Bruce Vilanch is proud of all the awful TV he made

Episode notes

Photo: Daniel Speer

Bruce Vilanch was the head writer for the Academy Awards for 14 years. It’s the kind of entertainment he writes for where he really excels: star-studded variety shows with big, brassy musical numbers. A Bruce Vilanch show will almost certainly have bits where the A-list actor turns to the camera and winks at a joke she just told about herself.

He’s worked on countless such TV shows dating back over 50 years. Sometimes, those shows turn out great! Think of Billy Crystal at the Oscars, or sellout live shows for Bette Midler, Lily Tomlin, Robin Williams and more. The stuff that’s not so great, well, you can read about it in his new book: It Seemed Like A Bad Idea At The Time: The Worst TV Shows in History and Other Things I Wrote. This includes things like The Brady Bunch Variety Hour, awkward bits at awards shows, the now infamous Star Wars Holiday Special.

Vilanch tells Bullseye stories from behind the scenes of shows we’ve seen and wondered: “who said yes to this?” He also talks about gay culture in Hollywood pre-stonewall, and the current state of variety shows on television.