David Geffen: Film Outtake: David Geffen Doesn’t Pay Shipping
How many stories start out, a guy walks into a Tiffany lamp store? Jon Landeau, manager and producer for Bruce Springsteen, remembers how David Geffen — in business and in all things — always gets the...
View ArticleDavid Geffen: About: Inventing David Geffen
“I’ve always thought that each person invented himself… that we are each a figment of our own imagination. And some people have a greater ability to imagine than others.” –– David Geffen (View full...
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Carl Sandburg: Homepage: The Day Carl Sandburg Died
It’s the life and times of Carl Sandburg on the AM website: Watch the film and see extended video interviews with the likes of Pete Seeger and the late and great Studs Terkel; hear Sandburg perform and...
View ArticleDavid Geffen: Film Excerpt: ‘I’m in love with Cher!’
David Geffen and Cher both recall meeting in 1973 at Geffen’s table at The Roxy on Sunset Blvd., as well as the unexpected romantic relationship that ensued. (View full post to see video) American...
View ArticleDavid Geffen: Film Outtake: David Geffen In Three Words
How would you describe David Geffen? You have three words to do it. (View full post to see video) American Masters: Inventing David Geffen, premieres nationally on Tuesday, November 20, 2012 on PBS...
View ArticleDavid Geffen: Film: Inventing David Geffen
Notoriously press and camera-shy, David Geffen reveals himself for the first time in this unflinching portrait of a complex and compelling man, directed, produced and written by American Masters...
View ArticleDavid Geffen: Film Comment: Susan Lacy on David Geffen
Susan Lacy, creator and executive producer of American Masters, explains the drive behind telling David Geffen’s story, as well as the obstacles of capturing the life of a behind the scenes man. Lacy...
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Mel Brooks: Timeline: 2000 Years of Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks The life and times of Mel Brooks: The 2000 Year Old Man. 1920s 1926 – Born Melvin Kaminsky in Brooklyn, New York to Maximilian and Kate Kaminsky on June 28. 1940s 1940 – Mel spends his first...
View ArticleMel Brooks: Film Outtake: The 2000 Year Old Man Revisited
Starting in 1960, Carl Reiner teamed with Mel Brooks as a comedy duo on The Steve Allen Show. Their performances on stage and television included Reiner playing the straight man to Brooks’ 2000 Year...
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Carol Burnett: Audio Excerpt: Carrie and Me
Despite her busy schedule, Carol Burnett always made time for her three young children. But her oldest daughter, Carrie, faltered in adolescence, losing the self-esteem that had fueled her popularity...
View ArticleMel Brooks: Film Excerpt: Mel Brooks, a Bullhorn & Some German Soldiers
Even while fighting in WWII, Mel Brooks went for the laugh. (View full post to see video) Mel Brooks: Make a Noise premieres nationally Monday, May 20 on PBS (check local listings)
View ArticleMel Brooks: Film Outtake: Do You Want To Know How ‘The Critic’ Came About?
In 1963, Mel Brooks and director/animator Ernest Pintoff came up with the animated short film The Critic, a satire of arty, esoteric cinema. Brooks supplied running commentary as the baffled moviegoer...
View ArticleMel Brooks: Film Excerpt: The Difference Between Comedy & Tragedy Is…
The logic here is, as long as it isn’t happening to Mel Brooks, it’s funny. (View full post to see video) Mel Brooks: Make a Noise premieres nationally Monday, May 20 on PBS (check local listings)
View ArticleMel Brooks: #ComedyFest Live: Mel Brooks & Carl Reiner with Judd Apatow
Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner in conversation with director and writer Judd Apatow, marking the day on which the 2000 Year Old Man joins Twitter. Mel Brooks: Make a Noise premieres nationally Monday, May...
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Mel Brooks: Blazing Saddles: The Art of the Stereotype (and it on its head)
Mel Brooks never met a stereotype he couldn’t upend. The classic Hollywood cowboy is always white. Mel Brooks’s Hollywood cowboy is black. And his Indian chief speaks Yiddish. Designer: Ricardo Galvez....
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Mel Brooks: Young Frankenstein: The Art of the Homage (or, to spoof with...
For Mel Brooks the spoofing is in the details. The classic Hollywood Horror film is always black-and-white and includes scene transitions like iris outs, wipes and fades to black. Mel Brooks’s...
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Mel Brooks: Spaceballs: The Art of the Trope (or, making the cliché absurd)
What came first: the Mel Brooks movie or the cliché? The classic Hollywood Sci-Fi spaceship always gets gratuitous screentime from every camera angle. Mel Brooks’s Hollywood spaceship appears in a...
View ArticleMel Brooks: Film: Mel Brooks: Make a Noise
(View full post to see video) Mel Brooks: Make a Noise journeys through Brooks’ early years in the creative beginnings of live television — with Sid Caesar on Your Show of Shows — to the film genres he...
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JD Salinger: Six Degrees of Salinger
Playing fast and loose with the Six Degrees of Separation game, American Masters looks into its archives to see what the great American writer J.D. Salinger has in common with the lives and careers of...
View ArticleAlice Walker: Interview with Film Director Pratibha Parmar
Pratibha Parmar is the writer, director and producer of Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth. This first film biography about writer and activist Alice Walker tells Walker’s dramatic life story with poetry...
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