The Arts SpellbOund os Angeles TOM TUGEND SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS In the "Guinness Book of World Records," Aaron Spelling has a niche as the most prolific — and arguably the rich- est — television producer of all time. Over 35 years, he has pro- uced a staggering 2,800 hours of TV programming, and if some masochist were to try and watch the entire out- put consecutively, 24 hours a day, it would take close to four months. The hypothetical viewer ■ would absorb a major part of American television history, ranging from such series as "Dynasty," "The Colbys," "Ho- tel," "Hart to Hart," Charlie's Angels," "Fantasy Island," "Family," "Starsky and Hutch" and "The Love Boat" to "T.J. Hooker," "Matt Houston," "Vega$," "The Mod Squad," "The Rookies" and "Nightin- gales." Current first-run shows are "Beverly Hills 90210" and its spinoff, "Melrose Place," and Mr. Spelling has eight more series in development. For all but the most reclusive of hermits, it is almost impossible to escape a Spelling production on the small screen, if only in reruns or syndication. His shows are dis- tributed to 97 countries and one of his happier moments, he says, — The cast of "Beverly Hills 90210," a current Aaron Spelling hit. is to walk down a street in a for- eign country and hear the theme music from one of his programs. With success has come con- temptuous criticism of his "trash- and-flash," "glitz-and-glamor'' and "jiggle-and-wiggle" shows, pro- fessional envy and immense wealth. Spelling's wife Candy has been known to wear $4 million worth of jewelry to a lunch meeting, plenty of room left over. Mr. Spelling will occasionally admit, and amateur psychologists concur, that his extraordinary drive for riches and recognition is rooted in a poverty-stricken and often unhappy childhood. Some years ago, Mr. Spelling granted that "my background indelibly stayed in my mind. I think that's why I work so hard. I still have the feeling that one day it will all be taken away." Both his mother and father came to the United States from Russia, but while most Jewish im- migrants stayed in New York and other East Coast cities, the par- ents settled in Dallas. "When he came to America, my father knew two words in English, 'Texas' and `cowboy,' so they sent him to Dal- las, where I was born 68 years ago," says Mr. Spelling. The new immigrant found that even in America, the streets were prompting one guest to observe not paved with gold. "My father, that "all I want are the mineral alav hasholom, was a tailor and rights to Candy's arm." never made more than $45 a The most visible expression of week in his life," recalls Mr. Mr. Spelling's rank and standing Spelling. To make life more mis- is the immense chateau he built erable for Aaron, the family was in the mid-'80s on Mapleton Drive the only Jewish one in a working, in Holmby Hills, a wealthy en- "dirty-collar" neighborhood, and clave between Beverly Hills and the skinny kid with big, staring Bel Air. After paying $10 million eyes was often set upon by school bullies with cries of "Jew baby." Then as now a constant worrier, the young Aaron had a nervous breakdown when he was 9, stayed in bed for over a year and refused to go to school. There are some ov happier memories Aaron Spelling and wife Candy. of his youth. Ear- lier this year, the in cash to buy croon- American Friends of the Hebrew er Bing Crosby's University conferred the Scopus 43,000-square-foot Award on the producer and an- house, Mr. Spelling nounced establishment of the tore it down and re- Aaron Spelling Family Founda- placed it with a 123- tion for the Performing Arts on room, 56,000 square the Jerusalem campus. In his foot mansion, which brief response, Mr. Spelling could easily house dwelled almost entirely on his the Taj Mahal, with continues on next page mother and her blue and white pushke, to which each family. member contributed a few cents each week to plant trees in Israel. Mr. Spelling got his first taste of show business in the unlikely environment of the U.S. Army during the Second World War when he was assigned to tour with Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontaine in their production of "0 Mistress Mine." As a post-war student at South- ern Methodist University, he spent most of his time directing student productions and by 1953 he felt he was ready for Holly- wood. The feeling was not reciprocal and for a while he eked out a liv- ing as a waiter and then as an air- line reservation clerk. When he did break into show biz, it was as an actor, appearing 123 times on "Dragnet" episodes. From acting, Mr. Spelling turned to writing, and undis- couraged by the rejection of his first 12 TV scripts, was hired eventually by actor Dick Powell to write westerns and then pro- duce segments for the "Zane Grey Theatre." In 1963, in partnership with comedian Danny Thomas, Mr. Spelling launched the hippie- cop series "The Mod Squad," and the rest, as they say, is history. During the '70s and early '80s, he reigned as the undisputed king of prime time TV series. Under a lucrative contract, all his pro- grams were shown exclusively on the ABC network, leading some wags to rename it Aaron's Broad- casting Company. In as volatile a medium as television, it couldn't last and it didn't. By the end of the '80s, ABC-TV changed hands and, worse, so did public taste, turning from Mr. Spelling's escapist fan- co tasies and action-adventures to C) the more reality-oriented "Hill Street Blues," "L.A. Law" and "thirtysomething." Mr. Spelling's flagship "Dy- nasty" was cancelled, his new pro- jects were turned down, and the press pronounced the producer as finished. "It is rare that a man falls so far so fast, to the delight SPELLBOUND page 112