Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, September 26, 1995 TAG: 9509260018
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT WILLIAMS ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
``Tempestt,'' with 22-year-old ex-Cosby kid Tempestt Bledsoe, is Clark's production. ``Mark Walberg'' is Tartikoff's.
They face a crowded field - newcomers Danny Bonaduce, late of ``The Partridge Family''; Gabrielle Carteris, late of ``90210''; Carnie Wilson, late of the singing group Wilson Phillips; George Hamilton and Alana Stewart, late of connubial bliss.
Not to mention veterans such as Oprah, Sally, Ricki, Jenny, Rolanda, Geraldo, Montel and Phil.
``There is a lot of clutter,'' acknowledged Tartikoff, the former NBC Entertainment president, ``but I'll say out of the other side of my mouth that there were a lot of talk shows when Rikki Lake came on, when Jenny Jones came on and when Montel Williams.''
``There's nothing new. They're all spun from something,'' said Clark, who was a 26-year-old disk jockey when ``American Bandstand'' called in 1956. ``It starts with the show, or the talent.''
Both producers, interviewed separately, agreed that the relationship the viewers form with the show's on-air personality is all-important.
``This isn't an acting job,'' Clark said. ``People fronting something, they're there standing virtually naked in front of the audience in terms of what they are. You either like 'em or you don't like 'em. And if you don't, you go down in flames.
``Form that relationship - then they're going to appreciate her intelligence, her conversational abilities, her insight, her thoughts, and whatever else comes along with the package.''
Walberg - not singer Marky Mark Wahlberg, but a 32-year-old father of two who has been a member of the singing group Young Americans, an ESPN host and a warm-up comedian - provides an appealing male focus, Tartikoff said.
``Television has a lot of surrogate relationships,'' Tartikoff said.
``When they see Mark Walberg, they see the guy next door ... and ask, `Why can't I have a guy like that?' A shoulder to cry on, somebody to talk to, somebody who's genuinely fun.''
``He emotes on camera. He comes through that tube. He has what I used to call `the airport factor.' If you ran into this guy in an airport and you'd seen him on TV, you'd go up to him and say hi.''
With the talent in place, Clark said, the producer has to ask: ``OK, then what segment of the market are we assigned to? How do we harness this thing? And can we do it with a reasonable amount of taste and still get an audience?''
That task hasn't changed; the audience has. A decade ago, the typical daytime viewer was an older woman with deeply ingrained viewing habits, Tartikoff said. In the last five years, she has grown much younger.
``There's a new generation locking into place,'' he said. ``The loyalty that the viewers have in daytime television is less to the program and more to the content of the program on a particular day.''
The success of the younger-oriented ``Rikki Lake'' show wasn't lost on talk show producers. ``If you come out with a different attitude, a different style of show and sensibility ... you can just come in and suck all the younger viewership out of the older programs,'' Tartikoff said.
``It's really been the younger shows that have been the growth properties, and all of the older programs for several years, have been showing the erosions,'' Tartikoff said.
In such a crowded field, there will be casualties, Clark said.
``We all have pretty good distribution, with pretty big companies and promotion behind us. I'm sure everybody has a capable staff,'' Clark said.
``You don't want to root for anybody's lack of success, but somebody will drop by the wayside and that'll make life easier,'' he said.
Then he reconsidered.
``On the other hand, it won't, because we'll prepare another show. Somebody else will prepare another show. There'll always be somebody waiting in the wings.''
by CNB