It's been two days and 18 minutes since "24" ended, and unlike my blog posting six minutes after it ended, I have now truly allowed enough time for all the wisdom of the ages to seep in and inform my perspective on what else they might have included for my benefit. Yes, there is more than I told you of last time.
If you research various blog postings of mine (try volumes 1, 2 and 3 of the collected postings of my blogs - text only - at archive.org, do word searches, try to keep up), you will find that I've made a certain number of references to a former CalArts classmate of mine who was a friend of Senator Ted Kennedy. You will not get me to divulge this person's identity, I shall regard it as a certain kind of secret. However, I will mention here that they named the Hart Building in Washington D.C. after his father, who co-sponsored innumerable bills with Kennedy.
When they brought the Hart Building from Washington D.C. to New York City for the "24" series finale, it did make me think of this person. There were no visible senators in the building as there would have been had it remained in D.C., yet I recognized the reference just the same, as I'm sure every Senator did as well, not to mention every Congressman, and also, I imagine, my former classmate's brother, cousins, etc. Perhaps others as well. One often hears of the Hart Building, and as no building with that name actually exists in New York City, one is confronted with the fact that "24" is entitling itself to copy and paste a little, or maybe cut and paste, not that actual Congressmen had to go along for the ride. It's the thought that counts.
In my previous blog I observed how the series finale of "24" brought to mind (my mind) another former CalArts classmate of mine, Henry Golas. I therefore had to stop for a moment and think. What did Henry ever have to do with this other person, if anything? Is there some well known project they both worked on together, and am I meant to go there? Something that will sooner or later surface in my thoughts "of itself" as a result of "24" bringing both of them to mind on this most important episode? Yes. Several years ago, two of the three CalArts Alumni heading the CalArts Alumni Association were these two people. Okay, where exactly does that lead, if anywhere? (Nowhere, at least, not if you can't believe me, despite all the things I am able to prove in my blogs, because, here we have something that requires the average reader to take my word.)
Alumni Association spells reunion (by the way, I do not plan on attending the upcoming CalArts reunion, so worry not, all ye who fear elephants in the room who are secretly super-important in relation to Spielberg and McCartney yet go unacknowledged and therefore might fit the profile of dangerous malcontents demanding justice from those in a position to take action). That's kind of what alumni associations generally bring to mind: reunions.
And it so happens that "24" therefore brought something very specific to mind (my mind) - a "Saturday Night Live" contribution I had sent in (to my secret SNL sorta kinda connections). The email went to Stuart Cornfeld and Sean Daniel, it was dated 9/28/07, and the subject line was, "How I Learned To Stop Worrying". SNL always seems to find something to do with what I send in, which tended to compel me to keep sending in stuff. In those days I felt more compelled than now, in fact, it helped me work on stuff that I later did stuff with on my own.
"'Jack Bauer Ditches His High School Sweetheart'"
"a comedy sketch idea, copyright 9/28/07, Jonathan D. Steinhoff"
"a comedy sketch idea, copyright 9/28/07, Jonathan D. Steinhoff"
"A man goes to his high school reunion. Everyone is instantly put in mind of his legendary romantic drama of many years before, wherein he and his high school sweetheart had a big falling out, leading to all kinds of romantic and dramatic stuff. But he is not going to his high school reunion because of this, he is on a mission to save the world from blowing up. It is very complicated and impossible for anyone to believe that his going to this high school reunion can exist in relation to something larger than a romantic experience, and so he has no shortage of obstacles to overcome in making his circumstance understood. Then the band plays 'their song', he succombs, dances with his high school sweetheart, and the world blows up."
Detecting a reason to believe that this did not go unnoticed (as I always do with these things), on October 8, 2007 I responded to SNL's response to this idea with another email to the same two people (whom I had sorta known at certain times during the '70s before they were among the world's biggest film producers and Spielberg inner circle folk), and provide here the following excerpt:
"I actually pre-anticipated that this would get translated by SNL into a 'McGruber' sketch. On the second SNL episode of the season there were a set of 'McGruber' sketches, and so I immediately anticipated one would feature McGruber getting sidetracked by a high school romance-type concern. Sure enough, in one of the 'McGruber' sketches McGruber insists he be referred to as extremely young, that his team pretend to be his parents, and then a high school-type girlfriend is all excited about getting tickets for Dave Matthews, which is enough to sidetrack McGruber and the place blows up."
In other words, the secret agent character's return to his younger self caused his older self to take its eyes off the ball.
It was a more obvious use of my "suggestion" when a week or two before the opening sketch of the first SNL of the season was about an auction, after I had sent in an auction sketch just weeks before. The masking of the reunion idea was nevertheless obvious enough to me, even with Jack Bauer turned into MacGruber.
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