Editor’s note: The songwriter and actor Michael Nesmith died on December 10th, at the age of seventy-eight. Nesmith was best known for being part of the Monkees, but he went on to do many other things, including television production.
Writing comedy for television can be stressful and frustrating. Michael Nesmith tried to make it fun. And he did.
I went to work for Nesmith as a writer for his TV show “Michael Nesmith in Television Parts,” in 1985. He treated me and the other writers—Bill Martin, John Levenstein, and Michael Kaplan—like pampered children.
Each writer had his own bungalow, not just an office. In the main meeting room, he installed lots of arcade games. That’s where I learned to play Tetris. There was a popcorn machine and tons of snacks.
Nez, as we’d call him, would come in while we were playing games and say something to the effect of “Is everything O.K.? Are you guys having fun?” When we weren’t filming, he would ride around the studio lot on his bicycle, waving and generally being pleasant. He was a mellow soul.
He had great comedy taste. He had already executive-produced the movie classic “Repo Man.” He was a fan of the writer George Meyer’s legendary zine Army Man (the tag line was “America’s Only Magazine”). He had several comedy giants on “Television Parts,” many before they became hugely famous.
His TV show was also the first to film a version of my “Deep Thoughts” epigrams. Like I said, he had great comedy taste.
“Television Parts” was a terrifically funny show, but a flop in the ratings. I’ve worked on a few excellent prime-time sketch series—they rarely get the numbers. I don’t know why, but people prefer sitcoms in the early evening.
Nesmith and I kept in touch sporadically over the years. He asked me to write a cover blurb for his wonderful memoir, “Infinite Tuesday,” and I was happy to oblige.
A couple years ago, he invited me out to his place in Carmel Valley for a reunion of the “Television Parts” writers. “We’ll do some shrooms,” he said. I should have gone. Like all things with Nez, it would have been fun.
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