New York Post
Bruce Vilanch on writing for the Oscars — and how stars prepare to present
By Cindy Adams
Published April 8, 2024

Bruce Vilanch, king of the Oscars writers, remembers Sharon Stone flashing her essential parts in “Basic Instinct.”

He says, ” The Joke then was, ‘This year’s biggest part was Sharon Stone’s in Basic Instinct.?’ She then grimaced in the audience.

“Oscar nights, we get audience seats. Sometimes, they’re on top of the balcony. Once I asked Chris Henchy, Brooke Shields’ husband, if he wanted a pair of tickets. Brooke said, ‘No. Forget it.’ They didn’t even sit through the show.

“Often in our room we writers throw jokes at each other. Once documentary winner Michael Moore made a speech about George W. Bush. Stagehands began booing. Emcee Steve Martin then announced the stagehands were helping Michael into the trunk of his car.

“For jokes some stars need rehearsal. Jane Fonda wants a pre-reading. Johnny Depp: ‘I don’t know how to do this because there’s no real character here.’ I said, ‘Make one up.’ So he remembered being chemically altered in one picture and delivered his lines as if he was slightly oiled.

“I actually started with Bette Midler. She was then nobody but — like me — she came from New Jersey so I wound up writing for her.”

The post Bruce Vilanch on writing for the Oscars first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

We Got Bruce
Pop Culture Retro interview with legendary comedy writer, Bruce Vilanch!
By Mister D
January 24, 2024

Join Disney’s Ike Eisenmann and author Jonathan Rosen as they chat with legendary comedy writer Bruce Vilanch! Bruce discusses writing for Bette Midler, working on the Paul Lynde Halloween Special, behind-the-scenes stories from The Brady Bunch Variety Hour and The Donny and Marie Show, helping create the Star Wars Holiday Special, & much more!

Pop Culture Retro Twitter: https://twitter.com/PopCultureRetr1 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?… Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/popculturer…

The post Comedy Writer Bruce Vilanch Visits Pop Culture Retro Podcast first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

LGBTQ Nation
When comedy came out of the closet: comedian Bruce Vilanch on the rise of queer representation in TV
by Greg Owen
Thursday, November 3, 2022

“I’m not a historian. I write what I observe,” out comedy legend Bruce Vilanch tells LGBTQ Nation.

Maybe it’s an effort at humility or avoiding a distraction from his brand because he thinks historians aren’t funny.

But the great ones, from Herodotus on down, share a deep interest in the customs and people they observe, and that describes Vilanch to a T-dance on a Sunday afternoon at The Abbey in West Hollywood. He’s a watcher.

That includes television, where – besides appearances on the big screen, Broadway, and in bathhouses (where he reported for the Chicago Tribune in 1975) – Vilanch has made his biggest impression. He’s earned Emmys for Oscar telecasts, starred as a Hollywood Square, and written for some of the most iconic variety shows in the business, from Donny and Marie to The Star Wars Holiday Special.

He’s also worked or rubbed shoulders with practically everyone in the business (and beyond), from Bette Midler to Diana Ross to Cher to Elton John to presidents and princesses. And he’s helped raise millions for AIDS and other LGBTQ charities.

Vilanch’s time in television coincided with a sea-change in LGBTQ representation on the small screen, and he spoke with LGBTQ Nation about all that he observed.

His t-shirt that afternoon read, “See You at My Intervention,” and the conversation began with a plug for his new musical, Here You Come Again, featuring the songs of Dolly Parton and hints of a new book in the works.

***

LGBTQ Nation: What’s the book about?

Bruce Vilanch: About 4000 pages.

LGBTQ Nation: You just wrapped the premiere engagement of Here You Come Again in Wilmington. How was the show received?

BV: It’s a big hit! Audiences like it. What is wrong with them?

LGBTQ Nation: That song was huge when I was growing up.

BV: It sounds like the title of a porno movie, but we went with it anyway. We thought there was enough recognition.

LGBTQ Nation: Has Dolly seen it yet?

BV: We downloaded it every night for her. She liked what she’s seen. She won’t see it live until Nashville, which will be in May in Patrick Cassidy’s theater. So then she’ll show up, I think, with her tits and all those things she puts in the window.

First on our list of subjects was Batman – William Dozier and Lorenzo Semple Jr’s candy-colored TV version of the comic book classic that aired on ABC from 1966-1968.

Homoeroticism pervades the story, featuring a swarthy, mysterious leading character and his handsome “ward,” Robin. But the producers brought the camp to the concoction, featuring an all-star line-up of outrageous villains and incredulous storylines.

LGBTQ Nation: When did you first see Batman?

BV: When I was in college. We would gather around to watch. We were stoned. And it was like, well, it was low-camp. It was intentionally bad, ridiculous, and over the top. And for me, and for like the gay guys who I knew, it was about looking at Tallulah Bankhead and Eartha Kitt, Julie Newmar, and Ethel Merman as Lola Lasagna.

LGBTQ Nation: What was the gay quotient?

BV: The gay quotient, that was pretty gay. All that stuff was perfectly gay but gay like Butch Romero? I don’t know if we knew about him at that point. Well, my age group had known about him. People who’d been in Hollywood for years, of course, knew about him.

Cesar “Butch” Romero, a bona fide Hollywood leading man, played the first on-screen version of Gotham City’s malevolent Joker.

LGBTQ Nation: What’s Romero’s backstory?

BV: Cesar Romero. He was a beard. He was everybody’s escort. He was a big queen, and it was well-known, and he was a confidante for many women who needed to have a movie star take them places. You know, who wouldn’t try anything with them? And I think a lot of guys, I think that they respected his secret because everybody has secrets of one sort or another. And so much was back then. Secrets were traded, and secrets were currency.

LGBTQ Nation: Another Batman villain was Liberace, who played identical twin brothers, one evil and one a famous concert pianist. The character wasn’t gay, but Liberace was.

BV: Liberace was Liberace no matter what he did. You know, of course, he was like beyond gay. Because one of the things about gayness, with Liberace, there was no sexual component in the gayness. He was a great, huge flamboyant stage character. A lot of these guys who were gay and fey and had these huge flamboyant stage personas that they were selling it was divorced from sexuality. It was about performance art. And it didn’t occur to me that Liberace had a huge dick and I would one day want to sleep with him. But that’s another story.

In 1968, NBC brought Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In to television. Producer George Schlatter’s irreverent take on the counterculture featured an ensemble cast including breakouts Goldie Hawn and Lily Tomlin, and one token, though unacknowledged, gay cast member.

LGBTQ Nation: Let’s talk about Alan Sues on Laugh-In. Among his recurring characters was Uncle Al the Kiddies’ Pal, a perpetually hungover children’s show host; Big Al, an effeminate sportscaster, obsessed with ringing a bell; and a manic drag version of cast member Jo Anne Worley.

BV: Well, that was pretty gay. He was in that group of eccentric comedians like Rip Taylor, Paul Lynde, Billy De Wolfe, Edward Everett Horton, and Richard Simmons, who were all gay in life but had big personalities that the audience would kind of nod at, because maybe they had an uncle who was like that. Or maybe they had a pastor who was like that. Those who got it got it. And those who didn’t just think they were fun characters.

LGBTQ Nation: You mentioned Paul Lynde, who played Uncle Arthur on Bewitched at the same time Alan Sues was on Laugh-In. They weren’t out, but they were both a visible gay presence. Is that fair to say?

BV: Yeah, I mean, in the sense that anybody was before Stonewall. Stonewall is a handy demarcation, but it didn’t change things overnight. But in the 70s, things began to get loose in that people began to identify themselves as gay and not just eccentric or flamboyant. And the last gasp of all of that was all those guys I’ve mentioned. They are fabulous characters, but their sexuality never came into it.

After Stonewall and through the 1970s, television comedy’s closet door creaked open. In 1971, Nielson’s Number 1 rated show, All in the Family, featured a gay storyline. In 1972, the short-lived sitcom The Corner Bar was home to TV’s first recurring gay character. And in 1976, cult favorite Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman featured not a dissembling pair of brothers sharing the house next door but longtime companions Ed and Howard.

BV: We were shooting Donnie and Marie in the same building. I must have seen them at the taco truck.

LGBTQ Nation: Another gay baby step in the ’70s was Three’s Company with John Ritter, who you worked with.

BV: Yes. That was John pretending to be gay so that he could live with two girls. It’s like a variation on Some Like It Hot, but it wasn’t as severe. He didn’t have to dress up. I wrote something on Love Boat where he did have to dress up as a woman to pursue his runaway bride.

On Three’s Company, he occasionally had to put on kind of f**gy mannerisms to convince Mr. Roper that it was real. I was never offended by that because it was a plot device. But back then, we had not gotten rid of some of our own self-loathing. Or I had, I think, I had self-loathing. I just thought that stuff was funny, like a straight guy having to pretend to be a fairy. I mean, I thought John was funny. But I’m sure at the same time, there was a segment of the audience that was on Roper’s side.

Later that same year, in the fall of 1977, ABC premiered Soap from Golden Girls producer Susan Harris. The world was introduced to Billy Crystal as Jodie, the first gay ensemble character in American TV history.

LGBTQ Nation: Let’s talk about Soap.

BV: It’s historical now. It’s the first gay character on television. But the thing about Soap was it was a parody of soap operas. So everything was larger than life. So he was gay, but because he was gay, he had to transition into a woman. It was all this stuff that didn’t make a whole lot of sense in the real world.

I don’t know that Susan Harris was looking to score historical points with it, although I’m sure, somewhere in the back of her mind, she thought, well, ‘This will be something they’ll talk about.’

But when Billy was playing it, it represented, at the time, a real career risk for him because it would type him as the gay guy for people who didn’t know him. He was looking for a big acting career in movies, so it was a brave move for him to play because nobody had done it before. If it was a plan to get the public to go with the idea that somebody was gay, it was a genius plan because it worked.

LGBTQ representation in TV comedy foundered in the 1980s, while AIDS devastated the gay community and Nancy Reagan stalked the sitcom stages with her “Just Say No” campaign. By the end of the decade, though, two unlikely sources ushered in a mini Golden Age of gays on the airwaves: the new FOX TV network, and Canada, home to the sketch comedy show Kids in the Hall.l

LGBTQ Nation: Were you a fan of Scott Thompson’s Buddy Cole on Kids in the Hall?

BV: Very extreme character. I mean, he did the most extreme stuff, you know, Queen Elizabeth farting for three minutes. And the half-man half-chicken are some of my favorite things from that show.

And Buddy Cole, it’s a fabulous comment on all lounge singers and a certain kind of older queen who’s seen it all. He’s probably not as sophisticated as he’s putting on that he is, but that’s his character. And it’s kind of like Auntie Mame on Ativan. A slower version of Auntie Mame.

On FOX, Rupert Murdoch put two gay executives, Jamie Kellner and Garth Ancier, in charge of the upstart network, programming The Tracey Ullman Show with Francesca’s two gay dads; The Simpsons featuring iconic cameos from Harvey Fierstein and John Waters; and almost all-Black sketch show, In Living Color, with Damon Wayans and David Alan Grier as two Men on Film.

LGBTQ Nation: They played Blaine Edwards and Antoine Merriweather.

BV: It was hysterical. For the first time, it was two Black queens carrying on, which I thought was bold. Black guys have a much harder time of it because the Black community is so built around a church. That permeates everything. When AIDS hit, it was hard to raise money in that community because they viewed it as the devil’s work. And the big leaders came from the Church, Jesse Jackson, and Al Sharpton, back in the day.

So these two guys, saw the world through the movies. And it was their reaction to this world that often didn’t include them. But they certainly were caricatures. We were laughing at ourselves, at a stereotype, which we all know to be accurate. And didn’t see anything wrong with that. Now, of course, it’s a whole other world where you’re not allowed to find any of that stuff amusing, or you’ll be canceled at sunrise.

LGBTQ Nation: In 1997, three years into her sitcom Ellen, and after much speculation, Ellen DeGeneres came out simultaneously as the first gay lead of a show in the history of television, and as gay herself.

BV: You can never take it away from her. No matter what is said about her later, she was politically very, very important. But when Ellen came out, the show changed direction. Because the show was about a girl looking for a partner. And when she revealed herself to be gay, suddenly she was looking for a woman. And while they overlooked the fact that she was out, they didn’t want to follow her romantic exploits with women.

And that was what killed the show, and she predicted that, but they brought her back for a lot of money, and then wound up ditching her six months later.

LGBTQ Nation: The same year Ellen got dumped, NBC premiered Will & Grace.

BV: She paved the way for Will & Grace, and it became a genuine, genuine hit. With that show, people began, I think, to look at the whole gay thing differently, because we made fun of ourselves.

And at the same time, we were in the culture. We moved into the mainstream. We were not depicted as criminals, or people who were going to commit suicide, or any of the things that had been just objects of fun.

They were real people, and they had real relationships. And had big guest stars! So there’s more room for people who are just generally crazy and their gayness is part of that. They don’t exist because they’re gay, but because the character is gay.

LGBTQ Nation: Will & Grace has been off the air since 2010, and there hasn’t been a gay TV comedy blockbuster since. Do you think gay comedy has gotten less funny now because of gay mainstreaming?

BV: I don’t think it’s less funny, I think it’s just different. But the last few years, it’s upended everything. Comedy is a landmine. And I think the jury is still out. You discover what you can get away with by not getting away with it. By somebody saying, ‘That’s not, you can’t do that!’ I mean, the world is full of scolds, and it’s all become high school and everybody’s taking you to Student Council. So I think we’re in a transitional period. The next generation will probably speak louder, younger people who are a whole lot less flustered than we are. But then along comes George Floyd and #metoo, and suddenly, they’re all flustered on totally different issues.

LGBTQ Nation: Do you need a victim to make something funny? Does somebody have to be the object of comedy?

BV: That’s comedy generally, obviously. There’s nothing funnier than watching pomposity be deflated. And there has to be somebody pompous. It’s the old banana peel thing. You know, you get a snooty high society lady on Park Avenue slipping on a banana peel, it’s hilarious. Because she’s undone. And so that’s ancient. That goes back to the Greeks.

It’s hard to remove that from the culture because it’s a human thing. So it’s a tough one to answer. Because it’s one of the pillars of comedy and obviously there has to be a funny way of looking at things that other people don’t have. That’s comedy.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

The post Unpacking The Comedy Closet With Bruce Vilanch first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

Baby Chick
7 Fun Facts About Babies Born in November
By Allison Lang
November 2021

November brings an essence of gratefulness and appreciation for family and friends. Welcoming a baby during this cozy yet hectic time of the year can be exciting and stressful. Between the bustle of back to school and coordinating plans for the holidays, you may be feeling overloaded at the end of pregnancy. But I can promise that all the pressure will melt away when your new little bundle of joy arrives! You’ll be wrapped around your November baby’s little finger, and your heart will reach a whole new level of gratefulness. Here are seven fun facts about babies born in November.

Fun Facts About November Babies

Centenarians!

According to an article posted on New Scientist, “the month in which you are born can influence the environment in which you develop – inside of the womb and out.” It’s more likely that your November baby will live a long life. The babies born in the fall, November specifically, are the most likely to live to be 100 years old! This may be linked to moms getting a lot of vitamin D from the hot summer months during the baby’s vital development. Or it could be due to the seasonal time in which they are newborns exposing their immune system. Can you picture your baby with one hundred candles on their cake one day!?

November Birthstones

Two beautiful birthstones represent November babies. Topaz, which means “fire,” and citrine, which comes from the word for “lemon.” These stones are a perfect mix of passion and sweetness, like the feelings you may have as a new parent!

Topaz can be colorless, but also light blue, yellow, orange, pink, violet, and a very rare red. The fire, and rare red hue, represent the heart and long life.

Just like a sweet lemon, citrine comes in warm, yellow hues. It’s durable and affordable – which may make it a good gift for baby!

November And The Zodiac Signs

Your early November babies, born between the 1^st and the 22^nd, will fall under the Zodiac sign Scorpio. This water sign is loyal, brave, honest, curious, and independent. Scorpios are strong-willed by nature. Parents should enforce good discipline tactics early to ensure their little Scorpios feel comfortable being themselves and learning!

If your baby comes towards the end of the month, from the 23^rd on, they will be a Sagittarius. Sagittarius babies are risk-takers. They are adventurous and curious but also highly reliable and optimistic! All this spirit likely comes from them being a fire sign. This sign loves the pursuit – so travel and sports are a great outlet for your little Sags!

Chrysanthemums Are The Symbolic Flower Of November

Chrysanthemum is the symbolic flower for November. This bright bushel of blooms is believed to bring good luck and well wishes to the homes in which they are given. Chrysanthemums are a fall staple. They bring smiles to the faces of all who pass them during pumpkin picking outings and sprucing up porches across the country to welcome guests for Thanksgiving. The cheeky nickname of “Mum” is so cute and fitting for welcoming a new baby . . . for Mum to enjoy the plant!

November Babies Have Healthy Hearts

According to a Columbia University study, November babies seem to have healthy tickers! Based on their research, it appears that November babies are less likely to develop heart problems or lung cancer. However, they may be more likely to develop respiratory issues later in life.

November Holidays

Not only does this month host the family-favorite holiday, Thanksgiving, but it also hosts a plethora of informational and celebratory days. Your little one may share their birthday with National Book Lovers Day or World Kindness Day. November celebrates Child Safety Protection Month, Aviation History Month, National Adoption Awareness Month, and World Vegan Month!

November 1^st: All Saints Day, Dios Los Muertos, World Vegan Day
November 2^nd: All Souls Day, U.S. General Election Day
November 3^rd: Cliché Day, Housewife’s Day
November 4^th: Check Your Blood Pressure Day, Hindu Diwali Day, Men Make Dinner Day, Use Your Common Sense Day
November 5^th: Gunpowder Day, Guy Fawkes Day
November 6^th: Book Lovers Day, National Nacho Day, Saxophone Day
November 7^th: Daylights Savings Time (the first Sunday in November)
November 8^th: Cook Something Bold Day, Dunce Day
November 9^th: World Freedom Day, Young Readers Day
November 10^th: Forget-Me-Not Day, USMC Day
November 11^th: Veterans Day, World Origami Day
November 12^th: World Pneumonia Day
November 13^th: Caregiver Appreciation Day, Sadie Hawkins Day, World Kindness Day
November 14^th: World Diabetes Day, Operating Room Nurse Day
November 15^th: American Recycles Day, National Philanthropy Day
November 16^th: International Tolerance Day, Have a Party with your Bear Day
November 17^th: Homemade Bread Day, Take a Hike Day, World Peace Day
November 18^th: Great American Smoke Out
November 19^th: Have a Bad Day Day
November 20^th: National Adoption Day, Universal Children’s Day, Beautiful Day
November 21^st: World Hello Day
November 22^nd: Go For a Ride Day
November 23^rd: National Espresso Day
November 24^th: Evolution Day
November 25^th: Thanksgiving (the fourth Thursday of November), National Parfait Day
November 26^th: Black Friday (the Friday after Thanksgiving each year), Buy Nothing Day, You’re Welcome Day
November 27^th: Pins and Needles Day
November 28^th: First day of Hanukkah (begins on the 25th day of Kislev, which is the ninth month of the Hebrew calendar), Red Planet Day, Advent begins
November 29^th: Square Dance Day, Chia Pet Day
November 30^th: Stay at Home Day

Celebrities Born in November

Some talented and smart people came into the world in November . . . including your new baby! Some historical figures include Marie Curie, the first person (and only woman!) to be awarded two Noble prizes, and known artist Georgia O’Keeffe who specialized in oil paintings and sculpture. Let’s take a look at some celebrities born in November.

November 1^st: Jenny McCarthy, Aishwarya Rai, Penn Badgley, Anthony Kiedis, Rachel Ticotin
November 2^nd: David Schwimmer, Stefanie Powers, K.D. Lang, Nelly
November 3^rd: Dolph Lundgren, Tom Savini, Roseanne, Dennis Miller, Kate Capshaw
November 4^th: Matthew McConaughey, Kathy Griffin, Sean Combs, Ralph Macchio, Markie Post, Doris Roberts, Loretta Swit, Jeff Probst
November 5^th: Famke Janssen, Robert Patrick, Tilda Swinton, Sam Rockwell, Kevin Jonas, Tatum O’Neal, Art Garfunkel, Sam Shepard, Bryan Adams
November 6^th: Emma Stone, Rebecca Romijn, Ethan Hawke, Sally Field, Thandie Newton, Taryn Manning
November 7^th: Adam DeVine, Lorde, Morgan Spurlock, Christopher Knight, Jason London, Jeremy London
November 8^th: Parker Posey, Tara Reid, Alfre Woodard, Michael Nyqvist, Courtney Thorne-Smith, Leif Garrett, Gretchen Mol, Jack Osbourne
November 9^th: Lou Ferrigno, Analeigh Tipton, Chris Jericho, Eric Dane, Nick Lachey, Vanessa Minnillo Lachey, Nikki Blonsky, Fernando Meirelles
November 10^th: Tracy Morgan, Roland Emmerich, Mackenzie Foy, Sinbad, Michael Jai White, Ellen Pompeo, Heather Matarazzo
November 11^th: Leonardo DiCaprio, Stanley Tucci, Demi Moore, Calista Flockhart, Adam Beach
November 12^th: Ryan Gosling, Anne Hathaway, Neil Young, Megan Mullaly, Radha Mitchell, Wallace Shawn
November 13^th: Gerard Butler, Garry Marshall, Chris Noth, Whoopi Goldberg, Steve Zahn, Jimmy Kimmel, Frances Conroy, Joe Mantegna, Devon Bostick
November 14^th: Josh Duhamel, Olga Kurylenko, D.B. Sweeney, Laura San Giacomo, Patrick Warburton, Travis Barker
November 15^th: Shailene Woodley, Ed Asner, Yaphet Kotto, Beverly D’Angelo, Jonny Lee Miller, Sam Waterston, Sean Murray
November 16^th: Maggie Gyllenhaul, Marg Helgenberger, Lisa Bonet, Martha Plimpton, Missi Pyle
November 17^th: Rachel McAdams, Martin Scorsese, Danny DeVito, Lorne Michaels, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Sophie Marceau, Daisy Fuentes, Leslie Bibb
November 18^th: Owen Wilson, Kevin Nealon, Elizabeth Perkins, Mike Epps, Peta Wilson, Chloe Sevigny, Damon Wayans Jr., Delroy Lindo
November 19^th: Jodie Foster, Meg Ryan, Adam Driver, Dick Cavett, Kathleen Quinlan, Larry King, Charlie Kaufman, Allison Janney, Jason Scott Lee
November 20^th: Joel McHale, Bo Derek, Ming-Na Wen, Sean Young
November 21^st: Jena Malone, Goldie Hawn, Nicolette Sheridan, Bjork
November 22^nd: Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, Terry Gilliam, Jamie Lee Curtis, Mariel Hemingway, Mads Mikkelsen, Jamie Campbell Bower
November 23^rd: Miley Cyrus, Franco Nero, Bruce Vilanch, Vincent Cassel, Joe Eszterhas
November 24^th: Katherine Heigl, Sarah Hyland, Colin Hanks, Billy Connolly
November 25^th: Christina Applegate, Ben Stein, John Laroquette, Amy Grant, JHill Hennessey, Joel Kinnaman, Dougray Scott
November 26^th: Peter Facinelli, Natasha Bedingfield, Tina Turner, Garcelle Beauvais
November 27^th: Sharlto Copley, Kathryn Bigelow, Bill Nye, William Fichtner, Fisher Stevens, Robin Givens, Michael Vartan, Adam Shankman, Alison Pill
November 28^th: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ed Harris, Judd Nelson, Alfonso Cuaron, Jon Stewart, Ryan Kwanten, Randy Newman
November 29^th: Anna Faris, Don Cheadle, Lucas Black, Garry Shandling, Jeff Fahey, Joel Coen, Howie Mandel, Kim Delaney, Tom Sizemore, Andrew McCarthy, Cathy Moriarty, Diego Boneta, Diane Ladd, The Game
November 30^th: Ben Stiller, Gael Garcia Bernal, Ridley Scott, Terrence Malick, David Mamet, Billy Idol, Elisha Cuthbert, Mandy Patinkin, Kaley Cuoco

No matter what day of this wonderful month your baby arrives, you are guaranteed to feel the most thankful for what your body has created! Your little turkey is going to change your life in the most beautiful ways possible. Welcome, November babies!

The post Bruce Vilanch Was Born In November: – 6 Fun Facts Of November Babies first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

Bruce Vilanch & Mister D

Mister D: This interview and the next two I put up are gold. Mr. Vilanch has had an incredible life working in the entertainment industry in all types of ways, starting out of the box writing for long time collaborator Bette Midler (yes, I’m saying collaborator) acting, then writing for shows like the Brady Bunch, Donnie and Marie, the infamous Star Wars Variety Special, then on to specials and shows like Dolly, Cher, Bette Midler, and more, then hitting the jackpot as head writer for the Academy Awards for I believe 20 years,, then acting, theater doctoring scripts for certain movies to punch them up, Hollywood Squares, and so much more. And the most tireless advocate for the LGBT+ community. He’s known as probably the kindest man in Hollywood and has collabed with top-notch comedians of our time. And he has been a “special person” in my life, and so has Ms. Midler. I don’t presume to call myself their friend, but each has helped me through some down times in their own ways. And as a boy of 14 who started idolizing Bette and then discovering Bruce, here I am like an obsessed teenager still writing about them at a very young age of 66. I’ve gotten to see more behind-the-scenes stuff than I ever would have imagined, and in Bette’s case met a lot of her inner circle. I think some of them were fond of me, some not so much, but that’s the way life goes, Not that I know anybody in particular that didn’t like me, but human nature you know. But Back to Bruce, These interviews are diamonds and there are so many more. I swear he knows everybody that has passed away that were superstars before Bruce got to Hollywood, but thanks to working at the Academy Awards he’s just a treasure trove of trivia, but he always pulls out a humorous anecdote about those that pass on his Facebook page which only holds 5000 fans. I don’t think he knows who I am cause I’ve sent him reminders if I change my name or switch to a new profile, but that’s okay. We keep up a few times a year. He’s just amazing. I need to clean up this site and I will.

Bruce Vilanch Interview – Chapter One

On his early childhood, family, and education; on television he watched growing up; on when he realized he was funny and on his first professional writing jobs

On writing jokes for Bette Midler’s act; on coming to Los Angeles and on early television writing jobs; on appearing in the feature film “Mahogany”

On writing for The Paul Lynde Show; on working with Florence Henderson on The Brady Bunch Hour; on working for Sid and Marty Krofft on The Brady Bunch Hour

On writing for Donny & Marie; on writing for The Star Wars Holiday Special

The post Videos: Television Academy Interviews – Bruce Vilanch – Chapter One first appeared on We Got Bruce!.