An exclusive interview with the legendary BRUCE VILANCH talking about MAKING THE YULETIDE GAY: A VERY SPECIAL PAUL LYNDE CHRISTMAS.
BRUCE VILANCH is one of the most gifted and prolific comedic writers of our time. He can take an idea or a hot-button topic and turn it on a dime into a joke or set-up that not only makes us laugh but quite often makes us think about the world around us. For decades he has made us laugh until we cry, and sometimes maybe even cringe a bit, thanks to his work as a writer for many game shows, television variety specials, awards shows, and more.
From 2000 to 2014, Bruce was the head writer for the Academy Awards following ten years as a co-writer after being brought in by producer Allan Carr in 1989. He has been a writer for the Tonys, Grammys, and Emmys, and he has two back-to-back Emmy Awards to his credit as one of the writers for the Academy Awards in 1991 and 1992. And let’s not forget his time on “Hollywood Squares” as not only the show’s head writer but as one of our favorite “squares” along with a myriad of appearances in television and film playing either himself or a fun, quirky character.
The world would have been a much darker place these past 50+ years were it not for Bruce Vilanch. He is the creme de la creme of wit and wisdom and the master of the double entendre. And although the television and entertainment landscape has changed and the beloved plethora of variety shows and specials have given way to cable, streaming, and reality competition, thanks to BRUCE VILANCH we are still treated to not only laughs and entertainment but with MAKING THE YULETIDE GAY: A VERY SPECIAL PAUL LYNDE CHRISTMAS, a very welcome blast to the past.
SYNOPSIS: “Taped in front of a live studio audience in Los Angeles, this retro 3-camera special parody was written by Emmy-winner, comedian and gay icon Brice Vilanch and brings new life to the quintessentially campy TV Christmas specials from the 60s, 70s and 80s. Filled with Liberace piano numbers, sexual innuendo, endlessly flowing libations, and enough dirty Christmas song remakes to make your grandmother sweat, this fabulous special is sure to bring the Christmas QUEER! … An outrageously funny variety special, the musical romp takes your favorite queer legends of today and yesterday on a tour de force of festive performance.”
Directed by Scott Rockett, MAKING THE YULETIDE GAY: A VERY SPECIAL PAUL LYNDE CHRISTMAS stars Michael Airington as Paul Lynde, Spencer Day as Tab Hunter, David Hernandez as Sal Mineo, David Maiocco as Liberace, Jack Plotnick as Evie Harris, and Seth Rudetsky, Jackie Beat and Lady Bunny as themselves. Original music and lyrics were provided by 14-time Emmy-winning composer and arranger, Dominic Messinger. If you loved those variety shows and specials of the 60s and 70s, not to mention the laugh-out-loud double-entendre-laden comedy of Paul Lynde (much written by Bruce Vilanch), then this is the show for you!
Humorously acknowledging that the smart thing to do for a project like this is, “You wait to do these things until everybody’s dead and nobody can complain”, but for Bruce, MAKING THE YULETIDE GAY is “an affectionate parody of what Paul would have done. He had a Christmas special, where it was cool. It was the ‘Night Before Christmas’ and he was kind of a Scrooge and he was visited by various people. But it didn’t get on the internet the way the Halloween special did. [Bruce was the head writer of the 1976 “Paul Lynde Halloween Special”.] And the Halloween special was also a bigger hit because he was already a witch. He was Uncle Arthur [on “Bewitched”]. So there was an expectation that he would be funny as a witch on his own show.”
Articulate, funny, and thoughtful, we go beyond just the “making of” MAKING THE YULETIDE GAY in our conversation, diving into Bruce’s thoughts on the changes in television entertainment over the decades and the challenges of writing variety shows, today’s television entertainment landscape, and more, including but not limited to some very poignant and insightful commentary:
- development of MAKING THE YULETIDE GAY: What took so long was like a wine that had the age. I mean, firstly, the original Halloween special was discovered on the internet. And over the course of 40 years, of course, the internet wasn’t around that long, but it was 40 years ago that we did it, but over let’s say 20 years, it became a thing on the internet. And so Scott Rocket was a very, very sharp-eyed guy who said we should do a version of a Christmas special [Paul Lynde] was never allowed to do…I think because he saw the internet reactions of the Halloween special and that’s when he called me. I didn’t know him before this and he said, ‘You’re the surviving writer of the Halloween special. Can you do another dance?’ And I said yeah, sure. It’d be fine. We did it a year ago and I think it was for a bunch of YouTube channels. And I think it kind of came and went unnoticed by just that audience. I think [Scott] spent a year devising a marketing system for it so that he made a full-court press. And when Amazon picked it up, then we knew we had a big circulation potential…As I remember, we tried to make it into a genuine 70s show and all the references are kind of 70s references.
- the genesis of the project from a writing standpoint and how long to bring it all together: I don’t even remember when we actually taped it, but it probably was about six weeks from the time that we said, ‘Okay, we’re gonna shoot, we’re gonna do this.’ And the other thing about a variety show always was who can you book. And we decided that we wanted everybody be dead. So we were looking for, with the exception of Bea [Arthur], we were looking for personalities who were also closeted at the time. So we made a little list – Sal Mineo, Tab Hunter, Liberace. We had a longer list but we had to find people who could do those characters… It’s several buys that you’re asking your audience to make. And I’m delighted that they made them. Once you get that in place you can actually create what everyone’s gonna do and say, and all that.
- collaboration and ad-lib
- shooting 3-camera style; inserting vintage tv spots: Once the concept became clear, and we were all we were all on the same page to use as cliche but because there there are no more pages we were all on the same screen, then it kind of unfolded exactly where we wanted it to.
- set design; simplicity
- the demise of the variety show: Cable killed it basically; and because you didn’t need to make an appointment to watch somebody on the “Dean Martin Show” if they wanted to. Madonna didn’t need to be a guest on anything. She did her show for HBO. And you could just watch that 24/7. And she was on MTV… We stopped developing those kinds of vaudevillians who could do it all. And also the form went away. Between that and Saturday Night Live, SNL killed it off because it was it was they were on at 11:30. They could do stuff you couldn’t get away with on primetime. When you look at the [Carol] Burnett shows now you think, well, you know, they were doing what they could do. Old school, but the school burned down. But that was the problem. And variety TV transformed itself into award shows and tributes. Now, loads of variety, but it’s all competition…And that’s not entertainment.
- keeping a level of sensitivity in today’s market
- and more!
With a book coming out sometime in 2024 and a stage musical collaboration with Dolly Parton opening in May on the West End in Leeds, there’s much more to come from BRUCE VILANCH! And who knows? Maybe we’ll be seeing a very special Paul Lynde Valentine’s Day and/or Mother’s Day soon!
TAKE A LISTEN. . .
by debbie elias, exclusive interview 12/20/2023
Enjoy a little Christmas cheer all year! MAKING THE YULETIDE GAY: A VERY SPECIAL PAUL LYNDE CHRISTMAS is available on Prime Video.
