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AFF panel: A Conversation with Phil Rosenthal
His film, which opened this year’s Festival, chronicles his efforts to create a Russian-language version of the popular American sitcom in Russia.
Rosenthal talked about the show and the movie, as well as his background. He also answered questions from the room full of aspiring writers.
Here are some highlights of the panel:
- As a child, Rosenthal would watch “The Honeymooners” and, he says, “I wanted to be them.”
- He tried to perform stand up comedy once. “It scared the hell out of me,” he said.
- When Rosenthal arrived in Russia, his fear of being killed was soon replaced by his fear that the Russians were going to ruin his show.
- Vodka flows freely in Russia. “I got hammered at every meal,’ Rosenthal said.
- Most people think you should write as broadly as you can in order to reach as many as possibly. Just the opposite is true, Rosenthal said. “Write as specifically as you can.”
- Rosenthal’s first sitcom was with Robert Mitchum in 1989. He followed that up with “Baby Talk,” the television version of the “Look Who’s Talking” films.
- The writer/director had high praise for Stephen Colbert, who he called “The Fred Astaire of comedians,” praising his verbal dexterity.
- Who else on TV does Rosenthal like? Louis C.K. A lot.
- Rosenthal had one speaking line in “The Simpsons Movie.” At the end, he says, when his name appeared in the credits, his son turned to him and said “finally you’ve done something I can be proud of.”
- One audience member asked Rosenthal the difference between writing for television and writing for the Web. “The Web is shorter,” Rosenthal said.
- A few weeks into “Everybody Loves Raymond,” Rosenthal got a call from Norman Lear inviting him to lunch. Lear said he was bringing a friend, who turned out to be Carl Reiner. They’re all buddies now, Rosenthal said. “I’m the young one.”
- When Rosenthal was developing the sitcom based partially on the real life of comedian Ray Romano, who was set to star, he got a call from Scott Baio, who wanted to audition for the part of Raymond. Rosenthal said anytime Romano got out of line he reminded the comic that Scott Baio was waiting in the wings.
- Rosenthal was asked if the reality television series he is currently developing would be based around his own parents, who were the model for the parents in “Everybody Loves Raymond” and practically steal his new film. “No,” he replied. “Let them get their own damned show.”
Best story: As a gift, Rosenthal got everybody on his staff a toaster engraved “Everybody Loves Raymond.” He sent one to his parents. Eventually, he called them up to see how they liked it. Turns out his folks, thinking he’d just sent them a regular toaster, took it, unopened, to Macy’s, lied and exchanged it because they wanted a coffeemaker instead. “The joke in our writers room,” Rosenthal said, “was that somebody probably got that toaster, brught it home, opened it up, saw what it was, brought it back to the store and said, ‘We’d like the “Frasier” toaster.’”
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