I loved the first season of Schmigadoon! on Apple TV+. While I was hoping for a second season, I wasn’t sure how they could come up with a way to do it. Not only did they come up with a clever concept – but the year has been hilarious, which they've subtitled, Schmicago. The joke of the first season is that Cecily Strong and Keegan-Michael Key get lost in a Brigadoon-like misty forest and come upon the town of Schmigadoon -- which is a like a happy musical from the Golden Age. And the couple can leave until they find true love. The second series has come up with a way to get them looking again for Schmigadoon, in short, they're missing the colorful cheeriness in their lives. What they find instead is Schmicago -- which is like the next, darker period of musicals. The same actors play the residents, but in different roles. (Part of the fun is Strong and Key recognizing people, but eventually realizing, "Oh, right, this time you're...") All the songs are written by Cinco Paul, who co-created the series with Ken Daurio -- who together wrote such films as the Despicable Me series, The Lorax, Horton Hears a Who, and The Santa Claus 2. The songs have been tremendous this year, as at high a level as last year. If I was forced to compare the seasons, it might be that, as pure songs, they were slightly better the first year, and as comic parodies might in the second year. Even incorporating parody in the choreography. Several songs has stood out from even that high standard. Last week and this week, two particular songs stood out for being Stephen Sondheim/Sweeney Todd parodies that were so clever and great -- as was a song that was largely a parody of “Razzle-Dazzle” from Chicago, but which actually had four parodies built in it. However, this week they had a big production number that might be my favorite. It was a parody that combined Sweeney Todd and Annie. I'll post it below. If you are watching the series, but haven't gotten to this week's yet -- or are planning to watch -- this is a good point to stop reading. But otherwise, here's a brief set-up. Kristen Chenoweth plays a 'Miss Hannigan' type of character from Annie, and Alan Cumming is a 'Sweeney Todd'-like character. They're angry misfits who have been fixed up by Cecily Strong and Keegan-Michael Key. And the match seems to work, as the outcast couple warm to each other. Strong and Key are thrilled at their good deed. What happens though, after Chenoweth invites Cumming in for a nightcap, is that they begin to air their complaints -- she hates the orphans she's in charge of, and his butcher shop is failing because meat distribution has been bottled up by the town syndicate. So...yes, they go there. Which leads to the song. Actually it's two songs mashed together. The first part is a parody of "Have a Little Priest" from Sweeney Todd -- and it's a lot of fun (especially a pastrami joke) -- but then after a minute, the second part kicks in, a big Annie-type cheery, rambunctious, extravaganza production number that's...well, it's just a total hoot on every level -- music, lyrics, choreography, even props. "Good Enough to Eat." Two suggestions: The first is to click on the icon to make this full screen, because the production number is great fun and full of details. The other is that if you're having trouble with all the lyrics -- since a lot of the words go fast, and Kristen Chenoweth is using a thick Cockney accent -- you can click the "CC" button at the bottom for Close Captioning. (That said, I think the translation -- which otherwise is accurate -- gets the very last line wrong, which is spoken. I'm pretty sure they say, "Eat, darn ya, eat!" which parodies the final line from a song in Annie, "You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile," that goes 'Smile, darn ya, smile!')
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I haven’t written about Tucker Carlson being fired by Fox “News” because I just haven’t cared enough. To be clear, I’m thrilled he was fired – it’s good for democracy – but to me, that’s pretty much the end of the story. The “Why?” is of little interest to me. If you have fallen off a cliff and are hanging on to a ledge by a hand, with a 10,000 feet drop below, and someone above yells, "I'm throwing a rope down,” the idea of yelling back, “Why?” probably will not occur to anyone. The fact that someone threw a rope and saved you is all that matters.
Now, yes, the “Why?” behind Tucker Carlson being fired is something fun to ponder. But that’s largely all it is, something to ponder. And honestly, I not only don’t think most analysis of The Reason is anything more than just guesses – my sense is that there isn’t any One Reason, but rather that were a lot of reasons that built up over time, and something else happened, and it wasn’t The Reason, but just finally too much, the last straw and “Goodbye, don’t let the door hit you when you leave.” For that matter, most of the reasons guessed at are things that had been going on for a long time and Fox likely knew all about. His misogyny, his conflicts with his bosses, his still pushing election fraud, his toxic workplace, his emails that got released during the Dominion lawsuit, his lack of sponsors, most of whom had dropped him. None of these came as a sudden, shocking surprise to the powers that be at Fox “News.” More to the point, whatever reason he was fired for, it was not because of his fascist, near-treasonous views. He’s been slamming Ukraine, supporting Putin and Russia, criticizing vaccines (despite getting vaccinated himself), insisting there was no Insurrection, encouraging belief that the election was stolen, smearing women and minorities and more. And it never got him fired. So, whatever The Reason he finally did get fired, it wasn’t for any of that. Which means The Reason is pretty unimportant. At worse, it was because – to Fox “News” he finally crossed the line and went too far. But of course, in the real world, Tucker Carlson went too far long ago. He’s been fascist, misogynistic, racist, anti-Semitic, White Supremacist, Russia loving, near-treasonous for years. And Fox “News” will remain who it has always been. Just without Tucker Carlson. By the way, that’s no small thing. As extremist and divisive as Fox “News” is, Carlson had a deeper reach into fascism and conspiracy theories and giving those idea and those voices a platform than the others at Fox. So, while Fox “News” was fine with tolerating a Tucker Carlson for years – and may find another one eventually – the overall channel generally focused more on their basic extreme-right, divisive agenda of Democrats being evil, Joe Biden being horrible and liberals are woke panderers and destroying what was good about America in the 1840s. So, in the end, I’m just glad that Tucker Carlson is gone from Fox “News.” He show up someone, probably on his own online service like Glenn Beck, Alex Jones Mark Levin, Joe Rogan and others. Or something else. Like enter politics. Or whatever. But “Why” he is gone just doesn’t matter to me. I just like that he’s gone, and it was done by Fox. In fact, I think I’ll the best explanation of why Tucker Carlson is gone comes from lunatic MAGA pastor Shane Vaughn who pouts out lunatic videos. And so, I think his views on the subject are the best way to go out, and we’ll give him the final word. "Tucker Carlson is gone because of spiritual warfare. I want you to listen closely to me. There is something much bigger than the elites. There's something much bigger than Charles Schwab, George Soros, or Rupert Murdoch.” Wait, Charles Schwab?? Never mind, back to Pastor Vaughn. "There is something that is working for the destruction of America. It works in the background. You don't see it. You like to call it the Cabal, all the podcasters love to talk to you about the Cabal, they love to talk around about Black Rock, and that's fine, and it's all true. But ladies and gentlemen, you are focusing on the symptoms, rather than the disease.” And what is that disease? It goes beyond Q, he says. Indeed, it goes to Alpha and Omega. And finally, he gets to the nub of it all. “Beyond all of that, there are some people that know what's going on, and we know how to fight against it because we know that Tucker Carlson was a victim of demonic power." Demonic power got rid of Tucker Carlson. That explanation of The Reason is as good as any. Especially when fascist, misogynistic, racist, anti-Semitic, White Supremacist, Russia loving, near-treasonous and reality are too hard to face. It's been too long since I've posted a "Mystery Guest" segment from What's My Line? And this is a great one to jump back in on. That's because it's a twofer. With two celebrity guests. The first celebrity guest is legendary songwriter Johnny Mercer. However, he’s not officially that week’s Mystery Guest. The panelists do have to wear a blindfold, since they’d know him, but he’s not really recognized or known much at all by general audiences from his appearance or even name. I won’t try to name all the great songs he wrote, but for starters he won four Oscars, which is impressive enough, but it’s one of the rare cases where his number of nominations is almost more impressive than his wins – since he has 18 nominations! He won the Oscar for “Moon River” (and you could probably stop right there and say he had a great career…), “The Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe,” "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening,” and "The Days of Wine and Roses.” However, among just some of his other work, he also wrote – “Autumn Leaves,” “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah,” “Hooray for Hollywood,” “Satin Doll,” “Fools Rush In,” “Jeepers, Creepers,” “You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby,” “That Old Black Magic,” “Laura,” “One for My Baby (and One More for the Road),” “The Glow Worm,” “I Wanna Be Around (to Pick Up the Pieces),” “Something’s Gotta Give,” “Charade,” and the lyrics to the Broadway musical “Li’l Abner.” Not shabby, hunh? And again, that's just some work, and not "only" his well-known songs. He comes along at the 4:00 mark. As for the official “Mystery Guest” segment, the contestant is Jane Fonda from 1964, almost 60 years ago. So, this is really early in her career. Which, regardless if you like her or not, is incredibly impressive having a career that long -- whatever the business, but especially Hollywood where careers have short shelf lives, particularly for women. And all the more when you add that it's not stayed active because of occasional supporting roles, but she starred in two movies the past few months alone -- 80 for Brady and The Book Club sequel opening soon. And just finished an 8-year run starring in the series Grace and Frankie.) A fun moment comes when she’s asked a question she finds so unexpected and odd (clearly, the panelist has a suspicion who the guest is, but is wrong), she breaks her hidden character and bursts out laughing. If you want to jump to her “Mystery Guest” segment, it starts at the 16:45 mark. And to make the episode more fun, it's also worth noting that one of the panelists is Bobby Darin. I love that Disney is suing Gov. Ron DeSantis. If all he had done was push for that tax board change, he likely could have "gotten away" with it. But he's kept attacking Disney and pushing other actions -- when all they did was voice disagreement with a bill -- which speaks to the charges in the suit (that includes violating their right of free speech).
By the way, making DeSantis's actions more weird is that he's attacking Disney for planning to invest $527 MILLION in new development for tourism in the state!! That's strange enough for any Republican who always claim to be so "pro-business." But for a likely presidential candidate, it's borderline inexplicable and almost lunatic. I just finished reading, Unscripted, a new book by New York Times reporters James B. Stewart and Rachel Abrams about the recent scandal and battle for control of the Paramount/CBS/Viacom empire centered on the Sumner Redstone family, but which spills over to the corporate boardroom, Les Moonves and the #MeToo movement. Non-fiction books about big business and Wall Street machinations are, for reasons I can’t quite explain, among my favorite reading. I’ve read two books by Pulitzer Prizer-winner James B. Stewart (DisneyWar about the Eisner/Katzenberg years, and Den of Thieves on the insider trading scandal in the 1980s involving Ivan Boesky, Michael Milliken and others), and Rachel Abrams was on the New York Times team that won the Pulitzer Prize for its #MeToo reporting. So, I was anxiously awaiting this one ever since I read about its pending publication months earlier. And it was worth the wait, really wonderful. A fascinating story, seriously impressive meticulous research, and as readable as a good novel. (It was also just optioned to be adapted for a limited series, which should give you some idea of how wide-ranging and involving the story is. And it’s a natural for that, as HBO's Succession showed. This, on the other hand, is real life and actually happened, stunning as at times it seems.) This is where the disclaimer comes in. I wasn’t anxious to read it for the corporate subject matter or being a fan of James B. Stewart. (Though I would have read the book for either of those reasons.) My being anxious to read it was Rachel Abrams, whose work I’ve admired, but far more to the point – I’ve been friends with her father Ian Abrams for decades, and we were even business partners in a “bulletin board service” (a precursor of chat rooms) for professional writers, called the PAGE BBS. (Among our other partners was the inveterate Chris Dunn.) So, in full disclosure, Ian and I were movie publicists together, and both survived to get into screenwriting. In fact, among his credits, Ian wrote the movie, Undercover Blues that starred Dennis Quaid and Kathleen Turner, and co-created the CBS series Early Edition that starred Kyle Chandler and Fisher Stevens as his sort of sidekick buddy, and was on the air for four seasons. So, I knew Rachel from when she was around 10 years old, although not well, a very nice, smart, quiet kid – and then the family moved to Philadelphia because Ian hated Hollywood and decided to teach at Drexel University, where he created their screenwriting program. Rachel eventually grew up, as such things happen, and got into journalism, where she later worked for the Hollywood Reporter, and took on the #MeToo beat, doggedly covering Harvey Weinstein and more. Her topnotch work caught the eye of the New York Times, which wisely hired her. And she’s become a powerhouse, fearless journalist. It’s no small thing that she partnered with the long-respected James B. Stewart. In fact, it is seriously impressive. After all, as he notes himself in the afterward, he had never worked with a co-author before in his long career. In fact, they hardly even knew on another at the Times, but were working on a similar story and overlapped. As he writes in the acknowledgements, “She was a dream collaborator: incredibly hard-working, resourceful, ethical, considerate and brimming with enthusiasm for every discovery. Working with her was both inspiring and fun.” Not shabby. And her words for Stewart were as glowing and moving, among them – his “reputation is belied by his grace and humility. Working with him has made me a better journalist, and I am very grateful to have had him as a partner.” So, yes, I’m biased. But that doesn’t mean I’m wrong. In fact, I’m right. It was a New York Times bestseller, has 4.1 stars on Amazon, and among its reviews are – “Jaw-dropping...an epic tale of toxic wealth and greed populated by connivers and manipulators.” — The New York Times Book Review, Editors’ Choice “A deeply reported account... The story, whose contours would be familiar to fans of the HBO series Succession, stands as a real-life warning to other family dynasties led by powerful founders….a masterful job.” -- Financial Times “The book is a page-turner — an over-the-top tale of money, power, sex, and relentless scheming to wrest billions away from an old man who in his final years seems to have lost the capacity for just about anything except sex.” -- Fortune “A must-read... A bombshell new book from two Pulitzer winners reveals some truly shocking storylines within the real-life Succession drama that is the Paramount media empire... Abrams, a New York Times investigative reporter, and Stewart, a Times business columnist have written a jaw-dropping yarn.” -- Daily Beast There’s more, but we’ll leave it at that. I just wanted to make it clear that my praise wasn’t purely subjective. The book really is terrific. And if one is a fan of Succession, this is the real thing. (In fact, I suspect that as much as the series is inspired by the Murdochs and Trumps, the Redstone story has to have played a part in there, too.) Billionaire Sumner Redstone is a Shakesperean character, triumphant, towering, profoundly flawed, and ultimately a tragic figure. Then add in the turbulent family drama, boardroom maneuverings, sexual lavishness, lawsuits flying all over the place with tens of millions of dollars regularly thrown around like pocket change, and twists and turns every step of the way, notably a daughter thrown into the middle of it all against her best inclination. All that, and a quote from Nell Minow. (Hey, I said I was biased. But again, I’m not wrong – her warning is incredibly prescient.) It’s really well-written on top of everything, wonderfully readable for all the detail. If you’re interested, you can find it here. And as a bonus, here are James B. Stewart and Rachel Abrams being interviewed on the Today show. Recently, I posted an elaborate opening to the 2006 Emmy Awards, something they seem to do often – and do pretty well. Here’s another fun one, a lavish musical number from 2011 when Jane Lynch hosted. |
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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