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Actors Chazz Palminteri ("A Bronx Tale") and Robert Davi ("Die Hard") and Oscar-winning director Errol Morris ("Thin Blue Line") are coming to Morristown for the New York Film Critics Series.

Mark Ehrenkranz, a backstage veteran of films and TV, brings the series to his hometown for eight Wednesdays, starting April 2. Subscribers can see advance screenings of quirky films, and grill the actors and directors.

MG: You also worked with one of the Monkees.

Mark: Yeah. I worked for Michael Nesmith, who was one of the old Monkees, and it was a TV show called "Television Parts." At that time, he had created a Grammy Award-winning short-form video called "Elephant Parts," that some people may remember.

These were basically vignettes, music videos, and comedy videos.
We would find comedians who at that time were young and up-coming. Jerry Seinfeld, Whoopi Goldberg, Howie Mandel. And we would do interpretive videos of optimal parts of their routine that would translate well to video. It was a lot of fun.

MG: Was there a sense that (Jay Leno and Jerry Seinfeld) would hit it big, or were they really struggling then?

Mark: No, Jay was a working comedian. He had been around, so he was a name. Jerry Seinfeld at that time wasn't. He was just a Jewish guy doing the circuit, observational humor.

MG: What was it like dealing with these guys?

Mark: A pleasure, a pleasure because this was something new and inventive and creative, and we were paying attention to their routines.

MG: What kind of a boss was Mike Nesmith?

Mark: Michael was quiet. He had just recently become a Christian Scientist so he'd given up drinking and other things. He was sort of in a healing mode, and had a personal trainer, didn't really say a lot, kind of mysterious and aloof. I actually became better friends with his son, Christian.