'Honeymooners' Actor Art Carney Dies
HARTFORD, Conn. - Art Carney, who played Jackie Gleason's sewer worker pal Ed Norton in the TV classic "The Honeymooners" and went on to win the 1974 Oscar for best actor in "Harry and Tonto," has died at 85.
Carney died in Chester, Conn., on Sunday. He had been ill for some time.
The comic actor would be forever identified as Norton, Ralph Kramden's bowling buddy and not-too-bright upstairs neighbor on "The Honeymooners." The sitcom appeared in various forms from 1951 to 1956 and was revived briefly in 1971. The shows can still be seen on cable.
With his turned-up porkpie hat and unbuttoned vest over a white T-shirt, Carney's Ed Norton with his dopily exuberant "Hey, Ralphie boy!" became an ideal foil for Gleason's blustery, bullying Kramden. Carney won three Emmys for his role and his first taste of fame.
"The first time I saw the guy act," Gleason once said, "I knew I would have to work twice as hard for my laughs. He was funny as hell."
In one episode, he and Ralph learn to golf from an instruction book. Told to "address the ball," Norton gives a wave of the hand and says, "Hellooooo, ball!" In another episode, Norton inadvertently wins the award for best costume at a Raccoon Lodge party by showing up in his sewer worker's gear.
He told a Saturday Evening Post interviewer in 1961 that strangers were always asking him how he liked it down in the sewer. "I have seasonal answers," he said. "In the summer: `I like it down there because it's cool.' In the winter: `I like it down there because it's warm.' Then I've got one that isn't seasonal: `Go to hell.'"
After "The Honeymooners," Carney battled a drinking problem for several years. His behavior became erratic while co-starring with Walter Matthau in the Broadway run of Neil Simon's "The Odd Couple." He dropped out of the show and spent nearly half a year in a sanitarium.
His career resumed, and in 1974 he was cast in Paul Mazurksy's "Harry and Tonto" as a 72-year-old widower who travels from New York to Chicago with his pet cat. He stopped drinking during the making of the film.
When it won him his Oscar, Carney cracked to reporters: "You're looking at an actor whose price has just doubled."
"Art was, and is one of the most endearing men I have ever met," the late actress Audrey Meadows (the caustic Alice Kramden on "The Honeymooners") wrote in her 1994 memoir "Love, Alice." She called him a "witty and delightful companion who went out of his way to help each new actor find his niche in the often bewildering world of `The Jackie Gleason Show.'"
Carney was born into an Irish-Catholic family in Mount Vernon, N.Y., on Nov. 4, 1918, and baptized Arthur William Matthew Carney. His father was a newspaperman and publicist.
After appearing in amateur theatricals and imitating radio personalities, Carney won a job in 1937 traveling with Horace Heidt's dance band, doing his impressions and singing novelty songs.
"There I was, an 18-year-old mimic rooming with a blind whistler," he told People magazine in 1974. "He would order gin and grapefruit juice for us in the morning, and it was great. ... No responsibilities, no remorse. I was an alcoholic, even then."
He left Heidt and tried playing standup comedy in nightclubs. He failed. But he won a job at $225 a week imitating Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and other world leaders on a radio show, "Report to the Nation."
He was drafted into the Army in 1944 and took part in the D-Day landing at Normandy. A piece of shrapnel shattered his right leg. He was left with a leg three-quarters of an inch shorter than the other and a lifelong limp.
Carney returned to radio as second banana on comedy shows, then ventured into television on "The Morey Amsterdam Show" in 1947. That brought him to the attention of Gleason.
Among his movie credits: "W.W. and the Dixie Dance Kings," "The Late Show," "House Calls," "Movie Movie," "Sunburn," "Going in Style," "Roadie," "Firestarter," "The Muppets Take Manhattan" and "Last Action Hero."
Carney married his high school sweetheart, Jean Myers, in 1940. After the marriage broke up, Carney married Barbara Isaac in 1966. They divorced 10 years later, and in 1980 he and his first wife remarried.
"We always kept in touch because of our three children," he said in a 1980 AP interview. "After our second divorces, it was sort of like the puppy coming home: `Oh, it's you, come on in.' We decided to give it a go again."
Canadians will get grace period in switch to digital television: CTRC
QUEBEC (CP) - Millions of Canadians who still watch television on older equipment will have time to catch up to a coming wave of digital technology.
The federal broadcast regulator unveiled a road map Tuesday for eventually moving all Canadian television to digital signals that would allow on-demand viewing, a wide screen and clearer picture of high definition TV.
The CRTC's plan includes a grace period for the millions of Canadians who still get their television from older sets and don't have the equipment to receive digital TV.
"Our aim is to get the digital signals out there so that Canadians can get them," Charles Dalfen, chairman of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, told a meeting of broadcasters.
"I think it will move along. But we don't to force people to go out and get new sets," he told the annual convention of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters. "We need to get everybody with the program."
Under the plan, broadcasters will be required to offer both analog and digital signals until 85 per cent of viewers have switched to digital-ready equipment.
The CRTC has yet to propose a specific timeline for the switch, but Dalfen predicted it could take five or six years.
About a quarter of Canadian households still get their television from old-fashioned airwaves, while the rest rely on satellite or cable where digital service is often available.
However, even with cable the switch to digital service has been slow.
Of the 7.3 million Canadian households with cable television in 2002, the cable industry says about 1.3 million people were using digital signals.
Blue Jays' Halladay Wins Cy Young Award
NEW YORK - Toronto's Roy Halladay won the American League Cy Young Award on Tuesday, easily beating Chicago's Esteban Loaiza.
Halladay, who won a major league-high 22 games, received 26 first-place votes and two seconds for 136 points in balloting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.
Loaiza, who went to spring training with a minor league contract, got two firsts, 16 seconds and five thirds for 63 points.
Boston's Pedro Martinez was third with 20 points, followed by Oakland's Tim Hudson (15), Seattle's Jamie Moyer (12), the Yankees' Andy Pettitte (four) and Oakland's Keith Foulke and Minnesota's Johann Santana (one each).
Halladay, a 26-year-old right-hander, had never won more than eight games in a season before he went 19-7 in 2002.
He finished 22-7 with a 3.25 ERA this year, winning 15 consecutive decisions from May 1 to July 27 and tying for the AL lead with nine complete games.
His 1-0, 10-inning win over Detroit on Sept. 7 was the first extra-inning shutout in the major leagues since Jack Morris led Minnesota over Atlanta in Game 7 of the 1991 World Series.
Loaiza went 21-9 with a 2.90 ERA and a league-high 207 strikeouts. Martinez, a three-time Cy Young winner, was 14-4 with a major league-leading 2.22 ERA.
Toronto pitchers have won the award in four of the last eight seasons, with Halladay following Pat Hentgen (1996) and Roger Clemens (1997 and 1998).
Halladay gets a $100,000 bonus for winning, Loaiza gets $90,000 for finishing second and Martinez $50,000 for finishing third.
He's Back, And Let's Hope She Comes Back Again Too!
This week in The Couch Potato Report the Terminator is back, but he's missing his Canadian, and Three's Company finally comes home.
Any discussion of the greatest science fiction films of all time has to include at least one of the first two TERMINATOR movies. Created by Canadian James Cameron the gist of the story is that a cyborg is sent back in time to the present day to stop the future from existing.
The original TERMINATOR was released in 1984 and was a tremendous success. It was also the first big movie role for a former Austrian bodybuilder.
Everyone can pronounce his name these days, especially in California where he's the governor elect, but in 1984 the name Arnold Schwarzenegger was mangled by film fans and journalists alike.
By the time TERMINATOR 2 - JUDGEMENT DAY came out in 1991 everyone knew the bodybuilder simply as Arnold and James Cameron had also established himself as a filmmaker to be reckoned with.
But no one could have guessed that "T2" was going to change the way we watched movies forever. Compared to the special effects in films these days T2 could be considered tame, but in 1991 the computer effects were groundbreaking! I can personally remember walking out of the the theatre is awe and wondering "How did they do that?!?!"
But that was 12 years ago. In the intervening years movies like THE MATRIX and JURASSIC PARK, and James Cameron's own Oscar winning film TITANIC, have upped the ante in what moviegoers have come to expect and demand.
So when it was announced that there would be a TERMINATOR 3 fans of the series rejoiced. When that announcement was followed up with the news that James Cameron wasn't going to be involved, the rejoicing turned to skepticism.
"How could they do a TERMINATOR film without the person who created it being involved?!?!"
Well they did, and at the end of the day TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES isn't as bad as it could have been. It isn't groundbreaking like the first two but it does start out with a very quick pace and never really lets up.
Regarding the story, well that is where you have to be willing to forget some of the story points presented in TERMINATOR 2.
Y'see, it turns out that the apocalyptic "Judgment Day" of T2 was never prevented, only postponed. So if you can get past that, T3 is not bad.
The hero of the series, John Connor, is now 22 and he's being pursued yet again. This time by the advanced T-X, a sleek female "Terminatrix" programmed to stop Connor from becoming the savior of humankind in the future.
Schwarzenegger's disadvantaged T-101 cyborg once again arrives from the future to join Connor and attempt to thwart the T-X's relentless pursuit.
Linda Hamilton, who was such an integral part of the first two TERMINATOR films is sorely missed in this sequel. But she's not missed half as much as James Cameron.
If you can imagine what would happen if someone else decided to make decisions for your babies after you've guided them for almost twenty years, then you would have some concept of what is going on in TERMINATOR 3.
Johnathan Mostow has taken over for Cameron. His resume includes BREAKDOWN and U-571, both good popcorn movies, but the TERMINATOR films have always set the standard for action in films, not just followed what everyone else is doing.
Mostow fully deserves credit for not attempting to simply follow Cameron's footprints in the snow and create a carbon copy of the first two movies. But in the end that is also why T3 will never be considered a classic film that can stand on its own. It's merely the latest film in the TERMINATOR series, a series that looks like it will continue, with or without Schwarzenegger - or James Cameron for that matter - having anything to do with it.
Yes, T3 is a fun, exciting popcorn thriller, that is just as humorous in parts as its predecessors. And yes it is great watching Schwarzenegger return to his signature role after years of making basically unwatchable movies, but TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES is a TERMINATOR film in name alone. Its good, just not as good.
So now there are three TERMINATOR films, and three's company.
There's also THREE'S COMPANY: SEASON ONE.
Originally planned for release in 2004 the release date was moved up when fans began clamouring for episodes of the series after the untimely death of John Ritter on September 11th.
Normally I would have a problem with the fact that this release was moved up to "capitalize" on Ritter's passing, but in this instance I'm just glad I have these shows to watch, laugh at and remember John Ritter by.
Originally broadcast in 1977 THREE'S COMPANY: SEASON ONE contains all of the six full-length, unedited episodes from the first season of one of the greatest TV series of all time.
Ritter, Suzanne Somers and Joyce DeWitt aren't quite firing on all cylinders in these first six episodes, but you'll be surprised at how funny they still are, even though they've been seen hundreds of times.
One movie I know people have seen at least that many times is DUMB AND DUMBER, starring Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels.
Well, before the adult years that took place in DUMB AND DUMBERER there was high school.
In DUMB AND DUMBERER: WHEN HARRY MET LLOYD we're shown how the two friends for first met.
I lamented a few minutes ago that James Cameron, the creator of the TERMINATOR, was no longer involved in the series. But at least T3 has the original star!
Not only are Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels no where to be seen in DUMB AND DUMBERER but the Farrelly Brothers, who co-wrote and directed the original, are also missing in action. Be forewarned, this movie has no pedigree to the first movie, except for the names of the characters.
That said, there are at least two HUGE laughs in this otherwise pointless prequel, so if you just want to laugh at utter stupidity then give DUMB AND DUMBERER: WHEN HARRY MET LLOYD a try.
But if you want to laugh at well written, completely enjoyable comedy, then pick up KING OF THE HILL: THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON. This new box set of the Sunday night TV staple has a wide array of laughs and special features.
COMING NEXT WEEK
Bruce Springsteen: Live In Barcelona -A recording of Bruce Springsteen and his E Street band performing in Spain on October 16, 2002.
The Santa Clause 2 - Santa must find a bride before Christmas. (Tim Allen, Molly Shannon, Elizabeth Mitchell)
Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life - Angelina Jolie returns as the video game heroine in this sequel no one wanted.
Sinbad: Legend Of The Seven Seas - The adventures of Sinbad, the swashbuckling hero. (Brad Pitt, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Joseph Fiennes)
Enjoy the movies and I'll see you on the couch!
Cronenberg Operates on 'Alias'
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - After Sunday (Nov. 9) night's "Alias" opened with a gory dream sequence in which Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) extracted miles of bloody tubing from a scar in her stomach, many viewers may have felt like they accidentally wandered into a David Cronenberg movie. Those feelings will be amplified on Sunday, Nov. 30 when the Canadian director makes a rare television acting appearance on the ABC spy drama.
Cronenberg will play Dr. Brezzel, an eccentric doctor enlisted to help Sydney recover the missing memories from the two years she lost during last season's finale. The procedure is invasive and potentially dangerous and Sydney's mind proves highly resistant.
Fans of Cronenberg's films know that the director is a big fan of representations of invasive procedures -- surgical, sexual and psychological. The director's love of putting orifices where they don't necessarily belong has been on display in films as diversely disturbing as "Crash," "eXistenZ," "The Fly," "Dead Ringers" and "Rabid."
Cronenberg has won five Genies (Canada's equivalent of the Oscars) for outstanding director. In what can only be described as one of the strangest ties in awards history, he shared the 1984 prize (earned for "Videodrome") with Bob Clark for "A Christmas Story."
In front of the camera, Cronenberg's record has been a bit spottier. His acting credits include "The Stupids," "Jason X" and the NBC telefilm "The Judge."
Hornsby Goes To 'Town' With Hits Set, DVD
BMG Heritage has set a Jan. 13 release for two sets celebrating the career of pianist Bruce Hornsby. The CD "Greatest Radio Hits" is Hornsby's first greatest-hits package. His first DVD release, the 1990 concert film "A Night on the Town," will also hit stores that day.
"Greatest Radio Hits" sports Hornsby's best-known tracks, including "Mandolin Rain," "Look Out Any Window," "The Valley Road" and his breakthrough hit, "The Way It Is." The set also features live versions of "The End of the Innocence" and "Jacob's Ladder," the former a collaboration with Don Henley that Henley made famous, and the latter a Hornsby compilation that proved a hit for Huey Lewis.
Additionally, the album boasts "Go Back to Your Woods," a new and previously unreleased collaboration with Robbie Robertson.
As for "A Night on the Town," it was filmed in 1990 in Los Angeles and features a host of guest artists, including Shawn Colvin, Bela Fleck and Jerry Garcia. Hornsby and his band the Range whip through a bevy of hits and rarities, including a cover of Otis Redding's "These Arms of Mine."
Here is the track list for the "Greatest Radio Hits" CD:
"The Way It Is"
"Mandolin Rain"
"Every Little Kiss"
"The Valley Road"
"Look Out Any Window"
"Jacob's Ladder" (live)
"The End of the Innocence" (live)
"Across the River"
"Lost Soul"
"Set Me in Motion"
"Fields of Gray"
"Walk in the Sun"
"See the Same Way"
"The Good Life"
"Go Back to Your Woods"
Here is the track list for the "A Night on the Town" DVD:
"A Night on the Town"
"Fire on the Cross"
"Barren Ground"
"Across the River"
"Stranded on Easy Street"
"The End of the Innocence"
"Lost Soul"
"The Valley Road"
"The Way It Is"
"Another Day"
"These Arms of Mine"
Oops, I'm A Week Behind!
Okay, I have to come clean. As I am sitting here writing this I am listening to the new Sarah McLachlan CD. Called AFTERGLOW it was released last week. Once I am done with Sarah (Oh, to dream!), I will then listen to the new CD from Maritime Fiddle uber-babe Natalie MacMaster. That one is entitled BLUEPRINT and it too came out last week.
So while there are some great newer discs on my desk that I need to listen to, including several that are on the list below, I am here listening to last week's releases. But if its any consolation, these ones are pretty good!
I only hope the discs I'm listeing to next week, which are being released this week, are as good as the ones that came out last week.
If they are, then we are in for more great music!
Either way, here are the new CD releases for Tuesday, November 11, 2003:
* 2 PAC Resurrection (Universal)
* COLDPLAY Live 2003 (DVD) (EMI)
* DREAM THEATRE Train Of Thought (Elektra)
* FEFE DOBSON Fefe Dobson (Island)
* JOSH GROBAN Closer (Warner)
* KID ROCK Kid Rock (Atlantic)
* NO DOUBT The Singles Collection (Interscope)
* PINK Try This (BMG)
* RANDY TRAVIS Worship & Faith (Warner)
* RUBEN STUDDARD Soulful (J Records)
* SHANIA TWAIN (Shania Twain DVD) (Universal)
* STONE TEMPLE PILOTS Thank You (Atlantic)
* TERENCE TRENT D'ARBY Wildcard (Sananda)
* VARIOUS ARTISTS Big Shiny Tunes 8 (Warner)
Fraser considered for 'Superman' role
Brendan Fraser is being considered for the title role in the latest Superman movie, according to Zap2it.com.
"Yeah, I've been approached, and I'm interested," Fraser told Zap2it.com. "It's a possibility."
Fraser would be the latest in a long line of actors to portray the Man of Steel, based on the popular superhero created more than 60 years ago by Canadian cartoonist Joe Shuster.
Having previously embodied animated characters in "George of the Jungle" and "Dudley Do-Right," Fraser said the role is something he would have to consider carefully.
"Whoever it is who plays that role is historically forever known as that character," he said. "He's a superhero with no mask."
Tentatively titled "Kal-El: Genesis of Superman," the movie is currently in pre-production. "Charlie's Angels" director McG is attached to direct.
Fraser can next be seen co-starring with Jenna Elfman and Bugs Bunny in "Looney Tunes: Back in Action," in theatres Friday.
Mayberry, USA: 'Simpler time, sweeter place'
Maybe you can go home again.
Tonight's The Andy Griffith Show Reunion: Back to Mayberry will take viewers back to the sleepy North Carolina town at the center of the 1960s comedy. "It's a place people want to return to," says Griffith, who played Sheriff Andy Taylor for eight years.
"The Andy Griffith Show and Mayberry represented this kind of idealized view of what America was. It contains such a heart, such a sense of community."
The people
Characters, not jokes, made it such a good series, Griffith says in the special. There was the father-son relationship of Andy and Opie (Ron Howard), deputy Barney Fife (Don Knotts) playing off straight-man Andy and the personification of Southern hospitality, Aunt Bee (Frances Bavier).
The town was rounded out by Gomer Pyle (Jim Nabors); barber Floyd Lawson (Howard McNear); town drunk Otis Campbell (Hal Smith); Andy's girlfriend, Helen Crump (Aneta Corsaut); Barney's girlfriend, Thelma Lou (Betty Lynn); Goober Pyle (George Lindsey); straight-arrow Howard Sprague (Jack Dodson); and fix-it man Emmett Clark (Paul Hartman).
At Griffith's request, the special features only clips from the episodes of the first five years. Executive producer John Watkin says that reflects Griffith's respect for Knotts, who left the show after five seasons.
"He left a hole in the show that could not be filled," Griffith says.
The places
Mayberry in some ways is a mythic place, imagined by Griffith, producers Sheldon Leonard and Aaron Ruben and the show's writers. But the town also has strong ties to Griffith's boyhood hometown, Mount Airy, N.C., with mentions of real people, such as Earlie Gilley, and real places, such as Snappy Lunch.
"The people in Mount Airy got to saying, 'Well, it was based on Mount Airy,' and that's gone on so long that I guess it just was based on Mount Airy," Griffith says.
TV make-believe conjured other landmarks. Griffith and Howard retrace their steps from the show's opening at the watering hole, which is actually in Los Angeles' Franklin Canyon. "It was a little more overgrown, but it's pretty much the same place," says Watkin, who co-produced with Eamon Harrington.
Watkin was hesitant about asking Howard, an Oscar-winning director, to toss a rock into the water, as young Opie had. "Sure enough, he looked at me with a little twinkle in his eye and said, 'So, I guess you want me to throw the rock,'" Watkin remembers.
The courthouse was re-created just "an Opie rock throw" from where exteriors were filmed in the '60s.
The period
The Andy Griffith Show premiered in October 1960 and switched to color in 1965. Watkin says Mayberry seems more in tune with the 1950s. Jim Clark, who co-wrote Mayberry Memories, says the community, the values and even the props, such as the old-style telephone, reflect earlier times.
In any case, the series seemed far removed from much of the tumult of the '60s, Watkin says.
"It was at a point where America was really in turmoil," he says. "The Andy Griffith Show and Mayberry represented in some sense this kind of idealized view of what America was. It contains such a heart, such a sense of community."
In the special, Howard says the show had a strong message of accepting people, such as Otis the drunk, despite their frailties. Speaking of Otis, shifting sensibilities make it unlikely a show would feature a town drunk these days. In a 1980s Mayberry movie, Otis was sober. That was less a sop to political correctness than an acknowledgment that "you couldn't have him be drunk all those years," says Clark, who has written Griffith books and cookbooks with Ken Beck.
Another element that stands out is the absence of black characters in the Southern town. Griffith says he regrets the lack of representation: "We tried in every way to get that to happen, but we were unable to do it."
The popularity
The Andy Griffith Show still sparkles in the TV firmament. Paramount syndicates it in 97 U.S. TV markets, and the show is a viewer favorite on cable's TV Land.
Each month, an average of 27 million people tune into one of TV Land's Griffith shows. The "Lawman Barney" episode, broadcast on March 25, 2000, remains the cable network's most-watched telecast ever among viewers 25 to 54, drawing 1.65 million.
Devotion is apparent off-screen, too. Last week, fans gathered for the unveiling of a statue of Andy and Opie in Raleigh, N.C. Mayberry Days is an annual event in Mount Airy. Episodes are used in Sunday school. And The Andy Griffith Show Rerun Watchers Club has 1,250 chapters and 20,000 members, Clark says.
Griffith remains busy. He has a new album, The Christmas Guest, and says there's a possibility he and Dick Van Dyke might make a TV movie mystery.
Griffith says the Raleigh statue's plaque encapsulates the appeal: "A simpler time, a sweeter place, a lesson, a laugh, a father and a son."
Bullets, Blood and Barney (Miller)
Just in from Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment is their January 20th lineup of day-and-date and catalog releases, led by the box office smash Once Upon a Time in Mexico. The third and final chapter in Robert Rodriquez's "El Mariarchi" trilogy, this feature-packed set includes a 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer, English 5.1 Dolby surround track, an audio commentary by Rodriquez, the "Ten-Minute Film School," "Inside Troublemaker Studios," "The Anti-Hero's Journey," "Film is Dead" and "The Good, the Bad and the Bloody" featurettes, deleted scenes, and ROM-exclusive shooting gallery and lotteria interactive activities. Retail is $26.95.
And the latest TV on DVD classic finally seeing release is Barney Miller: The Complete First Season. This two-disc set is presented in 4:3 full screen and mono, with no extras save for episode synopses. Retail is $29.95.
Star Wars on DVD?
The rumors have been flying fast and furious ever since the debut of The Adventures of Indiana Jones box set: the original Star Wars trilogy on DVD in 2004? Finally, some genuine hints have come out by way of Lucasfilm themselves. At the company's big Star Wars meet 'n' greet at San Francisco's The Presidio last week, news there was that the original trilogy will finally arrive on DVD next holiday season. No official word has come from Lucasfilm, nor have there been any press releases or public statements. But stay tuned...
And adding fuel to the fire? On December 31st, Fox Home Entertainment will put both Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace and Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones on indefinite moratorium. Get 'em while you can...or what for another opportunity next year?
Rolling Stones Discuss DVD Box Set Release
By MARGIE SZAROLETA, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK - Rest assured, before you go see the Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger is loving you truly.
And Keith Richards is hating it.
That was some of the backstage action revealed as the Stones talked to The Associated Press about Tuesday's release of their new DVD box set, "Four Flicks," which documents the band's 2002-03 "Live Licks" tour.
Jagger sailed into the hotel interview suite wearing a purple leather jacket, orange socks and a black shirt with blue edging. Punctuating his comments with a whiskey laugh, Jagger and Richards, Charlie Watts and Ron Wood spoke about warming up, winding down and everything in between:
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AP: Before the club show, there's a bit of you singing, "I love you truly." What's going on there?
Jagger: I have vocal warm-ups to do. You can't just walk on stage and sing. Well, some people do and they're able to do it, but I'm not. You have to warm up first, like any other muscle, you have to warm yourself up. I have to do like 40 minutes of warm-up and `I love you truly' is part of my warm-ups — and other silly noises.
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AP: There's a point on the DVD where you complain because Mick is doing scales in another room. Is this a recurring problem?
Richards: (Laughs.) Well, yeah. You can call it that. I put it in the contract, actually just for fun, after the last tour. Mick's next door and the rest of the band is in the other room and we're listening to scales. There's some people that need this. Actually, it became a joke. `He cannot do this within my earshot.' We fool around with each other. In a way, I suppose it's the difference between my way of approaching things and Mick's way, which is serious preparation and mine is just get there and do it.
AP: Do you need a certain set of circumstances to be able to write a song?
Richards: I feel like I'm an antenna. You sit down, you pick up a guitar, you sit down at the piano, just tinkle away. Now and again, a lucky accident or just something comes in, and suddenly there's a little idea, and that's called incoming. If you grab that moment and idea, you give it a little help, a little grease, and stroke it a bit and you know (kisses) `I love you!' With a bit of luck, that'll turn into a song, and then you transmit it. I feel like the go-between in this thing. I don't feel like creation. You know, `I created this, I wrote this, this is mine, and blah.' I just think I was lucky to receive it and even luckier that I could pass it on.
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AP: If I had been given the choice of seeing you on the first show of the tour or on the last show, which would have been the better one?
Watts: Usually the last one, you know what you're doing.
Wood: But also the first one, in Toronto, the little club, where we first started up again ... we were so nervous! Well, I was.
Wood: When you don't do it for two years, and we can't do anything half. It has to be manic.
AP: They show a shot of you right before that Toronto show where you're all looking nervous — but you're the Rolling Stones. What could you possibly be nervous about?
Wood: Caring for our audiences.
Watts: Yeah, if you didn't, you could just toss it off. I get nervous playing a pub, let alone going on stage. I get nervous playing with other people. It's adrenaline. I think if you weren't like that, you wouldn't care.
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AP: Have you ever had stage fright?
Jagger: Not in the accepted sense. ... You feel a bit nervous, but I'm not really nervous.
AP: There's a point on the DVD where you look like you're hiding under the stage.
Jagger: Yeah, that's the first show of the whole tour, you know, and everyone's scared. There's a lot of tension from everyone, because I'm not the only one. There are 30 people backstage, and their tension is palpable. You never know what's going to happen. That's one of the interesting things about it. Once you get out there, the first five minutes, that's all gone.
AP: For some people, that would be their worst nightmare: standing up in front of a crowd of people. Why do you do it?
Jagger: It is frightening. It's not frightening for me.
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AP: You've been on tour for so long. What are the first few days like when you finally get home?
Watts: Usually, (the feeling is) still carried on.
Wood: I was going to say the same thing. Every night at nine o'clock, where's the gig?
Watts: But his wife is on the road with him. Mine is at home. So when I get home, mentally I'm still on the road, but I'm actually straight back into being there, with people who have been there for two years and I've been there twice in two years. That's a very strange thing.
Wood: (To Watts) What? To see your wife again? It's not strange to me!
Tony Danza Readies Daytime TV Talk Show
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Tony Danza, the gruff-voiced onetime boxer who became a star of TV sitcom hits such as "Taxi" and "Who's the Boss?" has a new gig -- daytime talk show host.
Walt Disney Co.'s Buena Vista Television on Monday said it was developing a new talk show aimed at female audiences watching daytime TV with Danza at the helm.
The program does not yet have an air date. Buena Vista said it will sell the show in the syndication market, which means it would be broadcast at varying times on local TV stations and cable networks that pay a licensing fee to show it.
"For the last eight years, I have been touring the country with my live act, and it seems as I have been in training for this," Danza said in a statement, referring to his musical review which has played to sold-out audiences in Las Vegas, Atlantic City and elsewhere.
If this new show, which has yet to be named, makes it to TV, he'll join a long list of former TV stars, comedians and others who have attempted TV talk shows, including most recently Ellen DeGeneres.
Danza got his first big break on TV in the hit 1970s sitcom "Taxi," and became a major star with "Who's the Boss?" which ran from 1984 to 1992.