#clete roberts

[oldshowbiz]

The KTLA tower on Sunset Boulevard is familiar to all residents of Los Angeles

[mash-rated]

S7E5 “Our Finest Hour, Part 2”

Synopsis: the second half of the Clete Roberts interview

Rating:

Jokes: 1/5

Seriousness: 3/5

Plot: 1/5

Queer subtext: 1/5

Margaret's characterization: 2/5

My thoughts: again, really lazy writing. And if you thought clips of Henry and Trapper were bad enough, this time they recapped “Abyssinia Henry”

[mash-notes]

(*DISPATCH*) s04e25: The Interview

Cast your minds back to season 3, a lifetime ago. “Abyssinia, Henry,” with its shocking, genre-defying revelation, set the stage for all the serious fare we saw this year, culminating in this—the darkest MASH episode so far, and inarguably one of the most brilliant.

In introducing Clete Roberts and transforming the show into a black-and-white newsreel, “The Interview” manages a substantial narrative feat. We get to see all the characters from a totally different perspective, that of a TV viewer in the 1950s rather than today (really, of course, the ‘70s). In other words, the show takes us into an immersive fantasy: while the MASH personnel stay the same, we the audience are the Korean War-era versions of ourselves.

When I was a child, special announcements on TV (news bulletins, pre-empting, “we join this show already in progress”) were very frightening to me. I still feel a tiny chill at the beginning of “The Interview” when the voiceover states, The following is in black and white. I think this fright is appropriate somehow, to warn of something, not exactly scary, but quite important.

So who are these extraordinary people of the 4077th MASH?

Capt. B.F. Pierce: Quick-witted and cynical. A prodigious talker. Frightened, and brave enough to show it. A wit; the interviewer clearly likes him.

Col. Sherman Potter: Swears immediately and is bleeped. Honest, but more than a little guarded with the interviewer. He cracks when asked to talk about his relationships with the young men he works with, and whether he’d like to stay friends with them after the war.

Maj. Frank Burns: Very concerned with the disrespect shown to the military. Conducts his interview with a face like he’s sucking a lemon. Says a lot of flowery words about his marriage that ring false; also says that some people believe he’d be more useful in politics than as a doctor.

Cpl. W. O’Reilly: Funny but he doesn’t realize it. Naïve, sweet, diligent. A beautiful young man. Cries when talking about the kids he sees in Korea.

Capt. BJ Hunnicutt: A good doctor, articulate and patient. A nice man who can’t hide his sadness and disgust about the situation he’s in. Earnest, forthright, All-American handsome.

Cpl. M. Klinger: Crazy about his wife. Loves to talk about Toledo. Not as dumb as his smiley countenance might make him out to be.

1st Lt. F. Mulcahy: Adorable. Distracted. In over his head, but doing the best he can. Moved to tears, looking heavenward—he is overwhelmed, and nearly falling apart.

One thing that rankles: where’s Margaret?!? Hawk and Beej—and Potter and Mulcahy—have wonderful things to say about the nurses, but Margaret isn’t interviewed at all. It makes me so mad until I realize that, sadly, this is exactly how things would go down in 1952. On a lighter note, we learn that Radar raises earthworms in his spare time and also races them.

The season finale ends with shaky camera work, as the news crew take in what the doctors do every day (and we see, presented more calmly, every week). This vantage on meatball surgery is enlightening—never before has it looked so bleak. Voiceovers of all the interview subjects play over a montage of choppers landing and surgical instruments being passed. Keep in mind this first aired in February 1976 at the start of the U.S. Bicentennial, and less than a year after the end of Vietnam. Hawkeye’s voice is the last one we hear: “It’s crazy.”

[streamondemand]

'The Phenix City Story' – true crime noir on HBO Max

The Phenix City Story (1955) may be the most brutal American film of the fifties. The brutality is justified. Inspired by real-life events and directed in a semi-documentary style with a tabloid punch, this is a ripped-from-the-headlines drama of a town run by the rackets. Richard Kiley (whose other famous noir role is as a sweaty, cowardly Communist spy in Pick-up on South Street) is the film’s…

'The Phenix City Story' – true crime noir on HBO Max

[andloawhatsit]

Remembering Clete Roberts

If you've watched "More Things That Aren't Here Anymore," you've probably heard of Clete Roberts, who hosted "Newsbeat" on KCET back in the

“He was bigger than life and I am glad he made KCET his home, in his later years.

This is the way he always signed off our show and I can still hear it in my head whenever I think of him. I use it now to end this blog post.

‘This is Clete Roberts. For my colleagues and for myself, I thank you, I bid you goodnight.’”

[oldshowbiz]

L.A. News

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