Will Rocky IV be a box office knockout?
Is Yoko Ono's video a bell ringer?
Can Perry Mason win his biggest case?
How did Willie wind up in Lake Wobegon?
Entertainment Tonight holds court for Wednesday, November 27th, 1985.
Just staggers the imagination.
Music
Hello everyone, I'm Rob Weller.
And I'm Mary Hart.
On Thanksgiving, it's an American tradition to reflect on our good fortune and on the bounty of our land.
Many throughout the world are less fortunate.
This year, the problems of world hunger were brought vividly home to us all by the pictures of the starving in Ethiopia.
Last night, the people most responsible for bringing that to our attention were honored.
Walter Cronkite hosted the awards ceremony, which singer Kenny Rogers and his wife Mary Ann set up,
to honor members of the media who have increased public awareness about world hunger.
This year, that awareness has grown, and award recipients like British singer Bob Geldof, who organized Live Aid,
singled out the cooperative effort among the media as one of the reasons.
I wouldn't have been here were it not for the media, and the whole Band Aid, Live Aid, USA for Africa thing wouldn't have worked.
In fact, it's a total media event. The only thing that isn't in this is the famine.
Geldof first learned about the Ethiopian famine by watching a British television report,
which Tom Brokaw in turn introduced to American audiences on NBC News over a year ago.
The cameraman and correspondent from that report also received awards.
Suddenly, to have brought into their homes those extraordinary scenes, which were so moving and so emotional to all of us,
I think that that did touch off, open the floodgates of emotion.
It's to our own shame that we didn't get out there with the cameras earlier. It's been going on for a long time.
This is the fourth year that the Rogers have divided $100,000 of their own money among the media award recipients.
Marianne and I have done what we can do, and we'll continue. We have another six-year commitment on this world hunger media thing,
but it's just nice to know we're not the only ones in the race anymore.
Dixie Watley, Entertainment Tonight.
Television viewing tomorrow on Thanksgiving Day will consist of the traditional Thanksgiving Day parades.
For sports fans, there are two pro football games. The New York Jets take on the Detroit Lions on NBC.
Then, the St. Louis Cardinals do battle with the Dallas Cowboys on CBS.
NBC has announced all 50 of the 30-second commercial spots in the upcoming Super Bowl have been sold at $550,000 each.
To save you the multiplication, that's $27.5 million total. The network paid $17 million for the rights.
And ABC sports executive Jim Spence says that in 10 or 15 years, when many more homes are wired for cable,
he expects the Super Bowl and other big sporting events like the World Series to move over to pay-per-view television.
Random House, the New York publishing firm, has agreed to pay a whopping $3 million for Ronald Reagan's official presidential biography.
It will be written by Edmund Morris, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, and won't be published until 1991.
Reagan will not receive any of the profits, nor will he be able to get an advanced look at the manuscript.
Like Wobegon Days is number two on this week's New York Times bestseller list,
it's written by a man best known as host of the public radio program, a Prairie Home companion.
Eric Burns has more.
There is loud applause for this quiet humorist every time he takes the stage to do his weekly live program on American Public Radio.
Would you discuss for us briefly the perils of live radio?
The, uh, the peril, um, used to be, years ago, that we might go off the air.
And now the peril to me is that we won't.
Meaning, what, that no one kicks plugs anymore?
Yes. And now there are times when I wish they would.
Oh, he does not. Not on a Prairie Home companion.
Some Prairie, though. We found a mariachi band on it, a musical saw player, and Willie Nelson.
And the twilight glow I see her.
Well, I was driving down the highway one day, listening to the radio and turning the dial, and I picked up this guy,
and so I said, hey, this is my kind of radio, and I started listening and found out the guy's name, and it was Garrison Keeler,
and the show called Prairie Home Companion, and I've been a fan ever since.
And when I heard there was a chance to be here, I jumped at it.
Sponsors jump at it, too. Sponsors like Ralph's Pretty Good Grocery, Bob's Bank, and Larry Airlines.
Larry Airlines, their new bulk class, so cheap you're losing money staying home.
This performance of a Prairie Home Companion was at the Claremont Colleges outside Los Angeles,
and one of its highlights was the Keeler monologue about, among other things, a long-ago meal of turkey a la king.
It was kind of chunky and kind of yellowish. There was a lot of starch in it.
She made it with some kind of brownish, greenish soup or something.
I just poured Pepto-Bismol on mine and put it directly in the basin.
Keeler sharpened his sense of humor, he says, back home in Minnesota, trying to get Scandinavians to laugh.
If you had to go all out, do everything you could to make a Scandinavian laugh, what would it take?
Boy, that just staggers the imagination to think about it. I think they would do themselves damage.
Well, it's a fine line, then, between performing so that Scandinavians will stay intact and others will laugh, isn't it?
It is. It is. It's a dangerous profession.
That's our show for tonight. Thank you. Thanks for coming. Good night, everybody. Good night.
Eric Burns, Entertainment Tonight.
When we come back, Leonard Maltin hands in his scorecard on Rocky IV.
Ahead, Perry Mason back on TV, and Yoko Ono.
Here's the ET Digest for Wednesday, November 27th on home video, Liberace Live.
Two new videos from Amy Grant, Find A Way and In Concert, Age to Age Tour.
In the record store, Kenny Rogers short stories.
And celebrating birthdays today, Caroline Kennedy is 28.
Knight Riders Patricia McPherson is 31.
Eddie Rabbit is 44.
Buffalo Bob Smith is 68.
And Broadway producer David Merrick is 73.
The holiday movie season is underway, and two of the most heavily promoted and most expensive films open today around the country,
Santa Claus the Movie and Rocky IV.
Leonard Maltin has a ringside review of the latest from Sylvester Stallone.
Yo, I'm here to review Rocky IV, and what can I say?
If you liked Rocky I, II, and III, chances are you're going to enjoy this one, too.
Things aren't exactly the same, of course.
Rocky's wife, Adrienne, no longer looks mousy.
In fact, she looks like he just came from Elizabeth Arden.
And Rocky's no schlepper himself.
It's hard to make this guy seem like an underdog all over again, but they try.
By pitting him against a Russian fighter who's almost superhuman.
All Adrienne can ask is, why does he have to prove himself with another opponent?
Because I'm a fighter.
That's the way I'm made, Adrienne.
That's what you marry.
We can't change what we are.
You can't go with what you are. Have you read the papers?
Whatever he hits, he destroys.
Can the Soviet Superman put Rocky on the ropes?
Of course he can. Can Rocky survive?
Well, just take a guess.
And remember, Stallone not only stars in the picture, he wrote and directed it.
Some of the dialogue in this picture had me in stitches.
Almost everything about the film is artificial.
Even the musical flashback sequence, just tailor-made for MTV.
And yet, Sylvester Stallone is hit on a formula that works.
He knows how to build emotion, especially in this climactic fight.
Rocky IV may be downright silly at times, but it's entertaining too.
Kind of like a hokey old B movie.
So why should I fight it? I'm giving Rocky IV a 7.
I'm Leonard Maltin, Entertainment Tonight.
One holiday movie not due in theaters until December 20th is The Color Purple,
starring Whoopi Goldberg and directed by Steven Spielberg.
It's a movie that has Hollywood insiders talking.
Senior correspondent Rona Barrett has more. Rona?
Thanks, Mary.
The Color Purple, Steven Spielberg's long-awaited film version
of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Alice Walker,
was screened for the first time for a select group of industry executives.
They report the film is certain to be a top contender in the upcoming Oscar race.
Whoopi Goldberg, who made her mark in comedy,
stars as a black woman who manages to triumph over incredible obstacles,
including sexual abuse from her alleged father and her husband.
She is said to be a certain nominee for best actress.
In addition, nominations for the film's cinematography, music, and direction seem assured.
The Color Purple is considered in the industry to be the first serious adult film
to come from Spielberg since 1974's Sugarland Express.
In other news, film director Peter Bogdanovich filed for bankruptcy 12 days ago,
claiming debts in excess of $6 million and assets totaling $1.5 million.
According to a copy of the filing we've obtained,
Bogdanovich used his interest in several projects as collateral for a loan of $1.5 million.
Among the projects used as collateral, They All Laugh,
the film co-starring his late actress girlfriend Dorothy Stratton,
a film he bought back from its distributor after a dispute over its marketing.
The buyback cost several million and some claim is what led to his financial undoing.
Bogdanovich also could lose his interest in The Killing of the Unicorn,
his book about Stratton, as well as his stake in the completed but not released The City Girl,
and two other projects in the works.
Bogdanovich even put up his interest in Mask,
the critically acclaimed drama that's almost guaranteed to win an Oscar nomination for best picture.
Now he stands to lose his interest in all of these properties.
Just who among his 120 plus creditors will collect will be determined by a judge.
However, Bogdanovich also owes nearly $62,000 in back taxes, and the government gets first crack.
Rob?
All right, Rona, thank you very much.
After nearly a 20-year absence, Perry Mason is back in the courtroom.
That story when we return.
Some of the legal jargon has not changed, so I picked up on that very fast and right away.
A federal judge has ruled filmmaker George Lucas cannot prohibit the use of the term Star Wars,
used to describe President Reagan's missile defense plan,
unless it is associated with a commercial venture and is in direct competition with Lucas in the marketplace.
And in Chicago, the CBS station WBBM and anchorman commentator Walter Jacobson
have been found guilty of libeling the makers of Viceroy cigarettes.
The jury found they libeled the firm in a commentary about young people and smoking.
Hearings on damages begin Monday.
If you love a mystery, and in particular, the sort of mystery Perry Mason used to solve, Sunday night is your night.
NBC will air a two-hour TV movie, Perry Mason Returns.
Jeanne Becker went behind the scenes to check out the intrepid lawyer's latest dilemma.
In Perry Mason Returns, Raymond Burr is back in the courtroom with Barbara Hale.
Mason has come out of retirement to defend his former secretary, Della Street, who's been framed for murder.
I must congratulate you, Mrs. Jeffries.
The description of the dress and the bag were completely accurate.
You missed only one significant detail.
This is not a woman.
We happened to start in the courtroom.
It was just amazing because I felt there has been no time in between.
I always felt there were many of Mr. Gardner's stories we couldn't really use completely.
Most of them, because they were fuller in the books than they were on the screen, and we had to simplify them.
I always wanted to do a two-hour show.
Here's a full rundown on Robert. He preferred Bobby Lynch.
Hale's real-life son, William Catt, plays Paul Drake Jr., who takes over for his deceased private-eye father,
originally portrayed by the late William Hopper.
I think they were looking for a way to update it and at the same time keep it in the family, which is how I came into it.
Other than revising the Paul Drake character, the 20-year-old Perry Mason tradition needed little updating for the two-hour movie.
I think Della and Perry, I think you'll see them a little more intimately.
Some of the legal jargon has not changed, so I picked up on that very fast and right away.
How does it feel to be playing a character 30 years older? Do you feel any differently?
Yes, I feel 30 years older.
Every day I come in and sing just a few bars, it seems we stood and talked like this before.
There are pageants for Miss America, Miss USA, Miss Teen USA, and Mrs. America.
Now, as Peter Quinhacus reports, there's a beauty pageant for Miss Indian USA.
It's the first pageant for Native Americans, the 1985 Miss Indian USA, featuring 20 contestants from a variety of Indian nations,
taking the traditional pageant steps under traditional master of ceremonies, Bert Parks.
The talent ranged from the ancient to the modern, plus special performance by famed star Nia Peoples.
I'm Chaka, Chickasaw Cherokee, and Part Creek.
It's terrific to see all the different tribes gathering together and putting forth a big effort and having it be a success like it is now.
I'm Part Cherokee, and the Indians have always been an important part of my life, and I think this is wonderful. I think it's long overdue.
Finally, it was an Oklahoma department store worker from the Quapaw tribe who won the honors.
I feel it's the greatest honor that I could ever have.
Miss Indian USA will spend the next year touring America, raising consciousness about Indian heritage.
In Washington, Peter Quinhacus, Entertainment Tonight.
Now, Yoko Ono is making her own kind of music. That story when we return.
Still to come this week on Entertainment Tonight, tomorrow, Terry Gahr, Red Skelton, Friday, Roger Daltry, and Mary Fran.
And check your local listings for time and station this weekend as Entertainment This Week features Sally Field and James Garner.
A behind-the-scenes report on General Hospital.
Rona Barrett with Ellen Burston.
And Survivor.
This weekend, all new on Entertainment This Week.
She has lived in the shadow. The shadow of her late husband, John Lennon, and the shadow of her own seclusion.
Now, as Barbara Howard discovered, Yoko Ono is re-emerging.
John Lennon once jokingly told Yoko Ono that she was going to be known forever as Mrs. Lennon.
The jest became sad reality at Lennon's death. People around the world mourned with her.
Many gathering outside her apartment, hoping in some way to share the loss and grief.
Being John Lennon's widow is an identity Ono accepts with pride.
But keeping the flame for someone else is an impossible task.
Invariably, there are critics. Those who accuse her of having manipulated her husband's life, who blamed her for the breakup of the Beatles, and who charged she built a career off the Lennon legend.
Through all the name calling, Yoko Ono refused to fight back.
It wasn't necessary that I was trying to be a goody-goody. I was just feeling tongue-tied. I couldn't speak back to them, in a way.
And I thought, well, if I can't speak back to them, I shouldn't.
But on her latest album, Star Piece, Ono is finally having her say.
In one song she wrote, Remember Raven, there are angry words for the detractors and exploiters.
And as for the music critics, many are now convinced of her independent artistic abilities.
Why are we scared of a life of monkey-puss-jeez?
Anger comes from some of the terrible things that happened in my life, my personal life.
And it was a genuine anger. And I thought, well, we all share that, so why not bring it out?
Was that sort of a catharsis for you, to write those lyrics, to get some of the hostility out that you felt?
I felt good. Now I don't have to write a book. That's how I felt.
Do you think that because there is no input, none of John's music, none of John's lyrics there,
that for the first time people are going to be able to separate your music from your legend and your family's legend?
I don't think so, because of this record being something to do with peace, and Joan and I were making the effort together.
So I wanted the Lenin name somewhere, and I didn't know how to put it in without ripping off the name.
It's a very delicate situation. The concept is by Yoko and Olinan, and somehow, because, I mean, after all,
peace was something that we thought of together and really worked on it together. So that's the way I feel about it.
But while his memory is largely a constructive force, the negatives crop up to haunt her.
In a recently published excerpt from an upcoming book on the Beatles, Paul McCartney is quoted as saying some unflattering things about Lenin,
remarking at one point that Lenin could be a maneuvering swine. Characteristically, the press played it up, just as characteristically, Ono played it down.
The press wanted to have some fun, and we all have that experience of being used for that.
And I think they wanted some statement from me about it, and it would have been a public slashing, and it's just, I didn't want to do that.
So I said, well, I'm sorry, boys, you're not going to get that. You're not going to have the fun, you know?
Paul, I can't imagine that he wanted this to happen at this time either.
Well, I'm sure he didn't, and I'm sure it's a very strange kind of karma, whatever.
You have become very practiced at showing love and turning the other cheek, haven't you?
I'm sure that we made a lot of mistakes as well. Well, I know that we made a lot of mistakes, and from those mistakes,
if we don't learn that other people can make the same mistakes too, then I'll be very, very foolish.
We have a part two of this interview, and it will be this weekend on Entertainment This Week.
Yoko Ono will have some candid comments about her image and how being a single mother has changed her.
But tomorrow on Entertainment Tonight, Terry Gahr, also host Tim Conway, concludes our Masters of Comedy series with a salute to Red Skelton.
And on the eve of this very American holiday, many of us are thinking of or traveling to our hometowns.
That's exactly what John Cougar-Mellencamp had in mind when he wrote, Small Town. Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving.
Bye-bye.
Tomorrow night on PM Magazine, meet Richard Thomas and his wife, who have their hands full with a set of triplets as well as an older son.
Richard will also talk about his role in an upcoming NBC TV movie. Meet him at 7 on PM Magazine.