Apr 27, 2019 Uncategorized
Don’t miss John on the new series Lore debuting on Amazon Prime
John Byner is shooting D.O.A. for Houndstooth Films directed by Kurt St. Thomas. Based on the original screenplay circa 1949 that has become a film noir classic, this new version is being shot in black and white and is using St Augustine for its principal location. For those of you familiar with the original movie John is playing the role of Majak.
Mar 23, 2013 Uncategorized
John was featured on May 11th at the International Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton the 60th Boomtown Show for the SHARE Organization.
Mar 1, 2013 Uncategorized
John will guest on the show – The First Family, under the direction of Ted Lange. The air date March 3, 2013 CW network, enjoy – Check local listings for air time.
Feb 19, 2013 Uncategorized
John appeared in in the sold out limited run review,”When you’re in love the whole world is Jewish” directed by Jason Alexander.
He read a will as George Jessel.
Gateway Court Theatre
L.A. on March 9th
producer Danny Gold and director of production Jason Alexander
onstage with cast members, Producers Danny Gold and Bily Riback, director Jason Alexander and creator Bob Booker.
onstage at The Greenway Arts Alliance with from left to right actors Michael Pasternak, Ellen Ratner, Robert Shampain, Jay Winnick and Rena Strober
Jun 27, 2004 Uncategorized
THEATER; A Funny Thing Happened On the Way To the Punch Line
June 27, 2004
“Secondary characters, like Dionysos’ slave Xanthias (played by Chris Kattan) and the boatman Charon (played by John Byner), were given a lot more material. Without ever naming President Bush, Mr. Lane deftly underlined the political parallels. (”Have you listened to our leaders?” asks Dionysos. ”Words seem to fail them. Even the simplest words.”) And the frogs themselves, somewhat arbitrary symbols in the original, were tied more conventionally into the plot.”
Nov 14, 1980 Uncategorized
Season 1, Episode 5, Aired Nov 14, 1980
John Byner-Host/Various Characters
Tom Harvey-Various Characters
Bob Einstein-Producer
Guest Stars
Steve Weston (II) Various Characters
Beau Starr – Various Characters
Billy Van – Various Characters
Three men are digging in what looks to be a mine until two of them find books and rush out to tell everyone. The third man rushes out as well and closes a door behind him which reveals the mine is actually Mt. Saint Helen’s Public Library.
At a women’s body building championship, a woman in a black bikini poses for a minute or two before a host congratulates the woman named Madeline Smith for being second runner up. Rose Marie Leduq is brought out as the first runner up and she poses for a minute or so for the audience. The host calls out the winner at this point who is Norma Jean Webster, a tall and very masculine “woman”. Norma Jean says she has been body building for six months and is between jobs as she kept breaking her finger nails in her old typing job. Norma Jean goes on to say she likes intelligent and strong men but can handle man who make passes at her by blowing a whistle for help or grabbing them by their balls and squeezing hard.
An elderly man, who is coughing, is in a waiting room for a doctor when a younger man enters and sits down next to him. The younger man sympathizes with the elderly man and gets him a drink of water and tells him the elderly need more respect. The elderly man says he’s been waiting for more than an hour and the younger man retrieves a number of magazines from a nearby coffee table for him as he talks. Shortly thereafter, the doctor enters and the younger man says he was there first and pushes the elderly man to the floor as he follows the doctor out the door.
A man and a woman are eating a romantic dinner at a restaurant and tell the waiter that everything is great. The man and woman talk about different relatives each has and after some back and forth discussion, they realize they are mother and son and the intimate plans they have for later may not be a good idea. With the end of the sketch, John, seated at the table, tells the producer Bob that he’d like to do the sketch over as he feels it wasn’t funny enough and it needs to be explained up front. Bob agrees and says they’ll sneak a tiny gag into the start of the sketch and asks for the sketch to be restarted at the beginning. Moments later, as the sketch begins again, the waiter walks up to John and the woman and asks if there was anything he and his mother would like.
A male hairdresser welcomes First Lady Rosalin Carter into his salon and does her hair as the president’s wife talks about a number of noted world leaders and what the President says about them in very favorable terms. After the First Lady leaves, the hairdresser calls a reporter named Woodward and says that this is Deep Throat and he has some hot news for Woodward and Bernstein.
Reporter Paul Winegarden recounts that a year ago, a popular documentary Scared Straight was seen by audiences which showed prison convicts trying to get juvenile delinquents to change their ways by relating what prison will be like if they continue on their current paths. With this in mind, they are now going to show a documentary filmed at Rahway prison for the fact. The documentary, titled Scared Thin, starts with five teenagers being led down a prison corridor. The first teenager is Ralph Smedley, age 14, who weighs 327 pounds. The second teenager is Suzie Cuehelo, age 17, who weighs 330 pounds. The third teenager is Bernie Lavitch, age 15, who weighs 410 pounds. The fourth teenager is Elliot Wax, age 16, who weighs 440 pounds. The fifth teenager is Kenny Fritz, age 17 1/2, who weighs 481 pounds.
The teenagers are sat down on a long wooden bench and are talked to by a few overweight convicts. The first convict to speak is Sam “Cholesterol” Williams, charged with breaking into a synagogue on a Saturday and eating a Bar Mitzvah. The second convict to speak is Tony “Two Ton” Calabrese, captured by federal authorities after eating an entire endangered species.
The narrator relates that after meeting with the convicts, the teenagers changed in the following ways: Ralph now weighs 220 pounds three months after Rahway, Bernie now weighs 198 five months after Rahway, Elliot now weighs 172 pounds four months after Rahway and is still losing weight, Suzie now weighs 115 pounds six months after Rahway and considered completely cured and Kenny now weighs 506 pounds eight months after Rahway and works presently for Baskin and Robbins ice cream.
John closes the show by urging everybody watching the show to pay close attention to the closing credits as it show who really works on the show and deserves credit. As the credits roll, every crew credit has the name of John Byner attached to it.
Nov 7, 1980 Uncategorized
Sketches include John welcoming a representative from China to the show, Super Dave Osborne’s latest stunt, a woman reports a crime in unusual terms, a coach gives a halftime talk to an odd looking professional basketball team and the local police demonstrate the lastest method of apprehencing crooks.
John Byner – Host/Various Characters
Tom Harvey – Various Characters
Bob Einstein – Super Dave Osborne
Melissa Steinberg – Various Characters
Pat Morita – Tse Song-Lui
Jack Newman – Various Characters
Ken James (II) – Various Characters
Billy Van – Various Characters
Writers
Jackie Kahane
John Bertram
Greg Reed
Martin Tenney
Maurice Abraham – Director
Perry Rosemond – Producer
Bob Einstein – Executive Producer
Allan Blye – Executive Producer
Stephanie Chaffin – Assistant to the Producer
Virginia Kavangh – Production Assistant
Garry Blye – Production Consultant
Oct 31, 1980 Uncategorized
Sketches include a sports equipment store that sells very large and small items, a play reviewed by two professional wrestlers, a smog shrouded interview with the mayor of Los Angeles, an interview with a Cadillac spokesman about new models and a restaurant dinner that has people borrowing items constantly from the two.
John Byner – Host/Various Characters
Bob Einstein – Producer
Guest Stars
Jack Newman – Various Characters
Melissa Steinberg – Various Characters
Staff
Perry Rosemond – Producer
Allan Blye – Executive Producer
Bob Einstein – Executive Producer
Geoff Craigen – Editor
Stephanie Chaffin – Assistant to the Producer
Virginia Kavangh – Production Assistant
Garry Blye – Production Consultant
In the opening sketch, Dr. Byner ascends a very long ladder to start an examination of Karim Abdul-Jabbar, a professional basketball player.
Next, Professor Rousseau talks abut human anatomy and attributes his expertise to learning under his father. The professor pulls back a cover to reveal of what he is says is the skeleton of his father. After pulling back other covers to reveal his father as skeletons of his father as a boy, a dog, a cat, a mouse and a snake, Bob intervenes and ends the sketch early. As they move on to the next sketch, John reaches up to Bob’s jacket and says he is holding his father as a piece of lint.
In the next sketch, a customer enters a sports equipment looking to get money back on a set of golf clubs his wife bought and says they are unusable as they are six feet long. The store owner says those are Wellington clubs and states you need Wellington shoes to play them and pulls out golf shoes with two foot long spikes. The customer wants his money back but the owner says he can only exchange purchases and offers to give him Dorsett tennis equipment. The owner pulls out a tiny tennis racquet and a tiny can of tennis balls and this aggravates the customer. Finally, the owner gives the customer a bowling ball but the customer notices the ball has no holes and the owner gives him a bowling ball bag full of holes.
Two women sit down at a table at a male strip joint but their talk of art and classical music runs into descriptions of the unseen male strippers they see on stage and attempts to get back on topic fail miserably.
John hosts a segment in which two wrestlers, El Ciccone and The Masked Critic, review Old Town. The words soon lead to angry boasts and the wrestlers soon start boasting where they will review next before grappling with John talking loudly where they will review next.
With most of the screen obscured by smog, a reporter interviews the mayor of Los Angeles about getting the 1984 Olympics and the mayor says there will be no smog in 1984 for the games as it won’t be any worse than it is now.
In the next segment, a reporter talks with Arthur Leffingwell, vice president of General Motors Cadillac division, about the public’s demands for smaller cars. Arthur says they will give their customers what they want despite this and unveils the 1981 El Dorado model, which is half the size of the current model. To demonstrate that it’s just as spacious as the current model, Arthur gets a test family of six to get into the 81 model and they do so though it is an extremely tight fit. Arthur pronounces this test a success and shows him the 82 Seville, which is the size of a small toy car, and gets a few men to help the family though the elderly grandmother remains pinned inside.
A man and wife sit down for dinner at a restaurant but things go awry when the man is asked by other customers for one of the chairs, salt, a lighter and a cigarette, his fork, cream, his wife, the keys to the car, the table he is seated at and is asked to move to another chair. After his chair taken and he literally gives his right hand, the man gets upset and is given the advice to never come into the restaurant. John staggers off the set wailing and moaning in an imitation of Jerry Lewis and even pies himself in the face backstage as well as the camera following him.
With pie still on his face, John thanks the audience for watching the high brow comedy they put on tonight.