Kvell and laugh
The late founder of CBS, William S. Paley, established the Museum of Broadcasting in New York City in 1975 to preserve TV and radio programs and make them available to the public. It was renamed the Paley Center for Media in 2007. In recent years, NBC has been showing Paley Center for Media specials,
and one dedicated to the funniest moments of the last 60 years airs at 9 p.m. Sept. 1. All but one of the programs featured have a Jewish creator or co-creator: “Seinfeld” (Jerry Seinfeld/Larry David); “The Big Bang Theory” (Chuck Lorre); “The Simpsons” (James L. Brooks); “Friends” (Marta Kauffman); “Will & Grace” (David Kohan/Max Mutchnick); “Everybody Loves Raymond” (Philip Rosenthal); “Cheers” (James Burrows); “Saturday Night Live” (Lorne Michaels); “The Cosby Show” (Ed Weinberger); “Modern Family” (Steve Levitan); “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” (James L. Brooks/Allan Burns); “The Dick Van Dyke Show” (Carl Reiner); “I Love Lucy” (the late Jess Oppenheimer, a San Francisco native); and “All in the Family” (Norman Lear).
Jon Robin Baitz, 51, who created the hit TV show “Brothers & Sisters,” is also an award-winning playwright. His 2012 Pulitzer-nominated “Other Desert Cities” is being staged at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts through Sept. 15.
‘Glickman’: TV worth watching
The documentary “Glickman” debuts on HBO at 9 p.m. Monday, Aug. 26. “Before Marv Albert and Bob Costas, there was Marty Glickman (1917-2001),” the HBO press release begins. “A gifted Jewish-American athlete who was denied the chance to represent the U.S. at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, he went on to become one of the most revered and influential sportscasters in history.”
Glickman, who began working for HBO at its start in 1972, was a high school track and football star who went on to be named an All-American when he played football for Syracuse University. In 1936, he and sprinter Sam Stoller (1915-1988) were the only Jews on the U.S. Olympic track and field team. At the last minute, they were benched in favor of two other runners. Glickman was convinced it was because the track coach and the head of the U.S. Olympic Committee were anti-Semites.
In 1998, the head of the U.S. Olympic Committee gave Glickman a special gold medal, concluding that there was overwhelming evidence of anti-Semitism. Glickman’s disappointment was deep and lifelong, but it didn’t stop him from becoming the voice of the N.Y. Knicks, Jets and Giants and a mentor to many who became household names in sports, such as Albert.
The program touches on the U.S. team’s near boycott of the 1936 Berlin Olympics over the anti-Semitic laws of Hitler’s regime. The Games were a big public relations success for the Nazis (who suspended anti-Jewish laws for the duration). The Berlin Games are being referenced by many critics today who oppose holding the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia because of its anti-gay policies.
Sports short
The 2013 Solheim Cup competition, which pits the best American female golfers in team play against the best European female golfers, was held Aug. 13-18 in Parker, Colo. Among the competitors was Morgan Pressel, 25, who made the U.S. team when she finished fourth at the 2013 Women’s British Open championship.
Pressel has won more than $5 million since joining the LPGA tour at 17. She was hobbled by injuries in 2012 but has come back strong this year. In 2011, Pressel toured Israel and gave many clinics. She was married in January in what one newspaper called “a traditional Jewish ceremony.”
Columnist Nate Bloom , an Oaklander, can be reached at [email protected].