Editing Goodman Ace (section)

== The Saturday Reviewer ==
Ace became a regular columnist for ''[[Saturday Review (US magazine)|Saturday Review]]'' (formerly ''The Saturday Review of Literature''; he liked to suggest cause-and-effect in the magazine's name changing two weeks after his debut in its pages) in the early 1950s.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=JE4gAAAAIBAJ&pg=5472,6783639&dq=goodman+ace&hl=en|title=Goodman Ace Brings Smiles in Our Still Parlous Times|author=Wilson, Earl|date=23 December 1968|work=Sarasota Herald-Tribune|access-date=20 October 2010}}</ref> At first, he focused—in what a publisher described (considering his parallel employment writing ''for'' television) as "nibbling the hand that feeds him"—on television criticism in his usual droll style; a collection of this criticism was published in 1955 as ''The Book of Little Knowledge: More Than You Want to Know About Television''.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=LxoNAAAAIBAJ&pg=2386,3953481&dq=goodman+ace&hl=en|title=A Plug For Goodman Ace's New Book|date=6 October 1955|author=Crosby, John|work=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette|access-date=23 September 2010}}{{Dead link|date=June 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=BPkxAAAAIBAJ&pg=1497,2445799&dq=goodman+ace&hl=en|title=More Than You Want To Know of TV|author=Blackburn, Bob|date=11 February 1956|work=Ottawa Citizen|access-date=19 November 2010}}</ref>

Later, Ace shifted to more broad contemporary concerns and called the column "Top of My Head"; these essays became as well-read as his old radio show had been, without being either too frivolous or too overbearing. Sometimes, they were gentle; sometimes, they were more tart, always they were without genuine malice. Often they included his beloved Jane, and they were strongly enough received to provoke two published collections, ''The Fine Art of Hypochondria; or, How Are You?''<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=B7IhAAAAIBAJ&pg=1896,7676784&dq=goodman+ace&hl=en|title=The Passing Parade|author=Moser, Nick|date=29 August 1966|work=Reading Eagle|access-date=23 September 2010}}</ref> and ''The Better of Goodman Ace.''<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=_OQiAAAAIBAJ&pg=4100,5188521&dq=goodman+ace&hl=en|title=Goodman Ace Trumps As Holiday Season Draws Near|author=Kuhn, Irene C.|date=17 December 1971|work=Reading Eagle|access-date=23 September 2010}}</ref>

As if suggesting that radio had never really left him, Ace assembled and published a collection of eight complete ''Easy Aces'' scripts, with new essays and comments from the Aces, as ''Ladies and Gentlemen – Easy Aces'' in 1970.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=eX8uAAAAIBAJ&pg=1642,3593574&dq=goodman+ace&hl=en|title=The Passing Parade|author=Moser, Nick|date=7 September 1970|access-date=23 September 2010}}</ref> He also held a small regular slot offering witty commentaries on New York station WPAT for a time, before going out over the full [[National Public Radio]] network during the 1970s.

Also around that time, two decades after the brief, unsuccessful television adaptation of ''Easy Aces'', someone else was willing to give the concept a fresh television try: a number of the original ''Easy Aces'' radio scripts were adapted for the Canadian [[CTV Television Network]] show ''[[The Trouble with Tracy]]'' in 1970.<ref name=CCF/> However, though 130 episodes of this series were produced (all in 1970/71), and the show was re-run well into the 1980s on Canadian TV, ''The Trouble With Tracy'' was regarded as an almost unqualified disaster on a creative level.  This had less to do with the scripts, however, and more with the incredible cheapness of the production.  Seven episodes were filmed every five days on wobbly sets, with almost no time for rehearsal for either the actors or the technical crew—flubbed lines and bloopers sometimes ended up airing in finished episodes, because the show could not afford retakes. Ultimately, ''The Trouble With Tracy'' is often cited, especially in Canada, as the worst sitcom ever made.<ref name=CCF>{{cite web | url=http://www.broadcasting-history.ca/networks/CTV_Television_Program_Details/TheTroubleWithTracy.html | access-date=8 July 2007 | date=July 2002 | first=Pip | last=Wedge | publisher=Canadian Communications Foundation | title=The Trouble With Tracy | url-status=bot: unknown | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030528224221/http://www.broadcasting-history.ca/networks/CTV_Television_Program_Details/TheTroubleWithTracy.html | archive-date=28 May 2003 }}</ref> Note, though, that while Ace had a hand in the modern adaptation of the scripts, neither he nor Jane Ace appeared in it, and neither played any part in the actual production of the series.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=8rwyAAAAIBAJ&pg=1823,1607373&dq=goodman+ace&hl=en|title=Can These Four People Be Funny For Half An Hour Every Day?|author=Cobb, David|date=23 January 1970|work=Ottawa Citizen|access-date=20 November 2010}}</ref>

Jane Ace died after a long illness in 1974, just days before what would have been their fiftieth wedding anniversary.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=UpxUAAAAIBAJ&pg=1511,2623167&dq=easy+aces&hl=en|title=Radio Star Jane Ace Is Dead at Age 74|date=13 November 1974|work=Ellensburg Daily Record|access-date=10 November 2010}}</ref> Her husband's tribute to her in the 8 February 1975 issue ("Jane") provoked hundreds of letters from his regular readers and from the couple's old radio fans.<ref name="OTR">{{cite web|url=http://otrsite.com/articles/artwb011.html|title=''Easy Aces'': Radio's Original Comedy Couple|author=Beaupre, Walter|work=Old Time Radio|access-date=17 November 2010}}</ref>

<blockquote>"...now alone at a funeral home...the questions...the softly spoken suggestions...repeated, and repeated... because ...because during all the arrangements, through my mind there ran a constant rerun, a line she spoke on radio...on the brotherhood of man ...in her casual, malapropian style ... "we are all cremated equal" ... they kept urging for an answer...a wooden casket? ... a metal casket? ...it's the name of their game ... a tisket a casket...and then transporting it to Kansas City, Mo. ...the plane ride..."smoking or non-smoking section?" somebody asked ... the non-thinking section was what I wanted....

"...a soft sprinkle of snow as we huddled around her...the first of the season, they told me ... lasted only through the short service ...snow stopped the instant the last words were spoken. He had the grace to celebrate her arrival with a handful of His confetti ..."</blockquote>