Splitsider

 
From the Archives
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Watching an Alternate-Universe 'Cheers' That Shelley Long Never Left

by | February 1st, 2013

The Paley Center for Media, which has locations in both New York and LA, dedicates itself to the preservation of television and radio history. Inside their vast archives of more than 120,000 television shows, commercials, and radio programs, there are thousands of important and funny programs waiting to be rediscovered by comedy nerds like you and me. Each week, this column will highlight a new gem waiting for you at the Paley Library to quietly laugh at. (Seriously, it’s a library, so keep it down.)

When Cheers was in its fifth season in 1987 there weren't really any shows out there that held a candle to it. After a slow start, ranking overall at #71 on the charts, by this time they had shot to the number 3 slot, behind just The Cosby Show and Family Ties. However, Season 5 would prove to be the end of an era for the program, as it would see the farewell of Diane Chambers, played by Shelley Long, its female lead and love interest to main character Sam Malone. As the show moved forward they introduced Kirstie Alley, went on for six more years, ultimately becoming the number one show on television, and delivering one of the most-watched TV finales of all-time.

But what if there was a different version of Cheers? A version in which Diane never left? A version where in the Season 5 finale, she didn't leave him at the altar (or, actually, the bar, since they were getting married in the titular watering hole.)? Well, if you were lucky enough to be at the taping for the episode "I Do, Adieu," that's exactly what you saw happen. But, of course, that version of the show has never been seen by TV viewers… READ MORE

From the Archives
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Making the Strange Journey to Andy Kaufman's Funhouse

by | January 25th, 2013

The Paley Center for Media, which has locations in both New York and LA, dedicates itself to the preservation of television and radio history. Inside their vast archives of more than 120,000 television shows, commercials, and radio programs, there are thousands of important and funny programs waiting to be rediscovered by comedy nerds like you and me. Each week, this column will highlight a new gem waiting for you at the Paley Library to quietly laugh at. (Seriously, it’s a library, so keep it down.)

When it comes to comedy today, audiences are kind of spoiled. With podcasts, cable channels, video sites, and every other vehicle for media out there, you can cater your content to whatever your specific niche is. You like redneck jokes? Try out Larry the Cable Guy's Twitter feed. Prefer smart short films? Above Average is right over here. You like film analysis with a smattering of anti-comedy? Tim Heidecker has a podcast for you. Back in the days of only three TV networks, I hope you liked Bob Hope specials and whoever Johnny had on that night.

That's why Andy Kaufman is so interesting to me. The fact that this man was allowed to coexist in this world and managed to find his audience is so amazing. I'm not taking anything away from him when I say this; he was incredibly talented and had such a profoundly unique voice. But the odds against him succeeding, let alone landing a major role on the hot sitcom Taxi, doing a bunch of bits on the seminal years of Saturday Night Live, or getting his own 90 minute special on ABC, the focus of today's article, must have been infinitesimal.

The Andy Kaufman Special was taped in 1977 but didn't air until August 28, 1979 and takes the viewer into a world that is purely Andy's. It serves as a bit of a greatest hits, compiling many of his classic pieces into one arena, but also veers off into its own unique animal. The show opens with Andy as his Foreign Man character, speaking directly to the audience about how this special came to be in his heavily accented, broken English. "ABC gave me $50,000 to make a special. I was supposed to hire writers and guests, but I was so lazy. I did not do it. I went on vacation and now I don't have any money left. Just for this camera and this chair. …So we will just sit here like this for 90 minutes." Andy sits there nervously for a long beat and insists that this is true. There won't be any special tonight. He waits a little bit longer and then leans in a bit, confiding with the camera. "Now that we have lost the audience and only my friends are watching, I would like to show my special." And just like that, we've entered the world of Andy Kaufman. READ MORE

From the Archives
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Carson's Final Nights on 'The Tonight Show'

by | January 11th, 2013

The Paley Center for Media, which has locations in both New York and LA, dedicates itself to the preservation of television and radio history. Inside their vast archives of more than 120,000 television shows, commercials, and radio programs, there are thousands of important and funny programs waiting to be rediscovered by comedy nerds like you and me. Each week, this column will highlight a new gem waiting for you at the Paley Library to quietly laugh at. (Seriously, it’s a library, so keep it down.)

"All we've got are tonight and tomorrow and I'm gone. Boy, I haven't used that line since World War II…"

Johnny Carson hosted The Tonight Show for thirty years. Think about that. From 1962 to 1992, Johnny was there. Entire generations were born and grew up with the same man hosting the late night show, and this was back when there were only three channels. He was a fixture, an icon, and for many, an idol. So, as you might imagine, as his last few shows drew near it generated quiet a bit of press. In his final show, which aired on May 22, 1992, he talks about having done hundreds of interviews about the show ending, claiming "the Soviet Union's end didn't get this much publicity." Today we look at the final two episodes of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and its legacy and impact on television in general. READ MORE

From the Archives
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The Short Films of Albert Brooks

by | January 4th, 2013

The Paley Center for Media, which has locations in both New York and LA, dedicates itself to the preservation of television and radio history. Inside their vast archives of more than 120,000 television shows, commercials, and radio programs, there are thousands of important and funny programs waiting to be rediscovered by comedy nerds like you and me. Each week, this column will highlight a new gem waiting for you at the Paley Library to quietly laugh at. (Seriously, it’s a library, so keep it down.)

Albert Brooks, stand-up, author, actor, and comedy legend, was recently interviewed in the January issue of Vanity Fair which was guest edited by Judd Apatow. In it, Judd, a comedy vanguard himself, describes Brooks as "the prototype. He's the original smart, sensitive Jewish neurotic guy, with huge flaws and a heart of gold." But what's most fascinating to me is that this statement was true about the man from the very beginning of his comedy career, which began while he was in his early twenties. In the late 1960s and early 1970s when he began playing on the national stage, his comedic character already seemed fully formed, and he never lost sight of it or compromised his unique voice as he moved from stand-up to television to film.

Today we look at seven early short films from Albert Brooks, which he produced for television in the early seventies, which the Paley Center helpfully compiled together, without the laugh track that at least one of these shorts would later be broadcast with. I was immediately struck by how packed with jokes these short pieces are, and how Albert manages to create a cohesive tone for his work, despite being only 26 when he made the bulk of these. READ MORE

From the Archives
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What I Learned from the Paley Center Archives This Year

by | December 28th, 2012

It will come as no surprise to you to learn that I am a writer. (I sort of spoiled the surprise for you when I wrote a sentence down and then you read it.) More specifically, I am a comedy writer. When I started going to the Paley Center several years ago it was for entertainment, but it was also for my own education: to observe the comedians and performers of the past and to fill in the gaps of my own comedy history. However, when I came across what would become the subject of my first article for Splitsider, a short film made by Woody Allen that was never released to the public, I felt like I should get the word out. 56 articles later, I feel as though I've learned an awful lot. Here are some lessons I've learned from my year in the library at the Paley Center. READ MORE

From the Archives
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Watching Conan Celebrate His First Christmas on TV with the Help of Some Puppets

by | December 21st, 2012

The Paley Center for Media, which has locations in both New York and LA, dedicates itself to the preservation of television and radio history. Inside their vast archives of more than 120,000 television shows, commercials, and radio programs, there are thousands of important and funny programs waiting to be rediscovered by comedy nerds like you and me. Each week, this column will highlight a new gem waiting for you at the Paley Library to quietly laugh at. (Seriously, it’s a library, so keep it down.)

With each new installment of From the Archives I get to enjoy the searching and researching and recapping that goes into each new find at the Paley Center. As a comedy writer myself, it's very inspiring and educational to watch a lot of this material as a means of learning what came before and what repeats. With that in mind, every few months or so I like to look at the early days of one of my biggest personal comic heroes, Conan O'Brien. By seeing what was working for him and what traits he still has almost 20 years later is an excellent lesson in knowing one's comedic voice and writing to it. More importantly, Conan is funny.

So far we've looked at Letterman's first appearance on Conan's show, as well as the premiere of Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Today we look an episode just three months after that first episode, all the way to December 24, 1993. READ MORE

From the Archives
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A Rare Look at Woody Allen's Unaired Pilot About an Improv Comedy Team

by | December 14th, 2012

The Paley Center for Media, which has locations in both New York and LA, dedicates itself to the preservation of television and radio history. Inside their vast archives of more than 120,000 television shows, commercials, and radio programs, there are thousands of important and funny programs waiting to be rediscovered by comedy nerds like you and me. Each week, this column will highlight a new gem waiting for you at the Paley Library to quietly laugh at. (Seriously, it’s a library, so keep it down.)

After 55 of these articles, it's nice to know that blindly searching for things in the Paley Center collection can still yield serendipitous gems. When I typed in the phrase "unaired pilot" into the search I was first presented with a lot of the usual suspects from TV history: the original Star Trek episode, "The Cage," a copy of Dan Harmon's Heat Vision and Jack, the black and white first episode of Gilligan's Island and so on. What I wasn't expecting was a little thing from 1962 that was labeled: "LAUGHMAKERS, THE {PILOT} {Woody Allen, Alan Alda, Louise Lasser}."

What I had found was a sitcom pilot that Woody Allen had written but never went anywhere. Written in 1962, this would have fallen in Woody's career shortly after finishing his first professional TV gig as a writer for Sid Caesar's TV show, and just after he began a new career: that of a stand-up comic, working the circuit in New York City's trendy Greenwich Village (which will play into our story a little later). There's very little information about this pilot online (IMDb has it listed as a short film with a slightly different title), but it would appear that this was initially produced for ABC before they ultimately passed, missing the boat on having a sitcom created/written by future legend Woody Allen and featuring also future legend Alan Alda, a full ten years before he'd get his big break in M*A*S*H. I know it's not fair to gloat from the future, but, way to drop the ball, ABC! READ MORE

From the Archives
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Louis CK Discusses 'Louie,' Censorship, and Treating Others Nicely

by | December 7th, 2012

The Paley Center for Media, which has locations in both New York and LA, dedicates itself to the preservation of television and radio history. Inside their vast archives of more than 120,000 television shows, commercials, and radio programs, there are thousands of important and funny programs waiting to be rediscovered by comedy nerds like you and me. Each week, this column will highlight a new gem waiting for you at the Paley Library to quietly laugh at. (Seriously, it’s a library, so keep it down.)

There are shows that come around every once in a while, like Deadwood or 30 Rock where you know you're getting the creator's voice, beamed through your TV, loud and clear. And then there's Louie. With that show, the creator is so in control of everything you're seeing that you kind of forget it's a TV show until the commercials kick back in. I don't think I'm going out on a limb when I say that Louie is one of the most unique and important comedies to come on television in a very long time.

Watching the star, writer, director and editor of the show, Louis CK, in a recording of his panel discussion at the Paley Center, as I did recently, is a truly enlightening look into the process of getting a show like Louie off the ground. And if nothing else, I can now say with some certainty that this is the only item in the Paley library that mentions a dead woman's semen-covered stomach, unless there's some really crazy Honeymooners kinescope I've yet to uncover. READ MORE

From the Archives
3

Late Night Becomes the Late Show as Letterman Says Goodbye to NBC

by | November 30th, 2012

The Paley Center for Media, which has locations in both New York and LA, dedicates itself to the preservation of television and radio history. Inside their vast archives of more than 120,000 television shows, commercials, and radio programs, there are thousands of important and funny programs waiting to be rediscovered by comedy nerds like you and me. Each week, this column will highlight a new gem waiting for you at the Paley Library to quietly laugh at. (Seriously, it’s a library, so keep it down.)

In this, the final "From the Archives" of November, we present the final installment of our arbitrary theme looking at some of the more rare finales in television history. This week we watch as David Letterman switches networks and moves from 12:30am to 11:30pm in the final episode of Late Night with David Letterman. 

I write this article pre-assuming two things about the readers right off the bat. The first is that you already know an awful lot about the reasons why David Letterman moved from NBC to CBS in 1993. The feuding and (literal) backroom shenanigans have been thoroughly documented and dramatized in Bill Carter's book The Late Shift. If I've assumed wrong, here's the short version: Johnny Carson, king of late night, retires. He wants Letterman to take over The Tonight Show, NBC wants Leno. All kinds of crazy dealings occur, including some folks at NBC pushing hard for Letterman to push Jay out a year or so later, but ultimately Letterman decides to move into the 11:30pm time slot in direct competition with Leno where the two remain to this day.

The second thing that I am assuming in this article is that you're on Dave's side for all of this. READ MORE

From the Archives
0

Watching Steve Allen Say Goodnight to Late Night, for the Second Time

by | November 16th, 2012

The Paley Center for Media, which has locations in both New York and LA, dedicates itself to the preservation of television and radio history. Inside their vast archives of more than 120,000 television shows, commercials, and radio programs, there are thousands of important and funny programs waiting to be rediscovered by comedy nerds like you and me. Each week, this column will highlight a new gem waiting for you at the Paley Library to quietly laugh at. (Seriously, it’s a library, so keep it down.)

Today at "From the Archives," we continue our randomly selected theme as we look at some of the more rare finales in television history. This week we watch as Steve Allen says goodbye to late night TV. Again.

Steve Allen sits at a piano in a darkened studio, alone except for a few stagehands. "Saying goodbye to this show feels like graduating high school and going to college," he begins. "You realize you might be going to a bigger, better school, but there's still a measure of sadness leaving people and places that have become a familiar part of your life. The last day of school is never fun."

As long-time readers of this column already know, Steve Allen's career in late night goes all the way back to the first episode of the very first version of the Tonight Show. It was here that Allen developed many of the familiar formulas of late night television that are still in place today. However, Allen became too popular to waste at 11:30 at night, so NBC moved him to Sunday nights where he would try to bring down CBS' powerhouse, Ed Sullivan. After a nice run there, he returned to late night on a syndicated show, sponsored by Westinghouse. In October of 1964, Steve Allen broadcasted his final episode of The Steve Allen Show. READ MORE

From the Archives
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Television's First Comedy Hit Says Goodbye: The Final 'Your Show of Shows'

by | November 9th, 2012

The Paley Center for Media, which has locations in both New York and LA, dedicates itself to the preservation of television and radio history. Inside their vast archives of more than 120,000 television shows, commercials, and radio programs, there are thousands of important and funny programs waiting to be rediscovered by comedy nerds like you and me. Each week, this column will highlight a new gem waiting for you at the Paley Library to quietly laugh at. (Seriously, it’s a library, so keep it down.)

For no good reason, all through November "From the Archives" will be looking at some of the most infrequently seen finales in television history. We begin this week with one of the more important, and unusual sign-offs, in comedy history.

Earlier this year we looked at the legacy of Sid Caesar through a panel discussion featuring much of the cast and the super team of writers, featuring Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Mel Tolkin, Neil Simon and others. In it we learned that Your Show of Shows came about after Caesar and his co-star Imogene Coca's first show was cancelled, not due to performance, but because it was so popular that its sponsor had to drop out because they no longer had any more product to sell.

The same "problem" plagued Your Show of Shows. After five years on the air, Sid and Imogene had become two of the biggest stars in all of television. "So," thought the executives at NBC, "if we have two huge stars, why should we waste them both on one program?" So, the plan was set in motion: the 90 minute variety program Your Show of Shows was cancelled. Sid Caesar would continue on his own 60 minute program called Caesar's Hour. Meanwhile, Imogene would stay on Saturdays with her half-hour program called The Imogene Coca Show. But more on those later… READ MORE

From the Archives
6

The Night Groucho Marx Took Over Dick Cavett's Show

by | October 19th, 2012

The Paley Center for Media, which has locations in both New York and LA, dedicates itself to the preservation of television and radio history. Inside their vast archives of more than 120,000 television shows, commercials, and radio programs, there are thousands of important and funny programs waiting to be rediscovered by comedy nerds like you and me. Each week, this column will highlight a new gem waiting for you at the Paley Library to quietly laugh at. (Seriously, it’s a library, so keep it down.)

The other night I was listening to Alec Baldwin's interview with Dick Cavett on his show Here's the Thing, and I was trying to figure out who would be Cavett's closest match today. Charlie Rose doesn't have the sense of humor. The late night hosts are too performance oriented and don't just have a conversation, although Craig Ferguson is closer than the others. If Conan does more of his "Serious Jibber Jabber" segments online that might be pretty close, but basically, there's no one to match Cavett.

Now, to be fair, I personally have only seen a few interviews and clips from his shows, but it's clear right away that he brought something different to the table. Dick started out as a stand-up, talent coordinator, and writer for Johnny Carson's Tonight Show before finally getting his own show in 1968, which then jumped around from network to network intermittently until its most recent incarnation ended on Turner Classic Movies in 2007. But the differences in style are obvious. Critics at the time called him "a thinking man's talk show host." Cavett is a quick-witted, fast-talker who is able to speak at an intellectual level with any guest, whether it be Woody Allen, Janis Joplin or Gore Vidal. However, on September 5, 1969, Dick took a back seat and let Groucho take the wheel. READ MORE

From the Archives
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Listen as Johnny Carson Presents the Best in Comedy from NBC's First 50 Years

by | October 12th, 2012

The Paley Center for Media, which has locations in both New York and LA, dedicates itself to the preservation of television and radio history. Inside their vast archives of more than 120,000 television shows, commercials, and radio programs, there are thousands of important and funny programs waiting to be rediscovered by comedy nerds like you and me. Each week, this column will highlight a new gem waiting for you at the Paley Library to quietly laugh at. (Seriously, it’s a library, so keep it down.)

(Please note that this article was written under the mistaken impression that this article was the fiftieth edition of “From the Archives.” I have since recounted and realized that this was the forty-ninth edition. I apologize for any inconvenience.)

Fifty, count ‘em, fifty articles in the From the Archives series! What a fantastic run we’ve had! Over the past fifty installments we’ve looked at some of television history’s brightest and funniest stars, and together we’ve had a lot of laughs (and learned a few things) on no less than fifty separate occasions! Fifty!

Well in honor of that magical number, today we’re going to be looking at a comedy special from a form of media that I’ve neglected lo, these fifty articles. Before it was known as The Paley Center for Media it was The Museum of Television and Radio, and so far, we haven’t talked about that second category all that much. Well today, that’s going to change as we examine a radio special from the Paley Archives entitled A Half-Century of NBC Comedy. And as an added bonus, I’ve tracked down a copy of the file for you to listen along with. READ MORE

From the Archives
1

Heeeeeeeeere's Steve Martin! Watching Steve Guest Host the 'Tonight Show'

by | October 5th, 2012

The Paley Center for Media, which has locations in both New York and LA, dedicates itself to the preservation of television and radio history. Inside their vast archives of more than 120,000 television shows, commercials, and radio programs, there are thousands of important and funny programs waiting to be rediscovered by comedy nerds like you and me. Each week, this column will highlight a new gem waiting for you at the Paley Library to quietly laugh at. (Seriously, it’s a library, so keep it down.)

Last week in "From the Archives" we looked at an unaired Chris Elliott pilot to celebrate the release of Get a Life on DVD and this week we follow suit by celebrating the newly released and really great box set, Steve Martin: The Television Stuff, by looking at some of Steve's early TV work found in the Paley library. This week we watch as Steve Martin guest hosts The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

On August 22, 1977, the classic rainbow colored curtain opened up and instead of television's pal, Johnny Carson, out stepped a man in a metallic silver shirt, a brown coat draped around his shoulders, a tan scarf with matching fedora, and large brown sunglasses. It is, of course, Steve Martin, our replacement host. During this time, every Monday on The Tonight Show had a guest host, and when Johnny went on vacation, they might end up being there the entire week. This practice seems to have gone completely out of favor with any other modern talk show host, with one of the few exceptions being the short period when David Letterman was recovering from heart surgery. READ MORE

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