Word: twist
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...middles fall through. In Rats, the evening's opener, two rats discuss their backgrounds and childhoods in an oversized nursery. In The Indian, (Eastern, not American) Wants the Bronx, two 1950-vintage JD's decide to beat up on an Indian. The endings invariably contain a startling twist, but those middles lope from one half-achieved punchline to the next in an attempt to give substance to what is basically situation comedy or tragedy. In a sense Horovitz may be writing plays backwards. Instead of prefabricating beginning, middle, and end for the actors, he ought to let them improvise...
...network's own attitude. "They are frightened of our being too heavy, and are distrustful of their being too comedy-ish," says Producer Gene Reynolds. "The powers in TV-land want to know whether it is comedy or drama; it is very difficult for them to twist their imaginations to encompass both," says Constantine. The show is billed as a "comedy-drama," but the show's originators managed to persuade the network to eliminate a standard but bothersome sitcom laugh track. "Our humor is too subtle for it," Reynolds explains...
...Auden looks very, very old. His hair is flecked with white, and, head erect, shoulders hunched, he lurches forward, an amiable panda in dark glasses and checkered bedroom slippers. His age is etched on his face, in the wrinkles that twist and turn, crossing over and flowing together, streaking across in thin, deep lines. At 63, he has worn out his face, and, when he leans back, eyes closed, the creases of his eyes and mouth branch out into the spreading wrinkles. W. H. Auden-in the thirties, that name labeled a new generation of pocts; by the sixties...
...anti-war: it's just so last you don't notice its superficiality till you leave the theater. While a grisly joke is being played on Elliot Gould, Sutherland is over there asserting his salty personality, and when that begins to pall your attention is diverted by a new twist on that old running gag in the background. M. A. S. H. simply gives its audience more than one thing to watch at a time. It therefore becomes the only recent American commercial feature to stay more interesting than watching people on the sidewalk would have been...
Then it's time to jump ship and really get down to the business of degradation. By a simple plot twist, Alexander himself is made a plantation slave. Nor in his guided tour of slavery does Maclnnes neglect the white variety. Ex-Slave Alexander, on the run, finds refuge in a Caribbean brothel called Sans Regrets. Shades of Moll Flanders...