Listening to Legendary Comedy Directors

Tonight I went to a special SAG Film Society event. It was a panel discussion with three legendary great comedy directors, Rob Reiner, Amy Heckerling, and Garry Marshall. It was presented by the DGA 75th Anniversary Advisory Committee and called "Make 'Em Laugh: Game Changing Comedy Direction".

It was moderated by another comedy director, Shawn Levy. It was a very entertaining and informative evening with wonderful stories told by all three.

For example, Garry Marshall said in television, you have to finish no matter what. So once when he was doing a Happy Days episode, where the Fonz was on a jury, they didn't have the budget for a jury room set. But since the whole thing was about Fonz on the jury, there were many scenes for that room. So he hired a day player to come out with a paint can and whisper to the judge. The judge said the jury room is being painted and they would just stay in that room.

Rob Reiner shared a story about an episode of The Show of Shows which was live TV that his father Carl Reiner did. This episode was a satire of The Defenders and Carl Reiner played the prosecutor and Sid Caesar the defense attorney. The jury was supposed to bring back a guilty verdict, then the defendant's mother was going to jump up and offer new evidence.

Instead, the jury brought back a not guilty verdict which meant the story was ending half way through the show. So Sid, the defense attorney, jumped up and said that his own client was guilty and he knew it and then introduced the mother's new evidence, so that they could move along and finish the show.

They were asked to offer up clips of shows that were great influences on them. Rob Reiner chose one from The Show of Shows, Amy chose one from Blazing Saddles and The Producers, and Garry Marshall also chose a Mel Brooks one.