Sponsor (Oct-Dec 1961)

SPONSOR ASKS: HOW MUCH DO YOU THINK MINOW CAN ACCOMPLISH? Those replying to this week's question are: • Nick Keesely, Lennen & Newell. New York • Sidney Weiss, Mogul Williams & Sa\lor. New ^ <>rk • Richard King, KHCC&A, New York Nick Keesely, senior v.p. for radio/tv, Lennen & Newell, New York Everybody's asking the same question: How much can Newton Minow accomplish? I would say at once, and I feel the entire television industry will agree, A vast difference between can and "wHF' that with his power, his prestige, and his undeniable sincerity, he can accomplish a great deal. But how much Mr. Minow can accomplish is quite a different question from how much he will accomplish. He's in a new world — at least a world quite different from the one he knows, ff Mr. Minow can slash through the underbrush of office bureaucracy with the same clean sickle that opened his direct approaches to programing, he may make the biggest contribution to our business since Lee De Forest. There's no doubt there are changes in show standards. More important, there's no doubt that producers' attitudes toward shows are changing. And this is good. Criteria are stiffening— which is to say thev are improving. Mr. Minow is a lawyer and a realist. \\ c ve had too many lawyers who were merely lawyers. We've had too many lawyers who were primarily which is to sav, dav mers. Mr. Minow has laid out his ' i-m where it can be meas ured. He's been specific. You can measure what he says against what the public is seeing. That is not only new. it is refreshing. Furthermore, it is obvious that he has the courage of his convictions — something for which the FCC has not before been conspicuous. And it is just as obvious he will be impossible to fool or 'snow.' He looks at television. That's a hopeful sign right there. And his family is a family of television viewers. Also hopeful. At least the product that is being dissected is being screened. Now the promise for improved programing service has some reality. Everyone has worked a little harder and come up with a product that's a little better. That's "quite a little better." as it turns out. Already the networks have scheduled more documentaries (e.g.. "Eisenhower and The Presidency" I ; information programs (e.g., "East Is West") : cultural programs (e.g., "Life of Van Gogh" ) : news specials — and all in prime evening time. And on the sheer entertainment side, we have added such fine quality programs as the Dick Poaell Show, Theatre 62. Mitch Miller, and some good new situation comedies. There will be many others before the season is over: and to the skeptics all I can sav is it shows progress that's healthy for the industry. Mr. Minow didn't do that all bv himself. It is a direct result of the quick percolation, through all the crevices of our complex business, of the Minow influence. It indicates he's being taken seriouslv: that he's being accepted as a man who believes what he says and who will act. From my own position as head of a reasonably large Madison Avenue television operation. I've been belabored by my own friends with the same questions that bug Mr. Minow: Why aren't the programs better? Why is there so much violence? Does there have to be so much? No, there does not. Violence — more often brutality — is the lazy writer's way out of plot problems. Reduction of violence is going to force writers, many of whom are quite spoiled, quite rich, quite seriously overpaid for mediocre labors, and often over-rated by their own producers — to dig harder for better stories. It will force them to implement character action bv better motivation; to stop loafing, to stop stealing, and to begin once more to do some basic, hard-to-come-by inventing. Shaw called it "the dead lift of creating." Producers are aware of this. Some are, anyhow. Television never got to the point where it wasn't worth turning on. There have always been fine shows — several every week — no matter how 'wasted' the main landscape might have appeared to more sensitive responses. But we were going downhill, we admit, and Minow put the brakes on. We needed to be stopped, to be shaken up a bit. This is true of anv business, especially one this big, this public, this continuous. We just grew up too fast to fill out properly. It's my personal hope that Mr. Minow's vacuum cleaner also gets into radio programing. The FCC might listen in on some of the "music for morons" and remind station owners that all the world's great music, all its popular light music, and all its "feather-weight" classics are available in albums. There is more to radio than guitars and the beat and the top 40 so-called hits. Thank heaven that some of the more civic and show-minded radio stations are programed intelligently, but there are still too many station owners who should have this pointed out. For radio listeners complain — just as television viewers do. Nobody has a monopoly, and Mr. Minow has a big chance. Sidney Matthew Weiss, executive v.p., Mogul Williams & Sarlor, New York Mr. Minow has already accomplished much of what he set out to do. He launched his campaign to (Please turn to page 49) 42 SPONSOR 18 DECEMBER 1961