#359 Legendary Producer Vic Kaplan The Man Who Helped Shape Comedy and Music As We Know It

Jeff Dwoskin 0:00

Alright, everyone. I'm excited to introduce my next guest. He has produced and worked with some of the greatest entertainers of all time and TV shows Fridays, Ellen, he's worked It's Gary Shandling show. He's worked with Oh Robin Williams an evening at the Met. He's worked with Billy Crystal, Richard Lewis, George Carlin, if they're in her entertainment, Vic has produced them. Welcome to the show. Vic Kaplan, how you doing, sir?

Vic Kaplan 0:28

I'm doing great. Thanks for contacting me. My pleasure.

Jeff Dwoskin 0:31

Thanks for picking up.

Speaker 1 0:34

Vic, how did you come to work with every famous person in the world?

Vic Kaplan 0:38

Well, it kind of, I kind of started when I went to I left ABC and I went to work for Dick Clark productions. And this was around 1976 and at that time, there were quite a few variety shows, and many comedy and variety producers were doing specials and series, and there was a lot of work. And I, you know, stayed with Dick Clark, did all kinds of different kinds of shows, a lot of music, and then a live variety show, which included comedy and stand up comedy. I met two producers, John Moffitt and Bill Lee, while we were at Dick Clark and they formed the company. They had a deal with ABC, and the part of the deal was to produce a late night comedy to compete with Saturday Night Live and after a couple of pilots that I did with them, with a lot of different comedians doing sketch comedy, we got a pilot, and it was called Fridays, and it got picked up for a series. This was in april of 1980 I think yes, and John Moffat and Bill Lee were the executive producers, and they brought me on. And I was called all sorts of things. I was an executive in charge of production. I was an associate producer. I was a producer, whatever it was, a blazing 52 episodes live with a lot of known pop music. At that time, we had a lot of guest hosts that were from that era. I probably can't name them all, but I do remember that Lenny and squidgy were part of the part of that. It's amazing. They had the hosting. The shows were, were live, and we when we debuted, it was an 1130 show that was on after the local news. The show was doing very well. We had two budding stars coming out of that show. You know, Larry David and Michael Richards shows were going along fine, and then towards the second season, ABC decided to put on a news show, a network news show, at 1130 and moved Fridays to midnight. And that wasn't taken so well. I mean, we, you know, we work really hard, and we were doing really well. And and to come after, to come on after two news cycles, like you'd have the local news at 11 to 1130 and then there was a network news show, I think it was with Ted Koppel, but it was an hour of news before you got to Fridays. So that kind of took some of the wind out of the sails, as you'd say. And our ratings kind of dipped. And towards the end of the of the run in that second season, going to be we did, like, two and a half seasons. We got the news from ABC that we were canceled. However, on that show, as for me, I got to meet a lot of comedy managers, comedy agents, and at that time, there was a little thing called HBO that was budding. And heard of it, I've heard of it. And there was show time also, and the comedy managers that represented Fridays and a lot of the comedians that came on, we got to know so I got to meet a lot of people, and all of a sudden, a lot of the comedians were selling shows to HBO and series, and I work with John Moffat and Pat Lee, and they developed, not necessarily the news, and we worked with them, and we got a series on. And what happened was, is that Chris Albrecht, who was a. Agent with ICM. At the time, he got the job as the president of HBO. He comes out of comedy, and started bringing producers along to do HBO specials and series. So there was, seems to be a big stream of specials, I was really lucky to get on a lot of them. And the managers of Moffat Lee and me was the the Brillstein company at that time, you know, Bernie was a powerful manager to have on your side, and working with him just expanded my my chances of doing a lot of great things with comedians.

Jeff Dwoskin 5:46

Fridays was a powerhouse. I mean, I remember that. I remember being I forgot that Larry David came from there. I mean, I remember very specifically Michael Richards was big name there, and Jack Burns was the announcer, yes, yes, you had there was a lot of Andy Kaufman, I think guest hosted, a lot of big names, rich hall this, this is so now you've left Dick Clark. Is the music that you did, like Rick Springfield, Fleetwood, Mac Michael Jackson. Was that? Where is that in the time frame is that, is that after Fridays,

Vic Kaplan 6:22

yes, it came out after Fridays, before Fridays, when it was with Dick Clark. I did a lot of the music specials and the American Music Awards and various specials with Dick Clark. And then John Moffitt and Bill Lee produced them. And then they they left to form their own company. Bernie Brillstein, at that time, was their manager and signed them to a deal with ABC. More music came. I mean, I convinced there were Helen ready a Helen ready special. There are a lot of different kinds of things. And Captain and Tenille, of course,

Jeff Dwoskin 6:58

of course, these are all the classics. So did you get to hang out with Dick Clark? I did.

Vic Kaplan 7:06

I found to him to be a very, very powerful instinct in my career. I mean, he gave me a lot of support. There were a lot of times where it got very tense. He could be a heck of a long giant. He could be mean at times, and he could be the most wonderful man that I've ever worked with. I got to do a David soul special in London, and we didn't bring anybody to London other than me and the writer Robert Arthur and Dick Clark. It was just the three of us putting up a special in London, not knowing anybody, just making a few contacts and working with Dick Clark on that particular level, was quite an experience. It was. Everybody was hands on. I guess when, when I, when I left Dick Clark, there was still more music with with John and Bill, until they got into the comedy aspect, and Bill passed away. And Pat Lee, his wife, stepped in and partnered with John to launch nntn, which I was part of, the original launch. From there that turned into a highly successful series, two questions,

Jeff Dwoskin 8:21

two follow up questions. One, what were the secrets of Dick Clark to stay so young? Did you witness it? Do you just like a lot of tomatoes or something, regimen, something?

Vic Kaplan 8:32

He didn't smoke. He never indulged. I know, you know he, he would have a glass of wine here and there. I mean, he was just a regular, not an indulgent, eater, smoker. He was a workaholic. He constantly had shows on the air. And a lot of people who were very successful in production went through the Dick Clark company. You served your two or three years there, and then you came out, and you graduated into another world of more, of to take your experiences and do a lot more, and, you know, in comedy and music at that time. So

Jeff Dwoskin 9:13

the Dick Clark company was to producers, what, like Roger Corman was to directors. You did your time, and then you went and became a big shot. All right, let me ask you a question, like, what makes and I'll ask you the same question about comedy, but like, what makes a very excellent music special, like, what is the secret to capturing a musical performance so that when you're watching it at home, it doesn't feel flat, and it's like you feel you're there. And it's like, Are there tricks to that trade? Yes,

Vic Kaplan 9:49

but during that time, there were some extraordinarily great directors who did music in the 70s and 80s. These. It's nothing like today. It's nothing like you know you see on the voice or or if you you see a lot of the HBO music specials and Netflix music specials. It's a lot more sophisticated now, but back in that day, there were a lot of directors who understood and were very adept in putting music and picture together. And there was a group of them there at that time. I know they don't exist anymore, but there were a lot of network specials, and they were all all different. There were mostly classic type, you know, the ones with Barbara Streisand and the ones with Perry Como and Andy Williams and stuff like that. But, you know, there, there were some, some really long lasting good, great talent on that. John Denver had a series, and they, you know, they were very special at that time. And I think they, you know, the networks kind of kind of dropped that and they those kind of music specials went on to HBO and and Showtime, and then new directors and new forms of putting music on TV developed until, until what it is today, which is amazing that some of what some of the directors can do with music. It feels very sophisticated camera work and brilliant lighting. That's what carried us in the beginning. But sooner or later, we had a giveaway.

Jeff Dwoskin 11:33

What would you consider some of the best musical performances captured on film during that time. It could be your favorites too. It doesn't. I

Vic Kaplan 11:45

have to say it was Michael Jackson on the American Music Awards doing the moonwalk.

Jeff Dwoskin 11:51

That's one of the greatest moments in the history of anything. I mean, yeah, I I can when he did that. I mean, it's like, that's like, one of those moments where you're like, Where were you when that happens? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Vic Kaplan 12:06

On those on the shows, there's, there's Michael Jackson, there's Lionel Richie, there was some just really great talent. But most memorable is to is watching the moonwalk, and then, then seeing, you know, thriller, that video.

Jeff Dwoskin 12:24

But oh, that video, yeah, that's, that was John Landis, right, yes, yeah, that was, you know, it's funny, like we live in a world where it's like, everything's on demand. You forget. When you had to wait for the world premiere, it was like, and you had to watch it when it was on, or catch a special, you know, whenever it was replaying on MTV, such a different time. So of your concerts that you like, full concerts that you like, you know, Kenny Loggins or Rick springs,

Vic Kaplan 12:56

oh, my god, yeah, it's that Fleetwood Mac room for HBO was a very power concert. That group was just off the charts. They were amazing.

Jeff Dwoskin 13:10

I love Fleetwood Mac. I just, literally just bought rumors on vinyl. It was my first DVD. It was my first CD I ever bought as well. Such a great I mean, yeah, it's at that

Vic Kaplan 13:23

time I jumped on a Stevie Nick special. I had a sub in for one of the producers who had to leave the show and Stevie's manager, and then that led to doing their HBO special,

Jeff Dwoskin 13:39

incredible. So I assume that was the classic lineup, though, right? That was all of them back then, because we're talking they hadn't broken up five times.

Vic Kaplan 13:49

Yeah, there was a pioneer director at HBO, Marty colner, who developed his own HBO style that was, that was different from, you know, the what you would see on on the network special from the 70s and 80s, keeping

Jeff Dwoskin 14:07

with TV for a second, and I definitely want to jump into comedy, because there's so many, my goodness. So you worked on, in some way, the original threes, company pilot, unaired pilot. Yes, I was

Vic Kaplan 14:22

at ABC, and this was in 1976 and the producer of the and one of the producers of the Emmy Awards that I did was doing this pilot for ABC, John Ritter, and I was, like a production manager for ABC. I was still working for ABC at the time, but they put me on on the show, and everybody was so high about the show, the pilot that we shot, people would come up to me and say, Hey, this goes we would you leave ABC and come join us as a as an associate producer. You know, at that at that time. Time I was working for ABC for about eight years with I had a two years stint with the army and one in one year in Vietnam, but came back to work with ABC, and I thought at that point that the Threes Company show was going to be my ticket to doing, you know, freelance producing, to my shock, it wasn't picked up and it was going to be recast. I think they recast. The women can't be don't remember exactly who was recast. I say back at ABC, and then Dick Clark. And Bill Lee from from Dick Clark, gave me a call. I left ABC to go with, to go with them and not do the sitcom.

Jeff Dwoskin 15:48

I wonder Whatever happened to that sitcom? Yeah, yeah, nice. So that's interesting. So the version you made, everyone loved and thought that was the show, but then didn't get picked up, and then they reinvented it, shot a new pilot, which is what we all know. The

Vic Kaplan 16:09

thing is, is that a lot of people have different eyes for for for casting, and throughout the years, you know, I've gone through many, you know, table reads where, you know, for producers and executives, and there's just something that's just not right, and not everybody is 100% aboard with an actor or an actress. Um, sometimes you know, after you you shoot a pilot and you edited it and you test it, or whatever, a lot of people take a look, and a lot of different opinions come out, and those unfortunate things happen, where you don't get picked up, and then they recast. Sometimes they recast and sometimes they cancel. So in this case, they recast and became a giant hit.

Jeff Dwoskin 17:01

Oh, a huge, huge, huge, yeah, iconic, even. Alright, so now you're with Dick Clark, but then later, that's not that's just one of your interesting TV credits. So it's scary, shaming show, which such a great show like, Wow, is that a great show, right? I mean, so groundbreaking. What was, Well, what

Vic Kaplan 17:24

happened? What happened there is, before I did that show, I was getting a lot of Stand Up specials from HBO and Showtime, and I met a manager. His name was Brad Gray, who was the manager of Gary Shandling, Bob Sagat Dana Carvey, Dennis Miller, at that time, after I did a Gary Shandling special for Showtime. It was called alone in Vegas. And after that was produced, Brad joined Brillstein, which later became Brillstein Gray, and brought those four superstar comics to the brillstone company, and they all got HBO specials or Showtime specials. I was, was happy to do all of them. You know what? You know? One thing led to another. The shanling did another special. And then he and a great writer, Alan swipel, who was from Saturday Night Live, got together and wrote, it's Gary Shanley show pilot that started. It was like in 1986 in the summer, and they picked up six, episodes, and it was, it was an instant success, although Showtime didn't have nearly the amount of subscribers that HBO did, but it was critically acclaimed. And then they picked up another six, and then it was 11, and then it became 72 more, which was astounding.

Jeff Dwoskin 19:05

I remember watching that. I remember watching those Gary Shandling specials, too. Gary Shandling, to me, was one of the funniest human beings. He and

Vic Kaplan 19:13

Alan could make you laugh all day long working on the shows, no matter what the tensions were, they could give each other a look and whatever, and you would be laughing in the next minute or so. They're the funniest people I work with and but also during that time, I worked with Billy Crystal and on his specials, before he got to do

Jeff Dwoskin 19:38

Comic Relief live. Was there any live? Okay, and

Vic Kaplan 19:42

we did an HBO special, and his I worked with his management company. It was Rollins, Joffe, Maura, bresnar. They represented a lot of comedians too, and they also had a very good relationship with. Salbre. So, as you can see, I'm laying out here, there was, there was, like, a birth of many, you know, comedians and specials that were launched at that time. I was really busy.

Jeff Dwoskin 20:14

I mean, any one of those would been like, wow, you worked with him, you know, yeah, it was like You also worked with George Carlin. You produced one of his specials, or another

Vic Kaplan 20:26

wonderful person. Great I had there are, there are lists that happen, and all I credit Chris alvare for putting together an amazing legion of comedians at HBO. I mean, there were, there were just quite a few. Bob Saget Got it, got it. Dennis Miller during those days did two specials. One, you know, we won these things called ACE awards, whatever they were, we won them. And that was because these, these comedy specials, were written so funny and so produced pretty well, and they kept getting, you know, becoming more and more and to this day, you know, I look on and at Netflix and they're, they still, they're still coming out with more and more comedy,

Jeff Dwoskin 21:10

a lot of comedy on Netflix. The

Vic Kaplan 21:13

birth at that time was there were just the the people that you know that were at brillston, gray and rollin Chaffee. They were just brilliant comedians. And then I, you know, doing Robin Williams at the Met was an unbelievable experience for me. The show was supposed to be done in June, and then it moved to August. And for some reason, it was supposed to be June and it was going to be done in Los Angeles, and then it was moved to the Met in in New York. Robin sold out two shows in like six hours, two day. I think there's, I think it's 3000 seating capacity. Left us no time for rehearsal or lighting or or what, I mean, we it was just jammed. And it was one of the most historic specials that has been produced. I mean, he, he was, was

Jeff Dwoskin 22:17

that one of the harder ones that you did, in the sense that standstill kind of comedian

Vic Kaplan 22:23

it was. It wasn't that it was hard. It was that it was, you know, Robin can play any venue and be great. But to do that one where there was no setup time because then you didn't allow us to get in early enough to, you know, get the set and lighting. Then the director had no rehearsal, and then Robin just did it. And it was just genius. Showed off his greatness.

Jeff Dwoskin 22:50

So amazing, so amazing. Did you father Guido Sarducci, yes,

Vic Kaplan 22:55

he used from out of the out of Saturday Night Live at that time, I forget it, whether it was Showtime or HBO, he wrote this special. It was like an, oh, by the way, here we go again. Let's go and, you know, I met with him, and I think Steve binder, who was known for, you know, directing Elvis and doing, you know, a lot of spectacular kind of things. We're doing, this little HBO special with him. And Don Novello, you know, he, I think we had him on Fridays. We got, you know, we just, he was just, you know, really easy to work with, and very collaborative.

Jeff Dwoskin 23:35

And Richard Lewis, you did a couple specials with Richard Lewis, yeah,

Vic Kaplan 23:39

yeah. That was sad to hear. He was extraordinary, funny, crazy, neurotic, but fun. The biggest thing I can say about him, he was he come down after a performance. He was still a kind person, just a quality person to work with. It appeared like things were crazy. But they, you know, after all, said that it wasn't. And, you know, he, he was very approachable and very open. And it's like, like, I, you know, when I see his character on curb, it's, it's kind of that character there,

Jeff Dwoskin 24:17

very cool. Then Harry Anderson

Vic Kaplan 24:23

This is good, and it's getting me sad. I love Harry. Yeah, we, we, we did a couple of specials. One was we did it at the comedy magic club in Hermosa Beach. And there was a very small house, but an incredible audience that loved Harry Anderson, and he did that needle in the arm trick, which was classic. You know, that special did very well for Showtime. And then we got another special, and then another NBC special, which was with Chinese acrobats. It was like sideshow. Harry was very. Him into, you know, the side show aspect of comedy, and he and Jay Johnson and I all partnered together to produce that show. He

Jeff Dwoskin 25:10

was brilliant. I mean, I loved him when he was just kind of guesting on cheers, he'd show up on cheers every now and then. And I mean, Night Court, obviously, is brilliant. Anderson in Dave's

Vic Kaplan 25:23

world, he did an amazing job on Dave's world. Again, I was Harry offered me to work with him on that show, and one of the most difficult choices I had to make was to turn down that series because I was in negotiations to to work on Ellen. And to my surprise, they signed me up to four years, which is unheard of now, to give a producer for years it's and I had to call Harry and and tell him, you know, he's, we saved friends and we, you know, still, you know, had some of the greatest times. I mean, he's always funny, and he and, you know, he partnered with Jay Johnson, who's also a good friend of mine, who helped us produce the shows. And the two of them were just a force to work with. He was

Jeff Dwoskin 26:19

wonderful. Yeah, that was Dave's role. Was the show about Dave Barry, right? And then yeah, and I also remember, because it was a Billy Joel theme song, yes, no, man, okay, wait, since you brought it up, let's pivot to Ellen for a second. All right, so you were, you were at Ellen. I worked, I interviewed Java savel, and we talked a lot about the puppy episode, which happened during the time you were there. What that's the episode? Just to catch everyone up where Ellen came out. You know, it's considered one of the most famous and groundbreaking episodes of television period. What was it like being part of that show at that moment? Because I know there was the decisions and then the aftermath and then all that. Well,

Vic Kaplan 27:08

there has been a lot said, and I'm sure one thing you'll agree with me is the more stories get told, the more you know, unreal they get. And for the most part, it happened in a very matter of fact way. Ellen pitched the to the writers first, an idea where she would would come out, and it took time to evolve. There were, there were a lot of there are a lot of meetings about it, and GABA and Mark Driscoll and John, Jonathan star, I mean, and Tracy, they all, they all collaborated, but it took time. And then, you know, then there was a draft, and then there was another draft, and then there was all this drama about the draft was getting to a radio station or things like that. And there were all sorts of conspiracy things about, about what was going to happen with the show, but it wasn't immediately picked up, but the right, you know, between August and, I think, we produced it in March, but it took, it took a long time and a lot of perseverance, and finally the script became great and Ellen, we were able to, with our casting director, Tammy Billig, book these amazing guest stars, but it was the script. And, you know, having the the talent that we had there working, but, but Ellen, Ellen was the, the force behind it from day you know, from day one, it was a small it was just a mention, an idea, and it's something she wanted to do, and then it'd be it STEAM rolled into a great script and a great production. It was just one of those shows that just developed into, I think, a one of a kind, kind of event. I went with Ellen to get a Peabody Award in New York, which was one of the highlights of my career, to accept, accept that with her. And, you know, there's a lot, a lot has been said afterward about, you know about Will and Grace and a lot of the lot of the shows that are happening now, but it took a lot to get that one episode done. It was, you know, back breaking work on the part of getting the script right. The writers really dug in, you know, not, and it was disappointing sometimes to them, because they really had to work really, really hard while we were producing, you know, 20 some odd other shows at the same time, weekly shows. But you know, again, we got 44 million people watched it. You know, it's one of the highlights of my, my career, amazing.

Jeff Dwoskin 30:04

Well, it just, it must feel good to be part of something that definitely touched so many people's lives. It's not just a critical success for the sake of it being so great of an episode, but that, you know, many people that opened up a lot for a lot of people, and they see that. I

Vic Kaplan 30:22

had friends who were at NBC, executives who were developing Will and Grace at the time. We were one of the executives as a friend of mine, and I was just giving him some hints on what the do's and don'ts were as we were going along, there was a lot of standards and practices issues. And, you know, NBC was different than ABC standards. And you know, it it got it got involved. But it was, it was not easy. It was not an easy road like today. It seems like it's nothing to produce a comedy with gay characters,

Jeff Dwoskin 31:02

you led the path you you, you walk so others could run. Well, you were part of the team. Yeah.

Vic Kaplan 31:10

I mean, I think, I think, you know, again, the dava and Mark and the writing staff were incredibly

Jeff Dwoskin 31:22

in keeping up. They were wonderful. So I know that was a highlight. So maybe this isn't the Get Smart reboot. Talk to me about like, when they're trying to it's one thing I know the TV movies, those were a thing, you know, where they'd bring it back for a couple hours and stuff like that. But this was a reboot. Had bunch of the original cast, you know, Barbara, Feldon, Don Adams. Is there an excitement about that? Because he forgot

Vic Kaplan 31:46

one character and who? Who was the Get Smart. It was Andy Dick.

Jeff Dwoskin 31:52

Oh, and, well, right? Yeah, Andy Dick, but he was the new one, right? And, and,

Vic Kaplan 31:57

I don't think he really, I don't know if this was his cup of tea. I think when news radio came on, he was more comfortable in doing doing that. Now the good, smart reboot, like a lot of reboots, are, it was, was only, it was six episodes and just didn't have time. It was not the kind of you know, budget where we had 13 or 14 writers or we had a couple of consultants who did the original Get Smart, and Barbara Feldon, I think, did a guest guest on it, you know, it just didn't catch and it was on Fox, and didn't catch on at all. So

Jeff Dwoskin 32:37

it was just one of those, because I some of the trivia you read is like, they knew they were it was done before they even aired it, which has got to be a bummer, because, like, it's always hard, like, even, like with the Night Court, we were talking about Harry Anderson earlier, like with the Night Court reboot, it's like, can't you just make something that's kind of in the same genre? I know everyone's stuck on IP, and they need IP to, like, make things go but it's like, it's hard to re grab magic from something that was so amazing. Yeah,

Vic Kaplan 33:06

and, and Don Adams was a lot older, and his jokes were a lot older. You know, the things that he did that were, you know, funny as Maxwell Smart, you know, in the in the old series, just weren't, didn't catch on with the the audience when we you know, did the reboot

Jeff Dwoskin 33:27

missed it by that much. Yeah. And then out of this world, with Donna Pesco was another show that you did. And Burt Reynolds had a just a voice. He never actually appeared that

Vic Kaplan 33:43

show was some of the friend of mine, who's a was the executive producer Bob Bucha, who, you know, sometimes it was a syndicated show, and sometimes one of the things about the producers that I worked with in the 70s and 80s, and this was before the studios owned the shows. They were really inventive, and they were they had to. They did the creating. They didn't have a lot of executives telling them what to do or whatever, but they would come up with the ideas and the the force behind the creative process. Today, it's homogenized with a lot of there are a lot of creative executives, and there's testing, and there's a But Bob Booker developed the show, and he came up with this idea, what about getting Burt Reynolds to do the voice from the heavens? And it was the key that, you know, that kind of made it into a series that a lot of different kinds of audiences got into. And I think we produced about close to 80 episodes. It was a very much of a success in syndication. Amazing voice. That was his idea. And it got the show, I think, sold, and I think it sold the audiences, because. And a lot of the audiences started to catch on. It was Burt Reynolds, who was also popular at that particular time.

Jeff Dwoskin 35:07

Yeah, Bert, at one point was really hot. I think he was on evening shade, even around that time, too, or something. Billy Crystal, speaking of Billy Crystal from earlier and Robin Williams, you also did at least a couple of comic reliefs, which were the greatest shows ever on HBO, and those would come on comic

Vic Kaplan 35:24

relief was an idea that was spurned by Bob samuda and Chris Albrecht at HBO. And the idea came to me. Chris said, what if we do this telethon from Los Angeles, New York, England or London, and when he started talking to me about something like that, I started to get faint. I mean, that's the idea of putting five stages together in locations and and transportation became a nightmare, but we finally settled in just doing it in LA, in LA, but the HBO machine for comedy at that time brought in everybody, all the comedians, came and donated their time, brought their A game to the to the show. We did, I think it was in March of 86 when we launched it. And there was, you know, that was a time when HBO and Showtime were starting to build up their comedies. Dave,

Jeff Dwoskin 36:24

yeah, those were some of the best. I like, I remember comic reliefs. Like, just always loving when those came on

Vic Kaplan 36:35

to get the Billy Robin and Whoopee. The host was the best.

Jeff Dwoskin 36:41

The three of them were, it was that powerhouse trio. I mean, because, because they were really friends in real life, all three of them, right? They really adored each other.

Vic Kaplan 36:49

John, you know, John moffen and petty also were working close with HBO, and it seemed they were brought into, you know, to shore up all the bringing in a lot of the talent and the staff and writers and, you know, it became a great show to to show your comedy on while you're helping out the homeless, right?

Jeff Dwoskin 37:12

Yeah, they did a lot of good, lot of good on each real you also did the mid 2000s lucky Louis, with Louis. CK, that was, I remember that being great, never understanding why it got canceled so fast, because it seemed like it was good, you know? I mean, it was different. It was like, had, like, an old school set and all that kind of stuff. But it was like, I love the

Vic Kaplan 37:35

script. I met with Louie, and we got picked up for 12 shows after the pilot, the pilot script was, Louie Rowe was was great. The cats was great. You know, this was something that, you know, Louis wasn't used to working on a sitcom. It's different than doing your own material. We had a lot of great writers, and, you know, some of the scripts were really, really good. The production was very stark, as it was a lot like the honeymooners and HBO wasn't really used to multi camera. It was a multi camera comedy. We had a live audience. We didn't do any shows that were just canned. Laughter. Was all Audience laughter, and that's the way Louis wanted it. You know, some shows didn't. You know, towards the end, the writers, you know, on a sitcom, you can't produce every show to be great, and I think that HBO learned that you're going to have some scripts that are great, some that are not, and some that just didn't, didn't work, but I think the overall multi camera look and the feel of the show and the what the show was, it was kind of raw. I didn't get 100% support of HBO, and it was a big disappointment. We were canceled. It was really hard to accept, because most shows at that time at HBO didn't get canceled in their first run, but we did, and,

Jeff Dwoskin 39:08

well, maybe did it make up for it that you got to work with Zendaya. She's like the hottest thing right now, like, she's just like on fire, so you weren't Casey.

Vic Kaplan 39:18

Yes, what happened is, I after Louis show went down, I kind of, this was in 2008 seven or eight, yeah, and then I retired. I felt that I was the time where I wanted to spend some time with my my son was playing baseball for University of Texas. And, you know, I worked a lot and never spent a lot of time, enough time, I kind of retired, and then my wife and I, we moved to Sherman Oaks, and we lived in Santa Monica for 25 years. Only kids all left the house, and so we downsized, and I. We moved into our home in Sherman Oaks, and on a first night, I went down to pavilions to buy a bottle of wine, and I ran into a writer that I knew from Ellen, and he was an executive producer at Disney, and he was doing a show with zenday at the time, and he says, What are you doing? I said, Well, I'm golfing and I'm retired now. He says, No, Adam, been at at Disney, is looking for a producer, and you have to, you have to pick up the phone and call him. So he calls him on the phone while I'm checking out. He says, I'm standing here with Vic Kaplan, and all he's doing is playing golf. Hands me the phone. He says, Can you come to my office on Monday, I want to talk to you about a shop. I didn't know how to say no. And I started a five year, five and a half years run with Disney, and ended up working with the writer. I met with Ellen to do zendayas series. I knew, we knew she was going to become a superstar. I mean, she's just elegant, smart, she was already planning. Her parents were wonderful. Her support system was great, and she signed with CAA. And, you know, she did all the right things. You know, we used to let her out, to get to go to the Met Gala, where she could show off her new glamorous dress, dresses and things and but we knew all along she was getting offers, and we let she had movies coming. And then, as you know now, it exploded. But it was something we could we could all see, and we were just helping her get through this last Disney series. But what happened with this series is Disney wanted a lot of some data, so we did 82 episodes in three years. How we did that? After that was over, I was 72 years old. I was tired, and I said, this is enough. That's been it

Jeff Dwoskin 42:05

well, going out on a Zendaya series, that's not a bad way to go. It's hilarious to me that you just happen to wander into that store and bumped into your old pal, and that's what sparked your Disney career. Otherwise, who knows? Maybe it'd be like, Well, I had, you

Vic Kaplan 42:23

know, the Disney series with Ellen. I spent four and a half years over at Disney, and this was just the break, and then it took the just happens again. It's

Jeff Dwoskin 42:33

amazing. So many amazing stories. And I know there's like, a million more, but Vic, I so appreciate you hanging out with me taking a break from your now confirmed retirement to hang out with me and chat.

Vic Kaplan 42:47

Definitely confirmed. My son is a producer at Disney now, so he's got the baton.

Jeff Dwoskin 42:54

He's got the baton carrying on the the Kaplan charm over there. Awesome. Vic, thank you so much. This was amazing. It was

Unknown Speaker 43:04

good talking to you.