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Mark interviews writer Alan Zweibel. · The Mark Simone Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Show continues. Well, Alan's Ybell, the great writer, producer, comedian,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: best selling author. Get is a book his life story.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: It's very funny, a lot of great stories. It's called
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: laugh Lines. You can get it on Amazon. Laugh Lines,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: and it's great to come back with us. Alan's y Bell.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: How you doing, I'm great. How are you Mark?
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: I'm good.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Hey.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: First, I want to ask you about the network TV.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Primetime Network TV used to be the biggest sitcoms and dramas.
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  Speaker 1: It's all going away, you know, even Blue Blood's highest
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  Speaker 1: rate to get canceled because it costs too much money
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: to do car chases and it's like making a movie
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  Speaker 1: every week, and they replace it, you know, they replace
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  Speaker 1: it with game shows and stuff.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Well, game shows are very very cheap to produce, right, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: and very few car chases, you know, in a game show. Okay, now,
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: family Feud. I never saw a car chase. Yeah, you know,
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: it's what it is is. Yeah, you've got escalating a
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: production course. As a series gets older and older, it's
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: cast gets more money and more money, and after a while,
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  Speaker 2: I guess the networks look at it and go, Okay,
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: what kind of return are we getting on these investments,
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: and it's a shame because a lot of good shows
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: get canceled for that reason.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, years ago Prime Time you got the thirty million viewers,
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: you could pay for everything. But now if you're going
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: to get two million viewers, you can't have a twenty
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: five cars in a chase scene and four thousand trailers.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: You know what it is. The pie is split into
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  Speaker 2: so many pieces now, so many sessions. You know, you
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: would go back with showing our age. But there was
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: a time where it was only ABC, CBS and NBC,
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: and then Fox came along in the late eighties, we
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  Speaker 2: had four networks. Now cable streaming all the other platforms.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: Everybody is fighting for a little piece of that same pie,
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: meaning the viewing audience. Plus you know, it's no longer
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: a communal gathering to watch the show. It used to
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: be everybody was around the tv eight o'clock on Sunday
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: nights because then Sullivan was on, and then you changed
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: the channel, which was a big to do. At nine o'clock,
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: Bonanza came on on NBC. But now you know your
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: DV are it and you watch it at your leisure
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: or you'd get a family. I know there are times
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  Speaker 2: where I'll discover that my wife and I, who are
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: in different rooms, Let's say in our house we're watching
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: the same show at the same time. We shouldn't we
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: be next to each other.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: No, yeah, not a good idea. But so last night,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: all of a sudden, they had the Golden Girls thirtieth
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: anniversary or whatever it was, it special where they brought
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: them all back. And then next month, later this month,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: they're gonna have Everybody Loves Raymond thirtieth Anniversary. Is this
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: the new cheap skate form of programming for network TV?
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: Well, you know something, I think it's a combination of
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  Speaker 2: a lot of things. You get. You know, it's fun
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: for the audience to see who they were about who
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: they were because you're still alive and young, younger in reruns, right,
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: this is what they look like now, we all age
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: thirty years. It's fun to see them together again. And
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: you know something, I don't know the cost of those things,
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: but it seems to me that everybody's happy to do it.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: You know, years ago there was a Murphy Brown one,
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: and you know, if you go down a list, it's
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: been a lot of reunion shows, so you know, I
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: guess they're here to stay. Yeah.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: Also, if you were in the cast of the show,
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: you know, the big star might have had a piece
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: of the show, made a fortune or still a big star.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: But if you were just in the cast, this is
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  Speaker 1: your big chance to get back on television. Already forgot
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: about the cast.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: Well, that's absolutely true. You're in front of a camera,
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: you're in front of an audience, and you go, oh wow,
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  Speaker 2: she's still alive. Who knew?
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: Hey, tell us about your working on this Ridney Danger project.
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  Speaker 1: I can't wait to see this because it's everybody loves
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  Speaker 1: this guy. Tell us what's going on with that?
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  Speaker 2: Well, we had a reading of the first act a
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: couple of weeks ago.
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  Speaker 1: It went very well, Broadway show, right, a Broadway play,
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  Speaker 1: This would be a Broadway show.
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  Speaker 2: And got this terrific director named Maritz I can't pronounce
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: his last name, Van, then s and a bunch of continents. Okay,
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  Speaker 2: great director. And now it's going to be our turn
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  Speaker 2: to go in and dig a little deeper and finish
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  Speaker 2: the story that I've been working on. So it's really exciting.
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  Speaker 2: You know, I love the theater. I've done it a
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: number of times off Broadway and on Broadway with Billy
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  Speaker 2: Cristol's show seven hundred Sundays and Martin Short had a
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  Speaker 2: show that I co wrote. So, you know, something being
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: you know, having come from live TV, you know, with
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  Speaker 2: a an audience, and you write something in the morning
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  Speaker 2: and it's on TV at night. This is the closest
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  Speaker 2: you get to it because movies take forever and you're
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: usually doing the same same scene over and over again
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: for the crew, okay, and so to have an audience
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  Speaker 2: response to something that you wrote is no better feeling
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  Speaker 2: for a writer.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, this is not a musical, is it.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: You can sing while you're sitting in your teeth, Mark,
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  Speaker 2: but no, nobody on stage will be seeing.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: Good, good, good.
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: I don't want that. And well no, no, no, no, no no,
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: there won't be any no things oh good, oh good.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: It'll be now. Rodney Dangerfield great comedian, funny guy, but
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: there was like a dark side to him. Will we
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: see some of that?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah? I think you have to. I think you know,
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  Speaker 2: you have a main character that had demons and had
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: vices and there are reasons for it, and but what
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: the reason he was such a hero is that he
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: took those demons and he took those vices and the
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: things that he felt inferior about, and he made that
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  Speaker 2: into his act. I don't get no respect, Okay. It
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: was he looked at head on, you know what I mean.
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: So that came from a hurtful place, but at the
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: same time it was his way of getting a laugh,
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: getting acceptance from audiences, you know, and taking control. So
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: there's a great degree of heroism heroism there.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Now, obviously casting is crucial, uh, And it'd be
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  Speaker 1: great to star in this great Broadway show, this play,
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  Speaker 1: but kind of unflattering if you're going to get cast
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  Speaker 1: as Rodney Dansfield. Somebody says, why you look just like.
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: You know. We've had some talks about it, but right now,
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: as the writer, I'm just writing it for Rodney and
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: Rodney's voice, Okay.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Once it's done and we're happy with the script, or
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: the producers are happy with the script, then it's going
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: to be time to talk Turkey. Okay, who can play him? Okay?
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: And then you know, there's I'm sure that there'll be
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: a lot of suggestions. I'm sure there will be a
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: lot of disagreements, and you know, in some stars are
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: so big that you know they don't know addition, so
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: you got to guess whether or not So and so
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: can do it. You know. It's but that's down the road.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: So right now I'm pretending like Rodney's still alive and
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: he's on stage delivering what I'm writing. Now.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: The only other problem Rodney had incredible delivery for those
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: one liners. And I don't care how good an actor
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: you are, You're not gonna have that comic delivery. That's
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: going to be a problem, isn't it.
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: Well, you know something, a lot of people impersonate him.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: You're right, Rodney did have that great delivery and the timing.
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  Speaker 2: You know, I remember when I wrote for him. This
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: is before Saturday Night Live, so this is fifty one,
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: fifty two years ago.
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  Speaker 1: Now.
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  Speaker 2: He would labor over syllables, or he would take a pause,
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  Speaker 2: or he would you know, look off stage. It was
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  Speaker 2: all calculated. What seemed like an had lib what seemed like,
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: in the moment a sort of reaction that he would have.
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: Those were very, very well rehearsed. It was like jazz,
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: you know what I mean. He was free flowing, but
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: at the same time he knew but he knew where
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: he was going.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: Wow, Yeah, he was a real craftsman. He would record
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: every show's little cassette recorder and he had those index cards.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: Absolutely well, right faster, we want to see this. This
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  Speaker 1: is going to be a big I guarantee this will
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: be a huge, huge, blockbuster hit.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: Well, I sure hope. So I just want to get
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  Speaker 2: these words do on paper so we can take the
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  Speaker 2: next step. But thank you for your confidence. I know.
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  Speaker 1: Is there is there any idea, any date, any idea
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: when to lappen?
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  Speaker 2: No, no, no, I think that will happen once everyone's satisfied
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: with the script and then to look at the calendar,
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: to look at you know. The biggest thing also was
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  Speaker 2: one or theaters available, you know, so those will be
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  Speaker 2: in the hands of people like producers and agents and
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: whatever who know that is the business.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: Well, Alan's white Belt, great talking to everybody. Get his
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: book laugh Lines. You've got a lot of great stories
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: and you'll learn a lot about a lot about the
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: entertainment and show business and comedy books called Laughlines. It's
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: on Amazon. Follow him on Instagram and Twitter and all
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: of that. And Alan's white Belt. Thanks for being with.
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: Us, Thanks for having me Mark, see you so all right?
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: Take care? Oh yes, everybody loves Raymond. If you're there
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: is going to be a reunion, I'll tell you all
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: about it coming up in the next hour. Hey don't
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: forget Buck and Clay at noon today with an excellent show,
• 9:35
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• 9:39
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• 9:42
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• 9:45
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• 9:49
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