{"id":33231,"date":"2020-05-22T09:58:06","date_gmt":"2020-05-22T13:58:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=33231"},"modified":"2020-05-22T09:58:06","modified_gmt":"2020-05-22T13:58:06","slug":"the-bootleg-files-gabe-kaplan-as-groucho","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2020\/05\/22\/the-bootleg-files-gabe-kaplan-as-groucho\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bootleg Files: Gabe Kaplan as Groucho"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOOTLEG FILES 729:<\/strong> \u201cGabe Kaplan as Groucho\u201d (1982 television special).<\/p>\n

LAST SEEN:<\/strong> On YouTube.<\/p>\n

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO:<\/strong> On VHS and LaserDisc.<\/p>\n

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS:<\/strong> Out of circulation for many years.<\/p>\n

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE:<\/strong> Not likely.<\/p>\n

In 1976, the producers of the popular sitcom \u201cWelcome Back, Kotter\u201d planned to have Groucho Marx make a cameo appearance in an episode called \u201cSadie Hawkins Day.\u201d The script called for Gabe Kaplan to do an impression of Groucho, only to have the real Groucho come in and react to the unreasonable facsimile. Unfortunately, the 86-year-old comedy icon was in extremely frail health and it was decided that he would not go on camera. Instead, Groucho posed for publicity photographs with the show\u2019s cast \u2013 but these were not released to the media and only surfaced many years later.
\n<\/p>\n

When \u201cWelcome Back, Kotter\u201d went off the air in 1979, Kaplan\u2019s career began to lose steam. He starred in three forgettable B-grade films (\u201cFast Break,\u201d \u201cNobody\u2019s Perfekt\u201d and \u201cTulips\u201d) and a dismal sitcom that barely ran one season (\u201cLewis & Clark\u201d). Perhaps recalling that Kaplan occasionally did Groucho imitations on his hit show, he was tapped by Arthur Marx (Groucho\u2019s son) and Robert Fisher for a 1982 HBO production of their biographical play on Groucho\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

Although Kaplan\u2019s star was fading by this point, the production was presented under the banner \u201cGabe Kaplan as Groucho.\u201d Marx and Fisher\u2019s work was presented as live theater, with a packed audience welcoming Kaplan\u2019s arrival with a hearty ovation. By the end of the show, however, it was surprising that the audience wasn\u2019t throwing tomatoes at Kaplan and the playwrights.<\/p>\n

Much of the problem with the presentation was the harsh reality that Kaplan was neither an accomplished Groucho mimic nor a solid comic actor. Even on \u201cWelcome Back, Kotter\u201d his acting was strictly adequate \u2013 the selling point of the show was the strong ensemble and goofy scripts, not Kaplan\u2019s acting chops. And when did Groucho imitations on the show, they were brief bits of mirth meant to create a comically sarcastic point.<\/p>\n

When unmoored from the protective surroundings of his hit show, Kaplan\u2019s deficiencies as a performer became magnified. Burdened with dreadful make-up that offered a grotesque parody of the Groucho persona, Kaplan\u2019s body movements were too stiff to capture the free-wheeling vibrancy of the 1930s Groucho, and his flat line readings failed to recall the droll insouciance of the older Groucho whose career took on a second wind as the \u201cYou Bet Your Life\u201d host and 1960s talk show staple. And when the show turns maudlin in depicting Groucho\u2019s difficult final years, Kaplan\u2019s attempts to capture the emotionally burdened comic were sincere but too weak to resonate.<\/p>\n

The concept of the show was to have Kaplan\u2019s Groucho offer a running monologue about the highs and lows of his life. Rather than present it as a one-man show, the playwrights added a piano-playing Chico Marx offering sharp observations on his sibling\u2019s foils (played by Michael Tucci with a shaky approximation of Chico\u2019s faux-Italian accent) and a series of female foils played by Connie Danese that merely set up Groucho\u2019s one-liners. There is a harp with an empty chair next to Chico\u2019s piano meant to symbolize Harpo Marx. But the absence of a physical occupant on the chair coupled with off-stage horn honking leads Kaplan\u2019s Groucho to claim, \u201cHe\u2019s a little disappointed we didn\u2019t get an actor to play him\u201d \u2013 and that is the funniest line in the show, which gives you an idea of what takes place.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the show\u2019s producers must have realized they had a flop on their hands during post-production. Despite having a live audience, the cameras never flash to the audience laughing during the production. Also, the high-decibel quality of the laughter on the soundtrack is much louder and merrier than the skimpy material would warrant \u2013 clearly, a laugh track was used to oomph things up. <\/p>\n

Marx and Fisher would later polish up their play and offer it with Frank Ferrante as Groucho. This version was infinitely superior to the Kaplan production, playing Off-Broadway in New York and in London\u2019s West End before being taped for PBS in 2001. Kaplan would turn his focus away from show business for other lucrative endeavors, occasionally returning to the material in the mid-2000s with appearances at several minor regional theaters around the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cGabe Kaplan as Groucho\u201d made little impact after its initial HBO broadcast \u2013 it showed up in the late 1980s on VHS and LaserDisc, but to date it has yet to have a DVD or Blu-ray release. An unauthorized posting of the production can be found on YouTube. Mercifully, YouTube is home to endless videos featuring the real Groucho at the multiple stages of his career \u2013 and the wise viewer would skip past the Kaplan imitation and instead have fun with the one and only Groucho.<\/p>\n

IMPORTANT NOTICE: While this weekly column acknowledges the presence of rare film and television productions through the so-called collector-to-collector market, this should not be seen as encouraging or condoning the unauthorized duplication and distribution of copyright-protected material, either through DVDs or Blu-ray discs or through postings on Internet video sites.<\/em><\/p>\n

Listen to the award-wining podcast \u201cThe Online Movie Show with Phil Hall\u201d<\/a> on SoundCloud.<\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BOOTLEG FILES 729: \u201cGabe Kaplan as Groucho\u201d (1982 television special). LAST SEEN: On YouTube. AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: On VHS and LaserDisc. REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: Out of circulation for many years. CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Not likely. In 1976, the producers of the popular sitcom \u201cWelcome Back, Kotter\u201d planned to have Groucho […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":33232,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1513],"tags":[219,2485,2486,452],"class_list":["post-33231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bootleg-files","tag-comedy","tag-gabe-kaplan","tag-groucho-marx","tag-hbo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33231"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33233,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33231\/revisions\/33233"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}