TV Radio Mirror (Jan - Jun 1961)

TV's Perennial "Mad" Man (Continued from page 39) no challenge. Drama is sterile. The comedy shows are inane. As for the Westerns . . . well, if you dial out Maverick halfway through the program and then dial in Lawman, you won't miss a beat. The same thing with Gunsmoke and Wyatt Earp. "Yes, unfortunately, most of television is designed to knit by, to doze by, and to avoid-talking-to-your-wife by. "Leland Hayward recently told a group of Detroit advertising men that TV shows are thirty percent worse this season than last. I disagree with his figures. Leland was being kind. It's eighty percent worse. And from what I hear of what's coming up, it's going to get still worse. "In addition to not entertaining and not causing people to think," says angry young David Susskind, "I have a feeling that television isn't selling. My five-year-old son had a favorite show, last year, sponsored by a spark-plug company. He never missed it. My wife and I never watched the program. I know of no other adults who did. But my son thought it was great. I doubt that he's ever bought a spark plug. So maybe there were thirty million fiveyear-olds who watched the show. Most of them get ten cents a week allowance. "While I'm at it, I'd like to salute the handful of sponsors who have stood up against the tide of claptrap. They seem to care about culture more than ratings. I'm referring to sponsors like Hallmark, du Pont, Bell & Howell, and the Armstrong Cork Company. "It's my belief that good program ing and good business go hand in hand. But that's a difficult thing to sell to a sponsor when you're trying to produce drama, especially original drama. Sponsors say, 'Why should we spend $200,000 on an unknown play? Get us something that's proven itself, something that's been done before.' Another reason why original drama is almost hopeless is because the people who write such plays have something to say. Their material is controversial. It may antagonize somebody. Sponsors don't want to offend a single person. So what have we got? Sterility. . . "Some people are getting out of television, it's so bad. But they're wrong. Where else can one present exciting ideas to so many people at once? Fifty or sixty million people saw 'The Moon and Sixpence'"— the NBC-TV "special" produced by Susskind's Talent Associates. "I can't walk away from TV. But it's getting tougher all the time. The networks, the agencies, the sponsors tell me, 'We want action, not that artistic bunk. Give us a privateeye or a Western.' " Although Susskind sneers at presentday TV comedy, he is hopeful about the future. "There's a new crop of comedians," he believes, "who are going to break through the barrier. People like Shelley Berman, Bob Newhart, Nichols and May, Buddy Hackett and, of course, Mort Sahl. They are social satirists and they're quite marvelous. "They provide pin-pricking humor, something that's needed desperately. They stab at phony values. Among the veterans, let me pay tribute to Bob 66 Show business being Susskind's favorite topic, director Peter Glenville and actress Margaret Leighton are ideal guests for an Open End discussion. Hope. His opening six-minute monologues are brilliant. They're topical and urgent. He has something to say. "Idea comedy is almost extinct, except for the newcomers. The idea that what's funny in New York and Chicago won't be funny in Ames, Iowa, is ridiculous. There are no 'sticks' anymore. There's just America. Appetites are the same. Nichols and May have a funny routine about necking in a car. It's great. Well, people are necking everywhere . . . not just in New York and Chicago." Let's get back to Hollywood and Tony Curtis. On his Open End program — originating, at the time, from Hollywood, where he was producing the film, "A Raisin in the Sun" — Susskind cut loose on a group of actors who have taken to writing, directing and producing. Among those he mentioned were Mr. Curtis, Dick Powell, Rock Hudson and Jerry Lewis. "They barely qualify as actors," he charged. "The idea that they are creators is nonsensical and maniacal." Curtis was quoted as replying thusly: "I've never met Mr. Susskind. But when I do, I'm going to punch him right in the nose. Nobody has to tell me how bad an actor I am. Better men than Susskind have told me I'm lousy. His criticism isn't even original. As for that punch in the nose, I'm not kidding about that. He'd better stay away from me." Susskind has yet to meet Curtis. "I have a very full life without him," he says. "We don't need each other. I've always believed that violence was the last recourse of an exhausted mind. If I'm not the biggest admirer of Tony Curtis' talent, I've never questioned his virility or strength. No, it's probably just as well that we've never met. "However, I would like to meet Mrs. Curtis" — actress Janet Leigh. "She's never threatened to hit anybody. She did rip my picture from the wall of Sardi's Restaurant, here in New York, with the explanation that she was going to put it in her bathroom. That's the kind of imagination I admire." Other Susskind quotes relative to Hollywood, and made on that scene: "Show business here is founded on quicksand. The people are quick to take offense at criticism because they have a guilt complex. They know they're turning out crass, commercialized junk. Basically, they are ashamed of it, and they're defensive. "Actually, there is more creative talent per square inch in Hollywood than any place else in the world, but it is abused and misused." Tony Curtis wasn't the only one to make public reply: "Susskind," jibed Oscar Levant, "is salami dipped in