Tuesday, December 21, 2010

So Long

Steve Landesberg has died. Reading about him, the first thing I noticed is no one's sure of his age.  He seems to have listed himself as being born in 1945, but others claim he was actually born in 1936.

He was a fine stand-up comedian who became best known for playing the well-read detective Dietrich on Barney Miller.  In fact, when the show went off the air in the early 80s, it almost seemed like he disappeared.  He kept working, but never in anything so high-profile.  I don't think it was typecasting so much as his never finding another role that fit him so well.



PS  Maybe now is not the time to bring this up, but I don't know when else.  One of his stand-up bits made fun of how pointless and trivial country music lyrics were.  In particular, he'd quote the line "pass the biscuits, please" from Bobbie Gentry's "Ode To Billy Joe."

This is a false-premise joke.  The song was a number one hit in 1967, mostly due, I'd say, to its evocative and unorthodox lyric.  People spent weeks trying to parse it.  (Weeks?  They're still talking about it.) Much of the power of the song comes from the contrast between the everyday setting and the big event they're talking about.  The last thing anyone should do is use this as an example of an average country music lyric.

5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I saw him live in college (in the early 80s). He wasn't like Dietrich at all but more like a typical stand-up comedian - not a bad thing but very different from his low-voiced clear-speaking persona as Dietrich. Maybe that's why he lost visibility- he was not very much like the character he was known for?

And why would he criticize strange lyrics in songs- trying to figure out what songs mean keeps them alive much than relatively straightforward stuff.

7:28 AM, December 21, 2010  
Anonymous Denver Guy said...

I recently wateched the first few seasons of barney Miller. Landesberg was introduced as an infrequent character in the second season, i believe, but became a regular when Abe Vigoda leftthe show to star in the spin-off "Fish." Althoughthe characters were very different, they both sported a dry sense of humor, that fit the show well. One of the themes of the show was the young, excitable Wojo (max Gail) contrasting with the calm, world-weary veterans of the force (though Hal Linden would get excited as Barney now and then).

Wikipedia says says he was 65, but even 74 is fairly young - was their any indication of cause of death?

9:08 AM, December 21, 2010  
Blogger LAGuy said...

My point is he didn't criticize "strange" lyrics so much as take something very unusual and treat it as typical. The other bit I remember in his act is him mocking Southerners for lynching people so easily.

Landesberg had cancer. Abe Vigoda is still around, by the way. In fact, he's the poster boy for people still alive you thought were dead.

9:37 AM, December 21, 2010  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well, it's official--the Times ran a correction and said he was born in 1936. His daughter has confirmed.

8:52 PM, December 21, 2010  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I thought Abe Vigoda got killed by by the Corleones for trying to double cross them.

Man I was sure I read his obit years ago

3:19 AM, December 22, 2010  

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