Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Pumpkins or Kidneys?

So, I bought some Halloween candy today. Reese's Peanut Butter Pumpkins. However, when I opened them up, they looked more like kidneys. Which is kind of disturbing. They don't taste like kidneys though, so I'm not complaining too much. It's just kind of weird eating a chocolate covered peanut butter kidney.

Monday, September 11, 2006

Remembering David Angell



Born: April 10th, 1946
Died: September 11th, 2001 aboard American Airlines Flight #11

David Angell was a multiple Emmy Award winner as the creator/executive producer, along with Peter Casey and David Lee, of the hit comedy series Frasier. David was born in West Barrington, RI, and he received a bachelor's degree in English Literature from Providence College. He entered the army upon graduation and served at the Pentagon until 1972. David then moved to Boston and worked as a methods analyst at an engineering company and later at an insurance firm in Rhode Island. David moved to Los Angeles in 1977. His first first script was sold to the producers of the "Annie Flynn" series. Five years before he sold his second script to "Archie Bunker's Place." David virtually worked in every temporary job known to mankind. In 1983, he joined "Cheers" as a staff writer. In 1985, David Angell joined forces with Peter Casey and David Lee as "Cheers" supervising producers/writers. Since then, the trio has received 37 Emmy Award nominations and won 24 Emmy Awards, including the above-mentioned for "Frasier", as well as an Outstanding Comedy Series Emmy for "Cheers," in 1989, which Angell, Casey, Lee and the series' other producers shared, and Outstanding Writing/Comedy Emmy for "Cheers," which Angell received in 1984. After working together as producers on the hit comedy series "Cheers" for NBC-TV, Angell, Casey and Lee formed "Grub Street Productions." In 1990, they created and executive produced the hit comedy series "Wings," which received critical and ratings success during its seven season run.

A native of Rhode Island, Angell joined "Cheers" (1982) in 1983 as a staff writer; he'd been with Paramount Network Television ever since. Angell hooked up with 'Peter Casey' and David Lee in 1985 and the trio became supervising producers on the hit comedy. Angell, Casey and Lee then formed Grub Street Prods., which created "Wings" (1990), the NBC comedy that spent seven years on the network. After Cheers ended its run in 1993, the trio were tapped to create and executive produce "Frasier" (1993). Angell won a total of six Emmy Awards for his work on Frasier and Cheers. Arguably his most memorable writing feat was the memorable episode that found Lilith discovering Frasier in bed with Rebecca. This episode had a dose of French farce that subsequently became the foundation for the show "Frasier". Grub Street disbanded in the late '90s, but Angell and Casey were developing new projects together. Angell and his wife were both killed when the plane that they were on, American Airlines flight #11 en route from Boston to Los Angeles, was hijacked and deliberately flown into the World Trade Tower in New York City. They were returning home to California after attending a family wedding in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.