It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?
So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.
And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.
There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.
I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.
So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.
But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”
My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher
“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.
~ David Simon
I’m sad about it too. My dad’s news-watching routine became my routine, and my father and I often watched Jennings together. My dad would be sad about Jennings’ passing, and I can’t help but feel that too.
David, your comment on the home page about ABC not leaving “Desperate Housewives” to cover his death is misleading. ABC cut into “Extreme Makeover” at about 8:40 and did 1/2 hr of coverage, with Housewives starting late. They got their coverage started before anyone else, obviously. Get the story straight before posting misleading links.
A TV icon passes. A worldly, well-traveled American anchorman. An unabashed liberal who blended DNC rhetoric with the ABC nightly news.
I used to watch him, way back when I was a kid and had the time to watch the news at 6:30 every day, before college (and life) came along. Which was also when you still got your news by watching at 6:30 (or 7). I can remember those days, and those days are gone. Hell, my students have never experienced a world that did not have 24/7 news, and this year’s freshmen have had the internet literally half their lives.
He didn’t make the news serious, but he took it seriously. It was his urbanity, I think, which imparted this quality to his newscast, and it worked well alongside Rather’s crazy wit and Brokaw’s wholesomeness (so mercilessly skewered on “The Simpsons”). Now they are all gone. There was a whole world out there, and it seemed awfully big to squeeze into their 30 minutes. Now we see the whole world all the time, and it seems somehow smaller for it, because we so much less of it.
I can’t speak for Dave, but it’s been, as I said, a long time since I watched Jennings. He didn’t go away. I did, and many others beside. His death is a reminder not of what we lost, but of what we gave up. The things Dave laments, we didn’t lose them. We gave them up. We chose to in exchange for something else, something neither better nor worse, but different. Such is the future. And so are we: neither worse nor better, just different. Jennings’ death, like other such milestones, is a reminder that who we once were we neither can be nor will be again.
It all goes by so fast…
It’s so terribly ironic: One way or another, within the space of a few months, we’ve lost all three anchors of all three major broadcast network newscasts. Of course, you could argue that the newscasts don’t have anything like the authority and impact (or even the audience) they had even as late as ten years ago. Which, of course, is why they (and “Nightline”) are changing. But still…
I feel a chill up my spine right now, as I realize I am seeing the end of an era, a change not necessarily for the better. And, yeah, I realize that many people on this blog are young enough to wonder why old fogies like David and I (well, I’m older and fogier than David, I admit)are making such a big deal about this. But just wait. You too will live long enough to see the end of things you thought would last forever, would remain important forever. Just as my parents and grandparents did, just as your children and your grandchildren will.
Oddly enough, I’m reminded of something Billy Crystal once said in an interview. Something like: “When Jay Leno took over the Tonight Show from Johnny Carson, I felt like my generation had finally become the establishment in showbiz.” Well, Leno has already announced his departure plans. Who will become the establishment when he moves on?
It would Conan O’Brien Joe. Which, will lead, to some very intriguing developments come 3 years.
Peter deserved a better send-off. It just demonstrates, once again, the power of smoking heavily day after day. Do what you want. Im not passing any judgements on smokers. Just stating the facts: the ciggys had a hand in his death. It’s just sad it took away that iconic voice and then his life.
He will be missed. Looks like Fox News will soon takeover the world.
David, I still don’t get the point of your link title. It’s better (since it contains the corrected information I provided), but you’re still acting like ABC SHOULD have carried hours and hours of coverage, and that CNN is “better” for having done so. ABC isn’t “just” a news channel, like CNN. They’re also an entertainment outlet, last time I checked.
Carl… the point is that it is, indeed, an entertainment channel and cash cow first and foremost.
They can behave however they like. But just to continue the theme, there were no tags added to Housewives and Gray’s Anatomy… if you were watching ABC in the most popular primetime blocks of the night, you didn’t know that Mr. Jennings had passed unless you caught local news breaks.
Of course ABC shouldn’t shut down for hours and hours of coverage of their anchor’s death. But there was something odd and business as usual about what I saw.
Then why belabor such an obvious point? I don’t really get what you’re saying, then. You admit that ABC shouldn’t have covered Jennings’ death for hours and hours. You now admit that you didn’t see the 1/2 of coverage that they DID do, which included a long retrospective, a live phone interview with Ted Koppel, etc., etc. This coverage ran into the beginning of “Desperate Housewives,” so anyone tuning in to the beginning of the show WOULD have seen the news. That’s not “business as usual.”
I was watching Extreme Makeover when Charlie Gibson broke in around 8:40pm with the sad news. He had Ted Koppel, Diane Sawyer, and Barbara Walters on the phone, and reading a note from David Westin the ABC News president. David, don’t bash ABC – they did the right thing with a half-hour program. It was a great retrospective on Jennings’ career. I expect we’ll see more today.
In Great Britain news “anchors” are called what they are – news readers. And that is what Jennings was, a very telegenic news reader.
To pretend that his passing is any generational signpost seems very strange to me. I am older than Poland so it is not an age thing. The man read the news. Thats it.
sad to see anyone pass away especially one we’ve all watched everyday on tv.
We all know he is a news reader. But it definately takes a lot of talent to do that. Not everyone can do it for this long and still have people respond to you. If it was easy everyone would be able to do it. In one year all the big three anchors are now gone.
What kind of lives must you people be leading if the passing of a television news anchor affects you in such a way?
What kind of lives must we lead to care about The Dukes of Hazzard?
Does any death really matter, Paul?
The government kept going after Kennedy… Israel survived Rabin’s assassination… and Mother Theresa is all but forgotten. So, why worry about any of it?
Can someone be so callous and cynical? Thanks for that Paul. Really makes everyone feel good about human beings out there when you can so nice.
I may puke now.
If the death of someone who you watched and was in your living room every night for years doesn’t effect you, I would think your heart is made of stone.
Jennings was the anchorman of my childhood, too, and I kept watching him until he left. That said, I don’t think the “old guard” has really left the building. I never thought I’d watch CBS again, but I like Bob Schieffer’s style.
The truth is that the standard 4 or 5 channel household does not really exist anymore. And these anchors are not quite the icons (Cronkite) that they used to be, but Jennings made big strides in foreign correspondence and we should take note. This guy lived in Lebanon for six years and knew the importance of reporting on world affairs.
The days of a big three are over. This only quickens it. RIP.
Peter Jennings was NOT a talking head, NOT just a Newsreader. He was a reporter and worked in radio and TV as an apprenticeship, the hard way, since he didn;t go to college.
So y’all talking like all he did was read teleprompters–you clearly know little about him.
He didn;t believe in sanitizing the news and he did thousands of hours of research and interviews no matter where he was in the world and had about 50 years experience. He also did alot of good in the Middle East becasue he was willing to talk to anyone–not just important organizations. He had risked his life many times.
It’s too bad he wouldn’t live forever because people like him are being replaced by people with nice teeth and no experience as real reporters. Plus they don;t give a shit about facts.
Many/most anchors above the age of 55 are seasoned reporters, they don;t just read the news.
Thank you Joe for saying that. I know some folks who worked with him when he was in the middle east, he was a class act and didn’t hide in a hotel but around in the world since he was a little sensitive about not completing high school.
>>>The government kept going after Kennedy… Israel survived Rabin’s assassination… and Mother Theresa is all but forgotten. < Is that the company Peter Jennings is in? Kennedy, Rabin and Mother Theresa?
Anytime someone dies its a tragedy. This only more so since many people had him in their living rooms every night.
Conservatives have long pegged Jennings as the most liberal of the “Big 3” anchors, that he really played up the “liberal side” of conflicts (he got a swipe in “Team America”). But he’s easily the most respectable one from that group, I watched him on the morning of 9/11 and I felt the most informed.
For anyone who wants to see some great television: Watch the rerun of “Keith Olberman’s Countdown” at 11 pm CST (12 midnight EST) tonight (Monday)on MSNBC. The package devoted to Peter Jennings (first two segments) is superbly written, elegantly presented. But stick around for the final segment: Olbermann talks about his own cancer scare. Powerful, powerful stuff.
Joe E, why does every post you throw up here have to do with Conservatives? Is every issue with you about them? The man just died. A little respect before you go with your anti right wing stuff.
What about the third post here, some anti left wing stuff? No one complained about that.
Because liberals are easy to make fun of and generally do bizarre things.
No… I don’t put Jennings on that high a pedestal. Not the point. The point is that everything is relative and the idea that mourning Jennings means nothing to Paul doesn’t mean that the context of his life doesn’t mean something to others.
I’ll put him high up. He was the top rated news anchor for years. That is a high pedestal.
Apparently Jennings does mean a lot to you guys.
I’ll mourn for friends and family but I can’t grieve for someone just because he was on a tv show or delivered the news for a number of years.
British writer Patrick West calls this “mourning sickness”. It is the idea that in mourning celebrities we are not showing genuine compassion for the person who is dead (how can we, we don’t know them) but are engaging in “conspicuous compassion” which is only about us and how this person’s death affected us.
That is fair, Paul.
I would suggest that this is true of most mourning.
I don’t think anyone has suggested that the passing of Jennings is more than symbolic to them. But the open mourning of people who stand as landmarks is, I think, quite healthy.
Kennedy was not, in my opinion, worthy of the depth of passion that he engendered. But the fact that the country did mourn and still mourns is very significant. And I can’t be glib about that.
Don’t even get me started on Princess Diana.
being glib about death shows u have no feelings or heart. its sad really to be that inhuman.
Just goes to show how quick someone can go. He looked good a few months ago and now this. Sad to hear about.
Paul,
I understand what you are saying (but don’t expect the likes of bicyclebob to understand)although I don’t think the Jennings grief was over the top like for most celebrities. I think a lot of it was the media just letting everyone know that what they do is impoortant.
Still it is nothing like excesses seen after the deaths of people like Princess Diana or JFK, Jr.
Or the excess of grief when Friends went off the air.
oh yea its above anyone and everyones head when some jerk could care less about someones death and trivializes it. and basically makes fun of a dying man. oh yea. count me in that group of not getting. ur right. i don’t.