Saving the Best Laughs for Last: Chuck Lorre Reaches a New Milestone in the TV Biz - Hillary Atkin

There were many moments of learning at last week39s Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame dinner and ceremony the 21st edition of the kudos that honor the best and the brightest in the industry dead or aliveEveryone knows the man who hosted the event Jon Cryer is funny but we learned that director Garry Marshall and producer Chuck Lorre could also be standups if they didn39t have other thriving careers And who knew that Michael Eisner could be so modest about his achievements or that Vivian Vance had a funny younger sister or that Latinos have received such exceedingly short shrift in this exclusive clubIt was an evening filled with laughter and reminiscing as ATAS inducted eight new members into its prestigious Hall of Fame three of them posthumouslyAlthough quotI Love Lucy39squot Vivian Vance and William Frawley and reality TV pioneer MaryEllis Bunim were not there last Thursday night at the Beverly Hills Hotel to bask in the glory of the honor memories of them and their illustrious television careers burned brightly as they joined inductees Michael Eisner Chuck Lorre Jonathan Murray Bill Klages and Mario KreutzbergerThere are now 142 members of an elite group that represents the top level of creativity innovation and talent in the industryAs emcee of the gala Cryer called it the first show of the new awards season amp8211 requiring another trip to the dry cleaners for him amp8211 and immediately pointed out that none of the honorees were French But nationality and religion were referenced many times throughout the ceremony mostly with humor but several times with sobering reality as it was noted that Kreutzberger also known as Don Francisco was the first Latino to be inducted since Desi ArnazGail Berman made the presentation to the late Bunim who passed away in 2004 and partner Jonathan Murray who has kept her name on their production company quotTwenty years ago they gave the MTV audience something edgy and fresh 39The Real World39 shapeshifted the television industry and represented the birth of modern reality TVquot Berman saidSince then BunimMurray Productions has gone on to produce shows including quotThe Simple Lifequot quotProject Runwayquot and quotKeeping up with the KardashiansquotquotIt39s nice to be at the big kids39 table with all these fancy scripted peoplequot said Murray who is working on among other projects the 27th edition of quotThe Real WorldquotThe mood switched to one of a roast when it came time for uberexecutive Michael Eisner to take his place in the HoF inducted by longtime friend and colleague directorproducer and sometime actor Garry MarshallFor those who know him well Marshall39s shtick is a given But to those in the audience who don39t it was a revelation quotThere are so many people here I can39t get on the phonequot he said before he regaled the room with tales of the early days of quotHappy Daysquot when very few people except Eisner thought a 1950s period piece would be popular amp8211 until quotAmerican Graffitiquot came outIn the course of a lengthy recollection of Eisner39s career which began in the programming department of ABC Marshall revealed his own real Italian last name how he himself was the inspiration for The Fonz and how they cast his sister in quotLaverne and ShirleyquotEisner for his part was unduly modest during his acceptance speech and gave Marshall 100 of the credit for quotHappy Daysquot Adding to the origins he told the story of how he and Barry Diller saw aspiring actor Henry Winkler after he auditioned for the role of The Fonz hitchhiking outside Paramount Pictures and decided not to pick him up Each still blames the other for the coldhearted decision to leave him standing on the streetAnother classic Eisner project from that era was quotPretty Womanquot a film which he said was originally titled quot3000quot and for its lead character required a hooker who was a virgin Speaking of morals Eisner revealed that when he was at Paramount Pictures from 19761984 he forbid everyone to go to the nearby Nickodell39s a restaurant where lunch was frequently drunken rather than eaten resulting in countless hours of lost afternoon productivity on the lot39s soundstages Surprisingly Eisner made no reference to his massively successful tenure at Disney transforming it from a 18 billion film and theme park company into an 80 billion media and entertainment behemoth by the time he stepped down in 2005In its time quotI Love Lucyquot was its own media empire and created stardom for its secondbanana couple played by Vivian Vance and William Frawley opposite Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz Vance39s younger sister Lou Ann Graham accepted the ATAS HoF honor and recalled the comedienne and her life offscreen during a rambling but charming speech which she ended by offering to sell the Indian jewelry from New Mexico that she was wearingFrawley was recalled as a daily regular of Nickodell39s with his own table in the rear and a soft spot in his heart for the child actors he went on to work with on another classic sitcom quotMy Three Sonsquot one of whom realized howfond Frawley was of him when he gave him a 9 foot long surfboard for his birthday one year found lodged in his dressing roomUnivision president Cesar Condamp233 had the honor of inducting his role model and mentor Mario Kreutzberger more commonly known as Don Francisco the host of the Spanishlanguage variety show quotSamp225bado Gigantequot quotGiant Saturdayquot which has been on the air for drum roll please 50 years It airs on Univision on Saturday nights and Don Francisco has missed only one appearanceamp8212in 1974 when his mother passed awayAfter attending college in New York Kretuzberger returned to his native Chile and jumped into its fledgling television industry becoming a huge player in the business who has also turned his attention to philanthropy Modeled on the Muscular Dystrophy Telethon he started a similar effort in Latin America to help children with special needs which has raised more than 300 million to dateThe character of Don Francisco was born during Kreutzberger39s early days as a standup comic when he created it as an impersonation of a Jewish man who didn39t know how to speak Spanish When the young entertainer won a talent contest sponsored by a local radio station the host asked if he had another name saying he couldn39t pronounce the Germanic quotKreutzbergerquot and thus the newly adopted name Don Francisco stuckquotI like to tell people that my show is part Letterman part Carson part Larry King and part Jack Paarquot said Kreutzberger quotSabado Gigantequot based in Miami since 1986 has also been spoofed on quotSaturday Night LivequotAwardwinning lighting designer Bill Klages recalled his early days in the business with Sid Caesar and Milton Berle before moving on to work with Dick Clark and Barbra Streisand who told him that he did the quotworst lighting everquotClearly members of the Hall of Fame committee disagreed with that assessment In lauding him for his work on award shows including the primetime Emmy Awards the Grammy Awards and the Golden Globes not to mention several Olympics inaugurals and specials for entertainment luminaries including Streisand Bob Hope Liza Minnelli and Bette Midler His credit list encompasses more than 300 titles over a nearly 60year career that has continued into the 21st centuryAlong the way he has developed techniques emulated by other designers and currently consults on television facilities designNo television producer could have possibly had a brighter light shone on him amp8211 in a negative way amp8211 then Chuck Lorre did last year during the meltdown of his quotTwo and a Half Menquot leading man Charlie SheenBut in his introduction Warner Bros television president Peter Roth skipped over that part and lauded Lorre for his exceptional work ethic and comedic writing skills quotYears from now Chuck Lorre will be in his grave rewriting his own headstonequot Roth saidEgged on by a sizable audience contingent from Warner Bros and CBS Lorre first said he would not say anything mean and then went on to skewer other talent he39s worked with that are known for shall we say being difficult including Roseanne Barr and Brett Butler Selfdeprecatingly he called himself an quotincredible shit magnetquotquotPerhaps it39s a Jewish thingquot he mused before going on to say that he had been already held to a higher standard by his colleagues after they heard that he was going into the Hall of Fame quotI guess it39s too late to get it posthumouslyquot he said quotAnother year like last year would do the trickquotIn other riproarious remarks Lorre let it all hang out quotMost people in these speeches thank their agents and managers Fuck those peoplequot he said quotIt39s the writers that are important And I stand on many of their shoulders with cleatsquotAfter more such bluntness he said quotListen closely You can hear the sound of Peter Roth39s sphincter tighteningquotTalent from his three current shows among them Ashton Kutcher Melissa McCarthy Johnny Galecki Holland Taylor Billy Gardell Kaley Cuoco Jim Parsons and Swoosie Kurtz roared with laughter The Lorre talent stable in attendance also included quotDharma and Greg39squot Thomas GibsonLorre looked back at his early days as a musician trying to break into the business when he wanted to join the WGA mainly to get dental insurance for his two children lamenting that he may not have been the greatest dad to them but in the long run as he put it quotYou39ll remember your dad left you both insanely richquotHillary Atkin is the editor and publisher of The Atkin Report wwwatkinreportcom and has written extensively on media and entertainment for USA Today the Los Angeles Times Daily and Weekly Variety The Hollywood Reporter TelevisionWeek Entertainment Weekly The New York Observer and LA Confidential She is an awardwinning journalist who began her career as a television news writer reporter and producer As a broadcast producer at KCBS in Los Angeles she won numerous Emmy Associated Press and Golden Mike Awards for live coverage and entertainment special events programming and then produced and directed biographies on Robert Duvall Elizabeth Montgomery Linda Darnell and Nicolas Cage for AampampE and E She can be reached at hillaryatkinyahoocom Read all Hillary39s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Hillary AtkinCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries

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Saving the Best Laughs for Last: Chuck Lorre Reaches a New Milestone in the TV Biz - Hillary Atkin

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