Ron Carey R.I.P.

Ron Carey, best known for playing Officer Carl Levitt on the TV series Barney Miller, died on January 16, 2007 from a stroke.

Carey was born Ronald Joseph Cicenia in Newark, New Jersey on December 11, 1935. Although he graduated from Seton Hall University with a Bachelor's degree in Communications, he decided to take up comedy instead. Carey started in New York, playing at various clubs. His routine involved jokes about his height (Levitt was 5 foot 7 inches tall, but behaved as if he was much shorter) and Italian "ethnic" jokes. Eventually he started appearing on various variety shows and talk shows, starting with The Merv Griffin Show in 1966. He appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Mike Douglas Show, The Ed Sullivan Show, and The Tonight Show. In 1968 he appeared on Broadway in Lovers and Other Strangers.

In 1970 he broke into films playing a cab driver in the Jack Lemmon vehicle The Out of Towners. Bit parts and roles in the TV shows The Corner Bar and The Montefuscos followed. His first real success would come as part of the Mel Brooks' company of players. His first appearance in a Brooks film was in Silent Movie in 1976. He would also appear in High Anxiety and History of the World Part I.

Of course, by 1976 Carey would be cast in the role for which he was best known--Officer Levitt on Barney Miller. The eager to please, yet overconfident uniformed officer who wanted so badly to be a plain clothes detective. Fortunately for Levitt, he eventually received the promotion he'd wanted so much.

Following the end of Barney Miller Carey appeared on both small and big screens less and less. He had a role in the comedy Johnny Dangerously, as well as parts in the TV shows Have Faith and Lucky Luke. His last screen appearance was as the lead in the comedy short Food for Thought (it was nominated for an award at the Cannes Film Festival).

Barney Miller was one of my favourite shows of the late Seventies and early Eighties, and I still enjoy it to this day. And Carey was perfectly cast as Levitt. In some respects Carey's appearance always reminded me of a Bassett hound, which was perfect for Officer Levitt, who was always a bit too eager to please his superiors. It is sad that his career never really took off beyond his role in Barney Miller and various Mel Brooks films, as Carey was a very funny man. He will certainly be missed.

2007 Oscar Nominees

Today the nominations for the 79th annual Academy Awards was announced. And, as usual, there were a few surprises. Perhaps the most surprising thing for me was that Dreamgirls was nominated the most times, with eight nominations, but Best Picture was not one of them. I have to admit that with all the buzz surrounding the film and with all the speculation on its potential as a Best Picture contender, I was rather surprised that it wasn't nominated for the top prize.

Even more surprising for me was that Paul Greengrass was nominated in the Directing category for United 93. Although there was a great deal of publicity surrounding this film, there was very little in the way of Oscar buzz. I really didn't expect it to receive any nominations. Fortunately for Greengrass, I was wrong.

Another surprise for me was that Ben Affleck was not nominated for Hollywoodland. I remember when the film came out there was talk about him being a candidate for Best Supporting Actor for his role as George Reeves. It seems that ultimately the talk was exactly that, just talk.

At any rate, it seems to me that this year Martin Scorsese might actually stand a chance at Best Picture and Best Director. I rather suspect that the biggest competition for The Departed is probably Babel (the actors in the Academy seem to love ensemble pieces, which partially explains how Crash won last year) and Letters From Iwo Jima. I am thinking that Hollywood might well favour one of their own over an outsider (Alejandro Gonzalez being from Mexico), so that if The Departed does not win Best Picture, then it will be Letters From Iwo Jima.

At any rate, what I thought would not be a very interesting Oscar race this year might well turn out to be interesting after all. As much as people try to predict who will be nominated and who will win what, it seems that the Academy loves to be unpredictable.

Bonanza

I rather suspect every person has their comfort shows; that is, shows that he or she watches whenever he or she is depressed or under stress or simply feeling blue. I must confess to having several comfort shows I will watch when I am feeling down, among them being Bonanza. Much of the reason that Bonanza is a comfort show for me is quite simple--I rather suspect it may well have been my parents' favourite TV series. Every Sunday night we would watch Bonanza on NBC. Indeed, after Bonanza had ended its network run, my parents would even watch it in syndicated reruns. I rather suspect that if they had lived long enough to see the advent of DVDs, it would have been the first (maybe the only) TV show they would have bought on DVD.

Bonanza was the creation of David Dortort. Dortort had written for such series as Climax ande Studio 57. He had also been a producer on the Western series The Restless Gun, which aired from 1957 to 1959 (initially on NBC, then on ABC). While The Restless Gun was one of a number of Westerns in the Fifties chronicling the adventures of a loner wandering from place to place, Dortort's new Western would break with most of the many, many Westerns which aired in the late Fifties. The most obvious difference between Bonanza and previous Western TV shows was that it was in colour. Indeed, not only was it the first Western to be filmed in colour, but it was the first American TV series to have every one of its episodes filmed in colour.

There were other major differences between Bonanza and previous Western TV shows as well. Quite simply, Bonanza was the first Western series to centre on a ranch (the massive Ponderosa). Prior to Bonanza, most Western shows focused on lawmen or loners wandering the West (The Rifleman was an exception--it centred on homesteader Lucas McCain). With its success, then, Bonanza was important in giving shape to the Western TV show of the Sixties, most of which centred on a family living on a piece of land rather than an unmarried sheriff living in town or a wanderer with no roots. In other words, without Bonanza, there would have been not have been The Virginian, The Big Valley, or The High Chapparal.

Another thing which set Bonanza apart from many of the Westerns in the Fifties was that it generally avoided traditional Western gunfights. The lead characters would generally try to resolve any conflicts which arose through words rather than bullets. In this respect, Bonanza was following the lead of such Western TV shows as Gunsmoke and Have Gun, Will Travel, which also sought to resolve conflict without resorting to shootouts.

Bonanza centred on the Cartwright family, who owned the vast Ponderosa. The head of the household was Ben Cartwright (Lorne Greene), who had the misfortune of outliving three different wives. Fortunately, Ben had a son by each wife, giving him plenty of help on the ranch. Adam (Pernell Roberts) was the oldest of the boys and the most serious, although he did have a bit of a temper. Hoss (Dan Blocker) was the middle son and easily the most popular character. Large in size, he was also amiable and gentle, with a gift for handling animals. Little Joe (Michael Landon) was the youngest of the sons, romantic and somewhat impulsive. The Cartwrights lived on the Ponderosa not far from Virginia City, historically an important mining town in Nevada.

Bonanza debuted Saturday night, September 12, 1959. It was hardly an immediate success. During the 1959-1960 season, it only ranked #45 out of all the series on the air. Fortunately, its ratings rose in its second season. For the 1960-1961 season Bonanza ranked #17 for the year in the Nielsens. It would be in the series' third season, however, that it became one of the top rated American TV shows of the Sixties. NBC moved Bonanza from Saturday nights to Sunday nights--the time slot it would occupy for the next eleven years. The move benefited Bonanza immensely--for the '61-'62 season it was the #2 show on the air. Bonanza would remain in the top five show for each season from the '61-'62 season to the '69-'70 season--a remarkable feat for any show. What is more, Bonanza spent three of those years as the #1 show on television.

If Bonanza was one of the biggest hits of the Sixties, it may well have been because it was simply a very well done show. For its time Bonanza had some of the best photography of any TV show, and often times it reached motion picture photography. Beyond the look of the series, it must be pointed out that the characters were well written and well acted. This was not simply true of the Cartwrights, but the rest of the cast as well. From Sheriff Coffee to Doc Martin, even the secondary characters were well developed. Bonanza was also among the best written of any series in the Sixties. Indeed, it addressed such issues as racial discrimination, religious tolerance, and political corruption before most series did.

Another factor in the success of Bonanza may well have been the versatility of the series. And its best episodes almost always departed from the traditional Western. The third season episode "The Jury" is a classic murder mystery, in which Hoss's doubts about a culprit's guilt leads Adam to find the real killer. "The Flannel-Mouth Gun" came close to a traditional Western plot, pitting Adam against a range detective hired by Virginia City's Cattlemen's Association. The fifth season episode "Peace Officer" examined abuse of power when Sheriff Coffee is temporarily replaced by lawman Wes Dunn (played by Eric Fleming of Rawhide fame). Of course, in my opinion Bonanza was at its best when it did comedy. Among the funniest episodes is "Joe Cartwright, Detective," in which Little Joe becomes obsessed with detective novels and tries to prevent the bank from being robbed. The episode parodied detectives from Sherlock Holmes to Peter Gunn and even featured a fight scene which spoofed those from the then popular show Batman. Another great comic episode was "Queen High" from the tenth season, in which Little Joe and Candy (David Canary) become rivals for a beautiful blonde who has inherited a stamping mill.

Of course, none of this is to say that Bonanza was without flaws. It did have quite a few. While Bonanza did address the issue of racism, it also featured a number of racist stereotypes, particularly early in its run. Most people today would consider the Cartwrights' cook, Hop Sing (played by Victor Sen Yung, perhaps best known as Charlie Chan's #2 son), to be something of a sterotypical Chinese servant. Other episodes featured stereotypical Mexican banditos and Native American stereotypes as well. Even when Bonanza was attempting to point out the dangers of racism, as in "The Beginning," in which the Cartwrights try to help a boy raised by Native Americans adjust to European American society, racist stereotypes would sometimes appear. It must be kept in time that Bonanza was largely a product of its time and, sadly enough, racist stereotypes were still common in American culture.

A more glaring flaw where Bonanza is that after some time on the air the show developed its own share of formulas--stock plots which would provide fodder for a number of episodes. Anyone who has watched even a small number of Bonanza episodes will soon notice that there are several episodes in which one of the Cartwrights will meet a girl, fall in love with a girl, and even come close to marrying the girl, only to have that girl either contract a deadly disease or suffer some horrible death. This plot was used so often on Bonanza that Michael Landon joked that about the Cartwrights having to be careful that their horses didn’t trip over all the graves of all the women who had died on the show! Another plotline that became a formula on the show was one in which one of the Cartwrights would be accused of murder. This plot appears as early as the first season, in the episode "The Sisters" in which Adam was arrested for murder. It was still being used in the ninth season (in the episode "Judgement at Olympus," in which Candy is arrested for murder) and the tenth season (in which Hoss is arrested for murder...again...in the episode "Child"). Taken individually these episodes in which the Cartwrights fall in love, only to lose the girl to death, or in which a Cartwright is accused of murder can be quite enjoyable, but after seeing several of these sorts of episodes one can't help but have a sinking feeling of deja vu.

Bonanza would undergo various changes over the years, perhaps the second biggest being the departure of Pernell Roberts as Adam. Roberts had been dissatisfied with the show for some time, questioning the quality of its writing and even referring to it as "Junk TV." He left at the end of the '64-'65 season and Adam's absence was explained through having the character move to Australia. Sadly, Roberts' career spun into such obscurity that he became a running joke for Johnny Carson--he would not attain fame again until starring in Trapper John M.D. in the Eighties (whose writing I don't see as being superior to that on Bonanza...). David Canary would join the cast in its ninth season as ranch hand Candy. He left the show in 1970 due to a salary dispute, only to return in 1972.

It was the twelfth season that would see some of the biggest changes to Bonanza. The departure of David Canary saw the addition of Mitch Vogel as orphan Jamie Hunter and Lou Frizzell as ranch hand Dusty Rhodes. The theme was also changed this season. Since its beginning the show had opened with the classic Bonanza theme written by legendary songsmith Jay Livingston. For the twelfth season, the show boasted a new theme, "The Big Bonanza," written by David Rose (most famous as the composer of "The Stripper"), who had been responsible for the show's music since its first season. "The Big Bonanza" was not well received by fans and the original theme would be reinstated for the show's fourteenth and final season. The Twelfth season also saw Bonanza move from the Paramount lot, where it had been shot since it had debuted, to the Warner Brothers lot.

It would be the fourteenth season that would see what would perhaps be the show's biggest change. Prior to shooting on the show's final season, Dan Blocker died from a blood clot in his lungs. Bonanza would then see its first and only season without Hoss, easily the most popular character on the show. In an attempt to fill the gap left by Dan Blocker's death, David Canary returned as Candy and Tim Matheson joined the cast as Griff King.

Sadly, as much as I love Bonanza, I have come to the conclusion that it is a show that did outstay its welcome. The series was showing cracks as early as the eighth season, with such episodes as "To Bloom for Thee," in which Hoss is engaged to yet another woman he will inevitably lose, and "The Greedy Ones," in which the Ponderosa is overrun by prospectors looking for gold without changing the ranch one bit. For me the turning point of the series was probably the twelfth season. Perhaps it was the change in the theme song, perhaps it was yet more changes in the cast, but somehow Bonanza seems to have lost its way. The season saw several episodes that were just truly wretched in my opinion. Indeed, the season opener, "The Night Virginia City Died," featuring Angel Tompkins as a beautiful pyromaniac, is perhaps the worst Bonanza episode of all time. "The Weary Willies," featuring Richard Thomas (John Boy from "The Walton") as the 19th century version of hippies--War Between the States veterans who turned their back on society because of their experiences in the war (the episode does have some basis in history)--was nearly as bad. While Bonanza was still capable of producing good episodes, there would be more and more episodes of low quality as the show progressed. By the fourteenth season many of the episodes simply weren't watchable.

While I think Bonanza declined in quality, I don't think that was what was primarily led to its cancellation after fourteen seasons on the air. The fourteenth and final season of Bonanza saw the series drop in drastically in the ratings. While the season opener, "Forever," ranked number four for the weekly Nielsens and the next few episodes also performed well. Sadly, the series sank steadily in the ratings until it ranked only #52 in the ratings in late October. Bonanza was cancelled on November 3, 1972. Like many, I think the show's declining ratings were due primarily to two factors. . The first was that NBC moved the series from the Sunday night time slot it had possessed for more than ten years to a new Tuesday night time slot. This placed the show directly against Maude and Hawaii Five-O on CBS--both hit series at the time. The second, and perhaps the primary reason the show's drop in ratings was the death of Dan Blocker. Hoss was easily the show's most popular character throughout its run. I have little doubt that many longtime viewers simply could not bring themselves to watch the series any longer. Between a new time slot and the loss of its most popular, Bonanza had little hope for survival in its final season.

Bonanza would go onto one of the most successful syndication runs of all time. The series would run on local stations throughout the Seventies and Eighties. Later it would be picked up by the Family Channel, the Goodlife Television Network, Pax, the Hallmark Channel, and TV Land. Initially, the seventh, twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth seasons were not made available for syndication, although they would later surface on various cable channels. Interestingly, Bonanza would sometimes face censorship form cable channels. When the series aired on the Family Channel, Pat Robertson refused to air five episodes on the grounds that they offended his religious sensibilities. The ill-fated Pax network also refused to air some episodes.

Regardless of its faults, regardless of the fact that it stayed on the air much too long (something it shares with The X-Files and The Simpsons), I still love Bonanza. Much of this is due to the fact that, for whatever flaws it has, Bonanza was among the best series of the Sixties. Much of it I must also admit is due to the fact that it reminds me of my early childhood. To a large degree, then, Bonanza gives me a sense of home and family and belonging. It was, after all, my parents' favourite TV show.

Denny Doherty Passes On

Denny Doherty, singer, songwriter, and a member of the Sixties vocal group the Mamas and the Papas died yesterday at the age of 66. He had recently undergone surgery for a a stomach aneurysm, following which he suffered kidney failure.

Doherty was born on November 29, 1940 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He began his recording career as the co-founder of a folk group called The Colonials, who changed their name to the Halifax Three after they were signed to Columbia Records. The group broke up in 1963 after meeting with little success. It was that same year that he became friends with Cass Elliot and met John and Michelle Phillips. For the next few years Doherty would be a part of groups that included either Cass Elliot or John Phillips. Finally, in 1965, Doherty became a part of the group initially called The Magic Circle, but which would be re-named the Mamas and the Papas after they were signed to Dunhill Records.

The Mamas and the Papas were a hit from the very beginning. Their first single, "California Dreamin'," reached number 4 on the American Billboard singles charts in late 1965. Their second single, "Monday, Monday," hit #3 on the singles charts. The group was among a number of American artists who blended folk music with rock and pop (other examples being Simon and Garfunkel and The Byrds). And while John Phillips was the group's primary songwriter, it was Denny Doherty who was the group's lead male vocalist on most songs. From 1965 to 1968 the Mamas and the Papas would have a string of hits, many of which hit the top twenty on the singles charts. Unfortunately, while the Mamas and the Papas would see considerable more success than the previous groups to which Doherty belonged, it would not last any longer. Tensions within the group would lead to its breakup in the summer of 1968. The group reunited in 1971 for the album People Like Us (recorded to meet a contractual obligation to Dunhill Records) failed badly on the charts.

For the rest of the Seventies Doherty released two solo albums. He also starred in the Broadway play Man in the Moon, written by John Phillips and produced by Andy Warhol. It only lasted five weeks in 1974. In 1999 he created an autobiographical play, Dream a Little Dream: the Nearly True Story of the Mamas and the Papas, which debuted in Halifax. In 2003 he took it to New York, where it played off Broadway.

In the Eighties Doherty teamed with John Phillips, Phillips' daughter Mackenzie (from a marriage previous to Michelle--she played on the TV series One Day at a Time in the Seventies), and Elaine "Spanky" McFarlane (of Sixties group Spanky and Our Gang) to form a new version of the Mamas and the Papas.

Doherty also had a bit of an acting career. In 1984 he played in the Canadian TV show Windows. As an actor he was perhaps best known for his role as the Harbour Master in the CBC children's show Theodore Tugboat.

Sadly, only one member of the original Mamas and Papas remains alive (Michelle Phllips, on whom I still have a big crush). Cass Elliot died in 1974 and John Phillips in 2001, both from heart failure. If Elliot's death ended any hope of a reunion of the original members of the group, then Phillips and Doherty's deaths certainly do. I remember the Mamas and the Papas from my early childhood. Indeed, along with various Beatles and Monkees songs, "California Dreamin'" is among the earliest songs I can remember. And I have little doubt that Doherty's soaring vocals was a key ingredient to the group's success. He was a gifted singer whose voice complimented the voice of Cass Elliot perfectly. Although he is not often credited as such, Doherty is then an important part of the history of pop music in the Sixties.

Art Buchwald R. I. P.

Art Buchwald, columnist, political satirist, and novelist, died yesterday at the age of 81 from kidney failure. Buchwald had refused dialysis that might have kept him alive longer and lived another year. In typical Art Buchwald fashion, it was Art Buchwald who announced his own death. In a video on posted the New York Times web site, he announced, "Hi, I'm Art Buchwald and I just died."

Art Buchwald was born on October 20, 1925 in Mount Vernon, New York. His father, Joseph Buchwald, manufactured curtains. He grew in Queens and left home at the age of seventeen. He enlisted in the Marines in 1942, bribing a drunk to sign as his legal guardian as he was too young. He served as part of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing in the Pacific Theatre.

Following World War II, Buchwald enrolled at the University of Southern California, where he wrote for the college newspaper, the Daily Trojan, and edited the campus magazine, Wampus. Following graduation he went to Paris, eventually becoming a correspondent there for Variety. In 1948 he submitted a sample column focused on the nightlife in Paris to the New York Herald Tribune. The newspaper hired him and the column became Paris After Dark. Immensely popular, Buchwald started writing another column, Mostly About People. The two columns were eventually combined and syndicated across the United States as Europe's Lighter Side.

In 1962 Buchwald returned to the United States. Back in America Buchwald began writing his column for the Washington Post, which continued until a few weeks ago. There Buchwald lampooned the powers that be in Washington. Like his previous columns, this one met with success and would eventually be syndicated to over 500 newspapers.

Buchwald was also the author of over 30 books. He wrote both nonfiction and fiction, his books always laced with his trademark humour. Among the books he wrote were I'll Always Have Paris (about his experiences there), the novel A Gift From the Boys, and Leaving Home, a memoir about his early life. Buchwald even chronicled his last days in the book Too Soon to Say Goodbye. He also wrote the Broadway play Sheep on the Runway in 1970. Buchwald also sued Paramount over the Eddie Murphy vehicle Coming to America, sensing too much of a resemblance to his idea "King for a Day." Buchwald also wrote the screenplay for the 1960 Yul Brynner film Surprise Package and provided additional dialogue for the 1967 movie Play Time.

Art Buchwald spent his final year writing his twice weekly column and receiving visits from friends. Buchwald even attended book parties for Too Soon to Say Goodbye.

I can't help but be saddened by Art Buchwald's passing. He was, quite simply, one of the funniest Americans born in the Twentieth Century. He could possibly have been that century's greatest satirist. Indeed, Buchwald had the marvelous ability to send up important political issues and mock those with overblown egos without ever being partisan. It is little wonder that Buchwald was friends with such varied individuals as Humphrey Bogart, Stanley, Donen, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Carly Simon, and Theodor Giesel (better known as Dr. Seuss). With his sense of humor and zest for life he always seemed to me to be a very likable guy. Indeed, it is not surprising in the least to me that Art Buchwald faced his death the way he did, continuing to write and visiting with friends, all the while enjoying food from McDonalds. Art Buchwald was always so alive that he need not mourn his own eventual passing. Indeed, he was so always so alive that it is still hard to believe that he is gone.

The Golden Globe Awards 2007

Having volunteered to work Martin Luther King Day, I missed the Golden Globes last night. But from everything I have read, it appears that once more it was a mixed bag. Of course, keep in mind that I have never taken the Golden Globes series seriously (see last year's entry for more details...)

Not having seen most of the nominees for Best Picture--Drama and Best Picture--Comedy or Musical, I can't say that I have any strong feelings about who won and who lost. Indeed, I wasn't surprised that Dreamgirls took the award for Best Picture--Comedy or Musical, considering the hype that has surrounded the movie. I have yet to see Dreamgirls, but I still have to wonder if Thank You For Smoking wouldn't have been more worthy of the award. I am glad that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HPFA) finally created a category for Best Animated Feature Film, and I have no objections to Cars having won the award (I have yet to see Monster House, although I understand it is quite good).

While I haven't any strong feelings about the motion picture awards, I do have some about the television awards. I have to ask the HFPA in what twisted world is Grey's Anatomy a better show than Lost, House (which wasn't even nominated for Best Television Series--Drama), or 24? I've said it before and I'll say it again--Grey's Anatomy is simply a standard medical drama with a greater quotient of sex. And while I have yet to watch Ugly Betty, which won Best Television Series--Comedy, I have to wonder if it really is better than Entourage, The Office, or My Name is Earl (which wasn't even nominated), the three best comedies on TV today?

Given the fact that I have never taken the Golden Globe Awards too seriously, I shouldn't complain so much about them. But the sad fact is that they do have an impact on both the Oscars and the Emmys. I just hope that this year that effect is minimal...

The Illusionist

Last year saw the release of two major motion pictures centred around stage magicians, The Prestige and The Illusionist. And while comparisons were perhaps inevitable, they are very different films. While The Prestige is a multi-layered, nearly epic film taking place over many years, at its heart The Illusionist is an old fashioned love story and mystery.

Set in Vienna around the turn of the 19th century, The Illusionist centres upon Eisenheim the Illusionist, a stage magician who fell in love with the Duchess Sophie von Teschen. After travelling the world and honing his skills as a stage magician, Eisenheim returns to Vienna where he and Sophie rekindle their relationship. Unfortunately, Sophie is engaged to the brutal and corrupt Crown Prince Leopold.

Within this setup, The Illusionist tells a tale that is both complex and satisfying. Based on a short story by Steven Millhauser, the screenplay unfolds like a good book, taking its time to allow both the plot and the characters to develop. Making the movie more convincing is a good cast. Edward Norton is convincing as Eisenheim, an illusionist whose dispassionate exterior hides the heart of a romantic, as is Paul Giamatti, whose Chief Inspector Uhl finds his ambitions in conflict with his honesty. Jessica Biel, best known for the show Seventh Heaven, proves to be a pleasant surprise. Finally she is able to show some talent in a role with some depth.

The Illusionist is a beautiful film to watch. Its cinematography is reminiscent of both old photographs and the early motion pictures of the 20th century. This gives the movie a moody, but at the same time soft atmosphere perfectly in keeping with fine de siecle Vienna. If there is one flaw with The Illusionist it is that some of the illusions may well have been impossible at the time. While I had no problem suspending my disbelief, others might not be able to.

In the end, it is hard to believe that this is only director Neil Burger's second film. He has made a better film than some more experienced directors. Ultimately, The Illusionist is quite simply an accomplished movie that succeeds in both entertaining and intriguing the viewer.