Nuts over Natalie

Got a great sick gift yesterday.

TCM saluted Natalie Wood on Sunday as part of its "Summer Under The Stars."

My, my. I've had a crush on Natalie Wood since I first saw her in "The Searchers." It isn't just her physical beauty. She has this presence. I can't quite describe it. But I love it.

By the time I realized she was on, the station was screening "Rebel Without A Cause." I had seen the film once -- back in high school -- and didn't much like it. My friend Dean Harned, who is so well versed on classic cinema he teaches a high school class about it, hates it.

 I liked it better this time around. For a '50s film, it's dealing with a lot of issues that weren't talked about at the time. Tortured Sal Mineo, James Dean's issues at home (Jim Backus' character is truly pathetic in the charitable sense), Natalie feels her parents don't care what she thinks. It's the first film (perhaps along with "Blackboard Jungle") to really start looking at teenagers in a realistic, non "Gidget" kind of way.

What I don't like about the film is James Dean. He's got the look, he wears cool clothes, you want to like him, but he just hadn't found his acting chops yet. As you know, he died young and thus remains an enigma.

Next  up was "Splendor in the Grass," a film I really like that also deals with teen angst. Unfortunately the cold medicine I had taken knocked me out halfway through the picture. Oh, well. I'll get it on DVD.

I woke up in time for "Sex and the Single Girl." OK, it's ridiculous, but it's a heck of a lot of fun, especially the final chase scene, something straight out of "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World." Larry Storch! Lauren Bacall! Henry Fonda driving like a bat out of hell! What's not to love?

I went to bed during "The Great Race," a picture I want to like but don't, I think because I was spoiled by "Mad World." I kept waiting for Jonathan Winters to show up and demolish a filling station.

Was sort of miffed I couldn't stay awake for "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice" because (cough) you know, but thank goodness for the DVR.

TV writer/blogger Ken Levine loves Natalie Wood more than I. Here's his post from yesterday. (Thanks for the heads up, Ken!)

 Do some searching while you're there. He writes about her often.

Happy Monday, y'all. Have a good week.

Those were the daaaaaaays...

No show changed television quite like "All in the Family."

The landmark sitcom about working-class stiff Archie Bunker (Carroll O'Connor) and his brood at 704 Hauser Street in Queens, N.Y. erased the inanity of most '50s and '60s TV comedies and delved right into issues such as biogtry, race and racism, rape, menopause, the Vietnam War, inflation and Watergate.

Sounds like a riot, huh?

Well, it was, and in no small part because of Jean Stapleton, who died Friday at age 90. Stapleton played Archie's long-suffering wife Edith. She was given the most difficult role on the show and handled it with aplomb. Her comic timing was impeccable. Edith's big heart, her genuine love for others, contrasted well with Archie's bombast.

As Ken Levine says in his excellent tribute, we accepted Archie because Edith did. Give some credit to the writers, too, who made Archie multifaceted. Yes, he ranted about "spics" and "spades" (his words), but as Levine says, he was a dock worker worried about the changing world around him and how he would find his place in it. Deep down, he was a softie hiding behind all that ranting.

Edith kept him honest, occasionally zinged him the way Gracie Allen did George Burns, and lived up to her Christian beliefs, treating others the way she wanted to be treated. In that sense, Edith Bunker may be the most sincere Christian ever portrayed in an American sitcom.

Stapleton was an accomplished actor, appearing on Broadway, and later playing Eleanor Roosevelt on screen and on the stage.

Her death is a time to remember her talent and to mourn the state of modern TV. "All in the Family," a funny show that taught us important life lessons, couldn't make it onto the broadcast networks today.

We are a worse nation for it.

Rest in peace, Ms. Stapleton.

Jack Benny and me

I have inadvertently written a "series" of blogs of late on my love affair with radio.

So, I thought I'd conclude it by telling you about my all-time favorite series -- radio, TV, or otherwise -- and my favorite comedian.

I speak, of course, of Jack Benny. If you are too young to know about Mr. Benny (I probably should be, but that's a different story), let me tell you this: in his day, he was bigger than the biggest celebrity you can name today. And more talented. And funnier. And smarter.

Jack was a master at comedic timing. I've never seen a performer milk a laugh simply by standing there. As George Burns once said, "Jack would stand there until you started laughing. If you didn't start laughing, the show was over."

He was a true genius, one-of-a-kind, the man who practically invented the situation comedy as we know it.

All the greats loved him -- Burns, Carson, Cavett, Hope, Newhart -- need I go on? His incredible career began in vaudeville and his popular radio (and later TV) series ran from the early 1930s well into the 1960s. He kept working right up until the last few weeks of his life. Trends came and went, but Jack's brand of comedy never got old. He proved that you don't have to pull down your pants -- either literally or figuratively -- to get a laugh.

In a fantastic blog post, TV comedy writer Ken Levine talks about Jack's ability to even get laughs out of his greatest professional disaster, a stinker of a picture called "The Horn Blows At Midnight." Again, he milked it for almost 30 years.

Another great thing about Jack Benny is he didn't care who got the laughs. He was nothing like his vain, miserly alter ego. Once, he opened a season of his radio show by having his cast do the ENTIRE episode by themselves. He only showed up at the end for ONE LINE.

Name a so-called "star" who would do that today...

As I told you before, I listen to Benny's radio shows at night when I can't sleep. Catch a few of them here, but skip forward to the episodes beginning in the mid-1940s, when the show really hit its stride.

To hear Mel Blanc tell it, Jack also had a heart of gold. That may be the best part of it all.

Take a listen sometime, or do a "Jack Benny" search on YouTube.

Just for fun, here is a clip of Benny's "mystery guest" appearance on the popular CBS game show "What's My Line?"

As the cartoon character The Brain would say, "Now THAT'S entertainment, Pinky!"

'Old Soldiers'

Last night was the first chance I've had since I heard about Harry Morgan's death to throw an episode of "M*A*S*H" in the DVD player and say good-bye to one hell of a great character actor.

I chose "Old Soldiers," a favorite from 1980, in which Col. Potter learns that he's the last surviving member of a group of friends and soldiers-in-arms from World War I. Yep, I'm not ashamed to say I teared up a little while the Colonel bid his comrades farewell.

I may have told you before that "M*A*S*H" made me a better person. The show's gentle humanism plucks the heartstrings like a violin virtuoso. When Potter says he wanted his new friends from the 4077th to be with him for the toast -- friends whom he said have come to mean more to him than even his old war buddies -- well, that just about does it, don't it?

My pal Charles Kincade says watching "M*A*S*H" is like spending a few minutes with an old friend. And he's right.

For my money, there will never be another show like it. Not a chance. Can't come close.

Here is a link via veteran "M*A*S*H" writer Ken Levine to Gary Burghoff's thoughts on Harry Morgan's passing.

GREAT blog

Don't miss what has become a daily read for me, writer Ken Levine's fantastic blog, which can be found here.

Named one of the best blogs of 2011 by Time magazine, Ken's daily musings will make you laugh just as hard as his scripts did for classic shows like "M*A*S*H," "Cheers" and "Frasier." Usually working with his writing partner David Isaacs, Levine co-wrote some of the best episodes of "M*A*S*H" and the duo later served as executive story editors for television's best (and only) situation tragedy. Yes, they also had a hand in the promising debacle "AfterMASH."

But, they also had a hand in creating that classic episode of "Cheers" called "Breaking Out is Hard to Do," in which Frasier and Lilith's kid finally speaks his first word.

In his spare time, Levine fills in on Seattle Mariners TV coverage as a play-by-play announcer. I think he's got my dream job -- writer of classic sitcoms, creator of an award-winning blog, baseball announcer, possessor of one fantastic wit.

Levine is also the author of a book I just bought for a whopping $2.99 on Amazon's Kindle store called "Where the Hell Am I? Trips that I've Survived."

Don't miss this blog. Ken will make you appreciate even more than you already do the days when sitcoms were intelligent and witty and TV networks actually shelled out a few dollars for good writing.