Who's up and who's down in Rivers vs. Carson?
Whatever happened to Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler?
What's the dynasty moonlighting connection?
If you give Harry Anderson enough rope, do you get a hung jury?
ET hits the casting couch one more time.
This is Bimbo City.
And takes its junk to the high seas for Thursday, November 13, 1986.
My God, I'm so impressed.
Hello again everybody, I'm Mary Hart.
And I'm John Tesch.
It's been just over a month since the late night television battle began between Joan
Rivers and Johnny Carson.
There has been all manner of ballyhoo about who would do what to whom, and reported threats
of Siberian banishment to guests trying to appear on both shows.
Bring us up to date on all of this.
Joining us on the set is Eric Burns, our resident of Things TV.
You both know how Joan Rivers likes to say, can we talk?
Well, of course she can talk.
The real question is, when she does talk, who's listening?
Right now, ladies and gentlemen, Miss Joan Rivers!
Critics have not received Joan Rivers as warmly as have her studio audiences.
Why?
Well, mainly because she's so obnoxious and a little bit of her goes a long, long way.
Also, are you crazy?
No matter where you point, I may be answers now.
People in Kansas City like to feel comfortable with their talk show hosts.
I don't think Joan does that for them.
I think Johnny does.
The board, I guess, will be Vincent Price, Valerie Harper, Richard Simmons, and the world's
largest pumpkin.
She's doing the same format as the Johnny Carson show, exactly the same format.
And there's nothing fresh about the show.
The raw numbers say there is nothing successful about the show either.
Rivers' rating has dropped every week the show's been on, and her most recent rating
was less than half of Carson's.
Although part of the problem here is that her show is seen in far fewer markets than
Carson's.
But if the late show starring Joan Rivers is not succeeding in quantity, it is succeeding
in quality in this sense.
It is attracting an audience of precisely the kind of young, relatively affluent viewers
that advertisers want to reach.
So in those viewing categories, whatever the gross number says, that bottom line target
number says the people you want to reach are here.
I didn't see Mrs. Reagan stopping by and saying hi to you before she came out.
The Rivers show is important not just to its star, but to its network.
It is to be the cornerstone of a fourth American network, the Fox Broadcasting Company.
There hasn't been a successful fourth network in this country since these words were uttered
more than three decades ago.
This is the Duman Television Network.
Now to the CBS Television Network, where the Thursday night lineup is about to be revamped,
the opening women moves to Thursday from Monday.
A new comedy show called The Cavanaugh's will debut on Mondays.
And a half-hour version of The Twilight Zone will be placed opposite NBC's The Cosby Show,
which suggests they might consider renaming it The Dead Zone after the Stephen King novel.
It's a terrible time period.
Let me mention two more things to you about the Joan Rivers story.
First of all, her show is doing much better than shows in that time period did previously
on Fox stations, and second, new ratings out tomorrow, perhaps some change.
So we'll know more later.
And if you could keep all of the schedule changes straight, you win the $1 million lottery,
right?
You can't do it without prompter.
That's right.
Joan Rivers isn't the only one having ratings problems, of course.
Sooner or later, it does happen to all television shows.
Even the once mighty Dynasty is slipping.
Last week, it lost its time slot to a series competitor for the first time in almost five
years.
This seems to be good news for Tom Selleck and Magnum P.I., but bad news for Dynasty.
In fact, Paula McClure has found one Dynasty star who is, if you'll pardon the expression,
moonlighting.
I just turned down another invitation.
I know.
Jack Coleman is known to millions as the sexually confused Stephen Carrington on Dynasty, but
four nights a week he dashes across town to appear on stage in Bouncers.
The play, which is one of the hottest tickets in town, is about four men who guard the door
of a posh London nightclub.
Four pints, four bags of beeper bag of salted peanuts and four whiskey chasers.
It's a hit.
The reviews are great, but the question remains, why would a star work so hard in front of
99 people doing a small experimental play?
It's just a chance to do something that's completely off the wall and different and
very 1986.
He plays a bouncer.
He plays a woman.
He plays a sort of young lad after a woman.
He plays a woman.
He plays a young lad out on the town and a disc jockey.
Many, many characters.
And he's excellent.
He was sensational.
My God, I'm so impressed.
I can't imagine.
No wonder he's been getting exhausted and coming to work and losing weight.
I mean, that's an outrageous amount of work to do.
And they were wonderful in it.
The initial thing is a shock, seeing my son up there doing weird and wonderful things.
And he shows things that he's never shown on our show.
He's really quite wonderful.
I'm very proud of him.
Paula McClure, Entertainment Tonight.
In other news, the Today Show beat Good Morning America again in last week's Nielsen ratings
and the CBS Morning News picked up a little bit, but still finished a distant third.
CBS won the week in daytime ratings and the second half of The Price is Right tied with
General Hospital for a top rated daytime show.
Just about everybody knows about the Screen Actors Guild.
It represents the stars, Jack Nicholson, Cary Grant, Jane Fonda.
The Screen Extras Guild is made up of the people you see in the crowd shots, in the
background, or the body riding on the gurney with the tag on the toe.
Well, last night some of the big stars came out to support the extras.
Al Owens has that story in our new studio.
Al?
Mary, there's a dispute between the Screen Extras Guild and producers, and the main issue
is money.
Oh, no!
More than 200 people showed up at the Candlelight Rally to show their opposition to a contract
proposed by Hollywood's producers.
Extras don't make the kind of big dollars recognizable stars do, and they object to
a proposed drop in pay from $91 a day to $68.
In a show of support for the extras, some members of the Screen Actors Guild joined
the rally.
I'm here because I think what they're trying to do to them is unfair, and I'm here in support
for fellow members of the community here.
I'm here primarily to identify with their anguish.
The board of the Screen Extras Guild fears a strike may lead to the demise of the union,
but many of the rank-and-file members don't agree.
The Screen Extras Guild will begin voting on the contract proposal this weekend.
In the meantime, this dispute has grown so bitter there's even talk the Screen Extras
may end up joining the Teamsters Union.
Still to come, the magic of Harry Anderson.
Nina Blackwood's music report.
Part three of Casting Couch, Fact or Fiction.
And Leonard Malton's scathing review of a new movie.
It's one of the dumbest movies of the year.
Not just ordinary dumb, but colossally dumb, flamboyantly dumb, unabashedly dumb.
Harry Anderson is A, star of a top rated sitcom.
B, a comedian.
C, a practical joker.
Or D, a good judge of character.
Lisa Gibbons answers E, all of the above.
Here's an amazing feat.
Actually, it's his good luck charm.
That was five years ago when Night Court's Harry Anderson appeared as one of HBO's young
comedians.
For this year's special, it's time for Harry to pass the baton.
She's lovely, she's bright, and she is very funny.
Please give a warm welcome to Ellen DeGeneres.
Over the past ten years, HBO has been showcasing new talent on their annual young comedian
special.
Like Harry Anderson, this could be a big break for Ellen DeGeneres.
You have to stay in shape though, don't you?
Oh yeah.
You do, you have to.
Yeah.
You do.
Yeah.
You know, my grandmother started walking five miles a day when she was 60.
She's 93 today and we don't know where the hell she is.
When did you first know that you were funny?
Somebody told me yesterday.
They said, you know, you're funny, here's a show, there you go.
It's that easy.
And a friend of mine said, listen, Ellen, having sex is kind of like riding a bicycle,
you know what I mean?
And I know it's been a while, but I don't ever remember peddling.
From what you've seen of Ellen, do you think she has that spark that will cause her to
run away from the pack?
Well, she's very funny and she's very talented and I think there's a lot of luck involved
and being in the right place at the right time, but if luck falls to the folks, if luck
is a lady, then yeah, she's got a good future, a great future.
A lot has changed in comedy since Harry Anderson first appeared on the young comedian special
five years ago.
Do you remember any of the bits you did then and would they still work?
I don't think they worked then, so I'm not, they probably have the same status now.
Yeah.
No, wait a second, wait a second, wait a second.
This would be a pretty good trick if the knot weren't there.
So we try something semantic.
Ooh, ooh.
Not there.
You must get approached an awful lot about advice in this business, dealing with the
rejection.
What would you say to Ellen?
Keep your personal life together and strong and make sure that you don't totally rely
upon the approval of strangers, I guess.
Not bad.
All right, it's time now to check on the latest from Bruce Springsteen, Peter Gabriel and
Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler.
Who else would have that combination?
But of course, Nina Blackwood in today's rock report.
Thanks, John.
Now last summer, Sting, U2 and Peter Gabriel headlined a series of benefit concerts celebrating
the 25th anniversary of Amnesty International.
Now several artists have given songs to a new album, Rock for Amnesty.
We talked to one of those featured on the LP, Peter Gabriel, about the album and the
organization.
I think Amnesty is a very effective organization.
I mean, the idea really that just by writing letters you can make changes in the world
seems ridiculous and idealistic, but it actually works.
Beatles producer George Martin has quite an ambitious project on his hands.
He started work on a 24-part series for British TV that will look at pop music from the 50s
to the present.
Name of the project?
All You Need is Ears.
Now in the 60s, all you needed was love.
This weekend's edition of Entertainment This Week looks back 20 years to 1966.
We will meet Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler, whose Ballad of the Green Berets was the number
two hit song of 1966.
Sadler, now retired from songwriting, lives in Guatemala where he writes Soldier of Fortune
type back novels.
To this day, he has a little bit of mixed feelings about Ballad of the Green Berets.
Men who mean just what they say.
The brave men of the Green Berets.
I'd have never written it.
Just being purely selfish because I've had an awful lot of other people thank me for
the song that was supportive to them and helped them during some bad times.
Just being purely selfish, no.
I'd have never written it and I'd have stayed right in the Army, done my time, and retired
from it.
And this last item, the song is number 45 with a bullet, apropos for a song called War.
The single, the first off Bruce Springsteen's new live five-record set, was the highest
charting new song of the week, according to Billboard Magazine.
I'm Nina Blackwood signing off for the Boss, the Staff Sergeant, and the rest of the Rock
Report Company.
Thanks a lot, Nina.
Thank you.
We'll be right back.
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 birthdays today, actress and comedian Whoopi Goldberg is 36, Dallas star Dak Rambo
45, TV and film producer Gary Marshall is 52, TV and film actor Richard Mulligan is
54, and EZ Street star Jack Elam is 70.
Lisa Gibbons' three-part series, The Casting Couch, Fact or Fiction, wraps today with a
look at how the couch can affect certain TV and movie productions and why the Actors Union
is often unable to get involved.
Lisa.
Thanks, John.
Well, the Screen Actors Guild does want to be involved in cases of sexual harassment,
but so often actors don't want to bite the hand that feeds them.
After all, a lawsuit, if it's pursued, a career could be in jeopardy.
Can you really make me some connections in Hollywood?
Just a try for some of the bit part.
Anything.
I can get you all the bits you want.
This 1980 NBC movie took a light-hearted look at the use of the casting couch in old Hollywood.
Unfortunately, the real-life script in the new Hollywood sometimes reads like the movie,
and NBC wouldn't have to go far for the cast of characters.
Basically, we had to hire the producer-director's girlfriend in a major role.
And first I thought, well, we're kidding when I saw some film on her.
I mean, this is Bimbo City.
I mean, she couldn't put two words in front of another.
And we thought, well, we'll give her a smaller part instead of one of the bigger roles.
Well, as it turned out, it became an enormous, an enormous issue, and we gave in.
That might make others want to give up.
Thousands of Hollywood hopefuls go on casting calls each day, battling not only tough competition,
but also the casting couch.
People are anxious to be movie stars, so they get in trouble not because they're looking
to get in trouble, they just want to be discovered.
At workshops in New York and Los Angeles, aspiring actors and actresses are given tips
on how to keep off the casting couch.
How many of you think there's a casting couch in New York?
Nina Blanchard, the West Coast's top modeling agent, counsels acting students.
The script called for me to seduce the person I was reading for.
How do you know when it's a bogus script, or how do you know how far to take it?
Because I didn't know, I was afraid I wouldn't get the job if I didn't do a good job of seducing
him.
On the other hand, I didn't want to sleep with him.
Well, I think the both, I mean, that was in the script.
One of the first things you can do is you pick up the phone and you call Screen Actors Guild.
And if they're not a signator, and you know, if they're, it depends also on the building
they're in.
If it's their house or the hotel, think a little about that.
You never know whether it's male or female who's coming after you, and there's no difference
anymore between a male cast and couch and a female cast and couch.
Sure.
I met this agent, she's a major, major commercial agent here in Hollywood.
And she asked me to come home to view the video of my new TV special, Network Prime
Time Special.
And after that, she wanted to get it on with me.
I ended up in her bedroom, I went to the bathroom, and I ran out the front door.
I met a gentleman who claimed he was a producer, and he said that I'd be great in his movie.
And he invited me to have dinner with him.
I didn't like the idea of going to somebody's house at seven o'clock at night.
So I arrived and the gates opened, and the Rolls Royce was sitting there.
And he came over to me and grabbed me.
And he started kissing me.
And I started fighting him off.
He went over and locked his front door.
Double locked.
And I thought, uh-oh.
And he chased me around the house, and he threw me down.
And I said, screaming.
Just screaming and screaming.
And finally he let me out.
It was scary.
Now, when I hear the kinds of things you're talking about in this series of Entertainment
Tonight specials about this subject, I say to myself, where are those people?
I mean, what's happening?
Why are they telling you they're not calling us?
There's a great deal of fear that exists in Hollywood.
Fear of retaliation.
Fear that a woman will never work again if she files a charge of sexual harassment.
I just said, let it go.
Let it go.
I don't want to cause trouble.
The series has ruffled some feathers.
The Casting Society of America, for example.
When that organization learned we were looking into the factual and fictional views of the
casting couch, Flyers were sent to its members, calling our series scandalous and urging members
not to cooperate with our reports.
Mary.
Lisa, thank you very much.
Thank you.
Roger Carmel, best known as Harry Mudd on the old Star Trek TV series, is dead at the
age of 54.
Police found the veteran character actor's body in his Hollywood apartment.
No cause of death has been listed.
Here's the ET Digest for Thursday, the 13th of November.
New in the bookstore, Michael Levine's The New Address Book, How to Reach Anyone Who's
Anyone.
New on home video, the animated Rudolph's Shiny New Year featuring the voices of Red
Skelton and Frank Gorshin.
And in concert today, The Bangles at the Paramount Theater in Seattle, Washington.
In today's People Post scripts, Rollin Smith, longtime anchor at WCBS in New York, has been
named Mariette Hartley's co-host on the new CBS Breakfast show.
That new morning show will debut in 1987.
And comedian Pat Paulson is on the campaign trail.
This will be his third try for President of the United States.
Paulson says he's making another run because, quote, they have a nice pension plan.
You may not know it, but Leonard Malton has always been a fan of Chuck Barris.
Today, Leonard is elated.
He's found a way to review a new movie and at the same time pay homage to the king of
daytime game shows.
Ah, The Wonder of the Orient.
The Magic.
The Mystique.
It's all here in Taipan, along with the sex, the violence, and the dumb dialogue.
In fact, it's one of the dumbest movies of the year.
Not just ordinary dumb, but colossally dumb, flamboyantly dumb, unabashedly dumb.
And I kind of liked it.
I guess you have to be in the right mood.
Your island is done, Taipan.
We're getting off this blasted rock.
I should have killed you years ago.
Now, by God, I'll do it.
There you go.
Good guy versus bad guy.
And not only do they fight, they fight in the middle of a typhoon.
Sure there's a typhoon.
There's also a naval pageant and a dress ball.
Fight and leave anything out.
From sex appeal to sadomasochism.
All of this against the backdrop of Hong Kong in the mid-19th century.
Brian Brown, who plays the Taipan, or Merchant King, is Australian.
But in this film, he affects a silly Scottish brogue.
No sillier than the rest of the picture, of course.
They try to cram so much of James Clavell's story and so many characters into a little
more than two hours.
Watching this film is like reading the Cliff's Notes for a book.
Wham, bam, one incident to the next.
So I can't call this a good movie, but in its own silly way it is entertaining, if you're
in the right mood.
So how does that translate to a number?
Well, I'll go right down the middle and give Taipan a five.
I'm Leonard Maltemar, Entertainment Tonight.
And that's our version of the Gong Show.
Please be sure to join us once again tomorrow.
You'll meet Jim Garner and we'll be checking out another edition of Up and In in Beverly
Hills tomorrow featuring the Seaside Playground for the Famous.
Oh boy.
We're going to close our program with a portion of Vladimir Horowitz's concert in Moscow.
It's the broadcast premiere of the MGM UA Home Video just out today.
The selection Chopin's Polonaise.
Take care.
See you tomorrow.
Thanks and God bless.