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KREBS

This file is now CLOSED and is OBSOLETE. The latest version of this material is KREBS.

On beats and beatniks

Once upon a time, I stumbled across a rant on
a web site somewhere (which I have long since
lost track of).  This guy had a thing about
people who thought that Maynard G. Krebs was
a *real* beatnik, and he was going on about
how this was just a character played by Bob
Denver on a goddamn TV show, and he should no
way, no how be compared to *real* beats like
Neal Cassady.

My take:

   Yes, Maynard G. Krebs was
   a role played by Bob Denver.

   And Neal Cassady was a role
   played by Neal Cassady.

      You can drive yourself crazy, chasing after
      authenticity, looking for the *real* thing.


Ah here we go:
From "Another Superficial Piece About 176 Beatnik Books":
[ref]

   This guy I know who makes low-budget horror films
   is always trying to make a case for Maynard
   G. Krebs as a beatnik, a real beatnik, to which I
   tell him: Maynard G. Krebs was a ROLE played on
   the Dobie Gillis show by Bob Denver, the basic
   thrust of which was I-hate-work/what-can-I-pretend-
   this-week-is-totally-absurd-enough-to-call-groovy.
   If you wanna go so far as to declare such shtick
   (qua shtick) beat, you might as well call the
   Fonz (even Springsteen) punk-rock. You can, but
   what's the payoff?  Thin it out that much, why
   bother?


The reason the Fonz ain't punk (or ain't a
real "Greaser", which is more to the point)
isn't that it was merely a role, the reason is
that the schtick just sucked.

And okay, why bother with Krebs.  This is why:
because that character *put it across*, at
least sometimes, and did it on nationwide TV.

Yes, he was a sanitized beatnik, but that was
the best you could possibly do on a sit-com,
and some of the stuff that they did do
actually worked.

   This is one of the few things that I remember
   about the Gillis show (which I haven't seen in
   a few decades, unlike you cable addicts out
   there):

   Dobie is stressing out about one of his teen
   angst problems, and he's been looking for
   Maynard all over town.  Finally he's found him
   downtown hanging around by this draw bridge.
   He's been there all day, because he wants to
   *see it open*.  They shoot the scene from the
   view point of the bridge, Krebs facing the
   camera in what can only be called wonderment
   ("Look at that!"), Gillis ranting at him from
   the side, only giving an annoyed, puzzled
   glance at the camera ("Uh, yeah.  That's
   great.").

                                        AMERICANBEAUTY


That's not exactly the "Sunflower Sutra" turned
to film, but it's close enough for early sixties
TV (the Dobbie Gillis Show ran 59 to ??).



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