There are two kinds of premieres.
The good kind is what I'm about to experience tonight.
The bad kind has Khrushchev after it. Yeah, I know. It's spelled differently but are you really going to spellcheck a joke? Better you should think of ways to get rid of Trump or do your laundry.
Today, let's focus on tonight's premiere.
My partner Paul Reiser and I co-created and co-wrote 7 episodes of a new, coming to your favorite device screen soon TV series for NBC-Universal's all comedy all the time internet channel SEESO which begins showing for your binging pleasure on August 24th. You buy the app for $3.99 on Amazon, Apple TV, Roku, etc. Not surprisingly that is like 1970 prices.
Why should you buy in and watch?
I got two words for you:
Johnny Carson.
With Paul leading the way because, hey, he's Paul, we were able to get the rights to the Johnny Carson Tonight Shows (thank you Jeff Sotzing) and we went on to shoot a new scripted series whose focus is what was going on behind the scenes in 1972 Burbank.
No one is playing Johnny, Ed or Doc or anyone else famous for that matter. The main focus is on the young, emotional and often hilarious people and how they are barely coping with on intense decade. We are not a sitcom, but rather a dramady and we don't shy away from anything from the war and PTSD to what it was like to be gay in the day to the sexual revolution to women's rights. SEESO's Evan Shapiro and Kelsey Balance kept us very, very real. Credit them for the tone and emotional dark edges totally.
We use the Tonight Show scenes as a kind of Greek Chorus which shows you what America was saying and thinking at the time. It just so happens that our "instructors" are George Carlin, Albert Brooks, Jack Benny, Jerry Lewis, Don Rickles and on and on and on.
The illusion created by director/co-executive producer/magician David Gordon Green is that the show is being shot right then and now. A neat trick. Plus David gave the show a warm, cinematic burnished look. Classy.
The show follows the trajectory tale of Andy Klavin (the adorable Ian Nelson) a wide eyed 19 year old from Johnny's home state of Nebraska, who through a combination of incredible innocence and hilarious confused confusion, accidentally bumbles his way onto the set and onto rung one of the employment ladder.
Through him we see how America reacted to the in your face, barely able to cope times. Jane Levy plays one of the few women employed there, in Testosterone Land and for her it is an ongoing embattled DMZ.
The great tap dancing kid, ukulele strumming Tony Danza plays executive Producer Fred DeCordova. (Tony guest hosted in the day and knew Freddie and man does it show). Rounding out the cast is Tony Award winning Roger Bart (singularly the funnies/sweetest person I know) and Camrus Johnson, T'Keyah Crystal Keymah, Johnny Ferro, Andrew Schulz, David Hoffman, Nate Smith and Daniel Strauss.
Tonight is our big premiere at The TriBeCa Film Festival beginning at 6. We're showing two episodes and then we're going to have a panel discussion moderated by CNN media analyst and Sirius radio host Bill Carter (who was also the author of “The Late Shift”.)
This is the kind of moment that we all dream about and I 'm finding myself marinating in a thick and delicious red carpet sauce, the kind that Tony Danza would conjure up.
I've been writing on shows since I was in my twenties and have been privileged to write and produce some great shows like Fresh Prince and Mad About You. But tonight is unlike anything that I've ever experienced before.
It's all ephemeral I know. It's as lithe as Tinkerbell and it will surely move at the speed of a FiOs router.
In other words: this is going to be the best kind of amusement park ride. You sit down, strap in and when it's all over, in this case, I promise you won't feel like puking.
Here's the thing: I'm just so moved and grateful to have been a part of this one. I have worked with two stars in my life who were exactly the way you would hope them to be: John Ritter (on Linda Bloodworth's "Hearts Afire") and Paul.
That sweet. To the marrow of the heart.
Paul and I adored Johnny, just like millions of you did.
Paul launched his career on the show (with Johnny) and I think he was on like 25 times.
So we had ourselves one awesome responsibility when it came to resurrecting this particular icon. We re-created the entire world: the set and the offices and when I would sit in Johnny's office, I would feel in awe of it. I swear I could feel his ghostly cigarette infused presence. (He had no desk by the way: just couches and coffee table)
And sitting at his set desk or in that revolving yellow guest chair, staring at the rainbow curtains and the bandstand...was just enthralling. It even felt real to Johnny's nephew (and head of Carson Entertainment and one of our exec producers, Jeff Sotzing).
I think we all felt deeply connected to him. He was our electronic dad/preacher whose humorous monologue sermons brought us a little bit of relief and sanity during some very scary times.
Could our timing be any better?
Welcome back wit, nostalgia and civility. The real America.
The first hour of the Tonight Show in 1972 was all fun entertainment and the last thirty minutes were earmarked for grown up talk, which to this writer, was the nightly lullaby that conked me out like a bucket of Xanax.
So it is my fervent hope that you join us in August to go back in time for seven episodes, to re-enter a world that you have never entered before. Certainly not like this.
You'll see the old Peacock. Hear that Paul Anka theme song. (Which originally was an Annette Funicello pop song---with lyrics!)
It will all feel authentic to you.
Familiar.
We begin in the real and appropriately named Valentine, Nebraska.
We will be revisiting it periodically throughout the series because it was and still is the heart of heartland.
So get ready America.
There's Johnny!