Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, January 13, 1992 TAG: 9201130032
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAMES ENDRST THE HARTFORD COURANT
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Long
HOW GUMBEL SURVIVED 10 YEARS
Here is the conventional wisdom about NBC "Today" show anchor Bryant Gumbel: He's pompous, he's humorless, he thinks too much of himself and, oh yeah, he doesn't treat his female co-anchors with enough respect.But, as the 43-year-old newsman pointed out the other day in an interview in his Manhattan office, "I've been here 10 years, and we've been No. 1 for . . . half of those years, so I can't be that much of a deadbeat."
Ten years ago, Gumbel became anchor on "Today," the show that started network morning television 40 years ago Tuesday.
Gumbel was succeeding Tom Brokaw, who went on to become "NBC Nightly News" anchor. But Gumbel was a sports guy, known for his coverage of football, baseball and basketball and for a prime-time trifle called "Games People Play."
He was considered a lightweight.
In addition, as would be hugely evident later, some people were inclined to be protective of co-anchor Jane Pauley, who had been passed up for the top anchor spot.
"I remember the first thing I said," Gumbel says.
"I said, `Good morning, welcome to "Today," I'm Bryant Gumbel. I'll resist the urge to say, "sitting in for Tom Brokaw" because enough has been said about that already.' "
The talk, the criticism, the heat, however, certainly did not stop there.
If anything, it got more intense.
The worst of it, as just about anyone who follows television knows, came in March 1989 after an internal memo, written by Gumbel at the request of the show's executive producer then, Marty Ryan, became public. The memo was highly critical of several "Today" show personnel and, in particular, weatherman Willard Scott, who Gumbel said was holding the show hostage to bad taste.
Though there was a public kiss-and-make-up session between them on the air, the incident only furthered an impression - often fostered by Gumbel himself - that he was aloof and arrogant. Gumbel, some may recall, also had a long-running and ultimately silly feud with "Late Night" host David Letterman, which Letterman turned to his comic advantage. Gumbel even came off as insensitive to his own mother, of all things, in a Sports Illustrated interview.
Here's the way Gumbel looks at it.
"I'm basically a guy who showed up for work every day for 10 years and tried to act as professionally as possible under good and adverse circumstances - plain and simple," he says from behind his desk, a CD player piping Bach into the room, which looks more like a cross between a den and an upper-crust men's-club reading room with its golf-related collectors' items, memorabilia (a street sign from Pittsburgh reading Gumbel Lane) and a bunch of teddy bears.
Nothing, it's easy to see, is simple about Gumbel, and that includes his comments about himself, which he believes are frequently misinterpreted.
Many people, he says, are "inclined to see what they want to see." And in many cases, he says in response to a question about race, what they see is a black man.
"I think what it is, is that perceptions of black people who operate with a degree of confidence differ from perceptions of whites who operate with the same degree of confidence - that whereas one is seen as professional and confident and prepared, the other is seen as cocky and arrogant and uppity. And I think that's true. I think that unless I giggle and smile, to a certain segment of the population I'm intimidating. And unless I display some ignorance, to a certain segment of the population I'm arrogant, and I guess I can't help that. I don't believe most of America is racist, but I do believe that race colors a great deal of the opinions about me. It has to."
Still, Gumbel has survived, while several network news presidents, executive producers of "Today" and co-anchors have not. And while the show is currently No. 2, behind ABC's "Good Morning America" - having fallen following the endlessly publicized Jane Pauley-Deborah Norville fiasco of 1989 - NBC signed Gumbel up just weeks ago for another three-year, multimillion-dollar contract. Willard Scott has also renewed.
And if there are any remaining doubts about Gumbel's value to the show, just talk to the new executive producer of "Today," 26-year-old Jeffrey Zucker.
"Nobody taught me more about live television than Bryant," says Zucker. "I learned everything I know about live television from Bryant."
Had Gumbel left the show, "I would have been scared," Zucker says.
Not that Zucker isn't aware of, sensitive to and a bit wary of the anchor's image, both real and imagined.
"Bryant's a very honest guy," says Zucker. "And Bryant's a very opinionated guy. And he lets his personality come through, and that's a part of what makes him great. He'll tell it to you like it is, and sometimes, it comes off in a way that he in no way would intend it to. But that's part of why this show has succeeded as well because it's not bland. Bryant is a personality."
Zucker calls Gumbel the glue that holds the show together and goes so far as to say that Gumbel has been "very unfairly treated" - particularly in the wake of Pauley's December '89 departure. Some thought Gumbel had a hand in Pauley's leaving, but Zucker says "He wasn't the cause of anything . . . if anything, it was NBC's fault in not standing up for him."
In fact, Pauley is a guest on this morning's "Today" show, marking Gumbel's anniversary, sharing co-hosting duties with his latest co-anchor, Katie Couric.
"Jane is the one who wanted to come back," says Zucker. "She felt very strongly about that."
Says Gumbel: "Those who are inclined to like me probably for years said, `Boy oh boy, he's carrying that Jane Pauley.' And those who are inclined to dislike me are saying `You see how he keeps on jumping all over her. . . . ' And the same thing follows through with Deborah and Katie. And yet I think if you asked any of the three they'd probably tell you we had a very good relationship. We're co-workers. We try to get things done. We try to help the other person look good, and you never try and make the other person look bad."
Gumbel's secretary of 10 years, Trish Peters, says, "He's a good guy and he does get a bad rap." A lot of people, she says, are pleasantly surprised when they meet him, considering what they read and hear beforehand.
The morning anchorman is, if anything, unfailingly polite, sincere, friendly in person, though his manner can come off as stiff and insincere. He signs off a New Year's eve phone conversation, for example, with, "Stay safe today."
But when, on this particular morning, Couric and substitute weatherman Al Roker spontaneously start singing some of their favorite TV jingles, "The Addams Family," "Gilligan's Island" etc. the camera - intentionally - finds Gumbel. And it's easy to see what people mean when they say the things they do about Gumbel. While Couric and Roker go giddily over the edge, Gumbel sits, if not grumpily, then smilingly above it all.