The TV Zone

Maybe you're wondering about last night's "Simpsons" and maybe you're wondering why there was a dedication to Paul Newman and maybe you're wondering why "Simpsons" would dedicate an episode to Paul Newman and maybe you're wondering whether you should get another cup of coffee right about now.

But wonder no more! Grab the caffeine and I'll tell you right now why Paul got a rare tribute at the tail end of last night's episode (the one where they go to Machu Picchu, etc.) Newman - way back in a Dec. 1, 2001 episode - voiced himself, and Paul (as you may guess) wasn't in the habit of appearing on animation shows, even great ones. The episode was called "The Blunder Years" and was a parody of "Stand by Me." I don't believe the ep appears on anyone's top 25 lists (as, say, other classic parodies like "Cape Feare") but what the hay.

Your wondering is over. Enjoy the coffee.

This one'll come via the Sundance Channel ...

Here's the presser:

"Sundance Channel will pay tribute to Paul Newman tomorrow with the airing of “Iconoclasts: Redford and Newman” as well as “The Making of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” beginning at 6 p.m. ET/PT. These two programs will be airing throughout the week...

Robert Redford also had a quote to go with this:

"I have lost a real friend. My life — and this country — is better for his being in it."

Yup, that's the big important date to remember, when TCM will devote its full Sunday schedule to Paul Newman classics, including ...Cool Hand Luke (1967), Somebody up There Likes Me (1956), Torn Curtain (1966), Exodus (1960), Hud (1963), and his directorial debut Rachel, Rachel (1968), with Joanne Woodward. We've got the full line up on the jump...

Continue reading "Newman Tribute on TCM: Oct.12" »

I've looked for Paul Newman web tributes and there are many, many, many. Enough to keep us engaged for the rest of the month. I offer a few here.

The first: This appearance on "Late Show" about three years ago. Letterman and Newman were pals and not because they were Connecticut neighbors (they weren't) but because they had a shared love of the race track. This is a wonderful clip on Dave TV that finds Paul Newman floating away...

And...as Letterman fans well know, Newman was the first guest on "Late Show" way back in 1993; Letterman had just checked into his new theater on B'way and needed a big splash, and the first splash was Newman. Here's a clip that some enterprising fans dug up and posted on Youtube; grainy and primitive, but you can still get the sense Letterman had started off on the right foot, and indeed he had...

Finally...these three videos are from a Brit documentary that aired - I'm guessing - in the UK about three or four years ago. It's not a critical overview of the career, but is good because it links the careers of both Newman and Joanne Woodward; doesn't get into much detail, but it feels like a reasonably intelligent chronology of this brilliant career; if you've got a half hour, go through all three. Please go to the jump to watch...

Continue reading "More Newman Tributes, and Letterman" »

Over the next few days, weeks, we'll all have and cherish our various memories of Paul Newman, who died in Westport last night at age 83. Mine are indelible, beyond the big and small screen (yes, he had numerous roles on TV in the early '50s, famously including Philco's "Death of Billy the Kid," and in few and sparse appearances, he was one of the greatest guests in "Late Show with David Letterman" history; both were good friends. Also, "Empire Falls," the Fred Schepesi-directed HBO two-parter with Ed Harris and Helen Hunt, in 2005, which was his last TV role, I believe.)

One memory: In a town meeting where I live, where a debate over a hard-fought housing development was underway, in which someone planned to bulldoze over a thousand acres and install a hundred or so 10,000 square foot mansions amidst a rolling green 18-hole golf course. Those who sought to save the land from this predation knew their fight was probably hopeless and that the developer was effectively pursuing the town meeting because he figured it was good for public relations and that he fully expected to secure his covenants anyway, so what was the harm?

The fight seemed lost, when...out of the corner of my eye someone walked by. I noticed only the boots - spectacular western things with wonderful filigree of some sort and badly scuffed; this was unusual and I glanced up. There, by my side, was Paul Newman. He looked at the stage. He looked at the developer. He squinted. He muttered under his breath. He took a seat. And he watched, in silence.

About an hour later, Newman went to the back of the stadium (it was being held in a school), and asked to speak to someone involved with the effort to preserve this land. She told him of the plight, of the fact that the land was probably doomed, of the fact that the state and town had done nothing to save it, of the fact that the only thing standing between a vast development and one of the most beautiful places in the northeast was a small group of people who cared deeply about its preservation.

Newman said, "would half a million help?"

In one short, sharp and perfectly timed moment, Newman donated $500,000 to the effort, headlines across the state and indeed nation were secured, and suddenly the small group without a hope and a prayer had as we say, "momentum." The state and Nature Conservancy ultimately got behind the effort and the land was saved. As you're well aware, this was just a tiny act among a countless number performed over the years - his work in Bridgeport, Hartford and inner cities throughout the state is legion, not to mention "Hole in the Wall."

So today, I too mourn Paul Newman. He was a wonderful actor. Of much more greater consequence, he was an extraordinary human being. One of my heroes in gone. No doubt, one of yours is too.