Okay, so in the midst of my John Prine trilogy, I've mentioned Iris DeMent a couple of times, embedded a video of her singing a duet with Prine, and noted that if you don't know her, she wrote and sang the heart-wrenching song "Our Town" that played over a deeply-rich, tender montage which ended the series Northern Exposure.

I wrote a long article here about that superb ending (and my odd connection to the series, thanks to my friend Jeff Melvoin, the show's supervising producer, writing my name into the show that became a periodic storyline), and once upon a time there was a video of the montage online, but it has since been taken down.  The whole thing together -- montage, song and her evocative vocals -- is so wonderful, so moving, and I'm sorry it isn't available anymore.  Happily, the song is great on its own, so I thought it only fitting to have Iris DeMent sing her own song here anyway.

NBC announced on Monday that they would not only be holding a town hall event tonight with Trump, but would be broadcasting it at the exact same time that ABC was holding a town hall with Joe Biden.

I don't know what NBC is thinking.  I do know that whatever they are thinking, I believe it's irresponsible, bordering on disgraceful.

Certainly, NBC has every right to do this.  So too does any person have the right to buy a bulldozer in order to crack the shell of a peanut in their driveway.  Having the right to do something and doing it are two different matters.

This isn't a matter of thinking that Trump will get more viewers than Biden.  He may -- or not, I don't know.  And if he does get more viewers, for all I know it will be because people will be tuning in to see if he has a COVD-related incident or a meltdown belligerently talking over the public there asking questions.  Indeed, on a "debate" level, town halls are the absolute worst venue for Trump, not only having to deal with the public directly, but being asked question important to them personally, not willing to be interrupted or talked down to.

Rather, this is a matter of NBC's judgement and broadcast responsibility.  It's rewarding Trump for breaking his agreement to debate and giving him a platform all by himself.  And it's intentionally, knowingly giving him that platform directly against his opponent, which can only hurt Biden's viewership.  (Again, I don't think that inherently means the results will hurt Biden -- after all, the best thing for Biden seems to be to let Trump talk. But nonetheless, it still hurts the viewership, and it hurts it knowingly.)  NBC could have put on a town hall event with Trump at anytime.  It still would have been irresponsible, rewarding him for breaking his agreement and obligation to debate.  But at least if it was put on at another time, there would be no deliberate conflict.

It's really hard to figure a good reason why NBC is doing this.  It may be that they felt that they had that timeslot open for the previously-scheduled debate already and would have to fill it somehow, probably with a rerun.  Or perhaps Trump insisted that that's the only time he'd do.  It doesn't matter all that much -- it's bad to cravenly make the decision themselves, and it's bad to cravenly cave to Trump.

As a friend of mine has liked to point out for four years, NBC is Trump's network.  They had his game show hosting The Apprentice and created his platform to national attention.  Though they didn't own the rights to those tapes, the producer did, they probably could have put some pressure on to release them.  Those reasons of the past might be enough for some, like my friend, to tie all this up with a ribbon, though to me the issue is enough on its own merits, without any history attached.  It's just irresponsible to public good to give Trump a reward for bad behavior and do so intentionally when they knew it was most problematic for Joe Biden.

Even Rachel Maddow was willing to address that point.  When Kamala Harris was her guest last night, she awkwardly but laughingly asked basically -- "So, are you one of those who like most of America hates NBC?"  Harris laughed in return and said, oh, no, she wasn't going to get dragged into that.

​The reality is that this NBC-created conflict likely won't affect many, let alone possibly any votes.  Some undecided independent voters may watch.  But though undecided, it seems that they probably have leanings by this point, and they'll watch to confirm what they're already thinking.  If there is any affect on votes, it's most probably because Trump is as out-of-control as he was in the first debate.  But even at that, it shouldn't be done.  He shouldn't be rewarded for dropping out of his agreed debate.  And it shouldn't be done at the same time.

I don't know what NBC was thinking.  In fairness, I'm not sure that NBC can explain well what they were thinking either.

A few weeks back, I wrote about how the cast of The West Wing was reuniting for a "When We All Vote" fundraiser special on HBO Max next week, October, 15 -- with special guests during act breaks, including Michelle Obama, President Bill Clinton and Lin-Manuel Miranda.  They released a trailer yesterday...and it's far better than I anticipated.

The initial announcement had been that the cast would be recreating the "Hartsfield's Landing" election day script, and I was expecting a basic reading, standing in front of microphones with scripts, done live.  But no, it's filmed and semi-staged with limited sets and props!  And as such, it's well-rehearsed and from the trailer looks wonderful.  No one is walking through it, as has been the case on many, if not most of these sort of things during the pandemic.  This is full-performance mode.

(The episode concerns war games maneuvering diplomacy with China, a chess game, and the early first-votes that traditionally come from one location in New Hampshire.)

The news isn't great for everyone, since you have to get HBO Max to see it.  The news is good for me, because I do.  However, the also good news is that you can get a free trial of HBO Max.

And with screen-sharing, it can be watched on a TV screen, not just a computer or mobile device, which is the only way to get HBO Max.  (If you don't have a screen-sharing device like Chromecast, Roku or the Amazon Fire Stick, you can just connect an HDMI cable from the TV to your computer and switch the "source" of the video feed, just the same as you'd do when switching the source from TV to, say, your DVD player.  And if you don't have a spare HDMI cable just laying around, just unplug the one that's connected to your DVD player, assuming you have one, and use that.)
​
And if you can't get the show -- and to make this a Media Alert -- know that starting today, TNT will be airing The West Wing marathons every Friday evening until the election.  [NOTE;  It was supposed to being tonight, but for whatever reason, it didn't.  What happens on future Fridays remains to be seen.]

And to embellish the Media Alert further...most of the cast will be the guests tonight on a rare "new for Friday" Late Night with Stephen Colbert show.

Bear with me, this is worth it.

​​Back around 1995, I attended one of the funniest evenings I've ever had in the theater.  If it wasn't the funniest, the others competing with it were pretty special.  This wasn't a stage play or musical, to be fair, but basically a group discussion.  But it was in a theater, and it was about the world of entertainment, so it counts.

The evening was called Caesar's Writers, held at the Writers Guild Theatre in Beverly Hills.  It was a reunion of the writers who had worked on the two variety TV shows lead by Sid Caesar -- Your Show of Shows and Caesar's Hours.  The series were pretty close to the same:  the casts of Caesar, Carl Reiner and Howard Morris were the same, with Imogene Coca in the former having moved on with her own show and replaced by Nanette Fabray in the latter.  And the writing staffs were very similar, with a few changes here and there.

And oh, what a writing staff it was.  If you put together a list of the staff and showed it to someone without any other information, they'd probably think you had written down your Hall of Fame of comedy writers.  And no, I'm not exaggerating.  Among those who participated that evening were (and bear with me, because the list is long and the credentials longer...) --

Sid Caesar, Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, and Larry Gelbart (hey, I told you i wasn't exaggerating -- and I'm even leaving out Woody Allen, because he wasn't there that night).

​Anyway, the good news in all this is not just that there's a DVD of Neil Simon's play or that I've described a fun evening -- but that evening was recorded and edited down for a two-hour DVD...and then re-edited down further into a one-hour TV special that PBS ran during Pledge Week.  And I have a copy of that PBS broadcast here which I've embedded below.

​I told you it was worth it to bear with me.

A few final notes:

The video quality is not the greatest, but it's the material that shines through.  Also, it's interrupted a few time with pledge breaks, so you can fast-forward through those.  And it's divided into two videos.  Also, a reminder that the actual evening was almost an hour-and-a-half longer than this.  And it's not that this is The Best Material -- it was all wonderful.  This is just the great material that fit best together for a one-hour special.

A word too about why you won't see as much of Neil Simon as you might like.  First, he is famously quiet..  If you ever saw the movie, My Favorite Year, which is also based on this group and Your Show of Shows, there is character who is always whispering his joke suggestions at the writers table to the person who is sitting next to him.  That character is based on Neil Simon.  (Usually he would be seated next to Carl Reiner and telling his jokes to him.)  The other reason is more specific.  About halfway through the evening, his older brother Danny started feeling unwell and left the stage.  A minute or so later, Neil was clearly concerned, so he left to be with him.  Happily, he ended up being fine, though the two were gone for the rest of the evening.
​

For meaningless perspective's sake, just so that you can have an idea where I was so-thoroughly enjoying myself, as you are looking at the stage, I was about halfway back and off to the left against the wall.  My recollection is that I perhaps briefly can be seen, but as a sort of heads-up -- I'll be the one laughing.
​

   

Let's head back to What's My Line? for a new 'Mystery Guest' segment.  This time, the contestant is Helen Hayes, often referred to as the "First Lady of the American Theater."  And that's understandable, with her receiving four Tony Awards (though some were special awards), but also two Academy Awards.  (Oddly, for all the performances in her legendary career, she's probably best known by most people for her second Oscar, as Supporting Actress, playing a pixie-ish stowaway in the movie, Airport.)  Her appearance here in What's My Line? starts around the 19-minute mark, if you want to jump directly to it.

By the way, Helen Hayes was married to Charles MacArthur who began as a newspaper reporter in Chicago and later partnered with Ben Hecht to write the famous plays, The Front Page and Twentieth Century, and got an Oscar nomination for their co-writing Wuthering Heights.  

And her son was James MacArthur, who had a solid career as an actor, best known for his role as 'Danno' on original version of the long-running series, Hawaii Five-0.  There was a funny story at the time -- I don't remember the exact details at this point -- where someone on the show wanted their mother to have a small, cameo role on the series, and the show's producer quipped that that would be fine...as long as James MacArthur would get his mother to be on the show, too.  In fact, she later did appear, playing Danno's aunt.  Here's a clip of the two of them meeting --

​Oh, and what the heck, here's a bonus because it's a better clip of her, along with series star Jack Lord as 'Steve McGarrett.'

Well, this is a huzzah -- not just for the political benefit, which will understandably get most of the attention, but also because I can't wait to see it, which should at least count for something.  The cast The West Wing will reunite for a staged reading of the "Hartsfield's Landing" episode to benefit Michelle Obama’s voter turnout drive. At the moment, Martin Sheen, Rob Lowe, Dulé Hill, Allison Janney, Janel Moloney, Richard Schiff and Bradley Whitford have all committed to participate. 

I know this news will be a big treat, as well, for my West Wing-watching pal, Shelly Goldstein.  The Lady Shellington and I would hold extensive telephone analyses of the episodes after they aired.  They were quite insightful, I just say.

The reunion, A West Wing Special to Benefit When We All Vote, will air on HBO Max in the fall.  On the one hand, it therefore won't likely get as big an audience was it would otherwise.  On the other hand, without it being on HBO Max, it might not have been seen anywhere.

Ms. Obama & other guests will make appearances. Also, Aaron Sorkin will be writing some new material for the special, which will film in October over several days at the Orpheum Theatre in Downtown L.A..

The original episode, as describe on the Deadline website told the story of "Sheen’s President Barlet playing chess against Sam Seaborn (Rob Lowe) and Toby Ziegler (Richard Schiff), while the Chinese are playing war games in the Taiwan Strait, and Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford) is nervous about the 42 votes in a remote New Hampshire town’s election, which always predict the winner of that state’s primary."

Major shout-out to my "West Wing"-watching pal, Shelly Goldstein.

Here's a short scene from the original.

This will really only be meaningful to people who watch the PBS Masterpiece Mystery series, Endeavour -- though I think the tidbits will still be of fun interest to anyone. 

If you normally watch the show, but recorded it last night and haven’t seen the episode yet, you now will have these items to look forward to.  If you’ve seen it…well, it’s still a treat to know.  And as I said, even if  you don't watch the show, I think anyone would be able to appreciate them.

Last night, the series returned for its seventh season.  And in the premiere episode there were a couple of "Easter Eggs" (little items that get hidden in a work that most people will never get, but if you do, they're fun winks to you.  The name comes from hidden treats that code programmers would put into video games.)  To be clear, there is nothing here that has anything to do with the plot.  Zero.  So, nothing will be given away.  One item is only about a sort of "stunt casting" people would normally never get, and the other is just a hidden nod.  I came upon them both totally by chance, when I was searching for an answer to a question I had about a plot point after watching last night's episode.  Again, nothing here has anything to do with the plot.

As for the first "Easter Egg" of sorts, the episode takes place in 1970, and there is a scene that takes place at a meeting of a Women’s Rights group.  The main character of Morse is going there with the reporter played by Abigail Thaw.  (For those who don't know the show, Endeavour is based on the beloved series Inspector Morse, but from the perspective of him starting out in the Oxford police force as a young man.  The wonderful actor John Thaw played him in the original series, and he as sadly since passed away.  Abigail Thaw is his daughter, and the new series endearingly cast her in this small, but continuing role.) In the scene at the meeting of the Women's Rights group, Abigail Thaw briefly speaks with the young woman who has organized the event, a character named Sally Alexander.
 
It turns out that Sally Alexander was a real person, who actually organized such events in Oxford at the time.  And as it happens…she is Abigail Thaw’s mother!!  (And of course, was John Thaw’s wife.)  But – all the better – that's not all.  The person who plays Sally Alexander in the episode is named Molly-Mae Whitmey.  And who is that?  Well, Molly-Mae Whitmey is…Abigail Thaw’s real-life daughter!!  Playing her grandmother.  Which means that in the scene Abigail Thaw is, in essence, talking to her mother.
 
(Molly-Mae Whitmey is not an aspiring actress, but Abigail Thaw thought it would be fun to have her in the part.)

Also fun, is the other "Easter Egg," indeed really more of an hidden Easter Egg is the true spirit of them.  Again, nothing to do with the plot, and nothing that most humans would ever catch, but mega-fans look for. 

The original Inspector Morse series was based on novel written by Colin Dexter.  And one of the little things that the show and its follow-up series about young Morse did was put Dexter into every episode somewhere.  It turns out that although he passed away in 2017, the new Endeavour series has continued find a way to put Colin Dexter in every episode.  And it seems there are mega-fans who try to find the “appearance.”  And boy, do you ever have to be a mega-fan to find last night's.

In the premiere episode for season seven, it comes in a scene in the house of Morse's older, more-experience partner.  The television set is on and showing football scores.  And if one looks at the row of results, the first letter of each winning team spells –

All that aside, it was a very good opening episode, as well...

The other day, I posted here the utterly endearing ending of the movie All of Me with Steve Martin and Lily Tomlin joyously dancing 

When my friend Myles Berkowitz followed that up by sending me a clip from the movie Pennies from Heaven, I was reminded how many things Steve Martin danced in -- and all the more, how well he did so.  Rare for any actor, but incredibly uncommon for a comedian.  I suspect that when most people think of Steve Martin and dancing, it's likely his "Happy Feet" bit from his old stand-up act.  But all this isn't that.  This is serious (even if at times comic...) dancing.

Pennies From Heaven stands out on several levels.  Myles noted how incredibly gutsy Steve Martin was for what is basically going up against Fred Astaire.  (And that's not meant metaphorically, but literally -- watch the video, you'll see).  And it stands out, too, for absolutely terrific dancing.  But further, as I recall, the whole movie was gutsy for him since the character is such an awful guy.

Mainly, though, this with Bernadette Peters is actually, really good dancing.

​But it isn't just those two dances.  Because not only is there a third, but it's probably the most famous of his dances.  (And again, how odd to think of Steve Martin for his dancing.)  There's a good chance most of you have seen it – with Gilda Radner on Saturday Night Live, and is all the more impressive for it being live.

But if you haven't seen it, we add it below to his resume.  And it's so worth watching again.

Back in June, I wrote here about watching Old TV Westerns and seeing all the now-major actors, directors and writers.  Well, today we return to our spurs head back out to another tale from the “Old TV Western” front.
 
On the show Wanted: Dead or Alive, I checked a day ahead and they had an episode scheduled for Monday morning that looked like it might be fun, so I set the DVR.  It was about a reporter from the East who wanted to follow around Josh Randall (played by Steve McQueen) to be the subject of a story he was writing on bounty hunters, and the episode was titled, “The Twain Shall Meet.”  So, of course I figured it was about Mark Twain.  But unfortunately it wasn’t – odd title then, and I thought a missed opportunity.  (Earlier this year, Have Gun, Will Travel had an episode I watched where Paladin helps Phileas Fogg on his race to get back to England.  The end credits even gave credit to the Jules Verne novel.)
 
So, not being as interested, I watched most of the show, but fast-forwarded through a lot of it.  At one point, there was a scene in a bar that caught my interest, so I stopped to watch.  The reporter is talking to a young saloon girl who’s spinning a tall tale about herself for his article.  It ends up having an impact on the plot, but mainly her voice seemed sort of familiar, and then they cut to a close-up of her.  I kept peering close and then it hit me – it was a young Mary Tyler Moore.  (I later checked, she was 23-year-olds, a year before “The Dick Van Dyke Show.”)
 
And then all the better, when the end credits came around, it turned out that the episode was directed by Richard Donner.  For those not up on your film history, Donner directed such works as all four Lethal Weapon movies, the Bill Murray comedy Scrooged, Conspiracy Theory, Superman, The Goonies, and appropriately for today's whimsy, the feature-film version of Maverick, among many others.
 
Great fun.
 
And all the more fun, here is a clip of the 3-minute scene with Mary Tyler Moore.  The image runs a touch slow for some odd reason, but is totally watchable.

I'm a very big fan of the wonderfully odd series Newsradio that went on the air in 1995 and ran for four seasons.  They always seemed to be on the verge of being cancelled, but happily held on for a while.  It seemed like after a while they almost gave up playing it safe by caring if they would be renewed and got even more odd as the series went on, sometimes even throwing caution to the wind and going full-blown nuts.  (Like when they would do a "What if...?" episode, Have you ever wondered what if Newsradio took place on board the Titantic.  Or 500 years in the future on a space ship?  Those episodes were glorious.)

Happily, the Antenna TV channel has reruns every night at 11:30 PM here in Los Angeles.  (Oddly, I have a feeling that they back-to-back episodes starting at 11 PM -- the on-screen guide doesn't show that, but when I play back the recording I made, the very start seems to have the end "tag" from a preceding episode.  I'm recording it at 11 o'clock tonight to find out.)

The reason I mention this now, rather than wait a day to be sure, is that tonight (Tuesday) at 11:30 PM, Los Angeles time, they are running a very funny episode that I thought Jon Stewart fans might be interested in, since it features a rare and extended acting performance by him.  In the episode, Stewart shows up playing the twin brother of series regular Andy Dick.  Yes, really.  (Hey, I told you the series was odd.  But the storyline explains this and is all the funnier for it.)

If you don't know what channel Antenna TV is on in your area, just check this link here and enter your Zip code.  In my Los Angeles neighborhood it's Channel 1258 on Spectrum.

Here's a clip with Andy Dick as 'Matthew" introducing some of the staff his twin brother (Stewart) who is visiting New York --