Tuesday, February 26, 2008

"Just One More Thing"

Following the Academy Awards thinking of the winners for the top awards such as Daniel Day-Lewis winning best actor for There Will be Blood and Javier Bardem winning best supporting actor for No Country for Old Men I have a renewed appreciation for the creation of completely captivating characters. Both actors won the awards in a large part thanks to the development of exceptional villains. This is especially true of There Will be Blood which is driven by the development of Day-Lewis’ character.

Exceptional movies are dependent on exceptional and intriguing characters. In my thoughts of great characters, I began looking through the characters of past films looking for the best, my favorites. The one that stood out most is actually from television created by Peter Falk in Columbo(he won five Emmys of 12 nominations).

For those of you who are not familiar with Columbo, you are probably familiar with the classic detective character Peter Falk helped create with Columbo (along with Humphrey Bogart as Phillip Marlow in those classic noir films). You know the sloppy, unkempt but clever detective in the ragged raincoat smoking a cigar.

The Columbo character as written in the Columbo script was originally based on the Porfiry Petrovich character in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. What made Columbo such a great person, a great detective was everything Falk brought into him. Columbo is shaped by the character of Falk.

The costume came from Falk’s own wardrobe. That classic Peugeot Columbo drove and took pride in—Falk picked it. That glass eye and stare is also Falk’s own.

The humor of Columbo is in his humble and hidden cleverness and wile. One of my favorite Columbo quotes comes when a villain remarks, “Listen Columbo, just for a minute how about we stop pretending that I'm brilliant and you're simple!"

Then there are his fears: his fear of water “I can't swim, I don't even like a deep tub,” his fear of heights “My ears pop in an elevator. As a matter of fact I don't even like being this tall,” and his fear of guns.

Falk as Columbo is just plain likable, relatable, persistant and real. He has his coat, his car, his dog and his wife and is comfortable in who he is and in what is familiar and broken in and he becomes a familiar and broken in friend.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Variety Shows of Early Television

Something that I regret I could not witness was the popularity and prevalence of variety shows in early television. I like the whole style of the of the variety show; bringing masses of celebrities and talents to the shows and the living rooms of the viewers. Even though they were celebrities, while on the variety shows they became like everyone else. They performed but it was often much more lighthearted. They had fun and enjoyed working on these shows. They would gather in sets made up like living rooms often having several of the top talents coming together for an hour of fun and entertainment.

I also like how there was indeed variety in these shows. On the shows comedians, actors and musical performers were blended making an experience unique for that episode. There were so many of these shows hosted by Ed Sullivan, Dean Martin, Johnny Cash, Danny Thomas and many more. Carol Burnett had a great show with excellent regulars like Tim Conway giving laid back and sometimes spontaneous comedy and musical performances.

Dean Martin may have been the king of variety shows with the Martin and Lewis Comedy Hour, the Dean Martin Variety Show and his celebrity roasts.

Another important element of variety television was the introduction to new and arriving talent (especially in the case of the Ed Sullivan Show). Looking at today’s television we really have nothing equal to it. The closest would be the late night sketch comedy shows like Saturday Night Live.

Have a look and see what I mean:

The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show
Phil Harris on the Dean Martin Variety Show (you might recognize him as the voice of Baloo on The Jungle Book)
Bob Dylan on the Johnny Cash Show
Louis Armstrong on the Dean Martin Variety Show
Johnathan Winters on the Dean Martin Variety Show