Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 10, 1994 TAG: 9407290005
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GAIL SHISTER KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
``I'm excited. I feel good about this,'' says Rooney, 44. ``Fox has a reputation for scandal and gossip, but the group I'm working with is 180 degrees from that philosophy. ... I'm just a little apprehensive after my last major adventure.''
Rooney's last major adventure began in April 1993, when she joined ABC News from Boston's WCVB as Peter Jennings' boss. It ended in flames just eight months later, with Rick Kaplan of ABC's ``PrimeTime Live'' replacing her. Network insiders say Rooney was done in by resentment over her lack of network experience and by her blunt manner.
Instead of throwing herself on ABC News chief Roone Arledge's sword and disappearing, she stuck it out until June 14. Rooney had no defined duties, but she did have an office and a contract with two years remaining. And a will of steel.
``It was very tough. I had nothing to do,'' she says. What hurt ``was not so much being deposed as not being an integral part of the activity. I had some hard days. You go through all the phases - denial, depression, anger. I have a lot of inner fortitude, and a sense of humor. I just reached down for those qualities.
``I took on a whole other persona. My existence was no longer relevant to ABC. I was really networking. I went out on hundreds and hundreds of interviews. I wrote a lot of proposals. I got several really nice offers, but nothing ever felt right to me.''
The New York-based ``On Assignment'' (working title), exec-produced by CBS alum David Corvo, felt right ``because Fox is a scrappy outfit that's extremely determined to get into the network news business. I like the ground-up mobility of it.
``Nothing is entrenched. We can do anything we want. I'm walking into an empty office building. We're hiring a staff of 60. We don't even know each other. We joke about it. There's a bunker mentality, an immediate sense of being in it together.''
Publicly, Rooney says she's not bitter toward her former employer. At this point, she says, ``I'm glad I did it. I wouldn't have chosen that route to take me to my next place. I feel it was a good segue out of a chapter of my life. It was time for me to try something else. It forced me to open another chapter. I'm not sorry about that.''
Going from the boss at ``World News'' to a senior producer at Fox is no big whup, Rooney says. Indeed, she prefers it. ``As boss, you have a certain vulnerability. Sometimes it can stifle you creatively, too. A senior producer has enough responsibility. It might let me do some other things, too.''
Such as on-air commentary. Rooney feels ``very, very passionately'' about certain issues, and wants to fire away on camera. ``People might assume I want to be a TV star. What I really want is to be able to express ideas and thoughts. I call it having a voice.''
As for the inevitable comparison with her father, ``60 Minutes'' curmudgeon Andy Rooney, Miss Emily says: ``I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. I'll live with the comparisons for a while.''
\ CBS News will chronicle the life, times and tyranny of two of this century's most brutal leaders in ``Hitler and Stalin, A Legacy of Hate,'' a two-hour ``CBS Reports'' at 9 p.m. July 21.
Charles Kuralt and H. Norman Schwarzkopf co-anchor ``Hate,'' the fourth in a CBS News series on World War II. The duo previously reported on ``The Year of the General'' (June '92) and ``Remember Pearl Harbor'' (December '91). Dan Rather and Schwarzkopf focused on D-Day in May.
``Hate'' was scheduled for October but was pre-empted by a major-league baseball playoff game.
Short stuff:
Actress Michelle Pfeiffer, now bringing out Jack Nicholson's animal instincts in ``Wolf,'' will narrate ``Discovering Women,'' a six-hour PBS series on notable female scientists. ``Women,'' produced by Boston's WGBH, is slated to air next March and April.
Jon Stewart's new late-night Paramount show will be based in New York. The hunt is on for a studio. Stewart's predecessor, Arsenio Hall, did his night thing out of L.A.
by CNB