Column: Tube Notes

Lakeland Ledger – Feb. 10, 1981

PBS’ “Musical Comedy Tonight – Part II,” on PBS 9 p.m. Wednesday, will mark the first joint stage appearance by Danny Kaye and his wife, composer-lyricist Sylvia Fine Kaye.

Mrs. Kaye, who conceived the idea of TV specials consisting of highlights from Broadway musicals, is again the host-narrator. Kaye performs the “Tchaikovsky” tongue-twister from “Lady in the Dark.”

“I’ve played the piano for him in the past and worked on his motion pictures,” Mrs. Kaye told New York Times interviewer Neil A. Martin, “but I never sat in front of an audience and talked with him. I was terrified. He’s so unpredictable. I didn’t know what he would say or do.”

Kaye, predictably unpredictable, spiced his comments with taboo-on-TV terminology. “I wanted to shock her,” he said, “and see how good an editor she is.”

Taping of the 90-minute program before a Los Angeles audience took almost six hours, from 7:45 p.m. to past 1:30 a.m. One reason for the delay was Jack Lemmon’s numerous gaffes while singing “When I’m Not Near the Girl I Love” from “Finian’s Rainbow.” Another was Mrs. Kaye’s repeated inability to say “subway fare,” instead of “subway flair.”

She apologized to the audience. “I must have Jack Lemmon’s disease,” she said.

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