show is centered on primarily two characters (like I LOVE LUCY) then I...

Read More

All you ever wanted to know about Extras (people not the show)

Here’s an EXTRA Friday Question: It’s from RichD. So the recent mention of WINGS here inspired me to revisit the series on Netflix. While making my way through the first seasons I again noticed the older red-haired woman who worked at Roy's counter, which got me to wonder about the background performers who are the extra-equivalent of series regulars on various shows. I would assume that these are pretty sweet gigs. When they are first cast is...

Read More

Adam Carolla is a moron!

Adam Carolla’s comments in the NEW YORK POST this week are so unbelievably stupid they almost don’t dignify a response. Here’s a portion of the interview.  POST: The lesson you learned from a sexual harassment seminar was “Don’t hire chicks.” Do you hate working with women?CAROLLA: No. But they make you hire a certain number of chicks, and they’re always the least funny on the writing staff. The reason why you know more funny dudes than funny...

Read More

Random rants

Otherwise known as "Short attention-span blogging"…There’s something terribly wrong when the animated episode of COMMUNITY is eligible for an Emmy but not episodes of existing animated series.  I say THE SIMPSONS should kill Bart and submit it for Best Drama.  Arsenio Hall is back. He’ll have a late-night talk show next fall. Can Joan Rivers, Magic Johnson, Tempest Bledsoe, Craig Kilbourne, Tony Danza, and Caroline Rhea be far behind?...

Read More

Welcome to the Hotel Zico California

Spent the weekend in Northern California. Attended the graduation ceremonies at Stanford. My daughter-in-law, Kim received her doctorate in Electrical Engineering. I offered to punch-up her thesis but she said no, it was funny enough. We’re all very proud of her. My dad asked if she could prescribe marijuana. Needless to say, finding a room anywhere between Gilroy and Daly City on graduation weekend was a chore. The decent places jacked up...

Read More

My Next Life by Woody Allen

...

Read More

On this Father’s Day (the most sacred holiday of the year) I’d like to wish a happy one to my dad, who also happens to be my hero, mentor, and best friend.Here are some pithy Father’s Day quotes:“To be a successful father… there’s one absolute rule: when you have a kid, don’t look at it for the first two years.” -- Ernest Hemingway“A man knows when he is growing old because he begins to look like his father.” -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez“If the...

Read More

The Best of Batman

I imagine people are already getting in line for the opening of THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, the new Batman movie that opens July 12th. As a way to climb on that batwagon and plug my book -- THE ME GENERATION... BY ME (GROWING UP IN THE '60s) I thought I would include the passageabout "our" Batman and feature some examples. The Kindle version is available now as is the paperback. There are no ads on this blog you'll notice. The way you can support this site is to buy my book. Hey, you'll get a lot more enjoyment out of it than a PBS tote bag. Here's...

Read More

Is it worth it to go to film school?

Here are this week’s Friday Questions. What’s yours?Gareth Wilson asks: Actual working screenwriters seem very skeptical about the relevance of film school to screenwriting employment. I gather that a diploma from even the best film school is meaningless when trying to get work. So is it possible to design a course that actually teaches you to write salable scripts, and what would it look like? It really all depends on who your teacher is. My...

Read More

MAD MEN season 5 review

Okay, I gave you a few days to catch up on the MAD MEN finale. If you still haven’t seen it, then SPOILER ALERT. But if you have, or don’t care then read on.I’m very curious as to your opinion of this season. A number of critics I admire and who analyze the shit out of the show every week took issue with the fact that this year they (and by they I mean Matt Weiner of course) spelled things out more than ever before. In the final episode Pete...

Read More