On broadcasterly courage

Thanks to Keith Olbermann and the "Countdown," I have now seen clips from "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve" and witnessed what Paul Harris and others were talking about yesterday: Clark's struggle to broadcast on the air through the effects of what was obviously a crippling stroke.

Mark Evanier's reaction was similar to Paul's and, I suspect, many other people. Watching Clark slur his words Saturday night, Evanier wrote:

...I could feel sad. ... He was all energy with a great sense of humor, and it's heartbreaking to see him with slurred speech, struggling (but succeeding) to get his dialogue out. Or I could feel happy. The rumor mill, including word from a friend who saw him last March, suggested he might not make it to New Year's Eve, let alone be well enough to return to work. But there he is, not letting a little thing like partial paralysis stop him from doing what he's always done so well. There's something inspirational there.

Well, that's one way to look at it. Here's another.

Dick Clark spent four decades trying to preserve his youthful good looks from the 1950s, even though all he had to do was look around and see plenty of men aging gracefully before the cameras. But he kept the hair dye going because he knew -- earlier than a lot of people in the business recognized it -- that television was a medium geared toward youth. He produced dirt-cheap TV shows (game shows and "Bloopers," most famously) because he knew networks were looking for filler and because he, Dick Clark, was always looking for action.

And here he was again, on New Year's Eve, looking for action on a TV special that he conceived in 1972 to appeal to young audiences. Paul Harris tried to convince me that we have seen Clark doing the Times Square ball drop for the last time. I say: Don't bet on it. First of all, he's probably got a clause in his deal with ABC that prevents the network from making it the Ryan Seacrest show without his say-so. Second, what makes anyone think that Clark is ready to leave the stage? Yes, it was unusual for someone so debilitated to command half an hour of live network TV. But does anyone really think Clark hadn't calculated this in his head? Don't you think he knew that the New York Times and other newspapers would write reviews the next day calling him a model for stroke victims?

At the same time, I don't agree with others -- like most of the "Imus in the Morning" crew -- who said Clark's performance was "a mistake" because it "bummed us out" during what's supposed to be one of the most festive moments of the year. That's ridiculous. TV is hard-wired for schizophrenia: poignant one moment, hap-hap-happy the next. Think Neil Postman's "Now....this" syndrome, the news anchor able to whirl her chair 45 degrees and follow a death notice with wacky news video.

The fact is, television is a medium of communication, and much of that is non-verbal. And there was something truly interesting, and yes, perhaps inspirational to some, about Dick Clark's return to TV on the program that he created. He had a point to make, and he made it. From now on, however, ABC should not let him on the air again unless his speech improves significantly.

***

For me, the measure of all on-air recoveries is that of Roger Ebert.  No one who has watched the most famous movie critic in the world over the past few years can fail to notice the change in his on-air appearance and speaking style. As Carol Felsenthal reports in her terrific Chicago magazine profile of Ebert:

Lately, when people see Ebert on television, some are alarmed by his appearance. In the past few years, he has dropped about 100 pounds with the assistance of the Pritikin Longevity Center & Spa, formerly in Santa Monica—“Chaz took me there the first time kicking and screaming,” Roger says—and by adhering to the 10,000-steps-a-day program. He keeps a pedometer attached to his waistband and works out with a trainer three days a week. Gone is the box of Good & Plenty that he used to eat during screenings—replaced by a Pritikin sandwich and diet peach Snapple. Between movies, he walks around the block.

He is frustrated that people do not believe that the weight loss was deliberate and hard won; that they think it is related to his three bouts with cancer—once thyroid and twice salivary gland. Repeated surgeries in the neck and chin area, affecting the muscles, have caused the left side of his mouth to droop, and some viewers say they wonder if he has had a stroke.

Roger has moved to a new plane of celebrity, and I miss our occasional e-mails that date back to August 1994, when he received his first issue of LATE SHOW NEWS and wrote, "Where has this been all my life?" But I did stand with him on line at Sundance Film Festival three years ago, and we talked about, among other things, the diet Chaz had put him on.  He strolled over to a vending machine and ticked off various items and why he couldn't eat them (including one low-fat goodie that "makes me fart"). I'm embarrassed that my best Roger Ebert anecdote is that one, but it does settle in my mind that he has, in fact, been trying to lose weight for some time, and we should not be alarmed that he has finally had a breakthrough.

Ebert slurs words on the air, a little. His mouth droops, slightly. Viewers, according to Felsenthal, are concerned. I'm not so sure. After all, this has been going on for more than a year. It's not like we can't clearly understand what he's saying. He's still reviewing 260 films a year and making it to all the festivals, and the production schedule at his show is as heavy as it ever was. (By the way, according to Felsenthal's sources, "Ebert and Roeper and the Movies" is not a moneymaker for its syndicator, Buena Vista.)  Now that I've called attention to it, you may notice his imperfections again the next time you watch his show. But regular viewers haven't noticed them for months.

That should be the standard Dick Clark holds himself to. Unless he can improve 100 percent from Saturday night, he should stay away from any TV cameras. For the other thing about Dick Clark, for all his media ubiquity, is this: He may be one of the least conspicuous personalities TV has ever created. Even Hugh Downs, the invisible man who logged 10,000 hours on the air, was occasionally allowed to do stories about his personal interests and hobbies. Do we know anything personal about Dick Clark? Well, we now know he's recovering from a stroke. I hate to put it this way, but he's had a moment now for himself. From this point on, it had better be about the audience. And unless he can make us, the audience, forget about his stroke or anything else that has to do with Dick Clark -- in other words, unless he can be the easygoing, meld-into-the-woodwork TV host he always was -- his comeback isn't going to work.

***

Here's a shocker: "New Year's Rockin' Eve" will not be offered through the iTunes Music Store.

ABC SPORTS AND ESPN CONTENT, PLUS ABC NEWS AND MORE ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAMMING FROM DISNEY COMES TO THE iTUNES MUSIC STORE

New Offerings Include Condensed BCS Bowl Games from ABC Sports, ESPN Sports and Entertainment Content, News and Entertainment Content from Disney ABC Television Group and Walt Disney Feature Animation

BURBANK, California – January 3, 2006 – The businesses of The Walt Disney Company, well-positioned to take advantage of new technologies by leveraging their outstanding creative content, will now offer additional programming from ESPN and ABC Sports, ABC Entertainment and Touchstone Television, ABC Family, ABC News, Buena Vista Television, Disney Channel, and SOAPnet, as well as content produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation on the iTunes Music Store (www.itunes.com).

ESPN and ABC Sports are the first to offer sports programming on the iTunes Music Store, bringing fans a host of sports content.  Condensed versions of all four BCS Bowl Games from ABC Sports will be available on the iTunes Music Store. Condensed versions of yesterday’s Tostitos Fiesta Bowl and Nokia Sugar Bowl will be available today.  Today’s Orange Bowl and tomorrow’s Rose Bowl Presented by Citi (the national title game, matching USC against The University of Texas) will be available the day after they air. 

Later this month, ESPN will make additional content available, including the Best Of The X Games; “SportsCentury” interviews from ESPN Classic's award-winning biography series; the popular "This is SportsCenter" commercials; and select ESPN Original Entertainment programs – including "Knight School," the forthcoming reality program featuring Texas Tech basketball coach Bobby Knight, which will premiere on iTunes.

“Our mission is to serve fans wherever they are by delivering high-quality content across dozens of multi-media platforms, now including the iTunes Music Store and viewing on the iPod,” said George Bodenheimer, ESPN and ABC Sports President and co-chairman of Disney Media Networks.  “We are thrilled to be the first content provider to offer sports content on iTunes.”

In addition to the ESPN and ABC Sports content, more programming from Disney ABC Television Group will also be available later this month on the iTunes Music Store, including such cable programming as ABC Family's original series “Wildfire,” Disney Channel's popular animated series “Kim Possible” and “The Proud Family” and SOAPnet's original biography series “Soapography,” as well as ABC Entertainment and Touchstone Television library product including “America's Funniest Home Videos” and the popular 1970’s Saturday morning “School House Rock” vignettes and episodes of Buena Vista Television's "Ebert and Roeper."

Additionally, free, ad-supported video podcasts from ABC News will be available, including daily segments from "Good Morning America" and the "World News Tonight" webcast, as well as ABC News Now's "Money Minute," "Medical Minute" and "Buzz Cut."

"We look forward to building upon the success of our initial iTunes offerings and are dedicated to providing consumers with a variety of high quality entertainment and news content that they can view at their convenience, regardless of time, place or platform," said Anne Sweeney, co-chair, Disney Media Networks and President, Disney ABC Television Group. "We believe that making our content available on iTunes results in incremental viewing opportunities and also furthers awareness of our programs and brands."

Classic animated shorts produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and featured on Buena Vista Home Entertainment's upcoming “Disney at the Academy Awards”, including the 1933 Academy Award-winning “The Three Little Pigs” and the 1935 Academy Award-winning “The Tortoise and the Hare” will also be available.

“Our animated product has always been the touchstone of The Walt Disney Company,” stated Dick Cook, chairman, The Walt Disney Studios. “We are pleased that in addition to offering our classic animated shorts on DVD, we will now reach an even broader audience with programming on Apple’s iTunes Music Store. It is certainly gratifying to know that consumers of all ages will get to experience first hand the remarkable and award-winning works from some of the most gifted animators in history.”

Available for purchase for $1.99 per episode, all of this new content joins the other Disney ABC Television Group programming including "Commander in Chief,” “Desperate Housewives," "Lost," "That's So Raven" and "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody" currently available for purchase on the iTunes Music Store.

The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS), together with its subsidiaries and affiliates, is a leading diversified international family entertainment and media enterprise with four business segments: Media Networks, Parks and Resorts, Studio Entertainment and Consumer Products. Disney is a Dow 30 company, had annual revenues of nearly $32 billion in its most recent fiscal year, and a market capitalization of $46 billion as of December 30, 2005.

Comments

[lurkertype]

But can we download the World News Polka?

[Kevin Marousek]

Dick Clark personal notes (I promise I'll be nice):

He loves dogs and owns several.
His daughter Cindy, son RAC (Richard A Clark Jr) and wife Kari all work for DCPI (though Cindy does indie film work as well).
He owns his own island.
At least before the stroke, he used to pile the dogs into the back of an RV and he and his wife used to travel cross-country.
The walls of DCP (dick clark productions) are lined with memorobilia spanning the length of Clark's career, though not all of them relate to Clark personally. I remember still photographs from the original "Planet of the Apes" as well as a white and gold cape once worn by Elvis. The walls and shelves of his office are hidden behind multiple layers of stuff. One afternoon while I was walking down the halls I noticed Dick Clark taking the time to straighten and adjust every item in the hallway until it was perfect.

[Aaron]

Paul Harris just posted an old piece of his, "Dick Clark's TV Junk," that's worth reading in light of his current bout with reality TV:

http://www.harrisonline.com/plain/2002/05/dick-clarks-tv-junk.html

[Jim Stang]

CNN failed miserably to fulfill its duty to provide responsible reporting. Anderson got on the bandwagon of elation at the first report that the miners survived. CNN made no apparent effort to confirm whether ICG or the Governor's office would officially confirm the rumors. At no time did he question why so much time had passed with no sign of the other "survivors". Finally, his female colleague reported, after the confirmation that the 12 had died, that she had observed glum rescuers coming out of the mine much earlier. But she apparently failed (or CNN failed to convey her impressions) to report that observation. I guess it was much more exciting to have a banner reporting the miracle than to report that the "information" was a swirling rumor. With all due respect to blogs, CNN is nothing more than a news blog.