“Kindness is free.” Garry Marshall Garry Marshall survived bad health as a child. He survived long cold winters in Chicago as a college student. He survived a tour of duty in Korea as an Army soldier. He survived producing stressful TV shows. He survived bad investments that almost forced him into bankruptcy. He survived making [...]
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Archive for October, 2012“If you pretend the characters can’t speak, and write a silent movie, you will be writing great drama.” David Mamet “Many Odd Couple fans have their favorite episodes, whether they be ‘The New Car,’ ‘Let’s Make a Deal,’ ‘That Is the Army, Mrs. Madison,’ ’Password,’ ‘The Ides of April,’ ‘It’s All Over Now,’ ‘Baby Bird,’ or ‘The [...]
Oct
29
2012
 
The “Stuckinna” Plot (Tip #63)Posted by: screenwritingfromiowa in Screenwriting From IowaOnly three more days left in my Month of Marhsall, where I’ve been finding bits of wisdom from writer/director Garry Marshall. Long before his success in films (Pretty Woman), or as the creator of TV shows (Happy Days, Mork & Mindy), he was a comedy writer for some of the biggest names in the 60s; [...]
Oct
26
2012
Wanted: Writers with No LivesPosted by: screenwritingfromiowa in Screenwriting From IowaYou can file this one under, “What they don’t teach in film school”: “Penny [Marshall] and Cindy [Williams] would plow through writers, leaving me constantly looking for replacements. Sometimes I would go over to Happy Days and entice a writer or two to come and take a spin on Laverne & Shirley. I pretended it [...] ”Happy Days was for me the quintessential television success story. I had followed my instincts, and they had turned out to be right.” Garry Marshall The early 70s were not happy days. A sweeping snapshot of the United States during that time might look like this; Viet Nam, Watergate, oil crisis, rising drug use, Taxi Driver. Gritty [...] You can’t base a month of posts on Hollywood legend Garry Marshall without touching on one of the most popular TV shows he created—Happy Days. Especially, when his book is called My Happy Days in Hollywood. The show was not only a hit for 11 seasons in its first run, but helped coined one of the [...]
Oct
23
2012
Garry Marshall’s Directing Tips (Part 10)Posted by: screenwritingfromiowa in Screenwriting From IowaI’m going to be flying by memory today, but feel confident I have my facts straight. There’s a scene in Pretty Woman where Julie Roberts and Richard Gere are having a conversation in their hotel room one morning. On one of the director’s commentaries Garry Marshall says that scene was edited down from either a [...] It’s mash-up Monday here at Screenwriting from Iowa…and Other Unlikely Places. Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but the past four weeks have been the highest weeks of views I’ve ever had on this blog. And most of the posts in the past four weeks have been insights from producer/writer/director Garry Marshall. So I’ll continue that trend [...]
Oct
19
2012
Garry Marshall’s Directing Tips (Part 9)Posted by: screenwritingfromiowa in Screenwriting From Iowa“Film directors should jump at any chance to direct a play because it can improve their relationship with actors. What’s wonderful about theater is that you get to move the actors around and stage scenes. You don’t have to worry about things like flattering closeups or intricate lighting. Theater features an actor from the top [...]
Oct
18
2012
Garry Marshall’s Directing Tips (Part 8)Posted by: screenwritingfromiowa in Screenwriting From Iowa“For the sake of the story, you never want to mislead the audience, unless it’s intentional, a method Jackie Gleason used to call the Wild Turkey theory. If a guy walks into a bar and says, ‘I’d like a scotch and water, please,’ that’s a straight line and if you follow it with a joke [...] |
