13th Dec 2002
I’d Rather Eat Pants
Hmmm. I just heard a plug on NPR’s Morning Edition for a new five-part radio “farce” they’re running all next week titled I’d Rather Eat Pants. As regular readers know, I’m an NPR junkie. I also have always enjoyed radio plays, as much as I’ve known them having been born in the mid-’60s, most notably stuff on Priarie Home Companion and the slightly more obscure absurdists Fire Sign Theatre. I’ve often wished some smart young group would go retro and revive the art of radio drama, NRP being the obvious vehicle for it.
Gotta say, however, having heard the plug for next week’s show, I don’t think this is exactly going to spark the revival. It’s billed as an “all-star” cast, which is pretty generous: Edward Asner, character acter Anne Meara, Derek Cecil (”star” of the ABC atrocity “Push, Nevada”) and Dan Castellaneta (voice of Homer Simpson). Granted, it’s billed as a “farce,” in which case I’ll cut it a bit more slack, as you probably have to get really caught up in it for the humor to work, but the clips they played on NPR (almost in the guise of a news story, which I thought was pretty tacky) all sounded really flat. From what I heard, the acting really sounded like line reading, and the script didn’t really seem promising (the plot sketch I got was so silly I’ll spare you; click above if you’re curious), which is perhaps not surprising, considering the writer Peter Ackerman’s only writing credit was the recent animated film Ice Age.
Besides, why part of Morning Edition? Who wants radio farce for breakfast? Just seems like an afternoon/evening kind of thing.
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