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I Didn't Realize that "Capote Vs The Swans" is only the SECOND "Feud" Since Davis/Crawford

posted 9 months ago by roger1 (3626)
10 replies | jump to latest

I'm not sure how much this matters in the long run, but when "Capote Vs. The Swans" came on air a few weeks ago(January 2024), I thought that there had been SEVERAL seasons, with SEVERAL different "Feud" stories since the original about Bette Davis and Joan Crawford in 2017.

I think I READ more about POSSIBLE "feuds" (like one involving Princess Di) than saw anything.
Plus there is the confusion of Ryan Murphy's OTHER series. For instance, I think both the OJ Simpson trial and the Bill Clinton/Moncia Lewisky tales were told under the "American Crime Story" banner -- when the Clinton?Lewinsky one COULD have been a "feud" (Reps vs. Dems? Linda Tripp vs Lewinsky?)

Anyway, I think it is interesting that it took an entire six years(or more) for the producers to determine "which feud should come next." Maybe feuds aren't all that fertile a subject matter.

That said, what OTHER famous feuds might drive an entire season?

[–] coreydude (311) 9 months ago

Norman Mailer vs Gore Vidal
https://johnwight1.medium.com/norman-mailer-versus-gore-vidal-a-literary-feud-like-no-other-405df9f9a5ca

[–] jekporkins (1970) 9 months ago

I'd love to switch to Rock n Roll. Van Halen vs David Lee Roth would be awesome.

[–] mechajutaro (2788) 9 months ago

We can even up the ante, with Stalin Vs Mao

[–] roger1 (3626) 9 months ago

Norman Mailer vs Gore Vidal
https://johnwight1.medium.com/norman-mailer-versus-gore-vidal-a-literary-feud-like-no-other-405df9f9a5ca

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That one could be fun..evidently including Mailer punching Vidal in the face one time and Vidal saying "Once again, words fail Norman Mailer.

Vidal -- a handsome man in his prime with an elegant, haughty voice and manner(one might say "snobbish") -- pushed quite a few buttons in his time. A shorter lived but equally acrimonious feud was played out between Vidal(as the liberal Democrat representative) vs William F. Buckly(as the conservative Repbublican representative) having "mini-debates" while commenting together on ABC-TV during the 1968 conventions. You could FEEL their animosity(beyond just politics) while you watched them on air. (I did, first run.) This evidently led -- off air -- to Vidal calling Buckley a Nazi and Buckley calling Vidal a "f - g."

You could possibly enwrap Vidals TWO feuds into a superseries: "Gore Vidal vs. Mailer and Buckley."

Vidal had Democratic ties and views but he was rather against ALL politics in America. I remember this quote:

"In Russia, they give you only one candidate for President. In America....they give you two."

And a more general quote, where he enumerated all the American Presidents from Eisenhower til...whenever he was being quoted (the 70s? the 80s?) and said something like "Not a very impressive lot, are they? Mediocre. Usually there because they couldn't make it in the private sector." THAT quote surprised me, it was a bit...well, you know.

One more thing: the article (which I couldn't open entirely) about Vidal and Mailer notes that their biggest dust-up came on a Dick Cavett talk show episode in 1971.

CONT

[–] roger1 (3626) 9 months ago

Memories of Cavett's show remind me that there WAS a "political talk show" on during some of the years that Johnny Carson ruled. Dick Cavett's. Cavett's show didn't run nearly as long as Carson's but in the 70's, it was the "go to" show for political discussion and conflict -- and (sorry if this "old guy talks about how the good old days were better") less blatantly partisan than today. You knew what Cavett's politics were(liberal Democrat), but he sort of let everybody talk and argue, from all sides.

This led to things such as bigoted Southern Governor Lester Maddox walking off the stage after an argument with black NFL star/actor Jim Brown,, and a pretty hilarious bit where Hugh Hefner had to fend off two rather smug and plain feminists about his "exploitation of women" even as he claimed that his "Playboy Philosophy" columns were as liberal as could be about civil rights, etc. Its as if he was trying to tell them "Hey, other than publishing lots of dirty pictures of naked ladies who are more pretty than you are, I'm as liberal as you are!"

(I recall when Maddox walked off, Cavett got yelled at by a heckler -- "You backed down!" and Cavett angrilly snapped "I didn't back down!: from the stage.)

Cavett had the REAL Jimmy Hoffa (not Jack Nicholson or Al Pacino) on to talk labor issues for a LONG TIME.

And he did some great movie "one man interviews"(90 minutes each, less commercials) with Alfred Hitchcock(basking in his comeback with the 1972 thriller Frenzy), Marlon Brando(basking in HIS back-to-back comeback with The Godfather and Last Tango in Paris) and Jerry Lewis(fascinatingly oily and arrogant -- and pseudo-intellectual about Pauline Kael.) Ane Robert Mitchum. And William Holden. And directors Robert Altman, Sam Peckinpah, Brian DePalma...and Martin Scorsese. And Kate Hepburn, WAY overdoing her "crotchety old biddy" act(what a ham!)

I'm digressing here -- but those Cavett shows were great and a "Feud" episode about Vidal versus Mailer could re-stage some of that.

[–] roger1 (3626) 9 months ago

We can even up the ante, with Stalin Vs Mao

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THEY had a feud?

Who won?

[–] mechajutaro (2788) 9 months ago

Well, Mao did outlive Georgian Joe

[–] roger1 (3626) 9 months ago

"The last one standing wins."

I guess I was kidding a little. I'm not that familar with intra-Communist feuding. I guess I better go learn some more.

[–] Zarkoff (1853) 8 months ago

Well, the Chinese communist party has outlived the Soviet Union, but China isn't really even close to being communist anymore.

[–] roger1 (3626) 9 months ago

I'd love to switch to Rock n Roll. Van Halen vs David Lee Roth would be awesome.

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They had a feud? Who knew?

Rock could generate a LOT of "Feud" seasons.