Greetings over your interweb devices
“And we talked about some old times
And we drank ourselves some beers
Still crazy after all these years.”
The bar wasn’t real, but the memories were. Sam Simon and Carol Kane were chatting over old times nearly thirty years after they first became acquainted during their time on the series “Taxi.” When he submitted his work to that series, Sam had but one other sitcom credit, coming from the world of animated series before that. He would move forward in that arena quickly though, writing multiple scripts for both “Taxi” and “Cheers” and within two years, he’d be producing “Taxi” in its final season. Carol’s accomplishments in stage, screen, and television are, of course, legendary –– beginning her professional acting career at the age of 14, long before her indelible characterization of Simka Dahblitz-Gravas in the workplace comedy. On this day, Carol was (and still is) in demand to guest in many projects, but Sam was facing his mortality. Cancer was ravaging his body and within two years he would be gone, thus this picture remains a very melancholy one for me.
On a personal note, I didn’t know Sam well, though we had both been at Stanford at roughly the same time and shared the same mentor, Professor Bill Rivers. When I first moved back to Hollywood, I managed (through Bill) to get an interview to be a go-fer (now called production assistant) on that final season of “Taxi” which Sam was producing. I’d just come from the world of teaching at a boy’s boarding school, at which I wore coat and tie every day. Hoping to make the right impression on that hot August day, I dressed in my tan summer suit and a madras tie for the interview. Sam and his co-producers, Ken Estin and Richard Sakai (all clad in their standard jeans and sneakers, aka Hollywood casual), took one look at me, and nearly laughed me out of the room. That wasn’t the only reason I didn’t get the job, but it was a lesson learned. For the next interview, I lost the tie and went in shirtsleeves, but kept the khakis. It was a while before the coat and tie returned — but when it did, I got my revenge, sporting a “to-tie” bow tie, which for a time became “my look.”
To one and all, Be Safe-Stay Healthy