Lisa’s Story – Page 34 – Son of Stuck Funky

Les Do Lunch

SoSFDavidO here for the next two weeks, takin’ the reins! It looks like we’re back in Hollywood for more insights into the makings of a TV movie about cancer in Today’s strip.

“Grab a bite to eat”?! People in California “Do lunch”. Trust me, I know, I live there and it annoys the heck out of my Midwestern family to the point of me consciously trying not to say it but it’s impossible.

I can’t imagine what Mason could possibly have to talk to Les about other than: “I just thought I should spend time with a world-class putz as yourself before I attempted to play one.”

Testing Credibility

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Happy Independence Day from SoSF! ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Charles
July 2, 2014 at 11:06 pm
…You don’t run a script or treatment past a test audience. That would be absurd…Never mind that no one making a crappy little movie to fill the Tuesday night slot on a basic cable channel would bother running it past test audiences.

This Hollywood arc has veered so far from reality to the point where even Les begins to suspect that it’s all bullshit. And he’s right: the “testing” seems to have been conducted by a succession of random people, each person having even less connection to the industry than the last. And hotshot “script doctor” Ken Casey is totally on board with that.

beckoningchasm
July 2, 2014 at 10:52 pm
…I find it interesting that Tom Batiuk gets worked up into high dudgeon when someone dares alter Lisa’s Story or question the value of comic books, but he simply can’t be bothered to respect the details in any other sphere (making films, as one example in a long list).

Yes, filmmaking ranks on par with or below the ability to make “a wicked tandoori chicken.”

Apparently.

Lisa’s Longevity

“Her dying just didn’t test well.” Just like Westview High School’s production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Wit didn’t “test well” with the parents:

(September 2009)

…because you see, it’s Art:

…and art belongs in a museum.

Good Lord, the lecturing never stops!

Survivor: Hollywood

You saw this coming, didn’t you? As if the saucy title and the insertion of an adopted Latino son weren’t indignities enough…now these Hollywood ghouls are robbing St. Lisa of her sainthood (and Les, thereby, of his martyrdom). It’s enough to make Les nearly spill his hemlock!

Mala Adaptation

Hey all! TFHackett here, slingin’ the summertime snark for the next se’nnight or two. Let me start by offering kudos to Epicus Doomus, and to David O, Oddnoc, and Beckoning Chasm, the Murderer’s Row of snark, for their brilliant contributions to SoSF!

Readers, remember how we’d bemoan Batiuk’s habit of weekly skipping from arc to arc, without ever resolving any of them? Well, the first half of 2014 has been taken up mainly by “Holly’s Kwest for Kory’s Komix” and “The Making of Lisa’s Story” (with a month-long detour into “Jessica’s Father, John Darling,” which at least was resolved, albeit in incredibly lame fashion).

Like TB, I have no working knowledge of the made-for-TV-movie making process, and I can’t wait for those of you who do to gauge exactly how many “quarter-inches from reality” today’s strip is.

Les meets the director and principal cast of “Lust for Lisa” (guess that wildly inappropriate title is going to stick), none of who can be bothered to stand and greet him. “Seth Wheeler” looks and sounds plausible enough. Then we meet “Mason Jarr”, har-dee-har-har (they couldnt afford Robert Downey Jr.). Mason’s no physical match for the real Les, but he’s already working on his disdainful smirk. “Sherry Carlyle” is a closer physical match to the titular character…and when I say “titular” I’m not talking about her bazoombas!

And who’s the peanut head? Why, he’s the catalyst for today’s “punchline,” which in addition to being unfunny and leaden, is pretty cynical. Assuming that “Fox Spanish” is the IRL Mundo Fox, it’s not likely they have room on their schedule for a made for TV weeper, with or without a written-in token Latino character.