Ellen: A Hollywood Tribute

Ellen: A Hollywood Tribute
ABC
May 13, 1998
Sitcom
DVD
B-

Linda Ellerbee hosts this hour-long mockumentary about Ellen's career, going back to the 1920s, with this sitcom starting in 1959.  The writing by Tim Doyle, who wrote a couple Roseanne episodes, is uneven but I like the various pastiches of different eras and styles.  My favorites are the 1950s guess-the-Commie game show and the early '70s cartoon about "Ellen and the Fun Bunch" (in outer space with the Harlem Globetrotters, of course).

Celebrities I didn't tag include Jennifer Aniston, Bea Arthur, Orson Bean, Richard Benjamin, Diahann Carroll, Glenn Close, Tim Conway, Cindy Crawford, Ted Danson, Woody Harrelson, Christine Lahti, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Mary Steenburgen.

Steven Anderson, who was a Young Man on The Bob Newhart Show in 1976 and Higgins on Three's Company in '81, is a Bookish Man here.  Jim Doughan played Amazing Dave on Who's the Boss? and is a Camera Assistant here.  Phil Leeds, who was on a few Roseanne episodes, is one of the Comedians here.  Man #1 Gene Allan Poe played a Salesman before.  Dan Finnerty, who previously was a Doorman on this show, plays both Crew Member Dan and Tom.

Who's the Boss?: Tony Micelli, This Is Your Life

Who's the Boss?: Tony Micelli, This Is Your Life
ABC
February 1, 1992
Sitcom
DVD
B-

Michele J. Wolff wrote this episode, which is certainly an improvement over the previous one.  Tony has a It's a Wonderful Life-like dream where he never injured his shoulder and is a very successful baseball player.  Unfortunately, he's also a jerk, or at least he has been to this point, but he tries to make amends.  Angela doesn't have her own agency, but she can't be doing that bad if she owns the same house.  Sam has written a thinly veiled novel about her father, which she promotes on The Phil Donahue Show.  The equivalent to Clarence the angel here is Tony's late Coach (Brandon Maggart, who would be Harry on Ellen).  It feels a little gratuitous to have Tony wake up with a ditzy blonde, who appears in a towel later, but even when Tony is committed to Angela, his eye still wanders.  At least there's a very sweet T & A moment in the penultimate scene, where he asks if she loves him and she says of course, which is all that matters to him.

I'm guessing the character Mike Va Salle takes his last name from the WtB writer Linda Va Salle.

The Phil Donahue Show: Jane Fonda [fragment]

The Phil Donahue Show: Jane Fonda [fragment]
Syndicated
September 1972
Talk Show
VHS
B

Phil's hosting has improved in the couple years since the previous episodes and this feels overall more balanced, politically and otherwise.  "Hanoi Jane" would still be controversial 45 years later, but even the woman in the studio audience who thinks that the Communists are going to take over the world recognizes that Fonda is earnest and sincere.  Jane also looks impossibly young at 35 and she does come across as naive, although many of her points, particularly about Nixon, are valid.  (She references Watergate and gets little response.)  This is the 500th B I've given to a TV show.

The Phil Donahue Show: Rev. Bob Harrington and Madalyn Murray O'Hair

The Phil Donahue Show: Rev. Bob Harrington and Madalyn Murray O'Hair
Syndicated
March 1970
Talk Show
VHS
B-

"The Chaplain of Bourbon Street" debates "the most hated woman in America."  It may be just my own biases, but Harrington comes across as smarmy and O'Hair as likable.  As in the Jerry Rubin episode, Phil is an awkward host, at one point facepalming over a simple phone call.  This is an edited together version of two episodes, one with a surprisingly good-natured one-on-one conversation between the two guests, and the other with the callers and studio audience.  Harrington is still a believer (he has a Facebook account); O'Hair was murdered, along with a son and grandson, in 1995, by a typesetter who worked for her organization, American Atheists.

This is the 1000th program I've reviewed from the 1970s!  And it won't even be the last.  But I promise I will get back to the '90s soon.

The Phil Donahue Show: Jerry Rubin

The Phil Donahue Show: Jerry Rubin
Syndicated
April 1970 (see below)
Talk Show
VHS
C+

As Phil himself says in the end, this is disappointing and could've been an interesting discussion.  This re-aired in 1988 as part of a "Golden Oldies" week, but, except for a brief introduction, the episode is basically intact from eighteen years earlier.  Rubin, a few years before he would indeed take the advice to cut his hair and put on a suit (he eventually became a multimillionaire and a Republican), spends most of his time ranting and not listening to other people.  It's clear this is a performance piece, and Phil, a relative newcomer, doesn't know how to balance the guest, the studio audience, and the callers.  The irony that Rubin sees Donahue as "plastic" is rich in retrospect of course, and certainly Phil by '88 had more left-of-center cred than Jerry did.