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November 16, 2009
In Honor of Loud Mouth Broads: Tripping Down 80s Memory Lane at the Academy
This evening, my boyfriend took me to a television academy event, honoring four sitcoms of the 80s: Cheers, Night Court, Designing Women, and Murphy Brown.
It's always fascinating to listen to artists speak about their craft. I've been fortunate enough to accompany Chung to several Academy events, and I always leave invigorated about the world, where creativity flows in torrents. Of course, there is the flip side to it - peaking behind the current forces you to recognize the talent of the show creators and confront the fact that your favorite actors might not be the articulate genius you thought he was when he was reading someone else's lines.
These were the shows of my childhood. Some I watched more than others. (You'll forgive me, as I was four when Cheers premiered.) With so many people on the stage, everyone was getting a little antsy as the moderator meticulously drilled the cast and crew of Cheers. Ted Danson spoke about how many actors read for the part of Sam Malone and said he's convinced he won the role because his reading partner was Shelley Long. The creators, Glen Charles & Les Charles, discussed their inspiration: after working on Taxi, they wanted to create a work-placed comedy set in a space the viewers would want to hang out at.
The moderator then talked to the Night Court crew, since their show as the next to get on the air. Reinhold Weege took the opportunity to hold court and wax poetic on The Way Things Used to Be. He readily admitted that he's basically had two jobs: working on Barney Miller and creating Night Court. (Would that we all had such luck!)
Charlie Robinson told a great tale. He was a guard at Mattel when his agent booked him for 9 episodes of Buffalo Bill. So he went into his manager's office and asked for time off. Once the eps were in the can, he went back to work as a guard. Agent called him again and said they wanted to shoot 9 more eps of Buffalo Bill. So he again went to his boss and got time off for the shooting. As soon as he was done with the acting, he went straight back to his guard duty at Mattel headquarters. When his agent called to let him know he got the role on Night Court, he went into his boss' office and the guy said "you ain't coming back here."
Markie Post was also on the panel and spoke about the experience, agreeing with previous speakers about the family feel. Plus, she and Larroquette were two of the Sam and Diane rejects from Cheers casting, so it worked out for all of them.
At this point, Linda Bloodworth-Thompson interjected to wax poetic about Markie's talent. Well, sort of. In a way only she can. Linda said Markie's talent is often under-estimated because she's so hot. At some point, the moderator caught up with her and asked her about creating Designing Women.
Her primary motivation was two-fold: tell a real story about the South and put four articulate women on the air. She was in the middle of pitching Columbia when the chairmen of CBS called and asked her to come down for a meeting. The heads of CBS loved the idea and asked "where do they work?" She through out the idea that they were decorators, someone else suggested the title of the show and away they went. She explained she was able to create deeply feminist shows because it was a different era: studio chiefs enjoyed having characters who were loud mouth broads. Nowadays, the airways are full of rape and murder victims. If you're not fuckable, you don't exist as a female on screen.
Linda's words were very jarring, and definitely beyond the ability of the moderator to contain. I fear I'm not doing her justice with my poor memory and lack of notes.
After she spoke, the Murphy Brown crew had a chance in the spotlight. And honestly, it was a bit of a let down. Murphy Brown was a seminal part of me growing up: she was a figure I could idolize and in some way relate to: hyper-articulate, takes no guff, and is funny to boot. Alas, Candace Bergen wasn't there. The creators spoke about how she grew into the role. And they came from a very regimented school of production: writers had a week to develop a story idea, two weeks to write a first draft, and one more week for the second draft. They were able to explain that the reason only the first season is available on DVD is that the songs are too expensive. That was the excuse used with La Femme Nikita, and it's now all available. I think they simply lack the strong inside motivation to get it done.
What I'm failing to fully articulate is the way Linda's speeches simply took my breath away. In the midst of this celebration of the past, she pointed out the current dearth of meaty female roles and the utter lack of depth to the women allowed on screen. She denounced stupid jokes and the iterative nature of most shows on screen. She spoke about the fact that good story-telling never goes out of style, whether its on t.v., film, or in a book. No matter how small people's attention spans seem with new technology, they'll always be willing to stop for a good story. But she's not sure studios are willing to make the space for real, quality, innovative shows. And then she threw in some ageism by saying writers today are so young they don't have any experience to draw from (though she included a caveat that some young writers are talented, just not most of them). And she ended the evening by denouncing the recent Wellesley grads in their $700 shoes who come to give her notes.
Oh, Linda, you had me with you up until you threw my sisters under the bus.
Chung insisted we muddle around afterward to speak with Linda. It was an awkward confluence of industry folks eager to press their cards into her hand. She was quite gracious, but also clearly not the person to talk to about getting a job: she doesn't haven't anything in production right now (HBO killed her last series without airing it) and her assistant handles her meetings. But she did seem happy to lend an ear to the aspiring writers and actors in the audience. Eventually, Chung interjected himself to announce that I was a Wellesley grad. She made a comment about being friends with the former First Lady (which just sounded odd because who refers to the Secretary of State as the Former First Lady?) and when I explained that I'm also a feminist peace activist, she understood that I got the over-arching point of her diatribes.
A couple of parting snapshots with Joe Regalbuto and Kelsey Gramer and we left.
Posted by cj at 10:29 PM | Comments (0)
November 15, 2009
Light, Dark, Emotions, Will
I recently made a very simple observation and am wondering why it took me so many weeks to do so. My office recently moved from a brightly lit suite to a dimly lit warehouse. I thought my change in productivity was solely due to physical changes - I went from an office with an ergonomic chair to a completely not ergonomic mini-cubicle in a high traffic area. Yes, the physical surrounding are troubling. But it's the lack of light that really gets to me.
By the end of the day, I simply am not the same person I was when I walked in. Apparently, my neurons may be dying. Well, now that I can articulate the cause of my melancholy, I must use my strong will to work past it.
Add this to the list of reasons I can't wait to get a dog. S/he'll be joining me in January, when I return from my trip to India for a peace conference. So much to do: must figure out where to find him/her, and most importantly - what to name him/her. I've always had male dogs, so I'm not sure how I'd do with a girl pup. Oh yes, and preparing for that peace conference is also on my to-do list.
Posted by cj at 07:39 PM | Comments (0)
November 07, 2009
The Act of Will
I'm sure it's clear to the two people who read this blog that I have been silent for months at a time. I continue to be a student of culture, but without the discipline to put my thoughts to paper. Additionally, the things that pull me closest to paper are brought forth by my weekly sojourns in a sanctuary and I've feared those weren't my thoughts to share.
Well, no more. The rebbetzin encouraged us to share our love of Ohr Hatorah with family and friends, and this is the primary place for me to express my ecstatic appreciation of all things cultural.
Brief background: I grew up at a conservative shul in the Valley. I learned to sing and to daven there. And my rabbi, the one who taught me for my confirmation, committed suicide. There's more I could say about my troubled relationship with organized Jewry, but I'll leave it there for now.
Rabbi Finley leads Ohr Hatorah with an eye towards explaining spiritual psychology, to prepare oneself as a receptacle for the Divine. His teaching is grounded in a neo-Hasidic interpretation of Kabbalah.
Experiencing Shabbat at Ohr Hatorah can be the most enlightening, soul expanding experience of your life. Or, if you choose to focus on the oddities, it can leave you feeling terribly isolated.
The rabbi is in the midst of teaching about Roberto Assagioli's The Act of Will. Last week, he suggested that anyone interested in purchasing the book, look for it on addall.com, which is a bookstore search engine. Through AddALL, I found a used copy and it arrived on Friday.
The best thing about studying Assagioli is that it isn't difficult to read his writing. Unlike Abraham Joshua Heschel's God in Search of Man, this book is written in perfectly modern language. It's theme can be overwhelming; but the map to a coherent existence that it offers is priceless. Some of us yearn for a deeper existence and a life of meaning must be pursued consciously. By understanding the qualities of will, the types of will, and using will to harmonize our sensations, feelings, impulses, imagination, thoughts, and intuition we can lift ourselves to a higher realm of consciousness.
Assagioli's Relationship Between Self, Will and Other Psychological Functions
Today's study session focused on this diagram, along with his egg diagram as maps to self awareness that can lead to a life of consciousness, where you reflect and expand your core truth rather than swaying with the winds of modern life.
I've only scratched the surface of the subject (I'm only on page 33 of the book), but it feels profoundly true and a helpful instruction manual for living a life of virtue. Here are some definitions, gleaned from the book:
Repression: implies unconscious condemnation or fear (or both!) and the consequent endeavor to prevent the repressed material from emerging from the unconscious to consciousnessPerhaps when I have finished the book, or the rabbi finishes his series of study sessions on this topic, I'll be able to offer a more comprehensive description of the act of will.Endurance: It has been found that refusal to accept suffering can often create neurotic conditions, while generous acceptance of unavoidable suffering leads to insight, growth, and achievement.
Initiative, Courage, Daring: This quality has two roots: one is the recognition that full and lasting security is fundamentally an illusion. The other incentive toward courage is the enhancement and stimulation given by danger, by risk.
In the meantime, think about this: what core values define you? How do you actively emanate these values on a daily basis? Do you work daily to live a life of consciousness?
Here's hoping I slow down long enough to breathe deeply and internalize these teachings each day.
Posted by cj at 05:01 PM | Comments (0)