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www.americanradiohistory.com CONTENTS JULY 1980 VOLUME 1, NUMBER 6

ARTICLES DEPARTMENTS

3 4 Pornography 140 What Can Print Your 71 Video Rock on Trial 4 Letters Unleashed Plane Tickets, Find the A rock opera travels from a Today's video revolution is Kids and Beat You at nightclub to home cassettes giving the X -rated film business Chess? 8 Sports a big boost It's your TV set of tomorrow By John Schuller) By Howard Po/skin By David Lachenbruch 9 This Month 4(//)Listening May Be Hazardous to Your Brain A purist cringes over TV's abuse of the English language 14 Videocassettes By Edwin Newman and Discs By David Lachenbruch

1()Q &A: Sylvester "Pat" Weaver 6O "Breaking Away" a Track Tries Out Faster Those Devilish r) Making it a TV winner requires 74 .ter some fancy steering Machines Get the Last tPanoramicView By Frazier Moore Laugh Bringing the miracle of laughter r to the worst of jokes JO Cable and Pay -TV w Masada: A Tragic By Merrill Shindler By Seth Goldstein Tale of Resistance A bitter struggle is played out again under a merciless 78 Another Day, desert sun w Impressions Another Tantrum By Cyra McFadden rides Quincÿ s writers for better scripts "I$ls the Mind of the By Sam Merrill Modern Student Yesterdays Fundamentally No Grazing on the .Fr Monophonic, Multiphonic Satellite Dish A ranch family finally gets TV or Quasi -Catatonic? By John Neary Exploring the mystery of doing 9)RearView homework with the set on By Harry Stein By Ralph Schoenstein The Day America Caught Beatle Fever 3() Don't Look Back, Ed Sullivan introduced the Fab Barbara Walters Four amid grand hysteria Cover: Shaun Cassidy in By /es Breaking Away. Photo courtesy Here come the new -breed Jerry Bow 20th Century -Fox; design by network newswomen Norman S. Hotz. Other picture By Gehl Hirshey credits are on page 90.

PANORAMA MAGAZINE (ISSN 0191 -85911 IS PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY TRIANGLE COM- DEPARTMENT. RADNOR, PENNSYLVANIA 19088. NOTIFY SUBSCRIPTION DEPARTMENT MUNICATIONS INC. 850 THIRD AVENUE. . NEW YORK 10022. PLEASE ADDRESS OF CHANGE OF ADDRESS AT LEAST SIX WEEKS IN ADVANCE. PLEASE INCLUDE NAME, ALL EDITORIAL MAIL TO PANORAMA MAGAZINE. P.O. BOX 950, WAYNE. PENNSYLVANIA NEW ADDRESS AND MAILING LABEL FROM MOST RECENT ISSUE. SINGLE COPY IN THE 19087. ADDRESS ADVERTISING MAIL TO PANORAMA MAGAZINE, 850 THIRD AVENUE, AND CANADA 52.00. VOLUME 1. NUMBER 6. ISSUED MONTHLY. SECOND NEW YORK. NEW YORK 10022. SUBSCRIPTIONS: UNITED STATES, ONE YEAR $15.00. CLASS PERMIT PENDING AT NEW YORK. NEW YORK AND AT ADDITIONAL MAILING

CANADA AND MEXICO. ONE YEAR U.S. 521.00. ALL OTHER COUNTRIES. U.S. $30.00. OFFICES. COPYRIGHT - 1980 BY TRIANGLE COMMUNICATIONS INC. ALL RIGHTS RE REMIT BY CHECK OR POSTAL MONEY ORDER. CURRENCY SENT AT SUBSCRIBER'S RISK. SERVED. NOTHING APPEARING IN PANORAMA MAY BE REPRINTED OR COPIED EITHER SEND NO STAMPS. SUBSCRIPTIONS WILL START WITHIN SIXTY DAYS AFTER RECEIPT WHOLLY OR IN PART WITHOUT PERMISSION. PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. POSTMASTER OF ORDER. SEND SUBSCRIPTION CORRESPONDENCE TO PANORAMA, SUBSCRIPTION SEND FORM 3579 TO PANORAMA MAGAZINE, RADNOR. PENNSYLVANIA 19088.

www.americanradiohistory.com LETTERS

see them perform, especially Mr. Fonda as Clarence Earl Gideon. Usually, the Editor: main character in a TV drama is made David Sendler out to be either all good or all bad; Mr. Managing Editor: Gideon was neither, so it must have Ellie Kossack been more difficult to play him. Associate Editors: I appreciate articles like this, that give Dick Friedman, you a closer look at what goes a Stanley Marcus, Brandy Rommel into program and the people responsible Art Director: it Norman S. Hotz for -and not just what Mr. Fonda eats Picture Editor: for breakfast or who he was "seen Laddie Marshack with," which is what other magazines Assistant Art Director: seem to be concerned with these days. Patricia Ryan Mrs. Herbert Palfrey Production Manager: Pander or Genius? Tampa, F /a. Louis Terracciano In your article on game shows ( "Televi- Edge of Night Alive and Well Editorial Coordinator: sion's Thriving Theater of Humiliation," Christine Patterson I enjoyed Michael Dann's article on May), Dr. V. Copy Editors: James Bonura says that "The Ratings Race" in your May issue, Gail Harlow (Chief), contestants "need the participation - but I'd like to correct what I consider a Nyoka Hawkins, national can Deborah Lyons, exposure be a primary terrible flaw in it. Under the heading Teresa Schwab need." I'm not I agree sure with Bon - "Longest- Running Daytime Shows," Editorial Assistant: ura-l'd have to see some statistics on Debra Sheer Mr. Dann failed to mention The Edge of the rate Art Assistants: suicide among frustrated, Night. would -be contestants if there's Fran Strauss, Monica Garb -but Edge is alive and well and currently New York Bureau: any truth to this statement, it is, indeed, airing on 154 ABC stations. This day- Doug Hill, Howard Polskin a sad commentary on the state of our time drama went on the air April 2, 1956 Bureau: national psyche. Still, does this excuse Don Shirley (the same day As The World Turns Chuck Barris's Correspondents: pandering to the pub- began), which would make both serials Steve Weinberg (Washington), lic's neurotic needs? I think not. He 24 years old. Richard Gilbert (), could better spend some of those mil- Erwin "Nick" Nicho/son John Fujii (Tokyo) lions he's made us by putting off on ed- ProducerfThe Edge of Night Contributing Editors: ucational programs that seriously ex- Douglas Bauer, Bill Davidson, Edwin Diamond, David Lachenbruch, plore how and why we have come to Lawrence Linderman, the point where otherwise sane citizens 99 Commercials? Sam Merrill, Ted Nelson, will "do anything" to get on the air. Easter Sunday I sat down to watch the Richard Reeves, John Schulian, H.R. Cohen classic Ten Harry Stein "The Commandments" on Harrisburg, Pa. ABC. Realizing this was a very long Advertising Director: movie, I decided to count the interrup- Robert G. Baumler I have never watched a game show be- tions, just for fun. Well, in four- and -a- Eastern Advertising Manager: fore, but curiosity compelled me to half hours, my count was: seven sta- Malcolm B. Niedner tune in after tion breaks, four local -news breaks, Western Advertising Manager: reading your article about Chuck three public announcements, one na- James L. Lee Barris. Forget Nova, forget the National tional news break and (would you be- Advertising Production Manager Geographic specials is William Gesele -this the most lieve?) 99 commercials. That includes Advertising Representatives: educational thing I have ever seen on ABC's ads for their own shows. Unbe- Atlanta TV. Where else can you watch the lievable! Advertising Sales/South Inc. human animal in its natural state, unen- Is it any wonder people are turning : cumbered by the slightest inhibition re- their TV sets off more and more? I think Warden, Kelley, Allen and Opfer, Inc. Los Angeles: garding good taste, compassion or I'll continue to pay for my cable TV and Lowell Fox & Associates pride? Barris is a genius and deserves be most grateful for it. every penny he's made -and we de- Jerry V Weatherford Circulation Director: serve Barris. Santa Clara, Cal. Hugh Crocker Stu Sullivan Research Director: New York City Guyana Revisited Bruce Gershfield If the producers of "Guyana Tragedy" Public Relations Manager: Trumpet had twisted Brian Levitt Call and misrepresented that Business Manager: Thank you for inspiring me to watch story as much as Bill Davidson misre- John T. Larkin "Gideon's Trumpet" last night; your ar- presented the movie to force his point ticle on Mr. John Houseman and Mr. about docudramas ( "Restaging the Publisher: Henry Fonda ("A Courtly Conversa- Guyana Massacre," May), they would Frank G. Wolf tion," April) was the reason I decided to have deserved the criticism they re- Editorial Director: watch this excellent show in the first ceived in PANORAMA. But as a news- Merrill Panitt place. Having read beforehand what paper columnist who critically the two lead actors in it thought Walter H. Annenberg: Founder about watched, thought about and wrote their roles, it was most interesting to about "Guyana Tragedy," and found it continued on page 6 4 JULY 1980

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C. i www.americanradiohistory.com LETTERS continued one of the best television movies of the zine doesn't stimulate buying! year, I think it is Davidson and your James A. Matuszak magazine who should do some head - Wickliffe, Ohio hanging. If all docudramas were as compel- You requested comments on PAN - ling and useful as "Guyana Tragedy," ORAMA-I am pleased to oblige. and all producers were as careful with Overall, there is too much, yet not ideas, their television viewers would be enough, common, ordinary TV com- well- served and there would be no ment and review of programming that docudrama argument to write about. we watch. The average viewer (with the And what's this about a "fine Broad- so- called 9- year -old mentality) wants to way actor" being "pressed into ser- know what's on tonight and how good vice" to play Jim Jones? Davidson it may be. Some of your articles may makes Powers Boothe sound like a vir- make good conversation for the West- gin kidnaped from a church choir and chester commuter or the cocktail sold into slavery. I if doubt Boothe looks crowd, but please consider us -the at it that way. rocking chair brigade. TV is a big part of Peter Farrell our everyday living. The Oregonian In spite of all the above, I like your Portland, Ore. magazine and I can see a glimmer for future greatness. After reading Bill Davidson's article on Tom Raedy madness and massacres from media North Eastham, Mass. sources, the words "current events"

catch my eye and I shudder. What if a I have just finished reading the fourth "talented" writer /director/producer de- issue of your new magazine, and I have cides to cash in on the disgusting to tell you, it's outstanding. The articles doings of the Iranians? The day that are carefully conceived, intelligent, writer /director/producer is succeeds readable. The magazine even has a the day I cash in, too -by selling my sense of humor. television. Some of the articles represent the Docudramas, in most cases, touch best work I have seen anywhere on the almost as many viewers as they reach, topic. The piece on Ted Turner's new for they are an exciting breed of power- venture ( "The Cable News Network fully educational tools. But -please! Sets Sail," April) was superb, as were Let us write /direct/produce them with Desmond Smith's and Doug Hill's on discretion and view them with discrimi- the information revolution. I loved this nation. month's Kluge piece on the signal Audrey L. Pitonzo pirates ( "Stealing the Show, "May). Brentwood, N.Y. Please accept the congratulations of A Hand for Handler a fellow journalist. Stella Zadeh This is just to say that I think the original story idea in David Handler's saga, Los Angeles "From Heroes to Sandwiches" (May), Harry O Reprise would make a super TV program - Not for sale in any I would like to thank Howard Rodman much better than two thirds of the junk Not available at for his sensitive and moving goodbye bookstore! we see now. After reading what hap- to David Janssen ( "So Long, Harry Or- any price! The new pens to a good idea once the "creative" well," May). I grew up with that wonder- Consumer Information people get their hands on it, it's a ful actor, starting with Richard Dia- wonder to me that there's anything Catalog! mond, The Fugitive, O'Hara and Harry worthwhile on TV. Keep trying, It's the free booklet O. I watched all his movies and adored Handler -I'll look for your name in the lists 200 helpful him. I am sure there will be others who that over credits the next time something really will miss David Janssen as much as I. I Federal publications; funny comes on the tube. never met him but he always came more than half, free. John Torres across as friendly. Thank you, Mr. Rod- Madison, Wis. On topics like home repairs. man; you brought tears to my eyes. Money management. Readers' Roundup Lynn Walker Nutrition. I have read your first three issues from Orwell, Ohio that could cover to cover and have increased my Information knowledge help you to a better way and understanding of Correspondence for this column "things associated with television" should be of life. addressed to: Letters De- threefold. After studying your articles partment, PANORAMA, Box 950, To get your free copy, on recorders and videodiscs, Wayne, Pa. 19087. No anonymous just write: I decided in favor of an RCA VHS unit, correspondence will be published. CONSUMER INFORMATION which I purchased only five days ago - Letters may be abridged because of and have already bought over $300 in space limitations. We regret that it accompanying accessories and fea- will not be possible for us to reply in- DCEÉ, ture -film tapes. Who says PUEBLO, your maga- dividually to letter writers. COLORADO 6 JULY 1980

www.americanradiohistory.com LET PERSONAL COMPUTERS DO IT. Do what? Just about anything. Your imagination is the limit. The Ultimate Educational And, nobody knows this better than ComputerLand. Tool. Perhaps the best thing about So a first, let's take look at some of the many things an a personal computer, however, is Apple computer can do, and then the best way to buy your not what it does, but what it is. own personal computer to do it. And that is an exciting and Home Environmental and inventive tool for learning. One Financial Control. Your Apple that's being used more and more in the classroom. So having personal computer can make you an Apple computer in the home is like having your own private the master of the household tutor. environment. It can control your The whole family can start designing simple games, just for heating and air conditioning. the fun of it. Before long, even a young child will progress to intricate an intuitive insight into Run a security system. Automate the garden's watering. programs, with computer technology. Control a solar energy unit, and more. An Apple personal computer can also be your private financial counselor. It can examine planned investments. You'll Find It, At ComputerLand. Everything you've been Monitor the household budget. Compute your taxes. There's looking for. A computer store that has all the equipment even an optional hook -up that can connect it via telephone, to you've read about and then some, plus demo areas for you to what's happening on Wall Street. try them out. A professional staff to answer all your questions. And, a fully equipped service center that will provide whatever An Office Computer in the technical assistance you may need. Den. There are a good many No matter where you're located, there's a ComputerLand business problems a computer can near you. Visit us today. Well make it easy for you to own a solve. And, ComputerLand can personal computer to do it all. show you how. So, if you're not as conversant with the technology as you'd like to be, starting with your own personal OomputetLcind' computer at home is a good way to get involved. If you already use a computer on your job, having one at We Know Small Computers. home solves the problem of waiting in line to use the big one Over 100 Stores Worldwide at work. Develop your scientific, engineering and business For Your Nearest Computerland Stores Call Toll Free: programming ideas in the evening. (800) 227 -1617, Extension 118 Then dazzle them on the job in the morning. , (800) 772 -3545, Extension 118 Franchise Opportunities Available Computerland Corp., 1978

www.americanradiohistory.com wasn't around, it wouldn't seem like the Red Sox. We'd continue to play and we'd do our jobs, but there would be a

huge void. I guess it's because we assume Carl Yastrzemski will always be there." Whom else can that be said of in an By JOHN SCHULIAN age when journeymen and shining stars alike trek from city to city in search body is starting to go now. If it center field -in a World Series, no less. of the biggest buck possible? What isn't the back that hurts, it is the And yet Yastrzemski, even though he baseball's gold rush boils down to for Thewrist, and if it isn't the wrist, it is seemed to tempt fate last winter by the fan is a cutting of old ties. Where the Achilles' tendon. The pain didn't signing a two -year contract extension, once Mickey Mantle was the Yankees even have the courtesy to cease and manages to free his admirers from the and Stan Musial was the Cardinals and desist when Carl Yastrzemski was grim specter of potential failure. Brooks Robinson was the Orioles, there carving his name a little deeper in the is no one but Yastrzemski, who granite of baseball history. The obvious pacifier is his sweet inherited the Red Sox from Ted As the 3000th hit of his noble career lefthanded swing, a testament Williams. skipped into right field last September, to properly applied physics that "Everything is changing," Fisk says. he had to hobble down to first base remains unaltered by infirmity. Beyond "Pete Rose owned Cincinnati -I mean with his right heel on fire. The adoring that, however, is a strength that the TV owned it -and he took a hike for Phila- home folks in sang a hallelujah cameras only suggest when they close delphia. You've got to think Yaz might chorus and tried not to notice that old in on his hawk -beaked countenance. be the end of an era." Yaz was wearing an embarrassingly That strength is born of the fact that And Yaz himself? What does he white sneaker on his traitorous foot Carl Michael Yastrzemski is not given to think? instead of a spiked shoe. The sneaker fooling people, least of all himself. "I don't worry about things like that," was supposed to make him feel better Oh, he may have gotten a charge out he says. but, alas, it also made him look like of helping Ed King, a reformed football some half -baked country -dubber player, become governor of Massa- Of course not. There has always instead of what he really is -a national chusetts; indeed, he got King the only been enough on his mind as is. treasure. favorable publicity of his campaign. Just the weight of succeeding Williams Funny how protective we become of But Yastrzemski walked away from his nearly did him in. For years afterward, such men whether we have seen them coup with the unadorned values and there were side effects from the expe- in the flesh or only framed on a televi- life style he took into it. rience. Yastrzemski was condemned as sion screen. But to watch Yastrzemski In restaurants, it is still steak and beer, a pouter, a loafer, a backstabber. And march to the plate- hitching up his hold the truffles. On the road, it is still maybe he was. But he was a great ball- pants, tugging at his sleeves, dusting the same sports coat, the same slacks, player, too, winning three American his hands with dirt, clamping his bat- the same well -worn Spaulding suit- League batting championships, hitting ting helmet on his head -to watch him case. At home in Fenway Park, it is still as many as 44 home runs, driving in as do all that is to know there is still order the same policy of going as hard and as many as 121 runs. in the universe. long as possible, devil take the hind- And out of the bubbling cauldron of Perhaps Yastrzemski's presence is so most. "Once you pass 35," Yaz says, pros and cons came Yaz, the good sol- reassuring simply because he has been "there's really not much else you can dier- praying to play in a third World with us for so long. He has given the do." Series, refusing to surrender to pain Red Sox 20 summers of his life, from No wonder New Englanders cleave and insisting he has no secret for lon- the days when he was nothing grander to him. They can forget that he came gevity other than the ability to laugh than a Notre Dame expatriate until from a Long Island potato farm when the Red Sox's mischievous now, when his sideburns are heavy because he is blessed with the same youngsters fill his shoes with green with gray and we wonder how much tight -lipped pragmatism as the lob - dime -store goo. more he can endure. He will, after all, stermen of Gloucester. "I come to the park every day, put my be 41 years old come August -41 and The rest of the country might find uniform on and try to do something to still playing a game that is the province that a trifle annoying had not Yas- help the team," he says. "When the of athletes half his age. trzemski overcome his lack of a glib game's over and my uniform is off, It is an achievement that smacks of tongue by sheer presence. He doesn't that's it." foolish indulgence, for too many of our just play for the Boston Red Sox, you "Is it that simple ?" someone asks. captains and our kings have hung see; he is the Boston Red Sox. The question hangs unanswered for around until their glow was irreparably "I was watching Yaz when I was in the a full minute. tarnished. One thinks immediately of eighth grade," says Carlton Fisk, Bos- "No," Carl Yastrzemski says at last. Willie Mays suffering a midlife crisis in ton's thoroughbred catcher. "If he "Not really."

8 JULY 1980

www.americanradiohistory.com L5 MONtI JULY 19$() The Right Side of Errol? ...Rather's Replacement ...The Nuke Syndrome... U.K. Loves J.R.... Pink Lady Blues

WIE1T'S HAPPENING in the genre of Flynn and Angeles. Plans call for the HOLLYWOOD then to create a market for broadcast to originate from Flynn -type vehicles." two Chinese locations (with Don Shirley reporting taped inserts from four other Sex, frankly. ABC is planning a locations) on Oct. 2, which will Both sides now. Was Errol six -hour miniseries, The Look- be the midpoint of a three -day Flynn a Nazi spy and a bisex- ing Glass, about "areas of the 31st birthday party for the Chi- ual? CBS is developing a four - sexual frontier that are ex- nese revolution. live pro- hour film about Flynn that will (The tremely sensitive," says Stir- gram will cross the interna- challenge these allegations ling Silliphant, the writer and about the dashing movie tional date line and be seen in executive producer of the America on Oct. 1.) star -which were made in project. The story is set in the The show will Charles Higham's recent biog- attempt to Midwest, and the characters cover the celebration in the raphy-at the same time that include two couples, a sex spirit of television's coverage it cashes in on their publicity. therapist and a lawyer. of the American Bicentennial. Based largely on Flynn's Among the topics to be There will be visits to archeo- autobiography, "My Wicked, Errol Flynn: Exploring his treated, according to consult- logical sites and museums, Wickéd Ways," the CBS proj- wicked, wicked ways. ing sex therapist Dr. Philip Sar- and some taped documentary may imply that Flynn ect even rel, are open marriage, laws material, but "no propa- was working for the English that proscribe oral sex, and ganda," says a KCET official. during World War II, says ex- "more about male sexuality The program will be seen in ecutive producer Doris Keat- than has ever been said on ing. And she adds that it prob- China, too. And Chinese television." Sarrel hopes that broadcasters will pay half the ably will portray Flynn not as a "artificial barriers against nu- bills. To pay the American bisexual but as "a swinger" dity on the screen" can be re- share, KCET hopes to find who attracted some homo- laxed for The Looking Glass. "underwriters who presum- sexual associates. The ABC censorship de- ably are anxious to get a foot Keating, the daughter of partment has been consulted in the Chinese door." Flynn's manager, Barry all along, but Silliphant Mahon, regards Higham's doesn't expect the censors "to book as "a bunch of baloney." break any rules on my per- NEW YORK But she says CBS "is just ec- sonal behalf." However, he static about the publicity" maintains, "you can do any- Doug Hill reporting stirred up by Higham's thing on TV if you approach it charges. Dr. Hermann positively." After Rather Who's going to Erben- Flynn's Nazi connec- For competitive reasons, take over from Dan Rather on Dan Rather: Apres him, whn tion in the Higham account - Silliphant is hush -hush on de- 60 Minutes when he moves will be a character in the CBS tails of his script. NBC also is into Walter Cronkite's news - film. developing a film about cur- anchor chair next year? A more sexually explicit rent sexual mores, though it's Don Hewitt, executive pro- version of "My Wicked, planned only as a two -hour ducer of 60 Minutes, said re- Wicked Ways" will be pre- movie. An executive who has cently he would "have a hard pared for foreign theatrical re- been working on the NBC film time coming up with a name lease. However, any conten- won't divulge story details of that would be better than Ed tion that Flynn preferred the his project, either. "It's all very Bradley" as Rather's replace- Nazis to the Allies -or that he rip- off- able," he explains. ment. preferred men to women as Bradley, currently a CBS Re- sexual partners -will be miss- Chinese birthday. The first ports correspondent and an- ing from the movie. live -by- satellite TV special chor of the network's Sunday - In the casting of Flynn, Keat- from China is in the works at night newscast, says he knew ing hopes "to create another public -TV station KCET in Los he was the front -running can-

PANORAMA 9

www.americanradiohistory.com 77 M()N'i%i

didate from informal conver- mission has spent several an obligation to determine sations with CBS executives, years debating an unlikely whether the element is "sig- including Hewitt and William topic: homosexuality. Re- nificant." If it is, it has to be in- Leonard, president of the cently, it brought the debate to cluded in future surveys of News division, but he isn't a close with a decision that opinion. counting his chickens. "My pleased none of the dozens of FCC chairman Charles feeling is that it's a year away, citizens' groups and broad- Ferris hailed this new ruling. and I'd just as soon not think casters involved. "Our action acknowledges about it," he said. "I'm not sit- The agency had been asked that groups constituting sig- ting here panting for the job, by 142 gay organizations to re- nificant elements in the com- and anything can happen in quire that broadcasters seek munity- handicapped, gays, this business." out the views of homosexuals new immigrant arrivals, such Incidentally, Hewitt denies in their market as one of as the Vietnamese in some reports he said there are no their obligations as license - areas -are part of our diverse women qualified to fill the job. holders. American people," he said. He mentioned one in particu- Broadcasters are already re- "Whether wealthy or impov- lar he thought could handle it: quired to "ascertain" the erished, politically powerful his wife, Marilyn Berger, who "problems, needs and inter- or weak, they deserve to be ests" of significant anchors a local public- affairs elements heard. That is the essence of in program on WNET, the PBS their communities -busi- the American system." station in New York. ness, labor, the elderly and 16 other groupings specified by Beware energy! Network Measure for measure. It has the FCC. The question was: news coverage of nuclear long been speculated that the should gays be added to that energy has created a wired society would make the list? new mental illness: "nuclear TV- ratings meter obsolete: The gay lobby claimed that phobia." The diagnosis with everybody's TV hooked it had a strong case: statistics comes from a Washington, up to computers via two -way show 10 percent of all Ameri- D.C., psychiatrist, Robert Du- Francesca Annis. Lillie returns. cable, there'd be no need to cans to be gay, yet broadcast- Pont, an expert on phobias use a meter to find out which ers have persistently ignored who has often been seen on programs are being watched. them. Charles Brydon, co -ex- ABC's Good Morning Now more and more cable ecutive director of the Na- America. He companies are installing sys- tional Gay Task Force, main- reached his conclusion tems with interactive capabili- tains: "There has been a after viewing 13 hours of vide- historic ties- meaning the system is invisibility of gay peo- otapes covering 10 years' able to receive signals from ple on TV. And when there is a worth of nuclear news. The homes as well as send them - portrayal, the people are al- tapes were compiled by the and, sure enough, the pay -TV most always male and stereo- Media Institute, a business - giant, Home Box Office, has typed." oriented group that works to already begun to capitalize on Many broadcasters op- improve coverage of eco- nomic the opportunity. HBO's direc- posed the extra category as affairs. A recent tor of research, Bob Maxwell, unnecessary. And some op- Institute report on the decade's says that, as an experiment, position was on moral network cov- the company has arranged grounds. The National Reli- erage said it was so superfi- with three such systems to gious Broadcasters, for exam- cial that a viewer "could not provide viewing information ple, claimed that homosexual have gained sufficient knowl- to HBO. Subscribers involved acts are illegal in 27 states; to edge to make a rational as- consult . with what they called sessment of the risks and _ in the test have agreed to co- "openly immoral groups" benefits of nuclear -power Sean Conner y: Russia sends operate, he says. As the cable Its love. companies' computers would undermine the values generation." And the Institute "sweep" subscribers' homes, of the community. also discerned a "probably they automatically record The FCC finally decided that unintentional" anti -nuclear bias. how many homes are tuned it would not expand its list of to each channel- instant rat- "ascertainment" groups to in- Leonard Theberge, the In- ings. clude gays. But the agency did stitute's executive director, approve a change in its proce- said even anti -nuclear re- dures that would open the searchers working on the re- WASHINGTON door to increased consulta- port agreed that "if you tion with groups not on the watched those 13 hours of list. tapes, you'd have a height- Steve Weinberg reporting If gays or any other seg- ened fear of nuclear energy." ment of the community now Theberge sought out DuPont A major minority? The Fed- make representations to a TV to see if an expert would con- eral Communications Com- station, the broadcaster has firm that impression. He did.

www.americanradiohistory.com JULY 1980

WHAT'S ON

Some of the noteworthy programs and events that are scheduled for television this month. (Check local listings for dates and times in your area.)

DRAMA AND MOVIES Britt and the rest of the pack tee up at the Rich- The Seduction of Joe Tynan. Last year's box- land Country Club in Nashville, Tenn. The final office smash, written by and starring Alan two rounds of this $140,000 tournament are Alda, who plays a senator torn between his ca- scheduled for July 12 and 13. ABC. reer, his wife (Barbara Harris) and his mistress (). Showtime (cable). NEWS AND DOCUMENTARIES Flambards. A 12 -part drama, based on three ABC News Closeup. Appropriately enough novels by Kathleen Peyton, about an orphan during convention season, the subject is televi- (played by Christine McKenna) growing up at sion and the political process. ABC. the turn of the century in . PBS. The Human Face of China. A five -part Uncommon Women and Others. A repeat documentary on daily life in the People's showing of Wendy Wasserman's portrait of a Republic. PBS. group of women seven years after their college Dive to the Edge of Creation. A repeat of a graduation. PBS. National Geographic special that plumbs the Lillie. This 1979 Masterpiece Theatre offering, depths off the Galapagos Islands in search of which began a repeat run last month, con- exotic undersea life. PBS. tinues through Sept. 21. Francesca Annis stars as the flamboyant 19th -century actress Lillie MUSIC AND DANCE Live from Studio 8H. On July 2, the second Joan Hackett: Once again, Langtry. PBS. mourning becomes Electra. Mourning Becomes Electra. Eugene O'Neill's performance of NBC's series of occasional cul- drama, first shown in December 1978, is re- tural events spotlights choreographer peated. The cast includes Joan Hackett, Jerome Robbins, whose works are performed Roberta Maxwell and Bruce Davison. PBS. by the New York City Ballet. NBC. From Russia with Love. A 1963 James Bond Evening at Pops. The summertime series re- film in which Sean Connery,as Agent 007,tries turns for an eleventh season on July 6 -but a late Arthur Fiedler's to escape the clutches of enemy agent Red with big change. The has Grant, played by Robert Shaw. Home Box Of- place as conductor of the Boston Pops been taken over by a new "force," John Wil- fice (cable). liams, composer of the sound track for "Star SPORTS Wars." PBS. The All -Star Game. On July 8, the American Rod Stewart: Live at the Forum. The gravel - League tries to break an eight -year losing voiced rocker in a concert taped in Toronto. streak in the 51st midsummer classic from Showtime (cable). Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. ABC. Oh Coward! Roderick Cook, and Wimbledon Tennis. The women's finals will be Pat Galloway celebrate the words and music of shown via taped delay on July 4 and the men's Noel Coward. Showtime (cable). finals will be telecast live on July 5. NBC. British Open Golf. Muirfield in Scotland is the SPECIAL EVENTS setting for this year's tournament. The final The 1980 Republican National Convention. two rounds will be shown on July 19 and 20. Coverage from the Joe Louis Sports Arena in ABC. Detroit begins on the three commer- U.S. Women's Open. Defending champ Jerilyn cial networks and PBS on July 14. British Open Go /f: Scotland is the setting. U.S. Women's Open: The fairways of Nashville. "Fear," said DuPont, "was quently used symbol is the Britons as the time when they the motif in the nuclear sign for radioactive hazard - had to face an aching void: for stories. There's no question in "a clearly negative logo," said six long months, they will looking at the tapes that the DuPont. have had to live without public debate is going to Dallas. The Texas supersoap, now hinge not on the technology, LONDON not on the economics, not on in recess, drew audiences of the alternate energy sources, 17 million last season, and is but on the fear." Richard Gilbert reporting even more of a cult here than The visual symbols used by it is back home. When some- the networks underline the Big, big D. The summer of one discovered, weeks before message, he said. One fre- 1980 will be remembered by continued on page 85

www.americanradiohistory.com TI IF IiATIl11GS RACE THE PLIGHT handful of people because re- , in which unused one week, Hawaii Five-O's rat- views and rumor kill them off programs were put on the ings dramatically OF THE UNDER -30s increased quickly; they take the shortcut shelf after a short run, but you and the show was successful to oblivion. can be sure they will be for the next decade. But for By MICHAEL DANN In television, networks shown some place at a later every success story like sometimes have to run abso- date. Hawaii Five -O, there are prob- Every fall, American viewers lute failures for 13 or 18 weeks When new shows get into ably 25 shows that continue to bemoan the fact that the sea- simply because they have trouble, like ABC's The Asso- fail even after they are son's crop of new program- nothing to put in as an imme- ciates, network program exec- moved. ming doesn't match up to the diate replacement. More im- utives usually try to give them As is evident from the chart, roster of established series. portant, with each hour epi- a second chance by moving NBC's new shows this season This year was no exception. sode costing perhaps half a them to other time periods. were a major factor in pre- Of the 50 new programs million dollars, it would be ex- This seldom works. However, venting the network from im- that went on the air during the travagant to shelve unused there are a few notable excep- proving its position vis -à -vis 1979 -80 season (an all -time episodes simply because au- tions. its two competitors: none of high), no more 11, diences are small. It's cheaper About 12 than or years ago, when I the NBC shows got a 30 share. to run unpopular about one out of every five, episodes was in charge of program- But it should also be noted than replace would be considered a suc- them with a new ming at CBS, I moved Hawaii that CBS and ABC frequently cess in show whose network terms. "Suc- chances of suc- Five -O from its Thursday- placed their new shows be- cess" ceeding are means at least a 30 -per- statistically the night slot opposite /ronside, hind proven hits, and, as this cent share of the viewing same. where it was failing miserably, columnist has pointed out be- audience during a show's There have been a few to Wednesday night, where it fore, a show's position on the time period. A 35 or 40 share cases recently, like CBS's was pitted against a show schedule is far more impor- denotes an absolute hit, and Young Dan 'l Boone and NBC's called The Outsider. Within tant than its content. C] as the accompanying chart demonstrates, such hits are NMNEW SHOWS AND AUDIENCE SHARES, 1979-80 SEASON rare. TITLE But very often networks NETWORK SHARE TITLE NETWORK SHARE Flo (R) CBS keep a series that has less 42 When the Whistle Blows ( ?) ABC 24 than a 30 share on the air and That's Incredible! (R) ABC 37 The Lazarus Syndrome (C) ABC 24 continue to make additional Archie Bunker's Place (R) CBS 35 Detective School (C) ABC 24 episodes, because they feel Trapper John, M.D. (R) CBS 35 Young Maverick (C) CBS 24 the show is doing the best job House Calls (R) CBS 34 The Stockard Channing possible in a difficult time period. Hart to Hart (R) ABC 34 Show (C) CBS 23 At 7 P.M. on Sunday, for ex- Benson (R) ABC 32 240-Robert (C) ABC 23 ample, ABC would be very The Tim Conway Show (R) CBS 32 The Best of Saturday Night happy to have a Live (C) NBC 23 program that Knots Landing (R) CBS 32 earned a 28 share in competi- Shirley (C) NBC 23 Goodtime Girls ICI ABC 31 tion with 60 Minutes, the ex One in a Million ( ?) ABC 23 traordinarily successful CBS Palmerstown, U.S.A. ( ?) CBS 31 Eischied (C) NBC 23 news- magazine program. Tenspeed and Brown Shoe ( ?) ABC 29 Me & Maxx (C) NBC 23 And both NBC and CBS would Sanford (R) NBC 29 settle for less (C) than a 30 share Hagen (C) CBS 29 Paris CBS 23 against ABC's Three's Com- The Misadventures The Chisholms (C) CBS 22 pany. of Sheriff Lobo From Here to Eternity (C) NBC 22 Compared with other (R) NBC 28 ABC branches of the entertain A Man Called Sloane (C) NBC 28 (C) 22 Stone (C) ment industry, such as movies The Associates ( ?) ABC 26 ABC 22 or the legitimate theater, tele- Buck Rogers in California Fever (C) CBS 20 vision's batting average in the 25th Century (R) NBC 26 A New Kind of Family (C) ABC 20 pleasing the public is pretty The Contender (C) CBS 26 United States (C) NBC 18 good. The reason why you Here's Boomer (R) NBC 26 Pink Lady (C) NBC hear so much more about 18 The Big Show NBC TV's failures is that most (C) 26 Out of the Blue (C) AC 18 Americans see the new pro- B.A.D. Cats (C) ABC 25 Beyond Westworld (C) CBS 17 grams at least once before re- Skag ( ?) NBC 25 Struck by Lightning (C) CBS 17 In jecting them. contrast, bad The Last Resort (C) CBS 24 Working Stiffs (C) CBS 16 movies and bad Broadway The Facts of Life (R) NBC 24 Big Shamus, Little Shamus (C) CBS 14 shows are seen by a relative Key: (R)- Returning in 1980 -81 (C)- Canceled ( ?)- Uncertain status

www.americanradiohistory.com GUNS AND LOVERS. From shoot -outs to love - seen this film! ins, WCI movies GOING IN STYLE George have got it all. And WCI Home Burns, Art Carney, and Lee Video has got all the hit Strasberg as three senior citi- movies you want, on top - zens who decide to pull a quality Beta or VHS video- stickup. cassettes. Hits like: ENTER THE DRAGON The BONNIE AND CLYDE The legendary Bruce Lee in the beautiful, bloody love story greatest martial arts movieof that triggered a revolution in them all. film realism. A LITTLE ROMANCE A "10" Bo Derek, of course, critically acclaimed story of in Blake Edwards' spicy adult two children in love. comedy of manners and THE BUGS BUNNY /ROAD morals. Don't miss it. RUNNER MOVIE A four -star SUPERMAN An all -star cast, collectors' anthology of unforgettable special effects, classic Warner Bros. cartoons. and good fun for the entire DIRTY HARRY Clint East- family. wood stars as Harry Callahan, A STAR IS BORN Barbra the killer with a badge. Streisand and Kris Kristoffer- EAST OF EDEN James son as two rock superstars Dean's first film, and a cinema playing out a stormy classic. romance. HOOPER Burt Reynolds in a MONTY PYTHON'S look behind the scenes at the LIFE OF BRIAN A hilarious bruising world of stuntmen. new satire from the funniest MISTER ROBERTS A wise crew since the Marx Brothers. and touching war story, with DOG DAY AFTERNOON The Henry Fonda and James true story of a bizarre bank Cagney. robbery, superbly acted by THE GREEN BERETS John Al Pacino. Streisand battles it out with don't miss the stunning Wayne's action - packed por- BULLITT Steve McQueen, Ryan O'Neal in this screwball sequel. trayal of Special Forces San Francisco - and the most romantic comedy. "OH, GOD!" That's right, heroism in Vietnam. famous car chase ever filmed. ALL THE PRESIDENTS God -with George Burns in THE WILD BUNCH The Sam THE CANDIDATE Robert MEN The incredible story of the title role. Who else did Peckinpah epic of killers Redford stars in this biting Watergate, with Robert Red- you expect? who'd outlived their times. look at big -time politics in the ford and Dustin Hoffman. THE IN -LAWS Peter Falk THE SEARCHERS Another age of media hype. THE EXORCIST An eerie tale and Alan Arkin team up for John Wayne classic, one of DELIVERANCE Four men of demonic possession that the wildest comedy in years. John Ford's finest films. ride a wild river on a canoe shocked millions. EXECUTIVE ACTION Was FLAVORS OF CHINA Study trip that turns into a EXORCIST II: THE HERETIC there a conspiracy to kill JFK? the secrets of a master nightmare. You've seen the original - Don't answer until you've Chinese chef without leaving BLAZING SADDLES Saddle your home. up for Mel Brooks' laugh - NOW THE MOVIES COME HOME TO YOU. WOODSTOCK Two cas- packed saga of cowboys and settes loaded with the sights imbeciles. and the sounds of the great- REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE est rock concert in history. James Dean's journey through an exploding teen- For a complete catalog and age universe of violence and list of dealers in your area, delinquency. WCI HOME VIDEO write WCI Home Video, C. N. THE MAIN EVENT Barbra A Warner Communications Company #03050. Trenton, N.J. 08650.

1980 WCI Home Video Inc. trademark Of Warner Communications Inc. Reg. US Pat. & TM Off.

www.americanradiohistory.com SUPER AVILYN:

Super Avilyn is the videotape that helped make squeezed onto less space. Imperfections get six -hour videodecks possible. TDK invented a magnified. But Super Avilyn stays super. Its high new magnetic technology to create it. Effortlessly, density particles are polished micron -smooth to cut it overcomes the horrors haunting home video. down friction. Colors stay separate. Brightness and Problems that are not the fault of the deck, but the crispness is superb. Pictures are rock steady fault of the tape. You've seen them. Poor resolution. through hundreds of hours of play. Dullness. Bleeding colors. Pictures with the jitters. This much is clear. Now that you know the Drop outs. inside story, you won't judge videotape by its picture. Inside your videodeck there's a harsh reality. You'll judge it by Video heads spin at 1800 rpm. At that speed, poor its future. quality tape sheds a shower of oxide particles into the works. An insidious process that may produce The Vision of the Future good pictures while damaging your deck. During six hours things get tougher. Tape barely moves at .43 inches per second. More information is

V 1980 TDK Electronics Corp .. Garden City. N.Y 11530

www.americanradiohistory.com VIDEOCASSETTES AND DISCS

Now There sories. The initial version of the RCA - Are Three developed grooved system is designed to play discs at normal speed only, but does have a scan system for location of any desired program segment. This model will lack stereo sound, a feature available on the other players (which must be plugged into a stereo amplifier By DAVID LACHENBRUCH for stereo listening, of course).

It s something nobody really wants, industrial and educational markets. In the final analysis, it won't be but it now seems certain to hap- Discs are made by a joint IBM -MCA the features of any specific sys- pen: three different videodisc sys- corporation and sold primarily by tem that determine its success, but the tems on the market, each one backed MCA, although Philips, Sony and 3M amount and quality of recorded pro- by a consortium of giant corpora- plan to press discs for this system, too. gramming available for it, since a tions -all mutually exclusive. There are The Magnavision player sells for $775, videodisc player cannot record, but is few who believe that more than one the Pioneer for $749. designed only to play back prerecorded will ultimately survive. Scheduled for nationwide marketing programs (in the same way a phono- The latest system to be scheduled for early in 1981 is a "grooved capacitance" graph plays audio records). So propo- production is the VHD (for Video High system developed by RCA, which will nents of all three are furiously signing Density), developed by the Victor use the SelectaVision Videodisc trade up programs. Most independent pro- Company of Japan, known in the name. RCA will make the first players gram producers are being careful not United States as JVC. This system, and discs, with Zenith tooling up to to make any exclusive deals, so they technically a "grooveless capacitance" make players and CBS to make discs can go with all three if necessary to be system, is backed by the giant Matsu- further down the line. Note that RCA certain of picking a winner. Therefore, shita Electric Industrial Corporation, and Zenith are America's two largest much of the same programming prob- which owns 51 percent of JVC and all of television -set manufacturers, with ably will be available for all three sys- Panasonic and Quasar in the United more than 40 percent of the color -TV tems, at least at the start. But it certainly States. In a significant move, JVC has market; their disc players will retail for would be foolish to expect to buy a licensed Thorn -EMI of England to pro- under $500. Universal feature movie on a VHD disc duce players and discs -significant Each of these blue -chip corporations or a Columbia Records artist's video because Thorn -EMI, in turn, owns Cap- is investing millions in the videodisc, album on DiscoVision. itol Records in America. Matsushita which is said to have a potential at least Those members of the consumer - and JVC both say they will produce as large as television itself. And they're electronics and record -manufacturing players for the U.S. market by late 1981, catapulting themselves headlong industries who are still uncommitted with the latter aiming for a $500 price toward a three -way collision. Not only are rather somberly contemplating the tag. can players for any one system not splintering of this potentially huge The other two systems are also accommodate discs made for either of market -and wondering whether it can bankrolled by huge corporations. The the others, but the systems are so even survive such an embarrassment VLP /DiscoVision system, using the completely different in principle and of riches. "grooveless optical" technique, was mechanical specifications that it would Record dealers, who are being developed by Philips of the Nether- be impossible to design a player to counted on to sell the discs, are lands (the only consumer-electronics accommodate any two types -let becoming somewhat less enchanted manufacturer bigger than Matsushita) alone all three. In other words, it's not with the idea of see -hear records as and MCA Inc., the show -business your everyday 33- vs.- 45- vs. -78 -rpm they learn they're going to be required colossus that owns Universal Pictures battle. to stock everything in triplicate -an as well as several record labels. Mag- extremely costly proposition. And navision players for the system, Aof surprisingly, the players vary when the barrage of advertising for all assembled by Magnavox (a Philips 1 in features. The optical system three systems hits the fan, the buying subsidiary), have been on sale in the (Philips- MCA -Pioneer) is the most ver- public could become so confused that United States in relatively small quan- satile, and also the most expensive, it decides to hold off entirely until the tities since the end of 1978. A different providing such special effects as freeze dust settles. player, which can play the same discs, frame, slow- and fast -motion, back- So you can look forward to a period goes on the market here under the Pio- ward play and random access (or rapid of systems anarchy in the exciting new neer brand name this summer; it's location of any part of the program) on world of videodiscs. One of three being made by a Japanese company some records. The grooveless capaci- (assuming there are no late entries) owned jointly by Pioneer, IBM and tance system of JVC and Matsushita eventually is expected to win the sup- MCA. Then there's Sony, which will has several of these features, and the port of the marketplace. The public will also make VLP players, primarily for the rest can be added as special acces- be asked to vote. With green ballots. O

PANORAMA 15

www.americanradiohistory.com QA i SYLVESTER "PAT" WEAVER

The Today show and when free -lancer Cheryl Lavin talked are such television fixtures that it's hard with him for PANORAMA about televi- to believe they once didn't exist. One sion's past, present and future. Their man was responsible for both, and for edited conversation: the concept of TV specials ( "spectacu- lars" they were called in the '50s), mul- PANORAMA: You are one of the few tiple- sponsor advertising, and rotating people in television who started out in hosts on variety shows. That man is advertising. Do you feel that gave you Sylvester "Pat" Weaver Jr. -known in an edge? his heyday as "Mr. Network." Weaver joined NBC as vice president in charge WEAVER: Absolutely. I had been in- of television in 1949, became president volved with NBC for 15 years as a major of the network in 1953, and quit in 1956 advertiser in radio before I began work- when he was chairman of the board. ing there. And when I went over, I Before he signed on with NBC, brought the heads of nine other adver- Weaver had worked in broadcasting tising agencies with me. The difference and advertising for 17 years as a radio between my group and today's is in- announcer, scriptwriter, actor and pro- "When I Left, credible: we all had written and pro- ducer. "In those days, radio was run by duced shows, we knew clients -which advertising companies for their the Quality ones drank at lunch, which ones didn't, clients," he says. As vice president of how to handle them, how to sell them.

Young & Rubicam, he supervised the There's no one I know of in television radio programs of such talents as Fred Ileterîorated" today who could get a job in advertis- Allen and . ing -and that's where every dollar in Weaver has always been as much a Former NBC head television comes from. philosopher as a businessman. To raise Sylvester "Pat" Weaver the taste level of the audience, he intro- PANORAMA: How was TV advertising duced the "enlightenment through ex- thinks that today's network different in the early days? posure" policy at NBC, which sugar- executives should study coated culture for the masses by the programming WEAVER: Back then, 40 percent of my slipping a little serious music, ballet, or revenue came from companies that dramatic reading into a comedy show. philosophies he put into had nothing to sell directly to the audi- "The people will watch because they practice during TV's early ence. U.S. Steel sponsored The U.S know the comedians will be back," he Steel Hour for years -a marvelous 60- theorized. years minute live show. What are they going He initiated a multimillion -dollar tal- to sell? Ingots? But they had complex ent search that sought top -notch writ- goals, as did Alcoa and Kaiser. They ers and comedians for the NBC stable. offered viewers Chekhov's "Uncle would do one message for the stock- But Weaver was practical, too, and his Vanya" with Laurence Olivier and Mi- holders, another for the unions, an- shows were enormously successful. A chael Redgrave for $2 and Dodgers other for recruiting on college cam- partial list: Your Show of Shows, with games for $1.50. The response was puses, another for Government Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca; The enormous, but the service was voted buyers. Give them 30 seconds on La- Co/gate Comedy Hour, with Dean Mar- out of existence by a statewide referen- verne & Shirley for free today and they tin and Jerry Lewis; the Home show, dum approving a law that prohibited wouldn't take it. with Arlene Francis and Hugh Downs; charging for a program not shown in a The networks could have kept all that and Red Skelton's and George Gobel's theater. For a while, Weaver tried to set money from those big corporate adver- hit shows. In 1955, "Peter Pan," starring up his own fourth network, then he re- tisers if they would have used their Mary Martin, drew 67 million viewers, turned to advertising and later became brains and understood advertising. But the largest TV audience for a single net- a consultant. Currently he is meeting they didn't care - because they knew work program up until then. with Comsat about programming for a they could sell out to Anacin. Now all Since leaving NBC, Weaver has been proposed pay -TV service. that corporate P.R. revenue will come involved in a number of ventures. In the Weaver was working as a creative back to cable television and it will be mid -1960s he was part of a subscrip- consultant on a Roy Clark "spectacular" one of the spikes that is driven through tion- television service in California that being taped in Freeport in the Bahamas the networks' palms.

16 JULY 1980

www.americanradiohistory.com PANORAMA: In retrospect, was it a ence. In the old radio and TV days, the lost audiences because the viewers are mistake leaving Young & Rubicam to sponsors actually owned the time and smart enough to know that the show is go over to NBC? determined the context of the shows. I getting worse. Tom shouldn't be al- started the Today show, The Tonight lowed to do the news no matter what

WEAVER: It was a terrible mistake. But I Show and the Home show as actual he wants, and if he insists, he should be knew what I was getting into. I had a magazines of the air, with no single fired. And Jane Pauley, too. In the struc- kind of grand design that I knew would sponsorship, just drop -in ads. ture of a long show like that, with so be easier to do from the network side many different elements, you need one than the agency side. I went there pur- PANORAMA: What was the original master presenter and a separate news- posefully to take television and make it concept of the Today show? man. responsive to the turbulence of our Tom is like all newsmen who do in- times. WEAVER: I started it with the concept terviews. He's not interested in bring- 1950 was the biggest year we had at of telling people what's new, what hap ing out the person and listening to what NBC. We did Your Show of Shows with he has to say. He just wants to find out Sid Caesar, Carl Reiner, Imogene Coca, something awful about the guest - writers like Doc I Neill Simon, Mel seI get tired of Jane something that will make news. It's not Brooks, Woody Allen. It was a great news if you sit there and talk about the runaway hit. We also had Broadway Pauley giggling at Tom guy's book, but it is if you break the Tom sets up an Open House and All Star Revue with Brokaw's rotten jokes. I word that he's queer. adversary relationship and that's Jimmy Durante, Danny Thomas, Jack said to Freddie Silverman, Carson and Ed Wynn on alternate wrong. It's not the way to get people to weeks. They did big, one -hour, opulent 'Why don't you get a open up. Dave Garroway and Hugh shows, better than you could see on comedy writer and let him Downs, whom I put on the Home show, Broadway. came out of radio, where dead air was The next season we had Dragnet, write 10 really funny lines so scary they had to learn to really which was the forerunner of all the for Brokaw ?' You can't listen. other police -drama shows, and lots of make up one -liners on the I get a little tired of Jane giggling at live drama. By the time I left NBC, we Tom's rotten jokes. I said to Freddie had 11 hours of live drama a week, in- spot unless you're Adlai NBC president Fred Silverman!, cluding five in a concept of mine called Stevenson.S "Today makes all this money; why Matinee Theatre. Two thirds of the don't you get one comedy writer, give homes had TV by then. And we were him the news, and let him write 10 trying to sell them color sets through pened since they went to bed last night, really funny lines? Then if Brokaw spectaculars. We put on operas and what they should know before they go wants to be funny he doesn't have to ballet, Mary Martin in "Peter Pan," to the office -both news and general make up lines. People would sit on the Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in coverage on a wide range of subjects. train and say, 'Did you hear what Bro- "The Petrified Forest," in a The feeling of the original show was to kaw said this morning ?" You can't musical version of "Our Town," with show the hardware, to put people in the make up one -liners on the spot like that Paul Newman and Eva Marie Saint studio with everything coming in to unless you're Adlai Stevenson. playing the young couple. And it was them, and have them select the most all live. interesting and absorbing information. PANORAMA: What do you think of Dave Garroway was suggested for the Good Morning America?

PANORAMA: How did you get spon- job of host. I didn't want him at first be- sors for all those shows? cause he was so relaxed, but after I WEAVER: I like it. I was the creative con- talked to him, I changed my mind. With sultant to Fred Silverman when he was

WEAVER: I opened up the magazine the pace of the show, you needed a re- developing that show and I recom- concept of sponsorship because I knew laxed guy. mended David Hartman for it. It has we could never get the money to do the always had a less intelligent approach kinds of shows I wanted to do from one PANORAMA: What do you think of the to the day's news. It's like the New York sponsor. It really was like a magazine: Today show today? Daily News. you do the editorial and sell ads, the ad- vertisers have nothing to say about it. WEAVER: I'm not happy with it, even PANORAMA: Is there anything on dur-

They have the option of either buying though I like Tom Brokaw. I recom- ing the day that you like? How about the time or not buying it, but no influ- mended him for the job. The show has Phil Donahue? He's usually considered

PANORAMA 17

www.americanradiohistory.com IQt CONTINUED i

the Great White Hope of daytime televi- "Allen's Alley." it could be a popular time if the right sion. The Tonight Show should run for- stuff was on, as the football games ever. Johnny 'Carsoni is marvelous. have shown. WEAVER: I don't particularly like him He's the only guy who's left who on the Today show or his own show. As operates like a radio comedian. In the PANORAMA: If you were running a a manager, I can see that it's a valuable old days everybody used to write jokes network -news department today, show, but it's not my kind of thing. off the news. Now, in most shows, you what would you do?

se WEAVER: First I'd go to the best univer- Nelson Rockefeller had sities and get guys who have an inter- dyslexia and he couldn't est in the world and what's going to read. He couldn't read the happen to us. I don't think anybody should be allowed into a school of jour- teleprompter. But he was nalism unless he majored in history. marvelous at talking to Otherwise his perspective is way off. Then there's so much you can do- people. So we presented like Comment -if you don't fight print, him as a charming man but work with it. There's all kinds of who would listen to background material you can give pec- ple. Any time any place is in the news, people and who had you have the opportunity to give peo- the best advisers ple 90 seconds of information. If you've money S, been doing this on a regular basis, like could buy. we started to do 25 years ago, by now people would know a lot more, even kids. But when you try to do this, you run up against news people who say it. wouldn't watch But I've always been take a joke and if there's any hint of real- they can't give up 90 seconds for a spot :hat way. I never watched or listened to ity or timeliness in it you take it out be- on Somalia, because they'll have to many of our most popular shows. I cause the show has to run in syndica- give up the story about the guy who don't think I ever listened to a soap tion for 18 years. ran his truck off the bridge in Missouri. opera all the way through, not even I just struck out trying to sell Tom ones I produced. But that's as an indi- PANORAMA: News seems to be the Snyder and Fred Silverman on a show vidual. As a professional you have a hottest area of television right now. they should be doing -which is not range of needs and services to fulfill. What do you think of today's trends? Saturday. It's a weekly show that says, "Here's what's new in PANORAMA: is there anything on TV WEAVER: Local news is just standard the world of leisure time: new books, today that you do watch? police -blotter stuff, like rapes and fires new movies; here's what's happening and murders. And then they put on in the performing arts, what's going on WEAVER: . these things like "Coping" that are a at the galleries -the real world." And it waste of time. Network news is all right, would keep track of the ongoing

PANORAMA: What was the concept but when I look at it, I think of our own stories, like the energy crisis, and give behind The Tonight Show? plans at NBC to go right around the monthly reports on things that hold world and talk about the major news great promise, like desalination. It WEAVER: We had a late -night show on stories in England and France and would be a weekly show called The called Broadway Open House, with wherever they were happening, so that Way Things Are. Jerry Lester and Morey Amsterdam, people would have the feeling they It really isn't all that complicated to that was a runaway hit. I knew from were part of a planetary society that do a show that tells people what hap- radio that there was a big late -night au- has problems but that somehow they pened last week and what's up for the dience. I wanted The Tonight Show to were on top of them and that we'd all next week. Every week for the past 25 be a comedy- cum -coverage show that muddle through somehow. years I've read the Manchester Guard-

would entertain but also cover the I had a show called Comment that I ian's overseas edition without fail. On a whole field of entertainment: what's made my people put on the air. It was rolling basis every area of the world opening, what's closing, who's playing three or four minutes of what different gets covered. That's the kind of thing at the Martinique. people thought was the major news I'm talking about, not 60 Minutes. 60 We did the The Tonight Show live story of the week. Everybody went on Minutes is a group of feature stories from the Hudson Theatre in Times that show: Scotty [James] Reston, the that are very interesting, but if you had Square. had an orchestra Alsop brothers, Marquis Childs. It was seen none of them, it would make no and special guests and his own people, on Sunday during ghetto time, in the difference to you as a person as you go like . Fred Allen had his afternoon when the networks would into the next week. I want TV to make

"Allen's Alley" and this was a little put on do -good for the FCC. I stuff knew an impact. continued

18 JULY 1980

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www.americanradiohistory.com PANORAMA: One way TV makes an ers and directors you can and you beat is a problem, isn't it? How did you find impact is in the hands of politicians them if they don't experiment, if they new stars? who know how to use it. don't put in things that are worthy and valuable. If they have a WEAVER: We had a thing called the WEAVER: You're talking to the man they have to put in some great, legiti- comedy development plan that pro- who elected Nelson Rockefeller. Nelson mate artists in the flow of the show. If duced people like George Gobel and was the first to use TV to win an elec- you know how to do it you can intro- Jonathan Winters. We said, "Instead of tion. His campaign [for governor of duce people to things they've never letting someone who shows promise New Yorks was 100 -percent television. seen before and that maybe they won't fumble along, if he's learned his craft, He was trailing Averell Harriman in even like at first. We wanted people to let's get the very best writers and say, 1958, and Nelson couldn't make a hear Robert Merrill, we wanted them to 'Here's George Gobel. He's got this speech to influence one single vote if see a ballet sequence, we wanted them funny, charming kind of wit. Do some- he had lived to be a thousand years old. to hear operas in English, and to hear thing with him'." Within six months his The poor guy had dyslexia and he Leontyne Price sing "Tosca." This was show was in the top 10. George hasn't couldn't read. He couldn't read the tele- in the early '50s and the Southern sta- been highly successful since then. I'm prompter. But he was marvelous at tions didn't want a black woman on, not sure you could do it twice with him. talking to people. So we presented him but I said, "Forget the Southern sta- But Sid Caesar, I know you could have on the air as a most agreeable, charm- tions. They don't have to carry it, but done it again with him. He's so tal- ing man who would listen to people we'll do it anyway." That was "enlight- ented. and who had the best advisers that enment through exposure" But the people who are in charge money could buy. It not only got Nelson It's totally absent today. I turned on today say, "What's the show ?" instead elected, it got him elected four times. and watched about of saying, "Sid Caesar is a great talent; I just applied what I had learned from four minutes of it and The $1.98 Beauty get five of the best writers and put advertising: take something or some- Show. They were disgusting. It means $100,000 in a project to develop four one and find out what the good points the people who produce them are to- different alternatives for him." That's are and the bad points. Then forget the tally cynical and have despicable taste. the way you handle great talent. But bad ones and present the good ones as That's the nadir -we can't get any that can only come from management. well as you can. lower than that. Writers never think up anything new - I worked with 1CBS chairman Wil- they know there's no market for it. PANORAMA: When you were presi- liam S.1 Paley and Silverman on a plan dent of NBC you inaugurated a policy where they would give up one night a PANORAMA: What do you think of dubbed "enlightenment through expo- week to do strictly experimental things today's comedians? sure." What was the thinking behind and then say to the Nielsen people that that? they didn't want to be rated that night. WEAVER: really is a wild Neither of them was interested. They and crazy guy. The things he does are

WEAVER: I believe you can con people both had other problems. Fred was silly. Alan King can be very funny, also into watching things that are good for worried that he couldn't get the attrac- very gross. I find Saturday Night Live, them -if you're motivated to do it- tions. which is supposed to be a great com- which I am and always have been. The edy show, very amateurish compared way you do it is to get the best produc- PANORAMA: Finding top -notch talent with what we were doing on Fred Allen's radio show.

PANORAMA: With so much that you still wanted to accomplish, why did you leave NBC?

eel find Saturday Night WEAVER: I just didn't want to put up with a man like Gen. David Sarnoff

Live, which is supposed to 1 NBC's founder and chairman from be a great comedy show, 1947 to 19701. Life is too short for that. I knew I would either have to accommo- very amateurish compared date myself to acts that I considered with what we were doing despicable or get out. I was out of town on Fred Allen's radio one day and when I came back two of my people had been fired. I decided to show. am get out.

PANORAMA: Do you think NBC, and television in general, changed much when you left?

WEAVER: I believe that when I left, the

20 JULY 1980

www.americanradiohistory.com Olivetti Break- through The world's smallest electronic printer will never run out of paper, ink or batteries thanks to Olivetti, JS &A and some incredible new technology.

The new pocket -sized Olivetti calculator slides open to unveil one of the most advanced printing heads ever developed.

It's a major breakthrough. That calculator POWERFUL COMPUTER cartridges -all the paper you'll ever need for shown above is the most advanced printing The features looked great. The world's three years or for $10 more you can get 16 calculator in the world. smallest size, the paper roll convenience, the cartridges. So impresed are we with the 9 we are making the follow- SLIP TOP PRINTER no -ink system. the battery life and the large Olivetti Logos that 12 -digit liquid crystal display were enough to ing offer The new Olivetti Logos 9 is only 1" x 21/2" x convince us. but would the new Olivetti be 45... - smaller than many cigarette packages. FREE TRIAL OFFER considered a toy? Then we learned about its It has a full 12 -digit liquid crystal display with We urge you to test the Olivetti Logos 9 now. power and features which we add mode and full -floating or fixed position computational Order one for our 30 -day no obligation trial. than many of the most profes- decimal. feel are better See the clear and easy -to -read paper tape and sional full- featured printing calculators. To turn the unit into a printer. you simply display. Use it as a pocket calculator, and It's the world's fastest small printer with slide up the top of the unit to expose the Speed carry it in your briefcase wherever you go. a 2.1 lines per second. The unit also world's smallest and one of the most precise speed of Experience the convenience of always having if faster than the printing heads. The printing head prints letters has a buffer so you enter data a printing calculator there whenever you need unit, it will still print out each entry. and numbers, identifies each entry and even a permanent record of your transactions. clearly separates groups of three whole Memories The Logos 9 has two separate After 30 -days of actual use, decide if you numbers for easy readability. memories. One is an accumulating memory, want to keep it. If you do you'll own the small- and the other is a fully independent memory. convenient pocket PLENTY MORE est, most advanced and And the display and printer indicate which printing calculator in the world. If for any If its and printing head are break- size memory is on the paper tape. reason you're not completely satisfied, simply throughs, so is its paper system. The paper is Printing Head The totally new printing head is return your unit within 30 -days for a prompt in cartridges with enough paper loaded special a semi -alpha numeric system which labels all and courteous refund, including your $2.50 cartridge for 1300 entries. All you do is per entries with letters to indicate the entry. For postage and handling. You can't lose. simply pop a cartridge into the bottom of the example LP is list price and CNT means item Olivetti selected JS&A to exclusively unit each time you change rolls. It's the most count. introduce this exciting new product. With its convenient way ever designed to change a roll Clock The unit is so complete. Olivetti even solid -state design and high quality printing of paper for a printing calculator. threw in a digital clock function. Your unit will mechanism, the Olivetti should not require But if you're like most Americans, you'd be display accurate time when the 12 -digit dis- service. But if service is ever required, Olivetti concerned about paper supply. Where do you play is not in use. maintains a convenient service -by -mail center get those special cartridges, and how do you Gross Margin It automatically computes as close as your mailbox. know if you can get them years from now? everything from gross margins to discounts To order your unit for our trial, simply send That's where JS &A comes in. A 32 -roll and retail pricing. You just enter your per- your money order or personal check for supply all you'll ever need for three full years - centage mark -ups in its memory, and it will $89.95 plus $2.50 for postage and handling only $16. That's enough paper for 41,000 -is automatically compute the results while retain- (personal check orders, allow 20 days to clear entries or approximately 52 line entries each ing the formula and percentage in memory. our bank) to the address below, or credit card working day for three full years. Plus More It has automatic round off, letting buyers may call our toll -free number below. more important, within one year But even you select which figure to round off to. You can Add $16 for 32 paper cartridges or $10 for 16 and stationery stores will stock the cartridges, add a column of figures and then average your cartridges. (Illinois residents please add 6% will be- we predict that the Olivetti cartridge calculations automatically. The full- informa- sales tax.) come a standard in the industry. tion liquid crystal display will tell you every- Who would have imagined a printing calcu- NO INK CARTRIDGES thing from when you're in the printer mode to lator this small and this convenient with this The paper is a new type that looks exactly whether you have something in memory and in much computational power just a few months like conventional paper. But the paper, when which memory. ago? The Olivetti Logos 9 deserves your test. struck, leaves a clear sharp image without the The technological breakthroughs in the Order one at no obligation, today. use of ink. So there's no messy cartridge Logos 9 were possible because Olivetti was required and no space needed to store one. able to eliminate the many interface com- You'll never need ink again. ponents between the integrated circuit and the PRODUCTS The rechargeable batteries last for 8,000 printing head. This was all made possible THAT lines when you use just the printer and 80 because Olivetti designed the entire system. hours using just the liquid crystal display. The not just a few of the components as is the case THINK Plaza batteries can be recharged 500 times, so with most calculators. Dept. PA One JS &A -7000 theoretically the batteries should last for 300 So there it was. Great features, great Northbrook, 111.60062 (312) 564 rolls of paper, or more than nine times the life convenience and great value for only $89.95 Call TOLL -FREE 800 323 -6400 of your paper supply. The batteries can also be complete with batteries. charger and 90 -day In Illinois Call (312) 564 -7000 easily replaced. limited warranty. For $16 more, you can get 32 ©JS &A Group, Inc.,1980

www.americanradiohistory.com IQ ACONTINUED

quality deteriorated. I was the one who those offered our service took it -but some relatively new movies -and cov- was able to sell my associates and even we were put out of business by a Cali- erage of stuff that we had in the early my competition at the other networks fornia referendum that said you could days, only now they go into the night- on how important it was to do it right only pay money to see something in clubs with dirty language. They throw a and not to screw it up the way we had theaters. We took it to court and finally few bones to the performing arts, but with radio. We had never really made won in the [California I Supreme Court, that's it. radio work for the people because we but I couldn't persuade the other peo- What I want is to give the people were too busy making it work for Gen- ple involved in it to stick with it. much more for much less money. eral Foods and Bristol- Myers. That's the American way. Depending

After I left nobody really had that feel- PANORAMA: What is your feeling on where you live, Home Box Office is ing of responsibility. - The three owner about subscription television today? around $9 a month and a $25 installa- managers, Paley, Sarnoff and IABC's tion charge. I would offer the whole ser- Leonard I Goldenson, were basically vice for $7 or $8 a month and no instal- using television as facilities to sell prod- WEAVER: I have a different concept of lation charge. You can do that if you go ucts. They had very little to do with pro- television. Television is coverage and into it knowing you will eventually sign gramming. General Sarnoff had no the best television is to go out and up 25 million homes. With that kind of concept of what was going on. Leonard cover the best things -the best com- flow of cash you can set up a new Goldenson was a lawyer for the the- edy shows, the best operas, the best movie production company just to pro- aters. They weren't program people. plays. The next big step in television is duce for the service. Their concept of television was: don't when we really go there. Instead of get in trouble with the FCC and give the doing a one -hour drama, we'll go to the PANORAMA: What if you got a call, client what he wants. That's all they had theaters. I'd like to see seven nights a even at this late date, from one of the learned from the radio experience. week of prime time without commer- networks to come back. What would cials, without interruptions, that would you do? PANORAMA: Are you really that dif- cover the whole range of what people ferent from the people that replaced go out to be entertained by, to be WEAVER: I've never been offered a job you? enriched by. People love television, but at one of the networks since I left. Or by

they want it to do what they want, not one of their suppliers -the movies. I WEAVER: There's an easy way to show what the advertisers want. doubt if I'd go, because my real interest the difference between my approach isn't in saving the networks -it's too and Freddie Silverman's. One of our PANORAMA: How is that different late. We've got the recorder, we've got best dramas, Philco TV Playhouse, was from what the other subscriber sys- the disc, we've got the cable services, in trouble with the ratings. I put The tems are already doing? and we've finally got an FCC that's not Colgate Comedy Hour on before it and just beholden to the three networks. Red Skelton on after it. I didn't want to WEAVER: Look at Home Box Office, The change that will come about will be have two shows in the top five. I which is the most successful outfit in marvelous. The networks are on their wanted Philco TV Playhouse in the top California. They've got old movies -or way to the iceberg. u 20 to make people look at something that was a little harder to accept initially, but far more rewarding. That is what I call "scheduling with a purpose." I knew as far back as 1936 about sequencing programs to hold an audience. Today all they care about is ratings. I'm not knocking ratings, but there's more. 64I'd like to see seven PANORAMA: You were involved in nights a week of prime subscription television in California in time without commercials, the '60s. What happened? without interruptions, that

WEAVER: I believed then and I believe would cover the whole now that subscriber television is a big- ger advance over television than televi- range of what people go sion is over radio. But I got involved out to be entertained by. Sw with an underfunded group and we faced enormous, organized opposition from the broadcasters and the (movie' theater owners. They were afraid of us. The theaters owners have always been reactionary. They fought color televi- sion, big screens, drive -ins, even day- light- saving time. But the broadcasters surprised us. We were very successful -half of

22 JULY 1980

www.americanradiohistory.com The Pulsetach will shortly become the number one selling system of its type in Heart the nation. Computer Your heart can tell you three things that can help you live longer and stay healthier. The rest is up to you.

JS &A has never offered a pulse meter. And computer CMOS semi -conductor integrated for good reason. circuit that will take up to 4 pulse beats, If you've ever used one, you'll quickly compute an average pulse rate, and then flash discover that your heart does not beat like a that rate on the liquid crystal display. clock. It's irregular. It might beat at 40 beats FINGERTIP SCANNER per minute for one instant and at 120 the next. The sensor consists of a Gallium Arsenide Since most pulse meters measure each beat infrared light- emitting diode which scans your can read your pulse rate. Use it to stay in your as it occurs, you never feel confident that fingertip hundreds of times a second to Target Zone and to determine and then you're getting a very good reading. determine your pulse rate. This new system is improve your Cardiac Recovery Time. We also considered size. Each pulse meter one of the most accurate and is also used in we examined was large or cumbersome and sophisticated hospital systems. Monitor your Cardiac Recovery Time. Determine your Target Zone and see if you're awkward to carry or store. The unit also contains a quartz- controlled really exercising in that area. Then use the WE WAITED timing circuit which will accurately time either Pulsetach to watch those important signs meantime, we your exercise period or your Cardiac Recovery We waited a few years. In the slowly improve thanks to the accuracy and Time. And you can switch back and forth discovered three ways your heart (through information you get from the unit. your pulse) helps you monitor your health. between the pulse and chronograph mode By knowing the important factors that help if you while you are exercising. Pulse Rate Your pulse rate can tell you you monitor your health, you'll feel better, We realize that the Pulsetach sounds like a are getting enough oxygen throughout your exercise more effectively, and many doctors very sophisticated unit. And it is. But as body. A high pulse rate indicates that your feel you'll live longer. heart must pump faster to supply that oxygen sophisticated as it is internally, its an extreme- and may indicate poor physical condition. ly easy unit to operate. There are just two TWO UNITS AVAILABLE Target Zone Your pulse can tell you if your buttons to press which operate the pulse read- To order your Pulsetach pulse meter, send heart is beating fast enough during exercise. ing and the chronograph timing circuit. A third your check for $119.95 plus $2.50 postage There's an area called the "Target Zone." button engages the audio circuit. and handling (Illinois residents add 6% sales Below this level, you're not exercising hard tax) to the address below. (Allow 20 days for enough to do your heart or respiratory system personal checks to clear.) Credit card buyers any good. Above this level, you can be may call our toll -free number below. dangerously over- exerting yourself. You can also order the more expensive Cardiac Recovery Time The time it takes for hospital unit that averages 16 beats and has your pulse rate to return to normal after you've all the features including the small size of the exercised is the real measure of whether or not previous unit. It costs $169.95. your exercise program is doing you any good. We'll send your Pulsetach pulse meter This time can be as healthy as one minute or complete with 90 -day limited warranty and as poor as several minutes. instructions which include information on The three things we learned convinced us determining your Target Zone, Cardiac Re- that the ideal pulse meter must have the covery Time and other helpful information. following features: Then after your test, if you're not fully con- 1. It must measure a series of heart beats vinced that the Pulsetach is the best unit of its and simultaneously compute the average to kind, the most convenient, and the greatest avoid the strange readings from irregular heart value, return it within 30 days for a prompt and finger while it monitors your heart and deter- courteous refund including the $2.50 charge beats. Recovery Time. mines your Cardiac You lose. 2. It must be small enough to use while for postage and handling. can't exercising. HEAR YOUR PULSE Your Pulsetach is totally solid -state so if it is, 3. It should have a timing capability to The audio circuit simply beeps every time service should never be required, but the determine the Cardiac Recovery Time. your pulse beeps. This feature lets you mon- manufacturer has a national service -by -mail facility backing each unit. JS &A is America's It wasn't until a small Utah medical elec- itor your pulse by hearing it as you run or tronic instrument company created what we exercise and it can be shut off by pressing the largest single source of space -age products - your Pulsetach is feel not only provides the capabilities listed button a second time. The timing circuit is further assurance that by a above, but excels in other areas too. quartz -controlled and extremely accurate. backed substantial company. The Pulsetach not only has combined all of We've waited an awful long time to jump into FITS ON FINGER the most advanced technology in an extremely the pulse monitoring field. But what a great The unit is called the Pulsetach, and it fits small size, but it costs less than many other entry. Order your Pulsetach at no obligation finger. It right over your weighs less than an systems lacking its advanced features. today. ounce and can be worn easily during most for joggers, exercise programs. The Pulsetach can be used PT ODUCTS athletes, all forms of exercise and even o The large liquid crystal display can easily be cardiac recovery patients, as it operates quite seen in normal room lighting or in bright sun- effectively with pacemakers. light, and because liquid crystal displays THINK consume very little power, the readily- avail- REAL WORKOUT Dept. PA One JS &A Plaza able watch batteries will last for years. The We suggest you order a Pulsetach for our Northbrook, 111.60062 (312) 564 -7000 Pulsetach automatically turns itself off in five 30 -day no- obligation trial. When you receive Call TOLL -FREE 800 323 -6400 minutes if you forget. your unit, give it a real workout. Notice how In Illinois Call (312) 564 -7000 The heart of the system is a powerful micro- simple it is to operate and how easily you ©JS &A Group, Inc.,1980

www.americanradiohistory.com VIDEO VALIUM equipment, which is con- Will television, an alleged nected to the set's brightness opiate of the masses, be pre- adjustment, keeps track of scribed as an aid to mental pulse rate, fingertip tempera- health? Can the accused per- ture or other responses -and petrator of so many of soci- the calmer a patient becomes, ety's ills help cure stress? the brighter the Video Wall- Well...that depends on paper comes in on the whether you believe in Video screen. Wallpaper, the 1980s' answer Clearly, the implications of to Muzak. Developed by Neb- "video background music" go ulae Productions, Video Wall- well beyond stress control. As paper is tranquility packaged Nebulae's brochure points on videotape -a choice of 14 out, the cassettes ($60 each) half -hour cassettes meant to can be used in the home to en- bring the soothing effects of hance "both intimate and so- nature into the living room. cial situations " - romance, If, after a hard day, you don't parties, housework, reading, happen to be near the relaxing Ed Jaffess, handle business and a hospital in Hawaii. Of meals, meditation, etc. But for sights and sounds of "peace- from Flushing, N.Y., brother course, says Kamen, Video now, Nebulae is concentrating ful waves rolling onto shore" Terry Kamen does the taping Wallpaper isn't a cure but only on the health field. or a "lush cove fed by a majes- in Hawaii. His job is to find the a tool. Back in the home, believers tic waterfall," Nebulae recom- right nature scene, start the Among the tool's applica- in Video Wallpaper can try mends getting there vi- camera and keep it rolling. tions is the V.I.B.E.S. (Video In- managing everyday tension, cariously through television. TV executives, not wanting terface for Biofeedback Equip- sans V.I.B.E.S., with "a pond Right now, the Video Wall- to lull their viewers to sleep, ment Systems) technique. shimmering in the afternoon paper cassettes work with aren't much interested in Simply put, a patient, hooked hours" or with "slow- moving either a standard television Video Wallpaper. But the prod- up to a biofeedback machine, clouds against a deep -blue monitor or a large- screen pro- uct that Roy Kamen once had watches Video Wallpaper on sky." For nonbelievers, there jection system. Given time, wanted to call Video Valium is television; the changing na- are always the more tradi- Nebulae's Roy Kamen envi- being used at a Massachu- ture scene is supposed to aid tional methods: a good stiff sions "full walls of imagery." setts mental -health center, a relaxation and also gauge drink or a couple of aspirins. While Kamen and a friend, New York biofeedback clinic progress. The biofeedback -Frank Jacobs TESTING, TESTING In the battle for the hearts and around the United States, use the cable method. Reu- minds of the television audi- which are selected to repre- bins believes that participants ence, cable TV is usually con- sent a cross section of the Na- are less "self- selected" than sidered the archenemy of tion's viewing audience. they are with traditional test- There are a lot of proxy ABC, CBS and NBC. But prag- Groups of subscribers in each ing techniques, in which sub- parents around telling tele- matism can create some un- of four of these areas are re- jects are often solicited off the vision how children should likely alliances, and so it is cruited to watch a show - street. And he thinks that that, for in its form it a in be entertained -and NBC, cable has be- often before watching show the com- come an invaluable resource goes on the air or even in an fort of one's own home Washington has jumped in in helping determine just earlier, "rough cut" stage - prompts a more typical re- with both left feet. SS what is going on in those sometimes during its actual sponse than watching in a the- -Fred Silverman, NBC presi- viewers' hearts and minds. network premiere. They then ater, where much of the tradi- International dent, at an Cable is NBC's "principal tell a telephone interviewer tional testing is conducted. Radio & Television Society luncheon, New York tool" for testing audience re- what they thought about it, Sounds good. Still, judging action to new series, accord- giving NBC a raft of data on from NBC's track record with ing to the network's head of what types of viewers -if new programs in the last few research, William Reubins. any -find the show appealing years, it is clear the network Time is leased on 15 to 20 and why. has not found a magic key to cable systems scattered NBC is the only network to series success.

24 JULY 1980

www.americanradiohistory.com When we try to squeeze all the national and international news into 24 minutes, we're committing a fra ud SS - Richard S. Salant, NBC board vice chairman, at a National Association of Broadcasters conference, Washington, D.C. FOR YOUR EARS ONLY There seems to be no limit to while they brush their teeth, or the public's appetite for televi- as they drive to work -with sion, but still, one could be for- clock -radio models, true fa- given for asking, what good is natics can go to sleep with a radio that picks up the sound Carson and wake up with Pau - from TV stations? ley. We know of at least one TV A lot of good for quite a few nut who thought the sound people, as it turns out. Por- from his TV set was too heavy table "TV band" radios that re- on the bass, so he uses a TV ODD COUPLE ceive the audio portion of tele- band alongside it as a tweeter Tell us, David Steinberg, do Does this mean we can ex- vision signals have been sold to boost the high tones a bit. you and your new partner, pect a laff riot out of you to between one and two mil- And if one member of the Burt Reynolds, ever dis- guys? lion Americans in the last sev- household is hard of hearing, agree? "The late -night shows will eral years, according to one the family can keep the set at "Certainly. Have you no- be satirical things in the Sec- manufacturer who sells them. normal volume while Grand- ticed the way he dresses ?" ond City style. We'll appear on The first to try the TV-band ma listens to her TV band So how is it that a big them. Then we'll be producing market was RCA, which in the through an earphone, crank- Florida jock turned movie star but not appearing in some early '70s offered one as a ing it up as loud as she wants. and a little Canadian comic pilots, and one of them will be "television for the blind," com- There are limits. The radios turned TV personality have patterned after the old Laurel plete with channel markings only pick up the VHF (very joined forces to produce TV- and Hardy two -reelers, with in Braille. That didn't go over high frequency) stations, on movies and pilots and late - updated jokes. But the others too well, but General Electric channels 2 to 13, the ones night shows, not to mention a will be more serious." later put one out for the close to FM radio on the signal prime -time Burt Reynolds What about the Reynolds average consumer, and its spectrum. The UHF (ultra high special for ABC? special? success prompted .most other frequency) stations, on chan- "They made us an offer we "We're thinking of doing a radio manufacturers to follow nels 14 to 83, are too difficult couldn't refuse." show called 'Heroes,' where suit. to pull in with a moderately Seriously, though... we take some of Burt's What are they used for? priced radio. And although it's "We've been real close heroes -like Holden, Astaire, "We did some research;' says said to be surprising how friends for 10 years. The con- Cary Grant, Sinatra -and put GE's manager of radio prod- much television can be en- nection is through humor. them in a living -room situa- ucts, William G. Smith, "and joyed without actually watch- Period. We do the best work tion where they discuss their found that a significant por- ing it, some programs remain we can, but we're both im- own heroes. And then we're tion of the market uses TV as wedded to the visual. "Take bued with the sense that what talking with Dwight Hemion background noise. A woman my word for it," says GE's we do isn't brain surgery. If it and Gary Smith about doing a can listen to a Smith, "a golf match or a doesn't work, the patient more elaborate special." while she does her house- bowling tournament on radio doesn't die." And the TV- movies? work -she knows the charac- is a little marginal." This Burt Reynolds is a real "We want to do one about ters already; she doesn't have card, huh? high -school athletic recruit- to see them." So by adding a "When I first came out to ing" few bucks to the price of an or- Hollywood, he kept trying to So you'll be tackling burn- dinary AM /FM radio (with get me to go to parties. I said ing social issues? which the TV bands are com- no, it's always the same old "Well, more like flickering. bined) she can always be in people. Finally he gave a We definitely will not do any earshot of The Edge of Night. party. I said I'd go just because movies about battered wives. But that's not the only place I was his friend. I got to the Or battered children, or bat- TV bands come in handy. Fans door, and Burt met me with tered pancakes. Nothing bat- of the networks' morning Jay Silverheels -in full Tonto tered will come out of our news shows can listen in costume." company."

PANORAMA 25

www.americanradiohistory.com BUTTERED POPCORN THE VAN THAT CAME the Hell's Angels motorcycle AND A CASSETTE, IN FROM gang and various organized THE COLD crime activities. PLEASE A car pulls up in front of a The vans themselves are fashionable Washington town rented; one of the two as- If you can't beat 'em, join house late at night. Its driver, a signed to the ABSCAM inves- 'em. U.S. congressman, glances tigation had previously been The stay -at -home mentality up and down the deserted used by the production team fostered by the booming street. Seeing nothing but a for Kojak. To hide the news home -video industry could seemingly empty camper van team inside, the windows are cause a dilemma for movie - across the way, he enters the either replaced with two -way theater owners. They can sit house, where he will discuss a mirrors, covered with reflec- back and hope that the stun- bribe with representatives of a tive stripping, or simply hung ning advances in TV- related wealthy Arab businessman. with curtains that a camera technology will not anchor The Arab's representatives, can peek through. The camera potential customers to their as the world knows by now, has a special "night vision" living -room couches. Or they were not businessmen at all, lens, a telescopic variety de- can go ahead and get their but undercover agents in the veloped by the Army that can slice of home-video profits by FBI's famed ABSCAM investi- magnify available light up to selling movies on videocas- gation. And the van outside 30,000 times. It is connected to settes in their lobbies. Which A less ambitious experi- was neither empty nor occu- a picture monitor, the only is exactly what two large ment is being conducted by pied by the FBI, but by an in- source of interior light other chains are doing right now. Plitt Theaters, a 500 -screen vestigative reporting team than pen flashlights. "I think home video is chain, which has only one the- from NBC News. Their mis- Silverman declined to de- great," gushes Gaston Hakim, ater peddling the software, sion: "Winnebago journal- scribe any of the van's other who acts as a middleman be- mostly Fox features. If the test ism" special equipment- besides tween the video divisions of does well -the company That's how NBC's producer the chicken soup and coffee the major film companies and plans to tabulate the results at on the story, Ira Silverman, that keep the crew warm on the 773 -screen the end of the summer -most jokingly refers to the caper long stakeouts. Is it, he was Theaters chain. "People who of the other Plitt theaters will that earned him and corre- asked, anything like the super- own VCRs or subscribe to pay - join in selling prerecorded spondent Brian Ross a major sophisticated surveillance TV love the movies. This is a movies along with popcorn in scoop on ABSCAM: exclusive equipment used by actor natural environment to sell their lobbies. And after that? coverage of a covert opera- Gene Hackman in the Francis the tapes." A test of Hakim's Says Plitt's West Coast ad tion in progress. Silverman Ford Coppola film of a few happy thesis is underway in director, Bob Artz: "Who and Ross had used the Winne- years ago, "The Conversa- over a dozen UA cinemas, knows? Maybe 20 years from bago technique before, for tion"? "Yeah," said Silverman, where more than 200 different now cinemas will be video- stqties on ;heroin trafficking, "something very much like movies are for sale. tape supermarkets." extbrtion c loadiñg docks, that."

GET THE PICTURE? ,

"Hi, Frank. I'm calling abqut nitrate a visual idea pt a corn- Scribophone. Another , wide- that west -wing extension pleix piece. ,of mathematics spread use anticipated by again....The plan you brought whsle tallying on the tele- Philips is in education. Lec- over yesterday won't work, $o phone, you Simply draw it or tures on technical subjects to Whey don't like fresh let's see if we can come !up wrilte it oh a special plate, scattered classes linked by women in Thailand, so with something else. Turn pn usi'hg an electronic "pen," and telephone would be greatly they have something your Scribophone and 1I'II thé'jmage appears on your in- facilitated by the machine, before [Laverne & Shirley] show you what: I havd in terlpcutor s TV screen (as well which functions as a video mind." aS on yours). blackboard. goes on the air that says Now what have the eléb- The system, which emerged There is also a mobile ver- these two women are tronics wizards ;,wrought? out of research into cbmmuni- sion of Scribophone that's from an insane asylum. Scribophone is the latest in. a catibn aids for the deaf, uses a likely to acquire importance in That way they can run it in series of communication, e- srrt$II section of the telephone police and fire- brigade work, Thailand. Honest. SS vices that make in- the -flesh frequency band to transmit since it permits the transmis- palaver less and less neces- -, N producer, the visual' information. But sion of sketches, maps or addressing a Television Critics sary. Teleconferencing added there's no effect on the audio layouts from the site of an ur- Association forum in Los Angeles faces to phone conversations. signal: voices remain as clear gent operation. Now the Philips company of (or as unclear) as they are nor- At the moment, the cost of a the Netherlands has devel- mally. Scribophone is over $4000. oped a machine that literally Architects, designers and On second thought, it might takes you back to the drawing engineers are the obvious be cheaper just to fire Frank. board: if you need to commu- prospective customers for - Richard Gilbert

26 JULY 1980

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it www.americanradiohistory.com SONS Denver oil business, and Bo Hopkins, as his star geologist. OF BIG D Meanwhile, the company VVhile America awaits word that makes Da //as and its spin- on the fate of J.R. Ewing, who off, Knots Landing, is not rest- was gunned down in the final ing on its ratings. Lorimar Pro- episode of Da //as last season, ductions has prepared two the networks are moving more prime -time serials fea- ahead to create more J.R.s turing wealthy families for and Sue Ellens and Jocks and next fall's schedule. In CBS's Miss Ellies. Secrets of Midland Heights, A TOUGH ACT TO FOLLOW The parade begins Aug. 11 Martha Scott presides over CBS has found that even in however, the presence of the with the debut of Texas, an the society of a Midwestern NBC this era of fast -breaking news, Western edition became more afternoon soap opera college town, and the teen- candidly a three -hour -old dose of and more minimal. The goal described as "the age townies are restless. In Walter Cronkite is better than of doing distinctively Western Dallas of daytime" by NBC the pilot for NBC's Flamingo programming an update by someone else. stories was dropped. "So chief Brandon Road, Kevin McCarthy and The CBS Evening News many Western stories are Tartikoff. Most of the action Barbara Rush play old -money with Walter Cronkite is first fed hashed over by the local news- will take place in Houston, but paper -mill owners in southern to America at 6:30 PM. New casts that they're old by the there will be forays into other Florida. The cast also includes York time -which is 3:30 P.M. time we come along," said parts of the state -maybe into Stella Stevens as a madam.

Big D itself. "As I West Coast time. It doesn't ap- Browning. Furthermore, re- far as know, The makers of such shows nobody has pear on Pacific time zone gionalization is a "bad trend. It copyrighted are of two minds about Dallas Dallas," says Texas head screens until from two- and -a- presumes a community of in- itself. They say they enjoy half writer John William Corring- to three -and -a -half hours terest that isn't necessarily watching the Ewings, but later. Sometimes the news there." ton, who adds that the Texas each hastens to add that his goes stale in the meantime. Finally, in mid -February, the folks will be so rich, "they own program isn't all that In order to combat this elec- Western edition stopped mak- could buy and sell the Ewings much like Da / /as. "Ours is an tronic jet lag, the Western edi- ing a nightly appearance. The on any given afternoon." extended novel about families tion of the CBS Evening News Western- edition unit remains Then there's an ABC pilot and power," says Oil executive was launched last Aug. 27. in place -at a cost of $1- for a prime -time series tenta- Most of Cronkite's show re- million -plus a year -but its tively titled Oi/ (likely to be a producer Esther Shapiro. Get mained intact, but each night work appears on the air only midseason replacement), the difference? Neither do Terry Drinkwater -in Los An- when breaking news warrants which features a czar of the we. geles- anchored at least one an update (usually two or segment of news that had three times a week). 15,000 and been updated andlor Western- CBS admits that groupies PRAYERS educational enter- ized for the Pacific states. who hang on every word tainment video program BEFORE SWINE titles. Snippets of the Cronkite show Uncle Walter utters protested The competition was stiff. The were cut. the Western edition's failure to But praying pigs? judges mulled over "Poultry it's a real pro- On an evening in early Feb- deliver the Compleat Cronkite. - "Oh sure, Laying It on the Line," "Know gram," says Sharon Hesse of ruary, for example, two brief "If I were in show business, I Your Dope" and "The Last Art the Memphis -based Center Cronkite stories were dropped would say Walter is a hard act Student Has Been Eaten." But for Southern Folklore, distrib- from the Western edition. One to follow," says Drinkwater. in the end there was one clear utor of the $70 program. "We was an item on a proposal to "But we're not here to do an winner: "Hush Hoggies Hush; shot it in the early Seventies. deregulate travel -agent com- act. We convey information - Tom Johnson's Praying Pigs." Tom Johnson calls the pigs up missions; the other told of an and sometimes Walter has The four -minute documen- to the trough. They stop. He avalanche in the Alps. The only a fragment of the infor- tary garnered the first annual makes a brief prayer. When he extra time was filled with an mation" Most Unusual Video Program says 'Amen,' they dig in." expanded, updated report on The other networks occa- of the Year Award last March, But does "Hush Hoggies the New Mexico prison riot, sionally cut into their nightly a jocular decoration handed Hush" bring in the bacon? with a new introduction by newscasts with brief updates out by the publishers of "The Replies Hesse: "So far Drinkwater replacing Cron - for the Pacific states, but these Video Source Book," a refer- we've sold 18. That's not bad, kite's. "We try to keep our par- are not as technically sophisti- ence guide listing more than is it ?" Well, not in a pig's eye. ticipation as minimal as pos- cated as CBS's Western -edi- sible," said Western- edition tion reports. ABC has consid- producer David Browning. ered launching a Western "But at the very least, there edition of its own, but the idea are always a few nuances to is not a top priority. NBC has add or change" rejected the idea. Stay tuned As the months went by, for further bulletins.

28 JULY 1980

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www.americanradiohistory.com IN PRAISE OF viewers love it." They must - RUBBER WWHT recently decided to ex- CHICKENS pand the show to an hour. Viewers reportedly number The big TV question in New 100,000 and, despite the York these days has nothing to kiddy -show format and Uncle do with the traditional con- Floyd's constant on -air refer- cerns of that media -saturated ences to the "boys and girls" city. It has nothing to do with watching at home, it's a safe Fred Silverman or William bet that many of the "kids" Paley or Roone Arledge. It has tuning in can remember their nothing to do with videodiscs 30th birthdays. A 6- year -old, a or censorship or new maga- 12- year-old, even a sharp 15- zines. No, the big TV question year -old, would be hard put to in New York these days is, keep pace with Uncle Floyd's "Have you seen The Uncle steady stream of double en- Floyd Show ?" It refers to a props, bizarre skits and a cast oped over the years. Some of tendres and worldly asides. low- budget, UHF kiddy show and crew that can't stop the more popular are: Joe Although Uncle Floyd that originates in West laughing at the whole mess, a Frankfurter, a deadly sendup doesn't like the word "cult" ( "It Orange, N.J. And, like so kind of suburban dada glory of New York radio interviewer scares parents "), his knack for many questions in New York, all its own. It isn't always ; Brother Billy orchestrating the madness what it really means is, "Do funny, but it's always trying to Bobby Booper, the bogus faith around him has made him the you know what's hot? Do you be. healer; Flojo the Clown, Uncle center of one, complete with know what's going on ?" The format of the show is Floyd's whining version of a fan clubs, T- shirts, buttons What's going on is a daily the same every day. Uncle TV kiddy -show host; and and sold -out nightclub dates half hour of slapstick, chaos Floyd opens it from behind a Jerry Jersino, the man who all around the metropolitan and inspired improvisational beat -up desk, trading jokes wants New Jersey to secede area. Paul Simon became insanity. It's commedia dell with his sidekick Oogie, a from the Union. such a fan that he gave Floyd a 'arte 1980, with rubber wisecracking wooden puppet The show, which is telecast role in his upcoming film. Tom chickens and New Wave who gets a lot of close -ups be- weekdays at 6 P.M. on UHF Snyder recently interviewed rock'n'roll. It's wide open, go- cause of Floyd's limited talent channels 60 and 68, WWHT- Floyd, complete with clips of for- broke, shoestring televi- for ventriloquism. Then, after TV, is a blatant, garish paean his show, on the Tomorrow sion, presided over by a brief section devoted to to the early days of television. show. And Floyd says there "Uncle" Floyd Vivino, a be- strange artwork sent in by Vivino, the 28- year -old creator are some "powerful nign- looking young man who fans, there is usually enough and star of the show, prides rock'- n' roll people" who want wears a bow tie, a garish pork- time for two bits, a few an- himself on its thrown - to see him syndicated. Can pie hat and a sports coat of nouncements and a couple of together production quality. stardom be far off? many colors that apparently minutes of Floyd at the piano. "We do 260 half-hour shows a "I'd be happy just to keep was designed to be visible (Vivino is a first -rate musician year," he says. "People don't doing what I'm doing for the from passing jetliners. and musical historian. He sel- watch us for slickness. They next 40 years," says Vivino. Now in its seventh year on dom plays anything written get enough of that on the net- "People don't believe me, but the air, The Uncle Floyd Show more recently than the 1940s.) works. We bring television I'm really not interested in the looks as if it's made behind a The bits form the heart of the back to the basics -two cam- big time." He may not be, but gas station somewhere on the show and feature the dozens eras, one set. We shoot five the fact is that the big time is New Jersey Turnpike, and it of original characters Uncle shows in one day and we getting interested in him. achieves, by way of its cheap Floyd and his cast have devel- leave all the mistakes in. Our -David Noonan

"'James Lyons, president of the Media Research Services Group of A.C. Nielsen, described the ratings process.... He compared the TV universe to a large bag of red, white and black jellybeans, from which Nielsen repeatedly extracts a handful. 'If I do that 15 or 20 times,' he said, 'recording the black and red and white count each time, I'll get a pretty good estimate of the number in the entire bag.' The analogy makes sense if we understand that the jellybeans do not represent people or even programs, but the viewers' choice among the three networks. The trouble is that too many network executives ... believe the sampling shows that people prefer jellybeans that are red, white or black to those of any other conceivable color; that people like jellybeans in general; and that they prefer jellybeans to any other type of nourishment. SS -A. Frank Reel, an his book "The Networks: How They Stole the Show"

30 JULY 1980

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COLOR feet -still not the biggest by a on the home screen. Not at all, COMMENTARY long shot; Cleveland boasts of he replied: "It's just that our a board 136 feet by 51 feet, but old board was 20 years old Why stay at home to watch its display relies on incande- and worn out. It's like buying a the Dodgers on TV when you scent bulbs. new model car." This particu- can go to Dodger Stadium to Mitsubishi, the Japanese lar model, however, will set watch them on TV? firm that's making the L.A. the Dodgers back $3 million. An interesting question, in system, promises a high -reso- Not all of the 56,000 fans light of the fact that a full -color lution color image that is visi- who fill Dodger Stadium will video -display system -in fact, ble in complete daylight and be able to appreciate the the first full -color system in an players, and cutaways to uses only a fraction of the en- video splendors that await American stadium -is being other sports and news ergy consumed by conven- them. The 3000 who are ex- installed in Los Angeles. Its events. tional light -bulb message iled to seats in the left-field pa- key component is a screen The screen will be 20 feet boards. vilion, under the screen, will atop the left -field pavilion, high and 28 feet wide during A Dodgers official was have to watch plain old base- which will be fed pictures its debut at the All -Star Game asked if the new doodad was ball on the field instead of TV. from three portable cameras July 8 and throughout this an attempt to lure fans away There will be no special dis- and will feature instant re- season. Next season it will be from the proliferating variety count for those forced to make plays, close -ups of plays and expanded to 25 feet by 33 of baseball games available such a sacrifice.

WORDS OF WARNING Warning: the following pro- quires "advisories" preceding specially edited for network take the latter view won't gram may be harmful to your "material that might be dis- television, the box -office rat- sponsor programming with a (and your family's) morality turbing to a significant seg- ings (PG, R, etc.) don't neces- disclaimer. Ralph Daniels, vice and peace of mind. While tele- ment of the audience." Sex, vi- sarily apply to the TV versions. president for broadcast stan- vision disclaimers haven't olence and profanity remain So, according to ABC vice dards at NBC, rejects this gone that far yet, they have president Alfred Schneider, stance. "We can't present become increasingly explicit In 1976, the three networks censors try to judge "the total everything at a Disneyland about what viewers can ex- slapped some three dozen subjective emotional content level," he says. The networks pect. ABC preceded the film disclaimers on films they felt of a program" when they de- say advisories alert concern- "An Unmarried Woman" this called for parental discretion cide whether a disclaimer is ed parents and squeamish year with this warning: "The because of strong language, needed, even after editing. In viewers; after that, they wash following material may not be sex and/or violence. Three recent years, childbirth, in- their hands of the matter. suitable for younger family years later, in 1979, the cest, rape, drug abuse and Still, protest and attraction members. It is a sexually frank number had dropped to the 12 emotional disturbances have are often related. CBS re- portrayal of the personal rela- in the following list. replaced scanty swimsuits ceived a barrage of com- tionships of a contemporary ABC and steamy embraces as ob- plaints from viewers nation- woman." And NBC cautioned "Taxi Driver" jectionable in the eyes of the wide before it showed "Helter viewers about to see "Coming "Shampoo" censors. Skelter" in 1976. Yet the movie Home" that the film was "" But do admonitions serve wound up as the highest - "frank, gripping and realistic." "Cracker Factory" to protect viewers -or are the rated telecast of the season. It At the same time -and per- "Thunderball" disclaimers actually a come - seems "a significant segment haps for the same reasons - "The Man with the Golden on for the strong stuff to fol- of the audience" is a tough an- the use of disclaimers is de- Gun" low? Some advertisers who imal to offend. - Cherie Burns clining substantially (see box). CBS The fact is that viewer atti- "Flesh and Blood" tudes have changed over the "Rollerball" years. In 1976, when CBS first "The Getaway" broadcast "Death Wish," a "Death Wish" ¡ y \ film filled with violence, the NBC ,..., network received several "Coming Home" hundred heated complaints. "One Flew over the Cuckoo's But when it was shown again Nest" .)' in 1979, there were few objec- tions. the chief offenders, but net- All the networks follow the work censors must decide for National Association of themselves how much is too Broadcasters' code that re- much. Because movies are = 32 JULY 1980 3) . .>.._ www.americanradiohistory.com 26 GREAT NEW RELEASES!

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www.americanradiohistory.com PANORAMA JULY 1980 Pornography Unleashed Today's video revolution is giving the X -rated film business a big boost -and organized crime has been quick to cash in By HOWARD POLSKIN

he knows something that the sociolo- discuss the FBI's recent nationwide Val- I. A DAY WITH gists don't know, that the fancy Park entine's Day raids on distributors of al- THE KING OF X Avenue shrinks don't know, and that legedly obscene videocassettes, films the anti -pornography groups don't and magazines. Although Friedman If you want to pick up all the latest know: the video revolution is the big- was not named in the Federal indict- gossip in the West Coast porno biz, go gest boost to pornography since the in- ments, many of his colleagues in the spend an afternoon drinking bourbons vention of sin. adult -film industry have been charged and beers at Steve Boardner's Bar, a He knows it. Organized crime knows with interstate transportation of ob- dark, dumpy little hole in the wall lo- it. The FBI knows it. scene material as well as racketeering. cated about 200 feet off Hollywood Friedman, police sources say, is as Boulevard. Don't come after 8 P.M. be- Nobody's sure how many X -rated clean as a person can be in the field of cause owner /bartender Boardner's 65- videocassettes have been sold since hard -core pornography and has no year -old feet are sore and swollen and they first hit the market in December known connections with organized that's when he shuts down for the day. 1976. Everyone speaks in percentages. crime. His companies will not produce And don't order a Coke or a Perrier with Friedman estimates that 70 percent of or distribute films depicting male ho- lime because this is a drinking man's all videocassettes sold to the home mosexuality, bestiality or child pornog- bar and Boardner will get mean and market are X- rated. And, he notes, of raphy. He once testified as a witness be- nasty and probably boot you out. They the some 600 full -length pornographic fore a Congressional hearing on child don't take kindly to strangers just pass- movies made in the last five years, al- pornography in the mid -Seventies and ing through, either. The men at the bar most all of them have been made avail- said he would personally turn in any- might mistake you for an undercover able on cassettes. The International one he knew that was involved in the cop or an FBI agent. And for good rea- Tape Association, a respected trade or- production and distribution of kiddy son. ganization, has estimated the figure to porn. He's equally tough on snuff films, Most of the time the man sitting in be around 30 percent. Last year Time movies that supposedly show the ac- the corner booth, puffing a foot -long magazine, in one of its surveys of the tual murder of a human being. Al- cigar, sipping a gin- and -tonic, taking market, found that 53 percent of all though Friedman claims that no one phone calls, throwing verbal jabs at the prerecorded programs purchased has ever made a real snuff movie, he customers around the bar, will be Dave were X- rated. The FBI -which doesn't once tossed out a member of his asso- Friedman, a card -carrying Republican keep tabs on the number of videocas- ciation for distributing the movie who happens to be the world's most settes sold -says pornography is a $4- "Snuff," which allegedly showed a knowledgeable man about porno- billion -a -year industry. woman being murdered. The so- called graphic movies and the men and But none of these disparate figures murder was just a publicity stunt, but women who produce them. As five - augurs how our society will be affected Friedman thinks movies like that give time chairman of the board of the Adult when explicit pornographic movies on the porno industry a bad name. Film Association of America, Friedman videocassette or videodisc are as com- 1 is the reigning king of porno movies mon in American households as a Play- adillacs, Ferraris and Porsches and Boardner's is where he holds boy magazine. "In 15 years porno the- ,) line the parking lot in back of court. He's got three offices in the Los aters will be dead," predicts Al Friedman's screening room. Most of Angeles area: one at his video distribu- Goldstein, the outspoken publisher of the big West Coast porno producers are

tion company, TVX, one of the the sex tabloid Screw magazine. "If I here tonight to talk about the FBI's re- country's three largest distributors of owned a porno theater, I'd be investing cent crackdowns as well as to elect a X -rated videocassettes; one at his pro- in parking lots." new president of their association. The duction company, Entertainment Ven- raids have made them edgy and a law- tures, which churns out exploitation Dave Friedman will be late for yer will be speaking to them about features and pornographic movies; dinner tonight. Like a dutiful what the anti -pornography drive and one office upstairs at Boardner's, husband, he phones his wife of 29 means and how to protect their busi- just above the men's room. But, if years from Boardner's and lets her ness interests. you're a gambling man, the odds are know that he's got an important meet- Most of the producers know that, de- you'll find Friedman at Boardner's Bar. ing. The West Coast Producers Associ- pending on local standards and social On Feb. 28, 1980, as Friedman sits in ation, a loosely knit organization of attitudes, the production, distribution his booth at Boardner's with a wide California -based producers of adult and exhibition of pornographic films boozy grin plastered across his cheru- films, is holding its monthly session. A can sometimes break the law. Occa- bic face, he smiles confidently because main purpose of the meeting will be to sionally during production, performers

PANORAMA 35

www.americanradiohistory.com it

against them. In fact, at press time, II. THE GOVERNMENT'S WAR nearly two months after the raid, no ar- ON PORNOGRAPHY rests had been made, and the case is still pending. LAPD says it really needed another month of undercover The short, stocky man with an unlit work, but that it had to cut short its own cigar perpetually wedged in the corner investigation because of the afteref- of his mouth looks like the tailor he fects of a top- secret FBI sting operation once was. But Jack Rabinowitz is now investigating the pornography in- anything but a tailor. In the first two dustry. On Valentine's Day, 1980, LAPD months of 1980, Rabinowitz visited and the whole country found out what most of the major distributors of porno- that investigation was called. Its name graphic videocassettes in an effort to was MIPORN,short for Miami pornog- get his small business, Unique Video VCX exhibited raphy. Specialities, its wares at a off the ground. And his company recent home - was very unique. It started as a small Dade County, electronics convention. Rabinowití s real business is the law. Fla., sting and ended up four years He is an undercover detective for the later as the most sophisticated, exten- are arrested on prostitution charges be- Los Angeles Police Department's Ad- sive and well -financed undercover in- cause they are being paid to perform ministrative Vice Division, reportedly vestigation of the pornography in- sexual acts. When a pornographic film the finest porno squad in the world. In dustry. is exhibited, theater owners risk run the the last few months of 1979, the Vice Di- Scarcely a few weeks after Sony in- of violating the constantly changing vision was busysurveying Los Angeles - troduced the first videocassette re- community standards and political cli- based distributors of pornography. corder to the home market in No- mate toward pornography. What's OK What made LAPD's investigation so vember 1975, the vice section of the in 1980 could have been taboo in 1970. startling was that it was targeted solely Dade County Public Safety Department (For instance, when "Midnight Cow- at videocassette distributors. "The began a small undercover operation in- boy" was released in 1969, it was rated whole video explosion is a source of vestigating organized crime's involve- X.) Similarly, a simulated rape sce,ne in great concern for us," explains Capt. ment in the south Florida pornography a picture shown in Los Angeles may be James Docherty of LAPD's Administra- industry. A streetwise detective, Al fine, but a jury in Atlanta might find it tive Vice Division. "We at LAPD try to Bonanni, went from adult bookstore to offensive. When the Federal govern- stop the distribution of videocassettes adult bookstore, buying magazines ment steps in, often at the prodding of with deviant sexual activity because and films, always telling store manag- local officials who warn of nationwide porno has a degrading effect on ers that his parents owned an import/ pornography conspiracies, the Feds go humans." export business that could smuggle after the major distributors on the Last January, Rabinowitz and other the material into porn -thirsty South grounds of interstate transportation of undercover policemen began purchas- American countries. He would hand obscene material. Of course, then a ing pornographic videocassettes from out his card with the name of his ficti- court must determine if the material is wholesalers, telling them that they tious company, Amore Products. obscene, which is a tricky task. were establishing a mail -order opera- Within months, he was engaged in When lawyer Robert Smith is intro- tion. In the middle of the month, they business deals with organized -crime duced by the newly elected Producers went to a large trade convention, the figures from outside the Miami area. Association president, Joe Steinman of Consumer Electronics Show in Las His department discovered evidence Essex Films, Smith promptly ad- Vegas, where manufacturers of con- that there was a nationwide conspiracy dresses some of these murky legal sumer- electronics hardware, such as that distributed pornographic films and problems. He ends his informal speech TV sets, videocassette recorders and literature, and that it was larger than the with a sober warning: "This is not the stereos, display their wares to retailers. department had expected. To investi- time for you people to think everything In recent years, such shows have pro- gate further would tax its limited re- is peaches and cream. For those of you vided an opportunity for distributors of sources. It was time to call for help. named in FBI the Miami indictments, prerecorded videocassettes -both X- Enter the FBI. you will be connected with companies rated and general titles -to establish a and individuals who distribute heavy network of dealers around the country. he two men were athletic, good - S &M films, animal sex films and child Docherty's agents posed as buyers, looking, personable -and porn. I would suggest that you don't handed out business cards with their tough. They met in the Coast Guard in put your real names on the copyrights fake identities and occupations, and let the mid -Sixties, serving in the Coastal of films you are producing. Be care- the word out that they were shopping Forces, an elite infantry branch that ful." for pornographic videocassettes. trained with the Marines at Camp Le- On March 13 and 14, two weeks after Within two months they had pur- jeune. When their service ended, Wil- Smith's talk, the Los Angeles Police De- chased something from all major Los liam J. Brown enrolled in Chase Law partment raids nine major distributors Angeles distributors of pornographic School in Cincinnati. His friend, Pat Liv- of pornographic videocassettes. The videocassettes, who were selling, po- ingston, joined the FBI as a clerk in raids are aimed solely at companies lice estimate, $12- million worth of X- Miami. After Brown graduated from that distribute cassettes featuring what rated videocassettes a month. In mid - law school, he opened his own law firm LAPD considers deviant sexual activity, March LAPD raided nine companies in Miami and moved into an apartment such as bondage and simulated rape. trafficking in pornographic videocas- with Livingston near the airport, so Among the nine companies: David settes. The porn distributors claim that they could be close to the enclave of Friedman's TVX. LAPD doesn't have a strong case single stewardesses. For the next three 36 JULY 1980

www.americanradiohistory.com years, the men lived together as free- Although they were slowly building were charged only with violation of the wheeling bachelors. At the end of the solid reputations as porn peddlers, Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Or- decade Brown married, and Livingston they still made the industry's "watch ganizations statute, and four were was eventually transferred to Detroit, list," a roster of people trafficking in ob- charged on both counts. but they remained in close contact for scene merchandise who didn't have a The FBI claims that the investigation seven years. previous track record in the business. and raids will have a debilitating effect Livingston was rising quickly in the A typical day for the agents, says on the organized- crime -controlled dis- FBI and became involved in a major un- Brown, would be for them to get up at 5 tribution of pornographic movies, vid- dercover investigation in which he A.M. in Miami, fly to New York, buy eocassettes and magazines. But some helped smash a Detroit burglary ring. some pornographic films, videocas- lawyers for the porno distributors say Because of his success in Detroit, Liv- settes and magazines, pick up one of that only when the trials are held in ingston was chosen for an elaborate the major distributors and go with him early 1981 will anyone be able to mea- sting that would take him into the to a New York race track to bet on the sure the effects of MIPORN. Both sides bowels of the pornography industry. horses, go to bed about 3 A.M., and do agree on one thing: it was the sec- In the spring of 1977, Livingston re- then get up at 6 A.M. to catch a plane to ond- most -famous Valentine's Day in turned to Miami to work on the pornog- Hawaii to buy more pornography. All of the history of organized crime. raphy investigation. He went to his this was financed by the Government trusted friend, Bill Brown, and told him to the tune of more than $400,000. that the FBI was going to infiltrate the To wrap the whole MIPORN investi- III. IN THE BEGINNING... pornography industry and that he and gation into one neat bundle, they Bruce Ellaysky, an athletic FBI financial needed a scheme that would result in He saw the future one day in 1976 specialist with counterespionage expe- the indictments of some 54 porn king- and he became a pioneer. For nine rience, were going undercover. They years, Joel Jacobsen had operated Cin- were establishing Golde Coaste Spe- ema Concepts, a small, nontheatrical, cialities, Inc., a purported buyer/dis- film- distribution company selling 8 tributor of pornography masquerading To wrap the whole mm. and 16 mm. movies to schools, li- as a blue -jeans distributor. Livingston's braries and collectors. When Sony in- cover name was Pat Salamone. El- MIPORN investigation into troduced its home videocassette re- laysky's was Bruce Wakerly. one neat bundle, they corder, Jacobsen was quick to grasp But they needed to establish Golde the of selling prerecorded vid- needed a scheme that potential Coaste legally in case they were inves- eocassettes. In his vision, adult video - tigated by the cautious figures who would result in the casettes would play a major role. control the pornography industry. indictment of some 54 In July 1976, Jacobsen acquired the Brown was enlisted for three reasons: videocassette rights to a batch of soft - he could maintain Pat Salamone's porn kingpins core pornographic films from Russ cover as a porn distributor if anyone Meyer and Radley Metzger, two of the checked up on Golde Coaste; as a real best directors of blue movies. He lawyer, he could legally establish Golde formed another company, Home Cin- Coaste; and Livingston trusted him. pins who had sold their products to ema Service, to distribute videocas- Brown agreed to help. His daring asso- Wakerly and Salamone. settes featuring titles like "Vixen" and ciation with MIPORN was based on his In the final weeks of 1979, the FBI "The Lickerish Quartet." Because of the friendship with Livingston and his plotted to snag about 50 of the major scarcity of any type of prerecorded sense of adventure. As a client, Golde porn distributors in one clean sweep. video programming, the tapes were Coaste was small potatoes. In the next The bizarre plan, which the FBI is reluc- priced at $300 each, which made his 30 months, the company (with FBI tant to discuss, entailed a fake wedding films the most expensive movies ever funds) paid Brown about $4000. between Pat Salamone and a fictitious released to the home -video market. After Golde Coaste was established, woman, Gloria Cohen. Invitations were The December 1976 Playboy carried a Livingston and Ellaysky began their printed and mailed to most of the major paragraph about the availability of the lives as Pat Salamone and Bruce Wa- porn distributors. The wedding was set videocassettes. That write -up brought kerly, two fast -talking men interested in for Feb. 12 at the Dora! Country Club in in 35 orders, and Home Cinema Ser- fast money, fast women and porno- Miami. At the last moment, the plan vice and the adult home -video busi- graphic movies. They rented an apart- was scrapped. The porn distributors ness were off and running. ment in Miami Springs, wore open - claim they smelled a double cross com- Very quickly, other small -time entre- necked shirts with medallions dangling ing and decided not to attend. The FBI preneurs began offering adult movies on their tanned chests, sported rented declines to comment on precisely why to owners of videocassette recorders. A diamond rings and drove rented Cadil- the wedding was canceled, but Bill former fashion photographer named lacs, all in a complicated effort to come Brown thinks that the FBI couldn't fig- Mark Slade formed Entertainment across as bona fide porno business- ure out how to carry out such a mas- Video Releasing, a company that sold men. It seemed to be working. sive arrest at the swank country club. little -known general -release movies On Sept. 7, 1977, in Los Angeles, the Two days past the near-marriage of plus pornographic movies on video- undercover agents made their first buy, Pat Salamone to Gloria Cohen, 400 FBI cassettes with names like "1001 Danish purchasing several films, such as agents in 10 states staged raids on 30 Delights" and "Naughty Coeds." An- "Tennis Balls" and "Backside Fever," as businesses involved in pornography other company, Magnetic Communica- well as pornographic magazines. and alleged video- piracy operations. tions, in March 1977, sent out a flyer to Within a year, they began to receive the Of the 54 persons indicted, 41 were 3000 dealers of industrial video equip- first shipments of pornographic video- charged solely with interstate transpor- ment offering 20 hard -core porno- cassettes at their Florida warehouse. tation of obscene material, nine more graphic videocassettes. continued PANORAMA 37

www.americanradiohistory.com As more hard -core pornographic ing capacity indicates the vast dealer young video industry because of its films entered the video market, fewer network and mail -order operation that continued presence on several video people wanted soft-core features such VCX has shrewdly established. Top Twenty lists. Not surprisingly, the as those Joel Jacobsen offered. Within Simply put, VCX has marketing owners of the film, Louis and Joseph a year, his prices dropped to $229, then know-how. Each cassette is wrapped in Peraino, have entered the video mar- to $129, and finally to $89.95, in the cur- a four -color, laminated- cardboard ket, through their company, Arrow Film rent price range of most soft- or hard - package that makes the product seem- & Video, to distribute on cassette films core films on cassette. Pornographic ingly sizzle on the shelf. VCX places full - like "Deep Throat" and "The Devil in cassettes were rapidly dominating the page ads in magazines like Penthouse Miss Jones." prerecorded video market. By mid - and some home -video publications, Soon after "Deep Throat" had its pre- 1977, only one major film studio had and expands its retail outlets by adver- miere at his theater, Bob Sumner sold entered the video industry. By contrast, tising in trade magazines and exhibit- the New World and concentrated on the porno industry was making all its ing at consumer -electronics conven- producing his own pornographic films. films available on videocassette almost tions. VCX's slick promotional material But Sumner saw the video revolution as soon as the blue films opened theat- guarantees every tape that leaves its coming and also saw a growing accept- rically. But the porno producers and plant and touts a 24 -hour, toll -free ance of films like "Deep Throat." In late distributors had a good reason for re- number for dealer orders. VCX also 1977, he formed Quality X Video Cas- leasing the movies simultaneously to sette, which quickly became one of the theaters and the video market. Piracy. three top distributors of pornographic On Sept. 2, 1976, a district court in videocassettes. Dallas had ruled that obscene material When LATD rated the CX Currently Quality X offers 60 titles was not protected by copyright laws. and about half of those films have been That decision (overruled last October) last March, it found 90 produced by Sumner's production panicked pornographers. To reap any videotape recorders that company, Mature Pictures. Sumner is profit from videocassettes of their typical of many businessmen in the product, they virtually had no choice could duplicate about 1000 pornographic -film industry. They've but to offer movies on videocassette pornographic often owned and operated porn the- through their own companies. If they videocassettes in a aters. They've often produced and/or didn't, someone else could make and directed porn movies. And now they're market cassettes of their films with 24 -hour period. distributing porn movies on cassettes. legal impunity-and not pay a dime for Quality X is similar to VCX in that it the privilege. Of course, the boys in the duplicates its own films and is gearing back room might have strong feelings up to enter the mushrooming interna- about people legally pirating their offers tapes in the European color -TV tional market. Unlike VCX, Quality X films. But the rewards were so great standard, as well as tapes dubbed in was not a MIPORN target, because, po- that many hustlers were willing to take Spanish. lice sources say, Quality X has no ties to the chance. As VCX tries to expand its business, organized crime. "MIPORN helped my it's still plagued by legal problems that business," says Bob Sumner. "Most of ou probably wouldn't want to get threaten to land Arno and Sinopoli in the retailers around the country who caught pirating any of Norm jail. Both of them will be tried on sell X -rated videocassettes became Arnó s . According to a 1978 charges of interstate shipment of ob- nervous buying from companies report on organized crime filed by the scene material, punishable by up to five named in the indictments. They California Department of Justice, years in prison and a $5000 fine. Their thought they were dealing with compa- "From 1970 to 1974, Arno was involved lawyer, Elliot Abelson, a former deputy nies controlled by organized crime. in many organized- crime -connected Los Angeles district attorney for When they saw I was clean, they pornography operations in Southern County, believes their guilt or inno- started buying from me." California....Arno was the business cence will hinge on whether the jury partner of New York Mafia member Mi- determines that VCX's product is ob- chael Zaffarano." (Zaffarano was al- scene. Gushes the confident Abelson, IV. THE FUTURE IS ALMOST leged to run the country's largest por- "We'd be thrilled to defend VCX mate- NOW nography network. He died on rial on obscenity charges." Valentine's Day of a heart attack as FBI The largest collection of sex films in agents sought to arrest him after he he world's best -known porno- the world is owned by an organization was named in the MIPORN indict- graphic movie took six days to run by a Methodist minister. Dr. Ted ments.) shoot and cost $24,000. After several Mcllvenna, president of the Institute for Arno and his associate, Thomas Sin - months of editing, "Deep Throat" the Advanced Study of Human Sexual- opoli, now run VCX, America's largest opened at Bob Sumner's New World ity, says that more than 22,000 sex films distributor of X -rated videocassettes. Theater on 49th Street in Manhattan in are in the school's research library. The two men refute any ties between June 1972. Following a rave review by Since 1976, graduate students, mostly Zaffarano and VCX. Both were indicted Al Goldstein in Screw magazine, major from the fields of sex therapy, counsel- in MIPORN and are scheduled to come New York film critics reviewed the film ing and education, have viewed the to trial next January in Miami. and the "Deep Throat" media event films in the school's classrooms to When LAPD raided VCX last March, it took off. Eight years after its theatri- learn more about human sexual behav- found 90 videotape recorders that, po- cal release, "Deep Throat" is still enor- ior. Mcllvenna has been designing sex - lice estimate, could duplicate about mously popular. There's strong evi- education films for professionals since 1000 pornographic videocassettes in a dence that it is probably the best -selling the mid -Sixties and is now- through 24 -hour period. Such a large duplicat- pornographic videocassette in the video -ready to start educating the 38 JULY 1980

www.americanradiohistory.com masses in the comfort of their own to be in 40 million American homes by America: "If some agreement were homes. the end of the decade. The big question reached by disc pressers to exclude This fall, the Institute's umbrella or- facing the pornography industry is adult films from the disc market, it ganization, the Exodus Trust, will re- whether the few blue -chip compa- would violate antitrust laws. The courts lease a 14 -part series called "Creative nies -like RCA, IBM, MCA and CBS - would force them to replicate porno- Sex" aimed at owners of videocassette that control the production of video- graphic movies on videodiscs." Addi- recorders who wish to improve their discs will replicate pornographic tionally, add Rhine and other legal ex- sex lives. The 14 programs were pro- movies on videodiscs. perts, defending an antitrust suit is duced by the National Sex Forum, an- According to the report "The Emerg- enormously expensive and time -con- other branch of the Exodus Trust. Each ing Video Disc Market," filed last Jan- suming. Even if RCA thought it had an tape will sell for $40 and feature non- uary by the Argus Research Corpora- open- and -shut case, says Rhine, it professional talent performing sexual tion, "X -rated titles are believed to might decide to give in just to save the acts. account for about half the prerecorded company a lot of time and money. Adds While the Institute's home -video videotape market and we would expect Al Goldstein of Screw magazine: "The plans give some indication of the bi- them to account for a comparable per- big companies will replicate porno- zarre future of sexually oriented video centage of the videodisc market. Adult - graphic movies on discs if it will give programming, there are more conven- oriented discs are likely to be pressed them an edge on the competition. Capi- tional schemes that promise to change by both RCA and MCA and marketed talists would sell rope to their own the blue horizons of prerecorded enter- under independent labels. Judging by lynching." tainment. The two leading men's mag- the popularity of X -rated videocas- Despite FBI crackdowns on the distri- azines, Playboy and Penthouse, are al- settes, this area should be a major bution of pornographic movies and ready formulating strategies to growth market for the videodisc." videocassettes, the trend in the home - capitalize on the consumer demand for Already MCA DiscoVision has li- video industry points to an increasing erotic entertainment on the home censed between six and 12 titles, in- number and variety of sexually screen. Playboy has produced two spe- cluding some of Russ Meyer's films, oriented programs available to the con- cials for Showtime, a pay -TV network. from Joel Jacobsen of Home Cinema sumer on cassettes, discs or whatever The two programs, "Playboy's Play- Service. Altogether, MCA DiscoVision program -delivery system engineers mate Reunion" and "Playboy's History will offer about 250 disc titles by the dream up in the future. And the trend of the Playmates," both carry the Play- end of this year. The policy of the com- seems clear: pornographic movies, boy stamp of tasteful nudity and both pany is not to license hard -core porno- when viewed in the home, are becom- will be made available on videocas- graphic films for the optical disc. It will ing a socially acceptable form of enter- settes. license some "adult" films that have ap- tainment. Penthouse is gearing up to enter the peared on pay -TV or in high -class theat- Surprisingly, Dave Friedman, chair- home -video market through the forma- rical distribution. man of the board of the Adult Film As- tion of the Penthouse Home Video DiscoVision Associates, the com- sociation of America, laments the pub- Club. Although no specific date to pany formed by IBM and MCA to man- lic's growing tolerance of pornography. launch the venture has been set, Don ufacture and replicate videodiscs, has "Thank God the police make busts," he Myrus, director of Penthouse Press, two criteria for replicating videodiscs says over a gin- and -tonic at Steve discloses that the club initially will offer for other companies: the movie must Boardner's Bar. "We who are in the for- its members about six pornographic have a rating, and the owners of the bidden -fruit business make money be- movies. "I've seen a lot of porno- program must prove that they're li- cause the people who buy our products graphic movies," says Myrus. "They're censed to distribute it. Former IBM mar- think they're forbidden. The day a vid- raunchy and lack production value. keting executive John J. Reilly, who is eocassette or videodisc of 'Deep And a lot of times the girls aren't pretty now DiscoVision Associates president, Throat' is sold without an eyebrow enough. One of the services of our Club foresees his company pressing X -rated being raised, is the day our businesses will be to preselect the films to meet films for outside companies but adds, will wither on the vine." If certain criteria. We've got a reputation "If it's an underground pornographic to maintain." movie, we won't do it. I'm not exactly

Originally Penthouse considered of- sure what I mean by that, but if some- fering general -release titles as well as one shoots a porno movie in their pornographic cassettes, but executives garage, we won't press it." thought that the competition would be RCA, DiscoVision's rival in the video- too fierce. So Penthouse decided to do disc field, has a corporate dictum that what it does best -offer erotica. contradicts the Argus prediction that RCA is likely to press porno discs. Herb There are about one million vid- Schlosser, RCA executive vice presi- eocassette recorders in homes dent, says, "We won't license it. We throughout the country now. Most in- won't distribute it. We won't press it. dustry analysts don't expect sales of Period." And CBS Video Enterprises, VCRs will ever total more than one mil- RCA's ally in the pending videodisc -for- lion a year. In short, the videocassette mat war, shares RCA's stance. recorder -and prerecorded videocas- But the legal system could possibly settes -are never expected to become work against the corporate titans who mass -market items. refuse to press pornographic video- But that's certainly not the case for discs. Says Joseph Rhine, First Amend- the videodisc player, which, according ment specialist and chief legal counsel to some industry figures, is predicted to the Adult Film Association of

www.americanradiohistory.com Lisiening May Be I lazardous ioYotii' Brain A noted admirer of the English language cringes over TV's abuse of the mother tongue By EDWIN NEWMAN

tant -what they expect to hear. I re- But then, television has a peculiar cently attended a banquet in a Midwes- ability to define itself and its products. tern city, where the chairman sounded A star -not the celestial kind -used to like a talk -show host. Introducing be someone the public would pay to others, including me, taking part, he see, no matter what the star was ap- would say, "Will you please wel- pearing in. The box office supplied an come..." I half expected to find myself unmistakable and sometimes brutal stepping out from behind a curtain. test. Today, a television star is someone Television takes expressions like so designated by a network. The rat- "Will you please welcome.." and, if ings may seem to fill in for the box of- they can be adapted to our own lives, fice, but they can't. Nothing is quite so makes them national catch phrases. It convincing as cash forked over by peo- was this adaptability that accounted for ple using their own money. the popularity of: "Would you be- lieve...?" "If you've got it, flaunt it." "It's In the same ill- defined manner, we what's up front that counts " and hear of "quality programming," a "Thanks. I needed that." Likewise: "The term apparently descended from that blahs." "I ate the whole thing," which meaningless favorite of yesteryear, "a for a while looked as though it would be quality education," and equally unex- immortal. And the current "overdoer's amined. "Quality programs" must, of backache." course, have producers. This word has lost much of its meaning, thanks to S ome words and phrases I would television and, before that, to Hol- like to see fade away unfortu- lywood. A producer used to supervise nately do not, one such being "visit a play or film from scratch and finance with," which has replaced visit, no it, the latter function in some ways the elevision is not doing much for r ' doubt because it sounds "friendlier." more important. If you couldn't find the English. It rarely acquaints its There is, however, a promising begin- money, you couldn't produce. Once viewers with exalted or imagina- ning of a decline in the use of "viable" staff producers came into being, that tive or poetic or subtle language, be- and "parameter." I hesitate to say more, cause it rarely deals in ideas. Nor, in for fear that they will come back to clog spite all it of the talk on television, does the airwaves. The " y'know" blight has offer a great deal in the way of succinct not lessened, partly because "y'know" or enlightening Instead, conversation. is endorsed by many advertisers, who on the chat shows, it presents ex- like it at the beginning of their commer- changes of anecdotes and laugh lines. cials to show how warm and unpreten- Rather than wit and humor, it puts for- tious they are. Phillips' Milk of Magne- ward catch phrases and (on happy -talk sia goes beyond this in its quest for news, for example) automatic bonho- friendliness. It has a woman saying, mie from the happy talkers, what -and, "Frank, me and the kids want a reliable sounds like a live . More- laxative." Us all do, Phillips, us all do. over, television is usually in such a Television also adds to the language, hurry that viewers have don't time to and changes it. A "prompter" used to savor what is said. Appreciation of lan- be (still is) someone hidden from the guage is not likely to flourish in these audience who fed lines to opera circumstances. singers. On television, it's a machine All of this has its effect on the way feeding lines to the broadcasters, Americans speak and -equally impor- thereby all but eliminating the superbly NBC News correspondent Edwin Newman named "idiot cards." A feed used to be is the author of two books on language ("A (still is) given to infants and livestock. Civil Tongue" and "Strictly Speaking"), as On television (and radio) it is a trans- well as the novel "Sunday Punch." mission sent in from somewhere else.

40 JU; I,c,U

www.americanradiohistory.com wholesome discipline was no more. crowd reaction, might affect the out- Moreover, the money the producers come of the Super Bowl. I think he now use (but do not raise) is not called meant there was no way of knowing. money. It goes about disguised as "The People's Choice Awards ... the funding. Funding began as philan- American public awards its favorite thropic and social- science jargon - stars, movies, TV shows and music." To "Can this funding be incremented ?" whom the American public was award- meaning "Can we get more money?" - ing its favorite stars, movies, etc., CBS but television, especially public televi- did not say. sion, has taken it over with gusto, of "Because the wine remembers." which you reach for all you can get be- From a commercial. Here is a wine that cause you go around only once in life. can perform the remarkable feat of re- So we have programs made possible membering, and what are we asked to by funding, by major funding, and by do? Drink it. That's horrible. additional funding, though never by "President Carter took a lighter atti- minor funding. The funding, some- tude toward the shifting sands of suc- times called a grant and, more splen- cess." CBS News gave us this, through didly, an underwriting grant, is usually Walter Cronkite. provided by corporations. Thus do the noble intentions of noncommercial Ido not intend to deplore Jimmy television become Mobil intentions. the Greek's language, which is his Then there is "journalist"-"televi - own, not machine -made, and goes sion journalist." Once upon a time a with his personality. Nor is taking a journalist wrote. If he didn't, he was no lighter attitude toward the shifting journalist. Now there are television sands of success necessarily a bad journalists who do not write and some, natural grass," it is he, not television, idea. It is well to be as light as possible

I have no doubt, who cannot. In added the "natural." And surely around shifting sands. Otherwise, one fashion of the day, many are young, television did not force a network corre- might sink from sight, even from the and may be journalists without journa- spondent, in Iowa for the party cau- sight of people described on television listic experience; they haven't had time cuses, to say, after considerable as bespeckled, evidently because they to get any. They learn to say, "How did thought, "The campaign is off and run- wear speckles. you feel when... ?" or the more elabo- ning." It was the correspondent who What I am saying is that those of us rate "How did you personally feel created the picture of a campaign gal- who work in television have a responsi- when... ?" (the building fell, your child loping around 34 primary states and 16 bility to respect the language, to use it was found, you heard you'd won a mil- others, as well as Puerto Rico and the well, and to keep it vigorous and grow- lion dollars) and they are well started. District of Columbia, with the candi- ing. Leave the responsibility aside. We Still, there is an impressive economy dates in pursuit and occasionally stop- should want to do that. Our lives will be in many television terms: anchor; ping to ask, "Did anyone see a cam- more satisfying for it. So will the lives of weekend anchor -dropped, I presume, paign go by ?" those who watch us.'SI into a sea of Michelob, for which week- ends were made; TV junkie; stand - Then there are all the local news upper, a report during which the broad- people whose dearest wish is usually at the scene of a caster stands, that we have a good evening. I usually story, suggesting that he or she can't try to comply, but there is one anchor- time away from the pur- take enough woman I habitually disappoint, be- suit of the story to sit down; sit -downer, cause she makes her recommendation a report delivered from a seated posi- at 11:30 P.M. Maybe she has the next tion, suggesting that the reporter has day's evening in mind. had time to ponder the story, so that the While having a good evening, morn- viewer should be ready for something ing, day, afternoon, night, weekend, or the tease; thoughtful; the sweeps; holiday, as appropriate, I also heard prime time; the soaps (borrowed from these: "The farmers feel they are a radio); jiggle television; kiddy porn; whipping post." This conviction, we and finally, for TV itself, two names that were told, overcame farmers after Pres- cannot be improved -the tube and the ident Carter embargoed grain sales to box. the Soviet Union. It seemed an odd point of view, because there is no rec- In a way, it is wrong to blame the ord of a whipping post making a for- tube /box for the language it con- mal complaint or even muttering veys. In the last analysis, words are put crossly about the kind of work it was on television by people. If a learned doing. A whipping post takes no pun- professor warns us that "we should not ishment, but merely stands there, per- leap into a mentality" in which we mitting people to be tied to it. might do something foolish, it's his ad- "It's not intangible enough." Jimmy vice, not television's. If a sports broad- the Greek said this during a discussion caster says that "a team runs well on of whether certain factors, in this case

www.americanradiohistory.com ,a:. .w ,; s

www.americanradiohistory.com In the costliest movie ever made for television, a bitter struggle between imperial power and a subject people is played out again under a merciless desert sun Masada ATragic Tale of Resistance The story of Masada -site of a heroic confrontation between Jewish rebels and Roman imperial power in the first century A.D. -isn't one of history's best sellers. Compared with all -time hits like the Boston Tea Party and the storming of the Bas- tille, it's been something of a flop. This being the case, would you choose it as a subject for the cost- liest, most ambitious movie ever made for television? Well, you would if you were Universal Televi- sion. The people who produced Rich Man, Poor Man have gotten to- gether with ABC to mount an eight- how; four -part blockbuster that may well do for Masada what Cecil B. De- Mille did for Mount Sinai. The pro- duction, directed by Boris Sagal, is scheduled for the 1981 season.

Masada is an anvil- shaped This 14-ton battering ram was rock on the western shore of specially built for use in the pro- the Dead Sea. It has evolved duction. The besieging Romans through geological eons as an al- employed the weapon, bearing most perfectly defensible strong- the traditional ram's head carv- ing, to breach Masada's hold: a strategist's dream of "com- ramparts. manding heights." King Herod, in the first century B.C., saw its military potential and, fearful of Roman in- tentions, he turned it into a fortress that could hold off a besieging army for many months. Storage rooms were built that could hold six months' provisions, and giant water cisterns were installed that would collect and retain the sporadic rain- fall of the desert. continued

PANORAMA 43

www.americanradiohistory.com Above, the Essenes, a monastic Jewish sect, reluctantly retreat Herod's elaborate precautions proved un- faced an army of 5000 seasoned soldiers. But to Masada in order to protect necessary; Rome didn't move against him. the Zealots were not without allies. The great- their scrolls from desecration by But a century later, his fortress fulfilled its est was the sun, which kept the Roman camp Romans. promise. At the end of a bloody civil war in in a frenzy of thirst and exhaustion while, up which the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem was on the rock, the rebels ostentatiously drank destroyed and thousands of Jews taken into from Herod's ample water cisterns and swam slavery, a band of Zealots retreated to Ma- in pools. sada in a final, defiant stand against their And strength also came from their iron re- Roman overlords. For two years they used solve never to surrender. They would prefer the fortress as a base for guerrilla operations any fate -even martyrdom -to continued until, in 72 A.D., the Roman Tenth Legion en- subjugation. camped at the foot of the rock and laid siege to it. The next six months were to see two im- In Eleazar ben Yair (played in this movie by placable wills locked in a bitter test of endur- Peter Strauss), they had a leader who ance. could translate their aspirations into the Real - It was an unequal struggle. Nine hundred politik of siege diplomacy. It was he who met and sixty Jewish men, women and children face to face with Cornelius Flavius Silva

44 JULY 1980

www.americanradiohistory.com Top, an exterior view of the rep- (played by Peter O'Toole), commander of the they came upon a deathly scene: 958 rebels lica of Masada built for Masada. Roman forces, to bargain for peace and a had committed suicide rather than give Vegetable gardens helped keep the fortress self- sustaining. measure of autonomy. themselves up as prisoners to new masters. Only two women remained alive. Below, Roman commander Cor- Flavius Silva's conscience and reason told nelius Flavius Silva, played by him that the Jews' demands were just, but his Peter O'Toole (center /, and instructions from Rome were uncompromis- his soldiers inspect Masada ing: to use any means at his disposal to pry osephus, the contemporary Jewish after breaching its walls. the insurgents from their rock. historian who recorded the events of That Masada would eventually be taken Masada, wrote: "And so met 'the Romans1 could never be in doubt. But the manner of its with the multitude of the slain, but could take fall was less predictable. The Romans la- no pleasure in the fact, though it were done to bored for six months to construct a ramp on their enemies. Nor could they do other than which huge battering rams could be heaved wonder at the courage of their resolution, and up to the Masada ramparts. In the final as- at the immovable contempt of death which sault, the outer walls were swiftly breached so great a number of them had shown, when and the inner walls set ablaze with torches. they went through with such an action as that But when the conquerors entered the citadel, was." continued

PANORAMA 45

www.americanradiohistory.com In the panoramic view on these pages, the real Masada stands imposingly at far right, while the re- created fortress can be seen below. Above: Filming of a Roman camp scene is conducted in desert heat that sometimes hit 130 degrees. Left: Director Boris Saga/ marshals star Peter O'Toole.

www.americanradiohistory.com The producers of Masada knew could not have been reenacted there. all had to be continuously watered as from the start that Joel Olian- But the producers did get permission to temperatures during the shoot ranged sky' s epic script- based on Ernest rebuild the outer walls for the sake of between 95 and 130 degrees. Gann's novel "The Antagonists" - crucial shots taken from the point of The physical conditions that op- could not be brought to life on a Hol- view of the besieging army below. Irv- pressed the Romans in the first century lywood sound stage. Masada had to be ing says: "I had to sign my life away were no less of a problem in 1979. As made at Masada. And that meant promising that every single stone well as the merciless sun, there were money. The original budget was for $18 would be returned in place." also violent windstorms to contend million. By the time the project was fin- The rebuilding of the giant Roman with, which on three occasions swept ished, Universal and ABC had spent ramp was carried out by the Israeli away the entire Roman camp. "We just $20 million. The extra $2 million is re- Army's corps of engineers using a Bai- had to rebuild it each time," says Irving. garded by Richard Irving, the executive ley Bridge technique that built up the But despite their adversities, every- in charge of production, as a sign of ramp in steel sections -one of many one remained in remarkably good pretty good fiscal management, partic- ways in which the Israeli authorities spirits. Something in the magnitude of ularly in view of Israel's 100 percent in- participated in the project. the project, in the quality of the script, flation rate. The logistics of the production were filled actors and crews alike with an un- What did Irving buy for his $20 mil- daunting. On most days of filming, quenchable enthusiasm. Peter O'Toole, lion? One thing he bought was a new there were 300 people behind the cam- who had never before acted for televi- Masada: a reconstruction of Herod's eras and up to 500 in front. Extras were sion, took on Flavius Silva with the rel- fortifications on a mountain three recruited from among Bedouins (to ish of a first Hamlet. And with good rea- quarters of a mile north of the original play Jewish slaves!), tourists, univer- son. The script is described by pro- site. What remains of the real Masada sity students, and anyone who hap- ducer George Eckstein as "one of the has become a hallowed ruin, thronged pened to be passing through the des- most brilliant I have ever had anything by tourists; the events of 70 to 73 A.D. ert. All these people had to be fed, and to do with." -Stanley Marcus

www.americanradiohistory.com looked at their homework from time to time while writing it. A few nights ago, LS the Mind of'the for the ninety -third time, I asked my 15- year -old daughter, "How can you pos- sibly concentrate on homework while Modern Student you're watching TV ?" "Fix the tuning," she replied, "and tell me the capital of Greece." My incessant nagging about this aca- Hmdamentally demic mystery has finally triggered in me a dream. Last night, a few hours after my daughter had conjugated Monophonic, some verbs in counterpoint to Barnaby Jones, I found myself observing the most dramatic experiment in educa- Mulliphoitic tion since the 1977 Oklahoma Univer- or sity study to see how many 250 -pound (1 tackles could be finessed through geol- ogy. I was at the Rodney Waterhouse Quasi- ala ton iej School of Media at Eastern Montana University to witness the definitive study of the effect of American televi- 4 sion on homework, a study designed to determine once and for all whether the mind of the modern student is funda- 14110 mentally monophonic, multiphonic or quasi- catatonic.

The experiment, which took three weeks longer than it should have because the professors in charge kept taking breaks to watch Ryan's Hope, used five children selected at random and ranging in age from 11 to 12. Their average IQ was 110, their average attention span was six min- utes, and all of them had a better com- mand of the Burger King jingle than of "The Star -Spangled Banner." From time to time, a couple of them were A perplexed parent y hen I was a boy, I always did heard to say softly, "Nano- Nano." homework confronts the mystery of my in a strange en- The testing began with an attempt to % vironment: a room where establish a control. One of the students, how children do their there was not a sound, for my simple, a 12- year -old pre -animal- husbandry homework medieval mind was able to focus on major named Sherman DuBoff, was with the set on a If just one thing at time. the radio had put in a room containing only a photo- been playing, I would have ended up graph of Dinah Shore and told to ge- By RALPH SCHOENSTEIN do writing a paper about Lamont Cran- ography homework for as long as he ston's contribution to the Bill of Rights. could. The previous record for unac- My own children, however, not only companied geography homework by like to do their homework with the tele- an American child had been 19 min- vision on, but they seem unable to do it utes, set during a transmission failure with the television off. Functioning in a in Lima, Ohio -a record that DuBoff twilight zone of logic, they and their might have beaten had he not tried to peers are distracted by silence. stab himself with a compass at the Like many other parents, I often have seven -minute mark. He was given two wondered if my children would be per- tickets to The Price is Right and excused forming better at school if they actually from further testing. Because of this incident, the Mon- Free -lancer Ra /ph Schoenstein's latest book, "Citizen Paul: A Story of Father and tana media men decided to try a dif- Son," was published by Farrar, Straus & ferent method of control and also to Giroux. see if any one television show could

48 JULY 1980

www.americanradiohistory.com produce a piece of homework that did spent her summer vacation. not contain the word "hopefully." Boy The poor performance of this girl number one was to write an essay on seemed to indicate that the ideal multi- democracy while watching Laverne & media input for the American student is Shirley, and girl number one was to one in which the program is more inter- write an essay on Laverne & Shirley esting than the homework. As both while watching the House of Represen- Freud and Fred Silverman have ob- tatives. Boy number two was to draw a served, the video -textbook mix is in- dolphin and label all its parts while deed a delicate one; and when it fails to watching The $1.98 Beauty Show, and stir the mind of the student from its nat- girl number two was to draw a woman urally dormant state, another element and label all her parts while watching must be introduced. For example, at Tom and Jerry. the 16- minute mark, this girl was given earphones that were transmitting the In the first half hour of the experi- music of The Grateful Dead. At once ment, the boy who was using La- she was moved to write several sen- verne & Shirley as an audio -visual aid tences, some of which even made the student's mind. Some of the profes- to an essay on democracy performed sense. sors felt that the dolphin might have quite well, laughing his way through been able to draw the boy, having a references to Jefferson and losing his The attempt of boy number two slightly bigger brain; but others felt that concentration only during the commer- to draw a dolphin while watch- such an experiment would have been cials. However, the girl who was writing ing The $1.98 Beauty Show did not go impossible to do because no dolphin about Laverne & Shirley while watch- well, possibly proving that when both could have been induced to watch that ing the House debate natural gas, was the program and the homework in- show. both lethargic and disoriented, twice volve the same subject-in this case, drifting into writing about how she had anatomy -there can be confusion in Interestingly enough, girl number two had no trouble drawing a woman while watching Tom and Jerry. She had to look at herself only twice, al- lowing the professors to conclude that the intellectual content of the video input is inversely proportional to the quality of the homework it inspires. Further testing would have to be done to determine whether or Mike Douglas is better for getting into Yale.

When I awoke from this scientific

dream, I realized that other questions are still to be answered about the al- most mystical connection between homework and TV, especially in this age of electronic marvels like cable, cassette, satellite and disc. For exam- ple, does a student do better home- work with a current show or with one that he or she taped? And would it ever be possible for the student to tape the homework instead of the show? Such ideas are, of course, beyond our simple conception of time and space, but American students have been operat- ing in this dreary dimension for many years. How my daughter made it through grade school is beyond my

comprehension when I walk into her room and see her writing in a notebook to the flicker of a cathode tube and the thumping of an eight -track tape. I'm sure she will do much better on her SATs if she is allowed to take them in CBS master control. "il

PANORAMA 49

www.americanradiohistory.com Iis been a long, wet day for Republi- can candidate George Bush. He has climbed in and out of the Pacific, from a rubber life raft to a submarine I Á)Ok Back. deck and back again, at least three dozen times on the twin Sony screens Ii in the NBC editing room. And the way things stand, he could be at it another Barbai':i hour. "Lucky George," sighs correspon- dent Linda Ellerbee, lighting yet an- other Merit. "Got shot down during Walters World War II, got rescued and had somebody there to film it so he could Here come the new-breed network newswomen .. . use it in his campaign trailers 30 years attractive, bright and driving later." Now the screens show a suited, silk - all -out to be the superstars of the '80s shirted Ellerbee interviewing the candi- date in the gentle chiaroscuro of an air- By GERRI HIRSHEY plane window. Poised but relaxed, intense but pleasant, she baits, cajoles, questions until the candidate breaks into a wide grin. "I was never as boring as you thought, frankly," he says. "God bless you, George," whispers Ellerbee as she watches the screens. She will lead her segment with his statement. To edit this George Bush profile for the NBC Nightly News will ul- timately take four days, two techni- cians, 36 separate tape cassettes, three meticulously kept notebooks, count- less cigarettes and a small ocean of cof- fee. Running time: three minutes, 24 seconds. "An epic by normal standards," huffs Ellerbee as she drags a table closer to the screens. Wearing jeans and scuffed Frye boots, she lugs an ancient Olym- pia to the table to tap out a final script; typing, talking, mentally timing her words, stopping only to answer a phone call from her housekeeper. There is a garbage crisis, a new baby sitter, the question of dinner.... "Glamour," she says, laughing.

"Don't I just reek of it ?" Ah, glamour. Back when Huntley and Brinkley were still an item, movies and modeling were the glamour ca- reers for women; today it is television. Now that the men's -clubby atmos- phere of newsrooms has been invaded by the rustle of silk, and now that Bar- bara Walters' cozy chats with the likes of the Shah and Sadat have made her the highest -paid woman in TV news history, network executives are getting serious about the influx and impact of women in the industry. But grit and experience, more than glamour, are the watchwords. Women are rising, as their male counterparts

Genf Hirshey is a free -lance writer based in New York. 50 JULY 1980

www.americanradiohistory.com have always done, from the smaller way. The big salaries, the perks, the important than the number of anchor local stations to the larger, more visible prestige are all a trade -off against that positions they occupy. markets like Atlanta, Houston, Chicago, lack of security. If you want security, you "Anchoring will come," says CBS's Los Angeles, New York, Washington, have to go work in a bank. If you want Betsy Aaron, who, at 41, is considered a D.C., and Boston, and then ascending to stay in television, you can't look too top contender for such a post. "A to the networks. Besides possessing far ahead. You'll miss that next stop and woman in a high -visibility anchor spot, television experience, many have jour- fall flat on your face." though, is much less important than nalism degrees and backgrounds in having women cover serious stories radio, in wire -service writing and re- ow that CBS has announced the that get on the evening news." (Aaron porting and on newspapers -an end of the Cronkite era in 1981, in knows the value of reporting experi- average of five to 10 years of work his- a climate where all three networks are ence, having begun her career in radio tory before most land the sought -after filling the air with more and more news in 1959 as a researcher for the Edward P. national TV plums. specials, documentaries and expanded Morgan show. Her subsequent TV re- evening coverage, professional and ports from the Middle East, Cyprus and Those women who find them- amateur speculators are looking very Vietnam won Aaron her present net- selves in national correspon- far ahead at the opportunities women work job.) dents' roles know from exhausting, may have as correspondents, on 60 gut -twisting experience that -with the Minutes magazine-type shows, and as BC's CatherineMackin,too,is ambiv- occasional exception -they are now anchors. David Burke, an ABC News alent about anchoring.She began more than corporate window dressing vice president, says that 13 of his 58 na- her career on Washington television in And as purveyors of the news, they tional correspondents are women, 1969, achieved national notice with have had to handle a currency pre- roughly the same ratio as at other net- NBC in the early '70s, and began this viously traded only by men: power. In a works. At local stations, the percent- year following Sen. Edward Kennedy's nation where more than half the citi- ages are much higher, and rising. "With campaign. "At one time in my life, an- zenry gets most of its news from televi- the agents who come around here to choring was the ultimate goal," she sion, it can be an awesome and fright- show us cassettes it's become much says. "I still consider it a possibility and ening power. Are women using it as heavier female," says Burke. "Sure, af- a goal, but goals shift as you go along. well as men? And how much more firmative action is still a factor, but Certainly I don't think people who be- power will women obtain as they fill that's not why we hire them. And once come anchors should get permanent correspondents' slots, producers' they're here, they can't be compla- possession of the seats." She believes chairs and anchor spots? cent." that "it would be terribly damaging to "If you think about those larger ques- As for anchoring, now that Barbara women if one woman is pushed ahead tions too much, it can drive you crazy," Walters has moved back to reporting at and she is not thoroughly profes- says Ellerbee, who once lobbed her ABC, no woman has regular anchor sional." own television out a second -story win- duties on a weeknight network news "If I were offered an anchor spot, I dow when she felt it was interfering show. NBC's weekend news has two would not say no," ventures CBS White with family life. "Imagine -and it's women anchors: Jane Pauley on Sat- House correspondent Lesley Stahl. true -that all several million people will urday and Jessica Savitch on Sunday. She's been voted by many, including know about George Bush is what I've But while anchoring is widely thought Washington Post TV critic Tom Shales, chosen to tell them. If I let it, the respon- of as the pinnacle of the profession, as The Woman Most Likely. "But cer- me. It sibility could terrify and depress many women correspondents and net- tainly I don't have it on my mind. I don't would make the job unbearable, since work executives feel that the overall know what you do after covering the

there's no security in this business any- status of women in the industry is more White House. But before I think about

4 If I let it, the responsibility could terrify and depress me. -Linda Ellerbee, NBC

PANORAMA 51

www.americanradiohistory.com World News Tonight with more investi- gative scoops. "We wanted to augment our coverage of Washington in non - beat areas," says deputy bureau chief Bob Murphy. "We wanted someone who could generate stories and go after them. That's why we put Bettina on it." "I love to go live," Bettina Gregory is saying on a very dead, gray winter's day in D.C., before her change in as- (.(.Now, there are new signment. "It's an existential pressure, myths about women to unique unto itself, and it produces very extreme highs and lows. It's almost like replace old stereotypes!M being in a fever -you operate in an- - Jessica Savitch, NBC other zone."

his morning, however, the fever T Gregory has is cabin fever. It is a malaise common to most White House correspondents, a creeping frustration that comes from being cooped up in a maze of airless cubicles and force -fed the Nation's news through measured briefings and a tinny, omnipresent P.A. system that incessantly yawps things like: "Mrs. Carter will be entering the Blue Room in five minutes with Mr. Dith moving on, I like to feel I've conquered And little they are: a minute and a Pran of Cambodia and The New York something. I don't feel that way about half is standard, more than three min- Times." this assignment yet." utes an eternity. When they're over, El- And so on. There are women as- Ellerbee has turned down an offer to lerbee says, "You can't even wrap fish signed to each of the subcompact net- be an anchor at a New York station at in them." Clearly, in an industry where work booths: Judy Woodruff in NBC's, twice her current salary. She is a con- you work a week for a minute of air Lee Thornton and Lesley Stahl in fessed hard -core news junkie; a tall, time, there are other satisfactions that CBS's, and Gregory in ABC's. The latter outspoken Texan who enjoys jumping drive correspondents, male and fe- booth is by far the messiest and the on a good story and rassling it -with male, to put in the staggering hours most dangerous, occupied by the dignity -to the ground. Oddly, it was a they do. morning's snowbank of releases; his - false step that helped advance her ca- "Among the very best, I find no sex and -her cans of Final Net and Dry Look reer. difference in motivation," says Burke. hair sprays; a crusty but cheerful "Correspondents are very active, soundman; Gregory; correspondent I saving begun in radio in 1965 driven people possessed of an inborn George Strait (since assigned to cover and then worked for the AP wire curiosity. They're in a highly competi- Rosalynn Carter and Walter Mondale); service in Juneau, Alaska, she found tive business and it calls for a certain and head correspondent Sam Donald- herself frustrated in AP's Houston kind of character. We're very high, for son. operation -and disgusted enough to example, on Bettina Gregory. We know Therein lies the danger. Donaldson is tap out a scathing letter to a friend on her from her work on the regulatory a fast -moving, wolf -eyed sort who the wire machine lambasting her bu- agencies. She broke more damn clearly enjoys his current reputation as reau chief and lamenting the recent stories on that kind of a beat than any the enfant terrible of the White House loss of the bureau's only other woman man I've ever seen." press corps. He gleefully nettles the correspondent. Due either to electronic President, baits Jody Powell daily, has gremlins or her own error ( "I thought he White House guard grins and bitten Gregory in a more frenzied mo- I'd hit all the right keys "), the letter was says, "You after Bettina? Better ment and just now is holding an open read instead by her boss, who fired her, get you a pair of track shoes to catch pair of scissors to a visitor's throat. and by the director of a Houston televi- that woman. Look for the fidgety one in "You could say it's a cutthroat busi- sion station, who hired her. Eight the green hat." ness," Gregory says, laughing, when months later, she moved to CBS's local "The White House is an elaborate he has dropped his weapon. "Here you station in New York; three years after playpen," sighs the woman in the green have to rely very heavily on outside that she went to work for NBC. hat, who has since been released from sources for the story behind the story. "I don't want to sit up there and say, that controlled news atmosphere to Working the White House is like trying 'Here's so- and -so with her story'," she snoop once again amid Government to fit together an incredibly complex says. "I'd rather have 14 anchors up agencies on a wide -sweeping Wash- Chinese puzzle. The news is so carefully there saying, 'Here's Linda Ellerbee ington, D.C., assignment. This is at the controlled, you have to piece the re- with the work she did on blah-blah.' Ev- behest of ABC's new Washington bu- leases together, then fit them to the cor- erybody gets a different kick out of this reau chief, Carl Bernstein, who hopes rect political and/or national- interest

business. I like making little movies." to boost ratings and credibility for motives. I call it 'Zen and the Art of Cov-

52 JULY 1980

www.americanradiohistory.com us see the women as sex objects or spondent for Cable News Network. shrews" He is grinning wickedly now. "I "The old scout motto prevails here," mean you can never forget the fact that she says. "Be prepared. Any time, any- they're women. Some are incredibly where. I flew to Cambodia with Mrs. pushy and aggressive. But those are Carter on two hours' notice, with no the ones I'd marry. The ones who time even to get to the bank. My closet knocked me down to get a story." is always set with clean clothes for all It's a "You know what I want ?" says Gre- climates, suitcase ready. never gory when Donaldson leaves. "That question of turning down an assign- chair. His job. He knows it, and we're ment; it's how to get there fastest." friends. I've learned a lot from him, and Just about the time newswoman in I only hope to be that good after 20 was acting terrified the years in the business. Look, there's no quaking nuclear reactor of "The China doubt in my mind that ABC hired me Syndrome," Bettina Gregory was mak- because I'm a woman. But they keep ing her way into the contaminated con- me because I'm good." fines of the nuclear plant at Three Mile Island. "Sure I was nervous," she says. t 33, she is, by her account, a "All the reporters were.And the thought L "professional workaholic." "I crossed my mind that if they were was one of those people who had three evacuating pregnant women, it might or four jobs going at once to get started have an effect on my own capacity for in the business," she says. "I've been in childbearing someday. But I never once

radio broadcasting since 1965 -that questioned going in there. I couldn't. was at a station in Ithaca, N.Y. Then, at a It's my job" esi get letters from viewers Long Island station, I had to do every- Spokesmen for all three networks in- asking, 'Why do you wear thing -from writing and reporting to sist there is no story they would not broadcasting and production. I was an send a woman out on -quite a switch the same coat every AP radio writer and a New York Times from the days when most women in night ?' 'Can't you afford a free -lancer in my spare moments be- journalism dealt solely with circus fore ABC hired me in 1974" parades and First Ladies' teas. They are new scarf ?'SS Now she begins her day at 6 in the virtually on every major beat now -the -Lesley Stahl, CBS morning with working breakfasts and Pentagon, the State Department, the often finishes at 8 or 9 at night. At this White House, Federal agencies, Con- writing, she is owed 51 days of over- gress. Yet, as Jessica Savitch time and three weeks' vacation and notes, "There are new myths about admits, "I'll never get around to taking women to replace old stereotypes. ering the White House'" In fact, Gregory has spent the morn- ing in a series of exhausting activities inscrutable to the outsider, developing background for a number of stories: scurrying between gray Government offices, "staking out" Averell Harriman, scrounging up sources, briefing them, showing them how to work hidden tape recorders ("Casually, please"). It is, by normal standards, a slow news day sThe thing that interests at the Big House. me is seeing more Oh, there was this little matter of six Americans escaping Iran through the women in managementS Canadian embassy this morning. But a -Lynn Sherr, ABC series of slammed -door meetings in Jody Powell's office determined that the news of that event should be deliv- ered by the Administration's newest TV star, State Department spokesman Hodding Carter. (Nodding, who has just signed with William Morris, loves to go live.) "No air," gasps Donaldson, clutching at his throat. "In this business, you have it." She does, however, hope to take a There is the woman who sprays her hair spray and then falls to have air. Women, I must say, have to few days off this summer. "I'm getting hair with work twice as hard to get it. No woman married and it would be nice to have a asleep on the news set" And many can come in here and rest on her affir- honeymoon," she says, acknowledging women in the television business mative- action duff. They have to go one that the possibility rests on a happy sense a tendency for management to on one with some men who might not marriage of schedules. Her fiancé, compare them among themselves, be too happy they're around. Most of David Browde, is military affairs corre- rather than with all correspondents. continued PANORAMA 53

www.americanradiohistory.com But visibility is a key the notion of trust. "I see a lot more of that than I like," factor in recognition as well. Walters' concurs Slatter, who screens some star has ascended far beyond the news 3000 hopefuls a year. "Some feel to encompass dinner parties with Cas- they've got to be like men in order to tro and specials with Dolly Parton and succeed. But that's not what I'm look- Donny Marie. For those left sitting and ing for. I like to see women who are through Pentagon briefings, achieving women. And comfortable about it." visual distinction is still a crucial factor. Whether or not women will be al- lowed to grow as old and jowly as In such a highly cosmetic industry, Uncle Walter remains to be seen. it's no surprise that looks are a Though Barbara Walters is frankly in touchy issue. Though networks deny her late 40s, the estimated median any concious image- making, age there is a for national women correspondents clubby, sorority- sister look among is only about 35; management some top national correspondents, expects it as to decrease as more and more opposed to their plainer, more visibly women rise in the ranks from local levels. ethnic, down -home counterparts on local stations. Put Judy Woodruff, Cath- If being a correspondent is a high - erine Mackin, Lesley Stahl and Jessica casualty business in terms Savitch side by side and you might ex- of secu- rity, it is far tougher on personal lives. pect them to break into the Chi Omega "The sheer loneliness is incredibly tax- song -in harmony. The look is crisp, al- ing," notes Burke. "The travel, the un- most frosty: chin -length light hair, tai- certainties. The divorce rate is pretty lored suits, direct blue eyes. stiff for both sexes in this field." ..lt would be terribly "Oh, we're often accused of going And for women, there are the damaging to women if out there and looking for just pretty special faces," one woman is pushed says Bill Slatter, who travels six months a year scouting talent for NBC ahead and she is not affiliates. "But really, it goes beyond thoroughly professional.S looks to something I can only call pres- ence ... the same kind of quality an ac- -Catherine Mackin, ABC tress or actor has on a stage." Women correspondents say they are given no special guidelines by man- agement as to appearance, but rely on their own judgment. Viewers, however, "Yes, that's very much true," says are most vocal in their opinions. NBC's Mike Keating, who produces "I get letters about wearing my Nightly News segments out of Chi- glasses," says LesleyStahl. "People ask, cago. "There are very few female corre- 'Why do you wear the same coat every spondents considered to be just good night ?' 'Can't you afford a new scarf ?' correspondents. It's a mistaken per- They're much tougher on you than spective, but generally they're consid- any network would be." ered to be good women correspon- Voice and demeanor -the elements dents." Keating does think there's a that constitute what Slatter calls pres- difference between the sexes. "Women ence -are, of course, much more im- seem to have a perspective that is dif- portant than designer labels, and not as ferent from how a male might ap- easily pulled off the rack at some made - proach a story," he says. "For example, for-TV broadcast school. Compara- in the area of stories involving the un- tively few women at high levels admit derprivileged and the poor, they seem to any special training or to consulting to be able to see those victims as per- so- called media experts to tailor an sons rather than story subjects." image. Too many, according to NBC's ABC's David Burke is convinced that Keating, have simply studied what has viewers willingly trust women 64 A woman in a - with gone on before. high their news because of their reaction to "One of the problems that women visibility anchor spot is Barbara Walters. "We don't have to do have had on the air is that some have any research," he says. "Every much less important than January felt they've had to sound like female you pick up the paper and there's a poll versions of the men," he having women cover of who the most important says. "You or re- know, that throaty voice, the real stern spected women are. She's always serious stories that get on thing. And that constipated look. The number three or number four, which the evening news. S+ brow will become furrowed and they'll means that people put a great deal of look like they're reporting -Betsy Aaron, CBS faith, reliance and trust in her." on the end of the earth. It's that old authoritarian Nevertheless, the likes of Suzanne ap- proach to the news -which some guys Somers and have been known to still have, too -and I think at this stage make such lists. This is not to discount it turns people off." 54 JULY 1980

www.americanradiohistory.com ..There's no doubt in my mind ABC hired me because I'm a woman. But they keep me because I'm good. -Bettina Gregory, ABC

e. I'm 32. I've got more primaries before me than I've got childbearing years. -Ann Compton, ABC

Top: Bettina Gregory. Bottom: Ann Compton. complications of childbirth and care. ference, admits Stahl, who after work- spondents are as competitive as the na- ABC's Ann Compton, who has done ing in Boston, rose to prominence at ture of the business requires. Sliding election coverage in the past, had to CBS in Washington while reporting on doors slam shut in the White House cu- forgo the possibilities of primary -night what seemed at first a minor assign- bicles as each network hunkers down anchoring this year, having just given ment: Watergate. "It was one of those to prepare the day's dispatches. There birth. "I'm 32," she explains, "and I've stories that percolated for months," she are, of course, a number of worn, too - got more primaries before me than I've remembers. "At first, all you covered oft-told anecdotes about the lengths got childbearing years." were bail hearings. But then I began certain women have gone to for a "Ann's tough, though," says Bettina doing a morning -news spot on Water- scoop, but there is no inherent bitchi- Gregory. "She had the baby at 1 A.M. gate every day, and then the Senate ness or savagery in such stories -just and called in to ABC to report the event hearings. I remember seeing it as a the same raw motivation that has at precisely 1:45." major jump in my career when I joined prompted male correspondents to lock round -table discussions with Dan their colleagues in a toilet to get to a The baby or the beat? The deci- Rather and Daniel Schorr during Water- phone first: competition on a beat. sion is difficult, but having both gate. is feasible. Linda Ellerbeé s two chil- "This year," she says, "it will be inter- Rare moments when the pressure dren are quite blasé about their mom's esting to see how the networks use is off find Stahl and Gregory TV appearances by now, preferring to women in reporting and analysis. chatting amiably about Chinese silk, or keep track of her wanderings with a They're already out there on the cam- the Administration's defense policy, closet full of T- shirts that say things like paign trail." which they happen to be discussing "I Saw the Pope in the Heartland." Les- "Watch the convention coverage when the call comes over the loud- ley Stahl rises at 6:30 each weekday to closely, too," advises Linda Ellerbee. speaker announcing a Presidential ap- have time with her 21/2-year-old daugh- "There will be a lot more women on the pearance. ter. She remembers her working preg- floor. After all, there will be a lot more Haloed by the radiance of megawatt nancy as pleasant and uneventful, save women delegates. And dentists and klieg lights, the President smiles for the occasional comic scene: lawyers. And Indian chiefs." through the White House "photo op- "Imagine me, eight months preg- In short, television, save for its visibil- portunity" with visiting feminist and nant, waddling around, screaming at ity factor, is no different from the other European leader Simone Veil. Side by legislators in the Senate corridor," she American industries in adjusting cor- side, Lesley Stahl, Bettina Gregory, Lee says. "I was covering Koreagate at the porate structure and personnel to fit the Thornton and UPI's Helen Thomas time and in a way, I wouldn't mind times. It can take years for qualified stand straining to catch the conversa- being pregnant again. It's awfully hard women to reach the top; more time still tion. Just as the call "Lights!" signals for a politician to ignore a very preg- for complete acceptance. the press's dismissal, the familiar drawl nant, yelling lady." "The thing that interests me is seeing penetrates the din: "Ahm verrah ex- Looking at her own future, and that more women in management," says cited about wimmins' rahts." of other newswomen, Stahl says that ABC correspondent Lynn Sherr. "I don't Shooting a wry smile to Helen this election year will probably provide think women will automatically give Thomas, Bettina Gregory scribbles the some signposts. During the last elec- more favors to women, but I think remark on her pad and heads out into tion, she anchored CBS's West Coast women might be more sensitive to the the corridor. desk on election eve. appeal of women." "Aren't we all, Mr. President ?" she The right story can make a big dif- Among themselves, women corre- says softly to herself. "Aren't we all ?" ' PANORAMA 55

www.americanradiohistory.com 56 JULY 1980

www.americanradiohistory.com What (au Print )iur Plane Tickets, Finial the Kids and Beat You al Chess`' It's your TV set of tomorrow and the technology is ready right now

By DAVID LACHENBRUCH

Has everybody got a digital re- viewing could be in 20 years, based on nals will be connected to what proba- mote- control panel handy? technological developments now well bly will still be called "the cable " -an (Never mind what digital re- under way. (See box on page 58.) anachronism, because it will consist of in mote- control panel; it's just a game.) Outwardly, the most remarkable bundles of high -capacity glass fibers car- OK, touch the keys 0 -0 -1. Now watch, change in your Year 2000 television place of electrical cable, capable of the mirror that covers a large part of set -or video terminal -will be the rying hundreds of channels on modu- one wall turns a restful green. White let- screen itself. Finally, after decades of lated laser -light beams. Many rural ters take shape: "Viewing Menu -Aug. trial and error, the picture will be freed homes, and some city ones, will have 20, 2000." from the tube. The wall screen proba- small, dishlike, rooftop or windowsill The letters fade to reveal an impos- bly will measure 30 by 40 inches -or, in antennas to pick up programs directly ing bill of fare ... 101 Drama ... 106 deluxe versions, 5 by 6.5 feet -and will from space satellites. News ...114 Chronolog.... be 3 to 5 inches thick. All of the asso- Take a closer look at the viewer of the Right. You choose the "drama" cate- ciated electronics will be contained in year 2000 -you, 20 years from now. First all, you have a choice of pro- gory. You touch 1 -0 -1 on your control the frame, all functions controlled from of panel, and the screen refocuses on a the simple wireless unit. And the pic- gram inputs -you can use a conven- listing of the dramatic shows sched- ture will be brighter and sharper than tional TV tuner, a cable tuner, a satellite uled for this evening, each preceded by today's TV images - easily viewed in a receiver, or all three. Other inputs in- ahother number. You can, of course, sunbathed room. clude video recorders and players and dial the code for any of these shows to text decoders. Instead of watching a get a more detailed description (usually By 2000, the television set will television program, you may choose to accompanied by preview clips). have completed its evolution play a video record -you can check the But maybe you just want to know from a self- contained box to a modular titles in your collection by calling up what's on -dial "Chronolog" and the system, just as hi -fi grew from the pho- your video -record index with your re- entire program schedule crawls up the nograph to an interrelated set of com- mote- control unit. The proper 6 -inch screen. Pushing the "freeze" button on ponents. Wall- screen monitors, tuning disc (which will play for two hours per the remote control stops the motion of systems, video recorders and players, side) is automatically loaded. The same the scroll to give you time to choose. keyboards and other attachments will automatic -playing mechanism is used Still using your remote control, you be sold separately as add -ons to create for playback of digital, ultra- high- fidel- arrange your evening's viewing, touch- a complete video terminal. ity audio discs. If you want to listen to ing the keys for each program's code But the biggest difference between music instead of watch a program, you number (you don't have to think about the 1980 TV set and the 2000 video ter- have the option of relaxing before the channel numbers). If there are two minal will be in the many new functions blank mirror -screen or watching ab- good shows on at the same time, you the latter will perform. The display stract images, electronically generated direct one to "storage" -when it comes screen and its circuits are far too versa- to match the mood of the music. on, it's automatically recorded for you tile to be used only for showing pro - to view whenever you wish. You don't grams.T his set will be much more than orne video records are classic have to touch the video recorder, which a passive, one -way window. It will, in k. movies, but there are few recent is kept out of sight in the component fact, be the nerve center of the home ones -after all, you can tune in any of cabinet; everything is controlled from and the terminal for two -way commu- the current movie releases (for a fee, of the wireless touch -pad panel. Your en- nication with the community and the course) directly from cable or satellite. tire evening's viewing is now automati- world. Instead of being adapted from other cally set and will appear in sequence on Literally thousands of hours of pro- media, most video records now are the giant screen (or be stored in the re- gramming will be available every day. special "video magazines" or "video corder). If you wish, you can program Oh, there will still be conventional over- books" created especially for the me- your whole week's or month's viewing the-air broadcasting, much of it aimed dium- weeklies, monthlies or specials in advance, and, of course, change at a large out -of -home audience devoted to particular subjects or spe- your schedule at any time -or turn the equipped with briefcase -sized, flat - cialized entertainment. Many records, damn thing off. End of game. screen portables and pocket Ns. But such as the video encyclopedias, com- Only it's not a game. Nobody can say far fewer homes will have conventional bine text and motion. that's exactly the way it will be, but rooftop or indoor antennas. The vast The little flexible discs have become that's certainly how your television majority of city and town video termi- so small and convenient that they can PANORAMA 57

www.americanradiohistory.com be bound into newspapers or maga- board. Any member of the family can can, for example, display on request a zines or sent by mail in regular enve- use this to address a central commu- timetable of all flights to Phoenix and lopes. But the principal method of de- nity or national computer, calling up all make a reservation for you. Your desk is livery electronic. Both video and kinds of material from the information may also contain a printout device to audio records can be programmed di- bank. When was Ulysses S. Grant make typed copies of any text material rectly onto blank discs in your home born? How does an atomic engine that appears on the screen. terminal's recorder via cable or satellite work? What's my bank balance? Who You may remember that one of the "disc services." was Mork? In addition to displaying first major reference works to be con- At your desk, either in the viewing textual material, it also provides color verted to video was the telephone di- room or in a study with its own "satel- pictures, diagrams and animation on rectory-at a large saving in printing lite" screen, is a typewriter -like key- request. Being a two -way system, it and distribution costs to the phone

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"Smart TV," as engineers call it, is home video recorder and the video- video and audio devices as he wishes already here, and its IQ is growing all disc appeared on the scene. Also in at his own pace, upgrading any part the time. Although the television set the '70s, two -way cable systems, such of the system without scrapping the of today still strongly resembles the as Warner's Qube, let the viewer in- whole thing. idiot box of yesteryear, its character is teract directly with an outside com- We should see the beginnings of changing rapidly, and within the next puter and express his opinion on creeping modularization in the next five years it should begin to show def- various subjects, even order mer- year or two. Home video monitors inite signs of evolving into the video chandise, through his TV set. and tuners are already available in terminal of 2000. In England, two types of videotext Japan. By 1981, most quality TV sets In 1950s the and '60s, only nuts systems made their debut - teletext, will have taken a tiny step toward talked to their TV sets. Today, an in- which piggybacks text material on the modularization with audio jacks that creasing number of people can com- television signal; and viewdata, will funnel sound through the home municate with their sets via video which provides access to computers hi -fi or external speakers (although games, computers, recorders, video- via phone lines. Back home, a simpli- they'll continue to have their own disc players and two -way cable. The fied form of teletext went into service built-in amplifiers and speakers as technologies that will make tomor- this year - "closed captioning," which well). About the same time, you can row's video terminal a reality - permits the hearing -impaired to view expect to see sets with input jacks for principally large -scale integration (or captions on selected regular televi- plugging such devices as videodisc LSI), which economically crams the sion programs by means of a special players and cassette recorders di- functions of thousands of compo- converter. rectly into the video circuits, bypass- nents onto a tiny chip; and micropro- Modularization: The proliferation ing the antenna terminals and im- cessors (or minicomputers) -already of TV attachments - recorders, disc proving picture quality in the process. are in many of today's television sets players, cable -TV converters, caption This eventually will make possible and their accessories. decoders, games and computers -is lower -cost players and recorders, by Here, then, is a quick look at the putting a severe strain on the form of eliminating redundant circuits in both evolution of the home video terminal. the television set, still a throwback to the attachment and the receiver. The Two-Way Capability: A silly little 1946. These attachments, and more first fully modular TV- component sys- toy called Odyssey, introduced by to come, are designed for connection tem should be available around 1985 Magnavox in 1972, ended the passiv- to the antenna terminals at the back of or shortly thereafter. ity of the television set forever. This the set -a neat trick when you have Freed of the necessity to put every- $99.95 gadget was the first home three or four add -ons. thing in the same box, manufacturers video game -and the first mass -mar- The television receiver is poised for can offer the latest devices and im- ket device to let the viewer engage his a major change, similar to the meta- provements as they come up, without TV set in two -way communication. morphosis of the phonograph con- making the whole system obsolete. When he put those silly little squares sole into the high -fidelity component For instance, the FCC is currently con- on the screen, he was actively pro- system. In a modern stereo system, ducting an inquiry into stereophonic gramming his TV. Pre -Odyssey, the the key component is the amplifier, sound for television. If we had modu- TV receiver was designed to do one which has input jacks for a variety of lar TV now, you'd merely replace your thing: receive and reproduce images program sources -tuner, turntable, audio amplifier with the stereo ver- and sound from broadcast transmit- tape deck-and output jacks for sion and add another speaker or pair ters. When not in use, that marvel- speakers. The most significant com- of speakers. (Of course, manufactur- ously complex electronic system just ponent in the television system of the ers will offer add -on stereo converters sat there and stared balefully through future will be the "monitor," the box for TV sets -more attachments for its glassy eye. with the picture tube and its circuits. It the box.) The display screen and the elec- will be designed to accommodate The Picture Screen: For the last 30 tronics were there, just aching to be many different program sources, of years, all efforts to free the television put to more useful work. And the which the broadcast tuner will be only picture from the bulky glass bottle 1970s saw them begin to realize some one. Audio outputs will be fed to a have failed. But today, there's a glim- of their potential: Cable and pay -TV separate amplifier, which, in turn, will mer of light. The most practical mushroomed. Video -game systems connect to speakers. This approach course seems to be to leave the pic- and, later, home computers, the permits the viewer to add as many ture in the bottle -but squash the bot-

58 JULY 1980

www.americanradiohistory.com company, and with greater conven- video recorder. Pictures also can be to come. At the start of the 21st century, ience to customers. The TV remote - held on the screen as long as you wish television will be on the brink of even control panel or the typewriter key- by means of a "frame- grabber," which more changes. Transmission standards board can be used to find the phone can capture and hold any single frame finally will be changed to provide number of any subscriber in the of the TV image. Home movies, made crisper, finer- grained pictures- proba- country, or perhaps the world (assum- with a video camera the size of 1980's bly with double the 525 lines of today - ing we're all still on speaking terms 35 -mm. cameras, can be displayed on and to assume CinemaScope propor- with one another). the screen as well. Then, too, film tions, and the stereophonic audio track Even without the printer accessory, photography has been replaced by of 2000 will yield to a more subtle "sur- anything that appears on the screen electronic photography (videography). round sound." can be stored for later reference in your Disposable still cameras can be pre - Although there will be microcom- loaded with up to 10,000 exposures of puters throughout home equipment, electronic- memory material and elec- the "home computer" as such will al- tronic slides from them displayed on ready have faded by 2000, eliminating the wall screen. A special accessory much unnecessary hardware around can make instant color prints of any of the house. It will be much simpler to these slides -or, in fact, anything that rely on the more sophisticated central tle flat. Current work in the field of comes on the screen. computers via cable and satellite than result in electroluminescence may Electronic games, contests and tour- to have your own around the house. In is a large, thin picture what basically naments are part of the family's at- fact, the start of the 21st century will of which are tube, the first examples home fun these days. Using the giant most likely usher in a "get- the -junk-out- likely to measure 35 to 50 inches dia- screen as a game board, members of- the -house" trend, threatening the gonally and 3 to 5 inches thick. compete against one another in every- existence of the home -video recorder When? Let's guess some time be- thing from Monopoly to chess or test and player, as powerful new transmis- tween 1986 and 1990. We already their skills against the central computer sion pipes are installed to give viewers -TV sys- have giant-screen projection at any preset level of difficulty. Probably a choice of thousands of movies, plays, there tems, but as exciting as they are, the most fun, though, is the interhome concerts, video books and magazines much hope of doesn't seem to be too tournament, in which your family plays virtually instantaneously. bulk and improving reducing their against another in the neighborhood - Some time after 2000, you'll be able performance and economics to their or across the country. to order whatever you want whenever -view television compete with direct The video terminal's two -way capa- you want it. No longer will there be any systems. bility makes it a valuable security de- program schedules, except for spot Signal Processing: This is one of vice. Low -cost sensors installed news, live sports and special events - the neatest tricks of "smart TV." It in- throughout the home automatically just easy -to -use, on- screen catalogues volves the set itself in actively improv- summon the police or fire department of what's available, updated daily. You defi- ing the picture to compensate for in case of emergency. Button -sized will arrange your own time schedule, ciencies in the received image. One video cameras monitor your front door and the program will be delivered by example signal processing now in- of and permit you to see a caller's image information pipe. The video recorder, if corporated in many sets is "color in a corner of the video screen. it continues to exist in the home, will by RCA's averaging," as exemplified Another video terminal add -on helps shrink to a tiny module with a perma- ColorTrak (and many other systems keep track of the children. Each of your nent, semiconductor memory, which names), which under various offspring has a tiny electronic "locater" can store thousands and thousands of intensity. smooths out errors in color button sewn into his or her clothing; programs, books, pictures and games by General Another is VIR, introduced when you press the locate key on your without the necessity of ever changing adopted by other brands; Electric and home terminal, a map of the neighbor- a record or tape. this uses an invisible signal, which hood appears on the screen with a dif- the most stations transmit along with ferent colored dot indicating the loca- jJost miraculous of all- thanks accuracy of color picture, to assure tion of each child. ("Aw, Mom, I'm too to the central computer and rendition. The latest signal- process- old to wear a locater- Charlie's parents the wide -band, two -way information to appear in color sets ing technique don't make him wear one! ") pipe- America will finally solve its mail uses a principle known as "comb fil- problem; the Postal Service can actu- tering" introduced in Magnavox (first n those occasions when the ally look forward to making a profit Color 330) to eliminate crawling color main video terminal isn't in use, from instantaneous electronic mail. A resolution. dots and increase picture that big screen is no longer an eyesore; simple attachment will allow letters to The next "smart -TV" innovation it doesn't even have to be a mirror. In- be sent between any two video termi- be the electronic quite likely will stead, it displays a still picture of some- nals directly, for display on the video ghost -eliminator, employing com- thing- anything -"grabbed" from a screen or for reproduction on paper. puter techniques to exorcise televi- video record or program. Or it shows prob- sion's most haunting reception family pictures. Some cable channels The basic technology for the televi- too, may lem. Electronic interference, provide "electronic wallpaper" -city- sion set of the year 2000 and beyond al- be eliminated by built -in minicomput- scapes, sea scenes with crashing ready exists. Exactly how it will be ap- any irregular- ers, which will detect waves, swaying palm trees. And muse- plied depends as much on economics, in lines of the televi- ities individual ums have begun making art master- politics and the question of war or the image sion picture and substitute pieces available by subscription for dis- peace as it does on science. Whatever line. from the preceding play on the wall screen. the precise timetable, it's certain that The only problem with all this is Though your TV set in 2000 is a cor- what we now know as the television set might end up with a TV set that we nucopia of technical advances over that is evolving into the single most impor- smarter than we are. box you watched in 1980, there's more tant device in the home. i

PANORAMA 59

www.americanradiohistory.com As in the film that spawned the series, the Breaking Away pilot features a climactic bike race (below), but it takes place a year before the movie's contest. i Some other changes wrought for the small- screen production: Shaun Cassidy (right) is cast as the moonstruck cyclist, thus competing with memories of Dennis Christopher's striking portrayal in the film; the town of Athens, Ga., makes believe it is Bloomington, Ind.; and the University of Georgia pinch -hits s. for Indiana University.

www.americanradiohistory.com "Breaking Away" Tries Out a Faster Track Making a TV winner out of that beloved movie requires some fancy steering indeed By FRAZIER MOORE

his is a lovely spring day," a shout. Off come jackets and sweaters. Ga., the moviemakers have been em- voice coaxes through a bull- Anything for show biz. braced as a diversion not unlike a T horn. "Let's see who can stand it The time -and -temperature sign at troupe of carnies staging street shows. the longest." is T- shirts on the First National Bank calls the day Today the observers are part of the a nippy winter morning in February, early, the weather chilly. Few things act. Lots of noisy extras are needed for and today 300 spectators are party to other than Hollywood's siren call could this, the big race scene in a television the masquerade. Already primed to lure college students from their beds follow -up to last year's hit movie cheer on cue for a phony bike race, they before first period, or summon workers "Breaking Away." won't balk at shivering while they into truancy just to populate a sidewalk, Unseen at the moment is Shaun Cas- or seduce passers -by into fits of watch- sidy, who stars as young Dave Stohler, Frazier Moore is a free -lance writer located ing ... very ... little ... happen. But after the race's winner- to -be. Cassidy will in Atlanta. just a few days on location in Athens, ride in the next scene for a close -up; but

www.americanradiohistory.com in the distant scene now being shot, a how would a Breaking Away series minds were back -director Peter Yates double is furnishing Dave's stamina wear? How many bike races could any (returning as executive producer) and and skill. Waiting astride Dave's bike, viewer sit through before switching to writer Steve Tesich, both Oscar nom- Garry Rybar, who has been racing for Buck Rogers? inees and Tesich a winner for Best Orig- eight years, dubs novice bike -racer Clearly a lot was at stake, but the po- inal Screenplay. Cassidy "a natural. And, as time goes tential rewards were just as great -and But the TV version of "Breaking by, he'll get better." growing. On the pilot's second shoot- Away" won't be a carbon copy of the As time goes by? The filming will last ing day, the Academy Award nomina- movie. The most drastic technical only two weeks, hardly time for much tions were announced and the film change is the Southern filming loca- bloom in Cassidy's budding biking picked up five, further promoting its tion. The series needed a Bloomington prowess. But Rybar has his eyes on the prestige, and paving the way for an look -alike with a climate better suited to more distant future. This hour -long even healthier reception for the series. year -round shooting. Athens, a classic production is actually a pilot, the first "But when we bought the rights, it college town of about 50,000, filled the lap of what everyone involved sees as a was not yet a successful film," said Jon- bill; the University of Georgia would sure -fire weekly Breaking Away series. athan Axelrod, ABC's vice president for pinch -hit for Indiana University. it So follows that in a few months Cas- dramatic series development. "It was a Another crop of alterations brought sidy will be back in the saddle. As will new faces to familiar roles. Vincent Gar- the rest of the cast and crew. In short, denia, seen on and in the series is a shoo -in- that's the offi- films such as "Bang the Drum Slowly," cial unofficial line. (For once, the unoffi- became Dave's grumpy, used -car- cial line was right on target. The pilot salesman father, a part created by Paul won the series a spot on ABC's fall 1980 TV shouldn't tamper with Dooley. The other two cutter youths, program schedule.) a miracle, the movie's fans besides Dave and Moocher, would be played by unknowns: Thom Bray is rom his grumbled. It will debase, camera's -eye vantage now the wry -witted Cyril, and Tom Wig - r point on the bridge down the then abandon, this gin plays Mike, the dead -end football street, director Joe Ruben surveys the treasure star. starting -line spectacle a few hundred The most ticklish bit of casting was yards away and gives the order to roll. Shaun Cassidy as Dave, the moon- Bikers rip from the starting line, skim- struck cyclist. Dennis Christopher, let- ming down the road and up the hill. The ter- perfect in the movie, said he crowd madly. Ruben beams. "It scotched early overtures to repeat the looked great, didn't it? It looked great." movie that we fell in love with. Fox and role. "I already said what I have to say Reclaiming Dave's bike, Shaun goes ABC," he vowed, "have a joint commit- with that character," Christopher ex- in for Garry. ment to preserve the quality." plained from Los Angeles, where he Last summer, "Breaking Away" Herbert Leonard, who is producing was making a film. "But I'm real slipped into theaters unannounced by the pilot for Fox, voiced a less exuber- pleased that Cassidy's doing it. He was even a whisper hype. It of had a belt - ant version of the alliance. "We have a real brave choice." tightened budget and no stars. It was come to very workable terms with the shot, and set, in nothing -special Bloom- network, which is unusual," Leonard Abrave choice indeed. At 21, ington, Ind., and busied itself with quiet said tartly. "I think they have dealt with Cassidy is best known as an ex- matters like friendship, bike racing, us in a way that has not been destruc- Hardy Boy (after his now -defunct TV growing up, and living in a university tive. This is a very simple, wholesome series), a deposed cover king of teen town where the locals take a back seat story about kids growing up and break- pulps, and a pop star whose music one to the college crowd. It had nothing ing away from their home surround- writer diagnosed as "Pube pubes- going for it ... except that ings, (for it was won- and getting on with their lives," he cent) Rock." Cassidy wasn't unmindful derful. And it was cherished. explained. "I think, by its very nature, it of the accusations that he was signed Wouldn't "Breaking Away" make is defensible a against any [network] on- purely as Nielsen insurance. swell series? certain network execu- slaught. There are a lot of strong - "They may have brought me in be- tives began asking themselves. Sure, minded people involved in this. We cause they think I'm a name," Cassidy it's worth a shot, at least a pilot, they de- have a united front." said. "But, hopefully, it's also because cided. So last fall, a deal was struck be- they think I can act." Serious about his tween Twentieth Century -Fox and This "united front" seemed to em- craft, he accepted the role to prove him- ABC. brace all of the principals hard at self to audiences beyond his original Among the movie's fans, news of work on the pilot, some of whom had sweet -16 constituency. "This show TV's imposition was met with suspi- been part of the movie two years ear- doesn't need a name actor," he said. cion and dismay. TV shouldn't tamper lier, and now were back to make light- "The movie is big enough to sell it." with a miracle, they grumbled. TV will ning strike again. Barbara Barrie, nomi- By all accounts, the only truly indis- debase, then abandon, this treasure. nated for Best Supporting Actress, was pensable name in putting Breaking Not that the producers' formula resuming her role as Dave's wispy Away on TV belongs to the man who didn't sound honorable: a one -hour mother. Jackie Earle Haley was contin- put it on paper. Now in Athens, his pres- weekly comedy -drama filmed on loca- uing as the plucky, pint -size Moocher, ence so low -key as to suggest loitering, tion, with potent scripts and no laugh one of the four "cutter" pals (so named Steve Tesich was watching his new track, gunplay or jiggle. But how would because their fathers once worked cut- script come to life. they exempt themselves from TV's ting stone at the local limestone quar- The pilot reintroduces the town, the Faustian pact with the ratings? Besides, ries). And the movie's two master- characters, and the feud between the

62 JUNE 1980

www.americanradiohistory.com cutters and the snooty I.U. students. But it encounters these elements a year before the movie takes place, broach- ing themes the movie confronts further down the line. Although Tesich plans to write few, if any, of the subsequent episodes, he will remain involved with Breaking Away as a creative consultant. "We only scratched the surface of the town, the campus and what it's like to be an out- sider in a place where the university is the focal point," he said, moseying through the jungle of cameras and technicians. "And then there are the cutter kids, a group that's held together by mutual affection, but pulled apart because they're approaching the age when they can't be with the guys the rest of their lives. If the series works, after a year or two they'd go their own ways, and new characters would come in. If people liked the movie, the series can give them more to love."

he cameras were rolling in late February, but the pilot's script had been written and many of the roles filled just since the first of the year. And only after that did a search start for a suitable town. Producer Leonard scoured California, then considered several Southwestern and Southern states. Finally he was collared by the Georgia Film Commission, which sug- gested Athens. There Leonard found a look he felt could readily translate into a video version of Bloomington. Nearby stone quarries (which are central to the story) clinched the decision. Not long afterward, a cast and crew of nearly 100 swept into Athens. continued

Though Cassidy is called a "natural" bike racer, he is still a neophyte, so a double rides in the distant shots while Shaun pedals for the close -ups.

PANORAMA 63

www.americanradiohistory.com Life in Athens, to no one's surprise, for the pilot, the most enduring should for makeup. went on. "The city is flexible in its think- be Wendi Wimmer, a 21- year -old the- From the back porch to the front ing and has a fairly cosmopolitan out- ater major at the University of Georgia. yard, gale -force activity blew through look," explained Mayor Lauren Coile. Hearing of the project late in January, the whole house. Or nearly the whole "The filmmaking won't disrupt our rou- she headed for the casting office, which house. A door whose crayoned sign tine." And it didn't. Besides, Athens al- had just set up shop at the Holiday Inn. cautioned CAST AND CREW, PLEASE ready claimed the world's - only double She auditioned for the part of Laura, DO NOT DISTURB concealed a cove of barrel cannon (perfected a bit too late Mike's unrequited admirer. A few days serenity containing Belle Saye. Settled to aid the Confederate Army, it now de- later, she read again for the part. Then in an easy chair beside her bed, Mrs. fends City Hall) and the so- called Tree again. And again. She did a screen test. Saye, a puckish great -grandmother, That Owns Itself (an oak that inherited Weeks passed. Then, the day before was at that moment pasting Top Value its tiny plot of land when its owner shooting was to start, she read one last stamps in a stack of savings books. She died). Breaking Away was just the time. And, months before graduation, had leased her house for five years' town's latest distinction. Wimmer was signed for seven epi- duty as the set for the Stohler home. A few years earlier, the city had sodes of a major TV series, to be filmed At first, Mrs. Saye had been reluctant muffed similar stardom at the prepro- within walking distance of her apart- to cooperate. "You know how much duction stage of a film featuring John ment. devilment's going on," she explained. Belushi. University administrators took Another series regular was signed in But her mind was changed when she one look at the bawdy script and turned Athens -a comfortable old home, heard the terms: painting, repair work thumbs down, so the producers went which was bursting with strange and cash. elsewhere: "Animal House" was made guests this rainy afternoon. In its role as The producers had offered Mrs. Saye at the University of Oregon. Dave's home, its living room was a motel room for the two or three days' aswarm with technicians and equip- shooting, but she preferred to stay put, ut Athens adapted comfortably ment, and cameras peered into its din- even if in quarantine, and rarely ven- li to Breaking Away's demands. ing room. In the bike -postered bed- tured out for a glimpse of the film- Barnett's Newsstand downtown made room, Leonard huddled with assistants makers at work. "It's bo- o- o- ring," she a dandy drugstore. Physician Robert to plan the next day's shots. And in the confided in a polite whisper. Gomez vacated his office long enough kitchen, Cassidy, Barrie and Gardenia Mrs. Saye's indifference aside, for a doctor's -visit scene, and C. L. submitted to the ministrations of a Wendi Wimmer, Belle Saye's house, Ford's car lot briefly took the name makeup man. and the rest of Athens are ready for "Campus Clean Used Cars," the firm "It's very strange coming back," said Breaking Away to become a winning Dave's father runs. Then there was the Barrie. "I know my character, but I have series. Just as ready are the Breaking memorable Monday when the colon- a different husband and child. I have to Away bunch, who are making plans to naded Theta Chi fraternity house be- be careful, because I don't want to im- return to Georgia perhaps as early as came Sigma Chi Epsilon, which the cut- pose one experience on the other." this month. And when shooting for the ters storm to settle a score. Her new screen spouse expressed pilot wrapped during the second week "It was wild as hell," a beefy Theta Chi contentment with his part. "But I'm not in March, "See you this summer" was brother said later. When dark came and gonna try to be better than Paul the standard farewell. the unit packed up, the house treasury Dooley," Gardenia said, referring to his was $100 richer. "But we'd have done it role's predecessor. "I couldn't be bet- ut regardless of the clear -cut for free," said the Theta. "It's good pub- ter; I'm just gonna do my job. I don't sense of destiny infusing the licity. Be I li great for Rush. don't know feel that actors should always be in project, several questions await an- what we'll do with the money. I guess competition with each other." swers. For instance, the effect of such we'll buy a couple of kegs." "You can use that quote for me, too," attention on Athens and its citizenry: the But among the Athenians recruited offered "son" Cassidy, awaiting his turn pilot was a private affair between the city and the filmmakers, but how about In the series, the four "cutter" pals are played by (from left) Tom Wiggin, Thom Bray, a marriage, to which millions coast to Cassidy and Jackie Earle Haley, who, of the four, is the only returnee from the film. coast would be privy each week? Once the series commences, will Athens re- place Plains as the de rigueur side trip for the Miami -bound? Will Mrs. Saye's placid little street become a must for rubberneckers who want to see where Dave "lives "? Stay tuned. And stay tuned for other develop- ments. The biggest question remains: will the promises be kept ?...Can the series break away from the field on commercial TV, and keep pace with the film? Dennis Christopher was one of many watching from the sidelines as the spin -off raced toward an answer. If he hedged on a prediction, he en- dorsed the attempt. "It's worth a try; you have to try," he said. "The movie was perfect, but you don't have to em- balm it." !i;

www.americanradiohistory.com No G.aziflg on the .satellite Dish What happens when a New Mexico ranch family gets TV for the first time in five years By JOHN NEARY

birth, "hav- New Mexico rancher Jeffrey Lane The Lanes, alas, have been too busy fidgety heifers about to give was and his wife, Janet, are just the ranching to notice. In the Lane family, ing no TV was no great loss. There sort of affluent, active viewers the coming of television to their home nothing I wanted to do more than get of any sponsor would be delighted to in the wide -open spaces has meant away from the overdramatization know are out there watching. But the more to their children, Travis, 4, and television." Lanes had to go five years cold turkey Sarah, 2. Says Janet, "I wish we could of rough - without television because a mesa near say it's changed our lives....Travis he Lanes find plenty their home blocked video signals from could say that." and -ready real -life adventure in ground transmitters. Then, presto, For the Lanes, doing without the telly ranching. The Bell, a fascinating mix of thanks to the mini -miracle of mi- had seemed a small price to pay for the Old West and modern agrifactory, with crowave technology and their own joy of living on the historic Bell Ranch, its clanking windmills and bawling cat- earth -station dish antenna, the Lanes when they moved there after Jeff got tle -and a shiny airplane in the hangar plugged back into the world of TV they his degree in ag -biz from Colorado and two -way radios in the trucks - had left behind when they moved to State, where Janet had majored in En- sprawls across 292,000 acres. Started the ranch in 1974. glish and history. If anything, says Jeff, in 1820, it is one of the largest privately in America Has linking up again with the global as he jockeys his pickup truck through a held hunks of real estate community changed their outlook maternity ward of a pasture, spiked and a family trust, of which Jeff is a the upon the world? Do Jeff, 29, and Janet, with cholla cactus and crowded with member, owns it all. Taking care of is Jeff's spe- 30, find that sitting around the cathode - registered Hereford herd man- ray tube evokes any epiphanies, lays cial responsibility (a professional and bare any fresh insights, opens any new ager oversees the rest of the cattle), vistas of the inscape? it's a job that may require him to get up several times a night to look after his hn Neary is a free -lance writer based in Tesuque, N.M.

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www.americanradiohistory.com cows and still be on call for an emer- reach around that intrusive plateau. antenna, along with the hardware that gency run to town in the plane if some- They were not. links it to his Zenith System 3 TV set - one gets hurt or a vital machinery part The answer to the Lanes' video all for the sum of $1000. In addition, the is needed. blackout turned up at a New Mexico firm helped Jeff secure his license, the Even without a crisis, he hurries cattle breeders' convention in the first granted by the FCC for a back -yard through meals, jams his lanky 6- foot -1, spring of 1979, where Jeff learned that earth station. (The FCC has since 175 -pound frame into his truck and the shortest distance between his dropped the license requirement for bounces back to his herd. "I've got a lot house and TV stations was not a private antenna owners.) of pride in these old gals," he brags, straight line after all. Instead, it was two Scientific -Atlanta also continues to easing the truck around a cactus mean straight lines -an electronic layup shot pay the Lanes' monthly fees to pro- enough to pop a tire. banked off an orbiting backboard called grammers, ranging from token charges Satcom I, which is a geostationary sat- to upwards of $10 a month. The firm, n their first few years on the Bell, ellite parked 22,300 miles over the the largest manufacturer of earth sta- 1 taking care of the ranch chores was equator and owned by RCA. A televi- tions in the world, estimates there are absorbing enough for Jeff and Janet sion signal can be shunted through an now only about 200 private units in the but eventually an undeniable yen for "uplink" transmitter and beamed via U.S. some raw video began to gnaw at microwave to the satellite, which trans- Installation of the Lanes' antenna them. It was odd. They still loved what lates the signal to another frequency turned the family into a news event of a Jeff likes to call "the big openness" of and flashes it earthward, to be picked sort. NBC correspondent Jack Perkins the place, and Janet insists, "One rea- up anywhere in the satellite's "foot- and crew flew into the Lanes' strip to son we live out here where it's quiet is print" -provided you have the neces- document their reentry into video soci- that we like it like that." Nonetheless, sary antenna and backup hardware. ety. That event, ironically enough, re- she admits, "In the winter, you can have vealed to Jeff and Janet what now some pretty long evenings." The ranch seems to them to be one of the most house is three -and -a -half hours from Installation of the Lanes' irksome features of their rig. Friends - Santa Fe, 300 miles round trip. Albu- and strangers -all over the country querque is a four -hour car trip each antenna turned into a could watch them watching TV, or, way -so far that Jeff uses his plane news event when NBC rather, talking about watching it -their when he needs something there. The dish had not yet been precisely aimed nearest flew in correspondent movie theater, in Tucumcari at Satcom I and thus was not yet receiv- ( "They just got 'Jaws,' I think," Janet Jack Perkins to document ing properly. But even if the aim had groans), is a 140 -mile round trip. "By the family's reentry into been true, the Lanes could not have the time you drive in and all the way seen themselves. Reason: their an- back," Janet says, "you've spent 15 the video society tenna, for all its fancy gear, cannot pick bucks on gas." Radio reception on the up network signals, which are carried ranch is uncertain; mail comes to the via land lines to area broadcasters' ranch headquarters, so distant from This was all spelled out early one transmitters. The Lanes can receive their home that the Lanes only bother morning after Jeff sat down in an Albu- only satellite- carried stations, which, to pick it up once a week or so. querque coffee shop while at the cattle- superstations though they may be, are Thus it was that Jeff Lane one day men's convention and introduced him- so far not network affiliated and thus found himself clambering to the top of self to a gent he'd noticed behind a mainly local in content. a windmill with an antenna in one booth promoting satellite antennas. This lack of big -league network news hand, hoping that, way up there, he The man was Richard J. Campbell, on their screen leaves the Lanes griev- might pick up a fugitive TV signal. then general manager of the video - ously dissatisfied. They are less than No such luck. "Just a lot of wind," products division of Scientific -Atlanta, captivated, too, by the quality of what says Janet. a Georgia antenna -manufacturing firm. newscasting they have so far gotten to The Lanes, however, were deter- Campbell and Lane found, to their con- see, essentially local shows intended mined: they would, somehow, have TV. siderable delight, that they had prob- for local audiences but beamed to them "Not just to have a TV set," Janet ex- lems that were made for each other. from thousands of miles away, bring- plains, "but to have some kind of expo- Campbell (who is no longer with Scien- ing only a smattering of national and sure for Travis and Sarah to something tific- Atlanta) had come to Albuquerque foreign news. "New York," the Lanes besides what's out here" Jeff justified along with John Bacon, who has since say, "is at the very bottom. Chicago is the effort on the grounds that having succeeded to Campbell's position. pretty good, and San Francisco is the TV would make it easier to attract cow- They were in search of just the right best" boys and their families to come live and place to install the very first privately work on the Bell. owned, FCC -licensed earth station. he rest of the viewing material "It came down," Jeff recalls deciding, The electronics merchants and the ricocheting down from space "to putting in our own unit." That was cowboy struck a deal. Jeff agreed to leaves the Lanes utterly cold, too, so easier said than done. Bringing in a sig- allow Scientific -Atlanta to use the Bell unimpressed they can scarcely think of nal via cable would have been astro- Ranch as an outdoor portrait studio in the name of a favorite show, with the nomically expensive. Merely extending which to pose their gleaming- white, notable exception of kiddy program- their electric -power line four miles to anodized -aluminum, 15 -foot dish, to ming. "One of the problems with the their house had already cost them use as an illustration for their annual re- thing," says Janet, "is that, with regular $12,000. Jeff asked TV stations in Albu- port and, among other publications, TV, you can buy a TV Guide. It's a little querque, and as far away as Amarillo, if the Neiman -Marcus catalogue, where harder for us to figure out what we they would be interested in installing a the dish would be advertised for a crisp want to watch" repeater antenna that might somehow $36,500. In return, Jeff got to keep the The Lanes can choose from among

66 JULY 1980

www.americanradiohistory.com in "frequency - WOR in New York, WGN in Chicago, emit signals so powerful they will not as they say the trade, no KTVU in San Francisco and, in addition, require big antennas like Jeff's, but will agile," so the tuner has selector Warner Amex's The Movie Channel, feed into dishes a little more than a yard knob on the front as does a TV set. "The Entertainment and Sports Program- across. While the Lanes' earth station is trick," Janet says, "is not to lose these ming Network, C -SPAN (Congressional presently aimed at Satcom I, there are things. I painted this one red for the kids Satellite Public Affairs Network), Mad- other channels that, with additional re- so they would know it's theirs." ison Square Garden Sports, Satellite ceiver units plugged into their existing The red crystal, when inserted into Program Network, Take 2 (family mov- hardware, they could be getting -and the slot, brings in Travis's, and Sarah's ies), and , a kids' channel. Jeff is considering getting them. favorite channel, Nickelodeon, a feast Satellite TV, says Jeff, "is very much But it is unlikely, living as he does in a of slick juvenile programming that de- in its infancy," and he is inclined to take real -life version of the setting of so lights Janet as much as it does her chil- the long view, noting how varied and many TV Westerns, that Jeff will be- dren. While Travis, fascinated, watches improved the fare on conventional come much of a videophile. He is cer- a baker somewhere decorate an end- video has become in his lifetime. With tainly not turned on by the notion of less parade of napoleons, Janet says, his antenna in place, bringing him spar- hooking up a couple of games to his "This is excellent. If they could put kling, crisp, color images unaffected by set, or a video recorder, or a disc player. something like this on network TV, terrestrial interference, he figures he "Sixty dollars!" he exclaims. "For a they'd really have something!" has thus delivered now has entree, a front -row seat, for movie you watch once!" He says this Their earth station the unfolding future of the satellite in- while showing off his prize Hereford a major part of what they had hoped it dustry. Already, several dozen satellites bull, PWL -1 Domino 9114, who is the would: for their kids, a window onto As are up there worldwide, beeping and size of a laundry truck and worth the big world beyond the ranch. Jeff queeping, some of them able to pass $52,000. puts it, the antenna "adds a little cre- along as many as 48 programs at a ative horizon." time. eanwhile, inside the Lane "Some new ideas," Janet interjects. is the beginning: PBS /1 home, the real television fan in "That we couldn't necessarily have And this only and Western Union have reached an the family, Travis, awakens from his provided," Jeff concludes. agreement allowing Western Union to nap and creeps sleepily but eagerly Thus, if neither Jeff nor Janet finds use PBS earth station facilities to beam down the spiral staircase into the rec life exactly transmogrified by virtue of commercial network telecasts into room to resume his vigil. Janet picks up having acquired an antenna and re- areas now unreached by land lines. a handful of little Chiclet -sized crystals gained TV, both are glad they have it. Technology is being developed that will that, when inserted into the tuner, TV has brought their children a depth of pack more signals into existing mi- change channels. The Lanes' rig is not, experience that now and then startles crowave links, and yet more satellites the Lanes -and pleases them. "For in- are scheduled for launch - including stance," says Janet, "Travis was talking some from the USSR -that will the other day about giraffes and beam into our hemisphere. I wondered, 'Where did he Some, like ones in the works get that ?' and then I re- in Canada and Japan, will Vitific membered. "Oh, yeah: the TV!" it;

The 15 -foot earth - station dish antenna dwarfs 6- foot -1 Jeff Lane.

www.americanradiohistory.com One cold, windy day just before Christmas 1963, Bob Precht got a call from Ed Sullivan asking The him to come over to meet a DayAmerica Mr. Brian Epstein, the manager of a British sing- ing group called the Beatles. Precht, who was the producer of The Ed Sulli- van Show (and Beatle Sullivan's son -in -law), Fever had never heard of Epstein, or the Bea- tles either, for that matter, but he duti- When Ed Sullivan introduced the Fab Four, his live fully dropped what he was doing and audience went wild and the Nielsens shot to a record high headed for the Delmonico Hotel suite where Sullivan lived and worked. Ed By JERRY BOWLES and Epstein were sitting in the living room. "This is Brian Epstein," Sullivan said. "He's got a great group of youngsters. They're going to be real big." Precht nodded politely. He had met dozens of managers of rock -'n' -roll groups that were going to be big. The producer could tell from the way Epstein and Sullivan were talking that a deal had already been made. This an- noyed him. He had asked Ed a number of times not to book acts without telling him. He almost winced when he realized that the booking was for three shows for a total of $10,000, but he said noth- ing. A few minutes later, he excused himself, returned to his office and im- mediately phoned Sullivan. "Ed, Jesus," he said, "ten thousand bucks for some unknown rock -'n' -roll group. And three shows ?" It amuses Precht to tell this story nowadays. The Beatles did, indeed, be- come big and they were to give the Sul- livan show the two highest -rated pro- grams in its history. Sullivan had accidentally stumbled into the world of Beatlemania several weeks earlier when passing through the London airport. The Prime Minister was attempting to fly out to Scotland and the Queen Mother was arriving from Ireland, but both were finding travel difficult because of the huge crowd -about 15,000 kids -that had turned out to greet the Beatles, return- ing from a tour of Sweden. Sullivan didn't care much for rock 'n' roll, but he knew crowds. He was impressed. Actually, the Beatles were already in- ternational stars by the time Sullivan "found" them, with record sales in the millions. "She Loves You" had become the first -ever million -selling record in England. The United States, though, had

This article is excerpted from Jerry Bow/es' book 'A Thousand Sundays: The Story of ," which is being pub- lished by G. P. Putnam's Sons next month. (Copyright ©1980 by Jerry Bow/es J

68 JULY 1980

www.americanradiohistory.com seemed strangely indifferent to them. ridiculous. Hold up your hands, and I'll "Please Please Me" was released here recognize you one at a time. If you in February 1963 and "She Loves You" won't be quiet, we'll just stand here Caught His stern, schoolteacher in the fall. Neither had caused much of until you are." a stir. manner worked and order, more or That's why Brian Epstein had been less, prevailed. most pleased to hear of Sullivan's inter- "What do you think of Beethoven ?" est and it is also the most likely reason someone asked John. Sullivan was able to get the group so "Lovely writer," Lennon said, "espe- cheaply. The Beatles needed the United cially the poems." States exposure. "What are you going to do about the Epstein and Sullivan agreed on car bumper stickers in Detroit that say dates -Feb. 9 and 16, with a taped ap- 'Stamp Out the Beatles' ?" pearance to be played later. Epstein fig- "We're printing some that say ured that would give him enough time 'Stamp Out Detroit'," George replied. to persuade Capitol Records, the Bea- "Are you part of a social rebellion tles' United States representative, to against the older generation ?" mount a massive publicity campaign "It's a dirty lie," said Paul. and to release "I Want to Hold Your All in all, it was a tour de force for the Hand," the single that would determine working -class heroes from Liverpool. whether his group was going to make it After the press conference, they all in America or not. piled into limousines -one Beatle to each -and headed for the Plaza Hotel. verything went exactly as The Plaza, one of the oldest and most planned. "I Want to Hold Your staid of New York hotels, was not ex- was happening. Hand" was released in early January actly thrilled at what rooms a cou- and by the end of the month had The Beatles had booked ple months in advance under their reached the number -one spot on the of names. Management had no record charts. A carefully primed Na- individual to lodge a social tion waited breathlessly for the arrival idea they had agreed Now there were all of the Beatles. phenomenon. these kids, mainly girls, gathered out- B- Day -the day the Beatles discov- ered America -was Feb. 7, 1964. By side, yelling and screaming and dawn, half of the teen -agers from Mor- threatening to burst through the police ristown, N.J., to Stamford, Conn., were barriers at any moment. gathered at the international terminal at Kennedy Airport. They all had tran- ome clever girls tried having sistors plugged into their craniums. It taxicabs deposit them at the was like a scene from "Invasion of the doorstep of the hotel and telling the se- Body Snatchers." The radio stations re- curity men that they had rooms there. It lentlessly fed them Beatles bulletins: didn't work. Others tried, unsuccess- "They left London an hour fully, to get onto the rooftops of adjoin- ago...They're on their way." ing buildings. Periodic chants of "We By one o'clock, there were about want Ringo" rose up throughout the 5000 kids at the airport, watched over night. by 110 policemen. At 1:20 PM., the char- At 2:30 on Sunday, the Beatles gath- tered plane arrived. A huge roar went ered at the studio for the rehearsal and up from the crowd. to tape a couple of numbers for a future It grew into an ear-shattering salute appearance. The 728 -seat -capacity the- as John, Paul, George and Ringo de- ater was filled with teen -age girls, scended from the plane and headed for many of them daughters of CBS or a prearranged news conference inside. Capitol executives. In all, the show had Actually, the Beatles hardly looked like over 50,000 requests for tickets to the rebels. Epstein had gotten them up in rehearsal and the show itself. four- button coats, stovepipe pants, As Sullivan sat backstage writing out ankle -high boots with Cuban heels, and some notes for the show, he was ap- white shirts with ties. proached by Brian Epstein, who said, "I The scene inside at the press confer- would like to know the exact wording of ence was no less a madhouse. The your introduction." Sullivan, his nerves New York press corps, never known for a little on edge from the strain, didn't its good manners, was outdoing itself even look up from his note pad. "I with even more than the usual shoving, would like for you to get lost" he said. shouting and occasional punching. As Ringó s drums were wheeled on- Brian Sommerville, the Beatles' stage, a great roar went up from the press agent, took to the microphone crowd. A few minutes later, Sullivan ap- and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, this is peared. He made a nice speech about

PANORAMA 69

www.americanradiohistory.com they couldn't get in, they apparently fig- ured the next best thing would be to watch the show on the truck's moni- tors. Set designer Bill Bohnert was stand- ing behind the console when he glanced up and saw a great wave of hu- manity rushing toward the truck. He dived over the console, reached the door and bolted it just before the first wave hit. Throughout the show, the men inside feared for their lives as the kids outside rocked the truck up and down. By some miracle, the equipment remained intact and the program stayed on the air. On Monday, Sullivan got the good news. The Ed Sullivan introduces the biggest singing sensation of the '60s to the biggest TV Nielsens indicated a score of audience ever recorded up to that time. 44.6 for the first show. That translated to 73,700,000 viewers -the largest audi- how he hoped the kids would give their directly in the mainstream of Western ence in television history up to that respectful attention to the other per- tradition; that much may be immedi- time. Sullivan was beside himself with formers on the show because if they ately ascertained. Their harmony is un- joy. It was the first time in seven years didn't, he would call in a barber. The mistakably diatonic. A learned British that he had topped the ratings. kids laughed in that nervous way that colleague,writing on his home ground, The Miami telecast was only slightly meant they thought he just might. has described it as a pandiatonic, but I less successful, with a 43.2. Today, the After a little more clowning around, disagree. two shows rank 12th and 19th on the Sullivan said, "Our city- indeed, the "The Beatles have a tendency to all -time list of most- watched pro- ccuntry -has never seen anything like build phrases around unresolved lead- grams. these four young men from Liverpool. ing tones. This precipitates the ear into In a sense, the Beatles programs Ladies and gentlemen, the Beatles." a false modal frame chat temporarily were a last hurrah for Sullivan. Never Amid a tornado of hysteria, the Bea- turns the fifth of the scale into the tonic, again would his show attain the promi- tles sang five songs including "She momentarily suggesting the Mixoly- nence that the Beatles had given him, Loves You" and "I Want to Hold Your dian mode. But everything always nor would so much attention from an Hand." ends as plain diatonic all the same. entire nation be focused on his doings. In the control room, Bob Precht "Meanwhile, the result is the addition watched the monitors and mumbled to of a very, very slight touch of British The Beatles returned to the United nobody in particular, "Jesus Christ." It countryside nostalgia, with a trace of States in August 1964, but this was, he had to admit, the damnedest Vaughan Williams, to the familiar ele- time Epstein wanted a lot of money for thing he had ever seen. ments of the rock -'n' -roll prototype." a television appearance. Sullivan On Wednesday, the Beatles did two bowed out of the negotiations early The show that night went exactly sold -out concerts at Carnegie Hall and and said he wished them the best. No the same way, except that the then on Thursday headed for Miami, doubt he was sincere, because when hysteria was even more pronounced. where the Sullivan show was set to no hotel wanted to put them up, he in- Sullivan was delighted, although he originate from the Deauville Hotel on terceded with the management of his figured he would be in for some grief Sunday. own, the Delmonico, to get them lodg- for leading the youth of America The most anxious moment came ing. astray. about 30 seconds before air time, when ABC and CBS both negotiated for Whatever misgivings he might have it became apparent that the Beatles taped appearances, which they had disappeared the next morning themselves couldn't get into the huge showed during the November "ratings when the preliminary ratings indicated Napoleon room because of the crush of week." Both were ratings disasters. that the show might have been of rec- people congested around the door. ABC scheduled its Beatles show, taped ord proportions. The papers were filled Since they were scheduled to open the in London, opposite Sullivan and Walt with analyses of the Fab Four. Said show, a wave of panic shot through the Disney on a Sunday night. Sullivan and John Hughes in The Christian Science Sullivan production people. About 15 Disney won handily. One of the first Monitor: "Britons and Americans may seconds before they were scheduled to people to telephone the news around have had their differences over Suez appear, a group of Miami policemen town was Ed Sullivan. and Skybolt. There was even quite a formed a flying wedge around the It was nothing personal, of to -do over the Boston Tea Party. But for group and stormed the door, sending course... just show business., sheer British ruthlessness, nothing can bodies scattering in all directions. Two compare with the dispatch to the seconds after he got to his drums, POSTSCRIPT United States of four screaming, strum- Ringo found himself being cued to start Sixteen years after the Beat/es invaded ming Liverpudlians, with golliwog hair- playing. American TV, rock music is about to cuts, known as the Beatles." invade another frontier: the home - For sheer humor, though, nothing It was about this time that the huge video market. For the story of one of the could match Theodore Strongin's com- crowd outside the hotel noticed the first original music productions for ments in The Times: "The Beatles are CBS control truck parked outside. Since videocassette, see facing page. 70 JULY 1980

www.americanradiohistory.com A rock opera by the Jefferson Starship's former lead singer travels d. from a San Francisco nightclub to home videocassettes k

Video Rock on Trial

Back then, in the late ).60s, it was be recording it all with a small, primi- called Airplane Mansion: a four - tive video camera. r story, turn -of- the -century pad in Times have changed. The Jefferson One of the "witnesses " in the show's San. Francisco, inhabited by various Airplane is now the Jefferson Starship. trial of a rock singer is the deejay, Here, in a members and friends of the rock group Airplane Mansion is now called Star - played by Frank Daniels. number called "Lovebeat," he Airplane. They used to throw ship Mansion. Instead of acid rock, Jefferson asks the audience to testify with him. wild parties with guest lists that read there's new wave. And Marty Balin is like a "Who's Who" of rock 'n' roll. Ev- no longer with the Starship -but he's erybody would run around crazily to still into video. the cadence of the blaring acid-rock Sometime this summer, EMI Video - music. Folks like Steve Stills, Frank grams, Inc., will release "Rock Justice," Zappa and, of course, Grace Slick. And, a 75- minute videocassette of the rock just for the hell of it, Jefferson Airplane opera that Balin coauthored and one of singer- songwriter Marty Balin would the first original music productions re- PANORAMA 71

www.americanradiohistory.com "Hey man," said Marty Balin to Bob Heyman during leased to the home -video market. a court case, "this thing is turning into a real rock The satirical plot involves a rock opera." "You know Marty" said Heyman, "you might singer, played by Jesse Brad- man, who falls asleep and has a night- have something there." mare: he is put on trial and charged with rock's worst crime -not having a hit record. Testimony both for and against him is given in some of the show's 15 musical numbers, scenes from which are shown on these pages and the previous page. Throughout, "Rock Justice" presents caricatures of familiar music -industry figures: be- sides the musician, there are the critic, the disc jockey, the executive, the journalist, the manager and the pro- moter. "Rock Justice" was conceived as a project for videodisc, says coauthor Bob Heyman. The idea was to present a live stage show, which would be taped. Balin wanted to videotape the performance to add to his own offbeat collection

of videocassettes. "I wish I had videotapes of me and Janis (Jop-

lin I hanging out in the '60s," he

moans. "Luckily, now I have a record of all these far -out and talented musicians doing a live show together. Now it's

more than a visual record of what I con- ceived. It's gone further... much, much further." Indeed it has. It's gone so far that Balin has leaped to the forefro-It of a handful of creative artists who produce for the new art form labeled video rock - rock -'n' -roll music with visual images, available on videocassettes and (in the near future) videodiscs. Balin gained the video -rock spotlight not because he fervently believes in the future of home video or in the elec- tronic marriage of the new dazzling

www.americanradiohistory.com television technologies with the record industry, but because of a 14- year -old lawsuit with the Jefferson Airplane's first manager, a suit that is still in litiga- tion. One of the law clerks assigned to the case was Bob Heyman, a Boston filmmaker whose varied credentials in- clude a Master's degree in cinema from Harvard. Very quickly, the two men be- came friends. About two years ago, they were sitting in the courtroom dur- ing a recess of the trial and Balin turned his head in disgust to Heyman over the frustrating and lengthy legal battle. "Hey, man," he said, "this thing is turn- ing into a real rock opera." "You know, Marty," said Heyman, "you might have something there." Which they did. So the two of them got together with another writer, Mike Var- ney, wrote 14 original songs, and put together a band of local rock and new wave musicians as performers.

Last November, the play was fi- nally staged at the Old Waldorf, a San Francisco nightclub. When Joe Buchwald, Balin's father and personal manager, invited executives from EMI records and films to the premiere, he asked if they had a video division. Luck- ily, EMI Videograms was one of the company's newest divisions and its president, Gary Dartnall, was on the prowl for product. Says Buchwald, "Dartnall liked it so much he wanted to make a deal right then." "Rock Justice" ran for 16 perform- ances and didn't net producers Buch- wald and Heyman a profit. They're hop- ing for financial justice when "Rock Justice" videocassettes and cast albums (and eventually videodiscs) start ringing up retail sales and pump- ing economic life into the new art form of video rock. Meanwhile, Balin, Hey- man and Varney are now working on another rock -'n' -roll satire called "Planet of the Enchained Guitarists," in which robot musicians lock up all the live guitarists and use them as slaves. Balin has only one regret from his superstar past: he has mis- placed the videotapes from those '60s parties. "I just wish

I had saved them," he sighs. He also has a very real fear. Balin refused to play the role of these two pages are scenes from "Rock Jus- t,ce ": Top, the defendant, played by Jesse Brad- victimized rock singer in "Rock Justice." man, drifts into a dream in which he's on trial for "He was very superstitious about play- not having a hit record. Above, Dyan Buckelew, as ing the part of the singer without a hit," "Ms. Justice," sings on the defendant's behalf, recalls Heyman. And who can blame as does Nancy Wenstrom, far left, who portrays him? Balin has a solo album in the his girl friend. Left, "the critic, "played by Bill works and is very concerned that life Spooner, testifies for the prosecution with a song might imitate art. called "This Punk Makes Me Puke."

PANORAMA 73

www.americanradiohistory.com www.americanradiohistory.com Those Devilish Machines (yet the Lasi Laugh Elaborate sound sweeteners can bring the miracle of laughter to the worst of jokes By MERRILL SHINDLER

a audience. "Laugh, and the world laughs with "Even while the dust moves / There shows in front of studio a great idea that was! The you /Weep, and you weep alone." rises the hidden laughter...." What truly would give the shows "Solitude," by Ella Wheeler Wilcox. - "Four Quartets, " by T.S. Eliot - something akin to presence, and the There is a fever dream that, at one A journey into the soft underbelly of their Stromberg- time or another, attacks nearly network yock machinery is like a visit folks crowded around the feeling every producer, associate pro- with the euphemism that devoured Carlson at home would get themselves were actually in ducer, scriptwriter and flack in the tele- Cleveland. These days, all that fiddling that they It would be like vision industry. The dream goes like about with the laugh track is called the studio audience. participatory radio. It was a true stroke this: In the interest of truth, aesthetic "audio postproduction." Officially, that brilliance. It was also, according to and otherwise, in television produc- is. Less officially, the commonly ac- of tions, the Federal Communications cepted parlance is "sweetening." No- the late Fred Allen, "The worst thing Commission decides to ban the use of body, but nobody, worth their Emmy that ever happened to radio. Some- "sweetened" audio tracks on situation hopes would ever be caught calling body like Eddie Cantor brought these comedies. As a result, the industry is those amplified tee -hee's, ha -ha's and hordes of cackling geese in because he gripped by a panic as persistent as the har- dee -har -har's anything as crass as couldn't work without imbeciles laugh- Veg -O -Matic ads after midnight. Sud- "canned laughter." And there's a good ing at his jokes." denly, one -liners, sight gags, pratfalls, reason for this simple distinction. double takes, slow burns, the dreadful Though canned laughter once lived, it's It was an obvious and quick leap of anticipation -all the tricks of the long since chortled its way into s well - faith from using live radio audi- trade -must really work. deserved grave. The laughter you hear ences to using live television audi- Shows like He //o, Larry and Pink on these days isn't so much ences. And it all began so innocently. Lady have to stand on their own frail "canned" as "freeze-dried." And the As Harry Ackerman, developer of the laugh lines! Donny and Marie have to road laughter has taken to its present original / Love Lucy show, said some try to make a real audience laugh! state is no laughing matter. years ago, "I learned that Lucy was When Gary Coleman runs one up the 'dead' on a bare sound stage, so I in- old flagpole and nobody salutes, In the beginning -the beginning, in sisted that we film in front of an audi- there's no artificially enhanced laugh this case, being radio -there were ence. It was for the performers' benefit track to help him out! no laugh tracks at all. Just Amos 'n' at first, though, of course, we recorded When this dream attacks, television Andy or Stoopnagle & Budd or Easy the audience reaction and learned to executives have been known to wake Aces, broadcast in a pristine, laughless 'sweeten' it when necessary." up with a cold sweat drenching their condition. If you wanted to laugh, you In time, that innocently added laugh brows, the sour taste of sure Nielsen did so in the presence of your own fam- track - dropped in,really, justas anafter- death in their mouths. Laugh, and the ily, in the privacy of your own home, thought - began to become more and world laughs with you...lose your Niel- without any prompting except for the more important. You could say that the sen share and you weep alone. jokes themselves, which were so good tail began to wag the dog, or the horse you couldn't help but laugh. was put before the cart, or some such Merrill Shindier is the film critic for Los An- Then, somebody or other came up cliché, but what it really came down to geles magazine and a free -lance writer. with the bright idea of doing radio was that people really began to need PANORAMA 75

www.americanradiohistory.com "We're not just adding laughter. Mostly, what we're

those laughs to know what was funny years ago. Inside the Douglass Laff Box always breaks us up." ( "Edna" is used and what was just filler between the is a series of tape loops, each contain- for mixing -room purposes only and is guffaws. The laugh tracks were ing several laughs; by one estimate, never heard on the air.) cranked up to incredible levels on the machine contains 32 tapes with 10 shows like The Phil Silvers Show and laughs per tape. By mixing them to- .1ccording to Marty Cohan, a pro- Our Miss Brooks. Engineers began to gether in their various permutations, , ducer of Diff'rent Strokes: "We dial the live audience out completely the Douglasses are able to produce lit- sweeten only to smooth; we use the ac- and insert canned audiences. Live erally hundreds of thousands of dif- tual laughs from the audience. We do audiences really didn't sound...live ferent laughs to augment audience two audience -reaction tracks -from enough. We were finally hooked -the laugh tracks, and to cover up edits in the dress show and the air show. That only cachinnation we could accept was scenes. Though the visuals in a scene way we're able to rebuild a scene from the type that was filtered through a vir- can be cut at any point, the audio track the ground up, if necessary, with the tual Rube Goldberg device of tubes, has to be smoothed out so laughs best reading coupled with the best au- dials, widgets, gidgets and gadgets. We don't end abruptly, and that's one of dience reaction." had created a monster called canned sweetening's main technical functions. "Sweetening has a lot of functions," laughter, and it loved us and we loved "Canned laughter is primitive," says says John Anderson, a veteran of Fern - it. Until the times, they began a- chang- Bob Douglass. "It's too loud; it lasts too wood 2 -Night and Mary Hartman, ing. long; it doesn't begin and end realisti- Mary Hartman. "For us, its main pur- cally, with a few individual laughs. It's pose is to enhance the quality of laugh- Not unlike those classic radio always a big audience, already in full ter. Sometimes the laughter from the shows that used a studio audi- laughter, faded up and down. It's the studio audience will sound phony be- ence, the early television sitcoms could same sound over and over again. It's cause it doesn't have the presence we get away with canned laughter be- not what we do." need. So we add the walla- sounds cause television was young and inno- that give the laughter more presence, cent and most everything seemed "Laughter appears to stand in need more resonance; you know, things like pretty funny. But as home audiences of an echo." the sound of the audience rustling, the matured, those great cackling caco- -Philosopher Henri Bergson air conditioner, people chewing gum." phonies became less and less believ- I'm sitting in the sweetening room at Tamara lets her fingers dance across able. So the technology of laughter Square in Los Angeles the keyboard, and all of a sudden the began to catch up with our, by now, watching Diff'rent Strokes associate room is filled with the walla of tiny, well- nurtured need for laugh cues. The producer John Maxwell Anderson and nearly imperceptible sounds - people MacKenzie Multiple Channel Program MetroTape West engineers Roger Von - fidgeting in their seats, a few muffled Repeater, which could reproduce ier and Tamara Johnson "tickle" the coughs, air moving and, who knows, sounds ranging from thunder and rain laughs behind chipmunk -cheeked maybe even the sounds of eyelids to gunfire and car crashes, along with Gary Coleman. The three are talking a blinking, food being digested and laughter, fed that need, as did the more very strange language. "That's nice blood pumping. Walla can be very sub- subtle Laff (sic) Box, developed by walla," says Tamara, as she fiddles with tle. Charley Douglass and his son Bob. the sweetening machine in front of her. Tamara hits a few more buttons, and Charley Douglass came up with the The machine consists of a rack of car- the audience walla is replaced by res- idea for his Laff Box when he was work- tridge players run through a miniature taurant walla: glasses clink; a waiter ing in the Electronic Laughter Depart- mixing board. Tamara's left hand can be heard saying something about ment at CBS back in the mid -Fifties. dances over a small keyboard, activat- champagne; forks, knives, spoons, Neither Charley nor Bob is partial to in- ing a variety of the cartridges in the ma- dishware, all meld into the white noise terviews. Responding to a request for chine, while her right hand adjusts (in of restaurants. "That's pretty nice res- an interview some years ago, Charley her terms, "tickles ") the volume. taurant walla, don't you think ?" asks Ta- remarked, "I won't even talk about why mara. I can't help but agree. I won't talk." More recently, Bob said, The cartridges in the machines In his copy of the script for this partic- "We've found that articles hurt us. Peo- have labels on them reading ular episode of Diff'rent Strokes, John ple say it's that bad canned laughter things like "Small Walla Walla," "Large Anderson has made marks ranging that's ruining television. We find it's Walla Walla," "Casa de Lungs," "Mu- from 1 to 3. The numbers represent the better if people don't know about us, if cosa Manor," "Garbage- Disposal Dirty" level of laugh appropriate to the joke: we stay in the background and are only and, simply, "Edna." The labels repre- 1 is a small chuckle, 3 a big guffaw. known in the industry. There are pro- sent Tamara's own private code for the Tamara inserts a variety of cartridges ducers out there that don't want the stacked -up sounds on the tape car- with laughs from the taping of that epi- public to know that they have their tridge. "Walla Walla, " small and large, sode of Diff'rent Strokes. "It's very im- shows sweetened and would cancel are ambient audience sounds in vary- portant to use the tracks from the show our service if their names were used" ing degrees of intensity; "Casa de you're sweetening," she says. "Dif- Sweetening is such a standard rou- Lungs" and "Mucosa Manor" are both ferent audiences have very different tine in the television industry that it's tapes of coughs used to disguise prob- laughs. Diff'rent Strokes attracts a doubtful anyone would be more than lems on the audio track. "Garbage -Dis- young black audience. Their laughs mildly miffed to be singled out as a posal Dirty" is just that, the sound of a don't have much in common with a user. And, frankly, there are very good garbage disposal being turned on; it game -show audience's. If you use the arguments for sweetening. What pro- can cover any mistake. And "Edna "? right audience, the sweetening won't fessional sweeteners like the Doug - Well, Tamara will only say that that's "a take away from the show." lasses do is a far cry from those un- private joke, a tape that's tossed in oc- At one point during the sweetening godly screeching cackles of nearly 30 casionally when the job gets crazy. It session, a scene is played in which

76 JULY 1980

www.americanradiohistory.com doing is cleaning up after other people's mistakes."

Gary Coleman quips to Conrad Bain, PANORAMA interview, M *A *S *H's who really objects to sweetened laugh- "England...isn't that where they talk noted, "I get a number of let- ter? It seems as if every three months funny ?" To which Bain replies, "No, ters every year from people who com- there's an article by some journalist on that's the Bronx!" The laughs are plain about the laugh track -but, inter- the sweetening malaise, and everyone meager. The script calls for a 2. Tamara, estingly, a number of them have says, 'Oh, there must be a problem.' Roger and John go over the tape per- enjoyed the show for years and think There is no problem! To me, it's a dead haps a dozen times, boosting the that we just started a laugh track this issue." laughter each time. By the end, the au- season. They suddenly become aware Dead as it may be to those within the dience is whooping, and I find myself that there's a laugh track on one epi- industry, there's still a vein of indepen- laughing along, too. The laughter is in- sode and think that we started some- dence within the selective television - sidiously infectious: it's like hitting your thing new. I think the reason for that is viewing community that objects to knee with a small rubber mallet- that we have always kept the laugh being led. But why is it that laughter there's really no alternative but to laugh track very low, and very, very quiet, seems to be the only emotion we have with the laughter. very, very low -key, as unobtrusive as to be led to? "When you have a very "People are so defensive about we can make it. It's only there because tender scene," says David Fein, "like the sweetening," says John, "because they the network, as all three networks do, scene where Brian is dying of cancer in want to believe the shows should stand considers it to be essential to a pro- "Brian's Song," you should hear whim- on their own merits and shouldn't need gram that's mainly funny." pering in the background. That's sup- sweetening. But we're not just adding M *A *S *H, of course, is also an ex- posed to be audience response, right? indiscriminate laughter. We act with a ception to most sitcom rules. First, in If the purpose of canned laughter is to great deal of integrity. Mostly, what many ways, it isn't a situation comedy duplicate audience response to help we're doing is cleaning up aftér other at all, but rather a dramatic series that them enjoy the show more, why people's mistakes." happens to be funny. Second, the show doesn't that apply to crying? If the pur- "What he's trying to say," says Ta- is not filmed in front of a live audience pose of canned laughter is to make you mara, "is a lot of horses walk in front of because of its many location shots, so feel safe in laughing, why doesn't the us." its laughs really do come out of a can. same rule apply to other emotions ?" Third, no matter how funny the operat- "He laughs best who laughs last." ing -room scenes are, no laugh track is Iis a question that goes back to Ella - "The Country House," by Sir John used there. The O.R. has been literally Wheeler Wilcox for an answer. Vanbrugh sterilized of laughter. Which brings up Truly, if you laugh, the world laughs the curious question of why it seems to with you; if you weep, you weep alone. bviously, the laugh track is with be only sweetening with laughter that's Laugh tracks help us feel comfortable (1, us to stay. No quantity of self - viewed critically? in laughter; they make the act socially flagellation or moral indignation is "When a car crashes in a scene;" says acceptable rather than slightly distaste- going to chase those boffo guffaws producer David Fein, "and the noise of ful and mildly maniacal. Laugh tracks away from the lead balloons and failed the crash is sweetened, that's not a are our friends. The only real problem gags of sitcomland. Even television's problem. But when laughter is sweet- with them is that, sometimes, it's hard few iconoclasts accept the inevitability ened, that is a problem. I don't under- to tell whether it's the audience or the of the prepackaged chortle. In a recent stand why that is. After all, who is it show that needs them the most.

4 .. ar'': -; Just for a laugh: engineers for Metro Tape West work with sophisticated dubbing equipment at Metromedia Square to create a laugh track for a commercial.

PANORAMA 77

www.americanradiohistory.com 1not her Day, Another Tantrmn

www.americanradiohistory.com Iack Klugman is riding Quincy's writers for better scripts By SAM MERRILL I promising young gymnast in "OK, we'll talk about it. We'll redo the has been an almost unrelenting night- peak condition has collapsed scene. Let's just calm down now. OK, mare," Klugman says simply. "And I 1 and died of an apparent heart Jack? OK? Maybe we should break for won't wake up until my contract ex- attack during a routine training exer- lunch first." pires in 1982" Quincy may be Jack he cise. It's a run -of- the -mill case for the "Another day, another tantrum," Klugman's personal nightmare, but Los Angeles County Coroner's Office. mumbles a soundman as he closes an has made sure to spread the suffering Yet one of the medical examiners, a aluminum case full of electronic gear. around. "That show has gone through man named Quincy, suspects foul play. "Ah, come on," says the technician more producers than any series in TV Perhaps, he theorizes, the coach has next to him. "Jack's mellowed a lot history," claims one former network ex- been feeding amphetamines to her ath- since his last walkout. Maybe it's his ecutive. letes. On his own initiative, Quincy horse." "The man has become a monster," begins investigating the case. Local bu- "Mellow ?" the soundman says sar- says a writer -producer at Universal reaucrats ensnare him in red tape. The castically. Then he smiles. "Yeah, who was in on the creation of Quincy. parents of the dead girl oppose an au- maybe you're right. Maybe now Jack's "On The Odd Couple, and before that, he topsy. Yet Quincy battles on. only a little less mellow than the Ayatol- on Harris Against the World, which Now a second teen -age gymnast lah Khomeini." also did for us, he was such a sweet- grows dizzy and disoriented while heart. Everybody loved him. But the working out on the balance beam. Her he two men head for the lunch minute we began this show, he vision blurs. She teeters precariously. T wagon, laughing easily. But for changed from Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde. Dr. Quincy, played by Jack Klugman, Jack Klugman, a highly respected actor Thank God he's futzing around with happens to be in the gym at that mo- who for 30 years enjoyed an enviable that horse now. They say it's calmed ment. He rushes up to the girl, begins reputation as one of the best -liked and him down a little. But I don't know for talking her down from the beam. But easiest -to- get -along -with people in the sure. I haven't been to the set in Klugman stops in mid -speech, squints industry, starring in NBC's hit series months. My analyst told me to stay into the camera with an expression of Quincy has been no laughing matter. away from him." withering contempt. This scene, which took place a few "Cut. What's the problem, Ja -" But months ago, has become common- robably a wise piece of advice. before the director can complete his place on the show's set. People who Klugman has characterized Quincy's question, Klugman launches into a new have known Klugman only on a profes- writers as "incompetents "and "gutless speech, this one totally ad lib. "I can't sional basis claim that he has become hacks," and, in retaliation, some of the play this scene. It's an embarrassment. "demanding" and "egomaniacal," a most influential members of the Writ- It doesn't make sense" "tyrant" whose reign of terror during ers Guild have boycotted him. During "But the script says -" the first three seasons of Quincy has, Quincy's first season, Klugman was so he an- "I don't give a goddamn about the according to one of the show's nu- dissatisfied with the scripts that script." Klugman thrusts his hands merous ex- producers, "left a trail of nounced plans to scour the colleges of deep in his pockets, plants his feet broken bodies that stretches from Bev- America for new writing talent. But his squarely on the matted gym floor. "It's erly Hills to Burbank." campus crusade fizzled, and for not gonna work. There's no logic, no But close friends insist Klugman months afterward scripts of any kind motivation." hasn't changed at all. "In the past, were difficult to come by. "Jack, please -" Jack's TV work has been almost exclu- Midway through Quincy's second "You tell me." One of the hands is out sively with class people on class proj- season, the animosity between Klug- of its pocket now, gesturing excitedly. ects," explains an actor whose friend- man and his employers reached a tasteless height of black -comic absurd- "Why is this happening? What am I ship with Klugman dates back to doing here ?" live -TV days in New York in the mid -Fif- ity. On Dec. 14, 1979, Klugman walked A row of faces stares back at Klug- ties. "Quincy was Jack's first taste of off the show and demanded to be re- man from the other side of the camera. regular, bread -and -butter schlock tele- leased from his contract on the No one speaks. vision, and he couldn't stand it. The grounds that his throat cancer had re- "I thought so. I'm walking out. I'm man went absolutely banana-brain." turned, rendering him incapable of calling the producer. Where's a "From the first day the Quincy pilot daily work (a malignant tumor had phone ?" went into production in 1977, this job been successfully removed from his PANORAMA 79

www.americanradiohistory.com larynx in 1974). Universal TV president wants is a quality show." that ending was consistent with the Don Sipes called Klugman's bluff, re- Through all the hysterics and pyro- characters, do you know what he fusing to release him without written technics, the firings, resignations, shat- said ?" Klugman pauses, peers down at confirmation of renewed malignancy tered egos and wildcat strikes, Quincy his plate. "Jesus, this stuff is awful. by a studio physician. Klugman de- has never really been ranked among What the hell am I eating here ?" clined to be examined and, after two television's most important programs. Klugman pushes the offending por- weeks of legal maneuvering, returned "That's because a good show begins tion aside with his plastic knife, returns to the set. "I was letting my ego get in with good people at the helm," Klug- to the story. "So anyway, what does the way," he told the press on Dec. 27. man explains over lunch served on a Glen Larson, this genius, this great dra- "From now on, I'll honor my contract to folding bridge table in the parking lot of matic producer, say to me? He says, the end -but only as an actor." the gymnastics club in which the cur- 'Don't worry, Jack. People don't even And there, in that final phrase, lies rent Quincy episode is shooting. "And notice those little details.' Little details? the key to the problem. "He keeps try- when this show began, those positions We were talking about the entire climax ing to be the star, the producer and the were occupied by incompetents." of the show. And later, when I wanted to story editor all at once -which he has Specifically, Klugman is referring to do an episode on this new technique neither the time nor the ability to do," Glen Larson, a Universal producer with for treating rape victims that was just says one writer, a self- described "vet- one of the most successful records in developed in a Dallas hospital, Larson eran of the Klugman Wars." Hollywood. His credits include looked me right in the eye and said, 'I'm McCloud, Switch, , not interested in that relevance crap'." One of the most accomplished Buck Rogers in the 25th Century and Glen Larson staunchly maintains producers Quincy has had is Hart to Hart. Quincy's central conceit, that conversation never took place. "It's Bob O'Neill, whose credits include an L.A. medical examiner who uses totally untrue. We never had any con- Wheels, The Last Convertible and sev- forensic medicine to solve crimes, was versations even vaguely resembling eral episodes of . He took over a solid premise for a mystery series. that. I'm appalled to hear that Jack the show in 1977, and although he NBC gave a quick go -ahead to develop would make such a statement, and I'd fared no better than the many produc- the concept. And at the time, Klugman like to hear him make it face to face. But ers who were to follow him, O'Neill re- was equally enthusiastic. "When Lar- then, Jack has always said things that quires no analyst to explain what hap- son first told me about the show, I come back to haunt him." pened. "Jack was demanding a certain thought it was great," Klugman admits. excellence that in the real world was So he signed a five -year series commit- s for the show's early script not possible to deliver. He was abso- ment for Quincy. That was the high 1 problems, the way Larson re- lutely correct in wanting this excel- point. After that things went downhill. members it, he never envisioned the lence. But the time wasn't there to con- "Glen Larson never gave a damn show as anything more than a bi- or struct stories with the social about the quality of the show," Klug- triweekly mystery special. "I pleaded significance he wanted." man charges. "But I guess his attitude with Jack not to accept the network's Scott Siegler, formerly the NBC is pro- typical of TV people today. Nobody's midseason order to go weekly, but I gram executive in charge of Quincy really against quality. If you can do it, guess money got in the way." Larson and now vice president of dramatic de- fine. If not, just make your air date and also claims Klugman never realized velopment at CBS, takes a broader who cares ?" how difficult it would be to turn out a view of the situation. "People like Jack, good Quincy script week after week. Alan Alda and Michael Landon are Universal and NBC quickly discov- "Jack's motives were always honor- among a small group of actors with a ered that Klugman does care, able. He'd been associated with some personal vision of what this medium and he is willing to miss air dates rather very fine drama in the past and that's all to be. The is ought problem that vision- than perform in an episode that he con- he wanted to do here. But I don't think aries are notoriously poor bureaucrats. siders "crap." Klugman and Larson had 'Death of a Salesman' can be written on I mean, most guys, when they reach their first confrontation early- during a weekend." Jack's position of power, aren't inter- production of the Quincy pilot. Even Yet Klugman insists Larson did use ested in social issues any more. Jack now, three years and many walkouts the term "relevance crap," and adds, could be doing conventional mysteries later, Klugman still becomes visibly agi- "That's when I knew I had to become and working nice, short hours. In fact, tated while recalling that incident. "It the boss on this show or I'd never be that's what everyone wants him to do. was a story about a psychopathic killer, able to live with myself. And you're But he won't. Instead, he wants to do a giant of a man who, the script said, only the boss if you're willing to blow shows about lead poisoning in ghetto murdered his first victim by 'breaking the job. I've always been that way, even apartments and he's working 18 hours the girl's back like a twig.' And do you when I was just starting out" a day. You can't knock him," Siegler know how they wanted it to end? I was The way Jack Klugman started out concludes. "But you can't work with supposed to punch the guy in the jaw goes a long way toward explaining his him, either." and knock him out. Can you imagine current attitudes. Born in South Phila- Another Klugman booster, perhaps that ?" Klugman saws angrily at his delphia in 1922, Klugman was intro- the most important one he has at the lunch, something small and gray that duced to theater by his older sister, moment, is Brandon Tartikoff, the has been deep -fried beyond recogni- Vetta, who used to take him to see the newly appointed president of NBC En- tion. "A 55- year -old Jewish doctor is WPA productions that traveled the tertainment. "I think Klugman is ter- supposed to knock out this 7 -foot country during the Depression. After rific;' Tartikoff says. "I mean, the guy is homicidal giant with one punch. Does serving in World War II, he studied act- screaming and working all hours and that make sense to you? Tell me." ing at Carnegie Tech on the GI Bill. But walking off the set -for what? Not Klugman is eating quickly now, swal- he was so anxious to turn professional, more money, like everybody else. Jack lowing heavily, talking between bites. he dropped out after only two years never even mentions money. All he "And when I told Larson I didn't think and moved to New York, where, for $7 a

80 JULY 1980

www.americanradiohistory.com Klugman feeds his colt Jaklin Klugman. "What l get from this horse," says Jack, "is tranquillity." week, he shared a room with another the producers -Fred Coe, Marty Man - The show ran for five years and every aspiring young actor, Charles Bronson. ulis, Susskind, Herb Brodkin - "People day was a creative day. "Charlie was very neat," Klugman re- who knew directing, acting, writing. "One time, Tony worked out this very members. "He taught me to iron." People who cared" That profound af- clever and beautiful piece of panto- Slowly, Klugman learned his craft by fection for producers who care about mime, and he gave it to me, because acting off- Broadway, in summer stock, their work, and a corresponding dis- that's the kind of guy he is. I happened studying hard when he wasn't per- taste for those who don't, are enduring to mention it to my agent, and he said, forming, working part time at the post mementos of Klugman's passage 'Better he should have given you a office and as a house painter to pay the through the Golden Age of television. check.' That's the attitude people have bills. When no work was available, he During a movie career that included out here. Pure schlock. But I was lucky sold his blood. performances in "Twelve Angry Men," to be working with people I really "Days of Wine and Roses" and "Good- loved." lugman's breakthrough came bye, Columbus," and a varied Broad h when he was hired to under- way career that once even required him Then, in 1977, Jack Klugman's study the part of Doc in the Broadway to sing- opposite Ethel Merman in luck ran out. "It was bound to production of "Mr. Roberts," a role he "Gypsy " - Klugman always tried to happen, I suppose," he muses, carrying later assumed when Henry Fonda took sign on only with those production his lunch tray to the trash can, then the show on the road. When he re- people he felt he could trust and re- pausing. "Those éclairs really look turned to New York, live TV was begin- spect. good, don't they? ...Naw, I'm not ning to happen and Jack Klugman hap- Even when he came to Hollywood to gonna do it." He dumps his tray and pened with it. He began his career do series television, he did it only be- laughs. "During hiatus, I'm shooting a during TV's "Golden Age," made his cause he liked the people involved. "On film where I have this nude scene with a reputation, went on to play more than The Odd Couple, everybody was young Italian actress, so now I'm diet- 400 character roles and eventually won great," Klugman says, the warm glow ing. For my health, I can never lose a three Emmys (one for a part on the The of nostalgia spreading across his face. pound. But for a part, no problem. It Defenders and two for The Odd Cou- was the same way with cigarettes. I ple). "The Golden Age of television The producer, Garry Marshall, smoked for 40 years. Even when I got really was golden," Klugman maintains. was our daddy. When some- cancer I couldn't quit. But when the "We had great writers, great directors thing was wrong, he'd fix it. The writ- doctors said that whether or not they -the variety of a repertory company, ers, Jerry Belson and Harvey Miller, cured me, I'd never act again if I kept full rehearsals and the big audiences were wonderful people, and very tal- smoking because the irritated tissues you can only get on national TV." ented. And was the most would leave me permanently hoarse, I But most of all, Klugman remembers unselfish costar I've ever worked with. threw my cigarettes away and haven't

PANORAMA 81

www.americanradiohistory.com picked up another in one seven years. the end of his racing days and he had Crazy, huh ?" only one horse left, a cheap one that Perhaps, but consistent with Klug- he'd entered in a $9000 claimer. The man's attitude about his career. Which horse won and Fred danced all the way is why being locked into a five -year down the aisle and right into the win- contract on a show that has never really ner's circle. I said, 'What are you getting lived up to his expectations has eaten so excited about ?' and he told me, him alive. But now Klugman has a re- 'Jack, if you ever own a horse, you'll un- lease for his anxieties that seems to be derstand that even the cheapest race in working. He bought a horse low - -a the world feels better to win than an priced, nothing -special mare -and Oscar" mated her, just for fun, with a horse of At Santa Anita on the Big Day, the similarly modest racing heritage. The San Vicente is eighth on the card and result was one little gray colt, named will not go off until after 4 P.M. But Klug- Jaklin Klugman because at birth Klug- man, accompanied by an assortment man mistook it for a filly. "You never of siblings and in -laws, arrives at noon. heard of a man committing suicide "Why miss seven perfectly good op- who owns a yearling," Klugman says. "Jack's a perfectionist," says a friend, "and portunities to lose money ?" he asks, he can't deal with people who slide entering his customary box on the J aklin Klugman won four of his through things." clubhouse tier. 0 first five races. (Ultimately, as the world now girl knows, the colt made it learn to act ?... My God, the boom is s soon as his family is seated, to Churchill Downs in Louisville, where showing. Pan out.... Awful....I can't 1 Klugman is up again, striding he ran in third the 1980 Kentucky look....Cut." He peers down at his away toward the ticket windows in Derby.) "Until now, my vocation and av- watch, then up again. "OK, print it." The search of his buddies and the first ac- ocation were the same," Klugman con- gathered throng laughs appreciatively, tion of the day. The friends Klugman tinues. "I never had any real diversions. but all Klugman can muster is a watery meets in the open space between bet- But ... this is going to sound crazy, but half -smile. Turning to a friend, he mur- ting windows and the snack bar are not yesterday I went to see the horse work murs resignedly, "To them it's a joke. To exactly your archetypal Hollywood out. Then they washed him. I just me it's a stood memoir." high rollers. One, "Degenerate Al," a there, staring, like a kid. And I was studio chauffeur who hangs onto Klug- happy. I mean, can you imagine a `hooting resumes peacefully, but man for an extra moment, wheedles, grown man gaining deep personal around two o'clock the activity "Hey, what do you say, Jack? I really feel tranquillity from watching a horse take a between) takes changes abruptly. That's good about that nine horse in the first." bath? But I I did, and when drove home, when John Dominguez, the co -owner Klugman slips him a 10. I turned on the radio and sang along of Jaklin Klugman, arrives on the set. "Jack is the sweetest, most generous with Frank Sinatra." Dominguez, a tall, distinguished -look- man in the world," says Bob Bean, a The crew is just starting to set up the ing gentleman from Reno, carries the longtime Klugman gambling buddy next shot. Klugman strides off toward Daily Racing Form containing the day's who breeds racing dogs in Las Vegas his trailer. A group friends of and some card at Santa Anita, and the off -camera but came down to L.A. to be with his of the younger actors tag along. Klug- Klugman becomes even more ani- friend for the San Vicente. When Klug- man is outgoing and warm with every- mated than the tireless Dr. Quincy. Do- man is in Vegas, he and Bean are one, but his relationship with the minguez and Klugman huddle pri- famous for sequestering themselves in younger actors is conspicuously lack- vately. Notes are scribbled. Stubby the Rosebowl Horse Room and betting ing in intimacy. pencils are tapped nervously against on everything that moves within a 24- Alone in his trailer, Klugman ex- the Racing Form. Heads nod and shake. hour period. "Jack is the kind of man plains. "I don't talk much to the young Then Klugman disappears into a pri- who will do anything, absolutely any- people in this business because they're vate office to place a long- distance call. thing for people. Sometimes, if you from a different world. Ask a young "That Jack is a good boy," quips a tech- really care about him, you have to stop actor what he did on a certain show nician in a Mickey Mouse T- shirt. "No him from giving." and he'll say, 'I did four days' or 'I did matter how busy he is, he always finds Which is probably true. Although he seven pages.' So I'll say, 'But what did time to call his sick aunt in Las Vegas." has never affixed his name to any spe- you do? What was the role ?' And he'll During a later break, Klugman col- cific charity, as others in show business say, 'I told you. I did seven pages.' It's lapses into a director's chair. He looks at have been accused of doing for selfish hopeless." his watch. "Only two more shooting purposes, Klugman has quietly accu- Then Klugman is called. When he days until the San Vicente," he mum- mulated an impressive résumé of hu- leaves the trailer, the crowd gathers bles. "I don't know if I can make it." manitarian work for such organizations again. "Hey, want to see my impression Klugman is referring to the San Vicente as the Myasthenia Gravis Foundation, of a TV director ?" he asks. Of course, Stakes,a $60,000 -added handicap race the Sunair Home for Asthmatic Chil- everyone does. Klugman begins this for 3- year -olds at Santa Anita in which dren and the National Easter Seal Cam- improvisation with an exaggerated his horse is entered. It's a major Febru- paign. But perhaps the best example of cranking- the -camera twirl of his right ary race, against top competition, and if Klugman's generous and trusting na- hand. "Rolling ... OK, action!" Then the Jaklin Klugman can win it, he will be ture is the curious fact that 2s late as rubber face scrunches up to the expres- well on his way toward the Kentucky 1977, three years after he and actress sion of a man who has just bitten into Derby in May. "So far, I've been sleep- Brett Somers separated, the two were what he thought was a fresh cucumber ing OK," Klugman says. "But over the still sharing a joint checking account. but turned out to be a very sour pickle. next few nights....I once went to the So how does one reconcile these two "Oh, terrible, terrible....Wheréd that track with Fred Astaire. It was toward seemingly disparate Jack Klugmans:

82 JULY 1980

www.americanradiohistory.com the devoted friend and humanitarian, and the temperamental actor? Bob Bean says the answer is simple. "Jack's a perfectionist, and there's no way he Video from the can deal with people who just kind of slide through things. I don't know these producers Jack is supposedly feuding film folks? with, but I guarantee I know exactly what they're like. People who don't care about anything. People who are just You sliding through." betcha! The eighth race has the big crowd If you thought Blackhawk Films was buzzing from the moment the horses just films, then you should get to know us emerge from the paddock. Jaklin Klug- man is the overwhelming favorite. Ev- better. Especially if you own a video- eryone in the house is betting on this cassette player. dappled -gray colt with a famous name That's right, Blackhawk offers a wide and four victories in his five races. At post time the odds are 2 to 5. Klugman, selection of classic and contemporary too nervous to sit with his family -or to home entertainment programs for your sit at all -moves off and stands alone videocassette player, in addition to our under the grandstand. well -known film offering. (No "X ", of The horses are in the gate. Then a delay. Number four, Jaklin Klugman, is course.) acting up. Three times the gray colt is To find out about the whole selection, guided into his stall and three times he write for our video catalog; Just send a rebels. Under the grandstand, a close friend murmurs, "They should pull dollar to the address below. If you're him. Scratch him now. He's not ready to equipped for films, write for our film run." Klugman says nothing. catalog. Also a dollar. Then they're off. Moving through the backstretch, the horse Klugman pri- vately calls Crazy Eyes holds tight to the Blackhawk rail, only a length and a half behind the Dept. 5145 1235 W. 5th St. leader. The big crowd is pleased, but Davenport, Iowa 52808 Klugman isn't. "We were supposed to go to the front," he says. The gray horse holds his position through the turn, then makes his move. The fans rise, clap, stomp and howl as Jaklin Klug- DON'T LET INFLATION man pulls even with the leaders. But then, with one furlong to go, he falters, and drops back. Four horses cross the finish line ahead of him.

Jack Klugman stands silent and alone. No one dares approach him. Then he leaves for the barn. The next morning, Klugman is back on the set. Everyone treats him like a brittle object, but he seems entirely re- covered from the day before. He jokes with the crew, complains about some dialogue, passes on the éclairs and, after lunch, makes a private call to his sick aunt in Las Vegas. Finally, some- body mentions how sorry he is, you know, about yesterday. Klugman looks up from his script. "What the hell ?" he begins. "The thing I Use your get from that horse isn't winning or "Dollars and Sense:' money. It's tranquillity. What I get is away from here. Yesterday was Write for this ...Ahhh..." That backhand wave again. Then a smile. Then a question. free booklet, "They're giving him a bath after his Pueblo, Colorado workout on Saturday. I'm going to 81009. watch. Want to come ?" is

A pubac service message of The Advertising Council and The u S Departments of Agncuttum. Commerce. Labor and eeasury Presented by this magazine

www.americanradiohistory.com Te1evisions future makes a great present. At this very moment you are holding the future of television in your hands. "Panorama-Television Today and Tomorrow?' Why not share it with some of your friends and relatives? Give them a gift subscription. 12 monthly issues will bring them closer to hundreds of issues that touch their lives. They'll learn more about television and how it affects everything from the news to the arts. From the sports arena to the political arena. They'll get a behind- the -scenes look at the people and the shows. And what's in store for their TV screens. If someone you love loves television, give Panorama as a present. They'll thank you. And thank you. And thank you. And thank you....

Television today and tomorrow IF The magazine to watch.

C Triangle Communications Inc. 1980.

www.americanradiohistory.com '17 IIS MONTI I JUN 1981)

WHAT'S HAPPENING

continued from page 11 the final episode was telecast, Italy, with a cast of 100. Mark mere three years. However, that J.R. was going to be shot, Shivas, who was responsible there were ominous signs of a the fact was announced on for Henry VIII and Casanova, falling off in popularity at radio news bulletins along is producing. home, and everything with updates from Afghani- pointed to an assault on a new stan and Rhodesia. And a visit Art on camera. BBC photog- market across the Pacific. to London by Larry Hagman raphers have been traveling Alas, the mission aborted. was splashed on the front to art museums around the Americans responded to Pink pages of every newspaper. A world to photograph the stars Lady as they do to Space In- rock group, the Wurzels, of 100 Great Paintings, a series vaders, wiping them off the brought out a disc with "I Love that will be seen here later this screen within seconds of the J.R." on the A side and "I Hate year. initial threat. Even guest stars Larry Hagman: Britons go J.R." on the B side; the disc Described as one of the like and Donny bonkers over J. R. was an instant hit. longest series ever shown in Osmond failed to save the Reviewers had a field day. Britain, it will consist of 10010 - winsome Mie and Kei from Clive James, TV critic of the minute programs, each of ratings extinction. Observer, admitted that he which will focus on a single When the duo returned was enslaved by the series; he masterpiece. Artists repre- home, rumors abounded that had tried to go cold turkey, but sented will range from Giotto Pink Lady's next big media had failed. "I went out to din- to Francis Bacon. The works event would be professional ner and did my best not to will be presented by contem- divorce, Mie and Kei going think of the hundred different porary painters such as David their separate ways. But the directions in which Sue Ellen Hockney, or art critics such as two singers vehemently de- can move her mouth. But ev- Sir Hugh Casson. nied any such plan. erybody at the table had a vid- So far, the greatest technical The latest gossip is that Pink eotape running at home.... challenge to the photogra- Lady has been courted by The grim fact is that we live in phers has been Picasso's China. Headline writers are al- a Dallas culture. If you try to giant "Guernica" canvas in ready sharpening their pen- get off it, people will try to get New York's Museum of Mod- cils: "Japanese bombing in you back on. They sneak up ern Art. The work, 25 feet by People's Republic." behind you and start seem- 11, isn't a one -shot subject. ingly harmless discussions Heavy duty. Is it possible to about whether Lucy is the television and maintain TOKYO watch world's oldest schoolgirl. Be- law and order at the same fore you know where you are, time? According to a growing you're raving." John Fujii reporting number of city police author- The incurably addicted ities here, the answer is no. have so far discovered only The superintendent of police one way to mitigate the Faded pink. Two young Japa- in Kyoto has proposed that TV agonies of withdrawal: they nese women returned from sets be removed from police tune in at prime time on Satur- the U.S.A. earlier this year stations and from the street - day to Knots Landing. with their vision of America corner observation boxes that Is Red China ready for tarnished. Pink Lady, are common in this country, Mie: badly Pink Lady? Hang the expense. Despite a one of Japan's most success- on the grounds that television massive belt- tightening ful pop duos of recent years, distracts police officers from operation at the BBC, aimed at had set off to Hollywood in the their duty. And in the cities of saving $300 million in the next confident expectation of win- Osaka and Kobe, severe re- two years, the production of ning a whole new world of ad- strictions on viewing have one of the costliest drama mirers from the prime -time been imposed. series ever made is being al- NBC variety show that was to The lower ranks have so far lowed to proceed. The Bor- carry their name. accepted the deprivation with- gias will be a 10 -part history of Behind them lay Japanese out protest; the compelling the 15th -century Spanish -Ital- sales of 23 million records that counterargument that TV cop ian family that spawned had grossed $100 million -a shows are part of their contin- popes, temporal autocrats stunning achievement for a uing professional education and the notorious Lucrezia. couple of 21- year -olds who has apparently not occurred The series is being shot in had been in the business a to them.

PANORAMA 85

www.americanradiohistory.com MIS MONTH

«DEO .VSSE7TES Keith Carradine, John Belushi. Two for the Road (19671-Au- NEW (Magnetic Video Corp.; drey Hepburn and Albert Fin- RELEASES $44.95) (R) ney in a sweet/sour explora- tion of love, set against 011y 011y Oxen Free (1978) - picturesque southern France. MOVIES An eccentric junkyard owner (Katharine Hepburn) helps (Magnetic Video Corp.; $44.95) (G) two boys repair a hot -air bal- 55 Days at Peking (1963) - loon and joins their adventur- Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner ous cross -country flight. With Some movie descriptions and in a courtesy story of Kevin McKenzie. (Time Life of TV Guide maga- the 1900 Boxer zine. Ratings Rebellion. Video Club; $34.95) (G) are those as- (Time Life Video Club; signed by the Motion Picture $54.95) Outrageous! (1977) -A star is Association of America for Ta/ia Shire: "Old Boyfriends. " born when a transvestite hair- theatrical showings. Foreign Correspondent dresser, encouraged by his (1940) -Alfred Hitchcock ad- schizophrenic roommate, venture about an American enters show biz as a female SPECIALS newsman in Europe who wit- impersonator. Craig Russell, nesses the kidnaping of a dip- Hollis McLaren. (Time Life Jack Nicklaus Sports Clinic - lomat. Joel McCrea, Laraine Video Club; $39.95) (R) Golfing tips from the legend- Day. (Time Life Video Club; ary pro. (Magnetic Video $39.95) Picnic at Hanging Rock Corp.; $34.95) (1979)- Terror takes over a The Happy Hooker (19771-A summer outing when three Tennis Everyone - Billie Jean watered -down version of Xa- young women and their chap- King demonstrates her win- viera Hollander's steamy erone vanish. Rachel Roberts, ning techniques in five les- memoirs, played for laughs. Dominic Guard. (Time Life sons. (Magnetic Video Corp.; Lynn Redgrave, Jean -Pierre Video Club; $39.95) $54.95) Aumont. (Time Life Video Room at the Top (1958) Club; $34.95) (R) - Simone Signoret in an adult Visions of Eight -Eight por- study of a ruthless social traits of the 1972 Summer The Heartbreak Kid (19721 -A climber (Laurence Harvey) in Olympics through the eyes of bittersweet story about hon- a British industrial town. With eight film directors. (Time Life eymooners (Charles Grodin, Hermione Baddeley. Video Club; $39.95) Jeannie Berlin) whose mar- (Mag- netic Video Corp.; $44.95) riage is short -circuited by Cy- bill Shepherd. (Magnetic Readers wishing to obtain more Seven Beauties (1975) -Lina information from the distributors Video Corp.; $54.95) (PG) Wertmuller's offbeat look at of the above -listed movies and war and survival through the specials may do so at these ad- Joe (19701-A chilling /comic eyes of a second -rate Italian dresses: Magnetic Video Corp., study of a factory worker gangster. Giancarlo Giannini, 23434 Industrial Park Court, (Peter Boyle) who hates liber- Shirley Stoler. (Time Life Farmington Hills, Mich. 48024; als Time Life Video Club, Harrisburg, and social workers. With Video Club; $44.95) (R) Dennis Patrick, Susan Saran - Pa. 17105; Video Tape Network, 115 E. 62nd St., New York, N.Y. don. (Time Life Video Club; Sleuth (1972)- Laurence Oliv- Michael Caine: '.Sinuth " 10021. $34.95) (R) ier and Michael Caine in the film based on Broadway's hit March of the Wooden Sol- about deadly cat -and -mouse diers (19341-Stan Laurel and games between a writer and Oliver Hardy try to help a his wife's lover. (Magnetic widow threatened with evic- Video Corp.; $74.95) (PG) tion, in a musical based on Victor Herbert's operetta. Till Marriage Do Us Part A listing of some of the re- (Video Tape Network; $59.95) (19751- Comedy with Laura cently published gooks deal- Antonelli as a sexually awak- ing with television. Old Boyfriends (1979) -Talia ening, convent -bred young Shire as a psychologist who Sicilian woman who acciden- sets out to seek affection from tally marries her own brother. The Duping of the American former lovers following the With Alberto Lionello. (Time Voter: Dishonesty and Decep- loss of her husband. With Life Video Club; $44.95) (R) tion in Presidential Television

www.americanradiohistory.com JULY 1980

Advertising, by Robert Spero. Moguls: Inside the Business introducing new talent for 23 (Lippincott & Crowell; of Show Business, by Michael years (see excerpt, p. 68). $12.951-In a survey of 28 Pye. (Holt, Rinehart and Win- years of political commer- ston; $12.95)- Through looks NEW IN PAPERBACK cials, an advertising executive at the ascent of six entertain- Agnes Nixon's All My Chil- ment giants Stein, Wil- details the deceptive tech- -Jules dren, Book One: Tara and Phil- niques used in advertising for liam Paley, David Merrick, ip, by Rosemarie Santini. Eisenhower, Kennedy, John- Peter Guber, Trevor Nunn and (Jove; $2.25) -The first of a Nixon, Ford Robert Stigwood -Pye illus- son, and Carter. three -book series based on trates the changes the enter- the ABC -TV soap opera. tainment business has under- Look Now, Pay Later: The Rise gone. of Network Broadcasting, by Nothing Could Be Finer Than Laurence Bergreen. (Double- a Crisis That Is Minor in the day; $12.951-This critique of A Thousand Sundays: The Morning, by Charles Osgood. commercialism in TV traces Story of the Ed Sullivan (Holt, Rinehart and Winston; the industry's growth from its Show, by Jerry Bowles. (Put- $3.951-The 1979 best seller beginnings in radio to the nam; $9.95) -The story of containing CBS radio and tele- competition it now faces from how The Ed Sullivan Show vision personality Charles Os- cable and satellite TV. got started and succeeded in good's finest witticisms.

BEST SELLERS This list of the Top 20 prerecorded videocassettes is based on sales figures from a survey of retail outlets around the country.

1. "10" (19791- Featuring the 8. Dirty Harry (19711-Clint 15. Deep Throat (1972) - Eighties' first sex symbol, Bo Eastwood as a San Francisco Rated X. (Arrow Film & Video; Derek. (WCI Home Video; cop after a sniper. (WCI Home $99.50) $65) Video; $55) 16. Heaven Can Wait (197ß)- 2. Superman (1978) -A 9. Saturday Night Fever A professional quarterback superbudget film starring the (19771 -John Travolta stars as (Warren Beatty) is accidentally special effects. (WCI Home a hip -wiggling dancing summoned to Heaven before Video; $65) champ in a Brooklyn disco. his time. (Paramount Pictures; 3. Enter the Dragon (1973) - (Paramount Pictures; $59.95) $59.95) Bruce Lee's last film. (WCI 10. Debbie Does Dallas 17. The Deep (19771-Peter Home Video; $50) (1978) -Rated X. (VCX; Benchleÿ s tale of underwater 4. The Godfather (1972) $99.50) - treasure and adventure. Francis Ford Coppola's gang- 11. The Godfather, Part II Pictures Home ster epic about the rise and (1974) -More tales of the Cor- (Columbia Entertainment; $59.95) near -fall of the Corleones. leone family. (Paramount Pic- (Paramount Pictures; $79.95) tures; $79.95) 18. Flesh Gordon (1974) - 5. Grease (1978) -John Tra- 12. Emmanuelle (1974) - Rated X. (Media Home Enter- volta and Olivia Newton -John Rated X. (Columbia Pictures tainment; $59.95) in the film version of the hit Home Entertainment; $69.95) 19. Midnight Express (1978) 13. M *A *S *H Robert - musical. (Paramount Pictures; (1970)- An American student's brutal $59.95) Altman's antiwar farce that ordeal in a Turkish prison. 6. Halloween (1978) -Violent was turned into a TV series. Jacqueline Bisset: Stars In (Columbia Pictures Home about a knife -wielding (Magnetic Video Corp.; "The Deep." thriller Entertainment; $59.95) killer. (Media Home Entertain- $54.95) ment; $59.95) 14. Patton (19701- George C. 20. The French Connection 7. Blazing Saddles (1974) - Scott's Oscar -winning per- (19711-Gene Hackman and Mel Brooks' parody of Hol- formance as Gen. George Roy Scheider tackle a French lywood Westerns. (WCI Home Patton. (Magnetic Video smuggling ring. (Magnetic Video; $55) Corp.; $74.95) Video Corp.; $54.95) Precision Retail outlets participating in our survey include Nichols Electronics. Wichita, Kan . Northern Lights Video, Pacific Grove, Cal, Nand Associated Video. Houston, Audio Center, Honolulu, Audio Video Craft, Inc. Los Angeles. Beta Video. Bellwood, Ill Record Rind,vvous, Cleveland ioht.unl Sound. Ann Arbor Mich; .. Home Entertainment Club, Las Vegas, Brenda's Movie House. , Cinema Concepts. Red Fox, Elizabethville. Pa . Film Library .. ,m¢ Entertainment , The Corp . n Baltimore, Tele. Inc., Wethersfield, Conn., Columbia Video Systems, Highland Park. Ill , Concord Video Center. Center. Clovis, N M Sh "0 M,a TV Stamford, Conn. Conlon Services, Litchfield, Ill_ Cyclops Video, Sherman Oaks. Cal. Disco. video Systems. Richmond. V i .. ,. Denver, Video

, - tronics. Inc.. Cranbury N.J. Future World Video, Scottsdale. Ariz. Gillen Video. Staten Island, Audio Electronics. Willamsp0. . .. . - issettes, Etc Lob N.Y, Godwin Radio Inc. /Godwin Video Centers, Birmingham, Ala., Henry's Camera. Los Angeles, hock, Texas, The Video Conne, .. nn. N.J, Video Di'

. s. Home Entertainment Emporium, Manhattan Beach. Cal ; .laotien Beach Magnavox Home Enter mensions. New York, Video liai; .n . l,hrary Torrance Video tainment Center. Portland, Ore ; Kaleidoscope Video Shops, Oklahoma City, Media Associates. Cal . The Video Library Cornpariy, llali Cynwyd. F.i Ser Mountain View. Cal, Media Concepts, Inc. St. Petersburg, Fla, 's, Inc. Lexington, vices. Towson, Md. Videospace, Bellevue, Wash . ,ostop. Bev. Ky. Modern Communications, St. Lours; Newbury TV and Appliances, New Bedford. Mass oily Hills. The Video Store. Gretna, La , Video 2000. ,., alanrl

www.americanradiohistory.com THISIS NI( )NT7 I JULY 1980

MASSAGES

WED HONORED University, by NBC News and NBC News correspondent ABC sportscaster Jim McKay, Constance Brown, widow of Richard Valerian, the net- eight -time Emmy winner, with the cameraman who was work's State Department ex- the annual Gold Liberty Bell killed, along with NBC News pert, and New York publicist Award of the Television and correspondent Don Harris and Kathie Berlin. Radio Advertising Club of Phil- two others, in an ambush near adelphia. the People's Temple in SIGNED ABC's Barbara Walters, with Guyana in November 1978. Senator Barry Goldwater, as a the 1980 Hall of Fame Award The Fund will provide annual regularly scheduled political of the Boston /New England scholarships of $1000 to columnist for the Cable News chapter of the National Acad- $3000 to students interested Network. emy of Television Arts and in careers in broadcast jour- Rudy Maxa, gossip columnist Sciences, given for contribu- nalism. and reporter for The Washing- tions to TV on a national The Edith Bunker Memorial ton Post, as a daily reporter on scale. Fund for the E.R.A. and personalities for the Cable NBC News correspondent Women's Rights, by Norman Philip Till, Lee Meriwether gets Genii News Network. by the Overseas Lear, who donated $500,000 to Award. Roger Staubach, former quar- Press Club of America Inc., the National Organization for terback for the Dallas Cow- with the Ben Grauer Award for Women's Legal Defense and boys and the all -time leading journalistic excellence. Education Fund to honor the passer in National Football Ralph H. Baer, inventor of TV memory of that well -loved League history, as a football games, as the 1980 Inventor of character, who is scheduled to analyst for CBS Sports. the Year, by the New York Pat- die on Archie's P/ace at the ent Law Association. Known start of the fall season. as "Mr. Television Games," ASSIGNED Baer holds most of the basic NBC News correspondent patents for electronic video RE- SIGNED Dianne Wildman to the Lon- games, which he pioneered in Johnny Carson, with NBC, for don Bureau, from NBC News' the late 1960s. three more years of The To- Northeast Bureau, where she Actress Lee Meriwether, co- night Show. Carson's new has been working out of New star of Barnaby Jones, with contract calls for him to host York covering the UN and the American Women in an hour -long edition of the other stories. Radio and Television's 26th show four nights a week, NBC News correspondent annual Genii Award. Tuesday through Friday. George Lewis, who had been working in Iran, will be cover- ing the State Department. DIED REASSIGNED Jane Froman, 72, former CBS News correspondent APPOINTED singer on radio, broadway Betty Ann Bowser,to the posi- Famed slugger Henry Aaron, and TV (Jane Froman's U.S.A. tion of co-editor of 30 Minutes, Canteen, The CBS News' weekly vice president and director of Jane Froman children's Show, "Artists and Models magazine series. Bowser player development for the "), re- whose recovery from injuries places CBS News Atlanta Braves, to the boards correspon- suffered in a 1943 dent Betsy Aaron, who of directors of the Turner plane crash will Farewell to Alfred was dramatized in the continue on general assign- Sir Broadcasting System, Inc., movie ment. Hitchcock. and the Atlanta National "With a Song in My Heart." Sir Alfred Hitchcock, Cameron Swayze, former an- League Baseball Club. 80, Brit- ish -born chorman for NBC Radio's CBS News reporters Robin director of more than 50 suspense films, for News and Information Wright and Barry Petersen, to which Ser- he won five Oscar nomina- vice, to the position positions as network corre- of NBC tions and the Irving G. Thal - News correspondent, spondents; Wright in the CBS as- berg Memorial Award (1967), signed primarily to broad- News Bureau in Rome, Peter- and was knighted earlier this casts on the NBC Radio Net- sen in Los Angeles. year. Hitchcock had his own work, based in New York. Derrick Blakley, to CBS News' TV series from 1955 -65. Chicago Bureau, as a reporter. Blakley formerly worked as a RESIGNED reporter for WBNS -TV, the FUNDS ESTABLISHED (Under pressure) John CBS affiliate in Columbus, The Bob Brown Memorial Backe, president of CBS, Inc., Ohio. Fund at San Francisco State for three -and -a -half years.

88 JULY 1980

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www.americanradiohistory.com CABLE AND PAY-TV

Another Package from flow Games on Cable Want to try your hand at poker and blackjack without leaving your house -and without cash leaving your wallet? This no -lose opportunity has By SETH GOLDSTEIN been granted to up to 1000 cable sub- scribers in four American cities. With a minimum of fanfare, this For all you pay -television addicts won- vices offers a better mix of children's spring, a new company called Play - dering where your next film fix is com- and adult programming than sub- Cable introduced the video -game sys- ing from, Home Box Office may have scribers could obtain by adding one of tem Intellivision in Rochester, Minn.; the answer. The pioneering pay -TV its rivals as a second tier. Moline, Ill.; Jackson, Miss.; and Boise, service has just launched Cinemax, its Idaho. second full- service or "maxi" package. In return for a $300 investment in a Consisting entirely of feature films, the The (Movie) Empire Strikes Back . special component, or game player, new service caters to -among HBO's second maxi isn't the only that attaches to your TV set, you have others -foreign -film lovers and action/ new creature in the pay -TV zoo. Justice your pick of 15 games, from Las adventure aficionados. Department willing, HBO and Show - Vegas -style card games to hockey, It was officially unveiled at the time may soon find their top -dog posi- basketball and checkers. And instead of National Cable Television Association tions challenged by a five -headed inserting a separate cartridge for each convention in May, but HBO had dragon: Twentieth Century -Fox, Para- game, you call up the game using a already been publicizing the service for mount, Columbia, MCA/Universal and keypad that connects your set to the several weeks to catch the interest of Getty Oil. The studios and the oil giant cable system. All the games are stored subscribers hungry for more pay have combined to create yet another in a computer, and any one of them can programs. -movie all service -with the initial be played at any time without disturb- Demand is such that HBO thinks the advantage of having its own in -house ing regular cable programming. new package will be accepted at inventory films. of And, say the new The four cities in which Intellivision is roughly the same price as its primary partners, those films would be with- now available are part of a market test service, so that viewers will be paying held from general satellite distribution undertaken by Mattel, the manufac- $16 to $20 a month to receive both. Add for the first nine months of their avail- turer of the game, and the electronics another $10 to $15 for basic cable, and ability to the new service. firm General Instrument, which has the monthly bill hovers around $30. This proposed embargo drew quick joined up with Mattel to create Play - One of HBO's aims in launching its protest from HBO, Showtime and rival Cable. Only 1000 homes will be new maxi is to preempt its competitors Warner Amex, so possible antitrust liti- equipped with the game, and the in pay -cable, notably Showtime, the gation may delay the dragon's first response of these "charter" sub- second -largest movie merchant in puffs of programming. scribers will determine the pattern of a cableland. Viewers have shown their As the prime pay -TV buyer, HBO has national launch next year. The monthly eagerness to subscribe to more years than for driven hard bargains with the fee ranges from $6 to $10, depending one pay -cable channel, and HBO wants producers. Occasionally the studios on the locality. the lion's share of the multitiered mar- have rebelled, as when Fox sold Intellivision is also available nation- ket. Describing the Cinemax offerings "Breaking Away" to NBC before offer- ally in a noncable, cartridge form, but as complementary to its original pack- ing it to pay -TV, but for the most part the retail price is steeper -$29.95 per age in both content and scheduling, they've accepted the going pay -TV cartridge, in addition to the $300 for the HBO says its new combination of ser- price. Until now. hardware. j

CREDITS by tion Tommy Soloski. 40 -41: Illustrations 67: Photos by Terry Lewis. 68 -69: Photo by Cover: Photo courtesy of 20th Century -Fox. by Dennis Di Vincenzo. 42-47: Photos by Photo Reporters, Inc. 70: Photo courtesy of 8: Illustration by Gerry Gersten. 15: Illustra- David Rubinger. 48 -49: Illustrations by Bill the Associated Press. 71 -73: Photos by tion by Arnie Levin. 16 -18, 20, 22: Photos Park. by 51: Photo courtesy of NBC. 52: Photo Roger Ressmeyer. 74-77:,, Sculpture by Gene Trindl. by 24: Illustration by Deborah Robert Phillips. 53: Photos by Fred Asdur Takakjian; photographed by Irene Bazel. Illustrations 25: by Deborah Bezel Maroon and Robert Phillips. 54: Photos Stern. 77: Photo by Gene Trindl. 78, 82: and Dick Oden. 26: Illustration by Dick Wil- courtesy of ABC and CBS. 55: Photo by Photos by Gary Null. 81: Photos by Peter liams. 28: Illustration by David FeBland; Fred Maroon. 56: Illustration by Walter Kredenser. 90: Illustration by Peter Lipp- Photo by Bill Ferris. 30: Photo Wright. courtesy of 60 -61: Photo by Tom Hill and other man. 92: Illustration by Lou Myers. 94: Il- WBTV. 32: Photo courtesy of the Dodgers; courtesy of 20th Century -Fox. 62 -64: lustration by William D. Bramhall Jr. 96: Il- Illustration by Wallop Manyum. 34: Illustra- Photos courtesy of 20th Century -Fox. 65- lustration by Ed Koren. 90 JULY 1980

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www.americanradiohistory.com IMPRESSIONS ('aase of Death: Breaking Ibo Many Rules

Audiences do not necessarily crave "well- made" plots. We do crave a sense that the events we're watching add up By CYRA McFADDEN to something, lead somewhere, hap- pen for some comprehensible reason. he verdict is in. 's acters other than their protagonists: Which brings me to this series' series United States has been the rogues' gallery of crooks on Barney most striking departure from less canceled T -or as an L.A. friend Miller, for example, or the stream of high- minded sitcom: There were no put it, in the quaint patois of that part of visiting brass and medical personnel events, or rather none that were dra- the world, "It's going down the toilet." on M "A "S "H. United States was matized. What actually happened in the For a while it looked as if Fred Silver- focused so tightly on its two main series, other than the shifting of emo- man, both judge and jury, might keep characters, Libby and Richard, that it tional winds, happened off -camera. Gelbart's innovative series on the air felt hermetically sealed. Quarreling Richard's affair, the funeral of a loved despite "the numbers," Nielsen ratings dinner guests let in a whiff of air from uncle, a car breakdown -we saw none one might expect a for three -part doc- the outside in one segment, but gener- of these things, important or trivial, but umentary on "The Human Elbow." ally we spent the half hour with Libby, instead were told about them, in that United States had received glowing Richard, and their elegant furniture. endless stream of witty talk talk talk talk critical acclaim, and NBC, like most of Even the Chapins' two children, who talk. us, can use all the respectability it can appeared infrequently, seemed inci- I feel terrible about it, but after a get. dental both to the marriage and to the numbingly static episode in which Although money doesn't mean series. Libby and Richard alternated intro- much more in major network circles Thus the claustrophobia was height- spective monologues about their mar- than it does to Bunky Hunt, the series' ened and the usual limitations of the riage (to a researcher predictably production budget also represented sitcom form exacerbated. Attractive as somewhere off -camera), I found more than the usual outlay of spare they are, Jeff Bridges and Helen Shaver myself wishing one of them would take change. Says the same Los Angeles early on began to feel like the house a pratfall or sit on a whoopee cushion. informant, "These are crazy people. guests who move into your small Obviously, strict adherence to the You know they built a real house with apartment with lots of luggage, never conventions of TV situation comedy real doors ?" go out, and plan to stay for months. only produces more indefensible Post -mortems will probably insist Another built -in restriction of the sit- drivel, while shows that are fresh and United States was too good for us, too com form is that each episode must be innovative break the rules. Soap and intelligent and sensitive, and that, discrete, telling its own complete mini - Mary Hartman , Mary Hartman are accustomed to our prime -time pap, we story, and solving any problems that open -ended narratives; M "A "S "H weren't ready for it. The real reasons story raises, usually in a half hour. As (which Larry Gelbart also helped create for its difficulties have to do with the Richard told Libby in a recent episode and shape) dramatizes insoluble strictures inherent in situation comedy, of United States, this is not realistic. In problems. even "adult" sitcom, and they're at life, problems are not often solved in None of these shows is visually once more complicated and less half an hour. claustrophobic, however; none focuses flattering. on talk instead of action; and none sig- There are exceptions, but most half - itcoms (or "comedy /dramas," or nals loud and clear, as did United hour sitcoms are visually claustropho- S detective shows) are not docu- States, that it takes itself very seriously bic. As in United States, the camera mentaries, however, and if this con- indeed. Most important, all are rarely moves outside a single set, vention is not true to life, it's true to the funny -not necessarily witty, but plain because while using outside locations rules of satisfying drama. Cloddish of funny. And "funny" is the baby that would allow more intricate plots, tap- us, I suppose, but most people prefer must not be thrown out with the bath ing on a sound stage is easier and too -neatly -tied loose ends to the careful water. cheaper (even a sound stage with real avoidance of conventional beginnings The moral: You can break some of doors). Thus whatever happens in an and endings in United States, which the rules some of the time, but not all of episode must happen in a few rooms. served up a loose tangle of narrative them all of the time. United States To provide variety and increase dra- strands, week after week, like so much offered too much situation and not matic possibilities, series bring in char- fettuccine. enough comedy. i0]

92 JULY 1980 Cyra McFadden, the author of "The Serial," a best sel /ec has published fiction and nonfiction in The Nation, The New York Times Magazine, McCall's, Smithsonian and numerous other publications. www.americanradiohistory.com 1 ntrroÁucin..

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www.americanradiohistory.com YESTERDAYS

brates the opening of the spectacular Johnny Bench and Harmon new Disneyland amusement Killebrew.... Lawrence Welk park.... Participants in baseball's AlI- celebrates his 15th TV anniversary Star Game include Ted Williams, Stan on July 4, with Anita Bryant Musial, Duke Snider, Mickey Mantle, Al singing "The Battle Hymn of the Kaline, Hank Aaron, Yogi Berra, Roy Republic."... On July 12, a rerun of Campanella and Ernie Banks.... Paul CBS's Repertoire Workshop show- Newman stars in "The Death of Billy cases six talented newcomers. One of the Kid," by Gore Vidal, on Phi/co- them is a singer named Bette Goodyear Playhouse.... Lawrence Midler....CBS announces the purchase Welk and his Champagne Music of a new situation comedy based on Makers make their network-TV the popular British comedy series, Till Lawrence Welk debut.... Hume Cronyn and Jessica Death Us Do Part. The U.S. title is to be Tandy re- create their Broadway roles in Those Were the Days (but, before it "The Fourposter" on Producers' Show- reaches the air, it will be renamed All in 25 Years Ago: July 1955 case.... Live television is on the wane. the Family). The three top -rated shows of the 1954- Network plans for fall indicate that at 55 season, according to ARB, are least 50 percent of the regular night- 5 Years Ago: July 1975 Groucho Marx's You Bet Your Life, The time shows will be on film. On the eve of July 4, leads a Jackie Gleason Show and Ed Sullivan's salute to the beginning of the Bicen- Toast of the Town.... ARB also reports 10 Years Ago: July 1970 tennial year. He is joined by Anita that The $64,000 Question is an President Richard Nixon holds a tele- Bryant, Charley Pride, John Davidson, unprecedented success -its 47 million vised conversation with Eric Sevareid Juliet Prowse and the Con - weekly viewers are the most ever of CBS, John Chancellor of NBC and gregation.... TV cameras are aboard recorded during the summer. Within Howard K. Smith of ABC....Evening at the Apollo and Soyuz space capsules four weeks of its debut, the show has Pops launches a series of programs on as they join in a complicated docking risen to the number -one position in the public television, with Arthur Fiedler maneuver for a historic "space sum- Trendex lineup. And in its fifth week, conducting and Sen. Edward Kennedy mit."... gets another TV 79.4 percent of the Nation's TV sets are reading excerpts from the writings of special.... 1975's All -Stars include tuned in to watch Catherine S. Kreitzer Abraham Lincoln....On July 4, public Johnny Bench, Thurman Munson, Rod announce that she is quitting with the TV presents three -and -a -half hours of Carew, Steve Garvey, Joe Morgan, Pete $32,000 she has won.... News cameras coverage of Honor America Day cere- Rose, Lou Brock and Reggie Jack- are in Geneva for a Summit Conference monies in Washington, D.C., with the son.... The Odd Couple leaves the net- of the Big Four leaders: Dwight Eisen - Rev. Billy Graham, Bob Hope, Kate work air after five years.... Wayne hower of the U.S., Nikolai Bulganin and Smith, Jack Benny, Dinah Shore and Rogers is finally free, legally, from Nikita Khrushchev of the USSR, An- Red Skelton....On the All -Star rosters M *A *S *H....HappyDays takes a light- thony Eden of Great Britain and Edgar this year are Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, hearted look at the TV quiz scandals of Faure of France....A TV special cele- Frank Robinson, Carl Yastrzemski, the'50s.

COMING UP IN PANORAMA How Pay -Cable The Joys and Sorrows The Show Must Go Programmers Plot Their of TV Fame, by On. .. Portable TVs You Strategy William F. Buckley Can Take to the Beach

Who Are TV's Best - Washington Clout - "East of Eden ": An and Worst - An Inside Look at Emotional Return to Sportscasters? Broadcast Lobbying Steinbeck Country

Thrusts and Parries: Is British Humour Plus Stories on Lynn The Lively Adventures Superior to American Redgrave, Ed Asner and of America's TV Critics Comedy? Judd Hirsch

94 JULY 1980

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www.americanradiohistory.com WIETT By HARRY STEIN The Games the U.S. Should Play

It is easy now, six months later, to I sense that this is an idea whose time The 1000 -Meter Roller Disco: A think back on the Winter Olympics has come, and have drafted the follow- women's competition. Style points will as a joyous experience. The Miracle ing letter to Lord Killanin, the head of be awarded on the basis of speed, dy- on Ice! America triumphant! And Eric the International Olympic Committee: namism, style and flimsiness of Heiden thrown in for good measure. Dear Lord, garments. -uh. Uh Think very, very hard - 'cause I write on behalf of all 220 million of The 2500 -Meter Roller Disco: Men's that isn't the way it was at all. The us. We've had it up to here! If you ever competition. There will be mandatory hockey victory came at the very end of want to see us in the Summer or point deductions for "carrying the Games. Overall we were -and Winter Games again, the enclosed on." In the interest of fairness, medalists shall even now it is painful to acknowl- list of events must be added to the be required to take blood and urine edge- losers. schedule. And none of your Irish tests; cocaine levels in the blood of 10 Day after day, in competition after shilly -shallying. Since we are percent or lower will result in automatic competition, we found ourselves hum- forgoing this summer's Games, you astonishment on the part bled by Swedes, by Austrians, by now have Dec. of the until 31, 1983, to make judges. Dutchmen, by Liechtensteinians, for up your mind. After that, forget it! God's sake -and they didn't even have The 5000 -Meter Roller Boogie: Pairs. their own national anthem! -not to The Events If ice dancing turns you on, Lord, you mention the twin ogres of the East: the ain't seen nothin' yet. Russians and the East Germans. Miniature Golf:A contest of precision, Dog Frisbee: If we must have animal Not that any of this was our fault. The daring and elegance, pitting man events, this one will serve as a suitable obvious fact is against both the elements and himself. that the Olympics were replacement for those equestrian stacked against us Americans from Like downhill racing and the steeple- the events we Americans are always los- beginning. These just weren't chase, the condition and difficulty of our kind ing. All dogs must respond enthusiasti- of games. How the course will invariably add to the could we be expected cally to the exclamation "Far out!" to win a medal in something called the suspense. (If I might, Lord, I would like Human competitors are required, as a biathlon? I mean, does your cousin Ed to suggest the arduous Kiddieland preliminary event, to pronounce the strap on his rifle Saturday morning, course in Yonkers, N.Y., as a model for expressions "Outta sight" and "No grease up his cross -country skis and hit the Olympic facility.) way" with a discernible Southern Cali- the road? Hell, no, Russkies only do Pong: Not to be confused with Ping - fornia accent. that! And then there's the luge. A lot of Pong, at which we Americans wouldn't people I know Heavyweight Car -Stripping: Pairs. can't even remember have a prayer. An indoor sport, like bas- Athletes shall be judged according how to pronounce the damn word until ketball, Pong calls for extraordinary to the quickness with which they remove Jim McKay pops up every four years to eye -hand coordination. The United the tape deck, radio, tires, fenders, remind them. The luge is such a dumb - States can expect lively competition doors, hood ornament, hood and looking thing, too, with all those from the Japanese and the Western grown -ups sliding downhill, splayed Europeans. trunk -in that order -from a late - out on their backs and thinking their model American vehicle. Name That Tune: All songs featured uniforms will make them look like The Telethon: Athletes are required in competition must have appeared on serious athletes. No American with any to fill 30 minutes of dead air time with the American charts. All decisions of dignity would want to win that event. impassioned appeals for donations the judges are final. Tom Kennedy and I'm not even going to comment on from spectators. Points are awarded for Dennis James will be the judges. ice dancing. style, sincerity and dollar totals raised. I'm only glad that we got out of the Power Bingo: This event shall be held In the interest of brevity and specta- Summer Games while the getting was in the basement of the Olympic arena. tor comfort, Lord, the Winter Games good. Forget about the politics of it; To attract world -level competitors, cash shall be pared down to one event: there's no reason why a nation as great prizes of up to 15 dollars shall be men's speed skating. Ice hockey shall as this one should be humiliated by awarded in lieu of medals. be played once every 20 years. fo having to compete in dinky and sissi- fied events like kayaking and fencing.

Enough is enough! I say that, if they want us back, they can damn well start having events that Americans are good at. I'm not only talking about baseball 'N or football (though both should ob- viously be added to the Games forth- É!%g.. with); I'm talking bowling and calf rop- `''=Ë` ------ing and eight ball. Yessir, I'm talking Red Rover.

96 JULY 1980

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