My Last Cartoon
March 20, 2009 | Filed Under Editorial Cartoons | 33 Comments
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Getting paid to have a blast: Working with Robert
By BRAD WARTHEN, Editorial Page Editor
REMEMBER “The Dick Van Dyke Show”? For you younger folks, it was about a guy named Rob Petrie, the head writer for a fictional variety show (and if you’re too young to know what a “variety show” is, go look it up) called “The Alan Brady Show.”
There were these wonderful scenes of Rob and his colleagues at work, writing comedy sketches — a process that involved a lot of bouncing around the office, acting out and collaborative improvisation. Morey Amsterdam’s frenetic character would jump up and say something like, “OK, so Alan walks into the room . . .” and the other two would throw in various wild things until they made each other laugh, and the skit would take shape. It looked like the most fun a person could possibly get paid for having.
That’s what it’s been like working with my friend Robert Ariail over the past 15 years. Just like that.
