THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 5, 1995 TAG: 9501050048
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
YOU'RE A NOBODY until ``Biography'' says you're a somebody.
The producers of the Monday- through-Friday series on A&E, which tonight at 8 recalls the life and times of billionaire recluse Howard Hughes, certifies the celebrities of the past and present.
It defines them.
It's easier making the cover of People than making ``Biography.''
For example, the producers decided that developer Donald Trump is an 18-carat celebrity and worthy of ``Biography.''
But his wife, sometimes actress Marla Maples, is not.
If you haven't made it to ``Biography,'' be patient. The anointing of celebrities by the ``Biography'' producers continues at a fast pace.
``We've only just begun,'' said Michael Cascio, the network's vice president for documentary programs.
Even as you read this, Cascio and his colleagues are tossing around names, asking themselves if this person or that person qualifies to have his or her story told on ``Biography.''
How about Jodie Foster? She's won two Oscars. Does she qualify?
Probably. Stay tuned.
The rule in choosing the subjects for ``Biography'' is a fairly simple one. The producers ask themselves, ``Did this person have an impact on the way that people have lived their lives?''
It was easy in the beginning. You start with Adolph Hitler and Albert Einstein and Dwight D. Eisenhower and Winston Churchill and Mark Twain.
Then you go to Henry Ford, Joseph Stalin, Will Rogers and Frank Lloyd Wright.
And now? Actor and filmmaker Dennis Hopper qualifies. Why? His films had an effect on a generation of Americans who grew up in the 1960s.
Director-producer George Lucas made it, too. Others from the movies whose private and public lives have been looked into on ``Biography'' include Elizabeth Taylor, Robert Mitchum, Marilyn Monroe and Shirley Temple Black.
``We've decided it's time to include Clint Eastwood,'' said Cascio.
That made our day. He was featured on Dec. 12. John Wayne made it, too.
Taylor's ``Biography'' pulled in the highest rating ever, a 4.2 rating, which is quite good for cable, where many channels compete with one another. The next highest shows featured the lives of Bruce Lee, Shirley Temple Black, Bing Crosby, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Madonna.
It's nice to have ``Biography'' on five nights at week because it's a show of high quality that you can count on. At times when there is absolutely, positively nothing else to watch at 8 (or midnight when the show runs again), there is the solid, entertaining oasis in ``Biography.''
``We've proved with `Biography' that if you put high-quality original programming on cable, the people will watch,'' said Cascio.
It's not easy producing a series of such scope. ``Biography'' reporters and researchers look long and hard for the photographs or footage that will keep the story lively. Recently, the production team knocked itself out to do a segment on Santa Claus.
There's a lot more material on Santa than, say, Hughes in his final years.
Santa is almost as popular as Bob Hope, one of the first celebrities to appear on ``Biography'' when it evolved from a weekly show, hosted in the old days by Mike Wallace, to a nightly series with Peter Graves and Jack Perkins.
Want to know more about these two men? Read on.
Graves, who first made a name for himself on TV in ``Mission Impossible'' from 1967 until 1973, is Jim Arness' brother. When Arness came to Hollywood to eventually become Matt Dillion of ``Gunsmoke,'' Graves followed.
When they were kids, Arness was bigger, but Graves could run faster.
Movie buffs will recall that Graves played the traitor in ``Stalag 17.''
Perkins is a former news guy with NBC who bought a half-mile long island off his own near Bar Harbor, Maine.
Sounds like these two qualify for ``Biography.'' On the maybe list, anyway. ILLUSTRATION: TESS STEINKOLK/A&E
Peter Graves hosts "Biography", which airs weeknights at 8 on A&E.
Tonight's show looks at the life of recluse Howard Hughes.
by CNB