Ask 411 Movies for 9.17.07: Flower Drum Song
Posted by Leonard Hayhurst on 09.17.2007
Grindhouse, Back to You, The Simpsons Movie, McLean Stevenson, Gene Kelly dances with Stewie and our fourth anniversary
Toot the horn and throw the confetti it's our four year anniversary. I just recently did this for the 200th column, so let's not all get mushy again. I will simply reiterate how great it's been here working at 411 and writing this column in particular. The best part is the interaction with the readership and if it wasn't for all of you out there writing in then there would be no column. I would like to say that I hope to be here in another four years, but if I am that is just plain sad.
Actress Jane Wyman died last Monday of natural causes. She was 90, some reports had her as 93. Wyman was the first wife of President Ronald Regan, making him the only president ever to be divorced. She won an Oscar for Johnny Belinda in 1948, but might be best known to modern audiences as the matriarch on "Falcon Crest." Her other films included Pollyanna, How to Commit Marriage, All That Heaven Allows, The Blue Veil, The Glass Menagerie, Stagefright, Cheyenne, The Yearling and The Lost Weekend.
Just because I have nothing else better to show, here is a commercial for the AMC Gremlin and why it's better than a Ford Pinto.
Q: Why isn't Grindhouse being released in a box set and when will it be, if ever?
-NovemberRainz
A: Death Proof will be released on DVD September 18th with Planet Terror to follow on October 16th. Best Buy will have an exclusive steelbook edition of both films together with a third bonus disc. What will be on this disc is not known at this time. Of the fake trailers only Machete will be included with Planet Terror. Both films will be expanded cuts. Proof will have featurettes on Tarantino's love affair with classic muscle cars, his working relationship with editor Sally Menke, Tarantino interviewing cult director Cirio Santiago and an international poster gallery. Terror will have commentary with director Robert Rodriguez, deleted scenes, a behind the scenes featurette and 10 minute cooking and film schools that previous Rodrigues films have had. It has not been declared why the release is being handled this way, but it's probably in order to maximize prophet potential. With the film flopping big time in the states the movies were split for international release. A restored version is not on the horizon, but several fans have started online petitions and are trying to stage boycotts of the initial DVD releases.
Q: Congrats on your 400th column. I also enjoyed the "Small Wonder" review and can't wait to see what other retro stuff you and the other columnists have lined up.
Anyway, the reason I'm writing is that in current Fall TV Preview of Entertainment Weekly, they make a HUGE deal that the new Kelsey Grammar/Patricia Heaton sitcom on FOX is a single-camera comedy vs. a multi-camera one. I think it's repeated about 87485 times throughout the write-up. My question is what is the big deal? Why is one setup supposedly better than another? Other than a lack of laugh tracks in shows like Scrubs and Malcolm in the Middle, I'm not seeing much difference.
Keep up the good work
JLAJRC
A: It' the four year anniversary, not the 400th column. Don't scare me like that.
A multi-camera setup uses three to four cameras. All cameras catch a single scene at the same time from different angles and in different frames; close up, wide and medium shots. The multi-camera setup for television is usually attributed to Desi Arnez on "I Love Lucy," but they were actually just the first series to use such a set up and shoot before a studio audience. Jerry Fairbanks pioneered the format in 1950. This was done to speed up shooting, but it limits a director's shot choices and shot compositions. A single camera set up, which most television dramas and movies use, is slower and more costly. However, it is usually attributed in sitcoms to higher prestige shows with a unique visual look and lack of laugh track. Here is a list of notable single camera sitcoms. In the Entertainment Weekly article, I believe they were trying to paint "Back to You" as an ‘old school' sitcom in the vein of something like "Mary Tyler Moore" or "Murphy Brown" that they name dropped. The single camera setup was just the dividing line they drew. There have plenty of great series that use both kinds of setup and both have their positive and negative points.
Q: Congrats on Four Years, here's four questions for you, about television...in the movies.
1. What do you think were the three best and three worst parts of The Simpsons Movie?
2. Several shows like Family Guy, Everybody Loves Raymond, and even The Office have syndicated on cable while the shows were still in production. Why not The Simpsons? It seems prime for Adult Swim, TBS, or possibly something under the Fox umbrella?
3. What television show do you think is best suited to be made into a film?
4. What are the best movies based on or acting as direct sequels to television shows?
Happy Trails,
-Andrew B
A: I made comments on The Simpsons Movie awhile back when I saw it. My favorite parts were Spiderpig, Albert Brooks as Cargill and Bart's streaking through Springfield. My least favorite parts were the whole trip to Alaska that just broke up the action because they couldn't think of anything else to do, Lisa's new boyfriend and Bart looking to Flanders as a father figure as both those plotlines have been used previously on the series.
I don't know what is available in your area, but "The Simpsons" is syndicated. They mostly show up on Fox and CW affiliates and a few other channels. They are not available on any major cable channels at this time to my knowledge and the reason for that I don't readily know. I would say it's either due to the syndication package being too expensive or Fox not releasing it for cable syndication because they feel they can do better in promotion and airings with network affiliates. Now there is a law called syndication exclusivity, which I don't know comes into play or not. Federal law grants local stations the exclusive rights to air syndicated shows over cable networks and superstations like TBS. If these networks do show a certain series then the network can demand the show to be blocked in their local markets. Most syndication packages for affiliate networks and local networks have these protection clauses. However, these cable networks and superstations can negotiate for what is called full signal rights for the rights to air certain series. Mostly these laws apply to the blacking out of local sports.
In what television show is best suited to become a movie, are we talking currently on the air? If so, I think "Supernatural" would probably benefit most from the bigger budget and grander effects of a feature film. Or how about "Smallville?" I bet it would be better than Superman Returns. Some quirky comedies like "Scrubs" and "30 Rock" might be up to the challenge and could go into more risqué elements than they can on network television.
My favorite television to film adaptation would be Maverick. Mel Gibson nailed the part perfectly and they found a great role for James Garner as a nice tribute. I've been waiting on a sequel where they introduce brother Bart Maverick. The best television to screen translation would be the Oscar winning The Fugitive that stayed true to the nature of the series while being it's own creative piece. It was also the big break out film for Tommy Lee Jones who is now in roughly 694 movies a year now.
Although you didn't ask, the worst, in just about every way you want to look at it, would be The Avengers. The movie comes off like the screenwriter watched one episode of "The Avengers" a handful of "Man From U.N.C.L.E.'s" and the whole run of "Batman." It's also the only film where I can say that Sean Connery truly sucked. He's made bad movies, but he always tried hard and came off decently, not here. Additionally, the studio cut it down from two and a half hours to 89 minutes after it tested poorly with audiences and it makes absolutely no sense with tons of dangling plot lines.
Q: I saw a rerun of Family Guy the other day with Stewie dancing with Gene Kelly. They looked to be in some sort of hall and Kelly was dressed as a sailor. What is that from and how did they get Stewie to synch up so well with the footage.
-Ben
A: The footage is from 1945's Anchors Aweigh. In the film Kelly tells a group of kids how he won a medal he has leading to the fantasy sequence. Jerry the mouse is the king of a country where dance is outlawed because he can't dance. So Kelly teaches him to dance and is given a medal for it. The makers of "Family Guy" just deleted Jerry and put Stewie in at the same dimensions. If you look real close you can still see Jerry's reflection and not Stewie's on the shiny floor. The bit proved so popular that MGM put a similar sequence with Tom and Jerry into the 1953 Esther Williams film Dangerous When Wet. Originally MGM tried to get Mickey Mouse for the dance sequence, but Walt Disney refused to release him even though Mickey had appeared with Jimmy Durante for MGM in 1934's Hollywood Party.
It's no weirder than Fred Astaire dancing with a vacuum
Q: I know much has been made about MacLean Stevenson leaving MASH, but why did he.
-Jim
A: McLean Stevenson left "MASH" because he was a bonehead. He pretty much admitted that in later years. At the time the wrong people got in his ear that he was bigger than the show and shouldn't have to play second banana to Alan Alda. Similar reasoning led to Wayne Rogers leaving the show the same season. After leaving "MASH" Stevenson starred in a series of failed sitcoms including "The McLean Stevenson Show," "Hello, Larry," "Condo" and "In the Beginning." Stevenson did the game show circuit until the early eighties until his career kind of petered out. He died in 1996 of cardiac arrest.
Don't die.
"Don't shoot yourself. Don't shoot each other. And especially... don't shoot me."
