Teri Garr Collection

[PGage]

I have watched parts of it before, but never the entire 5-Part Collection made available by The Donz (what a great service he has provided on his YouTube channel). I enjoyed it having seen most (but not all) of her appearances live. Two questions:

1. Why did Dave never ask her about her experience on the back door pilot “Assignment: Earth” episode of Star Trek TOS? It is a clunky, ponderous episode, but I always liked the concept, and Garr is by far the best part of it. The script implies that she would have been a significant part of the series if it had happened. It’s not clear what the series would have been - Gary 7 says he will only be on Earth for a short while, and it could be him and the cat/woman roaming the galaxy saving civilizations, but if the show was going to be called Assignment: Earth, and Teri Garr his side kick, then more likely they would have stayed on the planet and helped late 1960s earthlings solve various problems.

Famously, this show, which was first broadcast March 29 1968, contains a report by Spock that “There will be an important assassination today” - an unspecified day in the specified year of 1968. Six days after the show was broadcast, on the real Earth in the actual year of 1968, Martin Luther King was murdered. A little over 2 months later Bobby Kennedy would be murdered. I guess in a world in which the President had been murdered only 5 years earlier, and Malcolm X 3 years earlier, predicting assassination as one of the events in an already turbulent year is not that un-expected but still, must have sent a shiver through the spine of people who worked on the show. If I were interviewing Teri Garr dozens of times I would have asked her about it at least once. I read that Garr has said being on that episode off TOS was a a big boost to her career. Dave asks her about being in the Elvis films on like 5 different shows, but as far as I can tell never about Star Trek.

2. When did Paul start doing play-on music for guests? In my memory he always did it, but for much of the series Teri walks on to applause only but no music. On 6-14-1990 (which is on Part 4 of Donz’ 5 Part Garr collection) she again walks on to no music. Then on her next appearance, 11-23-90 Paul plays “Bridge Over Troubled Waters”, as she walks on, but there is no discussion about it. The next time she is on, 4-23-91, Paul plays Bridge again, and in response to inquiry from Dave explains that Art Garfunkel’s last name originally was Garr. I did not confirm this consciously, but I think from then on he plays some kind of music as she comes on, not always Bridge.

I’m not saying he started the play-on music for Garr, but I am just wondering when he started it? Based on this sample, it would seem sometime between June 14 1990 and November 23 1990, but of course its possible he started much earlier and just didn’t do it for every guest, and didn’t start with Teri until November of 1990.

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[donz5]

I'll have to pinpoint when guests regularly received play-on music. Comics always were accorded music, starting with Elayne Boosler on March 2, 1982 (LN #18), the second stand-up to appear on the show (the first, Franklyn Ajaye, had no intro- or exit- music when he did his act on February 15, '82 (LN #9). That was rectified with Boosler).

But panel guests didn't normally receive play-on music (until they did, TBA) except for a few guests: Martin Short was introduced with Julian Lennon's "Valotte" for the first time on July 10, 1985. Martin explained in his autobiography that someone told him that he had resembled Julian, so Paul took it from there.

Jerry Seinfeld once appeared panel on Dave and asked why he didn't get his traditional walk-on music. Paul told him that that was reserved for stand-ups only, which, in this circumstance, Jerry was not. That discussion took place on November 25, 1988 (taped November 8). However, Jerry's two previous panel-only appearances -- November 11, 1987, and August 26, 1988 -- Paul did play him on, the former accompanied by the Tower of Power horns playing the Beatles' "Got to Get You Into My Life" (Dave's lead guest on that show, Debbie Reynolds, had no play-on music), the latter with the quickie O'Jays number. So there was some inconsistency here.

[donz5]

And thanks! I'm currently working on a mammoth retrospective on Tony Mendez. Hopefully uploaded in a couple of weeks.

[PGage]

I’m pleased as punch to get a reply from you Donz- thanks for that, and all of your generosity over the years in making the fruits of your labors available to the public.

I was thinking about you and Tony while watching the Garr collection, as she was a guest on the show when Dave wished him Happy Birthday and revealed he was 60, which I thought was a joke for a long time.

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[Tom Wolper]

On Fri, Sep 3, 2021 at 3:02 AM PGage <pga...@gmail.com> wrote:

I have watched parts of it before, but never the entire 5-Part Collection made available by The Donz (what a great service he has provided on his YouTube channel). I enjoyed it having seen most (but not all) of her appearances live. Two questions:

1. Why did Dave never ask her about her experience on the back door pilot “Assignment: Earth” episode of Star Trek TOS? It is a clunky, ponderous episode, but I always liked the concept, and Garr is by far the best part of it. The script implies that she would have been a significant part of the series if it had happened. It’s not clear what the series would have been - Gary 7 says he will only be on Earth for a short while, and it could be him and the cat/woman roaming the galaxy saving civilizations, but if the show was going to be called Assignment: Earth, and Teri Garr his side kick, then more likely they would have stayed on the planet and helped late 1960s earthlings solve various problems.

Famously, this show, which was first broadcast March 29 1968, contains a report by Spock that “There will be an important assassination today” - an unspecified day in the specified year of 1968. Six days after the show was broadcast, on the real Earth in the actual year of 1968, Martin Luther King was murdered. A little over 2 months later Bobby Kennedy would be murdered. I guess in a world in which the President had been murdered only 5 years earlier, and Malcolm X 3 years earlier, predicting assassination as one of the events in an already turbulent year is not that un-expected but still, must have sent a shiver through the spine of people who worked on the show. If I were interviewing Teri Garr dozens of times I would have asked her about it at least once. I read that Garr has said being on that episode off TOS was a a big boost to her career. Dave asks her about being in the Elvis films on like 5 different shows, but as far as I can tell never about Star Trek.

Teri probably knew less about it than you do. She would have been hired for that Trek episode and told by her agent to wait for a series pickup order. When it never came she moved on with her life and career. If the series were picked up the actors would be the last ones to know what it's about. That would depend on Roddenberry and whoever was hired to write the show as well as what kind of budget they would get. I read her memoir years ago and I don't remember her mentioning the Star Trek episode let alone speculating what a spinoff series would look like. And also, knowing what we know about Hollywood, there was every possibility she could be replaced as lead actress for a series for any number of stupid reasons.

[PGage]

That is true enough, but I am also interested in her memories of acting in TOS, and, as I say, especially if she had any particular reaction to the predicted assassinations. She was not in that scene, and maybe was too hip to actually watch the episode when it aired, but I think there was some discussion of it at the time.

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