Filmmaker and television icon Garry Marshall. MARSHALL LAW:
Garry Marshall on TV,
the current state of American humor,
and a certain gal named Julia
By
Alex Simon
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in the August 1999 issue of Venice Magazine.
If you were a kid growing up in the 70's, it's likely that, along with the original cast of NBC's "Saturday Night Live," no other collective group or single person did more to form your pop culture sensibility than Garry Marshall. As the creator and executive producer of such TV classics as "The Odd Couple," "Happy Days," "Laverne & Shirley," and "Mork and Mindy," Marshall's TV world of aw-shucks all-American kids in the 50's, blue collar gals with hearts of gold, and a loveable alien with an uncanny gift for improvisational humor, brought feel-good stories and belly laughs to American households during a decade when our uncertain country desperately needed both.
He was born Garry Marscharelli in the Bronx, New York on November 13, 1934. The oldest and only son of three children (sister Penny is a former actress and now a powerhouse director in her own right), Marshall graduated Northwestern University with a degree in journalism, getting a job as a copy boy, then a reporter for The New York Daily News. At the same time, he pursued parallel careers as a drummer in his own jazz band and a standup comedian and writer of comedy material for others including Joey Bishop, Phil Foster and others. By the mid-60's, Marshall and partner Jerry Belson began writing regularly for "The Joey Bishop Show," "The Danny Thomas Hour," "The Lucy Show," and "The Dick Van Dyke Show." Turning to the production end of the business, Marshall created the series "Hey Landlord" in 1966, then scored a huge hit in 1970 as executive producer of "The Odd Couple" TV series. He and Belson penned the screenplay for The Grasshopper (1970), a dramatic character study of a young girl (Jacqueline Bisset) and her fall from grace. Marshall turned to directing in the 1980's, debuting with Young Doctors in Love in 1982, followed by The Flamingo Kid (1984), Nothing in Common (1986), Overboard (1987), Beaches (1989), the smash hit Pretty Woman (1990) Marshall's first outing with Richard Gere and Julia Roberts, Frankie and Johnny (1991), Exit to Eden (1994), Dear God (1996), and The Other Sister (1998). Marshall's play Wrong Turn at Lungfish (co-written with Lowell Ganz) had a successful off-Broadway run in 1992. His autobiography "Wake Me When It's Funny," detailing the ups and downs of his 35 years in "the biz," was co-written with daughter Lori Marshall and published in 1995.
Marshall's latest outing continues his "feel good comedy with pathos" tradition and re-teams him with his Pretty Woman co-stars Gere and Roberts. Runaway Bride tells the story of a perpetually gun-shy bride-to-be (Roberts) who has left men standing at the altar three times. Enter Richard Gere's intrepid reporter whose career is on the line as much as Robert's love life when he gets wind that she's about to attempt knot-tying with fiancee number four. Gere smells a story and swoops down on Roberts' small town. Fireworks soon erupt between the two stars and much romance and hilarity follow. The Paramount Pictures release is currently in wide release.
Garry Marshall sat down over ice cream sundaes at the Four Seasons recently to discuss life, television, and the coolness of Hector Elizondo (not necessarily in that order).
Were you influenced by the films of Preston Sturges and Frank Capra at all? Much of your work seems to capture that same feeling of Americana that theirs did.
Garry Marshall: Yeah, I loved those guys. Those pictures hold up pretty well today, I think. There wasn't all the mean-spiritedness that's in so much comedy today. Don't get me wrong, mean-spirited can still be funny, but there's a lot of other humor out there that I think a lot of people have forgotten about. The trap is, if you do "normal" humor, then (the press) compare it to sit-com humor, because they don't know what else to write! (laughs)
Sit-coms today are very different from when you were producing them. Most of the comedies from the 60's and 70's, looking at them now, seem to assume that the audience has a brain.
Well, they don't move anymore. It's so much more talking heads now, although much of the humor I find very witty and funny. I prefer to have a lot of physical humor in my work, as well. But everything goes in cycles. I facetiously tell the joke about when, in the late 60's, there were all these shows like "Green Acres" and "Petticoat Junction" on the air. Then one day somebody said 'Hey! Let's do a show without a shovel or a rake in it, and see what happens!' (laughs) So all of the sudden there were all these great shows on the air that were made with adults in mind, by people like Norman Lear and Jim Brooks. So I said, 'Well, I'd better do something different.' So I decided to go toward nostalgia and did "Happy Days" and "Laverne & Shirley," and that helped put ABC on the map again. So then, because those were hits, everybody went 'Young people! We have to do young people's shows!' Now in the 90's with the new networks like Fox and WB, they realize they can't compete with the big network shows like "Frazier," so they go a little more lowbrow, aiming for kids again, and this kicked off another cycle.
What drew you do Runaway Bride?
I had read it years ago, and didn't think it was so good. Then Julia and Richard called me and said they wanted to do it. So I read the re-writes and thought they were terrific. I always thought Pretty Woman was "Pygmalion," which was remade as My Fair Lady (film version 1964). I think of Runaway Bride as being "Sleeping Beauty." I even made reference to it in the movie, but I cut it because it slowed down the pace. I feel that the fairy tale gives the story its structure, whereas the characters give it its depth and foundation. There's a lot of good dramatic moments in the story too, I think.
I liked the dramatic elements. It gave the film balance.
Yeah, I like structure and motivation. It's a very hard line to draw these days. It used to be the classic way you wrote a story. The Greeks wrote them that way. Now the audience seems to feel they don't need that much information. There was a bit that was cut from the final version, where Julia's character had a bell collection. Now I believe that anything a character does says something about them. So Julia saved these bells because her mother, when she died, left her this collection. So bells became the motif in Julia's life...and in the end we had all these shots of bells ringing. But then we realized that all that slowed things up, especially when we had all these credits to run in the end. But it didn't seem to matter because, like I said, audiences today don't seem to need or want that much information.
You've worked with many of the same actors over the years, and seem to encourage a familial atmosphere on your sets.
It's fun when you can work with the same people. That means you all enjoy working together! There's also a shorthand at work so you can move quicker. With a new person, you've always got a couple weeks of walking on eggs. With Julia and Richard, I think both of them have become much finer actors in the last ten years. They play comedy and drama equally as well. The star factor has changed as well because they're both so big now! But the nice thing is that they've still stayed themselves.
Tell us about Hector Elizondo, who's been featured in all your films.
Hector and I have spent a lot of time together over the years. We played ball together, but then my knee and his back went out, so we don't play so much any more (laughs). He's just there for me. I've never done a picture without him and I hope I never do. He helps hold down the decorum of the set for me. He's got a very professional attitude. There's no temperament or craziness there, and the others tend to follow his lead because he's such a respected actor. He can also deliver comedy and drama with equal skill. I really hired him this time for that one line he has at the end of the film. I called him and said 'Hector, I don't trust anyone else with this line, because it's the best line in the picture.' So we built up that character for him. Hector's a man of many skills and many toupees. (laughs)
Tell us about your beginnings when you were at Northwestern.
Northwestern was a great experience. I have a lot of loyalty to it still. All of my kids went there. My son-in-law went there. So when we went to the Rose Bowl a few years ago we were like, eight strong! I got some of my first dramatic experience there. I was in the Wa-Mu variety show with Warren Beatty, but I also have to add that I'm three years older than Warren. He always makes me say that! (laughs) But college was great because it gave me the opportunity to fail. You can try something and it doesn't matter if you fail. It helps you to deal with that if you do a picture that fails, or even a scene that fails. They say the key to writing is to "give up your little darlings," which are your favorite bits, because they don't always work as a whole with the rest of the script. College taught me that even when you give those things up, you can still move on.
Let's talk about your early days writing with Jerry Belson.
When I was in Korea, Jerry's brother was a buddy of mine and introduced us when we got back. We teamed up and did very well. We're still very good friends and a play we wrote called The Roast is something I hope to make into a movie in the next year or two. We hold the record for the most freelance TV scripts sold in one year. Jerry was a very modern sort of guy and writer. He came up with a lot of really great offbeat jokes. It sometimes went a little wild, but was sometimes too racy to do in TV back then. One day he came into the office late. I said 'Where were you?' He said "I was shooting a funeral for a dog." Jerry was a photographer, too. "The dog's name was Spot Moskowicz. It was so sad, watching those five little dogs sitting there, wearing yarmulkes." (laughs) Years later I did that joke visually in Young Doctors in Love. But in that time, in the 60's, that was way too far out for TV. Nowadays it would be fine. I like the weird and the strange as opposed to the sick. Your farting, vomiting and peeing material I always tried to stay away from, or at least put a different spin on. But that stuff is still funny. People will always laugh at what's irreverent.
Speaking of irreverent, I read that you were the drummer in Lenny Bruce's back-up band. Did you get to know him at all?
He wasn't so coherent usually, but I got to know him a little bit. I know his material very well. Lenny taught me to take all the pain in your life, give it a little time, and it'll turn into humor. He used to do this routine where he'd just say "Fuck you" over and over and over, so finally it had no meaning anymore and it wasn't offensive. I think if you do a joke the audience has never seen before, they'll appreciate it. Like in Runaway Bride, Joan Cusak's character is named Peggy Fleming, like the ice skater. Now if her name were "Peggy Johnson," no one would give a shit, right? Nothing funny about that. With a name like "Fleming," though, you can have a lot of fun. Now you can give her a husband who has a morning radio show called "Wake Up with Flem." (laughs) Here's another example: if a guy comes into a bar, says to the bartender "I'd like a scotch and water, please." Now the audience will be ready to listen to the next line. However, if you come in and say "I'd like a Wild Turkey," the audience is saying "What the hell did he say 'Wild Turkey' for?" So now the set-up is different and they're ready for a different kind of thing. Sometimes when Jerry and I would write a joke, I'd stand back and say 'How many people do you really think are going to get this?' Jerry would say "More than enough." (laughs)
Who would you say some of your mentors were when you started out?
Well, Joey Bishop definitely. He was a very hip, understated comedian and very successful and never dirty. That always appealed to me. He gave me the plane ticket that got me to Hollywood and had a job for me when I got here. Joey also taught me to be merciful. (Comedian) Phil Foster was sort of my mentor also because he was the first one who said that I could write. And you need that from someone other than your parents. Phil said to me "You have to decide where your strength is as a writer. Look around you. Do you want to write for the waiters? Do you want to write for the band? For the drunk across the room? For your date?" The point is, you want to have them all laughing, but you can't always do that. So I must say, I had a great plan for writing for the band and the waiters at that time, but that didn't pay much money. So I decided to write for the audience that came in, because they were the ones paying for it, and I did the best I could. It's the same way making pictures. No matter how bad you might feel on any given day, you've got to make the best picture you can, and I'll tell you, I see some pretty sloppy picture-making nowadays. There's a whole group of us, me, Jim Brooks, Penny, Ron Howard, Rob Reiner, that all came from TV. We're all used to trying until someone takes it away from us. I know a lot of filmmakers who don't take enough time. I always try to give it my very best shot, and that's all you can really do. It always helps to take your material from life, too. Lenny and Phil Foster both said "If you try to work solely from your imagination, you're gonna be working in a shoe store before you know it." Sheldon Leonard taught me later on how to be objective, and in control of your work and I still am, as a director and a producer.
You've also done a lot of acting in other people's films. You really seem to enjoy it.
I do. I love it. It's great fun. I have an acting range of about one foot (laughs) because I always play the same character, the angry executive.
I thought The Grasshopper was a terrific film. I remember being shocked the first time I saw it when I saw you and Belson were the writers and Jerry Paris, also primarily known for his comedy work, was the director. It was a powerful dramatic movie made by comedians.
Yeah, that was a pretty exciting experience. We were trying to branch out to do a dramatic movie with a little comedy. It was a case of mis-timing. It became well-received in retrospect and was even noted as one of the best underappreciated American films at the Filmex convention one year. I think timing is a critical thing. It's not that the audience is stupid or that the critics didn't get it, it's usually just a matter of timing. With The Grasshopper, 1970 was not a good time for a black-white romance, between Jim Brown and Jackie Bisset, in a major movie. Another case of bad timing was a TV pilot I created called The Recruiters, which I made right in the middle of the Vietnam war when they were burning draft cards in the street! (laughs) So before you create anything, look out the window and see what's going on! (laughs)
I noticed that you have a lot of your family involved in your films, particularly in Runaway Bride.
Yeah, my son Scott is in it and was also my second unit director. He shot the whole opening sequence with Julia on horseback. He's a very talented director, went to the American Film Institute. He's shooting a music video right now in Spain. He'll get his own movie soon, I'm sure. My daughter Kathy plays the bridesmaid in the film, Cousin Cindy. Scott played the hotel clerk. And my wife has one line in the dress shop. She was in Pretty Woman and got cut out, so I owed her!
Is TV a good training ground for aspiring screenwriters and directors?
I definitely recommend television for aspiring directors. It teaches you how to work on a deadline. There's no Heaven's Gate in TV! (laughs) You either get it on the air, or you don't. Many of the TV directors were not welcomed into features, until studio heads realized how well we worked. Rarely do you hear headlines of "Chaos on the Set!" or "He Didn't Finish!" when you've got TV guys behind the camera. We know how to make things work. For writing it might not be so good. You've got to write a certain number of jokes per minute in TV, and you have to hold down the visuals. I think all writing is good and TV writing teaches you whether you're funny or not. It also pays very well. TV is the best business in show business. In TV, you always get paid.
What do you do when you're not making movies?
Well, the Burbank Falcon Theater is my big thing now. I built a 99 seat theater from scratch. Very pretty, wonderful bathrooms, wonderful parking, all the important things I learned about when I did theater as a kid. (laughs) We're doing a lot of original works, plus kids shows on the weekends. It's a perfect place for kids to be introduced to theater.
Any advice for first-time directors?
A lot of people direct one movie and then never do it again, because it's a pretty strange job. Very difficult in the sense that you can't keep a consistent emotion. As a producer you can keep a consistent emotion. A producer has to be an adult. That's why I became a producer at first. I came to this town and saw that nobody wanted to be an adult, so I decided to pretend to be an adult, even though I was a bigger baby than any of the other people here! As a writer, you can be a great, temperamental baby, because that's your part. Same with actors. The problem with directing is that you have to be an adult part of the time so you can work with the crew, and a baby the other part, so you can get your creative way. It's back and forth each day. That's the toughest part. The other tough thing is whether you can still be creative when you're exhausted. That's all it's about, directing. Anyone can create, but try when you're exhausted. That's a whole other thing, and that's why most people quit. They don't want to go that fast. They don't want to make decisions that fast. So you surround yourself with people who love you and who you love and they're always pumping you up. So those are the factors: work under exhaustion, get a dual personality, and always try your best. If you think you can't do it, find a way!
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