11th, 1986.
And we'll start with an important Scott Osborne special report on a controversy too hot for TV to handle.
What is this little talk supposed to be about exactly?
Kind of, I'm sorry.
Birth control is a moral, religious, geographic, political issue.
Cuts or cuts or countries?
We'll go behind the scenes on the set of Matt Dillon's new movie.
The British pop duo Wang Chung talks about having fun tonight.
And Nina Blackwood checks out some hot music videos likely to find their way into Christmas stockings.
[♪upbeat music playing on the radio and radio
Hello again everybody, I'm Mary Hart.
And I'm John Tesch.
Sex sells big on television, on daytime soap operas, and in prime time.
But some critics charge that while television in fact provides how-to lessons in sex,
it fails to show the consequences.
A special report now from Scott Osborne.
John, television for the most part has been unwilling to deal with the subject of birth control.
The networks reject ads for contraceptive products and seldom deal with the subject dramatically and show content.
Only recently as social issues have become commercial gold mines on TV movies and in dramas,
have the old taboos begun to break down.
In Beverly Hills, the Center for Population Options handed out awards to those programs which have shown sexual responsibility.
Well, there's a great deal of sex on TV.
I think everybody agrees with that.
And there's very little responsible sex, preventive sex, very little discussion of contraception,
or what the consequences of unprotected sex could be.
Receiving the awards, TV movies and early frost.
And AIDS.
And babies having babies.
Feel it.
Here, give me your hand.
Teenage pregnancies is a growing problem in this country.
We have the worst problem in the world.
More teenage pregnancies than anywhere else.
Other awards went to the daytime drama, Days of Our Lives.
I'd like something from that section right there.
Birth control?
Yeah, that's right.
Is this going to be for you or for the young lady?
Um, well, for me.
To an episode of The Cosby Show.
Let's say that one of you became pregnant.
Yeah!
No, no, no, I'm not serious.
I know it's not me.
Okay, let's say it's you.
The more open talk there is within the family unit, the less the children feel obligated
to go out and experiment and be irresponsible in their behavior.
And another award winner, an episode of Cagney and Lacey.
Abortion is not murder.
It's not even a person yet.
Well, tell that to your belly.
My belly is my business.
We got a lot of mail on the abortion show.
It sounds self-serving to say it, but it ran literally 45 to 1 in favor of what we did.
Still, the old policies die very hard.
None of the three commercial networks, for instance, will allow ads for contraceptive
products on their air.
Scott, what exactly are the networks' objections to the ad sale?
Well, they still find the subject too controversial.
They say they don't want to appear to be in the position of endorsing something that should
be a matter of personal choice.
And in fact, we have an ad that will not air on the networks no matter what the advertiser
is willing to pay.
I never thought having an intimate relationship would be a matter of life or death.
But because of AIDS, I'm afraid AIDS isn't just a gay disease.
It's everybody's disease.
And everybody who gets it dies.
The Surgeon General says proper use of condoms can reduce your risk, so you'd be crazy not
to use them.
The condoms I buy are called lifestyles.
All three networks rejected the commercial, citing company policies.
Birth control organizations say those policies are wrong.
The network set up the straw man of this being a controversial issue, when in fact it really
is not a controversial issue.
Contraception is universally accepted in this country today.
It is used by almost all American women.
Broadcasters know that birth control is a controversial subject, that a lot of the people
who watch television are uncomfortable with it and they don't want to see contraceptive
commercials popping up in the middle of Bill Cosby.
Unintended pregnancies have risks, greater risks than any of today's contraceptives.
Similarly, the networks required this public service announcement be revised.
There are many ways to prevent unintended pregnancies.
And the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists wants you to have the facts.
Planned Parenthood has placed print advertising decrying the network's willingness to program
storylines containing casual sex, but their reluctance to deal with the issue of contraception.
But earlier this season, the subject received frank treatment.
What is this little talk supposed to be about exactly?
Protection.
Responsibility.
Thinking smart.
Not taking any stupid chances.
Condoms Harvey.
Well, I have to tell you that the network was really very supportive of us with this
particular episode and I think that has very much to do with the battles that we have fought
previously on Cagney and Lacey.
I have to be very honest and say that it might have not have been nearly as easy to get this
episode done if we were attempting to do this in our first or second season, but in fact
it's our fifth season.
Right last year, 35 local TV stations and two cable stations did air an ad for today's
brand contraceptive sponge.
They reported few viewer complaints, no more than the complaints they usually receive against
ads for female hygiene products, which of course the networks do air.
It seems it's about time for the networks to take another look.
Absolutely.
Thank you, Scott.
We'll be right back.
Coming up, a visit with Britain's hot group, Wang Chung.
And ahead, Matt Dillon on the set of his new film and Bob Sarlot looks at gimmicks that
can sell or sink movies.
A television show honoring President Reagan has felt the effects of the Iran contra-arm
scandal.
Reagan's Way, a planned TV show saluting President Reagan on his upcoming 76th birthday, has
been canceled because all the major advertisers have backed out.
A distributor of the hour-long tribute said, quote, because of the Iranian thing, the advertisers
thought it advisable to disassociate themselves with the program.
The syndicated show was to have been an historical look at Reagan's career, from the movies to
the presidency, and was produced by French television and Daniel Selznick, a good friend
of First Lady Nancy Reagan and the son of legendary movie producer David O. Selznick.
NBC's Roger Mudd did some mudslinging yesterday over his network's decision to cancel 1986,
the news magazine featuring Mudd and Connie Chung.
Quote, it marks another sad and painful day in American journalism, said Mudd, with the
pressure for profit once again proving irresistible.
End quote.
In 1984, Jack Hughes and Nick Feldman, better known as Wang Chung, invited everyone to join
them on the dance floor.
In 1985, Wang Chung sang about living and dying in L.A.
Now they're inviting the world to have fun tonight.
Everybody Have Fun Tonight is the hit single from Wang Chung's latest album, Mosaic.
This song is the first top five hit for band leaders Nick Feldman and Jack Hughes.
You get a tremendous sense of affirmation, and I think it helps your self-confidence,
and everything you strive for for so long suddenly comes good.
And I think it makes it seem like a new beginning in a sense.
That makes us feel we can go on to the next stage all guns blazing.
The song Dancehall Days was Wang Chung's introduction to American audiences.
They followed it with the soundtrack album To Live and Die in L.A.
Neither the album nor the movie were big commercial hits.
I actually feel very pleased with what it did.
I think a lot of people sort of got interested in the band without actually kind of committing
to it, if you know what I mean.
The video for Everybody Have Fun Tonight took hundreds of hours to shoot and edit.
The group also worked their name into a line in the song.
I think you're allowed to use the name of your band once in a career, and this is it.
I think, I mean, Everybody Wang Chung Tonight.
Wang Chung is like the feeling.
You're feeling, it's not, you can't put it into words.
So Wang Chung seemed like a kind of way of saying, do what you want to do.
Everybody Have Fun Tonight climbs to number three on next week's Billboard Pop Singles
chart while the Bangles walk like an Egyptian takes the big step to number one.
On Billboard's Pop Album Chart, Bruce Springsteen's Live Five record set stays at number one
for the fourth week in a row.
It's an album chart full of B's, by the way.
Bruce is number one, Bon Jovi number two, Boston at three, and Bruce Hornsby at number
four.
And in case you hadn't noticed, it is the holiday season.
We have just 13 shopping days left, and Nina Blackwood has some helpful stocking stuffer
ideas straight from the music video store.
Nina?
Thank you, Mary.
There once was a time in the not too distant past that we used to watch music videos only
on MTV.
But with technology moving at a pace faster than the blink of an eye and record companies
thinking faster than the ring of a cash register, music videos started getting marketed and
released for the home video consumer.
Here's a sampling of some of the latest and greatest home music videos.
Janet Jackson's number one album is now a top selling video, featuring her hits, When
I Think of You, What Have You Done for Me Lately, and Nasty.
14 hits from the police are included on their new music video compilation, including the
86th version of their hit, Don't Stand So Close to Me.
Five hit songs and never before seen interview footage make up Diamond Dave's latest music
video comic book.
Not to be outdone, David Lee's old band Van Halen has a new offering in video stores,
Live Without a Net, footage from their 86th tour and songs from their 12 years together.
The oldest and perhaps best music video on the market features Ireland's U2, Live at
Red Rocks, Colorado.
And U2 is the king of the pack.
Their live concert video has been on Billboard's music video chart for more than 15 months
now, longer than any other recording act.
And that's our special Christmas shopping edition for the Rock Report.
I'm Nina Blackwood.
Mary, John, Merry Christmas.
I guess I should say early.
I can't believe it's so, so soon.
I'm depressed.
Thanks, Nina.
Oh, well, thanks, Mary.
I didn't mean to depress you.
Stay with us.
Matt Dillon and Diane Lane head north for Roll of a Dice.
Yeah, that's a film set in the 50s and it's called The Big Town.
That and more after this.
Travel arrangements made by Pan American World Airways, which flies to more places in Europe
than all other U.S. airlines combined.
Pan Am, you can't beat the experience.
Celebrating a birthday today, singer Jermaine Jackson is 32, actress Bess Armstrong, 33,
Tootsie and Mr. Moms star Terry Gahr is 37, Mission Impossible's Linda Day George is 40,
singer Brenda Lee, Little Miss Dynamite is 42, Knott's Landings' Donna Mills is 43,
Grammy, Tony and Oscar winner Rita Moreno is 55, Nobel Prize winning author Alexander
Solzhenitsyn is 68, and producer Carlo Ponti is 73.
The producers of Jeopardy found themselves in a bit of Jeopardy of their own making.
Monday, contestants were asked to name the most famous families of Pike County, Kentucky
and Logan County, Virginia.
They responded correctly, the Hatfields and McCoys.
The error was the shows.
The McCoys are from Logan County, West Virginia, and viewers let them know it right away.
By the way, when Alex Trebek found out we were going to report this story, he said,
come on, we do 15,000 questions each year.
This is just one mistake.
And now we're for sure going to count.
Sylvester Stallone bought a piece of himself today with the buy-in of Carolco Pictures,
the company that merchandises Rambo products.
The deal includes foreign distribution rights to his next 10 movies, including one with
a familiar title.
We've decided to skip Rambo 3 and go on to Rambo 4 and have a little difficulty with
the script.
But yes, there'll be a Rambo or two in the future for sure.
Rambo's 1 and 2 have grossed over $390 million at the box office worldwide.
I would say towards the end of February we'll begin the new Rambo saga, which I think will
be quite interesting.
It's quite ambitious compared to the last one.
And another busy actor is Matt Dillon.
Later this month, he'll be seen in the new movie Native Son.
Right now he's in Canada shooting The Big Town.
Jeannie Becker went shooting with Dillon.
Oh Lord, send me a 7 to relieve these sinful gamblers of their money.
Winner 7!
Thank you Lord, thank you, thank you!
The Big Town of the title is 1950s Chicago, where Matt Dillon tries to make a living as
a professional dice player.
The thing that's great about craps, I think, is that it's the fastest form of gambling.
It's very fast.
It's not like cards.
It's quick.
It's fast.
It's always been like more of a poor man's game, you know.
You can lose your money real fast and you can pick up some money real fast.
Is that Ferguson's new Flash?
I speak English.
Well, I'm glad you could make it, Flash.
It cost you $50 to roll the dice.
Dillon's co-star Tommy Lee Jones is playing an unsympathetic role in the film, but Jones
doesn't mind one bit.
Roll him.
I like being in good movies and good plays and good television shows.
I don't pay any attention to whether the character is a good guy or a bad guy.
What matters to me is whether or not it's a good screenplay and whether or not you're
working with good people.
Dillon has made two movies opposite Diane Lane.
Now she's been cast as his leading lady in The Big Town.
I don't know.
I don't know really how Matt works, but we get along really well and he's much more protective
of, you know, if I need a pat on the back.
And he's like, you sure that I'm, am I turning you on?
It's like, yeah, it's okay.
You are like, okay.
Good.
No, I'm just kidding.
Winner six.
It was an interesting time to research, you know, Chicago in the fifties.
There's a lot of gambling going on.
Craps is a lot more popular in the fifties than it is now by any means.
Craps is really, I think, kind of a dying game.
It's too bad because it is an exciting game.
Yes!
Amen!
There's going to be more Lucy to love.
Beginning this spring, a syndication company will be selling three two-hour specials titled
We Love Lucy.
The specials will consist of rarely seen episodes of the Lucy Desi Comedy Hour, which began
airing in 1957 after I Love Lucy went off the air.
Coming up tomorrow, Dolly Parton, the down home holiday special.
Monday, Billy Joel hits with This Is the Time and Cheryl Add tries a controversial TV drama.
Tuesday, Glenn Close films a romance with deadly consequences.
And Alice Cooper, heavy makeup, heavy metal, and a very heavy touring schedule.
From today's People Post scripts, Vanna White is going to tell all.
Sort of.
The game show celebrity is writing her autobiography for some $250,000.
It'll be published in May and will also be available in an hour-long video version.
All the new movies opening, and it's a very busy season, will be accompanied by promotional
devices.
That means everything from posters to t-shirts to all sorts of strange dude ads.
Pages to send to journalists and critics, making for some very cluttered desks.
Bob Sarlat has a cluttered desk.
Marty, baby, chicky, sweetheart, love you people, love the business, most of all love your script,
but hey, I just can't find it, pal.
Look, I'll try to get to you by lunch.
Ciao, baby.
Oh, hi.
I'm just a regular guy trying to carve out a name for himself in this town.
But how do people expect us in the media to get anything done when they keep sending us
all these promotional items from their movies?
Huh?
Oh, look, something from Howard the Duck.
Gee, I didn't see this movie.
Hey, how thoughtful.
Slippers, so you can sneak quietly out of the movie.
Ah, remember the New World Pictures movie, The Stuff?
Neither do I.
Over here, The Stuff.
Simply terrifying.
They tell me they spent more on promotional junk like this than they did on the movie.
And why not, huh?
The MGM Lion.
The studio sent these out to let us know that MGM was still alive and kicking.
What better way than with a stuffed animal, huh?
From the movie Legal Eagles, a miniature gavel must be for small claims court.
And from the touch-tone film Rookless People, a screw.
Now, this movie grossed $70 million.
This screw cost seven cents.
Pretty healthy profit margin, huh?
From the movie The Breakfast Club, a coffee cup.
Hey, I get it.
But let's admit it, it's kind of hard to keep breakfast down with these kids on a cup, huh?
From the movie Reform School Girls, plastic handcuffs.
See, the deal here is you're supposed to handcuff yourself to the person next to you so neither
of you can leave the theater.
The movie was just that good.
From the motion picture Revenge of the Nerds, the nerd planner.
Let's see what's inside.
Uh, Miss Stevens, you haven't given us homework yet.
Oh, I see how this works.
From the movie Vamp, an ashtray.
You see, the movie was about vampires, and thus the ashtray would signify...
No idea.
From Universal Pictures, the family portrait from the river.
The only hard part here is convincing my friends that my dad is Mel Gibson and my mom is Sissy
Spacek.
Uh, that's me up here in the corner.
Well, this certainly is a fine assortment of movie merchandise.
Well worth saving.
And I know just where to keep mine.
Bob Sarlot Entertainment tonight.
I rated Bob's Closet and I saved these for you.
Oh great!
The best of the bunch.
What about the nerd planner?
Tomorrow on the show Dolly Parton will be tuning up for a Christmas special and Katie
Kelly will review Eddie Murphy's new movie The Golden Child.
These are for adults.
As we say goodbye, Wang Chung puts it best.
Everybody have fun tonight.
Bye.
I like them.
Everybody have fun tonight.
Everybody having fun tonight.
EverybodyCamosYou ¡Vaya!
Everybody have fun tonight.
Everybody chomp chomp tonight.
Thanks for watching!