Frasier farceur, and co-perpetrator of several other TV shows. Lyricist, playwright. Novels: Blue Heaven, Putting On The Ritz, My Lucky Star. Awards available on request, or I'll just work them into our next conversation.
Joe Keenan
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That was Jimmy. He had a genius for maximizing the comic potential of every moment.
The pilot wasn't picked up, but it got me a job on Frasier— a spinoff of Jimmy, Glen, and Les's Cheers—where I got to work with him a few more times before he moved on to Will & Grace.
4/
I assumed the niece would just collapse onto the stairs, but Jimmy had Gloria toss her aside so carelessly that she folded over the bannister and slid to the bottom like a sack of laundry. It was a more shockingly callous—and hilarious—illustration of Gloria's lack of maternal instincts.
3/
Of course DHS Sec. Mullin is getting rich off addictive gas station drugs. With a name like Markwayne, what kind of graft did we expect? Black market harpsichords?
This is unfortunate, yes, but “pond scum to Washington” may just be the “coals to Newcastle” update we’ve needed for decades.
Trump declaring victory because Iran has agreed to talk some more is like a TV writer buying a house because he just scored a pitch meeting with Netflix.
I can report that the episode's back. It was pulled because a KACL scene began with a test of the emergency broadcast system which—God knows why—the FCC now bans for entertainment use. (Talk shows have been heavily fined for deploying it in gags.) The replacement noise is absurd. But the ep is back!
Jimmy knew a joke could only surprise an audience once. If something was off en route to a great line he'd shout "Bup bup bup!" to cut the actors off, then go back so a big laugh wasn't wasted on a bad take. Writers loved him for that. And for lots of other reasons too. We will all miss him.
5/5
