Writeups About Show Biz Stuff, Old-Timey and Otherwise
It started with a martian. The success of "My Favorite Martian," which premiered on CBS in the fall of 1963, kicked off a parade of supernatural sitcoms that only accelerated when "Bewitched" premiered on ABC the following fall and was an immediate hit. By the next year we had sitcoms with a genie ( "I Dream of Jeannie" ), a sexy robot ( "My Living Doll" ), a mother reincarnated as a 1928 Porter (…
Dick Van Dyke turns 100 on December 13th. I have selfish reasons for hoping he lives another 25 years. I'll try to explain why. "The Dick Van Dyke Show" remains my favorite TV show, a perfect blend of sophisticated verbal humor and, mostly in the person of Van Dyke, outstanding physical comedy. I've made my kids watch it. I've made my grandkids watch it. (Not like it was torture -- they seemed to…
During its original five-season run (1961-66), "The Dick Van Dyke Show" could sometimes be quietly controversial. It dared to cast black actors in roles that just as easily could have gone to whites. It featured a Jewish character -- comedy writer Buddy Sorrell (Morey Amsterdam) -- who, in one episode, celebrated a very belated Bar Mitzvah. It dared to suggest that women like comedy writer Sally…
In the summer of 1949, "Dragnet" premiered on NBC radio. It was a show that sounded like no other thanks to creator-star Jack Webb's obsession with authenticity. "Dragnet" then moved to TV and ran for most of the 1950s. Its no-nonsense theme song and opening disclaimer -- "The story you are about to see is true; the names have been changed to protect the innocent" -- became part of pop culture…
So I've written a new book about the quiz show scandals of the 1950s. It's called "Truth and Consequences" and you can order it here . My publisher asked me to interview myself about the book for their website. Since I am my favorite subject, I did it, and here it is: Q. Mystery guest, will you sign in, please? A. Hello! My name is David Inman and I grew up watching too much television.…
The biggest television drama of the late 1950s wasn't a romance, or a western, or a cop show. It was the TV quiz-show scandals -- deception on a grand scale that played out on a small screen. After contestants became beloved celebrities, the nation learned that all was not as it seemed -- that many of them went on the air already knowing the questions they would be asked, the answers to those…
The 1932 film "State's Attorney" and its 1937 remake, " Criminal Lawyer," are based on the same story by Louis Stevens. But in the hands of different screenwriters working under different production codes -- and performed by lead actors with distinctively different styles -- you get two, well, different movies. Stevens's story is about a flamboyant attorney who's the mouthpiece for a big-city…
The star of the 1934 film "The Silver Streak" isn't first-billed Sally Blane, or even male lead Charles Starrett. It's the future. Specifically, it's the future in the form of the Pioneer Zephyr, a streamlined diesel train here called the Silver Streak. But incidental roles in the movie are played by the Century of Progress International Exposition, also known as the 1933-34 Chicago World's Fair;…
In the most exciting news since the introduction of the Pocket Catheter , it's time for another installment of Screen Capture Theatre! Here for your edification is the 1945 film... This is the hard-hitting, totally true, no really story of famous gangster John Dillinger. We first meet him on the day he has stolen a new suit from a five year old. Dillinger then holds up a candy store with a…
"A Charlie Brown Christmas" wasn't intentionally created to be timeless, but because of its simplicity and sincerity, timeless it is. Miraculously, it avoids every cliche associated with children's animation and is a perfect blending of music, words and images that clearly conveys one man's vision and philosophy -- Charles Schulz, who drew "Peanuts" from 1950 until his death in 2000. Sources:…
Barbara Stanwyck enters the 1930 film "Ladies of Leisure" -- and film history -- in a rowboat. The oars squeak. Her face is marked by mascara-streaked tears and she's clutching a broken dress strap. She's Kay, a party girl who just left a wild one on a yacht. On shore is Ralph Graves as Jerry, who's also left a wild party, this one at his Manhattan penthouse. He's gone for a drive, but now he's…
"I'm Van!" "I'm Schenck!" "Our music doesn't stenk!" "They Learned About Women" was released in 1930, early enough in the evolution of talking pictures that silent film-style title cards were still used to introduce scenes -- and the leading men, who are supposed to be major league baseball players, are wearing eyeliner. But it's important because it's the only full-length talking film made by the…
"The Silver Horde" is undoubtedly the most detailed film ever made about the process of canning salmon. Granted, there's not a lot of competition -- it's like being the world's oldest cat ballet company. Aside from that honor, "The Silver Horde" is an interesting look at two stars early in their career -- Joel McCrea and Jean Arthur, more than a decade before they generated genuine heat onscreen…
In the 1930 film "The Big House" people are constantly dwarfed by their surroundings. The prison where most of the story takes place is full of high walls and towers but it's also claustrophobic, crammed with sweaty prisoners sleeping three to a cell and filling the courtyard like a swarm of ants. We first see the prison from the viewpoint of a new prisoner, Kent ( Robert Montgomery ). The paddy…
The 1930 MGM film "Children of Pleasure" tries to whip up big-city showbiz razzle-dazzle in the manner of the same studio's Oscar-winning "The Broadway Melody" or "Chasing Rainbows," but due to a wan leading man and subpar musical numbers (including one where the dancers are dressed as brooms), the effect is more like a handful of confetti shaken out of a pant cuff by a surly headwaiter. The…
Plotwise, the 1930 film "Danger Lights" is "The Broadway Melody" with locomotives -- a love triangle involving two people who hate to hurt the odd one out. But it also offers interesting location footage of trains and train yards, a glimpse of Jean Arthur early in her sound career, and one of the few talkie film performances of Louis Wolheim , who died in 1931 of stomach cancer. Off camera,…
Star-struck sisters coming to New York, struggling songwriter, backstage drama, misguided love -- it's all there, and more, in the 1929 film "The Broadway Melody." It's like a cliche incubator. It also has those awkward little touches we love in early talkies -- hammy acting, stilted silences and a musical soundtrack that makes it sound like the orchestra's in the bathroom. To the concrete canyons…
"The Hollywood Revue of 1929," MGM's entry in the look-at-us-we're-talking sweepstakes, is a lot like Warner Bros.' "The Show of Shows," released later that year. It's a big-budget hodgepodge of skits and songs featuring almost every performer on the lot (a select few were exempt -- Al Jolson isn't in "The Show of Shows" and Greta Garbo isn't in "Hollywood Revue"). The budget is so big, the chorus…
The opening exchange of the 1928 film "Lights of New York," a conversation between two gangsters in a hotel room, goes something like this: Gangster 1: The bootleg rap against us has been dropped -- and we can go back to the big town tomorrow. (Long pause, during which Lindbergh flies the Atlantic) Gangster 2: Great! And what are we gonna use for money when we get there? Our bootleg joint is empty…
In early 1967, folksinging comedians Tom and Dick Smothers kicked off their own variety show on CBS. Their competition was stiff -- NBC's "Bonanza," the one show that CBS could never seem to dislodge from its top-10 spot in the ratings. But the brothers beat "Bonanza" with a combination of topical comedy and musical guests like the Turtles, Buffalo Springfield and the Who. The only problem was…
"A Charlie Brown Christmas" wasn't intentionally created to be timeless, but because of its simplicity and sincerity, timeless it is. Miraculously, it avoids every cliche associated with children's animation and is a perfect blending of music, words and images that clearly conveys one man's vision and philosophy -- Charles Schulz, who drew "Peanuts" from 1950 until his death in 2000. Sources:…
When the Directors Guild of America announced its award nominations in 1986, history was made. For the very first time, one TV show was nominated for best direction in a comedy and best direction in a drama -- "Moonlighting." The combination detective series-screwball comedy thrived on romantic tension for three seasons in the mid-1980s -- until the lead characters finally got together and the…
OK, I think we can all agree it's been a tough couple of months. But buck up and ditch those silly thoughts of impending fascism! If there's one thing we understand here at Screen Capture Theatre, it's that nothing puts a positive spin on the world like a ... Joan Crawford musical? In this 1953 film, Joan Crawford plays Jenny Stewart ... ... a Broadway star of such hit musicals as "Evening with…
In 1952, Republican Dwight Eisenhower squared off against Democrat Adlai Stevenson in the presidential election. Eisenhower, who had been commander of allied forces in Europe during World War II, was enormously popular but not much of a public speaker. So a combination of talents from America’s largest advertising agencies, including the man upon whom the “Mad Men” character Don Draper was roughly…
Ronald Reagan is credited with a great line about his days of making B-movies: "They didn't want them good, they wanted them Thursday." And that's the standard rap -- they were projector fodder destined to belong at the bottom of double features with forgettable actors, mediocre scripts, blah blah blah blah. But the thing is, despite low budgets and tight shooting schedules, the Hollywood assembly…