"Multi-reasonably talented" "The most prolific, undiscovered, ok talent in the history of Brisbane". I've been knocking on the door of production houses, TV stations and film bodies for 35 years plus without anyone taking much interest. I gave stand up a go and although I did well at it I could see in Brisbane it was a road to nowhere. 15 film scripts 3 sitcom pilots plus episodes. One 6 part mocumentary series Hundreds of comedy sketches Hours of stand up material.
Tuesday, June 23, 2015
60's &70's comedies and their WRITERS.
The sitcom is my favourite genre of comedy.
Makes sense, because as a kid you grow up with sitcoms.
I didn't grow up with too many sketch comedies, there were a few but sitcoms were on every day of the week , whereas sketch comedies were on for 6 weeks and then disappeared until the next year. Also, they were more for the adults. Also you couldn't see a new release film in my era, you had to wait a few years for television release. As one of the greatest Woody Allen fans the first Woody Allen film I saw was BANANAS late one night on Channel Ten in 1977, and as a kid I only saw stand up comics doing bits on TV specials.
But sitcoms, they were comedies kids could watch.
Why doesn't Australia have great sitcoms.
Answer: You need great comedy writers and the reality is that great sitcom comedy writers are not easy to find.
Here is a list of some of my favourite comedies. ( in Chronological order) and on the right side are writers who had major involvement in these shows
ROCKY & BULLWINKLE Chris Hayward Allan Burns
THE MUNSTERS Chris Hayward, Allan Burns
GET SMART Chris Hayward Allan Burns Arne Sultan
MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW Allan Burns
BARNEY MILLER Chris Hayward Arne Sultan
Or
McHALES NAVY Laurence Marks
F TROOP Laurence Marks Arthur Julian
HOGANS HEROES Laurence Marks Arthur Julian
MASH Laurence Marks ( Larry Gelbart)
Hollingsworth Morse was a director on all these "service" shows.
For the record I don't find Hogan's Heroes at all funny. Love Bob Crane but it's a drama with dubbed laughter.
I've just mentioned 8 of the most popular and best sitcoms of all time plus Rocky and Bullwinkle.
Although many writers collaborated on these show it's my belief that there are very few great sitcom writers and this list shows the strong influence of the great writers of this period.
The same thing is happening now with American sitcom.
More on the 70's through to now later.
For the record and we all love lists.GET SMART, THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW & BARNEY MILLER all would be in my top ten comedies of all time. MASH would miss out because I just didn't find it funny after Henry Blake and Trapper left. It became a drama with Hawkeye Pierce.
ALL IN THE FAMILY had a different set of writers and is in my top ten. I'd lose credibility if not mentioning it and including it in my top ten.
