Originally Posted by Outlaw2x4
That is a very good point. However I feel the simpsons has gone so down hill in the last few years that I really dont want to listen to the writers. Get Matt Groening to talk about Futurama. Now thats what I'd really like to see.
They could have interviewed some of the best talents to have ever been on staff, not just current writers.
James Lipton is awful, a pretentious bore, and watching him skewered by David Cross and Will Ferrell is the only thing that makes his presence in pop culture at all acceptible. And what tough questions he poses, such as "How important is listening in acting?", a Larry King softball if there ever was one (Gee, it's not at all important. In fact, I'm not listening to you now).
The actual interviews are cut awkwardly most times for broadcast. If they're gonna air 'em, air the full two or three hour session unedited, not forty-some minutes (Bravo in general has gone downhill since NBC bought 'em and they became a commercial channel) of "highlights" consisting of stories and anecdotes even the most casual fan of that actor will know by heart. I know ostensibly these are "classes" for the students, but the Q&A involving them at the end is unbearable ("Hi, I think I'm important, and I'm on the acting track...").
These "classes" are anywhere from two to three hours (or more!) in length, depending on the guest. After you subtract the commercials, the aired version is about forty-four minutes. They discuss virtually every piece of work the guest has done, but not by the time it gets to TV. Pay attention the next time you watch one of these. They spend the first ten to fiteen minutes on biography: who were their folks, where are they from, what was their early education etc. The last ten to fifteen minutes are the questionaire and talk with the students. I'm no good at math, but how long then does that leave to discuss the work? Now figure three to five minutes discussing each project, director, co-star, whatever, plus stage work if applicable. That's why they seem to "jump" over career highlights.
For example, when Harrison Ford was there that night, they talked about
all of his substantial roles. Yet when you see it on TV, you get all the same old actor-who-gave-up-and-became-self-taught-carpenter stuff ("I thought you were supposed to say, '
THAT's a delivery boy'" - can't hear that story enough), then a bit about
American Graffiti, then a little about
Star Wars in general, then two seconds on Indiana Jones in general, then
Witness, The Mosquito Coast, Presumed Innocent, a little on
Working Girl,
Regarding Henry, another brief general talk about Jack Ryan, and wrap it up with
The Fugitive. Then the career talk is basically done, and they talk about piloting light aircraft for seven minutes before the questionaire.
But, when Ford was there they also talked about each
Star Wars film individually, the Indy flicks with many more specifics,
BladeRunner, Apocalypse Now, The Conversation, Frantic....all of them, and more than just one question and possibly one follow-up for each, but spending ten minutes plus on each flick.
So when they have a "big" guest (DeNiro, Scorsese, Spielberg) and expand the format to two hours (minus commercials), you're still only getting less than a third of what happened that night. Plus they talk even longer to Scorsese than Ben Affleck anyway (as you'd hope), so an hour and a half of a four hour evening is still damn little.
That they then choose to broadcast DeNiro begrudgingly explaining about gaining weight for
Raging Bull or improvising "You talkin' to me", when this is material that has been covered ad nauseum for decades now, is really a waste of time. I want to hear what Bobby has to say about
Hi, Mom! and
Brazil and
Midnight Run and Sergio Leone and Elia Kazan, not (for the umpteenth time) how much pasta he ate in Italy so he could be the fat LaMotta (guess what: it was a lot). What kills me is that they
do talk about Leone and Kazan and
Angel Heart and
New York, New York, but instead of that we have to endure the "How important is listening" horsecrap and asking if the tattoos in
Cape Fear were his idea.
They often tease bits of the editied-out conversation in the commercials (rememebr the Ford commericals where he's asking if C-3P0 "is the gold one, right?"), but come show time they're nowhere to be found.
I'm positive I could go into the editing bay and come out with an infinitely more interesting television program from those taped evenings. But they just plain dumb it all down for Bravo, hit the five or seven biggest hits of the career (if there even are that many, which is a stretch when you've got Helen Hunt or Billy Bob Thornton in the chair), ask the questions we all know the answers to already, and just coast with a dull program.
Sometimes the guest is so good they shine above the stilted forumla, but all too rarely.
That these sessions ar done with "talents" like Ben Affleck is just plain wrong.
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Ah, that's classic...
the questions he was asking Mike were really dumb. 