“Laughter” (new geo Blog for the week of July 10/17)

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Neil Simon, (shown above) the great playwright, said a few things over the years that have managed to stick with me. Neil, of course, wrote some huge plays most of which were turned into movies such as, The Odd Couple, Brighton Beach Memoirs, The Goodbye Girl and Laughter On The 23rd Floor to name but a few. “Laughter” was about the time when he was an intern writer working on a TV series called, “Your Show Of Shows,” which featured writers such as Sid Caeser, Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, and Woody Allen and was always #1.
When the series began to be beaten by things like Lassie, Neil figured out that America no longer wanted manufactured humor about people like Hitler and Mussolini. What they wanted now were stories about people whom they could relate to which was what Neil wrote about.

Although most of Neil’s plays were humorous, he only used serious actors for the leads. He claimed that funny people were in too much of a hurry to get to the punch line whereas he felt that all of his words were equally as important.

JUST A FEW MORE THINGS BEFORE I GO
 
The only way you can become a decent person is to resist temptation.
 
Nobody is bigger than the small people.
 
You’re only one person away from changing your whole life.
 
There are more beautiful women in the world than there are decent men.
 
The only advice worth listening to is the advice that you ask for.
 
Hey Mr. Business man, what part don’t you get about profit is a privilege, not a right?
 
Just because you have freedom of speech doesn’t mean I have to like it or listen to it.
 
Most things in life are about sex except sex which is about power.
 
Most kids can’t tell if their Mom and Dad are good parents, only their shrink knows.
 
Trying to get in shape is what keeps you in shape. 
 
No man ever dreams about becoming the financial solution for a woman.
 
Is it just me or does the current school system seem a little “old school?”
 
I hate it when women call me by my given name, it sounds so unaffectionate.
 
If research had anything at all to do with the Arts, some research company would have won a Tony, an Emmy, an Oscar, a Grammy, or be in a Hall of Fame somewhere.
 
If the little voice inside your you tells you not to do something, by all means, do it if for no other reason than to silence the voice.
 
I find it strange that here is enough wheat grown in North Dakota to feed the whole world but the world is only excited about their oil which nobody needs.
 
Familiarity breeds contempt. 
 
Why do some people who are watching the game think that they know more about the game than the people who are playing it?
 
One of the problems with radio is that backstage we all look the same.
 
Give a man a fish he’ll eat for a day, teach a man how to fish he’ll eat for a lifetime, explain the philosophy of fishing to him and he’ll open a chain of seafood restaurants.
 
People listen to the radio one person at a time.
 
I learned a long time ago that you can never leave a woman, they have to leave you.
 
What do you call a person who hangs out with drug users? A druggie!
 
It’s not about you want, it’s about what the person you want, wants. 

It’s a hell of a lot easier to turn a programming concept into a sales tool than it is to get a listener interested in something that sales people need.

​Does the consumption of alcohol change you or reveal who you really are?

What’s the sense of having power if you don’t abuse it?

My dream is to become as attractive as the Russian, Filipino, and the African girls on Facebook, claim I already am.

Striving and struggling come before success both in life and in the dictionary.

Feeling inadequate always drove me to become more than I could be.

More @ GeorgeJohns.com and on Twitter @GeoOfTheRadio

 

 

4 thoughts on ““Laughter” (new geo Blog for the week of July 10/17)

  1. The wonderful television era of “Laughter On The 23rd Floor” was also hilariously captured in one of my favorite movies, “My Favorite Year,” of which “Your Show of Shows” writing partner Mel Brooks was an uncredited executive producer. Mark Linn-Baker appeared in both.

    • I remember that movie, John. It starred Peter O’toole as an actor discovering live for the first time. My favorite scene was when Peter was taking a leak in the woman’s bathroom, and a woman walked in and said, hey this is for women only! Peter said, “And so is this but occasionally I have to run some water through it.”

  2. True that a research company never won a Tony, an Emmy, an Oscar, a Grammy, but a hell of a lot of Art and Media has had a ton of research behind it or it would have never been financed, made or seen/heard by the public. Research shouldn’t create art, but it can be very useful in steering it a bit.

    • I hear what you’re saying Doug and as you well know I used a ton of research. Although, I always used it as a guide never as a dictate. Like Henry Ford said, if I gave the people what they wanted, I would have had to figure out how to make a horse faster. Instead, I gave them the car.

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