This is a very interesting interview (and often funny) that Larry David did with Joe Scarborough for Morning Joe. It not only covers Larry's career, starting with floundering as a stand-up comic and briefly a writer for Saturday Night Live, but also has a lot of background footage about how his show Curb Your Enthusiasm is made. Most fun -- and surprising -- is hearing Larry talk about things in his life and career, and then seeing clips of Seinfeld for how they much later turned into episodes.
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This was quite a find and will be a tremendous treat for people who watched the recent PBS three-part series Nolly, which starred Helena Bonham Carter. If you haven’t seen it, there’s still a lot to like in this (and I’ll give some background), but again, for those who did see the show, it may blow you way. A friend highly-recommended I watch. While I wasn't bowled over by the show, I definitely enjoyed the first episode enough to keep watching, and liked the second episode even more. It was very well-produced, Helena Bonham Carter was wonderful, and it had some excellent supporting performances -- but -- it was the third episode that totally won me over. That finale episode was truly superb, on a lot of levels. And made it all highly worth-while. Nolly is the true story of Noelle Gordon, who was a wildly popular soap opera star on British television of a show called Crossroads, the queen of British soaps for 18 years – until she was fired with no explanation, sent off into the sunset, as it were, sailing away on the QE2, waving to her show’s ‘daughter’ on the dock. It was a huge national controversy at the time, she was such a beloved personality for so long. She had been on the ATV network for 26 years, and not just as an actress but was the first woman to interview a prime minister on television, and in fact was the first woman broadcast on British TV in color when it was just experimental. And how she dealt with the firing and humiliation, including going on to appear in well-regarded production of Gypsy and handling all the questions of why was she sacked, is the focus of the third segment – which has two particularly superb monologues/scenes in it. (I don’t want to describe them more, in case anyone does decide to watch the show.) For those interested, the whole thing is only about 2-1/2 hours, and you can watch it on the PBS Passport site, which you can see here after signing in with a PBS subscriber account. Here's the trailer. Which brings us to "the find", and the point of this all. This video is an appearance by the real Noelle Gordon on a British chat show that took place less than one week after her final episode aired on Crossroads. The next episode hadn’t even been shown yet. It’s a fascinating interview, open and honest, gracious and pointed, and talks with host Russell Harty about her plans ahead (including working on Gypsy!). There are also a few unexpected moments I won’t give away, but will say it is surprisingly moving at times. At one point, too, she tells a story about auditioning in front of composer Frederick Loewe for the British production of Brigadoon – a story they use in the series, and she adds more detail here. (She got cast in the show, by the way.) She even sings a couple of songs during the interview. If you watch, stick around to the very end, because it looks like they kept the cameras running even after the broadcast was over. Unfortunately, I'm unable to embed the video on an outside website, but you can watch it here on YouTube. For my taste, the PBS Masterpiece mini-series, "Mr. Bates vs. the Post Office" (based on a true national scandal) is every bit as great as its reputation and huge success that it had in England. An ensemble cast, but starring Toby Jones. Usually he plays offbeat, quirky characters, sometimes villains, but here he's quiet, low-key, down-to-earth. That's much the way the series is -- but very personal, involving and often-deeply moving. Crushing at times as you witness deeply-decent and innocent people being rolled, many with lives ruined, some wrongly imprisoned, all for reasons they don't understand by a government behemoth. Yet, appalling and tragic as much of the story is -- it's also about the fight back and is very much uplifting, as well. The story is about small-town sub-postmasters (sort of like a step-up from people who run Mailbox Etc. stores) who are prosecuted for major theft, each told they were the only one with the problem they were claiming, when it turns out it was a systemwide computer error. That simple description only because to do justice to the building emotion of everything. Though the series does a great job in focusing the story in a manageable tightness, it actually is still somewhat going on after 20 years, and 160 million pounds in restitution have (so far...) been paid. Two episodes down, two to go. If you subscribe to PBS, you can catch up on the series on PBS Passport. In fact, all four episodes are available there, including a short follow-up featurette on the true story. Here's the short trailer from when it aired in England. It only touches the surface. As it says, "The largest miscarriage of justice in British history." I've enjoyed the first two seasons of the documentary series, Welcome to Wrexham. That's the show about the low-level soccer team bought by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElheney. In fact, for the past two years, I've tangentially followed how the team is doing, so I'm more prepared for when the TV show airs, rather than be surprised. The new season of the show premieres on May 2 on f/X. This year's soccer season ends in about a week, so anyone who watches the show and does NOT want to know how the Wrexham Red Dragons did this year -- you should stop here. Consider this a SPOILER ALERT. Just as a reminder, England has four tiers in what are considered "English Football League" play. The top two are the Premier League and the Championship League. The other two are known as League One and League. Below that are the non-official leagues. Wrexham had been in the next tier, known as the National League. They hadn't been in official English Football League play for 15 years. The way this all ways, in general, is that the top two or three teams (depending on the league) get "promoted" to the next tier up. And the bottom two or three teams get "relegated" down to the tier below. In the first season of Welcome to Wrexham, the team had their best year in a long time, but just missed getting promoted. In the second season, Wrexham actually got promoted finally -- after decades -- to compete this year in League Two. That's where things stood at the end of last year's series. And where things stand as of today, with Wrexham having two games left in the season -- they are right now in second place and, after winning 6-0 (with the M.K. Dons losing, Wrexham has actually clinched getting promoted up to League One next season!! This is very uncommon for a team to get promoted two years in a row. Usually, it's something they have to build to. In fact, it's not uncommon for a promoted team to get relegated back down the next year. Or to add perspective, this is the first time that Wrexham has had back-to-back promotions in the team's 159-year history. So, for those who watch, just know that the coming season of the documentary, which begins on May 2 -- it has a happy ending. And as sort of advance preview, here's phone-camera footage the end of today's game, played at home at the Wrexham Racecourse stadium, and the mass of fans rushing onto the pitch to celebrate. The rush begins around the 4:30 mark, if you want to jump to it. Last year, a one-man show played in Los Angeles, called Alex Edelman: Just for Us. It got raves reviews, and friends who saw it said it was great. I'd heard of it -- it began off-Broadway, and then transferred to Broadway, again to rave reviews. But I didn't see it. For several reasons, most notably because I'm still not going to the theater as much as before the pandemic. I was sorry I didn't go -- but thrilled when I saw that HBO recorded the show, and is airing it now. And for my taste, it was as terrific as its reputation. It’s very funny, but it’s not a comedy act. Rather, it’s a long, true story (with him playing many characters) about the night he decided to go to a meeting of neo-Nazis in New York City, but with a great many, long diversions into him talking about his life growing up in a very Ashkenazi Jewish household, anti-Semitism and more. I had heard Alex Edelman interviewed at length on the Naked Lunch podcast which I'd posted here, and he was funny and interesting. So, I was very glad when I saw HBO had recorded the show. (What I didn't realize until I tracked down the podcast, is that he briefly appeared on another of the Naked Lunch podcast. That was the one with guest Hannah Einbinder, who starred in the excellent HBO Max series Hacks. She and Edelman were dating at the time (and may still be, as far as I know -- or not), and host Phil Rosenthal called him up during the interview.) The Just for Us special is available On Demand, and HBO will be airing it again. At the moment, I counted 10 airings ahead. It runs about 85 minutes. If you do decide to watch, my only recommendation is that Edelman talks very fast (which he actually addresses, having ADHD), so I put on close captions so I could check if I missed a laugh. It’s not necessary, but it definitely helped. If you're interested, whether before watching the special to help decide if you want to watch, or afterwards if you enjoyed the special, here's the link for hour-long interview he did for the Naked Lunch podcast. This is the minute-long trailer, which will give you a very brief idea of the show, though it’s much more diverse and textured than this. This is where I get to do my victory lap. While I’m sure that I wasn’t alone in my prediction, that’s no reason to not celebrate. As I wrote a couple months ago here, after the final season premiere of Curb Your Enthusiasm, that I suspected the show was heading “towards ending the same way that Seinfeld did – in a courtroom, with the star on trial for flaunting local laws.” (In this case, it's for when Larry unwittingly gave a bottle of water to someone he knew standing in line to vote in Georgia.) The finale has now aired, and – this is exactly what the show did. Larry David, being Larry David, decided to double-down on the criticism of the Seinfeld finale, and pretty much did the exact same thing. But…he did it wonderfully, filled with nods to the Seinfeld episode, and some tweaks to address things that didn’t work ideally before, and I thought it was hilarious. Once again, the trial brought in characters who had appeared earlier in the series, who Larry had been egregiously selfish and obnoxious to, including a follow-up appearance from the week before by Bruce Springsteen who Larry had given COVID to, forcing him to cancel the final concert of his Farewell Tour. (Larry insisted that Bruce gave him COVID…) However, there was one exception: a prosecution witness against Larry who had not appeared previously in the show – a wonderful appearance by Alexander Vindman as himself, testifying against Larry David. As I said, there were nods to the Seinfeld finale throughout, including one character trashing it ("I'm bingeing Seinfeld, and I'm up to the finale. Alhough I heard terrible things about it, that you f*cked it up."), and a somewhat substance role here by Jerry Seinfeld himself who shows up at the trial for support. And there were several valuable “fixes” to improve on the earlier show. One fix was that they didn’t make the episode entirely about the trial, but had several subplots going on, all of which were very funny. So, the full show was entertaining on several levels. Also, the trial itself was totally justified, since Larry did break the local law, after all (though they’re able to show it’s unjustified, as well, because it’s a horrible law that deserves to be overturned). But further, unlike on Seinfeld, where the characters were on trial in part for being self-absorbed throughout the run of the series, Larry David’s character went far beyond that -- utterly obnoxious, deeply thoughtless, sometimes intentionally hurtful, always yelling and argumentative about nearly everything, and even would say that he literally didn’t like people. The Seinfeld characters were self-centered, but generally preferred to keep to themselves and not inflict their rudeness on others, in fact they even occasionally tried to be kind to people which is what would backfire. So, it was hard to be “outraged” at them in the finale as being terrible people. They weren’t. Larry David’s character absolutely was. If he was on occasion an innocent victim, it was usually because he’d put himself in that position by doing something unnecessarily self-aggrandizingly obsessive. So, it was more fun and far more justified watching the parade of characters coming back, slamming him for his virulent transgressions and testifying against him. His past should have nothing to do with the final verdict, of course, but it still made the anger at Larry fully believable and entertaining. I never felt the outraged anger at the Seinfeld characters and its impact of their verdict was much warranted. There was one other area of the Curb Your Enthusiasm finale that they improved, though it gives away some important plot points, so anyone who still plans to watch the episode, you should stop here. Just know that at the very end, I’ll embed a three-minute scene from the trial. It’s a lot of fun. For those who likely won’t watch the finale episode, or don’t care if anything’s given away, we shall continue. By the way, as I noted in my previous article on the final season, I didn’t watch Curb Your Enthusiasm much over the years. Largely because I didn’t subscribe to HBO for most of its seasons, though I was able to catch up with certain episodes. But also, once I did subscribe, I found him too obnoxious to enjoy in full doses. What I learned to do was record the show and fast-forward through sequences. It made it far more fun (for me). Anyway, what they fixed as a major improvement was the very end. Larry is convicted. And the judge hates him so much, he’s sentenced to a year in jail. There’s a funny scene of Larry in jail – when Jerry Seinfeld shows up and says, “You’re free!!” I won’t explain how that works out, it was amusing, but the short version is that it’s declared a mistrial – thanks to something Jerry is able to discover. (So, Jerry Seinfeld is who saves Larry David, which is a lovely touch connecting the two shows). But then there are two wonderful lines – The first is that with the cell door now open and Jerry explaining the situation to him, a bewildered Larry remains inside, At which point Jerry tells him to come on, leave now, “You don't want to end up like this. No one wants to see it.” And then adds, knowingly, “Trust me.” And the second is the topper. As Larry and Jerry walk through the jail hallway away from the camera, Larry suddenly says, “Oh, my god” – and then there’s a long pause – “This is how we should have ended the finale.” Jerry gets a look of angst and throws up his hands, “Oh, my god, you’re right.” And they turn to walk away – when Jerry adds, their backs to the camera, “How did we not think of that???” And the two raise their arms in dismay and both go, “Agghhhhhhhhhh…” Producer-writer Jeff Schaffer was asked about Seinfeld's reaction. He replied that "After we shot that jail scene, [Jerry] was excited. He said, 'That was a joke 26 years in the making. When do you get a chance to do that?" That could have been the end, and it would have been joyous and perfect, though they had another scene that was very good and a fine way to go out. But in the end, Larry David doubled-down on the reviled Seinfeld finale – and improved on it. A great way to end. |
AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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