the PBS comedy docu-miniseries "Make Em Laugh"

Saw about 25 minutes of this last night -- predictably scattershot -- but had some amazing early-mid '60s TV footage of young Woody Allen on TV, cavorting in a tux with showgirls and telling Andy Williams his "She was an atheist, I'm an agnostic" joke.

To come, Larry Wilmore on Chaplin and Keaton.

hey, Seinfeld and Larry David were on it too for those of you who only laugh at stuff after 1990.

i watched the episode with woody allen and the one after, which was about family sitcoms. it was generally enjoyable but they made some weird choices in the latter - the only i love lucy footage was from the pilot, which didn't really seem very funny (like they were still figuring stuff out) and the roseanne footage was also from a very early episode, when it was maybe more "important" but not really as funny or good as it got a little later. the emphasis seems to be on history and not really on humor.

actually the funniest stuff in the family sitcom episode was all from burns & allen

wow, they did that? Those shows were meta.

yeah and actually the big chunk of roseanne footage was of roseanne and her coworkers walking out of their factory job - i.e., totally serious, no jokes at all

yeah, that I saw, missed George & Gracie.

also liked seeing Phyllis Diller's outfits again.

oh i didn't know what you were referring to with "meta" ... though they did have a big chunk of george burns talking about the role of the straight man, interspersed with great gracie allen one-liners ... good stuff

did they show George going to his den and watching the other characters, Godlike, on his TV set?

no

oh, that was the series' most distinguished touch. Otherwise it was their radio show with pictures.

Morbs must have missed Apatow's bits from the weirdoes ep.

Saw the weirdos episode and the sitcom one. Agreed that the sitcom one was trying to pull off historical significance instead of actually making 'em laugh - which seems fine, but in a format that resembles a clip show it seems like a tease - show the funny bits! "Simpsons" particularly victimized by this, as A) they only showed stuff from the first season (!!) and B) the curators seemed to have only a vague grasp even of what the family idea of the Simpsons was. The idea was really to use sitcoms to track the American vision of the family, which I would totally read as a book. In that reading, things like the crappy I Love Lucy clips make sense - the show's being cited as an illustrative example, rather than being sifted through for its most classic scenes. (They did show a tiny bit of "Vitameatavegamin," but with voiceover.)

As an aside, I think George Burns came off as the funniest of the whole bunch. "So you can see that it's a lot of work to be a straight man. You have to have a talent. You have to develop that talent. And then you have to marry her." Maybe tied with the Seinfeld group in the Chinese restaurant.

Actually, the inclusion of Seinfeld really points up the problem here.. you could do an interesting bit on the rise of shows that eschew the blood-relation "family" for the single-urban-grownup's adoptive family of friends - lots of shows have this and it would have been worth talking about. But the significant hook about Seinfeld is the "about nothing" premise so that gets the screentime, even though it makes no sense in light of the larger narrative being told.

"The Goldbergs" (I guess that was the name?) completely eluded me - they cut it up so badly with the talking heads asserting its importance that I couldn't even tell if there were jokes on the show!

The weirdo standups episode much more successful just because any given footage of the standups is probably going to be of them doing funny material.

Gigantic dud: Billy Crystal.

The Goldbergs was a radio show primarily (even more emphatically than Burns & Allen), haven't heard much of it.

Basically the scope of the show seems way too broad (or undefined) for 6 hours. But then the audience for 90 minutes on Nichols & May is small. (I heard Bob Newhart isn't even covered in this series, which is moronic.)

That is weird. That PBS Newhart doc from a few years ago is great great great.

They should make a documentary about the documentary: comedians joking about not being included, like Craig Ferguson the other night.

PBS also did a very good Nichols & May special some time ago. i think it was only an hour, but that included three full filmed sketches.

I enjoyed these, but for some reason the sitcom one kind of depressed me. Probably for the reasons stated above - really short on funny clips.

I watched the nerd one and learned about a few guys I hadn't heard of.

does it reflect poorly on me that i laughed more during the Steve Martin clips than the Andy Kaufman stuff? Also, how could they spend all this time on Robin Williams and, like, none on Pryor or Eddie Murphy? I did miss the beginning of the stand up one, so maybe I missed it?

Neither of those guys are "nerds" or "misfits". I mean, Pryor was a weird dude, but that wasn't really his act.

Hmm. I don't think they've aired this on the local station yet. I'm surprised I can't find torrents, either.

That PBS Newhart doc from a few years ago is great great great.

yeah. i'm missing this whole thing out of laziness. any jack benny i hope? i won't hold my breath for robin harris

I'd seen pretty much everything in last night's show escept some of the Mort Sahl clips (I have 2 of his LPs)... except of course that many closeups of present-day Joan Rivers, aieeeeeeee!

saw the slapstick one last nite - footage and biographical info was cool but the talking head genuflecting was soooo far out of control - lol @ fattay 3 stooges loving critic

also, much as I frequently defend Jim Carrey, the dropoff from Dean & Jerry '50s TV clowning to Ace Ventura was, um, significant.

jerry lewis is such a genuinely disturbing person

these should really just be all clips, do we really need jason alexander talking about how awesome woody allen is when we could be watching woody allen?

jerry lewis is such a genuinely disturbing person

I know. He's totally compelling.

well, I liked hearing Carlin talk about being put in the paddywagon w/ Lenny Bruce.

people rambling abt whats funny is the worst thing - especially when its joan rivers trying to make some point abt how lucy WORKED HARD ovr n ovr - anecdotes are cool tho

Saw two of the episodes last night. Good stuff.

Although I never like it when they do the "leap decades and plenty of stuff in a not-very-seamless transition" thing like with the PBS "History of Rock & Roll" series from years back.

well it's in no way anything more than a hurried sampler for the uninitiated. I mean, they showed only 20 seconds of the Pryor-Chevy Chase "Job Interview" sketch, which is just butchery.

also, Carol Burnett was a much more versatile TV clown than Lucille Ball, she just wasn't as much of a pioneer.

jerry lewis is such a genuinely disturbing person

I know. He's totally compelling.

Yes, a thousand times.

That is weird. That PBS Newhart doc from a few years ago is great great great.

Yes! ...it was weird and criminal that they didn't include The Bob Newhart Show at all.

I saw most of the first two, but missed the slapstick one.

Steve Martin was so genius...what the hell happened to him?

Newhart's sitcom was one of the best of its era, but his standup (and first LP) is far more crucial to the history of performed comedy.

Martin did standup for about 15 years and had nothing left to do. His first 8 years or so in films are pretty good too. It's hard for comedians to stay fresh after age 50 or even 40 if they had early success.

especially when yr manic like martin its got to be srsly tiring

these should really just be all clips, do we really need jason alexander talking about how awesome woody allen is when we could be watching woody allen?

It reminded me of every time in "Jazz" when Wynton Marsalis would do shitty vocalese of whatever Charlie Parker (or etc.) played in the background. Shut the fuck up and let me listen to Charlie Parker, please!

wynton marsalis stfu always applies

well the Burns series wasn't for jazz aficionados anymore than this show is for comedy nuts; most of the Chaplin & Keaton footage is the same stuff of theirs shown all the time when there's only 10 minutes to cover em.

(tho I liked the clips of the Chaplin lookalikes' films, some of which I've seen complete)

i was totally o_O at all those girls outside martin and lewis hotel room window

I like the archival interview bits, like vid of Buster Keaton right before he died.

Did anybody watch the special "online episode"?

They have it at http://www.pbs.org/wnet/makeemlaugh/

i hate when people talk about how those crazy french love jerry lewis so much, without mentioning that jerry lewis was the biggest star in the us for quite a while too.

Martin & Lewis' live act, on TV and in clubs -- I've seen a film of them playing the Copacabana -- was miles ahead of nearly all their movies. Very anarchic and crazed.

re the talking heads, since Woody Allen WAS a sea change in the kind of popular comedian circa 1965 who appeared on TV (talking about his divorce, agnosticism and metaphysics class), somebody's gotta tell the audience that stuff, and they obv made the decision to draw people in with contemporary comics they know.

(tho I liked the clips of the Chaplin lookalikes' films, some of which I've seen complete)

Yeah those are weird. Did Harold Lloyd do a stint as a Chaplin imitator early in his career, or am I just imagining that?

I also remember seeing some documentary which at one point showed a scene from a film in which a little tramp character knock-off is a junkie.

i was totally o_O at all those girls outside martin and lewis hotel room window

Well, the young Jerry Lewis was a really handsome guy, I think...plus he was wealthy and famous.

I didn't know about the H Lloyd one, that mighta been a one-off; Billy West is the guy whose career (for a few yeras) was doing Chaplin knockoffs.

woulda liked to see some Dick Gregory perf footage in there. I remember seeing Moms Mabley on the Sullivan show as a tot -- singing Dion's "Abraham, Martin & John"!!!

xpost And Martin was a horndog for the ages.

Yes: Dick Gregory. I think Moms Mabley actually had a minor chart hit with a cover of that song.

xp: Jerry Lewis boasted of being the same (and his ex-wife's book confirmed). (also I'm sure I've read stuff about the Rat Pack that said Dean was the most likely one to retreat to his Vegas hotel room early to watch TV westerns, that the stage persona was just that.)

yeah, Moms US #35 (oh, Dion didn't write it)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham,_Martin_&_John

Martin & Lewis' live act, on TV and in clubs -- I've seen a film of them playing the Copacabana -- was miles ahead of nearly all their movies. Very anarchic and crazed.

I once spoke to someone who saw them live in their heyday. He said it was indescribably funny, off the funny charts, totally beyond funny in ways that no one would ever believe.

God, the sitcom family one was really boring.

Except it reinforced that young Mary Tyler Moore was fucking super-hot, jeez.

otm

A friend of mine came over for lunch a few years ago, in a cool old-school-style suit. I mentioned how it reminded me of MTM; Kate said "You had a crush on her?," I said "I still have a crush on her!"

Re Dean Martin, horndog: Morbius, have you read Tosches' book?

no, I haven't

You should.

didn't see this week's shows -- any unusual clips of Groucho?

Carol Burnett is satire? wtf

is there more footage on the actual dvds i wonder? lots of talk about moms mabley's genius but like zero footage! boo.

some great harpo stuff on the one episode i caught. and 3 stooges stuff. may have to neflix this some day

xp: Did they say she was? did nice movie spoofs -- some better than Mel Brooks' feature film-length ones -- but no satire.

The show really didn't seem interested in any performance clips longer than 30 secs. No surprise.

the satire episode was the only one I caught in its entirety - opened with the Colbert press corps clip (so genius), then started back at Will Rogers, through Sid Caesar, Rowan and Martin's Laugh In (Nixon clip, which I knew about but had never seen), then... Carol Burnett (Gone With the Wind parody)... then SNL. It was weird.

I did catch a bit of Joan Rivers doing standup as a young woman which I had never seen, that was surprising. I didn't even know she did stand-up I thought she was just some fashion bitch.

oh and Mel Brooks was in the satire show as well (after Sid Caesar) - focused on Producers, Nazi satires, etc.

Not only did Joan Rivers do standup, but she was also an early member of Second City.

Joan Rivers did some time at Second City (or Compass Players?) in Chicago, I think. But yeah she was one of the prominent '60s female standups on Sullivan Show etc. (xp)

Yeah, that episode is obviously catch-all. "Satire" with spoof, parody, lampoons included.

I only saw that satire one, yeah, and to be honest it appeared to be about variety shows, not "satire"

didn't even know she did stand-up I thought she was just some fashion bitch

plus was always the fill-in host on the Carson Show

I got big laughs and lots of worthwhile thoughts out of this, but for some reason all I can remember now is my lifelong swooning over Goldie Hawn on Laugh-In.

P.S. This is referring to a totally different topic, but remember the discussion on the critics thread about how being dumb can get you better interviews? Prime example of this is Mike Wallace saying to Mel Brooks "you were never held back by being a Jew" -- a dumb and dubious thing to say that nevertheless really serves the purpose of learning about Mel Brooks

(For the record I think that's partly intentional thick-o interview prompting on Wallace's part, and partly just a dopey thing to say.)

^^^yeah that interview was funny

Mel should just do interviews as the 2,000-Year Old Man