I love LA... when it's empty

The best week of the year in Los Angeles is always this one, the final seven days of the year. More property taxes and obligations are on tap for me in January, but here on the last day of December I can bask in the glory of the city that Zorro once called home. First of all, the town is practically empty. Most people from the industry are gone, terrorizing the help in Hawaii and Aspen. There’s very little traffic. You can actually make...

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Join me on the radio tonight

I'll be on 790 KABC tonight from 9-midnight PST.  You can hear it live here.  Lot of fun guests.  The hot new writing team of Annie Levine & Jon Emerson will be on at 10 to discuss this year in pop culture.  At 9 I've got Amy Rubin, writer-star of the hit web series, LITTLE HORRIBLES.  Variety calls it one of the top 10 web series on the interweb thing.  Plus, Dodger talk, Black Monday NFL talk, movie talk, TV talk,...

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Celebrity Break-Ups 2013

You can’t turn on E! or read PEOPLE without stars gushing about how much in love they are. I don’t mean to be a cynic, but these celebrities invariably pontificate about what makes relationships work. Khloe Kardashian feels qualified to give romantic advice. Many stars live in a world where no one says “no” to them from the minute they wake up till the moment they go to bed. However, this has never stopped lovers and spouses. They will say...

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The greatest scenes and quotes in movie history

As we look back at this year, let's take ten minutes to look back at all the years. Here's a great montage of classic movie moments and quotes....

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My one-nighter

Yes, this is a re-post but it's one of my most requested. One of my favorite radio legends, Dale Dorman read my recent piece on playing the same records as the competition at the same time, and reminded me of another chestnut from my checkered radio career.For years (decades really) WLS Chicago was a monster Top 40 radio station. Clear channel from Chicago (that meant no other stations on that frequency), you could hear WLS at night almost...

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I'm back on the air in Seattle

At least for an hour.  I'll be co-hosting with John Phillips on KIRO-FM today from 2-3 PST.  It'll be nice to say hi to all my Mariners fans again.  Here's the link.  As Frasier would say, "I love you, Seattl...

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Friday Questions

Last Friday Questions of the Year. Is one of them yours? Allan V gets us started: When the cast does a reading prior to rehearsals, how does that work? Who's at the reading besides the actors, and who's in charge? How long does it usually run? Do actors often try to tell the others how to play their roles, resulting in friction? For a regular episode the cast generally reads around a conference table. The director sits at the head and reads the...

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I Blame Sinatra

FIRST:  Program Update.  I will be on 790 KABC radio tonight from 9-midnight PST.  Among my guests will be Stephanie Edwards from Rose Parade fame.  Join me.  And tomorrow, I'll be on the air in Seattle.  Details in the morning.  Okay, back to today's post:I’m not a great singer. Oh, I can fake it on karaoke night if everybody is drunk and I can carry a tune if need be for an improv sketch. But really singing...

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I'm on the radio tonight

I will be on 790 KABC radio (and here on the net) tonight and tomorrow night from 9-midnight PST.  The Jews always work on Christmas.  Should be fun.  I've got a lot of cool topics to discuss.  So join me.  And call in.  1-800-222-5222.Here's a random Christmas picture.   Hope you're having a merry one....

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The TSA 12 banned items of Christmas

For all you terrorists making pie filling, we're on to you. As a blog public service, here are the 12 banned items of Christmas....

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Christmas Love

Merry Christmas to all, and to all one of the greatest singers on the planet crushing one of the coolest Christmas songs out there. Here's the incomparable Darlene Lo...

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What to get a writer this Christmas

Here’s a holdover question that is apropos for the holiday season. From Susan:I have a good friend who writes for a tv show. What's a good gift to get for a tv writer, especially one who's out of work right now (between seasons, hoping to get picked up for next season) and is working on her own projects for a while? I got her a book on writing once that I love ("Bird by Bird" by Anne Lamott) but it didn't go over well - she said she doesn't...

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THE WOLF OF WALL STREET -- my review

'Tis the season for movie critics to fawn all over iconic filmmakers. Not surprisingly, most are in love with WOLF OF WALL STREET, the latest from director Martin Scorsese that opens on Christmas Day. They’re half right.Two hours of this film is spectacular. Great scenes, wonderful performances, sharp dialogue, funny lines, and nudity.Unfortunately, the other hour is boring, excessive, unnecessary, and takes the whole movie down with it. By the...

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Now I know what it's like to have a song written about me

I always thought girls named "Laura" were lucky.  There's a gorgeous song named after "Laura."   Same with Roseanna, Wendy, Nancy, Georgia, Mandy, Brandy, Carol, and even Sharona.  For guys, Johnny and Bill, and Tom seemed to have cornered the market.  No one ever sung a love song to "Ken."Until now.And what a hard-driving classic it is.  This is from an early '60s Barbie album.   I'm kinda hoping Katy Perry will do a cover.  But until then, I'll have to be content with being the object of affection...

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Christmas in Las Vegas

As you prepare for Christmas and all the holiday traditions, take a moment to reflect on the true meaning of the season. And nowhere is that more present than in Vegas -- Bethlehem with slots. Here's my holiday travelogue from a few Decembers ago. Gather up the whole family and enjoy.Deb and I just got back from a brief weekend in Las Vegas, or, as I like to call it, "Three Card Monty for the Red States". Many big attractions there this holiday...

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I HATE LUCY in color

The next time CBS wants to show a colorized version of I LOVE LUCY in primetime, I implore to show anything else – even another HAWAII FIVE-O episode. Last night CBS aired two classic I LOVE LUCY episodes but colorized them. They looked absolutely ghoulish. I think the whole idea of colorizing black and white is reprehensible anyway, but since Ted Turner first adopted this nasty practice some twenty years ago you’d think the technology would improve....

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Friday Questions

Friday Questions to stuff in your stockings or wherever you normally stuff them.Anna Hedburg asks:When you sit down to write characters do you ever think of certain actors for the parts to help yourself write it, even if they might be unattainable, and do you ever go so far to name them (Seth Meyers-like)or is that crossing the line between storyteller and fanatic fan? Anna, we use specific actors as prototypes all the time. Especially when a team...

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Larry Lujack in the mourning

One of my radio idols broadcast 2,000 miles away from me. He was on the air every morning, but I rarely heard him. Live at least. But I would pester my friends to make tapes and whenever one would arrive in the mail I would cherish it like 14 karat gold.  I marveled at his genius.   I would then listen to the show over and over and over again. At the time there were thousands of disc jockeys, but none were more unique or funnier than...

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The year I got fired on Christmas

A holiday annual tradition.  My post on how I got fired.  Yesterday I talked about actors getting fired.  Today it's me. One of the many reasons I became a writer is that I got tired of being fired as a disc jockey. Today marks the 39th anniversary of the last time I signed off my show with “see you tomorrow” and was never heard from again.   This is a blog tradition:  the anniversary of the Christmas I was fired. ...

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Firing actors

Here’s another Friday Question that warrants its own post.  Since it’s a sensitive subject I choose not to name names. Please respect that and not fill the comment section outting the names or speculating on the names. Who they are is not relevant to the question.  And we're now in the holiday season, dammit.  Thanks. The question comes from Jeff: Have you ever had to fire an actor? Yes, on several occasions, along with my partner...

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SAVING MR. BANKS -- my review

SAVING MR. BANKS is the behind-the-scenes story of how Walt Disney coerced author P.L. Travers into letting him make MARY POPPINS. There’s no real spoiler alert because, well… if you don’t know by now that MARY POPPINS did get made, you’ve been living in a cave.It's an enjoyable holiday movie although a better title might have been A TRUCKLOAD OF SCHMALTZ HELPS THE MOVIE GO DOWN.  It was a little, well... Disney.  But if you have fondness...

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R.I.P. Peter O'Toole

Peter O’Toole was always my favorite of those hard-drinking Irish/Welsh/Scottish/British actors. Spectacular look, great voice, and he never took himself too seriously. There was always a twinkle in his eye. That might have been the liquor but I prefer to think not. O’Toole passed away yesterday at age 81. Seeing him in his last movie, VENUS (from 2007) it is clear he lived every single day of those 81 years. He was nominated eight times for...

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I did not pay this person. Honest.

I don't usually get reviews this good (no one does) and I really want to sell more books for the holidays.  So I'm re-posting this review from the Bleeding Cool website.   If this doesn't get you to spend a paltry $2.99 for the ebook or measly $8.99 for the paperback (with the cool cover), I don't know what will.  By the way, I've never met this person (and with a name like Adi Tantimedh, I'd remember).  Seriously, it's...

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Okay, you can play Christmas music now

Now that we're only two weeks away from Christmas instead of the day after Labor Day, I think it's finally appropriate to play Christmas songs. Here are some of my favorites and no-so-favorites. What are yours?Personally, I get a warm feeling when I hear Nat King Cole’s “Christmas Song”, which was written by Mel Torme. One Christmas night I saw him eating alone at Delores coffee shop. It was ironic but sad.The Phil Spector Christmas album is...

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Friday (the 13th) Questions

Not for the superstitious: Friday the 13th Questions.Jessica Munson leads off:I was listening to an interview with Phil Rosenthal recently. He made a pretty good point that I never thought of before. He said as good as Friends was, it kind of ruined the types of television shows that made it on-air because executives have never known what's funny, but after the success of Friends they've resorted to build shows around young, attractive people. That's...

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