Tasty Clips was disheartened to read
John L. Mitchell's piece on
Eric Monte in the L.A. Times. Who would think that this talent who created such thought provoking entertainment (as well as a staple of TV Land) would be living at a Salvation Army shelter with a cellphone, a wireless laptop, and a laser printer to his name? "A series of strokes led to a spell of anti-seizure medicines and the loss of some memory. A year of crack cocaine abuse robbed him of money, dignity and a circle of Hollywood friends. Attempts to sell a self-published book drained the last of his savings. The laptop, he insists, holds the key to a comeback: 30 movie and book projects waiting to be pitched. And that just might be true.
Thirty-five years ago, Monte wrote and helped create some of the most popular — and groundbreaking — movies and TV shows of the 1970s. He started with one episode of "All in the Family," moved on to co-create "Good Times" and wrote the 1975 film "Cooley High," which, in turn, inspired the hit 1976 TV series "What's Happening!!" With success came an NAACP Image Award, a house in Tarzana at the foot of the Santa Monica Mountains, a Mercedes-Benz and the excitement of helping to spur a new generation of programming.
Monte, considered by some — even his friends — to be his own worst enemy, was prickly about script changes and refused to endorse plots he considered degrading to blacks. He wanted more control, but when it came to ownership, he says he was frozen out. In 1977 he filed a lawsuit accusing ABC, CBS, producers
Norman Lear and
Bud Yorkin and others of stealing his ideas for "Good Times," "The Jeffersons" (an "All in the Family" spinoff) and "What's Happening!!" Eventually, he says, he received a $1-million settlement and a small percentage of the residuals from "Good Times" — but opportunities to pitch new scripts dried up along with his money. He lost the car, the four-bedroom house he shared with his two daughters and almost all the trappings of his successful life. Today, the 62-year-old Chicago native receives occasional residual checks, enough to cover the $300 a month the shelter charges for housing, three meals a day and counseling.
When one of his episodes airs on the shelter's wide screen, Monte doesn't watch. "I'm not bitter; I'm angry," he says. "Bitterness is something that stays with you. Anger comes and goes. When I see those old shows, they make me angry." "That's a bitter pill to keep sucking on," said
Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, who played Cochise in "Cooley High."
Glynn Turman, another friend and former "Cooley High" cast member (he played Preach), added: "Eric ran smack into the wall of 'Don't Care,' where this town just doesn't care about its talent. It has no use for talent; it only cares about survival."
Over the years he continued pitching scripts for episodic television, but only two were bought: for the sitcom "Moesha," and the "The Wayans Bros." Both shows debuted in the mid-'90s. By 2003, Monte had developed a craving for crack cocaine."People around me were getting high on crack and I decided to give it a try, and that was a major mistake," he says. "The only thing crack did for me was give me a tremendous desire for more. I did it for two years and gave it up."He left Los Angeles to live with his daughter,
Deborah Williams, in a suburb of Portland, Ore. "He had no money and had to get away from those people who were nothing but users," she said. "Once he came up here, no drugs, no this or that. He was able to get back on track."
With $10,000 from a "Good Times" movie option, Monte self-published a book, "Blueprint for Peace." In it he wrote that peace could be achieved if humanity followed seven basic principles: merge all nations into one, stop manufacturing weapons of war, adopt one universal language, eliminate money as the medium of exchange, abandon the concept of land ownership, abandon the concept of inheritance, and control population growth. Monte rented a booth at last April's Los Angeles Times Book Festival, but he failed to sell a single copy of his book."I just have to figure out how to market it," he says. "I know that as soon as it starts selling, it will sell for 1,000 years."In the meantime, he was out of money again. "I do it all the time," he says. "I don't care about being inconvenienced. That's how I look at being broke, as a minor inconvenience."
Tasty Clips nabbed these exclusive shots from photographer John Crooms on location for the Atlanta shooting of Steppin'. The film, from the same folks who made The Gospel, is about the popular African-American fraternal activity. Stars caught in action include MEAGAN GOOD (Waist Deep, Roll Bounce); and JERMAINE WILLIAMS (Fat Albert) with R&B singer NE-YO (currently riding the charts with the song So Sick). The movie is scheduled for a late January '07 release.
Guess Who? OAN caught NATALIE COLE in full dress for the disco fever-themed Race to Erase MS gala. Cole was one of the evening’s performers at the bash that was attended by lots of young Hollywood types, including arch enemies Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie, each backed up by her second-in-command, Kimberly Stewart and Lindsay Lohan, respectively.
