Born on this day!! Actor Patrick Bauchau (“The Pretender,” “Carnivale”) is 83. Country singer Helen Cornelius is 80. Actor James Naughton (“Hostages,” “Planet of the Apes”) is 76. Singer Frank Beverly of Maze is 75. Actor JoBeth Williams is 73. Actor Tom Hulce is 68. Actor Kin Shriner is 68. Talk show host Wil Shriner is 68. Drummer Rick Buckler of The Jam is 66. Singer Tish Hinojosa is 66. Country singer Bill Lloyd of Foster and Lloyd is 66. Comedian Steven Wright is 66. Guitarist Peter Buck of R.E.M. is 65. Drummer David Lovering of The Pixies is 60. Guitarist Ben Watt of Everything But the Girl is 59. Actor Janine Turner (“Strong Medicine,” “Northern Exposure”) is 59. Director Judd Apatow (“The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” ″Knocked Up”) is 54. Keyboardist Ulf “Buddha” Ekberg of Ace of Base is 51. Actor Lindsay Price (“Splitting Up Together”) is 45. Actor Ashley Madekwe (”Revenge,” “Salem”) is 40. Bassist Jacob Chesnut of Rush of Fools is 32.

THIS DAY IN GENIUS HISTORY

1884 – Construction of the Washington Monument was completed.
1889 – Jefferson Davis, the first and only president of the Confederate States of America, died in New Orleans.
1923 – A presidential address was broadcast on the radio for the first time when Calvin Coolidge spoke before Congress.
1926 – French impressionist painter Claude Monet died at age 86.
1973 – Gerald Ford was sworn in as vice president, replacing Spiro T. Agnew.
1992 – The destruction of a mosque in India by Hindu extremists set off two months of Muslim-Hindu fighting that claimed at least 2,000 lives.
1998 – Hugo Chavez elected president of Venezuela.

Today Is: Miners’ Day, Mitten Tree Day, National Pawnbrokers Day, St. Nicholas Day

TODAY ON TV!
Primetime TV (All Times Eastern)

CBS – 8:00 – The Neighborhood  /  8:30 – Bob Hearts Abishola  /  9:00 – NCIS  /  10:00 – NCIS Hawaii
NBC – 8:00  – The Voice  /  10:00 – Michael Buble’s Christmas In The City
ABC – 8:00 – A Very Boy Band Holiday  /  9:00 – The Bachelorette
FOX – 8:00 –  911   /  9:00 – The Big Leap
CW – 8:00 –  All American  /  9:30 – 4400

TV Talk Shows

Jimmy Kimmel: Jennifer Aniston, Ann Dowd, Kathryn Hahn, Kevin Hart, John Lithgow, Jon Stewart, Allison Tolman, Gabrielle Union, Damon Wayans Sr., Guillermo del Toro, Courtney Barnett
Jimmy Fallon: Jonah Hill, Tig Notaro, Dan + Shay
Stephen Colbert: Jennifer Lawrence, Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats
Seth Meyers: Michael J. Fox, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Ashley Williams, Nikki Glaspie
James Corden: Zachary Levi, Nicole Byer, Nnena
Watch What Happens Live: Rachel Hargrove, Jessica Albert
Live with Kelly and Ryan: Joey Fatone, Jordan Fisher
The Real: Tye Tribbett, guest co-host Lisa Rinna
Drew Barrymore: Ansel Elgort, Haylie Duff

WHAT ARE YOU TALKIN’ ABOUT? Here are today’s PPM-Friendly Topics!

QUESTION: When you’re writing a song about your ex, who happens to be the WORLD’S RICHEST MAN, what do you say?? “Lousy boyfriend!!!!!”

 

QUESTION: Do YOU love chicken tenders?? Bad news!! The supply chain crisis has hit you hard.. there’s a tender shortage, second of 2021!!!!!!!!!!!

 

QUESTION: Is it better to be an OLD HOTTIE than a YOUNG HOTTIE??? Martha Stewart guests on “WWHL,” and reveals she HAS A BOYFRIEND!!!!!

 

QUESTION: Ever try to fix an “old” electric gadget?? This man tried to put a new battery in a 2007 iPhone and almost BLEW UP HIS HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

QUESTION: Is this gonna be a THING?? It’s “ball and chain” time for Megan Fox and MG Kelly as they debut a new line of unisex NAIL POLISH!!!!!!!!

Martha Stewart Once Went On Date With Larry King

Martha Stewart is looking back on her date with Larry King.  She said on Thursday’s episode of Watch What Happens Live that King once got “amorous” during a dinner date at Elio’s in New York.  “I thought we were just talking about journalism, et cetera, et cetera, and then he sort of got a little amorous,” Stewart said. “This was at Elio’s … Everyone was noticing that I was out with Larry King.”  “Larry King was not my type romantically, if you get what I mean,” she added. “But he was a very nice man.”  Stewart said King was “not at all” her type physically but praised King and WWHL host Andy Cohen.  “He was, other than you, the nicest, kindest interviewer on TV,” she told Cohen. “And accurate, and caring, and interested.”  See the interview HERE.
*******He was proposing a “horizontal interview!!”
*******Any woman who Larry King started hitting on.. was part of a very large club!!
******When he started offering a look at his circumcision scar, you were in for a fun night!!
******His opening line: “Did I tell you I like vaginas??”

Alec Baldwin Criticized For Interview

Alec Baldwin did himself no favors with his recent tell-all interview about the “Rust” shooting tragedy, according to crisis mitigation experts.  He vehemently denied ever “pulling the trigger” of the revolver that fired a live projectile into cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, killing her, while also striking director Joel Souza and wounding the filmmaker in the process.  “I didn’t pull the trigger,” Baldwin reiterated. “I would never point a gun at anyone and pull the trigger at them. Never.”   Baldwin was skewered by many at-home viewers who felt the actor attempted to dodge culpability, while crisis mitigation experts also agreed, suggesting that the performer tried to gaslight the public.   “Baldwin’s buffoonish brand strategy appeared to be to convince the American public that the gun did it all by itself like it had superpowers,” Eric Schiffer, an author and leading expert in media relations and branding, told Fox News Digital.  Schiffer believes Baldwin’s showing on Thursday “was a bad day for shamelessly hypocritical prima donnas in Hollywood.”  “Baldwin’s brand was already melting down, and this heats the meltdown at a greater velocity because of self-imposed damage that is not only horrifyingly dumb, but defies gun physics itself,” Schiffer pressed. “This was a textbook example of what not to do in the wake of a tragedy,” the crisis fixer maintained of the primetime special. “Baldwin made this story far worse for himself by blaming the gun, totally refusing to take responsibility, and denying he pulled the trigger. His posture and comments make it virtually impossible for the public to move past this story, and all but guarantee the public will be paying even more attention as lawsuits involving him proceed.”
********Ironically, some gun experts say it IS possible that the gun spontaneously misfired!! Unlikely, but.. possible.
******Unfortunately, to non-experts, it sounded like he was lying his ass off!!
*******His lawyer was trying to shut him up!!

Jeff Garlin Hasn’t Been Fired From The Goldbergs

Actor Jeff Garlin says he hasn’t been fired from his role on the hit sitcom “The Goldbergs” — though he admitted to being the subject of several human resources probes over his on-set behavior.  “No, I was not fired from The Goldbergs. I have not been fired from The Goldbergs,” Garlin, who plays disgruntled patriarch Murray Christian Goldberg on the ABC sitcom, told Vanity Fair in an interview published on Friday.  He said that he has been subject to investigations from the HR department in each of the last three years due to things he has said on set, which he categorized as silly, misunderstood jokes that rubbed some cast and crew members the wrong way.  “It’s always the same thing. It’s about me and my silliness on set. They don’t think it’s appropriate. I do. That’s where we’re at. I’ve not been fired because of it. We just think differently,” he said during the interview.  In 2019, Garlin said he was almost fired due to inappropriate language he used on set. “I was saying some really stupid silly things that I can’t believe that anyone would find offensive, but to each his own,” he said at the time.  In response to the allegations of hugging, Garlin said he’s “a person who hugs for sure.”  “And it’s quick hugs, but I didn’t realize that anyone was feeling—so if you want to write that story, that’s a true story. It puts the onus on them to say something, and I would gladly respect anyone who said, ‘Please don’t hug me. I don’t feel comfortable.’”  He said he doesn’t plan to hug anyone on set again.
*******It wasn’t the hug… it was the hand in the butt crack!!!
*******It always starts as joke.. but by the time it gets to HR, you’re a rapist!! Don’t ask how we know!!
******It’s not the hug… it’s who’s doing the hugging!!

Clooney Once Turned Down Huge Payday

George Clooney revealed he once refused $35 million for just one day of work on an airline ad.  He was asked by the Guardian about his upcoming film “The Tender Bar” and whether he thinks he has “enough money now.”  “Well, yeah. I was offered $35 million for one day’s work for an airline commercial, but I talked to [my wife] about it and we decided it’s not worth it,” the director said.  George explained that the airline is associated with “a country that, although it’s an ally, is questionable at times, and so I thought: ‘Well, if it takes a minute’s sleep away from me, it’s not worth it.’”  “In general, there just aren’t that many great parts — and, look, I don’t have to act,” he noted. “My wife and I had this conversation when I turned 60 this summer. I said, ‘I can still bounce around pretty good, and we both love what we do. But we gotta make sure we don’t book ourselves silly.’ So part of it is just us making sure we live our lives.”
*******He says he doesn’t have to act?? We noticed that in his last movie!!
*******Give US $35 million, and we’ll do an ad for organ harvesters in China!! And so would Hunter Biden!!
*****What George means is: “Once you have enough money, you can afford to have ethical standards!!”

Lindsay Lohan’s Mom Sentenced To Jail

Dina Lohan, actor Lindsay Lohan’s mother, was sentenced to 18 days in jail and five years’ probation for rear-ending a car during a drunk driving incident on Long Island last year.  A judge sentenced Lohan on Friday and revoked her license for 18 months. She also faces various surcharges and must participate in a stop DWI program while in jail as well as a probation DWI program once she’s released.  She will also have to install an ignition interlock device on her car while she’s on probation.  She pleaded guilty to drunken driving in September. She was driving her vehicle with a suspended license on Jan. 11, 2020, when she crashed into another car near Merrick Mall, prosecutors in Nassau County said.  The driver called the police and then followed Lohan to her home when she did not stop. Court documents stated the responding officer found Lohan in the driver’s seat of her car. Her eyes were “glassy and bloodshot,” she was slurring her speech and she smelled of alcohol, according to the documents.
******Like daughter, like mother!!
******Lindsay has a new project, so her mom is helping her with some publicity!!

The Fonz is Selling Memorabilia

“Happy Days” star Henry Winkler is auctioning off a treasure trove of costumes, props and other memorabilia from his acting career, on December 8 in the “TCM Presents … Hollywood Cool” sale at Bonhams auction house in Los Angeles. TCM is part of Warner Media.  His complete Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli outfit, which includes the Levi’s jeans, white T-shirt, black engineer boots and, of course, the iconic leather jacket is expected to sell for between $50,000 and $80,000, according to Bonhams. The jacket is one of at least seven purchased for the show, according to the auction website. One of the jackets is in the Smithsonian Institution.  The silver Triumph motorcycle “The Fonz” rode throughout the ABC comedy’s 10-year run is expected to sell for $80,000 to $120,000, Bonhams said. Also up for sale are the Fonz’s mechanic coveralls, a uniform shirt from his brief stint in the US Army Reserves and the cowboy boots he wore in the dude ranch episodes in Season 6. “I never will say goodbye because it is always in my heart and always in my mind. It was the show that threw me out into the world and I will always be grateful,” Winkler told KABC. “Letting a physical thing go doesn’t, in any way, diminish the enormity of the experience.”  Winker also saved scripts, photos, letters and all sorts of other things from other projects over the years that are going into the auction.
*********100 years from now, they’ll be asking: “Why did somebody pay for this crap???”

 

Ripping The Tabloids (Throughout the week, we’ll give you the stories from that weeks tabs!)
**Please Credit Publication!

Madonna’s Boozy Bench Presses!-(National Enquirer)

Increasingly unhinged Madonna raised new fears when her latest social media post seemed to feature her swilling gin while working out!  The most recent in a long line of bizarre posts from the ‘80s icon was captioned “Today’s Workout” and shows the 63-year-old straddling a barbell bench while sipping from a gin bottle during a morning exercise session in her Hidden Hills, Calif., home.  “This is unsettling on so many levels,” said a shocked music industry source.

Guitar God Mayer Has Jen On String!-(Globe)

Man-hungry Jennifer Aniston has been showering ex-lover John Mayer with health and diet tips, hoping to lure him back into her arms, sources say.  The 52-year-old “The Morning Show” beauty craves another shot with 44-year-old guitar man, who insiders say she ranks as the best lover she’s ever had.  “They’re talking and texting plenty and Jen’s quietly optimistic it’ll lead to more.”

Loose Talk-(Us Weekly)

“He called me ‘treat mom’ because I give him a lot of treats.  But he also calls me ‘trash mom’ because I take away his trash!”-Revealing the funny nicknames her son Ennis, 3, has given her, Kirsten Dunst.

“I had no electricity, no gas, not hot water.  So I learned to play guitar.  I lit candles.  I made a vibe out of it.  I said, ‘Hey, look, this is romantic.  It’s not depressing that I can’t afford power.’”-On his early days as a struggling actor, Jeremy Renner.

“People always ask, ‘Oh my God, wasn’t John Stamos so cute?’  I know him too well to think he’s hot.  He’s a big dork.”-On not being able to see her former Full House costar as anything other than a pal, Jodie Sweetin.

Miranda’s Cheating Ways-(Star)

When Miranda Lambert knows what she wants, she goes for it.  That’s exactly what happened when she met fellow country crooner Blake Shelton at a concert while he was still with his first wife, Kaynette Williams.  “I knew he was married,” she confessed.  “I had seen their wedding pictures in Country Weekly.  I knew better, like, this if off-limits.  My parents are private investigators, for God’s sake.  I’ve seen this my whole life-affairs.  Of all people to know better, I know better than this.”  It didn’t stop her from going after her man-Blake left Kaynette a year later and he and Miranda, 38, wed in 2011.  But it wasn’t the happy ending Miranda had envisioned and when the duo divorced in 2015, rumors swirled that she’d cheated on the “God’s Country” singer.  Here’s hoping her 2019 quickie marriage to ex-cop Brendan McLoughlin fares better!

Star Power-(Life & Star)

LA, Nov. 19

She’s come a long way!  Accepting her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Salma Hayek recalled a harrowing experience from the early days of her career-when she was chased down the same street by a knife wielding attacker.  “I thought, ‘What am I am I doing here?  Nobody wants me.  Almost got killed today,” shared the Mexico-born actress, 55.

Babies-(People)

Actor James Van Der Beek, 44, and his business consultant wife, Kimberly, 39, announced the birth of their sixth child, a son named Jeremiah on Nov. 22.  The parents-who also share son Joshua, 9, and daughter Olivia, 11, Annabel, 7, Emilia, 5, and Gwendolyn, 3-said Jeremiah’s healthy arrival came after two late-term pregnancy losses.

Number of the Week-(In Touch)

3

-days it took for Adelle’s 30 to see more than 500,000 copies, beating Taylor Swift’s Evermore to make it the best-selling album of 2021.

 

STUPID NEWS

Customers Trapped In IKEA

Customers and employees at an Ikea store in Denmark spent the night on the furniture store’s display beds after they became stranded by a snowstorm.  Peter Elmose, manager at the Ikea store in Aalborg, in the North Jutland region, said 31 people slept at the store Wednesday night when a snowstorm blocked the nearby roads and brought public transport to a standstill.  Elmose said the impromptu sleepover included watching Christmas specials and soccer games on TV.  “Our kitchen staff have made sure there is hot chocolate, risalamande, pastries, soft drinks, coffee and the odd beer for us in light of the occasion. So we’ll be able to keep warm,” he told news outlet Nordjyske on Wednesday.  Elmrose said the customers and employees had their pick of comfortable places to sleep.  “We slept in the furniture exhibitions and our showroom on the first floor, where we have beds, mattresses and sofa beds,” Elmose told the Ekstra Bladet newspaper.  See the video HERE.
*****We have a fantasy about spending the night at IKEA. With the Swedish Bikini Team!!
******Of course, they had to assemble the beds before they could sleep in them!!!
******Is it legal to make Swedish meatballs in Denmark???

Plumber Finds Tons Of Money In Mega-Church Walls

A plumber working at Joel Osteen’s mega-church in Houston found a large amount of money hidden inside a wall seven years after $600,000 was reported stolen during a break-in.  The plumber, who identified himself only as Justin, called into a KILT-FM morning show to recount how he found envelopes full of cash and checks inside a wall while doing work at the Lakewood Church, which is led by Osteen and his wife, Victoria.  “There was a loose toilet in the wall, and we removed the tile,” the plumber said. “We went to go remove the toilet, and I moved some insulation away and about 500 envelopes fell out of the wall, and I was like ‘Oh wow.'”  The Lakewood Church confirmed the discovery in a statement provided to KHOU-TV. The amount of the discovered money was not disclosed.  “Recently, while repair work was being done at Lakewood Church, an undisclosed amount of cash and checks were found. Lakewood immediately notified the Houston Police Department and is assisting them with their investigation. Lakewood has no further comment at this time,” the statement said.
********Sounds like Joel stashed something away for a rainy day!!!
********Joel always says, “Please donate folding money!!! That loose change makes me nervous in the service!!!”

Goat Steals Gov’t Documents

A goat entered a government office in India and was caught on video walking off with a file full of papers from inside the building.  The video, filmed outside the Panchayat Secretary office in Chaubepur, Kanpur, shows an employee chasing after the goat while it holds a file of papers in its mouth.  Witnesses said the goat had entered the building while employees were working outside and walked off with papers from an office where documents related to village development projects are stored.  Chaubepur Block Development Officer Manulal Yadav said the file carried away by the goat only contained scrap papers, and not official documents.  The employees recovered most of the papers from the animal, but some had been chewed up.  See the video HERE.
********When we heard that a goat broke into an office, we thought: “What was Tom Brady doing in India??”
*******If goats are your biggest security concern, you’re doing better than we are!!
******Can you get a restraining order on a goat??

Ice Falls Through Ceiling

A New Jersey family received a shock when a giant chunk of ice crashed through the roof of their home and ended up in the kitchen.  Kim Paradise said she was giving medicine to her baby at the family’s Marlton home when she heard a loud noise coming from another room.  “We heard something come through, it was like an explosion,” Paradise told WPVI-TV.  The ice chunk crashed through the roof of the home and punched a hole in the kitchen ceiling. Paradise said smaller pieces of ice were found outside the home. “There’s ice outside on the grass. There’s ice in our back yard, on our roof,” she said.  Paradise said it was not clear where the ice came from, but there had been planes flying overhead at the time of the incident.  Paradise said no one inside the home was injured.
*********Did she check for… solid waste in the ice???
****She looked up and said, “That’s the biggest ice hole I’ve ever seen!!”

 

STUFF THAT’S COOL AND VIRAL

VIDEO: MOSQUITO COMMITS SUICIDE.

VIDEO: MAN STAYS CALM WHILE TRAPPED IN A FLOOD.

VIDEO: HUGE PILE UP ON LOS ANGELES FREEWAY.

 

A LIST FOR MONDAY

What The Beatles Documentary ‘Get Back’ Can Teach Us About Collaboration

1. Your work doesn’t have to be perfect at first go.

One of the most refreshing parts of the doc is the revelation that even the Beatles at their creative peak started off with some clunkers and finessed them into brilliant, lasting earworms we know and love today.

The scrappy first take off “I Got a Feeling” has nothing on the rollicking, perfect last take. McCartney good-naturedly grimaces at how off-key Lennon is on an early version of the “Abbey Road” tune “Polythene Pam.” The songs are in iffy states, but it doesn’t matter. What matters is that it all gets recorded; there will be time to refine and shine them up later.

Take, for instance, a scene in Episode 3 where Harrison attempts to work out the lyrics for a nascent version of another “Abbey Road” track, “Something.”

“Something in the way she moves / attracts me like …” he says, fumbling for the right word.

Lennon’s sound advice? “Just say whatever comes into your head each time — ‘attracts me like a cauliflower’ [for instance] — until you get the word.” (Of course, the line would eventually be “like no other lover.” It’s a little hard not to scream that at the screen while watching that bit.)

2. A leadership vacuum can easily create a sense of chaos.

The shadow of Brian Epstein, the manager who discovered the Beatles and guided them to superstardom before dying of an accidental drug overdose in 1967, looms large in the doc. McCartney explicitly states that the band is in deep need of a “central daddy figure” to keep them on task, but he’d rather it not be him.

The first week of recording is mostly a bust because of this leadership vacuum, with Lennon ― McCartney’s long-standing creative partner ― basically asleep at the wheel, Harrison increasingly frustrated that his songs are being passed over, and poor McCartney struggling to be the point person for every third party on set, whether it’s Lindsay-Hogg, engineer Glyn Johns or Denis O’Dell, the head of Apple Films.

In January 1969, the Beatles were clearly in dire need of a leader, said Bobby Hoffman, an associate professor at the University of Central Florida who writes about human motivation (and loves the Beatles).

“What ‘Get Back’ shows is that leaderless groups can be lethal in terms of productivity and efficiency,” he said. “I really do think Epstein’s death was a key catalyst to the group’s demise.”

Role definition in the Beatles was very fluid as time passed, Hoffman said: “John started the band and was older and thus a default leader at the start. However, as the group developed, individual identities evolved that were inconsistent with John’s vision.”

3. When someone is taking the lead or taking on the lion’s share of the work, give them credit.

Absent a leader, a beleaguered McCartney takes the reins as taskmaster. The rest of the band feels uneasy about that, too, especially when Macca slips into micromanager mode.

Still, there’s no denying that the album wouldn’t have been completed had it not been for his leadership, patience and creative drive. The reality is, he should have gotten a whole lot more credit for that from his bandmates, said Thalia Reynolds, the co-host of the Beatles podcast “Another Kind of Mind.”

“I think sometimes because McCartney mostly handled the extra responsibility competently, the others may have assumed that it was easy for him, when it clearly wasn’t, causing him to feel frustrated and overwhelmed,” she said. “He complains, ‘I get no support,’ at one point.”

“A little grace and acknowledgment from the others may have gone a long way toward defusing difficult confrontations,” she added.

4. Humor gets you everywhere.

Yes, there’s some slow, sloggy sections of the doc ― no one said being creative geniuses was easy ― but ultimately, one of the biggest joys of the documentary is witnessing how legitimately funny the Beatles were in each other’s presence. It’s hard not to laugh yourself while watching Lennon and McCartney goof off in multiple takes of “Two of Us,” singing through gritted teeth in one take, and in exaggerated British and Bob Dylan-esque accents in others.

When Harrison half-jokingly suggests bringing Dylan in to join the recording process (at this point, Harrison and Dylan are friends), McCartney zings back: “It’s bad enough with four!”

Even Peter Sellers at peak funniness can’t keep up with the boys’ banter when he stops by Twickenham Film Studios to see how the recording sessions are going. (Not great, but at least they’re laughing!)

The takeaway here: All those stupid, silly detours don’t just inject some much-needed levity into the production process, they also oil your creative wheels when you need it the most.

5. Don’t sleep on your George Harrison. (In other words, don’t underestimate a less veteran member of your group.)

One of the more obvious points the doc makes is how truly ostracized and underestimated Harrison was in the winter of 1969. Though he had admittedly taken a back seat on composing for much of the Beatles’ run, by 1969, he was operating at the top of his songwriting game at the mere age of 25.

When the Beatles did finally call it quits for good, Harrison released a critically acclaimed three-disc album, “All Things Must Pass,” which was No. 1 worldwide for weeks.

The title track to Harrison’s album is workshopped in the footage, but never sees the light of day on any Beatles album. Meanwhile, “One After 909,” a toss-away track from McCartney and Lennon’s teenage songwriting days does make the cut. McCartney is particularly dismissive of Harrison’s songwriting, said Will Hines, the host of the podcast “Screw It, We’re Just Gonna Talk About the Beatles.”

“Although Paul would later come to respect George’s work, we see Paul mistakenly treat George like a little brother,” Hines told HuffPost. “He seems unimpressed with his songs, he calls George’s guitar suggestions on ‘Get Back’ cliche. He does not offer any suggestions when George asks for help on the lyrics for ‘Something.’”

Hines said the problem is that “Paul is still thinking of George as the 14-year-old who he brought into the Quarrymen [Lennon’s earlier band] and not the guy who was about to write, ‘Here Comes the Sun.’”

The lesson here is to validate and sing the praises of the more junior members of your team. Otherwise, they might pull a George Harrison and walk out on you.

6. Create alone, hone together.

One of the most magical moments in “The Beatles: Get Back” is watching McCartney take the bare bones of “Get Back” and turn them into a full-fledged song, with some noodling and feedback from Harrison and Starr.

Liane Davey, an organizational psychologist and “teamwork doctor,” thinks it’s a teachable moment for creatives: Generally speaking, kernels of brilliant ideas are more likely to come when you’re working alone, not when you’re together.

“Paul starts with the most basic chords and nonsensical sounds and in about two minutes, the core of the song emerges,” she told HuffPost.

“Once there’s enough of an idea, then you can bring in the team to help make it better,” she explained. “Until you believe in your idea and have a clear vision of it, group dynamics and naysayers are likely to squash it. Create alone, hone together.”

7. Anticipate disagreements when you’re working in a group.

On the eve of recording “Let It Be,” the Beatles were the biggest band in the world, coming off a killer creative roll with the release of both “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and “The White Album.”

Sure, there are a lot of petty arguments in the doc, but when you’re collectively working at the top of your game like that, there are bound to be disagreements and subtle (or not so subtle) battles for rank, said Carylynn Larson, an organizational psychologist and leadership coach.

“The stakes were exceptionally high for the Beatles in 1969, and a group like that has a long way to fall if they fail,” she said. “There’s disagreements in every group, but disagreements on top-tier teams often feels like a threat instead of an opportunity, and can more readily bring out threat-based reactions like stonewalling, fault-finding, gatekeeping, self-promotion and arrogance.”

8. Find your Billy Preston. (That is, if things have grown stale, invite a new person into the fold.)

Midway through the recording process, Billy Preston, a piano prodigy who had worked with Little Richard and was friends with Harrison, serendipitously stops by the recording studio, right when the band is in need of a keyboardist.

Preston’s presence provides the Beatles with some much needed structure ― up until this point, they were operating like an aimless garage band ― showing that sometimes, what a collaboration needs most is fresh blood.

“You’ve giving us a lift, Bill,” a grateful McCartney tells Preston. “We’ve been at this for days.”

9. A day off (and a change of scenery) will serve you well.

After Harrison walks off set and hightails it to Liverpool, the remaining Beatles spend a day puttering around and contemplating where they intend to go from there. The next day, they cancel rehearsal. The few days of downtime give the guys some much needed breathing room, and when they meet up with Harrison again, hoping to extend an olive branch, the meeting is constructive.

Moving from the expansive Twickenham Studios to the more intimate setting of Apple Studio is a real game changer, too.

The lesson here? Take your mental health or self-care days while working. And if you start to feel stifled in one space, a change of scenery can do you good.

10. Find your equivalent of the rooftop concert.

Throughout the film, we see the band fight over what songs to do, what the film should be and which songs of Harrison’s they should play, but after the rooftop concert, they’re all smiles and no complaints, Hines said.

“The Beatles needed to perform to find themselves,” he said. “I think any group should stay in touch with what makes them happy. To do the thing they know they are good at.”

In the midst of a similar creative rut? Do as the Beatles did and remember the thing you found success with early on and return to it.

“This will be different depending on what field you’re in, but remembering the thing that made you successful initially and going back to it is so helpful,” Hines said. “In some ways with the Beatles, it feels like if they found a way to play live more the band could have lived on.”

Way to break our Beatle-loving hearts, Hines. On that slightly depressing note, we’ll leave you to go find your personal rooftop concert, whatever that might be.

 

The preceding material was compiled and edited by Brandon Castillo.  The Editor-In-Chief is Gary Bryan.  The Radio Genius Show Prep Service is licensed for use on-air only by subscribing radio stations.  Other means of redistribution is forbidden.
© 2021 – Radio Genius Show Prep