Interview with writer producer Stan Daniels

in LA and I am delighted to be speaking with an extremely talented person a Canadian missus Stan Daniels hello hi you're very well known for music right my boseong stage and TV a lot of stuff are you a director as well or producer what what do you do what do I do well I I have done a quite a bit of directing since I stopped doing situation comedies being in the trenches are still involved in pilots and things such things but I mean basically what I've been here is a writer I was doing comedy in the Dean Martin show for six years which is why I came down here and and then after that I moved into situation comedy and did Mary Tyler Moore Cheryl Anderson wrote that and then was one of the creators and executive producers and writers of taxi and after that I kind of stopped as I say going into the trenches trying to get back to musical theatre which is my main love and I still did a few things I was directing so you know I wasn't writing I was directing a number of sitcoms and I created a show by myself called walk which ran it was a black oh yeah which ran for three years here and at the moment I'm involved in some animated things writing and producing voiceover yeah voiceover animations with a Canadian company that's doing the Nelvana and a few things I have three that are gonna be made into a movie and shown on the network Showtime here yes I know that I'm acting as consultant on another series anyway that's exciting the show as you mentioned that I'm familiar with the laws are great when did it all start your career and where well it started in Toronto I think I was 16 years old somebody the man called hi Boston who was a was a very close friend of my father I introduced me to Jack Arthur when I was 16 and the very first thing and I he wrote a song for he was the first year or the second think was the first year he was doing the CNE show spectacular and I will the very first song I wrote when I was 16 it was just a minute and a half piece but it was performed on that see any stage by about 150 people on stage singing chorus line and there now cares the howard cables Orchestra and I just remember as a kid I got it I was I would stand by the stage every night just watch the do that song it's been downhill ever since everything that was that was the first and then I wrote other side in later years again for the CNE show for that songs for a few years and also ice through maybe I think I was about 19 or 20 when I first played for Ava Moore and had a song the first first time he wanted to do a song of mine the Tiber Hamilton sang in spring thaw and then I started writing a number of things for spring thaw and wrote for television and to Otto Norman Jewison was doing a big review which was the first major musical thing on television and I wrote a couple of songs for for that and and that pretty well took me up to the end of my college days I think I was I went to English studying philosophy at the U of T and I got a BA in an MA there and and I got a scholarship to go to Oxford to do grad work in Canadian government scholarship to do graduate work I went to modeling there and while I was there at Oxford I I did some things I was in a in Oxford review and then they asked me to do the Oxford to the right and direct the review that the that Oxford put on a late night review at the Edinburgh Festival and I did that and it was it was quite successful found Alan Bennett was in that who I really found and Dudley Moore who with whom I had sung one of my songs and old spring thoughts on we said and the Oxford he did the orchestrations he couldn't be any cuz he was doing something else at the festival but he did the orchestrations for me it was that and I had accepted a job at Carleton University teaching philosophy I was supposed to come back I was doing a doctorate and I realized that I had no aptitude for teaching whatsoever I was miserable thinking about it and I had to write I did and then I worked in London for a little while and reviews and things and then I'll just go on then I came back to Canada in 1962 and I again started working with me again it was and did work for Norman Campbell did a number of shows with Norman and then for Patti Sampson did some shows I was it was great for me I had a wonderful life at that time because I think I was the last Canadian writer left everybody else do I had my pick I was writing for Wayne Schuster was right musical things and then occasional other things as well but basically the opening numbers and I was going to ask you for wrote for Wayne and Shuster because that's my old stamping ground here yeah yes did you always work alone no I worked well sir even before I left for Oxford I was writing with Ray Jessel I know this is what we did a musical which for Norman Campbell before I left for Oxford a caveman musical it was and it was short I wasn't there when it was shown I was already in England by the time it got on and and we're still good friends ray and I Norman Oh Norman - of course yes we speak regularly that's great yeah and and so I was back in Toronto and wasn't having like what doing those things and also I was on I got a strange phone call from the lovely woman called barrel fox oh I understand I just found out recently that she had died there and she remembered me from a party and apparently Leigh and I had kind of started and she just asked me if I'd be interested in writing bits for this hour has seven days oh and I wrote one it was one based on the Quebec scandal going on there Levantine here at the time and I wrote something on that me like that and then they asked me to do to call if I had any other ideas so I did win the Loon and I did something there was an item in the paper about songs in China the Chinese hit parade in Red China at the time and I wrote a thing for a Chinese song writer you know who is talking about always always being who that guy who that boy in Hanoi Yankee bomb cannot destroy that a favorite comrade Ho Chi Min Ho Chi Min Ho Chi Minh talking about having billions of platinum they would sell by this by the billions and they couldn't find anybody to do it who could do it who could play it and sing it so they they just asked me if I tried and I did that and from then on I I did I would write and perform live that was done on film but I did I would live live television and I would write based on whatever was happening that week I'd light us a teracle sketching I'd go out and perform it and that was that was very fun did you prefer live television to taped did I prefer it you mean as a writer or isn't well not as a writer I don't think you would you'd want it more perfect but oh it was a performer it was great and in fact it was interesting on the walk the series that I created I wasn't associated actually with the dated I had a wonderful job called consultant which I recommend to anybody yes they open made notes name and spoke to him over the phone and that was but they the third year of rod they decided because the actors were all stage actors and they said let's do it live and they actually did the sitcom live it was taped but they they and it was amazing they did how how well they did it they yeah well that's how we started in Toronto you know live and it was exciting because it was always an opening night and then on tape you just didn't you lose someone you know wonderful feeling all that tingle yeah and that was what I was what I was doing at that time was those years and tomorrow was so great for me I am I was in New York and somebody had me play for Frank Loesser and he became my publisher and my mentor and was treated me like a slob I mean he would bring me from Toronto to New York and put me up in a hotel and I would get best seats to whatever the top plays were and give me great dinners it's a little Kramer who was his head of his part machine that would take me he's fabulous did so I was going back and forth what he was doing he had me prepare a what he called the trunk writing a lot of songs to demonstrate and then when it was ready after a year so he he had me play for his his his peers and his friends and his colleagues which I did and had some very interesting experiences and some of which turned out sadly and some turned out very very nicely I the very first one people I played forward side few were involved Fosse and Fosse apparently was very impressed and he asked me to the next night to play for Gwen Verdon and his wife and what he wanted to do he wanted then they asked me to do this show that they wanted to do at the time what it was was two one-act musicals one was based on nights of Cabiria Fosse had done the book himself and the other was a play by by Elaine May and I read them both and I loved the nights of superior thing it was just there was one act and I couldn't see anything in the Elaine Mather and he was very funny I couldn't find a song in it and so I asked Ryan bless her what to do and he said you just got to tell them how you feel about it and so I told them that I didn't know how to do it of course that eventually became switch Sweet Charity with a wonderful became turned industry with the Neil Simon we did the book and it became a full length four leg things was that kind of thing with it was a lovely show what was a wonderful show in a wonderful store and another clothes I had a lot of close calls I had Herman Levin who produced my fair lady wanted to do a musical of of the Baker's wife the French film and he had heard of me through Joseph Stein wood who I played for and and the idea of Joe Stein was going to write the book and Burton Lane was gonna write the music and I would do the lyrics and then when he went to negotiate for the rights he went to Ronnie Claire was the director I'm not sure it was I may have the director's name directed the film but any case we went to and this will be the law he and any class said that's that sounds fine the play was faced the movie was based on a play and he said fine out of that I will get 70% and the author of the play can have 30% in there then he went to see the author of the play and told him the same thing in the author of the play said yes that sounds fine except I will have 70 and the director can have 30% he then what he did was he said alright gentlemen I'll tell you what I'm going to do I'm going to raise the royalty you will each have the equivalent of 70% each of them said don't know whatever the fee is I will get sorry that didn't come to pass that way I finally did eventually do a showing in 1976 call it was called so long 170 4th Street again through Joe Stein Bobby Moore starred in it based on a novel by Carl Carl Reiner and maybe the show had a disastrous opening night they had some very good reviews from anybody who did that the critics that didn't see it ok it had a disastrous opening night and closed after two weeks strangely enough this past year somebody wanted to do it did a concert version of it in New York with just reading with the scripts and a minimal minimal staging and it was immensely successful and in somebody the moment wants to do an off-broadway production of it so that that's very nice any involved oh of course well composers is always always anyway that's that was my time in Canada and as I say I was having a really good time then one day I was sitting in the outer office of the publisher and there was another man sitting there and I could have been the janitor he just looked at me and he said you look like a writer do you want to come to California and I kind of laughed at it as it happens I was very busy at the time and I was working in Toronto with a number of projects that I was doing there at the time and so thought no more about it three months later he later same guy was sitting in the outer office and I was sitting in the same outer office and he said to me first words were to me while here coming enough who who he was was and called Greg garrison who was the director producer of the Dean Martin show and he asked me to come down he was doing the first Dean Martin summer Cheryl he asked me to come down for three weeks and work on that and I did for three weeks and three weeks turned into 35 years that turned into I did eight years on the on the dum-dum edema and cherylin and my my friend who I'd met on that they're gonna have been called ed Weinberger we became friends I did City he was fired after the first year along with other somehow I survived I found the way that you I did write spots to survive and and get around the head writer and go right to the but you so and I did 60 and then this man had Weinberger asked me if I have to produce the Mary Tyler Moore Show and light with light with him and do that which I did and then I did three years on that and then we formed a group with Jim Brooks and Alan burns and Edie and myself and out of that came came taxi great those are all great shows and as I say I stopped I don't did I tell you that I stopped doing yes situation comedies and and I directed I started directing sitcoms after that and put out what I was doing mainly at the time I was I decided to stop because I wanted to I have another shot at musical theater and I did one show all by myself and did a couple with burns sleep and I would slay we should call I do I interviewed him last very close to them and I did two musicals with the one of which was seeing a musical at the same time next year we did that which heading lovely which had its world premiere slightly out of town in Budapest Hungary New Year's Eve 1995 we do and they did a wonderful wonderful production of it the director it was just delightful it had a very scary out I'll tell you mr. I had a very scary opening night these two very famous Hungarian actors were playing the parts and they were both terrific in it the girl had wasn't was basically an actress if not simply had not danced but she sang very well and they were Hurst for six months she did as I say had never danced before and then the week I was there for the week of previews they and they would have a rehearse or they have a performance for a free performance for old folks that would come in to know and in the morning and then they would have a rehearsal and and so opening night and so she was working very hard opening night was a gala occasion they never put on a American Western musical I mean they had had done things like cats and and Saturday I looked sure but these had already been created and then so they basically just restage him the orchestrations had been made and everything they could translate them and do them this they would this was a world premiere and there so it was a really big deal I went down six months before and I was like a huge celebrity my picture was in the paper feud on Hungarian television it was quite so the opening night gonna be two opening nights it had to be turned into the New Year's Eve one was going to be for all the people that had spent money and bought seats in this movie this refurbished theater with their names on it and so they made that than the but then there was going to be another opening night the night before which I guess December 30th and this was a gala and all the diplomatic corps were there people from the Hungarian government was there all the theatrical stars it was a glittering audience so burn in jail and my wife Aileen and and I you may know I came inside of it wasn't special we we went to the theater from the hotel and it was supposed to start at 7 o'clock quarters 7:00 there's this lady who was the press relations lady and she spoke very good English she bent over in the States and she called me aside and told me something's wrong with doctors they that's the star the female star we don't know whether she can go on or not yes and so the audience stayed outside 7 o'clock quarter after 7:00 finally there's an announcer please the announcement where they're saying please will you all come and take your seats so all everybody comes and takes the seats audience and on the stage come the director the male star and the artistic director of the theater and have an announcement to make and unfortunately Daria cannot go on tour they could not go on an evening she just can't understand she feels terrible about it and as they're making this announcement from the middle of the stalls of the other day the downstairs is a loud wail woman wailing at the top of the voice it turns out that it was the stars mother also a very famous laughs of course we were all terrified with and the company was terrified they had a huge investment in this show and it could have totally been cancelled I went back to see doctor doctor in her dressing room and she was bawling but they took it at the hospital and acupuncture and and and stuff on her and somehow they simplified the choreography and she was able to go on the next night so we did have that opening performance when and it was it was just - if they had done a wonderful sensitive the director was extremely talented and it's very separate and I were both thrilled with it it was there was a composers dream after witness vamping like yeah this kind of applause Europeans that then what happened made speeches on the stage you know what language did they sing it Oh in Hungarian I when I went in in six months before I met with the translator and it was a loose translation but he did it must've done a great job just listening to see it and you would tell my where the last came that he done a he'd done a very fine job and the musical director did a great but the lyric both lyrics and it's a terrible language to have to translate I have no idea how to do it's the only language of its kind it hasn't in the world it has a very relationship to ancient ancient Finnish apparently yes there were long words every word has to be accented on the first syllable which is enormous leader and there are very few who ever the one filled one syllable words I mean and like thank you is these are glavish are so if your translator trying imagine trying to translate think would it be possible but he somehow did it and he must have done a great job you know right because in English yes I know you right to a point well not at the beginning of the race no of course and you have feminine rhymes and training but he did it just did I could tell I could hear I got you you've got to write all this in a book I can't write close if I could I'd have been a novelist I just I just like dialogue or not when I write something yeah and it's minimal stage directions you know she enters and sits that's it that's all describing things I'm terrible at so I would never married in the novel but everything you've told me is so exciting you know it would read beautifully it's good tell me what have you done that gave you the most pleasure the most a there were a number of individual episodes and actually in Mary Tyler Moore closely closely showed you in it yeah I remember the chuckle show and we did that I was very proud of that and the way that had happened and I guess my two nicest nights in oh I I did I thought the blue and she's the we did a show at Charlotte town for the together and I and I was very good I was very pleased to have done that that was Corrin Connelly I wrote a couple of songs she did a couple of songs that I that I wrote in it and this night in Hungary was one of those of my life and this concert version in New York yeah the opening night of that hearing it performed this other so long 174 to be done was a huge thrill for me I mean they would be my memories yeah what are you most proud of again I oh it's a work that will never get done anywhere it would be the one of the shows that I went when I sat down to write some musicals after taxi it's a comic opera it's about women's liberation and tennis called damn you Billie Jean but it's an immense work it's probably take three and a half hours or something if anybody ever tries just be immensely complicated and I'm very proud of that score and everything I wrote the whole the book as well to that and I think it has a chance can it be done it would be very difficult I don't know who would do it and try to think I mean I do mean to come up to the Canada somebody just approached me actually recently about doing a member his name names of bad but he's doing he wants to do a review based on people who have turned 50 I know and the father is and the problems of that lovely man and then just like yes but he's from somewhere else his name may be German or something okay but any and I want to spend some time in Canada and I would love to get something but and I have spoken about trying to get something done in Canada either Charlottetown or yes there was something like that a musical so our Stratford I know I do want to get something done its track yeah it's something when I returned from box but no I did a musical based on misanthrope that Norman Campbell produced and something that I think could be done in Stratford and oh yes I'm gonna go back there and this is and exploit my Canadian is the genius Callum you know they're always open for that you know television and Canada's starting to come back now they're series I've seen a few of them have been shown here and they've been terrific the one yes there's some good work being done because it really hit a low nothing was going on nothing was being done just imports and there's a lot of talent up there a few things that I've done have been done in Canada did a mini series of of about a television evangelist which was done in in Toronto and have done a series for Showtime here based on Kurt Vonnegut stories I needed six of them to reunite now I did ended up doing three of them they're Canadian company did them and I got up to like actually we shot it to direct one of them myself in Calgary and there are a lot of locations in Canada that are very beautiful oh yeah exactly right yeah no I directed a a Western in Vancouver that's what I was doing where's when you tried to get me to ask you yes I was doing it was a show called dead man's gun which was done in Vancouver and I I directed an episode of it which was great fun - good is there anything that you would have liked to do but it just didn't happen so far musical theatre yes I'm still gonna try I'm still trying that's your great love isn't it that's what you wanna do tell me did you ever have I don't think you did but did you ever have to take a civilian job who support your career no good I mean I I considered it when I came back from England I would well I was looking for anything at that point and then made contact with maple again who edited spring thaw and I did a radio review with him of something and he was a huge help to me in my career maybe as was Norman right well some of us are very lucky yes you don't have to drive a cab no wait on tables that's good that's great did you ever work with a producer or director doing your work someone who didn't just didn't agree with what do you do about that well here basically when you're doing I was a writer producer executive it is over sure you're really in charge and the director in every sitcom is I mean they can be very talented JJ sandwich who did Mary was a wonderful director but you go down to the stage and and the actors perform the show for you and because you have to know if something's wrong you have to know whether it's the performance that long list so you have to speak directly to be at which you can never do in the stage or in a movie there is no you have to tell me try it this way yes and then you see if it works that way and if it works that way fine it's not then you have to rewrite it because of the it has to be done in a hurry you have to really override the director you restage it or you do something and so they will share that but that's never a particular director that uh you know I said oh god this guy's driving me nuts or you just don't like went right into somebody who simply is incompetent and can't interpret yeah what you've written but of course if your producer that you do have them the final word don't you yeah the executive producer is you know never have to work with a director you just didn't like yeah no no well you were very likable person yourself something you don't have I get along very well now you always wanted to be in some form of entertainment music yes I started writing writing songs when I was about nine years old remember I used to write parodies of popular songs I was very fat as a kid I was like no candy no Kenny I've had him on a diet so a no candy I was so yes my father he managed a small theater in Toronto we lived above it and I used to I'm gonna get a movie here - yes a movie theater Royal Theater in the corner Dundas and Dufferin and I would from the age of to go downstairs every crawl downstairs every night and watch a double bill saying TT nights in a row running twice I watch it every night and I google that so to me I still love movies I can see five or six in a day if I get the opportunity I just that's the real world to me everything it's kind of like Frank's Easter did he ever tell you that his father was a cameraman oh no he an operator or was he own in a movie theater right grew up in those dark movie theaters watching well that's what I do that's interesting that sir if you haven't decided to do what you're doing is there any other profession that would have interested - well - before I was in Toronto from the I started taking piano lessons when I was again 9 or 10 years old and indeed at that I had a very fine teacher there I'm sure she's passed on now kamon abates oh I know that yes a very famous and a wonderful yes teacher and she thought I could have been a concert pianist at that time in fact I didn't want to go to a university I really wanted to and my mother said you try to get that as a bad thing for a father just kind of insisted that I go and somebody except managed to talk me into it and and I did and so that's one thing I did and the other thing I I guess I could have made a career of philosophy I would have been a lousy teacher but I never did finish my thesis yeah at Oxford and it's on my list of things to do so I guess that's you know but you're happy with what you decided to do yes I'm very that's where you should be yeah exactly what do you what are you looking forward to now what do you still wanna do well that's it musical theater yes I'm still writing I'm still writing and writing another show at the moment and I would like to get some of them produced somehow again and that's what I'm really looking forward to well why don't you do one of those cooperative shows that we do you know the off-broadway off wherever the main oh sure yes where the actors get divided up any profits we've done oh really yes a good idea and have somebody come and see it yeah you know somebody who would be interested oh yeah in promoting it in doing no no certainly so with money I mean they work for nothing kids work for nothing yeah and then whatever workshop it's like a work you share sure profits yeah there have to be profits because nobody's getting paid sure and use a minimal set yeah no of course yeah but just to show it cuz you're so talented you know do what I love yeah well what I'm trying to do now right right that would be beautiful tell me if you do it all come to sing it okay okay do you have any hobbies sorry too busy I love I Academy the Italian language and I stand I do now I started we were supposed to make a trip at one point my wife and I with good friends of ours with the slaves and Bernie Ornstein and his wife and you know Bernie you absolutely another couple Bernie kopell the actor who was on Love Boat and everything and we were call gonna make an Italian trip so I figured I'd learn a little bit of Italian uh-huh before we went on the trip then I got involved in this show that was done in Toronto this miniseries HBO miniseries and I couldn't go we couldn't go on the trip but I started learning Italian anyways I kept up doing it and I just read books and really rotational tapes and things beautiful oh yeah and now I certainly can read I will read novels and things in Italian and the newspapers and things that I can talk while enough so that if an Italian talk slowly to me not like he talks when he's talking to another Italian I can understand and I can communicate with them I've had a few conversations when we visited Italy and they understand you oh yes how's your accent that's what they compliment me on because I've always done accents very well you know since my watching since season like this accent so I just use their legs his accent how would I say I told him Julie don't go that was you oh yeah of course it was you yeah I never got to see that sketch because I was still in it was then I was still in England it we've done before right came back for me when I see that's my claim to fame right I'm one of the answers on trivial pursuits you know what did she say or something like that what what advice do you have for young people just now starting out in your field or in any field of entertainment you know acting yeah it's writing directing it's tough it's very tough why it is it's a little bit easier because you can write a spec script for something and then hope that somebody sees it and appreciates it acting is tough you just gotta just keep you know you just go to auditions you just kid knock on doors and and keep auditioning and again the best advice is get lucky you have to be at the right place at the right time what about training do you believe in training in training whatever works for you I never had any training in any of the fields that even directing which is the reason I became a director was I had written was a screenplay spec screenplay which again it was a Canadian company wanted to do and they asked me on the telephone you know you've seen kid we're doing taxi at the time you you think they have the pulse of America you think you could direct and I said have you ever do a director and I said sure why and I got a book because I dealt with actors of course if I do so I dealt with active then I just got this book on camera work and and we were doing while we're doing taxi we're doing another show called pester the West and just to get my feet wet as the director in my partner ed was going to produce this movie when we got it on and so we said do one of these he said in and so I did and I was the crew is to it because I just told them I have no idea how to get where I know what I want you're gonna have to get it for me and they were all extremely helpful and I got on well with the cast of course and and and so I ended up doing two of those and then the next year I did a couple of taxis and then I started doing a lot of it one side while I was writing the musicals I was directing and Apple shows for what I think bow including my ex-partner and well when you direct were you do working with the actors like the interpretation what about movement yes of course you do you have to everything you you get - I got you get to know it becomes it's a skill yeah it's a skill staging for the camera you know knowing when you got three or four cameras you know you know what you're going to get did you also call the shots and that you know well in film most of the shows I didn't work Phil so you don't have to you have I'm a coordinator ah and I would make up my plans for what I wanted and then he would write it down and then he's calling shut but in tape even in tape where the director usually does call the shots I didn't trust myself to do it and I would have the the assistant with who I would work out the shots with I grew over the shots and he or she would would call it from the boots I I would stay on the floor and and just to be there for the actors of something went wrong but if they keep going or whatever I'd be in contact with the booth but no I never called the shots I never felt competent enough to switch cameras cameras are you ready well I got wasn't sorry well absolutely you have to know where it would look best yes well that way about God I knew I knew exactly what I wanted bangles I knew like stage for that I knew where I wanted the cameras I knew what it should be and I knew how it was going to cut it afterwards but I didn't trust myself to well then did you enjoy tape because or film because you said you knew where you would cut it I enjoyed them both there's a lot of advantages to take it's terrific when you're for the comedies that I know the ones that I've directed in that I've written that I've seen because you have that line cut you know you make a line cut edges and that's shown to the audience they have it on monitors so they can laugh there they're closer to the action because you have these monitors in film which we didn't marry in taxi we both film shows I they're farther away from the action hello it didn't seem to matter that much we still had terrific audience reaction but that it's still up a big plus to have those monitors that they can see mm-hmm said everything you've told me is so exciting you know it's a wonderful to do something that you enjoy doing so much that is the best of all worlds I think yes right so you think kids who are starting out just have to be there just yeah you just it's I mean everybody every senior person get that that question of course I know and there is nothing but keep you have to do what we did you just keep plugging away work and learn from watching both mr. bad things and good feeling good things yes you watch what other people do right boys right I know what you would do you know superior you know I will do it better but don't do this because sure he's just made a fool of himself and this one isn't honest he's he's listening to his voice that sort of thing I feel this very helpful yeah see what what you should do what you shouldn't do and stand Daniel stick you know this has been such a joy for me at terrific at this it's gone I should give up acting and thank you so much and I thank you for this all it's just been beautiful fun so thank you so much thank you this is Silvia lenok for the Ben linic archives

Channel: Stan Daniels

Views: 203

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: 9Our-mWMhW4

Length: 47min 17sec (2837 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 11 2018