« OGIC: From the cheap seats | Main | TT: Where credit is due »
February 5, 2004
TT: Not taken
I didn't expect my throwaway item on Woody Allen to have caused quite so much of a hullabaloo in cyberspace. Around this town, Allen is generally thought to be soooo over. Go figure.In all fairness, let me add this footnote: a few days after Jack Paar's death last week, one of our local PBS affiliates reran a Paar clip show that included what I gather was Allen's network TV debut as a standup comedian. I can just barely remember his standup days, and since then I hadn't seen or heard any of his work from that period. I was struck by how fresh and engaging his style was--free, fantastic, not at all punchline-oriented. Judging by that clip, one could easily imagine him having evolved into an on-stage monologist à la Spalding Gray rather than a writer-director of films. In retrospect, I wonder if that might not have been a better way for him to go?
UPDATE: Cup of Chicha weighs in, smartly (as always).
Posted February 5, 2004 4:37 AM
