Taking out laughs can make a comedy funnier

There’s an old theater expression: “Take out twenty minutes; run two years longer.” Most dramatic efforts would benefit by being twenty minutes shorter.Movies, for sure. Comedies in particular. Sceen comedies should run about 90 minutes. Once...

Hollywood tours

Tourism is always big in Los Angeles, especially during the summer. Local residents on the Westside are used to seeing kids stand out on Sunset Blvd. selling maps to the stars’ homes. Hollywood locals take it for granted that a thousand nimrods...

Is there "Too much television?"

At a recent appearance at the Television Critics convention, FX CEO John Landgraf made industry headlines by declaring there was too much scripted fare on TV and in time will start to decline. He believes there is too much competition and that quality...

Blog spelling, lack of punctuatio, or lack of same

These posts would be so much eazier to write if I didn’t have to worry about spelling and punktuation. That was always one of the beauties of riting dialog. People don’t talk in grammatically correct sentences and who cares about the spellling...

Oh no! Not ANOTHER tribute to Jon Stewart?

 Yes, I'm afraid so.  How will we get through the next presidential campaign without him?  Or a day in Congress?  I have to say I felt a much greater sadness watching Jon Stewart's last show than David Letterman’s. Letterman was...

Friday Questions

Here are some mid-summer Friday Questions.    Norm! starts us off:What do you think is the best movie that's actually about Hollywood itself? People always mention The Player, which IS a good film but a tad overrated. I have a fascination...