Washington a Clef

...On Television WASHINGTON a CLEF BY MARVIN KITMAN ABC thought it had another Roots on its hands with the television version of John Ehrlichman's novel The Company—retitled Washington Behind Closed Doors, perhaps because it sounded more earthy or filthy Alex Haley was even brought in to do promos (they can be very subtle at ABC) Maybe the network wanted to give us the impression that the show would somehow trace the family tree of the black who put the tape on the door to the Democratic National Committee Headquarters in Watergate, who it would turn out was a descendant of Kunte Kinte, who was related to a black who came over on the Mayflower (the moving and storage company truck), who But it was a mistake to so much as imply that Washington was another Roots The comparison oversold the product and invited a backlash that arrived right on schedule—on Day One, as ABC dubbed Tuesday, September 6, when the six-part, six-night $7 5 million production premiered A week before the original Roots was broadcast last January, there was a smell of flopsweat—produced by the tear that the viewers will not buv what you .ue selling—throughout the ABC building on New York's Avenue of the Americas It was justifiable Never before had the American TV audience—a scatter brained group of nincompoops (as television traditionally looks upon its meal tickets)—been asked to watch a show for eight straight nights And a quality one about the evils of slavery at that' Roots took nerve—or, more accurately, chutzpah, considering the roots of some of the network brass The heavy odor of flopsweat could be detected throughout ABC's corridors early this month, too The stakes were even higher, for the network's whole strategy for the new season seemed to be based on large numbers of us watching Washington Since it would carry promos for upcoming series like Love Boat, San Pedro Beach Bums and the new Charlie's Angels, if we didn't watch it we wouldn't know what else was good Yet if ever there was a show that seemed like a sure thing in the history of programming, Washington was it It made the cover of Newsweek, every newspaper in New York hailed it, in advance, as a smash hit, and it had no competition Well, that's not exactly fair It was up against two recent movies that did poorly not onlv at the box ottice but on cable television The Hindenberg (NBC) and Logan's Run (CBS) Despite these advantages, though, the series was a disaster—the biggest since the Hmdenberg, proving that people have learned to avoid hot air ABC's extravaganza defeated the CBS movie by one share point in the national Nielsen ratings Logan's Run—a schlocky grade-B flick?featured Farrah Fawcett-Majors in a smile-on, three minutes of hair and teeth That it packed a ratings wallop almost as formidable as the production of Ehrlichman's novel raised one's respect for Farrah's boffo box-office appeal While I would have expected ABC to win more rating points given the opposition, the network claimed it was very "gratified by [Washington's] showing against superior programming " The Day Two ratings were worse Washington lost out to one of those crummy celebrity challenge shows on NBC by four points (31-35) So it went more or less, throughout the six nights Hardly a blockbuster This was understandable The word-of-mouth was, "Hey, did you see the two-hour rerun of The Waltons1" At ABC reports circulated that Freddy Silverman—the network's Wunder-ktnd, who had made Time's cover the previous week—was now polishing up his resume That's showbiz I was among the few who predicted a fiasco In a major New York daily, 1 had written "Washington Bemnd Closed Doors is no Roots It's not even a Mandingo or Drums " People in the media thought 1 was crazy to go out on a limb like that I was working too hard, they said, taking in too many screenings But it was obvious to me why this miniseries would be this year's "Weeds " First, Freddy—as we scholars call Silverman—committed the terrible sin of mentioning Washington in the title People are up to their elbows in Washington They see the name in the newspapers all the time, they hear it on news and public affairs programs Ot course, there is a hard core audience for any kind of show about Washington, those who watch Washington Week in Review, for instance, wouldn't have missed this one But the rank and file, the ABC stalwarts, admirers of Laverne and Shirley and Starsky and Hutch, would not go for anything that mentioned the nation's capital Second, politics hurt the show There is still a strong residue of resentment in this nation against the Nixon Administration, the prototype for the Monckton Administration Perhaps the people who didn't turn on the program thought they could get even with Dick Nixon Or maybe they thought he was getting a piece of the action Then again, one couldn't anticipate that the audience would remember the name of the President before Carter "I didn't like Monckton when he was President," they were no doubt saying to themselves, "and I'm certainly not going to ruin my evening watching one of these dang documentaries about him now " Third, there was ABC's oafish claim that any resemblance to persons living or dead in Washington was coincidental It is, in fact, hard to believe that Monckton could have existed, much less been elected president Nevertheless, the story hardly seemed original, and I kept having the vague feeling I had seen it all before Finally, my prediction involved a bit of luck I had a hunch you could never go wrong underestimating the intelligence of the TV audience Artistically, the miniseries wasn't lurid, salacious, or tasteless enough It went over people's heads By that I mean that it was suitable for someone with a mental capacity of a 14-year old I think the strain of grasping poli-fi, as the Ehrlichman genre could be called, was just too much for viewers at this point in time It might have helped to have a presenter, someone with a British accent, like David Frost Still, Washington Behind Closed Doors was more than a few notches above such ABC classics as Little Ladies of the Night Not surprisingly, it was very well made—for a TV movie The story, adapted from—some people say despite—Ehrlichman's novel by David Rintels and Eric Bercovici, was by commercial television standards the equivalent of Masterpiece Theater (at least the stuff from Great Britain that Mobil does not import because it is not up to their high standards) In a way, it was a kind of Upstairs, Downstairs While the President is upstairs lending moral integrity to the highest office in the land, the plumbers and tappers are in the cellar undoing all he's done for football and peace In the President's role, I would have preferred David Frye or Rich Little to Jason Robards But I found Robards' performance superb, except the way he handled our China policy As the previous President—and it would be a coincidence indeed if this wasn't LBJ—Andy Griffith of May-berry, and more recently of Ritz Crackers, was equally brilliant The choice of Cliff Robertson for the part of the CIA director confirmed what I suspected all along, that the actor, while in Hollywood, had been investigating radicals Certainly he wasn't there to learn anything about acting Robert Vaughn, the Man from UNCLE, played a fellow who coincidentally reminded many of H R Haldeman I can see why ABC got so excited over this property originally, and it has worked out as well as could be expected If only they hadn't decided to merchandise it as another Roots, and raise all that hoopla around the production (Poor Ehrlichman probably thought he'd get a pardon from the FCC for all he had done for television ) I've heard that the bram of a network executive can fit in the navel of a flea with enough room still left over for an acorn Surely, though, Washington Behind Closed Doors could have been presented simply as a rather long movie about some seedy, gross, vulgar, back-room shenanigans At any rate, I'm glad I'm not in Freddy's Guccis this month...