Well, dear readers, a man of comedy, a gentleman, and a good person has died. His name was Garry Marshall and while I can’t say he was a friend of mine I certainly knew him and worked with him a few times. I first met him back in 1974 when I was hired to do an episode of the then-new TV series called Happy Days. Garry had been wise enough to bring William Bickley and Michael Warren on as producers – they’d done The Partridge Family and I’d known them for several years by that point. They simply cast me – no reading or anything. At that point the show was a one-camera show. It is astonishing to me even now that Bickley and Warren could just cast me and that Garry was trusting enough to go along with it. On my first day, I was introduced to Jerry Paris, the director, who looked at me and said, “Oh, no, you’re all wrong, who cast you?” I just smiled at him. We set up the scene and we did a take. I hadn’t really done anything in rehearsal, but during the take I did a funny bit (it was a panning shot across the room as Richie’s band was playing). Jerry came running up to me and said, “You’re a good actor, I take it back.” And we got along like a house afire after that. On my second day, he told me that the “bit” I’d done had gotten a huge laugh in dailies, especially from Garry. I met Garry and he was a very sweet and positive man, and he made me laugh just because of the way he talked – that distinctive cadence. Anyway, I had a blast and I know they all liked what I’d done with the part.
They brought me back for another episode pretty quickly – again, no reading, just cast. Then I didn’t see Garry again until Laverne and Shirley. He knew Cindy had just done The First Nudie Musical. She’d filmed the Happy Days episodes with Penny, and then they got picked up for their own show and when Paramount bought Nudie and we came back to do what became the Dancing Dildos sequence, Cindy was already shooting the show. The show, of course, was a sensation. Right after Nudie came out (I think Garry came to the premiere – I know Penny did), they cast me and Nudie’s leading man, Stephen Nathan, in an episode – our scene was really funny and we had so much fun doing it. Garry was at the notes sessions and was always insightful and funny and, more importantly, right on point. Go to 9:00 to see this very funny scene we did.
I know Laverne and Shirley was occasionally an ordeal for Cindy and I was very much on her side of the fence, as we were extremely close. She called me one day from the set – they’d just done a dress rehearsal with the audience and someone had hired an extra to play the organ in a roller skating scene. Everyone was really unhappy because the guy wasn’t funny and they needed funny. Cindy had suggested they call me immediately to see if I could come down, and Garry okayed it instantly. I was home when she called and fifteen minutes later I was at Paramount being put in costume. They talked me through the bit and told me to just do whatever came into my head and then after the show taping they’d do a single of me just saying whatever lines came to me. We shot it, I did what I did, it was funny, and then we did the single and that was really fun. And Garry was very sweet about it, and two weeks later I was back doing a real guest shot. A year or so later I did another Marshall show called Angie, maybe the funniest thing I ever did on television and 99% of that role was sans dialogue. And I remember that the awful, disgusting director coming to me with an “idea” to try something I was doing that was getting huge laughs a different way. He was so unfunny and so wrong but he insisted and so I did it his way at the writer’s run-through and that moment and its huge laughs tanked. After, Garry asked why I’d changed it, and this complete ASS of a director said, “He wanted to try it.” Everyone on that set just sat there with their mouths open because they’d all heard him tell me to do this other thing. Garry merely said “Put it back the way you were doing it.” Later, before we filmed, Garry told me he’d found out the truth and that he knew it wasn’t my fault – he made me feel so much better.
I saw Garry many times over the years – he was never less than gracious and warm and funny with me. If he saw me in a room, he’d come right over and say hello. He put his money where his mouth was and built the Falcon Theater in Toluca Lake and gave an awful lot of people work there. He was a one-of-a-kind – there was no one else like him. When I created the character of Patrick Bronstein Garry was the voice I had in my head – his rhythm, his cadences, his timing. Of course Patrick looked nothing like Garry or vice versa, but that was the voice in my head every time I wrote a Patrick Bronstein line. And what a wonderful life he had – eighty-one years is nothing but a cause for celebration and I’m sure his many fans, his many friends, his family, and the people he was closed to will all be celebrating him.
Yesterday was a perfectly fine little day. I got nine hours of sleep, did my usual stuff, and then did a pre-food jog of one-and-a-half miles, just to get it out of the way. I sautéed two chicken breasts (about 370 calories), made two cups of bow tie pasta (400 calories), and the Wacky Noodles sauce (about 300 calories), and had myself a damn meal. I usually make at least three cups of pasta and even a bit more – but the two cups along with the two chicken boobs was really a ton of food. I ate all the pasta, but couldn’t finish all the chicken.
Then I did some work on the computer, had some telephonic calls, listened to some music, and then sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched more of Gilda – it’s kind of long at 110 minutes so I haven’t quite finished it, but I have to say I’ve only seen the film once before, and I did not remember just how much gay subtext there is – in fact, it’s not so sub, it’s pretty much blatantly there. I’ll say more when I finally finish it, probably tonight.
Then I decided to do a second jog and I did a two-and-a-half mile jog this time, so that’s a total of four miles, so I definitely burned off some nice calories. When I got back, I had some yummilicious cherries. Then I read through the commentary for the next Kritzerland show, made some adjustments, futzed and fixed, and I’m happy with it now. I then listened to some music, relaxed and took a shower, and that was that.
Today I have stuff to do, I’ll eat something light but amusing around noon, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, I’ll do a jog (hopefully a longer than usual jog), and I’m sure I’ll at least have a light something or other to eat in the early evening hours.
Tomorrow we have a couple of rehearsals and work sessions, Friday is the same, then I’m seeing a play, Saturday night I’m seeing Sami in her show, and Sunday I may actually have a ME day, as a rehearsal just got cancelled.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do stuff, eat, jog, do more stuff, hopefully pick up packages, maybe eat something light in the early evening, and then relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall have happy memories of my little bit of time with Garry Marshall.