Writing and shooting Anthology was a very strange time for me. We 
decided in Jan 96 that we needed to have a really good demo video 
to send out. Since we would need to use the local cable access 
cameras, the show would have to air, so we decided to kill two 
birds with one stone. A half hour video that's both funny and 
informational. The Beatles Anthology thing had just been on ABC 
a few months before and we decided to use that format.
It was decided that we would all get together and have these 
group brain- storming sessions and then in the end Steve and 
I would go off and pull the ideas together into a cohesive thing. 
Like script editors. 

During the planning process I was dealt a terrible blow when my long
term girl friend dumped me. I sank into a deep, dark depression. One
night in particular I was sat listening to the same song over and over 
and over (this really is laughable now) wondering if I wanted to live 
anymore or at least if I wanted to live here anymore. (I know...I was 
fairly young and stupid.) I considered leaving the group and joining
the Peace Corp. (Yes. That is where the line in NEVER LOVE AGAIN
comes from.)  I called Dale's house to tell him that I wouldn't be 
able to make it to the meeting/rehearsal the following night. He 
wasn't home so I wound up pouring my heart out to his wife Rhonda 
for 2 hours. At the end of the conversation I honestly saw light 
at the end of the tunnel and I didn't skip rehearsal.  In many ways 
Gag may have saved muy life. I'm not sure Rhonda ever knew just 
how bad I was. 

Steve and I spent usually 2 nights a week working in my Dad's 
dining room on the script. It was great. I have always loved 
working with Steve. We'd write a page or 2 and then start talking 
about music. I remember that this is where my fascination with 
Aurora's crazy mayor Egan started. Steve is a great collaborator. 
I always look for collaboration because I think I write best that
way. This was stellar! I think the script reflects that happiness. 

The second blow came when we were half way done with the script. Josh 
had decided to move to LA. Steve and I then had to go back and 
write him out. I don't remember that anything was taken out as 
a result of this that was great, just more work. Then we got a 
couple of gigs and the project was on hold for a little while. 
We started shooting in April. 

We split up shooting between the pro camera and a home camera. 
This was to vary the look and make it seem just slightly more 
real. All the interview clips were shot in the studio and then 
all the newspapers were going to be done later by Dale and 
dropped in. Gary Puckett was going to narrate. In fact
I rememeber talking to him about it when I went with Dale 
to review the Harold Pinter play that Gary directed. 

My Grandmother died during the shoot. I remember going to Indiana 
on Thursday coming home on Friday working half a day on Saturday, 
shooting stuff at Dale's house the other half of the day and being 
back in Indiana for the wake on Sunday. Strange days. 

As the summer wore on we got 80% of the video done. It really looked 
like the end was in sight. We held auditions with intent to finish 
the video without the new people. Then janet left making nearly 
everything we shot pointless. We probably could of shot around
her but there were gigs on the horizon and we started working on 
those.

In the end, all that's left is the script and some home video stuff 
that we shot. I think Dale has that stuff down in Texas. The studio 
and location stuff is long since recycled by the cable access station. 
The script still stands as an acheivement for us. In many ways it is 
the first Gag Reflex movie. There are some really brilliant jokes
and things in there and I'm sorry that so many of them will never see 
the light of
day.

Long Live Lesion Man!!!

- Eric

************
First of all, I was kind of honored at the time 
that I was chosen to be one of the writers, 
or as Eric calls it, script editors for Anthology. 
I thought the group, and in paticular, Dale, was 
showing faith in me. Looking back, this probably was 
smart on his part, because he was delegating
something and giving two people even more solid 
footing in the creative side of the group. I also 
was nervous because part of me feared it was 
misplaced faith and I'd fuck it up. At the time, 
the only person I had really collaborated with was 
Dale, but that was more in the talking over ideas
stage. We rarely actually wrote together, because, 
for the most part, I think we preferred to write alone. 
I was always a believer that you get more
done if one person works as much as possible, then 
turns over the basic thing to everyone else to tinker 
with. That, to me, was as much collaboration as I did. 
As a newspaper reporter, I had worked in teams, but
I still was the lone wolf type. Just let me get out 
there, do the interviews, talk to the people on my 
own, look over the notes and I'll figure out how it 
should go. I don't want anyone poking their nose into
this. Probably more than any other thing, Anthology 
taught me how to collaborate, how to share partial 
ideas before they're "finished," how  to
quit worrying if something is perfect or not 
(although, I must admit, I still am more of that 
lone wolf kind of guy).

Certainly, it furthered my relationship with Eric. 
Like he said, we'd work a little then talk about 
music, mostly, and woman, a little, for a long
time. As Eric has documented, women were on his 
mind at the time, and he and I can go for hours 
on music because we're MUSIC GEEKS!! Still, we 
managed to get some work done in there, and we 
also learned a whole helluva lot about
each other. At the time, what I knew of Eric 
mostly was the material he had brought to the group. 
But while working together, he brought out notebooks
and notebooks of stuff he had written - scripts, 
essays, ramblings, notes, you name it - and I remember 
reading things and thinking, "Jeez, this guy's
good. He can write." I was particularly impressed 
with his willingness to put his guts down on paper, 
something I always have trouble with, and also
with the fact that he obviously just wrote and wrote, 
sort of like journaling, something all famous 
writers talk about as important, but, again, something 
I have trouble with. All I could say to myself was,
"And you call yourself a writer?"

The script turned out good, and, yes, I too am sorry 
more of it will not see the light of day. I think we 
really shot some inspired stuff, and it turned out 
even funnier on the tape. Most of that is gone 
now - more's the pity. Dale did a great job shooting 
material, even though he still was feeling his way on 
how to do it. But he showed creativity and he was a 
quick learner from our television show days.

Images from the shoot: Dale, Kris and I shooting 
a scene at Kris' friend's house with my kids and 
Kris' husband, Jerry. Jerry! What a sport! My daughter, 
Julie, was playing young Kris, and my son, Bobby, was 
playing young Jerry. But Bobby chickened out at 
the last minute and got incredibly camera shy, 
and my younger son, Stevie, stepped in and played 
the part, despite being all of 6 years old. Bobby 
hid behind a tree while we shot, afraid that we might 
accidently get him in the camera. This was shot 
on, I believe, the TV station's Hi-8, so it has 
been recycled and lost forever. We do probably 
still have somewhere, though, the stuff we shot 
in Kris' basement, which was really funny. It 
was supposed to be the original Gag tryouts, and 
featured, among other things, Kris as a memorable 
airhead and Eric as comedian Joey Calgon (yes, 
Lesion Man lives).

Another enduring memory I will always have about 
anthology is the song, We Are Gag. In true fashion 
of copying the Beatles' Anthology, we wanted a
pop-type music video at the end. We were having 
trouble figuring out what to do, when, one day at 
work, it started popping into my head. I started
thinking about a song about the group's formation, 
in a form similar to We Are the World. A gradual 
build up into a production number with a chorus of
people singing, including a chorus of children, 
and the video would show us dancing in a field with 
children, etc. I went home, and on the way to Eric's
house to write that night, I got the idea for the 
lyrics. I was afraid I'd forget them by the time 
I got to Eric's, so I stopped at the A&W on Route 31
and in the car, scrawled the lyrics on a piece of 
paper. Eric and I wrote the music at his house, 
and the end of Anthology was created.  

Unfortunately, we've tried to do this song outside 
of the Anthology script, and it just sounds like a 
self-indulgent piece of tripe. So, it will never 
see the light of day. But I think it was good for 
the context it was written for.

All in all, I give Anthology two thumbs up. 

- Steve

*****************

 Eric and Steve have it backwards.

 The stuff we shot on hand-held is the stuff I can't find. I have 
 all the  studio tapes. I thought these guys knew this. I'd cut a 
 deal with Derek at  the studio, because one of our master tapes 
 from something had been erased.  To this day, I can't remember what 
 that was; I don't think it was part of "Anthology."

 Anyway, the original deal was that producers were supposed to keep 
 all of the master tapes at the ACTV studio, because they belonged 
 to them, not us.  However, since they had let someone record over 
 one of our masters (maybe it was the tape with the interviews we 
 shot in the studio one night) Derek let me take all of our master 
 tapes home after that. They are sitting on a shelf in my bedroom 
 closet!

 If I can get them transferred to 8mm, I'll post some selections 
 up on the Web. Alas, I'm pretty sure the "out in the street with 
 young Kris and Jerry"  segment was shot on hand-held, and I think 
 that, as well as the "Joey Calgon" hunk, is gone. But the scene we 
 shot upstairs that day (was it Kris playing an old lady or Janet?) 
 is on one of the masters. I remember Kris being a
 little hostile while we were setting up at her house. Is my memory 
 flawed? Where are all of YOUR thoughts, Kris?

 I remember writing a piece for the beginning of "Anthology" which 
 isn't in the PDF file. It began with people were streaming out of 
 a theater. They kept saying, "It was better than Cats." "Much better 
 than Cats." "Better than Cats!" Then the lights would come up on 
 Puckett in an oak-paneled office, sitting on a desk:

 "Hello, my name is Herb Katz. Why does everybody hate me so much?"

 He'd do a short introduction, then pop a videotape, "Anthology," into 
 his VCR. I regret that we never got to film this scene. Puckett is 
 the best and it would have been REALLY funny.
 
 - Dale