“Rosemary’s Baby”

There’s Lucy and the chocolates, Felix at the I.R.S. and Rosemary and her thermos.

I’ve always wanted to write a piece about my TV top fifty comedy episodes. 30 Rock’s “Rosemary’s Baby”, where Carrie Fisher plays Liz Lemon’s aging comedy writer idol would land in my top five. 

There’s so much going on here – three insane plot lines – that I could not begin to do it justice. You simply have to see it to believe it. And when you do, you’ll recognize great writing, acting, and directing. Not surprisingly, Alec Baldwin received a Primetime Emmy award and writer Jack Burditt and director Michael Engler both received Emmy nominations for the episode.

As much as I love “Rosemary’s Baby”, watching it is a bittersweet experience. The real-life mother and daughter story ended tragically in late 2016, when Fisher, who had multiple health issues, suffered a cardiac arrest at age 60, and Reynolds had a stroke and died the next day.

"Send in the Clowns Is Gratis"

The thing about Alec Baldwin is he does a great interview.

I’ve been listening to his podcast, Here’s the Thing, for some time and I have several actor favorites. Edie Falco, Sarah Jessica Parker come to mind. But it is the episode with the late, great Elaine Stritch which blows it out of the ballpark. Maybe it’s because I loved Stritch as Jack’s ball-busting mother, Colleen, on 30 Rock. Maybe it’s because Stritch has such an only-in-New York, kids, kind of 1950s theatre bio, having arrived from Michigan’s Convent of the Sacred Heart to land in a scene class seat between Walter Matthau and Marlon Brando at The New School. And maybe it’s because, as Baldwin said about Stritch’s portrayal of Colleen, 

“No one was funnier and had better timing than Elaine…she would walk in there and we just had to stand back and get out of her way and the rest of it would take care of itself.”

A particularly poignant part of the podcast is about Stritch’s twelve years living at New York’s Carlyle Hotel, where she sang for her supper (part of her rent was paid in performances). Baldwin proposes a TV show where Stritch barters for services. “Send in the Clowns is gratis,” she quips, referring to her famous rendition of the Stephen Sondheim song from A Little Night Music.

At the end of the podcast, Baldwin lovingly tells Stritch “You’re an incalculably talented woman and you’re a legendary pain in the ass.”

As only Baldwin can.

Scene Study

Alec Baldwin also loves old movies. And he writes about them in Nevertheless with the reverence that we all felt growing up, watching them on TV with our parents, then later discovering our independence while grabbing a friend and running to a revival at the Thalia, Regency, or Metro cinemas.

Or the 8th Street Playhouse. Etched in my teenage mind is the image of looking over at my friend Andrea, as she wore her 3D glasses while munching popcorn and watching the glorious Grace Kelly in Dial M for Murder.

Which is why something primal happens in summer, when the Film Forum posts their Bogart Festival. Everything stops and suddenly I’m shoving daily life aside to board the Two train and head to the Village. Different train, same destination; I’ve been doing this my whole life. And the return of the ritual…the anticipation of the darkened theatre as I salt my bag of popcorn…”I cannot tell you how happy I am to be back,” I told my ticket taker.

The Petrified Forest is one of my all-time favorites. Perhaps it is the play that started it all. It is a classic character study, what we once called an “actor’s film,” because of its focus on storytelling and dramatis personae. You take several individuals, you put them in a desert road house, and develop their relationships to each other. Then you add a hostage scenario and more characters, and the relationships multiply and exponentially become more complex.

Watching the brilliant Leslie Howard and Bette Davis – a scene study dream. It reminded me of all the great plays I read in college and losing myself in the examination of character motivation, costume, and detail.

An added bonus: who knew that Bogart named his second child after Leslie Howard, who campaigned for him to play the role on film, after they played the parts together on Broadway? Warner Brothers wanted Edward G. Robinson. Howard telegrammed Jack. L Warner: “Insist Bogart play Mantee; no Bogart, no deal.”

And a star was born.

Summer Reading

“This, by the way, is your curse. And I say this about you all the time. You’re a gifted, gifted actor who is cursed with the mind of a writer.” – Jerry Seinfeld

I love old movies. And I love a good movie star bio. For many school vacations, when I was a teenager, this was what summer reading was all about. The first one I remember is Lauren Bacall’s By Myself. Veronica Lake’s, The Autobiography, was pretty powerful. I haven’t read one in a while, but I must say Alec Baldwin’s Nevertheless has rapidly made it to number one on my top ten.

As a kid, I read these books because I wanted the dirt. Now, I’m compelled by the stories. And Alec Baldwin is a master storyteller. If laughter is the best medicine, then the great comic will always win me over. It wasn’t until I watched 30 Rock – repeatedly -- that I began to appreciate the comic genius that is Alec Baldwin.

Nevertheless, however, is no comic work. Here is the Baldwin I knew nothing about, growing up amongst multiple siblings in a Long Island home awash in laundry and bills, Baldwin’s father a high school English instructor barely able to make ends meet. Apart from anything else, his story is a scathing indictment of the education system in America.

Normally, I would always buy the book, but this time I sprang for Audible because I wanted to hear the author read his words. And boy, was it worth it. Baldwin’s timing is measured and precise, in contrast to his lighting fast and almost manic comic deliveries. This, in combination with his understanding of suspense, makes the work all the more compelling.

Can’t wait to catch up with Chapter 7…