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The Top 'Norman Lears LatestA Year AtLOS ANGELES (AP) - The indefatigable Norman Lear has gone to the devil for hi£ latest television comedy, reworking the Faustian legend in today’s pop music field.The half-hour is called “A Year at the Top/’ and that’s what a trio of oldtime entertainers sell their souls for. They are Vivian Blaine, Robert Alda and Phil Leeds. Their diabolical deal allows them to transform into a new young singing group that swiftly ascends to the top of the charts.A Year at the Top” evolved from a partnership of Lear’s T.A.T. Communications Co. and Don Kirschner Productions. Music man Kirschner created the series with Woody Kling and supplies the music.NEW YORK (AP) — For the second time in 24 hours, “All the President’s Men” has been chosen as the best motion picture of 1976, this time by the NationalGn/tlot,, rtf ITSIw. __Lear is executive producer; Darryl Hickman, producer.The show debuts on CBS Jan. 19, and the first tapings are going on at the Lear compound in Metromedia Square. All of his series, from “All in the Family” to “Maude,” headquarter at the local KTTV studio, owned and operated by Metromedia.The star of “A Year at the Top” is Mickey Rooney, also an oldtime entertainer,but one who decides against making the youthful comeback. The other day he was rehearsing a scene with his customary verve, playing with his “converted” partners, Greg Evigan, Paul Shaffer and Judith Cohen, who portray the young singing sensations.“Carrie,” with Fay Dunaway second choice for “Network.”Best actor waas Robert De Niro for “Taxi Driver” with a tie for second bet-. 11 r: ! 1 : ~ IT„1 J ’ onrl“The format is terrific,” said Robert. Alda, who was observing the rehearsal. “It has appeal to both the young and the middle-aged. The young will get their kind of music from the three kids, and Mickey, Vivian, Phil and I will supply the music from our era “My only concern about doing the series was that I didn’t appear opposite my son Alan on ‘MASH.’ But we’re both on CBS, so that’s no problem.”After the scene concluded, Rooney returned to his dressing room for a conference on how to punch up the comedy. He is wearing the stubble of a beard that he grew for “Pete’s Dragon” at Disney. He conferred with a producer who looked familiar behind his own black beard.“Imagine me working with Darryl Hickman after all these years!” said Mickey. “Why, we were kids together in ‘Boys Town’ back in 1940.” Make it 1938.“And I was reminded of ‘Boys Town’ the other day,” added Hickman, a onetime child actor. “Mickey did a scene with the three young people in our show, and whenhe finished I noticed that all of them had tears running down their cheeks.I remembered watching Mickey do a scene in ‘Boys Town’ when I was 9 years old, and I was crying myself.”“Isn’t this great, me and Darryl being back together?” Rooney remarked. “We’ve hardly seen each other since. I was busy getting married, and he was learning to be an executive.”“A Year at the Top” is Rooney’s first TV series since the ill-fated “Mickey”of 15 years ago,“It was on and off the air before you knew it,” he recalled. “I pleaded with Selig Seligman of ABC not to call it ‘Mickey’ and not to give me three children,a Filipino houseboy and have me running a motel. I want to play a character who had had three or four wives and was in alimony trouble. You know, like Mickey Rooney. It’s a great device to kid yourself, like Jack Renny always did.“Then they scheduled the show opposite Jackie Gleason in his first season with ‘The Honevmooners.’ Bombsville.”Film Critics Name '76 Winners
Newspaper Details
Findlay Courier
Findlay, Ohio, US
Wed, Jan 05, 1977
Page 21
Full Page
Clipped by
Nick N.
NA, 20 Dec 2023
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