Lights, Camera, Raegan
KITMAN, MARVIN
On Television LIGHTS, CAMERA, REAGAN BY MARVIN KITMAN President Reagan delivering the State of the Union Message on all three major networks last January 25 generated the biggest cable TV...
...With one guest shot he could pay off some alimony debt to Jane and promote his political philosophy at the same time...
...Americans understand that not everybody can win on, say, Let's Make a Deal...
...Why, it takes 10 minutes for all of them to fall down...
...Already one is worth more than a dollar...
...I confess that I had my second set tuned in to the new Playboy channel and occasionally snatched a peak at the documentary called The Playmate Interviews...
...As if our living through them wasn't enough...
...In recent months he has reminded us how nontelegenic he is by plugging his book on TV—the inside story of his White House days...
...I love seeing the way he radiates confidence on the big TV specials like The State of the Union Message...
...The President has a grand underview of the world, a flair for microcosms where everybody else is worrying about macrocosms...
...We're never expecting a Bar-yshnikov or a Nureyev as a President," Alan King observed...
...I'm no expert on the subject...
...The state of the union could be awful and you would never know it from a Reagan performance...
...The voice was too closely associated with peanuts...
...Jellybeans, in fact, could be the new currency...
...Economics was the main topic of the State of the Union Message, as it has been for the first two years of The Ronald Reagan Show...
...Selling his Administration on TV may be the only part of his job he has done well since taking office...
...Before Jimmy, Gerald Ford slept in the White House briefly, as 1 recall...
...Dan Rather...
...And so on...
...They lie...
...I remember his chat with Bill Moyers right before the election...
...years are over, Reagan will mount his horse and ride back to California to a career in films, or as host of the GE Theater again...
...The President is particularly good on radio...
...But the program I'd really love to see him on is Falcon Crest, playing opposite Jane Wyman...
...On Television LIGHTS, CAMERA, REAGAN BY MARVIN KITMAN President Reagan delivering the State of the Union Message on all three major networks last January 25 generated the biggest cable TV audience in history...
...If we could just come up with the same kind of thing for the world economy, he mused to Bill, we'd be able to resolve the conflict in the Mideast...
...Mr...
...Or he might have Wayne Newton singing "My Way...
...They were discussing what Reagan would do should he win...
...Many turned to M-TV for the first time (that's where they play nonstop commercials for records—a hot new programing concept, taking the worst of radio and putting it on the tube...
...The same people who slow down for accidents kept an eager eye on Ford...
...He leaves his mike open more than any other President...
...By 1988, should Reagan remain in office that long, I bet his State of the Union Message will have a Nielsen rating of two—Nancy and Jane Wyman...
...Some chose the Greco-Roman wrestling championship and boccie matches on ESPN...
...Richard Nixon was terrible as a TV star...
...Apparently it's acceptable to have dreams and delusions as long as you're deluding yourself and us...
...I was always afraid he would sweat on the camera, and his facial expression never matched his words...
...Wyman used to claim the reason they divorced is that she got tired of watching the film at command performances...
...He had that pasty-faced wife around, too...
...He could persuade people that there are no more food stamps or social services by putting the situation in daytime TV terms...
...Sesame Street economics...
...I'm surprised Reagan has not popped upon game shows to reach the most crucial audience with his economic message— the unemployed sitting at home in front of the tube...
...In the remainder of his term perhaps we will be treated to Don-ny Osmond stopping in to speak about the Middle East situation...
...When we reduce the food stamp program here by four jellybeans, we can buy one-third more bombers...
...First off, there was the Southern accent: He sounded like a character out of The Dukes of Hazzard, or Filthy Rich...
...When all who are around him are losing their heads, he doesn't seem to have one to lose...
...Very revealing...
...We could eat our money when it becomes worthless, although dentists might object...
...The man goes right on smiling on TV, never seeming reflective or concerned...
...During the State of the Union Message he looked great, especially compared to the television talent the competition had to offer in its rebuttal...
...While he appears to be thinking, a source confided, "he's actually trying to get the jelly beans off the roof of his mouth...
...He said he knew this fellow who invented a handle for beer cans that allows you to hold your suds without warming them with your body heat...
...By now he has been on TV longer than a lot of the other series...
...It costs 12 jellybeans...
...I used to marvel at those little graphs I could never read—not that this mattered...
...He knows how to use the medium, or somebody who knows how has been coaching him...
...Above his head Reagan could have suspended a sack with 3 billion jellybeans, representing the national debt...
...He was totally out of sync...
...I don't remember anything I've heard while it was open, however...
...The President's greatest strength on TV is his air of calm...
...If the gang from Plains had joined with the rest of us, maybe we wouldn't have had Ronald Reagan on television so much the last two years...
...Sammy, what a surprise...
...They fuse to the palate under the heat of the lights and emotional stress...
...Well, I was the one who couldn't...
...Running through my mind as the President spoke on the state of the union this time was an impersonation of him at his inauguration on TV in 1980...
...So what if I still have no idea how it's possible to cut revenues, boost the Pentagon budget and not produce a huge deficit...
...My favorites are his radio speeches on Saturday at noon, a sort of milk and cookies for the nation after a heavy morning of the violent cartoon shows...
...You want to buy a bomber," he could have explained...
...As it is, you have the feeling that when his four (or eight...
...President, how do you expect to reduce taxes, increase spending for arms and balance the budget...
...Howard Cosell...
...I'd like Nancy here," he said to the kids in effect, "to tell you about my war on drugs...
...I still remember his speech in 1980, when all the editorial writers who voted for him said he spelled out the economy so simply that almost everyone could understand it...
...You ask what happens when you release all this into the general money market...
...For the thick-headed he frequently trundles out visual aids, including moving graphics...
...After all, this is supposed to be the first full-blown "TV Presidency...
...Reagan has an amazing ability to reduce a complex problem to some stupid little story...
...Everybody else takes themselves too seriously...
...At press conferences—the mainstay of the Presidency on TV—I like the way Reagan often seems to have an open mike...
...In addition, as Shirley MacLaine pointed out, he looked like Howdy Doody in front of the camera...
...That was Nixon—classy to the end...
...I always had the suspicion I missed something...
...Come over here and say a few words to your people...
...He did especially well stacked up against the titular leader of the Democrats, former Vice President Walter Mondale...
...That's one of the great things about pictures...
...It shares his office with the people...
...They wanted to see if he would fall of f the podium...
...Carter was awful...
...Of course, anybody, even Joe Franklin, would cut a better figure than Mondale...
...We'll have two sets of books...
...And capitalism is a game show in its purest form, survival of the fittest...
...Well...
...But Ford wasn't in office for 10 minutes and he fell right on his keister...
...He gives you the impression that if things don't work out, he won't be that upset...
...Marie Osmond...
...Picture the scenario: He comes to the ranch to give her a private screening of King's Row...
...Still, his media performances have had much to admire in them...
...Myself, I thought the point would have been made better with jellybeans...
...The failure of the Carter Administration was that it took itself too seriously—and nobody else did...
...We now boast a diversity of channels, thanks to the unshackling of cable from the restraints of the Democrats' three network control...
...Reagan comes across as an attentive listener at press conferences, concentrating as reporters ask their questions...
...And do you know what that means...
...At his farewell address he will shrug, grin a little and say, "Well, we tried...
...Nothing like the famous videotape of Nixon that made the rounds in broadcasting circles: Two or three minutes before his resignation speech, he joked, "I hope Oily [the White House photographer] doesn't catch me picking my nose...
...Reagan could also visit Tattletales to discuss his defense and foreign policies...
...After the Checkers speech it was all downhill for Dick as far as TV goes...
...It reminded me of the Don McNeil Breakfast Club of political discourse...
...Whenever Reagan's TV talks seem to be dragging or running about three minutes fast, I keep expecting him to bring on some celebrity guests...
...The truth is that the quality of the Presidency on TV was seriously declining until Reagan came along...
...Well, it's simple...
...On TV, the President—an actor by training—acts like a man who knows what he is doing...
...That doesn't play well outside of Georgia...
...He is not racked with internal tensions...
...This freedom of choice is a by-product of the deregulation of communications, a goal of this Administration...
...One thing you knew about them—the lines were always going up, never down...
...Look at who we've had lately...
...Or maybe the Dukes of Hazzard on automobile safety...
...He also uses gimmicks, such as holding up a paper dollar, a quarter and a dime to illustrate the impact of inflation...
...Rich Little, the First Impersonator, was doing Reagan being interviewed by David Brinkley and Walter Cronkite (also played by Little...
...Do you want this policy behind door one" I can hear him asking, "or would you rather have the mystery prize behind door two...
...After two years he continues to tell us that everything will turn out all right...
...It's too bad, actually, that so many viewers are looking for ways not to see the President these days...
...Now, if one family has ten jellybeans, like mine, and another has one, like yours, what this means is...
...He even had Nancy on once...
...So Reagan is the first critical hit we've had in a long time...
Vol. 66 • February 1983 • No. 3
