April 19, 2007

On Elliott Gould. Born Elliott Goldstein, raised in Bensonhurst (which "was to stand-up comedy as the Mississippi Delta was to country blues"), married to Barbra Streisand (who called him the "American Belmondo"), part of the 60s/70s Hollywood "Jew Wave," Gould made perhaps his most lasting mark in Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye. (No, he didn't die. Does someone have to be dead to be worth talking about?)
posted by HawthorneWingo 17 years ago
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  • I always felt that Gould and George Segal gave up too easily when they started doing sitcoms.
  • I used to say that Paul Michael Glaser was the poor man's Elliot Gould.
  • The Long Goodbye is pretty good, although I have to admit, I never saw him as Marlowe as opposed to just an interesting cop. The end is great, when he comes walking out of the ocean. A great scene, but when I saw him in interview about it later, it turns out he was completely overracting -- I wish I'd never heard what he was actually doing. Recently saw Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, which was much better than I'd been led to believe. Gould was particularly good as a whiney, insecure fuck. I thought that was his strongest role. With sitcoms, he was just phoning it in. And who can blame him? Friends was beneath him.
  • Sure Friends was beneath him, but he was funny on it. Totally upstaged all the $1M/episode hack "stars".
  • Not to mention his rather idiotic turn in the otherwise smart The Big Hit. But he was excelsior in MASH.
  • Guess it's time to post that Richard Dreyfus FPP I've been working on.
  • A veritable opus of an FPP, I'm sure.
  • Also, I have to say that I had never heard of the "Jew Wave Cinema" until I read this article. So there's that, too.
  • I used to love those movies where he teamed up with Donald Sutherland. Even though most of those movies kind of sucked, except for the glorious MASH, of course.
  • Pros from Dover!
  • Hi IMDb profile says he regularly appears on Fox News.
  • A veritable opus of an FPP, I'm sure. Jeez Louise. I thought it was an interesting article, and I like Gould and Altman, and thought others might like reading it too. And yes, "Jew Wave" is new, but it's kinda funny. My apologies for for wasting your precious time. I'll post a YouTube of cute animals next time, 'k?
  • Actually, that was a reference to koko's comment (note the itals on "opus"); "Mr. Holland's Opus" being a Dreyfus film. Sorry if it offended you, HW. I *do* like Gould too.
  • I liked Getting Straight, for what it's worth.
  • I like Elliot, even on Friends.
  • And yes, "Jew Wave" is new, but it's kinda funny. Yes, it is. Don't be so touchy, HW. Everybody seems to like your post just fine. It's not like this is MetaFilter or something. Here, have some bananas: (((
  • Don't forget, EG did some great hosting on Saturday Night Live, early on when it was nearly a religion for college students. Life came to a halt on my campus at around 11:00 Saturday, when we assembled in small, smoky dorm rooms, and laughed ourselves sick at grainy black-and-white television screens. Gould was, and is, awesome. I also agree with briank that he gave up too easily on TV sitcoms. *digs through old videos for copy of MASH, turns on ancient VCR, sparks up, giggles uncontrollably*
  • To pick up on kinnakeet's recollection, I had no idea that Gould did SNL at all, until I saw him in that 'Five-Timers Club' bit -- wikipedia says that that was for Tom Hanks, but I vaguely remember a more recent Steve Martin one, with Alec Baldwin thrown in. Same for Paul Simon -- I knew he was on it plenty of times, but never hosting. Then again, my SNL-watching really began in the Hartman-Lovitz era...
  • The hell with Gould. I want to hear about John Shuck.
  • EG kept popping up in movies I was watching back in the day - Bob and Carol and Ted and ALice, and MASH, where I reckon he outdid Sutherland for characterisation. But my favourite was a gem called Little Murders. John Shuck got Trekkied.
  • I like his just-in-the-back-of-the-sinus-cavity voice. And the fact that he's like 8 feet tall. Those two things together spell character.
  • And I got the opus comment fish tick - sadly, tragically, I got it ;)
  • When I was a kid watching TV, I always assumed he had something to do with Gulden's Mustard.
  • Thanks, petes.
  • I was indeed touchy. My bad. Wait'll you see my Patrick Swayze FPP!
  • I bet it won't compare to my Tom Selleck FPP!
  • If you two don't work together to make one big sweaty-man Patrick Swayze / Tom Selleck FPP, it will be the greatest tragedy in the history of the universe!
  • Yeah, 'cause where else can I link all my Kent McCord information that isn;t really worthy of an FPP?
  • mmmm....Tom Selleck.
  • Things people have lost in Tom Selleck's moustache: 1. housekeys 2. horseshoe 3. KFC extra-crispy party pak 4. kitten 5. 8-track tape player plus Foghat 8-track tape 6. ballet slipper 7. Magnum-brand condom 8. 32-oz. Slurpie, cherry-flavored 9. 9-millimeter handgun 10. PlayStation 3 joystick
  • FYI Patrick Swayze was part of Hollywood's "P.U. Wave." Other notable members include Kevin Costner.