I don’t watch HBO’S Curb Your Enthusiasm from Larry David all that much. Periodically. But I’ve been watching it a bit more this year now that it’s the show’s final season. I had an odd thought after the second episode, and it’s been supported enough now through the fifth. So…I think this is the direction the show is going. It’s only a folderol observation, of course, but – It’s weird (although also funny) that this final season appears as if it might be headed towards ending the same way that Seinfeld did – in a courtroom, with the star on trial for flaunting local laws. Early on in the season, Larry goes down to Atlanta, it’s a hot day, the mother of a main character lives there and is standing in line to vote. And Larry hands her a bottle of water. Almost immediately, a nearby police officer sees this, comes over and arrests him. (As you may recall, in an effort to suppress voting, prompted in large part, I believe, by long lines in minority districts, Georgia changed its election laws a couple years ago, making it illegal to give food or water to people in line to vote.) In the next episode, Larry’s lawyer sets up an easy plea deal for him, and he’s happy to pay the fine and leave town. But for reasons too long to get into, he’s sort of become a folk hero to people who understandably hate the law – and who think Larry did this intentionally as a social protest (which he didn’t…). And so, he was sort of backed into a corner to plead “not guilty” and be seen as a folk hero. The case is now in the hands of the court to set up a date for the trial. And that’s where we stand. They keep referencing the trial, so this isn’t a story line that’s going away. They certainly may resolve it before the last episode. But since it’s a running plot point, that’s the story you tend to hold for the finale. And more to the point, holding it for the last episode would be a direct bookend of the Seinfeld end. While I don’t know what they’ll do, of course, if I had to bet, it would be that they’re saving it for the last episode, and specifically as a nod to Seinfeld which Larry David, of course, co-created and for which he co-wrote that last episode. Which was so famously reviled. (I understood the annoyance, and wasn’t crazy about the episode, but I sort of liked what they did.) And being Larry David, I just have the sense that he would love throwing everyone’s dislike of the Seinfeld finale back in their faces. We’ll see…
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I truly don't know what's going on with SNL. Their opening sketch was entirely about (once again, as they've done week after week after week) trashing President Biden as old. Never mind that they still haven't done one quip on the show about Trump (who is the same age) echoing Adolf Hitler or saying he wants to be a dictator. Or showing dementia.
The sketch included referencing him as the guy "people call 'Sleepy Joe.' " No, "the people" don't call him that -- Trump, they guy who was found liable for the equivalence of rape, calls him that! These days, though the show can be funny, I fast-forward through it, hoping it finds its compass. By the way, to be clear, I don't mind SNL doing "Joe Biden is old" jokes. (Though this went far beyond that and was not only an entire sketch -- but came at the very opening of the show.) What I personally mind and find inexplicable -- knowing that democracy is quite literally at stake, and especially since their core audience is young, the segment of the public least likely to engage in politics and vote -- is them not yet even referencing that Trump has echoed Hitler or said he wants to be a dictator. And virtually nothing on Trump being just as old and This is the long version of what will be a :30-second ad during the Super Bowl for the series Ghosts. It's a very clever idea, done nicely. The other day for the Holiday Music Fest, I posted a beautiful, haunting recording of "The Little Drummer Boy," sung in German by Marlene Dietrich. I thought this would be an appropriate follow-up on Christmas Day. This comes from Season One of The West Wing, a Christmas episode titled, "In Excelsis Deo." It's the last four-minutes, and one of the best final four minutes, not just of The West Wing, but a TV episode I've seen. Wonderful not only for what it's about, but that combined with the use of music, performance and editing. And it is an absolutely beautiful, moving setting for "The Little Drummer Boy." I wrote about this piece of remarkable TV history back in 2014, and it remains one of my favorites. Though there's some background music in it, it's not about music at all, but it will nonetheless fit in perfectly for Holiday Music Fest, mainly on the Fest part. Back in my initial posting on this site about Kukla, Fran and Ollie, I wrote about how the show's brilliant creator, puppeteer Burr Tillstrom won an additional Emmy Award that was not involved with KF&O, but for his work on his own. It was for one of the "hand ballets" that he performed on occasion for the satirical news series, That Was the Week That Was. That Was the Week That Was was a smart, pointed, very sharp British sketch-comedy show which was brought over to the U.S. in the early 1960s. Among other things, it introduced to American audiences one of the original British cast members, David Frost. It's also the show that introduced Tom Lehrer to most Americans. He wrote periodic songs for the series, and then recorded them for his now-classic hit album, That Was the Year That Was. And it also brought Burr Tillstrom into the national spotlight in a way people hadn't seen or expected. His hand ballets were little vignettes that didn't use any puppets at all, but merely Tillstrom's bare hands, using them alone to evoke some story in the news he wanted to get across. It was done with great artistry, often movingly. And one of them so artistic and moving that it won him an Emmy Award. In 1963, two years after the Berlin Wall had been erected, a very brief concession was made. The Wall would open for the Christmas holiday and allow those in the West to travel into East Berlin and visit family and loved ones, needing to return a few days later. This is what Burr Tillstrom did a hand ballet about shortly after. And -- -- I found the video of it! It is one of the favorite videos I've been able to find. I'm thrilled. The quality of the video is a little rough, especially at the beginning, but it's fine. And ultimately, as you watch -- one brilliant artist using only his hands -- the quality of the video won't matter one whit. And if anyone ever wonders where the humanity of Kukla, Fran and Ollie came from, to bring such life into puppets, now you'll know. When I posted this one year, I got a perturbed note from a reader who found nothing worthwhile about the video, and took me to task for wasting his time. In the spirit of the season, I will again refrain from anything ad hominen in return. I will just say that I feel completely comfortable in recognizing the legend of this piece, and anything else is an understandable matter of personal taste. Wherever that may lie. I say this knowing that it's not just my opinion on this, but also the opinion of the members of the Television Academy who voted Tillstrom the Emmy Award. But to be fair, I guess I should add a disclaimer. If anyone doesn't like old black-and-white video or just looking at hands for three minutes, or politics and history, or quiet, thoughtful, emotional storytelling with the sparsest of action or jokes, centered instead on pure artistry, I get it, and so by all means avoid this. For everyone else, here it is. The video calls it "Burr Tillstrom's 'Berlin Wall.'" For me, I think of it as "The Burr-lin Wall". We take a moment for a bit of Personal Privilege. Back in March, I wrote a piece here about a TV documentary series that airs in Miami called Inside the Heat that provides a look into the Miami Heat NBA team. And they just did an episode that devoted the full program to the 35-year career of my cousin Andy Elisburg who is the General Manager and Senior Vice-President of the basketball team. (No, not a typo, their wing of the family spells it differently) At the end of the article, I quipped that -- "I also believe that the show should be nominated for an Emmy next year as Best Program of the Year. Though I'm admittedly biased." O ye of little faith. It turns out that it wasn't just a quip, but a prescient one. Because bizarrely -- and happily -- I wasn't far off. Really. The other week, at the 47th Annual Suncoast Regional Emmy Awards -- the episode actually, really won an Emmy Award! Hey, like I always say here, I tries nots to steers ya wrong. And I'm not fibbing. Here's the proof -- And just to show that, no, this isn't just a photo of a random Emmy statuette, here's a close-up of the text on the base for those who choose not to the use "zoom" feature on your computer -- And as Andy ways -- "Working my way slowly to an EGOT..." |
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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