Not So Bewitched

To follow-up on an earlier post, I finally rented the Bewitched movie. Turns out Steve Carrell plays the "real" Uncle Arthur to guide Will Ferrell back into the arms of Nicole Kidman. I was under the impression, no pun intended, that he played an actor hired to portray Uncle Arthur in the updated TV version of the show.

It's all a little strange, given that Ferrell actually does a better impression of Uncle Arthur earlier in the film and that they show clips of Paul Lynde from the original series. Maybe they should have used computer magic to have Paul interact with Ferrell, like they did when Paula Abdul hung out with Louis Armstrong in a soda commercial. (That's a vague pop culture memory that may or may not be right.)

That said, I was pleased that Nora Ephron took a different approach to the usual movie-remake-of-a-TV-classic, even if it didn't necessarily work in the end.

Steve Martin

Steve Martin's getting the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor this week. In a write-up about the honor in the Washington Post, another comedian is mentioned:

At another, far more visible table (Martin's, by design, is snugged in the corner, blocked largely from view by a colonnade of some sort) is the famous face of a man who knows the meaning of adoration, who sold affability and aplomb as a product for decades.

"Who is that guy?" Martin is asked, and he is not so vain that he gets anxious when the attention is directed elsewhere.

"Isn't he a quiz show guy? Something on TV. Or maybe a host guy. He's some kind of host."

And though this famous fellow's name can't be conjured, he brings a certain rumble of memory with him and the disclosure that Martin ... knew Paul Lynde!

Now, what about giving Paul Lynde - you know, fabulously funny comedian and center square on "Hollywood Squares" all those years - a prize for American humor. Like Twain, Lynde was funny for a lifetime, unique, brilliant, had cool hair and is now dead. But we didn't come all this way to talk about ghosts, even if Martin did show delight at a reporter's mention of Paul Lynde. Because Martin knows comics. His may be a postmodern stylization, but it's not without its foundation of respect for those who came before.

I can't think of a project that involved the two comedians, aside from Hollywood Squares. It's too bad they never worked together; they'd have been fun to watch.

Bewitched DVD

The second season boxed set for Bewitched is out today, in B&W and/or colorized versions. Paul Lynde appears in only one of the 38 (!) episodes, but it's a special one, since he plays Uncle Arthur for the first time. The good people at Columbia should consider an Uncle Arthur Special Edition, with all Paul's guest spots. Or better yet: the same company needs to release The Paul Lynde Show - The Complete Series. Fans wouldn't have to buy the inferior bootlegs that are floating around.

(Not so coincidentally, I'm sure, Steve Carrell's turn as Uncle Arthur - in the big screen version of Bewitched - appears on DVD today too.)

Anderson Cooper

I don't want to add to the ongoing debate about Anderson Cooper's private life. I do, however, offer the following from the August 26, 2002, transcript of CNN Newsnight:

ANDERSON COOPER, HOST: You know, as a highly sought-after fill-in anchor, I'm often asked, Anderson, who do you most like to interview? Whose mind would you most like to probe? You know, Peter Jennings and I often discuss this over a warm glass [of] Remy Martin. As you might expect, Peter says Aung Sung Suu Kyi. Me? I say Paul Lynde. Sadly, he's dead. But number two on my list is someone who people just think is dead. It turns out he's not -- Charles Nelson Reilly. Ring a bell?

Summer Stock Royalty

At my regular site, I just posted two pages of reviews from Paul's heyday as summer stock royalty. He was easily the most popular of all the Kenley Players, which, if you read the list I compiled, includes some pretty amazing names. It's too bad that none of these shows was videotaped (as far as I know). How I'd love to see Paul's performance in Woody Allen's Don't Drink the Water (and Betty Hutton in Gypsy ... Jo Anne Worley in Gypsy ... and, to keep a theme going here, Gypsy Rose Lee in Auntie Mame).

This Terrible Business...

The Oscar-nominated director Norman Jewison has just published his autobiography: This Terrible Business Has Been Good to Me.

Jewison directed Send Me No Flowers, the last Doris Day-Rock Hudson comedy, in which Paul Lynde had a supporting role. Jewison wanted "actors who knew how to play a part in a broad, comic way without tipping into idiocy." He got Tony Randall, Hal March, Edward Andrews, and "Paul Lynde as the hysterically funny salesman of cemetery plots. There wasn't a dud in the entire cast."

Paul reportedly liked this film role more than anything he did on screen. Hudson, on the other hand, hated their scene together, which he considered in bad taste. I side with Paul. He's very funny here.

And for what it's worth, The Glass Bottom Boat, the second film Paul made with Doris Day, is on Turner Classic Movies this Monday (10/24) at 2:00 p.m. It includes his famous drag scene!

Blender Approved

In the November 2005 issue of Blender - my absolute favorite magazine - one of Paul's cinematic masterpieces is included among The 100 Greatest Rock & Roll Movies of All Time. Bye Bye Birdie shows up on the list at #96. Although Paul forever dismissed the screen version of his Broadway hit as "Hello Ann-Margret," Blender reminds us that the sexy Swede was "the Lindsay Lohan of 1963."

[If Paul's part hadn't been re-written for someone of the opposite sex, he'd have popped up at #19: Grease.]

First Post

Instead of using my typical home page to post news items about Paul Lynde, about whom my friend Steve Wilson & I just published a book, I thought I'd try blogging. It seems like fun.