Well, dear readers, we are inching ever closer to our Annual New Year’s Rockin’ Eve Bash, which happens in a mere and I do mean mere two days. And you know what THAT means. THAT means that we are ending the year known as 2022 and at midnight, as our balls drop, we begin a New Year known as 2023. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We’re still here in 2022, one of the most peculiar years I can ever remember, for a whole slew of reasons. But even in the most difficult years, I can look back and see the positives, the achievement, the right stuff, and I had plenty of those in 2022 despite the forces of negativity doing their damndest to try to intrude and impede the positive. And all we can do is say to them forces, I ain’t down yet, just Molly Brown them right back into the dank holes from whence they came. So, please allow me to look back at 2022, ME-wise. It began, as every year for almost the past two decades has begun, with me beginning a new book on January 1. That book was, of course, Tis the Season to be Murdered, the second Harry Stearns book, and one I had great fun writing because writing Harry and his loyal secretary Bernice is just, well, fun. Also, fun were the various and sundried other characters. I was very pleased with the book as was Muse Margaret. Soon thereafter, we began planning and then casting the second production of my musical revue, L.A. Now and Then over at the Group Rep. It was very difficult to cast, but in the end, we had a terrific group of talented folks. Four weeks of rehearsals, tech, and then two previews and opening. We got great reviews and audiences really enjoyed the show. I was there more than I wanted to be during the run, mostly to keep my ear on the sound. I commissioned a few new songs and those all worked really well. While it was always fun to watch the show with an audience, there was a little too much drama behind the scenes for my taste and that continued over the next few months and included the cancellation of Applause for beyond stupid reasons. The people responsible for the unnecessary and silly drama are, ironically, no longer around. Yeah. In June, I was asked if I could come up with an idea for a web or streaming series for Sami Staitman by her mom. I said I’d think about it. After a few days, I came up with an idea I liked – the goal was to get Sami out there, get her seen, and create a role in which she could be funny, endearing, and charming. And that’s what I set about doing. Amazingly, we were able to find the money to do it because the people we went to loved the whole idea of it. I then spent however many weeks writing ten episodes. My idea was that each episode would run around twelve minutes or so. The writing came very easily because the characters really appealed to me. We had self-tape submissions from lots of actors in New York – for some smaller roles but also for one of the leads, the lead character’s BFF. We had many excellent candidates, but I went with the actor Sami had recommended and who’s her friend – his audition was excellent, and I knew they already had chemistry. For the role of the mother and grandmother, I knew exactly who I wanted – Kerry O’Malley, who said yes immediately, and Cindy Williams, who also said yes immediately.
I enlisted some of my favorite Broadway folks I’d worked with over the years to do small roles. There is a song at the end of each episode – all mine – and so, in the pre-production phase, Richard Allen created those tracks – piano only for those that took place in audition scenes or nightclubs, but orchestrated tracks for those that took place in recording studios or in the character’s fantasies. Fourteen songs in all, as the final episode of season one involves our girl fantasizing her life as a musical comedy.
We spent a lot of time finding our director of photography. I saw twenty or thirty reels and most of them were very good. But one fellow in particular had the most variety and so we met on the phone, talked for quite a while, I told him how I like to shoot, and we were very much on the same page. I didn’t realize how young he was, but he really did a great job and was a really good problem solver. We hired a make-up and hair person, a wardrobe person, an assistant director person, a prop person, and a set dressing person. The plan was to shoot the first eight episodes in eleven days – daunting, but I was very prepared as was everyone else. We had several different locations, including an apartment, three different rehearsal halls, two nightclubs, a green screen studio, and a restaurant. We never wrapped late and in some instances we wrapped early. I hadn’t been to New York in six or seven years. The city is very peculiar these days, but we did have some great food and I stayed in a wonderful place thanks to dear reader Iris.
Once we wrapped the eight episodes (all shot out of sequence, of course), we came back and a couple of weeks later Sami and Karim and our DP came to L.A. and we shot the final two episodes. In episodes one through eight, all of Kerry’s and Cindy’s scenes take place on Face Time calls. But they’re all over episodes nine and ten and it was so much fun to shoot those scenes. We had another green screen studio, a downtown location for Cindy’s song, a recording studio in North Hollywood, and Vitello’s. And we also shot all the Face Time calls – not really on Face Time, of course.
Then all the footage went to Marshall Harvey’s assistant, Ethan, and he got everything prepared for Marshall and he began editing and as of writing these here notes, he’s just begun episode six. I could not be more pleased with the first five. Even before I finished writing episode one, I wrote the show’s theme music – I wanted it to capture the tone of the show and Sami’s character and I think it does that. Doug Haverty created the logo and Hartley Powers did a great job creating the main titles. Richard and I came up with many variations of the theme to use as underscoring, and I wrote cues as we needed them. So, that was basically most of the last six months of the year. It was quite exhilarating. And, of course, we did our Kritzerland shows throughout the year, and we released some terrific CDs.
Yesterday was completely weird. She of the Evil Eye came yesterday rather than Saturday, so I kept thinking it WAS Saturday even though it was Wednesday. I was up at eight and out the door at nine. I went over to Art’s Deli and had bacon and eggs. After that, I went to the mail place and picked up a small package (it was early, so I’m not sure if anything else arrived), went to Gelson’s and got a small top sirloin steak for my evening whatever, then came home just as she of the Evil Eye was on her merry way. I had many text volleys and telephonic conversations throughout the day and evening and then I finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a movie on Blu and Ray, one that I always enjoy – Mirage, starring Gregory Peck, Diane Baker, Walter Matthau, Kevin McCarthy, George Kennedy, and Jack Weston. I first saw it at a major studio preview at the Chinese Theater and loved it, save for one way too over the top performance, that of Jack H. Harris as a psychiatrist. His intentions are fine, but he’s just too much, bordering on schmacting. Everyone else is excellent. The screenplay was by Peter Stone based on a novel (the screen credit says based on a story) by one Walter Ericson. That novel is called Fallen Angel and Walter Ericson is a nom de plume of Howard Fast. It took me years to find it, but I have a spiffy first edition. I saw the film several times when it opened (it played on a double bill with Charade, another Peter Stone screenplay). Transfer is okay, but I just loved watching it again. Interestingly, the 1965 film was remade by Universal just three years later as Jigsaw, a TV movie that surprisingly went to theaters first. It’s a horrible movie – accept no substitutes.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll have more text volleys and telephonic conversations, some of which I’d rather not have, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages and maybe an important envelope or two, I’ll eat, and then I can watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow is more of the same, then Saturday night is our Annual New Year’s Rockin’ Eve Bash, where our balls will drop for both East and West Coasts and we’ll ring in the New Year safely with camaraderie and dear friends right here at haineshisway.com. Then on New Year’s Day I begin my twenty-third book. At four in the afternoon, a handful of folks will come over for food and company. And then I’m into writing every day.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up when I’m up, do whatever needs doing, have text volleys and telephonic conversations, hopefully pick up package and perhaps important envelopes, eat, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What were your 2022 highlights? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have looked back at the year that was.