ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, July 4, 1996 TAG: 9607050125
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: HOLIDAY
DATELINE: NEW YORK
SOURCE: FRAZIER MOORE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ted Koppel would like to remind you that very few people come on ``Nightline'' just so their mothers can see them on TV.
No less than when Demi Moore flogs a film on ``The Tonight Show,'' politicos and activists flock to ``Nightline'' for self-promotion: to hawk a cause; to launch a trial balloon; to exercise damage control or place the desired spin on an issue. In short, to further their - or their group's - agenda.
Meanwhile, Koppel's motives ``are fairly simple, and, if not pure, then at least clear: We want a large audience, or we want to get the hot interview of the day.
``Why people come on the program is not always as clear. Everybody's pushing a product. It's just that sometimes the product isn't clearly visible.''
Koppel's viewer alert is a driving theme of a new book about his late-night ABC News program.
But mainly, ``Nightline: History in the Making and the Making of Television'' (Times Books) is that merriest of all things to read: a flat-out success story.
It tells of the convergence of three things: a man, a network's fallow time slot, and the birth of satellite transmission that enabled what the book calls ``intercontinental salons'' - the TV interview as global Ping Pong match, a form Koppel would largely invent.
Indeed, it is a measure of ``Nightline's'' success that what began as a virtuoso performance - Koppel's, of course, conducting those live interviews - has become nothing less than an institution.
And along with being an unmatched forum for exploring serious issues, the series is a ratings hit. Ted holds his own against the monkeyshines of late-night rivals Dave and Jay.
Here, in short, is that rarest of TV phenomena: virtue coexisting with the bottom line.
The new ``Nightline'' book charts all this success. Co-written by Koppel and longtime ``Nightline'' producer Kyle Gibson, it is a narrative history, scrapbook, greatest-hits collection. It is, at times, a meditation on TV news, and on the world events since 1980 that ``Nightline'' has peerlessly tracked.
And there are also moments of repentance: the rare interview where Koppel might have gone too far, or, conversely, where a guest ate Koppel's lunch.
But why now for the book?
The idea, Koppel explains during a recent jaunt from his Washington, D.C., home base to ABC News headquarters in Manhattan, was for a quickie book to mark ``Nightline's'' 15 years.
Except it wasn't Koppel's idea. His counterproposal? A more exhaustive treatment, a collaborator with the time to bring it off, and a more forgiving deadline.
``So what was supposed to be a celebratory book for the 15th anniversary ends up being a `Why now?' book 161/4 years after `Nightline' went on the air.''
The book reminds us that ``Nightline'' began in November 1979 as ``America Held Hostage,'' a series of late-night specials focusing on the Iran hostage crisis. Frank Reynolds anchored.
But Reynolds, who already anchored ABC News' main event, the evening news, wasn't keen on moonlighting. The network's 40-year-old diplomatic correspondent gladly filled in.
When a rechristened, broad-based program began that March (``what a crappy name'' was Koppel's initial take on ``Nightline''), he was tapped as its permanent anchor. It was a perfect marriage, and remains so.
``The show has enjoyed a great deal of good will,'' Koppel acknowledges.
In person as on TV, Koppel has a voice that sculpts his words and soothes your ear. His eyes seem to have absorbed more than their share. He is, as any ``Nightline'' viewer knows, preternaturally smooth.
He is also funny (though he keeps this facet of himself pretty private, perhaps not to run Dave and Jay off the air). Such is his gift that when an ABC News colleague greets him with a request for an autographed book, Koppel fires back a raunchy retort - and makes it seem downright erudite.
His timing is no less impeccable when asked about his future on ``Nightline.''
``I don't know,'' says Koppel, whose contract is up for renewal at year-end. He will stay where he is ``as long as I'm happy doing it, as long as something better doesn't come along.
``And something better has never come along.'' Tiny pause. ``Not yet.''
LENGTH: Medium: 84 linesby CNB