Laughing Matters:: On Writing M*A*S*H, Tootsie, Oh, God!, and a Few Other Funny Things (Hardcover)

by Larry Gelbart (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
After five decades in the funny business, Larry Gelbart has done it all. And what he hasn't done, he's obviously avoiding. You probably know him as the man who developed the television series M*A*S*H; it's his crowning achievement, but hardly his only claim to fame. Gelbart also wrote Oh, God!, Tootsie, City of Angels, and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, along with innumerable gags for Bob Hope, Red Buttons, Sid Caesar, and a pantheon of others. But he hasn't written anything specifically for print--until now.

Laughing Matters is a look back, sometimes in anger, but mostly in appreciation, at Gelbart's spectacular career. The book is not an autobiography nor is it a collection of fugitive pieces. It also doesn't qualify as a selection of greatest hits from radio, stage, and screen. There just isn't a proper descriptor for what Laughing Matters is, except entertaining. Gelbart comes off as the witty, caustic, intelligent fellow everyone says he is. The Hollywood system, however, does not fare so well, and neither do meddling TV executives and certain actors and other associates, both nameless and named.

Because M*A*S*H will likely be what Gelbart is most remembered for--and according to the book, appears to be the experience of his that most nearly approached creative perfection--an extract dealing with that show seems most appropriate:

It is estimated that the vast store of M*A*S*H episodes to be rerun in syndication will keep the series around well into the twenty-first century, long after I am gone. A nice compilation, to be sure, but I'd give anything to have it the other way around. Thinking of the possibility of M*A*S*H playing so far into the future leads me to hope, paraphrasing Winston Churchill, that if America and its television audience should last a thousand years, people will say this was their finest half hour.

Laughing Matters provides many fine half hours, too.

From Library Journal
In the parlance of Hollywood-speak, a language with which we are all becoming increasingly inundated, comedy writer extraordinaire Gelbart is the "total package." Over the course of his 50-plus-year career, he has achieved popular and critical success in every entertainment medium, most notably as the developer of TV's M*A*S*H. Now, with a list of seemingly endless credits and a collection of hardware that includes multiple Tony, Emmy, and Writers Guild of America awards, Gelbart reflects on his career in this pastiche of remembrances, insights, and bits from scripts. Gelbart is a gifted storyteller, and the reminiscences and anecdotes swirling around people like George Burns, Danny Thomas, and Carl Reiner are wonderful. Unfortunately, editor Sam Vaughan annoyingly butts in throughout the text with his own boldfaced interjections. Still, this real treat from a bona fide comedic genius is recommended for all popular culture collections.?Barry X. Miller, Austin P.L., TX
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 276 pages
• Publisher: Random House; 1st edition (March 10, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067942945X
• ISBN-13: 978-0679429456
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,133,061 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars NOT FICTION!, April 29, 2001

By	MOVIE MAVEN (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Anyone who has ever seen "Tootsie" or several episodes of "M.A.S.H." or the Broadway musical comedy "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum" (one of the very few musicals that is actually also a COMEDY!) knows how very funny Gelbart is.

With this volume of articles, memories, and even bits of scripts, Gelbart helps us understand why he has won awards in every medium he's written for, why he is so respected and, obviously, loved by people who work with him. This is a delightful, much-too-brief book, worthwhile if only for its appreciation of performers from Jack Benny to Whoopie Goldberg.

One of the other on-line reviewers has called this book the "worst kind of popular pulp fiction trash." And it very well might be, were it not for the fact that it is TRUTH, NOT FICTION.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars For those who fondly remember Sid Caesar, etc..., November 16, 2007

By	Dave Deubler (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews

This book is most effective in the brief section that deals with Gelbart's own beginnings, particularly his family. The disappointingly few pages discussing his association with M*A*S*H* were both entertaining and enlightening but probably should have been half the book instead of just one chapter. If you are a big fan of the films "Tootsie" or "Oh God" (this reviewer isn't) you might find those pieces worth reading. And then there's the other 80% of the book, which was about movies that never got made, plays that most people never saw, and some modestly interesting descriptions of the old radio days and the dawn of television. But if you aren't old enough to remember (let alone care about) Jack Benny and Milton Berle, then you may not be too interested in these sections, either. This book would be best suited to those of Gelbart's generation, or those who have a very close connection to the entertainment industry. The worst part of this book? Gelbart's whining about the hassles of the writer's life. Everybody has the right to vent once in a while, but there was no reason to include these pieces here. Taken all around, show business was very good to Larry, but you wouldn't know it from this book.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars a gloss-over of the career of a brilliant comedy writer, March 22, 1998

By A Customer

In this quick-read, Larry Gelbart, the man who not only wrote most of TV's MASH, but also penned the funniest Broadway Musical of all time, can't seem to settle on a topic long enough to analyze it. Because of this, even the aforementioned "Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," gets a quick, glossed-over treatment - then it's on to the next topic. Gelbart is usually an adept comedy writer, but much of this book comes off cute and superficial. Not recommended.