Joan Rivers: From "The Adventures With Letterman" to the Freedom Old Age Brings

Like many Gen X kids, I literally grew up listening to Joan Rivers' raspy but distinctive voice.  I feel like I've known her for my whole life, and in a way, I actually have.

Joan Rivers was the narrator for the original PBS show "The Electric Company", although her work on the show began in Season 2 (around 1973) in a segment known as "The Adventures of Letterman" produced by the Children's Television Workshop (now known as Sesame Workshop).  At the time, I was too old (or, so I thought, was too smart) for "Sesame Street", but about the right age for "The Electric Company".  The cast of the original "Electric Company" was truly all-star, including Bill Cosby, Rita Moreno, Morgan Freeman and Gene Wilder (yes, the original Willie Wonka's voice was that of Letterman on "The Electric Company"), just to name a few.  Check out this clip below, or by visiting http://youtu.be/z3y_H3SaoAY:



"The Adventures of Letterman" was a segment about a flying superhero who wore a varsity sweater and a football helmet (the voice of Letterman was none other than the original Willie Wonka Mr. Gene Wilder).  Letterman was routinely foiled by a character known as Spell Binder, an evil magician who made mischief by changing words into new words by replacing 1 or 2 letters.  For the record, Shout Factory! has released seasons 1 and 2 of the original version of "The Electric Company" on DVD, see https://www.shoutfactory.com/product/the-best-of-the-electric-company-vol-1?product_id=2831 for complete details.

I saw Joan Rivers' live stand-up show a few years ago in New York, and it was about what I had come to expect (I'd heard it on cassette so many times), and I have to compliment her by saying, she's really very good at keeping the content fresh and up-to-date.  Instead of talking about old, dead celebrities, these days, she targets younger celebs, and she's good at that, too.

Anyway, since I'm about the same age as Joan Rivers' daughter Melissa, I kind of look at Joan Rivers herself in much the same way as I do my parents.  She's always been a part of my life, and she's still very much alive and kicking, in spite of having had a LOT of plastic surgery (my parents, however, have not had any plastic surgery).

Joan Rivers herself used to make fun of people who had plastic surgery.  Back in the 1980s, on her album that was released on what was then a new record label Geffen Records "What Becomes a Semi-Legend Most?" (which went on to reach #22 on the U.S. Billboard 200, and was also nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album) Ms. Rivers herself made fun of people who she claimed had too much plastic surgery.  One target was Anderson Cooper's mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, who was, at the time, best known for her designer jeans with her signature in stitching across many women's rear ends.

Ms. Rivers talked about Gloria Vanderbilt and what a "mean bitch" Ms. Vanderbilt was, and said when she asked for her [Ms. Vanderbilt's] autograph, "... she wrote on my ass!".  She moved on to say she thought Gloria Vanderbilt had one too many face lifts, and that her face had been "pulled too tight" noting "with that pullback face on her, every time she sits down, her mouth pops open".  I guess we can now safely say to Joan "look at the pot calling the kettle black"!

Even before that time, as Ms. Rivers wrote in her first biography "Enter Talking" about how she began her entertainment career "off, off, off Broadway" with another young singer/actress from the same part of Brooklyn known as Barbra Streisand.  Joan Rivers is even better known for her stand-up comedy, some of which I quote in reference to Gloria Vanderbilt.  My grandparents told me they saw Joan Rivers' stand-up comedy show back in the late 1960s Las Vegas when they drove out to California, and while they weren't overly critical since it was, in fact, stand-up comedy, my grandmother did comment that "she [Joan Rivers] had a very sharp tongue".

Of course, that is WHY people go to see comedians/comediennes.

Ms. Rivers also had a big run as Johnny Carson's guest/co-host when "The Tonight Show's" Mr. Carson was sick, travelling or unable to appear for whatever reason.  Although Mr. Carson mentored Ms. Rivers, when she discovered she was not even being considered as a potential replacement for Mr. Carson upon his retirement, the comedienne decided (along with her husband who managed her career) to leave that job.  In her 1986 autobiography "Enter Talking" she wrote about the fact that she was hurt she wasn't even being considered for the role, and she felt betrayed by Johnny Carson, but she felt she had to look out for herself.

At the time, a soon-to-launch startup network known as Fox Television gave her a late night talk show of her own called "The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers".  The show was scheduled to compete directly with NBC's longstanding "Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson".  Mr. Carson claims he learned about the show from Fox, not Ms. Rivers.  It may well be that is true, although Ms. Rivers says she tried calling Johnny Carson, and he hung up on her.  That may also be true, but it could well be that Fox, eager to make a name for itself, could have told Mr. Carson before Ms. Rivers had even signed a contract with them.  Who cares.  It's history now, and Johnny Carson is toast.

Ultimately, Ms. Rivers' late night talk show on the fledgling Fox Television Network bombed (and with good reason).  But the show's failure also lead to the suicide of Ms. Rivers' husband (who was a native of the UK), whom she said was humiliated by Fox.  Beyond television and stand-up comedy, Ms. Rivers also appeared in the 1978 feature film which co-starred her and another young comedian named Billy Crystal known as "Rabbit Test" (Ms. Rivers was also the director and writer for that movie), and later in the feature film "The Muppets Take Manhattan" as herself, as well as a voice over role in 1987's "Spaceballs" and "Look Who's Talking" to name a few.  Aside from stand-up, she's quite well known for her voice over roles.

She's also appeared in many guest roles, including such TV shows as "Nip/Tuck" (a role she was born to play, if I don't say so myself) and countless other guest appearances.  These days, she co-hosts the E! show "Fashion Police", along Kelly Osbourne and some others.  She's also on the WE tv series "Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best?".  She also built a fairly substantial fashion business on QVC, although I don't know if that's as big as it once was, since home shopping cable channels aren't quite what they used to be, especially since cable consists of hundreds of channels now.  She claims, however, that it's a billion dollar business.  Perhaps it is, I've never spent any time researching it.

My point to all of this "history" about Joan Rivers is that her presence in entertainment, for better or worse, has been in existence for my entire life.

Terri Gross from NPR's "Fresh Air" program interviewed Joan Rivers in July 2012, which can be listened to below, or by visiting: http://n.pr/V18Ewz.

At the time of the 2012 interview, Ms. Rivers was promoting yet another new book, although most of the NPR interview had absolutely nothing to do with her book (entitled "I Hate Everyone, Starting With Me").  However, Ms. Rivers talked candidly about a host of topics, including how she got into comedy because she would try to make the secretaries laugh so she could get into see agents, and how the secretaries were the ones who suggested she go into comedy.  She said by doing comedy, she could "... make $8 a night in the comedy clubs. I thought that's better than being an office temporary."  That would later lead to her writing for comedy legends Phyllis Diller and Bob Newhart.  But she also admits she was "smart enough to go through any door that opened" for her in show business.

To be sure, Joan Rivers is doing pretty well for herself approaching age 80, but she says with her age has brought her some wisdom, but she also talks about getting older, and how awful it is to be outliving so many of her friends.

She says:

"And it's terribly sad. You cannot - that's the only sad thing about age. You can't bring back the ones you really loved and that is why, little miss sunshine, when I have a fight with a friend, I never - two negatives. I never do not make up with them. I make up with them immediately if I care for them. I will not let a day go by. Life is too short these days. How about that for a nice serious stupid note?"

Aside from "Enter Talking", I have not read any of Joan Rivers' other books because I like biographies better than books that are supposed to be funny.

I think we are lucky to still have Ms. Rivers keeping us entertained.  If you're interested in adding something interesting to your Netflix queue, consider adding the documentary about Joan Rivers called "Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work" to your queue.  She discussed that in a 2010 NPR interview with Terri Gross just about 2 years earlier, which you can listen to below, or by visiting http://n.pr/WxdCCt:


The documentary was also covered by The New York Times at http://nyti.ms/XTfHWM.  In the 2010 interview with NPR about that documentary, Ms. Rivers also comments about how her old age has made her much more fearless.  She says:

"I am so much freer now because I always say: What are you going to do? Are you going to fire me? Been fired. Going to be bankrupt? Been bankrupt. Some people aren't going to talk to me? Happened. Banned from networks? Happened. So I can say anything I want, and it has freed me totally, totally. And I talk much more freely now than I ever dared to talk before."

Much like TV legend Betty White, time does tend to make people more willing to say and do things they wouldn't when they were young because now, they really have nothing left to lose.  They've been through it all.  Joan Rivers is proof of that.

Author P.S., September 4, 2014:  Joan Rivers, the irreverent comedian known for her sharp wit and sharper tongue, died on Thursday, September 4, 2014 at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan at age 81.  News had surfaced that she was taken to Mount Sinai a week ago after reportedly losing consciousness while undergoing a procedure on her vocal cords at a doctor's office on the Upper East Side.  Doctors at the hospital placed her in a medically-induced coma.  She remained unconscious in the hospital for nearly a week, but had been moved from intensive care to a private room prior to her death.  Read her obituary at  http://nyti.ms/1t4YFVc and a New York Times blog posting about her, including some video clips, at http://nyti.ms/1ptU0bV.

Sequel to Muppet Reboot Now Filming

It's hard to believe more than a year has passed since since the successful Muppet movie reboot known as "The Muppets" was released in November 2011.  I was able to see the Jim Henson exhibit at New York's Museum of the Moving Image in 2011 (see http://nyti.ms/qUZq9p for details on that) which was very interesting.  In any event, "The Muppets" 2011 movie grossed $158 million worldwide for Disney becoming the highest-grossing film in the Muppets series and was also the first of the series to gross over $100 million (unadjusted for inflation), effectively re-launching a movie franchise that the company had left to die with almost no investment since Disney acquired the Jim Henson Company back in 2004. The Hollywood Reporter (visit http://goo.gl/cTW4j) has already disclosed that Ricky Gervais (who appeared in "The Muppets") will be featured in a new Muppet sequel movie and Mr. Gervais himself acknowledged it via a Tweet, along with (potentially) Tina Fey.  Shooting for the new sequel is scheduled to take place starting January 2013 in London (the story will be about the Muppets going to Europe, hence the filming location).

Ideally, Disney should have been a great strategic fit for the Muppets, especially since the Muppets are characters traditionally aimed at children, but Disney had been on an acquisition binge over the past decade, snapping up several big media companies, ranging from Pixar (acquired 2006), Marvel Comics (acquired in 2009) to it's most recent acquisition of Lucasfilms (acquisition announced in 2012, see my post at http://goo.gl/YLhVm for details on that).  Frankly, without Jim Henson or Frank Oz (who's still around but now retired) to advocate for the Muppets, the franchise seemed destined to become a relic of a bygone era.  After all, today's kids are really enamored with the computer animation from Pixar and rivals like Dreamworks, whereas old-fashioned puppets or animation seems so last century, right?  Of course, the Muppets were fully-developed character personalities, giving them an edge over newly-created characters.

Jim Henson and his Muppet characters

Without getting too far off track, readers should know that Muppets is the formal name and legal trademark now owned by the Walt Disney Co. in reference to the original puppet characters created by Jim Henson.  Although Mr. Henson would sometimes tell people the term had been created by combining the words "marionette" and "puppet", he was also on record as saying that it was really just a made-up word.  Regardless, the franchise was already well-established, but poorly-managed (or maybe not managed at all?) since Disney took ownership in 2004.

Disney Acquisition Binge Left Muppets Franchise Unattended for 7 Years

In 1990, Jim Henson himself was in negotiations to sell his company to The Walt Disney Company, but Mr. Henson died rather unexpectedly during the week he was supposed to sign the contract, and his family then decided to have the company keep the rights to the characters.  Disney bought the distribution rights to Jim Henson Co. library (up to that time) in December 1991, but the company did not own the characters, merely the distribution rights to them.

In 2000, Jim Henson's children sold the entire Jim Henson Company to a German media company named EM.TV, but in early 2001, EM.TV experienced major financial problems, so the Jim Henson Company was again put up for sale.  Then, on February 17, 2004 Disney actually bought full ownership rights to the Muppet characters (excluding the Sesame Street and Fraggle Rock characters) for $75 million.  However, as I noted before, Disney did almost nothing with the franchise for the next seven years as it worked to transform itself into a media giant capable of competing with rivals Time Warner and Viacom.

Jason Segel: A Fan Steps In To Resurrect Muppets of His Youth

The entire Muppet reboot really happened because of Jason Segel, who admits he was was a big fan of the original Jim Henson series which most Gen Xers grew up watching on TV.  Jason Segel didn't just star in November 2011's movie "The Muppets", he was also a co-writer, having written the script with his "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" partner Nick Stoller.

Shortly after "The Muppets" 2011 reboot premiered, NPR's "Fresh Air" program spoke with Jason Segel about the reboot.  That interview may be listened to below, or by visiting  http://n.pr/rEjbWs:


2009 Muppet Rendition of "Bohemian Rhapsody" As A Preview

We saw an early hint of how a renewed Muppets franchise was likely to look when the Muppet Studio, back in late November 2009 (which had been pretty dormant), quietly brought the Muppets back to the small screen (the REALLY small screen, meaning YouTube) with a video of the Muppet gang doing a video rendition of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody", which was clearly aimed at the Gen Xers who grew up watching the Muppets on television back in the 1970s.  The video was released virally, and received over 10 million hits within its first 2 weeks online.  The official version of that can be viewed below, or by visiting http://youtu.be/tgbNymZ7vqY:

Frank Oz Less-Than-Impressed With Muppet Reboot?

To be sure, some purists weren't exactly thrilled with the reboot.  For example, Frank Oz (who was the original puppeteer for Miss Piggy among others), told the British website Metro (see http://bit.ly/UHUBZm):

"I wasn't happy with the script", Oz explained. "I don't think they respected the characters. But I don't want to go on about it like a sourpuss and hurt the movie."

Diva Miss Piggy on the cover of "People"
Sep. 3, 1979 (click on photo to see issue)

Mr. Oz seemed to overlook the fact that Mr. Segel was really throwing the Muppet franchise a lifeline.  For example, The Hollywood Reporter noted (see http://goo.gl/XVwLv) the Muppets hadn't been in theaters since "Muppets From Space" tanked for Sony in 1999.  It also reported:

"According to a Muppets veteran, toward the end of his life, Muppets creator Jim Henson was finding it a challenge to keep his creatures in the public eye. He was operating independently in an era of media concentration, which helps explain his decision to sell to Disney."

"It was difficult  even before Jim Henson died [in 1990], and it became very, very difficult after Jim died," said [one] insider ruefully. "We had the characters still doing things, but without a constant, in-your-face exposure that something like The Simpsons has ... They lost a generation."

Author Judy Blume's Thoughts On Revisions To Original Works

A while back I wrote about an NPR interview with 1970s kids' author Judy Blume (see that post at http://goo.gl/t4pcp), and she spoke on how over 25 years ago, her British editor talked to her about how her original edition of the book "Are You There God, It's Me Margaret" referred to sanitary napkins and pads that had belts and pins (not the sticky pads used now), so the author said she had no problem updating those things, and she's also updated books in the "Fudge" series to remove references to the smell of mimeograph machines which aren't used in schools anymore today, and she also changed some of the electronics cited in order to keep the books relevant to today's readers.

Her most telling comment was:

"You know, I don't think it has anything to do with the story and the characters. It just — it doesn't. Those are just little details that don't mean anything."

Now, I should note that Frank Oz was trying not to be overly critical (it was more of a side comment that seems to have been blown out of proportion), and my sense is he really didn't want to stand in the way of the new Muppet movie's success.  After all, he won't be around to do Miss Piggy forever, so getting new people to do it is key to the Muppets' survival into the future.

Jason Segel Reboots Muppets Franchise For Disney

Anyway, back to Jason Segel.  He was really the force behind getting the Muppet resurrection, and it was a bit more difficult than he'd anticipated.

According to Segel, putting the script together was kind of a logistical nightmare. "It was oddly a lot more complicated than I thought," Segel said in an interview during the CBS after-party during the Teen Choice Awards. "All of a sudden, you realize when you write a scene like, 'The Muppets run away from the building,' the set has to be elevated and there's puppeteers operating all four limbs. It's as creative as you want it to be in your brain."

However, Mr. Segel found that actually writing for puppets wasn't the most gut-wrenching part of the job, admitting "I cried the first time Kermit said a line I'd written.  It's not even 'awww' worthy. It just happened. I'd been writing the script for about four years, literally since 'Sarah Marshall.' We did a table reading, and they'd brought the puppets for the first time. We're all just sitting at the table, and all of a sudden they brought out Kermit and he said the first line that I had written. And I just lost my shit a little bit. I started crying at the table read and I had to awkwardly ask them to stop filming. It was emotional. He's been my favorite since I was a little kid." Despite the tears, Segel added, "It was a good day."

Check out the official trailer for "The Muppets" below, or by visiting http://youtu.be/C4YhbpuGdwQ:

To be sure, "The Muppets" reboot succeeded, although Mr. Segel won't be back for the new sequel.

It's also unclear if the new Muppet character Walter in "The Muppets" will be featured in the new movie, either (by the way, his human alter-ego in "The Muppets" was played by none other than "Big Bang Theory's" Jim Parsons).  Although the Walter character was well-received by Los Angeles Times film critic Betsy Sharkey (see her review at http://lat.ms/RGsVqY), the character served more of a role in building "The Muppets" story, rather than much else.  Whether that character is needed in the new sequel remains to be seen.  With other such already well-developed characters like Kermit the Frog, Fozzie Bear, Swedish Chef, Rowlf the Dog, Statler and Waldorf, or Miss Piggy, it's unclear whether Walter will even make an appearance without Mr. Segel in the sequel.

In the meantime, Jason Segel has plenty of work in Hollywood to keep himself busy as an actor  who plays Marshall Eriksen in the current CBS sitcom "How I Met Your Mother".

For the record, Disney has released three seasons of "The Muppet Show" on DVD, and all of the Muppet movies have also been released on DVD.

As for the Muppets, they're all headed back to the studio in London this month, and we'll see if lightning really does strike twice for the newly-revived Disney Muppets franchise.

Author P.S., April 3, 2013:  The New York Times reports (see http://nyti.ms/ZaDvv6) Jane Henson, widow of (and original collaborator with) Jim Henson, the creator of the Muppets, died on Tuesday, April 2, 2013 at her home in Greenwich, Conn. She was 78.  The cause was of death cancer, said a spokesman for the Jim Henson Co., the production company still owned by the couple's five children.  Ms. Henson was legally separated from Jim Henson in 1986, but they remained friends until his death in 1990.

Author P.S.,  June 10, 2015:  Entertainment Weekly, Variety and various others are reporting (see http://bit.ly/19Tqwny for one article) that ABC will reboot The Muppet Show as a primetime series for the network.  As the media has reported, the rebooted version of Muppet Show will be "more adult" shot in a mockumentary style à la The Office.  This makes sense given that the two Muppets films were heavily watched by adults who watched the movies with their own children (and were the original audience for the Muppets) and may find this type of entertainment appropriate for family viewing at home, plus the more adult humor may keep them coming back.  "The Big Bang Theory" co-creator Bill Prady, who spent his early days writing for the Muppets and received an Emmy nomination for co-writing a tribute to Muppets creator Jim Henson, will be exec producing the project.  The reboot will premier on Tuesday, September 22, 2015 on ABC television (ABC is owned by Disney, which also owns the Muppets).  A preview can be seen on YouTube at https://youtu.be/x2B5d-8H588.  The original, syndicated Muppet Show aired from 1976 to 1981.  ABC revived the franchise in 1996 with "Muppets Tonight", but the series was cancelled after 10 episodes.

Author P.S., August 5, 2015: In early August 2015, social media and traditional media were abuzz with the story (communicated by the celebrities themselves) that Miss Piggy And Kermit the Frog were calling it quits in terms of their relationship.  NPR covered the story briefly at http://n.pr/1TqptAW - the couple was careful to note that they'd be working together professionally in the Muppet Show reboot set to air on ABC (Disney owns both the Muppets and ABC) on September 22, 2015.  Some saw the news as little more than a publicity stunt for the rebooted show.

Pop Culture Memoir: New Biography About Actress Elizabeth Montgomery

Happy New Year!

2013 kicked off with a few marathons of truly classic television.  Most notable was a day-long airing of "Bewitched" on both Me-TV (which stands for "Memorable Entertainment Television", note that I addressed that network in a prior post at http://goo.gl/gZcVJ) and also on Viacom/MTV's gay-themed network Logo.  The show had been picked up by both networks in late 2012 after what was arguably a long absence from television.   It was last shown in 2008-2009 on WGN America, but later discontinued.  While it's a perfectly logical fit for Me-TV, its fit on Logo seems likely to do better in the ratings than did several MTV reality shows ported over to Logo, most notably "16 and Pregnant" which did not resonate at all with lesbians or gay men and has drawn poor ratings (as if it's hard to understand why?!, BTW, I wrote about that issue previously, see http://goo.gl/aZkMS for details).

Side Notes About "Bewitched" Cast

One interesting side-note: of the original "Bewitched" cast, aside from the actress who played daughter Tabitha (Erin Murphy, who I covered in another post, see http://goo.gl/iKsTG for that, as well as her twin sister Dianne who was later dropped) and perhaps the un-credited child actor who played cameos of brother Adam in the last few seasons, the only surviving original actor from the show is the actor who played the recurring role of Dr. Bombay (played by British-actor Bernard Fox) who remains alive today, and is reportedly age 85.  However, "Bewitched" also has the notable distinction of having replaced several cast members throughout the show’s production, most notably actor Dick York who was replaced by actor Dick Sargent in 1969.  Other cast members who were replaced include the actress who played the busybody neighbor Gladys Kravitz, as well as the actress who played Louise Tate, all of whom were played by multiple actors, and unfortunately, even the replacement actors/actresses have since passed away.

New Biography About "Bewitched's" Elizabeth Montgomery

Of course, entire series of "Bewitched" is available on DVD including the original Black & White version of the first 2 seasons (which weren't originally recorded in color, but were later colorized by Ted Turner) hence the content for "Bewitched" is completely digitized.  Also of note is that the original show's producer (and star Elizabeth Montgomery’s ex-husband), William Asher (best known for his work on "I Love Lucy"), just passed away in the summer of 2012 (see the obituary at http://lat.ms/12WINJl).  "Bewitched's" recent TV resurrection happens to coincide with a recent book (published November 2012) called "Twitch Upon A Star: The Bewitched Life and Career of Elizabeth Montgomery" by pop culture scholar Herbie J. Pilato.

While books about dead celebs happen somewhat regularly, the reality is that actress Elizabeth Montgomery hasn't exactly been a TV icon for a number of years, and as I noted in the preceding paragraph, her signature TV show "Bewitched" wasn't even airing in U.S. syndication when the book went to press.  The author has written several other books about Hollywood (indeed, this is his second book on "Bewitched", so I'm presuming it's a personal favorite for the author) and he describes himself as a "pop culture scholar".  He also started a nonprofit organization called The Classic TV Preservation Society and does consulting on the topic.  As I understand it, Mr. Pilato actually interviewed Ms. Montgomery prior to her death in 1995 for his first book entitled “The Bewitched Book" and discovered he had lots of unused interview material left over from which he was able to put in this new book, along with interviews with some other people from Liz's life like her friends Sally Kemp and Cliff Robertson.

This particular book is breaking some unspoken rules about publishing, notably that the subject of a biography usually requires that the subject is (or at least their work) is still in the public eye, at least that’s what publishers usually look for when printing a book.  But the publishing industry is undergoing some fundamental changes, in fact, two of the largest publishers merged in 2012 (Random House and Penguin, see the NPR story about that merger at http://n.pr/Up0mh5), although the merger may be as much about fundamental changes to the business climate for book publishers as it is about big publishers getting even bigger.  The new predator isn't other, traditional publishers, but retailers like Amazon.com, the very company that began as an online bookseller (see http://n.pr/yhDsct for more about that, although the story is a bit more complicated than simply disruptive technology, see http://n.pr/Ym1aCd for more on that).  Beyond her extended absence from television, actress Elizabeth Montgomery died 17 years (in 1995) ago from colon cancer (in fact, she died just 6 weeks after diagnosis), and as I've already noted, she's been out of the public eye for the same amount of time.

As the book title indicates, the subject of his biography is actress Elizabeth Montgomery, best known for portrayal as the bubbly, blonde, nose-twitching housewife witch Samantha Stephens of the TV sitcom "Bewitched" which began in the mid-1960s, but peaked in popularity during the 1970s, and was followed by a very successful run in syndication.  In fact, the show was so popular that the "Samantha" character that she (along with a very brief cameo of Darrin) was featured in a full episode of Hanna-Barbera's animated cartoon "The Flintstones" which were sold on VHS together under the title "The Flintstones Meet Samantha" (the actual episode from October 1965 was known simply as "Samantha").  The actual celebrities provided the voice talent for that particular episode, as both "Samantha" and "Darrin" from "Bewitched" were voiced by Elizabeth Montgomery and Dick York, respectively.

Behind the Scenes on the Set of "Bewitched"

As already noted, "Bewitched" re-emerged on television after an absence of several years in late 2012 on Viacom/MTV's "Logo" network as well as Me-TV, but is reportedly also slated to air on Tribune’s Antenna TV starting next fall (2013), as reports of the license agreement were revealed several months ago.

In any event, the behind-the-scenes look at Elizabeth Montgomery's life was not the first, but is perhaps designed to tell the story in a way that's more likely to sell books today, which in publishing is what matters most these days.  Most reviews, for example, suggest that Elizabeth Montgomery didn't get along with co-star Dick York (the first actor to play Darrin).  However, the reality is it was less about Mr. York than about his lack of professionalism, and she did push her then-husband and "Bewitched" producer William Asher to find a replacement him because he was addicted to painkillers and kept missing recordings, which made her life more difficult.  (Ms. Montgomery's father was also in show business, hence she had a belief that a certain level of decorum was appropriate for this type of work).

The role of Darrin went to actor Dick Sargent whose professionalism Elizabeth Montgomery seemed to like better.  But that move didn't sit very well with co-star Agnes Moorehead (who played her mother Endora), an entertainment legend from stage, radio, TV and movies.  The author wrote that Elizabeth had battles with Agnes Moorehead. Apparently, Agnes was rather fond of Dick York and didn't want to see him go.  The book writes that Ms. Moorehead reduced his replacement, Dick Sargent, to tears on occasion, according to the new book.

Ms. Montgomery was ready to quit the show during it's height of success, tired of the hassles and bickering in the studio, but apparently the studio made her a salary offer she couldn't afford to turn down, so she stayed on for a few more seasons.  But when that ended, she wanted to move on.  One of her more memorable roles post-Bewitched was for the TV movie "The Legend of Lizzie Borden" in which she played the axe murderess Lizzie Borden in 1975.

The author offered the following teasers in in his new book (see http://goo.gl/rR4a2 for details):

• Why did Elizabeth Montgomery, star of TV's Bewitched, hate Ronald Reagan?

• How are JFK and Marilyn Monroe related to "Bewitched"?

• What does the Iran/Contra Affair have to do with "Bewitched"?

• What does the 1988 Pan Am incident over Lockerbie have to do with "Bewitched"?

• Why did Elizabeth view prejudice as the core message of "Bewitched"?

• How did Elizabeth twitch her nose as Samantha on "Bewitched"?

• Was she really related to ax-murderess Lizzie Borden?

• Did Gary Cooper make a play for a pre-witched Elizabeth?

• Did she have an affair with Dean Martin (on the set of their hit movie, "Who's Been Sleeping In My Bed")?

• Did dueling affairs break-up Elizabeth's marriage to "Bewitched" producer/director William Asher?

• Did Elvis Presley have a thing for Elizabeth?

• Just exactly how abusive was her marriage to alcoholic actor Gig Young (her second of four husbands)?

• Did Darrin really love Samantha behind the "Bewitched" scenes? Is THAT why there were two Darrin's?

• Did Samantha and Endora battle behind the witch cameras?

He closes by writing "The answers to these questions and more are found in my new biography of Elizabeth Montgomery, 'Twitch Upon a Star: The Bewitched Life and Career of Elizabeth Montgomery'", which is based on Mr. Pilato's exclusive interviews with Elizabeth Montgomery (and others).

I haven't read the book personally, but I would say the subject is more appealing than, say,  another book about Steve Jobs, if for no other reason than the content seems fresh by comparison!

Author P.S., October 9, 2014: Actress Elizabeth Montgomery did not retire after "Bewitched" ended, she continued acting in guest roles and on TV game shows for a time.  One of her most enduring post-Bewitched roles was in a 1975 made-for-TV movie called "The Legend of Lizzie Borden" which I believe ran on ABC.  As the chant (often sang by school girls doing jump rope) goes: "Lizzy Borden took an axe, gave her mother forty whacks, When she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty one" - that's basically all you need to know, except that Elizabeth Montgomery played the leading role (the name was easy for her to remember!).  The character was of course, about a Fall River, Massachusetts woman who supposedly committed these horrific acts of murder on August 4, 1892.  The legend has persisted for generations.  Described by DVD Talk as "Hypnotically creepy, one of the best made-for-TV movies of the 1970s--and that's saying something from that golden age of the form" (see the review at http://ow.ly/CwsFA), or for those already familiar with this legendary TV movie, you can actually buy it at Amazon by visting http://amzn.to/10WoUp6.

Author P.S., October 17, 2014:  Its hard for many of us to believe, but television's "Bewitched" series turn's 50 this year (indeed, Erin Murphy, one of the twins who played Tabitha in the original show, recently hosted a marathon in observance of the anniversary!  The series originally ran on ABC from 1964 to 1972, and sometimes people forget that the first two seasons were shot in black and white, before switching to color in season 3.  Ted Turner colorized the first two season, and many prefer the colorized versions.  The show, which quickly soared to the top of the ratings, used creative filming to create an illusion of witchcraft-magic.  Needless to say, in the late sixties to early seventies, the show ruled the airwaves.

There was a kind of a reboot (or reimagining) on the big screen in 2005 that starred Nicole Kidman as Samantha and Will Farrell, but the concept for the film (and as a result, box office numbers) bombed.  Frankly, the film stunk, and deserved the ridicule it received from critics because it had none of the magic of the original.  But there is news from Deadline that Sony is reportedly shopping the idea for a TV reboot.  Whether it makes it past the concept stage remains to be seen, and a lot has happened since the original series (for example, the idea of stay-at-home housewives as Samantha was, is largely history), so a reboot would need to reflect today's reality, not 1970's.

The Bitter Story of How America’s Beer Was Destroyed (or was it?)

For nearly 150 years, Anheuser-Busch (AB) was a family company that was passed from father to son for generations.  The Busch family turned a family business into a world-renowned beer manufacturer.  Budweiser was branded to the world as the "King of Beers," and the Busch family wasn't too far from American royalty in terms of wealth and respect (catch my post on American Royalty by visiting http://goo.gl/8Axil).  According to family historians, a couple drops of the company's namesake Budweiser beer were put onto the tongue of each first-born son before he even tasted his mother's milk.

For the early part of the company's storied history, the St. Louis, MO  family demonstrated very good business acumen, mass-marketing a beer that is viewed by many Americans as mediocre at best.  But prohibition all but wiped out most of Anheuser-Busch's competition, yet the family demonstrated considerable business skills, surviving by selling the raw ingredients (it wasn't illegal to sell those, only to assemble them), so the company was able to survive by selling the raw ingredients instead of the full product; even while many rivals disappeared.

William Knoedelseder, the author of "Bitter Brew: The Rise and Fall of Anheuser-Busch and America's King of Beer" said "Their yeast profits saved the company. That was the cash engine that was able to keep the company open."

What really differentiated AB was not necessarily a superior product, but the company's ability to sell it to millions of Americans over regional brews by taking an approach not too dissimilar to other consumer products marketers including companies like Procter & Gamble.  Notably, AB was the first company to pasteurize beer so that it would stay fresh on cross-country trips. However, the latter part of AB history is much like other royal families, and was less about keeping up the family traditions, but being scarred by embarrassments.

For example, in 2008 AB was a $19-billion-a-year Fortune 500 company and was still operating as a family business. August IV, the great-great-grandson of one of the founders Aldolphus, and then-CEO, showed up to speak at a beer industry convention but he couldn't seem to get a word out. "He's stoned, he's loaded, he cannot deliver the speech," Knoedelser wrote.

NPR recently interviewed author William Knoedelseder about a this fascinatingly sordid family story.  Have a listen to that below, or by visiting http://n.pr/VjPXjp:



Of course, the company ceased to exist as a family company in 2008, when InBev, the Leuven (Belgium)-based owner of Beck's and Stella Artois, acquired Anheuser-Busch, the maker of Budweiser, in a $52 billion hostile takeover. However, from there, the tale continues it's interesting (if sordid) path.

Anheuser-Busch Led To The Creation of AB InBev 

In late October 2012, Bloomberg BusinessWeek featured as it's cover story "The Plot to Destroy America's Beer" (see that article by visiting http://buswk.co/TZMIgU) which highlighted how the company, now known as Anheuser-Busch InBev is doing virtually everything right financially, EXCEPT that it can’t seem to sell beer.  For example, the company owns more than 200 different beers around the world, and it would like to buy more, but there's not many brewers left to acquire.

The man in charge of AB InBev is 52-year-old man named Carlos Brito. The Brazilian-born CEO is a millionaire many times over, although he wasn't always that way. BusinessWeek notes he was born in 1960, he was originally known as Carlos Alves de Brito and studied mechanical engineering at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He wanted to get an MBA from an American business school, but he couldn't afford the tuition. Through a family friend, Mr. Brito met a wealthy Brazilian banker named Jorge Paulo Lemann. The two were well matched.

According to a Brazilian business magazine, there were two ways that an employee of Lemann’s bank could quickly be shown the door. One was to appear in the Brazilian celebrity magazine Caras. The other was to purchase a foreign car (Lemann and his partners sold their bank to Credit Suisse in 1998 for nearly $1 billion).  Mr. Lemann thought Brito had potential, and he agreed to pay for him to get an MBA at Stanford University.  When Mr. Brito finished at Stanford, he went to work for a Brazilian brewing company, hence his start in this industry.

While Mr. Brito has been able to transform the company into a global brewing giant, he's operated the company much like a private equity firm, slashing costs at the combined company by $1.1 billion in a single year, for example. AB InBev's margins widened substantially, and its share price nearly quadrupled since the AB takeover.  The company's shares swooned during much of 2011. Mr. Brito has increased revenue and profit, but he's done so almost entirely by raising prices and cutting the cost of making the product.  That's done wonders for AB InBev's balance sheet.  He's also continued that with a seemingly endless stream of acquisitions.

However, much of his success has been strictly financial engineering, and once all the "efficiencies" are squeezed out of the company, he's got to figure out how to actually sell beer, and that's something he's not yet succeeded in doing.  He has yet to prove he can also be a good marketer, which Wall Street wasn't concerned about when he first transformed the company, although Wall Street may be thinking differently about that today.

AB InBev's Problem: It Can't Seem to Sell Beer in the U.S.

AB InBev was going to rely on profits from the U.S. to fuel its growth in more rapidly-growing markets like China. However, BusinessWeek reports that price increases have weakened thirst for Budweiser and Bud Light in their country of origin, Bud Light shipments in the U.S. declined 3% to 39 million barrels from 2009 to 2011, according to Beer Marketer's Insights.  Bud slipped 13%. Anheuser-Busch's shipments were actually rising before the InBev takeover, according to Beer Marketer's Insights.

Mr. Brito's attempts to wring dollars from other previously strong brands, such as deciding to brew Beck's and Bass in the U.S., have also met disapproval. According to Bump Williams Consulting, sales of Bass in food stores fell 17% in the four weeks ended September 9, 2012, compared with the same period in 2011. "They are hurting these brands," said Gerard Rijk, a beverage analyst at ING. "The authenticity of Beck's is that it is a German brand with German water, with German malt, with German hops. This isn't about brand building. It's about costs. Full stop. Heineken would never do such a thing."

BusinessWeek also reports that once Mr. Brito was done with his latest round of merging and acquiring (the last acquisition was Mexico's Grupo Modelo, best known to Americans as the brewer of Corona), shareholders started paying more attention to AB InBev's declining market share in the U.S. (and elsewhere). AB InBev's shipments in the U.S. have declined 8% to 98 million barrels from 2008 to 2011, according to Beer Marketer's Insights.  Last year, Coors Light surpassed Budweiser to become America's No. 2 beer. (Bud Light still remains No. 1 for now, but how long it can retain that distinction remains to be seen, Bud Light shipments in the U.S. declined 3% to 39 million barrels from 2009 to 2011, according to Beer Marketer's Insights). Meanwhile, Bud slipped 13%.  Of note is the fact that Anheuser-Busch's shipments were rising before the InBev takeover, again according to Beer Marketer's Insights.

The company is also alienating lovers of AB InBev's imports like Becks by not importing them anymore (or using the signature hops and other ingredients which gave the products their distinctive flavors). Indeed, a former top AB InBev executive, who declined to be identified by BusinessWeek because he didn't want to get in trouble with his former employer says the company saved about $55 million a year substituting cheaper hops in Budweiser and other U.S. beers for more expensive ones like Hallertauer Mittelfrüh.). And Mr. Brito is now risking the devotion of American beer lovers by fiddling with the Budweiser recipe in the name of cost-cutting.

Americans Are Moving Away From Mass-Market Beer In Favor of Nanobrews

American consumers are drinking less beer than they once did, but even those who do drink beer seem to have moved on from big brews. But, as BusinessWeek reporter Devin Leonard wrote "After one last carnival of cost-cutting, Mr. Brito would have no more easy ways to juice his company's stock." BusinessWeek speculates that Mr. Brito may have set his sights on PepsiCo, but that's entirely speculation, and it may not happen. And, in the meantime, he now has to prove he can sell beer because he's running out of costs to cut. The bigger question is whether he'll be able to do that?

Meanwhile, the growth of America's craft beer scene is well documented: smaller, independent brewers are flourishing even as big beer companies fight declining sales.  Indeed, such brewers are growing even as the overall U.S. beer market shrinks, which means the only place their growth is coming from is from the big guys like AB InBev or SABMiller.

While big brewers have tried to buy their way into that market (typically unsuccessfully), a new, potentially more challenging trend is now emerging: demand for ever smaller, ever more local beer has opened brand new opportunities for talented home brewers to test the marketplace for their beers, which have collectively captured nearly 10% of the market. The mid-six figure investment required to start a microbrewery was too high a bar for most people who begin brewing as a hobby, but for those who are serious and passionate about building a beer business, they can now launch nanobreweries with a much more attainable five-figure investment.  That means hometown breweries can emerge in places where sales for beer was once the domain of national brewers.

American Public Media's Marketplace recently featured a story about what it calls "Nanobreweries" which can be listened to below, or by visiting http://bit.ly/VXlnCD:



While the story of Anheuser-Busch rise and fall is somewhat tragic, this seems to be one example where consumers could actually end up as the winners.  It will be interesting to see how the giant breweries respond to the changes in the U.S. beer market, but consumers are already voting with their dollars, and big brews don't even appear to be on their collective radar screens.  Meanwhile, the emerging youth market appears even more predisposed to accelerate this trend, in much the same way as they've embraced gourmet cuisine (often prepared by themselves).  Winning them back will require more than skilled financial engineering.

Author P.S., January 31, 2013:  Bloomberg News reported (see http://bloom.bg/XqpjIq) that Anheuser-Busch InBev may have to give up more control of U.S. beer distribution or even sell a brewery in order to settle an antitrust lawsuit by the U.S. to block its $20.1 billion takeover of the rest of Mexico's Grupo Modelo SAB.  The U.S. Justice Department has expressed objections to the deal because the transaction would give AB InBev with almost half the U.S. market, therefore the Justice Department has threatened to sue, arguing that the proposed acquisition would violate antitrust law because it would eliminate the "substantial head-to-head competition" between AB InBev and Modelo and would "diminish the company's incentive to innovate."  Stay tuned for more!

Author P.S., March 17, 2013:  NPR's "All Things Considered" news program reports, in a story entitled "Craft Brews Slowly Chipping Away At Big Beer's Dominance", that although 90% of beer sold in the U.S. is from just 2 companies (Anheuser-Busch InBev and MillerCoors), innovators are challenging that dominance in the form of craft beer breweries. Small craft and regional breweries — now account for about 6% of domestic beer sales, which has been growing every year since the early 1990s, while big brewer share is declining.  That story can be viewed (or listened to) by visiting http://n.pr/111Ju1B.  However, it remains a challenge for craft brewers to get on eye-level store shelves.  NPR's Jacki Lyden, host of weekends on All Things Considered, said "Everyone wants to be on grocery store shelves at eye level," Flock says. "Craft brewers say big beer is increasingly pushing them out of those prime spots."

Author P.S., April 23, 2013:  NPR reports (see http://n.pr/14PW0Hs) that a federal court has approved a settlement agreement between the U.S. Department of Justice and Anheuser-Busch InBev that will allow the mammoth beer company to complete its purchase of Grupo Modelo, a Mexico-based brewer that produces Corona, Pacifico and other beers.  However, the deal requires AB InBev to sell ALL of Modelo's U.S. business, but it now clears the way for the $20.1 billion acquisition of the remaining portion of Modelo that AB InBev did not yet own.  Under the terms of the deal that were announced, Constellation, the company to whom Grupo Modelo will divest its U.S. holdings, will pay AB InBev $2.9 billion for control of the beer brands in the U.S., along with $1.85 billion for full control of Crown.

Author P.S., November 23, 2014:  The Wall Street Journal reports that sales of craft beer -- defined as beer made by independent breweries using traditional methods now surpass those of Budweiser. Slate does a good job of recapping the article HERE.

Author P.S., March 23, 2016: As this post notes, once upon a time, a lack of transportation and refrigeration meant that most beer sold in the U.S. was locally produced.  But with the advent of of that plus pasteurization, the beer industry had become largely nationalized.  But according to new data released by the Brewers Association, a trade organization representing small and independent American brewers based on data from several sources representing the beer industry over the years, there were 4,269 operating breweries in the country at the end of 2015, surpassing the previous record logged back in 1873, when breweries in the U.S. basically had to be local because refrigeration and pasteurization didn't exist at that time.  Big companies may still churn out more barrels, but small and independent breweries now comprise 99% of the total breweries in operation by count.  The trend now is because American consumers are rejecting bland, mediocrity for more flavorful brews that Americans once admired Europe for.  For Carlos Brito, industry consolidation (driven largely by AB Inbev and big competitors) hasn't stopped consumers from voting with their taste buds.  See http://bloom.bg/1SgcsWI for more details.

Ghosts of Christmas Past and Present?

I wasn't even going to do a holiday-themed post (after all, my "Grease" cast reunion album posting was sufficient, see that post at http://goo.gl/wcMA2), but I figured, it's Christmas so why not?  If you haven't already made a pilgrimage to PlaidStallions.com, be sure to do so.  There's lots of toys from the 1970s there, some you may have had and some maybe you were glad you didn't get from Santa.  Still, it's worth a visit!  By the way, if you've never visited any of the "Links I Like" found in the right margin of my blog, one particular may be worth looking at, namely the Sears Wishbooks of Christmases Past at http://wishbookweb.com/ which includes many old catalogs from Sears, as well as J.C. Penney (which looked a lot like Sears in those days), Montgomery Ward and a few others.

Last Christmas, Gael Fashingbauer Cooper who co-authored "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops?" (see my post about that at http://goo.gl/jAIF0) also blogs every so often at GenXTinct.com wrote about a website called BetamaXmas.com (http://betamaxmas.com/) which you might want to check out.  My readers may remember that the Sony Betamax, became the defunct rival VCR format to VHS ... of course, a few years from now, readers may ask what a VCR is/was, as if the DVR didn't have an analog predecessor!  Aside from a wood-paneled living room in the BetaMaxMas site, you can actually control the TV on this site, taking a look at different TV shows and commercials from the era of Gen X's youth, such as it was.

Anyway, in keeping with my "It's A Wonderful Life" theme of visiting ghosts of Christmases past, next I'd also like to suggest a visit to Christmas future (or is it Christmas present?).  Whatever it is, I discovered this cool YouTube video which hints that it's actually a Charlie Brown Christmas Reunion of sorts, and kind of what the Peanuts gang likely looks like now.  Check it out below, or by visiting http://youtu.be/R6pC03WRcE0:



I hope your holidays were great, and wish you a happy, healthy and prosperous 2013!

Pop Culture Reunion: "Grease" Film Co-Stars Collaborate on Charity Album

The year was 1977, and a young actor named John Travolta (who was already working as an actor on a sitcom called "Welcome Back, Kotter", see my post about that at http://goo.gl/Npe4p for details) had just landed a lead role in a film called "Saturday Night Fever", which had been one of the year's biggest blockbusters.  The following year, Mr. Travolta landed a role in another film that co-starred an upcoming Australian pop star named Olivia Newton-John in what was the first U.S. film version of the Broadway smash "Grease".  His "Saturday Night Fever" role earned the young actor an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor (although that year's Oscar for Best Actor went to Richard Dreyfuss for his role in "The Goodbye Girl").  Unlike "Grease", "Saturday Night Fever" was treated as a film for adults with an MPAA-unfriendly rating of "R" (Restricted), but "Grease" had a more family-friendly rating of "PG" which made it suitable to a much wider audience.

John Travolta was the hot actor (a role which seemed to belong to a young Zac Efron earlier this year) of the time, although Mr. Travolta would later appear in a string of films that bombed at the box office before resurrecting his moribund acting career in 1994 with a starring role in Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction".

But the world felt that Mr. Travolta and Ms. Newton-John had genuine on-screen chemistry, and few seemed to forget it.  While Mr. Travolta has had his share of recent issues, ranging from the tragic death of his son Jett, to multiple claims of gay sexual misconduct from male masseurs (although rumors about his sexuality have persisted since his days on "Welcome Back, Kotter"), it seems that the appetite for somehow resurrecting his role as Danny Zuko from "Grease" along with Olivia Newton-John resurrecting her role as Sandy Olsen in some way remains even after 34 years.  True, there was a poorly-received sequel to "Grease" called "Grease 2" that neither Mr. Travolta nor Ms. Newton-John appeared in, but the two have not really collaborated professionally in decades in spite of remaining close personal friends.

In 2012, the two (John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John) finally responded to fan requests for some type of reunion with a holiday-themed CD in which both sing Christmas music.

In fact, the "Grease" duet "You're the One That I Want" was a big reason this particular project came about.  Last Christmas, Olivia Newton-John texted John Travolta to tell him that the song had become the best-selling duet in pop music history.  The idea for the album came from there.  Mr. Travolta said in a statement, "From the moment we decided to do this, magic happened. Everyone we contacted agreed to do it."

"It just fell into place," said Olivia Newton-John.  "With our busy schedules, I don't know how we got it done. John and I have always connected. That's never gone away. When we're together, we have a good laugh and feel bonded to one another. We've been through some amazing experiences together."

The album, which actually bears John Travolta's name, is called "This Christmas" and the proceeds benefit each of their respective charities, the Olivia Newton-John Cancer & Wellness Center and the Jett Travolta Foundation.

Speaking about their concept for the album, Travolta said, "I wanted people to be able to play it around the house or in the car during the holidays, and make us part of your celebration. Gathering around house listening to Christmas music has always been an important part of that time of the year to my family."

While it's not quite another "Very Special Christmas" album, it does feature voices of some old favorites singing familiar Christmas carols.  In addition to the "Grease" co-stars, the album also features a number of other friends in vocals, including Cliff Richard, Chick Corea, Barbra Streisand, Kenny G, Tony Bennett, and James Taylor.  While this album is mainly covers of songs that most people know the words to from memory, the collaboration is seen by many as long overdue, and taken at face-value, offers a nice addition to holiday collections that are overflowing with artists who already receive lots of airplay.

The great news is that the album is presently selling for just $5.99 (as of December 21, 2012) on Amazon.com (see http://amzn.to/T0DbMh).

An NPR show called "The Takeaway" covered the album in an interview with Olivia Newton-John on December 14, 2012.  That program can be listened to below, or by visiting http://www.wnyc.org/story/257270-remixing-holidays-olivia-newton-john/:

Can Hit Music Be Manipulated By the Order a Track Appears on an Album?

In the days of analog music (tapes, which were preceded by vinyl albums), getting to a particular track on an album could be a real hassle.  In that regard, vinyl was actually superior to tapes which pretty much replaced vinyl (although no one could play vinyl records in their cars, hence the evolution of music formats away from vinyl to tapes) because someone could clearly see the breaks between songs, whereas tape listeners had to rely on counters built-into their cassette players, and those were not standardized so the listener had to find the start and end points for whichever tracks they wanted.  Using counters often required writing the counts down on the packages, combined with a time-consuming rewind or fast forward process.  Clearly, digital music had solved the problem of immediate access to only the tracks we wanted to listen to far better than any preceding technology.

But, as American Public Media's Marketplace reported on Monday, December 10, 2012, that a recent article published in Billboard magazine (see http://bit.ly/TobGJ5 for the Billboard article) suggests that the spot in which a track appears on an album seems to play a HUGE role in how many downloads of a given song will achieve and Billboard's Gary Trust wrote that the earlier a song appears on an album, the more likely it is to be listened to.  Have a listen to Marketplace interview below, or by visiting Marketplace at http://bit.ly/U53Hmq:


Contrary to what Marketplace suggests, Apple's iPod was NOT the invention to disrupt the idea that the order songs appear on an album has no significance on sales.  For the record, that distinction really belongs to the non-Apple software engineers from Fraunhofer IIS, University of Hannover, AT&T-Bell Labs, Thomson-Brandt, CCETT, and the others who actually invented the MP3 format which Apple was merely the first to successfully commercialize (well, Apple followed the lead of Napster which was merely filesharing which has since been displaced by Torrents and others, but convinced the music industry that this was their best way to sell music in the future).  Today, Apple's dominance in music faces growing competition (often based on much lower prices) from Amazon.com, Google and others who also sell digital music.

Billboard reports that the record labels (and artists, although how much influence the artists have remains to be seen) might want to revisit the importance of songs' locations on albums.

Billboard wrote "... Mumford & Sons' sophomore set 'Babel' which debuted atop the Billboard 200 (with 600,000 copies sold, according to Nielsen  SoundScan), 11 of the 12 cuts on its standard edition roared onto On-Demand Songs. More noticeably, the order of the songs on the album almost mirrors that in which they bowed on the subscription streaming tally that week.  Such data suggests that the earlier a song appears on an album, the more likely a listener is to stream it. At the same time, a music consumer's attention span may be even shorter than any artist wants to believe."

Record Label Beancounters Could Soon Dictate Track Order of Albums

Historically, as Billboard reported, "an album's track order has often been based on what has caught an artist's fancy, shaped by such elements as feel and flow, quoting country singer Taylor Swift who explained in the cover story of the October 27, 2012 issue of Billboard 'I never like to put two happy songs in a row or two of the same kind of sadness in a row'  explaining how she decided the order of cuts on her recent Billboard 200 chart-topper 'Red.'"

But we all know short consumer attention spans seem more prevalent today, and new technology has actually enabled consumers to utilize media in ways that better suit their needs, rather than the needs and wants of musicians or record label executives.

The concept that better-selling tracks tend to appear near the top of the list means that record labels (and artists) might (potentially) be able manipulate which songs become big hits and which ones become the throw-aways by virtue of WHERE a track is placed on an album.

Money Talks

Will the artists, divas and others allow this?

That may depend on who the artist is, but we all know when it comes to the entertainment business, money usually talks loudest and has the most influence.

Madonna Live Nation Contract As Precedent?

In 2007, Madonna dumped her long-time record label (Warner Music Group Corp's Sire Records) which helped make her a star for a plum deal worth about $120 million over 10 years according to a person who told Associated Press on condition of anonymity.  Key in the decision was that Warner Music refused to match the Live Nation deal, which encompassed future music and music-related businesses (Madonna was under contract to release one more album with Warner Music which she delivered), including the Madonna brand, albums, touring, merchandising, fanclub and Web site, DVDs, music-related television and film projects, and associated sponsorship agreements, the official statement said.

At the time, Madonna said in a statement that she was drawn to the deal with Live Nation because of the changes the music business has undergone in recent years.

"The paradigm in the music business has shifted and as an artist and a businesswoman, I have to move with that shift," Madonna said. "For the first time in my career, the way that my music can reach my fans is unlimited. I've never wanted to think in a limited way and with this new partnership, the possibilities are endless."

Madonna's business savvy aside, the good news is that albums aren't necessarily dead.

"The best lesson to take from studying albums' track sequences may be that even in an era of streaming, in which listener behavior seemingly reflects a tendency to sample only portions of releases, the album format appears to have a bright future," writes Billboard's Gary Trust.  He advises bands to put their best material up front -- where a public with an ever-shortening attention span might hear it.

Which songs become the biggest hits have potential to be manipulated in the future by factors like statistical modeling which could potentially dictate WHERE songs should be placed on a given album in order to maximize sales.  Just how much influence traditional radio responds remains to be seen, which had long effectively dominated music popularity, but today faces competition from nimble startups like Pandora radio.  Much of broadcast radio is increasingly corporatized anyway, with giants like Clear Channel snapping up local affiliates across the country, so they may be more than willing to play along.

The mere fact that radio remains in existence (in spite of its now old technology) proves that the radio industry has managed to evolve to stay relevant over time.  But, exactly WHAT radio plays may soon be dictated by things other than popular opinion (or maybe it has already?).

Christmas on TV and DVD

As long as there's been television in the U.S., Christmas TV programming has existed, too.  Whether it's specials, or episodes of our favorite shows, if it's been on, the chances are good there's some kind of holiday-themed episode, too.  In 2005, TVShowsonDVD's Barb Chabai wrote:

"Mix a few beloved characters, stir in chaotic forces of nature and add a story arc that ends with the cynic discovering the true meaning of Christmas - and you have all the trappings of a very special, eggnog-flavored holiday episode ... we could always count on our favorite shows to remind us that the spirit of the season was found not in the malls, not under the tree, but on cable."

No doubt, some networks including Antenna TV, RTV Retro Television and Me-TV and maybe even TV Land will be running some classic holiday-themed episodes, but many people will be busy celebrating the holidays with family, opening gifts, etc. so they could miss them.  So I thought this post was much better now than a few weeks from today. DVD is a good option since you can watch before the holidays, but where does one start?

There are a few books, including "Christmas on Television (The Praeger Television Collection)" by Diane Werts, and there's also another book titled "Tis the Season TV: The Encyclopedia of Christmas-Themed Episodes, Specials and Made-for-TV Movies" by Joanna Wilson.  Neither is quite the definitive encyclopedia on the subject, but they're good places to start.  As best I can tell, both are available in Kindle editions, too, so instant gratification can be combined with streaming video for almost instant gratification provided you're willing to pay for it.


But there have also been a few collections of holiday TV on DVD, including Paramount's "Holiday Treats" which had holiday episodes for "I Love Lucy". "The Honeymooners", "The Andy Griffith Show", "The Brady Bunch", "Taxi" and "Family Ties".  There’s a companion set called "Christmas Treats” which includes episodes from "Happy Days", "Laverne & Shirley", and "Mork and Mindy" just to name a few.  Finally, they sell a 2-disc collection containing all of these and a few more episodes I haven’t named.

Shout Factory's "Merry Sitcom" is another collection which has holiday episodes for "Bewitched" and "That Girl" and "The Flying Nun" as well as some older ones including "McHale's Navy", "The Donna Reed Show" and "Father Knows Best".

However, what I believe is the best of the bunch is Warner Archive's "Classic TV Christmas", which is a nice, 4-disc collection which features "Alice", "Eight is Enough" (a 2-part episode, no less), "Welcome Back Kotter:, "CHiPs", "Mama's Family" and some newer sitcoms including "Suddenly Susan" and "Veronica's Closet" as well as a few others.

Collectively, these compilations are good ones to have, although some people prefer having their whole favorite series' for their favorite shows.  Personally, I have a rather extensive TV on DVD collection, but finding those holiday-themed episodes among boxes of discs is sometimes challenging.

TVShowsonDVD has a good resource online with all the Christmas-themed episodes listed by show, which now number 354 episodes as I write this (December 2012).

To see it, visit: http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/christmas.cfm.

It isn't quite as comprehensive as it could be -- for example, they list the series and season, but not the discs those episodes are found on, nor the name of the holiday-themed episodes, but it's a good place to start.

Absolutely Fabulous, Series #5

All in the Family, The Complete 2nd Season

All in the Family, The Complete 4th Season

Bewitched, The Complete 1st Season: Original Black & White Edition

The Brady Bunch, The Complete 1st Season

Diff'rent Strokes, The Complete 1st Season

The Golden Girls, Season 2

The Golden Girls, Season 5

Green Acres, Season 2

Growing Pains, The Complete 1st Season

The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Complete 1st Season

MadTV, The Complete 1st Season

Moonlighting, Seasons 1 and 2

Nip/Tuck, The Complete 3rd Season (Operating Room Packaging)

Pee-wee's Playhouse Christmas Special

Smallville, The Complete 5th Season

Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, The Christmas Collection

That Girl, Season 1

That Girl, Season 2

Three's Company, Season 2

Who's the Boss?, The Complete 1st Season

Night Court, Complete 1st Season

So there you have my selections.  I'm sharing them now so you can dig them up, order them or assemble your own collection.  Someday, I'll upload my collection someplace on the cloud and be able to create playlists of TV show episodes, but until then, you can simply get your discs out and watch the relevant episodes.

Seasons Greetings!

Television As A Shared Cultural Experience

I've written on a number of occasions so far that with the advent of digital television, DVRs and television on-demand, streaming video and a choice of hundreds of cable channels in an average household (for example, see my posts HERE and HERE and HERE for a few examples) that something is kind of lost with the lack of a shared TV experience.

It was much easier in the past when everyone got the same 3 or 4 television networks, so we weren't overwhelmed with choices.  If you didn't like what was on one of those stations, the alternative was to do something else (like listen to the radio, or read a book or magazine, of course printed books and magazines may someday be on the endangered species list, as Newsweek announced it is converting to an all-digital format starting next year, see http://goo.gl/lZ6mr).

In Time magazine (see http://ti.me/mG2aM), Steve Gillon, author of "Boomer Nation: The Largest and Richest Generation Ever, and How It Changed America," argued [I would add rather unconvincingly] that Baby Boomers (people born between 1946 and 1964) were the last [emphasis mine] generation to really experience national culture in such a unified way.  He told Time "If you grew up in the '50s and '60s, you came of age at the same time that national culture first developed.  There were three major TV networks. Everyone was watching the same thing. The assassination of J.F.K., for instance, was the first event the nation experienced in real time at the same time."

Maybe, but Boomers weren't the first (or last) ones to experience that at the same time.  Gen X even has historical events to prove it.

For example, on January 28, 1986, when Space Shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after takeoff, it was primarily Gen Xers who were tuned in at school, not Baby Boomers.  Less anyone forget,  New Hampshire schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe was on board, so many schools were showing the takeoff on televisions in classrooms across the country.

Cable as we know it today didn't become widespread until the 1980s.  Many small towns in America weren't even wired for cable until the 1980s. (I provided some stats that cable subscriptions more than tripled from 15 million in 1980 to 47 million in 1989 in my post on "Family Ties", see http://goo.gl/DRmhw for that), so Gen Xers weren't "wired at birth" as Mr. Gillon seems to be suggesting.  In fact, by then, Gen X was already graduating from high school.

And, that "national culture" was not a product of the Baby Boom, but of the so-called Silent Generation (born 1925-1945, recognized as the children of the Great Depression who arguably created network TV as we knew it).  A "national culture" already existed by the time Baby Boomers (and Gen X) came along.  I kind of presumed that Gen X might be the last generation to experience that.

Social Media Helps Save A Shared TV Experience

It turns out I was wrong.  Watching TV together isn't dead after all, it's merely changed form.

True, entire households may not necessarily watch a TV show together, but thanks to social media like Facebook and Twitter, a new era of shared pop culture moments via television are still alive and kicking!

NPR News Morning Edition today had a really interesting story entitled "Nielsen Study Notices Growth In Social TV" in which NPR reporter Renee Montagne talked to Dierdre Bannon of Nielsen about its new report on social media use (see that report at http://bit.ly/11wycnB), and one of its key findings: explosive growth in "Social TV", which is people watching television while connected to social media.  Have a listen to that below, or by visiting http://n.pr/Xm08ui:


I can say that I've watched television while Tweeting, and it does make the experience more fun than watching something by yourself.  As the report shows, Twitter rules in that space, not Facebook. The report shows that during June 2012, a third of active Twitter users tweeted about TV-related content, an increase of 27% from the beginning of the year.  Dierdre Bannon of Nielsen noted that Twitter is particularly well suited for that type of social interaction.  And although I've read some bloggers who obsess that it's youth who are glued to social media, as it turns out, adults aged 35-44 are the most likely to discuss TV programming with their social connections, not younger folks.  Too bad, they don't know what they're missing, but I guess if I was still in my 20s, I'd probably find going to bars more fun, too!  Maybe they'll figure it out ... someday.

Social media does have advantages over the traditional "shared" TV watching experience.  For example, you can share the experience with a much larger group of people, and they need not be in the same room or, theoretically, even the same country!  On the downside, there is something to be said about laughing at something together with people in the same room and being able to see the expressions on their faces.  But, compared to the alternative scenario of everyone watching their own show on their own tablets or phone, the shared enjoyment factor suggest that communal television rightfully deserves to continue.

The television networks are keenly aware that people are Tweeting about a show as it airs live.  These days, we see hashtags being promoted in program intros and during commercials.  Contest-oriented shows like American Idol and The Voice use them all the time to gather votes for contestants.

In the NPR interview, Ms. Brannon says:

"And you see that television networks are responding and recognizing to this as well. And people are really gaining a voice in how they feel about the programming content that they're seeing and having an influence on what they're seeing on the screen."

Having said that, the networks aren't exactly using this social feedback to alter storylines.  That, at least presently, is still controlled by the networks' anointed gatekeepers.  In fact, Fast Company wrote back in October (see http://bit.ly/TiMHUs for the article):

"The X Factor realized that its highly enthusiastic following on Twitter had strong opinions about the show’s contestants. The show’s executives got in touch with Digital Royalty, and we helped them see that their viewers didn’t necessarily care if the TV show itself was listening to their opinion; they were naturally sharing their thoughts, feelings, likes, and dislikes with their peers in the interest of a more personal viewing experience."

My local NPR station, WNYC, has a program called "On The Media" and in a show that ran on May 25, 2012 which they named "Television's Trying Times", a segment of that program called "Will We Ever Watch TV Together Again?" aired.  In that segment, guests David Carr (media critic at the New York Times) and Matt Zoller Seitz, (New York magazine's TV critic) discussed "social viewing" of TV.  Mr. Zoller Seitz suggested social viewing doesn't change the long-term trends.  You may listen to that segment below, or by visiting http://www.wnyc.org/story/212464-televisions-trying-times/:


Perhaps expecting the social television experience to enable viewers to somehow be involved in key decisions is too much to expect.  But I'm psyched that shared, live TV viewing has found a new way to survive in the new Millennium!

Pop Culture Reunion: Melrose Place

Back in October 2012, Entertainment Weekly ("EW"), a staple of Hollywood reporting (whether it's legitimate news or not) ran a "reunion" issue.  Apparently, it was the magazine's third-annual reunion issue.  But many of the reunions in the magazine were for shows that haven't even been off the airwaves for a decade, so I wasn't too impressed, but it was free reading in the waiting room, so I didn't complain.

Of course, EW is an actual, printed magazine, so when I browsed that particular issue at the doctors' office while waiting to have my eyes examined, I wondered exactly what the online content for that issue might contain.

EW did not disappoint on that front.

Below is a video clip from EW on a cast reunion for what was arguably one of Aaron Spelling's last big TV hits: "Melrose Place" (the show aired on the Fox television network).  I'm aware this show actually aired in the early 1990s, but it's relevant for the audience this show targeted: Gen Xers.  "Melrose Place" was designed to be a bit more mature than Mr. Spelling's popular "Beverly Hills 90210" which ran at the same time, which was all about high school kids, not young adults, but in reality, it was a soap opera, not really a sitcom or a drama.  "Melrose Place" aimed for young adults who were just starting out.  Needless to say, it did well among Gen Xers, many of whom had already finished or had just finished college themselves.

A lot of the cast of Melrose Place haven't disappeared from television.  Far from it, two of the cast members starred in ABC's recently wrapped-up sitcom "Desparate Housewives" (namely, Doug Savant and Marcia Cross) which ran for an impressive 8 seasons on ABC.  Heather Locklear, who was technically a guest star on Melrose Place, had a lengthy career even before "Melrose Place" and makes occasional guest appearances on TV.  Courtney Thorne-Smith is today a regular on "Two and a Half Men" (she's played Alan Harper's love interest for the past few seasons).

In any event, EW (you may find the EW article on the "Melrose Place" reunion HERE) had a video clip that featured ABC News correspondent Amy Robach (who happens to be married to former "Melrose Place" star Andrew Shue) — who sat down with the stars of "Melrose Place" during their recent EW reunion to find out what the cast from that 1990s show have been up to.  I'll keep this post brief by including the video below, or you can watch it by visiting http://youtu.be/r5K4eAE5_Lo:



For the record, all seasons of the original "Melrose Place" have been digitized and are therefore available on DVD or streaming via Amazon Prime and possibly others.  I'm not aware that the show is currently being rerun anywhere on television (cable or otherwise) right now, but you can definitely rent or stream it on Netflix.  The CW tried to reboot "Melrose Place" in 2009, but the reboot never took off, and it was cancelled before the the full season finished its run.