May 2010 be for you...

…what 2009 was for…Taylor Swift, the New York Yankees, Lady Gaga, GLEE, Tar Heels, Mark Ingram, SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, Alicia Keyes, Albert Pujols, Don Draper, Vera Farmiga,Alele, the Pittsburgh Steelers, Sean Penn, Kyle Bush, Twitter, John Mayer, Comic-Con, Kate Winslet, Diane Sawyer, Dan Brown, LeBron James, Penelope Cruz, MODERN FAMILY, Toni Collette, THE HANGOVER, Cherry Jones, Alex

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This year in this blog

Here are a few of my favorite posts from the past year.The Academy Awards are always an easy target. This was my review.In March I was all a-Twitter. No wonder you're not following me.Lots of good reaction when I take nostalgic look back at studios I've worked at. This was Paramount.Readers either loved or hated my AMERICAN IDOL reviews. So you'll either love or hate this one.And then Paula

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My pick for movie of the year

I don’t see every movie that comes out. I used to. But then I just reached that point where I realized it was stupid to see everything just because I was in the industry. I think that moment came ten minutes into WHAT WOMEN WANT.I mention this because when I tell you what I think is the best movie of the year it is with the disclaimer that there be something better that I just haven’t seen. I

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Sherlock Holmes -- one bad ass m***f***er

Sherlock Holmes is not an action hero. That’s like the Hunchback of Notre Dame being a romantic lead or Santa Claus being a Zionist leader. The element that separates Sherlock Holmes from other detectives is that he uses his superior intellect and powers of deductions to solve crimes and that compensates for not having physical gifts. See, it’s elementary.Holmes is not England’s 19th century

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December in Hawaii

The Levines are home from another fabulous trip to Maui, “land of sunshine, Kindles, and tattoos”. Now that my wife has received her doctorate I noticed the Samoans treated her with much more respect this year. At various times we were also joined by our son Matt (the Apple Design Engineer of our eye) and daughter Annie (Dorothy Parker without the psychotic episodes). The above picture was

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L.A. is so much better without people!!

The best week of the year in Los Angeles is always this one, the final seven days of the year. More property taxes and obligations are on tap for me in January but here in the waning days of December I can bask in the glory of the city that Zorro once called home.First of all, the town is practically empty. Most people from the industry are gone, terrorizing the help in Hawaii and Aspen. There’s

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Some classic Malapropos!

I can’t speak for the accuracy of these Goldwynisms, but Jesus, if only half of them are true at least that’s a majority! SAMUEL GOLDWYN QUOTESSamuel Goldwyn (1882–1974) was an Academy Award and GoldenGlobe Award-winning producer, also a well-known Hollywoodmotion picture producer and founding contributor of several motionpicture studios. His inferior English language skills led to many ofhis

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Movies I would see before IT'S COMPLICATED

HOSTELHOSTEL 2GIGLIHOWARD THE DUCKBATTLEFIELD EARTHCATWOMANWITLESS PROTECTIONSANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANSAN ALAN SMITHEE FILM: BURN HOLLYWOOD BURNKAZAAMSTAYING ALIVENORTHJUDGE DREDDTHE 13TH WARRIORTREASURE PLANETGODS AND GENERALSSAHARASTEALTHZYZZYX ROADGLITTERFROM JUSTIN TO KELLYLEONARD PART 6FREDDY GETS FINGEREDDISASTER MOVIEMIXED NUTSMYRA BRECKINRIDGETHE CONQUERORAll ABOUT STEVEDADDY DAY

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Jack Bauer interrogates Santa Claus

MERRY CHRISTMAS everybody!!

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A Mommy Dearest Merry Christmas to you all!

May your family have as wonderful a Christmas as Joan Crawford's.And what holiday celebration in the Crawford home would be complete without this heartwarming scene?MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

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When NOT to take down your Christmas decorations

This is my friend Kevin’s house in the residential San Fernando Valley. He’s Jewish but loves to celebrate the colors and lights of the season. This tradition began (as most things do) because his girlfriend at the time really loved Christmas decorations.There’s not another house on his block even remotely as elaborate. I bet you can see Kevin's house from space.Now the question always arises

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My favorite cheesy TV Christmas Special

Here's a holiday excerpt from the book I'm writing about growing up in the 60s. I still can’t fathom why anyone watched the ANDY WILLIAMS variety show on NBC if they didn’t own a color TV. It was so wholesome your teeth ached. Whatever “edge” the show had was provided by the Osmond Family. But it was in color and production numbers always featured grinning All-American yahoos in brightly

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Netflix pick of the month: SMILE

Since it’s the holiday season I thought I’d suggest a comedy that is cynical, unsentimental, not for kids, and features a Klan type meeting. SMILE from 1975 is a largely undiscovered gem.It’s all about a cheesy beauty contest in Santa Rosa, California. We follow the contestants (who are blessed with such talents as suitcase packing), the organizers, and some pre-teens trying to sneak peeks at

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Christmas in Las Vegas

As you prepare for Christmas and all the holiday traditions, take a moment to reflect on the true meaning of the season. And nowhere is that more present than in Vegas -- Bethlehem with slots. Here's my holiday travelogue from a few Decembers ago. Gather up the whole family and enjoy.Deb and I just got back from a brief weekend in Las Vegas, or, as I like to call it, "Three Card Monty for the Red

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The best music video of the year

This is the most satisfying music video of the year. A musician, Dave Carroll, watched as United Airlines baggage handlers destroyed his custom Taylor guitar. For a year he tried to get them to pay for the damages and they told him to go fuck himself. He told them he was going to make a music video exposing them. They said, "Good luck with that one, pal."So he did. And he posted it on

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How to drive your actors completely insane

Aloha. Here is some last minute Friday Q & A’s before Christmas. If you have a question, send it my way via the comments section. Mahalo.LD wonders:Often syndicated programming will shoot promos with the cast where they mention the name of the local station. Can you shed some light on how this goes down? How many of these are typically done in a year? At what point does everyone start to go

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The year I got fired at Christmas

One of the many reasons I became a writer is that I got tired of being fired as a disc jockey. Today marks the 35th anniversary of the last time I signed off my show with “see you tomorrow” and was never heard from again.1974, I’m Beaver Cleaver on KSEA, San Diego, playing “The Night Chicago Died” and “Billy Don’t Be a Hero” five times a night and seriously considering blowing my brains out. Yes,

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My open letter to Tiger Woods

Dear Tiger,I see the number of mistresses you’ve had is now 14 and counting. It’s one thing to cheat on your wife, but cheating on 13 mistresses, have you no decency, sir?!Did you really think you wouldn’t be caught? 14 times? News flash: One of the big reasons women want to sleep with you is so they can TELL PEOPLE THEY’RE SLEEPING WITH TIGER WOODS. Don’t you have anybody advising you?

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I want my MTV

Here’s another great real-life MAD MEN story. This Don Draper is named George Lois. He was a Madison Avenue star in the late 50s, early 60s. He came up with the Volkswagen “Think Small” campaign in 1960 (for the nine of you who remember it). He also dreamed up with the name “Lean Cuisine”.When MTV was launched in 1981 it had a tough time getting off the ground. A few cable outlets in

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When CBS made lovely promos

Hard to believe it's the same network as the one airing this ad.This is from 1966. What a difference 43 years makes. (Thanks to friend of the blog Arlen Peters for alerting me to this.)

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Why does anyone go to an NFL game?

Okay, I’m from L.A. and we have no NFL team. So I know I’m not your typical fan. And today I watched games from Maui. But still, I’ve always wondered, as we’re now in Decemeber --Why does anybody GO to football games when it’s freezing, snowing, raining, hailing, or all of the above? The games are on TV. In HD. You get closer angles, you get replays, you get that yellow line! How can we

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The gifts you can't return

One clear sign that it’s Christmas in LA is that you see more TV show jackets. For years that has been the Christmas gift of choice for staffs of television series. Which if fine if you work on THE OFFICE, not so fine if you work on WORLD'S BIGGEST LOSER.You feel a little bit like a schmuck anyway, wearing a show jacket, like you’re bragging, hoping to impress “the chicks”. Trust me, an AMISH IN

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YOU supply the headlines

From time to time I like to present audience participation posts. These are actual news stories that just cry out for headlines. Have at 'em, dear readers. Leave them in the comments section. And as always, thanks for playing. ****Among the health-insurance upgrades demanded by Philadelphia-area transit workers and agreed to by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority in

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A jaw dropping CBS ad. Not a joke. They really aired this

CBS Cares. This aired on How I Met Your Mother. Watch CBS Videos Online

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Hanukkah in Santa Monica

Hanukkah (however the hell you spell it) begins tonight. What better way to celebrate than with a traditional Hanukkah song? Here's HANUKKAH IN SANTA MONICA by the brilliant Tom Lehrer.

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Am I related to Chuck Lorre?

Aloha from Hawaii. It’s Friday Question Day, even observed here on the islands.Sacul wonders:I always like to read the credits on my fave shows. Are any of the Levines (or Lorre) related to you or each other?Nope. Not related to Chuck Lorre (Levine is his real last name), Laura Levine, Emily Levine, or actor Kenny Levine. I wish I was related to Chuck’s money though.Scott Siegel is looking

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Our casting nightmare Part III

More on our snake-bitten CHARACTERS pilot for NBC in 1979. Okay, we cast the girl. Maggie Roswell. But now we needed the guy who would be her comedy partner. Details of the pilot premise here.As with the girl, we saw a bunch of guys – some incredibly talented – and Matriarch nixed them all. After she shit all over the screen tests she gave us the name of the couple she wanted. The

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RABBI SCHLOMO RABINOWITZ: CRIME FIGHTER

People ask why don’t I branch out into hour television. I tell them I’m certainly open to the prospect but need just the right vehicle. And finally I’ve found it. Don’t steal this now. I’ll be pitching the major networks and NBC when I get home from Hawaii.It’s a police drama inspired from an article I read recently in the New York Times. Apparently the police department in Helena,

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The Hour of Not Quite Rain

Here's another excerpt from my book about growing up in the 60s. It's 1967, the summer of love in Los Angeles.In the spirit of freedom and “do your own thing” KHJ radio devised an ingenious contest. Listeners were invited to send in original song lyrics and the winning entry would be put to music and appear on the next Buffalo Springfield album. Every hour the Bossjocks read another finalist

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The casting nightmare continues

Welcome back to hell. Yesterday I explained how we wanted Andrea Martin for the lead in our 1979 NBC pilot CHARACTERS and the network casting VP, "Matriarch" wanted Toni Tennille.The pilot was greenlit in February, scheduled to film in April, and be in consideration for NBC’s fall line-up. But these casting impasses forced us to push back to October. The rippling effect of problems that

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Andrea Martin and Toni Tennille vie for the same role

This is sort of a follow-up to a post from last week when I mentioned that we wanted to cast Andrea Martin in a pilot and the network nixed it. They wanted Toni Tennille instead. This will be the first in a series of stories about this ill-fated project that I will sprinkle in over the next few weeks. I can’t write them all at once. I’ll have Viet Nam flashbacks.Today I’ll just focus on

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What to get the person who has everything and is weird?

Here are a couple of fabulous Christmas gift ideas.Tired of having to buy those $.49 rolls of toilet paper? Now for only $800 you can get a new state-of-the-art computerized toilet seat. With the push of a button on your handy remote, your caboose will get washed and dried while you remain seated in luxury on your heated toilet seat.I’m not kidding.It’s perfect for really lazy people or Captain

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Great Vin Scully calls

Vin Scully will be back in the booth calling Dodger baseball for the 61st season.Thanks to Rob Adams here are some classic Vin Scully calls.

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My favorite Dharma

There always seems to be a raging debate whenever I bring up Jenna Elfman. As you know, I'm a fan. Here's an example of why; an episode I directed her in. I think she's very funny, regardless of what whacko religion she believes in. Of the DHARMA & GREGS I directed (helmed, megged), this is my favorite. A truly novel idea for a story. It was also fun going to San Francisco and filming the

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Were there subplots on MASH you didn't know about?

Aloha from Hawaii. Taking a break from surfing those 100 foot waves to answer a Friday question or three.From Charlotte:I've been hearing this as a rumor for decades, that there was a C storyline written into every episode of M*A*S*H specifically so that it could be cleanly cut out to shorten the episodes for syndication without affecting the A and B storylines. People have been telling me my

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Filming in Hawaii

Off to Hawaii where so many great television shows have been filmed. It’s not just BIG WAVE DAVE’S. There have been others. Speaking of “others”, LOST films there. They’re probably close to concluding the series. If I see a giant blinding light and suddenly I’m in 1945 I’ll know why.But you forget how many great shows were filmed in America’s 50th state. I’m pretty sure HAWAII FIVE-O. And

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The Tiger Woods Car Crash -- Taiwanese re-enactment.

There's Tiger's story and TMZ's story. You decide.This is from a Taiwanese news show. It's pretty damn definitive if you ask me.

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Stars I claim to have discovered even though I really didn't

Anyone who has been producing TV series for any length of time will have similar stories. They can look back at actors they worked with or hired that since became big names. Here are some of mine.Shelley Long – played a nurse once in MASH when I was there. I don’t remember much except she looked very cute in army fatigues.Rita Wilson – same thing. Also cute in army fatigues. Worked with her

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