Writes Dwight Garner in "David Milch Made Remarkable TV. His Own Life Was a Drama, Too. 'Life’s Work' is a memoir of outrageous youth, creative obsessions and ruinous habits" (NYT).
Milch's shows include “N.Y.P.D. Blue” and “Deadwood.”
September 17, 2022
"Kurt Vonnegut and Nicholson Baker embraced good television. Vonnegut said he’d rather have written 'Cheers'..."
"... than any of his books. In Baker’s novel 'The Anthologist' (2009), the poet-narrator comments, tongue only partially in cheek, that 'any random episode of "Friends" is probably better, more uplifting for the human spirit, than 99 percent of the poetry or drama or fiction or history ever published.'"
Writes Dwight Garner in "David Milch Made Remarkable TV. His Own Life Was a Drama, Too. 'Life’s Work' is a memoir of outrageous youth, creative obsessions and ruinous habits" (NYT).
Writes Dwight Garner in "David Milch Made Remarkable TV. His Own Life Was a Drama, Too. 'Life’s Work' is a memoir of outrageous youth, creative obsessions and ruinous habits" (NYT).
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43 comments:
Milch was Robert Penn Warren's student and protégé at Yale.
I'm surprised that this may be a book review, rather than an obituary. The last time I saw him (in the special features for a DVD) it was clear that he was struggling with dementia.
Louis CK on a podcast about what makes good comedic tv writing (2011) Before his real life judgment interrupted him.
Milch's shows include “N.Y.P.D. Blue” and “Deadwood
Along with Steven Bochco, Milch was also one of the creative forces behind Hill Street Blues. The history of televised drama is rightfully divided into two periods: before HSB and after. For some reason NYPD Blue became more celebrated, and lasted longer, but it was but a pale shadow of its predecessor.
And Deadwood was better than both.
Yeah, prolly right. I know when some ‘well read’ fop starts quoting classics I usually want to punch them in the face…
Vonnegut the liberal produced a lot of libertarians.
Methinks thou dost protest too much, rejham.
"For some reason NYPD Blue became more celebrated"
Nekkid pipple.
This will kill that. Victor Hugo on the printing press and the cathedral.
The older Vonnegut got, the more disappointing things he said, the crappier got his books.
David Milch tells a good story involving George W. Bush. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RugXsxdjDlM&t=2320s
Vonnegut was greatly over rated in my opinion. I've read most of his work for a class and the one really good book of his was Mother Night. Slaughter House Five & etc were run of mill at best.
Wow! That’s a lot of humility.
More money in TV, of course.
But for an Artist to admit that commercial art might be superior is really impressive.
All the critics used to scorn Hitchcock until Truffaut embarrassed the shit out of them.
Now people who don’t get Hitchcock say that Vertigo is the best movie ever made. That’s because Vertigo is internal and not dramatic at all. It’s a great movie but Hitchcock has a dozen films that are superior.
Critics are thinkers but cinema is an emotional medium.
The written word is for thinkers. Images are for feelers.
Vonnegut might be envious of writers who can get strong emotional reactions from an audience.
Also American culture favors extrovert. Reading is an introverted activity.
I tried Vonnegut once. He’s a difficult read and I didn’t want to do the work. Now I’m thinking I should try him again. Anybody got a favorite?
The history of televised drama is rightfully divided into two periods: before HSB and after.
My understanding was that it was too expensive to produce. Too many outdoor scenes.
Deep state reformer,
Agree with you absolutely about Mother Night. Terrific book and far and away his best.
The movie, starting nick Nolte as "Howard W Campbell, the last true American " is almost as good. Vonnegut even has a very small bit part.
Other than mother night I always found his short stories better than his novels. I was a huge fan back in the 60s and 70s. I still reread mother night and re-watch the movie from time to time.
John stop fascism vote republican Henry
John stop fascism vote republican
"tongue only partially in cheek"
Really, which part? I hate that phrase. I also dislike "Half-kidding" or "Half-serious". Again, which part is serious and which part is the joke? Its just a cowardly way of Kidding/joking and trying to get out of being criticized.
Anyway, there's a lot to be said for making people laugh or a good TV show. But 99 percent of TV drama/comedy is crap. How many people watch cheers anymore? IT on TV in reruns and DVD. And for everyone who watches Old cheers episodes, how many watch old TV shows from the 60s or 70s. So saying a good TV show is better than 99 percent of literature isn't saying much. Because no one is reading that 99 percent of literature to begin with.
Never saw any of it. Killed my TV in the 70's. It was lying all the time.
Would it be cruel to point out that saying some TV shows are better than Kurt Vonnegut or Nicholson Baker is very far from saying they're better than George Eliot or Henry James, and even farther from saying they're better than Shakespeare or Sophocles?
(My criticism of humanity goes through without a hitch).
From a studio standpoint, Milch is notoriously difficult. But Deadwood was masterwork television.
- Krumhorn
Deadwood was fantastic, but some cocksuckers didn't appreciate it. Quite Shakespearian...
I had read somewhere that the show was to have one more season, but that Milch was so coked-out he couldn't function anymore.
Too bad...it would have been nice.
He's remembered fondly by his children. His television shows are classic. Perhaps there are fathers and artists with greater claim to the fourth plinth, but, given the intensity and multiple ways of yearning for his self destruction, he accomplished a great deal....He's fortunate in that none of his lunacies ever ventured into politically incorrect territory. If he had reservations about transgender surgery, he kept them to himself. He wasn't that self destructive....Perhaps he would have been Tolstoy but for the craziness or, perhaps, the craziness was his muse.
'But for an Artist to admit that commercial art might be superior is really impressive.'
He should have asked Warhol...
Speaking of cop shows, the best I've seen is 'The Shield.'
Vonnegut once speculated that in the future novelists would work with a set of symbols, like runes, one for each emotion, and compose stories from them, like chord progressions, I guess, putting the reader through a satisfying emotional experience without all of the clutter.
I have been a huge fan of Milch's work, especially Hill Street Blues on which he did a great deal of the screen-writing and story creation, and NYPD Blue. When I see his name connected to something, I consider it worthwhile to give it a go.
Imagine this Vonnegut "Cheers" episode synopsis: A time-traveling Sam Malone journeys back to Boston of 1907 to murder Diane Chambers' grandmother because he's had it up to here! with a cocktail waitress more willing to volubly critique A Geneology of Morals than serve another round of Harpoon Sweet Spot.
Saint Croix- I read a lot of Vonnegut years ago. I suspect most would tell you to read Slaughterhouse Five. I think you should, but it's not where I'd tell you to begin. I would start with "Player Piano" or "Cat's Cradle", two earlier works.
Plus one to Temujin's recommendations of where to start with Vonnegut if you have never read him.
Awesome, thank you Temujin!
Awesome, thank you Temujin!
I think I tried to read Vonnegut the first time when he made an appearance in a Rodney Dangerfield movie. Rodney was playing an obnoxious billionaire. And he paid Vonnegut a lot of money to come over and explain his book to him.
That was funny.
Back to School, his funniest movie. Robert Downey Jr has a bit part. And Sam Kennison.
Vonnegut wrote depressing stuff. Now, Kilgore Trout, there was a writer!
The final scene of the first episode of Hill Street Blues kept me watching it long after it devolved into a soap opera.
For some reason NYPD Blue became more celebrated, and lasted longer, but it was but a pale shadow of its predecessor.
Indeed.
Yancey you can have a thank you since I gave Temujin two.
I deleted a couple messages bitching about Blogger because it was way off topic and repetitive as shit. And we all know repetition is annoying. (Albeit effective as shit, says the squeaky fucking wheel). Anyway I removed them and as soon as I remove them, Blogger strikes again.
“I wish I was as rich as Google,” says Vonnegut, totally on point.
Talk about a review that makes me want to read the book!
I was also advised by a fan to start with Cat's Cradle, a great recommendation.
I read a lot of Vonnegut too. But then I discovered comic books and moved on.
NYPD Blue was high art in my mind.
In Baker’s novel 'The Anthologist' (2009), the poet-narrator comments, tongue only partially in cheek, that 'any random episode of "Friends" is probably better, more uplifting for the human spirit, than 99 percent of the poetry or drama or fiction or history ever published.'
Tongue much more than "only partially in cheek."
You might be able to say that about some TV shows, but not "Friends."
"I read a lot of Vonnegut too. But then I discovered comic books and moved on. "
Now that I reflect on it, I got more intellectual stimulation from Rocky and Bullwinkle and the Fractured Fairy tales than from most modern fiction. Whatsamata U indeed. The Hushabomb. The Plunk Maker.
Sophomoric literature for Sophomores.
I have read Vonnegut's oeuvre and I got it. I moved on.
I used to read a lot of Vonnegut. I'd say read "Harrison Bergeron," except, like "Idiotocracy" you're living in that world.
"Mother Night" was excellent and still sticks with me. "Slaughterhouse-Five" will impress you if you know nothing about war. If you do, you'll understand that all war movies, all war novels, and all war stories are anti-war. People die horribly, but all deaths are horrible. Hi-ho.
"Breakfast of Champions" was good. He tells a story about the town that, to mourn a dead high school football player, put up a pillar with a football on top, and order that no buildings be built taller than it. A few years later, after passions cooled, they quietly rescinded the law.
It reminded me of Phil Hughston, a football player in Charlotte, N.C., who was paralyzed during a game. The news media followed his story for days until he died. You'd have thought at the time that Princess Diana had died. Now, of course, he's forgotten.
It's like various charities I've seen named after dead kids, as if the greatest thing they did was to die. Hi ho.
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