The Guy from Hermans Head, a Dwarf, and a Bunch of Pissed Off Japanese Tourists

This is only marginally sports-related, but it's so cool that I thought it was worth mentioning. This is from the blog of Ken Levine, who along with being a writer/director/producer for such shows as Cheers, Frasier, MASH, The Simpsons, and about 50 or so others, has also worked as a play-by-play man for the Seattle Mariners, San Diego Padres and Baltimore Orioles. In short, he's lived a much, much better, more interesting life than you or I could ever imagine.

This weekend, Levine posted an an "unfortunate" audience story. It involved a show he was directing called Brother's Keeper that starred William Ragsdale (Herman from Herman's Head, a very underrated show) as a father with a son, blah blah blah. Because of child labor laws, they could only use the kid actor for shooting. So for rehearsals, blocking, etc., they relied on a stand-in: a middle-aged dwarf that was about the same size as the kid.

At some point, a Japanese tour group comes in too watch a taping. Remembering that none of them speak English, here is the first thing they see:

Me, making a guy in his 30’s scold a middle-aged dwarf to such a degree that the dwarf breaks down crying and runs from the set.

They were appalled! Outraged! As one, they got up and marched out, glaring at me and calling me things that did not need any translation.

Needless to say I have not been invited to direct any Japanese sitcoms. And I don’t think Billy Ragsdale has had too many offers to appear over there either.

Guessing by their usual game show fare, they probably were offended that Levine didn't force the dwarf to eat some high school girl's panties. Oh, those wacky Japanese.