I Love FRESH OFF THE BOAT

OK, I'm just going to blunt right up front. If Jennifer Aniston has several Emmy nominations for her sitcom acting on FRIENDS, then Constance Wu of ABC's FRESH OFF THE BOAT should have at least one. Constance Wu is fabulous and one of the funniest sitcom moms I've seen on a network in ages. If only ABC would give that show as much promotion during GOOD MORNING AMERICA as GMA gave trumpeting the reboot arrival of ROSEANNE until...well, you heard what happened. I was overjoyed that Ms. Wu got a Golden Globe nomination for surprise box office champ, CRAZY RICH ASIANS. The success of that film put a spotlight on her that ABC should have back in 2015 when FRESH OFF THE BOAT made its debut. The sitcom is loosely based on the memoir of young hipster chef/restauranteur and COOKING CHANNEL host, Eddie Huang. Constance Wu plays the over-achiever mom of young Eddie on the sitcom. Her deadpan comic delivery is an artform.

Here's where ABC publicity has dropped the ball on FRESH OFF THE BOAT. Randall Park plays the dad on the sitcom.  I've been a fan of his for years. I always noticed him in TV commercials and in episodes of other shows like VEEP on HBO. When I read that FRESH OFF THE BOAT was in production for ABC and I read he was the lead male actor, I was thrilled. For one thing, it had been 20 years since we'd seen a sitcom about an Asian-American family. Margaret Cho broke ground with her ALL-AMERICAN GIRL on ABC in 1994. Unfortunately, execs tried to make her characters more Caucasian-like than Asian-American. It lasted a year. ABC announced FRESH OFF THE BOAT for the 2015 season.

Remember back during the Christmas season of 2014 when a Seth Rogan and James Franco comedy movie called THE INTERVIEW was making network news? In the movie, the host and producer of a TV tabloid show fly to North Korea to interview Kim Jong-un. They hear he's a fan of the show. That caused some real-life friction and our network news anchors reported that North Korea threatened to attack movie theaters showing THE INTERVIEW. ABC World News Tonight reported on this several times and, each time, it was always mentioned that Seth Rogan and James Franco were the stars of the film. I saw the film. The movie really snaps to life thanks to the wildly funny and somewhat touching performance of Randall Park as Kim Jong-un. Randall Park steals the movie. But no ABC news anchor ever mentioned that Randall Park also starred in the film as Kim Jong-un and, in a few months, would be seen on ABC's new sitcom, FRESH OFF THE BOAT. He's terrific on the sitcom and he's never been nominated for an Emmy either.

FRESH OFF THE BOAT premiered on Tuesdays. Now it's on Friday nights. Constance Wu and Randall Park break me up every single episode.  The parents, the kids, the grandmother -- I love that family. Here's a clip.

I wish ABC would realize how special and groundbreaking FRESH OFF THE BOAT is. And Constance Wu is comedy gold.

If you want to see Randall Park as Kim Jong-un, THE INTERVIEW is currently on Netflix.

I Sat with THE SOPRANOS

The table-read. This is when all the performers in a given project, the lead actors down to the bit players who may have one to five lines, get together seated at a table and read-through the script aloud before going on to shoot it later. I was extremely lucky. I sat through two table-reads for episodes of THE SOPRANOS because I had bit parts in two episodes.  This week marked the 20th anniversary of the show's premiere on HBO. What an original, provocative, memorable, brutal and brilliant show.  It was a landmark television series. And what a cast.

I auditioned only once for THE SOPRANOS.  On my way to the audition, I had no idea what the show's real nature truly was.  An agent's trainee/assistant called me with the audition. She called me in the morning and told me the audition was happening that afternoon.  She said that the casting call was for an interviewer/narrator on a show called THE SOPRANOS for HBO.  On the phone, she said, "I bet it's something like THE THREE TENORS with the classical singers on PBS. You can handle this because you like the arts."  She added that the scripts would be at the audition.  So I made sure I'd get there extra, extra early.

I arrived. There was a card marked "Interviewer" and I picked up a copy of the script. I sat down to read it. When I turned to the second page, the page where dialogue for the Interviewer started, I saw the words "Big Pussy Speaks" written across the top of the page in bold black Magic Marker ink.  Of course, I immediately thought, "Oh, this cannot be for me at all." I was positive that agent's trainee had unwittingly booked me to audition for a porno project on cable TV.  That was...until I read the script. My character was to do a news program interview of an author who wrote about mob activity in the Tri-State area.

I didn't get the part for that episode but the casting people liked me and cast me to play a local news co-anchor for an Season 1 episode called "Nobody Knows Anything."  A real anchor from local TV's New York One cable news, very popular in Manhattan, was cast as my co-anchor. We both attended the table-read.

I remember that evening vividly. We were scheduled to start at 6:00pm on a sunny evening in Manhattan on the corner of Prince and Broadway, directly across the street from Dean & Deluca. I got to the building about 5:45 and saw a group of actors chatting outside. I assumed (correctly) that I'd be a part of their read-through group. A few of them were actors I'd seen frequently in my Chelsea neighborhood because there were casting offices in that area. I didn't know James Gandolfini's name but I recognized him from the movies ANGIE and GET SHORTY. I'd seen him in the neighborhood a lot. Edie Falco I recognized from the New York theater scene. Michael Imperioli had a side business one block down from my apartment. I'd see him opening shop just about every week in the mornings. And big Steven Schirripa was a well-known face from TV and films.  When we got downstairs, actress Nancy Marchand was at the table. She looked a bit frail and she had a portable compact oxygen device to help her breathe.

I think of that evening often because it was weeks before THE SOPRANOS premiered on HBO. Just six months later, those actors would not have been able to just mill around on the corner of Prince and Broadway in late afternoon daylight because they would have been surrounded by TV fans.

As for the table-read, as soon as we started, Nancy Marchand took the breathing device off her face and. seemingly by sheer force of will, transformed herself into the strong and formidable mother of Tony Soprano.   I was sitting right next to Annika Pergament, the news anchor playing my co-anchor. About five or six pages into the table-read, Annika and I looked at each with awe. We instantly knew what each other was thinking: "This writing is phenomenal."

Listening to that dialogue, experiencing that writing, was like hearing Jimi Hendrix play for the first time. It was amazing new music to the ears that absolutely rocked.

One thing you could tell from the actors in the group who we later saw as regulars on THE SOPRANOS. They were in it for the love of the art. They loved acting. They loved acting with each other. And they loved good writing.  It's funny about life and careers. I often think of those few minutes watching them casually chat outside on the corner before going in for the table-read. Folks just passed right by them. Within six months, that would all change. Within six months, they'd all be some of the most popular new stars on national television in one of the best shows of the last twenty years.

One last thing: When I read my first line at the read-through, it got a laugh. It was not a comedy line and I was not trying to be funny, but the news anchor's comment on the bordello story had a typical New Yorker droll vibe.  James Gandolfini turned around in his chair to see who delivered the line. He looked at me, smiled and gave me a "good work" nod."

That will always be one of the best reviews I've ever received in my career.

BLACKkKLANSMAN, a Spike Lee Classic

You know  this is true: Spike Lee is one of the most recognizable, most respected and most influential filmmakers here in the U.S. and overseas.  I have proudly spent money to see his films since the 1980s.

"With the right white man, we can do anything." That is a line from his current film, a line of dialogue that broke me up laughing in the movie theater because...well, it's true. The line was delivered by actor John David Washington who also delivers one hell of a good performance as real-life character Ron Stallworth.  My buddy Scott Simon interviewed Ron Stallworth last year on NPR's Weekend Edition. Stallworth talked about his memoir that served as the basis for BLACKkKLANSMAN from director/writer Spike Lee.

Yes. This is based on a true American story.  A black detective went undercover and joined the KKK.  To me, this film is brilliant and blistering in its timeliness.

I have an Academy Award hope for Spike Lee. And I have a few words about another filmmaker who posted a rave review on Twitter about BLACKkKLANSMAN after a preview screening. That fellow filmmaker is Barbra Streisand.

Make Time for GOOD GIRLS

Christina Hendricks was a standout as statuesque, savvy and sophisticated Joan in the MAD MEN television series. She had, what a man once wrote about Mae West, "the Big Ben of the hourglass figures." There was a sharp brain in that curvy body and we loved watching her match wits with the men.  HAP AND LEONARD, based on book characters created by Joe Lansdale, was a very smart, relevant and under-appreciated series on the Sundance TV channel. The story took place in the 1980s yet it had a socio-political grit that made it feel modern-day. Hap is the pacifist hetero white guy who did not serve in Vietnam.  Leonard is his badass, black Republican and openly gay best friend. Leonard is a Vietnam vet. They are extremely loyal to each other and have been for a long time. The action is set down South and it's all sort of swamp noir -- a crime thriller. In the opening season, there was Christina Hendricks as the femme fatale. HAP AND LEONARD gave Christina Hendricks a vastly different character to play and she knocked that role out of the park. Last year, NBC debuted a new series. Christina Hendricks is one of the stars. Again, we see her impressive range as an actress.  The series is called GOOD GIRLS. It's a crime series with laughs and pain. Three working class female friends are so financially desperate that they band together to pull off a heist.  I watched the first episode when it premiered. I was hooked within the first 10 minutes and saw every episode of Season 1. I prayed that NBC would renew it. My prayers were answered.

In addition to Christina Hendricks, I also wanted to see GOOD GIRLS because one of the other stars is Retta, the PARKS AND RECREATION sitcom regular who rose from bit player to very popular supporting castmember who had the catch phrase "Treat yo' self!"  GOOD GIRLS allows Retta to be funny as she whips out some Thelma Ritter-esque comments to the unusual situations the three friends get caught up in.  However, she also gets to show her range with some well-written drama. She's an educated woman, a wife and mother, who robs cash because her sweet little girl is hospitalized and needs kidney care. I loved seeing Retta play such a dimensional, complicated woman. She's a loving mother, a loving wife and parent nearly at wit's end trying to make ends meet.

This is what I loved most about the series. With these three typical suburban women donning masks and robbing a store, this is the kind of plot that would've been played for big laughs had it been a movie made back in the 80s and starring someone like, say, Bette Midler.  But GOOD GIRLS takes us into the drama of each woman that renders her so desperate that a one-time crime seemed the only way out.  As one who was hit hard by the Great Recession and went totally broke after using his emergency fund to take care of a parent in her 80s, I can feel the stress those three women have.

They have a boss of sorts. Rio is the name of the heavy.  He's underplayed to perfection by lean, handsome Manny Montana. He's got a smoldering look and a voice that will make many female and some male viewers moan "Oooooh, daddy."  Watch Rio with wife and mother Beth (Christina Hendricks).  At first, he intimidates her. But, as she becomes more desperate and as the situation gets more complicated, she loses fear and you see him quietly become fascinated with how her mind works. Maybe she should be his partner in crime.

It's a very good series.  Solid writing, brisk direction. One of my favorite scenes has Ruby (Retta) dealing with a bratty, young white male customer. I've waited tables and I've had customers like that dude. He gets his come-uppance from Ruby and it's fabulous to see.

CHRISTINA HENDRICKS, RETTA and MAE WHITMAN are GOOD GIRLS with Manny Montana as Rio.

You can see Season 1 of GOOD GIRLS now on Netflix.

She Gave Us SCRUPLES

Best-selling novelist Judith Krantz. She wrote SCRUPLES, PRINCESS DAISY and DAZZLE. In the late 1970s and the 1980s, her novels drew us to the bookstores to buy the latest looks at modern women dealing with money, men and morals. I happened to have author Judith Krantz on my mind today -- then I saw that January 9th is Ms. Krantz's her birthday. It's reported that she's now 91.  I thought of her when I saw some of Trump's address to the nation last night in which he seems to want his own modern-day Iron Curtain to keep Mexicans out of America. So, why did I think of Judith Krantz? I wondered what she'd have to say about the Trump administration.

Back in the late 80s, when I was lucky enough to have my own prime time talk show on VH1, Judith Krantz was a terrific guest, gracious and candid. Writers were always some of my favorite guests on the show because they were smart, frank, funny and grateful to know I'd read some of their work. With movie and TV actors, they were often reluctant to be so honest for fear of limiting box office dollars or viewers in their audience. But writers came on with a "take no prisoners" attitude that made for interesting TV.  And I interviewed some interesting writers:  Norman Mailer, Dominick Dunne, Anne Rice, Anna Quindlen, Susan Isaacs and Fran Lebowitz.

When Judith Krantz was on my show, Dan Quayle was regularly in the headlines. He became Vice-President to George H.W. Bush. Krantz was no fan of Quayle's and flat-out said that he reminded her of the main male character in a famous book -- the good-looking, not too smart, opportunist in AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY (by Theodore Dreiser) who would take the girl out in the canoe and only save himself when they both fell out into the water and she couldn't swim.

Krantz then said, "Well, I probably lost some readers with that statement."

From the way her books continued to sell, it didn't seem as though she did.

I've often wondered what she would have to say about where we are now -- with a publicity hound real estate millionaire-turned-NBC reality TV game show host who had no prior political experience yet was elected to sit in the Oval Office and is now running the country.

Carol Burnett Made Me Cry

The Golden Globes telecast on NBC. Yes, there were a few times when announced winners made me say "Are you kidding me?" but there were also moments that lit me up with joy and gave my heart a sweet flutter -- like TV legend Carol Burnett receiving a special award named in her honor. What an impact she made on the TV arts.  Tears were streaming down my face as she spoke.

My mother passed away in June of 2017. She was 94. I miss her so very, very much. If I replay many of the favorite times in my life in my mind, its human soundtrack is consistently colored with Mom's full-out, infectious laughter. So much of that laughter came from enjoying THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW. When Carol Burnett's show premiered, watching TV was a family event. We didn't have social media. Families sat together and gave their full attention to a program. THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW made us laugh from when Mom and Dad were married, through their separation and divorce, to high school and college graduations. When life got unpredictable and often heartbreaking, we could always count on THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW to make us laugh.  Mom and I had sort of verbal shorthand when we spoke. We both loved movies and TV and used references to describe a situation of a person. And, for a family that lived in South Central L.A. and then -- in a situation that still seems ripe for sitcom exploration -- relocated to Milwaukee in the late 1970s -- we had show biz moments in our lives.  My first TV appearance was in Hollywood. I was in high school and became the youngest and first black contestant on a classic film trivia quiz show called THE MOVIE GAME. It was a syndicated show.  I won. Mom was in the studio audience and, afterwards, she was truly in awe when she said, "You knew the name of the boat in the movie HIGH SOCIETY."

Carol Burnett attended Hollywood High School. That's where I took my SATs.  To this day, I have no idea why I had to go all the way from South Central L.A. to Hollywood to take my SATs, but I did. Like young Carol Burnett, I adored old movies and TV. I wanted to be an entertainer. I'm sure I was not the only school kid who wrote a fan letter to Carol Burnett that asked for advice. As others also did, I got a letter from Carol Burnett at Television City in Hollywood thanking me for my letter and telling me to stay in school. Mom hoped I'd pick a different profession. It wasn't that she saw me as a non-talented performer. She didn't want me to be disappointed at the lack of equal opportunities solely because of my race. But, when I got my own talk show on VH1 in the late 80s, that was like a childhood dream of mine that came true. In the years after my VH1 time, I did experience the disappointments Mom feared. Racially, the playing field in entertainment hiring and representation was not level. I loved and still love performing on TV. More important to me than stardom was making enough so I could give my single mom a nice life. I was able to help her, but I could never give her the really comfortable life that I longed to thanks to my TV career. My national TV income was …. well, moderate. If was work that I loved but the pay always left me needing a part-time gig to help make ends meet. Doing some kind of TV work that would earn a special place in people's hearts, be found significant and entertaining...that was my dream. It still is.

Mom, who arrived in Southern California for gradate school in her registered nursing career, was well-educated and loved the arts. After Mom and Dad divorced, she refused alimony and was the single working mother of three. Her weekday job was nursing. She needed some extra cash and sought a weekend job. Mom pretended to be way less educated than she was and got a job doing light domestic work for a Hollywood wife. Remember Jack Lord, TV star of the original HAWAII FIVE-O? Before he booked that show, Mom ironed his shirts. Yes. She was hired by Mrs. Jack Lord. When, during some casual chat, Mom went fan-girl on Simone Signoret, enthusiastically recommending her performance in Stanley Kramer's SHIP OF FOOLS, Mrs. Lord figured there was more to this black woman who was putting light starch in her husband's collars. They talked. Mom made cash. The Lords got a new gig and had to move to Hawaii. For the rest of Mom's life, she'd say how much she loved working for Mrs. Jack Lord who later offered Mom a more upscale position. But it would've involved moving.

In Milwaukee, where I started my TV career after graduating from Marquette University, Lena Horne brought her Tony-winning, one-woman Broadway show to town for a week. I attended her press conference. She wanted to know more about me.  Lena Horne later met with Mom and offered her a job. But, that too would've involved moving.

Mom was in an assisted living facility in her last few years. She and I drew so much closer in those years with daily or, at least, weekly phone calls. One time, she whispered "Hold on."  She couldn't speak until the nurse in her room left. When the nurse was gone, Mom squealed, "She walks just like Carol Burnett as Mrs. Wiggins!," followed by her full-out, infectious laugh. Mom referred to and praised Carol Burnett numerous times in our conversations. The memory of those classic sketches Carol Burnett did provided Mom and me with many shared laughs.

That's why I cried. Seeing a clip of Carol Burnett as Mrs. Wiggins brought back a rush of tender memories for me. Mom would've loved Burnett's acceptance speech.

Today's networks, despite how much money they have, would not give us another quality variety show like Carol Burnett's. What she said in her speech, she wrote in detail in this book.  It's a wise and wonderful book with sage comments on today's TV. It's worth reading.

THIS TIME TOGETHER: LAUGHTER AND REFLECTION.  Carol Burnett's show came along at just the right time for us. We wouldn't get that brilliance today. Executives would not give it a greenlight. When I think of Carol Burnett -- and when I think of my mother, one of her most ardent fans -- both those women make me quote Ms. Burnett herself: "I'm so glad we had this time together."

Christian Bale's VICE

He's a fascinating actor. He's an Oscar-winner. If any actor should put out an exercise and weight loss book like Jane Fonda did, Christian Bale should. He has dropped and gained serious amounts of weight for film roles more than once.  Oscar voters are greatly impressed with weight loss and gain for one's film art.  Look at the Oscar nominations given to Robert De Niro for RAGING BULL, Tom Hanks for CAST AWAY and Matthew McConaughey for THE DALLAS BUYERS CLUB. Bale packed on about 40 pounds to play former Vice President Dick Cheney in VICE directed and written by Adam McKay,  It's a good but not great movie that holds your interest mainly because you can't take your eyes off Christian Bale's Dick.  The actor's transformation and commitment to character is amazing. This is the same British-American actor we saw as Batman in BATMAN BEGINS and THE DARK KNIGHT as the yuppie AMERICAN PSYCHO and as the crack addict ex-boxer who cleans up in THE FIGHTER (Bale's Best Supporting Actor Oscar victory role). We shall see if bulking up brings Christian Bale another Oscar nomination.

Because I vote in the SAG (Screen Actors Guild) Awards, I had to see VICE.  Otherwise, I probably would've put off viewing it for some weeks even though the cast is filled with actors I like.  But the movie focuses on two political men I have no interest in ever seeing again -- Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld.  Steve Carell plays Rumsfeld.  Here's Bale before (right) and during production (left).

Adam McKay has a great touch for making movies that show the light and dark of male bonding.  You wait to see if the men will grow up and get it together to do the right thing in their jobs.  You see that in his comedies, ANCHORMAN: THE LEGEND OF RON BURGUNDY and TALLADEGA NIGHTS: THE BALLAD OF RICKY BOBBY and you see that in the drama in which Wall Street men bond to warn us of greedy corporate weasels in THE BIG SHORT, Adam McKay's film about the subprime home loan crisis of 2008.

In VICE, we see male bonding in the White House. Also, we see that when mediocrity mixed with white privilege and toxic masculinity is given extreme power, that makes for a political shit-show that will affect all our lives.  The story starts in Casper, Wyoming in 1963. (The same year and in the same territory where two young ranch hands named Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist will meet, work together and fall in love on BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN.) The opening scene is rowdy. Men getting loud with dice, money and liquor in a saloon.  Then we follow a car driving too fast down a highway with a man pulled over for being drunk behind the wheel. That man is young Dick Cheney.  He's the same man who will be drunk with power in the White House and giving orders on September 11th after one of most horrible, deadly events in American history.

Amy Adams delivers another excellent performance. We saw her with Christian Bale in THE FIGHTER and AMERICAN HUSTLE. Here, she brings her character actress skills to the role of Lynne Cheney. Early in the marriage when he was behaving like an over-aged frat boy, Lynne laid down the law for him to get it together. She was as focused on power and money as a white shark on a stray seal. She elevates Dick from catfish to fellow shark. Lynne cares more about her husband getting power than she does about race/gender equality in American. And they have a lesbian daughter.  In a surprising bit of casting that paid off, Tyler Perry plays Colin Powell and he's quite good. The always dependable Sam Rockwell stars as George W. Bush, the man who chose the monotoned bureaucrat in the White House boys club as his running mate.

There is humor in this film but there are also moments that give you a sick feeling in the gut.  For instance, the scene where the new Dick Cheney guy chats with Donald Rumsfeld while President Richard Nixon is behind closed doors in a meeting. The Vietnam War rages on.  Rumsfeld casually mentions that, in their office, is the power to drop bombs and kill thousands.  You can't help but think of the thousands we lost when we were attacked on September 11th during Cheney's vice-presidency.

For as good as the acting is, the lead character is never someone you can care about. Dick Cheney comes across as a man at war with the world around him. He even seems at war with his own body. He's like Tin Man in THE WIZARD OF OZ, hollow inside but when he gets a heart, it rejects him.  He seems to be heartless -- even after he accidentally shoots a buddy in the face with birdshot pellets during a hunting trip. The buddy recovered. Your jaw drops at the changes made under the Cheney administration that laid some groundwork for where we are now.  In a way, VICE is a cautionary tale that came too late.