Bathtubs Over Broadway

Year 16, Day 181 - 6/29/24 - Movie #4,770

BEFORE: I suppose Phase 1 of this year's Doc Block is over, but there are more tributes to deceased celebrities coming up in Phase 2, because, you know, that's what filmmakers make documentaries about, I can't get around that. I'm taking a little musical departure, then there will be a couple political films, then I'll be back on the graveyard shift. There will also be at least a week and a half on rock and pop music, but also I'll get to hot dogs and porn, only not at the same time, that would be weird. 

David Letterman carries over again from "Albert Brooks: Defending My Life".  This year I've somehow managed to clear off some films that have been on the list for a very long time, like "Project Almanac", "People Places Things", "The Secret of Kells" or "Fire in the Sky".  That's also been true for docs, like I can't tell you how long "The Wolfpack" was on my list, or "Belushi" or tomorrow's film, which is arriving at least four years too late. 

THE PLOT: A Late Night comedy writer stumbles upon a hilarious hidden world of corporate entertainment and finds an unexpected connection to his fellow man. 

AFTER: I feel like I know quite a bit about the backstory here, because way back in the early 1990's I was working for a small production company about a block south of the World Trade Center. (this was back when there WAS a World Trade Center). The company did little jobs like music videos and segments for Sesame Street and I really was just happy to be working in the industry I'd chosen, and not tearing tickets at a movie theater (this was back when there WERE tickets to tear).  One summer the company got hired to do an editing job, there was some kind of industrial film to be made where the footage came from a corporate event for an insurance company, I want to say MetLife, but I'm not sure.  It was some kind of stage show put on at their annual employee conference and it was a spoof of Indiana Jones films, The Quest for Something.  My job was to go through the hours of footage and mark the time codes of the interesting bits, and then the editor would take over and try to turn the hours of footage into something shorter that still made some kind of sense.  I didn't know much about editing, but I knew a cheezy stage show when I saw it.  

I also know a lot about Letterman's CBS show, I attended a few tapings including his last holiday show for CBS, and I remember the transition period after Dave announced he was retiring, though he kind of un-retired a few years later and I'm convinced now that he just left his show to avoid some lawsuit or being cancelled by the #MeToo movement.  Get out ahead of that, it's really the way to go.  My BFF and I were behind the scenes of his NBC show once, but not at the Ed Sullivan theater - but my wife was working for a company at the time that did some of the construction work on the Ed Sullivan, specifically the concrete/stone casting.  I'd also seen every episode of Late Show, and they frequently had their writers appear on camera in bits.  

So yeah, I knew who Steve Young was, and this movie really focuses on him during the time when he learned he'd be out of work after Letterman "retired", and that probably wasn't an easy time for anyone on the show.  What happens now?  Where do I go?  Is Conan hiring?  Steve had worked over the years on a segment called "Dave's Record Collection", where Dave would hold up odd records that staffers had found in record stores (this was back when there WERE record stores) and they'd play a bit of the weirdest or funniest track, followed by a funny comment.  Sure, I get it, as I've mentioned many times I learned so much from novelty records as a pre-teen and for a while that obsession took over my life.  But this occasionally brought Steve in touch with soundtracks that came from odd industrial films, and those films would be about wheat production in Canada or how a petroleum company was changing its name to better serve the public and their shareholders.  

Searching for these records, collecting these records and appreciating these records sort of took over Steve's life, or at least gave him something to DO, and maybe everybody is really an expert on something, even if that something can be very specific and often odd.  Anyway, trying to find these records on eBay and other forums brought Steve into contact with Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys and the drummer from The Germs, who also had large record collections and also appreciated these weird, retro soundtracks from films and staged musicals that the general public never even saw.  "Bathrooms Are Coming" was meant to tell the employees of a certain company that new fixtures were on the way, it was never really meant to be appreciated for its musical merits, but who knows, maybe there's something entertaining about it if you can kind of turn off your brain and forget what it really was and why it was made.

Also, it turns out there was a whole community of people in the 1960's and 1970's who were under-employed singers and dancers, but they found that if they worked on three or four industrials each year, they could earn enough money to survive the down times, I mean you have to pay the bills while you're waiting for that phone call from your agent telling you about the new Off-Broadway play that's casting now.  So this loose community of songwriters, musicians and dancers formed to tour the country and perform at corporate meetings and retreats, touting the benefits of DuPont chemicals or insurance or the new designs for tractors.  But hey, that's show biz, of a sort. 

Steve took it upon himself to track down some of the stars and songwriters of these almost-forgotten films, and he met some of them in the real world, and brought back some fond memories to people who'd been out of show biz for decades, because at some point everybody needed to settle down and get real jobs.  Steve also hosted film screenings at indie theaters across the U.S. (and I know a thing or two about that, also) with some of the notable stars of the industrials in attendance, provided they didn't live too far from that particular theater.  

Overall the films and the musicals were probably terrible, but they meant something to the people who appeared in them, probably because they were so fond of the people they met along the way.  People formed life-long friendships and marriages after being on stage together, and that means that even though the work was mercenary and grueling, you can still find love in a hopeless place, and that's kind of inspiring.  Steve fulfilled one of his own dream by working on a song with one of the composers he met, and performing it with a cast of industrial theater stars at the end of "Bathtubs Over Broadway", and look, I guess any day spent working on a film is a good one, provided you can finish the film and be proud of the result.  

And I also get how once you start collecting something or focusing on something, you see that thing everywhere, or the pursuit becomes this quest that will never really end, you'll never have "enough" of that thing, and at some point there's a shift where you don't really have to look that hard for more of those things, because they start to find YOU. I have that with Star Wars autographs, after years of chasing down opportunities then I found myself bumping into Greg Grunberg at a BBQ restaurant in North Carolina, or Sofia Coppola would show up at the theater where I work. (I did not land autographs in those two cases, but I COULD have.)

Also starring Steve Young, Hank Beebe, Jello Biafra (last seen in "Tapeheads"), Don Bolles, Willi Burke, Lee Ellenberg, SuEllen Estey, Sandi Freeman, Patt Stanton Gjonola, Joe Grossman, Sheldon Harnick, Florence Henderson (last seen in "Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind"), Chuck Karel, Chita Rivera (last seen in "Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It"), Melody Rogers, Peter Shawn, Sid Siegel, Martin Short (last heard in "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom"), Susan Stroman, Jeremy Weiner

with archive footage of Mel Brooks (also last seen in "Albert Brooks: Defending My Life"), Ed McMahon (ditto), Dom DeLuise (last seen in "Dean Martin: King of Cool"), Bob Fosse, Andrea Martin (last seen in "Sr."), Willie Nelson (last seen in "Belushi"), Bob Newhart (last seen in "Being Mary Tyler Moore"), Tony Randall (last seen in "Betty White: First Lady of Television"), Paul Shaffer (last seen in "Sheryl") and the voice of Terry Gross (last heard in "Vengeance")

RATING: 6 out of 10 uses for silicone molds

Albert Brooks: Defending My Life

Year 16, Day 180 - 6/28/24 - Movie #4,769

BEFORE: We're one week into my Doc Block, which is also 9 films in, only about 1/4 of the way through, but let's check the stats.  Kevin Hart is still leading this year with 9 appearances (only 1 is a doc) and after today's film, there's a tie for second place as Robert De Niro gets his 7th appearance (and 2nd doc) and ties with Mark Wahlberg (only 1 doc also).  But moving into third today is David Letterman, with 6 appearances in 6 documentaries, he really could move up into the lead, I think.  I'll check in again at the halfway point.

David Letterman carries over again from "Remembering Gene Wilder", and so do several other people.  The docs have helped a lot of talk show hosts and comedians get their third or fourth appearance for the year, which means they'll make the year-end round-up.  Johnny Carson, Julie Hagerty, Jon Hamm, Cloris Leachman, Bruce McGill, Chris Rock, David Spade and Sharon Stone all have four appearances thanks to the Doc Block. 

THE PLOT: A documentary about the comedian and filmmaker Albert Brooks, which includes interviews with Sharon Stone, Larry David, James L. Brooks, Conan O'Brien, Sarah Silverman and Jonah Hill. 

AFTER: Well, it was true of Gene Wilder and it's true of Albert Brooks, funny guys get the girl.  Funny guys get a lot of girls, especially if they date their co-stars, I mean, as Gilda Radner said, if you're going to kiss somebody on screen, why not kiss someone you have feelings for?  It's apparently very convenient, though I can't always tell when two co-stars are dating because they were in the same movie from when they were in the same movie because they were dating.  Some things we normal humans are just not meant to know.  

Albert Brooks, also like Gene Wilder, played a long string of lovable losers, guys who couldn't get a break in life OR get the girl, but I bet that just made them both more attractive to women in the long run.  Sure, a big hunky guy will rock your world at night, but a funny nebbish will make you laugh all day long, and isn't that what women want in life?  Well, some women, anyway.  Both comedians really followed the Woody Allen method, be funny, make movies, date your co-stars - but they wisely stopped things there and didn't take it to the next level, which is dating your adopted daughter.  Both eventually settled down and got married, too, Brooks became a two-time father later in life, in his 50s, and his advice for finding someone to settle down with was totally tongue-in-cheek - "Stop looking."  I don't know if this is code for settling, or realizing that you might already know someone you can partner with, or if he's just being funny, but it sounds like both good and sarcastic advice that comes from the heart.  Many celebs get married and they keep looking, of course, which is when they tend to get into trouble. Hey, celebrities, they're just like us!  Only they get laid more. 

I first learned about Albert Brooks the same way I learned about Mel Brooks (no relation) - and so many others, through the Dr. Demento radio show.  Although he mostly played "novelty" records, he also played tracks from comedy albums, like cuts from George Carlin, Rodney Dangerfield and Albert Brooks - although the recordings from Albert Brooks were unlike any others, he would imagine a scenario where regular people are auditioning to be the songwriter of a new national anthem for the U.S., and he would play all the parts, imitating regular dumb people from around the country and then singing the patriotic songs that such people might write to win a contest - that's a think piece, sure, but so were Tom Lehrer's songs about nuclear war or rhyming all the chemical elements to the tune of "A Modern Major General". (Sure, in science class I knew all the names of the elements, but I'd learned them in completely the wrong order, thanks...)

Then I started to see Albert Brooks in movies I enjoyed, like "Twilight Zone: The Movie" or "Broadcast News" and said, whoa, wait a minute, that's the guy who did those comedy albums that I memorized tracks from, the guy who had the routine about people writing new national anthems for the U.S.  He's in movies now?  Well, OK, I guess I'm good with that, as long as the movies are funny and of high quality.  Well, I really shouldn't have worried, because he really starred in some great ones - "Defending Your Life", "The Scout, and "Mother", I'll put those three movies up against any other three comedies of your choice, and mine will probably come out on top.  This eventually pushed me backwards to see his earlier movies, "Lost in America", "Modern Romance", and then once I got my blog, well, it was finally time to watch "Taxi Driver", "Private Benjamin" and "Terms of Endearment".  

At some point in the late 1990s, Brooks moved over to the dark side, with films like "Out of Sight", then later "Drive" and "A Most Violent Year" - who knew he could play villains so well?  Actually for him there was probably always a fine line between his depressed, anti-social good guy "looking for love" roles and his depressed, anti-social bad guy roles.  Same deadpan humor, same attitude, only the good guys were characters who hadn't yet had life beat the hope and spirit out of him, and then we assume that maybe the villains are similar, only they've already been beaten up by life, and now they're pissed about it.. 

Still, there's tons of footage in this documentary that I haven't seen before, like all the appearances on "The Tonight Show", and he was apparently one of Johnny Carson's favorite guests because nobody knew what crazy thing Albert Brooks was going to come out and do, like playing a mime who won't shut up or an elephant tamer whose elephant is sick, so he has to do the same act, only with a frog in place of his elephant.  I'd never seen any of these until today.  And before that, Albert Brooks (then named Albert Einstein) was making Carl Reiner laugh when he was still in high school, because he'd had the good luck to meet Rob Reiner in drama club, and the two men have been friends ever since. 

Also, I'm here to learn, and I found out through this movie that Albert Brooks was supposed to be the "permanent" host of SNL, Lorne Michaels wanted him to start every show, but then the "Not Ready for Prime Time" players would take over from there.  Brooks, however, suggested the idea of a different host every week, which has been the format over there for almost 50 years now, and I'm not quite sure how Albert Brooks somehow interviewed himself out of that job, but that's how it happened.  That just left him with the Carson show, and then he transitioned quite hilariously over to appearances on the Letterman show (doing the world's only phone-in "stupid pet trick" for starters) and Jesus, that's some Comedy Hall of Fame-type experience.  

I can't say I've seen EVERY Albert Brooks film, but I've seen "Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World" and I've seen "Concussion", "This Is 40" and so, nearly all of them.  To this day I will defend my opinion that Holly Hunter's character should have ended up with him in "Broadcast News" instead of going with William Hurt's character.  Their characters knew each other a bit too well, which is something I didn't quite understand at the time, I just thought they should have been married. If you have a friend that you can say "I'll meet you at the place we went to that time" and they know what you're talking about, aren't you already married, at least on some level?  But now I think maybe it was a bit more complicated than that, or I missed something, or I don't really understand how love triangles work.

 Anyway, there's a huge parallel here between the documentary and the 1991 comedy "Defending Your Life", a movie in which a man dies and learns that his entire life was filmed by angels (or whoever's in charge) and scenes from his life will be reviewed in a court setting, to determine if he's ready to move on to heaven (or whatever).  In much the same vein, the doc reviews clips from Albert Brooks' life to determine if he's ready for comedy heaven (or whatever) or at least if he should be judged as one of the greatest comedians.  My vote is "YAY", of course. 

Also starring Albert Brooks (last seen in "The Super Bob Einstein Movie"), Judd Apatow (last seen in "Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You"), James L. Brooks (last seen in "Being Mary Tyler Moore"), Rob Reiner (ditto), Ben Stiller (ditto), Kimberly Brooks, Larry David (last seen in "Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time"), Clifford Einstein, Nikki Glaser (last seen in "I Feel Pretty"), Tiffany Haddish (last seen in "Kevin Hart & Chris Rock: Headliners Only"), Wanda Sykes (ditto), Alana Haim (last seen in "Licorice Pizza''), Jonah Hill (last seen in "Saltburn"), Anthony Jeselnik (last seen in "Gilbert"), Conan O'Brien (last seen in "Remembering Gene Wilder"), Chris Rock (last seen in "I Am Chris Farley"), Sarah Silverman (last seen in "Marry Me"), Steven Spielberg (last seen in "Belushi"), Jon Stewart (last seen in "Good Night Oppy"), Sharon Stone (last seen in "Sly"), Neil deGrasse Tyson, Brian Williams (last seen in "Marcel the Shell With Shoes On")

with archive footage of Steve Allen (last seen in "Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool"), Desi Arnaz (last seen in "The Super Bob Einstein Movie"), Milton Berle (ditto), Bob Einstein (ditto), Susie Essman (ditto), J.B. Smoove (ditto), Flip Wilson (ditto), Lucille Ball (also last seen in "Being Mary Tyler Moore"), Carl Reiner (ditto), Joey Bishop (last seen in "Sammy Davis: I've Gotta Be Me"), Jeff Bridges (last seen in "The Giver"), Mel Brooks (also last seen in "Remembering Gene Wilder"), Carrie Fisher (ditto), Richard Pryor (ditto), Nicolas Cage (last seen in "De Palma"), James Cameron, Glen Campbell (last seen in "Dionne Warwick Don't Make Me Over"), Ed Sullivan (ditto), George Carlin (last seen in "George Carlin's American Dream"), Johnny Carson (last seen in "Butterfly in the Sky"), Johnny Cash (last seen in "Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood"), Jessica Chastain (last seen in "The 355"), Cher (last seen in "Nothing Compares"), George Clooney (last seen in "The Flash"), Bryan Cranston (last seen in "Jerry and Marge Go Large"), Robert De Niro (last seen in "Sly"), Richard Dreyfuss (last seen in "Night Falls on Manhattan"), Harry Einstein, Don Everly (last seen in "David Crosby: Remember. My Name"), Phil Everly (ditto), Jeff Garlin (last seen in "Babylon"), Debbie Reynolds (ditto), Kathie Lee Gifford (last seen in "Bob Ross; Happy Accidents, Betrayal & Greed"), Ryan Gosling (last seen in "Barbie"), Charles Grodin (last seen in "An Imperfect Murder"), Julie Hagerty (last seen in "Somebody I Used to Know"), Jon Hamm (last seen in "Unfrosted"), Kathryn Harrold (last seen in "The Pursuit of D.B. Cooper"), Johnny Haymer, Holly Hunter (last seen in "Spielberg"), William Hurt (last seen in "Black Widow"), Oscar Isaac (last heard in "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse"), George Jessel, Laura Kightlinger, Bruno Kirby, Stanley Kubrick, Thelma Leeds, Jay Leno (last seen in "Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2'), Art Linkletter, Lucy Liu (last heard in "Strange World"), Andie MacDowell (last seen in "Dinner With Friends"), Garry Marshall, Penny Marshall (last seen in "Belushi), Dean Martin (last seen in "Think Like a Man Too"), Tony Martin, Groucho Marx (last seen in "Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time"), Frances Lee McCain, Ed McMahon (last seen in "SLY"), Regis Philbin (last seen in "Jack and Jill"), Lou Rawls, Estelle Reiner (last seen in "Everything Is Copy"), Linda Ronstadt (last seen in "Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists"), Paul Rudd (last seen in "I Could Never Be Your Woman"), Martin Scorsese (last seen in "De Palma"), Cybill Shepherd (last seen in "Being Rose"), Gene Siskel (last seen in "Belushi"), Will Smith (last seen in "Made in America"), Meryl Streep (last seen in "The Giver"), Fred Thompson, Rip Torn (last seen in "Eulogy")

RATING: 7 out of 10 spit-takes at the Famous Comedians School

Remembering Gene Wilder

Year 16, Day 180 - 6/28/24 - Movie #4,768

BEFORE: I've delayed my review by one day, so I can give a rare DOUBLE Birthday SHOUT-OUT to both GIlda Radner (born June 28, 1946) AND Mel Brooks (born June 28, 1926).  Gilda carries over from "Belushi", and Mel Brooks turns 98 today.  Don't mean to jinx it, but way to go, Mel!  

I know, I said no more additions, but this one came to my attention, suggested by Netflix because clearly I've got a solid theme going, and of course I saw a way to work it in, because there's so much overlap in the Doc Block. 

THE PLOT: A special tribute documentary honoring Gene Wilder's life and career. 

AFTER: Well, at least I'm breaking the "Two big hits" theme, Chris Farley, Belushi, they each had two very successful movies, and Mary Tyler Moore had two very successful TV shows.  Gene Wilder had a LOT of successful movies, even though apparently "Willy Wonka" was not the breakout hit he thought it would be, as America's mothers did not like the portrayal of kids being taught lessons via torture (or they were in denial about their own kids being brats, whichever).  But then "Blazing Saddles" and "Young Frankenstein", two mega-hit comedies, then he maybe had a few films that were less successful, it's only natural, but then struck gold again by teaming up with Richard Pryor for "Stir Crazy" and "Silver Streak".  Even "The Woman in Red" was a solid hit, I think, though that one barely gets mentioned here. 

Like many people of my generation, my entry point to the films of Gene Wilder was "Willy Wonka", but by the time I'd seen it, it had become sort of a classic children's film, although still kind of a twisted one. But then I wasn't allowed to watch "Blazing Saddles" or "Young Frankenstein" because my parents shielded me from more "adult" humor, so that meant I wasn't allowed to watch "Stir Crazy", either.  The next time I caught up with him was probably when I tracked down "The Producers" as a teenager. I knew Zero Mostel from "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum", and my mother told me he'd played in "Fiddler on the Roof", but only on stage, not in the movie version.  Still, I knew the song "Springtime for Hitler" from listening to the Dr. Demento show, and I think listening to an episode where Dr. D. interviewed Mel Brooks.maybe around the time that "History of the World: Part I" was coming out (nope, wasn't allowed to watch that either, thanks Mom).

Look, I got around to the adult humor soon enough, I got to a point where I could buy any movie I wanted on VHS (then DVD) so eventually I got to see everything I wanted.  Well, OK, that's not true, honestly it's still something of an ongoing process.  But if you told 13-year-old me that one day I could watch any movie ever made, just by going to my computer or my phone and pressing a couple buttons, I would have thought that sounded like heaven.  Now, of course, I'm an adult and I can watch "Blazing Saddles" or "Young Frankenstein" any time I want, but the problem there is that I've seen each one too many times now.  When I watch them it feels like each movie is about 10 minutes long, because I know every beat already.  The saving grace here is that in maybe 20 years I may lose my cognition and my memory, and if I can remember to watch those films again, it might be like I'm seeing them for the first time.  All the jokes will be fresh again!

I'm kidding, of course, and this really isn't something I should joke about.  Gene Wilder lost his cognition when he was older and married again, to a hearing specialist, a doctor he met while researching his character for "See No Evil, Hear No Evil".  He spent his later years married to Dr. Karin Wilder (nee Webb) and enjoyed being a step-grandfather to her grandchildren.  He also did a lot of water color painting, they played golf together and he swam in the pool a lot at their house in Connecticut.  Actually that was the house he shared with Gilda Radner before that, and he'd met her on the set of the movie "Hanky Panky" and then after they got married they shot "Haunted Honeymoon" together.  It must be nice to be a famous comic actor, you don't really have to get out there and date, you can just start a relationship with one of your romantic co-stars and then you're never really sure if life is imitating art or it's the other way around.

But that's two doc subjects this week that married their doctors, Mary Tyler Moore started a relationship with a younger heart doctor, Robert Levine, after she divorced Grant Tinker and moved back to New York, he made a house call and said she could call him again as needed, then she asked if he could treat "acute loneliness".  Adorable, but yeah, maybe also a little cringey.  Anyway, whatever gets you through the night, despite age differences or different careers, it's all right, it's all right.  

Gene Wilder had previously been "married", creatively anyway, to Mel Brooks and then Richard Pryor.  He met Mel after appearing on stage in "Mother Courage" with Anne Bancroft, and Anne suggested to her husband Mel that her co-star Gene would be perfect for the role of Leo Bloom in his planned movie "The Producers", and darn it if she wasn't right.  Mel later called upon Gene to replace Gig Young as The Waco Kid in "Blazing Saddles" after he was too sick to continue filming. But then it was Gene Wilder who started writing "Young Frankenstein" in the hopes that Mel Brooks could direct it and he could star.  In both of those films, which parodied the Western and the classic horror films, they really had to know what they were doing, you can't just parody a genre like that without being an expert in that genre.  Like you have to know the "Frankenstein" movies inside and out, backwards and forwards, in order to properly make fun of them.

Gene Wilder later went back to poke fun at Westerns again with "The Frisco Kid", where he played a rabbi character in the old West, and also parodied the Sherlock Holmes movies and the old silent films with Rudolph Valentino.  And then some people would say he and Richard Pryor really brought back the buddy slapstick movies in the 1970's, with "Stir Crazy", and it's not too far of a stretch to trace that humor back to the films of Laurel and Hardy.  Wilder was also a big fan of Charlie Chaplin, something about the innocent way that Chaplin approached the world and the characters around him came through in some of Gene Wilder's roles, for sure. 

It sure sounds like they got Gene Wilder to narrate this film, but that's impossible since it was made after he died in 2016.  No, they didn't use a sound-alike as the "Belushi" film did, and the proper AI that can replicate someone's voice hadn't been perfected yet, so what they did was use narration from the audio-book version of Wilder's autobiography, "Kiss Me LIke a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art".  Very clever, and it's only cheating if you choose to look at it that way. 

Anyway, he made it to age 83, but still it feels like he left way too soon.  I still see some of those kids from the "Willy Wonka" movie appearing at comic-cons, that's something that makes 1971 still feel like it wasn't THAT long ago.

Also starring Alan Alda (last seen in "The Object of My Affection"), Mel Brooks (last seen in "Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You"), Harry Connick Jr. (last seen in "P.S. I Love You"), Burton Gilliam (last seen in "Paper Moon"), Michael Gruskoff, Carol Kane (last seen in "The Pallbearer"), Ben Mankiewicz, Eric McCormack, Mike Medavoy, Peter Ostrum, Rain Pryor (last seen in "Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic"), Alan Zweibel (also carrying over from "Belushi"),

with archive footage of Jack Albertson (last seen in "Days of Wine and Roses"), Woody Allen (last seen in "Sly"), Anne Bancroft (last seen in "Great Expectations"), Warren Beatty (last seen in "Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind"), Michael Bollner, Peter Boyle (last seen in "Species II"), Sid Caesar (last seen in "Being Mary Tyler Moore"), Joel Grey (ditto), Danny Kaye (ditto), Cloris Leachman (ditto), Donald Sutherland (ditto), Dick Cavett (last seen in "Sr."), Charlie Chaplin (last seen in "The Half of It"), Nora Denney, Julie Dawn Cole, Faye Dunaway (last seen in "Mr. Saturday Night"), Roger Ebert (last seen in "Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2"), Conan O'Brien (ditto), Evans Evans, Marty Feldman (last seen in "Dionne Warwick: Don't Make Me Over"), Carrie Fisher (also carrying over from "Belushi"), Harrison Ford (last seen in "De Palma"), Gene Hackman (ditto), Teri Garr (last seen in "Mel Brooks: Unwrapped"), Margaret Hamilton, Mark Hamill (last seen in "The Machine"), Oliver Hardy (last seen in "Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time"), Stan Laurel (ditto), William Hickey (last seen in "Tales from the Darkside: The Movie"), Madeline Kahn (last seen in "Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street"), Boris Karloff (last seen in "Angela's Ashes"), Roy Kinnear (last seen in "Taste the Blood of Dracula"), Alan Ladd Jr., David Letterman (last seen in "I Am Chris Farley"), Jerry Lewis (also last seen in "Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You"), Cleavon Little (last seen in "Once Bitten"), Kenneth Mars (last seen in "The Last Laugh"), Zero Mostel (last seen in "Dean Martin: King of Cool"), Megan Mullally (last seen in "Where'd You Go, Bernadette"), Denise Nickerson, Slim Pickens (last seen in "Filmworker"), Sidney Poitier (last seen in "Wolfgang"), Michael J. Pollard (last seen in "Melvin and Howard"), Richard Pryor, (also carrying over from "Belushi"), Ursula Reit, Garry Shandling (last seen in "The Night We Never Met"), Leonard Stone, Mel Stuart, Paris Themmen, Rudolph Valentino, John Wayne (also last seen in "Sly"), Gene Wilder (last seen in "Empire of Light"), Gig Young

RATING: 7 out of 10 appearances at the Westport Country Playhouse

Belushi

Year 16, Day 178 - 6/26/24 - Movie #4,767

BEFORE: Dan Aykroyd carries over from "I Am Chris Farley", along with the whole original line-up of "SNL".  Pouring one out tonight for John Belushi, one of the original "Not Ready for Prime Time Players".  Sorry, it's not his birthday, I can only do so much, I can't move people's birthdays around.  This one's been in my possession for a while now, I couldn't work it into the Doc Block last year and maybe also the year before that - so I kept it on the list, next to "Destiny Turns on the Radio", because of the Jim Belushi connection.  Once I knew I could link to it this summer, though, that freed me up to watch "Destiny" and also the horrible film "Once Upon a Crime".  So, umm, yay me? 

THE PLOT: Using audiotapes recorded shortly after John Belushi's death, this documentary examines the too-short life of a once-in-a-generation talent who captured the hearts and funny bones of devoted audiences. 

AFTER: Well, if you're looking for two people who were on almost the exact same life path, really, it's Chris Farley and John Belushi, right?  Both played football in high school, both then found their way into live theater in college, got bit by the same improv bug at Second City in Chicago, from there to "Saturday Night Live", had drug and alcohol problems, got fired and then found mainstream success with two hit movies before they crashed in a very similar way at the same age, 33.

Documentaries should be for learning, and I really did learn a lot here.  That film "Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead" detailed how the National Lampoon branched out into radio shows and then movies, and when they hired actors for those things, John Belushi was right there, fresh out of Second City and looking for more.  The cast of the Lampoon's Radio Hour looked strikingly similar to the first line-up on "SNL", with Belushi, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, and Brian Doyle-Murray (who joined SNL a few seasons later).  Harold Ramis was also there, and then Christopher Guest, and I didn't realize Guest's career went that far back.  

National Lampoon then branched out into live shows with a concert show called "Lemmings" that was basically a parody of the Woodstock festival, and that's where Belushi developed his famous Joe Cocker impression that he'd later bring to SNL. Lorne Michaels essentially stole the entire cast away from National Lampoon to do a little late night skit show on NBC. Saturday?  Who watches TV on Saturday night?  That's when everybody goes out to the dance clubs or bars, nobody's going to watch that show.  Don't worry, those guys will all be back knocking on the National Lampoon's door as soon as it fails...

Bam, instant success, though Belushi could only get on screen if he put on a silly giant bee costume. (Was that ever funny?). But he stuck it out, and then after Chevy Chase left to make movies, J.B. became the alpha male on SNL. But soon friction developed between Belushi and Lorne Michaels over the rigorous shooting schedule that conflicted with the late night party scene of 1970's NYC.  I mean, come on, John Belushi was making a ton of money from the show and he was expected to work what, three or four days a WEEK for that?  A couple hours of rehearsal and then 90 minutes of LIVE television, and then to do that again and again for 8 months out of the year?  And there's that conflict again, where Saturday night was really when he wanted to go out to the dance clubs and bars, I mean, really, who goes there on SUNDAY, the whole vibe is different.

Plus he had to maintain two partnerships, one with his long-time live-in girlfriend Judy, and one with Dan Aykroyd?  Just way too much pressure.  Actually it seemed like John Belushi was handling success pretty well, after hiring a security guard to watch him and keep him away from drugs, he and Aykroyd and their partners seem to have enjoyed a very peaceful summer on Martha's Vineyard after leaving the show.  But the star of "Animal House" and "The Blues Brothers" apparently wasn't prepared for his movies to flop, and so the double-hit of "1941" and then "Neighbors" might be what killed him, in a roundabout way.  Not every film you appear in can be a hit, that's just impossible to maintain, but the bad reviews on "Neighbors" made him spin out of control and relapse. 

It's too bad, because we'll never know how good of an actor Belushi might have been if he took his own skills a little more seriously.  We've got maybe one film, "Continental Divide", where he wasn't just goofing around.  But he didn't consider himself an actor, just a comic who could do characters.  And one with aspirations to be a blues singer, hence the Blues Brothers, a chance to prove himself musically and hang out with some of the greatest blues musicians in history.  I never gave that film a chance until many years later, and now I'll keep it on in the background late at night every time I see that it's airing.  

Obviously what the documentarians had to work with here wasn't much, because there's not too much footage of Belushi discussing his career, maybe one or two talk shows, and so they had to rely on letters that he wrote to his wife, some from when he was in rehab, where he promises to be a better person and do better at things - we can imply here that he was probably unfaithful, but really, so was every rock star since the beginning of time, and Belushi was a rock star, just for comedy.  That doesn't make sleeping around or doing drugs right, or even a good idea, but it's part of that rock star lifestyle for about 99% of the people who get to live it. At least Belushi got to achieve some of his wildest dreams, to own a club, to front a band, to star in major motion pictures. 

They also used animation here for some of the things they didn't have footage of, and also they hired Bill Hader to imitate his voice, for some of the things he wrote but never recorded.  It's fine, because those are the things that give us more insight into the other facets of John Belushi, the part that was a dreamer, a poet, a person trying to do life better.  I kind of just thought he was a funny guy, which he was, but also I know now there was more to him than that.  So the use of animation kind of helped to not just portray him as a cartoonish figure, if that makes sense. 

Also starring the voices of Michael Apted, Dan Aykroyd (last seen in "I Am Chris Farley"), Jane Curtin (ditto), Lorne Michaels (ditto), Jim Belushi (last seen in "Once Upon a Crime"), Judith Belushi-Pisano, Candice Bergen (last seen in "Book Club: The Next Chapter), Chevy Chase (last seen in "George Carlin's American Dream"), Gus Dimas, Carrie Fisher (last seen in "Scream 3"), Joe Flaherty (last seen in "Love, Gilda"), Mitch Glazer, Bill Hader (last seen in "Maggie's Plan"), Tony Hendra (last seen in "Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead"), Tino Insana, Sue Keller, John Landis, Penny Marshall (last seen in "Mr. Saturday Night"), Bruce McGill (last seen in "Ride Along 2"), Don Novello, Harold Ramis (last seen in "Ghostbusters: Afterlife"), Ivan Reitman (last seen in "The Bill Murray Stories"), Tom Schiller, Alan Zweibel (last seen in "Here Today"), Richard D. Zanuck

with archive footage of John Belushi (last seen in "I Am Chris Farley"), Garrett Morris (ditto), Bill Murray (ditto), Laraine Newman (ditto), Gilda Radner (ditto), John Avildsen (last seen in "Sly"), Kevin Bacon (last seen in "Murder in the First"), Blair Brown (last seen in "The Sentinel"), James Brown (last seen in "Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool"), Ray Charles (last seen in "The Super Bob Einstein Movie"), Steve Martin (ditto), Joe Cocker (last seen in "Woodstock: Three Days that Defined a Generation"), Steve Cropper, David Crosby (last seen in "Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President"), James Daughton, Tom Davis, Donald Dunn, Bob Dylan (last seen in "Nothing Compares"), Gerald Ford (last seen in "Irresistible"), Aretha Franklin (last seen in "Respect"), Stephen Furst (last seen in "The Dream Team"), Allen Garfield (last seen in "Sr."), Christopher Guest (last seen in "Mr. Warmth - the Don Rickles Project"), Tom Hulce (last seen in "Fearless"), Eric Idle (also last seen in "Sr."), Kate Jackson, Mick Jagger (last seen in "Buddy Guy: The Blues Chase the Blues Away"), Keith Richards (ditto), Ronnie Wood (ditto), Robert Klein (last seen in "Ira & Abby"), Lou Marini, Tim Matheson (last seen in "She's All That"), Matt Murphy, Brian Doyle-Murray, Willie Nelson (last seen in "Sheryl"), Michael O'Donoghue, Dolly Parton (last seen in "Air"), Richard Pryor (last seen in "Empire of Light"), Peter Riegert (also last seen in "Sly"), Gene Shalit (last seen in "Val"), Gene Siskel (last seen in "Everything Is Copy"), Tom Snyder (last seen in "Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind"), Steven Spielberg (last seen in "De Palma"), John Vernon, James Widdoes

RATING: 6 out of 10 cheeseburger, cheeseburgers

I Am Chris Farley

Year 16, Day 177 - 6/25/24 - Movie #4,766

BEFORE: Well, I guess I sort of knew what I was doing when I programmed this chain, because all the tribute docs are kind of bunched up here at the front.  But then it's another thing entirely to have to WATCH a bunch of films about dead people in a row.  I'm just hoping this doesn't become too depressing by the end of the week. 

David Letterman carries over again from "Sr."

THE PLOT: A documentary on the life of comedian Chris Farley.

AFTER: I don't mean to belittle the form, but I got a couple films in this vein from broadcast TV, the CW channel was running this on weekend afternoon back in December or January.  It was originally made for SpikeTV, which became the Paramount Network, but then I guess the CW aired it during the winter downtime, I guess not a lot of sports were happening that weekend.  I guess it was a choice between airing this or reruns of "Gossip Girl".  

I'm sure somebody blew the budget on licensing skits from "SNL" but they could really only afford two or three, so they just HAD to get the first "Matt Foley, inspirational speaker" skit and also the one where both Farley and Patrick Swayze are auditioning to be Chippendale dancers. The third, of course, is the famous interview of Paul McCartney where Farley plays a very insecure version of himself and is convinced that he's blowing his big chance to be a talk show host. 

Well, if you like those skits, then by all means, check out this doc, but be prepared to see every second of the "Matt Foley" routine at least four times.  Somebody got their money's worth, at least.  It's almost painful by the end of this film how many times they re-run the same footage - which indicates that they only have so much of it to work with.  

They did get a long list of comedians from "SNL" and also co-stars from "Tommy Boy" and "Black Sheep" to all say essentially the same thing, that Chris Farley was very, very funny.  Well, sure, what are they going to do, come all the way across town to sit down for an interview and say that, well, you know, he was only sort of funny?  Or only funny at certain times?  We know he was funny, that's how he got the gig.  But of course they're all sort of conversationally dancing around his addictions to other things besides the applause and the laughter from an audience. Maybe one or two interview subjects brought up alcohol and drug use, the others either didn't want to touch it or were trying to be nice about it.

OK, so this isn't exactly hard-hitting journalism, but come on, that's what killed the guy, right?  So we at least need to address it in some fashion. Otherwise we just end up with a puff piece that's too kind by half. 

Also starring Christina Applegate (last seen in "The Big Hit"), Tom Arnold (last seen in "Hit and Run"), Dan Aykroyd (last seen in "Loser"), Lorri Bagley (last seen in "The Stepford Wives"), Bo Derek (last seen in "Tommy Boy"), John Farley (last seen in "Jack and Jill"), Kevin Farley, Tom Farley Jr., Pat Finn (last seen in "The Bachelor"). Jon Lovitz (last seen in "Kevin Hart & Chris Rock: Headliners Only"), Mike Myers (ditto), Adam Sandler (ditto), David Spade (ditto), Lorne Michaels, Jay Mohr (last seen in "Street Kings"), Bob Odenkirk (last seen in "Nobody"), Bob Saget (last seen in "Mr. Warmth - the Don Rickles Project"), Will Sasso (last seen in "Boss Level"), Molly Shannon (last heard in "Hotel Transylvania 4: Transformania"), Brian Stack (last seen in "Conan O'Brien Can't Stop"), Fred Wolf

with archive footage of Chris Farley (last seen in "Kevin Hart & Chris Rock: Headliners Only"), Dana Carvey (ditto), Phil Hartman (ditto), Jan Hooks (ditto), Victoria Jackson (ditto), Chris Rock (ditto), John Belushi (last seen in "Respect"), Michelle Burke, Ellen Cleghorne (last seen in "Second Act"), Del Close, Jane Curtin (last seen in "I Don't Know How She Does It"), Brian Dennehy (last seen in "Sly") Ernie Hudson (last seen in "Ghostbusters: Afterlife"), Bill Murray (ditto), Michael Jordan (last seen in "Butterfly in the Sky"), Paul McCartney (last seen in "Elvis"), Tim Meadows (last seen in "The Ladies Man"), Garrett Morris, Kevin Nealon (last seen in "Blended"), Laraine Newman (last seen in "Zappa"), Gilda Radner (last seen in "The Bill Murray Stories"), George Wendt (ditto), Rob Schneider (last seen in "The Wrong Missy"), Christian Slater (last seen in "Unfrosted"), Patrick Swayze (last seen in "My Best Friend's Girl"), Julia Sweeney (last seen in "Whatever It Takes"), Christopher Walken (last seen in "Balls of Fury"),

RATING: 5 out of 10 summers spent at Camp Red Arrow

Sr.

Year 16, Day 176 - 6/24/24 - Movie #4,765

BEFORE: OK, I'm back on track, no more additions to the dockchain.  David Letterman carries over from "Good Night Oppy" and I'm sending a birthday SHOUT-out tonight to Robert Downey Sr., born June 24, 1936.  Sure, he died in 2021 (oops, spoiler alert) but that doesn't mean he stopped having birthdays, right? 

THE PLOT: The life and career of Robert Downey Sr., the fearless and visionary American director who set the standard for countercultural comedy in the 1960s and 1970s. 

AFTER: Yeah, I really didn't know anything about Robert Downey Sr. or the movies he made until I watched this. - with one exception, I remember something about the movie "Up the Academy" because it was the only movie that was "presented" by MAD Magazine, at a time when National Lampoon was having great success with their films, like "Animal House" and MAD's film was a colossal flop.  So Robert Downey Jr.'s father directed that, and it was the closest he came to having a big-budget successful film, which means therefore that he was never, ever close to having a big-budget successful film.  Instead he made small "cult" movies, and nobody really cares if those make money or not.  

I mean, you can go through your entire filmmaking career and never have a hit, there's no real shame in that, as long as you get paid and you support yourself, who cares?  But at some point you then have to wonder if you're just afraid of being successful and all the things that would bring with it. If you have a hit, then people expect you to have another hit, and that's just way too much pressure, right?  Better to never succeed at all in the first place, probably.  

But that's not really what this doc is about, it's about the relationship between the two Robert Downey's, the Sr. and the Jr.  RDJ is one of the most successful actors ever, though he had a period of making lame brat-pack movies and also some substance abuse problems, he came out the other side of all that at least and found a second chance in the Marvel movies.  But then his father got Parkinson's disease and Jr. chose to document the last couple of years of his life with a film about them making a film together, or really, two films.  I don't usually like films that break the fourth wall this much, where the whole movie is made up of "Look, we're making a movie...what kind of movie should we make?"  Half of "Sr." is about them making the movie "Sr." and by my count, that's way too much.  

Sure, there's a second movie being made, because RDS just couldn't sit back and watch other people make a movie about him, he started making his own movie at the same time, but that movie is just about whatever he found interesting that day, whether it was ducks living in the water near his apartment buildling, or a group of people whizzing past him on mopeds.  Well, once a gonzo filmmaker, always a gonzo filmmaker, I guess - he had no script, no storyboards, no plan, he just went out into NYC on his good days and had the crew shoot black + white footage of whatever was there, kind of shoot first and ask questions later about where it was all going to fit in with the master plan.  

I kind of suspect that his son set him up with a camera crew just to sustain his will to live, like if he had some purpose to each new day, to get out and film something, maybe he'd stick around a bit longer - and who's to say he was wrong?  Then they filmed the phone conversations between father and son on both ends, and then they had something to talk about, whether it was the difference between NY and LA or what should be filmed next, or what the story arc for the "Sr." documentary should be.  Well, bad news, because everybody's story arc is somewhat similar in that they all end, and really, my documentary choices this year are kind of proving that's the case, with the exception of Sylvester Stallone at least.  Mary Tyler Moore, Reading Rainbow, the Opportunity rover, yeah, all of them are no longer alive, and in fact one of them never really was.  Let's say all of them are no longer functioning. 

Time is savage, and time is relentless.  As that "Star Trek" movie said, time is the fire in which we all burn.  And you may not know time is up until it's up, or you may become bedridden later in life and you'll watch it end over a long period, there's no way to predict.  Really, the best thing you can do for yourself is keep busy and try not to think about it.  And for God's sake, don't watch a lot of documentaries about people who have died, I can't stress this enough, because that could bring you down.  But of course, that's who people who make documentaries tend to make documentaries about, isn't it? 

This was just way too meta for me, everyone in the film being focused on making the film that you're watching RIGHT NOW, only nobody seems to know what they're doing or what the focus of the film should be.  And when they people in charge of making the film let this slip, that they don't really have a plan, well that's a big old warning sign right there.  I don't know, maybe stop and turn the camera off for a minute and make a plan?  Then you can turn the camera back on, but if the BEST footage you have is just people sitting around and discussing what should be in the film, well I question whether you ever really made a film at all.  It's a bit of a paradox when you made a film about deciding what should be in the film you're making - did you then make a film or not?  I guess you technically made a film, but you could have made a better one by having the meetings BEFORE and not DURING.

There's footage from Downey Sr.'s films, of course, like "Chafed Elbows" and "Greaser's Palace" and 'Two Tons of Turquoise to Taos Tonight", but after watching the clips, I was more confused than ever.  What are these movies even about, or are they about anything at all?  "Rented Lips"? "Too Much Sun"?  "Hugo Pool"?  Sorry, but they all look terrible and I don't think any of them would capture my attention.  The only one I might ever have any interest in watching might be "Up the Academy", but since everyone agrees that film is terrible, then you know what?  I'm good with never watching it. Sorry. 

Robert Downey Sr. also did some acting work, and Paul Thomas Anderson cast him in several films, like "Boogie Nights" and "Magnolia".  Another director (he-who-shall-not-be-named) cast him in "Tower Heist" and "The Family Man".  So I think this guy maybe missed his calling, if directors loved to use him in their films maybe he should have focused on acting instead of directing.  I've heard of "actor's directors" but maybe he was meant to be a "director's actor" of sorts.  Well, it's too late for that now, but when life offers you opportunities you really should consider taking them, that's my takeaway. 

As an added bonus, two of the people interviewed for this film have also passed on, Alan Arkin and Norman Lear.  Well jeez, the hits just keep on coming, don't they?

Also starring Robert Downey Sr. (last seen in "The Family Man"), Robert Downey Jr. (last seen in "Oppenheimer"), Paul Thomas Anderson, Alan Arkin (last heard in "Minions: The Rise of Gru"), Sean Hayes (last seen in "Pieces of April"), Norman Lear (last seen in "Being Mary Tyler Moore"), Rosemary Rogers, Lawrence Wolf

with archive footage of Allan Arbus (last seen in "Volunteers"), Dick Cavett (last seen in "Being Mary Tyler Moore"), Patrick Dempsey (last seen in "Scream 3"), Elsie Downey, Antonio Fargas (last seen in "Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood"), Allen Garfield (last seen in "Destiny Turns on the Radio"), Jami Gertz (last seen in "The Last Blockbuster"), Eric Idle (last seen in "An Accidental Studio"), Arnold Johnson (last seen in "Sunset"), Ron Leibman (last seen in "Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time"), Ralph Macchio (last seen in "Hitchcock"), Andrea Martin (last seen in "Loser"), Marcello Mastroianni, Andrew McCarthy, Malcolm McDowell (last heard in "The Christmas Chronicles; Part Two), Alyssa Milano (last seen in "Hall Pass"), George Morgan, Cathy Moriarty (last seen in "Matinee"), Nicholas Pryor (last seen in "Doctor Sleep"), John C. Reilly (last seen in "De Palma"), Mark Wahlberg (last seen in "Me Time"),

RATING: 4 out of 10 rides into Manhattan from the Hamptons

Good Night Oppy

Year 16, Day 175 - 6/23/24 - Movie #4,764

BEFORE: I know my ordering might not make sense, I went from an actor to an actress to a Mars rover?  Linking is everything right now, and this order makes sense to me, because I'm on a campaign to have David Letterman come out on top with the most appearances this year.  Richard Nixon or Ronald Reagan win sometimes and, come on, they're not even really trying.  I know that Letterman got his TV start on a comedy ensemble show that Mary Tyler Moore headlined, and footage of him was used yesterday from times that he interviewed her on his talk show.  So that's why the original plan was to follow the MTM doc with this one, but then the plan changed. 

And there's not a big cast list for this movie, not linkable people, anyway.  But Dave's listed, presumably it's also archive footage from his NBC "Late Night" show talking about the Mars rover.  I could have used Stephen Colbert as a link and fit this in later in the chain, but thematically it wouldn't have fit in there either, plus putting it HERE not only gives Letterman an early boost, it also lines up another celeb birthday for tomorrow.  So there you go. 

Levar Burton carries over from "Butterfly in the Sky".  It's funny because this week I'm also focusing on catching up with "Star Trek: Discovery", like I'm deep into season 2 and watching 3 episodes a day if I can. I watched Season 1 when they aired it on CBS for free, but that was maybe a year ago - and they never aired Season 2 on CBS.  Since then, Paramount has merged with Showtime or something, and I'm getting Paramount+ for free because I subscribe to Showtime, and I'm also getting those "Discovery" episodes on Demand, but there's a time limit, they may disappear from cable on demand on July 9, so I've got to hustle.  Both of today's films apparently use footage from "Star Trek: The Next Generation". 

THE PLOT: The film follows Opportunity, the Mars Exploration Rover dubbed "Oppy" by her creators and scientists at NASA. Oppy was originally expected to live for only 90 days but she ultimately explored Mars for nearly 15 years.

AFTER: This is the kind of movie that I would have really been into as a kid, a documentary about how space travel works, the excitement of watching a rocket take off, something to make you think about the future or be hopeful about the future and wonder how far humans will be able to go someday, maybe to other planets or other solar systems or even other galaxies.  And that kid is still alive, somewhere inside me, but I don't know, something changed at some point and I realized that we're probably not going to get there within my lifetime, and I wouldn't qualify for space travel anyway, so on some level, like, what's the point?  Sorry, I don't mean to bring the room down, but as Stallone pointed out, after age 40 it's all about subtraction, not addition, and that list of things that I'm never going to be able to do grows a little bit bigger every year. 

Of course, the Mars Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity were technological marvels.  Of course, NASA and JPL are at the cutting edge of tech and together they're pushing the boundaries of what's possible and what's achievable.  And of course it's modern miracle that we sent two rovers to Mars and one of them kept broadcasting for 15 years.  Of course, of course, and kids have something to dream about again, maybe within their lifetimes humans will walk on Mars or set up a colony there - but as we've seen in certain movies, that story might not end well.  Those are fictional, of course, but who's to say that a Mars colony would be successful?  And if not, should we even DO that in the first place?  

I could get really cynical here and point out that for all the valuable data and photos that NASA got from the rovers, essentially they spent a ton of money to send two robotic devices to Mars, knowing that at some point, maybe within days or weeks or three months if luck was on their side, they would break down and become just a pile of space junk.  Then add to that the rocket that brought the rovers to Mars, the heat shield that needed to be jettisoned, the giant air-bags that made landing possible - I'm forced to conclude that NASA is the biggest extraplanetary LITTERER in the solar system.  Think about how much space junk is floating around in our Earth's atmosphere, pieces of satellites, booster rockets, and various tools that slipped out of the hands of Shuttle repairmen.  It's not safe in our own atmosphere, space junk could whip out of nowhere and smash through a space station's window, and, well, that's that.  We've polluted our oceans, our air and now we're leaving decrepid metal robots on other planets?  When is it enough, humans aren't going to stop until we've left trash all over the galaxy, when do we start learning from our own mistakes?  

Worse, the crew at NASA had this weird tradition of playing a "wake-up" song every morning, to rally their energy and keep their spirits up, it's kind of self-serving, but I get it, they had to synch their schedules with the Mars sunrise, and the Mars day, which is 40 minutes longer than an Earth day, so the song would focus them and get them ready for a 25-hour period of remotely piloting a Rover across another planet's surface, or figuring out how to get a wheel unstuck from rocks and sand from 140 million miles away, with a communications lag time of about 10 minutes.  And the song would vary from day to day, depending upon the mood of the crew or the day's tasks, but come on, does it HAVE to be "Walking on Sunshine"?  Or "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go"?  Who the hell is playing amateur DJ here?  OK, the B-52's "Roam" is an OK song, but still, there are about 10,000 BETTER songs available, why these?  It's bad enough that we're leaving space junk on Mars, now we're polluting another planet with our shitty music, too?  

I'm also surprised at the point to which the NASA scientists and researchers anthropomorphized the Rovers, so maybe they thought the robots might be entertained by the music?  That's not possible, even if they were alive, which they are NOT.  All across this film, people make this grammatical mistake, over and over again.  When they first got the test rover to move, the technicians said they were "bringing it to life".  Umm, no, it is NOT alive, the term you're looking for is "working" or "functional" or "on", but all that movement is just creating the ILLUSION of life, not life itself.  Then they all talk about the rover "surviving" on Mars - in order to survive, it needs to be alive, but it's not, it's still just a machine.  We're facing problems now on Earth with just the advent of artificial intelligence, and we need to keep stressing that first word, the machines are artificial, NOT human, and when you call the rovers "she" or you give it a cute name like "Oppy", you are NOT helping.  People think their birds can talk, that their cats can understand them, that's not true either, but it's closer to reality than thinking that a collection of circuits and parts on Mars that we're controlling remotely is "alive".  You're all scientists, I expect you to realize this distinction, and if you can't, well, then I'm kind of worried about you.  There's no crying in baseball, and there's no room for emotional attachment in space exploration.  You're going to lose rockets and satellites and rovers and putting a smiley face on them is just going to interfere with that process. 

HELP WANTED - Nasa needs technicians and scientists to help explore Mars and other planets.  Requirements: MUST NOT get emotionally involved with the equipment.  If you can't remain professional, perhaps this career is not for you.  Then there are the people who work for NASA that couldn't help notice the "parallels" between their own lives and their work on the rovers.  "Hey, I'm a mother and I gave birth to twins, and the rovers are kind of like twins, so I felt that I was personally connected to the work..."  NO, there's no connection there, other than the one that you manufactured in your own mind.  Nobody else cares about your kids, that's why they're YOUR kids and not ours.  "Well, I was born in a third-world country, and I was fascinated by the way a radio works, so it's funny that I'm working on tele-communications with a rover."  NO, it's not, that's just your personal back-story and if that gets you through the day, great, but this work isn't about YOU, it's about Mars and getting humanity off of our dying planet someday. Get your head back in the game. 

Look, I'm glad we had a working rover on Mars for so long.  I'm glad we know more about Mars rocks and the possibility that there was once water there.  That's all good scientific knowledge and advancement but all researchers have to remain professional and somewhat detached if we're going to put all this data to good use someday.  Having the robot take a "selfie" is good fun and maybe a needed distraction, but let's stay focused, please.  

Years later after Opporunity, NASA also had another lander on Mars, named Insight, and this device was programmed (remember that) with a form of AI that allowed it to communicate, it ALMOST seemed like the device was alive, but remember, it was PROGRAMMED that way.  In December of 2022 it failed in a similar fashion, and it's final message ALMOST made it seem like it was alive.  It said, "My power's really low, so this may be the last image I can send.  Don't worry about me, though, my time here as been both productive and serene.  If I can keep talking to my mission team, I will - but I'll be signing off here soon.  Thanks for staying with me."

Nice one, NASA, you almost got me.  I felt sad at first, sure, but then reminded myself that the device does not have rational thought or emotions, somebody programmed it to say exactly that, a human gave it words, a human gave it the illusion of knowledge, but it is still just a working or non-working machine at the end of the Sol.  It was built to collect information, but also it was built to fail, I would say it was built to die, but in order to die, it would have to be alive, which it was not.  We're only going to get into more and more trouble if we fool ourselves into thinking that the machines are alive.  Let's try and keep a little perspective here, OK? 

Also I hate to burst anyone's bubble but the vast majority of this film was most likely created in CGI, which is nearly every image of the rover (except the selfie) and probably the majority of the Mars landscape, too.  If you think there was another camera about a quarter-mile from the rover that could take those long shots of it crossing the landscape, well you really need to think about how this movie was made.  You're not looking at real images here, those grainy black-and-white still shots of craters and boulders, that's all that the rovers were capable of giving us.  So, essentialy they faked the Mars landing here, which might be the digital equivalent of faking the moon landing, only now more things are technically possible and it looks great, don't get me wrong.  But it's just not real.  

Also starring Mark Adler, Kobie Boykins, Moogega Cooper, Doug Ellison, Abigail Fraeman, Rob Manning, Bekah Sosland Siegfriedt, Steve Squyres, Ashley Stroupe, Ashitey, Trebi-Ollennu, Jennifer Trosper, Vandi Verma

plus the voice of Angela Bassett (last seen in "Waiting to Exhale") and archive footage of Stephen Colbert (last seen in "Dumb Money"), David Letterman (last seen in "Being Mary Tyler Moore"), Arnold Schwarzenegger (last seen in "Sly"), Jon Stewart (last seen in "Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You"), Patrick Stewart (also carrying over from "Butterfly in the Sky").

RATING: 5 out of 10 "lucky peanuts" (and that's another thing...why do these scientists believe in luck?)

Butterfly in the Sky

Year 16, Day 175 - 6/23/24 - Movie #4,763

BEFORE: I know, I know, I said no last-minute additions, but sometimes fate takes over and suggests something.  This film came back on to my radar at just the right time, I'd worked at a screening of it at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2022, but I forgot to put it on my list, I guess I just figured I'd never be able to link to it, so why bother?  But then I saw it in passing on Levar Burton's IMDB page and realized that it's on Netflix AND that I could squeeze it in between the two documentaries I was reviewing and preparing to watch.  What are the odds? 

So I'm going to double up today, it's fine, plenty of slots to spare, and it's too hot outside to leave the house anyway, we've got a heat wave taking over the whole East Coast.  I went out for bagels this morning, that's enough, we were going to go grocery shopping today but my wife's not up for it, so OK, two movies and two reviews.  Newscasters and talk show hosts (like Carson, and Dinah, and Dick Cavett, and maybe Oprah) are the mortar for the next month that will keep my chain alive.  

Connie Chung carries over from "Being Mary Tyler Moore".  

THE PLOT: Chronicles the journeys of broadcasters, educators and filmmakers who believed television could inspire a lifelong love of reading and where involved in the production of "Reading Rainbow" on PBS.  

AFTER: I never watched "Reading Rainbow", but I "met" Levar Burton when he came to the theater during Tribeca two years ago, and I had to remind him to keep his mask on, we were still under pandemic protocols.  I hated to bother him with this, but he complied and was very nice about it. 

Well, it's really the best advice I can give to anyone who wants to work in filmmaking or TV production, think about what means something to you, and then look for work in that arena.  I started out in music videos, because they were big at the time, and then I kept my eyes and ears open for other opportunities.  When something came up at an animation company (actually it was a sales agent for animation companies, kind of a go-between linking the animators and advertising agencies) I leapt at it.  It was just stuffing envelopes at first, and I got the gig because someone else wanted to go work for Robert Redford and threw a bone to me in the form of the gig she didn't want, but I took it and ran with it.  From there I met someone who had a job working for a real animator, and she didn't want the job any.more because she wanted to go work at Sesame Street, so she threw me a bone too.  For decades I was working at two jobs that other people didn't want, but I didn't mind.  Eventually I had enough connection to take jobs that I wanted, and not other people's hand-me-downs.  

I guess I feel a little guilty now that I didn't keep working for the director who wanted to make more dance pieces and short educational videos for "Sesame Street", but in my defense she was a few months behind in my pay and really, I needed to pay rent.  Perhaps if I'd stayed I could have found something similarly meaningful and made it my calling, instead of going off in pursuit of a different calling that also came with a steady paycheck.  But I don't have kids, I don't plan to have kids, so working in children's TV never held any appeal for me. 

A lot of the people who worked on "Reading Rainbow" may have taken the job for, well, whatever reason, but at the core of the show was a group of people for whom child literacy was a very important issue.  So a show all about encouraging kids to read by recommending them books was a big freaking deal.  It was a different time, the 1980's, when public and government money was being spent on getting kids to read more books.  These days, a lot of conservative political money is focused on getting certain books OUT of the hands of kids, because, well, we don't want our kids getting smarter, do we?  And we certainly don't want them to learn about any issues that might make us feel uncomfortable, or not in line with our religious beliefs or anything that seems "icky" to us, like gay marriage or people feeling more comfortable as another gender, or letting kids know where babies come from.  Really, I can't help feel that society is progressing backwards in some ways, and if the path to enlightenment doesn't come from reading more, and learning more, and being a more understanding, tolerant person, like, what are we even DOING?

And really, the dividends came in the people they met and the experiences they had - the show traveled to exotic locales like a Hawaiian volcano, or a giant cave full of bats in Texas, among other places.  Why not get a few essentially free trips around the world while PBS is paying (or the government grants, whichever) - ride that horse, grab all the experiences you can get while you can, because eventually the show will cease production, or the grants will run out, or you want to get married and raise kids yourself, if that's your thing. "Reading Rainbow" had 161 episodes and ran from 1983 to 2006.  Levar Burton stayed with the show even after getting cast on "Star Trek: The Next Generation", and he really didn't have to, but he felt the work being done was very important. 

And there, I've got my through-line for the first three films in the Doc Block - three subjects who became known for two main film series or TV series.  Stallone had "Rocky" and "Rambo" films (plus more), Mary Tyler Moore had "The Dick van Dyke Show" and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" (plus more) and Levar Burton had "Reading Rainbow" and "Star Trek: TNG". (umm, and "Roots", I know, but work with me here.)

Also starring  Levar Burton, Whoopi Goldberg (last seen in Moonlight and Valentino"), Kenny Blank, Tony Buttino, Ellen Doherty, Jamie Duneier, Robin Fogleman, Jill Gluckson, Ari Haberberg, Stephen Horelick, Barbara J. Irwin, Pam Johnson, Kathy Kinsner, Cecily Truett Lancit, Larry Lancit, Twila Liggett, Mark Mannucci, Dean Parisot, Tom Puckett, Alisa Reyes, Jason Reynolds, Ellen Schecter, Nikki Silver, Ed Wiseman, Orly Wiseman, 

the voices of Angela Bassett (last seen in "Waiting to Exhale"), Peter Falk (last seen in "The Kid Stays in the Picture"), James Earl Jones (last seen in "Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street"), Regina King (last seen in "Flag Day"), 

with archive footage of Larry Blackmon, Ed Bradley (last seen in "What's My Name: Muhammad Ali"), Alison Brie (last seen in "Somebody I Used to Know"), Yvette Nicole Brown (last seen in "Disenchanted"), George W. Bush (last seen in "The Special Relationship"), Johnny Carson (last seen in "Sly"), Sandra "Pepa" Denton (last seen in "Coming 2 America"), Cheryl "Salt" James (ditto), Michael Dorn (last seen in "Ted 2"), Jimmy Fallon (last seen in "Marry Me"), Jonathan Frakes, Newt Gingrich, Donald Glover (last heard in "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse"), Jam Master Jay (last seen in "Air"), Darryl McDaniels (ditto), Joseph "Run" Simmons (ditto), Michael Jordan (ditto), Walter Koenig (last seen in "For the Love of Spock"), Angela Lansbury (last seen in "Glass Onion"), Samm Levine (last seen in "Not Another Teen Movie"), Joel McHale (last seen in "Assassination Nation"), Daryl Mitchell (last seen in "10 Things I Hate About You"), Eddie Murphy (last seen in "Kevin Hart & Chris Rock: Headliners Only"), Nichelle Nichols (last seen in "Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project"), Trevor Noah (last heard in "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever"), Rosie O'Donnell (also carrying over from "Being Mary Tyler Moore"), Alan Rickman (last seen in "Quigley Down Under"), Mo Rocca, Sam Rockwell (last seen in "Better Living Through Chemistry"), Fred Rogers (also last seen in "Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street"), Tony Shalhoub (last seen in "Pain & Gain"), William Shatner (last seen in "Senior Moment"), Patrick Stewart (last seen in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness"), George Takei (last seen in "Gilbert"), Kenan Thompson (last seen in "Bros"), Sigourney Weaver (last seen in "You Again"), Steven Wright (last seen in "Loser")

RATING: 6 out of 10 Daytime Emmy wins