PBS American Masters: S/D/Rolling

Geffen this fall.

http://www.deadline.com/2012/07/tca-david-geffen-hollywood-box-office-avatar-the-avengers-dreamworks-tca-pbs/

Really wish they'd re-air the Carson one I missed a few months back.

My three favourite are Warhol, Dylan, and Nixon. I end up missing almost all of them, though.

Nixon was The American Experience...getting two things mixed up.

The Nichols & May one was fantastic--about half of it was simply films of complete routines.

Really wish they'd re-air the Carson one I missed a few months back.

― to welcome jer.fairall, pie is served. (jer.fairall)

You can stream it online (free), if that helps...

http://video.pbs.org/video/2230341415

oh, nice. thanks!

missed the charles schulz one back when it aired, figured it wouldn't be hard to find -- lo and behold, it's like six years later, and no dvd or rebroadcast.

the phil ochs episode was excellent. the full episode is available too, which i will suddenly remember and feel compelled to watch again someday when i have something that i desperately need to finish with no distractions.

The Geffen American Masters is airing Tuesday. Tried to get a rush ticket at TIFF, but it was sold out.

blowjob, he says

http://www.vulture.com/2012/11/tv-review-american-masters-inventing-david-geffen.html

Profiling an agent/dealmaker/bizzer for AM sounded silly to me, until I remembered the (largely uncritical, but still edifying and moving) AM on John Hammond. But Geffen sure as fuck ain't John Hammond.

I've never given a moment's thought to David Geffen's importance or non-importance, so I just enjoyed this for the clips and all the music. Thirty seconds of Cher covering the Ozark Mountain Daredevils was almost enough right there, and the clips of Trans- and Everybody's Rockin'-era Neil convinced me, in an entertaining way, that Geffen should have sued him for twice as much. I'd never seen Elliott Roberts before (ditto Jon Landau), and he was great. I found the all the Nyro-related machinations near the beginning really interesting--Sinatra and the 5th Dimension, a milestone in jazz-pop fusion. No surprise, the political stuff near the end was clunky.

David Geffen story for you here: RIP Jerry Wexler

This is fun. Good archives.

I never really knew Geffen's story other than seeing his name on my records or in the news, so it was a pretty good overview from a historical perspective. As an attempt to parse the man himself, it was a dead end.

Yeah I didn't know his story at all, except the label and a little bit of the Dreamworks stuff, and the Clinton thing.

That early period was really a fascinating story - especially the Laura Nyro/Cher stuff. I wished there'd been a bit more dirt, like on the Ovitz stuff or whatever but it was cool.

Nelson George tweet:
One of the most telling things about the PBS Geffen doc was the absence of people of color. Not his fault, but he did nothing to change it.

Watched the Carl Sandburg one tonight with my lefty parents. Really enjoyed it, especially alongside The Dust Bowl in the same week.

record execs profiled as artists? How about tree surgeons next?

One of the most telling things about the PBS Geffen doc was the absence of people of color. Not his fault, but he did nothing to change it.

Well, he did sign Donna Summer...who then made her worst selling album to date (a good album too).

I don't have any strong feelings about it one way or the other, but scanning the list of subjects, they've also profiled Henry Luce, Don Hewitt, and vaudeville--are they any more legitimate?

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/a-z-list-of-american-masters/386/

Luce and Hewitt, ugh

vaudeville, fuck yeah

OK HELL YES FRIENDS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3JY_9paE_M

Coming in February.

I saw an upcoming one on Joseph Papp as part of the Jewish film festival here tonight. I'm not a theatre guy, so he was just a name I knew from old Voice listings. Such an amazing life.