“Frontline”: “The Choice” and “Heat”: Well, this’ll be short, as I was up in my room, writing blog posts when this panel was taking place. As to “The Choice,” you may have seen previous editions of this special in 2004 and 2000, as it’s become a regular tradition on PBS to provide a dual biography of the Democratic and Republican Presidential candidates, so if you’re a political junkie, you’re probably gonna want to check out the latest entry in the series of specials. “Heat,” as it happens, is produced by Martin Smith, who served as producer on an earlier edition of “The Choice,” but his latest work is all about global warning. with twelve countries from around the world participating in the special. That’s all I’ve got. Check it out if it sounds interesting to you.
“Nature: American Eagle”: Eagles are beautiful, beautiful creatures, and “Nature” is a gorgeously filmed program. Two great tastes that taste great together. ‘Nuff said. (Can you tell I was still up in my room for this panel, too?)
“Make ‘Em Laugh: The Funny Business Of America”: Even though the film buff in me is admittedly psyched about that Warner Brothers story doc, I’m way more excited about this series, which, per filmmaker Michael Kantor, “starts with Charlie Chaplin and ends somewhere in the Jon Stewart world.” I’ve been a huge fan of comedy for as long as I can remember – we’re talking TV, film, albums, and, God help me, I was even a dedicated “Dr. Demento” listener until his program stopped being aired in my area – and I positively foaming at the mouth with the clips they showed us. The breaking news came at the beginning – Billy Crystal has been signed to provide narration for this six-part series – and, from there, we were treated to some extremely funny comments from the panel, which included Richard Lewis, Anne Beatts (an original “SNL” writer as well as the creative mind behind “Square Pegs”), and Larry Wilmore (otherwise known as the Senior Black Correspondent for “The Daily Show”).
Richard Lewis on the appropriate use of profanity in comedy: “Listen, you know, when I would listen to a double album of Lenny Bruce at Berkeley, I mean, I had no idea I was going to become a comedian. I was about 18. But a bar was set, and it wasn’t the expletives that I was focused on. It was, like, these insanely brilliant routines in that double album, and it had a lot of his great bits. And once I, two years later, became a comedian and Pryor was already a star, basically, and he’s a genius. He’s arguably the greatest, to me, stand-up comedian. Lenny may be the most important, and Jonathan Winters in a lot of ways perhaps more spectacularly open-ended, hilarious human being I’ve ever known, but he was worked very, very clean…in fact, totally clean, Jonathan. The other two guys didn’t, but it was more street talk and character stuff for Richard. And for Lenny, the same. But, you know, there are a vast majority of comedians who use expletives almost as a punch line to get laughs at clubs or at a concert, and as a comedian myself…and I’m a little blue from time to time, it sneaks out, but it’s never a premise, or it’s never a punch line. Tragically, it cheapens the art form.”
Larry Wilmore on Bill Hicks: “He probably didn’t get a chance to really get into the mainstream, but all of the comics at the time during the ’80s respected Bill Hicks. I remember working with him in Houston, I think, in the mid-’80s, and I couldn’t believe how just raw and funny he was.”
Anne Beatts on Tina Fey: “She’s great, hilarious, wonderful, talented, pretty, good legs, everything. She’s terrific. But I did misguidedly tell her not to wear her glasses on television. I was so wrong.”
