I’ve got a VHS somewhere of a documentary called Making MAS*H. In it they discuss how this came about. McLean Stevenson left to do his own (very short-lived) variety show. He wanted off the show.
Larry Gelbart talks about that scene, as does Gary Burghoff. It was a single page of script and was clearly not in the regular shooting script. It was handed to the cast that morning. Kept completely off the (R)adar. Gary talked about how he was handed it and didn’t want to read it, that he knew it would be something awful.
They did not get it in one take. There was some technical issue, and they got it in two takes.
Gelbart and company talk at length about the audience’s reaction to that scene.
The L.A. Law scene was PRICELESS. I saw it that week- was quite hooked on the show. It was a totally unexpected moment and played off beautifully by Leland McKenzie, founder of the firm in the show. ( played by Richard A. Dysart. I cannot remember his exact words but he was somewhat nonplussed. Or in shock and it came off as nonplussed. Either way, a really great moment.
The Simpsons writers always seem to be expressing a bipolarly skeptical view on religion: Is there a God? Does he intervene? And do one’s actions influence things?
The show is awash in examples of Homer doing everything wrong and having better luck in life than Ned. They both got lasik surgery, but only Flanders went blind.
But we sometimes see Flanders’ devoutness pay off (e.g., when the basket starts getting carried away during the making of their baby Moses movie, and God knocks down a tree to block the basket).
Although it was pretty extreme and unexpected, Maude’s death struck me as one example of the former: Flanders does everything right, and the wife he loves so much is taken from him. Meanwhile, Homer ‘homers’ his way through life and still has Marge by his side.
I recall the producers, on the Lost finale’s podcast, thanking Dominic Monaghan for his time and commitment to the show and bidding him farewell. So unless it’s an elaborate set-up between them, I think Charlie is gone for good.
Also, I don’t think Naomi’s death was completely gratuitous–Locke killed her, a huge thing for him (he couldn’t even kill his own father and had to get Sawyer to do it for him in the end). Maybe he was under orders from Jacob / the smoke monster / whoever the heck Walt was supposed to be, or maybe that part of his faith in the Island had finally pushed him over the edge. But while Naomi didn’t really need to die, I think it was important to the plot.
Edit: That last sentence should’ve been clearer–I mean in terms of Locke’s character development. He could’ve done something else if they’d really wanted to keep Naomi on the show, but his killing of Naomi emphasized the point.
Do we know for sure yet that Naomi is dead? She took a knife to the back and fell down, but I don’t know if we’re to assume it was a killing blow. Locke didn’t need her dead; he just needed her not to make that call.
God. Comedy is hard. Tragedy is easy. Shooting very very funny shit live is incredibly hard to do without laughing. Now and then you hear the crew on Good Morning America or The Today Show yukking it up.
Always seemed wrong to me. In the case of MAS*H, the show was filmed in a closed studio. The laugh track was added later. Sad, that there was anything to keep it from being a real “oner”.
Auntie Pam? I can almost promise that nobody on the crew exclaimed something like that. A gasp? Yeah, I can believe that. Cursing? Nope. These are professionals and I’d wager that nobody said boo while sound was rolling. ( Wouldn’t matter if film was rolling cause film doesn’t capture sound. )
Heh - yeah, I’m sure it’s a great honor! Y’know, on soap operas it’s embarrassingly easy to have a gratuitous death, because the writing these days tends to be so ridiculously over-the-top. So it takes a special level of gratuitousness to be a standout in this category. Poor Jack. BTW, he survived his allegedly terminal disease, only to be written off anyway. God I hate Days.
Re: MAS*H, I believe even in the second take there was, famously, an error – a dropped piece of surgical equipment. TPTB decided that it was serendipitous and realistic, so they kept it in. And sure enough it works very well in the scene. (Just saw it last week when TVLand showed the clip episodes with journalist Clete Roberts.)
Growing Pains finally gave Carol a boyfriend (Sandy, played by a young Matthew Perry) and then killed him off in a story about the evils of drunk driving.
Yes! In fact, I was wondering the same thing recently…we were talking about old TV shows, and it was the first time I’d even thought about Family Ties in years. I remember thinking that was such a good episode at the time, but, when I thought back about it, I wondered why Alex was so horribly upset over the death of a friend who seemed, on camera, to be less a part of his life than the annoying neighbor Skippy?
It’s called “Emmy-sucking”. A desperate and pathetic attempt to win an Emmy award for drama when no drama exists.
Is this the episode shot like a German Expressionist film, with Alex in high contrast sitting curled up at the end saying, “My name is Alex P. Keaton” ???
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Y’know, on soap operas it’s embarrassingly easy to have a gratuitous death, because the writing these days tends to be so ridiculously over-the-top. So it takes a special level of gratuitousness to be a standout in this category. Poor Jack. BTW, he survived his allegedly terminal disease, only to be written off anyway. God I hate Days.
