Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 9, 1994 TAG: 9409090045
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By SCOTT WILLIAMS ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
His talk show debuts in syndication Monday on 140 stations, reaching about 87 percent of the United States. And talk is what it's about, with five panelists who sit around and discuss the events of the day in pop culture.
``It's not talking heads,'' insists Tartikoff, who envisioned the show as the kind of bright, inspired conversation you'd hear at the brightest, hippest kind of salon - or is that saloon?
``It's supposed to be a show that simulates, at that hour, being up late with your friends,'' he said. Think of it as table talk at the best table in a fashionable bar - ``and you wish you could get a seat at that table,'' he said.
``You're not going to find yourself in somebody's living room at that hour talking about Rwanda or the health care package,'' Tartikoff said.
``More likely you'd be talking about O.J. Simpson ... Lisa Marie Presley and Michael Jackson ... how long you'd have to go without baseball ... and is `Natural Born Killers' a good movie? ...
``Now we're starting to circle the kind of territories that we, as a non-network news program, can tackle and tackle responsibly,'' he said. ``If there's some cataclysmic event in the world, we're not going to ignore it.''
Even so, Tartikoff believes that there are some subjects `Last Call' won't attempt.
``If people are interested in a train wreck that kills 200 people, they'd probably be better off watching CNN at that hour, or an extended version of `Nightline,''' he said.
Look for ``Last Call'' to talk about things you'd expect ``Saturday Night Live'' to satirize, he said. ``Whether it's Perot, or George Bush throwing up on the emperor of Japan ... or Paula Jones.
``Any of those icons that end up on the cover of People magazine are fair game for us,'' he said. ``Last Call'' has just the dishy mix of journalists, writers and media-savvy cognoscenti to do it. They are:
Sue Ellicott, a glamorous correspondent for the Sunday Times of London and London's Independent newspapers;
Brianne Leary, whose journalism career has taken her to Northern Ireland and Vietnam, and whose acting career took her to a role on ``CHiPs;''
Tad Low, whose TV news resume includes ``Good Morning America'' and MTV's ``House of Style;''
Terry McDonell, journalist, novelist, screenwriter and editor in chief of Sports Afield, whose script credits include ``China Beach'' and ``Miami Vice.''
Elvis Mitchell, editor at large of Spin magazine and entertainment critic for National Public Radio.
The show's pilot was taped in November in L.A., where three of the panelists make their homes. The cast voted 3-2 to do the show in L.A., Tartikoff said.
``Then the earthquake happened, and it shifted, 4-1, to `Let's go to New York,''' he said.
Executive producer Tartikoff knows what he's up against:
``If you hit 12:30 or 1 o'clock at night, our competition is not the Jon Stewart show and it's not `The Newz,''' he said. ``At that hour, our competition is sleep. It's the pillow.''
A man of superlative calm, Tartikoff continues to live a fairly frenetic lifestyle. In June, he became head of New World Entertainment, which acquired his Moving Target Productions company and its 20 television projects.
New World Television is based in West Los Angeles; its parent company, Revlon, is in New York City; and Tartikoff and his family make their home in New Orleans.
His normal schedule puts him in New York for four days, home in New Orleans four days, then on to Los Angeles for four days. Hence the name Moving Target; hence the fantastic accumulation of frequent flier miles.
``I think if I went to Delta Airlines and said, `Fly me to the moon,' they'd try,'' he said. ``What is that distance? I guess I qualify for it.''
by CNB