Customer Reviews

Cue the Bunny on the Rainbow: Tales from Tv's Most Prolific Sitcom Director (Television Series)

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3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Rafkin has the ability and experience to write a totally interesting and DETAILED book about the shows and stars he has directed, as well as the producers. We get a few sprinkled examples of stars who are "professional", trouble, or drug users, but little else. Specific anectdotes about the stars and shows he has been associated with could probably flow from this man without end. However, he offers teasers [of already well known anectdotes], personal philosophical observations, and too few first hand accounts about some stars and shows, and leaves one wanting. Rafkin does give some details regarding revenge in tinsel town, and it would appear this is why he soooooo stingy in details about the dozens of stars, producers, and shows he has been associated with. While Rafkin claims that he practically lived with these stars and shows while directing, his book offers few intimate details of the good, the bad, and the ugly, and I suspect that he is withholding much about powerful stars and producers. I should hope that Rafkin will really spill the beans when he decides he is truly out of the business. It is worth reading only because it is as close as we might presently get past the facade of our TV set.

After hearing Rafkin on the Howard Stern Show I expected much more from this book. He was very funny and forthcoming in his interview with Stern, but it seemed like every interesting anecdote from the book was mentioned in the interview in full detail. He also jumps around too much - the way he goes back and forth in time is very confusing, even irritating. Overall, I would have to say that there was a lot of potential and very little is delivered.

I heard about this book on the Howard Stern show, and Alan Rafkin's candidness made me want to read the book. While there are some entertaining anecdotes, overall it's a collection of "he's nice/she's not" stories, pieced together with tales of his personal life. He's an interesting person, but I wish he would pick one subject and stick with it; Celebrity gossip or his three marriages.

Alan Rafkin nibbles around the edges of, but never takes a decent bite out of the material that made up a lifetime of his work as a TV sitcom director. Here's a man, who, along with a few other peers, literally created hundreds of thousands of hours of TV comdedy that spans the earliest days of TV until the present. His book is mearly a glorified list of comdedies he directed, instead of a more insightful look at HOW they were created. For example, he could tell us what made the original Dick Van Dyke show a classic while subsequent attempts by Van Dyke fell flat. Instead, he provides a few examples of why this actor or actress was nice/tough to work with. Rafkin was there when so much of our video culture was created, but we never get a feel for it. If his book was a TV script, he would have demanded a rewrite. Perhaps Rafkin can write a sequel with more insight than his present attempt.

Some of the other reviews posted very deftly critiqued the weaknesses of this book. I felt it was just poorly written and very much a first draft filled with surface anecdotes. Here is someone who had this amazing vantage point and the information he chooses to share with us seemed downright silly.

Whatever...it did have its good parts. But few.

I must tell you though...the feeling I walked away with after reading this book was pity. I felt sorry for him. He has almost no close interpersonal relationships with other human beings.

Yes, he got to be present at the dawn of the TV sitcom era and contribute to it, but at the price of maturing developmentally as a human being. Decades of a workaholic pace has left him with a killer reel and many award statuettes but no intimate connections with people.

The Mazursky book (Show Me The Magic) is warm, introspective, captivating, and revealing and offers much insight into Hollywood and the directorial process.

How can a man direct so many of the great sitcoms and come up with such a dull book? Well, first blame "editor" Robert J. Thompson and Syracuse U Press--this book really wasn't worth publishing, except the author just happened to have gone to Syracuse (so it's another excuse for the over-exposed Thompson to brag). Then Rafkin tells you at the start that he didn't really write this--he merely recorded his memories and another woman "turned them into a book."

The entire format of the book is wrong from the start--at the start of most chapters he gives a sad story about his upbringing. This is one seriously depressing guy. Then when he gets into some of his experiences he skips through them like a LinkedIn list--almost no specifics and rarely a story.

He is willing to point out people he thinks are hotheads (his dad, Larry Hagman, even Captain Kangaroo on a bad day!) but mostly has praise for stars. Instead of filling the book with interesting stories, he gives insignificant details and completely skips some of the classic comedies he was involved in. How can he spend months and years on some shows, then only give them a one-sentence mention? There are even photos in the book of shows he has directed--but he never mentions the show in the book!

The guy also directed movies but barely mentions that as well. He does mention his three marriages briefly and his sexual prowess, but again there aren't enough details to make it interesting. It's an okay "history of TV" book for those (like me) who like to read anything about anyone involved with television production--but in the end it becomes more of the type of book he would leave kids kids so they know how important he was without any juicy details.

Thompson and Syracuse are the ones to get the bulk of the criticism since they printed the book this way. They should have hired an outside author, interviewed the guy and the people he worked with, and turned out something worth reading. And about that title--what a joke. It refers to a tiny uninteresting paragraph about Captain Kanagroo--and the subtitle of "TV's Most Prolific Sitcom Director" is just plain not historically true.

Besides the interesting inside view of what it's like to work with television actors and producers, Mr. Rafkin's book is truly the personal account of the price of a successful career. In the most gracious manner, Mr. Rafkin let's us see the good and bad side of life, but doesn't stop there. He draws conclusions and passes on to us the wisdom and insight he has learned over the years. I highly recommend this book for anyone considering the television industry as a career, or anyone struggling to define happiness. This book will reveal your own life to you and help you to appreciate the success and lessons you may be too busy to notice.

Alan Rafkin's book was very entertaining. I would read this book during my lunch breaks, and found myself coming back to the office late! I didn't want to put the book down! His stories from behind the camera are informative and funny. I especially enjoyed the scoop on how big time TV stars really are! I hope everyone takes the time to read about his prolific career.

I read Alan Rafkin's book after hearing his hilarious interview on the Howard Stern Show. Alan has lead a fascinating life that makes for great reading. The only other title that I've found as entertaining is Getting To Howard: The Odyssey of an Obsessed Howard Stern Fan by Dan Wagner. Too bad Alan never made it with Barbara Eden. Now that would've made one heck of a chapter! Oofah!