Culture Shock: TV Newsmen as Pitchmen By Michael Hill A few critics got upset, but come on, was anybody really surprised when newswoman Linda Ellerbee sold her reputation for a cup of coffee? Sure, it took a reported half- dollars in java money from Maxwell House to get -a former network star and now a CNN commentator -to team up with "Today" show weatherman Willard Scott for a series of TV ads being broadcast around the country. But everybody, after all, has their price. And besides, Ellerbee has explained, she needed the money for her production company. Ellerbee isn't alone. PBS' venerable "This Old House" was almost torn asunder recently when producers at WGBH in Boston decided that host Bob Vila's cache of endorsem*nts had undermined the show's editorial foundation.
Vila, with 10 years of TV exposure under his work belt, is now free to nail down as many endorsem*nt contracts for Time- how-to books and hardware store chains as he pleases. Are Vila and Ellerbee letting America down? Probably. We could understand it when rock stars, never known for taking the moral high ground, traded in their counterculture nights to Michelob. But the Maxwell House ads, which normally have been perfect satirical fodder for a tongue-in-cheek tirade from Ellerbee, open up a whole new arena of marketing opportunities for TV news stars. With penny- -pinching honchos at the networks and legitimate ex- network newsies popping up in all manner of syndicated UPDATE Lee Margulies Phylicia Rashad, who plays Mom Huxtable on "The Cosby Show," will be directed by her sister, Debbie Allen, in "Polly," a two -hour musical special for NBC.
Joining Rashad from "The Cosby Show" cast will be little Keshia Knight Pulliam. Only she'll play Rashad's niece, not her daughter. The show also will boast the talents of Brock Peters, Butterfly McQueen, Celeste Holm, Dorian Harewood, Larry Riley, Ken Page, Barbara Montgomery, Brandon Adams, T.K. Carter and Vanessa Bell Calloway. Showtime has a bevy of comedy specials in the works, including the 11th from Gallagher, which will be taped in Lake Tahoe.
Other comedians preparing shows for the pay -cable channel include Jeff Altman, Louise Duart, Richard Jeni and Carol Leifer. Meanwhile, Showtime has orSIX a Diane Sawyer Walter Cronkite a schlock, the Ellerbee commercial may be only the beginning. Imagine, for instance, what Walter Cronkite, friend of the environment, sailor and, of course, "the most trusted man in America" (even if it was a decade or so ago), could do for a chemical company trying to clean up its image. Picture, if you will, what the merging of these two worlds, news and advertising- already on more than friendly terms in TV news- -will look like. Director to Cronkite: "So, Walter, can I call you Walter? Did you bring that sailor cap? We just gotta have the cap or we lose Maine, you know, all those sea states.
They're killing us. Front office wants 'em off our backs, and you, Wally babe, you're gonna do it for us, aren't you? Look at that face (He gives Cronkite a light and loving slap on the cheek). Is that a face? Put on the cap, Wally. MUSIC!" Edvard Grieg's familiar "Morning" is playing. Somewhere, too, we can hear- -or maybe are merely imagining -birds chirping.
Cronkite, in sailor's cap, is standing before a breathtaking sea view of Martha's Vineyard. His back is to the camera, which comes up from behind and, like some unseen friend, taps him on the shoulder. Cronkite turns and says "Good evening, I'm Walter Cronkite." "CUT! Look, Wally, babe. I know you're dered 25 new episodes of its "Super Dave" comedy series, starring Bob Einstein, and is launching a new comedy series July 8 called "The Boys," with Norman Fell, Norm Crosby, Lionel Stander and Jackie Gayle. Jean Stapleton of "All in the Family" fame will star in an episode of "Trying Times" when the KCET Channel 28 comedy series returns next season.
She plays a senior citizen who is forced to go to work at a fast food restaurant, where her boss (played by Corey Feldman) is all of 19 years old. Another installment has Robert Klein starring as a man who decides to deal with the pressures in his life by resuming smoking. Former "Hotel" star Connie Sellecca is making a TV movie for NBC about a woman new at this, but look around you. It's daytime. I thought you said you had this stuff down.
You're tense. Loosen up. And next time, try not to be so serious, OK? You're scaring the kiddies and. All right. Maybe that's a bit much but can't you picture a TV news glamour gal like Diane Sawyer a few years down the road pitching for Lady Clairol? She'd be in her Manhattan apartment, head tilted to one side, 20 strokes into a comb-out.
"Hi. I'm Diane Sawyer. Is your hair ready for prime time? You know, you don't have to be in television to have beautiful hair. And you certainly don't have to make a career out of it. In fact, it's a snap.
How long does it take? (She tilts her head to the other side, coyly). Just 60 minutes. Or maybe news anchor Mary Alice Williams, formerly of CNN and now of NBC, for American Express: "Hi. Do you know me? I'm a network news anchor, but a lot of people still don't know it -especially when I stack my mail up next to Connie Chung's. That's why I always carry my American Express card.
Come to think of it, all four network news divisions-CBS, ABC, NBC and CNN- -might someday succumb to the ultimate temptation, the one made famous by radio news commentator Paul Harvey, where news and commercials are almost indistinguishable. And so, some evening in the hopefully distant future, we may tune in to the national news and hear a reporter say, "Peter, the United States declared war today. A war on bad breath." Never happen, right? No respectable news organization or newsman would do such a thing. Would they? The Hartford Courant who kills her cheating husband on New Year's Eve, wishes she had a chance to make things right and suddenly finds herself reliving the previous year. David Dukes plays the husband.
Also starring in "Repeat Performance" are Dina Merrill, Gene Barry, Jere Burns and Wendy Kilbourne. Talk about breaking out of a rut: Mel Harris, who plays Hope, the usually contented wife of mild- -mannered Michael on "thirtysomething," will portray a woman who tragically falls in love with the Grand Dragon of the Indiana Ku Klux Klan in "Cross of Fire," a four -hour TV movie that NBC will broadcast next season. John Heard plays the man of her affections, who ultimately attacks her; David Morse and Lloyd Bridges -star as the attorneys who battle the resulting legal case in court. LOS ANGELES TIMES.
