comedies

Many years ago (1976), my first job in the film industry was as the assistant to a legendary film producer named Ray Stark. Ray produced such classics as “Funny Girl,” “The Way We Were,” and “The Goodbye Girl.” Even though I went out on my own in 1980 to produce “Somewhere in Time,” Ray and I stayed in touch and, from time to time, he would invite me to his home to watch films with him in his projection room. One night, in 1984, he invited me over to see a new film called “Splash.” Ray was particularly interested in “Splash” because, for years, he had been developing a remake to a dramatic film from the 1940’s entitled “Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid,” in which a man found a mermaid, put her in a pond near him, and fell in love with her. When we had finished watching “Splash,” Ray turned to me and said. “Well, that’s the end of developing “Peabody.” There are some issues that audiences just respond better to when they’re presented in comedies than when drama is involved. An audience will give you a lot more leeway in a comedy with their willingness to suspend disbelief than they will in a drama.”