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amateurfilmopinions · 2 years

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Network (1976)

"He's saying life is bullshit, and it is, so what are you screaming about?"

The first time I saw this movie, I was traumatized. Not because it wasn't any good, it was actually one of the best I had ever seen, but because I felt like it was more of a horror movie than a dark comedy. I extended my unsettled nature to my friend who insisted we watch. After my second viewing, I knew I had to write about. Let's dig in!

Who, What, When, Where, and Why Do We Care

We start the film with two old friends and work colleagues laughing, drinking, and reminiscing about their careers. We learn through their drunken rambles that Max Schumacher (played by a solemn William Holden) has had to deliver the hard news to his longtime-friend and co-worker Howard Beale (played brilliantly by Peter Finch - more on that later). Little do we know, Howard is not going to take this sitting down. On his next broadcast, he announces that he is being forced to step down and that in his next and last broadcast, he will shoot himself on live television. Keep in mind this movie came after the real-life on-air suicide of Christine Chubbuck, which was rumored to be the inspiration behind this, but this has since been debunked. UBS, the channel they work for, and its executives immediately fire Howard. Max somehow gets Howard back on the air to apologize for his outburst, but it quickly turns to a rant on how life is "bullshit." This turns out to be a winner in terms of ratings, something the newly-hired programming chief, Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway) tries to capitalize on this by convincing her superior, Frank Hackett (Robert Duvall) to give Beale his own show where he can continue his rants in front of a live audience. However, their quest for ratings soon turns into a deadly end.

Diana + Max = Nobody Wins

Lets make something clear: Faye Dunaway and William Holden have chemistry. New Hollywood and Old Hollywood came together to form a steamy, May-December romance. However, they were doomed from the start. Let's put aside the fact that he is married. She is at the precipice of her career at UBS, while his has been over for a long time. She is consumed by her ambition, while his is burning out. She wants ratings, at no matter what cost, while he believes in the integrity of programming. It does not help that this movie displays a pattern present during its time and even today: dehumanizing single, career-minded women where their ambition becomes their downfall (most extreme case: Fatal Attraction). Max truly emphasizes this point by calling her a "humanoid" during their break-up and when he told his wife that Diana is "incapable of any feelings." She even at one point talks about the potential romance as if it was an upcoming pilot. Unfortunately in this movie, particularly in terms of the romance, Diana's character comes across as a caricature, one that as a female, I am tired of seeing. Say it with me: THIS OUT-OF DATE TROPE NEEDS TO GO!

Overall Thoughts: Movie Still Powerful (Flaws and All)

Even with its Sorkin-like, on-the-nose dialogue (sorry Aaron, there is one Paddy Chayevsky), Network still works and resonates, even more than forty-five years after its release. This bring us back to my horrified reaction after my first viewing. The quest for ratings by giving unhinged individuals a platform sounds a little too familiar in this day-in-age. The people of UBS took advantage of the social unrest of the era and its impressionable audience to gain more success and money. It's quite hard to not draw comparisons to the forms of media that constantly air out misinformation and seeks views regardless of content, at the expense of disenfranchised groups. Did we not just have a former, reality television host as President, who in turn used his infamy to attack minorities and promote his anti-democratic ideologies? This film goes beyond satire. It is a warning, which Chayevsky succeeded in portraying. The goal is views/ratings/likes and the cost are our rights and livelihood. Think I'm exaggerating? The January 6th Insurrection says hello. This goes beyond a trend. This is our new normal and we need to start paying attention.

The Oscars: Here's some awards, but not the ultimate prize.

This film won three of the four acting awards: Peter Finch (Best Lead Actor - posthumously), Faye Dunaway (Best Lead Actress), and Beatrice Straight (Best Supporting Actress - holds the record for briefest film performance win at five minutes and two seconds). An argument can be made that Ned Beatty deserved to win for Best Supporting Actor for his brilliant, brief performance as Arthur Jensen, the UBS parent company chairman who helped turn Howard Beale to the dark side. It won Best Screenplay for Chayevsky, deservedly so, but controversially, not my favorite of his movies. I feel that Marty was better equipped at portraying emotional turmoil and philosophical turning points (highly recommend). However, when it came to the top prize, the film felt short of another cultural phenomenon: Rocky. It appears that the Academy went for the heartwarming story of triumph, rather than the one that mirrors our ugly reality. Seems like a copout, yet I don't blame because that is the easiest option. However, in times like these, we do not have that luxury and neither does the Academy. By constantly picking simplistic one-dimensional films like Oliver!, Shakespeare in Love, and Dances with Wolves that fail to examine the human condition and what is actually going on, they were and continue to be at risk of fading into obscurity. I mean, let be honest, how many people were watching this year's ceremony before the "Slap Heard Around the World"?

What do you think? Do you think Network is worth the hype? Leave your take in the comments!

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brandomonk · 2 years

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#altered states #william hurt #paddy chayevsky

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vintage1981 · 3 years

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Happy Birthday Barbara Bain!

Barbara Bain, the sultry Cinnamon Carter on Mission: Impossible celebrates her birthday today.

Bain was born Millicent Fogel in Chicago, the daughter of Russian-Jewish immigrants. She graduated from the University of Illinois with a bachelor’s degree in sociology. Developing an interest in dance, she moved to New York City, where she studied alongside Martha Graham. Dissatisfied with her career as a dancer, she went into modeling. Jobs with Vogue, Harper’s and other publications followed.

Still uninspired, however, Bain entered the Theater Studio to study acting; first under Curt Conway and then Lonny Chapman. Progressing to the Actors Studio, she was instructed by Lee Strasberg. Bain’s first acting role was in Paddy Chayevsky’s play Middle of the Night, which embarked on a national tour in October, 1957. Accompanying Bain was fellow actor and newly-acquired husband Martin Landau. The final leg of the tour brought the couple to Los Angeles, where they settled permanently.

After relocating, Bain established herself at the Actors Studio West, where she continues to teach classes and perform scene work. Bain’s earliest television appearances included CBS’s Tightrope, with Mike Connors, and three ABC series: The Law and Mr. Jones with James Whitmore, Adventures in Paradise with Gardner McKay and Straightaway with Brian Kelly and John Ashley. She guest-starred as Madelyn Terry in a 1960 episode of Perry Mason, “The Case of the Wary Wildcatter,” and in 1964 played the role of Elayna Scott in “The Case of the Nautical Knot.”

Between 1966 and 1969, Bain appeared — alongside her then husband, Martin Landau — in the major role of Cinnamon Carter in Mission: Impossible. She also starred as the character in a 1997 episode of Diagnosis: Murder. She won three consecutive Emmy Awards for Best Dramatic Actress for her performance in 1967, 1968 and 1969, in addition to a Golden Globe Award nomination in 1968. She starred opposite Landau again in the science-fiction TV series Space: 1999 (1975–77), as Dr. Helena Russell, and the made-for-TV film The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island (1981). Bain also appeared in The Dick Van Dyke Show, in the episode “Will You Two Be My Wife?” and My So-Called Life, playing the main character Angela Chase’s grandmother in one episode. Other appearances include “Matroyoshka,” an episode of the 1990s science-fiction series, Millennium.

Bain married Landau in 1957. They divorced in 1993. The couple had two daughters, actress Juliet Landau and film producer Susan Bain Landau Finch (born Susan Meredith Landau). Bain is of the Jewish faith. She has worked on behalf of numerous charitable causes and is the founder of the Screen Actors Guild's BookPALS Program.

#Barbara Bain #Mission Impossible #Space: 1999 #BookPALS #SAG #Emmy Awards #Diagnosis: Murder #Lucille Ball #Gilligan's Island

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iffltd · 5 years

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A L T E R E D S T A T E S (1980)

starring: William Hurt Blair Brown Bob Balaban Charles Haid Drew Barrymore John Laroquette

cinematographer Jordan Cronenweth original music by John Corigliano

written by Paddy Chayevsky (credited as Sidney Aaron) based on his novel directed by Ken Russell

#Altered States (1980)#Ken Russell #William Huirt #Blair Brown #Bob Balaban

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howardhawkshollywoodannex · 5 years

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lobby cards for The Bachelor Party (1957). The film was written by Paddy Chayevsky, who also wrote Marty, The Hospital, Network and Altered States.

Carolyn Jones was nominated as best supporting actress and was on screen for only five minutes.

#bachelor party #Carolyn jones #don murray

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papermoonloveslucy · 6 years

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TELEVISION ACADEMY HALL OF FAME

“The First Annual Television Academy Hall of Fame Awards”

March 4, 1984 ~ NBC

Directed by Dwight Hemion

Written by Buzz Kohan

This award's mission is to recognize "persons who have made outstanding contributions in the arts, sciences or management of television, based upon either cumulative contributions and achievements or a singular contribution or achievement."

The honorees received glass statuettes in the form of two ballet dancers created by sculptor and painter Pascal called “Discipline of Creation.” The trophies were tall and difficult to handle so they were not presented during the course of the ceremony itself.

With that in mind, since 1988, inductees have received a crystal television screen atop a cast-bronze base designed by art director Romain Johnston.

Being the first such telecast, the rating were poor. The special lost not only its time slot but the entire evening with just a 16 share and a 10 rating. ABC's TV remake of A Streetcar Named Desire won the night with a 39 share and a 23.1 rating.

Just as Carol Burnett introduces Lucille Ball in this first ceremony, in 1985 the roles were reversed when Lucy introduced Burnett for the honor.

Of the other participants in this initial outing, Steve Allen was honored in 1986, Eric Sevareid in 1987, Barbara Walters in 1989, Jean Stapleton in 2002, Bea Arthur in 2008, and Sherman Hemsley in 2012.

Although Lucie Arnaz is announced in the opening credits, she did not appear in the telecast due to a prior obligation.

Cold Open Archive Footage

*Milton Berle (“Texaco Star Theatre”)

*Lucille Ball (“I Love Lucy”: “Lucy Goes to the Hospital”)

Vivian Vance (“I Love Lucy”: “Lucy Goes to the Hospital”)

William Frawley (“I Love Lucy”: “Lucy Goes to the Hospital”)

Desi Arnaz (“I Love Lucy”: “Lucy Goes to the Hospital”)

Ethel Merman (“Ford's 50th Anniversary”)

Mary Martin (“Ford's 50th Anniversary”)

Rod Steiger (“Marty”)

Richard M. Nixon (Checkers Speech)

Edward R. Murrow (“See It Now”)

Ed Sullivan (“The Ed Sullivan Show”)

The Beatles (“The Ed Sullivan Show”)

Walter Cronkite (“CBS Evening News”)

Carroll O'Connor (“All in the Family”)

**Rob Reiner (“All in the Family”)

Sally Struthers (“All in the Family”)

Jean Stapleton (“All in the Family”)

LeVar Burton (“Roots”)

Larry Hagman (“Dallas”: “Who Shot JR?”)

*also appeared live on stage

**also appeared live in audience

Also in the Audience

Gary Morton

Ted Danson

Rue McClanahan

Bill Macy

Ann Jillian

Sherman Hemsley

Isabel Sanford

Henry Winkler

Honorees and Hosts

Barbara Walters (Ceremony Host)

General David Sarnoff (posthumous), hosted by Barbara Walters

Sarnoff died in 1971 so his award is accepted by his son, Robert Sarnoff.

Lucy Connection: Walters interviewed Lucille Ball and Gary Morton in 1977.

Milton Berle, hosted by Steve Allen

A video tribute traces Berle's career and shows some of his classic comedy bits over the years.

Lucy Connection: Berle and Lucille Ball appeared many times together on his show and hers. Steve Allen interviewed Lucy Whittaker in “Lucy Calls the President” and was often host and panelist when Lucille Ball was on “What's My Line?” and "I’ve Got A Secret.”

William Paley, hosted by James Arness

A video tribute tracks Paley's career as a television pioneer to being the President of CBS.

During Paley's video tribute, a still frame from “I Love Lucy” is shown.

In the audience, Paley is sitting behind Lucille Ball.

Although the ceremony was broadcast on ABC TV, there was no attempt to lessen mentions of CBS and its programming.

Lucy Connection: Paley also appeared on television to tribute Lucille Ball in “CBS Salutes Lucy: The First 25 Years” in 1976.

Lucille Ball, hosted by Carol Burnett

The segment begins with a clip of “Lucy Goes To the Hospital” (ILL S2;E16) which starts with Lucy announcing: “Ricky. This is it!”

After the clip, Desi Arnaz Jr. enters and explains how his birth coincided with the birth of Little Ricky. Desi says that his sister Lucie couldn't attend because she is appearing on stage back East in The Guardsman. The show was produced at New Jersey's Paper Mill Playhouse also starring Lucie's husband Laurence Luckinbill. It was hoped that the show would transfer to Broadway, but this did not happen.

Desi Jr. introduces Carol Burnett.

A cut-away to Lucille Ball in the audience reveals that she is holding back tears at her son's tribute. Gary Morton sits beside her. Carol tells of how Lucy came to the second night of Once Upon A Mattress on Broadway.

A video tribute tracks Lucy's childhood in Jamestown to her unlikely breakthrough television series “I Love Lucy.” Clips are from “The Audition” (Lucy as The Professor), “Lucy Does a Television Commercial” (“It's so tasty, too!”), “Hollywood at Last!” (at the Brown Derby), and “Job Switching” (“Speed it up!”).

Lucy: “We all know we never do anything alone.”

Lucille Ball gets a standing ovation both walking to the podium and then again back to her seat. Cuts to the audience, show stars like Ann Jillian dabbing their eyes at Lucy's tearful acceptance speech.

Lucy Connection: Lucy and Carol Burnett were each others biggest fans. They alternately appeared on each others television shows, as well as numerous specials and awards shows.

Paddy Chayevsky (posthumous), hosted by Bob Fosse

A video interview with Chayevsky talks about his producing television dramas like “Marty”.

Eddie Albert and Peter Falk pay tribute to Chayevsky by acting out moments from his most notable work including Marty, The Tenth Man, and Network.

Susie Chayevsky could not be there to accept the award for her husband, so Fosse reads a message from her.

Chairman of the Academy John H. Mitchell takes the stage to talk about the Hall of Fame.

Lucy Connection: The following year Fosse and Ball were both part of “Night of 100 Stars II.”

Norman Lear, hosted by Beatrice Arthur

In a pre-taped segment, Jean Stapleton talks about the craft of acting which leads to a montage of scenes from “All in the Family” starring Carroll O'Connor, Rob Reiner, Sally Struthers, and Stapleton.

Bea Arthur talks about Norman Lear and quotes Paddy Chayevsky talking about Lear. Arthur starred in “Maude” a spin-off of “All in the Family.”

A video segment traces Lear's personal and career history. It includes clips from “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” “All in the Family,” “Fernwood Tonight,” “One Day at a Time,” “Maude,” “Good Times,” and “The Jeffersons.”

Lucy Connection: Bea Arthur played Vera opposite Lucille Ball in the feature film Mame (1974). The two went on to appear together on “CBS On The Air” in 1978.

Edward R. Murrow (posthumous), hosted by Eric Sevareid

Sevareid talks about his personal and professional relationship with Murrow.

A video segment talks about Murrow's war reporting. Moments from his show “See It Now” are seen.

Murrow's wife Janet accepts the award.

Lucy Connection: Murrow and his show were parodied on “The Ricardos Are Interviewed” (ILL S5;E7) as “Face To Face” with Edward Warren.

“The Seventh Annual Television Academy Hall of Fame Awards”

September 23, 1991 ~ NBC

Honorees

Desi Arnaz (posthumously)

“I Love Lucy”

Leonard Bernstein

James Garner

Danny Thomas

Mike Wallace

Special Appearances

Lucie Arnaz, daughter of Desi Arnaz

Laurence Luckinbill, husband of Lucie Arnaz

Desi Arnaz Jr., son of Desi Arnaz

Amy Arnaz, wife of Desi Arnaz Jr.

Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz Jr. were misty-eyed as they accepted the honor for their father. The brother and sister recounted how their own childhoods were reflected on their parent's show when the "Little Ricky" character was introduced.

Vintage footage of "I Love Lucy", including snippets from the pilot, and other moments from the careers of the honorees were shown at the ceremony held at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel.

"I Love Lucy" producer Jess Oppenheimer's widow Estelle and original writers Madelyn Pugh-Davis and Bob Carroll Jr. accepted the award for the CBS show. It was the first show ever inducted into the Hall of Fame.

In 1994, Disney's Hollywood Studios in Orlando, featured an outdoor exhibition of statues and plaques dedicated to Hall of Fame winners. The exhibit was removed in 2016 and the statues and busts returned to the Academy.

“The 21st Annual Television Academy Hall of Fame Awards”

March 1, 2012 ~ NBC

Hosted by Jon Cryer

Honorees

Mary-Ellis Bunim and Jonathan Murray, “The Real World”

Michael Eisner, Disney Executive

Sherman Hemsley, “The Jeffersons”

Bill Klages, Lighting Designer

Mario Kreutzberger, aka “Don Francisco”

Chuck Lorre, writer

Vivian Vance and William Frawley (posthumous)

Doris Singleton (“I Love Lucy”) inducts Vivian Vance.

Barry Livingston and Stanley Livingston (“My Three Sons”) induct William Frawley

From 1960 to 1965, Frawley appeared on “My Three Sons” as Uncle Bub Casey.

Barry Livingston made two appearances on “The Lucy Show” as Arnold Mooney.

With this ceremony, all four main characters on “I Love Lucy” and the show itself are in the Television Hall of Fame.

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msfehrwight · 6 years

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An afternoon 'Money Movie,' Middle of the Night, an interminable Paddy Chayevsky affair starring Frederick March, dealt with one man's life-crisis as, on the brink of old age, he falls in love with a very young Kim Novak and struggles against the petty and destructive jealousy of his sister and daughter. 'This is NOT a soap opera,' he reprimands the sister at one point. Since to me it had all the ingredients of one, I could only conclude that men's soap operas are not to be thought of as soap operas only because they are FOR MEN (or about men).

Tania Modleski: Loving with a Vengeance: Mass-produced Fantasies for Women (1982)

1982. That was more than 35 years ago. And people STILL don’t get this.

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browsersbooks · 7 years

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(via Donald Trump: All of the Worst Fictional Presidents Rolled into One)

It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. It never is. Political satires aren’t real��they’re not predictions, they’re warnings. They posit a construction that’s intended through exaggeration or deliberate distortion to illuminate how things really are, the hope then being that people will come to their senses. When Jonathan Swift suggested in A Modest Proposal (1729) that “a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled . . .” he wasn’t actually proposing that the solution to over-population and child poverty in Ireland at the time was a more imaginative, outside-the-box approach to cuisine. He wanted to shock people into an awareness of the original problem.

Now, perhaps this is an imprecise analogy, but the recent election of Donald Trump to the American presidency has (for many people) the feel of a satire gone horribly wrong. It’s the one that got away, a warning, replete with exaggeration and deliberate distortion, that has morphed inexplicably into our everyday reality. It is as though “infant’s flesh seasoned with a little pepper and salt” were suddenly an item on the brunch menu and we all just had to get used to it.

But before this election cycle, in terms of satire, was there a warning, a fictional version of events that we should have been paying more attention to? Well . . . call me naïve, but in the absence (so far) of an outbreak of actual fascism in America, I’m going to hold in reserve for the moment the great speculative triumvirate of Jack London’s The Iron Heel (1908), Sinclair Lewis’s It Can’t Happen Here (1935) and Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America (2004). But apart from these, the answer, I’m afraid, is not really. Nothing quite makes the cut. There are novels and films that reflect certain aspects of what’s happening now, but no single work is capacious enough to address the whole bonkers equation. And with the entire election cycle fitting neatly under the rubric of “you couldn’t make this shit up,” is it any wonder?

Broadly speaking, however, the works I’m thinking of fall into two distinct categories—those that deal with the power and influence of the media, and those that deal with politics, and specifically with the role of the presidency. While there is often considerable overlap here, what we usually end up with are two separate stories. It is only in the figure of Donald Trump, in his campaign, and in what we imagine his administration will be like, that we find a perfect fusion of these two themes into a single story.

The works dealing with the influence of the media have tended to be sensationalist, and sometimes even hysterical. It’s also significant that the two most interesting ones were said, upon release, to be ahead of their time. Both Elia Kazan and Budd Shulberg’s A Face in the Crowd (1957) and Sidney Lumet and Paddy Chayevsky’s Network (1976) feature central characters—Lonesome Rhodes and Howard Beale—that eerily prefigure the Donald Trump of 2016. They both “tell it like it is” and “articulate the popular rage,” and they are both very much creatures of the Tube. Lonesome is closer to the Donald, in that he is a rank opportunist who knows what he’s doing, a celebrity demagogue on the make, and there are also some uncomfortable parallels: the beauty pageant stuff and the cheerleader competitions, for instance. But what A Face in the Crowd is essentially warning us about is what can happen when a powerful personality is amplified by a popular medium such as television. Network’s Howard Beale, on the other hand, is more a force of nature, one that cynical executives find they can harness to increase shareholder profit—the warning here being that news will inevitably become entertainment, itself just another way for the vast college of corporations to tranquillize our anxieties. In the end, Lonesome Rhodes is brought down by an open mic (which may seem quaint to us today) and Howard Beale by poor ratings.

The second category of story draws its power from the reverence people have for the office of the presidency itself. Unassailable, Mount Rushmore-like, this isn’t something you mess with—in reality, that is. But in fiction there’s a rich seam of fantasy and speculation to be mined. From 1932’s The Phantom President to the recent television series Designated Survivor, this is the great what if that gives us the illegitimate president, the accidental president, the president with no filter, the puppet, the lookalike, the ordinary person plunged into the role as a result of extraordinary circumstances. The vicarious thrill here is in imagining what it would be like to sit in the Oval Office and not be constrained by rules or tradition.

It’s just that in nearly every example of this you can think of, sentiment (in the form of an irresistible urge to do the right thing) wins out, and the natural order is too easily restored. In Ivan Reitman’s Dave (1993) presidential doppelgänger, Dave Kovic, is a sweet-natured and thoroughly decent guy who tries to push through a budget that will benefit the homeless and the underprivileged. In Warren Beatty’s Bulworth (1998) a senator loses his filter, tells the truth, and almost raps his way to the White House. In Designated Survivor (the perfect love child of The West Wing and 24) low-level cabinet secretary and convenient everyman Tom Kirkman ascends to the presidency when everyone else, including all of Congress and the Supreme Court, are wiped out in a terrorist attack. But there’s nothing radical or challenging here. Instead, what we get is a sentimental narrative, a sort of Little White House on the Prairie for the post-9/11 world.

Perhaps the most chilling version of this second category of story is Being There, Jerzy Kosinski’s short 1971 novel which was later filmed by Hal Ashby. In it, Chauncey Gardiner is an empty vessel, a sort of holy fool, who is anointed as a future president by a cabal of political and corporate insiders. A fable about the vacuous nature of our culture, Being There’s ultimate sting is that America allows itself to be reflected in the musings of an innocent man-child who doesn’t read newspapers and only watches television.

You begin to see the problem, though. All of these examples are, in their way, tantalizing—prescient ripples from the past, loose shards of significance here and there, but never enough of them in one place, and never quite fitting together neatly enough, to shake us out of our complacency—because none of these characters is sufficiently like Donald Trump. Lonesome Rhodes started out as a dirt-poor hobo, Howard Beale was a decent man who just ran out of bullshit, Chauncey Gardiner was a blank slate, Dave Kovic was a saint, Jay Bulworth was played by Warren Beatty, and the only person Tom Kirkman wants to be like is Jed Bartlett. So, for all their re-defining of media norms and flouting of White House conventions, none of these guys is really up to the task. Trump, for his part, and in a single story, has crushed both sides of the equation. On media influence, he has weaponized Twitter in as spectacular a fashion as others once co-opted radio and TV for their political purposes. And on the role of the president, by behaving in the real world more or less like a villain in a Batman movie, he has effectively deflated over two hundred years of institutional gravitas, and may just as well have dynamited Mount Rushmore to smithereens in the process.

So his is a big story, and it requires a considered response. But there’s a long way to go yet, and maybe looking for warnings from the past is to miss the point. It’s the enormity of what is happening right now that needs to be examined. When Sinclair Lewis was writing It Can’t Happen Here in 1935, he was looking directly across the ocean at Europe. Orwell’s 1984 is really about Stalin’s 1948. And both A Face in the Crowd and Network, overcooked as they may have seemed at the time, definitely spoke to anxieties that were very real to contemporary audiences. Even today’s undeniably entertaining Designated Survivor struggles to shake off an angsty gloom, reflecting as it does a wider insecurity about “normalcy” in the political landscape.

So, assuming nothing untoward happens, First Amendment-wise, it will be interesting to see what emerges from the next four years. Good reporting and investigative journalism will be essential, but extremely valuable too—as so often in the past—will be what the novelists, screenwriters and showrunners come up with.

#trump2017 #reading #facism #books #politics #notmypresident #browsersbookshop

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newstwitter-blog · 7 years

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New Post has been published on News Twitter

New Post has been published on http://www.news-twitter.com/2017/02/18/la-times-saturdays-tv-highlights-and-weekend-talk-britney-ever-after-on-lifetime-14/

La Times: Saturday's TV Highlights and Weekend Talk: 'Britney Ever After' on Lifetime

SERIES

Planet Earth II Noted naturalist David Attenborough returns as narrator for this all-new follow-up to the visually stunning 2006 BBC nature series. First up, visits to the Galapagos and other biologically diverse islands habitats. 9 p.m. BBC America; also AMC, SundanceTV

The Zoo This new documentary series gets up close and personal with some of the 6,000-plus animals at New York’s Bronx Zoo, as well as the staffers committed to their care. 10 p.m. Animal Planet

Your Worst Nightmare This true crime series wraps its season. 10 p.m. Investigation Discovery

For Peete’s Sake Former NFL star Rodney Peete, wife Holly Robinson Peete and their family are back in new episodes of this reality series. 10 p.m. OWN

MOVIES

Network Peter Finch, Faye Dunaway and William Holden star in writer Paddy Chayevsky and director Sidney Lumet’s eerily prescient 1976 dark comedy about the TV news business. 7:30 p.m. Turner Classic Movies

The Legend of Tarzan “True Blood’s” Alexander Skarsgard stars as author Edgar Rice Burroughs’ jungle hero in this 2016 action-adventure tale. With Christoph Waltz, Samuel L. Jackson, Jim Broadbent, Djimon Honsou and Margot Robbie. 8 and 11:45 p.m. HBO

Britney Ever After Natasha Bassett stars in this new made-for-cable bio-drama charting the life and career of pop star Britney Spears; with Nathan Keyes as Justin Timberlake and Clayton Chitty as Kevin Federline. Followed by an encore of the documentary “I Am Britney Jean.” 8 and 10 p.m. Lifetime

Love Blossoms A perfume maker and a hunky botanist find romance in this new TV movie; with Shantel VanSanten and Victor Webster. 9 p.m. Hallmark

SATURDAY

Good Morning America (N) 7 a.m. KABC

SUNDAY

Good Morning America (N) 6 a.m. KABC

State of the Union National Security, the Munich security conference; the Trump administration: Gov. John Kasich (R-Ohio); former National Security Advisor Gen. James Jones; Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.). Panel: Amanda Carpenter; Nina Turner; former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.); Jason Kander, Let America Vote. (N) 6 and 9 a.m. CNN

CBS News Sunday Morning Passwords; Damian Lewis; a Chicago artist turns potholes into art; Gay Talese; Simon Fitzmaurice. (N) 6:30 a.m. KCBS

Fareed Zakaria GPS Trump’s National Security Advisor resigns; Trump and Putin; Trump and Netanyahu; North Korea’s missile tests: Elliott Abrams; Antony Blinken; Avril Haines. Russian perspective of the firing of Trump’s National Security Advisor: Sergey Karaganov. Japanese president visits America; North Korea’s provocation; the role of women in Japan: Caroline Kennedy. (N) 7 and 10 a.m. CNN

Face the Nation White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Tulare). Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.). Former National Security Advisor Tom Donilon. Mike Morell. Panel: Bob Woodward, the Washington Post; Jeffrey Goldberg, the Atlantic; Indira Lakshmanan, the Boston Globe; Michael Graham, the Weekly Standard. (N) 8 a.m. KCBS

Meet the Press (N) 8 a.m. KNBC; 11 a.m. and 11 p.m. MSNBC

This Week With George Stephanopoulos Turning down the National Security Advisor job: Vice Adm. Robert Harward, U.S. Navy (Ret.). President Trump’s first month in office: former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski; former Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook. (N) 8 a.m. KABC

Fox News Sunday With Chris Wallace The Trump administration: Rush Limbaugh. White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus. A visit with 2-year-old panda, Bao Bao at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo. Panel: Karl Rove; Mo Elleithee; Kimberley Strassel, the Wall Street Journal; Charles Lane. (N) 8 a.m. KTTV; 11 a.m., 7 and 11 p.m. FNC

Reliable Sources Coverage of Trump’s news conference: Glenn Thrush, the New York Times; Salena Zito, the Washington Examiner. Leaks; investigative reporting: Dana Priest, the Washington Post; Glenn Greenwald, the Intercept; Carl Bernstein. (N) 8 a.m. CNN

MediaBuzz Coverage of President Trump’s news conference; coverage of National Security Advisor’s resignation and withdrawal of Labor Secretary nominee: Erin McPike, Independent Journal Review; Mollie Hemingway, the Federalist; Ruth Marcus, the Washington Post; Kaitlan Collins, Daily Caller; Dan Abrams, Mediaite; Charles Krauthammer. (N) 8 a.m. FNC

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davidpwilson2564 · 7 years

Text

Bloglet

Friday, January 27, 2017

So the idea is to pay my union dues before the end of the month (something in the fine print about a five dollar discount). This time, instead of the anticipated face to face transaction I am told to go to a window. I turn over my invoice and a youngish woman does something on a computer that seems to take a very long time. She hands me a sheet with the printout of a current union card. I ask for a revised directory, thinking it part of the transaction (wasn’t it always?). She takes back my printout, sighs deeply and says, “Now I have to do the whole thing over again!” So many people, I’m thinking, are behind Plexiglas windows, doing something they hate.

Note: Every day, without fail, our President does something cringeworthy and embarrassing.

Movie on the Turner channel. “The Catered Affair.” Working class drama. Bronx, Irish, Catholic family. All star cast.Screenplay by Vidal, based on work by Paddy Chayevsky. Music by Andre Previn which sounds a bit like Copland’s music for “Our Town.” (Was that movie ever made? Musical selections survive. Minutiae: (1) A musical was made of “Our Town”...from which the song “Love and Marriage” has survived. (2) Music for a movie never made: Prokofiev’s “Lt Kije.

Saturday, January 28, 2017

Sit at the desk and after a while, exhausting all excuses, have the piece for next Wednesday’s class pretty much in hand.

Dale comes over. Brings his flute. We play Kuhlau flute duets (I play [at] the second part on the xylo, as Oscar Levant used to say “with arthritic abandon.”) I miss a lot of notes but feel slightly more virtuous when we are done.

An assigned book for class. A novel I am getting the idea I’ve read before. One of those heavily researched novels. It is as is the author had set about to write a certain number of pages a day. There are a handful of youngish Brit writers who do this stuff. Showing off. The author I am (re)reading is part of that bunch. And it’s a slog.

Liza Minnelli has her mom’s (Judy Garland’s) body moved from Hartsdale to Hollywood. I am wondering if it’s Hartsdale cemetery I used to drive past with J.

I do the research....the ABT dates are not quite as I had calculated. Does this mean I can’t do the summer job? I try to track down the summer event dates but can’t find them. Drat.

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movie-finearts-blog · 7 years

Photo

https://movie-finearts.com/here-are-some-great-photos-taken-behind-the-scenes-during/

Here are some great photos taken behind-the-scenes during...

Here are some great photos taken behind-the-scenes during production of Sidney Lumet’s Network. Production still photographers: Michael Ginsburg & Mary Ellen Mark © Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (A Howard Gottfried-Paddy Chayefsky Production), United Artists. Sidney Lumet and Paddy Chayevsky’s ...

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quotatiousquotations · 12 years

Quote

Television is democracy at its ugliest.

Paddy Chayevsky

#television #paddy chayevsky #favorite

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newstwitter-blog · 7 years

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New Post has been published on News Twitter

New Post has been published on http://www.news-twitter.com/2017/02/18/la-times-saturdays-tv-highlights-and-weekend-talk-britney-ever-after-on-lifetime-13/

La Times: Saturday's TV Highlights and Weekend Talk: 'Britney Ever After' on Lifetime

SERIES

The Zoo This new documentary series gets up close and personal with some of the 6,000-plus animals at New York’s Bronx Zoo, as well as the staffers committed to their care. 10 p.m. Animal Planet

Your Worst Nightmare This true crime series wraps its season. 10 p.m. Investigation Discovery

For Peete’s Sake Former NFL star Rodney Peete, wife Holly Robinson Peete and their family are back in new episodes of this reality series. 10 p.m. OWN

MOVIES

Love Blossoms A perfume maker and a hunky botanist find romance in this new TV movie; with Shantel VanSanten and Victor Webster. 9 p.m. Hallmark

SATURDAY

Good Morning America (N) 7 a.m. KABC

SUNDAY

Good Morning America (N) 6 a.m. KABC

CBS News Sunday Morning Passwords; Damian Lewis; a Chicago artist turns potholes into art; Gay Talese; Simon Fitzmaurice. (N) 6:30 a.m. KCBS

Meet the Press (N) 8 a.m. KNBC; 11 a.m. and 11 p.m. MSNBC

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newstwitter-blog · 7 years

Text

New Post has been published on News Twitter

New Post has been published on http://www.news-twitter.com/2017/02/18/la-times-saturdays-tv-highlights-and-weekend-talk-britney-ever-after-on-lifetime-12/

La Times: Saturday's TV Highlights and Weekend Talk: 'Britney Ever After' on Lifetime

SERIES

The Zoo This new documentary series gets up close and personal with some of the 6,000-plus animals at New York’s Bronx Zoo, as well as the staffers committed to their care. 10 p.m. Animal Planet

Your Worst Nightmare This true crime series wraps its season. 10 p.m. Investigation Discovery

For Peete’s Sake Former NFL star Rodney Peete, wife Holly Robinson Peete and their family are back in new episodes of this reality series. 10 p.m. OWN

MOVIES

Love Blossoms A perfume maker and a hunky botanist find romance in this new TV movie; with Shantel VanSanten and Victor Webster. 9 p.m. Hallmark

SATURDAY

Good Morning America (N) 7 a.m. KABC

SUNDAY

Good Morning America (N) 6 a.m. KABC

CBS News Sunday Morning Passwords; Damian Lewis; a Chicago artist turns potholes into art; Gay Talese; Simon Fitzmaurice. (N) 6:30 a.m. KCBS

Meet the Press (N) 8 a.m. KNBC; 11 a.m. and 11 p.m. MSNBC

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newstwitter-blog · 7 years

Text

New Post has been published on News Twitter

New Post has been published on http://www.news-twitter.com/2017/02/18/la-times-saturdays-tv-highlights-and-weekend-talk-britney-ever-after-on-lifetime-11/

La Times: Saturday's TV Highlights and Weekend Talk: 'Britney Ever After' on Lifetime

SERIES

The Zoo This new documentary series gets up close and personal with some of the 6,000-plus animals at New York’s Bronx Zoo, as well as the staffers committed to their care. 10 p.m. Animal Planet

Your Worst Nightmare This true crime series wraps its season. 10 p.m. Investigation Discovery

For Peete’s Sake Former NFL star Rodney Peete, wife Holly Robinson Peete and their family are back in new episodes of this reality series. 10 p.m. OWN

MOVIES

Love Blossoms A perfume maker and a hunky botanist find romance in this new TV movie; with Shantel VanSanten and Victor Webster. 9 p.m. Hallmark

SATURDAY

Good Morning America (N) 7 a.m. KABC

SUNDAY

Good Morning America (N) 6 a.m. KABC

CBS News Sunday Morning Passwords; Damian Lewis; a Chicago artist turns potholes into art; Gay Talese; Simon Fitzmaurice. (N) 6:30 a.m. KCBS

Meet the Press (N) 8 a.m. KNBC; 11 a.m. and 11 p.m. MSNBC

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