I cannot speak to the book's thesis, but "Get Smart" and "The Dick van Dyke Show" are indeed first cousins— The first written and created by alumni of the regretted Sid Ceasar's "Your Show of Shows", the other as well, but even a fictionalized version of that universe.

I had the privilege of studying under Alexander MAckendrick and later being his assistant… Though he could be a difficult man, not a project goes by when I'm directing that I don't have a moment where I tihnk of him and go 'So THAT's what he meant!"

This is right on the money. All the others are venal sins, that's a conceptual, film-killing mistake….

L'enfer c'est les autres'..

Oh, it was hilarious alright. The first time I’d ever heard men calling each other ‘cunt’! But it did go on… and on… and on… The other tow bands ere awful swell: Jethro Tull (he almost fell over wielding mighty stage Axe) and Heart where the blonde woman as so high she didn’t realize she wasn’t wearing her guitar. The…

I just saw the Stones in a small club about a year ago with 300 people and they were never better.

They invented the proud tradition of rock songs about masturbation with 'All I Have to Do is Dream'…

Her ein France we have a lovely edition, from the restored 65mm print which is lovely, but still— Nothing beats the big screen, and his gags were designed t be seen BIG..
That’s why they can be so incredibly subtle at times..

I am actually part American and very proud of it.

Boy, don’ tI know it!
The problem is, I spent 4 years reassuring everyone here that Americans weren’t crazy idiots who had voted for him, and then you went and re-elected him (or ELECTED him) by a wider margin! This time with torture, and wrong wars and spying ands everything out there!
(cue ‘Good Grief’ Charlie Brown…

Ha, Torgo61! Thanks!
I had forgotten about that!

Oh, I agree that theoretically it is a relay interesting idea, but it is almost inherently the sort of thing that works much bettering a novel than real life, unless you have Avatar or LOTR-level resources to put behind creating language and linguistic histories and vocal and language coaches to deal with it, as well…

I do agree that Keaton was a genius, that's for sure.

Si tu le dis, onrhee!

The gag wight he door tot he Hotel's restaurant making a strange little noise builds wonderfully in that film… Still, it is the most 'baggy' of all his films, and some of them work better than others.

There are little differences, a couple of scenes play out longer, and it wasn't just dubbed differently s I have seen written elsewhere, but actually shot with the differing dialogue…

…and it is worth nothing,that the architect's plans are going to go terribly awry when Hulot, that agent of chaos, gets loose in his nightclub…

Yes, this, definitely.

I would say that in Playtime he clearly takes sides, wight his idea that all cities have come to resemble each other.. Each is only seen to be individual by the reflection of a famous landmark (La tour Eiffel, The Taj Mahal…) in the glass door of an aeroport..

I agree about Playtime, but the ideas aren't entirely the same. Playtime can also get a little crush dundee the weight of its production design and sheer enormity (he built an entire city-'Tativille', they called it!), whereas there is bait of real life in this one, and sublet, smaller charms…