Just finished reading Henry Winkler’s excellent memoir/autobiography, “Being Henry: The Fonz… and Beyond” (2023). Highly recommended.
My one quibble isJust finished reading Henry Winkler’s excellent memoir/autobiography, “Being Henry: The Fonz… and Beyond” (2023). Highly recommended.
My one quibble is that while he hits the key points and does tell quite a few personal anecdotes, he doesn’t go as much into the making of “Happy Days” and his relationships with his co-stars (aside from Ron Howard) as much as I would have liked. Then, again, I understand that this is his own personal life’s story, not a “Happy Days behind the scenes” book.
I gave the book four out of five stars on GoodReads....more
Last night I finished reading “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: The Making of the Classic Film” by John Tenuto and Maria Jose Tenuto (2023, Titan BookLast night I finished reading “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: The Making of the Classic Film” by John Tenuto and Maria Jose Tenuto (2023, Titan Books). An excellent behind the scenes book about what many consider to be the best of all of the Star Trek films (and planned to have come out in 2022 to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the film’s release in 1982).
There are many books out there already about both the making of the Star Trek films in general and about Star Trek II specifically already. This being a “coffee table” style book, it’s not as text heavy as some of the other books because of all of the wonderful pictures, but it still covers all of the basics in terms of how the film got made. Especially nice are its numerous profiles on not just the more well known figures behind the film (like writer/director Nicholas Meyer and producer Harve Bennett) but also seldom covered people who were just as important to the making of the film like production designers, costume designers, hair and make up supervisors, stunt performers, camera operators, film editors, sound and visual effects artists, etc.
They also give detailed descriptions of all of the script drafts that had been written prior to Nicholas Meyer coming aboard as director. And scenes that were shot and then not included in the final picture, or were reshot (like the initial “fight scene” between Kirk and David).
I also was very happy to see a full page sidebar about the Star Trek II movie novelization written by Vonda N. McIntyre, which was one of the very first Star Trek novels I ever read, launching me into a being a lifelong Star Trek reader (it and the Star Trek comic books from DC Comics that started just after Star Trek II’s release).
“Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: The Making of the Classic Film” is a good standalone book for more casual fans of the film and of Star Trek in general. I think it’s even better as a compliment to the already existing books on the subject, like Nicholas Meyer’s “The View From the Bridge: Memories of Star Trek and a Life in Hollywood” (2009), Edward Gross and Mark Altman’s “The Fifty-Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek” (2016), William Shatner’s “Star Trek Movie Memories” (1994), and Leonard Nimoy’s “I Am Spock” (1995).
(I should also point out that there was already another “The Making of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” nonfiction book released in 1982 by Pocket Books as a tie-in to the release of the film, written by Allan Asherman. I’ve had a copy of that book for many years now but have not read it yet.)
Again, I highly recommend this new book by the Tenutos. I gave it five out of five stars on GoodReads.
(Titan Books also released another book, “Star Trek: First Contact: The Making of the Classic Film” (2022) by Joe Fordham in the same size and general format. I highly recommend that book, also.)...more
Finished reading this one last night. Not much I really need to say about other than that it’s a really good book about one of my top favorite tv showFinished reading this one last night. Not much I really need to say about other than that it’s a really good book about one of my top favorite tv shows growing up, “The Greatest American Hero” (1981-1983). The book is “The Greatest American Hero Companion” by Patrick Jankiewicz (BearManor Media, 2023).
Jankiewicz has written several books about shows like this from the late 1970 and 80s (my particular “golden age” of all things pop culture), including “You Wouldn’t Like Me When I’m Angry!: A Hulk Companion” (which I am also in the process of reading) and “Buck Rodgers in the 25th Century: A TV Companion”, as well as “Just When You Thought It Was Safe: A Jaws Companion”.
Jankiewicz really does his homework, not only detailing the creation of the show by Stephan J. Cannell and the casting of series leads William Katt, Robert Culp, and Connie Sellecca, plus the obligatory complement episodes guide. He also has loads of interviews with everything, some conducted by him specifically for this book, others conducted earlier (for Cannell, the actors, and other significant people who had died).
This is a pretty definitive book resource about the making of this short lived but still widely remembered television series, one which came out in a lull period in terms of superhero pn TV (“The Incredible Hulk” was just finishing it’s run at the time that “Hero” was beginning). But it was a sign of things to come. I highly recommend “The Greatest American Hero Companion” to all fans of the series. I gave it five out of five stars on GoodReads. (Copy read checked out from the Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library.) ...more
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