Home movies of a national hero who made America laugh at its problems during the Great Depression, humorous Will Rogers.
And ahead, Academy Award winner Jack Lemmon takes on a classic drama and finds it's the toughest role he's ever had.
Will Rogers was called an unofficial Prime Minister of the people and spokesman for the common man.
He was a top box office name in the 30s, a celebrated newspaper columnist and radio performer, and he was also a national folk hero.
Though Rogers died over 50 years ago, Leonard Maltin tells us his humor lives on, now on cable television. Leonard?
That's right, John. Will Rogers is not what you call hot, but he really ought to be.
His humor is so contemporary and his movies are so good, they deserve to be better known and enjoyed today.
So as a big Will Rogers fan, I was delighted to see that HBO is broadcasting a special called Will Rogers Look Back in Laughter, starting this Saturday.
One of the men behind it is Harold Ramis, the co-star and co-writer of Ghostbusters and so many other comedy hits,
whose comic friends helped pay tribute to the greatest of them all.
But I tell you, it's a real kick for me to talk about Will Rogers.
And apparently it's a kick that's shared by Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase, and other top comedy stars who appear on the special, along with Harold Ramis himself.
The special chronicles the life and times of America's beloved cowboy humorist and features some rare and wonderful film footage,
including shots of Will doing his famous roping tricks and pursuing his favorite pastime, polo, with such friends as Spencer Tracy.
A home movie with the Rogers family shows that Will took nothing seriously, least of all himself.
We also get a healthy sampling of the Rogers wit and wisdom, some of it from his self-styled movie roles, like this story of small town politics, the county chairman.
What are you going to print?
I'm going to print the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
It's such an unusual thing to do in a campaign that the novelty of it is liable to appeal to the voters.
And some of it from Rogers' many speeches, such as this one made at the height of the Great Depression.
It could have been said just this morning.
Here we are in a country with more wheat and more corn and more money in the bank and more cotton, more everything in the world.
There's not a product that you can name that we haven't gotten more of it than any country ever had in the face of the earth.
And yet we've got people starving.
We'll hold the distinction of being the only nation in the history of the world that ever went to the poorhouse in an automobile.
There's been no one to compare with Will Rogers in the 52 years since his death.
He was more than an entertainer. He was a national hero. His words and his work should never die.
Home Box Office begins airing the one-hour special this weekend.
It's awfully good and I hope it whets people's appetite to see even more of Will Rogers.
Thanks, Leonard.
Yeah.
Spectacular entrances began early for Jack Lemmon.
He was born two months premature in a hospital elevator in Boston, but life for the actor has been mostly up.
He won two Academy Awards and an Emmy, has appeared in over 40 films and over 500 television roles.
Eric Burns talked to Lemmon about his latest project, a classic Eugene O'Neill play.
Jack Lemmon has described his performance in Long Day's Journey into Night as the toughest, most consuming job he's ever had.
We are talking about dramatic scenes in probably the greatest American play ever written.
I may be a bad Catholic in the observance. Oh may God forgive me, but I believe and you lie.
I may not go to church regularly, but every night, every morning I am on my knees and I pray.
Not in terms of the plot, Jack, but in terms of the themes. What is A Long Day's Journey into Night about?
Strangely enough, I think it's a love story.
It's not often described that way.
I say it's a love story because basically when you take a family for let's say 24 hours and put them through a living hell
and they are still together at the end, basically there is only one reason why it possibly could have been and that is love.
One thing you might do this afternoon, Mary, would be good for you. Take a ride in the automobile.
God, get out of this house, eh? Get some sun.
This Showtime cable TV presentation of Long Day's Journey into Night reunites the stage company which last year played to critical acclaim on Broadway and in London's West End.
I would think that to play this role on TV you would really have to rein in impulses that on stage you would have to play very broadly.
It's very, very difficult to do when that camera gets right in. Boy, I tell you, that goes through the eyes right into the toenails at times.
So instead of doing this or some big gesture and so forth, maybe a raised eyebrow would do it.
God, what a sweet spectacle for me, my first born. The one that I had hoped would carry my name with all the...
To most people, Long Day's Journey into Night is something close to tragedy, not to Jack Lemmon.
I don't think that it is a terrible downer that you come out of the theater or from a viewing of the tape and feel, oh my God, that was terrible.
It isn't that, it's cathartic, if anything else, and it does have the upside in that there is something to be learned from it and the strength of the love and what it can do and what it hopefully can do for all of us.
Long Day's Journey into Night airs on Showtime once this week, once next week, and twice the first week of May.
Eric Burns, Entertainment Tonight.
As for his next assignment, Lemmon will be on location early next month for a new NBC miniseries, The Ballad of Mary Fagan.
On Tuesday, Annette Funicello and Frankie Apollon hit the sand in a new beach bikini movie, but now it's their kids who are the teenage terrors.
And on Wednesday, the comedy classic The Dick Van Dyke Show.
We'll discover the magic formula for the show's success in 25 years of television.
Mexican Hospital, a mother and her newborn baby struggle to stay alive.
On Monday's PIA Magazine, we'll meet these incredible survivors of the Mexican earthquake.
Then Portland is becoming well known for its thriving music industry.
We'll look in on a recording session in the living room studio at Windham Hill Records where musicians can find all the comforts of home.
Hi, I'm Elaine Bunsey.
And I'm Jack McGowan.
Join us for these great stories and a final tribute to the United States Coast Guard Cutter Glacier.
That's PIA Magazine at 730 on Channel 8.
The rapid blasts of the machine guns, Walter Winchell's staccato narration, and the violent deaths of all the criminals were all elements that made The Untouchables a TV classic.
And though the series premiered almost 30 years ago, its images remain part of our popular culture.
So much so, in fact, there's a new movie set to open June 5th based on the exploits of those G-men.
Today, Carl Reiner looks back at the original series and the man who became Elliot Ness in 25 years of television.
["The Untouchables Theme from The Untouchables"]
We just took the basic premise of the hassle between these seven guys against City Hall and Capone.
We got in terrible trouble in TV because it wasn't really, it wasn't designed for television really, but we made a success in spite of that.
I was instructed to deliver the body of Juan Alfonso Capone.
What made The Untouchables was the talent that they brought in.
I've earned this audience. I'm not going to waste it.
Well, let's get on with it, huh?
We had a young actor called, what's his name again, Robert Redford. That's the name, yeah.
And we had that, we had them all. It was a sounding board and a beginning for almost half the actors in the business today.
We're invited to a party.
Elliot Ness was on top of everyone's case. He cornered Mar Barker, Mad Dog Cole, Frank Nitti, and even the notorious Al Capone.
Borden, this Al Capraz is for tough guys, not people like me. What did I ever do?
It's not Capone I played on The Untouchables. I played Capone and myself, and they become one.
He had a hand for knowledge and culture, you know, and he was a big snob, and that's what I am. I still am.
The Untouchables premiered in 1959 and immediately drew fire from TV critics, ethnic groups, prison officials, and the FBI.
I've been blamed for putting censorship on TV because we told the stories as they happened, a lot of them, innocently.
And all of a sudden people came around and said, you can't do that. The shows have already been on the air.
What are you trying to make out of this, a federal case?
Exactly that, a federal case.
The story was between Ness and Nitti and Capone, and they happened to be the Italian crooks.
As you know, the crooks are from everywhere, but at that particular place and time, it was Italian.
As a consequence, telling the same story 120 times, it looked like it was some kind of a threat to wipe out the poor Italians.
So we had the Italo-American societies, we had everybody from Cardinal Spellman to whoever you want to mention.
You don't look Italian.
Neither do you.
By then you couldn't use Italian names. You couldn't use any names. We couldn't even use Chinese names.
We used names in Esperanto, finally. We couldn't find a minority group.
Shut up, will you?
It got so ridiculous that nobody, the first guy who pronounced these ridiculous names, he was stuck with the pronunciation the rest of the show.
J-P-X-Z-Y-L-L-D-D, oh my God.
All right, everybody, hold it right there.
Robert Stack was Eliot Ness.
I liked the man. I was proud to play him. But frankly, playing it 120 times, I was Eliot Ness in some parts of the world.
For those who are old enough to remember, I still am. So I can't poke fun at him.
Rico, I can see them.
There's a blue jay.
Red warden over there.
Lee, Rico, Youngblood.
Everybody says, you say, Rico, young fella, you take the back. I don't even want to go to the door.
You know, this is a raid. You know, what are you going to do? I mean, how many times do you say, okay, get your hands over your heads?
Youngblood, Lee, stop playing with those oven mitts.
Okay, Rico, young fella, you take the back. I'll take the back. Okay, this is a federal raid. Get your hands up.
We had fun, though.
Tomorrow, a trip to Mayberry with Andy Griffith.
As 25 years of TV looks at 1960, I'm Carl Reiner.
Comic actor Dick Shawn suffered a heart attack and died on stage Friday in San Diego.
The 62-year-old performer was part of the way through his stand-up routine, and at first, the audience members thought it was all a gag.
Shawn was known for his unconventional humor and off-the-wall characterizations. The man will be remembered.
Well, how long have you been trying out for this club, Johnny?
Not too long. 32 years.
32 years?
Well, from the day I was born, I always wanted to be a yanking.
Dick Shawn said his greatest ambition as a child was to play professional baseball. He never made it, but instead became one of the more unique comedians around.
Mommy, I'm not too worried about you. Baby's coming. The baby's coming, say no more.
A hugely entertaining and unpredictable man, Shawn was known for his zany brand of humor and often surreal characterizations.
His nightclub work quickly led to television, Broadway, and eventually films.
Now, I'm gonna do this.
After his role in Mel Brooks the Producers as a lisping hippie fure, Shawn was forever offered offbeat roles.
I don't know why they picked me for these parts. I really want to do Lear. I want to do Death of a Salesman. I want to do Lee Cobb, Death of a Salesman, but no, they put these back in here if I get my land. I want to be serious.
But it was Shawn's one-man show, the second greatest entertainer in the whole wide world, that he was most proud of.
Laughter will get you through life, and the opposite, crying, crying will tell you what life is really all about.
But if you can laugh and cry simultaneously, you'll save a lot of time.
Dick Shawn was eulogized Sunday in Los Angeles by Milton Berle as a master performer and an innovative genius who will be irreplaceable in the entertainment industry.
Celebrating a birthday today, actress Jessica Lange is 38, actor Ryan O'Neill, 46, actor George Takei is 47, actress Nina Foch, 63, and jazz great Lionel Hampton is 78, one year for each of those RPMs on those old classic 78s.
In today's People Post scripts, country singer Eddie Rabbit led a contingent of Easter bunnies and other assorted animals, including Garfield the Cat at the White House Easter Egg Hunt in Washington, D.C.
The White House lawn became a playground to thousands of the nation's children today in the 109th annual Easter Egg Roll.
Singer Eddie Rabbit was designated the official Easter Rabbit and was joined by lots of familiar characters in entertaining the children who search for eggs signed by celebrities who have visited or lived in the White House.
You may have been impressed with some of the Easter bunnies that were out yesterday, but they pale to insignificance next to the hats that roll down Broadway.
On the day before Easter, Broadway celebrated in a rather heady fashion by staging an Easter bonnet competition to raise money for AIDS research.
Fourteen shows from the Great White Way were represented in the inaugural benefit, which raised more than $18,000.
The day's largest donation was $4,700 for this elaborate hat from LaCaja Foal.
The original creations were designed and constructed by cast members from current Broadway productions.
When actor James Daly was filming the young stranger in Hollywood in the 50s, he brought his family out from the East to join him.
One young stranger to the glamour of Hollywood was his daughter, who grew up to be a three-time Emmy winner.
Here is Tyne Daly's Hollywood memory.
I was 11 years old and my dad was doing a picture out here called Intimate Strangers.
I think so. No, the young stranger.
And we were put up in a palazzo, a pink palazzo in Hollywood Hills, and had a red convertible car and it was all very thrilling and my sisters and I thought it was wonderful.
And we went down and met Judy Holliday one night and we went to the movies at Grauman's Chinese Theatre with Judy Holliday and her mother to see The King and I.
And it was that theatre with the handprints and all that stuff and I thought it was very grand, but I had a terrible evening because Judy Holliday's mother fell asleep and snored very loudly.
And I was too callow and young to be anything but deeply embarrassed.
So I sort of missed my opportunity to snuggle up to a big star. She was a big star then.
And that's my first memory of Hollywood, going into Hollywood. We came down from the rented house and went and saw The King and I and I didn't enjoy it because Judy Holliday's mother snored.
Welcome back, Mary. It's good to have you back.
Thank you. I was off creating a few Hollywood memories of my own with Alan Thicke in Cancun and Richard Dean Anderson in the Caribbean. It was a tough assignment.
That's what you guys were doing. That's our show for today. Hope you'll join us tomorrow when we go back to the beach with two stars of the classic sand and surf epics, Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon.
And today we're going to leave you with the latest single from the group Timbukk 3. Their song is called Hairstyles and Attitudes and the video was edited by Michael Gross who just happens to work with us here on Entertainment Tonight.
Anyway, good job, Michael. Hope you enjoy it.
Take care, everybody.
Hairstyles and Attitudes, are they connected? Our styles will raise the matter of taste or values projected. Hairstyles and Attitudes, how do they relate? How will we use our feelings to the illusions we create?
Find out where some of the best new age music is being recorded for the Wyndham Hill label. It's not in a high tech studio, but it is right here in Portland and it's selling around the country. Join PM Magazine next on Channel 8.
Then stay tuned for a great Monday night on NBC.
Hairstyles and Attitudes.