The Murphy's co-star become the golden girl. Steve Bell bids Washington adieu.
I have never gone so long without a change of assignment.
And what's the latest news with Huey Lewis? As entertainment tonight rocks on for Monday December 29th, 1986.
Hip the B, hip the B, hip, hip, hip, hip, hip, hip the B Square.
Music
Hi everybody, I'm John Tepf.
And I'm Mary Hart.
Starting tomorrow morning, television viewers are going to be missing another favorite.
Good Morning America's loss will be Philadelphia's gain. Peter Quinhacus reports from Washington.
Right now let's go to Washington for the news with Steve Bell and Margaret Osmer. Good morning Steve and Margaret.
Good morning David.
David, there are a number of stories developing this morning.
He's been Mr. Morning News ever since Good Morning America went on the air.
His nearly two decades with ABC News found him all over the world, first gaining national attention with his reports from Vietnam.
This is the beginning of the aerosol in the Laos. U.S. helicopter.
May I have some caffeine please?
It takes a lot of coffee to keep going every day from 3 a.m. on.
And despite GMA's success, long number one, now a strong number two behind NBC's today, Steve is ready to leave.
Everybody needs to have a new challenge and a new opportunity at regular intervals in their lives.
I have never gone so long without a change of assignment or a new challenge as I have in the last 11 years.
Bell says he'll miss his New York colleagues but probably won't miss David's jibes about his favorite football team.
I hope we mention the Redskins.
The Redskins.
Who?
Oh yeah, oh yeah.
Steve Bell has been first my workmate, second my teacher and third my friend and I am going to miss him on all counts.
It's kind of tough to see people go and Steve is such a pro that it's really in my opinion going to be a real loss for us.
I am leaving behind one of the most wonderful groups of people in our business.
There has always been a special morale and a spree on the morning news unit in part because we work at a time of day when we don't naturally interact with a lot of other people in the bureau.
From here Bell moves on to where he says the action is, local news. He's going to Westinghouse Station in Philadelphia which will offer a change in pace, a nice change in salary, but one thing Steve says will never change, they'll always remain a Redskins fan.
In Washington, Peter Quinhacus, Entertainment Tonight.
A lot of television shows starving for Nielsen numbers became answers to future trivia games this year.
What TV series were canceled in 1986? Eric Burns has that and more from the world of television.
Which Eric now includes a breaking story.
We have just learned that Diane Sawyer of CBS at the end of her contract with that network and courted by the other two networks as well has just resigned or is about to resign with CBS.
All we know is that she will remain on 60 Minutes. Her role outside that show with the network will be expanded.
Now you mentioned canceled shows. Did you know that there was a show called Leo and Liz in Beverly Hills on in 1986?
Did either of you ever hear of it? Well, that's part of the problem it had.
Leo and Liz is one of the prime time network shows canceled during the past 12 months. Here are a few of the others.
That really is just a few because altogether 48 prime time network shows were canceled in 1986.
The record is 50 in 1984. Now again something for you trivia buffs.
The quickest cancellation this year it was Melba canceled after one first run episode.
Proving once again that if you want to grow up to be a network programmer you can have no greater attribute than impatience.
Here are the latest ratings now in the morning news show race. 5.1, 4.4 and 2.8.
They belong respectively to Today, Good Morning America and the CBS Morning News.
Because the ratings for previous return of Perry Mason TV movies have been so good, NBC is planning four more of them for the 1987-88 season.
And starting today NBC has a new daytime quiz show. It's called Wordplay and host Tom Kennedy describes it as quote,
Funnier than hell. What happens is three celebrity panelists define words like exorius, effusive and estivate.
And non-celebrity panelists try to guess which celebrity is right. If the non-celebrity panelists guess correctly they win points.
If not they are poly-syllabically humiliated for their philistinism.
And I guess there's probably no better way to put it than that. What did you say?
Egregious at best.
You still remember that. I said that two weeks ago and you quote that daily.
That's right. I'll work with you after the show.
And your two-year-old son says it beautifully. We'll be right back.
Thank you.
When we come back, Charlotte Lewis talks about making a movie with Eddie Murphy.
Katie Kelly reviews a new movie and is not impressed.
It is hard to imagine how a movie could be both so violent and so boring.
And on tour with Huey Lewis and the News.
We are going to really tour worldwide this time. Again to convert fans of the records into being fans of the bands.
Plans for New Year's Eve across America include Happy New Year America at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City.
Gladys Knight and the Pips join Glen Campbell on the bill. $580 per couple for the show and breakfast.
$670 per couple for the show and dinner.
In Chicago, Todd Rundgren headlines the Park West Theater. $35 a ticket.
In Dallas, James Brown rocks at the Hard Rock Cafe. $75 to $150 per ticket.
And in Sheridan, Wyoming, the Chosen Few Band will ring in the New Year at the Sheridan Holiday Inn Dinner and Dance.
That's $38.87 per couple.
And finally in Seattle, a non-alcoholic New Year's Eve party at the Seattle Center. $20 per couple.
How many actresses can say they starred in one of the year's biggest turkeys and within months were seen again in one of the biggest holiday movies of the year?
She's 19-year-old Charlotte Lewis trying to forget pirates and in search of the Golden Child.
Aloeens has more.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chabert. Hi.
So you're the finder of lost children.
Charlotte Lewis co-stars with Eddie Murphy in The Golden Child.
She plays an Asian woman who recruits Murphy to rescue a kidnapped child.
I realize it's very hard for you to take in. What is your destiny to find the Golden Child?
It was really funny because during the screen test, I'll never forget, I had to fly from London to LA for the actual screen test with Eddie and he had the final say.
And he was yawning through the screen test. I was really insulted so I was like, otherwise he doesn't like me, I haven't got it.
And then afterwards he winked at me and I just knew, I said, right, no, I've got it. I'm so sure I've got it.
The Golden Child is Lewis' second film.
She was 17 when she worked on her first, Roman Polanski's Pirates.
She began her career modeling.
I've been working since I was 14. It's not like a new thing. I was a model first for two years.
And I've always looked after myself, you know. It's just been me and my mom since I was like a baby.
And I sort of was looking after myself coming home from school since I was seven.
So it's not like I'm a little girl who's never been used to meeting people and, you know,
I'd always been with older people all my life.
In spite of her youth, Lewis is cautious about success.
I could so easily lose my head, you know. I could become very arrogant and spoiled.
And I must be really careful of that, you know.
And then it could go the other way, you know.
People could get too hyped up about me too soon and then forget about me in five years.
So you're always on the edge, you know. It's really, it's a real tightrope. You're walking. You've got to be really careful.
So I'm really pleased it's all happening now, but then I think maybe it's happening too soon.
So that's why I had to give a really sort of mature attitude so people will take me as an adult.
As a big person.
Allowance Entertainment Tonight.
Eddie Murphy's search for the Golden Child is paying off better than King Kong's renewed search for box office gold.
King Kong lives, but not for movie critic Katie Kelly. Katie?
Thanks, Mary.
Well, when last we saw Kong, he had been shot down from the World Trade Center.
Well, guess what? Kong did not die. No.
He has been kept alive by machines, waiting for, yes, the world's largest artificial heart.
And guess what? In King Kong Lives, he gets a new heart.
Hello, Kong.
Welcome back.
Kong also gets a girlfriend and gets, well, it rhymes with corny, yes, raging hormones.
And then they both get into a lot of trouble with, you got it, the U.S. Army.
Oh, that's disgusting.
But you know, folks, it is hard to imagine how a movie could be both so violent and so boring, but this Kong show does just that.
Isn't that amazing?
Meanwhile, who did they make this movie for? Hey, don't ask me. I just see these stupid things.
Adults will be appalled. Kids will be horrified.
Boy, this eight movie is a dog for the birds. I'm talking ratty.
I did like the Kong family, mom, pop, and eventually baby.
And that's why I'm giving it one bow tie out of five.
And now back to you guys in Los Angeles.
Number one to mince words. It appears there isn't much life at the ticket window for old King Kong.
The latest saga King Kong lives grows just over a million dollars this weekend compared to this weekend's number one movie, The Golden Child.
A new Eddie Murphy comedy grossed an estimated ten million dollars for another first place finish.
Star Trek IV came in second, Crocodile Dundee third, Free Amigos fourth, and Little Shop of Horrors was fifth.
According to ET movie estimates, the morning after was sixth.
And they also show that Heartbreak Ridge and Lady and the Tramp continue to do well.
Brighton Beach memoirs, No Mercy and Crimes of the Heart are doing so-so, while Kong swings helplessly in the wind.
Two movies opened on Christmas Day, so how did the morning after and Brighton Beach memoirs do on a coast-to-coast survey of moviegoers?
Papa the Seventh. Two strikes on Jojo Moore. Red roughing the pigeon.
What did I tell you about banging the ball? Your Aunt Blanche has a headache.
I can't stop now. It's a crucial moment in World Series history.
And it's a critical moment for Neil Simon.
MovieTrak predicts a not-so-bright future for his Brighton Beach memoirs.
Half the movie's opening weekend crowds were over 35.
Curiously, though, the under-18 crowd liked the film more than any other age group.
Overall, 14 percent thought it was the best.
33 percent loved it. 39 percent liked it.
14 percent were disappointed. No one rated it a bomb.
Three stars out of five for Neil Simon's memoirs.
I knew I had my stuff.
You're welcome.
Two.
You really saved my life.
Jane Fonda and Jeff Bridges will need better word of mouth to save the life of the morning after.
Only four percent thought it was the best.
Nineteen percent loved it.
Forty-two percent liked it.
A whopping 31 percent were disappointed.
And four percent rated the morning after a bomb.
Two.
Two stars out of five for Fonda and Bridges and the morning after.
This is one of the busiest movie-going seasons of the year,
and if a new film is on your list of things to do,
here's how MovieTrak rated current movies on a one-to-five scale.
The most popular television series of 1986 were the Golden Girls, Cheers, Murder She Wrote,
Family Ties, and for the second year in a row, the most watched TV show was The Cosby
Show.
The city of Burbank, California made headlines several years ago when the city council banned
a series of rock concerts featuring such acts as Jackson Brown, Patti Smith, and Todd Rundgren,
saying the concerts would attract drug addicts, anti-nuclear demonstrators, and homosexuals.
The concert promoter sued and this week Burbank officials agreed to pay $3.8 million in an
out of court settlement.
The 1983 album Sports from Huey Lewis and the News will go down in the rock and roll
box score as one of the biggest LPs of the 80s.
For a follow up, Huey and his Bay Area buddies yelled four and the hits started coming from
his fourth album, like monstrous 300 yard drives off the tee.
I visited with Huey Lewis currently in the midst of a lengthy worldwide concert tour Saturday
just before he played before the hometown crowd for the first time in two years.
Long before the spotlight split the darkness, seconds before the musicians take the stage,
there is activity in the newsroom.
The final pre-concert piece of business is a visit from the doctor for the all important
soul injection.
No one takes the stage without one.
What are the feelings, yours particularly, right before you go on stage?
What is that rush like?
Well it's great, you know, because you know in our art we get to actually go out there
and get immediate gratification.
There's 15 to 20,000 people out there and you get to go out and say, are you with me?
And they go, yeah.
Did you play in front of the home crowd?
It is, yeah.
It really is great to play.
You know, it's funny because all of our friends, you know, they just for so many years they
say when are you going to play at home?
When are you going to play at home?
And now they're all here, every one of them.
In fact there were close friends everywhere on this special Saturday night including Huey's
golf partner, San Francisco 49er Dwight Clark, a hot time in Oakland and a homecoming for
Huey.
Not a bad voice on Dwight Clark, huh?
No, surprisingly good, but you heard more of him sing than we just got to see.
Yeah, the sound check was great.
He was singing almost as good as his Huey.
Well, that's almost blasphemous.
We'll be right back.
Coming up tomorrow, the morning after's Jeff Bridges and on Wednesday, New Year's Eve, a
look back at the year in entertainment.
And on Thursday, New Year's Day, what's in store for the year ahead?
And on Friday, comedian Lily Tomlin.
It surely couldn't have been Lily that failed, you know, after all that success.
Celebrating birthdays today, ballerina Gelce Kirkland is 34, actress Angel Tompkins 37,
year star Ted Danson is 39, Oscar winner John Voight 48, Emmy winner Mary Tyler Moore is
49, actress Inga Spensen is 52, ABC News Tom Jarrell is 52, and so is Emmy and Tony winner
Ed Flanders 52.
In today's People Postscripts, mystery writer John D. McDonald, who wrote over 70 books,
including the immensely popular Travis McGee novels, died in Milwaukee yesterday.
He was 70 years old.
And Elsa Lanchester, a character actress on Broadway and in the movies for 60 years, died
Friday in Los Angeles at the age of 84.
Her film credits included The Bride of Frankenstein, the Inspector General, Mary Poppins, and Murder
by Death.
Another holiday is just around the corner, and if you happen to be stuck for a recipe
for New Year's Eve dinner, what luck.
Barbara Hauer's New York Report has some culinary secrets from, of all people, weatherman Willard
Scott, now chef.
Barbara?
I'm sorry, there's nothing unusual in New York about eating in a restaurant and seeing
somebody famous.
What's unusual is to eat at home and have somebody famous cook for you, which is what
Willard Scott did for me to stir up some interest in his new All-American cookbook.
What he made, other than a mess, was a batch of Maryland crab cakes.
This is, I think, the nicest crab meat recipe I've ever found in my life.
More people that I've talked to in my life have never tried country ham and crab meat
together.
It's like a marriage made in heaven.
That comes last.
First, we make the crab meat.
We've got that here.
This is back lumped in crab meat.
That's one pound of it.
We take the little egg, we beat that up in the bowl like so.
We put this over here, Nellie.
Let's get away.
You put that in there.
That's our big mixing bowl.
And then, with that, we take the crab meat and dump it in.
Right.
And we want to stir that up just a bit.
Thank you.
We just mash it up.
There is, for this particular recipe, that is to say, it's not in the book, it'll be
in the next book.
This is white cornmeal.
White cornmeal, usually with crab meat, you put some bread or something to help hold the
crab meat together, right?
But this gives it a flavor and a consistency that is so unreal.
And I take about a handful.
Now, I'm going to be a little messy here because I'll be honest with you.
I take my hands and go in here and really squish it up good.
Because when you do it this way, you really blend the crab meat with the butter, with
the cornmeal, with the onion, and with the pepper.
You add the crab meat helper.
You make it into those patties.
Now, what temperature and how long do they cook?
Well, an electric fry pan, about 350, maybe cook them for 12 minutes, something like that,
and then turn them a couple of times.
Just so they're brown and the crab meat gets a little bit warm on the inside.
That's all.
They're ready.
I'm hungry.
I'm ready to eat them now.
Like a head of steak, do I need a taster to make sure that it's all right?
I'll be more than glad to volunteer.
You tell me now.
That's good.
Is Chef Scott done you, bro?
You're more than just another pretty face.
This is very good.
I'm available, too, and I'll be glad to come over every Wednesday if you'd like and fix
dinner for you.
Why don't you get the idea for doing a cookbook?
Well, I really seem like a natural.
Traveling all over the country, I've been to like 700 cities in the last six years.
I've eaten at more restaurants.
I always say, hey, that's delicious.
How do you fix that?
Because I do like to cook.
I'm not a great cook, but a good fan of cooking.
And I have a ball and good publicity myself.
But don't you get tired on planes, off planes, with crowds?
No.
Basically, I swear to you, I don't.
I tell you, I'm the perfect combination of Baptist preacher and politician.
I love people.
And I get buoyed up by it.
You've got the perfect job.
Absolutely perfect job and get paid very handsomely for it.
And all you can eat.
Look at this.
I didn't even buy this.
Who bought this?
Entertainment Tonight paid for this food?
Shh.
Hey, cut the camera.
Let's eat.
No.
Come to California.
Cook for us.
Let's just hope his hands are clean.
He wouldn't be in Barbara Howard's kitchen if they weren't.
You sure about that?
That's it for us.
Tune in tomorrow to meet the morning actors, Jeff Ridges.
As you were telling us earlier, Huey Lewis and the News made their triumphant return to
the Bay Area over the weekend.
We're going to leave you with more from their Oakland concert and their top five hit, Hip
to Be Square.
See you tomorrow.
Take care, everybody.
erel Go Told You, Twenty Seconds of Water, Whoa, Hi, Shake Your horsepower Boy.
Don't you try to fight it
When I need a little time to turn
Come on, give me the love baby
Give me all your love, give me the love
Music