Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 14, 1990 TAG: 9007140461
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ELLEN PALL THE NEW YORK TIMES
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The hip detected a suppressed soulmate, restraining herself in deference to the bland requirements of morning television; traditionalists perceived a fresh, levelheaded young woman forced to cope with - but miraculously unchanged by - the fast-track world she inhabits.
"I think I'm unique in that way," Pauley said on a recent afternoon in her office at Rockefeller Plaza in New York City.
"Viewers project upon me their own values."
But on Tuesday, when the initial installment in a series of five summer specials with her as host will be broadcast at 10 p.m. on NBC, she will at last begin to define herself on her own terms, in her own forum.
Her series, "Real Life With Jane Pauley," is intended as a proving ground; if all goes well, it will reappear in January as a weekly prime-time news magazine.
Developed and written with its star's active participation, in some ways it may be the public's first chance to meet the real Jane Pauley.
In some ways, it may also be the 39-year-old newswoman's first opportunity to learn a few things about herself.
For example, ambition. Her vault to fame when she landed the job of co-host (opposite Tom Brokaw) of the "Today" show at the age of 25 spared her the period of struggle when most people learn how much drive they have. How ambitious is she, really?
"I'm not sure," she replied. She frowned a little into the smoked glass of her desk, then looked up.
In person, Pauley gives off a strangely vibrant aura, as if, in fact, she were on television.
"I think I'm ambitious. I think I've always been a lot more ambitious than I was comfortable admitting."
Launching a prime-time magazine will be a good way to find out.
Even if the network's executives are satisfied with what they see this summer (they'll be looking in particular at whether Pauley, a consummate team player, can carry a show of her own), television history is littered with failed prime-time news shows.
"I have a very realistic sense of the risk," said Pauley.
"Historically, these kinds of programs have had a low probability of success." Still, she feels she has profited from the lessons of those who have gone before.
"I think in the past NBC has pulled its punches a little," she said.
"They haven't been able to commit to a concept. They've backed it up with a secondary concept that confused the original, or they've been unwilling to trust a news magazine to a single individual, so they paired someone with someone who wasn't a good fit."
Citing herself, the executive producer David Browning and the senior producer Shelley Lewis, she added, "We have a sense of the show we want to do, and we're doing it," noting that - so far, anyway - the network shared the creators' vision of the show.
"It might ultimately fail, but at least we're sticking to our original intent."
As currently structured, each hour will present what the network calls "four stories of American life in the '90s," including some serious segments but concentrating mainly on "the quirkier aspects" of contemporary reality.
Pauley will be responsible for at least two segments on each show. Other NBC News correspondents will cover the rest.
"I'll be the captain," Pauley said, "but I am definitely more comfortable as part of a group."
Until last fall, the group Pauley was most comfortable in was the one that staffed the "Today" show.
She speaks of the events leading to her well-documented departure from the show with a tranquillity bordering on anesthetization.
"It's like talking about my wedding," she said, with one of the flashes of dry humor that characterize her conversations.
"I've talked about it so much, I don't know if I'm talking about the wedding pictures or what I actually remember."
The fiasco began with a network decision to bring the younger, more glamorous Deborah Norville in from her initial position as mere news reader to what amounted to a third anchor.
"Today" has consistently attracted fewer younger women viewers than ABC's rival "Good Morning America," and it was hoped Norville's presence might win them over.
Alarmed about her own role, Pauley initiated a series of intense negotiations with the network.
Was it her sense that in bringing Norville in, the network was deliberately trying to edge her out?
"I don't know," she said. "They say not."
Whatever the intention, the effect was to make her want out.
Ultimately, she even offered to release NBC from all financial obligations and to refrain from broadcasting on any station for the duration of her contract - which still had more than a year to run - if they would let her go.
They would not. The final outcome was that Pauley would leave the "Today" show and take a shot at a weekly news magazine.
As far as the morning show she left behind is concerned, the result of her departure seems to have been a stunning 16 percent ratings drop since January (the proportion of women viewers has remained level).
Pauley does not attribute the slump solely to her absence, however.
"My interpretation is that it was a cumulative thing."
Citing Bryant Gumbel's now-famous memo on the shortcomings of the show as well as the departures of both George Paul, "Today's" longtime director, and the news reader John Palmer before she herself left, "there wasn't just one major leak," she said. "The ship had sprung a few."
Nevertheless, the show is sinking, while Pauley is in some ways flying higher than ever; at the NBC affliates convention last month in Washington, every mention of her name was cheered and she herself was greeted with a standing ovation. Did she feel in any sense vindicated?
"No, and I'll tell you why," she said, adding primly, "I mean, aside from the fact that that would be a very unattractive thing to feel" - she burst into laughter before resuming - "I was on the `Today' show when the ratings were even worse."
In addition to developing her news magazine, she has lately been filling in occasionally for Brokaw on "The Nightly News."
It has been widely rumored that the network plans to make her Brokaw's permanent co-anchor. It is a rumor Pauley has firmly squelched.
Will viewers of "Real Life With Jane Pauley" finally learn what lies behind those friendly eyes?
"I don't do commentary, but the kinds of stories we'll do will inevitably reflect my personal point of view.
"I don't think I could have gone into this business if I didn't care very urgently about certain issues."
Which issues exactly? Stay tuned.
by CNB