From: joe@spdcc.com (Joseph Francis)
Subject: Re: Tom Snyder (Re: More on Roseanne & Cast)
Organization: S.P. Dyer Computer Consulting, Cambridge MA
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 12:49:46 GMT

In article <1gus4sINN4ml@mizar.usc.edu> adolphso@mizar.usc.edu (adolphson) writes:
>In article <1992Dec19.014143.15650@spdcc.com> 
>joe@spdcc.com (Joseph Francis) writes:
>
>> I've heard things about Snyder but... that's beside the point.
>> "Tomorrow", though now it seems like ordinary public access cable
>> ("Hollywood Kids"), actually was quite influential to me in defining
>> one of the primary functions of television - to get people to perform
>> self-consciously.
>
>Yes, and this self-consciousness was particularly
>noticeable on "Tomorrow".  There's Tom, lounging
>around in casual clothes, chain-smoking, talking
>to his camera operators, floor manager, director.
>There are his guests, trying to look just as at
>ease as guffawing Tom, but usually not succeeding.

I did hate his haircut, if you could call it that. I think "Tomorrow"
was as close as american television has come to French 'intellectual'
television (which is really horrible). The "Tomorrow" show was also
extremely '70s. I wish I had old tapes of it. That and Nina Symone
singing on SNL, and a PBS episode with a very old woman (I always
imagined her name was Nazimova) playing Violin concertos on a Theremin.

>> There are documentary film styles which do that, but
>> none so well; you don't have the same feedback systems. People mug and
>> go on for TV in ways they just never would for film (outside of "The
>> Factory"). Is that interesting? It is when you've got great
>> personalities. (who said: one doesn't rehearse for television - it is
>> all reherarsal).
>
>Addison DeWitt in "All About Eve" to Miss Caswell after her
>disastrous audition.  (Paraphrase: "Next stop is TV." "Do they
>have auditions for TV?" "That's all TV is: one long audition.")

I remember that, but I thought someone like John Simon had a similar
line. Actually all DeWitt's lines to iss Caswell (Marilyn Monroe) were
fabulous. In fact, the entire movie was fabulous, I have read the
script several times. Unfortunately it wasn't the working script for
the film.

>> The second functions is the highlighting the random nature of life.
>> The discontinuities between episodes of any show, from "Dallas" to "I
>> Love Lucy" are perfect; no character development, no morals, no
>> antecedent/consequence; and most importantly, no
>> thesis/antithesis/synthesis. It all becomes crablike, scuttling from
>> scenario to scenario, endless repetition of a few basic forms without
>> rhyme or reason. All serialized fiction forms are inferior to
>> television.
>
>I have always assumed this repetition of a few basic forms,
>these odd discontinuities, were the result of writing by
>committee and pandering to the lowest common denominator.

Well, "I Love Lucy" invented modern television, the way cameras were
used and the way the stage was set up for interior'ness'. The
scripting was pretty tight, and grafted classic burlesque with
Broadway, don't you think? with radio serials structuring the
continuity. George Burns and Gracie Allen seemed, to me, to evolve
into things like "Leave it to Beaver", "The Brady Bunch", and "The
Cosby Show", "I Love Lucy" created, of course, "The Lucy Show", but
also "Three's Company", "All in the Family", "Good Times", "The Mary
Tyler Moore Show", "Gilligan's Island", "Alice", "One Day at a Time",
"The Jeffersons", etc. Radio Westerns (and film serials) evolved
directly, without visual change into, naturally, TV westerns "The Big
Valley", "Gunsmoke", "Bearcat", "The Wild Wild West", "Little House on
the Prarie", and by extension, "22 Sunset Strip", "The Waltons",
"Battlestar Galactica", "Star Trek", "Daktari", "Gentle Ben", "Mr Ed",
"Flipper", "Sea Hunt", etc. Soap Opera's are obvious, in antecedent
and progression, up to "Twin Peaks", but obscure as a source to ,
realistically, medical drama - "Medical Center", "St. Elsewhere", etc.
Crime Drama, of course, went from serials, radio, then via
"Untouchables" and "Dragnet" to "The FBI", "Mission Impossible",
"Columbo", "Hill Street Blues", "A-0Team", and so on. I feel Crime
Drama has essentially the same 'look' as TV Western; this also brings
up hybrids and mutations. "Barney Miller" - "I Love Lucy" direction
with "Dragnet" content. Medical Drama - "Medical Center", et al. Very
'western' but with disease replacing 'crime drama' focus. "MASH" - A
medical "Barney Miller". Where did "Dennis the Menace", and "Hazel"
go? Into Hanna-Barbara; cartoons, whether live-action or animated are
the same - "The Flintstones", "The Simpsons", "Bewitched", "Wonder
Woman", "Fat Albert", "The Jetsons".

Someday I'll have to tackle Judy Garland, Carol Burnett, and the
medium of 'revue' on television. It is too complex, and too perfectly
television - completely 'self-conscious', as I mentioned in my
original part of the post. I see little difference between a given
episode of Carol Burnett (structurally), Saturday Nite Live, America's
Favorite Home Videos, and Johnny Carson.

-- 
US Jojo; damp, slighly soiled, but tasty nonetheless.