Mike Nichol's & Elaine May were two improv performers in Chicago who really clicked. So much so that they became a comedy team. And a sensation! This was in the late '50…
SOURCE: Ken Levine at 09:00AMRicky Jay passed away last weekend. He was... too young. I loved Ricky Jay but never knew him. My good friend Tracy Newman did and graciously offered to write her own perso…
SOURCE: Ken Levine at 09:00AMIn honor of Turkey Day, Ken spins one audio trainwreck after another. You’ll laugh till you cringe.Listen to the Hollywood & Levine podcast!HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYBODY. …
SOURCE: Ken Levine at 12:04AMAnd not just because I want him to direct one of my movies... or even say hello to me.Got a missive from reader "Laura" who asked:Ken, can you please give your opinion on what Steven Spielbe…
SOURCE: Ken Levine at 09:00AMFor me, if there’s a Mount Rushmore of screenwriters it’s Billy Wilder, Larry Gelbart, Neil Simon, and William Goldman. And now all four have passed. William Goldman died yesterday. …
SOURCE: Ken Levine at 01:30PMI haven’t done this in awhile, so what the hell? Again, thanks to everyone who answered the call last week and gave me your feedback. I got a very interesting suggestion from reader Janet…
SOURCE: Ken Levine at 09:00AMIt’s typical for a movie to take years to get made. Ken takes you through the saga of VOLUNTEERS, from the initial idea to all the studios, ups and downs, production, release, and ho…
SOURCE: Ken Levine at 12:02AMTourism is always big in Los Angeles. Local residents on the Westside are used to seeing kids stand out on Sunset Blvd. selling maps to the stars’ homes. Hollywood locals take it fo…
SOURCE: Ken Levine at 09:00AMSince a number of people who read my post yesterday asked about my brush with Jacqueline Onassis, I thought I would reprise a post I wrote on this a few years ago.Yes, I went to the theatre …
SOURCE: Ken Levine at 09:00AMAs a playwright, one of my main objectives is to see my plays produced. I have full-length, half-hour, and ten-minute plays. All comedies, some award winners. So in an attempt to make my …
SOURCE: Ken Levine at 09:00AMI've posted this before, years ago, but it's one of my all-time favorites. Do you remember a comedian named Gallagher? His basic act was smashing watermelons. When …
SOURCE: Ken Levine at 09:00AMOh, the humanity! The heartbreak! Imagine if she had slept with a roadie. Or worse -- a writer.Let this be a cautionary tale. Never sleep with a celebrity until you'…
SOURCE: Ken Levine at 09:00AMTCM in tribute to Neil Simon played a number of his movies last night. A few years ago I hosted a month-long Neil Simon film festival on TCM. Although they didn't use my intros a…
SOURCE: Ken Levine at 09:00AMLost in all the horrors of 9-11 is that I lost another dear friend who died on that date. Larry Gelbart in 2009. Were it not for 9-11 I might have saluted him every year on…
SOURCE: Ken Levine at 09:00AMHaving a show on network televisionBeing on televisionRadioHaving a hit songBeing an NFL team in Los AngelesThe Rose BowlThe Polo LoungeAirline travelLibrary cardThe Universal TourMovie prem…
SOURCE: Ken Levine at 09:00AMThis is another crazy story that happened along the way in our career. This was on a pilot rewrite.In 1976 there was a somewhat popular movie called MOTHER, JUGS, & SPEED about ambula…
SOURCE: Ken Levine at 09:00AMscene from GOING GOING GONEI love writing plays. It’s liberating to write whatever I want, characters of any age, and no network executive insisting I make my antagonist more “likeable…
SOURCE: Ken Levine at 09:00AMTHE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG does pretty much everything right. It started in England and continues on Broadway. For all the heavy “important” plays that have come and gone over the past…
SOURCE: Ken Levine at 09:00AMFriday Questions everybody. Come and get ‘em.Dsull leads off with a question about the five sitcoms I listed as my all-time favorites. With the exception Seinfeld, all your favorite sitco…
SOURCE: Ken Levine at 09:00AMI was going to do a post about Kathleen Turner’s JEWEL OF THE NILE comments but with the Motion Picture Academy drastically changing Oscar rules I thought I would address that today and sa…
SOURCE: Ken Levine at 09:00AMWhat a concept! Friday Questions actually on Friday.Jim S has a question based on a recent podcast with casting director Sheila Guthrie (if you haven’t listened you’re missing out on tw…
SOURCE: Ken Levine at 09:00AMWhen first-run movies play in theaters (you remember theaters), they’re always preceded by four or ten trailers. And the trailers are always movies geared to the same people who came to s…
SOURCE: Ken Levine at 09:00AMHere was an interesting question posed to me as a writer – do I mind if audiences talk back to the actors during performances of my work? It’s a cultural issue. For some cultures it�…
SOURCE: Ken Levine at 09:00AMMemo:FROM: Christopher Nolan TO: President of Walt Disney PicturesSUBJECT: Re-boot of MARY POPPINSAfter watching the original 1964 movie once I know how we could improve this beloved chi…
SOURCE: Ken Levine at 09:00AMHere’s the REAL plot of caper movie, OCEAN'S EIGHT – a movie studio is trying to steal $100,000,000 from unsuspecting theatergoers.What a blatant cash grab. Award-winning actresses cas…
SOURCE: Ken Levine at 09:00AMKen discusses how top comedy writers determine whether things are funny or not, and offers some helpful tips on how to make your writing and content much funnier. It’s another behind-the-s…
SOURCE: Ken Levine at 12:02AMWhen Romcoms Go BadJust back from a couple of weeks in New York, Cleveland, and Grand Rapids – the typical east coast swing. In no particular order, here are some observations and thought…
SOURCE: Ken Levine at 09:00AMGreetings from Gotham. Congrats to THE BAND'S VISIT, which was the big Tony musical winner last night. I saw it and thought it was the right choice.I also saw, with great a…
SOURCE: Ken Levine at 09:00AMFQ’s are ready. Come get ‘em while they’re hot.McAlvie starts us off. I hate it when they colorize original b&w movies, because something I can't put my finger on what gets lost.…
SOURCE: Ken Levine at 09:00AMAs I mentioned last week, I saw SUNSET BOULEVARD recently, Billy Wilder’s classic from 1950. You would think it won the Academy Award for Best Picture. It didn’t. Another worthy f…
SOURCE: Ken Levine at 09:00AMI’m always in awe of those technicians who set up the acoustics for major theatres like the Disney Hall in Los Angeles. It’s such a baffling science. Sound travels in mysterious ways …
SOURCE: Ken Levine at 09:00AM
