Austin Improv

So I'm poking around the internet late tonight and discover that Abe Vigoda is still alive and making movies. That makes me very happy.

He's a regular on Conan.

Yep, and he's fucking hilarious. Just hearing the name "Abe Vigoda" makes me smile.

There used to be a plugin for Firefox that would tell you whether he was still alive or not, but sadly it no longer works.

You can still check here: http://www.abevigoda.com/

York99 wrote:He's a regular on Conan.

TV? Bah.

Roy Janik wrote:There used to be a plugin for Firefox that would tell you whether he was still alive or not, but sadly it no longer works.

How sweet is it that the Firefox plugin died before he did? He's 86, btw.

I choked the hell out of that Firefox plugin. I ain't never gonna die!

Abe,

I just wanted to take the time to mention that I'm a big fan. Your work on Barney Miller (as well as on Fish) was an early inspiration for me. Your deadpan looks and grumbles communicated far more than anything Hal Linden could say with words.

I've always lamented the early death of Jack Soo. I secretly wished that, instead of the Fish spin-off, Fish and Soo's Nick could have had your own spin-off. It would consist just of your conversations and general musings on things. In character, of course.

Glad to see you are doing well.

Regards,
Bob McNichol

Also, he was great in The Godfather.

I was sorry to hear about Waponi-Wu

shando wrote:

York99 wrote:He's a regular on Conan.

TV? Bah.

If you ever utter the phrase "idiot box" or some other cliched negative remark about television, I'll make it my sworn duty to block every thing you do on stage if we're ever on stage together. Or even if we're not. I may run up from the audience just to yell, "No!" and then run off again. Nothing against you, I just hate that phrase.

I was hoping this thread would be filled with random facts. For instance, did you know that Jim Henson's Muppets were a regular part of the first season of Saturday Night Live? This was before The Muppet Show first aired too.

Rolf made his first appearance on the Jimmy Dean show in the 60s.

The muppets had this really weird beginning, where they seemed to actually be farmed out like actual actors. A lot of them started out with "guest spots" on TV shows and, of course, in commercials.

shando wrote:Also, he was great in The Godfather.

He was fantastic. My favorite scene with him was as he's being led away to be killed for trying to set up Michael Corleone:

"Tell Mike it was only business."

What a great line.

kbadr wrote:Rolf made his first appearance on the Jimmy Dean show in the 60s.

The muppets had this really weird beginning, where they seemed to actually be farmed out like actual actors. A lot of them started out with "guest spots" on TV shows and, of course, in commercials.

they did a bit of work on the Ed Sullivan show too -- I've got a compilation of appearances they did for that show (including an early version of Cookie Monster, where he eats an expensive talking computer) and I'm pretty sure some of the material ended up rehashed on Muppet Show / Sesame Street (mah na mah na, for example).

I still remember being a kid and seeing a b&w clip of early muppets on something (maybe it was jimmy dean) with lots of explosions and violence. it was hilarious.

Justin Davis wrote: If you ever utter the phrase "idiot box" or some other cliched negative remark about television, I'll make it my sworn duty to block every thing you do on stage if we're ever on stage together. Or even if we're not. I may run up from the audience just to yell, "No!" and then run off again. Nothing against you, I just hate that phrase.

That's certainly a reasonable, intelligent defence of the intellectual value of televisions. Tell you what, you ever rush onstage during one of my shows for such a silly reason, I punch you in the face. Sound like a deal, Justin Davis whom I don't know?

If you knew me, you'd know that I certainly don't have anything against TV as a medium--I watch plenty of it on DVD. But I have a lot of projects going on and I have a family, and watching celebrities shill for there latest not so good movie is low on my priority list of how to spend my time on the planet. So it's been a while since I've seen Conan and didn't know that Vigoda was a regular.

Actually, I looked him up last night becuase I just started watching Firefly (thanks Julie!) and was reminiscing about Barney Miller because of the presence of Ron Glass in Firefly's cast. He played Harris, the crime writer cop in Barney Miller. What was the name of his book? Blood on the Badge? Something like that.