Why I Have No Tapes of Shows I Wrote

My mother used to ask me why I had no tapes (this is back in the VHS days, kids) of the shows I worked on, episodes I wrote, series I consulted on. 20 years of television and they put me on the dayshift. But I digress. Because for me it wasn't the episodes, it really was the process. The table was the show. 10 to 12 highly paid writer-producers around a table eating expensive take-out and spending more time with each other than with real loved ones at home, that was what I wanted tapes of. The lines that were pitched, the performances trying to sell a joke or story line, that's what mattered. The days after shows aired the staff would sit for hours picking apart the episode. I would read the trades and when asked why I wasn't taking part, didn't I watch the show last night - I'd say that I already watched it the week we taped it and fixed it and rewrote it. And the days before that we spent breaking the story and creating the big beats. I had kids, for God's sake. I wanted more time with them, not more time with 22 minutes of something for folks as Michael Moye of Married with Children (the single greatest show-runner of all time!) called "either drunk or in jail by the act break". So no, I don't have tapes. I have great memories. And friends. So comedy has always been very important to me. Comedy matters. There's a reason Jews and Blacks created American comedy. Real, meaningful comedy comes from the bottom up. And it deals directly with sex and relationships and politics and race. Habaeus Corpus has been taken away and we get Dane Cook. Work it, Dane. Just don't be surprised when they put you in the cattle car along with us. Anyway, for the past few years, the funniest people in the world have been English - for a while a few years back it was Eddie Izzard, especially in the Dressed to Kill years. Smarter, faster, funnier, balls-out (or tucked, the better to fit into one of his flattering ensembles) comedy at its best. High schools would have higher retention and graduation rates if they used Eddie's take on world history. And after him it was Ricky Gervais. David Brent, The Office manager, shows us all what it means to be desparate for love and attention. Over and over again. But for the past few years, the title of FPITW has gone to one man who plays three men, (Borat, Bruno, and Ali G) and he makes me laugh harder and deeper and more sustained than anyone ever. Sascha Baron Cohen, you are the true heir to Mark Twain and Oscar Wilde, and Groucho Marx and Lord Buckley, and everyone who has ever tried to combine comedy and smart, scratching our skin and making us reveal the real truth buried in those other layers. Here at home, Chris Rock and Sarah Silverman do great work combining comedy and brains. They both understand that if you're not talking about sex and race, you're not talking about anything. Thanks for a great 2006 (Borat and Jesus is Magic and The Aristocrats) and looking forward to more great things in the future. Back from Lone Pine and Mammoth and picture taking. Football weekend and then Yosemite. Happy 2007, folks.