Enotes

Allen Funt created television's  Candid Camera . But he was not the star. If Funt were alive today, he would concur. Funt, who took the idea of a roving microphone capturing unguarded moments from the days of radio and turned it into a TV phenomenon, also never liked the notion that his show made fools out of unsuspecting people. Funt preferred to think that Candid Camera was more of a series of case studies on human behavior, rather than a gag-filled half-hour. Regardless, the star wasn't Funt, though he hosted the in-studio segments and often appeared during the hidden camera "case studies." The stars of Candid Camera were always the people---the folks whose behavior was being chronicled in a very unfiltered and unscripted way. Therefore, the laughs that resulted were always from the audience's glee at the reactions of the unwitting, caught by Funt's hidden camera. But that was then. TV Land has trotted out a new version of Candid Camera, hos...

I wonder if you could get away with calling them "Ethnic Festivals" these days. I've kind of lost track of political correctness. I don't know what is acceptable terminology anymore. But what I do know is that, as a high schooler and into my college years, my buddies and I would descend on Hart Plaza in downtown Detroit and partake in "ethnic" food, people watch, and maybe have a nip or two. Yes, it was before we were of legal drinking age. Amazing how enterprising teenagers can be. Anyhow, they called them Ethnic Festivals and they would rotate throughout the summer, on the weekends. You know---Greek, Italian, Arab-American, etc. The Plaza would be host to live music, vendor stands/kiosks and underneath, in the below-ground portion of the Plaza, were loads of food nooks. Imagine an underground food court, like they have at the malls. All you needed to do to find the food vendors below was to follow your nose. The food was yummy. There was also...

There's some sad irony in the Ray Rice conundrum as far as the National Football League is concerned. The NFL is a league that has a legacy of toughness and images of "real men" doing battle on mud-strewn gridirons, snow and other unfavorable elements. It's a league whose players like to throw around the word "respect," whether it's not getting enough or giving too much. "Real men" and "respect" don't fit Rice, the ex-Baltimore Ravens running back who was caught red-fisted via security camera, cold-cocking his fiancee in an elevator last February. This blog is expressly for my non-sports rantings, but just because the first several paragraphs have been littered with NFL references, the Rice situation has nothing to do with pro football, per se. Real men don't hit women. And that's not how you gain respect. It is, however, all about not having any of the R-word for your fellow human beings, let alone the woman to ...

In a perfect world, Derek Flemming would have been able to march up to the driver of a car that cut him off, express some anger, and get back into his own vehicle---without fear of losing his life. The 43 year-old husband and father of two young children would have vented his anger and frustration and still lived to re-tell the story to friends, co-workers and family at every opportunity. We do that a lot, you know---turn storyteller when we are wronged, whether it's from poor service at a restaurant to being incredulous at a retailer's return policy, among other things. But then we get it out of our system and we move on, until someone else relates a story that fires your mental file cabinet into gear and your story gets retold yet again. But Flemming paid the ultimate price in an act that unfortunately will have people---like yours truly---getting into "blame the victim" mode. Flemming was gunned down at a traffic light near Howell after he allegedly comp...

Labor Day was always my least favorite holiday. I'm sure I was hardly alone. Of course, I'm talking about when I was a kid, and so just about every other kid likely joined me in that sentiment. Labor Day meant the unofficial end to summer, though the calendar says that the season runs until September 21. No matter. The calendar didn't give us kids that long; classes in Livonia, where I grew up, always commenced the day after Labor Day. It was a final three-day weekend before the baseball mitts and swimming suits were to go back into mothballs, in favor of notebooks, pencils and rulers. There was one day of excitement, however, in the weeks leading up to the first day of school, and that was the day the class lists would be posted in the school window by the front door. This was for grade school, not beyond. I'm not sure how we found out that the lists were posted. Probably some sort of loosely designated sentry or Paul Revere type would spread the word. This w...

" I try to keep my sadness hid Smiling in the public eye But in my lonely room cry the tears of a clown." I don't generally like to start blog posts or columns with quotes or song lyrics. I have often looked at that sort of thing as a cheap, hackneyed stunt. But the first thing I thought of upon hearing the news of Robin Williams' death by suicide was the iconic song by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, "Tears of a Clown." So I thought it would be appropriate to lead this post with a portion of Smokey's lyrics, because how can you read them and not think of Williams and the many comedians before him who made their living making us laugh while at the same time battling inner demons? Williams, 63, apparently hanged himself at his California home, sometime between 10:30 p.m. Sunday night and 10:30 a.m. Monday morning. His manager said Williams was battling "severe depression" lately. It is fascinating to me, how many...

James Garner was once asked if he'd ever do a nude scene on camera. "I don't do horror movies," he said. Rim shot. Garner, who died on Saturday at age 86, was a Hollywood leading man but a humble Oklahoman at heart. "I got into the business to put a roof over my head," he once said. "I wasn't looking for star status. I just wanted to keep working." And work he did, especially in the 1960s, when Garner was often teamed with the biggest female names in movies, such as Doris Day (Rock Hudson is more famously connected with Day, but Garner did his fair share with her as well), Audrey Hepburn, Shirley MacLaine and Kim Novak. The film boom for Garner was set up by his work in TV's Maverick, in which he starred from 1957-60, playing old Western card shark and ladies man Bret Maverick. The show went toe-to-toe on Sunday nights with The Ed Sullivan Show and The Steve Allen Show, more than holding its own. If you were a casting director...