We admit it. TVWriter™ has been dead set against most reboots on principle for, like, forever, and included in that blanket mindset have been all efforts to bring back, modernize, or even duplicate one of the most beloved TV series of the ’60s, a little bit of witchery called Bewitched.
Then we saw the following article, including comments like these from our very own Contributing Editor Emeritus, Herbie J Pilato.
Yesterday we posted comedy writer Ken Levine’s tribute to the irreplaceable Neil Simon, the comedy paradigm-changing playwright who for all practical purposes set the bar for Broadway comedy (and perhaps drama as well).
We were never satisfied with any of the available interviews with “Doc” Simon, but late last night we came across an 8 part video interview with another comedy writing legend, Larry Gelbart, who worked on many of the same TV shows as Simon. Gelbart died in 2009, but his work lives on…and so do his words of writing wisdom, thanks to this video – and 7 others – in the archives of the Television Academy.
More about – and from – Mr. Gelbart HERE
Ken Levine has written a primer on the man who we believe was the most influential comedy writer of the 20th Century. Share it with your friends!
Back from two weeks in Europe. During my trip I saw that Neil Simon had passed away but I was on the run and unable to really address it at the time. Now I’m home and now I have some thoughts.
Back in pre-history, AKA in the third quarter of the 20th century, one of my favorite comics was Tomb of Dracula, created by my writer-producer bud Gerry Conway and Gene Colan, one of comics best artists, whom, unfortunately, I never got to know. (He died in 2011. Oh, and he also was part of the team that created the vampire-hunting character Blade)
As a writer who often has found himself at odds with collaborating directors and artists (and the occasional actor as well), I’m always fascinated by the way the more visual collaborators like Gene think. More so now, at a time when comic book heroes and the horror genre have become so big on TV.
In this interview, we get a glimpse of how amazingly cinematic Gene. Colan’s personal universe was:
