Showing results by publisher "Phoenix Books" in Entertainment & Performing Arts

The creator and executive producer of Everybody Loves Raymond dissects the art of comedy and the making of a sitcom classic. In television, where programs can premiere and disappear in the same week, Everybody Loves Raymond reigned as America's best-loved show for nine years with more than 17 million viewers. As the number-one sitcom, it received more than 70 Emmy nominations, including two wins for best comedy.

The place: New York. The time: the early 1980s. The scene: the red-hot comedy clubs, very late at night. The cast: five would-be stand-up comics, their egos, and their girls. The result: a downright hilarious novel about trying to be funny for fame, fortune, and fornication. This is Bill Maher's report from the front, a stageside table at the birth of the comedy boom. You'll laugh in all the right places.

At the age of 44, renowned comedian and Curb Your Enthusiasm regular Richard Lewis found himself on a gurney in the ER, toxic with alcohol and hallucinating from excess cocaine use. The same neuroses and dysfunctions that had been the basis for his successful stage persona and inspired his best material had, it seemed, turned on him.

One night in 1995, author Douglas Adams kidnapped an audience and held them hostage for 70 minutes at London's Almeida Theatre. The audience members were subjected to Adams's dramatic solo performances of excerpts and scenes from his wildly funny, wildly popular books The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, and Life, the Universe and Everything. LEARN how to fly! HEAR about Arthur and the Irrational Sofa! GROAN at Marvin's escapade with the Frogstar Battle Robot! Just keep laughing and nobody will get hurt!

There is no general consensus about how Shakespeare "should" be played. There are no rules. But, while the Bard created superhuman characters and placed them in situations that stretches the imagination to its limits, he also provided his actors with the keys to playing them.

Debuting at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in 1991, Catskills of Broadway was a critically acclaimed show that played to sold-out houses for more than a year, followed by a national tour. This audio recording captures the hilarity provided by comedians Dick Capri, Louise Duart, Mal Z. Lawrence, and Freddie Roman.

Whether it is a director insisting on a final cut, a star demanding a bigger motor home, a producer holding the line on a budget, or a grip with a gripe, it seems that the world of moviemaking is nothing but Sturm und Drang. Shoot Out presents a raucous look at how movies get made and the players involved, from writers, producers, directors, and stars to agents and marketers. For film buffs, aspiring filmmakers, students, and anyone else intrigued by the inner workings of Hollywood, this is the quintessential take on the how, who, what, and why of the film business.

More than 85 years after his untimely death at just age 37, Irving Thalberg remains a legendary Hollywood figure. Called the “Boy Wonder of Hollywood,” Thalberg quickly climbed the ranks at MGM studios to become one of the most powerful and high-profile producers of the time, elevating filmmaking to an art form. In this definitive biography, Bob Thomas brings Thalberg's legend to life, recounting how the producer's remarkable talent for developing stars and scripts led to the creation of beloved movies such as Ben-Hur, Romeo and Juliet, and Camille.

Aaron Spelling is one of the most successful showmen of all time. No one else has produced as many television programs nor enjoyed such career longevity-35 years and still counting since Spelling's first production: Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater. Never told before, Aaron Spelling is the life story from the Prime-Time King himself—personal, revealing, and filled with stories on such Hollywood greats as Michelle Pfeiffer, Heather Locklear, Sharon Stone, and Nick Nolte.

For more than fifteen years Moe Moskowitz and the Punsters were the court jesters of National Public Radio, performing the funniest songs and nonsense that NPR has to offer. Here, Moe and the Punsters are joined by NPR's Bob Edwards, Alex Chadwick, Terry Gross, Cokie Roberts, Susan Stamberg, Robert Siegel, Carl Kasell, and Frank Tavares, among others. These are all those voices we know and love, but they're actually being funny and satirical and spontaneous!

In Mort Sahl's America, the sophisticated, political satirist exposes the grand follies of the powers that be. He tips his dagger towards liberal or conservative, from Robert Dole to Bill Clinton, from Jesse Jackson to Al Gore, no one is spared. Sahl takes his audience on an incredible trip back to Barbra Streisand's 1992 fundraising extravaganza for then Arkansas Governor, Bill Clinton, relaying Streisand's analysis of each of the party's attendees.

From one of the most successful and influential producers in the entertainment industry—responsible for such classics as Roots, The Thorn Birds, and L.A. Confidential—comes a fascinating memoir of life at the very hub of Hollywood. Wolper enjoyed staggering success yet remained down-to-earth. By combining flexibility, resourcefulness, and determination, Wolper produced landmark documentaries, films, miniseries, and other cultural touchstones of the twentieth century. Producer is the engaging and inspiring memoir of a true entertainment pioneer.

 What makes Buffy the Vampire Slayer a "brave dame" but Ally McBeal a "wimpette"? In this witty, incisive look at the role of women on screen and page, Susan Isaacs argues that assertive, ethical women characters are losing ground to wounded, shallow sisters who are driven by what she calls, "the articles of wimpette philosophy." 

This laugh-out-loud memoir takes listeners backstage and inside the writers’ room of one of America’s best-loved shows. With more than 17 million viewers and more than 70 Emmy nominations—including two wins for best comedy—Everybody Loves Raymond reigned supreme in television comedy for almost a decade. 

Sex scandals have rocked Hollywood since the industry began, but Once More With Feeling: You'll Never Make Love in This Town Again, Again is a brand new collection of stories that this town will never recover from - again.

In this adventure, which would have played well in one of his own films, Schmuel Goldfisz left the Warsaw ghetto in 1895. He walked 300 miles to the Oder River, where he paid someone to row him across, smuggling him out of the Russian empire into Germany, past border patrols to another long walk to Hamburg. The gleam in his eye was America, "a far-away country, a vision of paradise." Schmuel Goldfisz became Samuel Goldwyn, one of the producers who created the Hollywood film industry.

Recorded live at the Friar's Club in New York City, this collection of stand-up routines features some of the greatest American comedians at the height of their comic skills. Presented by Joey Adams—and with introductions by television legends Milton Berle and Phyllis Diller—this recording captures performances by Norm Crosby, Freddie Roman, Soupy Sales, and Henny Youngman. In this nostalgic, hysterical collection, you'll laugh all the way through hundreds of hilarious jokes, gags, and putdowns.

On June 1, 1962, Marilyn's 36th birthday, famed photographer and reporter George Barris visited Marilyn on the set of what would be her final, unfinished, film. They had met eight years earlier, became friends, and planned to do a picture book and autobiography. Now the time was right. For the next six weeks, Barris photographed and interviewed the actress. "Don't believe anything you read about me except this...." she told Barris. And so she began to confide the truth about herself.

At last, everything you ever wanted to know about "Gilligan's Island" from the Professor himself, Russell Johnson. Sit right back and take a nostalgic, first-hand look into the world of Gilligan's Island. Directly from the ship's log, Russell Johnson takes you the day when Sherwood Schwartz shipwrecked seven strangers on a tiny desert isle—and America hasn't been the same since.

Here are legendary director, producer, screenwriter, author, and actor Orson Welles' historic interpretations of excerpts from classic literature. Includes selections from Oscar Wilde's "The Happy Prince', H.G. Wells' "The Red Room", Saki's "Shredni Vashtar", Joseph Conrad's "The Secret Sharer", Rudyard Kipling's "Riki-Tikii-Tavi", Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Wakefield", Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell Tale Heart", and Robert Louis Stevenson's "Letter to the Reverend Dr. Hyde".