This note turned up in my e-mail this morning:
Jim –
Did you see “*** Van *** Show Revisited” last night? God, wasn’t that reunion special just awful? The writing was weak. The clips that they chose to show were terrible. And I particularly hated that attempt to make *** look hip and relevant by having him doing computer animation.
Jeese, why do they have to try and update these things? Can’t they just leave our favorite old TV shows alone?
Caroline C.
Actually, Caroline, I did watch CBS’s “*** Van *** Show Revisited” special on Tuesday night. Me personally, I really enjoyed that show.
But — then again — I have a great fondness for the old “*** Van ***” show. In fact, one of the reasons that I actually became a writer was because of that television program. By that I mean, as I would watch the show’s reruns as a youngster, I would think: “Now that looks like a pretty sweet deal. Commute every morning from New Rochelle to NYC. Hang out with Buddy and Sally all day and write jokes. Then — at night — head back home to Laura and her Capri pants.”
Sadly, I was never able to land a gig like the one Rob had on “The Alan Brady Show.” Which is how I wound up out here in the woods of New Hampshire, writing about the Walt Disney Company. Where — try as I may — I can never convince Nancy to pull on a pair of Capri pants.
But I digress …
Getting back to the “*** Van *** Show Revisited”: Those sequences in the special that showed *** at the computer weren’t actually some lame attempt to make Van *** look more hip. As it turns out, *** actually is this huge technology enthusiast. From what I hear, he particularly enjoys noodling on his computer.
In fact — according to one story that I’ve been told — *** Van *** is a real fan of computer animation. So much so that he’s actually tried his hand at producing some footage on his own.
Of course, in order to produce halfway decent CG, *** needed the proper equipment. Which why I hear he contacted one unnamed special effects house in Hollywood a few years back and asked if he could have a copy of their proprietary software to use at home.
This visual effects-related outfit agreed immediately to honor Van ***’s request. But only if — in exchange for a copy of that software — *** would agree to come in for a day and work with the company’s motion capture unit. So that they could record some of this TV vet’s patented moves for posterity. So that the company could have Van ***’s movements stored in their reference library.
Now isn’t it cool to think that — even though *** Van *** may not be with us forever — his walk and mannerisms will still live on in crowd scenes for some future Hollywood CG epic?
Anywho … we’ve gotten way off track here, folks. The real purpose of today’s article was that I wanted to make you aware of a fun new book that I just read: “Fridays with Art: Insiders’ Accounts of the Early Days of the TV BIZ by Some of the Guys Who Made It Work” (Parrot Communications, March 2004).
This breezily written volume — which was edited by industry vet *** Woollen — looks back with much fondness at the early, early days of television. Back when no one really knew what the rules were. Back when television’s pioneers were pretty much making it up as they went along.
You see, back in the late 1940s / early 1950s, people were just learning about the power of the medium. What television could accomplish just by getting the word out. In fact (for all you Disneyana fans out there), there’s a wonderful story in “Fridays at Art” that talks about Disneyland’s early days. About how the theme park initially struggled to hang onto its guests after the sun went down.
So what did Walt do to try and convince people that Disneyland still was a fun place to hang out after it got dark? He worked with a crew from KTTV to create a new program called “Date Night at Disneyland.” Though this show only aired for 13 weeks over one summer in the late 1950s, that was reportedly enough to convince Southern Californians that Anaheim was a really happening place to be on Saturday nights. So — with that one show — Disneyland was able to solve its after-dark attendance problem. And the rest — as they say — is history.
You’ll find all sorts of intriguing tales like that in “Fridays with Art.” Salty stories (Like the comment that a liquored-up Lucille Ball once gave to a reporter about her ex-husband: “You want a quote about Desi for your column? How about this: The only good thing about that Cuban p***k was his Cuban p***k”!) as well as great what-might-have-been tales (Like the time that the general manager of a Dayton, OH television station who was forced to fire the host of the station’s early morning chat show. Why for? Because the station’s owner felt that this host just had no talent. So who was the host? *** Van ***!).
I should warn you, though, folks. “Fridays with Art” — given that it’s really a collection of stories written by a dozen or so television pioneers — is somewhat episodic in nature. And not all of the articles archived here are extremely entertaining. But — that said — there are just enough early industry gems burrowed down deep inside these pages that, if you’re an entertainment history buff (as I am), *** Woolen’s book is still well worth a look-see.
And speaking of having a look-see … I think it’s time that I dug out some of my old “*** Van ***” tapes. So that I can remember what it exactly was that got me into the writing game so long ago.
Buddy, Sally and those Capri pants.