Larry Gelbart, one of the best comedy writers who's ever worked in movies and television, died yesterday. He was 81. I first learned his name reading the credits on M*A*S*H. I couldn't find any clips from shows he wrote (or shows where he was given the main credit. For the first four seasons he was the producer and head writer and he had his hand in all the scripts) but I found this clip from a movie he wrote, Oh God. Some of the credit has to go to Avery Corman, who wrote the novel, but note that the dialog is a real conversation, not a simple exchange of one-liners, set-ups and punchlines. Gelbert's characters talk to each other. They just happen to be funny when they do it. (Which is something I wish the writers of Mad Men would figure out how to get their characters to do more often.) Also note what a good and natural actor John Denver was. And who knew before they started filming that George Burns had been type-cast?
Anway, here's the clip.
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